Reviews

The main reason for the success of the original Munsters TV show was the great chemistry between the three main players: Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, and Yvonne DeCarlo. The writers and directors played to the talents of these three actors in their respective characters, and it worked. The result was clever family sitcom satire, and the silly humor was done well. Gwynne played Herman with the perfect combination of pride and innocence, and the cast played off of each other brilliantly. It was so easy to accept the family as perfectly normal in their own right, you might even want them to be your neighbors.

Trying to re-create this kind of on-screen magic seems to be a challenge that can be met only with an inspired new take on an old premise. Except it needs to work. One of the biggest problems with this movie is the way the main parts are written and played. None of the three main characters are likeable. Herman comes off as obnoxious and conceited. The Count is more coarse than clever. Lily's shallowness overwhelms her character. What made the originals endearing is completely missing here. The movie's effort to be funny and entertaining fails, with too much riding on jokes that fall flat. By the time the Munsters come together as a family and prepare to make the trip to America, it was hard to care what happened to them.

Although it was reported that Rob Zombie was overruled in his desire to do this movie in black and white, his response to go all-out in the opposite direction with cartoonish color was a mistake. The worst is Herman's bright-green makeup, which looks too much like Jim Carrey's character in "Mask" (look it up if you don't remember). The Count's cyanotic blue is almost as bad. The sets are visually stunning but over-saturated with the Halloween color palette. I give the most credit for the re-creation of the Munster Mansion exterior... no other remake or reboot has bothered to do a faithful rendition of this iconic house before now. Since it is not seen until near the end of the movie, I guess they saved the best for last.

I appreciate this movie as a fan labor of love that actually made it to the screen after all these decades, so I'll give three stars for that.

It all begins poignantly enough...

Teddy and his little sister, Kate, live with their widowed working mother. Kate savors the memories of her late holiday-sentimental father through his old video camera, which is her constant companion. Teddy, on the other hand, is prone to hitting the streets and acting out. When Kate discovers compelling evidence that Santa has actually visited their home during a previous Christmas, she hatches a plan to capture him fully on tape. After she compels Teddy to help her, this ride launches into full speed.

I have seen Kurt Russell on screen since he was a boy. Now, after more than 50 years of playing action/adventure/comedy/drama heroes, he shines in this role of Santa. The rest of the cast puts on great performances as well, with Judah Lewis and Darby Camp joining Russell to round out a strong trio. The characters are natural, the police are not played as fools, and the bad guys actually seem bad.

The directing is strong and well-paced, with attention to detail that keeps things entertaining at every turn. The music throughout is excellent, and includes a clever musical number. There are some familiar themes and elements, no doubt, but they are handled with enough new flavor and don't seem recycled.

This is a Christmas movie you and the kids might want to see now and during many holiday seasons in the future, as it rightfully takes its place among the really good ones.

"All American Christmas Carol" tries to play both sides of the line between trailer trash schlock and family redemption ala Dickens. Unfortunately, it fails to entertain in either realm. The pace of the movie is uneven and slow, bouncing around story points that go on too long and initially leave you wondering what all this is leading to. Most of the cast is competent enough, but the characters and situations, as written, are uninteresting and unconvincing. Ironically, when the first ghost finally appears in the presence of the character supposedly needing to be un-Scrooged, the moment is rushed with no buildup or reaction whatsoever to the game-changing event. Why this scene is played with such dryness by both characters is both puzzling and disappointing, especially after so many uncompelling scenes leading up to it. And so it goes with the rest of the spirits who have their subsequent (and unremarkable) interactions. At what point this movie was supposed to be entertaining was lost on me. The resolution that finally brings this movie to an end is equally unbelievable, uninteresting, and prolonged.

I gave this movie 3 stars for good acting by some of the cast, and overall technical production that was decent. None of those stars are for special effects, as the ghosts appear mostly via camera cuts and are only afforded makeup for their afterlife appearance.

If you like stereotypical trailer trash gags, this movie has a few. Otherwise, there's not much else in it worth the hour and a half.

This film follows a typical Hallmark movie plot, which is "The Big Christmas Event Is In Jeopardy." There is a sub-plot of "Let's See If Two Strangers In A Fix Fall In Love."

Jodie Sweetin plays Grace, who lives happily in a small town running her deceased parents' year-round Christmas store. Grace also organizes the annual Christmas Parade, which has become so good that a big city TV show wants to televise it this year. The Santa who always heads the parade makes Santa his family business, and plays the perfect St. Nick.

Unfortunately, a mishap occurs and Original Santa is suddenly out of commission. A local casting call for a replacement fails miserably. The TV spot is on the line, as well as the town's economic resurgence everyone was hoping for.

Original Santa reveals that his son, Ben, is trained in the family Santa business and perhaps might fill in. Ben, however, is now a freelance writer in not-so-far Boston. He flatly turns down the request. Somehow the family business is a bit of bitter baggage for Ben, who prefers to be a reindeer's behind instead of letting a one- time Santa gig interfere with his independence.

