The Wizard of Oz

What can be said of this movie? One word can describe this: classic.

I remember my mum recorded the movie and when I first saw it, I was so amazed by the movie that the tape wore out thanks to my constant viewing. This colourful epic was based on the novel by L Frank Baum.

The story is pretty basic; a young girl named Dorothy gets sucked up in a hurricane and ends up in the magical world known as Oz. Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and a Lion along her journey to meet the Wizard of Oz so she can get home back to Kansas. The Wicked Witch of the West tries to stop Dorothy reaching her goal after Dorothy ‘accidentally’ killed her sister at the beginning.

The sepia style tone at the beginning of the movie is one of the most recognisable traits especially when Dorothy first opens the door of her house, it suddenly transforms into colour, when I first saw this moment my jaw fell on the floor with amazement. The movie was made in 1939 so whenever I bring up the movie, people often think it was made in the 1950s.

Sure this movie looks like a pantomime with its musical numbers and costumes, but you have to give credit to the costume designers, aside from the four main characters, every munchkin and the residents of the Emerald city were all made by hand. I especially love the Lion costume, if you watch the movie, try playing spot the string. The string is used to move the Lion’s tail through the movie. It was said that MGM wanted to use Leo the Lion for the Lion part and have an actors voice dubbed in! The idea got dropped when Bert Lehr came in for the part. I love every detail in each costume especially for the Tin Man played by Jack Haley, you can see the detail of the rust to show that indeed he had been stuck for years from rust.

Also the sets are top notch. All bright and colourful contrasting with the Wicked Witch’s castle of course which is dark and gloomy, this clearly visually contrasts the good and evil side. One notable set which is dominant is the Emerald City which Green is the main colour even the costumes are all green. The munchkin city doesn’t have a dominant colour other than the yellow brick road which plays a major part of the movie. The castle of the Wicked Witch has a lot of light and dark greys, even the soldiers’ costumes are grey, fortunately they don’t camouflage into the scenery. My favourite set is the forest, all the trees are twisted with faces, leaves scattered everywhere like an autumn night. I remember this scene being scary for me, the Witch sends the monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto, they rip apart the Scarecrow from limb to limb as if they try to kill him and Scarecrow was my favourite character in my childhood so to see him getting ripped apart was truly a frightening experience.

The musical numbers are so memorable that everyone knows the lyrics and even some portions of the songs are spoofed by a variety of comics. The musical number ‘Over the Rainbow’ was nearly cut from the movie as the company MGM thought the segment with Kansas was too long and being over the head of young children as it was intended. Fortunately it stayed and from there, it’s won so many awards and magazines have considered this to be the greatest song of movie history. It truly deserves it as well. I thought the song ‘If I were King of the Forest’ was the weakest of the song numbers. It didn’t feel right for me. I remember fast forwarding the song when I was a kid as it didn’t have the bounce that the other songs contained.

A movie I hope to show to future generations for years to come, it’s fun, inventive, it’s a special movie that holds so dearly in my heart, it’s a movie for all of us and for all time!

I give this a PERFECT 5/5 stars!


Also quick news,
I'll be recording my first video review soon and hopefully it'll be released and the release date is currently TBA so watch this space!
I have a myspace page which is in working progress at the moment so bear with me while I edit it, if you wanna check it http://www.myspace.com/popcorn.fanatic is the place,

also you can email me for movie requests or just anything really on popcorn.fanatic@gmail.com OR popcorn.fanatic@yahoo.co.uk

Meet the Feebles

This is probably the strangest, weirdest and one of the most crudest movies I've seen.

Just imagine that Jim Henson, the creator of the muppets, went in his office and then did some crack and cocaine and drank a lot, then you get 'Meet the Feebles'.

