Posts by Brent Lorentson

There is something I find unsettling about an amusement park after hours, when all the rides are shut down and the laughter and screaming of kids running around are gone.  These parks, for the most part, are designed to take us to another time or another world where reality is how the park engineers design it to be.  So when Skip (Jason Spisak) arrives at the Old West theme park to be the overnight janitor, I could appreciate the surreal world he would be stepping into.  As we go along with him on a tour during his first day, his guide and superior is played by Jon Gries, who seems to have a story for just about everything at the park.

The setup for the anthology is a bit hokey considering all these objects are supposed to tie into these grand little tales that the guy is telling, but it does keep the film going.  The first story is in fact also the most enjoyable of the films. It’s the story of a boxer who is down on his luck and seems to be on the verge of losing his career until a suspicious older man hands the boxer a pair of beat up old gloves.  Ricky Schroder fills in the gloves of the boxer and actually brings in the most notable performance of the film.  As he laces up his gloves and he steps into the ring, he transforms into a mean and lean fighter, and it becomes a challenge for him to hold back with opponents, one of whom he beats to death.  Unfortunately this story ends too soon, and from here on the film simply goes downhill.

In 1998 following the release of Roland Emmerich’s version of Godzilla, the story would continue following some of the characters that we met in the film as well as a host of other characters and monsters.  With a 40-episode run coming out to about 14 hours of television, the DVD release of the series comes out at just the right time for those who need a temporary fix before seeing their favorite big green lizard splash across the big screen once again.

I love just about any story that involves giant robots or monsters fighting.  Even the ‘98 film version of Godzilla had its moments of charm.  What the series brings to viewers (though its target audience is younger than most of the adult fans) is the possibility of what Godzilla could be had the story simply continued on.  The series picks up not long after the events in New York, when Nick Tatopoulos (voiced by Ian Ziering) discovers an adolescent Godzilla that forms an attachment to Nick.  This attachment allows Nick control over the giant lizard and it also becomes Nick’s protector whenever he finds himself in trouble and in need of aid (which is at least forty times going by the episode count).

Martial arts films are just about as done to death as the slasher film.  Just about every angle and direction that you can take with these films has been explored by now.  When it comes to the martial arts genre, seeing a student or son avenge their father or master is just about the motivation in most of these films, but audiences accept this  because what we are sitting down for is the action.  Seriously, how many people remember the plots of the old Jackie Chan or Jet Li films?  But go back even further to the core classics like The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin or Five Deadly Venoms; these films are all rooted in the spirit of revenge. 

As for where Warrior Assassin falls, well, it is far from a classic, though it tries so hard to follow in the footsteps of the great films of the past but instead simply comes off looking like someone doing a Shaw Brother cos-play with their VHS camera.

With all the zombie media out there have you ever thought what you would do if you found yourself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse?  It’s fun to discuss your plans for survival and clever weapons you may devise to battle the hordes of the undead.  But what would you do if a loved one was infected and became one of the undead? Would you be able to simply put them down so easily?  Or would you tend to them with the hope that somehow they could return and not be the flesh-eating monstrosity they’ve come to be?  About A Zombie takes a faux-documentary approach and captures a family that has been struck with the dilemma and has decided to take in and nurture their zombiefied kin despite all the dangers that come along with it.

An American documentary film crew gets word about a Dublin family whose son Billy is infected during a zombie outbreak taking place in Ireland.  The film crew rushes over and begins filming as the situation seems only to escalate.  The people of the town seem to all be in agreement, that Billy should be killed right along with all the other zombies.

The summer camp horror genre seems to have been on the back burner for a while in my opinion.  Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13^th, and The Burning are some of the classics I used to watch over and over when I was younger.  Camp Dread looks to revisit this old-school sub-genre and reboot it with a new twist; this time it’s using a backdrop of a reality show to get these unsuspecting campers together.  It’s not the most original approach to the genre, but what is most surprising is that Camp Dread actually holds up with the previous films and franchises I mentioned and could easily be seen as an unofficial sequel to any of them.

Julian Barrett (Eric Roberts) is looking to make a comeback.  It’s been years since he’s directed his hit summer camp horror trilogy, but now that the right investors have come along he plans to reboot the once successful franchise as well as his career, only this time he plans the film to work in a reality TV format.  To factor in another twist in the film, instead of using actors or people just looking to be famous, he instead casts a group of young adults who believe they are on their way to a camp for rehab in order to avoid jail time or being locked away in mental facility.  Is the plan exploitive? Of course, but Barrett promises that the cast member who plays by the rules and is the last survivor standing is the winner of a million dollars.