Welcome to Gracie Mae DeLunac's life, via the computer. This is where you'll see updates on my stories and whatnot. I'll post when I can about what new stuff has occurred in my mind, in the world, and whatever goes. Benvenue, everyone!
As the only child of two writers, Coraline must find adventure in her life on her own. Of course, she never thought she'd find a door to a parallel world that has an Other Mother, Other Father and Other everyone. It is a world of wonder and awe, but it isn't all that it seems. Everyone else in this parallel world have buttons for eyes and Other Mother wants her to have them too. Can she be a normal non-button-eyed girl in this parallel world and have fun, or will her Other Mother get jealous of her real life? Would life as a button-eyed girl be okay or is there a more sinister plot behind even that? Is there a balance between crazy and real?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little. 3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3/5 - *SPOILERS*
For being a kids movie, this was rather messed up. It is not intended for very young children. Maybe kids that are in their middle school age, youngest, but not elementary kids. Why? Because Other Mother is a monster: a literal monster named the Beldam. She is absolutely terrible. She is manipulative, treacherous, kidnaps the parents when Coraline refuses to submit to her will for the button eyes, fixes Wybourne by permanently shutting his mouth and then sewing his face into a smile (so that Coraline could be happy around him, because he is a bit obnoxious in the real world honestly), amongst other things.
This has very good imagination and wonderful artistry but it did not hold my attention very well. I liked it but probably will not revisit this.
That is my review! Thank you for reading. More reviews are on the way, so keep an eye out for them.
A few generations back, a young married man left with a guitar on his back to live his dream of being a musician. His young wife and daughter never saw him again. She swore that music was the cause of their hardship and therefore banned music from the family from then onwards.
Nowadays, there is a young man named Miguel who is very musically inclined and loves his idol Ernesto de la Cruz, whom also happened to come from the same area near Miguel's home. When his dog Dante (a stray that has taken a liking to him) accidentally knocks the family's Dia de los Muertos ofrenda [the place you set your deceased family/friends' photos to remember them during the Dia de los Muertos celebrations], a framed photograph falls to the floor. It is of his ancestor Mama Imelda, her daughter Coco, and her husband (whose face has been ripped out of the picture since he was the one that left the family to become a musician). Miguel finds that the picture is folded; on the other part of the photo, he finds a guitar which he recognizes as Ernesto de la Cruz's guitar. Could de la Cruz be his great great grandfather?
His family gets mad at him for trying to take a guitar to the plaza for a musician battle and his grandmother destroys his guitar. To participate in the contest, he needs a guitar so he decides, since de la Cruz is probably his great great grandfather, to borrow the guitar from the cemetery. When he does, however, he is transported to the world of the dead. How can he get back? Will his family ever accept his love for music? Can his family forgive his great great grandfather for leaving and never returning?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more. 4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie. 5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
4.5/5 - This is a wonderful movie to watch, especially if you understand the tradition around the Dia de los Muertos celebrations. The only reason I knock the rating down on this movie is the fact that *SPOILERS* Ernesto de la Cruz was NOT his great great grandfather. Actually, the skeleton that Miguel meets in the world of the dead (Hector) is really his ancestor and de la Cruz murdered him so that he could take ALL the credit for the songs that Hector wrote. de la Cruz also tried to kill Miguel in the world of the dead, which was really not acceptable for a "children's movie". Luckily the deceased family came to the rescue, which really made me cry, and Miguel was able to return to the world of the living. Hector was remembered, restored to the family, and received his recognition of the creation of his songs (thanks to Gramma Coco's letters that contained all of the original documentation of the songs). All is well that ends well, though we never hear what happened to de la Cruz in the world of the dead.
If you are going to watch this with children, please understand and maybe teach them what the Dia de los Muertos is about. Otherwise, it is just a story about being in the afterlife, which is not true for the Hispanic/Latino/Spanish culture.
Highly recommended, even for children!
Anyways, that's my review. Thanks for reading! There are more to come so keep an eye out for them.
I have the original on VHS and I having been wanting to watch this for so long that I finally did. I have never seen the movie in theater or with friends, mind you, but I knew that there was an interaction between the movie and the viewers when done with a group. It still didn't prepare me for how this movie was set up....
[SPOILERS: I was disappointed for the most part but I will still give you a review!]
