Fool's Views 8/9 – 8/20

Howdy, kids! Yep, it’s been nearly two whooooooole weeks since the 21-day flurry of Fantasia, and how best to celebrate the reprieve from the madness? Why, watching a boatload of flicks, of course! The difference being that I was able to resume my regular role of program director, actually choosing the features to watch on any given day. Considering I’d been sitting on a pile of flicks both borrowed and queued (including a Nicholas Winding Refn triple feature), it wasn’t hard to fill the slots and the time.

No surprise, Kitley’s Krypt dictated a few of my choices, fulfilling my Kryptic Army assignment for July (giant monsters) as well as joining my fellow blood brothers and sisters in celebrating the great man’s birthday, breaking in Jon’s new backyard DVD projector and movie screen with a gooey double feature complete with sing-a-long cards and trivia prizes. Such a wonderful gathering of food, friends and fun, one that came hard upon the awesomeness that was Flashback Weekend/Wizard World Comic-Con. I love this town. (Blessings to Jason Coffman as well, for his generosity in lending out an array of recent fright fare.)

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

MONSTER BRAWL (2011) review

Monster Brawl (2011) d. Cook, Jesse, T. (Canada)

Turgid monster mash by way of Spike TV programming that should have been a LOT more fun considering its outlandish premise: top monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, Witch, Zombie, Swamp Creature, etc.) duke it out in a cemetery-set wrestling ring. The ringside patter provided by Dave Foley, Art Hindle and “Mouth from the South” Jimmy Hart rarely inspires more than a grudging grunt, and the underwhelming flying fiendish fisticuffs are snoozy and stale (with the exception of the climactic match-up’s final sanguinary moments). Decent creature makeups by The Brother Gore (Jeff and Jason Derushie, who also doled out the grue for Exit Humanity), but in the service of an uninspired narrative that never rises above its gimmicky set-up. All slop, no smarts.