Terror In Space

Ah number 250 at long last. It has taken me a little longer than I thought it would once I realized I was getting close to this post. I can firmly blame college and swimming for that. Not that I would change things if I could. I knew I would get here one way or another. As you can see, I picked Event Horizon (1997) as the movie to talk about for this post. Before I get into that though, I want to thank a few people for getting me this far. First person I should thank is Jed. He always leaves me a comment to read and I can't say enough what that means to me. I don't always respond to comments but I make sure to always read them. I'm also happy to say that Jed is helping me out with my blog as well. Since he reads every review, I asked if he would be willing to catch and correct all the silly mistakes I make while typing these things up. I could read through it once I'm done, but I'm ready to move on to something else by the time I do finish. Even the best writers need an editor, that is why there is that job. I would also like to thank Cattleworks and CRWM for their support as well. And to Final Girl, you have always been friendly and a big help to me. Last, but hardly least, to everyone that reads my blog, but doesn't leave many or any comments. I hope my reviews have helped all that do read find a good movie or two.

Not long after I started my blog, I made a list of some of my favorite movies. I listed ten such movies but in truth, that list could possibly go on for a very long time. Not every movie I consider a favorite would get a five star rating. That said, I still love all my favorites and I have a tendency to watch them over again and again. Event Horizon is one of those movies. I will admit that I haven't watched it as much as I have Friday The 13th Part Two but I still love it. Some movies grow on me over time. They may not start out as a favorite movie but after a couple of times watching it, I start to like it even more. Event Horizon was a movie that I knew was going to be a favorite after the first time I watched it.


What makes this movie so special to me? For one it is the plot. Think haunted house in space and you have a fairly good idea of what this movie is about. A deep space ship goes missing and seven years later, it returns to the place it went missing from. The Lewis And Clark is sent to rescue anyone left on board and to try and salvage the Event Horizon. What they don't know is that the Event Horizon was using a new kind of drive that will bend space so that the ship can reach the furthest parts of the universe faster. Think worm hole except that they are using the power of a black hole. The rescue crew, along with the person that helped build the Event Horizon and its drive, board the Event Horizon and soon discover that it is deserted....or is it?

Another big plus in Event Horizon's favor is the cast. Laurence Fishburne is the Captain of the rescue ship and does a great job as usual. Sam Neill is the expert they bring along and also does a great job. Kathleen Quinlan is the Med Tech. Joely Richardson is the Lt. of the ship. She really should have gotten a little more screen time than she did. Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs and Sean Pertwee help round out the cast. All do a good job with their roles. The script doesn't get into a lot of character devolpement but there is just enough so that we get to know the characters a little bit. Mostly we find out that some of them are feeling guilty about someone or some event.


As much as I love Event Horizon, it is not without its faults. At times, the CGI effects can look just a little off. There are places in the plot that require us to suspend our belief as well. At one point the rescue ship explodes. Since it is docked to the Event Horizon at the time, I would think that the Event Horizon would also suffer some damage but this doesn't appear to be the case. Also, one of the rescue crew is working on the rescue ship at the time it explodes. Not only does he somehow manage to survive the explosion, he also gets sent out into space. Then, to stretch things further, he somehow manages to find his way back to the Event Horizon. To me these were the biggest problems but they don't take away from the film as a whole.

The things I liked far out weigh the things I didn't like. The Event Horizon herself looks very cool but it is the inside of the ship the blew me away. The way some of the rooms looked and some of the shots they manage to get just left me thinking one word, wow. The gore effects, while often shown very quickly, are very well done. Some people see Event Horizon as a cross with sci-fi and Hellraiser. I don't really see the connection. I don't want to give too much away of the plot or anything but lets just say that Hell is the only thing that they have in common.

Since I love this film, I overlooked the good reviews and only read the bad reviews. I wanted to know why people didn't like this film. Outside of people complaining that there is horror in their sci-fi film, I couldn't find a good reason as to why people didn't like the film. All anyone would say is that it was a bad film or that it had plot holes. No one would give examples or try and explain why they felt it was a bad film. So if any of you out there felt this was a bad film, please try and explain to me why you felt that way. If you haven't watched Event Horizon yet, you need to give it a shot.

Face Your Fears Part Two

Ah fears. We all have them. Some are minor while others can be a major problem for some people. Today I watched The Fear: Halloween Night (a.k.a. The Fear: Resurrection) (1999). I didn't know it before I watched it, but I do now, that this movie is a sequel to The Fear. I have never watched the first one and I only found out about it by reading reviews for this movie. If I had known before hand, I may have watched one of the other movies I have and then asked for the first movie so I could watch them back to back. I suppose I could still hold off on doing a review but I like to write them up while they are still fresh in my mind. The Fear: Halloween Night seems to be a stand alone film since it never refers to events in another movie. Still, I would like to watch the first one sometime so I guess I will do that sometime after the next post which will be my 250th at long last.

