Everybody Wants Some!! is a fantastic film that in a perfect world will make more money than Deadpool and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice combined. The film takes place in 1980, and tells the story of a team of baseball players hanging out before the fall semester starts at their Texas college. It is the rare movie that builds three-dimensional characters while being rowdy, intelligent and funny. You will laugh constantly and enjoy the three days we get to spend with the baseball players.
Between Bernie, School of Rock, Waking Life, Boyhood, Slacker, Dazed and Confused and the Before Trilogy, Linklater has proven himself to be a national treasure. His films are full of great dialogue, interesting worlds and realistic characters. Linklater knows how to balance character with story, and I love how he avoids “plot” at all costs.
Everybody Wants Some!! initially appears aimless and plot free. However, much like Dazed and Confused it stays patient and creates a world loaded with cool stories and memorable moments. It takes a lot of confidence to direct in this non-traditional style and Linklater excels at it.
Richard Linklater utilizes walking perfectly. Walking can lead to some great places.
I’ve read some articles that focus on the “bros” of Everybody Wants Some!!. The reviews focus solely on past experiences and reasons for hating the movie. The reviews have called the characters “bullies” and have completely missed the point of the film. They don’t understand that Linklater is using a baseball team to speak universally about different characters that inhabit our daily life.
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What I love about Everybody Wants Some!! is how it takes a team of baseball players and turns them into fully-formed characters. Each of the players have their own stories, and I love how they are always competing and hanging out. Their adventures take them all over the town and prove that everybody can get along. If you can put aside your preconceived notions, I guarantee you will love Everybody Wants Some!!
Richard Linklater has a knack for casting perfectly and you can tell time was spent rounding up the perfect crew. Everybody Wants Some!! is a true ensemble piece, and the actors do a great job hitting home runs whenever they are asked to deliver. Glen Powell’s (Scream Queens, Expendables 3) character Finnegan steals the show. Powell delivers Linklater’s lines perfectly and his character is the kind of guy who would fit in anywhere. The dude has a great mustache, and I think he will be the breakout star of this film.
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In the midst of the all partying and drinking there is neat romance. I was amazed how organically it fit in the story. The credit goes to Linklater’s writing and Zoey Deutch’s (Vampire Academy) performance. Deutch got some big laughs at the screening I was at, and I was really happy to see that her character wasn’t shoehorned in to add a female presence. her character Beverly feels like she belongs, and you totally understand why people would like her.
Her encounters with Blake Jenner’s character Jake are a nice break from the binge drinking. The two form a neat bond that focuses on them being genuinely nice people. I really enjoyed their quiet moments together, and was 100% shipping (yeah, I said it) their relationship.
Everybody Wants Some!! is bound to become a cult classic and I hope the general populace embraces it. What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments.
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ANIME: Vampire Hunter D (1985), Dungeons and Dragons meets Castlevania in this great dark fantasy adventure.
MY CALL: Dungeons and Dragons meets Castlevania in this great dark fantasy adventure featuring demons, vampires, mutants, cyborgs, castle lairs and magical items. If you like Anime or dark fantasy you should probably see this. MORE MOVIES LIKE Vampire Hunter D: Of course Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) and the rumored upcoming TV series Vampire Hunter D: Resurrection. Then perhaps Demon City Shinjuku (1988), Bio Hunter (1995), Wicked City (1987), Ninja Scroll (1993), Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990 mini-series), and maybe such fantasy as The Dark Crystal (1988), Willow (1982) and Legend (1985).
The future is populated by demons and mutants, dinosaurs and werewolves, and all manner of supernatural creatures and mystical magical items with unexplained names like “the time-bewitching incense.” Sounds like a dream to any Dungeons and Dragons fan, if you ask me. And that’s exactly what I am!
Not at all as perverse or provocative as its unrelated successor Wicked City (1987), Vampire Hunter D (1985) features nothing more risqué than a few boob shots and some frequent panty glances of our strong protagonist Doris.
She can hold her own and handles a whip pretty well, but having been bitten by the 10,000-year old Count (Dracula), she hires D–a wispy and mysterious hunter, riding atop his fiendishly horned cybernetic horse.
The Dhampir offspring of a vampire and a human (like Blade), D is a most formidable swordsman bearing an antagonistic face that never shuts up on his right hand and the ability to regenerate. His eyes glow when we embraces his true nature.
