Goosebumps: The Movie

Happy Halloween...... Make that November. As some of you may remember I reviewed a few episodes of the Goosebumps TV show from the 90's. But apparently they made a movie out it. So is it as average as the show or will it actually be better? Let's find out.













Characters: Let's take a look at our main characters. There's Zach. He's bland end of story. There Hannah. She's the generic love interest end of story. There's Zach's Mother. She's barely in the movie.There's Zach's Aunt. She's also barely in the movie. There are these two cops who are barely in the movie but are actually pretty funny. And there's R.L. Stine as portrayed by Jack Black. Honestly he's my favourite characters because of how over the top he is. There are also the various villains from the books. But the only one to get a decent amount of screen time is Slappy the living dummy. Overall there are some pretty forgettable characters but the memorable ones make up for it.

Special Effects: It's a mixed bag. Some of the practical effects like the zombies are pretty convincing. But when they use CGI for monsters like the Yeti, werewolf, and the evil Gnomes I never believed that they were actually there. Overall the special effects are just okay.










Plot: The plot to this movie is a strange hybrid of Jumanji and Gremlins. I like both those movies so this one is pretty good. However I couldn't keep drawing comparisons like the monsters cutting the power and so on. There's also a romance plot with bland and blander..... I mean Zach and Hannah. As you may have guessed from my sarcasm this is my least favourite parts of the movie. But the memorable parts of the movie make up for it.







Conclusion: Overall this wasn't  bad. But with the uninteresting leads and unconvincing effects it's only okay. But some of the practical effects are nice and Jack Black as R. L. Stine sort of steals the show for me. So I do recommend this movie as a Halloween movie.... Even though Halloween is now over.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Roald Dahl books always seem to get movie adaptations. From Matilda, to The Witches, to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So making a movie out of Fantastic Mr. Fox seemed like a natural move. So let's get started in my review of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The film opens in what I am assuming is somewhere in North America in the year......something, where we see Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) walking home but Mr. Fox decides to take a short cut home through a local bird farm where he steals some birds but they end up getting trapped. Cut to two years later (twelve fox years) where we see they escaped the trap and they have a son named Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mr. Fox has given up bird stealing and has started writing a newspaper column. He is also in the market for a new house. He is looking at a big tree on a hill as his new home where he meats the building super Kylie the opossum (Wallace Wolodarsky). Mr. Fox consults his lawyer, Badger (Bill Murray), who says that the house is located right next to the farms of three of the most dangerous farmers, Walter Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Nathan Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon) Despite this Fox goes ahead and buys the house. Mean while Fox's nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) comes to visit them.



Now that they have moved near three of the most dangerous farmers Mr. Fox wants to get back in the business of stealing from farmers with the help of Kylie. First they break into Boggis' chicken farm and steal several chickens, then they break into Bunce's goose farm, and finally Bean's apple cider cellar. The farmers catch on to what's going on and they decide to shoot Mr. Fox. They only end up shooting off his tail and then they decide to buy some construction equipment and dig up the tree. The Fox Family dig an escape tunnel and hide out underground. It turns out that the construction equipment drove a lot of animals underground as well but Fox comes up with a plan. They tunnel their way to a flint mine to hide out in, but on the way they steal all the food from the three farms. When the farmers find out that they're farms have been robbed again, they get really mad and come up with a new plan. Meanwhile Ash and Kristofferson try to steal Mr.Fox's tail back but they find out that it isn't in the house and that Bean is wearing it as a tie so they try to escape but Kristofferson is captured.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Mr. Fox comes up with a rescue plan. First he writes the farmers a note saying that we will surrender himself if they give back Kristofferson. But it turns out he sets up a trap where the other animals throw flaming pine cones at the farmers to create a distraction while Fox, Kylie, and Ash steal a motorcycle and head to where Kristofferson is being held. They break in only to be confronted by a rabbid beagle which Mr. Fox distracts while Ash tries to break Kristofferson out. The farmers catch up only to be chased away by their own beagle. They Fox Family along with the rest of the animals now live in the sewer and they have plenty of food due to a secret entrance under a super market. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This is a great movie. The animation is pretty good and it has some of the best stop motion water. The actors all seem to be good in their parts and it is a very funny movie. So all in all I do recommend this movie. See you next time.

The Amazing Wiplala

Hi there some of you may remember that last year I reviewed a bunch of movies from TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids as an official reviewer. This year I am doing the same thing. If you want to see any of these movies they are playing April 7th through 19th at the TIFF Bell Light Box. So lets kick off these films with The Amazing Wiplala.

