Halloween H20

Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers (Divimax Edition)
$14.98
It has been ten years since Michael Myers terrorized the people of Haddonfield. Michael was intent on killing his sister, Laurie Strode, but she survived, and Michael has ended up in a sanitarium. Now, ten years has passed, and Laurie and her husband have tragically died. However, there is someone left: Laurie's daughter Jamie (Danielle Harris). Michael has found out about her existence, and now he's come looking for her. However, Michael isn't the only one going to Haddonfield: Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) has found out about Michael's escape, and he's determined not to let the events of a decade earlier repeat themselves.

Jamie has been put in foster care after the death of her parents. Jamie's foster sister Rachael (Ellie Cornell) has been given the job of taking care of her. Jamie is seen as an outcast by her fellow classmates, and she suffers from hallucinations. But, Jamie decides to go trick or treating with Rachael. Unfortunately, Michael is waiting for them. After single-handedly destroying the local police station, Michael is intent on finding Jamie. Will Michael succeed, or will Dr. Loomis manage to keep Jamie and Rachael safe?

I've been a fan of the "Halloween" series for many years, and this installment was very good. I was glad to see the series get back on track after the strange episode 3. I thought Danielle Harris did a very good job as Jamie, and it was good to see Donald Pleasence reprise his role as Dr. Loomis. Although this episode lacked some of Michael's signature knifings, the suspense was still palpable throughout.

I found this to be a very good addition to the "Halloween" series. Michael Myers has come back with a vengeance. Watch Halloween 4 and see the return of Michael Myers.

Portrait of Terror
$16.98
John Ottman composed this Halloween installmant horrifying and made it new and improved to John Carpenter's classic Halloween. The original Halloween will ALWAYS be original, this made a new legacy in the Halloween soundtracks, John Ottman taking over Alan Howarth's place. John composed this soundtrack with just as much horror as Alan.H and John.C did, having the original theme in it but remastering it into a newer form. I am very pleased with this soundtrack, being one of my favorite horror soundtracks. John used soprano vocals in some of the tracks, John.C and Alan.H never doing that. This soundtrack has tracks from other movies he composed, which I didn't enjoy much, but this soundtrack has the terror score marked 'check'.

1. Main Title 5/5
2. Laurie 5/5
3. Narrow Escape 5/5
4. Advice 5/5
5. Rest Stop 5/5 (Freaky)
6. Disposal 4/5
7. Evening Begins, The 5/5
8. Seventeen 4/5
9. Face To Face 5/5
10. Letting Go 3/5
11. Here's Company 5/5
12. Sonata For Molly 4/5
13. Death Of A Nurse 5/5
14. Final Confrontation 5/5
15. He's Dead 4/5
16. Road Trip 4/5
17. Farewell, Michael 5/5

If you liked this, you may like
1. When A Stranger Calls original soundtrack
2. Hostel original soundtrack
AND
3. The House of Wax original score soundtrack

Hope you enjoy!

Jordan
Overall grade* A

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later [Region 2]
$119.00
6.8 THE FILM ITSELF
5.0 VISUALS
7.0 SOUND
6.0 PACKAGING
1.5 EXTRAS

What have they done to the Halloween franchise? From the cover alone, when I saw LL Cool J, I rolled my eyes. I know, I get it, you're trying to capitalize on his "fame" at the time and bring more teenagers to the theatres. But, the worst part is he has no impact on the film! His role is completely useless and he couldv'e been played by anyone else.

But back to the film. Obviously, as the title tells, this is 20 years after the the events of Halloween 2. The storyline is a bit shady and kind of clumsy in its execution and how it's put together, but most movie-goers won't notice what's different and what might not add up. But the film itself contains the usual: dumb characters, moments of above-average teenage dialogue (thank the writer here, he went on to create and write Dawson's Creek, which I love, but the dialogue isn't right for the age-group), the killer that never dies and the characters that do the same, and the life lesson at the end.

But the most horrific part of this film is the new mask they gave Michael. What a terrible idea, and whoever made it, okayed it, and allowed it and still didn't understand how horrible it looked should be fired immediately. Why do we see his eyes? Why does the mask fit so freaking tight? Why does it seem to show him smiling at times? And why can we see so much of his skin under his eyes?! You never see his eyes before! Why now?! I laughed in disgust several times when I saw a close up of his face, and that ending... wow.

The series will eventually hit a low(er) point that this (sadly), but for fans of the franchise, it's still something fun to watch from time to time. Nothing that you'll want to watch more than once a year probably, but at least it has Jamie Lee Curtis in it again. And Michael's head coming off? What will happen next...?

5.0 VISUALS
There's little here besides just seeing the characters. Little death scenes and very little blood. But that ending, where Michael's head gets chopped off couldn't have ever looked worse. Embarrassing for such a classic franchise.

7.0 SOUND
They overuse the Halloween theme (you hear it about every 5 minutes) and I even think they did some "remake" work on it at times, which really made me roll my eyes. No use of surround sound and nothing to write home about. Typical horror movie sound.

