Preview – Page 18 – Bad Movie Twins

Senseless Preview

Kyle and Rachel explain how once Lou Cash had told them what happened and gave them Patrick’s note, then convinced him to give them a time machine of their own. They traveled for fifteen years in search of Jamie and Patrick, falling in love and having a family in the process. Eventually they found the HoE dimension and their time machine burned out. “That was six years ago, I think,” says Kyle, looking fondly at his family. Patrick shakes his head in confusion. “But why did you follow us?” he asks, “I told you specifically not to in the note.” Now it’s Kyle’s turn to be confused. He pulls out the notes and shows them. On it are just two words, ‘Follow us.’ Patrick huffs in frustration and snatches the notes away. “This thing is covered in chocolate, Kyle,” he says while wiping the note clean, “you left this note all covered in chocolate for fifteen years.” With that he reveals the true message of the note: ‘Dearest Kyle, I told Lou Cash to give you this note when the time is right. He’ll know that that is when we’ve been lost to time, perhaps trapped in an alternate dimension. Please follow these instructions to the word: 1. Destroy the Dongle. I’ve long held the suspicion that only one true of heart can destroy it and that you are that person. Where others are bent by the immense power of the Dongle, it will crumble in your hands. 2. Do not come after us. 3. Ask Rachel out, you dummy. You’ll be forever with us. BMT.’ But only two words had remained once the note fell into Kyle’s chocolatey hands: ‘follow’ and ‘us.’ Jamie laughs softly at the senseless tragedy of the lives destroyed by Kyle’s love of chocolate. That’s right, we are getting senseless ourselves by watching the Marlon Wayans classic, Senseless. I saw this ages ago and don’t remember a thing except there was a part that involved a glow in the dark hamster or something. What can I say, I liked amnimals when I was a kid and so that’s the only part that stuck with me. But I’m no longer a kid. I’m a man! Let’s go!

Senseless (1998) – BMeTric: 27.5; Notability: 59

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 20.0%; Notability: top 4.0%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 3.4%; Higher BMeT: The Avengers, Psycho, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Species II, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, The Patriot, Lost in Space, Holy Man, Knock Off, Ringmaster, Godzilla, Major League: Back to the Minors, Air Bud: Golden Receiver, Jack Frost, Legionnaire, Home Fries, Barney’s Great Adventure, Phantoms, Urban Legend, Strangeland, and 30 more; Higher Notability: Armageddon, Godzilla, Lost in Space, 54, Patch Adams, U.S. Marshals, Soldier, Deep Rising, Jack Frost, Mercury Rising; Lower RT: 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, Slappy and the Stinkers, A Murder of Crows, Dead Man’s Curve, Caught Up, The Avengers, Almost Heroes, Tarzan and the Lost City; Notes: How is the notability so high? This is a weird comedy from the late-90s, and it is like Mercury Rising level of notability? Also, read the films with lower Rotten Tomatoes scores … we’ve seen one of those. That is wild wild stuff.

RogerEbert.com – 2.5 stars – Penelope Spheeris, whose “Wayne’s World” remains one of the funniest of ’90s movies, never finds a consistent tone here. The broad physical humor of the main plot contrasts weirdly with the character of the roommate (Matthew Lillard), who doesn’t seem to vibrate in the same universe. His character could be funny in a different movie, but he seems at right angles to this one.

(Two and a half stars is actually pretty good. And funny that Lillard in particular gets called out in the review considering he is going to be like fourth or fifth lead.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6pM-4m7xQ0/

(Wait … where is this movie set? I would have figured it was New York given the Wall Street connection, but then he says he’s from Chicago. I guess he’s like … originally from Chicago and they moved to New York maybe? Oh the movie looks kind of dumb.)

Directors – Penelope Spheeris – ( Known For: Wayne’s World; Suburbia; The Boys Next Door; Hollywood Vice Squad; Dudes; The Kid & I; Balls to the Wall; Future BMT: The Little Rascals; Black Sheep; BMT: The Beverly Hillbillies; Senseless; Notes: Very famous Rock ‘N Roll documentarian and claimed to have formed the first ever music video production company. Her mainstream career was basically ruined by the Weinsteins after the failure of this film by her account.)

Writers – Greg Erb – ( Known For: The Princess and the Frog; Future BMT: RocketMan; Playmobil: The Movie; BMT: Senseless; Notes: Probably a script doctor of sorts as his career contains multiple 10 year gaps. Has a movie slated for production called Cryptozoologists, which is likely a CGI film.)

Craig Mazin – ( Future BMT: The Huntsman: Winter’s War; Superhero Movie; Scary Movie 3; The Hangover Part II; Scary Movie 4; The Hangover Part III; Identity Thief; RocketMan; BMT: Senseless; Notes: Won two Emmys for producing and writing Chernobyl. Has a bunch of stuff in production including an Untitled Pirates of the Caribbean project.)

Actors – Marlon Wayans – ( Known For: Requiem for a Dream; Respect; Scary Movie; The Heat; On the Rocks; The Ladykillers; Naked; I’m Gonna Git You Sucka; Above the Rim; Sextuplets; Future BMT: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra; Scary Movie 2; Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood; Mo’ Money; Dance Flick; The Sixth Man; BMT: White Chicks; Norbit; Marmaduke; Little Man; Fifty Shades of Black; A Haunted House; Dungeons & Dragons; A Haunted House 2; Senseless; Razzie Notes: Winner for Worst Actor, and Worst Screen Couple for Little Man in 2007; Nominee for Worst Screenplay in 2005 for White Chicks; and in 2007 for Little Man; Nominee for Worst Actress, and Worst Screen Couple for White Chicks in 2005; and Nominee for Worst Supporting Actor for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in 2010; Notes: Mostly does Netflix / streaming films at this point. He has a film called Boo! coming out which is probably in line with his Haunted House series. Oddly also has a Ben Affleck / Matt Damon film about Nike getting Michael Jordan as a client in the 80s?)

David Spade – ( Known For: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania; The Emperor’s New Groove; Tommy Boy; The Wrong Missy; Hotel Transylvania; Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation; Reality Bites; The Do-Over; PCU; Hotel Transylvania 2; Sandy Wexler; A Very Brady Sequel; Beavis and Butt-Head Do America; Father of the Year; The Rugrats Movie; Light Sleeper; Mad Families; Warning Shot; Jungle Master; Snowflake, the White Gorilla; Future BMT: Joe Dirt; Grandma’s Boy; Coneheads; Entourage; 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag; Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star; Loser; Black Sheep; Racing Stripes; BMT: Grown Ups; Grown Ups 2; The Ridiculous 6; I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry; The Benchwarmers; Jack and Jill; Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol; Senseless; Lost & Found; Razzie Notes: Winner for Worst Supporting Actress for Jack and Jill in 2012; and Nominee for Worst Actor, and Worst Screen Combo for The Wrong Missy in 2021; Notes: Still very successful. He’s from Arizona and is one of the Adam Sandler group which passed through SNL at the same time. He does a lot of television work, but also is one of the more successful Netflix comedy stars at the moment. Besides SNL he was also nominated for an Emmy for Just Shoot Me!)

Brad Dourif – ( Known For: Dune; Blue Velvet; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Alien: Resurrection; Mississippi Burning; Drop Dead Sexy; Child’s Play; Bride of Chucky; Heaven’s Gate; Ragtime; The Exorcist III; The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans; Curse of Chucky; Child’s Play 2; Jungle Fever; Cult of Chucky; Murder in the First; Nightwatch; Future BMT: Seed of Chucky; Pulse; Child’s Play 3; Amos & Andrew; Fatal Beauty; BMT: Urban Legend; Halloween; Color of Night; Priest; Graveyard Shift; Halloween II; Senseless; Notes: We’ve seen him a bunch recently. He was nominated for an Oscar when he was 25 at Billy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He is an incredibly recognizable character actor at this point in movies and television. For example he was in Star Trek: Voyager as a serial killer Betazoid for a long arc in the early seasons.)

Budget/Gross – $15 million / Domestic: $12,874,899 (Worldwide: $12,874,899)

(Yeah not very good. The budget was setting itself up for a decent success, but it was obviously not quite at the 30-60 million level they were probably hoping for.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 6% (1/17)

(Ah I get to make a consensus: In a long line of superhuman comedies the film is ultimately let down by the confused visions of its director and star.)

Reviewer Highlight: [Spheeris’] setups here are so witless and pedestrian that there’s no imagination to the crude slapstick punchlines; we’re just watching a bland jester pantomime sensory overload. – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Poster – Sense More

(Oh nooooooo! It’s like I made it in high school. I usually say I can imagine these posters hanging in a theater, enticing people to partake in the joys of cinema. But no no no. Not this one. I cannot imagine this hanging anywhere. Wow. D)

Tagline(s) – A secret experiment gave him super senses. Then came the side-effects. (D+)

(I feel like the title of the film itself is the better tagline. Senseless that he has super senses. So then they were left with a not very good and very long tagline for the poster. Boo.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

Future BMT: 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 77.4 Who’s Your Caddy? (2007), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 66.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 64.9 Scary Movie 4 (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005), 58.9 Apollo 18 (2011)

BMT: Scary Movie V (2013), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), Halloween II (2009), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Highlander: Endgame (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Phantoms (1998), Boys and Girls (2000), Texas Rangers (2001), Reindeer Games (2000), Halloween (2007), Senseless (1998), Mindhunters (2004)

Best Options (Men in Black II): 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 61.8 Cursed (2005), 58.6 Scary Movie 2 (2001), 33.1 School for Scoundrels (2006), 27.3 Senseless (1998), 23.7 Impostor (2001)

(This doesn’t quite capture the fact that Senseless really is a rare one where Rip Torn is in both Men in Black II and Senseless in a major role. Chain reaction is always going to be one of those that we get worse films strategically. Too bad though, Cursed is notably bad and should be done sooner rather than later.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 13) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Matthew Lillard is No. 3 billed in Senseless and No. 6 billed in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (3 + 6) + (3 + 1) = 13. If we were to watch Wicker Park we can get the HoE Number down to 10.

Notes – To date, this is the last movie directed by Penelope Spheeris to get a wide theatrical release. She said in an interview that working with the Weinsteins on this made her want to stop making mainstream Hollywood movies. She thought, “How the fuck did I get here? What am I doing? I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to work in this movie business anymore.”

Brad Dourif does not blink in any of his scenes.

During the ending sequence, the song “Movin’ on up”, from the TV series The Jeffersons (1975),is playing as Daryl walks into his building and tips the doorman, who is played by Sherman Hemsley. Helmsley starred in “The Jeffersons”.

The exterior shot of David Spade’s fraternity was filmed at the Delta Tau Delta house at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. The letters on the front stairs were painted on for the movie and repainted after filming.

The punk band playing on the TV before it quickly gets changed is Naked Aggression.

Penelope Spheeris said producers the Weinsteins kept rewriting the script over and over, and it kept getting worse. At one point, she said to Bob Weinstein, “I don’t think this works,” and he said, “This is my fucking money and I’m going to spend it any fucking way I want to.” The movie ended up bombing and Spheeris said they blamed her, adding, “And as a woman, when you do a movie that doesn’t do well, then you’re done. You’re in director jail.”

Originally scheduled to be released in December 1997.

Boys and Girls Preview

After four hours, Jamie and Patrick are finally able to wipe off the last of the muck and mire they ended up smeared in as part of their elaborate ruse to escape prison. The first of the Halloween novelty songs they came up with was a pretty standard riff on a classic. The Monster Rash was less about a party full of monsters and more about a pretty serious rash the narrator got while attending a party full of monsters. Bongo and Mash seemed to think it was fine if you were into that kind of thing. But once they launched into their refrain of the Yuck-o Uck-o Dracula Spooktacula, Bongo and Mash seemed terrified. Perhaps it was the horrendous stench of the mud required for the song’s dangerous mosh pit atmosphere or the twelve minute interlude that consisted only of Jamie and Patrick screaming “SUCK MUD!!!!” into the microphones at truly scary volumes. Regardless, Bongo and Mash were gone when they regained consciousness. As they leave the prison in search of the Mikey Mike and the Mikey Mike’s concert they wonder how it is they got to this warped HoE dimension. “Physics,” a voice says behind them. When they whirl around a hooded man is already heading into the woods. They follow him to a quaint house. “What do you mean physics? What do you even know about it?” Jamie asks. The man shakes his head and mutters one word, “everything,” and pulls down his hood. Jamie and Patrick gasp, it’s Kyle… or is it Kyle? He has to be at least 15 years older. “It is him,” a voice says behind them, “it’s us.” When they turn they see Rachel. And with her is a brood of five girls and boys. Wha-wha-whaaaaa?! That’s right! We’re watching the comedy classic Girls and Boys… you know, the Freddie Prinze Jr. film that was a giant box office smash and *check notes* oh no nevermind, then fell into obscurity. Don’t worry about it, we’ll still watch it. Let’s go!

