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.

Top Ten Creepy Characters

In honour of the fact that Halloween is coming soon I thought I would do a top ten list. I will be listing characters from TV and movies that I find the most creepy. This is all opinion based so your favourite character may not be here. Let's get started.






10 Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh
I haven't watched this show in a while but from what I can remember it's about as much fun as watching someone play a card game. The reason Marik is so low is because I can't remember much about him. I put him up here mostly based on his appearance. Seriously what is wrong with his face?







9 Manbat from Batman the Animated Series
Batman the Animated Series is a great version of the Batman character. But seriously look at this guy. He is terrifying. I will not be able to sleep for weeks now. And his transformation scene where he becomes Manbat isn't very fun to watch.









8 The Pottsfielders from Over the Garden Wall
Over the Garden Wall is a great TV miniseries. In the second episode the main characters find a town called Pottsfield. It seems pretty normal except for the fact that all the people there are skeletons wearing pumpkins. They all look so uncanny and the leader pumpkin has a really creepy voice. However the reason their so low is that they don't do anything that evil.







7 Puppet King from Teen Titans
I love puppets. Okay, that's a lie. Puppets are freaky. I mostly have the Twilight Zone  to thank for that. And a Puppet that turns people into puppets is supper creepy. We never find out what Puppet King is and they never appear again after that making them all the more creepy.









6 The Summerween Trickster from Gravity Falls
I  hope your in the Halloween spirit. Because if your not your gonna get eaten by a freaky ghost thing. Everything from his character design to his voice is just plain creepy. Also throughout the episode his design becomes more deformed and creepy. Yay fun for the whole family.







5 Sabrina from Pokémon
Ah Pokémon, a world a wonder and adventure.... and crazy ladies with psychic powers who turn people into dolls. Sabrina would be creepy enough on her own but she also has miniature doll of herself. Also, fun fact. The episode she is featured in is the first episode of the show I saw.... Great way to start off.









4 This Guy from the Adventures of Mark Twain
You know that scene from Dumbo with the pink elephants? Imagine that only a million times more freaky. And like the elephants this guy never shows up again. Fun fact the scene he is featured in is actually cut from some TV broadcastings of the movie. It's that terrifying.






3 Giffanny from Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls makes a second appearance on the list. This time for a character that everything they do is just disturbing. Even before they do anything evil their just unnerving. Also towards the end of the episode they posses some animatronics at a Chuck E Cheese knock off. So congrats Gravity Falls you have made me afraid of Anime and Chuck E Cheese.





2 The Beast from Over the Garden Wall
Speaking of shows making a return Over the Garden Wall is on this list again. Who is the beast? What is the beast? What do they look like? You never know and that is what makes them scary for me. It's the mystery aspect.







1 The Other Mother from Coraline
I know I've mention them before but seriously they are scary. Even before she transforms into a spider monster there is just something unsettling about them. You really have to watch the movie to see for yourself. But I think they are one of the creepiest characters in fiction. Happy Halloween.

Hotel Transylvania

It's time for another review. And this time it's in a new format. The movie I am reviewing is Hotel Transylvania. Seems like good timing since the sequel is coming out soon. Small side note there will be some spoilers in the "Plot" section of the review. Let's get started.

Characters: The main characters are Dracula, his daughter Mavis, and Jonathan the human. Dracula is basically every over protective dad character ever. But he is kind of funny. Mavis is sort of boring but they aren't terrible. And Jonathan is actually really annoying and totally X-Treme..... With an X for some reason. The side characters like the the Wolfman, Frankenstein, the hotel workers and the hotel guests are actually pretty funny. Jonathan sort of kills the movie for me. But the other characters are pretty good.

Animation: The animation is the best part of the movie for me. Every character stands out and some of the backgrounds have cool details in it. I also like some of the chase scenes in the movie. Of course the animation might me a bit too cartoonish for some people but personally I really like it. So in my opinion this is one of the aspects of the movie.









Music: There are several songs in this movie and I didn't like any of them. The first one felt like it was written ten minuets before recording. The second one had some very painful product placement for Doritos. The one after that was just mindless shouting that I couldn't even understand. And the last one was the worst pop song I have ever heard in a movie. So if your watching this on DVD you might want to skip the songs.

