Pee Wee Herman

Pee Wee Herman is one of my favorite people in the world, because he's always been able to make me laugh.

Pee Wee's Playhouse

Summary:

Pee Wee's Playhouse is a kid's show (though it's really made for any age (because kids may not be able to understand some of the more adult jokes)). It involves some real people characters, several puppet characters, and some animated segments. Each episode is different, so any new viewers can jump in at any time. The only thing that is in each episode is the 'secret word.' Conky, the robot, would produce the secret word and everytime someone said that word, everyone in the show (and the viewer) would have to scream.

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Summary:
One day, Pee Wee's bike gets stolen, so he goes on an adventure to find it.

Review:
Pee Wee's Big Adventure, I think, was my first experience with Pee Wee. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking the part where he rescues the snakes was the funniest part. Re-watching it several years later, I find enjoyment in almost every part of the movie, especially the iconic Tequila dance (the picture above).
As a Pee Wee fan, I'd recommend: Pee Wee's Playhouse, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Pee Wee Herman Show, and The Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway to anyone who likes to laugh. The other movie he did, Big Top Pee Wee, is alright, but definitely not as good everything else (I think it's because it involves Pee Wee in a romantic relationship, which never seemed right to me, since he's like a man-child).

If there's anyone else who loves Pee Wee and hasn't already heard, he's supposedly making a new television series that's going to premiere next year! The details about it isn't clear (it might not be a continuation of Pee Wee's Playhouse), but honestly, I think anything involving Pee Wee Herman won't be a disappointment.

Dancer in the Dark

Summary:
Selma Jezkova, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, has an eyesight-losing disease, which her son has inherited. Keeping this a secret from everyone (including her son), she works more than one job, to save up enough money for surgery for her son. Her eyesight gets worse and worse, until she is finally blind. Content with the amount of money she saved while she still had her eyesight and was able to work, she decides to pay for her son's surgery. Unfortunately, she finds that her money was stolen by her landlord, who is afraid his wife will leave him now that he has no money. Selma is forced to kill him to get her money back, and quickly goes to pay for her son's operation. She is later arrested and sentenced to death.

Review:
I don't normally like sad films, but I decided to watch this movie, because one of my favorite singers (Bjork) was the lead actress. It is a fantastic film, with great acting and music (since it's a musical). Having listened to the soundtrack before watching the film, I knew what I was getting into, but I didn't know it would be so sad. I'd recommend this film to anyone (as long as you don't mind the pit that will open in your heart, leaving you wallowing in sadness for a while--but really, it's a beautiful movie).

The Monkees

Summary:
Basically, it's one of those shows where you can watch any episode and you'll understand everything. The Monkees are a band with 4 members, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz. Each episode has them getting into some kind of trouble due to their antics and quickly solving the problem (often involving one or more of their songs).

Review:
I just started watching The Monkees recently, and quickly fell in love with the show. All the shows that I normally watch aren't on now, so I've just been watching reruns of old tv shows. The Monkees appealed to me, however, because it's a fun show with really good music (and it kind of reminds me of the Archie comics).
If anybody is in need of entertainment, I'd highly recommend The Monkees.

Drop Dead Fred

Summary:
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cronin is a repressed woman. As a child her life was controlled by her mother, then by her husband. When her husband dumps her, her life is once again in the hands of her mother. While all of this is happening, however, her childhood imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred, returns to help her find happiness and acceptance within herself.

Review:
Drop Dead Fred is a fantastically funny movie. It has some of the funniest scenes I've seen in a movie; my favorite taking place in a restaurant. This film, however, is not all laughs. I don't like when female characters, like Lizzie, have no control over their lives. So, I enjoyed seeing her journey from needing someone in her life to see her value, to seeing the value in herself. Rik Mayall (Drop Dead Fred) is, of course, his usual hilarious self. For anyone looking to see more of his antics, I'd recommend the series The Young Ones and Bottom.

I heard that there might be a remake of Drop Dead Fred with Russell Brand in the role of Drop Dead Fred. I hate how so many movies now days are just remakes of already perfectly made and cast films.

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is another one of my comfort movies. Unlike most sequels, I found Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey to be just as good as the original.

