Entertainment of 1976

Welcome back my gentle readers. As you know I seemed to have disappeared last week and no rhyme or reason. Well I got disconnected and it took a few days to reconnect and allowed me time to write on my detective novel so it was not time wasted at all. That being said, I am aging on Wednesday and felt I should take time to think of the games, TV and movies of the year of my birth of which is 1976. Yes, that old. With all this in mind I thought we could tackle games of yesteryear, films that may have moved us and TV that graced generations.

Travis Bickle, portrait of the sane.

With that, this week's theme is simply known as Entertainment of 1976. With from the underdog struggle that was Rocky to the disturbing visuals and evils that was The Omen, 1976 managed to find solace in the cinema, back at home and even in the arcades and roller rinks. With the re-creation of Godzilla providing action figures and the Japanese company Toei, licensed by Mattel brought 24 inch high figures known as the Shogun Warriors. Naturally, Marvel Comics jumped on the chance to give both franchises, comic books allowing further circulation. Mego balanced with DC comics, Marvel comics and popular shows of ChiPs, Starsky and Hutch, Happy Days and Planet of the Apes.

So feel free to have a nostalgia flashback with me or be amazed that such concepts happened and enjoy.

That's not Captain Stubing!  That's Mel Brooks!!!

600th Blog!!! Halloween Resurrection

Happy Halloween everyone and welcome to Day 5 of Halloween Week. This marks two impressive moments. One, this is my 600^th blog! Yah!! Two, we have a Halloween movie for Halloween!!! That being said, why in the seven hells did I have to review piece of flotsam??!!! Yeah, folks I am not thrilled to be tackling this particular sequel of the substantial series. For those of you that disliked Halloween H20, really despised this fun filled pile of scum. So let's roll up our sleeves, stretch the muscles out and go out swinging. This was Halloween Resurrection.

Gonna get his... oh I don't even care.

Three years after H20, Laurie Strode had been sent to the whacko basket, I mean a psychiatric hospital as (SPOILER) she had lopped the head off of a paramedic and not her brother Michael in some costume switcheroo cliche. Myers apparently attacked this poor paramedic by crushing his larynx and swapping his uniform for Myers' jumpsuit and mask. While the poor lad got beheaded, Myers has snuck away into the woods and either went into hiding for the next three years. Back to the nuthouse, Laurie is prepped for Michael's arrival and has gone full Home Alone with the hospital to do the old boy in but to no avail. Yeah they greased Laurie. His 20 year mission is at an end. So end of movie right? WRONG! Sadly that was only the first 15 minutes and maybe 10 to 12 snippets of dialogue from Laurie. So glad we drug Jamie Lee Curtis back for that.

A year later we are having a reality show in Michael Myers' house for six college students must spend a night in the house that brought forth evil and figure out what caused he to go completely crackers and start up his killing spree. I figured it was the tacky wallpaper but that was just my approximation. Our six contestants decide in the ultimate wisdom to split up and search for clue, Scooby teen gang style. Zoiks! No sooner do these collective bags of hammers separate it would appear that Michael starts systematically wiping them out. Who could have seen that coming?

Duhhhhhh....

Yes this is what the saga has be reduced to, the slaughter of Laurie with a year's follow-up of wacking people in his childhood home. Thank you Dimension Films for dragging us through all that for this half-assed collection of gore scenes with next to no plot. When writer of The Drifter (Larry Brand of Backfire, Masque of Red Death, Till the End of the Night, Paranoia and The Right Temptation), a vastly underrated thriller starring Timothy Bottoms and Kim Delany was transcribed to write this end of an era I figured I was well onto the summing of a final chapter. Laurie finally defeats him and can breathe again... instead I get catch phrases that are dated, Busta Rhymes throwing cowboy with Myers and Tyra Banks not voting off models.

Let's take wacky facts about the flick now. Just for the sake of ending this review and I can go on to watch better horror movies. Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to reprise her character Laurie Strode so she would NEVER EVER be back for yet another sequel. Long time Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad made it sound during the theatrical release that Curtis was so impressed with the screenplay and could hardly wait to be a part of the legacy when actually she was under contract. Yeah lot of sunshine shot up the collective sphincters there, huh?

Director Rick Rosenthal was brought back to direct this festering boil on a dog's anus after 21 years prior bringing us the vastly superior Halloween II in 1981. While our body count seemed extremely light at a whopping ten I suppose you could count the some of the bodies from the flashback sequence so giving it a tally of 14.

