Five Things I Hated in “Ferris Buellers Day Off”

How is it possible that it’s been forty damn years since I had one of the funnest times I ever had at a movie, watching Ferris?. It was different with its fourth wall gags (common place today) right to that end credits scene which caught everyone off guard (nowadays end credit scenes are commonplace). 

Released June 11,1986 this movie is nearly perfect. Oh I know John Hughes may have more loved movies out there, but this was my favorite. It’s a love letter to Chicago that made Matthew Broderick a star. Hard to believe I wasn’t even in junior high when it was released! And right through high school if I had a day off chances were it was this movie I was watching (or Back to the Future).  As you know I like to discuss five things I “hate” in good movies. Except this is so well written, so well directed, so well edited and so well cast that it’s very hard to find legitimate problems. So forgive me if I resort to nitpicking for this article. Here are five things I “hated”. And you will not see one word about Ferris being a “sociopath” or any of that nonsense that has popped up over the years. Remember just enjoying a movie for what it was? 

Five Things I Hated in "Pretty Woman"

 35 years ago a little rom com directed by Gary Marshall came along...and became a monster hit. It was one of the most successful movies in 1990 and propelled a certain unknown named Julia Roberts into superstardom. Of course I am talking about..

Released March 23,1990 this movie had plenty working against it. Disney had watered down the original idea, the movie was shot very weirdly, and Richard Gere didn't even want to do it at first. So how did this sleepy little movie do so well? The brilliant chemistry between our leads, and Julia Roberts herself, along with a great supporting cast (Hector Elizondo and Larry Miller steal their scenes and I adored Laura San Giacomo) and one of the best soundtracks I ever heard did the trick. Does that mean that everything in the movie is perfect? Course not and here are five gripes about the movie.

Five Real Baseball Teams Fictionalized in Movies

Baseball movies are a dime a dozen, there are plenty of them out there whether they be fantasies about a person achieving some dream or adaptations of real-life events. One oddity is when a movie focuses on a team that really exists, and basically portrays a fictional version of that team as if the events had really happened. I guess it makes sense, giving us a real team makes it easier to get into the film. Especially when the team is known for being horrible. It saves a lot of setting up because the team exists, we don't need all that exposition. They use actual locations, stadiums, and uniforms which is always cool to see. 

For whatever reason these seem to be either kids films or romance films. But here are five examples of what I mean:

Detroit tigers-For Love of the Game

Released in 1999 this movie is seriously underrated. Kevin Costner plays an aged Detroit Tiger pitcher trying to get a perfect game against the hated New York Yankees. This really is framing device about the lost love of his life. Not a bad movie though some of the cliche's are a little hard to take. And yes the team wins and he gets his perfect game. As for the real Detroit team...well they keep trying, 

Five Worst Kept Movie Secrets Ever

Spoilers are a common thing these days but even with that creators do still try to keep things a surprise. Some do it well, for instance when Independence Day came people didn't know who was in it or what it was about-they just wanted to know how the White House gets blown up! However very often the secret can't be kept and becomes public knowledge. Most recently they did everything they could to keep the fact that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in the new Spider-Man movie but most had figured it out. 

Here are five more times when something that was supposed to be a big surprise was known to fans long before they saw the movie. 

Star Trek Generations

This in the days when the internet was still kinda new so spoilers weren't rampant like they are these days. And yet, the fact that Kirk was going to die was the worst secret ever. Everyone knew that was going to happen. Trek is usually better at keeping there secrets. Even worst was Into Darkness, they tried desperate to keep the identity of the villain secret but who didn't know it would Kahn?