Brad and his newly engaged fiancee Janet are going to visit their former professor Dr. Scott to tell him the news about their engagement. On the way, the car breaks down and the couple decides to walk through the forest (while it is raining) to a castle nearby. They arrive at the castle to find a group of people that are really odd, in most standards: the transgender Dr. Frank-n-furter, the help Magenta and Riff Raff, the dancer Columbia, the "Frankenstein" experiment Rocky, and the bike rider Eddie. How can these two young people stay sane while dealing with the strange group? Will they get help? Will they ever be able to leave and go home? If so, will they ever have a normal life again?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little. 3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3/5 - I have never been to a viewing of the original movie so this was a bit different. First off, this is definitely a more "pop" version of the movie: the theatre gal (the Usherette) is a booby chick shaking her goods during the whole opening scene, the butler Riff Raff comes off strange when he is trying to be creepy, etc.
The movie was a movie inside of a movie, the viewer being part of the audience inside of the movie and watching the movie with them [though obviously you are actually watching a movie of the fans watching the movie, for parts]. Most of the time, you are just watching the movie. Other times, however, the focus turns away from the movie to the audience. This was very distracting and, in my opinion, a bit rude on the part of the movie makers. Of course, it is a nod to the fans of the original Rocky Horror movie that created this interaction between them and the movie but at the same time this was NOT what I expected. Maybe I should have looked deeper into the trailer? In retrospect, I don't know if this is better or worse than watching the silhouettes of the Mystery Theatre guys watching the movie. When they are focused on the audience in this remake, it is looking at them as if you were standing on the stage, which is also a big turn off for me because I'm seated "in" the audience myself and suddenly you are changing the viewpoint to looking at "us"? Not cool.
The funeral at the church emerged right after the wedding from the same chapel. In the real world, this would never happen. They wouldn't double-book a church for one wedding and one funeral. In the first version, at least they were setting up for a funeral, not pulling a coffin out of the building right after the newlyweds come out. Creepy! To top that off, they walk around the cemetery with the coffin in a serpentine move as they follow Brad and Janet in their "Damnit Janet" song sequence. Have you ever carried a coffin? I have, twice. It is not that easy to carry, even if the deceased was skin and bones beforehand {my paternal grandfather was that way and even his coffin was hard to handle}. So, walking around a cemetery with this coffin is unrealistic.
Okay, character analysis mode, 1975 vs 2016: full power.
I was skeptical at first of a female playing the part of Dr. Frank-n-Furter but Laverne Cox did a WONDERFUL job. It was weird how they introduced him but the character grows on you. Laverne has a wonderful range of voice tone in speaking and singing which works wonders for this part!
[Tim Curry still did a better job performing this part in the original, in my honest opinion.]
There were other small differences between the original and this remake that bugged me. For one, how come Frank-n-Furter gave Rocky blonde-iced hair instead of pure blonde? In the song "Sweet Transvestite", Dr. Frank-n-Furter says that he's been making a "man with blonde hair and a tan", so why have iced hair instead of blonde, like the original? I mean, dark hair is my kinda thing and Staz Nair is pretty hunky but still.
Okay, what about Eddie. The entrance of Eddie through a window bugs me a lot. Why the heck would he come through a window?! Aside that, the whole "sharing one brain" thing was never explained in this remake. He doesn't even have a scar or blood on his head. At least in the 70s version, they showed it and explained it. In this version, it is mentioned but is not explained. It seems like Dr. Frank-n-Furter kills Eddie because he is merely taking the spotlight and he doesn't like that, especially after just revealing Rocky. "A mercy killing". Seriously?
His song was pretty awesome, though, I must admit.
On to Columbia [left is from the original RHPS, right is from the 2016 version]. This character never really did much in the first movie aside dance, but she was still pretty awesome. In the 2016 version, she is obsessed with lollipops. When Eddie is killed by Dr. Frank-n-Furter, Magenta shuts her up by putting a lollipop in her mouth. I mean seriously, if you love the man that was just murdered, cry! Don't let a lollipop shut you up.
Riff Raff, originally played by Richard O'Brien (left), was played by Reeve Carney (right). Though the look was good, I just didn't like how young he sounded. I know, that is a preference thing but still.... O'Brien sounded much more mysterious. This actor just seems like a young 30s something trying to act creepy and it just doesn't work with the character. He does have a great voice but...
Time Warp song from the original, proof of O'Brien's great mysterious voice. This is the most iconic song of the whole movie. This also shows Columbia's dancing, which really gave her character points in the old one (in my opinion).
Soundtrack of the Time Warp from the 2016 version. I couldn't find the video, which I would have loved to show because I was very disappointed in the appearance of the actors in this song. It just did not live up to expectations. It was at this point that I almost gave up on the movie in total because it disappointed me so much, but I didn't.
Picture from the Time Warp song from the 2016 movie. The choreography was a mess!
