Thursday, January 23, 2020

Creepshow: Season One/Jay and Silent Bob Reboot


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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Creepshow:  Season One                                            G/VG
I used another promo code for Shudder mainly to watch this anthology series, among other things, and I liked it, I liked it, I liked it!  I’m a big fan of the films Creepshow and Creepshow 2, more so of the latter due to being the first one I saw and liking all the segments.  Creepshow 3?  Let’s just forget about that one, shall we?  This series consists of 6 episodes containing 2 segments each, making it a total of 12 20-plus minute stories, and it combines the best elements of other great anthology shows like Tales from the Crypt, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Tales from the Darkside, etc.  Of the 12 pieces, I really only didn’t care for 2; one (“Lydia Layne’s Better Half”) was just lame and the other (“The Finger”) was a tad silly with a stop-motion creature that looked almost as bad as if it were CGI (it wasn’t though and that’s another aspect I loved about this series---the practical effects; a faithful nod to the first two movies!).  I didn’t completely detest either episode though; both were bloody, and the creature’s overall design up-close in “The Finger” was noteworthy.  “The House of the Head” was definitely unique in involving a haunted dollhouse.  The only other time I recall a haunted dollhouse was the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, “The Tale of the Dollmaker,” but “Head” isn’t quite like that; both are novel in their own way, especially here.  “Bad Wolf Down” may be the best werewolf story I’ve seen in quite a while; maybe the best war story as well given it was both.  “The Companion” seemed like a unique take, at least visually, for the scarecrow subgenre, “Times is Tough in Musky Holler” took a different approach to the zombie subgenre (although that may sound hard to believe), and “Night of the Paw” was still compelling despite being told countless times (paw, three wishes, be careful what you wish for, etc.) and had a somewhat creepy ending.  “All Hallows Eve” was a fun revenge tale set on Halloween night, and “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” directed by the legendary Tom Savini, was made slightly better than the generally lacking short story by Joe Hill and definitely felt more fit for the screen than page.  The rest---a gory creature feature (“Skincrawlers”), a very different Aladdin-ish tale (“The Man in the Suitcase”), and the Stephen King-based “Gray Matter”---were worth watching as well.  I recommend this series not just for fans of the movies, but for fans of horror and anthology entertainment as well (which this series proved there’s still life in).  Bring on more seasons!  1/20/2020



Jay and Silent Bob Reboot                                          EH
Being that characters in this film ripped on reboots and remakes, there is a difference that’s sort of explained here, I thought this would’ve actually been better than the average reboot (it may seem like a remake of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back at times, but it is more or less a reboot…I guess).  Being that it was also Kevin Smith at the helm of a film featuring his once beloved titular characters, I thought it would be a much better film than this.  I did laugh a couple times, yes, but I hate to say that I ultimately hated this movie.  I would say sorry Kevin Smith, one of my favorite directors once upon a time and also one of the directors that once made me, myself, aspire to make films, but you made this movie and luckily I only wasted time since I used a free Redbox code.  No, I don’t regret watching it though because I wanted to watch it and never would’ve let myself not watch it.  Some part of me, being that I was watching a film containing characters I’m very familiar with by a filmmaker I was once enthralled by, wanted to keep watching, but a big part of me thinks that had this been the same film with people I wasn’t so crazy about, it might’ve been the worst movie of 2019.  This film was way too self-referential for me, making it wholly unoriginal and the script made Kevin Smith seem infinitely more uneducated now than he ever was over 20 years ago!  I think being in Hollywood for too long made his pre-Hollywood property too Hollywood if this film is any indication.  I’m still going to think that somewhere in this universe (the real) Kevin Smith stopped making movies after Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, with the exception of Clerks II, but maybe I’ll still hold a bit of hope that one day he will rightfully return.  I miss him…1/21/2020



Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

The Furies  >>>OK
            (Shudder)

Luz  >>>OK

Party Hard, Die Young  >>>EH

Tammy and the T-Rex  >>>OK

Tigers Are Not Afraid  >>>G
            (Shudder)


---Sean O.
1/23/2020

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