Defending Doris from the romantic interests of the noble vampiric Count, D combats his mutant servants imbued with all manner of time-space-bending and magical powers. One particularly weird henchman emits spiders from him porous hunchback–yuck.
In his Castlevania meets classic Dungeons and Dragons dungeon crawl he faces the shape-shifting life-draining lamia (which strike me more as a mix of sirens and naga), traps, ghosts, a witch, a pterodactyl man, a giant, and ultimately the revered noble vampire. It’s a fun mix of enemies.
The Count possesses a most powerful telekinesis which contributes some festive gore, complete with dismemberment, blood geysers, eyeball gauges and an exploding head. All in an effort to prevent the Count from forcibly wedding Doris in his gigantic castle attended by all manner of hooded minion monks.
As the story progresses we learn that D is more powerful and more important than he lets on, but even by the end some mysteries remain as he exits to parts unknown, much as he arrived. Perhaps these are mysteries answered in the Manga books.
This movie was a blast when I was a kid and still maintains its entertainment value today. It reminds me of my Dungeons and Dragons days in the best way.
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Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak is a beautifully filmed Gothic romance that is bound to become a cult-classic and give the world an interesting case study in marketing. Why will it become a cult classic and be studied for years to come? It is an R-rated, $55 million Gothic romance that sunk at the international box office ($70 million), and the majority of the blame has been pointed at its inaccurate marketing. However, The market nowadays for sumptuous R-rated Gothic romances isn’t booming, so the marketers had a quandary on their hands. They could’ve marketed it as a “beautifully filmed Gothic romance,” or simply called it a “horror” film and hoped the opening weekend was huge. They went with the horror marketing, the film flopped and many people are annoyed.
Crimson Peak was never going to be an initial success. You can be annoyed at this statement, but once you take off your “del Toro” blinders you begin to realize how different and off-trend this film really is. How often do we get an A-list (Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska) cast appearing in a Gothic romance/ghost story that gets really gory at times? The marketing wasn’t going to help Crimson Peak because horror hounds would complain that it wasn’t a “horror” flick, and lovers of “romantic” films would be turned off by the ghosts and gore. I loved the film, and thought it was beautiful to look at, but ultimately I didn’t know who it was for.
Crimson Peak tells the tale of Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) a recently married woman who moves to England to live in her husband Thomas’ (Tom Hiddleston) vast and old estate named Crimson Peak. From there things gets suitably creepy as we are introduced to oozing red clay, several ghosts and Jessica Chastain beautifully chewing scenery. The film is brilliantly shot, incredibly sumptuous and crazy ambitious. In an interview with The Wrap director Guillermo del Toro talked about his massive set:
The house was 100 percent built, from the cellar to the top floor. We built in the largest soundstage in North America. We built a working elevator, working tap water, working fireplaces. It took about seven months to layer it on paper and about six or seven months to build it physically. Every day I would supervise the paint job, the woodwork, the arranging, the decorating. It was truly a titanic labor.
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If you’ve been a fan of director Guillermo del Toro for sometime you know his films are really hard to place in a box. Whether it be Kronos, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade 2, Pacific Rim or The Devil’s Backbone the world never knows what they are going to get. Will it be the best “horror” film of the 21st century or will it be an incredibly dumb movie about robots punching monsters? Del Toro has a tendency to do what he wants (which is great) and build incredibly intricate worlds/sets that his core audience loves. However, the mainstream only mildly embrace the magic, and this leaves del Toro’s films to scratch and claw at the box office. To be a Del Toro fan you need to embrace the roller coaster and trust that he doesn’t follow trends.
Here is a little fact that will annoy you:
Jurassic World’s domestic haul ($652, 270,625) > All of Guillermo dl Toro’s films combined ($541,276,500)
I love this shot. Best hair of 2015
Crimson Peak will find its audience eventually, but I wouldn’t blame the marketing on the box office failure. Marketing campaigns have been wrong before, but I 100% believe they had no idea what do to with this interesting ghost story. I am really happy that del Toro continues to make movies and I hope he will go back to the low-budget beauties that he told early on. He could avoid studio meddling and make the films he wants to make. He doesn’t need massive sets and CGI, he needs to tell a story uninterrupted by external forces.
What did you think about Crimson Peak?