This strange movie was directed by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson made low budget movies before gaining fame with Lord of the Rings or King Kong. Along with 'Meet the Feebles' he made 'Bad Taste' and BrainDead' (Dead Alive was the release name in USA) all of them low budget, bloody, gory and sometimes over the top. Meet the Feebles is a black comedy which also has music so its also a musical. and throughout the movie is literally full of Jim Henson-esque puppets. The puppets are placed in the movie in a comic sattire. This movie contains a lot of sub plot summaries so to explain the main plot, it tells the story of the Feebles theatre troupe. They are a group of performers who, that night, are going on live network TV. If they are good enough, they will get picked up for a syndicated network show and everyone will get rich. The themes throughout the movie contain sex, violence, drugs, back stabbing, date rape and death. So much happens in this film that I can't even begin to explain the story any more than that.

Characters include, but are not limited to, a heroin-addicted frog, an over-sexed rabbit, a hippo with low self-esteem and a short fuse..., a cow and insect porn film-making duo, a sleazy fly tabloid reporter...and a lovable and friendly porcupine. The characters are just plain crazy and outrageous. Not all characters in this movie are puppets. Among those that are played by actors in suits are Heidi (hippo), Bletch (walrus), Cederic (wart hog), Sid (elephant), Daisy (cow) and Barry (bulldog). Some characters looked related to Jim Henson's muppets. For example Sid the Elephant reminds me of Gonzo, not because of his nose. Its due to to the fact that he supposed to have slept with Sandy the Chicken and the baby is half chicken and half elephant. In the muppets, Gonzo is always hanging out with some chickens not I thought Gonzo had a thing or two with chickens. I'm not sure if its a parody or a tribute.

There's a lot of disturbing moments in the film. From a warrus having sexual adultery with a cat, a rabbit chucking up, a fly eating a someone's crap...with a spoon! Believe me I was nearly sick. Moments like these, you have to have a real strong stomach to take it all in.

It also pokes fun at the oscar winner 'The Deer Hunter' russian roulette scene. The strange thing with this, Money ran out during production, so the flashback to Vietnam was quietly filmed separately (with a different budget) as 'The Frogs of War' and then later edited into 'Meet the Feebles'.

Although the characters are all animals, There's one human (puppet) character Abi, an Indian snake-charmer who physically appears to be a parody of Gandhi. During the film he gets his head stuck in his rectum and when he pulls it out near the end of the film, a bed of nails crushes him.

It was according to the Internet Movie Database trivia for the film, the production team could not get hold of blank rounds for the M60 machine gun used in the movie and therefore the gun was firing live ammunition. The moment for that happens right at the end of the movie, Heidi the hippo basically dons a Rambo esque machine gun and guns anyone in sight!

Things I've spotted during the film, when the performance is about to begin, the camera pans over the audience, most the audience are cardboard cut outs, you can also spot a cameo appearance from an alien that was used in the earlier film 'Bad Taste'. The alien was performed by Peter Jackson, so the alien and Peter Jackson made cameo Appearances. The Jesus Christ in the Feebles universe appears to be a Kermit the Frog-like frog. This is shown in the form of a crucifix held by Harry when he is praying to God to recover from his sickness. The music numbers are hilarious. One notable song, Sebastion's "Sodomy Song" and dance routine that is totally warped, you try watching a gay fox thrust it's pelvis at the camera without cracking a smile, its that bizarre!

Upon accepting his Best Picture win, Peter Jackson thanked the Academy for not awarding him for Meet The Feebles or Bad Taste. You know what, I would have loved those films to win oscars. Low budget movies shouldn't be overlooked, just because it was filmed with a low budget doesn't mean its going to suck. Give those movies a chance and hopefully people will give them a chance instead of overhyped, over budget blackbuster Hollywood flicks!

Meet the Feebles is a gleefully twisted comedy that is often shocking and strangely endearing at the same time. Many will be offended so this film IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. So approach with extreme caution.

I give the movie 4 stars out of 5

(5 out of 5 for sick level!)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Friday The 13th (2009)

Normally I'm against horror remakes, but seeing as this remake is made by the producers as the remade 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', I was really looking forward to how they could bring this horror icon onto the screen for today's audiences. There were 10 films including a spin off, it started itself in the woods (a soon to be cliche setting for any horror movie) but eventually found itself going to Manhattan, to Hell, to space and battles with horror icon Freddy Krugar so a remake was necessary so watching this remake was a breath of fresh air to see Jason going to back to his roots and doing what he does best, complete with a machete.