Still love the fact we skipped Tyra Bank's death scene but you get to see the aftermath in said van. So basically it was almost stating she wasn't deemed worthy of an on-screen death. What crap was that? Too pricey an effect??? Anywho, this was one that clung to the bowl no matter how many times you flushed. With this being the final nail in the original series' coffin, it is another 5 years before Rob Zombie picks it up from the ashes and starts anew. 

 Now normally I am not one for reboots but honestly I dug that he expanded beyond Carpenter's original path of pure evil, gave him a dark childhood and slowly warped him. Just a different take on it and it does not detract the folks from the originals at all. Resurrection however could convince you to Google Rick Rosenthal's home address just to egg it, his car and maybe even the family dog.

(sigh) It's a living.

Halloween Week: Halloween: H20

Hello there all and welcome back to Halloween Week. Well it is time. The time in which I speak of is to basically ignore all avenues of 4, 5, and even 6 as they did not appear relevant in regards to this upcoming chapter in the Myers saga. Now that the pesky Jamie has been removed from the franchise... horrifically I might add, we get back to the lone survivor of the first two Halloweens. Laurie Strode. "But Jake, she died in a car accident leaving Jamie all alone to fend for herself against her insane uncle,." Nay, horror fan boys and girls, for it appears in the grand scheme of plot point that she faked her death in order to hide from Michael and raise her other child. This is Halloween: H20.

Yarrrgh, there be a slasher on port!

Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens of Charlie's Angels, Barnaby Jones, Panic in Echo Park, Halloween, Halloween II and A Time for Dancing), the late Doctor Loomis's nurse and colleague has had her house in Illinois broken into as her neighbors' kids go and search the house to find nothing but a few things trashed. Satisfied with that respond she goes and sorts what happened as her medical files have been rummaged through, specifically Laurie Strode's old files. When she goes to check on the hockey hooligans they are all sprawled dead on the couch and she herself gets her throat slit by Michael.

Since 1988, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis of The Fog, Terror Train, Prom Night, Halloween II, A Fish Called Wanda, Forever Young, True Lies and NCIS) has hidden herself and her infant son of one year after Jamie was born in California. With accredited academics and forged documents she has re-emerged as Keri Tate, a respected headmistress of a posh private school in California where she attempts to keep her life together for the sake of her son John (Josh Hartnett of The Faculty, Blow Dry, Pearl Harbor, Blackhawk Down, 40 Days and 40 Nights and 30 Days of Night) who has grown distant from her as he does not approve of her functioning alcoholism and prescription pill popping. As this is a result of surviving that Halloween night of more than 20 people butchered at the hands of her brother, you can understand how she may be a little edgy every Halloween but the boy wants to hang with his girlfriend on the camping trip. 

 When that is a bust the teen gang decides to remain on campus for a private party of their own. Molly (Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek, A Thousand Acres, Dick, But I'm a Cheerleader and Me Without You), John's girlfriend agrees with a couple other friends that they will sneak around to the campus and get their drink and fornication on!!! Hey, trying to keep it PG-13 here.

Tee hee, we're toast.

With everyone away for the holidays, out on the camping trip and in general enjoying time away from school the campus is as still as a tomb. Laurie/Keri thinks she is hallucinating as she swears she saw Michael stalking her throughout the day. Confessing to her colleague/boyfriend Will (Adam Arkin of Chicago Hope, 8 Simple Rules, The West Wing, Baby Bob and Hitch) that she is not who she claims to be, about Michael and all the horror of that night, he takes it surprisingly well. Me, I think I need more than a fade wipe to mull my thoughts over this new info.

No sooner as the night fallen that Michael is on the prowl, dispatching a few guards, groundskeeper and personnel left and right that Laurie must dig down deep and take Michael head to head for the sake of her son's life and possibly her sanity. Will Laurie defeat Michael after so many have tried and failed? Will she ever have a normal life again? Will John be as messed up as anyone else associated with the Myers bloodline?

A few comments of trivia about this film in a moment. I had a slight rant to this particular film. While this screen treatment feels like you should be ignoring anything that happened from 4 and on they really kept pushing the envelope in reminding you of the first two films with lifting dialogue uttered by Donald Pleasence during the latter opening credit sequence after the first 4 deaths to using the line, "Well it's Halloween. I guess everyone is entitled to one good scare." My biggest bee in my bonnet (Other than what ass put me in a bonnet) is the lack of continuity already established by the last three movies and how this film seemed almost like we should sweep those movies under the rug. Other reviewers speculate it is a divergent or alternative timeline from the other movies. Frankly, just point out Laurie wanted a boy and not a girl, faked her death and went off to live out the days with her son. See? No mystery and maybe a bad parent story line in the wings.

