October Belongs to Horror #8: Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? a.k.a R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly 2: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

Universal 1440 Entertainment, Commotion Pictures, Lookout Entertainment, USA, 2014.

Halloween movie for the whole family, based on the book by R.L. Stine.

Max (Ryan Ochoa) goes to walk his dog on cemetery. Max has a ring that protects from evil ghosts. He even has ghost friends Tara (Madison Pettis) and Nicky (Roshon Fegan). Eevil ghost wizard Phears (Charlie Hewson) wants to raise a ghost army. Phears looks like Nosferatu with pointy teeth and hair.

Max, Tara and Nicky

Phears

Cammy

Max likes cute redhead Cammy (Bella Thorne) but she is not very interested in him. Grandma (Joan Rivers in her last role) and parents give tips about girls. Nicky and Tara are trying to find their parents. In the evening Max and the ghosts search for clues at school. Surprise! Cammy is also there setting up Halloween decorations. Little by little Max begins to look more interesting to her. 

Grandma and Cousin Shelley

Max  has to survive PE-lessons, there he gets help from his ghost-friends (that's ghost-doping!) As a weird detail PE-teacher (Carolyn Hennesy) has named all the gym equipment. Phears sends ghost dancer Emma (Caroline Lagerfelt/Anastasia Baranov) to steal Max's ring, but she targets annoying big brother Colin (Calum Worthy) instead. Comical possessions and ghostly pranks follow. Teacher Mrs. Wright (Juliette Cohen, who plays teacher in all of the "Mostly Ghostly" movies) tries to keep the order in the classroom with poor results. Emma isn't evil but she was tricked by Phears, so Emma loans her athletic skills to Max. 

Emma (Anastasia Baranov)

Mrs. Wright

It seems that this is a sequel to "Mostly Ghostly" (2008), flashbacks in the beginning reveal what happened previously. It is curious that the sequel took so many years. This is not the best R.L. Stine filmatization, "Haunting Hour" (2007) was more entertaining spooky fun. This movie suffers from overtrying to entertain with (cheap) special effects and having a weird pacing, the main story ends and the movie still goes on for 15 minutes. Only appearance of Phears is in any way scary, overall the adventure is too comical to be creepy. For younger kids the spooky gimmicks are quite safe as Halloween entertainment. Some fun is also there when Max performs magic tricks. In the beginning Max is kind of underdog  requiring help from the ghosts all the time, but the lesson is that he must learn to trust his own skills.

Colin and Max escape evil ghouls

Ali Eagle who has a non-speaking role here appeared year later in "Lake Placid vs Anaconda"  as sarcastic goth.

Rating:  Average

Starring: Bella Thorne, Ryan Ochoa, Roshon Fegan, Madison Pettis, Charlie Hewson, Calum Worthy, Eric Allan Kramer, Gigi Rice, Joan Rivers, Ali Eagle, Caroline Lagerfelt, Anastasia Baranova, Marc Kenneth Robinson, Casey Young, Wyatt Bernard, Eric Julian Shaw, Adi Shankar, Carolyn Hennesy, Juliette Cohen, Hank Donovan, Abbey Blake, Mary Passeri, Elsie Hewitt, Chelsea Vale, Jordan Bailey, Nick Bemrose, Ilia Constantine, Sherilyn Henderson, Benjamin Levy, Scott P. Martin, Scott P. Martin, Danny Mika, Nino Nava, Isabella Revel, Jan-Michael Rosner, Joe Sobalo Jr.

Director: Peter Hewitt

Movie Review: Sinbad of the Seven Seas

Sinbad of the Seven Seas

Cannon Films, USA, Italy, Iraq 1989.

Claimed to be based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade," but we only believe it because they say so.

Mother (Daria Nicolodi, known for Dario Argento's giallo films) reads her daughter a bedtime story about brave hero Sinbad the Sailor.

Buffed-up sailor named Sinbad (Lou Ferrigno) sails the seas with his merry men Prince Ali (Roland Wybenga), Viking (Ennio Girolami), Bald Cook (Yehuda Efroni), Chinese Soldier of Fortune Cantu (Hal Yamanouchi) and Poochie the Dwarf (Cork Hubbert). In Basra kind Caliph (Donald Hodson) rules the happy city. Princess Alina (Alessandra Martines) is awaiting for Ali. Evil Vizier Jaffar (John Steiner) wants to be caliph instead of the caliph and uses black magic to mesmerize the city making everyone mindless puppets.

