There are not that many films that feature Thanksgiving.  Even in Addams Family Values, there is only a few scenes dealing with the first Thanksgiving at the summer camp where Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are sent.  Even so, this was a good film to revisit during the Thanksgiving Binge Watch.

Addams Family Values is the sequel to the original film which is a reboot of the old television series.  In the film, there are a bunch of plots going on all at once. The main one dealt with the black widow Debbie (Joan Cusack) trying to get Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) to marry her.  She was after his money and planned on killing him once they had been hitched.

Meanwhile, Wednesday and Pugsley have been sent off to camp, thanks to the manipulations of Debbie.  The children are tormented by happiness, the fresh air of outdoors and camp counselors Gary Granger (Peter MacNicol) and Becky Martin-Granger (Christine Baranski).

This all came about after Morticia (Anjelica Huston) gave birth unexpectedly to a son for Gomez (Raul Julia) and the two other children were attempting to murder the baby.

The Addams Family became really dark in this movie, which was great.  The movie is very funny as the situations are taken to their exaggerated conclusions.

The writing is spot on and each character has their moments with sharp banter and razor wit.  Wednesday is especially sarcastic and delivers each line with perfect comedic timing.

Debbie is masterfully wicked and yet perhaps not the most evil person in the cast.  Joan Cusack is really awesome as the over-the-top nanny who is out to scam yet another rich bachelor.

Some times the story feels a tad disjointed as it jumps back and forth between scenes, but they are usually very funny and that excuses many problems a film may have.

I will say that, except for Christopher Lloyd, each cast member is beautifully cast.  Lloyd is a fine actor, but he always will be Doc Brown and he is too familiar here for me.  I did not see Uncle Fester, but instead I saw Christopher Lloyd in a bald cap.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Addams Family Values improved on the original movie because we knew these new version of the characters better.  There may have been too many stories going on, but that is not uncommon for movies.

*Snap Snap*

We move from boxing movies to spoof with the classic “Weird Al” Yankovic film UHF on the Thanksgiving binge watch.

Yes, UHF is very silly and borderline stupid, but it is, at many times, funny and there is no doubt that EYG Hall of Famer “Weird Al” Yankovic went all in on his film.

The movie’s plot is pretty basic.  George (“Weird Al”) is a loser and can’t keep a job.  When his Uncle Harvey (Stanley Brock) wins the deed to a UHF television station in a poker game, he lets George manage the station.  George puts on the strangest array of television programs ever seen.  With the discovery of janitor extraordinaire Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards) as charismatic kid show host, Station 62 flies to number one in the ratings, drawing the ire of evil studio executive R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy).

There are many satiric shorts throughout the film including parodies of multiple movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rambo, and Gandhi.  There are commercials on the station for Spatula City.  The game show classic Wheel of Fish added to the station’s lineup.

There is so much bizarreness in UHF that you simply have to toss away your doubts and have fun.

Anthony Geary (formerly Luke Spencer from General Hospital) also appears as Philo, a character who could be the oddest of the bunch.  Especially when we find out the truth about him.

UHF features “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody of Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.  He turns it into Beverly Hillbillies/Money for Nothing.  We also get Al’s title track, the classic UHF over the credits.  I would have liked more music in the show, but what we got was great.

Sure this is silly.  But it is a good time, no matter what.  UHF is one of those films that people look back on in a cult status.

The Thanksgiving binge watch continued today with another boxing movie that was missing from my potential list of Top 10 Boxing movies (which I’ll do later this week).  Million Dollar Baby is from director Clint Eastwood and starred Eastwood along with Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.

Hilary Swank was Maggie Fitzgerald, a woman who hoped to have Frankie Dunn, hardened boxing trainer, trainer her to become a fighter.  Frankie was not up for the challenge at first because he did not train girls.  However, Maggie’s persistence eventually won him over and he connected with her.

Maggie took to the sport very quickly.  Once someone taught her how to use her feet and to properly breathe, she began knocking people out in the first round.  She progressed quickly, becoming a sensation.

Hilary Swank was wonderful as the down-home sweetheart Maggie, who was determined to reach her goals.  She wound up winning an Academy Award for her performance in Million Dollar Baby.  Eastwood won the Academy Award for directing and Freeman was Best Supporting Actor that year.  Million Dollar Baby was also the Best Picture winner.

I did not expect this to be as emotional of a movie as it was.  The picture really hits you with an uppercut and knocks the wind out of you, all in a flash of a second.

