20 Great Games for Halloween Part 2

Here we go.

11. House of the Dead 2

Honestly it's one of my favorite games of the rail shooter genre.  It is gruesomely gory, hilariously acted, and just too perfect for its own good.  I have gotten pretty good at this game too.  One credit can last me a long time.  Go out and try this right away.

12. Luigi's Mansion

Obvious choice, but there is nothing more Halloween than this game.  It reminds me of that Lonesome Ghost cartoon with Mickey.  So great to play as Luigi and bust some ghosts with a vacuum.  As we all know, busting makes you feel good.

13.Monster in My Pocket

Based on a board game/trading card series/cartoon, this is a perfect Halloween treat.  Fun as hell to play and you get to be mini Count Orlok or mini Frankenstein's Monster.  You run around killing other monsters and they are all recognizable from their trading card counterparts.  Plus it is pretty fun.

14. Monster Bash

Nothing short of the most Halloweeny platform game ever.  Lots of fun and full of great looks.  You go around as a kid collecting candy on Halloween night and saving household pets from the likes of zombies and what not.  Just go play it.

15. Resident Evil

I love this franchise.  Sure the story is stupid and the games have become about superheroes fighting monsters (Soon to be rectified.) but it is a classic.  Most people complain about the early game's controls and the inability to see.  I say it looks like a horror movie and gives you just enough scares.  The original has that Haunted Mansion feel, but with zombies instead.  This game is the perfect game version of an Italian horror movie, complete with bad acting and a ridiculous story.  I love it.

16. Vampire Master of Darkness

Yeah I know, I am obsessed with Sega things.  Nonetheless, this game rises from it's Castlevania wannabe design to become a great game.  Nice controls, decent difficulty, hell even the item pickups make more sense than Castlevania.  This game is just too good to be missed.

17. Victor Vran

I recently got this game and fell deeply in love with it.  All the simplicity you would want from an action rpg dungeon crawl.  I like this game more than Diablo 3 honestly.  Not that it is a better game mind you.  Just that it really gets that Halloween style and is fun in a way that some action rpgs somehow miss.

18.Wanpaku Graffiti: Splatterhouse NES

It's too bad this game never made it to the US, because it is so fun and really translates the gameplay of Splatterhouse to the NES well while also being it's own game.  In the picture, the Dracula guy is making the monsters do a Thriller dance before sending them to attack you.  If that doesn't make you want to play it then you have no heart and do not respect Halloween.  So get outta here and give me all your Candy Corn

19.War of the Monsters

One of my absolute favorite PS2 games.  You run around as a big monster, killing other big monsters.  So much fun and really nails that Godzilla fighting idea.  Not only that but it gets the giant bug thing in there with a Mantis character.

20. Zombie Revenge

Technically a spin off of the House of the Dead franchise, this is one of my most beloved Dreamcast games.  It plays like Die Hard Arcade but you kill zombies by punching them to death or grabbing guns or drills and massacring them.  Violent, fun and perfect for Halloween.  Go bust your Dreamcast out and enjoy an arcade classic.  You Dreamcast is thinking... about how it collects dust and you never play it.  The system may plot a revenge of it's own if you don't use it.  So go play it before it kills you.

20 Great Games for Halloween Part 1

One of the best things about Halloween, next to candy corn and horror movies, is video games.  Games are all over the place so someone could easily do a list of 100 themed games for your Halloween frenzy.  Obviously this means there will be some games missing from this list.  However, I have chosen games that I think of every year I and think it is a great list.

1. Ghouls and Ghosts (Genesis)

Right here is the best of the best.  Ghouls and Ghosts for the Sega Genesis is not only the most playable and appealing game in the franchise, it is pure Halloween greatness.  I watched a friend beat this on Halloween once and I think about how great it is all the time.  It is for me, better than the snes version.

2. Bloodrayne

Bloodrayne is probably an obvious choice.  Insert jokes of its ridiculous sexuality or the bad Uwe Boll movie all you like, but there is a lot to love.  You run around as a blade wielding, gun toting vampire  and killed tons of nazis.  One of the best things is that sucking blood is pretty important as a game mechanic and bad guys serve as health.  Too cool, but this games is in no way perfect.  It is for a specific kind of crowd as well.

3. Eternal Darkness

It seems like forever ago when I was a lone dude, talking about just how great this game is.  Now everyone seems to know about it.  The hallucinations, the action, the puzzle solving, and the scares.  This game is nothing short of a masterpiece, and quite honestly one of the best Cthulhu Mythos games ever made.

4. Halloween Forever

I supported this game even before it came to Steam.  Back then it was just a short, entertaining little distraction.  Now with all the recent updates, it feels like a decently polished NES throwback with plenty to find, a nice difficulty, and a good amount of replay value.  This game is worthy of sitting among other titles like Ghosts and Goblins as a Halloween classic.

5. Blood

If Doom is too obvious a choice, try out Blood.  The game is full of violent and crazy imagery.  You go around killing undead things, cultists, etc.  Really awesome.  It reminds me of Duke Nukem 3D in graphic style, but with enough of its own flare to be great in itself.  This is sadly an overlooked classic.

6. Diablo 1

I put the first game on the list over the other ones for one simple reason, atmosphere.  In many ways, Diablo's simplicity is it's best feature.  The slowness of the game that some people complain about only adds to the atmosphere when you really give it a chance.  I played this one first and I still play it to this day.

7. Doom

Let's talk about the obvious here.  Doom is absolutely one of the best games ever made.  Even if you don't like the style of game, there is no denying the effect it has had on gaming over the years.  The thing I find fascinating is how few FPS games get the formula right.  Doom does it the best.  Don't believe me?  Spend time on the internet.  The game has endless replay value as well due to it's large and dedicated community of modders.  For an added bonus, try Doom 64.

8. Castlevania Bloodlines

For Halloween, nothing beats Castlevania.  My favorite may be Super Castlevania IV, but Bloodlines is nothing short of a masterpiece.  Easier than 3, Longer than 1, better than Dracula X, and gory as hell for a Castlevania game.  This is a perfect Genesis game and really shows off the awesomness.

9. Ghost Master

This game has had a rough life.  No matter how much people talk about it, no one pays attention.  It is a great game.  Kind of Sims like, but full of strategy and hilarious happenings.  Really this game is just too fun and it is cheap as well so go get it on Steam or GOG right now.

10. Fatal Frame

This is one of my favorite horror games of all time.  Truly scary and a lot of fun to play.  It's problems seem to help the mood and keep you in a box of controls that makes it hard to really get a ghost.  This adds to the scary factor, but some people find this game boring and problematic.  There are a lot of fans out there for this one and for good reason too.