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MY CALL: The Devil’s Sword is no obvious knock off–it’s somewhat original in its own insane little microcosm. But it should be considered with caution when making a serious (or completely unserious) choice in whether or not to watch it. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Devil’s Sword: Do you like this 80s fantasy badness? How about Flash Gordon (1980), Sorceress (1982), Kull the Conqueror (1997), Krull (1983), Conquest (1983), Deathstalker (1983), The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987). All of these movies are better than Barbarian Queen (1985) in every possible way except for amply breast-filled minutes of screen time. Like all the fantasy but don’t care for all the “bad”? Let’s try Legend (1985), Beastmaster (1982), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984) or Willow (1988) on for size.
Little in this world is more other-worldly than foreign sword and sorcery films. Don’t believe me? Watch Conquest (1983), Lucio Fulci’s Italian lunacy. But for now let’s focus on southeast Asia…
A meteor crashes to Earth near some sort of elderly Zen monk dude, who then uses its ore to forge a sword–called the “Devil’s Sword” for probably no other reason than a poor translation to English. Because why not, right?
Biggest sheath EVER!
We are then introduced to the Invisible Queen who, after the butt-naked sacrifice of a young Indonesian warrior, becomes renamed the Crocodile Queen for the remainder of the movie and summons a harem of men for a public make-out session to appease her carnal desires (which apparently require no nudity). At this point you’re already thinking “this makes no sense.” Trust me, I know. There was no better way to explain the story so far.
See, “now” she’s no longer invisible…ergo, “Crocodile Queen.”
But she’s more like a Crocodile Slut.
And she has “fire sex”…fully clothed…with no mouth kissing.
At first the plot seems to be about combating this Crocodile Queen’s lust for male sacrifices, but then we steer in the direction of insurrection among her assassins who are all willing to kill whomever they must (including each other) to claim the “other” Devil’s Sword and rule all of the warriors of the world. So we saw an old guy forge one…but now all the sudden we are to understand there are two? Sure. WTF do I have to lose.
The action in this fantasy/martial arts movie is insane and abundant–and abundantly insane. It’s a combination of classic kung fu theater and horrible knockoff Hong Kong cinema.
We have long fight clips with choppy choreography–some of it lame and simple, some of it technically cool, but none of it matching the modern technically sound work of Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, Furious 7), Scott Adkins (El Gringo, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) or Iko Uwais (The Raid: Redemption, Merantau). It smacks a dash of Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki (1991)…not to the same slapstick level, but with several severed heads rifling through the air and Dragonball-kicking a boulder and then “riding” it to your destination does give it quite a cartoon feel.
Is that a Flying Nimbus!?!?!
One of these movie posters gives a much more honest representation of the movie than the other. Take a gander at the images below and you tell me which one is more accurate.
Worst Cyclops ever.
Complementing the lunacy are scenes of summoning crocodile men from the earth who teleport-hop all over the place, surgical amputations, a lame cannibal pit, warriors burrowing in the sand like Tremors (1990), water crocodile warriors, an undead boatman, a dungeons and dragons lair complete with booby traps and secret doors, the worst ever Cyclops monster and laser beams. Yes, I said laser beams! Complete lunacy!
Director Ratno Timoer would later go on to do Revenge of the Ninja (1984), not to be confused with the “other” famous B-movie Revenge of the Ninja (1983). In other words, you probably haven’t heard of the cheap knock off he directed. And while Devil’s Sword is no obvious knock off–it’s somewhat original in its own insane little microcosm– it’s to be treated as one when making a serious (or completely unserious) choice in whether or not to watch it.
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In honor of March Madness, I’ve pulled together the greatest/worst cinematic basketball team ever. This grouping of random characters may not win many games, but they will certainly entertain. I’ve stayed away from the obvious picks (White Men Can’t Jump, Blue Chips, Glory Road, Teen Wolf, Above the Rim, Rebound, Semi-Pro, White Men Can’t Jump, Love & Basketball, Hoosiers) and instead pulled together a hodgepodge of well-meaning folks who make games very entertaining.
Every team needs Bill Murray
If I had to build a team that would never lose here are my picks. These five would destroy everyone, and probably wreck many stadiums and basketball courts. Here is the dream team before the real team.
- The Huge Troll – Trollhunter
- Groot – Guardians of the Galaxy
- Sue Storm – Fantastic Four
- Dr. Octopus – Spider-Man 2
- David Rice – Jumper
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Here is the greatest/worst basketball team I could come up with. Make sure to listen to our recent podcast where we drafted the oddest basketball team ever!
