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Well, the second preview for the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was released. If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I just recently became a fan of the premise of Nightmare on Elm Street after years of being rather disappointed in it due to all the terrible sequels and feeling Freddy Kruger wasn't being used right to his full potential. I don't have too much faith in this remake as I've recently found a big appreciation for the first film, but here's hoping there's some redeemable aspects in this. I was very interested in seeing how Freddy could be used with all the advancement we've made with computer tech, though it seems most of the kills and special effects will just be rehashes of the original.

Sweet Rebecca was a pretty little thing
Who believed in love but kept getting flings.
Her lips were red as the color of blood
And her heart longed for a man to love.
Sweet Rebecca met Mark with eyes blue like the sea
But he had two left feet and could not match a beat.
Sweet Rebecca danced well with Chris
But his kiss could not give her bliss.
It was Chip who had the talented lips
But his face was filled with leaky zits.
Sean had a wonderful complexion, face with clarity
But had the most foul personality.
Sarah though had a wonderful heart, as if woven
But Rebecca remembered she was straight and Sarah was a woman.
Then Rebecca met Drake who had just the right sized penis
But his face kept reminding her of a deformed fetus.
Rebecca met Jamie, handsome with a chiseled jaw
But his chest was saggy and torso was a bore.
Jason, though, had just the perfect pecs and abs
But one day died in an accident in his science lab.
“What should I do?” Sweet Rebecca asked herself
Then an idea hit her head after finding a stitch in Jason’s shelf.
She met Mark again and cut out his blue eyes like the sea
And chopped off Chris’ talented and lovely right and left feet.
Sweet Rebecca ripped off Chip’s soft lips
And skinned Sean’s face that had no zits.
She cut out Sarah’s bloody beating heart
And also Drake’s right size penis and kept him apart.
She also detached Jamie’s chiseled jaw
And her smile lit up like a bright star
As she thought to put together all the pieces like a fine puzzle
She wondered if it’d be a struggle.
Sweet Rebecca returned to Jason’s science lab
And admired every pack of his hard shaped abs.
Days and weeks and months went by
And finally that one day she let out a sigh.
She finally created the perfect man And decided to name him Dan.
He had blues eyes like the sea
And could match a beat.
He had kissable lips
And had no zits.
He had a great heart you couldn’t buy with a dime
Whose penis fit her with just the right size.
He had a wonderful strong jaw
And each second of the day it was Rebecca he adored.
Of course he had the nice abs and great chest
And Rebecca loved Dan with all the best.

Rebecca and Dan lived happily ever after.

The Wolfman is a film directed by Joe Johnston, a remake of the original 1941 Wolfman movie that starred horror scream king Lon Chaney, Jr. I'm going to start off this review by saying that I wasn't a HUGE fan of the original film when I first saw it. There were some shots I absolutely loved next to the setting and the mood presented in the film. The foggy forest? Just masterful. Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot was very appealing and of course you had the great Bela Lugosi making an appearance. This movie stars Benicio del Toro, one of my favorite actors, as Larry Talbot, a popular stage actor who is called back to Blackmoor after his brother is gruesomely murdered by what seems to be human... and inhumane at that same time. He is awkwardly reunited with his father (Anthony Hopkins) and meets his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) who was the one to track Larry down. Larry promises Gwen that he'll find the person behind his brother's death which leads him into the gypsy square near the forest where a werewolf causes death and injury to a lot of residents. Larry bravely goes after it only to be bitten, thus leading to his cursed transformation as the titled Wolfman.