Five Deleted Scenes That Shouldn't Have Been

Whenever I see deleted scenes from a movie, I usually get the reason. Either the scene is redundant, or drags the movie down, or was so stupid you wonder why they ever thought it would work. However, once in a while you see deleted scenes and wonder, why weren't these scenes in the damn movie? Not only were they cool scenes, but they explain away plot holes from the theatrical release! I know sometimes it's simply a matter of running time, a problem movies these days stopped caring about apparently, but why cut something that literally hurts the movie? I mean in Lord of the Rings they cut seeing Saroman get killed, and people complained that they never saw what happened to him! Just leave it in! Yes it was restored later.  In Superman Returns one of the big complaints was that we have no idea what happened to Superman after he left Earth. There's a whole five minutes scene that explains it (at least a little)!  Screw that put two lines of text on the screen that's enough. Or how about Titanic when we see David Warner all bloodied and beat up with no reason why...yup that's explained in a deleted scene. 

Anyway here are five deleted scenes that never should have been, in my opinion. And I'm not saying deleted the scenes ruined the movie just there was no reason for them not to be there. 

Star Trek II

These scenes have been restored in various versions, so this is probably not the best example. But I will never understand why the cut the line that explains that the young cadet is Scotty's nephew. It makes that scene of Scotty carrying him t the Bridge that much more dramatic. By the way a lot of people wonder why he did that, and I think he was just in shock.

Reconsidering "The Great Muppet Caper"

When it comes to the Muppet theatrical movies they are hit or miss for me.

The Muppet Movie-A little slow, relies way to much on cameos but the good moments make it worth it. Also, a good origin movie, to this day we still have never gotten another "how the Muppets met" story (Muppet Babies doesn't count).

Muppets Take Manhattan-I loved this movie as a kid it has charm and some sad moments too. The ending is pointless but ok.

Muppets in Space-Awful

Muppet Christmas Carol & Treasure Island-I have no major issues they are both fine

The Muppets-Yeah, I had issues when it came out but overall not bad.

Muppets Most Wanted-Winner of the "trying way to hard" award

But wait, I missed one! Which? Well....

Of course!! The one movie I can't seem to remember!

Yeah for sone reason the second movie is the one black hole for these movies for me. If I saw it, I don't remember it. Of course, I know what it's about and have seen scenes from it over the years, but it raises the question-- Why did it either leave no impact when I saw it or not interest ne enough to check it out? I can't believe I didn't see a Muppet movie at 7 years old! Since this is the 40th anniversary of the movie I decided to finally watch it and see if I could find out what the issue is.

Five Things I Liked in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

This year is the 50th anniversary for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. This is one of those movies everyone like, and has truly become an icon. It's just the right mix of drama, humor, and even some dark moments to make a really delightful film. Based of course on the Roald Dahl, this movie is always a must watch for me.

This movie was released in 1971 and was not instant hit. But has certainly become a classic since. Now normally when I do these I nitpick the good movies and praise the bad, but since we are celebrating a big anniversary let's give some love to this movie with five reasons why I love watching it over and over.

The Music & Sets

Ok I hate that song Charlie's mother sings as much as anyone. It slows down the whole movie so a character that will soon vanish from the movie can explain something we've already figured out. Yay. Putting that side, the music is well done. Of course the big song when they enter the candy room, and the Oompa Loompa songs which are done well. And the Candy Man song at the start. The style of the songs doesn't match the movie, at all, but they work. The sets were also well done even the home where the family lived. The chocolate room is still amazing fifty years later! And no I won't go into every scene because they are all good and we will be here all day.

More “WTF??” Scary Scenes from Non-Scary Movies

When Halloween rolls around we like to talk about scary movies that we love. But what often gets overlooked are scary scenes from movies that were never meant to be scary. It can be a comedy or scifi or whatever else, but the movie is perfectly pleasant until one scene gives us 60 seconds of terror. Here are ten that scared me, and in the interest of full disclosure I did do a list similar to this nine years ago. However, that article omitted a lot of examples and had no video clips. And of course these are my choices, if you don't think these scenes were particularly scary than that's no problem. 

