I grew up on horror movies; love 'em. And usually I'll carry through to the end of the series, watching each to see how the "mysteries" created will be explained. Even when the Saw series nosedived, I stuck it through to the hopeful last one: Saw VII.
It's strongly doubtful the same will happen with the drug-induced trip of this franchise. Phantasm II closed the deal for me. I just don't care how this pans out (in parts III and IV.)
Originally, I remember seeing this as a double feature back in 1988 along side Poltergeist III. Ahhh, remember when they had double features at the theatre and you could enjoy an all-afternoon worth of horror, or genre of your choice? Despite the fact I had not seen either of the mentioned series' previous entries up to this point, of the two movies, I actually liked Phantasm II less.
Finally, finally, I saw Phantasm (the original) a few days ago (2/16/11) and though I was greatly disappointed, nothing prepared me for the (actual) horror of the follow-up.
Yeah, I get they realized the original was camp – or was that crap? – and they poked fun throughout this feature ha ha ha on the "Mr. Sam Raimi." But it was so beyond corny – hear that EXPLOSION sound-effect? – it turned out more like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 than Scream 2. And though I'll admit it was a heck of a lot more coherent than the original – the basic story did go from A to B – but that didn't raise it above any typical direct-to-video crud that should've been just that.
Our Phantasmbuster heroes Mike (replaced actor, James LeGros) and Ice-Cream-Menace Reggie (Bannister) vow to rid the world of the Tall Man (Scrimm) and his balls, well, evil killin' & drillin' spheres. So, they go from destroyed town to ghost town with the consistent "feeling" they're near thanks to Mike's dreams. Oh, and they're equally wet dreams due to a girl, Liz (Irvine), he's seeing parallel to the Tall Man.
Again, I get the campiness of the feature, and their desire to give the audience what they wanted to see: bad dudes with bad weapons taking on the devil (of sorts.) But, since it was revealed in part I that these are rejuvenating and teleporting aliens, using the guns and chainsaws against The Tall Man would be as effective as sending soldiers armed with sling-shots to battle Godzilla.
But, that's the mentality of the low-budget fare. And speaking of which, it's sad they reported this to be biggest budget of the series: $3 million. Which is ten times the original's. It probably helped they used the same explosion sound-effect whenever any one of the fifty structures exploded.
I guess I'm taking this mess too seriously. At least one positive came out of it: I no longer want to see any more of the Phantasm series. They could even promise to give the secrets of the killer balls, er, spheres. They did this time and we're left with an empty promise and more of the same delusional ideologies from the first feature.
Unless you're a true phan of the phirst one, SKIP IT.
It's strongly doubtful the same will happen with the drug-induced trip of this franchise. Phantasm II closed the deal for me. I just don't care how this pans out (in parts III and IV.)
Originally, I remember seeing this as a double feature back in 1988 along side Poltergeist III. Ahhh, remember when they had double features at the theatre and you could enjoy an all-afternoon worth of horror, or genre of your choice? Despite the fact I had not seen either of the mentioned series' previous entries up to this point, of the two movies, I actually liked Phantasm II less.
Finally, finally, I saw Phantasm (the original) a few days ago (2/16/11) and though I was greatly disappointed, nothing prepared me for the (actual) horror of the follow-up.
Yeah, I get they realized the original was camp – or was that crap? – and they poked fun throughout this feature ha ha ha on the "Mr. Sam Raimi." But it was so beyond corny – hear that EXPLOSION sound-effect? – it turned out more like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 than Scream 2. And though I'll admit it was a heck of a lot more coherent than the original – the basic story did go from A to B – but that didn't raise it above any typical direct-to-video crud that should've been just that.
Our Phantasmbuster heroes Mike (replaced actor, James LeGros) and Ice-Cream-Menace Reggie (Bannister) vow to rid the world of the Tall Man (Scrimm) and his balls, well, evil killin' & drillin' spheres. So, they go from destroyed town to ghost town with the consistent "feeling" they're near thanks to Mike's dreams. Oh, and they're equally wet dreams due to a girl, Liz (Irvine), he's seeing parallel to the Tall Man.
Again, I get the campiness of the feature, and their desire to give the audience what they wanted to see: bad dudes with bad weapons taking on the devil (of sorts.) But, since it was revealed in part I that these are rejuvenating and teleporting aliens, using the guns and chainsaws against The Tall Man would be as effective as sending soldiers armed with sling-shots to battle Godzilla.
But, that's the mentality of the low-budget fare. And speaking of which, it's sad they reported this to be biggest budget of the series: $3 million. Which is ten times the original's. It probably helped they used the same explosion sound-effect whenever any one of the fifty structures exploded.
I guess I'm taking this mess too seriously. At least one positive came out of it: I no longer want to see any more of the Phantasm series. They could even promise to give the secrets of the killer balls, er, spheres. They did this time and we're left with an empty promise and more of the same delusional ideologies from the first feature.
Unless you're a true phan of the phirst one, SKIP IT.