Boys and Girls (2000) – BMeTric: 44.7; Notability: 47

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 12.0%; Notability: top 8.8%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 7.2%; Higher BMeT: Battlefield Earth, Dungeons & Dragons, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Urban Legends: Final Cut, 102 Dalmatians, Highlander: Endgame, Dracula 2000, Supernova, Big Momma’s House, Get Carter, The Next Best Thing, Little Nicky, Down to You, Hanging Up, Lost Souls, Bless the Child, The Crow: Salvation, Fortress 2: Re-Entry, and 10 more; Higher Notability: Little Nicky, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Coyote Ugly, Mission to Mars, Ready to Rumble, Lost Souls, Proof of Life, Rules of Engagement, Reindeer Games, 102 Dalmatians, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Hollow Man, Bless the Child, Supernova, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Final Destination, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Dracula 2000, Get Carter, and 2 more; Lower RT: 3 Strikes, Fortress 2: Re-Entry, My 5 Wives, The in Crowd, Battlefield Earth, Bless the Child, Down to You, Lost Souls, Turn It Up, The Skulls, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Dungeons & Dragons, Supernova, I Dreamed of Africa, Ed Gein, Screwed, The Watcher; Notes: A little weak maybe, but we didn’t have many options (see below). Probably most impressive with the Rotten Tomatoes score. I really want to watch Fortress 2: Re-Entry … more than I should. Pretty high notability for a romantic comedy though.

RogerEbert.com – 2.0 stars – “Boys and Girls” is soothing and harmless, gentle and interminable. It is about two people who might as well fall in love, since fate and the plot have given them nothing else to do and no one else to do it with. Compared to the wisdom and wickedness of “High Fidelity,” this is such a slight movie. It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s that I don’t care.

(Yeah, that is what this film feels like. Like a year-2000 Hughes film or High Fidelity or something. A film about falling in love and growing up … except this somehow didn’t work which is interesting.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBIYE656wr0/

(OH NO. Oh no no no no no. Oh no. That is maybe the worst beginning to a preview I’ve ever seen. At least it gets normal eventually.)

Directors – Robert Iscove – ( Known For: She’s All That; Love N’ Dancing; BMT: Boys and Girls; From Justin to Kelly; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Director for From Justin to Kelly in 2004; Notes: He was nominated for two Emmys. One for a Cinderella television event film, and one for choreography for an Ann-Margaret Special. This pretty much ended his feature film career, but he’s done a ton of TV movies since.)

Writers – Andrew Lowery – ( Known For: Simon Sez; Nothing; BMT: Boys and Girls; Notes: Clearly a writing team, but Lowery actually had a real acting career as well, specifically in My Boyfriend’s Back and School Ties to name two.)

Andrew Miller – ( Known For: Simon Sez; Nothing; BMT: Boys and Girls; Notes: Also an actor, most notably in Cube. They were credited as The Drews for at least part of their writing career.)

Actors – Freddie Prinze Jr. – ( Known For: Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker; She’s All That; The Reef; The House of Yes; Brooklyn Rules; Jack and Jill vs. the World; New York City Serenade; Future BMT: Scooby-Doo; Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed; Happily N’Ever After; Delgo; To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday; BMT: I Know What You Did Last Summer; I Still Know What You Did Last Summer; Boys and Girls; Summer Catch; Head Over Heels; Down to You; Wing Commander; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Supporting Actor for Scooby-Doo in 2003; Notes: We are getting pretty close with his BMT career. If we knocked out the Scooby-Doos we’d be real close. He’s kind of a famous voice actor now, specifically in a lot of Star Wars stuff.)

Claire Forlani – ( Known For: Meet Joe Black; The Rock; Five Feet Apart; Green Street Hooligans; Mallrats; Mystery Men; Black Beauty; Love’s Kitchen; For Your Consideration; Basquiat; Hallam Foe; Police Academy: Mission to Moscow; An Affair to Die For; Flashbacks of a Fool; Precious Cargo; Shannon’s Rainbow; Shadows in the Sun; Head Full of Honey; Another Me; Ripley Under Ground; Future BMT: Antitrust; Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius; BMT: In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; The Medallion; Boys and Girls; Notes: Married to Dougray Scott. She apparently walked off of Deep Rising and, based on the credits, I think was replaced by Famke Janssen.)

Brendon Ryan Barrett – ( Known For: Lloyd; The Shadow Men; Durango Kids; BMT: Boys and Girls; Notes: Screw it I’m leaving it. This is the actor who played the young version of Freddie Prinze Jr. for approximately 5 minutes of the film. He was in all 25 episodes of Soul Man, a television program I’ve never heard of starring Dan Aykroyd.)

Budget/Gross – $35,000,000 / Domestic: $21,799,652 (Worldwide: $25,850,615)

(Not great. But I don’t believe that budget. However, I do think this was filmed on location in San Francisco … so I guess that could have driven things up a bit.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 11% (7/63): Boys and Girls feels like a cheap rip-off of When Harry Met Sally. The predictable and stale story fails to engage.

(I mean, yeah, it is a predictable cheap rip-off of When Harry Met Sally. Wait, was 2000 the year where ripping off old movies officially became a no-go for Hollywood? They were basically releasing the same movie over and over in the 40s through to the early 70s sometimes, and the reviews seemed like they were mostly just like “the new actors weren’t as good.” … Now that I say that all out loud though, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Claire Forlani are definitely not peak Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, so the reviews now seem pretty fair.)

Reviewer Highlight: [Iscove’s] brought with him his cottage-cheese- chunky storytelling skills, patented dance-so-no-one- notices-we’re-tanking musical interludes, and, oh yes, the redoubtable Freddie Prinze Jr. – Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner

Poster – Sklogs and Glogs

(Nope. Not into it. The spacing and such is fine it’s just… pretty much everything else that’s wrong with it. C-)

Tagline(s) – Opposites Attack (F)

(Wooooaaaahhhh. I have to say, in any other context that might be a solid A-. It’s short and sweet and riffing on a phrase. Wouldn’t be wholly unique, perhaps, but good if it had the right movie to sit with. The problem? This makes absolutely no sense for this film. What a waste. And for that I give it an F.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

Best Options (Romance): 44.6 Boys and Girls (2000), 27.3 Senseless (1998)

(Boom, smashed out the best option on the table. And boom … we are still mostly just watching late-90s Dimension. In our defense that’s when they released their best stuff! After 2002ish the studio starts to release real weird stuff like Spy Kids spin-offs.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 14) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Claire Forlani is No. 2 billed in Boys and Girls and No. 8 billed in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (2 + 8) + (3 + 1) = 14. If we were to watch Wicker Park we can get the HoE Number down to 12.

Notes – The students seen in several scenes at UC Berkeley are actual Berkeley students; the movie was filmed while classes were in session.

Jason Biggs shot this concurrently with Loser (2000) which was being filmed at the same time in Canada. This necessitated him flying between Toronto and Los Angeles.

Freddie Prinze Jr. deliberately opted for the role of a geek as he was tired of being cast as a pretty boy.

Claire Forlani was aghast when she was told she would be appearing in a dance number. The troupe had been rehearsing the routine for two days – Forlani was given half an hour to learn the moves.

The homecoming scene was shot over Thanksgiving.

Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan later starred in the American Pie series together.

This reunites director Robert Iscove with Freddie Prinze Jr. after their previous hit together, She’s All That (1999).

Smaddies Baddies IX

For the eleventh year in a row (the first few years are locked in the BMT Vault, they get a little dicey) it’s the awards show that people definitely didn’t forget about because we neglected it for four months. Since BMT will go on forever, until the days in which our brains are rotting in our skulls, we must take the time now to reflect on the year in bad movies. Truly, the award with the name as bad as the films it honors^TM, it’s ….

Smaddies Baddies! Smaddies Baddies! As always, an incredible year at BMTHQ. The pandemic was over, theaters were open again, and … what’s that? The pandemic wasn’t over? There still wasn’t that many films released? The big BMT bucks from the Bad Movie Twins Media Empire / Metaworld / NFT / Crypto startup dried up? We had to fire our personal chef, sell several mansions, and cancel our trip to the moon? … Welp, as evidenced by Moonfall, the moon sucks anyways, it is filled with robots. Still a good year! While waiting out the pandemic in our B(MT)unker we managed to finished the Nightmare on Elm Street series, the Police Academy Series, and watch a boatload of erotic thrillers. Who needs hope and dreams when we have BMT challenges galore!?

We’ll start with the BMT awards which were presented during the commercial breaks of the 5 hour long Smaddies Baddies Prime Time Spectacular (streaming on the dark web exclusively): the 6W awards. Let’s go!

The Joey from Hackers Best Planchet Baddie (Who?) goes to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. It is pretty rare for a BMT Live! to capture the hearts and minds of the Bad Movie Twins enough to catch a superlative, but there is just something so plucky about Raccoon City newcomer Leon S. Kennedy. When the other police officers aren’t dunking on him, Leon tends to be a witless rookie coasting on his family name and trying his level best not to get assignments. That sounds like a Planchet to me. He just can’t do nothing good! But when the going gets tough, the Planchets get going … out the door, and try to escape. But after that they inevitably fall in with the hero of the story, survive in the unlikeliest of manners, and in the end redeem themselves by exploding the big baddie with a bazooka. You heard that right, we have a true blue Planchet-saving-the-day-for-the-musketeers storyline! In a year with depressingly few nominees for the category it was wonderful to catch what is in essence a perfect “Joey” to Racoon City’s “Zero Cool” right at the last possible moment. The only more shocking thing is that either of us remembered anything about Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

The I Know Who Killed Me Best Twins Ever Baddie (Who?) has to go to Problem Child 2. Full disclosure, I think this might have been the only twin film of the year. That doesn’t take anything away from twin neighbors Dolly and Madison whose sole purpose is to serve up Junior’s urine as lemonade in sunny Orlando, Florida. … Fine, it takes a little bit away. It isn’t the biggest or baddest of twin film entries, but I mean, something has to get an award. And why not Problem Child 2, I say? It has everything you want in a comedy (if you are a 10 year old boy): barfing, cougars chasing Junior’s dad, and dogs taking giant dumps. Those are the BCD’s of comedy for 10 year old boys if I’ve ever seen it! The Problem Child series was an amazing product of its time, a parody of The Bad Seed (kind of), so it needed an award of some kind. And boy howdy is Junior creeped out by these twin girls. And who wouldn’t be? Twins are creepy. Weirdo real life clones. Creepy as shit.

The Adam Sandler Memorial Product Placement Baddie Brought to You By McDonalds, Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, I’m Lovin’ It! (What?) And the winner is Little Nicky which features yet another amazing fast food product placement with Popeye’s Chicken. When Nicky comes to Earth he find’s that sweet ambrosia, the manna raining down from Times Square, that big bucket of fried chicken with two sides and a biscuit. What a deal! And ultimately when he needs to defeat the bad guys he conjures up a giant living bucket of chicken that the grim reapers just can’t resist. They run (Louisiana) fast after it and mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmm, that chicken is the shiz-nitz! A real line from the movie. That all actually happened. There is a reason this award is named after Adam Sandler. Lots of extra Bonus Shoutouts here: The oddest of the bunch is Mr. Wrong which features 1-800-FLOWERS in its Valentine’s Day plot. Obviously Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare features Freddy killing someone with a Power Glove (the second most famous use of the Power Glove in film). And I can’t resist erotic thrillers on motorcycles with Wild Orchid channeling its inner Fahey by featuring Mickey Rouke’s one true love: sweet Harley Davidson ‘cycles. What a year for the category.

The Bangkok Dangerous Setting as a Character Baddie (Where?) Last year we went for the exotic locales of Africa. This year we went for the exotic locale of Orlando, Florida. I suppose we moved from being attacked by a lion to being attacked by a cougar, heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooo. That’s right, the second award for Problem Child 2. You might think they don’t make it explicit, but not only is Orlando featured prominently in a phone book during the film, but naturally all of the cougars are just jonesing after that sweet hunky bachelor Little Ben. Yeah, that is 100% real, the entire setting for Problem Child 2 is a giant joke about cougars which they don’t even really make all that clear in the first place. It is so unclear, in fact, that Wikipedia claims that the film takes place in Mortville, Oregon … what?! That isn’t even close to true. Rest assured, we never botch award, ever, so obviously Problem Child 2 is definitely set in Orlando … I think. Anyways, again, a bunch of Bonus Shoutouts in this category: The best A+ Setting of the year is Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach. The best Niche Setting of the year with Never Talk to Strangers being explicitly set in Syracuse, New York. And the Oddest Setting of the year for Mannequin: On the Move being somewhat inexplicably set in Philadelphia. Philadelphia? More like Philamannequinia! Amirite?