Superman III-Robo Woman

So here you have a movie which goes out of its way to say that it is a light comedy. It has goofy opening credit and of course Richard Pyor. Then as the last act finally gets going, tou get this out of nowhere moment where a woman is grabbed by the super computer and turned into a robot right in front of our eyes. I think it's the women's cries which make it scary, especially when she goes from begging for help to being subservient in the span of a millisecond. And those eyes!!

A Look at Back to the Future Spin-Off’s and Homages

I talked a lot about how much I adored the Back to the Future movies. So much that this year, on its 35th anniversary, I wasn’t sure what else to talk about. But while I have discussed the movies there are other spin-off’s and homages in other media which I’ve never (or hardly) mentioned. So to celebrate this amazing movie let’s go over them today. A movie like this has enormous impact, even this many years later!!

 

 

 

The Soundtrack & DVD Releases.

Kind of a no brainer but worth a mention.I used to own a tape of the soundtrack (yes, I am that old). Yeah that music is that awesome to listen to. The Huey Lewis tracks aren’t bad either. There all kinds of extra features on the DVD’s including Doc Brown returning in a short film which was on the 30th anniversary blue ray (which is the only way to see it apparently). Plus There a very old special about the series hosted by Kirk Cameron of all people (I had that on VHS once before it became a bonus feature).

 

My Top 9 Star Wars Movies

May the 4th be with you! Yep, it’s Star Wars Day. I could talk about why this day is a thing, because I don’t get why a silly pun became a “holiday”, but nah I just thought of something even better! I’ve talked about the Star Wars movies here and there but never did an offical run down. Much like my last article it’s an idea long overdue, and now that the Skywalker arc is concluded the time has come.

Ever since 1977 the Star Wars movies have captured generations with there amazing blend of sci fi action and unforgettable characters. While it never had a place in my heart like Star Trek did, I did enjoy these movies. I had the toys and saw each on at least once in a theatre. One in a drive thru I think, remember those? So I decided it was about time to go over the nine main movies and discuss which one’s I liked the best to the worst. Yes I know there are a couple more films but I never watched Rogue One or Solo, not do I really want to.

The important thing to remember with this list is that I am not discussing which are the better films per se. This ranking is based on how mich I enjoyed these movies when I first saw them first in theatres and then over and over again later. Also, I did not re-watch any of these for this article so forgive me if my memory is fuzzy. And finally, as always, just opinion.

#9.Episode II-Attack of the Clones

It’s not easy to choose this or The Phantom Menace. So what makes this the one I hate the most? It’s just so damn boring. And forgettable. I hated this movie when I sae it and could count the numvber of times I rewatcjed it on one hand. What the heck even happens in it? The romance stuff I sorta remember, and the endless CGI of course. This is the one that left me completely empty.

Christmas Movie Anniversaries in 2019

I spent a lot of time this year discussing some big anniversaries that happened to be this year. One area I missed was Christmas movies. And believe it or not, a few have notable anniversaries in 2019.


Let’s run them down:




Christmas with the Kranks-15th

Ok this isn’t the best Christmas movie ever made, by far!, but it’s still worth a mention. Where many films fade away (anyone remember Deck the Halls?) this one has managed to stay alive in people’s thoughts. Maybe because it starts Tim Allen? Flawed, but not as jaded as some other movies that have come out in the last 15 years that were really detestable.

10 Favorite Product Placements in Movies

I’ve said before that I don’t mind product placement so much. It makes sense, the product pays money for an appearance so why not? If it’s used wisely and not overdone. For example there is a scene in Santa Clause 2 where the family comes home with McDonald’s. Ok that’s clearly product placement, but I can believe they stopped for McDonald’s on the way home and it doesn’t hurt the scene so..who cares? How about Reese’s Pieces in E.T.? That was so subtle that M&M’s tried to insist that it was really there candy (it should have been, they blew it) but the bag is clearly seen in one shot. Not only it is used to advance the plot it’s done very simply.

 

 

 

 

I really don’t get why it bothers people so much, to me it makes the movie more real to have someone drinking a can of Coke rather than a can that just says “Soda” or something. Can it be used badly? Sure. For example in the movie Garfield not only was there a ton of it but they put the product placement in stupid places that made no sense. Like a toy train set with ads for Pepsi on it. Huh?

