Pixar’s 21-minute “Toy Story of Terror,” made for television, is available on DVD and Blu-Ray and is a perfect Halloween treat for the whole family. The toys live with Bonnie now, and she and her mother are on a road trip to see her grandmother one rainy night. When they have to stop at a motel after a flat tire, Mr. Potatohead goes missing. The other toys have to find him before Bonnie and her mother are ready to drive away.
What I love about this film is that one of my favorite characters, the master thespian Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) begins to narrate the action in his most resonantly Shakespearean tones, a kind of meta-commentary on the entire thriller genre. And Carl Weathers joins the cast as Combat Carl, who helps Jessie (Joan Cusack) foil the evil plot of the motel manager who takes toys to sell them on eBay. There’s a nice lesson, too, about how to feel less frightened.
The DVD/Blu-Ray has some nice extras about the making of the movie.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images
Profanity:
A few bad words
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Drinking, fantasy drugs
Violence/ Scariness:
Extensive fantasy-style violence with many disturbing and grisly images
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
October 23, 2015
Copyright Summit Entertainment 2015
A witch would have to cast a spell over me to make me sit through this big, dumb, dull, dud again.
And that’s too bad, because I like Vin Diesel and I can easily be put in the mood for a good-stupid sword and sorcery epic. But not this one, which has a storyline we’ve seen before and dialog that sounds like it was written by people for whom English was not a first language, and probably not a second. It’s like a videogame, and not in a good way.
Diesel plays Kaulder, and we meet him 800 years ago, with long hair and a beard, he is part of a group determined to wipe out the witches who are responsible for the plague that has killed off many of their families, including Kaulder’s wife and daughter. “In her death lies our salvation.” “Let fear perish.” “You must go. You have to fight.” Not very memorable. Oh, let’s be real — it does not even qualify as dialog. It’s just talking.
With torches for light and swords, arrows, and axes for protection, they enter the witch’s cave. Things do not go very well and most of them are killed. Kaulder battles the witch, and as she dies, she curses him to live forever. We catch up with him in the present day, back to being the bald Vin Diesel we all know and love. He’s on an airplane being tossed around the sky by a fierce storm. He realizes that it is not only caused by magic but caused by someone who does not know she is causing it. A young witch with a backpack has carelessly tossed together ancient runes that should never be allowed to touch. (Kids!) “At least you didn’t get them wet,” he says, and we know that (1) the screenwriters have seen “Gremlins,” and (2) they’ll be wet before the end of the movie and the CGI folks will have a heck of a storm to kick up then.
The “Gremlin’s” idea is followed by a few borrowed from “Harry Potter,” “CSI,” and various other vastly superior sources, with some highly predictable twists and a sprinkling of semi-contemporary references. Well, the iPad reference is semi-contemporary. The use of the term “stewardess” and the assumption that they are all super-hot and excellent one-night-stand prospects is rather outmoded.
There are some pretty good special effects and some moderately good stunts, but Michael Caine is wasted as Kaulder’s human aide (about to retire, with Elijah Wood, also wasted, as his replacement). Rose Leslie has some nice moments as a young witch trying to make her way in New York, like she wandered off the set of “Girls.” Ultimately, the remixing of better (and just as bad) films becomes grating and by the time they set it up for a sequel, it is the audience is beginning to cursed for living long enough to sit through this film.
Translation: Sword and sorcery-style fantasy violence with some grisly and disturbing images including dead bodies, a few bad words and brief sexual references.
Family discussion: What would be the best and worst parts about living for 800 years? Why was it so hard for Kaulder to trust anyone?
If you like this, try: “Hansel and Gretel” and “Dragonslayer”
Screenwriters Mike White (“School of Rock”) and Darren Lemke (“Turbo,””Lost”) bring just the right blend of scary, funny, and heartwarming in this first film based on the books by tween favorite R.L. Stine, the man who put the BOO in BOOOKs. And when I say “books,” I mean the plural. This movie does not bring just one of Stine’s creepfests for kids to life. It brings many of his more than 300 books to life, sometimes creepy undead life, but life on screen.
Our hero, handsome Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette of “Alexander and the No Good…etc”) and his mother (Amy Ryan) move in next door to a pretty girl named Hannah (“The Giver’s” Odeya Rush), who lives with her dad (Jack Black). Zach would like to get to know Hannah, but her father warns him to stay away. Hannah would also like to get to know Zach. While her dad tries to keep her in the house, she sneaks out to visit an abandoned amusement park and takes Zach along. Then when Zach thinks he hears Hannah in trouble, he goes to investigate, with his amiably dorky friend Champ (Ryan Lee).
It turns out Hannah’s father, the legendary author R.L. Stine, has not been keeping Hannah inside to protect her. He has been keeping everything inside to protect everyone outside. For some mysterious reason, each of the books he wrote contains a literal monster, and if the book is opened, the monster escapes. And it is very, very, very hard to get them locked back inside. You’ve heard of Pandora’s box? These are Pandora’s books. Whatever scares you the most — insect monster, clown monster, zombies, mummies, werewolf, angry yeti, evil ventriloquist dummy — it’s in there, or, I should say, it’s coming out of there. And a lot of things you didn’t know were scarey (garden gnomes? fluffy poodle? Jack in the box?) turn out to be very scary, too. All the monsters escape and Stine, Hannah, Zach, and Champ have to get them locked back up. If they can do that without getting eaten first.
It is too bad to see the brilliant Jillian Bell, who stole “22 Jump Street” from Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, relegated to a retro man-crazy single lady. The equally brilliant Amy Ryan does the best she can with her limited role. But the special effects, stunts, and production design are state-of-the-art, and Zach and Hannah are likeable leads, with Black and Lee providing some comic relief and a superb score from Danny Elfman, who just about owns Halloween music. There are dozens of allusions to classic scary tales, which should inspire at least some kids to pursue literary and movie monsters from “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” to “The Dark of Night,” “The House that Dripped Blood,” and the original “The Haunting.”
Parents should know that this movie has lots of monsters, some very scary looking, as well as some scary surprises, schoolyard language, and brief potty humor.
Family discussion: Which is the scariest monster and why? How are the three kids different in the way they view the monsters?
If you like this, try: “Monster House” and the books by R.L. Stine
Exclusive Clip: Romantic Comedy “You Cast a Spell on Me”
Posted on October 8, 2015 at 4:26 pm
We are delighted to premiere an exclusive clip from the bewitching romantic comedy “You Cast A Spell On Me,” starring Ryan McPartlin (“Chuck”) and Nikki Deloach (“Awkward”), now available on Digital HD and On Demand.
James M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan” premiered in 1904 and the story of the boy who wouldn’t grow up is still one of the best-loved of all time. This week the prequel “Pan” opens up in theaters, with Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, and Garrett Hedlund as the young not-yet-captain Hook. And there’s a hit musical on Broadway called “Finding Neverland,” based on the Johnny Depp movie that was based on Barrie’s life, and the friendship with some children that inspired his most famous story.