Herman Blume – Rushmore
Herman Blume is a master of blocking shots, and his playground game is strong. The dude is laid-back, and has no problem getting his hands dirty when he is angry. Nobody would ever dare drive on him because they know their shot will be blocked.
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Elliot – Bedazzled
Elliot is a basketball monster who lacks intelligence but has a killer instinct. He dunks, assists, blocks and gets rebounds with ease. The only problem is he got his powers from the Devil. This could be a good or bad thing.
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Ripley – Alien Resurrection
Ripley doesn’t even need to look at the basketball hoop to make a shot. She can dunk, block and I guarantee she isn’t afraid of anything on the court. Ripley will outlast everyone on the court.
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Jake – He Got Game
I just want to see Denzel Washington’s character intimidating everyone on the court. Jake is a great character and I love He Got Game.
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Snake Plissken – Escape From L.A.
The guy can hit shots from anywhere while accomplishing the impossible. Snake was set up to fail in Escape From L.A., and he ended up draining five beautiful baskets. The guy can do anything.
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Sandy Lyle – Along Came Polly
Let it rain! Sandy Lyle is extremely confident on the court and nothing fazes him. Despite his lack of athleticism and speed, he is a human bulldozer who loves the game.
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The Cable Guy – The Cable Guy
The Cable Guy is the perfect enforcer for your team . He scraps, hurts and looks great in short shorts. When you need to take out the star on the other squad, send him in.
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Samantha Pringle – Deadly Friend
I don’t know how great she is at basketball, but, I know she is deadly with a ball. Nobody will want to mess with her because they don’t want their heads exploded (which isn’t legal, but she doesn’t care).
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Bill Murray – Space Jam
Bill Murray is the perfect substitute to get your team back in the game. He has no problem going against giant aliens and dishing beautiful assists. Just don’t mess with his trousers.
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Ben Manibag – Better Luck Tomorrow
He lacks raw talent, but he can go 100% on the free-throw line. You need that in the clutch. The guy is so driven he will practice constantly and push others to succeed. Watch Better Luck Tomorrow!
Ben is on the right. Dude nails free throws
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Fletch – Fletch
Chevy Chase is a tall guy. He could find some minutes on any squad (in his dreams). I miss awesome Chevy Chase.
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Ernest – Ernest Slam Dunk
Every team needs a lovable loser with magic shoes. Ernest is a lovable loser who has magic shoes. Ernest Scared Stupid will always be my favorite Ernest film, but I’ve always been fond of a grimacing Ernest dunking basketballs.
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Hedges – Blade: Trinity
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Patton Oswalt is very aware that he is not a good basketball player. However, his character in Blade: Trinity is a dunking machine. He dunks over much larger competition and makes it look really easy. The basketball isn’t pretty, but the dunking is stellar. Oswalt still tweets about it.
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Who would you add to the basketball team?
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #52: Drafting the Perfect Cinematic Basketball Team
Hello all. Mark here.
You can stream the pod on Blog Talk Radio or download it from Itunes. If you get a chance please rate and review the pod! You are awesome! Also, if you have any random questions for the pod make sure to leave them in the comments section.
The MFF podcast is back and we are drafting the most random basketball squad ever! I recently compiled a very weird cinematic basketball squad, and the discussions surrounding the picks proved to be so fun we created the ultimate MFF team on the pod.
Bill Murray in Rushmore is the perfect power forward.
The MFF basketball squad might not win many games, but it will certainly entertain! Where else will you find Patton Oswalt, Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Fraser joined together? You will love hearing about the random players and you will be drawn to tears when Jumper’s Hayden Christensen doesn’t make the squad (I almost lost it).
Ripley will outlast everyone on the court.
As always, we answer random questions and ponder why everyone loves Gollum. Sit back, relax and listen to a whole lot of basketball randomness.
You can stream the pod on Blog Talk Radio or download it from Itunes. If you get a chance please rate the review the pod. You are awesome!
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MY CALL: Insufferable boredom! This movie sucked my soul in the worst way. Don’t watch it. MORE MOVIES LIKE Girlfriend from Hell: Instead of this you should watch Night of the Demons 1-3 (1988-1997), The Hazing (2004), Night Angel (1990), Def by Temptation (1990) and the Puppet Master 1-5 (1989-1994). All have their share of sexualized death scenes without getting uncomfortably perverted, much better effects, some dirty humor, better acting/writing…better everything!