The Marion Cobretti Memorial Super Secret Holiday Film Baddie (When?) Sometimes we have to cheat a bit and give this award to not-so-secret Holiday Films. Not this year. Highlander: Endgame is a real deal Secret Holiday Film because the climax of this film is set during Christmas in maybe the best way possible! There is an extremely quick moment where a guy is going to interfere with the immortals, and you can see Christmas decorations in the background, and then another guy shoots him and is like “Merry Christmas”!!!!!!! Great stuff. You see that is the kind of thing I want, not Christmas songs, or Arnold jingling all the way. Just that moment where the director and set designer looked at each other and wondered if the film could maybe be set in winter because it would be ultra rad for someone to say “Merry Christmas” after killing someone in this scene. They ain’t wrong. It is ultra rad. Some more Bonus Shoutouts for: Mr. Wrong which is the surprisingly rare Valentine’s Day film. Bio-Dome starts and ends on the ultra-rare film holiday of Earth Day. And then naturally our two A+ Holiday Films of Halloween II and Halloween III: Season of the Witch. We were all over the calendar this year. I wonder what the best Holiday cycle we could make? Probably pretty good at this point.

The Street Fighter Legend of Chun Li Best MacGuffin Baddie (Why?) We. Love. MacGuffins. It is too bad, this year we don’t have actors talking about Cradles of Life, or Comic Keys or anything like that. But Snake Eyes (2021) did feature a glowing orange gem which, it turns out, lights people on fire. I would give Jamie a million dollars if he could name that gem off the top of his head. There is a zero percent chance he’ll remember it. It is apparently called the Jewel of the Sun … but that ain’t important. It lights people on fire and Cobra for real wants to get it and rule the dojo, like for real. You don’t have to know any of that though. And that’s the beauty of MacGuffins. They don’t actually need to do anything. They just need to do something, and the bad guys have to want to do that something real bad. If you have those two ingredients you better believe the heroes (and the audience) will care whole bunches about the (checks notes) Jewel of the Sun and whether the bad guy or the other bad guy (or the real bad guys) possess it at the end of Not-G.I.-Joe-3. MacGuffins need to be possessed by someone, it is really really important.

The 88 Minutes Starring Leelee Sobieski Worst Twist Baddie (How?) Twist’em’ups are a staple of the bad thriller. How are you to be thrilled if you already know who the murderer is? The only solution, of course, is to make the murderer the person you least expect … even if that makes no sense. Sliver is a high intensity techno-thriller where one of the Baldwins is definitely the murderer in the high-rise apartment building he owns, and where he gets his kicks spying on the various inhabitants. But wait! What a twist!! It is actually … Tom Berenger? Are you sure? Are you really really sure that Tom Berenger is the murderer in this film? No wait, I get it, like Baldwin framed him right? … right?! Nope, as is common in the twist-a-minute genre of thrillers Sliver paints itself in a corner with its wild machinations and twists. And much like an animal caught in a snare, it gnaws its own leg off in order to escape. And thus Berenger, a man with no motive or even really opportunity, ends up being the murderer in a film where Baldwin is DEFINITELY the murderer. Why couldn’t you just end with the volcanos like you intended Sliver? That would have been the kind of lunacy we love at BMTHQ.

Now onto the big awards, officially based on The Good, The Bad and The BMT (plus Live!). And without further ado:

The Freddy Got Fingered Surprisingly Good Baddie (The Good) Nominees: Toys, Days of Thunder, The Bodyguard, Fire Birds, Wishmaster

And the Winner is: Toys! For the third year in a row the award goes to a film I had seen previously and already kind of liked. Toys is fueled mostly by nostalgia. Nostalgia for a time when a film ostensibly about awesome set design could be made on Robin Williams’ name alone. This film is a mess. It is nonsensical, oddly cast, and with very dark undertones that clash horribly with its very kid-friendly facade. It’s a passion project for a director with a blank check and in the end it ends up being a very neat film. Even if it doesn’t always work, it works just enough to beat out the other good-but-flawed films on the list.

The Strange Wilderness Unpleasantly Terrible Baddie (The Bad) Nominees: Exit to Eden, After We Fell, The Rage: Carrie 2, Problem Child 2, Highlander: Endgame

And the Winner is: Exit to Eden! Wowza, sequels please indeed! So how did Exit to Eden beat all that sweet IP to take the top spot? Well, first step is to create a convoluted B-plot about (checks notes) … diamond smuggling? Yeah, I don’t remember all that. What I do remember is the main character is terrible, the jokes aren’t funny, and the entire film looks like it was made on a budget of a million dollars. Jamie, unfortunately, read the book this film was based on and, to use his words: the film is a travesty. That’s right, we have a true blue Slap In The Face^TM film! With zero interest in courting the BDSM crowd, the film is held together by slapstick and ends up feeling like more of a parody of BDSM than anything else. Terrible film. Just terrible.

The Here on Earth Most BMT Baddie (The BMT) Nominees: The Quest, Mannequin: On the Move, Never Talk to Strangers, Half Past Dead, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

And the Winner is: Never Talk to Strangers! No, no, no (I hear you scream). It cannot be! Not The Quest? But surely this decision is based solely on defying Las Vegas odds and raking in ill-begotten gains on the Smaddies Baddies betting market! Well, when you are dealing with an erotic thriller where the lead actress has all the creative power and hires the director and owns the IP, things can get a tad bit wonky to say the least. But really there was one thing that stood out to both me and Jamie about this film: the non-twist. This might not have won the worst twist this year, but that is just because it like … isn’t a twist? But it is. It is clearly intended as a twist. The poster features Banderas looking sinister. Banderas himself acts all sleazy throughout the film. But literally right at the beginning of the film our psychologist “hero” is like “Multiple Personality Disorder is marked by bouts of amnesia and is a result of childhood trauma … oh, I have a meeting with my estranged father I hate in five minutes? I didn’t remember making that appointment. And why would I? I hate my father for what he did to me as a child …” That is about how “subtle” the “twist” in this film is. So yeah, spoilers, she’s the murderer. Combine that with what was intended to be an epic 3 hour thriller being cut to a svelte 86 minutes flat and you have a recipe for BMT-delights.

The Jack and Jill Worst of 2021 Baddie (The BMT Live!) Nominees: After We Fell, Space Jam 2, and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

And the Winner is: After We Fell! The After series is a true anomaly. We’ve now watched each one for BMT. But the middle one wasn’t released to theaters so we had to watch it as a friend. So how did the third one manage a theatrical release in 2021? There is an entire production company built around the After series, and they are planning at least two more films (somehow). The films are horrible. Chockablock with schmaltzy nonsense drama and advertisements for Amazon products and what has become a tired storyline involving alcoholism and parentage. But … we just can’t stop watching them. It could ultimately be the BMT series. A series of films where, right on schedule, we are forced to watch yet another installment every few years for all of eternity as we ask ourselves “seriously though, we’ve watched this film before right? Is something new actually happening in these films?” The After series is a testament to making films without scripts based on books about nothing.

Smaddies Baddies, Smaddies Baddies. As usual we smashed it this year. Good job guys. Once I release this to the web I’m sure the VC money will be flowing right back into the Bad Movie Crypto-space. For those who fell into a deep Rip Van Winkle-esque slumber during the awards the bottomline is: miss Sliver, After We Fell, and Exit to Eden and kiss Problem Child 2, Toys, and Never Talk to Strangers. Just joking, as usual, kiss all the bad movies. Just to be clear, by kiss I mean watch, and by all I mean all 650 BMT films. You know you want to!

Halloween II (2009) Preview

“Looks like New Years come early for you two,” Officer Mash says with a smirk as he clangs the jail door shut. Jamie and Patrick beg them to listen to their story. Sure it sounds totally crazy, but they have to trust them. They are there for a reason… to change someone’s life… to help. But Bongo and Mash scoff at the suggestion. “Nothing is wrong in this town. It’s perfect,” Bongo says matter of factly. “Yeah, perfect,” agrees Mash, “you know, except for…” But before he can finish Bongo shushes him and reiterates that the town is a perfect example of perfection. Jamie and Patrick see their opening, but no matter how much they try to explain, it’s like talking to two rule-abiding walls. Mash chuckles at their attempts and silently mocks them to his partner. “I don’t know what kind of yuletide cheer you’ve gotten into, but there isn’t anything wrong with the town. Rules are just rules. So you boys just stay right there. We gotta go patrol the Halloween Jamboree.” Jamie and Patrick look at each other in confusion. Halloween? Didn’t he use the phrase ‘yuletide cheer’ just a second before? Officer Mash rubs his hands together in anticipation. “I heard this year they got Mikey Myers (of the Mikey Mikes fame) to perform and they are doing some spooktacular novelty songs.” Jamie and Patrick leap up. “Wait!” shouts Jamie, “We’re the Mikey Mikes.” Patrick nods his head excitedly and just as Bongo and Mash are about to wave them off he blurts out, “We can prove it! Let us give you a sneak peak at a double dose of spooktacular novelty songs!” Bongo and Mash look at each other and finally relent, “Ehhhh, OK. But just don’t make them too scary.” That’s right! We are doing a double dose of spooktacular action with both of Rob Zombie’s Halloween films. We are well ahead of schedule in our Halloween franchise pursuit with only Halloween Kills (currently qualifying) left. Let’s go!

Halloween II (2009) – BMeTric: 70.7; Notability: 69

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 3.2%; Notability: top 4.4%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 16.5%; Higher BMeT: Dragonball Evolution, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Stan Helsing, S. Darko, The Unborn, Dance Flick; Higher Notability: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 2012, Angels & Demons, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, The Lovely Bones, Nine, Fast & Furious, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Surrogates; Lower RT: Labor Pains, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Miss March, Old Dogs, All About Steve, Whiteout, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Echelon Conspiracy, Post Grad, My Life in Ruins, The Unborn, Couples Retreat, Bride Wars, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, The Stepfather, S. Darko, The Pink Panther 2, I Love You, Beth Cooper, The Ugly Truth, Year One, and 20 more; Notes: Man we have a lot of high BMeTric films on the table … can’t same I’m super excited about any of those though. Nearly 70+ for both BMeTric and Notability is pretty impressive though.

Leonard Maltin – BOMB – Michael Myers is back on the gory warpath in this lumbering sequel to Zombie’s 2007 Halloween. There are pitifully few genuine scares … just a lot of blood and utterances of the “f” word. Unrated director’s cut runs 119m.

(That’s what I’m talking about Leonard! YES! I think this might be the first BOMB in the actual series, the only other one being Halloween III (which is now a cult classic). Stunning that it managed it when even Halloween: Resurrection didn’t.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXkcgqmKZ2Y/

(This trailer makes it look a lot more normal that I think this film actually is. I’m pretty sure this film is a gross film I don’t like. But this makes it look like an actual slasher film (a genre I generally like). So that’s confusing.)

Directors – Rob Zombie – ( Known For: 3 from Hell; The Devil’s Rejects; Grindhouse; 31; The Lords of Salem; Future BMT: House of 1000 Corpses; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: Real name Robert Cummings. Was most well known as a singer headlining the heavy metal band White Zombie.)

Writers – Rob Zombie – ( Known For: 3 from Hell; The Devil’s Rejects; Grindhouse; 31; The Lords of Salem; Future BMT: House of 1000 Corpses; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: Is writing and directing the horror-comedy film version of The Munsters.)

Actors – Scout Taylor-Compton – ( Known For: 13 Going on 30; Chariot; The Runaways; An American Crime; The Long Night; Return to Sender; Flight 7500; 247°F; Love Ranch; Triple Dog; Ghost House; An Intrusion; Wicked Little Things; Love at First Hiccup; Andover; Get the Girl; Future BMT: Sleepover; Obsessed; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: Was a teen actress as she was only 15 when she was in 13 going on 30.)

Tyler Mane – ( Known For: Troy; X-Men; The Scorpion King; The Devil’s Rejects; 247°F; Victor Crowley; Gunless; Black Mask 2: City of Masks; Compound Fracture; Devil May Call; Future BMT: Joe Dirt; Playing with Fire; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: A former wrestler, his ring name was Big Sky.)

