Creepshow

 

   Happy Spooky Month, everybody! In the spirit of Halloween, I will do a review on this amazingly scary movie made by Stephen King and the late George A. Romero. A movie entitled Creepshow. This movie is a series of five short scary stories written by Stephen King in the form of a comic book. Starring an all-star cast including Leslie Nielsen, E.G. Marshall, Adrienne Barbeau, Ted Danson (Cheers), Ed Harris (Christof from The Truman Show), Hal Holbrook, and even Stephen King himself! (Crazy, I know!) 

  Father's Day: In our first spooky story, we deal with a demented old man returning from the grave to get his Father's Day cake he kept whining about, and his daughter refused to give it to him and murdered him.

  The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill: Stephen King plays a not too smart farmer who discovers a meteor that fell in his field. What he didn't realized until later was that the meteor turns everything into plants... including him! 

  Something to Tide You Over: This story is my favorite. A vengeful husband buries his wife and her lover up to their heads in the sand on the beach and leaves them there to drown by the high tides. Later, they come back as underwater corpses and get revenge on the husband. 

  The Crate: A college professor chooses his mean and nagging wife to be the bait of a strange and scary human eating monster that lives in a crate that was hidden under the steps of the college for almost a century. 

  They're Creeping Up On You: In this last story, a millionaire who has a huge phobia of bugs becomes the prey of hundreds of thousands of cockroaches. This story will be intensively gross. 

  The tagline for this movie was "The Most Fun You'll Ever Have Being Scared". Boy, was that right, because I had fun being scared at this Stephen King masterpiece. I love the fact that the visuals were emulating the art styles of the old comic books from the '50s, which was the inspiration for the movie. I mean, it's like a comic book on film. Pretty cool. 

  My favorite story, as I mentioned, was the one about the high tides. Leslie Nielsen played a really dark character compared to his other performances. But what I loved in this story was when the intense part of Ted Danson and Gaylen Ross were drowning from the tides, and the shot of Ted Danson's head underwater, no longer able to hold his breath any longer, with the red and blue lighting in the background. (You see those color hues a lot in the movie whenever something scary comes up.)

 

This is almost as scary as the shot of Jack Torrance frozen to death in The Shining. 

If you want a great Stephen King flick for Halloween Night, check out the original Creepshow movie. Also, check out the TV series of Creepshow on AMC and Shudder Network. 

Parent's Guide: Like most Stephen King movies, this is rated R for lots of scary content. I don't think kids at the age of five or six should see this. Especially the cockroach story. This movie could give little kids nightmares. 

Did You Know?: The little boy at the beginning and end of the movie is actually Stephen King's son, Joe Hill. Hill would later follow his dad's footsteps and become a bestselling author and later write a story for the Creepshow TV series. A marble ashtray is seen throughout the movie. Stephen King was told to play Jordy Verrill like Wilie E. Coyote from Looney Tunes, the way his face looks when he's about to fall off a cliff. (You know that look.) While on break, Stephen King took his son, Joe to a McDonald's for lunch and as a joke, Joe was made up with a bunch of bruises, cuts and scabs. The drive-thru girl freaked out and called the cops on them.

Can you believe that this is Stephen King's son as Billy??

That Thing You Do!

   It's time to rock and roll as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Tom Hanks' first film as a writer and director, the '96 classic, That Thing You Do!. Starring Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler from Lord of the Rings, funnyman Steve Zhan, character actor Ethan Embry as the band's unnamed bass player, Johnothon Schaech, Charlize Theron, Bill Cobbs, and even Tom Hanks himself. 

   The year is 1964 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Guy Peterson works at an electronics store with his parents while reaching out for his dream to play drums for jazz music. One day, Guy's friends Lenny and Jimmy ask Guy to be the drummer for their rock band, The Oneders, after Chad, their other drummer, broke his arm. Guy eventually accepts and the band made their debut at a talent show. There, the group introduced what would be their well-known song, "That Thing You Do". The talent show performance was a success and it earned the Oneders a spot at a pizza shop. After a fan asks for a record for their song, the group decides to do a record. Shortly after, some stranger in a camper gave the band a deal to make them big by selling the record on the radio. Surprisingly, it made it on the air, and everybody went crazy that day. Soon afterwards, The Oneders get a professional manager named Mr. White and now being called The Wonders, make it to the top. Question is: will they remain popular at the top for long? 

  I actually grew up with this movie. My mom showed this movie to me when I was three or four years old because I loved the 60s music stylings of The Beatles and all. Also, this was the first movie in my life where I notice great acting in a movie. Great performances by Tome Everett Scott as Guy "Shades" Peterson, especially when he goes: "I AM SPARTACUS!!!". Very funny acting from Steve Zhan as Lenny, like when he was playing Go Fish with those dudes. Liv Tyler was a great girlfriend to the group. And Tom Hanks was as serious as ever like most of his masterpieces. (Especially ones that he has written and directed.) So, if you're into rock and roll 1960s style or a retro junkie in general or just looking for a good '90s flick with a combination of comedy and music, grab a friend or your family and rent Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do!. 

Parents Guide: This movie is rated PG for some language and sensual content. Some naughty humor here and there. There is a riot scene, only there is no close ups of the violence and the catastrophe is discussed in a scene after. Lots of drinking and smoking. And of course, bad language. Parents, if you choose to watch this with your kids, don't let them repeat this language. 

Trivia: An extended version with some deleted footage was released on DVD in 2007. Film debut of Tom Everett Scott. Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, makes a cameo as a waitress. The band's appearance in that beach party movie is supposed to be parallel to the Frankie and Annette beach movies. The name of the bass player would later become one of the greatest mysteries in movie history. 

In loving memory of my mom who died almost one year ago today. 

I think this says it all.