The Fear: Halloween Night is about Mike (Gordon Currie) who has decided it is time to face his greatest fear, becoming his dad. His dad was a serial killer who ended up killing his wife and then hanging himself. Mike witnessed these last two events as we see at the start of the movie. Mike feels an urge, I guess to do bad things like his father, so wants to find a way to face this fear of his. Mike gathers his girlfriend Peg (Stacy Grant) and his best friends to help him with this and to also face their own fears. His friends have more common fears like water, blood, heights and so on. His friend Crow (Byron Chief-Moon), an indian, has just the thing in Morty (Jon Fedele). Morty is an ancient wooden totem in the shape of a human. Mike takes his friend to his grandparents (Larry Pennell and Betsy Palmer) home in the woods where they will perform the ritual to bring Morty to life so they can over come their fears.

Crow takes Mike up to see Morty and shows Mike a talisman that he put around Morty. Peg and her brother Chris (Myc Agnew) show up. Crow explains that the talisman is to keep an evil spirit from entering Morty. As soon as everyone turns their back, Chris steals the talisman and leaves. Of course, no one notices until much later when it is too late to do anything about it. Once everyone arrives, Mike tells them about facing their fears and wants everyone to dress up as their fear for halloween. Soon after the party starts, people start to die. Mike passes out during these times and usually wakes up where the murder took place. Is it Mike or has Morty truly come to life?

The effects, like in some of the more recent reviews, are few to be found. I thought Morty looked pretty cool but from what I have been reading, he was even better in the first movie. The only real problem I had with how he looked was his eyes. From the start you could tell those were real eyes. One review said if you watch close enough, you can see the eyes blink even though Morty isn't "alive" yet. The main gore effect would be that of a woman choped up and put in a box. The rest is just some blood here and there.

The acting was ok. None of the actors really stood out to me but none of it was real bad either. There were places, even for the great Besty Palmer, that I thought could have been better acted though. Speaking of Besty Palmer, it was a very nice surprise to see her in a movie. I believe this is the only movie I have watched her in outside of Friday The 13th. I didn't pay too much attention to the credits so I didn't see her name pop up. So it was a surprise when I watched her appear on screen. Gordon Currie wasn't too bad as the lead actor. You will also find Mitch Maldive, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kelly Benson, Rachel Hayward and Brendan Beiser.

The Fear: Halloween Night is a movie that I can't yet compare to the original so maybe that is why I liked it a little more than other reviewers did. Since I can't compare it to the original movie, hard not to do when you are talking about a sequel, I only have the movie itself to judge. I didn't think it was a great movie by a long shot. I did think it was interesting enough for me to not like it though. I liked Morty and I liked how the movie was playing the characters fears against them. Still, they could have done a much better job of doing that. Only in a few cases was it actually done and not always in the best way.

Morty could disappear and reappear seemingly when he wanted to which didn't make much sense to me. The ending, if you have watched the movie, should make even less sense because of this fact as well. Some people thought the set up time was too long. I have to agree to a point. It gave the movie time to explain what each character's fear was. However, I was getting a bit bored and kept wondering when the party was actually going to start. The Fear: Halloween Night was directed by Chris Angel who also directed Wishmaster 3 & 4. While I thought this could have been a much better movie than it ended up being, I still thought it was an allright movie. Nothing great but it wasn't bad either.

If you are wondering what my greatest fear is, that would be fish. Not a certain kind of fish, just any fish. I know it sounds silly coming from someone that loves to swim but it is true. I refuse to swim in any water where there are fish. I know it is unlikely they will touch me but I'm not taking any chances! Why don't you pipe in and tell me what your greatest fear is. I would like to hear about it, honestly!
3 out of 5 Mighty Morphing Power Morty!

Tribute: Aimee Brooks

Fall is almost upon us. That means all the kids get to go back to school and college is starting up yet again as well. What does that mean for this blog? Hopefully nothing, but I will be taking some harder classes this time around and I'm not sure if that will cut into my movie watching time. I have a feeling it will but what is a hard class for some might not be a problem for the next person. Being my third year now, it is time to really get serious about my major. If you are wondering, I am going to college to get a chemistry degree. I will be taking classes in each of the four areas I can major in. I decided to do this to see if I might like one area over another better. I don't talk about myself much here so there is a little peak into my life for you. Anyways, I sort of promised a tribute before the 250th post and here it is. When I first started doing these I was mostly thinking of directors that I have liked over the years. When I did one for Jamie Lee Curtis, I was thinking I would do tributes for Scream Queens. After some thought, I sort of threw that idea out and decided to do tributes to actresses that I like in horror movies. They still have to be in more than one horror movie though, no matter how well I like them. Here is my next tribute: Aimee Brooks.

Aimee Brooks was born somewhere in California on Nov. 19th, 1974 (or 1976 but IMDb says '74 so I will believe them). I wasn't able to find a lot of information about her on the web. Aimee's first film credit is in Sorority House Massacre where she only had a small part. I will review this movie a little later in this post. From there she got some parts on different tv shows before showing up again on the big screen. This time she was in The End Of Innocence. I will admit that I have yet to see this movie so I dont know how big of a part Aimee has. However, her next movie would be Critters 3 which I have watched. She is the leading lady in Critters 3 so gets a lot of screen time. Aimee goes on to bigger, and possibly more popular things, like the TV show Port Charles.