Rodney Recommends for Halloween: House (1986)

Recently, I've been working on a project of sorts that has taken up my time.  So naturally this means very little posting.  That being said, it is related to this blog.  Also, one of my reviews had a huge spike in views and I was rather surprised to discover this.  Anyway I should be doing something for Halloween since it is my favorite holiday and I celebrate it throughout the month.  It's not as though I only watch horror during October either.  Honestly it is my favorite genre.

So naturally I would like to review a movie that was very important in shaping my taste in movies.  When I was little I saw part of Child's Play and it made me very scared of my favorite toy at the time, a My Buddy doll.  The damn thing even looked like me, but nonetheless I buried it as far as I could in the toy box and didn't dare take all the toys out for fear that the face would stare up at me.  I did continue to watch horror and monster movies though.  Most of them until around 7 were classic monster movies, or Godzilla films.

Then this happened, my father decided it was time for me to man up and he showed me some horror movies.  The first one on the list was a movie called House, starring William Katt (The Greatest American Hero).  The movie itself wasn't all that scary, but it did have jump scares and quite a bit of comedy, helped along by George Wendt.  I immediately fell in love with it.  Constantly I tried to show it to people, and still do to this day.  But let's review the damn thing already.

The movie is about a guy named Roger Cobb, a sort of two hit wonder in the horror novel world, who has had problems with writing as of late due to his son having disappeared, his wife leaving him, and his new book being about his traumatic experiences in the Vietnam war with a guy named Ben.  Anyway, fans are clamoring for his new book, and so are his publishers.  It's at this time his Aunt who raised him, commits suicide.  His Aunt always thought her house was haunted and painted morbid pictures as well as talked constantly about it in her old age.  She even blamed Roger's son's disappearance on the haunted house where the child went missing.

Roger decides to stay there and get some writing done after entering it again and quickly experiences paranormal activity.  He meets a neighbor who is pretty damn hilarious, and a fan of Roger Cobb's as well.  When Roger tells his neighbor about the ghost that attacks him in the middle of the night, he doesn't believe Roger.  Of course now Roger is convinced that his Aunt was not only killed by the house, but perhaps the house itself is behind his son's disappearance.  All this while flashing back to his time in Vietnam.

This movie works so well on so many levels.  First of all, it's a comedy horror film, and secondly it's sometimes in Vietnam.  Here and there you will spend time there for a few minutes before cutting back to the real world.  It all makes for some great pacing that keeps you interested.  The film is directed by Steven Miner who also did Friday the 13th 2 and 3.  Also the story (but not script) is by Fred Dekker of Monster Squad fame, and I think it shows.  It is honestly quite brilliant with both horror and comedy working well together as opposed to playing tug of war like some other horror comedies do.  The story itself is engaging enough for the average person, even those new comers with a short attention span, to see it through to the end.  Most importantly, when you do see it through, you are rewarded with a damn fine time as well.

I won't say much more as, despite it being popular I think there are plenty who haven't seen it and would love it not to be spoiled.  Here's what I can say for quality though.  I have been watching this movie around every year or two for more than 20 years now.  Clearly it must be good.

Mutant/Night Shadows 1984

It has been a while since I posted something.  This requires a bit of explanation.  It turns out that I have a real life outside of the hobby of posting reviews, and sometimes that gets in the way.  Probably more so because I don't do this for a job or anything.  Enough of that though, let us get to the action.

Mutant, also known as Night Shadows and a few other things, is a 1984 horror film starring a guy named Wings Hauser.  What an awesome name by the way.  We need more people named ridiculous things.  How about Jet Panzer? That sounds pretty action like.  Anyway I saw this film recently and thought I would fill you in as it seems this movie isn't talked about too often.

The movie is about two brothers named Josh (Wings) and Mike who are on vacation, spending time with each other for the first time in eight years.  They decide to go somewhere and start driving recklessly, which invokes the wrath of a group of rednecks in a truck that runs them off the road.  So sadly they have to go to redneck town in order to get their car fixed.  The first thing they do is find a dead body, and Mike wants to report it.  They go to a bar asking around for the police where they run into the rednecks from before who start a bar brawl.  In this fight they are nearly killed by these maniacs when a Sheriff finally stops them.  Mike informs the Sheriff of the dead guy, but when they go to find him, some other bum is laying where he was.  Then Mike and Josh stay at a local Bed and Breakfast where Mike is attacked from under his bed by someone emitting a lot of smoke.

When Josh wakes up bright and early at the crack of noon to get his car fixed so he can leave this crazy town where he was nearly killed twice in the duration of a night, he discovers Mike is gone.  So he goes into town and the only place open is a bar.  Here he discovers that many people in town are getting sick.  This leads to an "investigation" where we learn that people in town are turning into mutant zombie things and attacking people.

They seem to bleed yellow acid stuff from openings in their hands and they are made from toxic waste.  All this leads to a few people in town running from these creatures.  Much of them are townsfolk who attack them in one long stand off moment at the end of the film.

I feel I have spoiled too much already, especially for a movie that has likely not been seen too many times.  So let's tell you what I think of it.  The movie is pretty slow paced, even though things seem to happen often early on.  It is however, largely just talking.  This isn't a problem for me but I could see someone giving up on this movie easily.  It really has the feel of a 50's horror film where people talk about vague science and investigate until a big finale of sorts.  If I had watched it some other time I may not have enjoyed it a whole lot, but I was kind of in the mood for that sort of thing so I was lucky.  

There is virtually no violence to speak of, and no ladies or dudes get nekkid in it so you can't really look forward to that.  The thing with this movie is that throughout it I felt it had some charm I couldn't put my finger on.  This is the kind of movie you show to a seven year old to scare them because it doesn't have much R rated content, but that doesn't mean it is stupid or anything.  Nothing in the movie is truly good or bad, it just happens to be okay.  The most stellar thing about it is the soundtrack by Richard Band which is very appropriate and fun throughout.  I don't know why but the whole thing was just kind of fun.  If you are looking for a bad movie you can laugh at, this isn't it.  If you are looking for a great scary movie, this isn't it either.  But if you are just looking for something half decent that you haven't seen and are bored... here you go.

Just a quick note here.  When I did my Dolemite review, (My least viewed review.) I mentioned that I plan on reviewing all the movies in the Dolemite Experience Box.  I still plan on doing that, but I will do movies like this in between as well.

Dolemite: The Total Experience. Part 1, Dolemite.

Hell yeah.  When I first saw this movie as a young lad, I was immediately obsessed.  This launched a very long legacy of occasionally making reference to Rudy Ray Moore things and sadly having it go over people's heads.  Well I am here to say that I finally picked up Dolemite The Total Experience box.  That is eight discs of Rudy Ray Moore.  Of course only three of them are Dolemite movies, and a couple are live stand up, But nonetheless, it is the best collection of Rudy you can get.  So I am going to review, not just the Dolemite films, but every damn disc in the box.  Here is the thing though,  Rudy's comedy is very NSFW.  So in order to preserve his legacy, I am not going to hold back as well.  So if you don't like swearing and such, you should just ignore this.

