At The Movies with Bryan, the Wannabe Filmmaker

Teen Wolf Too! Ugh! When I first bought a DVD player, one of the first DVDs I purchased was Teen Wolf. The only downfall was that it was a double feature DVD, which means I had to purchase Teen Wolf Too as well. Teen Wolf is by no means a great movie, but compared to Teen Wolf Too it is a masterpiece. No word is adequate enough to describe just how terrible Teen Wolf Too is; it's an atrocity against the human race. It's 95 minutes of sheer torture with a ridiculously overqualified cast doing their best not to look embarrassed.  I've always theorized that Teen Wolf Too was originally supposed to be  Teen Wolf 2, and further the adventures of Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) as he took on college. However, when Michael J. Fox turned down the script (because it was friggin' awful), the filmmakers created a new character, Todd, and cast a Michael J. Fox-like actor in the role. It was during this time frame (1987) that Jason Bateman was starring in the dreadful sitcom

The blockbusters of the 80s are fairly restrained when compared to the blockbusters of today.Computer technology has made it so that practically everything is possible, hence filmmakers have a tendency to go a bit overboard at times. The special effects of the 80s were realized  by using more traditional and practical means, so that filmmakers often had go back to the drawing board if a particular effect didn't work. In  The Goonies, there was initially supposed to be a scene   in which the kids are attacked by an octopus, but much to the horror of the filmmakers it looked terrible, something right out of an Edward D. Wood, Jr picture, and they wisely discarded it (though a clip of it can still be seen in the second part of the Cyndi Lauper video for "The Goonies R Good Enough." ) If The Goonies were made today, no doubt the octopus would have been CG and it would have remained in the film, even though the scene is rather superfluous to the overall narrative. This

Blood On Satan's Claw is an extremely flawed, but fascinating horror movie. Initially, it was supposed to be anthology of three stories all linked together with "the Devil's skin" infecting individuals and turning them into evil, Satan worshiping thugs, but the filmmakers decided to condense the three story lines into one narrative, turning it into a disjointed, often plodding horror film. It's fairly common for characters to disappear from the narrative and never to be heard from again..... WITH NO EXPLANATION. The story is about a farming community that is effected by demonic possession after a plow boy, Ralph (Barry Andrews), accidentally unearths the remains of a demonic creature with strange fur on it. Shortly afterwards, the children (more accurately young adults) of the community start getting infected with a strange patch of fur on their bodies and join a satanic cult. The leader of the cult is Angel Blake, who is determined to bring the Devil back in

It's common for film critics to bemoan the lack of originality in today's cinema, consistently grumbling over the latest horror remake or sequel that is due for release. Why things can't things be like the good old days? The problem with this attitude is two fold: 1) It completely romanticizes old Hollywood. Sure, a lot of great movies were made during the studio system, but for every great movie Hollywood churned out there were just as many clunkers. So, for every  Gone With the Wind s   there were just as many Return of Dr. X s. 2) It ignores the fact that the Hollywood of today is EXACTLY like the Hollywood of yesterday. Hollywood has always been about the profit. If one film is extremely successful, then it's only a matter of time before the other studios release a film exactly like it. When Easy Rider became an unexpected hit in 1969, the studios followed suit by making movies in a similar vain. In the 40s, two of Universals biggest money makers were the Mo

I think for most people from my generation (and my parents) their first exposure to Batman was the campy 1960s television show starring Adam West. It was a show that I watched religiously when I was a kid, to the point that when it was taken off syndication I was absolutely devastated, I sat in my room for days and sulked about it. How could I live without my daily dose of The Dynamic Duo? It also meant that I would deprived of the greatest TV theme song in history. The highlight of each episode was the fight scenes, whenever Batman and Robin would slug a villain words like, POW, BAM, BOOF, would appear on the screen. It was away to emphasize the very comic book nature of the television show. The Batman in the TV show was an upstanding citizen who apparently had no vices, he didn't drink, didn't smoke and was able to keep his sexual urges in check, despite the fact that beautiful women were constantly throwing themselves at him. He was a goody two shoes that packed a