Before I start, I'd like to take a chance to thank all of those who posted a response to my first DVD review a few days ago. It means a lot and as long as you guys are interested in reading them, I'll keep writitng them.

Now that that's out of the way, here's my review of The Hills Have Eyes 2: Unrated, courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. By the way, I didn't have the box available to scan, but I have a copy of the poster. It's exactly what's on the cover.

The Movie

Picking up a year from the events of the last film, the story picks up in a New Mexico desert with a group of inexperienced National Guard reservists returning from a failed training exercise. Stopping by a nearby camp where a group of scientists were conducting research, they discover that the research team has mysteriously disappeared. Deciding to investigate, the soldiers venture into the mountains...not knowing about the gorup of mutated cannibals that live there. What starts out as a rescue mission quickly desends into a fight for surivial for everyone involved.

Looks like someone missed the lesson on how to take hostages.

After watching last year's remake to Wes Craven's cult film from 1977, I was suprised on how much they kept close to the source material.It wasn't the best horror movie, but at least it was somewhat okay, despite falling into the category of "torture porn". When I heard that there was going to be a follow-up, I thought it might be a decent sequel.

What the **** did I know?

There is absolutely NOTHING worthwhile or redeeming in this film from the characters to the plot. For a group of people who are supposed to be in the military, I've never seen such a group of people so inept in uniform short of being a Taco Bell employee. There are a few scenes in the film where their incompetence leads them to do more damage to each other than to the mutants they're up against. None of the soldiers are remotely likeable or have any worthwhile peosonality that makes them stand out, or makes you have any sort of sympathy for them. I kept watching the clock to see when the killings would start.

The script isn't gonna win any Oscars anytime soon, either. I'm not expecting writing in a horror flick to to be of worthwhile quality like The Godfather, but there is a LOT of cringe-inducing dialogue that just takes away from the experience. Being that the script was co-written by Wes Craven, I expected something halfway decent, but it seems like he's just collecting a paycheck on this film.

It's no wonder that the film tanked when it was released earlier this year. If this a sign of Craven's quality of movies to come, I'll just stick with watching his earlier movies on DVD.

"Sweet Zombie Jesus, what the hell did I eat?!"

Visuals

The movie is presented in a standard widescreen format. The colors look kinda washed out in some outdoor scenes and the interior shots look too dark in certain scenes, so it makes it difficult to properly see what's happening onscreen.

"Aww, c'mon baby...my parents are asleep, and I have protection. I promise I won't tell anyone at school. Would you at least just touch it?"

Sound

You get to pick from from an English 5.1 track, or Spanish and French language dubs, both in Dolby surround. The music and sound effects are standard screams and an unremarkable score, so it doesn't make too much difference, anyway.

Somebody's skin needs some moistureizer.

Bonus stuff

This is supposed to be the unrated version, but being that I didn't see this in theaters, I couldn't tell you what diffrences are in here. This movie is actually less gorier than the first one, which I thought was suprising.

As far as the special features go, it falls on the bland side. There are 4 deleted scenes and an alternate ending, none of which add anything of value if they were kept in. There's also an unfunny gag reel of blown lines and missed takes. Mutant Attacks takes a look at what went into the make-up effects of the creatures. Exploring the hills: the making of The Hills Have Eyes 2 is a 10 min. featurette with the cast and crew explaining what wen into the making of the movie, Fox Movie Channel presents: Life after film school with Wes Craven is a featurette in which 3 film school students give an interview with writer/producer Wes Craven...which is nothing more than a fluff piece promoting the movie. Diary of a Graphic Novel is a segment that shows an interview with the artists and writers for the graphic novel prequel to the movie. It's an interesting segment by itself just to see what goes into making a graphic novel,but if the movie is any indication, I'd leave it on the shelf at the comic store. Finally, there's a trailer for the remake for the first film.

The last word

Put simply...this movie sucks. Wes Craven was a master of horror at one time with films like The People Under the Stairs, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and of course, the Nightmare on Elm Street series. If this is how the rest of is films are going to be like from now on, he needs to do himself and the moviegoing public a favor and just call it a career. The filmmakers didn't put in an effort to make a halfway decent film, so you shouldn't put in an effort buying or renting it.