This movie is awful…maybe even annoyingly awful to the point that I’m upset to be watching it alone and without the luxury of a beer buzz. It opens on some other planet where a guy with a laser gun is hunting some glowing ball of energy that is apparently his girlfriend. This evil ball of energy then beams through space to Earth and possesses the extremely awkward twenty-something Maggie (Liane Curtis; Critters 2) who was set up on a date with the equally awkward Carl (Anthony Barrile; Friday the 13th: A New Beginning). Somehow her interstellar boyfriend follows her to Earth and the hunt continues much to our insufferable boredom.
Just a fair warning, the lameness of the images in this review very accurately represent the quality of this movie.
Now hiding in Maggie’s body, the entity magically gives her a hot makeover. Among her misbehaving we learn that she is the Devil (and not a space alien) and she starts killing the men at a birthday party with fully clothed, lame, soul-sucking sex sessions.
A series of absurd things happen but it’s never really even funny. It’s just unendurable sad. I didn’t even enjoy one scene–and I was trying so hard to like this. On a side note, this movie would have been way better if they had cast Jennifer Tilly as Maggie.
Everything about this movie is terrible. The acting seems unrehearsed and performed in single takes by amateurs, the writing is lobotomizingly inane and often featuring painfully long-winded exposition, and the story and editing are so choppy we never have a solid understanding of what’s going on. Watch out for James Karen (The Unborn, Poltergeist) giving his worst performance ever as Carl’s dad. Such a shame that this film even corrupted the likes of him.
I love some pretty terrible movies, but this one was especially hard to watch. I had to watch it across two different days to avoid getting irritated. It offers so little. There’s nothing really provocative. No blood, no sex scenes (but one annoying scene with nudity), and the special effects were limited to some life-drained corpses, crackling magical electricity and laser beams.
Evidently they couldn’t convince any of the cast to take of their tops and bare their breasts. So they added this completely random scene in a strip club just so the movie would have nudity. We needlessly find ourselves here when the protagonist “teleports” and “time travels” to this sleazy locale.
This movie sucked my soul in the worst way. Don’t watch it.
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Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is an ambitious failure. It juggles way too many subplots while never focusing on what people wanted to see (Batman vs. Superman). I knew a battle between Batman and Superman wouldn’t work, but, I never expected it be an afterthought. Director Zack Snyder loaded BvS with so many “ideas” and themes that he completely lost his characters in the self-serious muck. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is not about Superman and Batman, it is about Zack Snyder and DC piling too much on their plates.
I was going to give a full rundown of the convoluted plot, but it would’ve been a never-ending sequence of “and then” statements. So, in order to save time here is the abbreviated plot breakdown. BvS focuses on Batman being annoyed at Superman, “and then” they have to deal with lex Luthor and an Orc from The Lord of the Rings. During the 150-minute run time we get a lot of shallow/generalized statements, angry politicians and Ben Affleck showing off his pull-up skills. There are no three-dimensional characters because Snyder boils them down to “ideas” to further his self-serious agenda.
Aside from crushing some pull-ups Ben Affleck’s Batman is only allowed to look angry and glower a lot. He is a cranky guy who has a short memory, and comes across as self-righteous because of his anger at Superman. Superman (Henry Cavill) is an afterthought, and that hurt my soul, because Cavill has never been given a chance to do anything other than look glum. My favorite scenes were the little moments between Superman and Lois Lane (Amy Adams). Amy Adams and Henry Cavill have solid chemistry and their three laid-back minutes together are the heart of the film.
Cavill and Adams are really good together
I don’t want to spoil anything because there are a decent amount of “surprises”. There is a lot going on in BvS and Snyder deserves credit for setting up about eight sequels with limited time. I am excited for The Justice League movie because I like the cast (Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa) and thought Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman was the best part about BvS. Gadot seemed to be having fun, and the crowd in the theater came alive when she entered the final battle (for a couple reasons). Her performance is a breath of fresh air because she is allowed to smile and have some fun while battling a massive CGI blob.
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BvS has already collected$468 million at the worldwide box office which is incredibly impressive considering it bombed with critics. If anything, this film will be remembered for the debate between critics and audiences. BvS has proven itself to be critic-proof, but I wonder how the terrible word-of-mouth will affect future DC films.