So we have cliches' like horror movie characters watching a horror movie during our film, reminding you there may be better flicks out there I am guessing or that this is all Sam Raimi and Wes Craven's fault for starting this trend in horror movies. Initially, Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to work with John Carpenter for H20 but he declined due to lack of interest in the existing project any longer. Of the unmentioned alumni of this movie I must not forget the original scream queen Janet Leigh, L.L.Cool J, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jodi Lyn O' Keefe. Not a bad flick but I have to say not one of my favorites of the franchise.

Ever been with a scream queen, baby?

Halloween Week: Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers

Well, howdy folks and welcome back for Day 3 of Halloween Week. Sit right down and I will attempt to recap thus far. After the second film's climatic end and both Loomis and Myers set ablaze, Loomis was scarred but alive while Myers lay in a coma for ten years, animated after being indirectly informed he had a niece Jame alive and well. A few choice encounters with her that year and the next, left Loomis and Haddonfield's Sheriff department bewildered and taken both Michael and Jamie our of the public's eye. Our sixth incarnation had a rocky road to cross given the re-writes, title changes, edited versions and the unfortunate passing of Donald Pleasence. This is Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Yikes, they will never get the stain of mashed mime out of that wall.

Six years after the police station's fire and her abduction by the "Man in Black" (Cue Johnny Cash) Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy of Wolf, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Kindred: The Embraced, Dogstar and Promethus Bound) is alive and birthing a child in some secluded underground shelter lit with more candles than a Hammer film or Sting video combined. No sooner is the child sexed and cleaned these cultists/followers take the baby away, somehow Michael is on the move in this dank, subterranean recess slaughtering these cult members left and right like it's his own personal abbatoir. The midwife nurse wraps Jamie's baby, placing the child in Jamie's arms and demanding she run for both their lives... ya know right after an agonizing child birth scene. Not even a lie down or Tylenol for this gal. Strength!

Fleeing in a stolen pickup (Still, like her uncle no one had gotten around to giving her driving lessons) when she makes it to a bus station that appears to be off duty and yet all the doors are unlocked. While all this is going on a DJ on local radio has been mocking Haddonfield's ban on Halloween and Michael Myers bringing every nutter butter to the phone lines that Jamie uses a payphone as a desperate last chance call out to Doctor Loomis. Hiding the baby in the ladies, she pulls the old fake baby in the blankets to throw Michael off the scent for more than 5 blocks and is horribly murdered for it.

Gen-X parents have it rough.

Oh, do not act all shocked. This guy killed his big sister, tried to murder his little sister and mutilated and butchered more than 15 to 20 people per movie. Of the many callers is a grown up Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd of Clueless, Overnight Delivery, 200 Cigarettes, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Ex, Night at the Museum and Knocked Up) survivor the first Halloween is convinced that Myers is still alive and someone is attempting to harness his strength while Doctor Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is retired after all this time only to be called in on the mess that was Jamie and a burn mark is placed on the nearby barn which Loomis nonchalantly explains it is Michael's mark (the one we have NEVER SEEN until the 5^th movie).

Meanwhile at Michael's former home resides the late Jamie and Laurie's family on the Strode side... these people were around and couldn't adopt Jamie. Just seems odd. As he had a psychic link to Jamie, perhaps he is tuning in to her son Tommy has named Steven. Conversing with Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan of I Think I Do, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Dinner and a Movie and Stake Land) Tommy tells her of the danger her family is in if Michael is back. Following the astrological end of things correlated with the events of each Myers attack with a constellation of Thorn (Rune of Icelandic or early Norse turned symbol of sacrifice but actually it means the or that) it seems to give the bearer of the mark near superhuman strength, fortitude and healing as its appointed task means to deplete one family in the village for the good of said village. 

 Someone or some force has been guiding Michael all this time as far back as a 5 year old boy something always whispering in his ear that insists he slaughter his sister.

Will this curse continue to Steven? Can Tommy and Doctor Loomis put a final end to Michael? What of the Cult of Thorn? Hey, where are my pants?

And now a teensy bit of trivia. There are more than three different releases of this movie due to the eleven drafts. The neutered VHS later DVD 89 min has the most gore but the least amount of continuity. The producer's cut has unfinished dailies spliced into the final cut and is more coherent. The alternative version has Tommy arranging runes as an impromptu ward or barrier to keep Michael end leaving the cult stuck with this maniac while Tommy, Kara, Danny and the baby escape leaving Dr. Loomis to face the head of the cult and Michael all alone as his request.

No official copy of the Producer's Cut has been released still but the bootlegs are out there and still the most impressive tie-in to the franchise and giving the saga an even purer evil as Carpenter briefly explained.

OOoOoo.. bet she has a pipe or 2 x 4 to bonk me with.  Pathetic.

