Released: October 2018

Director: Don Michael Paul

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 102 Minutes

Distributor: Universal Home Entertainment

Genre: Action/Fantasy

Cast:
Zach McGowan: Scorpion King
Pearl Thusi: Tala
Mayling Ng: Khensa
Nathan Jones: Enkidu
Peter Mensah: Nebserek
Katy Louise Saunders: Amina

What kind of a world do we live in where a movie series is outnumbered by a spin-off series?  It’s madness, I say!  MADNESS!!  Back in 1999, Universal Studios released a modern retelling of a 1932 classic Universal monster movie called The Mummy.  The 1999 film, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz was a straight-up popcorn adventure flick that was as exciting as it was funny.  It was no classic by any stretch, but it was a film that new what it was and it ran with it.  The success of the 1999 film pretty much guaranteed a sequel, which it in 2001’s The Mummy Returns.  While nowhere near as good as the first film, The Mummy Returns was still a fun little action flick that hit most of the right notes.  Unfortunately, the second sequel, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was inferior in so many ways, plagued by bad writing and a terribly miscast Maria Bello as Evelyn.  Something interesting happened between these last two films.  See, the opening of the second film featured former WWF/WWE star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a new villain called the Scorpion King.  While the CGI incarnation of the Scorpion King was…..horrifying in all the wrong ways, it opened the door for the character to have his own spin-off movie starring The Rock in his first leading role.  The Scorpion King was a moderate success, but it succeeded in catapulting Dwayne Johnson into action movie hero status.  Universal wanted to expand on the character, so new movies were made.  The first, being a prequel, was an abomination of a film.  The second two films were sequels that were…..not great.  So now, in 2018, we have a new film: The Scorpion King: Book of Souls

The film opens on a ruthless warlord, Nebserek as he finds a legendary sword that was forged by Anubis.  The sword has the power to capture souls and make its wielder invincible.  Nebserek, having found the sword, seeks the legendary Scorpion King to destroy in order to complete his conquest of Egypt.  The Scorpion King has taken up residence as a blacksmith in a local village when it comes under attack by Nebserek’s soldiers.  Wounded and captured, the Akkadian warrior is freed by Nubian princess Tala in hopes of finding the Book of Souls, which is said to reveal the secret to destroying Anubis’s sword.  Basically, the story is a carbon-copy of the other ones.  The pattern is the same: Evil warlord seeks powerful weapon to conquer the world, and only The Scorpion King stands in his way.  From the first film to this, each film follows the exact same pattern, and doesn’t deviate, and that’s the problem with these movies.  They don’t try anything new.  At least, they didn’t have a villain that turned into an invisible scorpion, so that’s a plus.  That being said, Book of Souls is at the very least competent in its execution, which is more than I can say for the last three movies.  The film starts off a little slow at first, but it does pick up the pace.

While the first film featured Dwayne Johnson in his first leading role, the follow-up films went straight-to-video, as was the case with some of Universal’s other properties including Tremors and Dragonheart.  The prequel cast Michael Copon in the title role and…..he sucked.  For the two films that followed, Universal cast Victor Webster in the lead.  While he wasn’t a terrible replacement for The Rock, he didn’t have the charisma.  The same problem applies to Zach McGowan who takes over in Book of Souls.  Again, he’s not terrible, but he just doesn’t quite have the presence that you need for a character like the Scorpion King.  Peter Mensah plays Nebserek, the Scorpion King’s enemy in this film.  My problem here isn’t with Mr. Mensah.  He knows how to chew the scenery.   The problem is that he’s not in the film very much, in spite of the fact that he’s the main antagonist.  The bad guy, or girl in this case that gets more screen time is Kensah, played by Mayling Ng.  She feels more like a real threat than Nebserek.  While Mayling is not the greatest of actresses, she definitely brings it terms of physicality and ruthlessness, and that’s fantastic.  Pearl Thusi plays Tala, who happens to be the daughter of Michael Clarke Duncan’s character, Balthazar, from the first film.  It’s a loose connection at best, but Pearl certainly stands toe-to-toe with everyone else.    Overall, the acting is what you would expect for a film like this:  Not great, even over-the-top at times, but not overly terrible.