Zack Snyder tried to do something different with BvS, but his “big ideas” got swallowed up in a film that had too much going on. Thus, every aspect of BvS became generalized and two-dimensional. I’m hoping he allows The Justice League to be about the beloved characters and not himself.
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John’s Horror Corner: Leprechaun (1993), the wonderful 90s badness that only an evil Warwick Davis can provide.
MY CALL: Let’s be clear. This comical horror movie is haphazardly stupid. But it’s the kind of stupid that’s sort of awesome…if you’re into that kind of thing. And, by the way, this was Jennifer Aniston’s first lead role in a theatrical release movie! MORE MOVIES LIKE Leprechaun: There are loads of sequels taking Warwick Davis from “da hood” to outer space. But whatever you do, don’t watch Leprechaun: Origins (2014)–terrible even for a direct-to-DVD B-movie.
I felt exactly like this after watching the 2014 reboot.
Having recently suffered through the seemingly completely unrelated and failed reboot Leprechaun: Origins (2014), I felt the need to go back and revisit this old clutch favorite.
This classic bad horror movie opens with such a pleasantly bad 90s feel as, in the very first scene mind you, we meet our Leprechaun (Warwick Davis; Willow, the Harry Potter series) coveting his pot of gold and gleefully chanting murderous limericks about those who would steal from him, all the while wearing the classic Leprechaun trappings of gold-buckled shoes and a hatted green suit. Like an R-rated children’s show, he narrates his malevolent intentions and giggles and scurries around, often toying with his victims.
Cut to more comical 90s badness, an Irishman polishes off an entire bottle of Irish whiskey before drunkenly brandishing some stolen gold before his doubtful wife. Can anyone guess who the Leprechaun’s first victims will be??? The bad-o-meter starts reading pretty high when the drunkard brandishes a four-leaf clover to rebuke the mythological creature much as an old priest and a young priest would to ward off the demon Pazuzu.
All this fun, bad, awesomeness transpires in the first 10 minutes, so right off the bat I’m going to recommend this to anyone who enjoys some bad 80s or 90s horror. But on with the review!
Our cliché Valley girl Tory (Jennifer Aniston; Horrible Bosses) is reluctantly visiting her father (John Sanderford; Firestarter, The Alchemist) for the summer at his South Dakota home where the drunk Irishman had imprisoned the Leprechaun years ago in the basement.
Helping to renovate the house is a simple-minded manchild (Mark Holton; Teen Wolf) with a penchant for telling unbelievable tall tales. So naturally, when he sees the evil leprechaun no one believes him.
The acting and writing aren’t good, but they aren’t unforgivably awful either. In fact, I find the lines to be quite entertaining most of the time. But what really makes this movie work is the over-the-top performance of Warwick Davis as the monster of folklore. He maniacally laughs and does ridiculous things like death by pogo-stick, speeding in a kid’s Powerwheels car, and compulsively shining dirty shoes. Adding to the haphazard badness is that he can magically teleport, but he never seems to use it in useful ways. Instead he chases people, regular-sized people, and somehow keeps up with them with those stumpy little legs.
The special effects are just okay in general, but the finale when they defeat the Leprechaun is deliciously slimy, gooey fun. There’s not a moment of scary in this movie, but giggles galore. This toes the line of a horror comedy.
They just don’t make’em like this any more, do they?
Let’s be clear. This movie is stupid. But it’s the kind of stupid that’s awesome…if you’re into that kind of thing. And, by the way, this was Jennifer Aniston’s first lead role in a theatrical release movie! So watch it! Then watch a couple sequels!
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John’s Horror Corner: Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker (2002), a decent direct-to-DVD horror film and an “okay” Hellraiser film.
MY CALL: Overall, I was pleased with this as a direct-to-DVD horror film, but maybe disappointed as a major Hellraiser fan. In either case, I’d still recommend it. But only AFTER seeing all of its predecessors in order. MORE MOVIES LIKE Hellseeker: Be sure to see Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) first, of course. Then maybe Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992) and Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996). Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) is more of a standalone film.
