Expelled Grey Matter

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein , despite Bud Abbott's reservations, turned out to be a grand success.  It brought back Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, aka the Wolf Man, as well as Bela Lugosi as Dracula.  It also managed to give all three of the most popular Universal monsters a proper ending rather than the silly films they had turned into.  Ironically, they did this while being intentionally funny. The one thing that was missing was Boris Karloff.  Glenn Strange, who had played the Monster in House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein , returned as the creature.  Meanwhile, Karloff agreed to promote the film as long as he was not forced to watch it, which is a shame because it is one of the best old-time horror comedies made.  Seeing that formula was successful he agreed to a bit part in the next one which, though only having some horror elements on the surface, still was quite entertaining. Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello) is a bellhop at a pre...

After finding out a little more about this somewhat forgotten '90s horror flick I find it hard to have a solid opinion.  The reason is that, like so many similar movies, the film that is available is little more than a shadow of what it was supposed to be.  Of the 112 minutes that director David Nutter intended only 84 ever reached the screen and MGM, the studio and distributor, has never allowed the original cut to be released despite the fact that it exists.  Many films, especially the Friday the 13th  films, have had large swaths sliced out of them to avoid dreaded X or NC-17 ratings, but Disturbing Behavior is one of those in which the studio just grabbed it and cut it into a barely comprehensive mess. Steve Clark (James Marsden) and his family move to the small town of Cradle Bay after his older brother Allen (Ethan Embry) commits suicide.  Steve soon befriends a couple of stoners named Gavin (Nick Stahl) and U.V. (Chad Donella) and becomes attracted to a g...

By the late 1940s the Universal horror films had turned from artful, stylish gothic horror to little more than cheap b-movies.  It appeared that things may get back on track with The Wolf Man .  However, despite that movie's success, it never received a proper sequel.  While the subsequent movies featuring Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot were fun they concentrated on what kids wanted to see, which was Frankenstein's monster and Dracula duking it out with our hairy-handed gent.  That is among the reasons that Bud Abbott was not too happy when presented with the script for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein .  At the time the team of him and Lou Costello was one of the biggest comedy acts around, with a number of hit films, not to mention popularity on radio and live shows.  What sold Abbott on it was a big paycheck and a director, Charles Barton, that had frequently worked with the duo in the past.  Little did they know it would become one of the b...

Video games do not typically make for prestige movies.  There have been some impressive adaptations - the recent Fallout television series being an example - but for the most part these franchises have rightfully gone to schlock directors as the studios, both on the movie and video game side, were more interested in making a quick buck.  Notably, the original Resident Evil movie was handled by Paul W.S. Anderson, a director who built most of his career on the cult film Event Horizon .  His movies are usually good looking but hollow, and the original Resident Evil series played more like a vanity project for his wife Milla Jovovich.  Despite this I found most of that series to be quite entertaining, particularly Resident Evil: Extinction  which brought in another classic b-movie director, Russell Mulcahy.   Despite the worldwide phenomena that the video game series is I have never played Resident Evil or any of its sequels, spinoffs or reboots.  T...

It is such a typical Hollywood ego trip that screenwriters would think that the Biblical apocalypse - complete with the apocryphal Rapture - would occur in Los Angeles.  That is probably a good part of the joke that Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg were trying to make with This Is the End .  They co-directed and co-wrote, along with Jason Stone, a scenario in which a number of Hollywood celebrities get caught up in the chaos of the end times and, in typical Hollywood fashion, make it all about themselves.  Jay Baruchel comes to Los Angeles to meet his friend Seth Rogen and hang out for a weekend.  Against his better judgment he lets Rogen talk him into going to a party thrown by James Franco.  As Baruchel doesn't really like Franco, Jonah Hill or many of the guests he becomes uncomfortable and starts talking about going back to Rogen's house on his own.  While at a convenience store the earth suddenly shakes and several people are lifted into heaven by blue lig...

I am quite vocal about my dislike of modern comedies.  I have a few exceptions but, by and large, comedy died around 2000.  I would like to say it has nothing to do with political correctness but, in a way, it does.  Directors like the Farelly Brothers went out of their way to rebel against PC trends of the time, reveling in being offensive.  It worked briefly with movies like Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary , but eventually it became routine.  Most comedies since have tried to wring humor from old playground jokes. It should be no surprise that, given my general enjoyment of the movies I review on this site, that most modern comedy I like combines elements from other genres.  That brings me to Pineapple Express , a stoner comedy from Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow.  In some ways it plays a bit like Up in Smoke , with two not-so-bright potheads stumbling through different situations, combined with the good old trope of the main characters ...