When I said that The Scorpion King: Book of Souls was competent, that applies to the action sequences as well.  The Scorpion King was never ground-breaking in its approach to action.  Even the first movie felt pretty generic at times, but at least you could see what was going on.  The action here is decent enough, once you get past the shaky-cam stuff.  Thankfully, a lot of the action is done without wires and without green-screens.  That shows that there was some effort put into this film, and I’m grateful for that.  Everyone involved in the action does their best and even though some of the choreography is suspect at times, it’s pretty entertaining.  McGowan definitely has physical presence as the Scorpion King, and he goes all in.  Pearl Thusi also brings her A-game to the fight sequences.  Nathan Jones plays the golem, Enkidu, and he’s awesome to watch.  It’s also fantastic to see that a creature like Enkidu is done practically instead of being a complete CGI creature.  Mayling Ng, being a fitness expert and martial artists obviously does a lot of her own fighting and she’s awesome to watch.  The guy that really gets the short end of the stick is Peter Mensah.  He’s mostly there to growl and twirl a non-existent mustache.  In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t like Mensah’s character at all, not because he’s evil, but because he’s so poorly written and executed.  The action, while mostly standard, is pretty fun.

I would have to say that The Scorpion King: Book of Souls is easily the best sequel in the Scorpion King series, although that’s not exactly a high bar to reach.  Still, it’s a pretty competent action film in its own right, despite a great number of flaws.  I would actually watch this film over The Mummy 3 any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Ultimately, it’s still not going to compare with Dwayne Johnson’s film, but as far as direct-to-video sequels go, Book of Souls is very watchable.  Do what I did and rent it first, though.

My Final Recommendation: I may or may not hate questing.  6/10.

Released: 2018

Director: Ross Boyask

Rated R

Run Time: 93 Minutes

Distributor: Lionsgate Studios

Genre: Action/Thriller

Cast:
Stu Bennett: John Gold
Gary Daniels: Hatcher
Anna Shaffer: Sandra
Bryan Larkin: Marshall
Keith Allen: Dougie
Mark Griffin: Frost

This past September, the Stratford Picture House in London, England hosted The Fighting Spirit Film Festival.  I have to say that I’m very grateful that I was able to attend that event.  It was one of the most unique and exciting experiences I’ve ever had.  I got to see a lot of short films and some big movies as well, which included The Karate Kid, Part II and Enter The Dragon, which was absolutely incredible.  I also got to meet some folks behind some of the short films there including Jino Kang whose short film, Kid Fury: The Phantom Witch was part of the selection.  It was phenomenal and I hope to go another one sometime in the future.  During the festival, there were two movies that had their premiere at the festival: The Debt Collector, starring Scott Adkins and Louis Mandylor, and I Am Vengeance, starring Stu Bennett and Gary Daniels.  In my post about The Fighting Spirit Film Festival, which you can click on the link here, I gave some brief thoughts about how I felt about I Am Vengeance.  It was pretty positive, but now that I have the film on Blu-Ray, I want to go a little further into what I liked about the film and some issues that I had with it.

Basically, the story of I Am Vengeance is about a former British special forces operative who goes after a rogue special forces team after his best friend is found dead.  That’s pretty much it.  No super twists or anything that’s going to wrack your brain.  It’s a good old-fashioned, 80s-style setup that serves as a vehicle for Stu Bennett’s character to go ape-shit on the people that killed his friend.  Most action movies these days try to surprise their audiences with twists and pulling the rug out from underneath you.  I Am Vengeance is not so pretentious.  It’s an action movie and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that, and I find that surprisingly refreshing in the genre these days.  Does that mean there is no character development in the film?  Eh…there’s only so much.  I mean, you’ve got the big guy on a mission and then you’ve got the bad guys who are only in it for the money.  Like I said, the film doesn’t really waste time with all that fluff.  It’s a meat-and-potatoes kind of action film that reminds me more of Commando than anything else, and that’s not a bad thing.  I do like my complex story-telling in certain situations, but Vengeance isn’t one of them.

Acting-wise, Citizen Kane, this is not.  That being said, I’ve seen a lot worse from bigger movies.  Stu Bennett, who went by the stage name Wade Barrett in the WWE, makes his debut as a leading actor.  The first time that I saw Stu Bennett in a movie was a little action flick that he did with Scott Adkins a few years ago called Eliminators, where he played an assassin.  While I’m not going to see that he has the same kind of presence of someone like Dwayne Johnson, Stu is pretty good in his own right.  He’s physically imposing at 6’6″, and he’s built.  He’s infinitely better at the movie thing than someone like say, John Cena or Hulk Hogan.  It looks like he feels more comfortable on a movie set than he does in the ring.  He’s only been in three movies thus far including this one, but I think his big break is coming.  Gary Daniels is another physical powerhouse in the film.  Unlike Stu, however, Daniels is full-fledged martial arts fighter.  While Daniels is definitely more of a martial artist than he is an actor, he can definitely bring the menace when he’s playing a villain.  He’s fine as a good guy in most movies, but I really dig his bad guy roles, because they tend to be very ruthless, and his skills as a fighter add a lot of threat to those roles.  Scottish-born Bryan Larkin plays Marshall, one of Hatcher’s more psychotic henchmen.  This is another actor whose bad guy roles are pretty stellar.  Overall, the acting is decent across the board.  Nobody’s going to win an Academy Award, but they get the point across.

