This is just a random blog where I talk about things that interest me. Movies, TV, books, comics, board games, cooking, and other random events will all be discussed here.
Caution: Almost none of the pictures I post are owned by me, and are the property of the original creators.
So this is it. The end of Halloween Month. I have plenty of material for next year (even crazier movies, anime, and cartoons), but thought it'd be good to touch back on a few things.
For instance, somebody found that show that terrified me so much when I was little.
It continues partway into this next video.
Secondly, I just did an article about Garfield's Halloween Adventure, but I forgot there was also a book that completely changed some of the story. Garfield steals a ring from the pirates, for instance, and they get stuck up a tree (because ghosts can't climb trees?).
I not only had that book, I wore that book out from reading it so often.
Finally, did you know that there's a Tower of Terror movie that came out in the 90s? No seriously, it has Steve Gutenberg and Kirsten Dunst in it.
"I'm in a movie with Steve Gutenberg AND I have to wear this? UGH."
You can watch the whole thing here. I know I'll be doing that.
There aren't a lot of Halloween TV specials I remember as being distinctively "Halloween-only." The Halloween episodes of Real Ghostbusters were regularly aired like any other episode. The Halloween episodes of Gargoyles, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Rugrats, Eek! The Cat, and even that episode of Batman: The Animated Series that felt the need to have Poison Ivy dress in a (somehow) even skimpier outfit to make up exploding pumpkins.
But my all-time favorite Halloween special from my childhood? That would be Garfield's Halloween Adventure.
Every now and again a movie can come out that might not be particularly good, but will come up with a creative and/or scary monster. There was that freaky creature from The Relic. Species showed us how scary a naked Natasha Henstridge could be. And then there's Anaconda, with one of the truly most terrifying things ever depicted on screen.
I'm speaking, of course, of Jon Voight's face.
Pictured: Every recessive gene in Angelina Jolie.
That's right, it was time for another Rifftrax, and since nothing I can say will be as terrible as Jon Voight's face, here's just a few screenshots of that.
I, on the other hand, am off to ponder if the whole idea an Anaconda-based movie starring Jennifer Lopez didn't stem completely from a Sir Mix-A-Lot song.
Every year, I love carving pumpkins for the kids in the neighborhood where my parents live. I've done The Avengers, video game characters, and a few for my own enjoyment (the Ghostbusters logo comes to mind.
This year, I was sorely tempted to doThe Guardians Of The Galaxy, but when I realized how much work it would be to do Groot, I concluded I'd rather eat a whole pumpkin. Without chewing.
So instead I decided to do something else still hugely popular. Something... chilling.
...that was bad. I apologize.
I'll acknowledge that Olaf didn't come out as neat as I like, but carving a carrot nose on a pumpkin is really hard.
Does anybody else remember the trailer to Hook when it was first announced?
Here, let me help you out.
Now, I'm not just remembering this because I still feel the passing of Robin Williams (which I do), but because I need to illustrate a point. A movie trailer is a piece of production meant to share the key idea behind a movie, the "elevator pitch," as they say in Hollywood. It's there to get the audience to want to see the film, and you can usually tell a lot about a film based on how honest the trailer is. For instance, the movie Drive portrayed itself as the next Fast And The Furious. When it instead became a deep, good movie, with lots of slow moments, people got so upset that one woman actually sued the filmmakers. Bridge To Terabithia doesn't touch at all upon the seriously dark story the book actually tells. Life promised a wacky buddy comedy with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, and ...well, okay, it had some funny moments, but still. It wasn't what the trailer promised.
Now, in some instances, you lie about the content of the movie in the trailer because you want to hook people, and you don't think your actual story or film will bring in the mass audiences. That's probably what Drive was thinking. The same with Bridge to Terabithia, since what kid is going to be excited to go to a movie where the most important part of the story is dealing with harsh emotional issues such as loss and loneliness?
Hook I have no idea about. That's a slasher/horror film mixed with Labyrinth, and that's certainly not what we got.
Why am I spending all this time talking about trailers? Because if you watched the trailer for Cabin In The Woods and then went in expecting to see that movie...man, the fact that Drive got sued and this movie didn't amazes me.
I once did something really, really wrong on a Disney ride.
Well, not really wrong. Not like anything that would get me banned from the park. I didn't vandalize it, I didn't go to the bathroom somewhere that I shouldn't, I didn't punch a mascot or anything.
I just almost seriously hurt myself and, possibly, the people around me.
I mentioned this event back in May, but felt it needed to be expanded upon.
The first time I was allowed to go trick or treating by myself was a pretty huge deal. For years, I was going along with my little sister (and often one of the foster children my parents took in), and while it certainly wasn't a bad experience (getting candy as a child is never a bad experience), being trusted with the responsibility of being out without needing a parent right beside me was a pretty huge deal.
I felt completely grown up for that brief moment when they told me I could go ahead of my sister. There were lots of parents and other children around. It was the 80s, so nobody was really paranoid about anything bad happening. I knew where the limits of where I could go were.