Rudy Ray Moore is well known as a comedian who recorded raunchy comedy albums, usually rhyming while cool jazz played in the background.  Dolemite is a character who Rudy steps into to make some of his best stuff happen.  Dolemite is a character who is a kung fu fighting, smooth talking pimp, is the greatest in bed and employs an array of martial arts hoes to do his bidding.  The New York Times calls this "The Citizen Kane of blaxploitation films!" and I for one am ready to revisit this movie.

The first film, simply titled Dolemite, sees our character starting out in prison.  Dolemite was wrongfully accused of dealing drugs during a set up.  Why didn't they just get Dolemite on the many other things he actually did, such as run a prostitution ring, or murdering people?  Well anyway the warden brings Dolemite to his office where he says that Dolemite can go free if he agrees to help clean up the streets of the big drug kings now in charge of the area.  The main guy Dolemite is worried about is Willie Green, a rival pimp who seems to have bought up excess stuff that has been sold off from Dolemite's seedy empire, including a club that Dolemite loves.  A madam that works for Dolemite named Queen Bee has been trying to keep things afloat and also enrolls his bitches in the Chuck Norris Martial Arts School.  If you've got an empire to protect, that is the way to do it mother fucker!

So Dolemite has some catching up to do.  Specifically he needs to bang lots of hoe's vaginas.  He immediately starts banging two of them in the back seat and some of Green's men start to chase him down.  Dolemite murders them with a rifle on the highway.  Then he goes out to see what happened to his neighborhood.  This leads to him finding out that Green owns the club and has a former hooker of Dolemite's in his employ.  Well then, it looks like it's time for Dolemite to... bang some bitches, drive around, get framed again, and bang more bitches.  This framing happens when he's getting info from an old contact that is now a drug addict, which leads to some martial arts and a gun fight.

One of Dolemite's plans is to have a party at his old club.  So he breaks in, grabs some money hidden in the floor I think, and pays off Willie Green's men what the Dolemite empire owes him.  After a brief interlude where Dolemite watches his bitches do kung fu, it's off to the club to do a stand up show.  Oh yeah, it's revealed that Green works with the Mayor.  It is well known that Dolemite is a serious mutha fucka when it comes to laying down sweet rhyming stories to the beat of music.  This of course impresses Willie Green who stops by and offers to go into business with Dolemite.  There is only one way to respond to such a thing though, and that is to kung fu Green and kill every single mother fucker in the goddamn mother fucking army of Willie Fucking Green with the help of his fine ass pussy peddling kung fu hookers.

In the fight with Willie, Dolemite is shot but he rips out Willie's stomach.  Some police guy comes out and shoots Willie to make sure they can't pin it on Dolemite.  So he goes to the hospital.  The cop guy chases down the Mayor after a failed attempt at assassination by one of the hookers makes the Mayor flee.  The Mayor is killed trying to get in a plane.  It is revealed to Dolemite that his cop friend is an FBI agent, and that there is a hit out on him.  This is quickly resolved in the hospital by the death of every last mother fucking guy who dares to accept the hit on Dolemite and their asses get murdered in the hospital that seemingly has the darkest damn hallways known to man.  Also there are some corrupt cops that are sort of in the movie and they get arrested fairly quickly.

I glossed over a few things, but this movie is downright awesome.  The budget is pretty low, but they make up for it with a hell of a lot of nudity.  The editing is not so great, but they make up for it with bad ass music.  The acting is usually sub par, but they make up for it with not so great kung fu, and Dolemite doing stand up.  So there's violence, nudity, drugs, pimps, hoes, kung fu, guns, car chases, and stand up comedy in this movie.  What the fuck else do you need?

Stay tuned for the next installment.  I will be updating frequently to get the entire box taken care of.  That way you will know all you need to about the film saga of Dolemite, and Rudy Ray Moore's greatest feats of acting and comedy.

Burial Ground: Nights of Terror

Here's the thing, I love zombie movies.  Since the first time I saw Night of the Living Dead (thanks basic cable) my life was changed.  I was around eight at the time and it would be fair to say that my obsession with horror started right then.  Being haunted by the fact that no one survived and Ben got shot in the head even though he was human, I began seeking out everything horror, and more specifically zombies.

Nowadays there are a million zombie movies though.  Ones based on classic books, but with zombies, ones where scouts fight zombies, it is a bit out of control.  Thanks Walking Dead/ Dawn of the Dead remake/ Resident Evil, you have ruined it for me.  The worst thing however is zombie comedy.  Don't get me wrong, I like Shaun of the Dead as much as the next guy but after the fiftieth zombie comedy, you tend to stop finding it funny.  Burial Ground keeps getting funnier every time I see it though.  You probably need explanation, so on to the review.

A bearded man who is a professor of something informs us that only he knows the secret to whatever it is that he knows while pouring over some book and a couple of papers.  Shortly after he gets eaten by what we can assume is zombies due to the lighting being poor.  Though this may be due to my VHS copy.

So a bunch of people arrive at a mansion for some reason in three cars.  One woman who I learn later is named Leslie, is wearing a kinky outfit and she says that she found in the room they are staying in. To which her husband/lover replies, "You look just like a little whore, but I like that." and then they bang.  A shadowy figure creeps up on them and in a surprise turn of events, the figure is actually creeping up on a different husband and wife.  They are his parents George, and Evelyn whose name I only discovered by writing down other people's names and then fact checking with the credits.  I don't recall her name being spoken.  That is just how this movie is so I will forgo the other explanations of this.  Anyway Evelyn's son is Michael and he is played by Peter Bart, a rather short adult.  Oddly he is dubbed by someone who passes for a kid even less when it comes to vocals.  From what I gather from the context, George is a step dad.  Peter Bart, looks like this

True face of horror right?  So then a blonde in her night clothes named Janet immediately says to her husband/boyfriend named Mark that something bad is going to happen, but he puts an end to her paranoid ramblings by making out with her.  Then zombies appear and shamble along to let you know that this is a zombie movie.

Everyone is arguing at the dinner table and it turns out they had all been invited to the Professor in the beginning who has been researching the undead.  I looks like they don't have to go far to find out more about it though.  After a brief discussion, most of them go outside.  Janet is out taking pictures with her husband and she is apparently clumsy.  The lights start acting strange at the house and begin to explode which scares the maid and butler.  Of course we are now treated to zombies coming out of seemingly everywhere to attack Janet and Mark as they are about to bang outside.  Then even more zombies come out to a cacophony of annoying electronic sounds.