Malcolm McDowell – ( Known For: Father Stu; A Clockwork Orange; Caligula; O Lucky Man!; Bombshell; Easy A; The Book of Eli; Blue Thunder; Doomsday; The Player; In Good Company; 31; Bolt; Cat People; The Artist; Star Trek: Generations; Hidalgo; Excision; Time After Time; American Satan; Future BMT: Tank Girl; Milk Money; Mr. Magoo; Just Visiting; Sunset; Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius; Delgo; BMT: Halloween; Silent Hill: Revelation; Halloween II; I Spy; Notes: He’s in a million things at this point. The most intriguing upcoming project is Wizardream where he plays the role of The Wizard Mangodor.)

Budget/Gross – $15,000,000 / Domestic: $33,392,973 (Worldwide: $39,421,467)

(Actually, still not that bad. But I’m sure the reception was less than warm and ultimately they began looking for a new direction to take the rebooted series after this one.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 22% (18/81): Zombie shows flashes of vision in the follow-up to his Halloween reboot, but they’re smothered by mountains of gore and hackneyed, brutal violence.

(That is way way way higher than I would have thought! I legit would have thought there would have been wholesale rejection of the Hastel-esque direction Zombie took with full creative control, but 20% isn’t that bad.)

Reviewer Highlight: Let’s float a notion: Rob Zombie is the greatest horror-movie director never to make a great movie. – Keith Phipps, AV Club

Poster – Hostel-ween 2: Even Hostel-ier

(Certainly shocking and so it’s doing its job. I can see that hanging in a theater and it grabbing the right people’s attentions. I don’t love all the gray, but the orange pops and the font is good. I think it’s good. Better than the first in its simplicity. A-.)

Tagline(s) – Family Is Forever (C+)

(Boy oh boy. They just don’t seem to care about these tag lines and that’s a shame. Slightly better than the first. Even though it’s generic there is a whiff of cleverness… “family is forever” is a wholesome phrase and they turn it around. But I don’t really appreciate just stating a generic phrase ironically. Gotta do something with it.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

BMT: Scary Movie V (2013), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), Halloween II (2009), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Highlander: Endgame (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Phantoms (1998), Texas Rangers (2001), Halloween (2007), Mindhunters (2004)

Best Options (Horror): 70.6 Halloween II (2009), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005), 58.9 Apollo 18 (2011), 58.6 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 56.9 They (2002), 45.9 Darkness (2002), 36.9 The Amityville Horror (2005), 33.6 Halloween (2007)

(Apollo 18 is one of those films that has been on the tip of BMT forever. Probably because it came out the year we started BMT. So it was always there, but we obviously had the classics to get through and he didn’t have as sophisticated an infrastructure to identify the merde de la merde of bad movies. Anyways, missed again, but we’ll get there.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 19) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Scout Taylor-Compton is No. 1 billed in Halloween II and No. 1 billed in Halloween, which also stars William Forsythe (No. 8 billed) who is in 88 Minutes (No. 5 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (1 + 1) + (8 + 5) + (3 + 1) = 19. If we were to watch Sunset, The Jackal, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Glass House we can get the HoE Number down to 16.

Notes – John Carpenter was offered a cameo in the film by Rob Zombie, but he turned it down.

First Halloween movie to include Michael clearly walking around without his mask on.

Daeg Faerch filmed scenes reprising his role of Young Michael Myers but was replaced and the scenes reshot after it became apparent that Faerch had noticeably grown up since the last installment and no longer looked the same age.

Rob Zombie originally stated he would never do a sequel to Halloween (2007), until the studio decided to make it. Then he signed on to write and direct, because he didn’t want someone else to ruin his vision.

While writing Sam Loomis for the sequel, Rob Zombie based his egotistical and self-absorbed personality on Dr. Phil and his talk show.

Malcolm McDowell quotes Alex Delarge, the character he played in A Clockwork Orange (1971), during the press conference when he says “Let’s get things nice and sparkling clear”.

The decision to give Laurie the name ‘Angel’ as her real name was meant to emphasize her as an extreme opposite to Michael. Laurie Strode’s birth name in the original films was Cynthia Myers.

Tyler Mane is only the second actor to portray Michael Myers twice. George P. Wilbur previously portrayed Michael in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995). Mane is the first actor to portray Myers two movies in a row.

In the scenes shot at the exterior of the hospital parking lot, the location of the emergency room entrance to the hospital was actually the entrance to the Spinal Cord Injury Clinic at the now-defunct Sepulveda Veterans Administration Hospital in the San Fernando Valley, California.

The characterisation of Dr Loomis as a greedy, unlikeable egotist was Malcolm McDowell’s idea. He told Rob Zombie he didn’t want to give the same performance from the first film.

In addition to the studio interference that compromised production, Rob Zombie also strongly suspected that crew members were actually stealing money from the film’s production budget.

Rob Zombie had nearly every main character killed off in the ending, including Michael Myers and Laurie (though she only dies in the Director’s Cut), to finally ensure that another film could not be made. Despite this, Dimension Films insisted on a third film and Zombie walked away from such plans, not wanting to be involved with it. This film ultimately underperformed financially and was panned by fans and critics alike, casting doubt on a sequel. After years of no development, Dimension Films and The Weinstein Company finally surrendered the rights to the franchise to Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, resulting in Halloween (2018).

Halloween (2007) Preview

Halloween (2007) – BMeTric: 33.6; Notability: 53

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 21.6%; Notability: top 9.6%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 29.7%; Higher BMeT: Epic Movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Norbit, I Know Who Killed Me, Bratz, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Daddy Day Camp, Who’s Your Caddy?, Are We Done Yet?, Postal, Delta Farce, Captivity, Underdog, The Comebacks, The Hills Have Eyes 2, Ghost Rider, Redline, The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Code Name: The Cleaner, and 34 more; Higher Notability: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Evan Almighty, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Fred Claus, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Rush Hour 3, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, The Comebacks, Epic Movie, The Ten, Lucky You, TMNT, The Invasion, Ghost Rider, Balls of Fury, Lions for Lambs, Wild Hogs, The Heartbreak Kid, and 4 more; Lower RT: Remember the Daze, Redline, Daddy Day Camp, Epic Movie, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Code Name: The Cleaner, Because I Said So, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Delta Farce, 88 Minutes, Good Luck Chuck, Who’s Your Caddy?, Silk, License to Wed, Are We Done Yet?, The Number 23, Premonition, The Reaping, Postal, Norbit, and 53 more; Notes: Genuinely high notability for a horror film. I can’t believe this has a 6.0 IMDb rating … that is stunningly high for a bad horror film, and more so for a remake of a beloved horror film.

Leonard Maltin – 2 stars – Umpteenth rehash of the 1978 movie retells the story of Michael Myers, who kills his family and spends 17 years in a mental institution before escaping. As he searches for his younger sister he sets off in a rampage, treating the town of Haddonfield to his latest murderous tricks. Although horror fanatic Zombie remains faithful to the premise (with more backstory on Myers than ever before), it’s clearly just an excuse to show off the latest advances in movie gore. Unrated version runs 121m.

(That is a lot kinder of a review than I would expect as well. First, Maltin doesn’t usually like horror at all. But additionally, as alluded to, the film is particularly gorey. More backstory … great.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeQiSdznHGo/

(Want to know the big takeaway I have about this film? … Why was it released on August 31st? That is a crazy decision. Anyways, looks like a pretty faithful remake with a hulking Myers which is an interesting choice actually.)

Directors – Rob Zombie – ( Known For: 3 from Hell; The Devil’s Rejects; Grindhouse; 31; The Lords of Salem; Future BMT: House of 1000 Corpses; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: His brother is named Spider One and is in the heavy metal band Powerman 5000.)

Writers – Rob Zombie – ( Known For: 3 from Hell; The Devil’s Rejects; Grindhouse; 31; The Lords of Salem; Future BMT: House of 1000 Corpses; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: Wrote a script for The Crow: Salvation and was supposed to direct it, but was ultimately fired from the film and the script became Legend of the 13 Graves instead.)

John Carpenter – ( Known For: Halloween; They Live; Halloween; Escape from New York; Escape from L.A.; The Fog; Prince of Darkness; Halloween H20: 20 Years Later; Assault on Precinct 13; Assault on Precinct 13; Dark Star; Eyes of Laura Mars; Black Moon Rising; Future BMT: Halloween Kills; Lockout; BMT: Halloween; Ghosts of Mars; Halloween II; The Fog; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Halloween: Resurrection; Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers; Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers; Notes: Amazingly Carpenter doesn’t get a credit at all on the sequel to this film. Either because the film doesn’t resemble the original or any of the sequels in any way, or because Carpenter intentionally took his name off of it.)

Debra Hill – ( Known For: Halloween; Halloween; Escape from L.A.; The Fog; Halloween H20: 20 Years Later; Future BMT: Halloween Kills; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; The Fog; Halloween: Resurrection; Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers; Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers; Notes: I feel like you can just pair up Carpenter and Hill each time. They were long time collaborators so on remakes like this they’ll almost always both get credit.)

Actors – Scout Taylor-Compton – ( Known For: 13 Going on 30; Chariot; The Runaways; An American Crime; The Long Night; Return to Sender; Flight 7500; 247°F; Love Ranch; Triple Dog; Ghost House; An Intrusion; Wicked Little Things; Love at First Hiccup; Andover; Get the Girl; Future BMT: Sleepover; Obsessed; BMT: Halloween; Halloween II; Notes: Became a big horror film actress with, I think, three small budget horror films coming out in the next year or so.)

Malcolm McDowell – ( Known For: Father Stu; A Clockwork Orange; Caligula; O Lucky Man!; Bombshell; Easy A; The Book of Eli; Blue Thunder; Doomsday; The Player; In Good Company; 31; Bolt; Cat People; The Artist; Star Trek: Generations; Hidalgo; Excision; Time After Time; American Satan; Future BMT: Tank Girl; Milk Money; Mr. Magoo; Just Visiting; Sunset; Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius; Delgo; BMT: Halloween; Silent Hill: Revelation; Halloween II; I Spy; Notes: From England. He’s an extremely prolific actor with nearly 300 credited acting roles.)

Budget/Gross – $15 million / Domestic: $58,272,029 (Worldwide: $80,460,948)

(Huge win for the studio and for Rob Zombie in the end. That is a giant take and the best Halloween must have done for years .. unfortunately that success directly led to Halloween II.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 28% (33/119): Rob Zombie doesn’t bring many new ideas to the table in Halloween, making it another bloody disappointment for fans of the franchise.

(Yup, that was always the perception I had, that it was mostly a rehash of the original so what is the point?)

Reviewer Highlight: The new Halloween has sympathy for the Devil, but not enough. – Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times

Poster – Hostel-ween

(Weird poster with all the pictures in the mask. I’d have to look at it very closely to see which one they included is the funniest. Could be Danny Trejo’s face, since he actually plays a very nice person in the movie. Good good, nice striking orange, and intriguing. All around not bad, if busy. B+.)

Tagline(s) – Evil Has A Destiny (C-)

(Meh, fine. Not offensive. Just a little generic and not clever in the least. Not much more to say.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

BMT: Scary Movie V (2013), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), Halloween II (2009), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Highlander: Endgame (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Phantoms (1998), Texas Rangers (2001), Halloween (2007), Mindhunters (2004)

Best Options (Horror): 70.6 Halloween II (2009), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005), 58.9 Apollo 18 (2011), 58.6 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 56.9 They (2002), 45.9 Darkness (2002), 36.9 The Amityville Horror (2005), 33.6 Halloween (2007)

(Boom. Best option gets got even while pursuing the complete watch of all Halloween films. There is actually one more left because at the moment Halloween Kills barely qualifies. And good to see us hitting some of the late-00s Dimension films.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 17) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: William Forsythe is No. 8 billed in Halloween and No. 5 billed in 88 Minutes, which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (8 + 5) + (3 + 1) = 17. There is no shorter path at the moment.

Notes – William Forsythe actually injured his leg prior to shooting, which is why his leg is in a cast in the film. In the script, the character only had an arm brace, but Forsythe’s leg injury was also worked into the film.

The inclusion of the plotline about Michael Myers’ early days at the mental asylum under the care of Sam Loomis is a nod to a plotline added in by John Carpenter for the television viewing of the original Halloween (1978). As told by Carpenter, when the original film was first sold to television, they demanded added scenes to replace the edited portions of the murder scenes. So Carpenter recalled Donald Pleasence, the original Sam Loomis to film scenes of him at the hospital taking care of Michael.

Before reinventing the legendary Halloween (1978), Rob Zombie made the wise choice to inform John Carpenter about it. In response, Carpenter encouraged Zombie to “make it [his] own”.