Let’s talk about the action here.  Holy.  Shit.  This is a movie that hits really hard.  Yeah, the gun-fights are pretty standard, but it’s the hand-to-hand stuff that really stands out.  When I said that I Am Vengeance is an 80s-style action movie, I meant it.  The fight sequences feature some of the most hard-hitting fights I’ve seen in a movie this year.  I’m talking 80’s-style pugilism here.  There’s not a lot of finesse to the action scenes, and that’s on purpose.  It’s down, dirty, and mean.  The only guy that has any real fancy footwork is Gary Daniels, but even he uses mostly his fists to do the talking.  There’s no half-assed punches here.  They all look like they hit and hurt.  That kind of action really hasn’t been seen a great deal since the mid-to-late 80s.  I love the throwback and the fight choreography is astonishing.  Stu Bennett handles himself pretty well and sells the idea that his character is a serious military bad-ass.  Bryan Larkin’s character is exceptionally brutal.  I have to say, the fight between him and Stu’s character is pretty hard-core, but it’s the fight between Bennett and Daniels that’s my particular favorite.  These guys just really go for it.  Now, I do have some issues with some of the camera-work.  While you can see most of the action pretty well, there are some moments where the camera gets too close to really tell who is hitting who.  I’m not a big fan of that in most action movies.  Overall, though, the action is rock-solid and straight to the point.

There’s another major issue I had with the film and that was with the character of Sandra, played by Anna Shaffer.  Now, Anna did the best she could with what she was given, but the character was just so completely unlikable, it felt really difficult to empathize with her character’s drug-addicted plight.  A lot of the other characters, you understand their motivations and why they do what they do, but Sandra needed to have her head put through a wall.  Again, I have nothing against the actress.  It’s the character that was poorly written.  While I was impressed with the film when I first saw it in London, my second viewing has me enjoying it quite a bit more.  It’s an old-fashioned throwback to when action movies were allowed to be hard-hitting and brutal affairs.  I loved it.  So….do I recommend the film?  Absolutely, especially if you like 80s-style action flicks.

My Final Recommendation: This movie’s bad-ass.  9/10

Released: October 1966

Director: Bill Melendez

Not Rated

Run Time: 25 Minutes

Genre: Animation/Short/Comedy

Cast:
Peter Robbins: Charlie Brown
Christopher Shea: Linus Van Pelt
Sally Dryer: Lucy Van Pelt
Cathy Steinberg: Sally Brown

This October has been a very fulfilling month when it comes to talking about horror movies and films that are most associated with Halloween.  As promised, here is my Halloween special review.  However, instead of my usual dark, dreary, and gory horror movies, I have decided to tackle something far more family-friendly.  I figured that since I spent most of the month talking about dark and depressing films, I thought I would close out the month with something positive and uplifting.  There are a large number of family-friendly Halloween movies out there, but I wanted to cover the one that everybody is familiar with: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  This isn’t going to be a particularly large post as the film is only 25 minutes long, but it’s become such an important part of the cultural zeitgeist, so I thought I would do my best to try and deliver my opinion on this one.

The short opens with young Linus writing a letter to “The Great Pumpkin,” a Halloween spirit that he believes will rise from a pumpkin patch to deliver toys and presents to all the good children of the world.  While that one line that I wrote pretty much sums up the plot of The Great Pumpkin, there’s a lot more to the film than I think most people would see.  As a kid, I would enjoy watching this short film every time it showed on TV during Halloween.  I’ve seen it every year since I can remember.  I’m a huge fan of the Peanuts comic strip by the late Charles M. Schulz.  It was a comic strip that featured the likes of Charlie Brown, Linus Van Pelt, Snoopy, Sally Brown and company.  What I loved about The Great Pumpkin as a kid, was all the colorful imagery and wonderful animation.  The story may be simple, but the themes that are present throughout the 25 minutes are surprisingly thoughtful.  There is a message about the power of belief that would be lost on most children these days, but as adults, we see stuff like this and remember how simple things used to be when we were younger.  As kids, we believed in things like The Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause.  Linus’s belief in The Great Pumpkin is just another extension of that childhood innocence that many of us have since left behind, because as we get older and begin to understand the world more, the less likely we are to believe in such things.  Watching The Great Pumpkin is a great way to remind ourselves of a much simpler time.