Sinbad

Alina

Jaffar

So when Sinbad returns, there is nobody to welcome him. Unacceptable. Sinbad marches to the palace to see what is the problem. Jaffar throws Sinbad into dungeon and his friends have to save him but they get captured too. So Sinbad has to free himself using a rope made of snakes(!) Meanwhile Jaffar tries to corrupt the Princess and hides the magic jewels that protect the city. The Princess is tied to acrylic machine where colourful juice flows in tubes.

Sinbad's crew

Prince Ali

Tight spot

Jaffar has also ally, mercenary friend or whatever Soukra (1980s bodybuilder Teagan Clive) whose function is to sarcastically comment on Jaffar's failed attempts to destroy Sinbad. The dialogue hints that there was about to be Soukra's and Ali's duel but nothing such ever happens. In the end she is even partying with the heroes, who would have thought about that.

Jaffar and Soukra

Undead horrors, Amazons and rock monsters guard the gems. Amazon Queen Farida (Melonee Rodgers) can suck man's will away. And so the Amazon gymnasts capture the whole crew. Amazon Queen goes for the alpha male and vamps Sinbad. But once the curse is broken, the Queen is not so hot anymore. Bye!

Farida

On another island there are undead suits of armour (raising from the dead like the "Blind Dead"), jumping zombies but also eccentric Wizard Nadir (Leo Gullotta) and his nice daughter Kira (Stefania Girolami Goodwin) who gets kidnapped by hideous laser-shooting Zombie King. Jaffar is watching the show so Sinbad boasts like a pro-wrestler everytime he gets a gem. Curiously when there is a fight Sinbad always throws his scimitar away and trusts his muscles instead.

Kira

Balloon ride

I'm gonna get ya!

Enzo G. Castellari knocks off American Sinbad-films, and even taking couple of sets from Lou Ferrigno's Hercules-films. Dov Seltzer's synth-heavy soundtrack sounds typical for the Italian cinema of the 1980s but it is highly anachronistic for a peplum film.

Whereas the Hercules film tried to take the subject seriously (albeit with unintended hilarity) Sinbad does not even try. The beginning still goes on like a regular peplum, but then it goes into silly mode. Every scene with Jaffar is a riot as he delivers ham like it was Christmas coming. And the dialogue is such that the makers cannot have been serious. Of the crew Bald Cook and Poochie are the comical duo. Originally Luigi Cozzi was going to direct it but Enzo was called instead. The film was made in 1986, but shelved for three years (not a good sign) and in 1989 Cozzi was hired to save what could be saved and complete the unfinished film making the end results even more confusing. The result is an entertaining trainwreck that alternates between awesomely cheesy and so bad it is good. Although the story is childish, echoes from Italo-horror make this difficult to market as a family-oriented film.

This is an incredibly fun movie. And this film has even two Lou Ferrignos!

Rating: So bad it is good or Very good

Starring: Lou Ferrigno, John Steiner, Roland Wybenga, Ennio Girolami, Hal Yamanouchi, Yehuda Efroni, Alessandra Martines, Teagan Clive, Leo Gullotta, Stefania Girolami Goodwin , Donald Hodson, Melonee Rodgers, Cork Hubbert, Romano Puppo, Attilio Cesare Lo Pinto, Armando MacRory, Giada Cozzi, Daria Nicolodi, Ted Rusoff, Massimo Vanni

Directors: Enzo G. Castellari, Luigi Cozzi (uncredited)

Movie Review: Ju-On: The Curse 2

Ju-on: The Curse 2 (a.k.a Ju-on 2)

Toei Video Company, Japan, 2000.

The sequel to "Ju-on: The Curse"  and prequel to "Ju-on: The Grudge"

This film continues directly from where the first film ended (actually it repeats about 30 minutes of the first film). Like the other films in the series this is divided to segments.

Kayako

Toshio Saeki's (Ryôta Koyama) teacher Kobayashi (Yûrei Yanagi) tries to find his parents. Mother Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji) had an unhealthy obsession with Kobayashi. Father Takeo Saeki (Takashi Matsuyama) has a horrible surprise for Kobayashi.

Kobayashi

Kyoko

Real estate agent Tatsuya (Makoto Ashikawa) asks her sister Kyoko (Yûko Daike), who has psychic skills, help to sell the cursed house. Tatsuya and his son Nobuyuki (Tomohiro Kaku) now live in the former apartment of Kobayashi.

Kyoko

Tatsuya

New residents Yoshimi (Kaori Fujii) and Hiroshi Kitada (Hua Rong Weng) meet the curse. Tatsuya tries to save his family.

Yoshimi

Tatsuya

Kamio

Cops Kamio (Tarô Suwa) and Iizuka (Reita Serizawa) try to make sense of the mysterious deaths.