I picked Aimee Brooks because when I saw her name pop up in the credits at the start of Critters 3, I realized that I had watched her in at least three movies and all of them horror movies. It turned out I had watched four movies. I had watched Sorority House Massacre prior to writing reviews. Even though I never really talked about her in two of the reviews, I have always like Aimee as an actress. I don't consider her one of the greats, like Jamie Lee Curtis, but I do feel she deserves her due. While none of the horror films she has been in blew me away, my favorite so far would have to be Critters 3. I hit on the reason in the review. I related to the character because I had gone through the same type of thing. Not being chased by Krites of course. The more I think about that film, the more I feel that Aimee did a wonderful job of acting the part of someone that has lost their mother at a early age. If you haven't watched a movie with Aimee Brooks in it, it is about time you did.

Reviews I have done of Aimee Brooks movies are:
Critters 3
The Mangler Reborn
Moster Man

Sorority House Massacre (1986) is basically one big flash back since we start in the movie's present time and then go back and tell the story of how Beth (Angela O'Neill) ended up being in the hospital. Beth is going to college and is invited to join a sorority. Almost as soon as she arrives, she starts to get day dreams. That night she has a nightmare that is somewhat close to the day dream that she had. The next day she starts to meet some of the other women and makes a couple of friends. They all go off to their classes and when they get back, everyone is in a mad rush to leave for the weekend. Except of course, Beth and her new friends. Beth's friends include Linda (Wendy Martel), Sara (Pamela Ross) and Tracy (Nicole Rio). Since they have the house to themselves, they invited their boyfriends over along with a guy for Beth to date.

The day dreams seem to be connected to Bobby (John C. Russell) who is in a mental hospital for murdering almost everyone in his family. We are never told why he does it, which was just fine with me. Beth's dreams are about him and the events that took place in the house. The sorority house happens to be the very house the murders took place in. He tries very hard to get out of the hospital and when he finally does, he heads straight for the house. What does this have to do with Beth though?

For a movie that got an R rating, there is surprisingly low slasher effects to be found. This is a little surprising considering this movie was released in the middle of the 80's. Slashers were big buisness by this time. The kills aren't the best around but there is some blood to be found. It doesn't get too over board which is probably a good and bad thing. It is good because it is slightly more realistic. It is bad though because some of the kills probably would have had more blood from them and, lets face it, that is part of the appeal of the slasher genre. To see how people will get it and to see the effects. The acting wasn't great but I liked it well enough. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I liked each of the women in their roles and the guys weren't too bad either. You will also find Marcus Vaughter, Vinnie Bilancio, Joe Nassi and Robert Axelrod.

Sorority House Massacre gets a pretty bad rap from most fans. Most find this film boring because the women raid the closets of the women who have left in order to try on their clothes. They sit around and talk to each other. They sit around and have their boyfriends tell them a scary story. In other words, they are acting like real women who have a sorority house to themselves. The only thing they didn't do is have sex. Maybe that is where the disappoint comes from. I found the "slow" part of the movie entertaining. Sorority House Massacre isn't the best movie out there. It isn't even the best slasher movie out there but it was fun. One person was mad that the women invited their boyfriends over because "That totally destroys all the homo-erotic undertones." Hmm...I think someone likes the idea of two or more women being together.

As I said, this is hardly one of the better movies out there. I liked it because it actually has a story to it, even if it is a bit borrowed from other plots. The dream sequences were a nice touch and a bit odd in places. A good odd that is. With some better effects, this movie may have stuck out more than it has. Since the effects are mild at best, I would venture to guess that the nudity which is found is what pushed the movie into an R rating. What I found a little strange is that the only one that didn't show her breasts was the lead actress. This isn't the first movie like that though. As for Aimee Brooks, her character was one of the sisters you will find in the dreams/flashbacks. At some point Bobby names each of the girls. The only way I knew which one was Aimee was by looking at the credits on IMDb before watching the movie. She doesn't have a speaking role in her first outing as an actress but I'm sure it didn't take long before she did.
3 out of 5 Is it possible to have flashbacks within a flashback?

Monster Mania

The film I will review today came highly recomended to me from another horror fan. A friend of mine likes to watch horror films as well. He doesn't watch nearly as many as I do, but I still trust his judgement. When he first told me about it, Netflix didn't have it. By the time they did get it, I had forgotten about it until my friend asked if I had watched it yet. I avoided all reviews of the film and only knew a little about it from my friend. Now that I have watched it, I wanted to see what other people had to say. First thing I noticed is that 12 critics have reviewed The Host (2006) for netflix and they all rave about it. The lowest score out of the 12 critic reviews is a 3 and half stars. I thought that was pretty amazing in itself since critics tend to down horror movies. The average score on Netflix from the critics is probably 4 stars or maybe slightly higher and the average from fans being 3 and half stars. It has an average of 7.2 stars (out of 10) on IMBd. It is safe to say that people like this film a lot.

The Host starts with a doctor pouring chemicals down the drain that will lead to the river. Next is a guy jumping off a bridge into the river. We find out later that he was recovered and that something had been feeding off of him. We also see a couple of fishermen that catch something in a cup as it swims by. They don't know what it is and as they try to touch it, the thing reacts in a way that causes them to drop it back into the water. From there we meet the Park family. Park Hie-bong (Hie-bong Byeon) owns a food store just off the shore of the Han River in a park area. His son, Park Gang-Du (Kang-ho Song), helps with the store. Gang-Du has a daughter, Park Hyun-seo (Ah-sung Ko). A little later on we meet Park Nam-il (Hae-il Park) and Park Nam-Joo (Du-na Bae), brother and sister to Gang-Du.