There’s not much in the way of action here, it’s not that kind of short film.  The action that does come, comes in the form of Snoopy pretending to be a World War I ace pilot hunting down the Red Baron.  This sequence is incredibly fun, because the camera shifts the camera whenever Snoopy is climbing or going low.  The sound effects are pretty standard, but they do make for a fairly exciting experience for kids.  This sequence highlights another theme present within the film:  The power of imagination.  As adults, we often spend far too much time thinking about real-world affairs.  We no longer spend enough time looking at the sky and just…daydream.  Throughout the film, Linus is ridiculed for believing in The Great Pumpkin, but he has the best response to his critics: “I’ll stop believing in him, when you stop believing in that big red fella that goes ‘Ho, Ho, Ho.'”  To me, that really speaks volumes about the value of belief.  I think in the back of his mind, Linus knows that his belief is a little silly, but it’s no more silly than believing in Santa Clause.  The message is oh, so clear:  Just because you don’t believe in something, doesn’t mean you should stop others from believing in it regardless of how ridiculous you think it is, especially as a child when believing in something can be extremely important.

The humor of the Peanuts comic strip is very much present here.  There is definitely some social commentary, but it’s not overly mean-spirited and is something that children can understand.  The character designs and animations all add to the humor, especially when Snoopy is laughing at Linus.  Sally tricking Charlie Brown into kicking the football only to take it away is a running gag that has been a part of Peanuts since the very beginning.  It’s a part of what makes these characters so special.  Watching The Great Pumpkin now, as opposed to 30 years ago, I see a number of insights into what makes this short such a wonderful film.  It’s fun, it’s imaginative, and it has a great message for youngsters.  Is it the greatest Charlie Brown special?  No…but I don’t see anything really wrong with it, either.  This is a film for people of all ages and it something to say to each and every one of us.  So….do I recommend It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?  Yes.  Yes, I do.

It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! is one of the best Halloween specials ever made, as far as I’m concerned.  It’s uplifting, positive, and just a lot of fun.  So, with that I’m going to close out the month of October.  For the youngsters who plan on going Trick Or Treating tonight, be safe and definitely travel in groups or with parents.  For the parents, please keep an eye on your kids and make sure they stay out of the streets and out of trouble.  Aside from that, have fun and Happy Halloween to all!

Well, fellow space cadets, here we are:  The last day before Halloween.  The last few weeks have been an absolute ride talking about the various horror movies that I’ve seen over the years.  There have been good movies, bad movies and pretty much in between.  Over the past few weeks I’ve covered remakes, supernatural movies, slashers, dark action movies, and various other kinds of movies.  I’ve also reviewed a few including 30 Days of Night, The Descent, Venom, and the new Halloween film.  It’s all been building to this, to my final Best of October for 2018.  For this post, I’m going to go over some of the best horror movies that I have ever seen.  Remember, this list is entirely my opinion, so it may not line up with what you consider to be the best.  For me, these films are the reasons why I love this genre so much.  With all that in mind, let’s unearth some of my favorite horror movies.

Hereditary

Hereditary is perhaps my favorite horror film of 2018, easily.  The best horror movies, as I have stated multiple times, don’t rely on ultra-violence or jump-scares, but rather atmosphere and genuine tension.  You can have those elements, but they should never overshadow what the film is trying to accomplish.  Hereditary follows a family that has been racked with tragedy and there are certain elements, supernatural and otherwise that threaten to tear the family apart.  There is something special about a horror film that can affect you on a personal level.  Hereditary is a film where you can understand the stress and sadness that these characters are dealing with, and you can relate to that.  The really good horror movies are the ones that get under your skin.  This is a film that does just that.  It’s not the only one though.

The Witch

I love good slow-burners, especially if they are period pieces like The Witch.  This movie is creepy because it takes its time to build up its characters and setting.  It’s a darkly beautiful film that follows an extreme Puritan family after they’ve been exiled for being too extreme.  Over the course of the film, the family is beset by some really strange events including the disappearance of the family’s youngest child.  It’s extremely unsettling, not only because of the isolated setting, but because of the family’s extreme religious beliefs and practices.  It’s one of those pervasive themes that having such extreme beliefs can be very damaging to a family.  There is a supernatural element to the film, but the film, like The Omen, goes out of its way to provide a direct answer.  It has its shocking moments and it can be violent at times, but this is very much a character-driven horror film that stands out among the rest.