Before deciding to go with Rob Zombie’s version, the studio was about to green light “Halloween: The Missing Years”, which would have been a prequel, set within Michael Myers’ early days at the asylum.

In an interview, Rob Zombie said he went into the meeting with the Weinsteins with two films in mind: one being strictly just Myers and his childhood, then the remake. They shot the idea down, which is why in the remake that the first half of the film focuses on Myers’s childhood.

The movie was not released in the United States on Halloween weekend, as was the original, for fear of going head to head with Saw IV (2007). It was instead released two months earlier on the last weekend in August 2007.

Rob Zombie revealed making Halloween with the Weinstein’s was “a miserable experience for me, and so I was very reticent to do the second one. I did do the second one, and I thought, ‘Okay, well the first one was a miserable experience, but it did well, so maybe it’ll be easier the second time?’ It was worse. Oh my God. I felt like they weren’t trusting me on the first one because they wanted to make sure it was a hit and now they weren’t trusting me not to f*** up their hit.” Detailing why the experience was not one the creator looks back on favorably, he said: “They would show me scenes from Halloween to try and make a point and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I know. I made that movie. Why do you show me that like I’ve never seen it before?'”

At 121 minutes, this is the longest Halloween film to date.

Danielle Harris was 29 years old when she was cast as the teenage Annie Brackett. The movie was released nearly three months after her 30th birthday.

First movie where Michael Myers talks. In the eight movies of the original franchise (1978-2002) he doesn’t say a word.

At one point, Dimension Studios considered making a crossover film featuring Pinhead from the Hellraiser (1987) series (which was owned by Miramax at the time), following in the footsteps of Newline Cinema’s horror crossover Freddy vs. Jason (2003). A poll was held on the official site, but response from fans was negative and the studio dropped the concept.

Heather Bowen was a finalist for a walk-on role through a contest on the official “Halloween” Website. She won overall through a lottery-style drawing by Moustapha Akkad at the Haddonfield 25 Fan Convention.

Brad Dourif (Sheriff Lee Bracket), was previously in another horror franchise from the 80’s/ 90’s as the voice of Chucky in the Child’s Play movies.

Reindeer Games Preview

“This is why we’re here?” Jamie asks incredulously. “No, we’re here because dumb bum Ty over there jumped in the time machine and overloaded the time imputation processor (not to get too technical about it). We need to fix the machine and get home because we don’t know what freak dimension this is.” LePumice nods vigorously in agreement. Even a trained time cop never considered the possibility of an interdimensional time jump and he can barely hide the terror in his eyes. But Patrick has a little smirk on his face as he listens to them fret. “Oh really,” he says, “well how ‘bout you check this out.” With that he turns to face Bongo and Mash. “Officers, I think you’ll find we present to you a tidy solution. Our teeny-bopper friend Ty here will accompany your daughters to the Fourth of July bash. No need to be jealous, friendos.” With that he winks at Jasper and Kelley. But Bongo and Mash only stare blankly at him. “Fourth of July?” Mash says confused. “Are you OK, son? Our daughters aren’t going to the Fourth of July bash with anyone. Certainly not a couple of bozos who arrived a second ago in our town, breaking our rules, and looking like you done come from some dumb terminator future. Now beat it before we arrest you for disorderly conduct.” Bongo and Mash turn back to Jasper and Kelley, who are now looking at Jamie and Patrick suspiciously. Patrick is at a loss. “I… uh… wait, are you sure?” Bongo and Mash sigh and quickly whip around to slap cuffs on Jamie and Patrick. “Alright, I didn’t want to have to do this fellas,” Mash says sternly, “but you forced my hand. Have fun spending Christmas Eve sobering up in jail.” Christmas Eve?! That’s right! It’s time for some fun and games… some reindeer fun and games. Because we’re watching Reindeer Games if you didn’t get that. Feels like this Affleck vehicle has been on the table forever and a bit of a shocker we never watched it. Let’s go!

Reindeer Games (2000) – BMeTric: 37.6; Notability: 60

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 16.8%; Notability: top 3.6%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 25.2%; Higher BMeT: Battlefield Earth, Dungeons & Dragons, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Urban Legends: Final Cut, 102 Dalmatians, Highlander: Endgame, Dracula 2000, Supernova, Big Momma’s House, Get Carter, The Next Best Thing, Little Nicky, Down to You, Hanging Up, Lost Souls, Bless the Child, The Crow: Salvation, Fortress 2: Re-Entry, and 22 more; Higher Notability: Little Nicky, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Coyote Ugly, Mission to Mars, Ready to Rumble, Lost Souls, Proof of Life, Rules of Engagement; Lower RT: 3 Strikes, Fortress 2: Re-Entry, My 5 Wives, The in Crowd, Battlefield Earth, Bless the Child, Down to You, Lost Souls, Turn It Up, Circus, The Skulls, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Dungeons & Dragons, Supernova, I Dreamed of Africa, Ed Gein, Screwed, The Watcher, Boys and Girls, The Ladies Man, and 39 more; Notes: Notability is the name of the game here I suppose. I think one of the surprises there is Coyote Ugly having a 60+ notability. That’s a lot of notable people in that film I think a lot of people would have forgotten about.

RogerEbert.com – 1.5 stars – “Reindeer Games” is the first All Talking Killer picture. After the setup, it consists mostly of characters explaining their actions to one another. I wish I’d had a stopwatch, to clock how many minutes are spent while one character holds a gun to another character’s head and gabs. Charlize Theron and Gary Sinise between them explain so much they reminded me of Gertrude Stein’s line about Ezra Pound: “He was a village explainer, excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not.” Just a nudge, and the movie would fall over into self-parody, and maybe work better. But I fear it is essentially serious, or as serious as such goofiness can be.

(I wonder if this is the only reference to Ezra Pound related to Reindeer Games. What a ref. Legendary. I do know what I like most in my action films is talking.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0856Uv4QmtI/

(Incredible. The entire trailer kind of covers up the main conceit of the film. Because you see … Ben Affleck isn’t “Nick”. He isn’t the one who wrote letters to Theron or worked in the casino. That was his cellmate. But Senise doesn’t believe that, and things go awry. Funny that the movie actually seems a bit more fun without that conceit in the end.)

Directors – John Frankenheimer – ( Known For: Ronin; Prophecy; The Manchurian Candidate; The Train; Seconds; Grand Prix; Black Sunday; 52 Pick-Up; Seven Days in May; French Connection II; Birdman of Alcatraz; I Walk the Line; The Holcroft Covenant; The Iceman Cometh; The Gypsy Moths; The Challenge; The Fixer; The Young Savages; 99 and 44/100% Dead!; All Fall Down; Future BMT: Dead Bang; Year of the Gun; BMT: The Island of Dr. Moreau; Reindeer Games; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Director for The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1997; Notes: Was a legendary director and received an honorary Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. He also won four Emmys for four miniseries he directed in the 90s. I’m actually a bit surprised he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for some of his films from the 60s. This was his last film, he died a few years later.)

Writers – Ehren Kruger – ( Known For: The Ring; Ghost in the Shell; Scream 3; Dumbo; Arlington Road; New World Disorder; Future BMT: Transformers: Dark of the Moon; Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen; The Skeleton Key; The Brothers Grimm; Impostor; Blood and Chocolate; BMT: Transformers: Age of Extinction; The Ring Two; Reindeer Games; Razzie Notes: Winner for Worst Screenplay for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2010; and Nominee for Worst Screenplay in 2012 for Transformers: Dark of the Moon; and in 2015 for Transformers: Age of Extinction; Notes: Just wrote the new Top Gun film. Cut his teeth via a ton of collaborations with Michael Bay.)

Actors – Ben Affleck – ( Known For: Deep Water; The Last Duel; Zack Snyder’s Justice League; Dazed and Confused; Gone Girl; Good Will Hunting; Argo; The Town; Triple Frontier; The Tender Bar; Daredevil; The Accountant; He’s Just Not That Into You; Shakespeare in Love; Field of Dreams; Dogma; Jay and Silent Bob Reboot; Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; Mallrats; The Sum of All Fears; Future BMT: Suicide Squad; Justice League; Pearl Harbor; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; Smokin’ Aces; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Live by Night; 200 Cigarettes; Surviving Christmas; BMT: Armageddon; Paycheck; Runner Runner; Gigli; Reindeer Games; Phantoms; Razzie Notes: Winner for Worst Actor in 2004 for Daredevil, Gigli, and Paycheck; Winner for Worst Screen Combo for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2017; Winner for Worst Screen Couple for Gigli in 2004; Nominee for Worst Actor in 2002 for Pearl Harbor; in 2005 for Jersey Girl, and Surviving Christmas; and in 2017 for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; Nominee for Worst Supporting Actor for The Last Duel in 2022; Nominee for Worst Actor of the Decade in 2010 for Daredevil, Gigli, Jersey Girl, Paycheck, Pearl Harbor, and Surviving Christmas; and Nominee for Worst Screen Couple in 1999 for Armageddon; in 2002 for Pearl Harbor; and in 2005 for Jersey Girl; Notes: Y’all know Ben Affleck. Publicly struggled with alcohol and other personal matters, but he seems to have maybe found his … Way Back, heyooooooooooooooo.)

Gary Sinise – ( Known For: Forrest Gump; The Green Mile; The Quick and the Dead; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Apollo 13; Joe Bell; Of Mice and Men; Snake Eyes; Ransom; I Still Believe; Open Season; The Human Stain; The Big Bounce; Albino Alligator; A Midnight Clear; A Wedding; SGT. Will Gardner; Bruno; All the Rage; Future BMT: Mission to Mars; The Forgotten; Impostor; Jack the Bear; BMT: Reindeer Games; Notes: Definitely most well known for his starring role in CSI: NY … wait, no, I think it might be for Forrest Gump, which is was nominated for an Oscar. He won an Emmy for his role in Frankenheimer’s miniseries George Wallace.)

Charlize Theron – ( Known For: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; F9: The Fast Saga; Mad Max: Fury Road; Prometheus; The Devil’s Advocate; Monster; The Old Guard; Bombshell; That Thing You Do!; The Italian Job; Snow White and the Huntsman; Atomic Blonde; The Road; The Fate of the Furious; Long Shot; Young Adult; 2 Days in the Valley; Hancock; The Cider House Rules; North Country; Future BMT: A Million Ways to Die in the West; The Huntsman: Winter’s War; The Addams Family 2; Trapped; Sweet November; 15 Minutes; BMT: The Astronaut’s Wife; Æon Flux; Reindeer Games; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Actress, and Worst Screen Combo for A Million Ways to Die in the West in 2015; and Nominee for Worst Actress for Sweet November in 2002; Notes: Won an Oscar for Monster and nominated for two others (for Bombshell and North Country). Is set up for three sequels, Atomic Blonde 2, The Old Guard 2, and Fast X.)

Budget/Gross – $42,000,000 / Domestic: $23,368,995 (Worldwide: $32,168,970)

(A definitive bust. Not that surprising, it got terrible reviews at a time when that definitely mattered.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 26% (23/90): Despite a decent cast, subpar acting and a contrived plot disappointed reviewers.

(Yeah, sounds about right. But here’s the thing … I like contrived plots. They are often turn-off-your-brain hilarious.)

Reviewer Highlight: Reindeer Games is basically a test of your ability to accept a slushpile of implausible twisteroos and Tarantino-style conceits. – Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Poster – Lame-deer Games

(One the one hand I respect it, cause it’s classic and the orange pops (although not all that Chirstmas-y). On the other the font is bad and I’d be thoroughly confused by the little scene they put in the upper right corner. I’d be like, wait… a bunch of Santas and a Casino… I guess I don’t know why that’s so important that we have to see it on the poster. C-.)

Tagline(s) – The trap is set. The game is on. (B-)

(How many movies could this be the tagline for? Answer: hundreds. How many board games could this be the tagline for? Answer: one, Mousetrap. Otherwise not the worst tagline. Short and got some cadence.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

Future BMT: 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 77.4 Who’s Your Caddy? (2007), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 70.6 Halloween II (2009), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 66.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 64.9 Scary Movie 4 (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005)

BMT: Scary Movie V (2013), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Highlander: Endgame (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Phantoms (1998), Texas Rangers (2001), Reindeer Games (2000), Mindhunters (2004)

Best Options (Action): 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 66.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 37.6 Reindeer Games (2000), 37.0 The Brothers Grimm (2005), 33.0 Fortress (1992), 30.5 Gunmen (1993)

(Looking at this, am I disappointed that we didn’t have this algorithm to tell us The Crow: City of Angels was probably our best option? A little. But I also think Reindeer Games was a long time coming for BMT so ultimately I think I’m fine with it. Crushing dat early-2000s Dimension I have to say.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 14) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Ben Affleck is No. 1 billed in Reindeer Games and No. 1 billed in Gigli, which also stars Al Pacino (No. 7 billed) who is in 88 Minutes (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (1 + 1) + (7 + 1) + (3 + 1) = 14. If we were to watch Pearl Harbor we can get the HoE Number down to 8.