Summary:
Although the distant future is a better place thanks to Wyld Stallyns, not everyone likes Wyld Stallyns. In the future, De Nomolos and his followers send evil robot versions of Bill and Ted into the past to kill Bill and Ted before they become world popular in the Battle of the Bands. Meanwhile, Bill and Ted are living normal lives after passing high school. Things are going well for them, when they are killed by the evil robot versions of themselves. They venture through hell and heaven, gaining allies in the Grim Reaper and the genius alien, Station. With the help of their newfound friends, they return in time to destroy the evil robot versions of themselves and perform in the Battle of the Bands.

Review:
Like Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is also one of my favorite movies. Bill and Ted are basically the same goofy characters they were in Excellent Adventure. Unlike the previous film, however, they don't travel through time, but through life and death, meeting interesting new characters in the afterlife. I especially enjoyed the Grim Reaper, because he is one of the funniest things about this movie.

I noticed that his appearance is very similar to the Grim Reaper in The Seventh Seal (top-The Seventh Seal, bottom-Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey). In that film, however, the Reaper is portrayed as very melancholy and serious. I don't know if everybody pictures the Reaper in the same way, or if he was supposed to resemble the Reaper from The Seventh Seal and be a funny parody from that film (especially since he has a European accent), but I enjoyed it either way.

Although it has been several years since Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey was released, there is currently a third Bill and Ted film in the works. I'm not sure how far along it is right now, but anyone looking for information should go to: http://www.billandted.org/

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is one of my comfort movies; whenever I'm feeling down, this film makes me feel better.

Summary:
Bill and Ted are two teens living in San Dimas. Unfortunately, they are close to failing their history class, which would result in Ted being sent to military school. If the pair are separated, they won't be able to continue on in their band, Wyld Stallyns (a band which will one day make the world a better place). To make sure they pass, Rufus, an agent of the future, gives them a phone booth time machine to help them. The pair travel through time, recruiting several famous figures to help them with their report.

Review:
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is one of my favorite movies. It's a light-hearted comedy with two goofball main characters. Time traveling is involved, which adds more opportunities for laughs as historical figures, such as Socrates and Sigmund Freud, try to adjust to present time.

Insidious

Insidious is one of those films that is good, but could have been so much better. It does, however, have one of the scariest scenes in a horror movie I've ever seen.

Summary:
A family moves into their new house, when one of their children gets hurt and falls into a coma. Weird things start happening around the house: voices being heard over the baby monitor, a face seen through the veil over the baby's crib, the house alarm going off when nobody's there. Unable to take it anymore, the family brings in a psychic who helps guide the father into bringing his son's soul back.

Review:
There are several good things and several bad things about this film.
One good thing I can say about this movie, is that it features astral projection, which I haven't often seen in horror films. Another good thing, is that it has one of the scariest scenes I have seen in a film. In one of the scenes, a mother is talking to her son about her nightmare, it then cuts to him listening to her, while the demon is behind him (the picture above). This scare, however, was featured in the trailer, and because of that, lost some of its 'surprisability.'
One bad thing is the use of the Further, which is the place that the son's and father's souls go to when they leave their body. It was really dark and hard to see much of anything in the Further, which I hate in movies. Another bad thing, is the amount of the red-faced demon shown. The first time that the demon appears (the picture above), you only see his face for a second. Since you don't really get a good glimpse of him, he seems terrifying. Later on in the film, however, you see too much of him. Although it's quick, you get to see his whole body. For me, this ruined his scariness. If you show too much of something that's supposed to be scary, it probably won't be scary. I think it would have been better, if you're never able to see him clearly, maybe only quick blurs of his body moving around, or shots of parts of his face. Since his eyes and his mouth are scary, the filmmakers could have really focused more on those parts. In the nightmare scene in the previous paragraph, it showed the demon's arm growing to reach the boy. The filmmakers could have made the demon's body long and slender, so he'd move and twist around in unnatural ways that would've made it creepier. For example, in Nightmare Before Christmas, there's one scene that I find disturbing. When Jack Skellington first finds Christmasland, there's one scene where he crawls through the window into the room of the sleeping elves (resembling a long-limbed spider). If the red-faced demon in Insidious quickly crawled around the floors/walls like that, I think that could've been really creepy.