After a little while, we find out that Gang-Du messed up an order so his dad wants him to send out a new order and apologize to the customer for the mistake. As he is trying to do so he ends up following them along with a bunch of other people that have spotted something that is hanging from a bridge near by. They are trying to decide what it is and if it is alive. While they are trying to decide, it drops into the water and begins to swim to them. Gang-Du throws a can of beer at it which it swallows up. Everyone thinks that is pretty neat so they start throwing whatever that have at it. The thing swims away and disappears. Gang-Du then goes back to what he was orignally trying to do when he spots something down the walkway. A very big something that comes bounding towards them all. This mutated creature goes on the attack, destroying things in its path and swallowing up people as it goes. One of the people it grabs is Hyun-seo. Gang-Du watches as his daughter slowly disappears into the water.

After the attack, everyone is sent to what looks like a high school gym where pictures have been set up for those that died durring the attack. Eventually a guy in a containment suit comes in and tells everyone that they are under a quarantine because they have discovered that the creature is carring a deadly virus. Soon after this, Gang-Du gets a call from Hyum-seo telling him that she is still alive and that she is in what looks like a sewer. Thus begins the family's quest to escape and find their lost family member.

The Host doesn't offer much in gore effects. You will find some blood here and there but for the most part it relies on the CGI monster. While a few people didn't care for the CGI effects, I felt it was some of the best I have seen to date. The creature looked pretty cool and moved in a way it looked like it could move. It interacts with the environment well and the scenes where a mass of people are running away from something they can't see is actually very believable. Not a lot I can say about the acting since the dubbing and subtitles often said something different.

You are probably wondering how I liked The Host after reading about my set up for the movie. Am I with the critics for once? They can't be wrong all the time. There have been a few movies I agree with the critics on, both good and bad. More often than not, I end up disagreeing with what a critic has to say. Such is the case with The Host. Don't get me wrong about this. I do think The Host is a good movie. I just don't feel that it was worthy of all the hype it seems to be getting. Instead of leaving it at that, like a lot of reviews seem to do, I will sit here and try to explain why. The Host tries to be more than just a creature feature movie. In some ways it succeeds and in other ways, it fails. It succeeds because the movie is actually more about the family than it is the creature. Each member of the family is given a history so they feel more real than most characters in a horror movie do. I was happy to see this since too often I complain about the lack of character developement. The way it fails is in the fact that it tries, maybe too hard, to be a thinking person's movie. Normally I like these types of movies but I felt they didn't get what they were after this time around.

Is there a virus? If there isn't, what is the point of telling everyone there is? The goverment doesn't give the impression that they are looking for the creature. In fact, if they are looking for anything, it's people that are in the restricted zone. These questions, along with others, are never fully explained. I'm fine with leaving things open at times but, I felt this time around they should have tried to explain things just a little more. Some people say that the goverment was the real monster in The Host. I don't know if that was the meaning director Joon-ho Bong was trying to bring across or if people are just trying too hard to find the meaning behind everything.

Another thing I felt was wrong with the film is that it was too long. The Host clocks in at, basiclly, the 2 hour mark. It actually falls just short of it but it's close enough. I really do feel like they could have cut some things out and not lose anything. There is some comedy thrown in for good measure here and there. At times it felt right and other times I felt they were asking us to switch moods too quickly. One example is when the Park family is mourning the loss of Hyun-seo. I really did feel sorry for them at this moment. Then, they start to fight some and they end up sprawled on the floor as the media swarm in. The way it was filmed and the way it felt is that it was supposed to be funny. I felt the comedy should have been left out here and just let us feel sorry for the family a bit. If they wanted to break that mood, then maybe they could have found a different way to bring some comedy to the table.

Is The Host worth watching? Very much so. Joon-ho Bong does put together a very good movie. It was well filmed and as I said before, I loved the CGI effects for once. After reading so many rave reviews though, I feel let down by the movie. What did I see that others didn't? Often I will see something like, "Because this is a South Korean movie, not another high budget Hollywood movie, it out shines other movies like it." Maybe I shouldn't put that in quotes but that is the general statement some people have made about The Host. I find that statement to be silly. I really don't understand what people have against Hollywood films. I see that kind of statement a lot when it comes to independently made movies as well. There are good and bad big budget movies just like you will find in independent films or any other film base. They just tend to waste more money when a movie stinks is all. Even though I have been "bashing" this movie a bit, it really is worth a watch. I'm just not loving it as much as most people seem to be doing.
3 out of 5 Hoping I would be as strong as Hyun-seo was

Playing Video Games

I'm not much of a gamer but I do like to play them from time to time. Since I like horror films, I also like horror games. Sometimes the games can make me jump more than a movie can. I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe I am just more use to what is used in movies to try and make me jump. Stay Alive (2006) sounded interesting to me when I heard about it. People who play a game that is called Stay Alive start dying just like they did in the video game. I added it to my Netflix queue not long after it hit dvd. I didn't bump it up and figured I would get to it whenever. Even though it sounded interesting, it wasn't a must see for me. Then, not too long ago, I ended up watching it on cable. I was going to write up a review for it and then I remembered about Netflix. I checked and noticed that Netflix was offering the Director's Cut of the movie so I bumped it up so I could see what the difference between the two movies would be. The original release was rated PG-13 if you are wondering.