So did I find this to be a great horror movie? Does it deserve hype from the trailers and special effects? Is it worth spending hard earned cash for? Eh. It was okay. So-so. The movie had good and bad parts. But not terrible. Let me start with the good. First and foremost: performances. All top-notch and it helps that everyone in the film were very well, established actors who knew their craft. Del Toro played a good performance of a brooding and cursed Larry Talbot although that's pretty much it. Besides playing a very good tortured character, that's all you'll see from him. The character himself is pretty much nearly one-noted besides specific scenes which I won't spoil. Anthony Hopkins plays Sir Talbot, Larry's father, and actually nearly steals the show during the first half of the movie and makes some scenes very creepy. Scenes that you'd believe would be cheesy under a lesser actor. Emily Blunt plays Gwen, the woman who eventually falls in love with Larry and becomes entangled in the whole story of the Wolfman. Blunt added a lot of depth and humanity to this movie and became my favorite thing about in this film. Hugo Weaving plays Inspector Francis Aberline, an officer determined in bringing Talbot down and stopping the murders. Although I flashed a grin when Weaving entered the screen, hoping his arrival will mean "shit is finally gonna go down!" he's nearly wasted in this film. Next to Blunt being my favorite part of the film, there were also scenes of Talbot's hallucinations starting to plague his mind. Larry's hallucinations were by far the scene-stealers of the movie. They were fantastically gripping, all focusing on Talbot's fragmented mind as both man and a werewolf, nearly driving him crazy, mixing reality with the surreal where you couldn't quite tell which was which at various moments. I was near the edge of my seat when those scenes played out.

Now the bad... the film was a tad boring. While I felt the performances kept me some-what interested with some amazing shots throughout the movie with very excellent musical scores from Danny Elfman, the movie couldn't quite get me excited. There were a lot of scare scenes that were in fact VERY well done, but the plot itself just seemed weak in parts. The first half of the movie dragged. Yet when it seem something was finally going to happen, it seemed rushed. The film did a decent job in adding some suspense here and there, but the story itself didn't seem to fully sustain the suspense that was going with it. While I also liked that the movie sort of strayed away from the original film, there were many times I wish it sort of did follow the original. For one, Larry Talbot was a much cheerier and happier person in Lon Chaney, Jr's version. You were amused and charmed with him when he started sweet-talking and courting Gwen who was also very happy-go-lucky. Then there was the weird feeling when Gwen's friend gets a bad omen. In this version, everyone is so gloomy since the very beginning of the movie. I missed the happy Larry who's world turned upside down when he gets bitten and cursed as a werewolf. Now there are some twists that I saw coming and I know it would be split between viewers if they liked this twist or not. Some people would find it cheesy while others would find it a very welcome surprise. I myself found it a welcome surprised although I did see it coming from near the beginning of the film.

The special effects were overall well done. I appreciated the Wolfman actually resembling the monster from the original movie but besides that there isn't much to really say. The transformation was okay, but its the use of the special effects with the hallucinations that take the cake for me. Gore and violence were all well done and none looked cheesy or out of place.

Would I recommend this film? Not really. There are things in the movie that would be enough to entertain people, but it'd be very hard for me to know which type of people that would be.
I will say, though, that I was very happy to see one of my favorite shots used from the original. The scene where Gwen is running towards the right of the camera in the foggy forest. Although the beautiful atmospheric fog was missing, the nod surely got a slight smile from me. I'll conclude that although I wasn't a huge fan of this movie... it really made me appreciate the original a lot more than I did before. So take that as you will.

"The pieces of Jennifer's boooody..." Sorry, I'm a Hole fan and Jennifer's Body is one of my favorite songs from their album Live Thru This. A song which was also the inspiration for the title, Jennifer's Body. A film starring sexy It-girl Megan Fox as Jennifer and the very lovely and talented Amanda Seyfried as her best friend, Needy. The film was directed by Karyn Kusama and written by award winner screenwriter of Juno, Diablo Cody, who also created United States of Tara, a television series I absolutely adore (at least the episodes I've been fortunate to catch). So it seems from all that I've stated this movie had a lot going for it. So was the movie good? Eehhh. Whatever. That's how I felt overall by the movie. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't good. It was just there. One of those watch it then shrug type films. Though I can see this being a film that some people find as guilty pleasure and some just downright hating that they spent their time watching this than doing something else productive, like writing a better script for a horror film.