So what did I think of this remake? I feel this did not have the same fear factor or the shock value as the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' movie had provided us. It wasn't that scary as most of the time it was really cliche and guessing where Jason would appear became boring, as much as finding Wally in his adventures.

What it looked like the producers tried to do was incorporate the first 3 movies together into one movie. So at the beginning you see Jason's mother (as Jason doesn't start his reign of terror until part 2). Jason starts with the sack over the head (like in part 2) and finally claim the hockey mask for part 3. It was an interesting move, it did work as there wasn't too much back story with Jason, if they would have put the flashbacks with the 3 parts, no way it would have worked. People would have complained about too much flashbacks. Trust me I see that way too mu

ch of that especially in the 'Saw' Movies.

I found this movie to have one of the longest pre title scences, people laughed, it was good and yet I forgot that they didn't mention the title of the movie as all the credits were rolling at the beggining with the exception of the title.

During that pre title scence, the sleeping bag kill felt like a tribute to the one from Friday the 13th part VII, you know that classic moment, Jason picks up the bag and smashes it agaisnt a tree (with the person still inside). He doesn't do that in the remake so lets just say he does it in a 'Wicker Man' style so that was cool (well sizzling hot not cool)

Speaking of kills, not enough originality for me, just a machete here and there and everywhere. I was hoping for the producers to be a little more creative, but to me they got lazy and couldn't be bothered, so that was a major disappointment. One kill in particular that I admit I liked was the arrow, 'dead' on target as well.

I found the camera and editing a little sloppy. Much like in Batman Begins, the shots go too quick and half the time it was hard to tell what was happening, this happens a lot near the end of the movie. I did however like its atmospheric setting, just the usual camp site and that's it, nothing else nothing more.

Before I speak about horror icon, lets just have a brief moment for our teens. At the start you have your usual rowdy teens, love for beer, sex and exploring. There is one in particular who play a major part of the movie, so I won't spoil it. But the idea with the character was original so I liked that.

The other characters were bland, ordinary and nothing new. They do stupid things, go places they shouldn't go to and do what most teens do in these sort of movies. Get drunk, get stoned and get laid. There was one character in particular, named Trent who acts such a jerk throughout the movie. It kinda made me want to hit him and hurt him so badly and it worked, cause it made want to hate this character so much. There was this random pointless scene with the guys playing ping pong and the loser downing a shot from this guy's sneaker. There was really no point to the scene and didn't progress the story much further.

Ok, lets talk about Jason, of course for this, he's re-modified for this update, he preys on his victims rather than lumbering around this time round so he's basically a near human again and not the frankenstein like person he was before. I didn't like that Jason able to move a lot more faster but again he was human again so I guess I can't complain about it too much but it put me off a bit. It reminded me of the modified zombies in the remake of 'Dawn of the Dead' where the zombies could run. I was hoping for a more stealthy like Jason for this one instead of bumping into him.

Logic remains out of the window, over the hill and far far away. For example, Jason can be standing on the roof of the lake house roof where the teens were staying, then moments later he's chopping up someone like say 50 yards down a driveway.

Also people without a broadband connection can enjoy the topless water skiing scene!

Although I haven't gone into much detail with the plot, saying one thing can pretty much spoil the whole movie. The ending was lame and I mean lame in a big way. the build up didn't work and it was so ultra cliche that once again the creative team got so lazy and couldn't be bothered and just rushed the ending.

It was an ok movie, no where as shocking or terrifying as the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' movie. But it was great to see Jason doing what he does best. My guess that 'Nightmare on Elm Street' is next for a reboot/remake.

My rating 2 (and a half) out of 5 stars!

Punisher War Zone

Punisher War Zone

Based on Marvel comics,

This is an action film that shouldn't be taken seriously, trust me what you need to leave at home is reality and logic, because there is none of that here! The action is also a no-brainer. People think this is a direct sequel to the 2004 movie, but nope this is a reboot of the comic based on the title of the movie.