"Has anyone seen our careers down there? Hello?!"

Final Score: 4.0 out of 10

It's 10:36 pm in Honolulu, and I'm about to head off to bed. Since It's my day off from work, I'll have a new DVD review up bu tomorrow afternoon. I got my hands on a copy of The Hills Have Eyes 2,gonna go watch it now. I'll let you know if it's worth yourmoney. Have a good night, OTers...and I'll talk to you soon.

I know that on the OT boards I usually post movie related stuff, but I never posted any of my own reviews until now. I'd thought I'd try my hand at doing so. Don't worry, I'll keep them spoiler-free as much as possible. In the chance that I can't,I'll throw up the spoiler warning.

And on that note, here's my review of Tex Avery's Droopy - The Complete Theatrical Collection.

The Movie

Tex Avery was a pioneer in animation from the 1930s thru the late '50s. Getting his start at the Warner Bros. studios, he was one of the men responsible for the creation of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. His type of animation was manic, off-the-wall, and loaded with sight gags and racy humor, a sharp contrast from the Walt Disney cartoons which was the standard of quality at the time. After a falling out with the head of the studio's animation dept., Avery left and headed across town to rival studio MGM, where with the help of bigger budgets and a better quality than Warners, his talents really started to shine. During this time, he wrote and directed 67 cartoons, and created new characters, arguably the most popular out of all of them was a little basset hound named Droopy.

"Hello, all you happy people."

Droopy was different than most animated charcters at the time--he was known for being low-key and slow moving, but mentally he was a fast thinker and shrewd, perfect for beating his rivals and frustrating them to no end. A Jack of all trades, he had various roles as a cowboy, an athlete,heir, and bullfighter among others.

Tragically, after his movie career ended, Droopy resorted to drastic measures to make a buck.

There were 24 theatrical shorts that Droopy appeard in, with Avery directing most of them. After he left the studio fellow animator Michael Lah took over directing duties. His type of visuals was different, they had more of a storybook look to them, but were still worthwhile to view.

"My friend Bill Clinton told me about this trick he could do with a cigar, and I was wondering if I could show you it..."

Warner Home Video has gathered all 24 Droopy shorts and has presented them all uncensored. Whenever they're broadcasted on Cartoon Network's sister network Boomerang, some of the more pollitically incorrect gags and sexual humor are cut out as to not offend it's younger viewers. What most people today don't realize is that animation back then was made with an adult audience in mind. There were some jokes in here that I had never seen before, and would probably get a lot of angry e-mails if they were shown on-air today. Props to Warner Bros. for putting them back in for DVD release.

This is just so wrong.

Visuals

The first 17 shorts are presented in in a standard format while the last 7 are presented in a 16x9 widescreen transfer, re-creating the original CinamaScope format in which they were originally shown. All of the shorts have been cleaned up and aside from a few scratches in some of the earlier shorts, they all look great despite what type of TV you watch them on.

Tell me you wouldn't tap that repeatedly.(Hey, at least it's not tentacle porn.)

Sound

Not much to say here. The sound quality is good, but on a higher end sound system you can still hear the occasional hiss from the earlier shorts, but I doubt that you're expecting THX quality sound when watching this anyway. It gets the job done right, and that's all that matters.

Another fanboy is devestated after seeing a sneak peek of the trailer for the Alvin & the Chipmunks movie.

Bonus stuff

Two featurettes are included in this set--Droopy and friends: A Look Back is a retrospective about Avery and his career and creations featuring interviews with modern animators. Doggone Gags is a gag reel featuring Droopy's greatest moments. Both are interesting, but I'd wish there was a little more detail to them. At least it's more than what other sets would offer, if anything at all.

Great...so if I laugh, I'm going to hell. Frigging political correctness.

The Last Word

If you're like me and grew up watching cartoons like this (back when they were actually good,) this will bring back some fond memories. Even if you didn't, this is still worth watching just to see how much animation has changed...and to see where modern animation might have recived its influences from. Plus, with a price tag of around only 20 bucks in most places, it makes it worth your money. Pick it up...and enjoy.