Kayako

Noboyuki

At school other students think he is acting weird.

Noboyuki

Saori
Schoolgirl Saori and her friends trespass the haunted house.

This was a difficult film to find. I tried to order a secondhand DVD two years ago but the seller disappeared mystically from the web. Creepy. The second copy was finally found from video store surplus shelf. However the film contains a lot of material from the first film and many of the events are reprised in the sequels so missing it would not been so big a loss except for seeing every film of the series. The story has some creepy scenes especially in the middle of the story but overall it does not feel as scary as the other of the series, as it lacks the surprises of the first film. Maybe the films 1 and 2 should have been cut to one film.

Rating: Average

Starring: Yûrei Yanagi, Takako Fuji, Takashi Matsuyama, Ryôta Koyama, Yûko Daike, Makoto Ashikawa, Tomohiro Kaku, Mayuko Saitô, Yue, Miyako Nakatsuka, Kenta Ishikawa, Ganko Fuyu, Kaori Fujii, Hua Rong Weng, Taizô Mizumura, Harumi Matsukaze, Duncan, Denden, Tarô Suwa, Reita Serizawa, Kiriko Shimizu, Nagisa Takemura, Hayato Ichihara, Akihiro Toyotome, Shiori Yonezawa, Mashio Miyazaki

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Movie Review: Paheli (2005)

Paheli (2005) a.k.a The Dilemma
Red Chillies Entertainment, India, 2005.

Based on Vijayadan Detha's novel and 1973 movie "Duvidha."

Beautiful Lachchi (Rani Mukerji) is getting married in ancient India. In the first song there is both playful anticipation of the wedding night and sadness of leaving behind family and childhood's friends. The wedding procession has to stop at a place that is said to be haunted. There a shapeshifting ghost falls in love with Lachchi. Husband Kishanlal (Shah Rukh Khan) is a trader and only interested in business. He is leaving for a business trip for five years (!) and has no time for even a wedding night, so Lachchi feels lonely and sad. The women in the family seem to be have unhappy fates as also Kishanlal's brother Sunderlal (Sunil Shetty) left his family and wife Gajrobai (Juhi Chawla) after losing a bet in camel races. 

Lachchi

Kishanlal

Gajrobai

The Ghost disguises as Kishanlal and returns home. He tells Kishanlal's father Bhanwarlal (Anupam Kher) that he is now blessed and earns five magic coins per day.  Lachchi is happy but the Ghost reveals that he is not the real husband. Sneaky Uncle Kanwarlal (Dilip Prabhavalkar) wants to know where the gold comes from, however this subplot never comes to any conclusion. 

Supernatural romance!

Bhanwarlal

Kanwarlal

Confusing situation arises when servant Bhoja (Rajpal Yadav) comes to bring letter from Kishanlal - only to be greeted by Kishanlal. The Ghost is generally a nice guy and a benefactor of his society - however the real Kishanlal still has fondness for his wife. And to make it clear, he is not a bad guy, just a man pressed by the expectations of his father. Later when the real Kishanpal returns, wiseman The Shepherd (Amitabh Bachchan) arranges a group of tests to decide who is the real Kishanpal. How will the Dilemma be solved and will Lachchi be united with her ghost lover or her work-obsessed husband?

The Shepherd

The musical numbers alternate between playful teasing and longing passion. The gigantic turban worn by Kishanlal in the DVD cover gives a comical impression, but this is mainly an exotic romantic fantasy. However there are some amusing side characters and the story is narrated by two puppets. Supernatural identity theft contrasts the reality vs Lachichis dream man where Kishanlal is the sense and Ghost Kishanlal is the sensitivity. It is beautifully filmed and colourful with nicely choreographed music numbers. Although it was generally pleasant, the acting and chemistry of the charismatic main stars, who are two megastars in India, was great and the film praised by Western critics, I didn't find it the best Bollywood can offer.

Puppets

Dance now!

Then the bad. The simple story feels overlong (the film's duration is 134 minutes) making poor use of the subplots. For me the handling of real Kishanlal's story felt clumsy and the solution to the awkward situation felt forced, making shortcuts to arrive at the happy ending. And indeed, what I found out from teh Internets is that the original 1973 film had a sad ending with the romantic ghost being trapped forever and the true feelings of Lachchi ignored. This modernization seems to water down the original 1973 version's critique of the Indian social traditions and the point about woman's position in Indian society (i.e what the woman wants vs what is socially acceptable). Having a more audience pleasing happy end, the new version cuts away the stronger points that the 1973 had. Maybe I have to find the original 1973 film for comparison if I can buy it somewhere. Despite all the good things, for me "Paheli" didn't leave an Oomph-effect that the best Asian films make. But then again I'm an old crank so what do I know.  