The movie follows the character of Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried who I absolutely adore ever since she cracked me the hell up in Mean Girls. Needy is the awkward girl in school with a loving boyfriend and is best friends with the extremely hot and popular cheerleader, Jennifer, played by Megan Fox. We begin with Needy in a psychiatric center where she's put into solitude due to attacking a doctor trying to help her. She then tells us how she got there, starting at a town named the Devil's Kettle. There we see her relationship with boyfriend Chip, probably the only true likable character in this movie and we see her rather weird... lovingly abusive relationship with Jennifer. Jennifer is sexy and spunky with the right type of humor that is easy to annoy you if you were on the receiving end of it. That is the first strike for where this film failed where it could have succeeded, but we'll get to that later. Jennifer talks Needy into going to the local bar to meet Low Shoulder, a indie band from the city. Jennifer's plan is to get cozy with the lead singer, played by Adam Brody. While at the bar, we meet one of Jennifer's sex buddies and learn that she isn't a virgin, not even a back door one. While the band is playing, fire ignites and causes the death of some locals, destroying the whole bar. Needy and Jennifer make it out safely. Nikolai, the lead singer of Low Shoulder, talks Jennifer into leaving with him in his van with his band mates while Amanda sadly watches her friend go after arguing with her not to. Moments pass and Jennifer is sacrificed by the band to Satan for fame and fortune. Here's where the band messed up. Believing Jennifer is a virgin, this has caused a succubus to invade and take over her body, while Low Shoulder enjoy rising success. So now Jennifer comes back as if nothing has happened and feeds off of boys after seducing them to keep her strength and makes her way to Chip, while Needy is determined to stop her former best friend.

Now to the flaws and things I thought were okay. The biggest flaw I can say for this film were the characters. Besides Chip and a teacher played by J.K. Simmons, there really aren't much likable characters. We're also introduced to a lot of other characters in the film but there's nothing there to even care much for them. There's a emo goth kid who's fairly likable but besides being rather weird and quirky and slightly charming, what else is there when he becomes a target for Jennifer? Now Seyfried tries her best to bring some likability to the character of Needy, and while Needy is in fact a very strong protagonist, there's a lot of fault in the script that hinders and undermines her. So while the character herself isn't bad, it's the poor script that brings her down. And the main hindrance of the script goes to Jennifer as a character. The first mistake I've noticed upon first watching this was just how unlikable Jennifer was BEFORE she was killed and turned into a demon. This girl was an absolute bitch. She was mean to her best friend and just plain annoying. The film-makers failed there as they could have at least put some redeeming factors in the character for us to feel sorry about when she is shown being killed. Or at least show us a contrast! I wouldn't mind seeing a spunky but goodhearted Jennifer at first. That would have made her transformation as a demon a lot more interesting upon seeing how different she's become. Sure, it's a cliche, but for this movie the cliche could have worked well.

There were a lot of things I felt this movie could have done to make the overall watch a better experience. For one, if we maybe went into details on just how the demon works and who she picks to be her victims, specifically why them over other guys. Maybe if she could only seduce them a certain way or if they couldn't get it up, maybe she couldn't fully do much. But no, things were just happening and in a failed attempt to be hip, well... it failed, plain and simple. The one scene that I felt worked perfectly was the make-out scene between Needy and Jennifer. Jennifer seduces Needy into making out with her, but there obviously is a lot more to this... it was more of Needy allowing herself to be seduced. Underneath all the best friend stuff, she had actual sexual feelings for her friend and she responded back. The film was doing a great job with that with the scene actually being creepily done... but then it shifts back to "eehh-ness." And speaking of connections with the character, there's a weird supernatural-like connection between the two main character which is hardly EVER mentioned or explained besides Needy licking Jennifer's wound when they were kids. Um... ok. Whatever.

This film I will say did have some cool stuff here and there, notably Amanda Seyfriend as you can see I dig her a lot. Megan Fox was ok as Jennifer. I felt it was great to see her as someone in a film who knows she's hot and exploits herself despite not being likable. And there were some dialogue that were actually rather charming and gave the characters some personality. But the overall film was a bit of a dub. I also did love that Needy was a sexually active girl and the film didn't fall into the cliche "You're a bad girl if you have sex, and only girls who wait till marriage and study are good girls." While I didn't HATE the movie, I could have done without seeing it and wouldn't really recommend it. But who knows? I watched it tonight with two good buddies and they seem to dig it a lot. So... enter at your own risk, I suppose.