Evelyn, George, and Michael are in some room with statues where the two adults are playing with firearms with their eyes closed.  Suddenly Michael gets really clingy with his mom.  Zombies attack them though and they try to shoot the things but it doesn't work.  It actually looks gross and kind of cool when they are shot in slow motion.  The zombies kill George and start tearing apart his stomach.  This also looks cool.  Michael escapes with mommy.

When you are a clumsy person you end up getting stuck in bear traps that are just laying around, just like Janet does.  As Janet and Mark struggle with the trap rather hilariously, zombies come for them.  So Mark grabs a pitchfork, but quickly loses it and waits for the zombie to wrap its hands around his neck.  Luckily James and Leslie arrive with rocks to smash some zombie heads, which looks pretty gruesome.

Zombies appear to be surrounding the cars, so they have to try and get back into the mansion.  After doing so, the zombies give up and they start to board up the place.  The maid goes off searching in the dark and looks out a window where her hand gets skewered by a zombie with excellent throwing skills.  Afterwards her head is sawed off by a scythe.  The zombies rip her apart and then equip themselves with sharp objects to hack through the door.  So James goes on a head exploding spree.

Janet seems to have only bruised her ankle from the bear trap.  While Leslie is looking around a zombie breaks through the window and tries to "Zombi 2" Leslie's eye, but the glass misses and gets her face.  Janet can't escape the zombies coming in, but Mark and James start bashing skulls for her.  Then Evelyn machetes some zombies to protect her son.  Michael returns the favor by trying to suckle on his mother's breast and fondling her.  Evelyn rejects her son's advances.

The group decides to let the zombies in and walk past them because zombies are slow, which seems stupid.  So Evelyn goes looking for Michael and follows a blood trail to where Leslie is munching down on her son.  Evelyn smashes her to death on a bathtub.

The zombies get in so the crew goes walking around.  Somehow, just the butler runs into the Professor who is now a zombie and gets killed.  Day comes and they make their escape to a monastery where the priests are all zombies.  James is killed in this fiasco so Mark, Janet and Evelyn escape to a workshop of some kind where they find zombie Michael.  Evelyn is so happy to see her son that she let's him suckle her, at which point he tears her nipple off with his teeth.  As she is being eaten, the zombies shove Mark's face into a table saw and surround Janet.  The End.

This movie is made up of chaos, very little plot, and some pretty offensive material.  There is a decent amount of naked ladies, a lot of violence, and one scene with both.  The movie is mostly remembered now for Peter Bart and his on screen mother's relationship, and justifiably so.  The first time I saw this I could not believe what was going on.  I have now watched the movie three times.  I recommend this to hardcore horror fans and those that are already used to Italian horror films.  This movie is pure chaotic enjoyment.  Sure the character's logic makes no sense and very little is explained, but who cares.  This movie is exactly what it needs to be, totally ridiculous and awesome.

Robo Vampire

In 1988, a man named Godfrey Ho dared to take two movies that were unrelated (but surprisingly neither involved ninjas) and make a strange cult film that the internet chose to remember for some reason.  Those of you who watch internet reviewers have probably already seen a review for this movie by someone, and likely this means you are familiar with Godfrey Ho as well.  The man made a career of making low or no budget films at a dizzying rate.  It didn't matter if a movie of his failed to make any money because there were always a few more on the way already.  Often times he would get stock footage or buy unfinished films to make up a portion of his movies and film new scenes to make it complete.  This had the unfortunate effect of making them pretty incoherent.  Regardless, lets look at this crazy thing.

To start with, Army guys leading a person covered in denim to... somewhere are attacked by a hopping vampire dude when they start opening coffins for seemingly no reason.  That is how this movie starts.  Then a guy with a mustache comes down some stairs and says,"We must find a way to handle Tom, that goddamn anti drug agent."  His has employed a Taoist and his lackeys to train some vampires.

So a guy named Ken, who likes to dress as Waldo is busy at work loading vampires and drugs into some coffins.  I think the plan is for the vampires to protect the drugs or something.  A guy wearing black scolds him momentarily for screwing around and after Ken hits his nuts the vampires wake up, so fighting ensues.  They stop the vampires with their exorcising papers or whatever and soon discover the drugs they have are not real.

Taoist, the leader of the vampire trainers wakes one up in another scene to show off his sweet vampire wrangling abilities, but is soon interrupted by a woman named Christine.  She wears see through clothes and is hellbent on revenge due to the vampire being her husband.  This causes them to no longer be able to spend eternity together, so naturally she is mad.  Then the vampire wakes up and starts attacking her, but suddenly stops when he recognizes her sweet gecko tattoo.  Taoist and crew start to refer to her as a ghost and she decides to help them as long as she is allowed to get married to her vampire husband.  This relationship is too confusing for me.  A vampire and a ghost, but they have to get remarried?  Why?  Oh, the vampire is named Peter by the way.  But most importantly, where the hell are all the robots I was promised?

Anyway, Taoist and crew are driving along the road when they are ambushed by Army guys with what seems to be automatic shotguns.  They send out a vampire who shoots some fireworks and kills a guy named Tom.  Some people are working on poor Tom and one of them says, "I want to make use of his body to make an android like robot."  So after a verbal application is submitted, they make Robo Tom.  They refer to him as Robo Warrior and he looks like this

So another movie is going on where some blonde agent is kidnapped and they send a dude out to save her.  That continues and I get bored, but what I didn't know is that most of the rest of the actual Robo Vampire part of the movie is just Tom fighting vampires, which is cool.  Eventually the other movie grows on me as it has decent fight scenes, and some violence.  Robo Tom eventually faces off against the ghost, and her husband that have some lovin' together (though not much) and he also kills the Taoist.  The other movie gets rid of the other characters.

Robo Vampire is a pretty strange movie overall.  The cover with a picture of Robocop is what usually makes people watch it.  The movie has some decent violence and martial arts sequences, and some really bad robot fighting vampire scenes.  There is also some naked ladies, so at least they checked that off the list.  The story is fairly scattered and unimportant when it comes down to it, and that's odd considering there are two of them kind of.  Another thing to note is that there is a part where a woman cuts open a real dead animal and stuffs drugs into it.  For me, this is hard to watch.  I recommend this to a bunch of drunk people, or anyone who seeks out "bad movies" in general as this is not good in terms of quality.  I would also recommend it to Godfrey Ho fans that haven't seen it.  Normal human beings could probably skip it though.  I mostly enjoyed what it had to offer, but there are better Godfrey Ho movies out there and I will probably just watch one of those next time I feel the need for something like this.  Better Godfrey Ho movies with Ninjas, and Zombies.

Hangfire, The moment before all hell breaks loose.

