Thursday, September 24, 2020

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

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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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Jurassic World:  Camp Cretaceous                            G
New animated spinoff series available on Netflix.  It involves six kids attending camp on the dinosaur-infested island who eventually end up alone after an unforeseen (although should be expected) event and must fend for themselves before reaching safety.  I don’t see why it couldn’t have been a live-action series, but I guess they thought going the animated route would draw more viewers in, specifically the younger set, and that it would be a bit different than the films.  I couldn’t not watch it being I’m a fan of the franchise, even of mostly maligned entries like The Lost World and Fallen Kingdom.  I wasn’t a big fan of the “modern” animation (although it kind of reminded me of Monster House, a film I am a fan of), but I temporarily got used to it, tolerated it, if you will.  I will say the dinosaurs did very much resemble their real counterparts though (real meaning the ones in the live-action films, of course), therefore the animation wasn’t entirely too bad.  It ultimately comes down to characters, story, and entertainment value (all of which this series satisfactorily contained).  While this may be a “family friendly” series, people do die, albeit discreetly off-screen, but they do die.  The eight episodes go by really fast, each being 24 minutes, totaling a little over 3 hours, making this series very bingeable (either in one sitting or definitely throughout one day).  I’m looking forward to the 6th Jurassic Park movie or 3rd Jurassic World movie (whatever it is), and I can honestly say I had fun with this series in the meantime.  I did.  The end suggested this could continue and I say, “Bring it!”  9/20/2020

Bonus reviews:

Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!                                OK/G
I do love Halloween, both the season and when featured in visual entertainment, and I do like Scooby-Doo, both the animated films and animated shows, even though I haven’t seen anywhere near all of them, but I’ll catch up one day, maybe (I recently saw Camp Scare and have the Loch Ness Monster one coming in the mail, as of this writing).  This feature-length animated film obviously takes place on the holiday and is being released just in time for the season.  It features evil pumpkins, Elvira, Bill Nye, and mentions characters/locations from the Batman universe (talk about crossovers!).  It’s diverting at the very least, like most of the animated Scooby films and the average television episode, but it does overstay its welcome a bit (also like many of the animated films), even at barely 80-minutes.  I did love those evil pumpkins though.  If you happen to watch this via DVD, there are 3 bonus Halloween episodes from 3 different Scooby shows.  ‘Tis the season!  I still think the best animated film in this universe is Zombie Island (and that doesn’t include the unnecessary sequel!).  9/22/2020

Body Count                                                                 OK
I’m surprised I never even heard of this slasher film from 1986 before, being that it was directed by Ruggero Deodato (most famous for helming Cannibal Holocaust) and stars David Hess (most famous for starring in the original The Last House on the Left), and the fact it’s a slasher film from the Eighties!  I can always count on Rue Morgue magazine though for educating me, as this was mentioned in their latest issue in the feature article covering Italian horror.  The description in that publication stated this was basically a clone of Friday the 13th and it pretty much is (as many slashers released after it are apt to be given it’s one of the best in the subgenre), here taking place at a closed camp in which a group of people are offed one by one after deciding to stay there against the camp owner’s wishes (that owner played by David Hess).  It is set in Colorado, but research tells me it was filmed in Italy (makes sense being it’s an Italian production).  The killer’s mask reminded me of the one used in Curtains, even though I think here it’s supposed to resemble a Native American shaman (I don’t know).  This entry wasn’t bad, although it doesn’t seem to stand out from the pack too much (probably why it’s not more known), but there’s not entirely too much you can expect from a slasher film regardless of when it was released.  A good portion of the kills were acceptable, we got to know enough of the characters, and the film is totally Eighties, making this American-set Italian film worth watching at least once for those that enjoy slasher films even just a little bit.  9/20/2020

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

The Devil All the Time  >>>OK
           (Netflix)

Extra Ordinary  >>>OK

Max Reload and the Nether Blasters  >>>OK 

Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster  >>>OK/G

---Sean O.
9/24/2020

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