Staying Alive starts with the video game. This guy is playing the game and eventually he gets killed in it but being hung. He calls up his friend Hutch (Jon Foster) who was supposed to have come over that night to play but couldn't make it. He tells Hutch about the game and then heads for bed. Later that night he wakes up after a dream about the game and heads downstairs for a snack. Every once in a while he sees flashs of things. These flashes become reality and he does get hanged just like he did in the game. Hutch gets the call about his friend's death and meets Abigail (Samaire Armstrong) at the funeral. Hutch is given some items of his friend's that the family doesn't want and feel that Hutch should have. One of these things is the game he was playing before he died. Hutch doesn't really want to play the game but gives in and invites Abigail and some of his other friends to play. Swink (Frankie Muniz), Phineus (Jimmi Simpson), October (Sophia Bush) and Hutch's boss Miller Banks (Adam Goldberg). They play for a while before Miller finally gets killed in the game. After that they decide to call it quits for the night. The next morning Hutch discovers that Miller was killed in the same way as he did in the game. This causes the rest of the group to start thinking and also to look into who else has played the game and who made it. Can they figure it out before time runs out on them?

The effects are mostly CGI effects that deal with the video game. There are some horror effects but they are toned down for the rating. Even in the unrated version the effects are toned down. I took this as meaning that they set out to get the PG-13 rating from the start. The CGI effects are fun more than they are scary. They do remind me of what I would see in a game. Maybe a little more slick but it still looks like a game to me. Some people complained about the game they were playing and the systems they were playing on, calling them unrealistic. Maybe they were but it is just a movie. I don't expect to go out and play a game like this right away. Movies do have a tendency to stretch the truth at times. I didn't feel this was a big enough stretch to dislike the movie though.

The acting was fun as well. Jon Foster was good in the lead role. I admit that I wasn't watching it as closely as I could have been when watching it on cable so I thought that Samaire Armstrong was playing the role of Jon Foster's on screen girlfriend. Turns out I was wrong. They meet at the funeral and become friends pretty quick. As the movie gets deeper into the plot they do seem to act more like boyfriend/girfriend than just friends though. Sophia Bush and Jimmi Simpson play brother and sister and these were the only two characters I didn't completely care for. These two worked well together but outside of that I didn't like them. You will also find Wendell Pierce and Rio Hackford.

I didn't find Stay Alive scary in the least. It didn't even provide any jumps but it is still a fun movie to watch. The unrated version adds some slight nudity and some more of the plot. The nudity I can understand why it was left out but I don't see why they would leave some of the plot on the cutting room floor. In the rated version, they hint that the Countess (the main character of the game) was a real person. In the unrated version, they go more into the fact that she was a real person. It doesn't add a lot but it does help explain some of the scenes in the rated version a little more. The one thing I thought that could have helped Stay Alive was to allow us to get into the character's heads a little more than they did. We know a little about Hutch's past and why he has a fear of fire which ends up playing into the end of the movie. As for all the others, we find out nothing or very little about them.

As the game world is able to cross more into our world, objects are able to pass into each world more easily. Swink is the first one to realize this and takes advantage of it as he plays the game while his friends head off to try and stop the Countess. Swink is able to help guide Hutch to places he needs to go and also help save Abigail at a key moment. He is also able to leave a crowbar that he has in the game for Hutch to find in the real world. This is what made the movie fun to me, the interaction between the two worlds. I understand why they waited until the end of the movie to start this interaction but it would have been nice to have seen more of it. If you like games then I think you will like this movie. It is far from scary but it is entertaining all the same. Even if you are not a gamer, you might still find Stay Alive to be a fun movie for you.
3 out of 5 Will be more careful when I play games for now on

Be Careful What You Wish For Part Four

Even though it is getting late, I will try and get this review out since it is part of my plan for today. I would have gotten the other two reviews done faster but sometimes I can get distracted easily. Other times one might have to hit me up side the head in order to get my attention. Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002) did manage to keep my attention. With this post, I will be just five posts away from 250. Sorry to keep reminding you all of that but I am rather proud of it. It also gives me a chance to talk about movies I am otherwise afraid to write a review for. Some older movies that I consider my favorites, I have a hard time trying to write about, and give them a fair review. I find it easier to just talk about those kind of movies. That is what I do every 50 posts so since one is coming up, I feel a slight need to brag. Now if I can just figure out which movie to talk about, I will be set.