Sinister

Sinister is one of my favorite horror films. I was only able to see it twice in theaters, but it was terrific. I was literally shaking in my seat, because of all the wonderfully placed jump scares (my favorite having to do with a lawn mower).

Summary:

Ellison Oswalt is a true-crime writer of the once popular "Kentucky Blood." Looking for fame once again, he moves his family (unbeknownst to them) into a house whose previous owners' bodies (except for one of the daughters from that family) were found hanging by their necks from the tree in the backyard. In the attic of their new house, he finds a box of super 8 'home movies,' revealing the last moments of that family (the previous owners) and several others. Throughout the film, Ellison uncovers the mystery of the missing children and their relation to the unknown figure, who appears in some way in each of the home movies.

Review:

As I wrote above, this is one of my favorite films. Usually, when I watch horror movies, I am a little disappointed in some way. This film, however, was nearly perfect. 

One of the aspects that I enjoyed (which I normally don't notice unless it's really good or really bad) was the music. It was used especially well in the home movies. Since there are no sounds, the music used is both soothing and creepy. One thing that I found really interesting, that I discovered after watching the film, is the possible inspiration from black metal. For those that don't know, black metal is a subgenre of metal music. While watching the film, Until the Light Takes Us, a documentary on the history of black metal music in Norway, I recognized one of the songs that was also in Sinister ("Silence Teaches You How to Sing" by Ulver). I was also struck by how similar Bughuul's (the demon) appearance was to the corpsepaint of black metal bands. I don't know if it was intended by the filmmakers, but I think they might have designed his face to look like a 'natural' version of corpsepaint. 

Another aspect that I enjoyed was the tension/mood throughout the film. It scares you right from the start, with the creepy music and the footage of the family being hanged. The film has several jump scares, which are all effective. So, whenever the film isn't creepy, it's terrifying (with most of the scares happening at night).

The only thing that I was a little disappointed with was the look of Bughuul. His face was scary enough, but I found his body to be 'too human.' At the end, you get to see him clearly and his body looks like a normal human body wearing clothes (white shirt, black trenchcoat, black pants, black shoes). I think it would have looked more demonic if he didn't wear clothes that were so normal. For example, if he wore something old, raggedy, and dirty; or if his body didn't look entirely human.

The Cure

I went to my "first" concert recently, and it was amazing! I've liked The Cure for a long time, so it was incredible to see them live. It started out a little rough (not because of the band, but the audience around me). I should've got seats on the ground level,  because sitting in the upper level was too far away and the audience (in the upper levels) were like statues. Honestly, I was expecting everybody to be on the ground level and standing up. But, overall it was great. After a while, people starting leaving, so I could get a better seat. Also, as time went on, it seemed like the band and audience became happier and more energetic.

"The Body Politic"

One of the most interesting short stories I've read recently is "The Body Politic" by Clive Barker. It can be found in the Books of Blood Volumes 4-6. For anyone that doesn't know, the Books of Blood are a collection of short horror stories.

Summary:

Charlie George sees himself as a normal person, nothing less and nothing more. But hidden from him, are the thoughts of his hands. Every night, while Charlie sleeps, they plan their escape. One night, Charlie awakes from his pleasant dream to find himself killing his wife. His hands, now in control of themselves, seek to remove themselves from him. Right, the leader, chops off Left to spread the message to hands all over town of life after separation. This revolution ends with the death of Charlie George and his Right hand. The story, however, ends on a rather uneasy note, the thought of another uprising of any part of the body.

Review:

One of the reasons I enjoyed reading this story is because it frightened me. Usually when reading short horror stories (by other authors), I've found that they're mostly weird (though still enjoyable), not really horrific. In contrast to those stories, Clive's can conjure up horrific images and situations. One of those stories is "The Body Politic." The thought of your hands (or any other part of your body) controlling itself is terrifying. And the thought that they would want to separate themselves to live a life of their own is even worse. One of the descriptions that I found really disturbing is the comparison of a severed bloodied hand to a red spider crawling around on the ground. I think this description has stayed in my mind, because a giant spider is scary enough on its own, but when you know it's actually a severed hand covered in blood and moving around, it just makes it even more terrifying.