For some reason, calling Michael Holt, aka Mr. Terrific III, a prodigy seems like an understatement.
At the young age of 6, Colt was already comfortably familiar with the works of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Aage Bohr. Holt also possesses 14 Ph.Ds, including Physics and Engineering with doctorates and masters in Mathematics, Law, Psychology, Political Science, and Chemistry. He also holds gold medals, being an Olympic Decathlete, and Black Belts in 6 different martial arts disciplines.





Michael Holt grew up taking care of his mentally challenged older brother, Jeffrey. At the age of 15, Jeffrey died, devastating Holt. He eventually married a woman named Paula, a day Holt considers his proudest moment. Tragedy struck when Paula was killed in a car accident along with their unborn child. Crushed, Holt contemplated suicide until he was visited by the Spirit of Divine Vengeance, The Spectre who told Holt of the life of Terry Sloan, the original Mr. Terrific. Inspired by the story of Terry Sloan and in memory of Paula and Jeffrey, Holt took up the mantle of Mr. Terrific and decided to use his anger and frustration positively.

Using his genius intellect, Mr. Terrific created “T-spheres” that responds to his mental and vocal commands, functioning as a computer, holographic projection, projective weapons including explosives, a means to allow him to fly along with many various other uses. Due to his T-Mask bonded on his face, he is invisible to all forms of electronic detection.




Though relatively new to the Justice Society of America, his natural leadership skills led to Terrific getting elected as the chairman of the team, which he lead until the members disbanded for a short while. He was then offered by Green Lantern Alan Scott to take part in rebuilding the agency Checkmate, becoming Bishop to Scott's White King and started a romance with Black Queen, Sasha Bordeaux. The relationship was complicated when Mr. Terrific became Checkmate’s new White King when Alan Scott was forced to resign.





Mr. Terrific's adventures can be found:

JSA vol. 3 #1-current
Checkmate #1-25
JSA vs Kobra
JLA/JSA: Lightning Saga

Man, remember when this was also suppose to be a blog where I also focus on comics I like, heh heh? Been far too long...

http://www.theouthousers.com/content/view/6388/203/

Blade

One of the most popular comic book characters in the mainstream due to the portrayal of the titular character by Wesley Snipes in Blade, Blade 2, and Blade Trinity and then reprised in the Blade television show by rapper/actor Kirk “Sticky Fingaz“ Jones. Blade is a man on a mission, set on ridding the world of the undead, of vampires. One thing though: he’s half vampire himself. Born Eric Brooks, on the night of his birth, vampire Deacon Frost disguised himself as a doctor only to feed on his mother, Tara. When Tara died from the attack, Deacon’s vampire abilities passed onto Blade, giving him the strength and superhuman abilities of his sworn enemies. Yet at the same time in a strange event, the newborn Blade was sparred of the weaknesses attributed to vampires including garlic, sunlight, crosses… all leading to the nick name: Day-Walker. As a child he was trained by Jamal Afari, a trumpet player also with a vendetta against the undead. Blade quickly gained the skills to successfully become a vampire slayer, with skills surpassing Olympic level athletes and excellent hand-to-hand combat combined with an amazing talent of weaponry ranging from wooden knives to swords to guns.



Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, the character made his debut in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as an enemy of “protagonist” Dracula. Blade was a hardcore, nails to the wall bad-ass, letting nothing get in his way while he took down vampire after vampire. Over the years, the character has had multiple short-lived series where he continued his blood lust hate for vampires and demons of various kinds, fighting his “creator” Deacon Frost, Morbius the Living Vampire, and of course Dracula. He has teamed up, on many occasions, with the likes of Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Brother Voodoo, Hannibal King, and Spider-Man. He even formed an alliance with supernatural heroes, dubbing themselves the Darkstalkers, in hopes of protecting the innocents from evil.



Recently, Blade was seen leading a black ops-team named Vanguard, with Black Widow, Dominic Fortune, and Micromax. Shortly after, he joined with Captain Britain and his mean of MI:13 members where he helped fight Plokta and his army of Mindless Ones and once again his long standing opponent Dracula. While with the MI:13, Blade’s blood lust of vanquishing vampires led him to staking team member Spitfire who was secretly a vampire. After being saved, Spitfire has had numerous fights Blade which surprisingly led a romance and connection between the two which quickly blossomed. They have been together ever since.

