 Under the Radar
Upon surfing Netflix for something to fit "under the radar", I stumbled on this 'Jumanji' sounding movie about a board game that holds secrets that effect the outside world. I figured why not, watched it, and my opinion at the end of the day is... mixed. Upon learning that their father is missing, two estranged brothers, Gordon (Graham Skipper) and John (Chase Williamson), come together at their dad's old video store to pack things in and sell off his stuff. Gordon finds a key that unlocks their Dad's back office where they discover a video board game called 'Beyond the Gates'. The game is brought over to Gordon and his Wife, Margot's (Brea Grant) house where they decide to start playing it. They soon learn that the game intends to lead them to their missing father, and despite dire consequences the game seems to carry with it, the group (more specifically the brothers) stop at nothing to find their dad. Now, to get into my mixed feelings on the film. The overall concept was something enjoyable. It managed to do the whole board-game-come-to-life concept without really ripping anything off. For a large part of it, the brothers don't fully realize what's going on outside of the game, and this time around it's a video board game. These were a big hit back in the late 80s and early 90s, perhaps most famous of which was 'Nightmare' (along with many sequels). I also have to appreciate the makeup effects here, which add some fairly over the top and freakish gore, and a great look to some of the more demonic entities throughout the climactic portion of the film. Hell even the actng throughout this otherwise low-budget flick isn't that bad. Not great, but not as bad as one might expect. But that's where the twist comes in for me. It's good to see some of the drama here, but there's a backstory that really goes nowhere (unless I just completely missed something) having to do with a prior drinking problem that Gordon had. It's touched on a few times through the movie, but it never really goes anywhere. It's just thrown in for us to try to sympathize with Gordon, as he regrets his actions so badly. I mean, I guess it's touching to see that he has something he's struggling with, but at the end of the day, it feels like filler. That side story aside, I also think that one of the weaker actors here was Evelyn (Barbara Crampton), the host of the game. She represents the "name" for the movie. Every low budget movie needs some sort of a name to give it a bit of fuel. I've seen this actress in other things where she's been much better. She's barely intimidating here, and she could have done more to be more creepy. But I guess that's just how it was directed. The film can be found on Netflix, so if you have an hour and a half to kill, you might wanna check it out for yourself. It's another one of those movies that I'm probably just gonna eventually forget about. Worth checking out once just to see it, but it certainly doesn't demand any kind of revisit either. It's a 3, but it's a low 3. 3/5
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Let me first be honest in fully admitting that yes, I actually did enjoy the first 'Goosebumps' film. It was a neat nostalgic trip for me, as I was a fan of some of the books, and even watched a bit of the show when I was younger. 'Goosebumps' is pretty much in the same realm as 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' for me in that it kinda represents my first little tiptoes into the horror genre. It's family friendly fun, but still kinda genuinely creepy in its own right. The first film had kids find some of RL Stine's original Goosebumps manuscripts, opening them up, and unleashing a horrible magic on the town, having the books come to life and terrorize everything in sight, lead by none other than Slappy of, perhaps Stine's most famous 'Goosebumps' title, 'Night of the Living Dummy'. It was just a lot of fun for any inner child fanboy of Stine's. However here, we have the sequel, which is quite literally more of the same and, in fact, much weaker than the original. This time around we have a couple of "loser" kids who have their own junk collecting company (equivalent to something like a lawn mowing business or a snow shoveling business, getting a bit of cash along the way). On one of their jobs, they find a book with scripture that one of the kids reads, and brings Slappy back to life. This time around, Slappy DOES end up being a bit more of the dummy from the books, however, in that at first, he's a little more tame. He's just looking at these guys, Sonny and Sam (Jeremy Ray Taylor and Caleel Harris, respectively) as potential brothers, and wants to be part of a family. Ultimately, it's mentioned that all he wants is a mother, but we sadly never really find out why at all he wants this. It's just kind of an excuse of a plot device that doesn't really go anywhere. Anyway, sure enough, when Slappy starts going a bit overboard with his obsessions and gets denied, he heads to a Halloween store to bring a bunch of Halloween merch to life and terrorize a town again. So like I say, it's generally the same movie as before. Jack Black does make his return as the fame author, however this time he's far less a part of things. He's kind of just a crowbarred in cameo here, and at the end of the day, there's no real other purpose for him being there. The film is basically an excuse to grab a few extra dollars, and didn't have the same feel as the original. From my perspective, the first was more something made for nostalgic fans to enjoy, whereas this was more something that had no excuse NOT to go straight to video. It actually has that "straight-to-video" feel to it. With that last part said, I'll have to conclude that this might still be fun to bring the kids to. However, watching it as a nostalgic fan, it's not entirely worth the cheap Tuesday matinee price of the big screen experience, let alone a full price experience. I'd recommend just waiting for it to be released where you can check it out for free. It's a bit of fun, but it's just not that great altogether. 3/5  Catching Up
Okay, so I guess my biggest question here is... who in the hell is this movie for? It feels like a kid's movie, a teen movie and an adult comedy all rolled into one. It has a PG-13 rating, but half of it consists of the kind of the kind of material you might find on the Disney channel and the other half is pretty much 'Jackass'. I mean, I guess it has its moments, but I genuinely couldn't figure out who I might recommend this movie to. Here we're dealing with a teenage girl named Wren (Victoria Justice) who loses her little brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll) while out trick or treating. While she looks for him, her "best friend" April (Jane Levi), just wants to get to some popular guys party because he's "hot" or whatever. In the meantime, Albert is picked up by a creepy teenage kid out for revenge based on his broken heart named Fuzzy... yes, a little kid is randomly picked up by a dude named Fuzzy. Though the movie does address the overall creepiness of this, it doesn't really change much because this guy is STILL a creepy weirdo based on his actions. He's out to mess up a guy named Jörgen's (Johnny Knoxville) house with the help of this kid. There's more going on here as well, when two nerdy kids join the little brother search and rescue mission so that there can be a very obvious set-up for a hook-up at the end. Said nerds are the somewhat charming Roosevelt (Thomas Mann) and a sort of low-brow horn-dog named Peng (Osric Chau). And let's not leave out the other side story involving Wren's mother, Joy (Chelsea Handler) in the midst of a mid-life crisis. She's trying to stay young, dresses up like a school girl and heads to a Halloween party at her boyfriend, Keevin's (Josh Pence) mom's house. So yeah, there's quite a bit going on here. It almost feels like the movie tries to dish out something for everyone, but it's to an extent that makes no real sense. A lot of the humor throughout the film is quite low-brow, and there's honestly no character in this film I actually care about. MAYBE Wren's mother to some extent, but otherwise, I didn't particularly like any one character here. As I said before, I suppose if you dig deep enough, you can find a moment or two to appreciate here. But all in all, this one was just kinda forgettable. As far as Halloween movies go, it'd never find its way on my favorites list, personally. I'm glad I finally watched it to see what it was all about, but I think there's a reason no one ever really seems to talk about it. 2/5 |
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