***************How it fits in the franchise***************
Directed by Rick Bota (Haven, Hellraiser VII-VIII), this sixth installment to the Hellraiser franchise follows in Inferno‘s (2000) footsteps by presenting another stand-alone story. Hellraiser was a dark chamber thriller fueled by lustful desire, Hellbound more of a curious exploration of Barker’s Hell-ish Labyrinth and his Cenobites, Hell on Earth was a troped-up action/horror movie chronicling Pinhead’s own escape from Hell, Bloodline was an anthology story illustrating the creation and lineage of the Puzzle Box, Inferno a crime thriller neatly packaged in the dark trappings of the Puzzle Box, and now we find yet another murder-mystery crime thriller. There is an admittedly significant drop in quality in the third and fourth films from the original two, and yet another such drop for the fifth and this sixth direct-to-video installments, but it remains comforting that we never seem to find the same story recycled and retold with different victims.
A major fault of Hell on Earth and Bloodline was the nuisance of over-exposition. I didn’t find that to be a problem here. But the most noticeable flaw was that this sixth franchise story is the first not to expand the Hellraiser mythology, rather operating on the same theme as Inferno. Whereas parts 1-4 revolve around the Box or Pinhead (Doug Bradley), parts 5-6 are illustrative of what experiences befall those damned souls who open the Box. As a result, we see much less of Pinhead and focus more on our curious and potentially damned soul. Trevor’s journey begins as a rational investigation fogged by amnesia, shifts to something supernatural and psychologically pervasive, and ultimately steers us into what feels like a surreal dreamscape of his life.
Parts 1-3 of this franchise should be watched in order. After seeing them, there seems to be no consequence to 4-6 out of order aside from the fact that Bloodline is much better than 5 or 6. This film is nothing special, nor is it even a “good” Hellraiser story. But I take it for what it is and appreciate of it what I can. I didn’t regret watching it.
***************Review***************
After suffering a car accident and losing his wife Kirsty (Ashley Laurence; Hellraiser I-II, Lurking Fear), Trevor (Dean Winters; John Wick) awakens in a hospital mostly amnesiac and, for what he can remember, his story strangely doesn’t match the police.
That’s right. Dean Winters is the Allstate Commercial guy.
As if a mix of post-traumatic stress and disorientation, flashbacks and hallucinations occur in the form of brutally macabre surgical scenes, fond memories of his wife, scenes of infidelity and nightmare-like fever dream sequences of vomiting live lampreys, brutal beatings, murder scenes and electrocutions.
Pleasure and lust have always had a place in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser canon but much as we saw in Inferno (2000), director Rick Bota (Haven, Hellraiser VII-VIII) takes a less inspired path to include such content in the form of affairs and intra-office trysts. It’s as if Trevor was being haunted by his mistresses although he has no memory of their exploits or drive to continue them. Voyeurism becomes a new theme as well, and long-drawn creep factors have been replaced by loud noisy jump scares that abound in the form of barking pitbulls and drowning specters in vending machines. None of them with any sense of context or build-up.
Our reintroduction to Pinhead (Doug Bradley; Exorcismus, Hellraiser I-V) is pretty fun. He emerges from an anatomy poster, pulls a pin from his head which elongates, and “acupunctures” his relaxed victim. It has an air of 90s badness to it, but 90s badness done right! And when Pinhead properly meets Trevor, the scene is a distinct throwback to the original Hellraiser (1987). Nice touch.
This sixth franchise installment links back directly to the original Hellraiser (1987) when we learn that Trevor, among his amnesia-lost past, had given a Puzzle Box to Kirsty as a gift.
And much like part 1, Kirsty makes a deal with Pinhead to spare her. Also borrowing the style of part 1 is that in this film we see much less of the Cenobites than we did in parts 2-5, making this more about Trevor’s journey of infernal self-discovery. We only find Pinhead, a brief appearance by Chatterbox, and his four new infernal monks –one with coils of wire, one plus-sized woman, one with flash stretched over its face, one without eyelids. Only two of them are named in IMDB as , Stitch and Bound. But the Cenobites seem to hardly matter in parts 5-6 outside of Pinhead himself. <<sigh>>
An unfortunate trend in this franchise is that the effects go from “Holy Shit Awesome” (for their 80s era and even today) in parts 1-2, to pretty good in 3-4, to typical direct-to-DVD in 5-6. But fret not, it’s all still quite entertaining and Pinhead’s tissue-rending hooked chains get their pound of flesh.
Overall, I was pleased with this film as a direct-to-DVD horror film, but maaaaybe a tad disappointed as a major Hellraiser fan. In either case, I’d still recommend it. But only AFTER seeing all of its predecessors in order (at least 1-4).
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