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Frankenweenie, a review by Danae Cassandra

Frankenweenie
Year of Release: 2012
Directed By: Tim Burton
Starring: Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Animation

Overview:
From Disney and creative genius Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas) comes the hilarious and offbeat FrankenweenieFrankenweenie is alive with enchanting fun for the whole family.

My Thoughts:
First, let me say that I am unabashedly a fan of Tim Burton's work.  I've loved all of his stop motion films, and his live-action stuff is generally good too (if not as much).  I love his dark, atmospheric, gothic style.  I'm also a big fan of old, classic monster movies.  So it's almost a given that I was going to love Frankenweenie. 

There's a lot of homage paid to the classics - Frankenstein, obviously, but also all the old Universal films, Gamera, heck, there's even a Bambi Meets Godzilla moment.  There's some genuinely emotional moments; both mom and I teared up toward the end.  There's also an interesting take on the usual theme in horror films of science as dangerous - here it is the intent behind the science that creates danger, rather than the science itself.  Also the usual message about not being so judgmental, and a condemnation of mob mentality. 

A great film for older kids, especially ones who've seen Burton's other films, as well as adults, I can recommend this for anyone - unless they refuse to see a film where a dog dies (yes, I know that person).

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 4/5

(From Danae's 2013 Horror Marathon on October 6th, 2013)

Arachnophobia, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Arachnophobia
Year: 1990
Director: Frank Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Length: 109 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Jeff Daniels
Harley Jane Kozak
John Goodman
Julian Sands
Stuart Pankin
Brian McNamara

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
This is an enjoyable movie... but one I can only watch but so often... because of my own bad case of arachnophobia. Watching this movie (or any involving spiders) makes my skin crawl.  This movie has a couple faces I am familiar with. First we see Julian Sands... who I know from the first couple Warlock movies. Then for comic relief we have John Goodman who was Dan on Roseanne. I wouldn't say this is the best horror movie I ever seen... probably not even the best movie about spiders. But I do enjoy it... I would say it is an above average movie.



(From The Movies From Within My Lifetime on April 4th, 2011)

Angel Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: The fight for Connor reaches a climax. Wesley kidnaps the boy to protect him but Holtz as well as Wolfram & Hart want him - alive. Sahjhan on the other hand wants him to be dead.

My Opinion: That Holtz would kidnap the child came unexpected - I love this unpredictability. But Wesley looked rather dead and the episode when Buffy's mother died ended similar.

Synopsis: Angel tries everything in his power to open a portal into the hell dimension Quor'Toth, to get his son back. And for this he would stop short before nothing.

My Opinion: Phew, Wesley is not dead - yet. But he and Angel don't have anything to say to each other for quite some time. My assumption is that the Holtz/Sahjhan arc is over for now.

Synopsis: Cordelia returns from her vacation but everything has changed. And then there is a certain boss of a casino who wants to collect a soul that was promised to him quite some time ago.

My Opinion: This episode was ok, but I had the feeling that it was a filler. The story was complete in itself, they haven't continued old stories and haven't begun new ones.

Synopsis: The dark magics Angel used to make Sahjhan solid had unexpected side effects. A swarm of very thirsty creatures tries to break out of the hotel to find water.

My Opinion: There's the new arc (I presume). Conner is back and he has grown a "little". When I saw this I was remined of Hope in "Xena". But what else could they have done with the baby... But except for the last third the story was only average.

(From Angel Marathon on February 21st, 2008)