Rating: Average

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Anupam Kher, Rani Mukerji, Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Sunil Shetty, Juhi Chawla, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Nina Kulkarni, Padma Rani, Sharvari Jamenis, Aditi Govitrikar, Advait Trivedi, Palak Jain, Ratna Pathak, Rajpal Yadav, Somesh Agarwal, Mohan Bhandari, Rishi Deshpande, A.K. Hangal, Vijay Mishra, Surendra Rajan, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Aashif Sheikh, Lekh Tandon, Anita Wahi 

Director: Amol Palekar

Movie Review: Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood

Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood
Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. Animation, The Lego Group, USA, 2016. 

Scooby-Dooby Doo!

Talking dog Scooby-Doo and his friends solve the mystery of sea creature. Shaggy and Scooby decide that they will not agree being monster baits for the price of Scooby Snacks again. But they must still eat and so always hungry Shaggy and Scooby-Doo visit a hamburger bar. Winning the eating contest earns tickets to Hollywood tour for the whole gang.

Shaggy and Scooby-Doo

Daphne, Fred & Velma

Famous monster film producing Brickton Studios is on the rocks as no one likes horror movies anymore. People only watch sappy romantic comedies. When the horror star Boris Carnac, the Man of 999 Faces, died the studios couldn't produce another hit movie. Mr. Brickton is thinking about selling his studios to businessman Atticus Fink. Horror-fan & tour-guide Junior is currently the only employee of the studios.

Mr. Brickton

Junior

Headless Horseman is scaring the tourists. Late night horror show hostess Drella Diabolique (voiced by horror icon Elvira herself a.k.a Cassandra Peterson) suspects that Carnac's horror characters have become alive. As monsters drive the filming crew away, Fred decides to direct a movie starring Shaggy and Drella. Daphne yearns for Oscars and tries to learn how to be an actress too.

Drella Diabolique

Looking cool

Mummy needs a dentist

It feels that in Finland Scooby-Doo has never gained as much popularity as in USA, and of the Hanna-Barbera productions more popular characters in Finland have been Yogi-Bear and The Flintstones, perhaps Top-Cat too. Maybe the younger generations know Scooby and his friends better from direct to video movies (rather than from the original TV-series) that are also sometimes shown in TV. Still I remember reading some Scooby-Doo comics in 1980s (can't remember if it was Scooby's own comic book or a Hanna-Barbera- compilation album). Lego's version is is a solid episode of Scooby-Doo with Lego-humour but does not invent the wheel again so for fans of Scooby-Doo this is quite familiar stuff. What's nice is that it has light tribute to Boris Karloff and old horror movies in general. It also parodies the naming conventions of movie sequels.

I would watch this

That awkward moment when a zombie is haunting your airplane

Rating: Good

Voice actors: Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, Kate Micucci, Dee Bradley Baker, JB Blanc, Christian Lanz, Scott Menville, Cassandra Peterson, James Arnold Taylor
Director: Rick Morales

As usual this Lego-movie has some nice extras.

Lego Scooby-Doo: Knight Time Terror

Warner Bros. Animation, The LEGO Group, USA, 2015.

The Scooby-gang visits a castle that is rumoured to be haunted. There is a treasure hidden too. The haunting is a gimmick to attract tourists but there is also Cursed Armour of Black Knight that begins to haunt the treasure hunters. The Grimsley-siblings would like to find the treasure of their greatgreatgrandfather but the house is full of traps. Always hungry Scooby and Shaggy also lose their sandwiches to a meat-eating plant.

There goes my lunch

Voice actors: Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, Kate Micucci, Phil Morris, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Sean Schemmel, Jason Spisak, Frank Welker
Director: Rick Morales

Also two vintage animations that inspired couple of characters of the main story are included.

Scooby-Doo! The Headless Horseman of Halloween (1976)

The headless horseman terrorizes a Halloween party. Scooby-Doo's cousin Scooby-Dum helps the detectives although he is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Scooby-Dum

What's New Scooby-Doo? Fright House of a Lighthouse (2004)
Mystery Inc. visits a lighthouse where a treasure is hidden. Ghost of the evil lighthouse keeper keeps the tourists away. Another detective and underwear entrepreuner Verona Dempsey is already on the case which annoys Velma.

Now that was quite random

What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly

Comparing these two episodes from different eras shows that the basic idea of the show has remained the same. There is a mystery involving a ghost and a treasure, the ghost is always some villain with a mask and Scooby and Shaggy eat a lot of food. Overall the DVD is a nice package for Scooby-fans.