Blade adventures can be found in:

Blade: Black and White
Tomb of Dracula Essentials Vol. 1, 2, and 3
Blade: Undead Again
Blade: Sins of the Father
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Hell Comes to Burmingham
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Vampire State
Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington starring Wesley Snipes
Blade 2, directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Wesley Snipes
Blade: The Series starring Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones

Ugh, I'll try my best not to cuss through out this review... ah, fuck it. FUCKING TERRIBLE! This movie was beyond garbage. GAR-BAGE. This movie was such a complete waste of time that I pray to all that is holy that whoever sees this review steers clear of this movie. Hopefully anyone who isn't even reading gets some kind of force to steer them clear because this movie is a complete waste of time. Don't be tricked by the 3D special effects. This movie has no point to its production except to annoy me. The plot was nearly non-existent, no believable characters or character beats, on top of more and more crap. Why oh WHY did they continue this franchise? The first movie I felt was a solid film and stands well on it's own. The second was a decent follow up. The third they should have stopped right there. Terrible film the third one was but it wasn't as much of a piece of stinking maggot filled turb that this film was. Usually with a film I don't like I'd find something redeemable or likable about it whether it's camera work or a specific shot, or a specific character or actor or SOMETHING! This film doesn't have any of it. There's not even an awesome cameo by the great Tony Todd! Skip this piece of crap, please.



PLEASE!

Let me be first to say that although I am a Robert Englund fan, I wasn't always a Freddy Kruger fan. Since I was a kid, I never got too much of the appeal of these films. I knew they were a HUGE favorite for horror fans, but I was never enthusiastic to watch Freddy films. Now I have seen a few, many I can't quite remember except for specific scenes. About a week or so ago I watched 2.5 Freddy films and feel I was maybe a bit too hard on the it. Some time last year I tried to watch the first A Nightmare on Elm Street and really couldn't get into it at all. I felt it was fairly laughable and nothing grabbed me. Upon watching it again, I found myself finally getting into it. The characters were all there and the premise was in fact strong. As to why I had a dislike for it, I can't possibly say. The premise has such strong potential and a lot of promise for stories and the first did a rather decent job with that. A mysterious, burnt killer with knives for a hand invading your dreams is completely horrifying, especially for the fact that when he kills you in your dreams, you die in real life too. Upon finally giving this film another shot - a fair shot - I felt the movie franchise would have been extremely strong without the pointless sequels. Now, the third part of the series, Dream Warriors, had some great ideas and itself was a fine film, the series could have done without sequels period. The first film was a solid horror tale and by itself would have been a solid footnote of a scary movie.

Visually, this film was very well made, especially blurring the lines between dream and reality, creating some surreal scenes. Examples being the first victim's death, Freddy's various appearances, among other things. My favorite scene would surely be when Nancy, the film's protagonist, is asleep and Freddy's figure begins to slowly come forward through the wall atop her bed. Very creepy scene and very well done. Visual-wise, I'm actually looking forward to see what kind of nightmares and special effects are used for the up-coming remake despite my dislikes for the current remake genre. My biggest complaint also for the film was in fact the use of music. I felt most of the music used for this film were very poor choices and could have highly improved the creepiness of the film if a more subtly creepy type score scheme was used. The main musical theme is very good, but other musical pieces in other scenes I found to be quite jarring and sometimes nearly took me out of the scene.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a creepy fun movie that stands rather well on it's own. I'm glad I gave it another fair shot after all this time of un-interest and somehow completely disliking it last time I watched it. Heck, I didn't even bother to finish it last time. But hey, if you're like me about this franchise, give the first film a fair viewer. You may like the interesting premise and may in fact like Freddy himself. The character works better as a sinister and creepy monster then the wise-cracking joke-ster he ended up being as the franchise went on. And here's hoping the remake does some justice. I'll try to give it a benefit of a doubt.

Directed by Wes Craven.