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Campfire Tales, a review by addicted2dvd

Campfire Tales
Horror takes a detour deep into the woods in this terrifying cross between 'Scream' and 'Tales From The Crypt', starring Christine Taylor ('Dodgeball') and Ron Livingston ('Office Space').

Returning home from a concert and driving recklessly, four teenagers crash their car on a deserted road. To ward off the cold, they build a fire and wait for help. But the hair-raising stories they tell around the fire put a deeper chill into the night. Each tale is more lurid, more horrifying, more shocking than anything they've heard before. Yet for these unlucky teens in the woods, the biggest shock is still to come...

My Thoughts:
I blind bought this one for this past year's Halloween Marathon. I enjoyed it so much then that I found myself ready to watch it again now. I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the first time. I am to the point of saying this is my favorite Anthology Horror at the moment. Not only was all 3 stories suspenseful with great atmosphere... the wrap around story (where anthologies usually loose me) was a really good story in it's own right. The only thing that I could consider a downfall in this movie would have to be the fact that the first 2 stories are tellings of very well known urban legends... so you fairly quickly know what to expect. But that is ok... because these stories are so well done that you still enjoy every moment of it... even if you do know where it is going. This is one I will highly recommend... especially if you like anthology horror.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon 1/2 - 1/4 on January 2nd, 2009)

Hop, a review by Dragonfire

Hop is a cute movie about the Easter bunny that I saw a few weeks ago.

The movie is cute and entertaining and a decent family friendly movie, though the plot is far from original.  A lot of what happens seems to be pulled and slightly changed from Santa Claus 2 and Santa Clause 3.  The move is still entertaining overall, but it would have been better if it is was more original.  There is a factory where the Easter Bunny and his workers make all the Easter candy.  That looked really cool, though it is a lot like the North Pole from the Santa Clause movies.  Having E.B. not want to take over for his father isn't that original either.  Despite the lack of originality, the movie does manage to work.  There really aren't any surprises to what happens.  A short voice over at the very beginning of the movie ruins what could have been a decent surprise.

The movie uses a blend of live action and computer animation.  The computer animation is used for the animal characters and the Easter Bunny Factory.  The animation is done well.  E.B. looks incredibly cute and cuddly.  The interaction between the actors and the animated characters is pretty good for the most part, though there is one or two times when something looks just a little off.  There is a decent amount of humor to what is going on, though some of it is a bitsilly.

The characters are fine, though none of them are developed that much.  It wold have been nice if the characters had more depth.  I did like seeing Kaley Cuoco in the movie. 

The movie is cute and fun overall, though it will probably be too silly for some people.  Kids may like the movie more than adults.



I did get a review posted on Epinions.

Hop

(From Hop on May 8th, 2011)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee: Season One (2009/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Length: 968 min. Video: Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Subtitles: French, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, English

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Plot:
Join the club and bring home the fun with Glee Karaoke and Glee A talented group of high school misfits transforms into a performing sensation with the help of a dedicated teacher. Through laughter, tears, irreverent humor and unforgettable music, they learn to follow their hearts and chase their dreams.


Glee
Season 1.01 Pilot
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Ryan Murphy (Writer), Brad Falchuk (Writer), Ian Brennan (Writer)
Director: Ryan Murphy
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Stephen Tobolowsky (Sandy Ryerson), Patrick Gallagher (Ken Tanaka), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Romy Rosemont (Carole Hudson), Ben Bledsoe (Hank Saunders), Justin Gaston (Football Player), Kent Avenido (Howard), Jane Galloway Heitz (Lillian Adler), Melanie Henderson (Barb), Aaron Hendry (Darren), Jerry Phillips (Young Finn), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez)

Next month season 3 of Glee is coming out on Blu-ray, so I thought I'd make a slow marathon out of it, Glee is a show I enjoy very much, especially the first two seasons. Season 3 was a bit of a let-down. I am curious how the fourth season will continue, as there probably will be a major shift in the show. Originally it was planned that after the characters graduate High School, they will introduce new characters and let the old characters leave. As it turns out, they decided to follow the old characters anyway, in addition to introducing new characters. This can fail horribly, but I am still hopeful, that they use the change in direction to get the show interesting again.
Even though I enjoy this show, I admit it has major flaws. I will try to mention the stuff which bothers me.

I will try something new this time around, to hopefully add more thoughts on an episode than a simple "I liked/didn't like it". I will use categories. I probably will add additional ones later on, or remove some.

Finncompetence:
Finn is the jock, who joins the Glee club. It is noticable, that the character is supposed to be the talented jock, who is the leader of the club. But he usually fails in many regards. He makes stupid decisions. Is acting completely clueless. Doesn't really sing well, in my opinion. And is the one in the cast who can't dance to save his life. A fact the producers only noticed when they started shooting. So I like to use this category to list some instances where Finn's incompetence to live up to what is expected of the character shows.
In the pilot, Rachel (the best singer in the Glee club with aspirations to star on Broadway) mentions that they need a male lead who can keep up with her vocally. And Mr. Schuester enlists Finn for this. Luckily for him the first major song they sing together is within his vocal range. He can do rock songs. It's the only type of songs I enjoy him doing.

Brittana:
Glee fans put together the name of two characters to build up names for couples. Brittana is short for Brittany/Santana. As you can guess, this is my favorite couple on the show. And it wasn't even planned, but the two characters just had so much great chemistry during the first season, that this couple just came to be. Huge part of this is due to the fact, that the two actresses playing these characters became best friends in real life, and that showed up on-screen. During the first season they were often (background) scene stealers because of their interaction.
The pilot doesn't have any of it yet, because Heather Morris, who plays Brittany was not cast yet. She was added to the cast with the second episode. Also Santana only has a few short scenes and doesn't say much yet.

Continuity:
Glee often has problems keeping their continuity in line. Mostly not that bothering, but I will mention some which bother me, when thinking more about it. The producers like to twist established facts to fit the current stories, or like to forget or mess up introduced storylines.
Two things I'd like to mention here regarding the pilot:
- The principal mentions that it costs $60 a month to keep Glee club alive. It is made clear throughout the season, that they do not have much of a budget. But still they often manage to have elaborate stage sets and clothes.
- A minor thing: Pictures of Rachel's dads are shown in this episode. But when the characters are finally shown for the first time in season three, they look completely different.

Notable music:
Not much yet. I like that the use two Journey songs here, which are again used in the season one finale. This brings a nice full circle to the season. One of the songs in not sung by the characters here, but will be in the finale. The other song is song here and is the signature song of Glee. It will be done again in the finale.
The song is "Don't Stop Believing", and always enjoyed it:


Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on August 5th, 2012)