Great action.  Great storytelling.  Real emotion.  Million Dollar Baby is way better than I ever expected it to be.  It transcended boxing and became a movie about life and loss and pain.  Truly a moving experience.

I’m just not sure how to feel about this.

I decided to watch Raging Bull because this week’s Top 10 Show featured Boxing Movies and my list was severely lacking in some major ways.  This was one of them so I chose the Thanksgiving binge watch would start with this Scorsese classic.

However, I am just not sure how to feel.

I absolutely HATED Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro).  I found him so unlikable that in the first half hour or so, I considered shutting the movie off.  I did not like any of the characters on the screen, including Jake’s brother Joey (Joe Pesci) or his soon-to-be child bride Vickie (Cathy Moriarty).

But I persisted with the hope of seeing this group of people suffer from their horrible choices.  That might not be the most empathic reason to keep watching a movie, but I had to find what I could.

Along the way, I started watching the ambiance and the mood being created by Martin Scorsese and the performance of Robert DeNiro.  The film is beautifully shot, with the black and white imagery and the dreamlike state at times.  The boxing matches may not measure up to the realism of today’s standard, but they are dramatic and told a story.

I saw DeNiro take this mean, unbelievably jealous, rotten abusive human being with a violent temper and send him through the wringer, self-induced as it may have been.  Jake LaMotta had a lot to be thankful for, but he was too crazy or insecure to accept that.  He self destructed completely.  The scene of him pounding the wall of the jail cell was remarkable.

So while I never came around on Jake LaMotta as a character, the film itself won me over.  The raw feel of the characters and the amazing look of the movie makes this a classic.

Die Hard is one of my favorite movies of all time.  When someone asks me what my favorite movies are, this is one of the first couple that comes out of my mouth.  I absolutely adore this movie.  This year is the 30th anniversary of the release of Die hard.

It is clearly going to be…

The highest rating I have.

Let’s talk about this fantastic movie a bit.

I was a huge fan of Moonlighting the television program starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd so I was excited to see Bruce move into the world of film.  I had gone to see him in Blind Date, but that was anything but one of my favorites.

Then Die Hard came along.

It is just a brilliant action movie. One of the best, if not THE best action movie in history.  There are so many perfect beats in this film.

First of all, Bruce Willis is spot on.  He is so believable in the roll of everyman cop John McClane who finds himself in impossible situations in Nakatomi Plaza in California.  he is funny, witty, smart and brave and as easy to relate to as any protagonist you are going to find.

Then, we have one of the greatest villains in cinema history as well with Hans Gruber, the film debut of the brilliant Alan Rickman.  Hans was menacing and frightening without ever being over-the-top.  He was perfectly played by Rickman in his sinister manner.

The writing of the film is astounding.  Every little detail comes back and pays off.  There is nothing that is superficial in this movie.  “Fists with your toes”- a small unimportant conversation John has on an airplane leads to him running around the building with bare feet.  An off hand remark from Ellis (Hart Bochner) about Holly’s (Bonnie Bedelia) watch comes back in the final confrontation with Hans.   Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) and his story of being unable to use his gun pays off in a big way.  Every little detail is there for a reason and it is a wonder to watch.

The action is amazing. The fight sequences are off the charts, as is the major knock down drag out between John and Karl (Alexander Godunov).  Although I have a hard time buying Karl surviving that final fight with John, it is worth it for the last scene with Al.

The lines are quotable as can be.  Everyone knows the iconic “yippee etc etc” line but one of my own favorites is when John is on the roof and trying to call for help on an emergency channel and the cops are not believing him.  His response to “Sir, this line is reserved for emergency calls only” is “No f#*king sh#t lady, do I sound like I’m ordering a pizza?” I lose myself laughing every time I hear that.

The ridiculousness of the other LA cops and FBI agents add into the feel that John McClane must keep going because no one else will be able to stop these terrorists.  Paul Gleason, who plays Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, gives his lines with such a dry delivery that he is one of the funniest parts of this movie.

Very few films have been done so well and Die Hard continues to be the class of all of the following Die Hard sequels.  It is one of the great movies of all time and will always have a place on my own top 5 list..

I do like serial killers.  Always have.  They fascinate me.

So with this thriller where at the heart of the story is a serial killer who was copycatting some of the most infamous serial killers inhistory, well, that film is one for me.

When you throw in the powerful casting of Sigourney Weaver and Holy Hunter into the mix, it only gets better.  Then, there is a creepy performance for the ages from Harry Connick Jr.  to make it all the more intense and suspenseful.