I always find that Marvel never treat The Punisher like their own character,  they focus their main attention on Spiderman, Hulk or X-Men. The movie wasn't hyped as I first hoped. when I first saw the trailer everyone was going nuts for the movie as it featured music by metal band Ramallah. I was so excited as I never thought they never make another Punisher movie. I waited for 4th Febuary 2009 for the movie to arrive.

I had a very hard trying to find a cinema that was screening this movie. This is due to quiet advertising and a comic not popular with its critics. I mean, what super powers does the Punisher possess? He has none, he was a war veteran, this guy becomes the Punisher when his family are gunned down by a mob who get revenge on Frank Castle for preventing a crime something to do with gun trading, I remember this to be used in the 2004 movie with Thomas Jane in the starring role so my knowledge of the comic series is pretty useless so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I finally found a cinema that was showing War Zone, first thing I've noticed that Thomas Jane is not Frank Castle in this movie, he is replaced by Ray Stevenson, from the acclaimed 'Rome' made by BBC. My first impression of Stevenson was, he looks the part, he acted ok for a role that has little dialogue. He did a good job but I wondered if Thomas Jane would carried on with the role, how the character would have been.

The whole movie is much more darker, moodier and certainly more violent than previous punisher films, but not as violent as Rambo 4, the whole last 11 minutes in Rambo says it all! Punisher War Zone had one problem in making the violence true to life; anyone that got shot just fell down, in Rambo, whoever Rambo shot, an arm, a leg or even a head would fly off. Punisher had heads chopped off but they didn't fly off so that was a flaw in the violence level. Sticking with its violent nature, there are loads of pistol headshots and a lot of neck cracking twists which get a bit repetitive after a while!

Normally for a movie thats based on the comic, there would be something about how someone became this super... (well antihero for this movie) But not in this movie, it kicks straight to the action, however there are segments of flashback during the movie so new fans are safe here! The action kicks off in a party hosted by mob boss Gaitano Cesar, now you should notice that Frank Castle hates crime lords and mobs and do you think he's gonna drop in, well the lights go out and you can see the trademark skull and a flare shoots and there the Punisher stands tall on the table surrounded by the boss and guests, so when is the action gonna happen? Well after a few seconds, Cesar gets beheaded, a woman's neck gets snapped! Punisher kicks someone in the face and throws knives at various people around the table, for some reason the lights mysteriously turn back on, the Punisher commences to guns and there heads and body shots kick in.

There is a segment where people have moaned and bitched about where The Punisher goes upside down and hangs from a chandelier and spins and shoots (with unlimited ammo) with two pistols. I can understand why people hated this bit but what you have to remember is its an action movie and of course silly things will happen and as I mentioned, when you watch an action movie, you need to ditch the logic and reality and enjoy the carnage.

One segment where someone attempts to do a WWE chair shot to the Punisher particularly sticks in my head, what does that person get, a chair leg in the eye thanks to the kick from Punisher. There was a moment afterwards that made me cringe but think at the same time, but Frank Castle gets a broken nose and the way to fix it was with a pencil! Literally he shoved a pencil up this nostril and 3 cracks, its perfectly normal. Is that even possible? Medical people required here!!

We then focus our attention to Billy Russoti played by Dominic West. He escapes to his recycling plant hideout by Detective Saffiotti who along with Detective Martin Soap were staking out the party. Castle infiltrates Russoti's hideout and murders Nicky Donatelli. Castle ends up fighting Russoti and the result, being thrown into a glass-crushing machine. Castle, who has taken cover behind the body of Donatelli, realizes that the man he killed was an undercover FBI agent and thinks about retiring from his Punisher ways. After much plastic surgery and most of his face muscles being out of use, Russoti ends up being heavily disfigured. Thus becoming the movie villain, Jigsaw, he was a cool villian but his makeup remininded me of Chucky from Child's Play, so sometimes it becomes laughable. At this moment of the film, I normally forget about who Ray Stevenson is as he reminds me of Steven Seagal, also something that shouldn't had bothered me but it did in a big way, did the Punisher used to have a ponytail cause back shots of the antihero always thought of that, I'm not sure. There was one supporting character who I couldn't believe, but Wayne Knight is in the movie!! He plays Frank Castle's ammory sidekick Microchip, I like this actor but I don't think action movies are suited for him so his character wasn't all that to be honest, bit bland and boring but he does play a vital role to the movie I must say. Most of the other supporting characters were pretty lame, the problem I had with this movie was there was some many characters to watch that it got confusing as the supporting characters looked the same and had the cliched New York accent which sometimes I found amusing.