The Evil Dead(1981)

Most people would probably put the second Evil Dead film here instead of the original.  They wouldn’t be wrong, but I chose the original film because it is an incredible experience.  Yeah, there are a lot of technical issues that you could point out in the film, but that’s the result of a film crew that really had very little experience in making a full-blown movie.  In fact, I would actually say that those issues and the not-so-good acting are really part of the charm of the film.  It’s gory, brutal, but also strangely funny at times.  It’s far more of a horror film than its sequels, but it still manages to put a smile on my face.  The film follows a group of college students as they spend the weekend at a cabin in the woods(is there any other kind?).  They discover an old beat-up book along with a tape recorder.  As a result, they inadvertently unleash a demonic force that possess them one at a time.  I have to say that this is one of the most amazing movies ever made.  Not only was it Sam Raimi’s first film, but it also launched the careers of both him and actor Bruce Campbell.  It is definitely a product of its time, but I still highly recommend it.

The Exorcist

I brought The Exorcist up in my post about supernatural movies, but it definitely bears repeating here.  The Exorcist came out in 1973 and it shocked and horrified audiences world-wide.  There’s a reason for that.  The film handles the idea of exorcism realistically while still dealing with a supernatural event.  The set-up is simple, a young girl is exhibiting really strange behavior and her mother is trying to figure out why.  As it turns out, the girl is being possessed by some kind of demonic presence, so she enlists the help of a local priest that’s dealing with a spiritual crisis of his own.  This movie is fucking nuts, as was the reaction to it.  The film is what some critic have called, “a full frontal assault.”  There’s nothing particularly subtle about what’s happening here.  What really shocked people was the foul language that was coming out of Linda Blair’s mouth during the movie, and the various self-mutilating things that have been happening.  There’s a reason why this film is both respected and hated at the same time.  So…..recommended.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I don’t know what it was about the 70s and 80s, but the horror movies that came out of those decades were absolutely insane, not just in terms of content, but in how they were made.  Movies aren’t made like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre any more.  The movie feels very much like a documentary-type of film following a group of college kids as they encounter a completely psychotic figure with a mask made of human flesh wielding a chainsaw.  It’s been reviled as one of the goriest movies ever made, and yet, aside from one shot of a decomposing corpse, I can find no real gore in the movie.  It’s all implied, which makes for a more intense experience.  I love it when movies trick the audience into thinking they something they actually didn’t.  TCM did exactly that.  It’s an incredible film from beginning to end and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, unlike some of its sequels and remakes.

Night of the Living Dead

Of all the sub-genres in horror, the zombie is the one that I hate the most.  It’s not because of the idea that the dead somehow come back to life and hunt people for brains.  No.  I hate the genre because its one of the most over-used and over-saturated sub-genres.  There are so many zombie movies, that it’s not even funny, and most of them aren’t even good.  That being said, George A. Romero struck gold with his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.  Yeah, the zombies were slow-moving, but they were everywhere, and the film focuses on a group of folks who ended up in a farm-house.  It’s not the first film to deal with zombies, but it revolutionized the genre with how it dealt with zombies.  The film was shot entirely in black-and-white, and even for 1968, a black-and-white film was starting to become rarity.  It’s an iconic piece of film history that no film buff should be without.

Alien

I know I’ve mentioned this one before in my other posts, but Alien is just so damned good, I have to mention it again.  Yeah, it’s definitely science fiction, but it is also a real horror film at its core.  There is truly something horrific about a life-form that wants to reproduce by invading your body, regardless of whether you’re a man or woman.  Alien is as much a psychological thriller as it is a monster movie.  It balances the two so well, that very few movies can match the film’s intensity.  Combine that with H.R. Giger’s creature design and you have something right out of a goddamn nightmare.  It doesn’t matter how many times that I watch the film, it’s absolutely incredible.  Ridley Scott, the director, and the cast which included Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Hurt round out a cast of very likable characters.  The real star of the show, however, is Sigourney Weaver as Ripley.  Sigourney is right up there with Carrie Fisher, Margot Kidder, and Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the greatest actresses of her generation.  Alien set the world on fire as a horror film and as a film in general.

Those were some of my favorite horror movies of all time.  While I could have narrowed it down to just one movie, what would be the fun in that?  I adore this genre, despite some questionable films throughout the years.  This year has seen some pretty decent films, and I hope that we will see more next year.  I hope you all have enjoyed reading The Best of October as I did writing it.  It has been a very thought-provoking and creative experience that I will never forget.  These last few weeks have been incredibly rewarding as far as this site goes, and I plan on doing this again next year.  While this post may be the last for The Best of October, I’ve still got one more post specifically for Halloween, so stick around.