Wishmaster 4 starts with a couple driving up to their new home. They go inside and it isn't long before they have sex in their new home. They break the bed they are in and then she poses for him so he can draw. The next thing we see is "Three years later." It happens that quickly. Lisa (Tara Spencer-Nairn) is now going through a divorce with Sam (Jason Thompson). Sam had some sort of accident and is now unable to walk. Their lawyer Steven (Michael Trucco) is handling the settlement for Sam's accident and is also putting the moves on Lisa. Lisa is confused about what she wants. She still loves Sam but Sam pushes her away. She wants to be loved and seems to have feelings for Steven, but isn't ready to give up on Sam just yet. This is the setup for when Steven buys Lisa a gift that happens to have that special gem in it. Lisa awakens the djinn and the djinn assumes Steven's identity. The djinn does manage to get three wishes out of Lisa, but the last wish is something that only Lisa herself can grant. Will her last wish come true so that the prophecy will finally be fulfilled?

The effects got fewer once again. The djinn and others of his kind looked cool still and the CGI effects are well done. The only effect that stood out to me was another lawyer pulling his own tongue out and cutting off his nose. The CGI effects took a step up from the last film. Only once did I think a CGI effect could have looked better. I rather enjoyed the acting. I liked Tara Spencer-Nairn in the lead role. John Novak returns as the djinn. Michael Trucco made a pretty convincing bad guy. You will also find Victor Webster and Kimberly Huie.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to Wishmaster 4. I liked the story a little better than I did in Wishmaster 3 but some of the things they included, like the hunter, seemed silly to me. The hunter was someone that awoke when the third wish was made. His job is simple, to kill the person that awoke the djinn before the third wish is granted. This seemed out of place to me. There was never any mention of this type of person in the other movies and why wait until the third wish before hunting down the person doing the wishing? It is just dumb luck that the third wish couldn't be granted right away so it seemed stupid to me that the hunter would wait until the third wish before going on the hunt. The hunter appears no better than the djinn on top of that. When he confronts someone in a store, trying to find out who the awaker is, when she doesn't know the answer and lops her head off. And this is supposed to be a good guy?

One of the things I liked is that the djinn simply tricks Lisa into making her wishes. In a way the djinn got lucky with Lisa. Her life is heading in the wrong direction so he didn't have to pressure her any to get the three wishes out of her. This is something I have argued should have been done from the start. Everyone wants something so it shouldn't be to hard to get some wishes out of someone. On the flip side of this, they went against the rules set down even more this time around. The djinn is exchanging souls for wishes once again, even though they never say why he is doing this. They left out the flashes that the person with three wishes gets though. Because of this, the djinn doesn't have to force wishes out of Lisa but it goes against what came before. This was a nice way to end the series if that is the case. Like the third movie, I didn't hate Wishmaster 4 but I wish they would have kept to the rules more. Over all, the Wishmaster series has been a fun one. Even these last two movies were fun to watch but aren't as good as the first two.
2 out of 5 Make a wish, if you dare

Be Careful What You Wish For Part Three

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you may have noticed the post where I admit to having a crush on the actress A.J. Cook. I'm not afraid or ashamed to admit it at all. We all have such crushes in our lives, just not always of the same sex. Why A.J. you ask? When I first watched her in a movie, I liked her performance a lot. Every movie I have tracked down that she has been in hasn't disappointed me either. Ok, maybe the movie itself did but not A.J. Besides being a fan, I also think she is a very beautiful woman. I just hope A.J. doesn't mind that another woman has a crush on her. As for Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell (2001), I first caught some of it on the Sci-Fi Channel one day while flipping channels. I skipped over it when I found out it was the third movie in the series. I was right when I thought I had yet to watch the first two so I didn't want to jump into the series with the third movie. Just as I changed the channel I saw A.J. Cook but I wasn't sure if it was her so I went back and sure enough it was. Ever since then, I have had this movie in my mind, waiting to see it and now I have.

Wishmaster 3 follows the same basic plot as the other two movies. It starts with a dream. Diana (A.J. Cook) is having a dream of when her parents were killed in a car wreck. It seems Diana (played by Kate Yacula in the dream sequence) was fighting with her parents and her dad wasn't paying attention to the road like he should have been. Her dad manages to pull her from the wreck but when he goes back for mom, the car explodes with both of them still in the car. Now, Diana is older and in college but she is still feeling guilty and she can't bring herself to tell her boyfriend Greg (Tobias Mehler) that she loves him. She is supposed to meet up with Professor Barash (Jason Connery) one day to help him with things that are to be placed in a museum. In one of the pieces, she discovers a hidden chamber and pulls out the gem. She awakens the djinn (now played by John Novak) but leaves before he escapes the gem. The professor is still there though and the djinn tricks him into making a wish which, of course, kills him. The djinn then cuts away the professor's face and assumes his identity. Diana, being the smart cookie that she is, catches on to this quickly and tries to find a way to set things right again. She recruits Greg and her best friend Katie (Louisette Geiss) to help her out. Will they be able to stop the djinn or will he finaly get his three wishes?

I believe that Wishmaster 3 was a direct to video type movie. Because of this, it doesn't have the budget the previous movies in the series did. I'm sorry I never talked about the djinn himself. I thought he looked real cool in the first movie and in the second movie they changed how he looked just slightly but it still looked good. He still looks good in this installment but it was changed once again and I'm not real sure I liked the changes as much this time around. The change didn't make it look bad really, just different. As far as other effects, there weren't many. The best was when one girl wished to lose some weight. Not that she needed to but that is what she wished all the same.

