A small list of my favorite things to watch around Halloween time.
TV Freaks and Geeks- Tricks and Treats Over the Garden Wall Stranger Things Season 2 90s Goosebumps 90s Are You Afraid of the Dark Movies Halloween (1978) Halloween III- Season of the Witch Fright Night Creepshow Beetlejuice The Monster Squad Phantasm Universal Series- Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, etc. Music Ramones- Pet Semetary Goblin- Suspiria John Carpenter- Anthology John Harrison- Creepshow OST Siouxsie and the Banshees- Halloween Warren Zevon- Werewolves of London Any of the soundtracks for the movies and shows above ^^^^ Don't Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult Bernard Herrmann- Psycho Michael Jackson- Thriller Jerry Goldsmith- The Omen OST Video Games Splatterhouse Series (Turbografx-16, Sega Genesis) MediEvil (PS1)
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Canada seems like such a pleasant place. But that's all. Just pleasant. Nothing much happens there except for the occasional Johnny Test but really everyone's very nice. So it's no wonder all this geniality got to young David Cronenberg's head, and he ended up disrupting the movie scene up north with his disgusting and disturbing films. Among Canada's pleasant folks, Cronenberg stands alone for the amount of disgusting orifices, rotting flesh, and cold scientific language in his movies. The first movie by this guy that I saw was The Dead Zone, a Stephen King adaptation. It was pretty good, but was missing the disturbing body horror of his other movies. This came back in spades with The Fly, which I saw next. And considering how much I liked that one, I decided to watch Scanners, which many consider to be his masterpiece. Taking the term psychological thriller a little too literally, Scanners is about a group of people with incredible psychic abilities. Cameron Vale is our hero, and he's a Scanner who was found by Dr. Ruth (no, not that one), a scientist working for ConSec, a government company that wants to investigate Scanners. However, a rogue Scanner named Daryl Revok explodes some guys head and is now on the run from ConSec. It's up to Vale and some lady who he meets along the way to stop Revok. Now that's a great plot, and just by the concept it's intriguing. But in execution, Scanners falters. I really like the first half of this movie. It's tight, well made, and genuinely creepy at some points. But after Vale infiltrates the chemical factory, it all falls apart. The plot becomes motionless and we start to focus on Kim Oberst, a fellow Scanner who has no purpose in the story. While I understand the need to have a 2nd protagonist, she really does nothing at all. The 2nd half of the film also has pretty disappointing action, and the scene where Vale tries to hack into the computer with his mind is very hokey and breaks the reality of the film. The famous "Scanner Battle" between Vale and Revok is great, yes, but it's all build-up. The scene cuts before either of them explode! The twist at the very end of the film was interesting but could have been executed better. Bassically, Kim finds Revok in the room near Vale's dead body. Revok then speaks in Vale's voice and it's implied that Vale is OK and living in Revok's body. Then, roll credits. But I feel like there could have been something more. Perhaps Kim and Revok embrace and then Revok winks at the camera in a sinister manner. The other problem I have is Stephen Lack's performance as Vale. He is so incredibly boring and it's especially bad in the second half of the movie. Michael Ironside, playing the villain Revok, is far better and is excellent. Any scene with him present is excellent. Lack is more of a painter than an actor, so I guess it makes sense. Jennifer O'Neill is better than Lack but it is still pretty bland as the already boring Kim, and these LACKluster performances really drag the film down. The effects, however, are great and done by the always reliable Dick Smith, best known for doing makeup on The Exorcist, and it still looks great today. I just wished Vale's head had exploded at the end. Oh well. All the action scenes were excellent, but I feel like they should have been spaced out throughout the movie instead of all happening in the first half. I really enjoyed the sound design for this film. The music is all high pitched or low and burbling during the sequences where the Scanners make people weird with their brains, and I really liked how this was done. Overall, I find Scanners to be an interesting but flawed movie. An awesome first half, cool sound, and some great action and effects make it worth a watch, but disappointing second half, and some bland performances from the protagonists hold it back from greatness. 5.5 My impression of the poster of Scanners
3 Yep. I'm doing it. I used to love Sonic as a kid, especially the cartoons, but it's time to go back to the past and see if any of these shows hold up. This is from worst to best. 6. Sonic Underground Sonic has siblings, they are all voiced by Jaleel White, and they all sing. So this is what hell feel like. Only watched one episode and even as a stupid kid I hated it. This song from Episode 25 is literally the worst piece of music I've ever heard. 5. Sonic X This was awesome as a kid, but now it's just boring to my cynical eyes. Theme song is righteous, yes, and the character designs are pretty good, I guess, but with the whiny brat that is Chris Thorndyke and his racist Mexican maid, it really drags down the show. I would have loved a flashy anime Sonic cartoon in the style of the awesome Sonic OVA, but this one's animation is stilted and the characters are really lame. 4. Sonic Boom (2003-2006) Apparently this one's pretty funny and self aware. This was released at about the time I became disinterested in Sonic, and now that I went back and got into the games maybe I should give this a watch. But I probably won't, as it seems like it's a little too Teen Titans Go-esque for my tastes. But what I've seen it seems only occasionally funny with the rest being total fluff. 3. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) I watched this one a lot as a kid, and it was definitely the most humor based of the 90s Sonic shows. I still own some of the DVDs, and watched a couple recently for a project, and it's only good for ironic value. Every episode ends with a "Sonic Sez" segment that was an attempt to teach kid's lessons. My favorite was when Sonic explains to kids what molesters are. I remember being so confused when Sonic explained what child predators were. At least it meant well, though. Jim Cummings as Robotnik was also excellent, and he definitely stole the show. 2. Sonic Mania Adventures (2018) Pretty recently Sega released Sonic Mania, a callback to older Sonic games. To pair with it they released these webshorts onto YouTube in the style of the opening to Sonic CD and Sonic OVA. They're pretty good, and while not super funny, the animation more than makes up for it. 1. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic SatAM) (1993-1994) The holy grail of Sonic cartoons. Interesting characters, a dark atmosphere, and a KICKIN THEME SONG! This show, while not excellent, is really dark and takes itself really seriously. Sonic is pretty annoying, but again it's Robotnik who takes the cake as the star. Robotnik is just so incredibly creepy in this series, and his robots and city are foreboding and really freaked me out as a kid. Some of the plots were pretty creative, and I really liked how emotional it could sometimes get. Definitely the best, no contest. I have memories of getting the DVDs from Randalls on the weekend and watching them while eating granola. Some golden memories right there. This scene in particular still gives me goosebumps due to how sad it was for me at the time. Well, that's been my stupid list. None of these shows are exceptional or anything but I really like Sonic SatAM, and of course the games are still great
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AuthorI'm Spoon Goon. I like movies and video games and occasionally a good TV show. Archives
April 2020
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