6.0 PACKAGING
I gave this a 6.0 because I felt bad for this DVD release. The main menu is cheesy, but at least the cover shows us almost absolutely everyone who was in the film.

1.5 EXTRAS
Only 3 extras and they are almost completely useless. The first is "Unmasking the Horror", in which the title has abolsutely nothing to do with what we see. They talk about the soundtrack and the legacy and how the project got started. So why is it called "Unmasking the Horror"? No idea.

Next up is a Creed music video. Now we're talking! Who doesn't love Creed!? Now I can sit up alllllll night and watch this awesome video with one of the worst bands of the 1990's in the desert singing. Er, trying to sing. This is the best extra feature I have ever seen on any film. Legendary. (end sarcasm).

Last is a "trivia game" which asks you the most obvious of Halloween questions. I'm surprised there wasn't a question that says "around what holiday do most of the films take place?", and when you get a question right you see Michael get hit with a fire extinguisher. And when you guess wrong, Josh Hartnett gets stabbed in the leg and lets out a hilarious howl. 10 questions. Fantastic.

IN CLOSING
A passable, mildly amusing film with alot of problems compounded with terrible special features make this a horrific (no pun) DVD set. Obviously the studio takes no care in a once-great property.

4.0/10 "POOR"

Halloween - Resurrection
$14.99
4.9 THE FILM ITSELF
7.0 VISUALS
8.0 SOUND
7.5 PACKAGING
6.5 EXTRAS

What an ending for a once proud franchise. It's amazing (and sad) to see how far the Halloween franchise has come. I thought I'd seen it all when LL Cool J was placed in "H20: 20 Years Later", but nope, I was proven wrong when Busta Freaking Rhymes was added to "Halloween: Ressurection". Even when I saw this film when I was about 12 I thought, "why in the world did they get him for this?", but, luckily, he doesn't ruin the film. He's actually an enjoyable presence here that livens up the serious killing. It's almost sad that Busta makes this movie as good as it possibly could be.

What fails here is the writing and the story, along with the typical characters. There's no depth for the characters. They're exactly what they appear to be from the start and they never change. But, this film - and all of the films - are either about Michael or Laurie. So learning about someone who's ultimately going to get stabbed in the head with a knife in five minutes, seems useless. But at least have characters act different! But not here.

The idea - a group of kids go to spend a night in the legendary house of Michael Myers for a school project - is intriguing and has potential. But there's so many little screw ups along the way that it just makes you roll your eyes and truly appreciate the classic original. I mean, seriously, are you really going to be doing bong hits with your camera on while your teacher watched you? And this is for kids who might get a scholarship? Please...
Also, you're going to have sex and just throw your camera on the ground? Really? You think that because it's 5 feet away no one will hear your or maybe see you? Seems logical. They haven't torn down this house yet?! It's been over 20 years since a serial killer was living here and it's just stuffed between normal looking houses? They tore down Dahmer's entire APARTMENT BUILDING within a few years of him being arrested, but this old crumbling house is still standing? Think, people, think!

And it must be said, the beginning was absolutely absymal. How Jamie Lee Curtis could've signed up for this and allowed her character to be "taken out of the picture" the way it is, is truly mindblowing. The first 10 minutes have absolutely nothing to do with the film, simply tie up any last lingering loose ends. But my god, what a horrible way to do such a thing.

7.0 VISUALS
Visually, Ressurection it isn't terrible, but the "head cams" the kids where are atricious visually. I understand they aren't going to be perfect, but way too much grain and fuzz here for a horror movie. How are you supposed to see anything?

8.0 SOUND
No music besides the main theme song, and they (luckily) don't overplay that to death. Decent voice work.

7.5 PACKAGING
The cover shoves every possible person on it as humanly possible just to show you in advance how bad this is going to get (this is a fact: the more going on for a cover, the worse the film it is, go ahead... look now) and the main menu is decent. Better than some previous entries.

6.5 EXTRAS
Ressurection comes with plenty of extras...
1. commentary w/ director and editor: this is a decent listen as they talk over final decisions and editing cues
2. 6 deleted scenes w/ optional commentary: none are worthwhile, all are terrible
3. 3 alternate endings w/ optional commentary: not as bad as the deleted scenes, but still not interesting really.
4. "WWebcam Special" w/ optional commentary: This is a 40-plus minute look, just through the camera 'eyes' of the characters. No new footage, it's just what we saw in the film. Very boring.
5. "Tour of the set w/ Production Designer": A neat look at the house and what was CGI and what wasn't.
6. "On the set w/ Jamie Lee Curtis": is a quick look at Curtis' short time on the film. Nothing interesting here.
7. "Headcam Featurette": A look at the designs and structure of the cameras used for the cast and all the details that went into the planning and filming using different cameras.

IN CLOSING
Halloween Ressurection isn't a great film or even a decent film. It's a bad film with cheesy dialogue, laughably bad characters and a plan old slap in the face to what was a great franchise. Is it the worst in the franchise? No. Is it the best? Ha, not even close. Extra features wise, the disc has many options, but few are worth investing your time in.

5.5/10 "MEDIOCRE"