The Frightners (1996)

Huzzah, I am live and well.

It seems that March sucks out the souls of everyone I know. Is it the doom following a lovey dovey month like February? Is it because we're three months into the year and we haven't done a thing of consequence? Whatever it is, it certainly sucked out the creative juices out of me. I watched some great movies but I was no near good of a mind frame to write about them. Until now. After I rejuvanated my geek juices at Wondercon, I feel the power whirling.

Let us begin.

So this movie was a favorite of my boyfriends. I'm not sure how it rolled about but his enthusiasm had me shooting the movie to the top of my Netflix queue. I have to agree with him, it is a really great movie. Yes, there are some eye rolling jokes, and the special effects are *cute* but for that time, this really was a great movie.

 Before I describe the movie, I just realized that a smattering of movies I loved from the nineties had a lot of jerk/dork/bad main characters. They usually carried a kind of "whatever" attitude to life and villains. But when shit when down, they would do a complete turn around and become the focused, problem solving character (or just driven to action) that everyone looks to. I love that. I'm not advocating a scrub here. It's the switcharound part, the part where you relay on someone to do something in a crisis or zombie apocalypse. Then when everything chills down, they're back to being a better version of themselves.Love it.

Frank Banner (played by Michael J Fox) is that character for me in "The Frightners". We are introduced to him as a paranormal scam artist. After a traumatic accident resulting in the death of his wife, Banner gains the ability to see ghosts. He (somehow) uses two ghosts to do the "spooking" of the place, then Banner comes in and then through a "six-month guarentee" is able to extinguish the ghosts. Then deaths start to occur when Banner is near. Suspension arises since Banner was at fault for his wifes' accident (he drove drunk.sigh) so he steadily loses credibility the more he's seen at the scene of the crime.Banner sees a grim reaper swooping in to take the souls of the victims. The victims have already been pre-annointed with numbers which Banner can see. The more he tries to warn people, the more he's the villain. So its up to him, the friendly ghosts, and his (questionable) romantic interest to save the people.

OK.

so.


Here's my summary of how I feel about the movie: I really enjoyed it despite it's many, many flaws.

[SPOILER ALERT]

The grim reaper killer is not the grim reaper. It's a cloaked ghost of a mass murderer from years ago. Channeling through his aging psychotic girlfriend, he's been killing off people to outnumber the kills from a previous killer.

Omigosh, I have so many issues with this. This is what keeps me from loving the movie wholeheartedly. I mean I can love "Super Mario Brothers movie" flaws and all so this really says alot. There are plenty of bad movies but they need to be believable in the context of the movie for me to enjoy them. If I end up asking myself "What?" or "Why" or "But?" then I'm pulled completely away from the movie.

Here are just five questions that had me throwing my mental hands in the air:

1. Why now? Why start killing people again?"
2. Why does he bother painting a number on the victims head when NO ONE BUT BANNER AND GHOSTS can see????!
3. How can he just KILL ghosts???! HE'S a bloody ghost!!!
4. What is the criteria for the victims? If it's random, then it would be random and quick. If there was a pattern, I didn't see it.
5. Your telling me the mother of the psychotic daughter allowed her to keep the ashes of the murderous boyfriend? Why? WHY?


When I pushed those questions very roughly aside, I can almost lose myself in the movie until I have to deal with the "romance" of the movie between Lucy and Frank. I just don't buy it.Lucy's boyfriend just died. Other than him being a dipshit and taking her movie, they did seem to have some sort of history. Which apparently goes out the window when she learns that Frank can see ghosts and solve mysteries. Either she's too lazy to solve life's mystery or she's a vapid, horrible woman. So, the romance score gets a negative fifty.

The only thing I loved about the movie was Frank. Thank you Michael J Fox for being a great actor and carrying this whole movie on your shoulders. Any other actor would have screwed this up. Instead, I enjoyed the funny scenes and was riveted by the action sequences.

"The Frighteners" is a relic of the nineties that has been grossly overlooked by the public. If your into the macabre like "Beetlejuice" you would get a kick out of this movie.

Laura - Trailer (1944)

Laura (1944)

Instant killers to a blogger's game: moving. Waiting to have my internet installed was torture.....'


It took me awhile to figure out which movie to talk about. I've watched a smattering of good movies, a good mix of american and korean movies. Instead, I would rather talk about a movie that grabbed my attention for reasons I'm not too sure of.

Let me just say that I'm not really into film noir.  I learned from a long-ago class that it tends to paint the female character as a femme fatale in order for those returning from war to cope with the new status that women gave themselves. Before learning that, I thought the femme fatale  was a great new status that women had in films. They were beautiful, strong, and in tuned with their sexuality. Until I realized that the femme fatale was usually set up to fail or die. Which made me really unhappy. Also, I kept getting distracted at deciphering what those cocked mouth men were saying. Why was that way of speaking so popular? It just seemed so painful and irritating. Eh, not my fad.

Once again, can't remember why I had this on my netflix queue. I did enjoy watching this movie with my boyfriend. It was pretty comical trying to figure out what the heck they were saying. Once we did get into the movie, it was hard to get out. It was a great story to follow. The ending was really abrupt. Completely abrupt. As in gasp, credits roll. Huh?

