Rockula

 

A dweeb vampire has a girlfriend who keeps getting murdered on Halloween whenever she meets him and then reincarnated to start all over again. Well how do ya win over a woman who dies when she meets you? You start a rock band! He also raps! The movie is charming but it would be a definite classic if the songs were any good. It’s got Bo Diddley, Toni Basil, and Thomas Dolby for Christ's sake!

RATING: 58%

White Christmas

I’m not a big fan of musicals. I never have been and probably never will be. I can appreciate the craftsmanship of the performances. There is certainly plenty of talent on display in movies like White Christmas, even though it does little for me. It’s not the artifice of the song and dance numbers that bother me. I don’t need movies to be realistic in order to enjoy them. Often, and especially with White Christmas, my problem is all that singing and dancing delays the narrative. The first 45 minutes of White Christmas are fun and breezy. We move from WWII to Broadway to Florida to Vermont. We’re introduced to all the important characters and the crux of the plot is established. And then things slow way down. The hour and fifteen minutes that follow are overstuffed with big, showy musical numbers. Again, all the talent on display is impressive, but my interest in the movie dissipates with every new routine. White Christmas is really a mixed bag for me, I love the “let’s put on a show” storyline but there are just too many performances in the movie to keep my interest.

Rating: 64%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Simpsons: Treehouse Of Horror XX

A Month Of Halloweenie Reviews #18

Of course it wasn't very good, much like any regular Simpsons episode from the past seven or eight years, but just that there have been twenty of these Halloween specials is enough to earn it a few extra percent. I don't watch the show anymore, but I wonder if I'll feel bad whenever it finally bites the dust. Probably not.

RATING: 34%

(I'm clearly not having a very good Halloween season.)

Mamma Mia!

As part of the ongoing effort to reconcile our tastes in what to watch on television (I like good things and she likes crap), my sister and I somehow ended up trying to watch Mamma Mia! Unfortunately, it was so fucking boring and the music so fucking terrible that we only made it about 15 mins in. Boo.

Rating (the 15 mins I could stand to watch): 10%
Rating (the rest of the movie): illjustassumethatsuckstoo%

West Side Story

This movie is a lot better than I remember it. Natalie Wood's acting and accent are tres ridiculous and pretty racist, but apart from that it's solid. Robert "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" Wise directs a great visual movie, with a lot of terrific symmetrical shots and some songs that are great. I love all the long shots, for example. Also it's tough not to sing along with songs like "I Feel Pretty" especially when I feel so pretty.

RATING: 81%