After being assaulted and nearly killed by obsessed killer Daryll Lee Cullem (Connick Jr), Dr. Helen Hudson (Weaver) wound up an agoraphobic.  However, Helen, a clinic psychologist specializing in serial murders, cannot stay out as she made several calls to the police, trying to give assistance on a new serial case.

Detective M.J. Monahan (Hunter) was the only one who was taking Helen’s calls seriously, and enlisted the sometimes unwilling aid of Helen to find the copycat killer (William McNamara).

The first time I saw this years ago, I was on the edge of my seat.  I will admit that I was not as filled with anxiety this time around.  Age will do that to you.  However, I still enjoyed the film and the performances of these actors.

I very much liked how Weaver’s character used her smarts to outwit the copycat killer at a point in the film.  She should be shown as intelligent and when she confronted him, Weaver showed how much of a bad ass she really could be.

Some of the other police officers did some really dumb things, which I felt was just because the plot needed them to be dumb.  That is a drawback to the writing.  Other than that, I liked Copycat very much and had a good time watching it.

As the country approaches an important vote on Tuesday, I looked back at a film, where at its center, was love and acceptance of differences.

The Birdcage starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as a middle aged gay couple who run a drag club in Miami.  Armand (Williams) had a son Val (Dan Futterman) who had fallen in loved with a young girl (Calista Flockhart) and wanted to get married.  The problem is the girl’s parents were extremely conservative, with her father being Senator Keeley (Gene Hackman) who had co-founded an organization for the morals of the country.

Val returned to see his father and “mother” Albert (Lane) to get their help to convince the Senator that they were a typical family.

Meanwhile, Senator Keeley’s co-founder died in the bed of an underage black prostitute, creating a huge scandal.  Keeley decided to escape the press by taking his wife Louise (Dianne Wiest) to meet Val and Val’s family.

There are a lot of uncomfortable moments in The Birdcage, a film based on the French film “La Cage aux Folles,” when the characters are being forced into situations that they simply are unable to exist within.  One could argue that the selfishness of Val and Barbara are really on display here, throwing their parents’ feeling away.  Val is downright cruel to the overtly emotional and practically on fire flaming Albert, never once really considering the feelings of the man he considered a mother.  Armand had to do so much damage control, but, in that damage control, we see the real and deeply caring relationship between these two men and you understand how Armand could live with the temperamental Albert.  The scene where Williams finds Lane sitting on a bench and gives him the palimony agreement is such a beautiful scene of love between two people that it really underscores the idea of the film.

Albert and Armand are willing to do anything for Val, even what might be uncomfortable or mean, because they love him and they accept him.  Val’s learns that lesson as the film moves on and when he finally cuts through the crap, we understand that he sees what he has done and that he had the power to straighten it out.

The film is remarkably funny, with the robust scene stealer Agador (Hank Azaria) as a Guatemalan house boy dominating every scene.  Robin Williams truly anchors the wild performance of Nathan Lane and keeps everything under control.  He still has his share of laughs, but it comes from his dry wit and the situations instead of his normal hectic manner.

Gene Hackman is spot on as the conservative senator who finds himself smack dab in the middle of an unbelievable scandal.  His sweetness toward “Mother Coldman” shows that he is not a bad man, just one who may not see the same way as the others.

The film shows that there is the possibility of people of different lifestyles to come together and help one another instead of immediately entering into hatred.  The lesson that Val learns is a lesson that much of the country these days need to learn as well.  The Birdcage is a wonderfully funny, engaging film that celebrates individuality.  When Armand, Albert and even Agador tried to be what they were not, the struggles for everybody involved was obvious.

This is a great movie that is eminently rewatchable.

This past week’s Top 10 Show’s list was music biopics and their number one film was Amadeus.  I usually do a list of my own following their show but I have been unable to find the time.  Plus, I had some noticeable omissions when I was trying to write up the list, this being one of them.  I wanted to watch this before doing my own list, but there was just no time seeing as the fact that Amadeus was a three hour movie.

Finally, Friday night, I got a chance to watch the film and it was really great.

I enjoyed the format of the film very much.  The fact that the tale is being told by a rival of Mozart (Tom Hulce), an old man version of Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) brought such an interesting spin to everything that is being said.  We have no idea if anything that Salieri said was true or even close to being true.  As a rival of Mozart, Salieri is a perfect example of an unreliable narrator, someone who sees the story through their own perspective.