Oh, Hell's yeah. The thing I'd do with her would make the Marquis De Sade seem like a chiorboy. (I know she's a cartoon, don't judge me!)

Score: 8.5 out of 10

As some of you may or may not know, some people on the OT boards sometimes refer to me as "The Movie Guy", or "The annoying bastard who posts nothing but movie crap". I was thinking about maybe trying to post a movie or dvd review on my blog for those who might be interested in reading them. I thought I'd try throwing up a review maybe later this week, and if you want, maybe you guys can throw a DVD for me to take a look at. Let me know what you guys think.

The following post is a message to psycotic, irrational fanboys who have lost all sense of logic and sanity. Normal people are free to read this as well. Also, this doesn't necessarily apply to anyone who post on the OT boards, or on Gamespot in gereral:

During the course of everyday life you meet a lot of people who, from a distance resemble somewhat normal, halfway intelligent men and women who go about doing the same normal everyday activities that most of us do on a daily basis. Going to work or school, doing shopping, things of that nature. For the most part, they seem like levelheaded individuals who I otherwise wouldn't mind meeting in real life.

That is, until they log on to a chatroom or forum and say some of the most r-tarded things they could ever think of.

Just recently, it was announced that there were making a live action film of Alvin and the Chipmunks to be released sometime this Christmas season. Granted, Hollywood takes a collective dump on various items from pop culture all the time, that's nothing new. What aggravates the hell outta me is the reactions that they give us before the movie's even released:

"Oh, My god, this movie's gonna suck!"

"Another one of my childhood memories destroyed."

And of course, my all time favorite....

"HOLLYWOOD HAS RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!!!!!!"

That last one has really made me want to disembowel myself with a wooden cooking spoon. Ever since Star Wars: The Phantom Menace came out and I really noticed this problem, I've never heard this phrase uttered with so much conviction. What the hell does that mean, anyway?! It sounds like George Lucas was sitting outside a movie theater with lollypops waiting for a Generation X-er to throw in the back of the Millennium Falcon to molest his memories.

The thing is, a lot of fans of these franchises swear up and down that just because they grew up watching these old cartoons and movies, the creators owe them some kind of loyalty, and that any change to their precious properties is nothing short of defecating on their holy relics. Well, I got news for them. And allow me to yell it out from the cheap seats:

HEY, ***-HOLES!!! THE TOYS, CARTOONS, AND MOVIES YOU GREW UP WITH DO NOT EXCLUSIVELY BELONG TO YOU!!! They belong to the people who created them, and they were generous enough to share their creations with the world.

"But, Megatron is supposed to transform into a gun, not a jet!!! I don't care wha-"

I don't care what you have to say on the matter!!! The Transformers have been around for over 20 years, and you grew up watching them. Key word: grew up. You're a grown-ass man! Let this generation of kids enjoy them, it's THEIR turn now!

In closing, I just wanna say to people who whine about stupid things like this...Grow the hell up. If your life is so emotionally bankrupt that it's happiness hinges on the fact that weither or not your childhood memories hold up under Hollywood's latest remake, you're more F-ed up in the head than I thought. They're YOUR memories. No one can change them or take them away.

Unless you're Arnold in Total Recall. Then you're screwed.

I'm a child of the 80's, so of course, I grew up with a majority of the new cartoons at the time being nothing more than 30minute commercials advertising toys I could barely afford. G.I. Joe, Thundercats, He-Man, and Transformers were the main ones at the time, but the Transformers were the one that really stood out for me. I remember my dad buying the original Optimus Prime (I still have it to this day.) for me he'd actually watch the cartoon series with me...and enjoy it. There was a lot of good memories associated with it.

When I heard there was going to be a live-action movie, I initially thought 'Why?" I never thought it'd even be possible to do something like this on a movie screen. Plus hearing Michael Bay was directing it didn't help either. He can capture action on film like no other person, but if nothing was exploding on-screen, he's completely inept. After seeing the first trailer, I had to admit that it looked okay. Not great, but watchable. I thought I'd buy a few tickets and give it a chance. I figured with low expectations, it could be halfway good.

I'd never thought it would exceed them in a big way.

