Movie Scum

Written by: PBF You've heard the phrase "Hugs not drugs," right? Well, I urge you not to heed that advice. I am not advocating the use of drugs by any means, but just beware of hugging. Allow me to explain. The Children is a delightful waste of time that begins at a nuclear power plant. The only 2 employees that are there must go find a drink so they leave. I assume that they have neglected something in their job description as some kind of leak happens and a big toxic fog forms. We then have a bus full of about 5 kids, having a merry time, singing the praises of the bus driver who approaches the dense mysteriously out of place fog with reckless abandon, and goes right through it. Later on, Sheriff Billy Hart finds the bus on the side of the road, engine running, but empty. The Sheriff then visits the parents of the missing kids to see if they have come home. They have not. What they have done, is turned into some kind of mindless gang of zombies, whose fingernails

Pop quiz! When I say Michael Crichton what’s the first movie that comes to mind? Jurassic Park ? Nice job! Twister ? Not too bad! Sphere ? Congo ? Now you’re just messing with me. If you did not think of his smashing directorial success Runaway , I wouldn’t be surprised. This is such an old favorite of mine that I’ve never heard anyone else even acknowledge (excepting PBF who probably saw in theaters). A 1984 movie about killer robots? How original! Oh wait. Terminator didn’t have Tom Selleck’s mustache though. Taking place “in the future” or some weird alt-history 1980s, Tom Selleck ’s Jack Ramsey is head of the runaway squad, a group of police who deal with industrial and household robots that misbehave. Things start off rather uneventful until a servant robot decides to dice up two people and hold an infant hostage at gunpoint. Ramsey discovers the robot was purposely tasked to go off the handle by the over-the-top Gene Simmons to eliminate an engineer who developed the compu

I was very disappointed in Exorcist II , the obvious follow up to William Friedkin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist . My aggravation with the movie though is likely different than the rumored reactions of audiences during the film’s premiere. Commissioned by PBF while reviewing Netflix’s awesome Watch Instantly collection, I went into the film expecting it to be quite horrid based on my readings of previous reviews about the film. Normally, I try not to have any preconceived notions about a film prior to watching it as sometimes it can be hard to separate what you’ve heard from what you actually see in the film itself. I am happy to report though that all of the bashers of the film hit it dead on. Taking place four years after the original, Reagan (played by a remarkably cute Linda Blair ) is undergoing psychiatric treatment to deal with repressed memories of her possession. During a really stupid looking hypnosis treatment, she is intertwined with Father Lamont who is investigating th

Written by: Digger Peter Jackson's directorial career has been one strange roller-coaster ride. I became aware of his work in the late 1990's when I and several of my friends discovered his early gore-fest movie Dead Alive (also titled Braindead ) and became instant fans. My classmates in high school were always yelling lines like "He's got, THE BITE!" in between classes. It was like the first drop on a rickety old wooden monster of a coaster; rough, and a little nauseating, but a hell of a lot of fun. After that I road the shaky turns of Bad Taste and The Frighteners still enjoying every minute. Then, in 2001, I sped into the smooth, polished, metal loops of a whole different monster with The Fellowship of the Ring . Don't get me wrong, it was still a great ride, just a different kind of ride. After that trilogy concluded, the coaster started to slow down with Jackson's somewhat underwhelming remake of King Kong and then the coaster sunk i

Written by: PBF Phantasm is bad ass and piss poor at the same time. But it is a good kind of piss poor. Jody and Mike are brothers who have lost their parents. Mike is younger, 13. Not wanting to be alone, he follows his brother everywhere. Mike follows Jody to a funeral of his friend Tommy, and sees the funeral director, who is simply called the Tall Man, pick up Tommy’s coffin by himself and put it back in the hearse rather than bury it. This suspicious activity, coupled with odd visions and noises, start to freak Mike out, and in standard horror movie fashion, his brother doesn’t believe that these things are actually happening. Well, until Mike shows him a severed finger in a box. The two (along with Reggie, an ice cream man) discover that the Tall Man is taking bodies, bringing them back to life as dwarf slaves, and taking them to another planet. The gateway to this planet is in a room in the mortuary and is between 2 sliver poles. Yeah that’s right. Didn’t see that coming,