Notes – In October 2007, Charlize Theron said in an interview in Esquire magazine that “Reindeer Games” was her least favorite of all her films. She said: “That was a bad, bad, bad movie. But I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn’t lying to myself – that’s why I did it.”

The film was cut by over twenty minutes before its original theatrical release date of December 1999 because of both a poor test screening and the MPAA’s objections over the infamous dart torture scene. John Frankenheimer’s preferred version was dark, gritty, and sexier. The film was released in Feburary 2000 in its shorter 104 minute version. Frankenheimer’s original version was released a year later with the twenty minutes restored on DVD as his “Director’s Cut”.

The character names Rudy and Nick are an allusion to the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” from which this movie takes its title. Nick (St. Nicholas) orchestrates the entire plan, only to have Rudy (Rudolph) lead it.

At the time of shooting, Gary Sinise was romantically involved with Charlize Theron.

In the scene where Dana Stubblefield stabs Ben Affleck, Stubbie accidentally knocked Affleck down, causing a concussion. Filming had to be halted while Affleck recovered.

John Frankenheimer’s last feature-length, theatrically distributed film.

Alan Silvestri was hired in late 1999 to score the film after replacing Jerry Goldsmith, who left due to creative differences. Silvestri had only a month to score the film, with the music being recorded in early January 2000.

Originally planned for a Christmas 1999 release, but delayed until February 2000 after a poor test screening in mid 1999.

The music that plays during the scene where all of the Santas, including Ben Affleck, appear together at the poker table is “Sleigh Bells”, which is a tip off for the impending robbery.

Ashton Kutcher: as the man with whom Rudy (Ben Affleck) switches clothes, in the bathroom.

My Boss’s Daughter Preview

When the time machine settles, the crew look at each other in trepidation. What the hell just happened? One second it looked like they were gonna make it home and now… where are they? Outside appears to be none other than… “Rallston Academy?” Patrick says in disbelief. They all recognize the legendary front gates of Kelley Morse’s private high school from Here on Earth. But when they look closer the gates don’t say “Rallston” at all. They say “Hallston.” Weird. In the distance they see the husk of what was once a place called Table’s Table, now burned down. Just outside are two young men, shirtless and scarfing down some sandwiches. Just a couple of best friends without a care in the world. “No, no, no, this is all wrong! Hallston? Table’s Table? Kelley and Jasper are supposed to hate each other! We have to go back!” Jamie screams, but as he attempts to mash the buttons of the time machine he realizes that the whole thing is as burned out as Table’s Table, the local… table shop? “Maybe this is OK.” Patrick says hopefully, “See? There’s the sheriff. He’s probably going to give Kelley a real once over about dating his daughter Sam.” But after piling out of the time machine and making their way over to Table’s Table they are appalled by what they find. Not one but two sheriffs. Opposite, and yet both so against the rulez. On their chests gleam badges with the names “Bangers” and “Mash” in big gold letters. And they’re not insisting Kelley and Jasper can’t date their daughters… they’re insisting that they DO date their daughters (both of course named Sam). Jamie’s eyes are wild, looking for an escape, but Patrick stops him. “This is why we’re here,” he says calmly. That’s right! While Jamie and Patrick are dealing with some Sheriff daughter problems in another dimension, we are dealing with My Boss’s Daughter, an early 2000’s laugh riot from Dimension Films starring Ashton Kutcher. Looks like a hoot (spoiler alert). Let’s go!

My Boss’s Daughter (2003) – BMeTric: 68.5; Notability: 43

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 3.6%; Notability: top 15.6%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 3.4%; Higher BMeT: The Room, Gigli, House of the Dead, The Cat in the Hat, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, From Justin to Kelly, Kangaroo Jack, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde; Higher Notability: The Matrix Revolutions, Bad Boys II, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Brother Bear, Scary Movie 3, Timeline, Hollywood Homicide, Gods and Generals, Tears of the Sun, The Cat in the Hat, Paycheck, The Haunted Mansion, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Cradle 2 the Grave, Duplex, Wonderland, Agent Cody Banks, The Jungle Book 2, Dreamcatcher, and 19 more; Lower RT: Dorm Daze, The Foreigner, Hangman’s Curse, Gold Diggers, House of the Dead, Gigli, Kangaroo Jack, From Justin to Kelly; Notes: Wow, still three pretty excellently bad films left from 2000 with a higher BMeTric. This is a very high BMeTric. Not surprising, just a bit off the radar since I can’t think of another time I thought of doing this film. Really high Notability for a comedy as well I think.

Leonard Maltin – BOMB – Smitten with the title girl of his dreams (Reid), Kutcher is trapped into house-sitting for her wealthy father, a clean-freak who warns him against letting the inevitable happen: the thorough trashing of the family mansion. The leads have no chemistry in this trendily crude comedy that makes a short running time seem longer than the uncut Greed. This sat on the shelf for a couple of years before being dumped on the market.

(Greed is a 1924 film by Erich von Strodhein based on the novel McTeague. The original cut was nearly 9 hours long, but is now lost, sometimes claimed to be the greatest film ever made (at least by that time). A four hour reconstruction was created in 1999. Oh … this film? It looks like trash, but amazing that Leonard pulls in a ref to Greed while reviewing My Boss’s Daughter starring Tara Reid.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kubIMUboWs/

(The music! Oh boy they spoil the only good joke in the film with the owl names OJ after OJ Simpson while being oblivious to him being accused of murder. And yeah, looks like unfunny garbage of course.)

Directors – David Zucker – ( Known For: Airplane!; The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!; Top Secret!; BASEketball; The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear; Ruthless People; Future BMT: Scary Movie 3; Scary Movie 4; An American Carol; BMT: Scary Movie V; My Boss’s Daughter; Notes: Nominated for an Emmy for Police Squad! As is obvious he was the BIG name in spoof films in the 80s, but ultimately his career craters in the 90s.)

Writers – David Dorfman – ( Known For: Anger Management; BMT: My Boss’s Daughter; Notes: I forgot that they made an Anger Management television series starring Charlie Sheen a few years ago.)

Actors – Ashton Kutcher – ( Known For: No Strings Attached; Spread; Open Season; Guess Who; A Lot Like Love; Bobby; Personal Effects; Coming Soon; Future BMT: The Butterfly Effect; Annie; Dude, Where’s My Car?; Just Married; Reindeer Games; BMT: Cheaper by the Dozen; Killers; The Guardian; What Happens in Vegas; New Year’s Eve; Valentine’s Day; Jobs; Down to You; My Boss’s Daughter; Texas Rangers; Razzie Notes: Winner for Worst Actor in 2011 for Killers, and Valentine’s Day; Nominee for Worst Actor in 2004 for Cheaper by the Dozen, Just Married, and My Boss’s Daughter; and in 2014 for Jobs; and Nominee for Worst Screen Couple for What Happens in Vegas in 2009; Notes: His last feature film that actually came out was in 2014. He seems like he is basically a venture capitalist at this point. He does have a few different films slated to come out in the next few years though.)

Tara Reid – ( Known For: American Pie; The Big Lebowski; American Pie 2; Cruel Intentions; American Reunion; The Hungover Games; Josie and the Pussycats; The Crow: Wicked Prayer; A Return to Salem’s Lot; Body Shots; Dr. T & the Women; Ouija House; Charlie’s Farm; Girl; Last Call; Devil’s Pond; I Woke Up Early the Day I Died; The Fields; Knots; Andy the Talking Hedgehog; Future BMT: Van Wilder; Just Visiting; BMT: Urban Legend; Alone in the Dark; My Boss’s Daughter; Notes: Her brother has his own production company. She’s basically just in terrible non-films like Sharknado now.)

Andy Richter – ( Known For: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; Madagascar; Marcel the Shell with Shoes On; Blades of Glory; Elf; Penguins of Madagascar; Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa; The Cat Returns; Big Trouble; Dr. Dolittle 2; Girlfriend’s Day; Cabin Boy; Run Ronnie Run; Dr. T & the Women; Lenny the Wonder Dog; Seeing Other People; The Thin Pink Line; Frank McKlusky, C.I.; Future BMT: Scary Movie 2; Semi-Pro; Pootie Tang; Aliens in the Attic; BMT: New York Minute; My Boss’s Daughter; Notes: Long time co-host for Conan, he had quite a few television shows of his own, including Andy Barker P.I. As part of Conan he was nominated for seven Emmy awards, although never won.)

Budget/Gross – $14,000,000 / Domestic: $15,550,605 (Worldwide: $18,191,005)

(I mean, that is terrible. No wonder we never got that hotly anticipated sequel to My Boss’s Daughter. That would have definitely been My Boss’s Granddaughter right?)

Rotten Tomatoes – 8% (6/74): Offensive, incoherent, and ineptly acted and directed.

(Oh boy. Offensive is the worst. How many slurs do you think I hear while watching this film. Over/under an even dozen?)

Reviewer Highlight: Zucker … directs this mess like a substitute teacher soldiering through a day’s work for a day’s pay at a decertified school. – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Poster – Tom Stanfield’s Great Owl Adventure

(This is like a poster for a kids movie… but worse. I dare say nothing about this is good other than the fact that it doesn’t burn my eyes like acid. D-.)

Tagline(s) – There are some things you just don’t do. (D+)

(Oh boy… I mean this one hurts. No, I understand it. It’s just really a poor choice aesthetically. It honestly doesn’t even work in the way that they want it to. Like I think it’s one of those taglines where you are meant to read it along with the title and they mix together to create a beautiful stew. But the “you” in the tagline and the “My” in the title are like oil and water. Boooooo. There is just enough cleverness here to save it from really basement level stuff, but barely.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

Future BMT: 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 77.4 Who’s Your Caddy? (2007), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 70.6 Halloween II (2009), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 66.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 64.9 Scary Movie 4 (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005)

Best Options (Comedy): 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 77.4 Who’s Your Caddy? (2007), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 68.6 My Boss’s Daughter (2003), 64.9 Scary Movie 4 (2006), 61.8 Cursed (2005), 58.6 Scary Movie 2 (2001), 55.3 Fame (2009), 51.4 Scary Movie 3 (2003), 49.3 Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), 44.6 Boys and Girls (2000), 41.7 Bad Santa 2 (2016), 37.0 The Brothers Grimm (2005), 35.3 I Got the Hook Up (1998), 33.1 School for Scoundrels (2006), 30.5 Gunmen (1993), 27.3 Senseless (1998), 18.2 Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

(And there we are again, hitting up probably the best actual film for the category. Who’s Your Caddy is like a fake film. Really cleaning up that ‘00 to ‘05 era of Dimension.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 15) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Tara Reid is No. 2 billed in My Boss’s Daughter and No. 6 billed in Urban Legend, which also stars Alicia Witt (No. 1 billed) who is in 88 Minutes (No. 2 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (2 + 6) + (1 + 2) + (3 + 1) = 15. If we were to watch Must Love Dogs, and The Glass House we can get the HoE Number down to 14.

Notes – The 16 March 2001 draft of the screenplay lists David Zucker and Peter Tilden as writers. Tilden is not credited in the final film and Zucker only receives a directing credit.

Awards – Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Ashton Kutcher, 2004)

Halloween: Resurrection Preview

Jamie and Patrick aren’t just surviving the game, they are thriving the game. Using their elite speed and beautiful minds, they outwit and outpace Future Mikey #1 at every turn. “Well that was easy,” Patrick says as they arrive at Future Mikey #2’s time machine with time to spare. FM2 wishes them safe travels. Mikey Myers, so thankful for their help fulfilling his destiny as a teen heartthrob, gifts them a golden microphone. Jamie and Patrick eye it curiously. Parsons and Ty even show up and give them a goodbye hug. “I wish I could come with you,” Ty says, “when you arrived I was so lost, ready to throw everything away in the name of art. You gave me… sniff… back… art.” He is sobbing and it’s very uncomfortable, so they are more than happy to tell him that it’s not him it’s them and he has to stay and help out or whatever. Just as they are about to board the time machine they hear a noise behind them. Around the corner jogs LePumice, huffing and puffing, sweat streaming down his face. “Oh right, we almost forgot…” but before Jamie can finish telling LePumice how forgettable he is, a bullet zings off the concrete above his left shoulder. FM1 is rounding the corner. A large neon sign of Mikey Myers’ face explodes as FM1 misses again to their right. Just as he sets his feet and readies another shot, Jamie, Patrick, and LePumice jump into the time machine. But before they can press the button for home, Ty jumps in too, bumping Patrick and sending the time machine into overdrive. The control panel warps, the world around them becomes a blur and the last thing they hear is “Never forget meeeeeee….” from Mikey Myers. That’s right! We are well on our way to completing the Halloween series, which ends up with a surprising number of BMT qualifying films. This time we enjoy the first soft reboot with the non-qualifying H20: Twenty Years Later and then the very much qualifying Halloween: Resurrection. This also help bridge from rapper-turned-actor cycle (Busta Rhymes is in Halloween: Resurrection) to our next cycle, the alternate dimension. Oooo, spooky. But not really. We just enjoyed the Dimension Films features in this last cycle so much that we decided to make a whole cycle around that one production company. Let’s go!