Halloween Week: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Welcome back for Day 2 of Halloween Week and boy that last one was... eh, it wasn't terrible. I have certainly seen worse in my 4 years of reviewing that is to be certain. So lets dive right in the shallow end for some splintered bones, shall we? One year after the events of Halloween 4, Michael Myers fell down a substantial and plot point conveniently placed mine shaft that the camera work would have you believe was bottomless and little Jamie in a fit of terror accidentally stabbed her foster mother wearing her clown costume giving it that circle of horror feel. Taking on her uncle's legacy if you will. This is Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

Honey, don't play with crazy men.

Jamie (Danielle Harris of The Wild Thornberrys, Debating Robert Lee, Halloween, Left for Dead, Fear Clinic, Hatchet II, Stake Land and The Victim) is now mute and withdrawn from normal child behavior (Can't imagine why!!!) and Doctor Loomis (Donald Pleasence of Halloween, Centennial, Dracula, Halloween II, Alone in the Dark, Warrior Queen and Ten Little Indians) keeps a watchful eye on her, convinced that the evil that is her uncle has not been vanquished.

Believed to be dead, Michael (Stuntman/actor Don Shanks of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Halloween 5, Spirit of the Eagle, Wind Dancer, Ride with the Devil, Twice Today and Death House) escapes from the mine shaft and washes up on the nearby shore from the river. A friendly hermit helps Michael to his cabin where he lays for a year to heal and recoup and rewards the hermit with an affectionate murder. Jamie forced to stay in the psychiatric ward has exhibited signs of having a empathic or possibly telepathic link to her quite insane uncle. Ah, yes the psychic link to the killer chestnut. Gosh, where could I have heard that one before? (coughs Silent Night Deadly Night III, In Dreams, Hideaway, Split Second) and Loomis is trying desperately to convince Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Speed, Due South, Prisoner of Love, Shadow Hours and The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery) that Myers is in fact alive and heading to town yet again. Now in the Sheriff's defense he is still in office after his entire staff minus two deputies were slaughtered in his own office, coupled with the loss of his daughter that it could be argued that grief has him conflicted but you would also think he would take Loomis at his word.

Zombie Shatner??!!  Oh wait, it's just Michael.

With visits from her foster sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Gabriel's Fire, Free Enterprise, The Specials, House of the Dead, All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos, The Darkroom, The Thirst and Dead Calling) Jamie almost feels normal when she sees the future of Rachel being attacked by Michael and tries to warn her when her doctors feel she is being hysterical and having a fit. Rachel sees Jamie off and heads out when she is murdered by Michael by having a pair of scissors thrust in the chest. Ouch. No sooner that murder when he stalks Rachel and Jamie's mutual friend Tina (Wendy Foxworth of Guiding Light, My Two Dads, Police Story: Monster Manor, Alien Nation and Blood Deep). 

 Meeker and Loomis attempt to put a plan together to capture Michael or destroy him outright. With elements of the previous gags, Michael replaces a boyfriend and proceeds to go back on his killing spree at the same time Jamie regains her speech. She and her friend Billy escape the ward in search of Tina. Will Loomis and Meeker be able to stop Myers or be caught in the wake of his murderous rage?

A few bits of trivia about the film at this time. An alternative opening for the movie was the hermit finding Michael's body and was to be shown and removing his mask gawking at it and his scarred face but the ultimate decision was to cut it for time.

KNB EFX has designed facial makeup for Myers looking scarred from the fire and producers wasn't sure to show the detailed look or put it in the shadows. KNB went for the latter saving them time to work on more gore effects.

Thanks to the MPAA the film was fighting off an X rating due to the violence, blood and gore that was all prevalent in Halloween 4 yet somehow a year later it was too gory so some scenes had to be trimmed back and neutering some of KNB's finer work of quivering bodies, a face plant through a windshield and Billy's leg mashed by the Camero. Man the MPAA can really ruin a flick. Don Shanks played both Myers and the mysterious Man in Black. The car chase sequence was shot entirely all that night. Poor Ellie Cornell is in the film of all of 20 minutes. Kind of a bummer for a return.

Hmm, pulse seems thready.

Halloween Week: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Greetings and hello to Day 1 of Halloween Week. As previously mentioned but heck I am not above a recap, I will not be tackling Halloween 3: Season of the Witch due to its lack of involvement with the original series. That being said let us journey ten years after the first massacre with Michael Myers and Doctor Sam Loomis's last confrontation ending in an explosion of compressed oxygen and fire. Leaving Doctor Loomis scarred from the burns and Michael a vegetable. What threat could Myers represent now? This is Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Look what this franchise is doing to me!!