Plot: The first half of the movie is pretty good. We see how the hotel works and that is actually pretty cool. The plot actually starts when Jonathan enters and he and Mavis fall in love. I get annoyed by Jonathan but it's okay so far. But in final act of the movie is where things get really cliché. We have Jonathan leaving but then he comes back....Gee, didn't see that coming. And towards the end they say the word "Zing" a million times and now I never want to hear that word again. So overall the first two halves of the movie are better than the last





Final thoughts: For me Hotel Transylvania is a very mixed bag. Some jokes work but some are just forced. Some characters I like but others are really bad. The animation great.. Would I watch it again? Probably. Will I go see the sequel? Yes. In the end Hotel Transylvania isn't a bad movie.... But it isn't great either. So I half recommended. This has been another instalment of Keaton on Films.

Goosebumps Part II

Last Halloween I reviewed the 90's television series Goosebumps. The series was based on a series of scary children's books of the same name. It was supposed to be like The Twilight Zone for kids. I only reviewed three of the series episodes and I am back for more. I will be reviewing. So let's see if I'm in for a scare or if it's not as scary as it may seem.


You Can't Scare Me: First episode on the list is  You Can't Scare Me. The episode starts with two people out in the swamp but then they both are attacked by monster made out of mud. But this scene only turns out to be a report on local legends being given by a girl name Courtney. Two of the other kids in the school Eddie and Hat (yes Hat is the only name we get for him) don't seem to like Courtney because she is very stuck up and thinks she is better than everyone else. So Eddie and Hat decide to pull a prank on her by putting a snake in her lunch bag. This only ends up scaring her friends and Courtney just puts the snake outside. They try something to scare her again by dropping a spider on her head but that doesn't work either. They decide to try one last time by pretending to be mud monsters in the bog. After inviting her out to the bog they over themselves in mud and try and scare her she realizes it's them and lectures them. But then a real mud monster comes out of the bog but Courtney isn't afraid of it either and she ends up lecturing it until it dries up from being in the sun for too long. Okay, I will admit that was really funny. Courtney gets lots of local media coverage for discovering the monster and Eddie and Hat wander off to and sit on the bench. But then after they sit down they notice another mud monster behind them. The End....or is it?





This episode was pretty average. Courtney was an annoying character but so were Eddie and Hat so there aren't too many likeable characters. However the ending was hilarious and it makes up for having to sit through what otherwise is a very dull episode.

The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight: Two kids go to visit their grandparents who live on a farm. Their grandparents have a really weird farm hand name Stanley who is always raving about how the scarecrows in the field are alive. Nobody believes him of course and the kids get on with the vacation. The next day the kids are out playing catch when the ball is throw out into the corn field but when they go get it a scarecrow attacks them. But then it turns out it's just a kid named Sticks playing a prank on them. That night Stanley keeps going on about how the scarecrows in the field are alive but everyone ignores him. The next day a scare crow comes out of the field and falls on top of one of the kids. They assume Sticks is at it again and that night prepare to scare him back. But that night they see one of the scarecrows walking and Sticks explains that Stanley brought them to life to do farm work for him but now their out of control. They manage to shread the scarecrows into little pieces using the thresher but the next day the thresher is alive. The End....or is it?





This episode was pretty good. The acting ranged from okay to weird and there were a lot of awkward pauses. The make up was actually really good and their were some scarty moments. All and all a pretty decent episode.

Shocker on Shock Street: A girl named Erin and her friend Marty are at Erin's dads work shop. He works as a special effects designer for horror movies. Most notably a series of movies called the Shock Street Saga. Erin's father meets them and says that he is working on a horror themed ride for the local amusement park and he wants Erin and Marty to test it. They get on the ride but about halfway through it gets stuck and they get out and walk around. They find them selves on the set to of Shock Street from the movies but end up running into a lot of monsters which it turns out are not special effects but rather real monsters. Meanwhile the father and his assistants are trying to find them. They eventually find them but it turns out that the kids aren't humans but really.............Robots that their father used to test the rides at the park.......I won't question it. Later in the fathers lab he is seen building two new robots but the old ones reactivate to take revenge on him, The End......or is it?