And I could be wrong but I think Petco was a sponsor too. To much! But if it’s used right, I have no problem with it. So here are some of my favorite examples of product placements in movies, because they are just so obvious!







Mac & Me

I never understood why this movie has such a close connection with McDonald’s. At first I thought it was part of the story. But no, it’s just there. I mean it’s not as if E.T. stopped for five minutes for a Reese’s Pieces song so why is going on here? Someone explain this to me!

Five Animated Adaptations Focused on Humans

Well I looked at the Sonic trailer, with the improved effects, and it looks like they did it again. Rather than a movie about Sonic and his universe, he’s going to be tossed into the real world for hi jinks. Why does this keep happening? What makes people think we want to see a movie about a franchise we love where the focus is on humans on Earth? It wouldn’t be so bad, maybe, if they took the characters out of their world but it gets worst when the focus goes from the characters we love to humans who couldn’t care less about.

 

Human-Focused Adaptation is a TV Trope where an adapation of an animated series inexplicably becomes focused on humans. Usually the animated characters are transported to Earth and for some inexplicable reason the focus of the movie becomes the humans rather than the characters we wanted to see. This is a strange phenomenon in movies which I will never understand. And these are almost always awful. Oh sometimes it’s not so bad. Alvin and the Chipmunks was focus on Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Fat Albert had the characters coming into the real world but the focus stayed on them. And as bad as the Scooby Doo movies were at least the focus was on our five heroes. And of course we had The Muppets where Jason Segel  and Amy Adams took some of the spotlight, but not enough to ruin the movie or take attention of the Muppets.


Most however, are not so lucky. Here are some examples :






The Smurfs

Tell me if you’ve heard this one..classic cartoon characters are transported to modern day New York City where hilarious hi jinks ensue. Groan! The plot becomes about Neil Patrick Harris and his worrying about being a father. Who cares?? Why New York? Like we never see that city in movies. Especially when The Smurfs world was fleshed out really well. But that isn’t the worst part. They actually had a sequel. A real chance to stay in the Smurf’s world and explore it. And you know what the sequel did? THE SAME DAMN THING AS THE FIRST!

1000th Blog Special-Why 1984 Was the Best Year Ever!

Ten months ago I said that this year would mark my 1000th blog and I would celebrate with follow up’s and reposts of old stuff. Well my friends today we have done it, 1000 blogs starting in August of 2011. I can’t express my appreciation enough for those of you who come back and read these silly things I post. These blog’s have become a very important way for me to share things I love, and to escape the stresses of the real world. I went back and forth on what I should talk about for this, and then I remembered this old idea. It was one I always wanted to do but never got around to it. So since it was an old idea I always wanted to do and the anniversary lines up, here we go.

“1984” was a George Orwell book regarding a dystopian future. The funny thing though is that 1984 was one of the best year’s EVER. And I don’t just mean because I  turned 10 at the end of it. There are hardly any year’s that managed the success that year did in the world of TV, movies, and music. So since it’s the 35th anniversary, let’s do an overview.



TV:

The new show’s that debuted that year included:

Night Court

This show came along as a mid-season replacement and would stuck around for several years.

Ten Favorite Movie Closing Songs

It’s well known that a lot of movies these days will have post credit scenes as a way to keep the audience watching. But sometimes you don’t need more scenes or bloopers, all you need is a kick ass song which people want to stick around and hear. Most of the tine when the credits roll and the lights come up, we walk out and that’s it. Or turn the tv off. Some tv stations will cut the music off entirely and speed thru the credits. But when the marriage between a song and a movie is perfect, so that you can’t imagine one without the other, you have to stay until the song is over for the experience to be complete. Even if you’re watching the movie at home for the tenth time.





