I don’t know why I never got around to seeing the THE CROW sequel from the director of SIX-STRING SAMURAI. Always was curious. Still took me 19 years. Lance Mungia’s THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER, just like the previous one, was meant for theaters, but I think it only played somewhere around here? Wiki(dprayer)pedia says its theatrical run was only in Seattle and only for one week, and I do remember seeing an ad for it and being confused, but I was thinking it was in Eastern Washington. Anyway, I didn’t go.
Two Halloweens ago we discussed Tobe Hooper’s first masterpiece. This is his second. He didn’t even want to direct it at first, sort of got pushed into it, but damn did he rally. In many ways THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 is the Tobe Hooperest movie ever made.
I don’t blame you if you’re skeptical during the opening scene where two obnoxious “senior boys at Wheeler High” calling themselves “Buzz and Rick the Prick” drunkenly drive a Porsche, fire guns, and harass the K-OKLA request line until they receive a drive-by chainsawing on a bridge that must’ve been built by the same people who made that endless runway from the climactic chase in FURIOUS 6. (read the rest of this shit…)
I gotta confess coming to this one from a place of cinematic ignorance. I’ve seen the original Godard movie, but I don’t remember jack shit about it. I thought it was pretty good, I believe. That’s about all I got. Still, I’m sure less people could tell you anything about the remake than everything about the original. So this makes me smart. (read the rest of this shit…)
These last couple weeks have been tough on my mental facilities. I reviewed that great new “ULTIMATE” edition of the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, I also revisited parts 3 and 4 in that original series, then on Thursday I reviewed the new prequel to the remake. So by that point I’d studied and written about pretty much every angle to the whole Texas Chainsaw deal. You’d think I’d be done with it by now, but there is one final chapter: the one spinoff of the original movie that achieves its own level of True Greatness. I am talking about Tobe Hooper’s 1986 sequel, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2. It’s been available on DVD for a couple years in a bare bones edition (get it, that is a pun because of all the skeletons they have) but Tuesday it comes out in a much deserved special edition with new commentaries, featurettes and deleted scenes. (read the rest of this shit…)
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Recent commentary and jibber-jabber
VERN on The Client: “I can see why you would count TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, but I think that’s different, it had the…” Jul 26, 16:36
hurtado on The Client: “Y’all keep saying these things went away, but exec’s are still greenlighting Aaron Sorkin scripts. Now it’s time for ANOTHER…” Jul 26, 15:33
Skani on True Lies (30th anniversary revisit): “No lies detected. Thank you for these words and for your patience with me as I try to wake up…” Jul 26, 13:56
CJ Holden on Lassie (1994): “At some point they were adapting so many TV shows, they made fun of that in the CHARLIE’S ANGELS movie!” Jul 26, 12:28
Mr. Majestyk on True Lies (30th anniversary revisit): “Skani: This is why I have a problem with the term “woke.” It’s past tense. It indicates the completion of…” Jul 26, 12:20
Charles on Lassie (1994): “It is interesting upon reflecting how much remakes and IP were already a big part of Hollywood already in the…” Jul 26, 12:17
CJ Holden on Huda’s Salon: “I’m notoriously bad when it comes to giving feedback, but I’m gonna check it out too, Glaive. (Just beware of…” Jul 26, 07:17
Bill Reed on Huda’s Salon: “Vern, keep telling it like it is. Also, this movie sounds like a good one. Glaive, very interesting project. I…” Jul 26, 07:09
Skani on True Lies (30th anniversary revisit): “The historical record will show that James Bond was a darker-skinned Middle Eastern man, whereas the Bond films have whitewashed…” Jul 26, 06:53
Bert on Huda’s Salon: “Hey no worries on not every entry being a winner, we are all here reading Vern’s reviews anyways. ;)” Jul 26, 05:56
Kaplan on True Lies (30th anniversary revisit): “So no one can point to anything specifically racist in any of the Brosnan or Dalton Bond movies?” Jul 26, 05:22
Dreadguacamole on Lassie (1994): “By the time this came out I wouldn’t be caught dead watching it. The show was a perennial where I…” Jul 26, 04:58
Mr. Majestyk on The Client: “Wait, are you telling me there were OTHER books? Entire other genres even? Wow, what a fascinating rebuttal! You have…” Jul 26, 03:54
CJ Holden on Lassie (1994): “I just remembered something from the depths of my childhood: There was not just Lassie, but also Bessy, who was…” Jul 26, 00:56
Pacman2.0 on Lassie (1994): “The PS2 game is actually based (well, “based”) on the 2005 LASSIE, the back-to-its-roots (geographically and tonally) CASINO ROYALE-style reboot/re-adaptation…” Jul 25, 23:28