"Laura" is a murder mystery. McPherson, a detective with a dark past is set to discover to who murdered Laura. Laura, a beautiful  socialite remembered by her ex-fiance- Shelby (played by a very young Vincent Price!), her friend and admirer-Waldo, and her loyal maid- Bessy. As McPherson ferrets out the leads leading to Laura's death, he finds himself becoming more entrenched in her beauty, falling in love with a ghost. A ghost that may not be a ghost at all.....


I have to admit,it's fun writing like this. Can you hear the trill of background music?

It was a great trying to guess who killed her. Each person in her history had a motive to kill her. Each had alibis.The more back story we get on each character, the more complicated her story becomes. Did she deserve to die? Was it an accident?  Was it an act of love?

Mcpherson definitely employs some interesting tactics to bring out the killer to light. At times it seemed drawn and pointless, other times it was brilliant. After ping-ponging over who the real killer is, the final revelation was a bit of a downer. It seemed so obvious yet not.The justifications the killer gave just made it so creepy...

The dialogue had some great moments. Most of them came from Waldo, a man who writes a column for a newspaper with an acid tongue. His wit and delivery were hilarious times and weird at others. He's the type of person that says scathing remarks about people yet everyone adores him. Seriously, this guy did not give a f**K! He first speaks to McPherson in the bathtub while typing away. Then he makes the detective hand him a towel.I can't help but wonder if he wrote all those articles in such a way because his testicles were shrinking by the moment? Weird thought but now your thinking of it too....

Gene Tierney. One of my favorite classic hollywood actresses. She was absolutely gorgeous. Stunning. She was gorgeous in "Leave Her to Heaven". She was a great femme fatale. I could easily see how anyone would fall for her charms. Even to death.


This is definitely a film that should be re watched to appreciate all of its facets. Now that I know who the killer was, I wonder if I could figure out the clues.



All in all, I can definitely understand why this movie is considered a cinematic gem. It definitely surprised the heck out of me.

POLA NEGRI - A woman of the world

A Woman of the World (1925)

Well I tried but woefully fell short on the word count for Nanowrimo. Then finals. Then moving...omigosh christmas is tomorrow...

SO...what better time to review a movie that I saw at the end of summer?! Eh?!Eh!!!

 Thanks to FilmRadar,  I was able to attend a silent movie screening of "A Woman of the World" at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. Much gratitude to a very even-tempered boyfriend, we were made the loooooooooooong trek into the mountains to catch the movie. The windy roads and isolated areas were a little freaky at first but after we parked and walked up, it was worth it! Paramount Ranch is a restored and protected landmark of a western set that was owned by Paramount. This is the same location that Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman was filmed. In the few minutes we had before the screening, I had alot of fun darting around the sets taking pictures.If I ever had to do a Firefly photoshoot...

Anyhoo, the atmosphere was great for a silent movie.An old projector was used and everybody sat outside under the brilliant stars. Comfortable in out chairs and a fresh bag of popcorn, we settled in.

Before the movie, we were treated to a cartoon short of bees. Something about bees being in love. I was too busy munching on popcorn. It was so delicious...



"A Woman of the World" involves a heartbroken European Countess who decides to nurse her feelings at the small American home of her cousin. Her "flashy" attitude and ways spurns the attention and wrath of the District Attorney who makes it his personal mission to run her out of town.The more he interacts with the Countess, the more it becomes apparent that there are some passionate feelings hiding under his crusading facade.

I've only seen a couple of silent movies so I am  pretty ignorant of this era. So I was pleased as punch to find that I really loved this movie. There was some excellent comedy bits especially between the male cousin and the Countess. Typical miscommunication antics.

Even thought this was a product of the twenties, the themes are still strong today. No matter what decade, people will view visitors differently: with welcome, scorn, or happiness. It's how the movie handled sexuality that amused me. The Countess came from an environment of sexual freedom and power. The town is unsettled by her charismas but it's not until her TATTOO that it all comes to surface. Yes. Her smoking, makeup, dress caused raised eyebrows but oh holy smokes, the tattoo just confirmed it. She was a "woman of the world"! I guess the slimmest connection could be that she's a prostitute but I don't see any negative connotation of being a "woman of the world". I must be misunderstanding some cinematic slang. All I saw was just rampant jealousy. The Countess just oozed bad ass charm.


How bad ass was she? Angered by the actions of the DA, she grabs a WHIP and runs to hall where she WHIPS him in front of the board. A WHIP. Holy hell. I hated that they kissed right after that and the movie ended. I would have rather she threw the whip at his face then drove off in a shiny carriage or something. A good solid middle finger would have worked. Eh. I guess all the 1920s movies had to end on a good note.

I was fascinated by the actress who played the Countess. She was played by the famed femme fatale, Pola Negri (what a cool name...). With some digging, I found that Negri was freakin' famous.Mega famous. She was gorgeous and a great actress. She was loved in Europe and coveted in US. Long story short: she ran in high societal circles. Her last appearance was in the "The Moon-Spinners" (which I just added and shall watch soon).

Unfortunately this movie isn't available on DVD. I would suggest keeping an eye out for it at restorative theaters such as the Egyptian theater or Silent Movie theater or Silent Movie festivals. 

NanoWrimo 2012

I have relunctantly put this blog on hiatus due to school and more importantly: NANOWRIMO!!! If you would like to become my writing buddy, my writing name is : dragonprincess. toodle-loo!

Evil Dead 2 : Dead by Dawn Original Theatrical Trailer