This episode......was really weird. Not only does the twist make zero sense but not much happens for most of the episode. Most of the episode is just the two kids walking around the park. Not too much to say about this epsiode but, What?


And that was my second review of the Goosebumps TV show. If you want to hear more about what I thinl about it go check out mu first review I did last Halloween. Until next time this has been Keaton on Films.

Jurassic Park vs Jurassic World

Jurassic Park is a classic movie combining likeable characters good humor and suspenseful action. Then there was the sequel The Lost World the less said about this the better. Finally the sequel nobody asked for Jurassic Park III. But just this year a new movie under the title of Jurassic World was released. I will be comparing it to the original and seeing if it measures up. I will look at the characters, plot, setting, effects, and action Keep in mind there will be some spoilers for those of you who haven't seen either of these movies. Will it be as good as the original, or will it be just another failed sequel? Let's find out.

Main Characters

In the first movie the main characters were Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Dr. Malcolm, John Hammond, and Hammond's grandchildren Lex and Tim. Grant and Sattler are probably the movies best characters and they have very good on screen chemistry. Jeff Goldblum's performance as Dr. Malcolm is just a bit too quirky and awkward for my taste. Hammond is good character but isn't very good at running the park...like at all. The kids are kind of just annoying especially Tim. In Jurassic World the main characters are two kids named Gray and Zach, their Aunt Claire who helps run the park, a worker at the park named Owen Grady, and the movies main villain Hoskins. The kids in this movie are less annoying but don't really do much Claire is possibly worse at running the park than John Hammond. Owen is probably the best character in the movie and he's played by Chris Pratt so that's pretty cool. Claire and Owen also have good on screen chemistry but not as good as Sattler and Grant. Hoskins is sort of just added on for a kind of forced animal rights message and honestly Dinosaurs are supposed to be the villains anyway. Onto the supporting characters.

Supporting Characters

The first movie has supporting characters like Gennaro the lawyer, Muldoon the Australian hunter guy, Ray Arnold the computer guy, Dennis the other computer guy, and Dr. Henry Wu the scientist. Honestly all of them are just there as Dino food except for Dr. Wu who is only there for a bit of brief exposition. Not much else to say about the first movie. Jurassic world has the parks owner Mr. Masrani, Lowery and Vivian the security people/comic relief, Owen's co-worker Barry, this British lady who is supposed to be looking after the kids, and the only member of the original cast, Dr. Wu. Again mostly just there as Dino food and comic relief. However Dr. Wu was a very minor character but for some reason they decided to bring him back as a villain, not to sure why, but he ends up stealing all the scenes he's in. Onto the Setting.

Setting

They are set in the same place but there are some major differences from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. In Jurassic Park the park was more like a zoo where you got in a Jeep drove around and looked at dinosaurs. I also liked all the phony Jurassic Park merchandise. The early 90's technology did make the film look a bit dated and it isn't a small thing to over look. In Jurassic World it is more like a theme park with Dino rides for little kids, rafting down a river, a Sea World like water dinosaur show (with splash zone), and an enclosed area for flying Dinosaurs. It is actually very well created and I admired that aspect of the movie. Now let's see how the action measures up.

Action

In the first movie the action was slow and suspenseful in this the action face paced and panicky. For this one it's all a matter of preference but I personally prefer the action in the original myself. I guess it just is better at keeping you guessing. But the action in Jurassic World is actually really well shot. That's about it for the action. Now onto the Effects.

                                                                                     Effects

The effects in the first movie were of course ground breaking, now that it's 2015 the effects have gotten better. But in Jurassic world the effects are kind of all over the place sometimes it's convincing like with the hybrid Dinosaur and others not so much like with the fish Dinosaur. The original was more consistent with the quality of the CGI and combined it well with practical effects. Speaking of which the best effects in Jurassic world are probably the animatronics which I am glad they included. Well time to movie onto the final aspect, the plot.