Back in 1991 we had a lot of action films to watch.  It seemed like the video stores were full of bad ass dudes killing all kinds of people in all kinds of ways, for all kinds of reasons.  Hell Steven Seagal had four movies out by the time someone likely watched this.  I of course, was too young to really know who Jan-Michael Vincent, Lou Ferrigno, Ken Foree, and James Tolkan were because I was six.

However, one day I saw a VHS of this movie just lying around and seeing that it had an all star cast (according to me) I began to ponder why no one really talks about this movie at all.  It had a typical early 90's cover as you can see above and promised explosions to me on the back cover.  That is all I really needed to know in order to slap down the fifty cents required to purchase the VHS.

I am almost immediately greeted by James Tolkan in an eye patch whom you may know as that guy from Top Gun, who is cleverly named Patch.  Also there is a mustache guy named Kutner who is played by Lee de Broux who I recognize as Tom from Pumpkinhead, and Sal from Robocop.  So right away this movie is made for me.  So in the showers of a prison are a couple of guys wearing their underwear to the shower.  I guess everyone is in fear of being penetrated from behind in the prison, and for good reason because nearly a minute in someone is stabbed from behind and dies.

Meanwhile, a dude named Ike played by Brad Davis who I suppose you could recognize from Chariots of Fire if you wanted, is getting married.  His bride to be is named Maria.  Anyway, Ike is best friends with Ken Foree who if you don't know by now... well, sorry.  Ken plays Billy, and during this wedding he drinks a lot, so we see he is a party dude.  We also discover that Ike's name is actually Isaac.

The next day at precisely 7:00 am as the film tells us, guards come and get Kutner for his parole hearing.  At this point I am aware that this movie has an unnecessary amount of text informing us of when and where stuff is going on.  For example, shortly after informing us of that scene we see that it is four miles out from the prison on the interstate as some people are driving badly.  Then at precisely 7:05 am Kutner arrives to his parole, um... meeting.  We learn that Kutner is in jail for strangling an eight year old girl as well as possibly many others.  Maria, who is a doctor of some kind recommends that he doesn't get parole.

Four minutes later by the info text's account the bad driving makes a truck of Toxic stuff explode.  The Toxic chemicals are headed for the prison so they have to evacuate everyone.  Kutner decides to escape and takes Maria hostage along with the help of his friend Patch.  They steal a bus full of prisoners and end up in an old mining town of about 50 people.  The prisoners go out and steal the towns weapons to prepare for a shootout with the police.

Meanwhile Billy wakes up with a hangover and Ike is cooking eggs.  There is a knock on the door and it turns out that Ike lives in the town where the prisoners have gone and now have his wife ironically hostage there.  The people at the door are Lou Ferrigno as Smitty and Lyle Alzado as Albert, and they have guns which is a pretty scary thought.  It turns out they are not as strong as their physique would have you believe and are easily taken care of.

Meanwhile Kutner gets the police to back off by shooting a hostage, so the police call up the National Guard lead by Dr. Ron Shepherd from Xtro 2 himself, Jan-Michael Vincent as Colonel Johnson.  He is a stereotypical dick and gets some people killed in a wild west ambush scenario.

Much of the movie at this point is kind of like watching a western thanks to the location.  We discover that Billy and Ike were in Vietnam/insert other action stereotypes here etc.  People die, Ken Foree is a bad ass and says one liners, and then the location changes to a run down mining facility.  At this point it is just like any other lower budget action movie with similar lighting and filming techniques on display.

There really isn't much to say.  Despite this, the movie made me like it early on and so I was willing to sit through the rest.  Trust me it was worth it to see all the really bad one liners Ken Foree says.  I wouldn't call this a good movie, but those who are used to seeing this type of movie, or better yet straight to home video releases of the 80's and 90's would probably sit through it easily.  Where this movie shines is its cast of actors who are all pretty recognizable.  All these people are somehow in a movie together so out of curiosity it might be worth seeing.  I don't recommend this movie to the average viewer of film, those looking for a bad movie to laugh at, or those looking for some bad ass action though.  I recommend it to people who can sit through a straight to video Steven Seagal movie, or Cage 2 however.  It is about like watching something along those lines.

Wrath of the Ninja

Back in the day, the anime fans that existed really had very little to go on.  The internet wasn't as widely available as it is now, and VHS copies of things were effing expensive.  In fact the average price of an anime VHS was $30 to $40 dollars, regardless of quality.  Often times if you wanted a whole series the entire thing wouldn't come out, or every tape had around 2 or 3 episodes if you were lucky.  Add on the fact that the most widely available series was Ranma, which didn't seem to have numbers on the cases to tell you which one was next and you have a confusing world of releases you had to already know about to get.

Luckily you had Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.  These companies tended to carry a decent amount of OVA or movie releases that you could simply rent for the evening.  The titles that they seemed to have the most of were released by two companies, Urban Vision and U.S. Manga Corps.  They had others sure, but for whatever reason they got almost every release these people did.  This one is from U.S. Manga Corps so we get to look at that little M.D. Geist logo on the cover somewhere.  If that doesn't say "quality" I don't know what does.

Anyway, this film was pretty common.  Wrath of the Ninja: The Yotoden Movie is of course a movie edited together from a longer OVA series.  I have seen both, and I can say that the OVA is better, but this isn't as bad as some people think.  When we start this movie we are greeted by some woman named Kasumi/Ayame who is almost raped by some dudes she runs across.  It turns out she is a ninja and kills a few of them.  Fairly soon, she meets two other ninjas and it is discovered that these three wield magical weapons that can stop some demons with their cool powers.

It also pays to mention that Nobunaga Oda is rapidly taking over as well.  Various groups of ninjas must fight various other ninjas who are backed by various demons.  Oda of course gains demon powers and they must use their cool weapons to kill him.  Each character gets a redemption arch and there is plenty of action.  Violence is all over this movie, and that is great because the story isn't very strong.  When watching this, the story seems to go both way too fast, and way too slow all at once.  If you are wondering if the story is improved by watching the longer OVA instead, it is but not by a whole lot.  Sadly it is near impossible to find the OVA now, but rather easy to get the VHS or bootleg DVD of this so good luck with finding it.

The English dub is fine by the way.  By fine I mean good in that 90's we don't care sort of way.  There is a baseball reference for example and this thing takes place in feudal Japan.  However, it is likable in that cheesy way that other not so great dubs like Gundam Wing are.  I would say however that the overall acting quality is just a tiny bit better than you could expect from this era though.  The story makes enough sense but it seems like there is something missing from the exposition that would otherwise make it more interesting.  This is also present in the OVA but not nearly as bad.  One of the worst things about this movie is that there are characters who are killed in a very dramatic way shortly after being introduced to them.  The problem is we don't get enough time to really care about these people so the deaths just don't seem to matter much.  This of course is not so much a problem in the OVA version.