F. Murray Abraham is wonderful as Salieri and Tom Hulce turns a great comedic performance as the man-child Mozart.  Both men were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor, with Abraham taking the prize.  The film won a ton of Academy Awards and other awards back in the 1980s and I can see the reason why.

Amadeus is very funny, but it is also able to turn on a dime and show off drama that borders on tragedy.  There is a fine line between humor and tragedy and there has not been a better film to illustrate that concept than Amadeus.

It also has a fascinating turn by Jeffrey Jones, an actor known for playing comedic villains such as Ed Rooney in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Jones’s portrayal of the Emperor is both funny and beguiling.  I enjoyed his work here.

I did enjoy the film, but I will say that it would not make my number one spot on a music biopic list. It would certainly be in the top 5, however.

I had a chance today to catch Disney’s Hocus Pocus on the big screen for the first time since I saw it back at the drive in.  That was the last show I have seen at our local drive in.

I have to say, it was not as good as I remember.  It was still fine and I enjoyed myself for the most part, but there were a lot of scenes that just did not hold up 25 years later.

The Sanderson sisters were a group of witches who would use the life force of children to stay young.  Before they were hanged for witchcraft, they completed a curse indicating that they would be back.

When Max (Omri Katz), a new boy in town, was showing off for the pretty girl (Vinessa Shaw), he unwittingly brought the sisters back to life.  Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary (Kathy Najimy) picked up where they left off, trying to regain their lost youth.  Max, his young sister (Thora Birch), and a talking cat named Binx (Sean Murray) teamed up to prevent the sisters from returning forever.

There are many fun scenes in Hocus Pocus.  I still laugh like an idiot when Sarah Jessica Parker says, “Amuck, amuck, amuck, amuck.”  I always liked Omri Katz from the television program, Eerie, Indiana, and he is very easy to cheer for here.  Vanissa Shaw is beautiful and she has some nice, easy chemistry with Omri.

The musical number performed by Bette Midler, “You Put a Spell on Me” was fun and moved the story forward.  The three Sanderson sisters were great here.

The whole virgin running joke felt very 1990s and was driven into the ground hard by the movie.  There were some moments when the Sanderson sisters were confused by the new world, but other times when they made jokes about things that should have confused them as well.  It was as if they only did not know about the new world when the plot called for them not to know.  That is a weakness.

There are some scary scenes for the young viewers and a few charged moments for the adults.  Hocus Pocus is a fine movie for the Halloween time of the year.

I loved the Universal monster movies as a youth.  Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon… they were some of my all time favorites.  However, I must say that I had never seen the H.G. Wells classic The Invisible Man until this very morning.

Claude Rains starred as Dr. Jack Griffin, who, as with any great mad scientist, experiments on himself and turns himself invisible.  The chemical he uses affects his brain as well, sending the man cascading toward madness.

We are along for the ride as we “see” the man at first bad tempered before changing into a psychotic killer.

Directed by James Whale (who also directed Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein), The Invisible Man has many special effects that were quite amazing for the time frame.  When you realize that this film came out in 1933, what they were able to accomplish is even more impressive.

Nearly the entire cast of secondary characters are unimportant here.  Even the Gloria Stuart as Griffin’s love Flora felt unimportant to the story.  The only other character of any real repute here is Kemp, played by William Harrigan.  Kemp was Griffin’s associate and partner and the man whom Griffin approached to help him formulate the antidote.  Kemp, understandably creeped out by the slowly insane invisible man, betrays Griffin by calling the police.  The fate of Kemp was a standout moment of the movie.

This role turned Claude Rains into a star which is remarkable since it was a role that you never see his face until the very end of the movie.  It is a strong performance from Rains, who was unable to use facial expressions in his acting and had to require other means to emote what he wanted to do.

I enjoyed The Invisible Man very much although I could have done with less screeching from the inn keeper (Una O’Connor)

One of the worst movies of all time, Plan 9 from Outer Space, is the next film in the October Fear Fest.  I was inspired to watch this after watching the wonderful Ed Wood movie starring Johnny Depp.  Part of that story was involving the filming of Plan 9 from Outer Space.

And while this is one of the worst films ever, it is also one of the best worst films ever. It is actually quite fun to watch it is so bad.

Ed Wood was the infamous director of this film and he was widely known as one of the worst directors ever.  He would take one shot and move along no matter what happened.  He cast his friends and people he knew.