With Michael inert and kept alive intravenously at Richmond Mental Institute, he is being transferred to Smith's Grove, when he is awaken from listening to the guards and transfer crew exposition about Myers being an uncle but his sister Laurie Strode dying in a car accident. Stirring from his bonds he dispatches his pickup crew and kills the driver causing the ambulance to flip and crash. Michael (stuntman George P. Wilbur of Die Hard, The Silence of the Lambs, Casino and Spider-Man) after 10 years of being bed ridden just must have sauntered on out and heads for the nearest gas station. Having heard this predicament, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence of Dracula, Escape from New York, A Breed Apart, Django 2, Prince of Darkness and Halloween 5) head to the area and tracks Michael down at the gas station finding more than a few corpses, he pleads with Michael to take his life instead of haunting Haddonfield yet again. Michael leaves Dr. Loomis in a burning building he narrowly escapes from, his car totaled he needs a lift for the showdown in Haddonfield.

Don't think the mask is set right.

Michael's niece, Jamie (Dannelle Harris of Halloween 5, Marked for Death, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Roseanne, Halloween, Hatchet II and Hatchet III) has terrifying dreams about a man in a jumpsuit and mask for no real explained reason but it does frighten her. Her foster parents are attempting their best to raise her but they still cannot connect with her. Halloween night and they are heading out to socialize leaving their daughter Rachel (Ellie Cornell of Married to the Mob, Halloween 5, Free Enterprise, House of the Dead, The Specials, All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos and Dead Calling) who has to put off her date with her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dazed and Confused, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Grind) who as a teenage boy gets pissed and grumbly. Naturally he needs consoling and that of course can only be found in the arms and breasts of the slightly easy Sheriff's daughter Kelly (Kathleen Kinmont of Winners Take All, Nightforce, Rush Week, Midnight, Bride of Re-Animator and Renegade) but enough about whiny pansy boy and jiggly girl!

Loomis makes it to the Sheriff's office demanding to speak to Sheriff Brackett, which Loomis is informed he retired early 8 years ago after losing his daughter to Michael's bloody mayhem and Sheriff Beeker (Beau Starr of Relentless, Halloween 5, True Blue, Speed, Due South and The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery) tells him he is in no mood for that kind of dredging. Loomis is adamant about 6 bodies thus far and God only knows how many to follow. Meeker takes Loomis at his word in spite of Myers has been out of the slashing game for 10 years.

Will Meeker, his men and Loomis be able to put a stop to Myers before his body count goes double if not triple digit? Do they have a contingency plan? Is Jamie in grave danger?

Okay now just a few comments to make on the movie. Aside from 3 schlock straight-to-video features, director Dwight H. Little (The Phantom of the Opera, Marked for Death, Rapid Fire, Millennium, The Practice, Prison Break, Nikita and Bones) was tackling an existing franchise of which had to be a bit nerve wracking but created a fairly eerie opening sequence giving a vibe of Halloween itself and all the harvest content around it.

Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains It All, Drive Me Crazy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Melissa & Joey) auditioned for the role of Jamie but to no fault of her own was deemed not the right girl with... ear drum rupturing screams. The original script called for the explosion sequence of the second movie and was going to show Loomis on fire but thrown from the overall ordeal but it was decided (Budget!!) that they did not want any connection to the predecessor films... the ones that this film is based on. Moving on the girl Lindsey who drove Rachel and Jamie to the discount mart was to be revealed as Lindsey Wallace from Halloween 1, making her a babysitter and was going to have a much larger role but again the dreaded budget monster appeared.

John Carpenter wrote a treatment for the film giving it a more ghastly psychological approach to the film on what impact the previous two films had on the town of Haddonfield and its inhabitants but the producers were more for the typical slasher fanfare and Carpenter walked away from the movie making this the first film of the series that had no participation from him at all. Can't blame him. Again not a bad movie but so much was left up in the air for fans to postulate rather than have seen.  

Brady's Krav Maga lesson goes horribly wrong.

Halloween Week

Hello there all and welcome back to the blog. Well given Halloween is this weekend, it seems fitting and fair to continue the dark path of the season as we continue the saga of that notorious slasher Michael Myers. As you may already be aware, I have reviewed both the original Halloween and its first sequel so we will be picking up where the series renewed itself.

Where the hell is my car??!!!

After the profuse bashing by critics of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch I shan't be reviewing it because it is a separate story from the first two and while I myself feel it deserves love for its entertaining values it does not relate to the continuation of the Myers story. Tragic really. It is a clever story. We will of course be starting up with the fourth sequel and going forward.

Enjoy, my readers.

I know, you hate this mask.