I would honestly recommend this movie if you want some cheesy, violent, anime ninja action.  It is pretty easy to get through and isn't incredibly long.  Don't take this movie seriously and you will probably enjoy watching neon red blood and neon blue swords slashing.  Really, it is fairly entertaining for this kind of thing if you don't mind just turning your brain off and letting it be fun.  That's what these types of releases are all about anyway.  If you need that old school 90's anime nostalgia fix, this is a great start.  Then you can move on to things that are much better, but seeing as how this is pretty cheap, I'd say go for it.

Green Room

Amidst a world of summer blockbusters just starting, a small horror film gets a release and sadly people don't seem to know about it.  This is a tragedy as this is the best horror film this year so far.  Now I am not saying you shouldn't go see some big named superhero film in the theater, in fact I recommend that movie as for at least the next few weeks it is going to be the most referenced pop culture thing until the next pop culture thing comes out.  But I do urge people to also try to pay a bit of attention to the smaller things that might get overlooked during the season.

Green Room is a fantastic little horror film about the terror of what a human can do to another human.  It also has a great setting.  A punk band consisting of Pat, Reece, Sam, and Tiger, some young um... punks are doing a little tour and things aren't going so well. They seem to be losing money, and spirit when a gig gets cancelled.  They get another gig added because they are very out of money, but are warned that they will be playing for some skinheads.  The band decides to do it anyway and attempt to hide their disgust.

After the gig they accidentally witness a murder and end up trapped in the green room of the venue. The band must either talk, or fight their way out.  The only problem is these people are unreasonable and lead by Patrick Stewart.

If you love horror or thrillers, this is a must see.  Be forewarned however, this movie is brutal.  I don't mean violent brutal, although there is plenty of that.  It is the kind of brutal you see in a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  During the film, I was disturbed, and genuinely worried for the characters in the film.  Patrick Steward is great and creepy in this movie and I hope he does more interesting movies like this in the future.  The main characters are all pretty likable and that makes the whole film a bit more exciting than your average horror movie.  I love it when this happens because I want to root for the heroes as opposed to the villains sometimes.

I am not going to give anything away though.  It might or might not be playing in an area near you, but keep an eye out for it and avoid spoilers if at all possible.  If even one person sees this and decides to go check it out, then I've done my proverbial job.  If you have any interest in this at all, go see it before it leaves your theater and gets replaced by some movie about mutants fighting some apocalypse guy.

Willow Creek

I recently sat down to watch this movie, based on the fact that I love Bigfoot things.  Now I don't believe there is a Bigfoot or anything, but I find the idea fascinating.  Whenever I see a Bigfoot movie, I am interested in seeing it without any real knowledge of the film beforehand.

In the vein of The Legend of Boggy Creek, Bobcat Goldthwait has decided to write a horror comedy film.  This seems like the right idea to me, at least it did before I watched it.  You see The Legend of Boggy Creek is brilliant in a way that few horror films ever have been.  It is a sort of staged documentary about a Bigfoot creature with chilling interviews set up beforehand.  Much of that film plays out like a weird nature documentary though and it is great for those who are paying close attention and don't mind their movies to be a bit slow.

Willow Creek however is a found footage film, with all the problems that come with it.  The two main characters are Jim and Kelly (not Jim Kelly the martial artist) who go to Bluff Creek to do a little documentary for Jim's birthday.  Jim is a Bigfoot enthusiast while his girlfriend is a non-believer.  The first part of the movie takes place in the town near this area where there is Bigfoot stuff all over the place, including themed restaurants, and book stores.  There are a handful of interviews with the townsfolk and honestly this is the best part of the movie.    There is a character who is the Bob Dylan of Bigfoot Folk Music that they interview who is great for example.  This is building a bit of tension around Bigfoot the mythos, and Jim and Kelly's relationship.  I think this part is handled well.

Then they go camping.  Most of the movie at this point takes place on one night where they have an encounter.  At this point I kind of dislike the main characters and I hope that they not only find Bigfoot, but get killed by him.  The problem with the ending is that it suffers from the curse of The Blair Witch Project.  Nothing really pays off in the end.  I am not going to tell you what happens, but needless to say, they check off every found footage trope in the book.  Too bad, this could have worked out too but kind of ends up being forgettable in the end.

This is nowhere near the worst Bigfoot movie that exists, but sadly I don't recommend it.  The movie is just kind of boring.  That isn't because I hate slow movies by the way.  I love Deep Red for example, and I just mentioned I like The Legend of Boggy Creek as well.  I also love Night of the Living Dead, which is mostly just people yelling at each other, boarding up windows, and watching TV.  I love that movie though.  This sort of thing can be done well, I think that with only a little work, this movie could also have been great though.  If it sounds at all like you will like this movie, go ahead and watch it.  You may like it more than I do, and it isn't way long.  My opinion is just an opinion, so make your own judgement by reading between the lines on this one.  I could easily see this one being in someone's specific taste.

Hardcore Henry

This movie is the best damn FMV video game I've ever watched someone play.  For those of you who somehow haven't had the internet, TV, or haven't seen a movie in the theater for the past six months, Hardcore Henry is a first person movie about a guy named Henry who has no memory. Now, Henry was in some kind of accident and has a bunch of cyborg parts in him.  He is a super strong cyborg person and has no real memory when some blonde guy comes in out of nowhere and attacks the science lab where Henry has recently awoken.  Fighting and running ensues, and Henry's wife, or the woman who put him together is kidnapped.  So Henry must save her.

There is a problem however.  He doesn't really know what to do and is running out of batteries. Luckily this guy Jimmy comes by and helps him out.  Jimmy apparently knows a lot about Henry so that is good for him.  Lots of fighting, running, and violence ensues.

A lot of people were apprehensive when it came to the idea of this movie in first person with a lot of action.  I can see why as well.  People are worried about getting motion sickness.  I can assure you it is not as bad as it sounds however.  I only ever felt weird during one parkour scene.  I sat through the whole scene and was fine after that.  My wife is a little sensitive to that sort of thing and she sat through it fine.  So it is not that bad.

The movie is very violent by the way.  Lots of swearing, gunshots, dismemberment, and even a few naked ladies.  So really it has everything you could want out of a movie like this.  Make no mistake, this film is ridiculous exploitation with an over the top concept and a bad gimmick tacked on to boot. In other words, it really is a decent exploitation flick so it fits right in on this blog unlike Dirty Dancing.  I rather enjoyed this movie.  It isn't the best movie of the year so far but it is better than Batman v Superman.  In the future I might even watch this movie again if I'm bored.  The movie has a decent amount of cyberpunk themes in it too.  Oh and that FMV comment earlier.  There are plenty of lines that belong in an FMV game and that made me pretty happy as well.  So I guess I recommend this movie.