Here are ten examples of what I mean. For this list I didn’t want credits that showed scenes or had dialogue. Just the credits with the black screen (or minimal images) and that fantastic song playing over it. Because sometimes if its the right song that’s all you need!




Titanic
One of the things that made thus movie amazing was the score. My Heart Goes On was a great song for this movie, and the transition to the full song is just wonderful.

(best video I could find)

Ten Star Wars Plot Holes/Inconsistencies Explained

I tried something like this last year with Back to the Future, so I thought I’d give this franchise a try. Of course, this is a much larger franchise. And as you can imagine, there are more plot holes in these movies. Especially since the pre-quels contradict so much of what was established in the classic movies. Which I never understood, it’s not as if they had all new writers who never heard of Star Wars. Couldn’t Lucas have had things tied together better? To make matters worst Lucas loves to tinker with the existing movies, usually just to add effects but once in awhile he will make a change which creates a new plot hole that was never there before!!

 

Star Wars is amazingly bad at not keeping its own continuity. You just know that what Kylo Ren said to Rey in “Last Jedi” about her parents will be retconned in the next movie, and we’ll find out her parents do have a backstory. They’ll just say that Ren lied to get her on his side. That’s an easy one to excise. If they do that it wont be the first time they went back on something in these movies. Obi Wan clears up some confusion in Jedi about what he told Luke ("What I told you was true, from a certain point of view"). Or how about the line of dialogue at the end of “Sith” about memory wiping C3PO. Ohhh that’s why he didn’t remember Anakin created him or the Skywalker name later! For a minute there I thought that stuff in Phantom Menace was a contrivance to get him into that first movie.

So here are things that don’t add up between films and my explanation for why they happened, which of course I have no way to prove these are just theories. And in this article I am going by what has been established in the main movies. If something I mentioned was “explained” in a non-canon material that’s all well and good but I am not aware of it. And I am not a “Star Wars” aficionado by an means, so if I missed something that does explain these inconsistencies in universe feel free to let me know. As always, all opinion and just in good fun.

 

Han Shot First?

Let’s start with one which doesn’t exactly count really but I had to mention it. This is a famous one, and I mean famous! In most of these inconsistencies it is from one movie to another. But here. Lucas went back and adjusted something in the same movie. We all know this scene, Han is confronted by Greedo about the debt he owes Jabba. This scene exists just to show us Solo is bad ass. Originally, Solo just shoots. But later additions add a shot from Greedo to make it seem like Han was shooting in self defense. Which is stupid, and makes no sense. Yes Han shot first.

Five Things I Liked in “Return of the Jedi”

It’s been almost twenty years since “The Phantom Menace” came out. I still can’t believe how long it took us all to accept how awful that movie was. So I thought today it would be fun to pretend it was twenty years ago, and we still live in a world with only three Star Wars movies. If you recall this simpler time, you may recall that of those three “Return of the Jedi” was considered the “bad one”. Where it ranks today is another discussion for another day. Instead I wanted to talk about this movie, which was my favorite of the three.

 

Released in 1983, this movie did not wow critics or fans. And I get that, I mean another death star battle? I give then credit for using Lando at least but it was still dull. Also I will admit as I have aged that the Ewok’s beating the empire’s best troops like that is kinda…stupid. True Vader’s redemption could be considered too easy. And don’t get me started on that revised ending I will always prefer the original. So ok it wasn’t the strongest movie, but I still love it. Here are five reasons why, aside from the fact that it was  the first Star Wars movie I was old enough to really appreciate in theaters.

Five Amazing Yet Cliched Movie Scenes

Movie cliche’s are a dime a dozen. The bad thing is when a movie either uses them incorrectly, or just too often. But here’s the thing, you could argue that cliche’s aren’t always a bad thing. Just because a scene is kind of cliched doesn’t mean it’s bad. If done well, a scene full of cliche’s can still be a powerful and effective moment. This is what good directors and actors can do.