Written by: PBF I bet if I were to poll a small group of people, and ask them to list 5 or so Ben Stiller films, Permanent Midnight would probably not be on many of those lists. It does not follow the usual mildly amusing, wafer thin plot, same character in every film formula that Stiller employs. He plays a heroin addict. Ben Stiller plays Jerry Stahl, a real person, who wrote the book Permanent Midnight, a memoir of his descent in to and climb out of heroin addiction. This film is of course, based on that book. Stahl has written for the television shows Alf, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, Moonlighting and CSI among others. In fact, he wrote the 100th episode of CSI, which is apparently is regarded as one of the best episodes of that series. He also wrote the screenplay for Bad Boys II . The time period of this film takes place when he was working on Alf and Twin Peaks. That being said, the film is a glimpse in to that part of his life, in which at some point he has a $6000 a

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Well, lookie what we have here! Another horror movie that successfully combines scares, tension, and humor. While initially it seemed odd to have another horror-comedy in the zombie sub-genre after the wildly successful Shaun of the Dead , Zombieland is extremely well done to stand alongside its cinematic sibling without infringing on it. Prior to meeting our main characters, the film starts with a nice montage of random zombie attacks that show the time between the initial outbreak from a mad-cow laced cheeseburger to the present events of the film set to Metallica. We are then introduced to Columbus (or the name we know him as) who introduces us to the rules that kept him alive a few months after the zombie onslaught. Columbus is very neurotic and paranoid and while these traits ultimately helped him survive, he would be dead first in most zombie movies. Tallahassee is a bit of a rough-neck with a burning desire for Twinkies but little else driving him other than the his disd

We have a new site! Please go to the new and improved Movie Scum and watch Episode #8! Longer videos, now that they are not uploaded to YouTube! Please bear with us as we continue to make the site better and more user friendly. All new posts with be published on that site, and not this one.

This week's episode will be posted later tomorrow than usual. Sorry about that, but we will make sure it is worth the wait. In addition to that, we have a surprise coming...

I saw Mannequin in the theater. They are going to reboot this film. It better have Johnathan Silverman in it. For as you can see, the first one had Andrew McCarthy , and the second had Terry Kiser . So, in order to complete the Triumvirate, a reboot, remake or sequel, it must have Johnathan Silverman. Sadly, I do not think it will. Instead, it will apparently star Zac Efron . I assume that this will mean it will be some kind of gay musical, that pre-teens will rush to see. If it is, I demand that they use "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship , which basically melted the cheese that was the first film. If you haven't seen this movie, first, you should thank what ever deity you throw money at on your day of worship. Second, here's the basic story. Kim Cattrall is an ancient Egyptian who is cursed and turned in to a Mannequin and ends up in the future (1987) and can only come to life when Johnathan (coincidence?) Switcher is around. They work together to make

I was going to write a random review of Maniac Cop 2 , but I figured why bother? Most people probably have never even heard of it nor will ever see the series even though it features such talent as Bruce Campbell , Robert Davi , and Tom Atkins . As I previously noted , there is no North American DVD release which is rather bothersome considering the lesser-known DTV sequel Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence has a shiny disc dedicated to it. But in the end, this is not a good movie. It has its moments but here is hands-down the best sequence in the film. Now, I may get around to writing a full review but I would have to start with the first movie. Use this to tide you over in the meantime.

George Lucas' CG Fairy Musical Mystery: Our Theories Will someone please take George Lucas' power and money away? For the sake for all that is holy ... OMFG #2: Lionsgate Throws Violent Blow at Paramount: 'Saw' vs 'Paranormal Activity'... IT'S ON! With the whole Leno/Conan thing out of the way, its time for Paramount and Lionsgate to battle via their competing horror franchises as well as torn directors. The Sam Worthington Project Du Jour Is...DRACULA?? Sam Worthington as a vampire that actually kills people and who doesn't sparkle or mope. This could be a good thing. DreamWorks to Show How Babies Eat, Sleep, Poop More proof that Hollywood is plumb out of ideas. Here Come More GREMLINS!? I'm not sure what upsets me more: there will be another Gremlins movie or that it will be needlessly in 3D.

Now, there are not very many details at this point so it is possible that this is just an empty threat from Hollywood, but Moviehole states Bernie Lomax may be resurrected to then die and pretend to be alive in a remake to PBF's beloved ultimate comfort movie Weekend at Bernie's . Could this be the chance for Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman to relive their fame and recover their fortune from the original film? Or will we have to suffer with actors lacking in the charisma to pull off the absurd plot of the film? So many questions, so little answers. Perhaps there can be a double feature between this and the remake of Mannequin as two movies which shouldn't have been made the first time, let alone remade.