Unfortunately the movie drags viewers through Grace's Herculean efforts to bring Ben back to his hometown and convince him to take two hours out of his busy schedule to save the day. Ben and Grace seem to hit it off as the big Santa-less event approaches. Ben is a young super- looks guy who has no resemblance to a traditional Santa, so, again, why all the effort to recruit him for TV? There is a scene where he demonstrates his Santa-like persona to some children; somehow that is supposed to reinforce why Grace wants him to be The Big Red One. It falls short. After all, the job consists only of waving at fans for one parade. As it becomes apparent to anyone not in the movie that there is absolutely no logical reason for Ben's continued refusal, it becomes a lesson in not letting civic charity get in the way of your selfish aspirations. Ben even tries to convince Grace that she must be unhappy carrying on her family legacy, and should bust out of the joint.

If you want to sit through this to see how it all plays out, be my guest. Jodie is an excellent actress. The movie is beautifully filmed. The music is better then the typical annoying cues in many Hallmark movies that lamely attempt to supplement strained humor. Accordingly, I gave it three stars instead of none. Be forewarned, though; this is about as dumb as plot conflicts get.

As I sat through the first hour of the almost agonizing slow-paced plot-roll-out, I stayed with it in the hopes there would be some reward for my loyalty. It was not to be. This movie has a lot of fans in its reviews, but I'm not one of them.

The cast is full of past, present, and future stars; at least two of the supporting child actors went on to be in huge hits in television and/or movies. Their acting talent shows this movie, as it does with the adults. Unfortunately, a predictable story line, unresolved conflicts, and underdeveloped subplots do nothing to justify the time it takes to get things rolling.

Sam Elliot does what he does well, playing a hard-working but broken farmer and widower whose only response to his daughter caring for a wounded reindeer in their midst is to find his shotgun. Rebecca Harrell plays a convincing 9-year old who seems to be frustrated at every turn for her good deeds.

The winter setting is dim, cold and desolate, excellently communicated through the cinematography.The music lacks imagination, primarily depending on long chords. Maybe that is a plus for the gloomy atmosphere.

If you are looking for fun and adventure in your holiday movie fare, skip this one. It's better for drawn-out drama fans.

Although Descent 2 is generally a rehash of the first movie, it was entertaining. The story follows the same formula many sequels tend to, which is, "Something bad happened in there so let's go back and take a closer look!" There is some fair character development, although the notion of a sheriff dragging a severely traumatized and unstable person into a situation she just escaped from is less believable than the idea of cave monsters. Between that and another stupid move on the sheriff's part early in the mission, I was a bit discouraged at first. This seems to be the standard pattern of many sci-fi/horror sequels - they take a closer look at the original menace while some of the characters do really dumb things to jump-start the action. The characters in this movie redeem themselves as things move on, so the ride becomes enjoyable again.

The cave "crawlers" look pretty good, although their head makeup enhancements were not really necessary. I can't blame movie makers for wanting to improve their product, but it's not a good idea if the original version was effective and your sequel takes place immediately after the original. One of the things that still makes the creatures enjoyable is human actors in very good costumes; curse the computer-generated monsters you see in other sci-fi/horror movies. Listen up, Hollywood... CGI creatures are not scary! The end has a twist that sets up a third movie to take things in a different direction, but we'll see if the series suffers the same dreaded third movie failures that most do.

I liked this movie as a sequel and recommend it, but if you have not seen the first one, do that first.

There's no doubt that The Andy Griffith Show was never what it was after Don Knotts left the series. In The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, Knotts once again takes the character of a bumbling nerd with a good heart - trying to make a name for himself in Small Town America while not always noticing how much he is dismissed by his fellow citizens. Knotts pulls it off expertly, and his performance does not suffer from over-exposure in a full-length movie.

It's not an epic - the story is simple and innocent. The gags are not perfectly timed, but funny nonetheless. When Luther asks the town drunk what he is doing when he is supposed to be dead, it's the first of several memorable quotes the kids loved repeating.

The movie looks clean; the classic Technicolor filming gives the movie the feeling that it was put together by people who knew what they were doing. The sets are perfectly lit, and nothing looks phony. The cameras are all locked down or on cranes. Thankfully, freehand (shaky) camera work was not all the rage back then like it is now.

Overall, this is a fun film to watch in the afternoon when you are in the mood for AMC. Bring the kids in also; they will get a kick out of it if they are not already jaded by the sewage available on screen today.

Only the laugh track is missing from this movie version of the classic TV series. The absence of the canned laughter makes some of the sight gags seem like they go on a little too long, but other than that, I give the writer and director credit for doing the series justice. It's too bad that writers and directors of more recent times can't learn a few things from their predecessors about making movies out of TV shows.

This movie was filmed around the time the series was still in production, using writers and a director from the original. No doubt, that is a major advantage when trying to capture the original flavor. Some might argue that the movie should have been done in black and white, but the color is not overdone and actually adds a nice touch. With the exception of Marilyn, the original cast is there. Marilyn's role changed hands in the series anyway. Debbie Watson does fine, so it's not a significant distraction.