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) – BMeTric: 85.4; Notability: 40

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 0.8%; Notability: top 16.4%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 10.2%; Higher BMeT: Crossroads, Rollerball; Higher Notability: Men in Black II, The Time Machine, Scooby-Doo, Star Trek: Nemesis, Dragonfly, The Master of Disguise, John Q, Unconditional Love, Showtime, Collateral Damage, Rollerball, I Spy, The Country Bears, The Truth About Charlie, Queen of the Damned, The Tuxedo, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Maid in Manhattan, The New Guy, Bad Company, and 21 more; Lower RT: Killing Me Softly, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Hansel & Gretel, Ritual, Derailed, Try Seventeen, The Master of Disguise, Deuces Wild, Feardotcom, Half Past Dead, Rollerball, Darkness, Serving Sara, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Boat Trip, The New Guy, Dragonfly, Stealing Harvard, Juwanna Mann, Bad Company, and 4 more; Notes: That BMeTric is gaudy. Like … this would have been a shoe-in early BMT I feel like, except that you have to watch 7 other movies before you get to it. The IMDb rating being below 4.0 is insane.

Leonard Maltin – 1.5 stars – Six young people are chosen to spend a night in Michael Myers’ childhood home, with Web cams watching their every move. Mayhem ensues. Forget logic, story construction, consistency of characterization – the filmmakers certainly did! This movie franchise shoulda stayed dead. Curtis is only here for her name value; the director appears as a college professor.

(It certainly should have stayed dead. I am really itching to change that to “webcam”, but I’m going to resist, it is a mark of this clearly being a relatively old review. I can’t believe this isn’t a BOMB, where does the half star come from I wonder.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMV3pcxbcTA

(Well that looks atrocious. Interesting that Curtis isn’t in the trailer very much. I would have imagined they would have played up her (small) involvement more.)

Directors – Rick Rosenthal – ( Known For: Bad Boys; Nearing Grace; Distant Thunder; Just a Little Harmless Sex; Drones; Future BMT: Russkies; American Dreamer; BMT: Halloween II; Halloween: Resurrection; Notes: Notably also directed the second film. Nominated for 2 Emmys for Transparent.)

Writers – Debra Hill – ( Known For: Halloween; Halloween; The Fog; Escape from L.A.; Halloween H20: 20 Years Later; Future BMT: Halloween Kills; Halloween; BMT: Halloween II; The Fog; Halloween: Resurrection; Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers; Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers; Notes: Long time collaborator with Carpenter. Died in 2005.)

John Carpenter – ( Known For: Halloween; They Live; Halloween; Escape from New York; The Fog; Prince of Darkness; Escape from L.A.; Halloween H20: 20 Years Later; Assault on Precinct 13; Dark Star; Assault on Precinct 13; Eyes of Laura Mars; Black Moon Rising; Future BMT: Lockout; Halloween Kills; Halloween; BMT: Ghosts of Mars; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Halloween II; The Fog; Halloween: Resurrection; Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers; Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers; Notes: 84 years old and kicking. I was in Edinburgh once and there were advertisements for a concert by John Carpenter, but the dates didn’t work.)

Larry Brand – ( Known For: A Perfect Man; Backfire; The Girl on the Train; The Drifter; The Right Temptation; Masque of the Red Death; Overexposed; BMT: Halloween: Resurrection; Notes: Just died in 2019. He got his start in Hollywood as the assistant and driver to Orson Welles.)

Sean Hood – ( Known For: Cube²: Hypercube; The Crow: Wicked Prayer; Midnight Movie; BMT: Conan the Barbarian; The Legend of Hercules; Halloween: Resurrection; Notes: Started as a set dresser on Twin Peaks. He ended up with an in at Dimension where he landed this as one of his first major scripts.)

Actors – Jamie Lee Curtis – ( Known For: Everything Everywhere All at Once; Knives Out; My Girl; Halloween; Trading Places; True Lies; Halloween; Escape from New York; A Fish Called Wanda; Freaky Friday; The Fog; Veronica Mars; Forever Young; Halloween H20: 20 Years Later; Prom Night; From Up on Poppy Hill; The Tailor of Panama; Spare Parts; Beverly Hills Chihuahua; Terror Train; Future BMT: Halloween Kills; You Again; My Girl 2; Drowning Mona; House Arrest; BMT: Perfect; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Halloween II; Halloween: Resurrection; Virus; Christmas with the Kranks; Notes: Only agreed to be in the film if they killed her off, although there wasn’t much she could do about it, she was contractually obligated to appear in the sequel to H20.)

Busta Rhymes – ( Known For: Shaft; Higher Learning; Finding Forrester; Narc; The Rugrats Movie; Who’s the Man?; Breaking Point; Full Clip; King of the Dancehall; BMT: Halloween: Resurrection; Notes: Born Trevor George Smith Jr., his nickname came from George “Buster” Rhymes and was given to him by Chuck D.)

Brad Loree – ( Known For: X2: X-Men United; Timecop; Battle in Seattle; Crackerjack; Icarus; The Keeper; Heart of America; American Dragons; The Final Cut; BMT: White Chicks; Halloween: Resurrection; Texas Rangers; Notes: Plays Michael Myers in this, so not exactly a headline role in reality. He mostly is a stunt coordinator and was on this film as well.)

Budget/Gross – $13,000,000 / Domestic: $30,354,442 (Worldwide: $37,664,855)

(That is actually pretty fine. They really went for the low budget on this to try and get a return. I’m quite surprised that at that point Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t demanding more for her role, but I guess maybe it was a deal having to do with H20.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 12% (8/67): The only thing this tired slasher flick may resurrect is nostalgia for when the genre was still fresh and scary.

(I actually can’t believe it has 8 good reviews. There are reviewers who describe the effects as “cool”. That is absurd. This movie looks like trash.)

Reviewer Highlight: It’s so devoid of joy and energy it makes even Jason X … look positively Shakespearean by comparison. – Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Poster – Halloween: MichaelMyers.com

(Not the worst poster, given the film is a joke. Feels more like I Know What You Did Last Summer than a Halloween poster, though. Still, somewhat artistic. It feels weird that I don’t hate this. B- seems high, but I’ll roll with it.)

Tagline(s) – Evil Finds Its Way Home. (C)

(I think I understand the meaning of the tagline. It’s short, too, so that’s nice. But it’s pretty much anti-clever.)

Keyword(s) – dimension

Top 10: Sin City (2005), Spectre (2015), The Others (2001), Scream (1996), Equilibrium (2002), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), The Mist (2007), Death Proof (2007), 1408 (2007), Scary Movie (2000)

Future BMT: 86.5 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005), 82.8 Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), 77.4 Who’s Your Caddy? (2007), 76.9 Superhero Movie (2008), 70.6 Halloween II (2009), 70.1 Black Christmas (2006), 68.6 My Boss’s Daughter (2003), 68.6 Pulse (2006), 66.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 64.9 Scary Movie 4 (2006)

BMT: Scary Movie V (2013), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Highlander: Endgame (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Phantoms (1998), Texas Rangers (2001), Mindhunters (2004)

Best Options (rappers): 85.4 Halloween: Resurrection (2002), 51.4 Scary Movie 3 (2003), 35.3 I Got the Hook Up (1998), 17.3 In Too Deep (1999)

(Ohhhhhh yeah. This is the new “keyword” plot, which is, in reality, a cycle plot. It is meant to track our progress through the cycle. You might notice some of the upcoming films in the Future BMT section. And then in the top 10 sub-category section it is displaying the options we had for this category. And look at that, not surprisingly this guy was our best option as ranked by BMeTric. Bully for us.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 12) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Jamie Lee Curtis is No. 1 billed in Halloween: Resurrection and No. 2 billed in Christmas with the Kranks, which also stars Tim Allen (No. 1 billed) who is in Jungle 2 Jungle (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 6 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (1 + 2) + (1 + 1) + (6 + 1) = 12. There is no shorter path at the moment.

Notes – Jamie Lee Curtis hated the idea of a sequel, as she felt that Laurie had a satisfying ending in the previous film. She initially refused to be in this film, until she ultimately agreed to do her part, only under the condition that she is killed off in the opening of the film so as to make sure her character, Laurie Strode (or herself) wouldn’t appear in another sequel.

Jamie Lee Curtis was quoted as saying she considered this film a joke.

Was first named “Halloween: The Homecoming”, but producers wanted a title that said Michael Myers is alive so in February 2002, the film was officially named Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

Originally, the executives of Miramax wanted to continue the series by creating a whole new story of which didn’t have anything to do with Michael Myers after the last film, in a similar manner to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). However, poll results conducted throughout fan websites proved to the producers that fans wanted Michael Myers to return again.

Several new endings were written during production and the cast was never sure how the film was actually going to end. Four different endings were filmed, and the director wanted the studio to ship a different ending to each theater, a technique used before during the theatrical release of Clue (1985). However, the studio disagreed and the endings now appear on the DVD and Blu-ray.

Jamie Lee Curtis appears on the movie cover with short hair, despite having long hair in the film. If looked at more closely, one can easily tell that it’s the same picture of her that was used for the poster of the previous film, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

Bianca Kajlich’s scream had to be dubbed in post production.

While in the asylum, Laurie Strode has a Raggedy Ann doll. In the original movie, she had a similar Raggedy Ann doll on the dresser in her bedroom.

The only one movie to establish Michael Myers’ birth date: October 19, 1957.

Michael’s use of a spiked leg of a tripod as a weapon is an homage to Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960).

Surviving the Game Preview

Just as Future Mikey #1 is approaching Jamie and Patrick to figuratively rip out their hearts, Repo Men style (as the kids say), they hear someone say, “Don’t you lay a finger on those butterfingers, baby.” They all stare slack-jawed as Future Mikey #2 unexpectedly kicks Future Mikey #1 in the testicles… hard. They all laugh, obviously, and then turn their attention to Future Mikey #2. “I think we all are on the same page now,” begins Jamie, “Nice to meet you Future Mikey who was a teenhearthrob-turned-timecop.” Future Mikey #2 nods his head. It’s true, unbeknownst to Future Mikey #1 he had inadvertently crossed the time-stream (pardon the technical term) and picked up a Future Mikey timecop who held the Bad Movie Twins in the highest esteem. “I bided my time, waiting till I could help you by taking you… back to the future.” They all chuckle and sigh. Anyway, time to get going. But before they can get in their PT Cruiser time machine they hear a chilling gurgling sound from behind them. It’s Future Mikey #1! He’s on his feet, pistol in hand, blood pouring from his nose and mouth as a result of his crushed testes. “You… you… can’t stop the future.” But before he can shoot a microphone spins into view and knocks the pistol slightly off target. Mikey Myers has caught up just in time to save the day! The bullet ricochets off a nearby hot dog cart, back through the window of the PT Cruiser, and destroys the control panel in a shower of sparks. “Quick, we’ll have to get to my time machine,” Future Mikey #2 says before looking back Future Mikey #1, now reloading his pistol. “If we can survive.” That’s right! We are watching the Ice-T classic that everyone remembers is a film. It’s called Surviving the Game and is one of several Most Dangerous Game adaptations that have washed up on BMT shores over the years. We are pairing it with another Ice-T straight-to-dvd film called Sonic Impact. Why? Mostly because it looks rad and was so hard to find I ended up having to buy it used. Can’t go wrong with a plane flick. Let’s go!

