Category: Home Video

Troll 2 is one of those amazingly bad movies that it is so impossible to believe it got made and released.  It is defiantly one of the worst movies of all time, and one of those rare treats that is so bad that it is good, especially when watched with a good group of friends.  It was released in 1990 and directed by Claudio Fragasso.

The story is about a family that decides to go to a farming town Nilbog (goblin backwards) for vacation, only to find that the place is full of goblins, and that the goblins are vegetarians so the people have to eat some green stuff to turn in to plants so the goblins can eat them.  Oh yes, and the son Joshua is haunted by his grandfather, who for some reason knows everything about goblins, and thus can help his grandson out.  Notice I did not type the word “Troll” at any point because there are none in this movie, and it has nothing to do with Troll 1.

The goblins are supposed to be scary, but it seems that in most situations they pose no threat to anyone because they are slow and only have spears that they can throw at people, but they only do that once, and I would remiss if I did not mention that there is a scene in which two people make out with a piece of corn between them and it turns in to popcorn, yes that happens.

The fact that a studio paid someone to make this movie boggles my mind, at least with Manos: The Hands of Fate it was just a bunch of people getting together to make a movie, and then realizing that was something they did not know how to do, but with this it was supposedly made by professionals, and had real funding.  Not a lot probably, but more than the bologna sandwich that saves the young boy at the end of this film.

Rarely do movies like this see the light of day, and if they do get published they land on the direct to video isle, or stuck on late night TV as a joke, but every once and awhile a movie this bad reaches the public at large and it is hilarious.

With Brad Pitt’s new zombie movie doing well in theaters I thought I would watch one of my favorites zombie movies Zombieland.  It came out in 2009 and it was directed by Ruben Fleischer, and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. I love this movie because it adds some humor to the zombie lore.

The movie follows Jesse Eisenberg’s character as he at first is trying to get to Columbus, and is so named for the rest of the movie, but he soon meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and he decides to follow them.  He has survived the zombie apocalypse by living by thirty-two simple rules that will flash up on the screen when his life is being saved by them or someone is dying because they didn’t follow them.

This doesn’t sound like a funny setup to a movie, but the humor comes from them not trusting each other, and the crazy things they do with and too the zombies.  Plus since these characters have lived so long with zombies, the undead don’t pose a huge threat to them until they are cornered.

The actors all do their jobs well.  Woody Harrelson plays a man who has lost everything, so he has decided to destroy the zombies with glee.  Jesse Eisenberg’s has never trusted people so not trusting zombies comes naturally, and Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin play two sisters that are just looking out for each other.

The special effects in this movie are great too.  The zombies look like zombies and they are satisfyingly gruesome, and they explode wonderfully when hit by bullets.  They must have used a ton of cornstarch in this movie, but that is the way it should be, and Columbus’ rules are always popping up at the perfect times for maximum humorous effect.

This movie makes me laugh the whole way through, but they made the characters lovable, so you actually care if they survive or not.  If you are looking for a great movie that provides tons of laughs and a couple scares then look no further than Zombieland.

The Muppets came out in 2011 and it was their first big screen movie since 1999’s Muppets from Space.  It was written by Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller, and directed by James Bobin.  It was the first Muppet movie to win an Academy Award for Best Song for “Man or Muppet” written by Bret McKenzie.  It is an all around fantastic film.

The movie starts off with a boy named Walter, who looks like a Muppet, talking about growing up and how The Muppet Show made him feel like he fit in, so when he, his brother Gary (Jason Segal), and Gary’s long time girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) go LA, they go to visit Muppet studios, but to their dismay it is run down and being sold to an oil baron (Chris Cooper), and of course the only way to save the studio is get the gang back together and put on a show.

The plot is simple and predictable, but The Muppets bring such charm and pizzazz to everything they do you don’t really care.  Some people also like to point out that this movie can be more about Walter and Gary, both Jason Segal creations, than The Muppets proper, but since Jason Segal petitioned to Disney to save The Muppets from obscurity, I am good with a little self indulgence on his part.

I also like how this movie seems to understand that The Muppets are from a different time, so a lot of the jokes are based around the fact The Muppets may not be relevant anymore, but luckily this movie proved them wrong and was a success so we are getting another Muppet movie next year.

The song and dance numbers are great, so at least Segal and McKenzie know how to stage a good musical, and just like any good Muppet movie it is jam packed with surprise star cameos..

I love The Muppets and I loved this movie.  It may not be the most gripping or belly laugh funny movie ever, but I almost never stopped smiling while I was watching it, and in my book that is high praise.

I was on a nostalgia kick and I saw Caddyshack II on HBO Go, and I thought to myself, “Hey Caddyshack is funny and I have never seen two, so why not?”  I should have punched myself in the brain.  This movie is bad.

Caddyshack II is obviously the follow up to the classic Caddyshack.  It came out eight years after the first movie, and it features almost none of the original cast except for Chevy Chase.  It was nominated for four Golden Raspberries and it won two: Worst Supporting Actor for Dan Aykroyd, and Worst Original Song for Jack Fresh.  I can’t believe that I made it through the entire movie.

The story still takes place at Bushwood Country Club, and the gopher is in it, but he has now been upgraded to a major character.  Since Rodney Dangerfield refused to be in it after he read the script he was replaced by Jackie Mason, and it was not an upgrade.  He is trying to join the country club for his daughter who likes to play golf, but the snobby members of the club will not let him in because he is building low income housing near the nice part of town.  This causes apparent zany antics to ensue (or maybe not so apparent).

This is one of those movies that is amazing it ever got a major release.  If the script is so bad Dangerfield will not be in it, you know you are making train wreck, and sadly not even the entertaining kind.  On Chase’s last day of shooting he supposedly told the director Allan Arkush to call him when they were going to add the laugh track.

Speaking of Chase, he is in this movie for like five minutes total, and they are by far the best five minutes of the movie.  That man is a gifted comedian, but still there are another ninety-five minutes of movie to sit through.

You would think that Dan Aykroyd would be decent replacement for Bill Murray, not as good perhaps, but he as made some very funny moves, but they gave him nothing to do in this movie.  He just talks weird and bumbles in the least funny manner, and yet we were supposed to believe that he used to be Special Forces, and that as a Special Forces member his plan to kill someone would involve driving a golf ball through their head, and yes I do mean drive as in hit a ball with a driver and aim for their head.

For all those fill makers out their that are planning sequels, and that is a lot of you.  You should not make it if your biggest returning star is barley in the movie, so the real returning star is a gopher puppet.  It will not work.  As for the rest of you, do not see this movie.  I know this warning may have come twenty-five years too late, but if I save just one I will have done my job.