                                                                                    Plot

The plot of the original is that after an employee of Jurassic Park is killed the park director John Hammond calls in some experts to evaluate the safety but a storm knocks out the power letting the dinosaurs loose. In Jurassic World the park is reopened and the park director Mr. Masrani wants new attraction so they do the only sane thing make a hybrid dinosaur  out of the DNA of other dinosaurs. The first movie is of course a classic but not perfect mostly due to Hammond's constant incompetent actions such as  letting all but three employees leave during a storm, not having stronger fences, and letting the one disgruntled employee be in charge of the power. Of course the plot to Jurassic World isn't without it's problems either. As I said Claire and Mr. Masrani are probably more incompetent than John Hammond by choosing to reopen it in the first place. Also my suspension of disbelief was being played with a bit too much and towards the end it got a bit ridiculous, and with not trying to give to much away the Hybrid Dino is defeated with a bit of a Deus Ex Machina (look it up if you don't know what it means). There are  also some references to the other movies some of which are clever others are a bit forced. Well I've finished comparing now for my final opinion.

Jurassic Park is definitely the better movie but Jurassic world is still worth seeing. Both these films have their strengths and weaknesses and I found myself being entertained by them. Jurassic world is probably the best of the sequels and I recommend seeing it on the big screen. I would also recommend re watching Jurassic Park as it is a good movie. So that was my comparation of both movies I hope you like it and feel free to state your opinion on which movie is better. See you all next time.

House on Haunted Hill

Hey everyone I don't think I've reviewed many scary movies so why don't I review this one. It is directed by William Castle (who is famous for making movies with gimmicks) and stars Vincent Price so this should be pretty good. It's a dark and stormy night so let's review House on Haunted Hill.

A man named Watson Prichard (Elisha Cook) tells the audience that he is the owner of a house he belives to be haunted. A eccentric millionare named Frderick Loren (Vincent Price) and his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) rent the house to host a party. He invites Mr. Prichard, a jet pilot named Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), a psychiatrist named Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshall), one of Mr. Loren's employees named Norah Manning (Carolyn Craig), and a newspaper wrter named Ruth Bridgers (Julie Michum). They all arive at the house and find that their host is nowhere to be found. After a chandelier falls and almost hits one of the guests Mr. and Mrs. Loren show up and welcome them to the party. He says that after midnight they will be locked inside the house. Mr. Prichard tours them around the house and shows them the wine cellar where there is a vat of acid in the middle. Lance and Norah look around the cellar and Lance gets locked in a room. When the rest of them find hi he had been hit in the head very hard.



Lace says he must have bumped his head against the wall. However Lance and Norah go down stairs to the cellar again and look in the room where Lance bumped his head Norah sees what appears to be a ghost of an old woman but no one believes her.  Norah goes up to her room and an old man tells her to leave before it`s to late. It turns out that the ghost in the basement and the old man are just the caretakers of the mansion but they end up locking everyone in the house meaning that nobody can leave. To make things interesting Mr. Loren gives everyone guns. OK we are about halfway into this  murder mystery horror movie and we haven`t seen any ghosts and nobody is dead....kind of a misleading description. Everyone is looking around the house but then they realize that Norah is missing. But there is no time to worry about that because then Anabelle turns up dead and it looks like somebody hung her. Lance finds Norah and says someone tried to kill her so Lance hides her in his room while the rest go downstairs to descuss what is happening.

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

They all make the decision to stay in their rooms and not leave for the entire night. But Norah sees the ghost of Annabelle at her window which causes her to snap and leave her room. Dr. Trent sees Norah and tells Mr. Loren that she is heading down to the basement. It turns out that Annabelle isn't dead and that she and Dr. Trent are working together to kill Mr. Loren. Mr. Loren heads into the basement where Norah accidently shoots him and kills him. Dr. Trent tries dumps his body into the vat of acid. Before we sees him being dumped we cut to Annabell going into the basment and and sees Mr. Loren's living skeleton which causes her to walk into the vat of acid. It turns out that the skeleton was just a puppet and that Mr. Loren used a bullet proof vest and tossed Dr. Trent into the vat of acid. So there weren't any ghost the whole time...or were there? The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