The acting was pretty good all around. I really liked A.J. Cook, of course, so I won't hype on her too much here since I think I have made it clear enough that I like her. It was really odd to me to see John Novak as the djinn. Ok, so we don't actually see the actor himself but I mean that I was so used to hearing a certain voice and now that voice has changed. I didn't like it at first but he grew on me as the movie went on. I don't think he was as good a djinn as Andrew Divoff made him but he was still good. If the name Jason Connery might sound familar to you, that could be because he is the son of actor Sean Connery. Is he as good an actor as his dad? It is hard for me to say after only seeing him in one movie but I felt he did a good job playing the bad guy. Again, I don't think he was as good as Andrew Divoff in this role. Andrew almost always had this weird smile and look when he was making a deal with someone. This made the deal all the more sinister. You will also find Aaron Smolinski, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Daniella Evangelista and Sarah Carter.

I was pretty disappointed with Wishmaster 3 because it seems to ignore the rules set down by the previous movies. The djinn doesn't appear to be collecting souls at all. He is just granting wishes for either personal gain or to try and get Diana to make her three wishes. With the exception of the weight loss, the way they twist the wishes was also disappointing. There has always been an underlining theme of good vs. evil running through each film but this time they take it to a whole new level when Diana wishes for St. Michael to come and help her defeat the djinn. I liked the way the movie started and I liked how it was going up until a point. From there it seemed to get goofy and kept heading that way as the movie progressed.

The second movie felt like a continuation of the first movie even though only one cast member returned. I didn't have that same feel for Wishmaster 3. It almost feels like a stand alone film and maybe that is what they were going for but they didn't have to ignore the rules set down by those films. If I had watched Wishmaster 3 before the other two, like I almost did at one point in time, then maybe I would have ended up liking this one more than I have now. It's not a bad movie really, it just doesn't stand up to the other two movies. I hate to give it this rating since A.J. is in it but I can't justify giving it a good rating because of my like for one actress. If you are like me and like to watch all sequels or you are a fan of someone in the film, I can't give you a good reason to watch it.
2 out of 5 Wishing A.J. was my friend

Be Careful What You Wish For Part Two

I can feel it, can you? I feel like today will be a movie day. I don't know how many I will watch today but since I take the time to write up a review after I watch a movie, I don't think it will be a ton of movies. My goal is to at least finish off the Wishmaster series. Speaking of which, Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) is now in the books. Two down, two to go. I figured I would stay in today since it is so hot out. I have gotten my daily swim out of the way and I think I got more wet from sweating than I did from actual water. I don't know about the rest of you but I am ready for winter to get here. You would think I would be used to the heat since Texas is known for it but I actually like the cold better. You have to admit, it is easier to find ways to warm up.

Wishmaster 2 starts off with a robbery. Some people are robbing a museum when it all goes wrong for them. An alarm goes off and the guards show up and start shooting up the place. One of the bullets strikes the statue from the movie. Part of the statue breaks away and there is the gem. One of the robbers picks it up and they take off. Another guard stops them and shoots the robber that has the gem but the bullet hits the gem thus breaking it and releasing the djinn (Andrew Divoff) once again. This robber happens to be Morgana (Holly Fields). Even though she didn't actually set the djinn free, the guard did that, she had the gem at the time so she gets the credit and the three wishes. Soon after this, the djinn starts to collect his souls and, once in a great while, Morgana gets flashes of the twisted ways the djinn makes the wish come true. She goes to her friend Gregory (Paul Johansson) for help. They discover that a woman who is pure of heart can send the djinn back to his gem that he has been trapped in before. Morgana sets about becoming a that woman with the help of Gregory who happens to be a priest. Can they once again trap the djinn?

I wasn't disappointed with the effects at all. After the sheer number of effects that can be found in the first movie, I was surprised to see so few in Wishmaster 2. That's not to say that the effects that are here are bad. I was impressed with what is found in fact. There are some CGI type effects when they show the souls of people being pulled from their bodies. These were a little cheesy at times but outside of that you will find some good effects. A guy being pulled through the bars of a prison cell was the best effect to me. Some reviews felt the acting was the weak link for this movie but I liked all the actors. Holly Fields did a nice job being the lead actress. She has a long line of acting on tv shows and is slowly starting to be in more movies. Hopefully we will be seeing more of her. You can also find Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Chris Weber, Bokeem Woodbine, Robert LaSardo and Oleg Vidov.

I felt that Wishmaster 2 had a better story than Wishmaster, maybe because I felt it explained what the djinn needed and wanted a little more clearly this time around. I don't recall anything about the djinn needing 1001 souls before cashing in on the three wishes of the person who released him. In the first movie we learn about the djinn from a book that Alexandra is reading from. This time around, Morgana gets her information from the internet. What made the difference for me is that the key information was repeated more than once so if you happen to have spaced out the first time, you will still catch on to it later. I also caught on that it is because of the flashes that Morgana has, and Alexandra has as well, is the reason that the djinn couldn't just trick them into the wishes. They knew what could happen if they made the wishes so the djinn had to be more forcefull with them.