This turned out to be the final film of Bela Legosi’s career and, in fact, he died before filming was over.  So, Ed Wood replaced him with his girlfriend’s chiropractor who bared a slight passing resemblance to Legosi.  He would have the chiropractor cover his face with the cape whenever he was on screen.

Former pro wrestler Tor Johnson was given something that he should never be given in a film…lines.  The early lines spoken by Tor were some of the worst delivered lines in the history of movies, right up there with “solar panels” by Alan Bagh in Birdemic: Shock and Terror.

Stock footage is used regularly and one scene of Bela Legosi is literally re-used five times during the film, if not more.

The film is just horrible, but it can provide a solid unintentional laugh if you understand what kind of film this is.  Like The Room, Plan 9 from Outer Space has a cult following that elevates the movie to something more than just a terribly created B-movie.

Again, watch the Tim Burton directed Ed Wood before you watch this travesty and it will provide you with more respect for the film than it probably deserves.  It is a terrible film, but it may end up on a list of best worst films ever.  I’ll do that list some day.

Until then…

The October Fear Fest continues here at EYG with a movie that may not be specifically a horror movie, but a film that tells the story of the creation of horror movies… or horrible movies.  I find it fascinating how the movies that are about the making of the worst movies of all time turn out to be so memorable and wonderful.  We recently had The Disaster Artist, the amazing tale of the making of The Room with Tommy Wiseau and this film is Ed Wood, who made one of the worst films of all time in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

The fact is that these movies are so good because they are not about the actual movie they made, but because they focus on the characters that were involved in them, and Ed Wood features the story of the ever eccentric and always energetic Edward Wood Jr (Johnny Depp).  A young director, inspired by Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, made movies his own way. Quick.  Without a bunch of costly reshoots or second takes.  And he filled the films with his friends.

One friend in particular was Bela Legosi (Martin Landau), the star of Universal Pictures’ Dracula.  Legosi had fallen on hard times later in his life when he met Wood, who was a huge fan.  Legosi was broke, addicted to morphine and living alone with his dogs.  Wood did not see this in the former star.  He saw the man he remembered and he did what he could to return Legosi to prominence.

The Oscar winning performance of Martin Landau as Bela Legosi is one of the best parts of Ed Wood.  Landau completely engulfs the Dracula star that you would probably wonder if this was actually Legosi himself.   The relationship between Legosi and Wood carries a chunk of this movie and every time Legosi called up Wood and said, “Help me, Eddie,” you get a lump in your throat.

Johnny Depp is so full of energy and brings a remarkable comedic performance as the cross-dressing director who was seemingly oblivious to his shortcomings as a director.  As ridiculous as he could be, Depp brought such a humanity to Wood, a man who cared for the people around him and just wanted to create something wonderful.

The film is just as funny as it is touching.  There are so many great scenes where you have to laugh.  The baptism scene where Bunny (Bill Murray), in response to the question of “Will you reject Satan” says “Sure” is just a riot.

There are many great performances here besides the aforementioned Depp, Landau and Murray.  Sarah Jessica Parker plays Ed Wood’s first girlfriend, a rotten woman who is really just in it for her own career.  Vincent D’Onofrio is brilliant in a cameo as Wood’s inspiration Orson Welles.  Professional wrestler George “The Animal” Steele plays Wood’s infamous actor Tor Johnson.  Patricia Arquette plays Kathy, the woman who becomes the second Mrs. Wood and stays at the side of Ed under all circumstances.  Their side plot of a love story is heart warming among the chaos surrounding them.

Directed by Tim Burton, Ed Wood is a love letter to the idea of film making, no matter how poorly those films are made.  The film is packed full with amazing performances from the talented cast, led by the tragic life of Bela Legosi through the eyes of Martin Landau.  This is one of my favorite performances from Johnny Depp as well.

The choice to film this biopic in black and white created such a perfect mood that the film carried through every scene.  It was beautiful to watch and a joy to experience.

I was inspired to rewatch this after the Top 10 Show episode about Movies set in LA and I am very glad I did.  I had not seen this in a long time, and I remembered liking it the first time, but now after this viewing, I find this to be a near masterpiece.  It is so good that it has inspired me to go watch Plan 9 from Outer Space…and not just the RiffTrax version of it either.  Now that is the power of a film.

The October Fear Fest rolls on with one of the Universal monsters, The Wolf Man.  The original film starring Lon Chaney in his iconic role of Larry Talbot,a man who returned to his home only to be attacked and bitten by a werewolf.