Dr. Scott - Though the ethnicity of the actors were different between the 70s version (left) and the 2016 version (right), I really enjoyed this version of this character. Ben Vereen was very lively and a great performer.
Janet Weiss - 70s version was a girl who was shy but bloomed into someone with a voice. 2016 version was a girl with the 1980s horror victim complex (screams too high and too often) and is soft. I don't like how they made her in this movie. Her character was not strong at all.
Brad Majors - 70s version to the left and the 2016 version to the right. I did not like the 2016 version because he seemed to enjoy being enamored with Dr. Frank-n-Furter instead of being shamed by it. Personal preference, again, but it was interesting in the original to see him fighting against the whole attraction thing (after the bedroom scene) and disappointing when he didn't in the 2016 version.
Another huge thing that bothered me was the fact that (in the "Hot Patootie" song where Eddie barges in through a window) there was a band area set up in the lab and they managed to move the whole drum set as well as trumpets into the area. "Hey, we've been invited up to a lab so let's bring the whole band, the piano, back up singers, mics and whatnot. Let's set it up just in case someone wants to break out in song." <- Seriously, wtf.
And why have Rocky wake up in a pop cooler container? I get that you are trying to tie the movie in to the theatre that you showed at the beginning, but seriously. And bringing the popcorn machine into the lab also was just weird....
Anyways, pretty terrible remake. It might have been better if I wasn't so biased towards the 1975 version. Maybe if I had also seen it in theatre or (wow, this is a new piece of evidence: some people actually put this on in plays at schools and acting theatres) in a show, then this version of the story would have been accepted better by myself. I don't know. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I might. I personally will not watch this again. I would prefer to unwatch this but that can't happen so I will just set it in the review here and continue onwards.
If you want to watch this movie, go ahead. Don't bring big expectations to it, though, because you will be disappointed. At least the soundtrack is the same, aside some actors/actresses sounding different (obviously) as mentioned.
That's my review! Thanks for reading. More reviews are to come so keep an eye out for them.
Jeff's mom (Renee Hallow) is killed when an electrical current catches her on the set of a movie film where she was standing in water and her hands were on a metal fence. Unable to save her, Jeff is standing off to the side watching her death. Afterwards, he and his father Chase (that had been divorced from Renee) moved to the "quiet" town of Ludlow, Maine, where Renee had grown up. All of Renee's thing were put in the attic, Chase opened up the veterinary office as he is one, and Jeff goes to school in town. He meets Drew and becomes friends, though Drew's stepfather Gus is a total jerk to the kids and is also the local sheriff. Bullies come along and make life worse. How worse can it get?
Try having the terrible stepfather Gus shoot Drew's dog (Zowie). Drew and Jeff bury the dog back in the pet sematary, having heard of the rumors that the grounds could perform miracles. The dog comes back to life, though acting strange and no veterinary method shown of healing from his wounds. Why? The pet cemetery. What could go worse? Will the kids just leave the cemetery as is or will they try to use it for other means, like Jeff's mom?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time. 2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little. 3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
2.5/5 - Honestly, this movie was not that great of a movie. As a stand alone movie, it was very lacking. As a sequel, it did not do the first movie any justice. Sure, you have the same exact town and there is at least one person that recognizes that the cemetery is evil but why did the rest of the town not say something about it? Oh, we have to mourn the death of our local celebrity but not tell her mourning family to stay away from the pet cemetery. Seriously.... And why have the stepfather of the kid be such an asshole? Sorry but he was absolutely terrible. I was not upset when he died but was rather upset when they buried him out there. Those that rise from that ground are at least twice as evil as they were in the life before so bury him in the regular cemetery, kid! Dumb! No wonder the jerk came back to kill him and his mom. But somehow Jeff's mom comes back all normal before she goes all berserk on the house keeper and locks her son and ex-husband into the attic, which catches on fire. She demands they all stay and die together but fuck that, seriously. You should be looking out for your kid, not asking him to commit suicide/homicide so that you can be together.
As a Stephen King fan, I was disappointed in this. Mind you that it is BASED on his work, not actually written by Stephen King. The first one "Pet Sematary" was written by Stephen King so I guess that's why it can't compare to the first film. The second one was really riding off of the fame from the first one so I wouldn't call it a great movie, especially as a sequel. Thinking on it, maybe it wasn't the best idea to make a sequel in the first place because there isn't much "new" that can be brought to it - same town, same cemetery, but just different characters.
Again I say honestly, stick to the first Pet Sematary movie and leave this one be, unless you want to see a knock-off of the first movie in this one. Save yourself some time; find something else to watch.
That's my review! Thank you for reading. More reviews are to come, so keep an eye out for them.