The story is very simple: A group of alien robots warring over a powerful relic bring their war to earth, and the human race is caught in the middle of it all. Not much to it, but then again, it's not exactly Shakespeare...which is fine. Visually, the film is amazing to behold. I'd never thought they would ever have the ability to do effects like this and still look believeable. I know some people aren't happy with the new designs, but I think that the designs work.

As far as the humans in the film, they do a decent enough job, but the standout was Shia LeBeouf as Sam. His performance is that of a person who looks like he was having a good time with his role, and during the scenes where he was caught up in the battle, he looks like he was definitely in fear of his life. Another thing that I was supprised by was some of the humor in the film. Granted it fell a little on the corny side, but it was good for a few chuckles.

For me the true highlight of the film was hearing Peter Cullen reprising his voice-over role as Optimus Prime. Just hearing him speak again gave me goose bumps. His voice is a little deeper than from the original series, but it's still him regardless.

One of the things that falls on the minus side is that there wasn't enough dialogue on the Decepticon side. A few of the characters spoke, but I'd wish there had been more dialogue on their part...but that's just me nitpicking.

I think the one things that bug me is the reaction of the fanboys BEFORE they've seen the film. (But I'll save that for another post.) I say give it a fair chance. In a summer of either unwanted or sub-standard sequels, (Shrek being unwanted, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates being disappointing to fans,) This is one film that stood out. Is it the greatest action film ever? That's open to debate. For me, watching this film made me feel like I was 8 years old again for 2 1/2 hours. And on a personal level, that's a lot more than what I usually want in a fun movie.

Okay maybe it's just me, but am I the only one who's NOT against Alec Baldwin night now? Everybody's flocking to the defense of his kid, but has anyone once thought that maybe...just maybe, that his kid is nothing but a spoiled brat? Just because you're a kid, it doesnt mean you shouldn't have your @$$ handed you every now again if you screw up. We don't know the whole situation, all we know is what was metioned on tv.

"But he shouldn't had called her a rude little pig.  That's his daughter."

Who else would know better than dear old dad? Maybe growing up rich with two famous parents really did make her into a "rude, thoughtless little pig" like he said. Everyone was quick to jump to her defense, but no one asked what she did to be called that. Does being a bratty kid give you a free pass on being a decent human being? Not last time I checked.

Maybe the kid did nothing to deserve this type of treatment.  But the way kids are these days, I'm siding with Alec on this one.

I'd thought I'd like to say thank you to all of those who posted a response. The past few week were kinda rough but thing have taken a turn for the better. My mom is doing better and I have the love and support of my fiancee to help me keep going.  As well as the people on OT, as well.  I'll throw up a brand new post when I get home from work tonight.

I initially wanted this first post  to be somewhat amusing, but right now, I'm just  numb to the world.  My parents called me this morining to let me know that my grandfather had recently passed away this past weekend.  Now of course we know that people die all the time. You know, the whole "circle of life" thing.  But the way my mother found out was almost cold-hearted.  Allow me to fill in some backstory.

My mom was never too close withe her family.  She was considered the black sheep by the rest of her brothers and sisters, probably she was only 16 when she gave birth to me.  They always had some animosity torward her bacause of this, even though my dad stood by her side.  She tried to make peace with her father, but he always found faults with her. At around the time I turned 8, she finally had enough and broke off ties with him.

They hadn't spoken to each other for alomst 20 years.

Sunday afternoon she recived a call from her sister saying he had died.  The cold blooded part was that they already had the funeral a few days earlier. No one even told her that he passed earlier in the week. Needless to say she took it hard. 

As far as I'm concerned, I don't know how to feel. Right now I feel...numb. I should feel some sorrow, but I'm more concerned about my mom's well being. She's holding up okay for the most part.  The last time I shed any tears for anyone who died was my uncle on my dad's side back in 2000.  I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't seen my grandfather since I was a kid, or maybe I've grown so jaded that his passing doen't mean anything to me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this:  If there's someone in your life that you care about, be it family or friend, tell them they're loved.  Buy them a drink, get them a card, do something for them.  Let them know you care.  Life's too damn short.

My next post will be more lighthearted.  I promise.