1941

Oh 1941 what a glorious mess you are.

I've always liked Steven Spielberg's 1941, I think it mostly fails as a comedy, I just don't find it to be very funny but I do find the movie to be entertaining and I always have.

I was given the Steven Spielberg Blu-ray boxset for Christmas this year and one of the movies it contained was 1941 so a large part of my Christmas viewing was the extended cut of 1941 and I have to say given it's age the movie looks great and the audio is decent, the production values that the movie had are impressive and can be truly appreciated with the transfer used on the Blu-ray and the cast that Spielberg assembled for the movie is still impressive.

Some of the humour in the movie might be offensive to a modern audience, 1941 certainly isn't politically correct but that didn't personally bother me, I just sat back and gazed at what was unfolding on screen before me, it may not have been funny but it was certainly well crafted.

Oh 1941 what a glorious mess you are.

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers ( The Theatrical Cut )

Memory can be a tricky thing sometimes, I had seen the theatrical cut of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers a couple of times and while I didn't think it was great I didn't think it deserved it's poor reputation.

Well I've rewatched it again after seeing the Producer's Cut of the movie and now that I know what was removed from the movie I have a greater appreciation of how poor the theatrical cut really is, a lot of the edits were clumsily done and the new ending makes no real sense, and the gore inserts did nothing to help the movie at all, the theatrical cut of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is pretty much a classic example of how not to edit a movie, I'm truly shocked that anyone could think this would be either a better or more profitable version of the movie.

Need for Speed

Some time ago I saw a trailer for the Need for Speed movie and I thought at the time it looked terrible, well it took me four sittings over two days to get through it and I can confirm it is indeed terrible, in fact I consider it to be one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.

Most of the driving and stunt sequences were well done but this has to be the most charisma free cast I've seen in a long time and what passes for a plot is just ridiculous.

Need for Speed is a bad movie to say the least and it should be avoided, don't say you weren't warned.

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers ( The Producer's Cut )

There have been some poor quality bootlegs out there of the Producer's Cut of  Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, I tried to watch one a couple of years ago but the quality was so poor I just couldn't make it past about the 10 minute mark as I recall.

Well thankfully it was included in the Halloween: The Complete Collection Limited Deluxe Edition Blu-ray boxset released by Scream Factory / Anchor Bay.

I'd heard rumors about some of the changes that were made prior to the release of the movie in theatres but this is a very different movie, a flawed movie to be sure but superior to the theatrical version, it tells a more complete story and relies less on forced scares and gore, the origin story for Michael Myers is pretty crazy and doesn't seem to belong in this series but it's creative so you have to give the writer that.

What I wasn't expecting was for the movie to look so good, especially during some of the opening sequences, low budget horror sequels all tend to look.....well cheap but the movies Director Joe Chappelle manages to avoid that most of the time and the print of the film that was used for the Blu-ray looks great, a couple of picture flaws here but I've seen A-list titles that have received worse treatment, once again Scream Factory have released another quality product.

The only disappointing thing about the release of the Producer's Cut of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is that you need to but a very expensive boxset in order to own it, there are rumors that Scream Factory are going to release it as a single disc release and I hope that eventually happens.

The Producer's Cut Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is an interesting insight into what could have been and in my opinion a superior version of the movie, one of the Producer's is interviewed for the special features on the disc and he says both versions of the movie have their problems and also that the Producer's Cut isn't a completed film either but it's much closer to their vision of the film before the studio started to interfere with the production and since they were signing the checks they ultimately got their way, it would be interesting to know what may have happened to the series if the Producer's Cut had been released in 1995 instead of the Theatrical cut most people have seen.

Frankenstein Created Woman

Well you would wouldn't you ?, so why expect any less from the good baron ?

Baron Frankenstein has moved into another village and continues his research, now he has developed a method to capture and contain a human soul meanwhile a young man is tried an executed for a murder he didn't commit and a young woman who loved him commits suicide as a result.

The Baron captures the soul of the man and repairs the slightly deformed body of the woman and transfers his soul into her and soon after he/she seeks revenge on the men that were responsible for the murder as well as his/her execution and suicide.

The plot of the film is a little outrageous but the ever reliable Peter Cushing brings conviction to his role as Baron Frankenstein and his supporting cast all take things seriously as well, it could be easy to play things for laughs in a movie like Frankenstein Created Woman but instead the cast treat the material seriously and elevate the movie above it's slightly ridiculous plot.

Like most Hammer films Frankenstein Created Woman was a low budget affair but it still looks great and the restoration work done for the Blu-ray release is very impressive, while it isn't Hammer at the studio's finest Frankenstein Created Woman is a solidly entertaining move and one I'm sure audiences will continue to enjoy for years to come.

Spaceballs

Right up front I might as well say I'm not the huge Mel Brooks fan that a lot of people I know seem to be, in general I find that his movies contain a few big laughs but for the most part aren't that funny and that pretty much describes my feelings about Spaceballs.

Until recently I've never owned a copy of Spaceballs but I saw the blu-ray on sale so I grabbed a copy and last night I watched the movie and my feelings about it haven't changed, there are some truly funny moments but the rest of the movie is kind of flat.

One thing that has always impressed me about the movie is that it wasn't done on the cheap, a lot of the effects work in the movie was comparable to what was being done in science fiction movies at the time and some of the sets were also impressive.

For a movie of it's age Spaceballs looks pretty impressive in High Definition and it contains the special features from previous DVD releases including a nice tribute to the late John Candy.

Spaceballs isn't what I'd call essential viewing but you may want to check it out anyway "or else Pizza is gonna send out for you !"

Stop......It's Hammer Time !

Yesterday I had 13 Hammer Horror Blu-rays arrive in the mail and there are another few in transit, I think it's fair to say I lot of what I'll be writing about in the near future will be Hammer related.

Reboots, Remakes and Sequels or Everyone else is doing it so Why Can't I ?

It's been a while, hell it's been ages since I last made a post to the blog, life got to be a real drag there for a while and I just didn't have the energy or motivation to sit down at a keyboard and type, my divorce is still dragging on and my search for work has been unsuccessful so I guess I've had plenty of time but my focus has been on other things.

Over the last few days I've had a real urge to get back to the blog so here we are, not sure if you can call this a reboot, a remake or a sequel yet but lets just see where it goes.