Knight Chills

Since the age of 12 I have been a fan of roleplaying games.  This naturally makes me curious when it comes to media related to the topic.  I have seen Mazes and Monsters, The Wild Hunt, a number of documentaries, the special news reports of the evils of D&D, and the Jack Chick comic Dark Dungeons just to name a few.  So of course any time I find something on the subject, I am eager to give it a go.  Knight Chills came about on this list one day and I finally watched the damn thing.  Too bad it wasn't a good movie, but I think in a way it is forgivable this time.

From the very start of this movie it is clear that this is a no budget film, more so than the worst that Troma's releases have to offer.  Normally this is not enough to get me to stop watching any movie, but for some reason I had to stop for a second.  Was I prepared for this?  The truth is I wasn't, so  naturally I continued watching.  The credits are enough of a warning, but the moment the movie starts you are ready for some lowest of low budget.

The story revolves around a guy named John, whose crazy mother is kind of anti-rpg but for some reason allows him to work at a hobby store.  John sneaks out on Saturdays and plays a game with his ex-teacher Jack Nixon, as well as a slew of other people.  So the group is pretty into their game and has a wide variety of people playing it.  There are a couple of asshole guys that play with them, that hit John with a very hard snowball.  This sets John off and at some point during the game his character tries to kill one of them.  If this is his way of lashing out, then he needs to find a new way of doing so.  Anyway, John is into one of the girls that plays with them named Brooke who is clearly the girlfriend of one of the other guys named Zac.  All I can say is not cool bro.  Here is what she looks like.

Charming right?  So they play in Jack's basement, which I think is just part of a gaming store.  If it isn't though, I would love to play there.  It has fake dungeon walls and tons of books all over.  Tell me where this is.  I want to just hang out here.  Brooke gets left behind by her boyfriend and John takes his chance to strike.  In the past few games it is clear that John has lost his mind and is way too into his character.  He is really creepy so the woman turns him down.  This upsets poor John and he speeds off into the chilly night to crash and die.  Or did he?

The rest of the movie is a slasher film where a Knight of the Rose goes around killing the Roleplayers and it is pretty clear that the Knight is John somehow.  Whether he never died and is walking around getting revenge, or he is some vengeful ghost is never explain, but who cares really.  It seems in the town they are in, everyone is bad at delivering the news that someone is dead.  It is ridiculous and offensive.  Jack gets the news of John's passing by a detective who says, "Apparently he had a very close encounter with a large tree."  What a dick.  The guy is also worried about the fact that these people are Roleplaying.

After the funeral, murders happen.  It seems that the people in the game group aren't too affected by their deaths as they discover them.  That is pretty weird, if the people I played games with suddenly died I would be pretty upset, but they are actual friends of mine.  Maybe these people aren't friends.
Much of the deaths are off screen as well, so no real violence to speak of.  Anyway it plays out pretty normal until the last minute which is mostly confusing.  Then it just ends abruptly.

It is clear that the people who wrote it, and likely a good chunk of the cast, played RPGs in general. This helps the gaming scenes quite a bit.  Much of the movie is just boring though.  I can't say I am a fan of the movie, but I could totally believe it if someone said that this was their first film project and a learning experience.  Most of these people went on to do something else, which is actually somewhat comforting.  The odd thing is that this movie has a DVD release, a Special Edition DVD release, and is on Amazon Prime.  I can't say it is worth it, but it also isn't the most offensive movie on the subject of RPGs.  So go watch the other D&D movies first, and when you run out of them, see this I guess.  At least from the DVD cover and the first couple minutes of the film you will immediately know what to expect.

Pee-Wee is Back for a Big Holiday

When I was little, I was pretty into Pee-Wee.  I grew up watching Big Adventure, and loved Pee-Wee's Playhouse.   When I was little I was scared of Jambi and would run out of the room, waiting until my siblings said it was okay to come back in.  This fact is unimportant, but funny.  Of course after a while I just expected not to get any more of this red bow tie wearing childhood hero.  I think that would have been okay however.  Playhouse is mostly only good if you have the right sense of humor or nostalgia, Big Adventure is still pretty decent but I do understand those that don't like it, and Big Top Pee-Wee is... weird but in a good way.  I have also seen the special Pre-Adventure, and the more recent one.  I guess we really had a decent amount of Pee-Wee but for some reason a lot of us felt just a bit incomplete, waiting for another installment despite our constantly increasing age. Tonight, I finally got this.

The film's story revolves around Pee-Wee never having left his small town, which only works if you consider him not remembering the events of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and the Playhouse being somewhere in the vicinity.  He works at a diner, which is good for us to know because I always wondered how he got money.  Pee-Wee is quite happy in his life until Joe Manganiello rides in on his motorcycle and hangs out with Pee-Wee for a little bit.  Joe suggests going on vacation and then gives Pee-Wee an invitation to his birthday party in New York.  Then rides off to who knows where.  So Pee-Wee decides for the first time in his life to go on Holiday, except for the one time he tried when he won a trip to Salt Lake City and promptly crashed when leaving town, ending in him getting a metal plate in his head.

Some of the film's jokes and subject matter are a bit adult in nature, which makes sense because Pee-Wee has always been that way.  There is the familiar road trip motif from Big Adventure throughout, as well as dream sequences which are mostly Pee-Wee hanging out with Joe at his birthday party. Those dream sequences, while not as amazing as the Tim Burton themed ones of before, are pretty awesome.

This film didn't have quite the budget of the others, or maybe just didn't use it as well.  That doesn't mean it isn't funny however.  I laughed out loud a couple times and that is pretty impressive for me since I rarely do that.  There is a lot of weird stuff and Pee-Wee related things going on throughout. This is exactly what we want.  It does still feel not as good or grandiose as Big Adventure, and more like a weird copy of that film.  However, it is a good copy of it and certainly isn't the same movie at all.

Is this the movie we were expecting?  Probably not.  Is it the movie we were destined to get? Yes. You see, it has been a long time since Pee-Wee hosted a carnival at his farm in Big Top Pee-Wee, a film which a surprising amount of people don't like.  I like that movie and I expected Big Holiday to be a little closer to that quality of film.  I honestly think this movie captures Pee-Wee and his character a little better though, and will watch this movie again.  I very much enjoyed it because I knew what to expect.  It was awesome to see more Pee-Wee.  The movie didn't quite scratch the itch, but if they never make another Pee-Wee related thing again, I will be satisfied that I got another.  It is worthy of the franchise as a whole and should be appealing to fans.  I rated the film 4 out of 5 stars on my Netflix account so it must be that good right?  Maybe so, but I am already a fan, so I am naturally attuned to give Pee-Wee an extra star.  Regardless, don't hesitate if you are a fan of Pee-Wee.  It is well worth the watch.