House on Haunted Hill is a very silly movie. With over the top acting and bad special effects it doesn't hold up well now adays. The whole thing felt like an episode of Scooby Doo but it was all very hilarious to watch. Now there are some jump scares so I wouldn't recomend showing it to small children. But if you want a silly mystery this movie is for you. See you next time.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

As you may remember last Halloween I reviewed the movie Gremlins. I didn't know there was a sequel till sometime last year. Usually this is a bad sign, but you can't judge a movie by it's poster. So let's tune into the Clamp Cable Network as I review Gremlins 2: The New Batch.









The movie starts in New York in the shop from the first movie where we see Mr. Wing (Keye Luke) being approached by a man named Forster (Robert Picardo) who asks on the behalf of his boss Daniel Clamp (John Glover) if he could sell his business to him so that he can build this project he is working on. He says no and Forster leaves. Fast forward a few months later it turns out Mr. Wing has died and the building is being destroyed. But, the Mogwai from the first movie Gizmo (Howie Mandel) is still inside. Luckily he manages to escape but two scientists named Lewis and Martin (Dan and Don Stanton) find Gizmo and take him away. Meanwhile it turns out that Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) from the first movie live in New York and work at the Clamp Enterprises. Kate is a tour guide and Billy is an artist in the art department. Billy knows a man named Fred (Robert Prosky) who works as the host of this corny horror show as the persona of Uncle Fred the vampire. Fred tells Billy about this new genetic research lab which he thinks seems very suspicious. Meanwhile in the lab it turns out that the two doctors from before work in that lab and the lead doctor Dr. Catheter (Christopher Lee) is planning to do experiments on Gizmo.

Billy hears one of the employees whistling Gizmo's song and Billy decides to investigate the lab. He finds Gizmo and lets him out. Billy tells Kate about Gizmo and tells her to pick him up and take him to their apartment. But a malfunctioning water fountain causes Gizmo to get wet and multiply into four more Mogwai with the leader being a Mogwai named Mohawk (Frank Welker). Kate accidentally picks up the wrong Mogwai and takes them home. But they realise the mistake and just as they are about to take the Mogwai back Murray (Dick Miller) and Shelia (Jackie Joseph)Futterman from the first movie come to visit Billy and Kate. They get the Futtermans to leave and go back to the Clamp Building where the evil Mogwai invade a frozen yogurt bar and eat a bunch of the food there causing them to turn into Gremlins. But before Kate and Billy can stop the Gremlins and find Gizmo they have to go do their jobs. But while Kate is giving a tour of the TV studio the Gremlins invade a cooking show and cause a fire activating the sprinklers which makes them multiply into more Gremlins. It is utter chaos and it gets worse when they break into the genetics lab and drink all sorts of chemicals making them mutate into different types of gremlins like a Bat Gremlin, a super smart Gremlin who can talk (Tony Randall), and a Vegetable Gremlin (OK that last one sounds a bit dumb).

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

Billy finds Mr. Clamp and comes up with a plan; they will trick the Gremlins into thinking that it's night outside and when they go out and they will get burned up. Then we get this scene where the Gremlins take over the projection booth and Hulk Hogan scares them off (this scene would be a lot cooler if you watched it in theatres). Mr. Clamp uses his emergency exit. Forster, Dr. Catheter, and Billy try to stop the Gremlins from eating all the chemicals but by this point there are even more mutant Gremlins such as an electric Gremlin and Mohawk had become a spider Gremlin. Meanwhile outside Mr. Futterman hears about the building being invaded so he sneaks in. The plan is in motion but just when everything is going great it starts to rain outside. But Billy comes up with a plan to use the electric Gremlin to kill all the other Gremlins. The plan works and Billy Kate and Gizmo are safe. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Gremlins 2 was surprisingly good. The acting is good and some of the animatronics are better than the first movie. It is also very funny and clever with some of its humor. However it does feel more like a parody of Gremlins then a sequel but that isn't a bad thing. So if this seems like your thing check it out some time. See you next time.