As you might have already heard, Avatar has smashed box office records, overtaking Titanic with a current worldwide gross of $1.8 billion as of this post. As it currently enjoys an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the perceived experience of seeing Avatar in an 3D screening has seemingly overpowered some of the reported flaws of the film. Even if you actively try, you won't get far on any movie site or blog without mention of the film. I even sat through a 43 minute promotion of the film on Bones , one of my favorite television shows. Yet, in spite of the good reviews and constant promotion, I have no desire to see it. Now, I can understand its importance in the film-making industry both in critical terms and in the pop culture zeitgeist. James Cameron is an excellent director who has managed to again create a film that is appealing to many demographics of movie-goers, making the film a must-see just to be current with the times. His use of the 3D effects to create the ficti

Adam Green sure has been busy lately between the premiere of his newest film Frozen at Sundance this week as well as wrapping up filming of Hatchet 2 , the sequel of today's random entry. When Hatchet first surfaced a few years ago, the biggest draw for me was the marketing for the film as a sort of callback to old-school 80s horror movies. No one (at least no one who is a friend of mine) can argue the greatness of all the cheesy, splatter-filled slasher movies of the 80s. In this manner, Hatchet somewhat succeeds as a "lost movie" from the bygone pinnacle of slasher flicks. In the film, our heroes' venture out into a Louisiana swamp for a scary boat ride turns frighteningly real after running across Victor Crowley, a local legend who tragically died as a boy and now seeks to apparently create a bunch of amputees. The basic plot, and even backstory of Crowley, seems largely cribbed from the sub-genre classics with a deformed kid who is bullied constantly and dies

As PBF is taking an Amish vacation for the next thirteen hours, allow me to present to you this week's episode of Movie Scum with Dana Carvey.

The mid-nineties were an interesting time to be a horror fan. Since the old franchise favorites of Freddy and Jason were long gone with Michael Myers soon following, they were replaced by direct-to-video nonsense and faux-horror such as Hideaway or The Island of Dr. Moreau . Then came along Kevin Williamson , a guy who could write a decent screenplay full of homages to past genre staples complete with clever dialogue. After exploding in Hollywood with Scream , Williamson took his talents and tweeked them over and over, resulting in films like The Faculty . At its core, this should not be a good movie. It was stacked with current and future WB and pop culture stars, featured established actors for a bit of gravitas, and almost blatantly ripped off countless other alien invasion films from many decades before. Add to this formula a fairly well established director , an eclectic mix of music, and a corporate sponsorship with accompanying commercials, you've got yourself a blockbust

A few episodes ago on the awesome Movie Scum video series we discussed anti-feel-good movies. One of the films that came up was the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead where I pretty much gave away the ending, saying "Sorry if you haven't seen it, the movie's been out for five years." While we typically try to avoid important plot developments in the reviews that we write, shouldn't there be an agreed upon statute of limitations for what is considered a spoiler? While I was stalking the message boards for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 , one of the posts was about the death of a fairly important character to the franchise. Admittedly, this character's name was in the title of the post but one of the responses left me absolutely baffled. Usually such a post would contain the word SPOILER in the title, so as not to give the plot away for people who have not yet seen the movie, like me.... Now, ignoring the fact that the movie is over twenty years old at this point,

Ever since Mystery Science Theater 3000 made a triumphant return , I have been devouring as many episodes as I can stand. Last night, I indulged in a hapless film about a werewolf, quite originally titled Werewolf , and saw a quasi-familiar name pop up in the opening credits: Joe Estevez . As Mike and the 'bots made a quip about Charlie's uncle being the biggest star in the film, I thought it was just an odd coincidence, not knowing there is an untapped wealth of Estevezes lurking around Hollywood. In Joe's case, I was astonished that he has been featured in close to two hundred films and none of which I have ever seen or even heard of. In fact, the only recognizable title on his resume was Apocolyse Now where he did uncredited voice-over work. I guess just like any other family, you have those with talent and achievement and others who get parts because they look like a haggard Martin Sheen at a fraction of the cost. Its sad that Joe has remained off the radar for th