Here are five examples what I mean



Jurassic Park
Well of course young Lex is smart enough to hack into the computer so that she can get the doors locked. What child can’t do that? I mean they established it in a whole line of dialogue! As silly as that is, it was a great scene when I first saw it because of the suspense, one of my favorites in the movie. I never even noticed the idiocy of Tim just standing there banging on the chair rather than easily getting the gun for Satler

Next 5 Movies I Loved When They Came Out But Now I Hate

Welcome to 2019 my friends. So sometime this year, if all goes well, I will publish my 1000th blog. That is just amazing to me, that I have been doing this for so long now. I’d love to time it on the actual anniversary in August but only time will tell on that one. I decided that the way to celebrate is to borrow a page from the book of Linkara. I am going to spend time this year going back to old blog’s and either republishing (since like many video reviewers I am not fond of my early stuff) or following up on them. This is because as year’s pass opinions change and very often examples that didn’t exist eight years ago do now. For instance, I once said Kevin Spacey was the worst Lex Luthor on film. Silly me, then I saw Aaron Eisenberg. Of course there will be new stuff, including a lot of Batman talk I hope as Detective Comics hits 1000, but that’s my focus for 2019.

So let’s ring in the new year and start to celebrate this milestone today, with this little follow up:




I talked a long while back about how when I certain movies the first time I didn’t realize how bad they were. Like when I saw “The Phantom Menace” I was so excited to see a Star Wars movie I totally overlooked how bad that movie is. I later figured it out when I couldn’t sit through the DVD.

 

That happens sometimes, we get so hyped about a movie we don’t realize at first just how lame it is. Then we re-watch it and…yeah. Pretty bad. I did five of these but over the last eight years or so I have discovered five more examples for what I mean. These aren’t guilty pleasures, movies I knew were lame and still love them, these are movies I am embarrassed to say I loved at one time. And yes “Hate” is a little harsh let’s say I understand they aren’t very good.





Green Lantern

Yeah this is a huge one for me. I had waited years to see this. My favorite super-hero growing up, who I even wanted to dress up as for Halloween, finally on the big screen! So I watched it and loved it. Looking back though, it’s not a perfect movie. It’s not god awful, but there are problems with it. My favorite is the scene where Hal first becomes Green Lantern only to..go to a bar with his girlfriend. The pacing was all over the place with this one. Nostalgia Critic summed it up when he said it looks like Green Lantern, but it doesn’t feel like Green Lantern.

10 Movies Set at Christmas But AREN’T Christmas Movies

This year marks the 30th anniversary of THE greatest Christmas movie ever made. Of course I am talking about…

 

 

 

Wait, what? Die Hard?? Yeah I know this is kind of an accepted thing now but I still don’t get it. What makes this a Christmas classic? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic action movie. I loved it in 1988 from the awesome action to the effective comedy to the amazing Alan Rickman as the villain. But aside from the fact it’s set at Christmas, how is it a Christmas classic? Ok they play Let it Snow at the end, but…really? A few years I decided to finally check it out myself, and watched the movie after several years. And to be fair, it does kinda start out Christamassy. You’d never guess what the movie would turn into. But then it becomes an action flick, and…Christmas? (FYI yes it still mostly holds up)

But there are tons of people who watch it every Christmas and who am I to argue with them? But the thing is, this isn’t the only movie to have nothing to do with the holiday but be set on it anyway. A couple years ago I discussed movies which will have a random Christmas scene, but otherwise have nothing about the holiday in it. But what about movies which are specifically set during the Christmas season..even though the plot has no connection to the holiday? Oh sure elements of the holiday may pop in, but the story is unrelated and in some cases even dark or disturbing! Yeah I know you’re all thinking of a few, but for fun let’s run some of them down.

Die Hard may have started the trend, but it sure wasn’t the last! Here are a few more:





Lethal Weapon

I honestly forgot about this one. But yeah it definitely takes place at Christmas. I guess I can see why people who don’t particularly care for the holidays may enjoy a movie where the lights and decorations are either being blown away or used to hurt people.