Monthly Movie Recap - March 2014

Wow is it April already? And I thought February was supposed to be the shortest month. I'm am totally ready for spring to start rearing its head whenever Mother Nature decides to get off her butt and get that going.

Not too bad this month considering the first week or so my movie time was taken up by the final season of the Clone Wars animated series. It's some of the best stuff they've done but I wish they'd leave the Force stuff alone. I don't need to know a lot about some things and the Force is a "less is more" area.

Spookies (1986)
A bunch of "teenagers" look for a place to party and stumble into a haunted house. How many times have I heard that one? This flick had extra footage added after it was already done in an attempt to make the story more cohesive, but it really makes it more of a standard what I call "oddball 80s horror" flick.

Cool: If you like creature effects/makeups, there's more than enough to go around
Lame: Story, what's that? Yes, those mud men around 1:07 in the trailer are farting.
Rating: 4/10

NSFW Red Band Trailer

The Watch (2012)
Ok, I admit, this was a lot better than I was expecting. I'm guessing it didn't do well on its initial release because I think I blinked and missed it being in theaters. Yes, the humor is mainly on the 13 year old boy level, but it worked for me.

Cool: The humor was pretty good and the guys work well together; The alien design is cool.
Lame: The humor may not be for everyone; The "character stories" such as they are sometimes felt forced into the plot.
Rating: 5.5/10

American Hustle (2013)
Really good, and not what I was expecting. When the ads first showed up, it looked like one thing. Then they started advertising it as comedy of the year. It's not quite a comedy. There are funny parts, but I wouldn't call it a comedy.

Cool: Love the time period; Some scenes were shot in Salem; If you're an Amy Adams fan, you'll be seeing a lot more of her in this than her previous movies.
Lame: It did feel a tiny bit long.
Rating: 7/10

*The Muppets (2011)
Just happened to be on the day after I saw Hustle. Very, very weird seeing Amy Adams here after that. Still love this movie. I have no conscious memory of The Muppet Movie, but Rainbow Connection still gets me every time.

Hangover Part 3 (2013)
I still haven't seen part 2, which I hear is a lot like the original. Characters return, we get to see the baby from the first one and everything seems wrapped up nice and neat with a bow at the end. A very disturbing bow.

Cool: Ken Jeong is off the rails and funny as hell, stealing every scene he's in
Lame: Helms and Cooper take a backseat most of the time to Jeong and Galifinakis
Rating: 6/10

Scanners (1981)
My first time diving in to this series. Sure, everyone knows the splodey-head scene, I just never got around to it before now. It really sucked me in from the get go. I can't explain why but the world seemed to be very real, almost X-Men in nature. Unfortunately, the series peaks right out of the gate.
Rating: 8/10

Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
This was a disappointment after enjoying the first one so much. I get what they were going for with the story, it just didn't do it for me. There's also some epic "I'm using my Scanner powers" facial contortion going on that makes it silly.
Rating: 3/10

Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)
Still not as good as the original but it was a heck of a lot easier to watch than II. It definitely strays into "stupid" comedy. Whether it was intentional or not, I'm don't know but it makes for a fun time.
Rating: 5.5/10

Scanner Cop (1994)
Oh yes, there are more of them! The story is kinda cool in this one with a criminal brainwashing people to  see something horrifying when they look at a cop, which causes them to attack the cop. It's a sequel in the same universe (obvi) but still feels removed from the reality of the original movie that I like so much.
Rating: 5/10

Scanner Cop aka Scanners: The Showdown (1995)
Thankfully, the final Scanners. Continuing with the main character from Scanner Cop. This time he's up against an evil Scanner that can increase his own powers by killing other Scanners. Kinda like a vamp-Scanner. The "hero" makes innocent people appear to be him and the bad guy gruesomely kills them. Uh, not very heroic. Even more incredibly laughable "concentration" faces in this one. Best thing it has going: Khrystyne Haje, the redhead from Head of the Class.
Rating: 4.5/10

Overall, I think one of the main reasons I didn't get into the sequels (aside from them being not very good to start with) is that most of the time even the protagonist gives into their violent tendencies that are linked to being a Scanner. They kill when they could just as easily knock someone out. None of the original three are tied together aside from being in the same world, so I'd recommend the original and 3 for a "so bad it's good" time. And maybe Scanner Cop.

Month Total

 New: 9  Rewatch: 1

Year To-Date Final Total 

New: 25  Rewatch: 4

As always, if you've got any recommendations of your own, feel free to drop them in the comments. I'm sure there's a few franchises out there I still haven't seen.