Jigsaw goes to collect his brother Looney Bin Jim, when I first saw him I thought he was going to be awesome with his quiet movement however when he acts crazy, it was funny because it was over the top and at the same time to me it didn't work.

The CGI in the movie was poor, I'm not a fan of CGI, cause its the lazy way for filmmakers and here is a good example.There are two moments which bothered me a lot, there was this gang trio who jump on the building getting away from cops and at one point, one does a back flip only to be ended up being blown up by a rocket launcher, the body parts just fly in random directions and it looked poor. Another example was near the end of the movie (but not the very end!) was just a random moment where Frank Castle kicks a door and some random fat man sitting there and his head gets shot and it looked cool but to be honest afterwards, it looked like something you could make in a computer program on your PC.

I always found the cops in the movie to be the dumbest of all the movies I've seen. Theres a moment where 2 cops go to check in Donatelli's house. Jigsaw and Looney Bin Jim and the gang hold Donatelli's family hostage while they tear the house apart looking for the money that Donatelli was in charge of. The cops knock on the door, Looney Bin answers, now at the point, wouldn't you be suspicious of a guy answering the door with scratches on the head and allowing them in the house. They are easily killed thanks to a baseball bat and a samurai sword through the stomach!

Around at this point there was a moment I couldn't help myself but to laugh at, basically 2 of the gang members are guarding the family, Budianski, who had been intending to capture the Punisher through the movie, goes in the house after the cops (who got killed earlier!) to check in and only to be captured himself, so Punisher goes in and kills 1 member and the cop captures the 2nd and hold him hostage while the Punisher claims the family, as Budianski starts to interview the member until a shotgun blast takes half his face courtesy of the Punisher!

Also I have to mention, the soundtrack of the movie is awesome, being a heavy metal fan myself, I was so hyped when a segment of Slipknot played when the gang are preparing for war against the Punisher.

I think the plot gets a little thin near the end. I don't think the script was written very well, not really much one liners you can remember from the movie. The ending is ok but predictable as you expect from action movies.

Overall it's not an oscar winning movie for sure, it wasn't a bad movie either it has its flaws. But remember what can you expect from an action movie, with production being rushed and a budget that wasn't incredible.

If your a action, comic book fan, its worth a look.

3/5 stars my rating

I am The Media Maestro!

Welcome!
Grab the popcorn, your choice of drink and maybe a hot dog, heck even nachos.
I am the 'Media Maestro'! Founder of 'Popcorn Fanatic'.
What is 'Popcorn Fanatic'? Its a under development project I started in Febuary 2009, my ambition is to discover new films and review each one, each with my own thoughts and feelings and share with the world. I love my passion for the big or even small screen. My ultimate ambition is for people read my reviews so then I can improve each time I review. I hope to one day when the time is right to work for a magazine/website and becoming a key figure as a movie critic. You guys can help me here, I don't plan just to review movies, I would like to review video games, music albums, books etc. Although my plans for 2009 is nearly covered, I welcome any requests from you guys. Whelther its a well known film or maybe a not so well known movie. I'll even review the so called worst movies of all time. So if your interested in requesting please feel free to email to
popcorn.fanatic@gmail.com
Bear in mind, I can't promise to reply back straight away as I may be busy with a project.

For the start, I'm going to begin with text only reviews, then eventually once I'm settled with my fiancial situation, I will get a video camera and begin to star in my own reviews and have film footage, though youtube will get angry with me so thats a little something I need to research on.

So hopefully by next week or the week after, I will have my first review up and running!

Thank for reading and I hope you follow my journey into movie magic!

Media Mastro