The story is simple and works well because of it.  There is not an attempt to make this more than what it is.  Larry is bitten (by Bela Legosi of all people) and, slowly begins to believe the legend being told him by the gypsies in the area.

There are some interesting ideas here, in particular how the mind can cause people to believe anything, including that they are being turned into a wolf.  This is a little more literal than just a mind trip, but the idea is solid.

The look of the Wolf Man is pretty good considering it is 1941.  The film keeps the use of the Wolf to a limited amount, wisely preventing the need for too much overuse.

“Even a man who is pure of heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.”

This is repeated several times throughout the movie and works very well to help create the mood of the film.  It also is well constructed in ways of mood.

The Wolf Man is an excellent film that introduces an iconic monster to the world.  It is a lot of fun.

I teach 7th grade literacy and we read the novel by Rodman Philbrick, Freak the Mighty.  So every year, after we finish the book, we watch the movie from 1998 based on the book, The Mighty.

This week, I watched it five times.

Once for each class.  So I figured I may as well add it to the Doc’s Classics Movies Reviewed section and take a break from the October Fear Fest.

I very much enjoy the film.  Some kids asked me about having to watch it with each class and I told them that there were enough scenes that I enjoyed that helped me get through.

Truthfully, a lot of this movie is cheesy.  It is nowhere near as good as the book, but the movie has one big thing going for it and that is a tremendous cast of actors.  Henry Dean Stanton and Gena Rowlands are the grandparents and they bring the goods in their scenes together.  One in particular really highlighted their skills as actors.

The Mighty tells the story of an unlikely friendship between Max (Elden Hensen, who I found out just now also plays Foggy Nelson in Netflix’s Daredevil.  MIND BLOWN!!!), and Kevin (Kieran Culkin).  Kevin has a disease that affects his ability to walk and grow properly and Max, the big and strong son of a convicted murderer, carries Kevin around on his shoulders as they go on adventures, “slaying dragons and saving damsels.”

Both boys do a great job in The Mighty.  Any time a movie has kids as its main leads takes a huge chance.  If those kids do not work, the film does not work.  Fortunately, Max and Kevin work very well.

The cast also has James Gandolfini as Max’s father Kenny Kane, Gillian Anderson (of X-Files fame) as Loretta Lee, and Meat Loaf as Iggy Lee.  All of these actors get a chance to shine and show exactly what they can do.

Then, Sharon Stone plays Gwen Dillon, Kevin’s doting mother who is dealing with the struggles of raising a child with a debilitating disease.  Sharon Stone is effervescent here and brought so much humanity to the Fair Gwen.

There were several scenes that were cheesy (most of which were added to the film and not included in the book), but none of the scenes stretched credibility enough to take me out of the film.  And there is some real emotion shown in the film, without feeling as if they are trying to manipulate the audience.

The Horror Binge-a-thon during the October Fear Fest continued with the John Landis film, An American Werewolf in London.  I have to say, I was not as impressed with this movie as I thought I would be.

I remember watching this years ago, but I wonder if I hadn’t watched the whole thing (or had seen an edited version on TV) because much of what was here was unfamiliar.

While trekking through the Moors of England, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) wind up being attacked by a werewolf.  Jack was killed, but David survived.  After several weeks in the hospital, David receives a surprise visit from the still deceased Jack who has some uncomfortable news. David is a werewolf and must kill himself to end the blood line of the wolf.

David believes that he is dreaming and meets up with a nurse(Jenny Agutter) from the hospital who lets him stay at her flat.  Unfortunately, time is running out as the moon is due to be full the next night.

I found this to be pretty disappointing.  The tones of the film vary wildly from scene to scene and I just never thought that the film found its footing.

When David is transforming into the werewolf, however, the film is frighteningly solid.  The transformation is painful, harsh and scary.  You feel for David at the time, wishing his pain would end.  The people he kill are all just glorified extras that you have no emotional connection to so their deaths do not overcome the feeling of connection you have for David.  Because of that, the end results feels empty.

The relationship with David and nurse Alex is strange and sudden.  There are a lot of feelings of rushing here as the film does not take its time on any major point.  The whole part with the Slaughtered Lamb and the patrons who refuse to say anything makes no sense whatsoever.  Why are they so secretive?  Why is it such a big issue when one tries to talk to the doctor?  It makes no sense.

Much of the plot is thin and does not pay off.  The film looks great, especially the part where the werewolf transformation is taking place.  I just did not buy the blend of horror and humor in this case.