We start in Amsterdam where we meet our main characters a boy named Johannes (Sasha Mylanus), his sister Nella (Kee Ketelaar), and their father (Peter Paul Muller). They are all very distant with each other but one day Johannes thinks he sees a Leprechaun and he tries to catch it but it is not a Leprechaun it is a tiny person named Wiplala (Geza Weisz) who has magic powers such as freezing Johannes' cat Fly. Johannes tries to get Wiplala to unfreeze the cat but Wiplala only ends up turning the cat to stone. Johannes takes care of Wiplala while Nella and his father are out looking for Fly. But Nella finds out about Wiplala and promises to keep a secret. Later that day their friend Arhtur Hollidee (Paul Kooij) finds Wiplala but Wiplala gets scared and turns Arthur into a giant statue. That night the father takes them to a fancy restaraunt but Johannes doesn't want to leave Wiplala by himself so he takes him to the restaurant. But Wiplala turns the family's oysters into sushi and hot dogs and they get in trouble with the manager. Wiplala shrinks them down to his size and they escape the restaurant and spend the night in a grocery store.


Wiplala says that there is an entrance to his world through their house and that another one of his people can make them back to normal size. The father sees on TV that the giant statue of Arthur has drawn quite a bit of attention and the city says it will be demolished if who ever made it doesn't step forward. They see that a boy in the shop has a remote control car so they steal it and use it to escape the shop and ride away. They crash into a dog and the father fractures his arm. They go to a hospital where they find a sick child named Lotje (Gabbi Lieve van Waveren) who helps them by showing them to a doctor who takes seeing small people surprisingly well and fixes the fathers arm. But the very next morning they find out that the statue of Arthur will be destroyed the next morning so they need to think of a good plan. They order a pizza and they try to sneak on the pizza delivery boy's bike. But only Wiplala gets on and the rest are left behind. The next morning Wiplala flies in on a pigeon and tries to fly to their house before Arthur is destroyed.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

The pigeon crashes and Wiplala brings a giant statue of the Atlas (Hans Kesting) to life. This scene doesn't serve much purpose to the plot other then some funny lines and some cliche motivational speech for Wiplala. The Atlas' speech gives Wiplala the will to un-shrink the family and they manage to get to their home and they turn Arthur back to normal. Wiplala says he must return home but before going he gives Johannes his jacket (which looks kind of like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" jacket the more I look at it). Everyone has a happy new year (oh yeah this is kind of a Christmas movie I forgot to mention). The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This movie has some good points and some bad points. The effects are actually really good and some of the scenes are pretty funny. But the plot is really cliched and feels like it was made in the 1990's instead of recently. This definitely one of those cases where the trailer is much better then the movie. But if it does sound like your kind of thing I guess you could like it but I personally didn't like it but there are still a lot more to go and I'm sure they will be better. See you next time I've got more TIFF to review

The Neverending Story II

Well sequel month is almost over and it looks like I am going to finish it off with Neverending Story II. So let's go back to Fantasia as I review The Neverending Story II and see if it should really be Neverending or if it should have ended.

The movie opens with Bastian (Johnathan Brandis) going to the book store from the first movie where he meets with Mr. Coreander (Thomas Hill) and asks if he can read the Neverending Story Book again Coreander says no but Bastian takes it anyway. Bastian tries to read it but finds out that a lot of the pages are blank and then he goes into the world of the book. Inside the book a villain called Xayide (Clarissa Burnt) wants to take over the world of Fantasia by using a machine that takes away one of Bastians memories whenever he makes a wish with his new powers. Xayide sends her minion Nimbly (Martin Umbach) to try and trick Bastian into making a wish. Xayide sends a small army into the city but Bastian manages to defeat them. Bastian manages to contact the Childlike Empress (Alexandra Johnes) who tell Bastian that he needs to rescue her from Xayide. Bastian gets the help of Atreyu (Kenny Morrison) and Falkor (Donald Arthur) and they set off to find Xayide.




Bastian camps outside Xayide's fortress and try to figure out a plan to get inside. Meanwhile back in the real world Bastian's father (John Wesley Shipp) finds the book and takes it to Mr. Coreander but finds that most of the pages in the book are blank. They distract the guards and Bastian wishes for a way to climb up into the fortress. They corner Xayide and ask her where the Childlike Empress is. Xayide says she will tell them if she takes them to Silver City. Xayide and her minions take a carriage to the city and use the fact that Bastian is slowly using his memories to try and manipulate him into thinking that Ateyu and Falkor are against him and that he can trust her. Bastian and Atreyu get into a fight and Bastian accidentally pushes Atreyu off of a cliff Falkor carries Atreyu away and leaves Bastian with Xayide. Bastians runs away to find Atreyu and Falkor but Xayide and her minions are hot on his trail.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Bastian can only make two more wishes before he doesn't remember anything. Bastian finds Falkor and Atreyu but finds that Atreyu is dead. He uses a wish to bring him back to life. Back in the real world Bastians father returns to the bookstore to find that whole store has vanished into thin air. Xayide catches up to them but Bastian uses his last wish to wish that Xayide has a heart which ends up making her explode. Bastian saves The Childlike Empress and all of Fantasia. Bastian returns
home to his father who now knows all about the Neverending Story. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

This wasn't that good of a sequel. The acting isn't that good and the plot seems a bit overdone. But the sets and make up is quite impressive. So it's a good looking movie just not a good movie plot wise. But if you think you might like it check it out it's still better then the third one. See you all next time.