This is good light fare for the family looking for some classic innocent fun. Fans of the series should like it as well. It is nothing more than it tries to be - a movie version of the series with a few extras (color, location, and length.) The movie delivers on that, and I give it high marks.

Fans of this movie should also try "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." It has nothing to do with the Munsters (other than the house facade happens to be located next door to the Munster house on the Universal Studios back-lot), but it is more classic comedy with a spooky twist. It stars Don Knotts during his heyday.

What can I say that has not been said here 299 times already? I just couldn't help it... I had to weigh in and say that this movie really blew an opportunity to both entertain the masses and redeem LIS TV fans.

OK... admittedly Irwin Allen and company let several episodes of the classic series degenerate into juvenile camp, but the show was well-made overall and had some endearing qualities. If you just dumped the really corny episodes, you'd have a series that delivers fairly decent sci-fi adventure and entertainment.

Now comes the long-awaited movie. I was jazzed when I saw the previews. When the movie finally came out, I left the theater shaking my head. The director and screenwriter should be punished for squandering such a potentially hot property.

With the exception of William Hurt, I liked the casting. The great choices are Mimi Rogers as Maureen, Matt Leblanc as Don, and Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith. To a lesser extent, other decent players are Heather Graham as Judy, Lacey Chabert as Penny, and Jack Johnson as Will. But the script deals them all a fatal blow. Why does Judy have to be a doctor all of a sudden? Can't Penny be nice and less whiny? Would they really put little Will in charge of "robotics?" Please. The original series gave the kids some good qualities, but let them act their age and didn't push it too far.

Gary Oldman plays the right mix of personality flaws to make a great Dr. Smith. His storyline is not too bad until the unfortunate turn of events at the end.

William Hurt was the big mistake here. The crew has no reason to follow his character's attempt to give orders. He should have been left home in a lab somewhere. Even Maureen emasculates him fairly easily. Guy Williams as John Robinson more than held his own as a husband, father and sparring partner for Don in the original - a true leader. Hurt is a great actor, no doubt, but his Robinson is annoying and has no command presence. It's not pretty when the kids don't listen to him but Don is forced to submit to his (?) authority.

Speaking of Don, Leblanc could have played him in a "major" way if this movie script had not reduced him to an immature boor. Too bad.

Now for the robot... he was clearly established as a main character in the series. But in the movie, besides saying "Danger Will Robinson" about 659 times, he/it looks more like a tank than a mechanical man. How enduring can that be? At least the classic old model could look friendly or scary, shake your hand, zap a few bad guys, and then make you believe he had feelings. This new model gets destroyed before anyone has any "bonding" time, and then the kid rebuilds him to look like one of the tortured mutant toys from Toy Story.

As for Jar Jar Binks the space-chimp-teletubby... let's not waste any more thought. Things are bad enough already. CG characters in live-action movies should be banned by the Screen Actors' Guild.

The story is the biggest offense in this movie. Dysfunctional family takes some wrong turns and has to deal with the future. Action scenes that play more like video games. Once again, I can only lament... why didn't they ask me (or anyone else for that matter) how to make a decent TV show-based movie???

First of all, I've seen several episodes of the Dr. Who series, but I don't follow it. It has its fan base and that's fine. If you are looking for a good Dalek adventure without getting into the whole Dalek "genesis," then this movie works well. You don't have to know all about Who-ville as a prerequisite.

There are some visual elements that needed more budget or something - miniature exteriors of the city, the burnt forest set, and the make-up on the humanoids don't quite make the grade. But the Daleks themselves inside their metal city are something to see (be sure to look for the lava lights). The Dalek robot mechanisms are very convincing, and they are very menacing as they roll around with their modulated voices trying to exterminate anything with two legs. The camera work is good - it looks like the director tried to add some interesting angles and follow shots when others maybe wouldn't bother. The cast plays well in their roles, and the story is simple and straight-forward. This is no "2001 A Space Odessey," but then again, you don't have to think too hard about what the ending really means.

This movie will probably disappoint most loyal Dr. Who followers, but it will entertain sci-fi fans who enjoy some light fare and aren't too attached to the series.

Like so many movies that revisit an old TV series, this one misses the mark. The stark look of the video tape it was shot on, the bright color, and the set lighting that looks more like a nighttime landscape showcase do nothing to capture the charm of the old show. I wouldn't go as far as to say it should have been in black and white, but film instead of videotape, please, and do something with the lighting to give it a more appropriate look. The house is nothing like the old Addams mansion - rather it looks like a place where Hollywood types frequently party.

The original actors are all good, but the story is not. After awhile it all seems inane and boring. And the Halloween song near the end... please... make it stop (or at least hit the MUTE button.) Another opportunity to pay proper homage to a classic 60's show is lost. I know it was a TV-movie, but if that's the result, why bother?