Leprechauning Around - A Leprechaun Franchise Retrospective

In 1993, Mark Jones wrote, and directed a film about a killer Leprechaun and films were changed forever.  Though not really.  It seems that no one cares about these movies at all, but a lot of people secretly enjoy or own them.  I have determined that the franchise has legs only due to curiosity.  That being said, most everyone who likes them ironically enjoys these movies.  Is the franchise good, bad, or ugly?  Today I attempt to answer that with a look at the first four of the seven movies in this series.

In Leprechaun 1, we find that Warwick Davis has dressed as the mythical leprechaun and begins to terrorize Jennifer Aniston and Mark Holton as well as some other people I don't care about when Aniston playing Tory finds a crate in the basement of the house her and her dad have just moved into and accidentally knocks the four leaf clover off of it.  As it turns out, four leaf clovers are poison to Leprechauns and have some magical trapping power over them.

You might know Mark Holton as Francis from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.  In this he plays mentally challenged manchild Ozzie who works with some hunky painter and a kid.  This is every bit as offensive as you might think it would be.  The kid and Ozzie discover the Leprechaun's gold and Ozzie accidentally swallows one.  Yeah this movie is that stupid.

Anyway, horror tropes ensue and we get a killer Leprechaun riding a tricycle and killing people.  At the end the kid shoots a four leaf clover into Warwick's mouth with a slingshot saying, "Fuck you Lucky Charms."  That is sadly the best part of this movie.  This film isn't terrible, it just isn't that great.  If you want to see Jennifer Aniston her first major role, it is interesting to see her play someone so young.  Warwick is entertaining enough, but I wonder if the role is a bit offensive to people of his general size.  In any case he seems to have a good sense of humor about it.  Overall, it's okay.  Not good or bad.

Luck has nothing to do with it indeed.  The first one was so popular (I guess) that they just had to make a sequel.  The sequel is in name only however.  The movie opens up with a storybook type thing and some time in the past the Leprechaun has enslaved a man to do his bidding.  He wants to make some girl his wife and the guy enslaved by Warwick discovers the girl is his daughter, so he sabotages the Leprechaun's plans and forces him to lay dormant until modern-ish day where he finds the descendant of the girl and she surprisingly looks no different.

This time around the Leprechaun has taken to rhyming and does so constantly, making ridiculous jokes as he kills his victims all while trying to bang some blonde chick.  This really adds to the enjoyment of the movie.  The kills are ridiculous, and entertaining as well.  The cast of good guys are Cody, the guy going out with the descendant girl who lives with his uncle and drives a car for some Haunted Tour thing.  Morty, his con artist uncle (I know a bit about having con artist relatives) who is kind of a useless drunk.  Then there is Bridgette, the generic pretty blonde girl who is the reincarnation of the girl from the opening.

Overall this is probably the best Leprechaun movie.  It is funny, and has a bit of violence in it, and you see the chest of a naked lady for a second.  This movie won't change your life, you may not even enjoy it, but it is a solid enough effort.

Full disclosure here, I love Las Vegas.  I am obsessed with its history, culture, and downfall.  So I feel that I am too biased to really give this one an accurate review.  This was the last movie to film on Freemont Street before the Freemont Street Experience screen was built over the area.  Look that up if you like.  At the time it was required to breathe new life into a struggling area.  I love Freemont, so this throws off my ability to decide if this movie sucks or not.  I also love Blackjack and Craps.

There is a lot of gambling in this movie for a film about leprechauns.  A young guy is on his way to college when he stops off in Vegas and helps a girl who in on her way to work.  She works as the assistant to a not so great magician working in a dive casino where this movie takes place.  So people get a hold of the Leprechaun's gold and make wishes with it.  Meanwhile Warwick is out to get his gold back and kill them.

The movie mostly takes place in a seedy pawn shop, a seedy casino, and a hospital.  The magician character is hilarious and reminds me vaguely of someone I know, so I love his character.  He is the best part of the movie.  There is also a plot where the college kid gets leprechaun blood on him and starts to slowly become part leprechaun.  It is stupid, but whatever.  A bit of nudity in this one as a woman comes out of a TV and starts getting naughty with a guy.  This movie also has one of the funniest horror movie deaths ever.  It involves the magic show.  I really like this movie, and have seen it more times than I care to admit.  Warwick rhymes more in this one too so that is cool.  I recommend this movie if you enjoyed the second one.

There isn't really any other way to put this. Leprechaun 4 is a stupid movie.  Essentially it is a bad Leprechaun sequel mixed with a bad Aliens rip off.  There a few scenes that are pretty funny.  This one guy urinates on Warwick after the crew kills him, and later when the guy is getting frisky with a chick the Leprechaun jumps out of his dick to kill him.  There is a part involving this Space Princess where she reveals her upper body assets to a character, which apparently is a death sentence where she's from.

Anyway, same old Leprechaun, same old tricks but in space.  I was surprised by the number of half decent practical effects for this movie though.  By half decent I mean for it's budget.  This movie also went to space before Jason did in Jason X so there is that.  Although this movie kind of sucks compared to Jason X.  No rhyming this time, which is too bad.  This movie is just plain dumb and not worth it overall, but if you like Warwick Davis and the Leprechaun franchise, I guess you could watch it, if you had to.

So in summary, here are the ratings.  Lep 1 is okay for what it is.  Lep 2 is better than it should be, but no masterpiece. Lep 3 is hilarious and entertaining but kind of stupid.  Lep 4 is downright dumb, but it's in space.  If you wonder what I thought about the other three in the franchise I will tell you quickly.

Leprechaun In the Hood is sort of entertaining.  It has a return of Warwick rhymes and a lot of other characters rhyme too.  It is funny, but not a good movie at all.  It does have Ice-T in it.  He is my favorite Def Jam Fight For New York Character.

Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood is so stupid.  Easily the worst of the franchise and Warwick seems to have gone goth in it as he wears a very black colored outfit.

Leprechaun Origins isn't really a part of the franchise.  No Warwick Davis, but we have Dylan Postl of WWE fame as the Leprechaun.  The Leprechaun isn't really a leprechaun though.  He is more of an Irish Monkey Demon Thing.  It should be called Irish Monkey Demon Thing: Origins.

So there you have it.  You can now watch or skip whichever you desire based on either my reviews or personal interest.  I don't know that the franchise is worth revisiting, but if you are bored with some friends on St. Patrick's Day and have some alcohol ready you might enjoy these movies.  Except Back 2 Tha Hood and Origins.  They just kind of suck.  Sorry Origins, I know you tried.