The weak link for Wishmaster 2 could possibly be the plot holes that can be found. One of the robbers lives long enough to be the djinn's first soul to collect. His wish was that he was never born. The djinn grants the wish and right away that should undo everything we just watched. Maybe the robbery would still have taken place and maybe Morgana would still have been a part of it. Then again, maybe not since she would never have met the other robber. There are a couple of other wishes that should have worked out a little differently than they did. By the way, doesn't someone have to use the words "I wish" in order for it to be a wish? That was something else I had been wondering about since watching the first movie as well. In both movies most people that are given wishes never say those words.

The djinn had more of a plan this time. Instead of just running into people like he did in the last movie, he actually goes places where people are more likely to want to wish for something. First he confesses to the robbery and goes to prison for it. Lots of people in prison make wishes. From there he heads to a casino where again, you will find people making a lot of wishes. I liked some things better this time around but there are also things that the first movie holds over its sequel. Which is better? That is a tough choice. I guess it just depends on which type of horror movie you like best. If you like effects more then you should go with the first movie. If you like the story better then I think you would like this one better. That is just me though. I feel I like the first movie slightly better than this one but that isn't a knock on Wishmaster 2. If you liked the original movie, you won't go wrong with the second one. Now, on to the third. I will admit this was the reason behind my wanting to watch this series, A.J. Cook.
3 out of 5 Wishing away one sin doesn't make you pure of heart does it?

Be Careful What You Wish For Part One

At the start of the month, I updated my blog a little bit. Added all new reviews from the previous month. I added a little something to the side bar and I considered adding more to the side bar after I updated it. I decided to think about it some and almost started a new review but other things got in the way so I waited. Later that day though, my hard drive decided it didn't want to work for me anymore and went on strike. I guess I can't blame it. I don't feel that I work it too hard but I do tend to demand a lot from it. Lucky for me, I know people that can work on computers and fix them. It turns out that my hard drive wasn't a total loss. The drive itself eventually failed but not before all the information was able to be saved from it. Since I don't actually pay my friends to work (sorry), I just have to sit around and.....wait. Sometimes I would hear, "I will have it done tomorrow." Tomorrow would come and then I would hear, "Oh sorry, I didn't get a chance to look at it today." So I would just sit around some more and.....wait. As you can see it is fixed now. I have good news and bad news about that. The bad news is I found out that unless I'm waiting for a swim meet to start, I'm very bad at waiting. The good news is I now have not one, not even two, but three hard drives. One is the master drive and one is just there to do anything I wish to do with it. The third drive has the job of mirroring the master drive. If anything now happens to the master drive, I can simply use the mirror drive as my new master and lose nothing. Pretty sweet huh? Anyways, I promised my next post would be the start of a new series and so it is. As you could see from the poster, Wishmaster.

Wishmaster (1997) starts way back when and all hell is breaking loose. A djinn, think genie but evil instead, is trying to get the third wish out of a king. If a djinn can get three wishes out of the person it granted the wishes to then the djinn will get to release others of his kind from their where ever it is they live. Trust me, that would not be a good thing. He almost gets the king to make the third wish but instead he gets trapped inside a red gem. The movie then skips forward to present time. A priceless statue from Egypt is being unloaded at a dock. As it is being unloaded from the ship, the crane operator spills his coffee on the controls and the crate comes crashing down, killing a man. One of the dock workers rushs over and finds a red gem partly embedded in the now busted up statue and pockets it. It eventually ends up in the hands of gemologist Alexandra (Tammy Lauren). As she looks it over, she breathes on it to try and shine it up more. This seems to connect her with the djinn inside. Once the djinn (Andrew Divoff) is out, he tries to do everything he can to get Alexandra to make those three wishes.

I liked the effects, for the most part. There were a few that I felt could have looked a lot better. A couple of people get turned into glass. Both of these effects could have been better and one was the worst effect in the movie. To me anyways. There are plenty of effects that I was real impressed with though. People are killed in some pretty creative ways in this movie. The acting was good as well. Tammy Lauren was good but Andrew Divoff stole the show with his performance. What made Wishmaster fun for me, as far as actors went, was all the cameo appearances made by horror icons. Robert Englund has the biggest role, and is joined by Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Ted Raimi, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm.

While I enjoyed Wishmaster, I have to admit that I was confused by the plot a large part of the time. The djinn was going around tricking people into making wishes and granting them in twisted ways. I took it this was his way of gaining power. With each wish he would become more powerful. It made me wonder why Alexandra was the only person that could give him three wishes though. The djinn was also very forceful when it came to Alexandra. Right away he was basicly trying to frighten her into making three wishes. He is obviously good at tricking people into making wishes so I didn't understand why he was being so forceful with Alexandra. He was also being way too honest with her. Telling her that her wishes will lead to more of his kind on earth isn't a very good motivational speech to get someone to make the third wish.

The effects and Andrew Divoff are what made Wishmaster fun to watch. Fun was about as far as it got for me though. More times than not, I was questioning the movie. I didn't understand the rules for the djinn. There are rules, like he can't be harmed by a wish. That rule was simple enough but I didn't always understand the others. Alexandra wasn't the person that actually released the djinn from the gem. A friend did that. Confusing plot aside, it was still a fun movie. I've been told the second movie is better so I will have to sit down and watch it here sometime soon and report my findings to all of you.
3 out of 5 Hoping I don't get turned into a bad effect