Thursday, December 14, 2023

Quick Thoughts #6 - How did I get sucked into the Phantasm movies?


Even though we have passed the spooky season, I still had a hankering for some horror movies. After I finished a rewatch of Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf (yes, this exists and I will talk about this next time), I got curious about the Phantasm series. The 1978 cult classic was on Prime, so I thought I’d check it out. It’s actually not my first foray into the franchise. I didn’t remember who it was (I thought it might’ve been Allison Pregler, formerly known as Obscurus Lupa), but when Channel Awesome was on Blip.tv, someone talked about the first four movies. In fact (just checked this), it was Allison since she used to review cult horror at that time.

After my viewing of the first movie, I saw that Prime had the rest of the franchise on there, so I decided to go down this weird rabbit whole. Phantasm was released in 1979 and was written, produced, and directed by Don Coscarelli. Even though it made some decent money for its budget, it didn’t fare well critically. Luckily, the positive press came later, and it got regarded as a cult classic. It took a decade, but it eventually got a sequel in Phantasm 2. The next movie, Phantasm 3: Lord of the Dead, was released in 1994. Phantasm 4: Oblivion was released in 1998. It would take almost two decades for one more to come out, but Phantasm: Ravager was released in 2016.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Random Weird Music Videos - "Whatzupwitu" by Eddie Murphy featuring Michael Jackson


For my next foray in the wonderful, weird world of music videos, it's time to look at one of my favorite comedic actors: Eddie Murphy. Yes, he actually recorded a few music albums. I guess he thought he could also hit it big in this realm. No, he's not the best singer around, but he ain't too bad. I imagine that he'd do well at a church on any given Sunday. Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the One-Hit Wonder known as "Party All the Time" which was produced by Rick James. No, I got "Whazupwithu," a song off his third album that features one of my favorite singers, Michael Jackson. 

I always wondered why I never heard of this song back in the day. I mean, knowing that it was on an Eddie Murphy album definitely didn't help. I saw the video for this a few years ago and was amazed at how horrible it looked. My sister (who's a big MJ fan) sent a reel of it to me on Instagram a while ago. I also saw a reel of the podcast Double Toasted reacting to it, so that's why it's here. I gotta put my piece in on this wholesome horridness.

  • "The Elephant is dying!" - Excuse my French, but what the hell was that? I had to do a double take at the beginning!
  • "Eddie Mercury" - I saw a comment on Instagram and that just made me LOL. I definitely see it! I guess Eddie thought he could fill the void left by Freddie Mercury or something.
  • Why, Michael? Why? - While I could be asking that question to MJ on a plethora of stuff, this is definitely a question that has to be asked. He's featured on stuff for years, but this one is the most baffling to me. Apparently, he liked the wholesome feel of the lyrics, so he agreed to do the song and the video. I can say that at least it looked like they were having fun making the video. Plus, MJ brought his usual A-game to the song.
  • PBS Intro - This seriously looks like it could be an intro to a kids' learning show. That's not the vibe you should be going for... unless you're trying to create an intro for a kids learning show. It's like the wholesome version of "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" featuring Michael Jackson as the magic imp!
  • Disney Channel Feel - All this video made me think of was those Disney Channel drawing bumpers you'd see from the early 2000's.  You'd have someone from those shows come on screen and be like "This is Disney" and pull out some magic wand. I almost thought the song was gonna end with Hilary Duff or Raven showing up with that wand!
  • "Whatzzzuppwithuuu" - I don't know what Eddie was thinking adlibbing that in the song. The song itself is okay at best, but hearing him say it like that throughout the song is hilarious!
  • The children choir - No comment there. While I got my theories about all that involving Michael, seeing a kids' choir show up here cracked me up. I guess this was shot before all those allegations started.
In the end, this is horrible. The song itself isn't that good, but the video just... dang! I don't know what the heck the creators were thinking about this! At least it's a video you can laugh out loud to. We need some of that these days. It may not be what Eddie Murphy was going for, but not only did he create one of the worst and funniest music videos ever. Anyway, I'm outta here. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
At least some fun was to be had.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Quick Thoughts #5 - Refugees from a CW Vampire Show

For my last post on some horror themed properties, I thought it was time to return to the CW. No, there aren’t any superheroes present, but we do have beings with some pretty cool and deadly powers. I just didn’t realize that it would spin off from a vampire soap opera of all places.

I have only seen two episodes of the Vampire Diaries. One was probably airing after Smallville years ago, and the other was a possible binge for me and Liz to go down on. Our trip in the VD universe actually started with Legacies, their latest and last show. She got me started on it, and after a while, we finished binging it on Netflix. As for the Originals, the first spin-off show, I got curious about how everything led up to Legacies. After the pilot episode, I had to watch more, and a new binge was born. The Originals got taken off of Netflix during our watch, but I found it on Freevee. You know I gotta like a show if I’m hunting for it all over these dang streaming channels! So, what do I think about these two shows?

Saturday, October 28, 2023

This is Halloween 3! - A Few Non-Mainstream Comic Horror Movies

Comic books and horror go together like oatmeal and sausage… what? It’s a good meal combo! Anyway, we have gotten quite a few horror movies based on comic properties over the years. The first one I can really think of is Swamp Thing the 1980’s. Of course, DC and Marvel have been over this for years with characters like Swamp Thing, Blade, John Constantine, and others characters hitting live-action. Even Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness tried its hand at horror and succeeded in my opinion. Don’t know if it succeeded at the Multiverse aspect though, but that’s another story.

Today’s post is going to be about some comic movies that don’t have that DC bullet nor the Marvel insignia on it. Marvel and DC are not the only ones that have put out good comics, folks. Diversify that shelf or longbox a bit. First, we got The Crow from 1994 starring Brandon Lee, a movie that I have been wanting to see for years. Next, we got Spawn from 1997, a movie that I kinda had to fill out the list with. I am no Spawn fan, but it has Michael Jai White, so it can’t be too horrible… right? Finally, I got a double watch from my recent COVID sit: Hellboy and Hellboy. Yes, I made that confusing on purpose. First, it’s Hellboy from 2004 with Ron Pearlman. Last, it’s Hellboy from 2019 featuring David Harbour.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

This is Halloween 3! - Reality-Bending Nosferatu, Invasions in the Homeland, and Christopher Lee!

Next up for the month, I decided to go down a more sci-fi path. Instead of trading punches with the supernatural, we got some pesky aliens to look at. As usual, I got four picks for this one. First up is one that may not count in the “evil invading aliens” topic, but I just re-watched Dark City from 1998, and I gotta talk about it. Next up is the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956. I was originally going to re-watch its 1978 remake for this, but I never saw the original. Next, I got Strange Invaders, a 1980’s throwback to 50’s B-movies. Yes, that doesn’t sound too great. Finally, we have End of the World from 1977 featuring Christopher Lee. I say featuring because he’s only around for like 8 minutes or something. Dang cover art!