Surviving the Game (1994) – BMeTric: 20.7; Notability: 24

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 30.0%; Notability: top 32.0%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 26.5%; Higher BMeT: Street Fighter, Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Junior, The Next Karate Kid, Double Dragon, On Deadly Ground, The Flintstones, It’s Pat: The Movie, North, The Fantastic Four, Leprechaun 2, 3 Ninjas Kick Back, Exit to Eden, In the Army Now, Color of Night, Richie Rich, Car 54, Where Are You?, Blank Check, My Girl 2, and 55 more; Higher Notability: The Flintstones, The Shadow, Wyatt Earp, Beverly Hills Cop III, Love Affair, Ready to Wear, North, Radioland Murders, I Love Trouble, The Pagemaster, Exit to Eden, Little Giants, Street Fighter, Drop Zone, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Speechless, Junior, Thumbelina, The Scout, The Specialist, and 60 more; Lower RT: Wagons East, Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, House Party 3, Death Wish: The Face of Death, It’s Pat: The Movie, The Silence of the Hams, Holy Matrimony, Car 54, Where Are You?, Getting Even with Dad, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Major League II, Exit to Eden, Trapped in Paradise, Lightning Jack, In the Army Now, Leprechaun 2, The Specialist, The Next Karate Kid, Trial by Jury, Blank Check, and 42 more; Notes: Hmmmm, maybe a cult classic then. Above 6.0 for a film like this is interesting. One of the lower notability / BMeTric films we’ve done in a while. Should be fun.

Leonard Maltin – 1.5 stars – Only the absence of Maria Conchita Alonso keeps this umpteenth variation of The Most Dangerous Game from having the definitive schlock action cast, as destitute Ice-T is unwittingly hired to perform vague duties at a secluded woodsy resort, only to learn he’s the prey of high-roller hunters. Sub-routine chase pic is Confusion City all the way; it’s difficult to believe that the same plot could be recycled less than a year after John Woo’s far more stylish Hard Target.

(Hard Target was good. Also, return of the semicolon! Oh how I’ve missed you my old friend. And finally, nice to see Maltin definitively not thinking this is a cult classic. Makes a lot of sense. Maltin reveres old Hollywood pictures it feels like, so a useless remake of a classic isn’t going to sit super well with him.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SdUm-xFu38/

(Yeah, looks like crap. Insane Gary Busey though. That could be fun. A bit of an odd choice for an ensemble cast, but I guess you need bodies if Ice-T is going to kill a bunch of people.)

Directors – Ernest R. Dickerson – ( Known For: Juice; Ambushed; Double Play; Blind Faith; Future BMT: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight; BMT: Surviving the Game; Bulletproof; Bones; Never Die Alone; Notes: We’ve seen a lot of his films in the last year. I mentioned in the Bones preview that he is most notable for being Spike Lee’s cinematographer on a his early films.)

Writers – Eric Bernt – ( Known For: The Echo; Future BMT: Virtuosity; The Hitcher; BMT: Romeo Must Die; Surviving the Game; Highlander: Endgame; Notes: Virtuosity is basically the only bad 90s future film we haven’t seen for BMT. Produced the television series Z Nation.)

Actors – Rutger Hauer – ( Known For: Batman Begins; Blade Runner; Sin City; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; The Sisters Brothers; Iron Mask; The Osterman Weekend; Ladyhawke; The Hitcher; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; Flesh+Blood; Split Second; Nighthawks; Hobo with a Shotgun; Turkish Delight; Minotaur; Blind Fury; 24 Hours to Live; Spetters; Soldier of Orange; Future BMT: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Samson; Wanted: Dead or Alive; The Letters; BMT: The Rite; Surviving the Game; Notes: My lockdown sourdough starter was names Rutger Sour. He’s Dutch. Was in the military, but forced his way out by convincing his superiors that he was mentally unfit for service.)

Ice-T – ( Known For: The Other Guys; New Jack City; Ricochet; CB4; Trespass; Ticker; Who’s the Man?; Mean Guns; Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn; Below Utopia; Ablaze; ‘R Xmas; Final Voyage; Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang; Sonic Impact; What Now; Corrupt; The Alternate; The Wrecking Crew; Future BMT: Tank Girl; UglyDolls; Breakin’; Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo; BMT: Johnny Mnemonic; 3000 Miles to Graceland; Surviving the Game; Notes: Also was in the military, but dropped out after four years to pursue music. Was one of the originators of Gansta Rap, and now is probably more well-known as an actor on Law & Order: SVU.)

Charles S. Dutton – ( Known For: Se7en; A Time to Kill; Alien 3; Menace II Society; Secret Window; Mimic; Mississippi Masala; Rudy; Cat’s Eye; Eye See You; Q&A; Bad Ass; The Express; Cookie’s Fortune; Jacknife; Get on the Bus; Cry, the Beloved Country; The Monkey’s Paw; Honeydripper; American Violet; Future BMT: Legion; Gothika; The Perfect Guy; Nick of Time; A Low Down Dirty Shame; Fame; The Distinguished Gentleman; Last Dance; Against the Ropes; BMT: Crocodile Dundee II; Surviving the Game; Random Hearts; Black Dog; No Mercy; Notes: He won three Emmys for The Corner (Directing), The Practice, and Without a Trace (both as a Guest Star). Went to Yale. Was originally supposed to be in Halloween: H20, but his role was eventually cut.)

Budget/Gross – $7.4 million / Domestic: $7,727,256 (Worldwide: $7,727,256)

(Huh … like not a bomb? It is wild that a film like this could make nearly $10 million. It seems like a direct-to-video effort through and through.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 24% (4/17)

(Oh boy, I get to make a consensus: Poorly written with absurd action sequences, Surviving the Game is merely yet-another derivative action flick.)

Reviewer Highlight: Essentially, the movie is Cliffhanger with one third the firepower. – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Poster – Sklogifying the Game

(Wooooowwwwww. That’s bad. Like real bad. The colors are bad. That spacing is bad. Nothing makes sense. It creates more questions than answers. Only positive is a little font work. D.)

Tagline(s) – The thrill is the kill. (A)

(I mean, I can’t deny that it is a fun tagline. The thing that bothers me a little is that the poster and the tagline kinda, you know, give me the unsettling feeling that the makers of the movie kinda were digging Ice-T getting hunted. He barely appears on the poster and he’s the hero. Everyone else are trash people who hunt people… but yeah, the thrill of the kill, for sure. Still can’t dock it much on moral grounds. It’s a good tagline.)

Keyword(s) – hunting, survival

Top 10: The Blue Lagoon (1980), Avatar (2009), The Hunger Games (2012), Split (2016), The Hunt (2020), Predator (1987), Apocalypto (2006), Jurassic World (2015), Ice Age (2002), Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Future BMT: 34.0 Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), 30.4 Wrong Turn (2003), 27.6 The Legend of Tarzan (2016), 12.4 Brother Bear (2003)

BMT: The Blue Lagoon (1980), Dreamcatcher (2003), The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Surviving the Game (1994)

Matches: Surviving the Game (1994)

(Decided to go for the double. Very interesting that it seems like a boom in the 00s/10s, although I couldn’t possibly give you a solid theory as to why. Out of the possible upcoming BMTs I would be most excited for Wrong Turn.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 13) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Charles S. Dutton is No. 3 billed in Surviving the Game and No. 3 billed in Random Hearts, which also stars Harrison Ford (No. 1 billed) who is in Hollywood Homicide (No. 1 billed) which also stars Josh Hartnett (No. 2 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 3 billed) => (3 + 3) + (1 + 1) + (2 + 3) = 13. There is no shorter path at the moment.

Notes – According to Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey wrote his entire dinner monologue about the origin of his scar himself. The script had several scenes of Hauer’s character Burns establishing his natural leadership by reminding the other hunters to abide by his rules. Originally, the dinner scene would be the moment where he puts Busey’s character Doc back in his place. However, on the day of rehearsals, Busey came up with a two-page monologue about his dog that he wanted to try out. Hauer felt that Busey was obviously trying to steal his scene away by not giving him a chance to intervene in his monologue. So during the actual filming, Hauer improvised a quick response to the story by calling it “bullshit”, which greatly confused Busey. However, Busey’s delivery so impressed the director and the other actors that his monologue was kept in the final film, and Hauer’s retort wasn’t used.

This movie was released less than a year after Hard Target (1993), with a similar plot about homeless people being hunted for sport.

The landing strip and cabin seen in the movie are at Lake Wenatchee State Airport, Washington, which is very close to civilization. The cabin has since been torn down.

While staying in Wenatchee, Washington in September 1993 during the shooting of this movie, F. Murray Abraham was injured in a car crash, suffering a fractured wrist, bruised ribs, and facial lacerations, after he was struck by a drunk driver.

Almost all of the “city” scenes were filmed in downtown Wenatchee, Washington. Most scenes were filmed with a two-block perimeter of Mission, Orondo, Palouse, and Columbia streets, plus the alley behind the Liberty Theater off of Mission Street. The area includes the infamous Bruce Hotel, which became Bruce Transitional Housing for the homeless in the early 2000s.

This is one of numerous movies based on the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, written by Richard Connell, first published in 1924 in Collier’s Magazine.

Despite being bookended by scenes set in Seattle, Washington, not a single frame of the movie was actually shot there.

The same year this movie was released, Ice-T’s metal band Body Count recorded an unrelated song with the title “Surviving the Game”, which appeared on their second album, “Born Dead”.

While traveling to the campsite in the plane…Jack Mason ( Ice T ) looks out the window…Below was an Albino moose… In Canada, it is a unique variety and is considered by the local population and good luck to the indigenous culture.

Repo Men Preview

“Looks like you didn’t expect this, Bad Movie Twins,” says Future Mikey #1. “Come on, dummies. We’re time cops. There is no limit to our power,” laughs Future Mikey #2. Jamie and Patrick despair. If they escape this, Mikey can just come back with however many time cops he needs. They contemplate their options. But even as they are doing it, a loud crackling screech comes from a nearby stage. Parsons, Ty, and Mikey Myers are up there and launch into an impromptu poolside concert. Suddenly teenyboppers are swarming and the Future Mikey’s are swept away in the crowd. Mikey is crooning his latest hit, “Run, Run From Your Heart” and Jamie, Patrick and LePumice do just that as they dash into the casino. It’s churning with bodies as they weave their way to where they parked the PT Cruiser. They let out a heavy sigh of relief as the purple sheen of the car comes into sight. Just as quickly their hearts fall. On the wheel is a boot labeled Time Cop Industries. They spin around, confronted once again with the two Future Mikey’s. “Poor, pathetic Bad Movie Twins. Did you really think a puny concert like that would stop us? Did you think we wouldn’t see through your sad excuse for a PT Cruiser disguise for your time machine? Sure, metallic purple PT Cruisers are everywhere. Wildly popular for a reason: they are rad. But your license plate is HOE4EVER. Either you’re a very excited farmer or you are the Here on Earth megafans we know you to be.” Jamie and Patrick curse their misfortune. They didn’t even order a vanity plate. That plate came with the car. What bad luck! “Prepare,” the Future Mikey’s say, “because we’re about to rip out your heart.” That’s right! We’re watching the 2010 film Repo Men (not to be confused with Repo Man) starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and featuring RZA in a minor role. It’s set in the future where people get organ transplants on a payment plan and… well… I think you get it. Let’s go!

Repo Men (2010) – BMeTric: 24.2; Notability: 52

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 25.6%; Notability: top 6.4%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 20.0%; Higher BMeT: The Last Airbender, Vampires Suck, Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Skyline, Sex and the City 2, Furry Vengeance, Jonah Hex, Gulliver’s Travels, Marmaduke, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Yogi Bear, Tekken, My Soul to Take, Tooth Fairy, Legion, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Why Did I Get Married Too?, Passion Play, The Back-up Plan, Killers, and 44 more; Higher Notability: Clash of the Titans, The Wolfman, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Valentine’s Day, Sex and the City 2, The Tourist, Gulliver’s Travels, Marmaduke, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Tooth Fairy, The Last Airbender, Little Fockers, Shanghai, All Good Things, Eat Pray Love, Burlesque; Lower RT: Tekken, Passion Play, Twelve, 6 Souls, Shanghai, Vampires Suck, The Last Airbender, The Tortured, Waiting for Forever, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, Furry Vengeance, 13, Crazy on the Outside, Marmaduke, Little Fockers, My Soul to Take, Saw: The Final Chapter, Killers, Grown Ups, Virginia, and 29 more; Notes: Love the Notability (how do you do that on a $30 million budget though?). The IMDb rating is stock still. 6.3 definitely in that “cult classic” territory where this film must have a decently devoted fanbase to it. Interesting, 17 films with higher Notabilities, and we’ve only seen five of them. That is crazy to think about.

RogerEbert.com – 2.0 stars – There are enough props in this movie to clean out the Organ Department at Moo & Oink’s. When I say they’re up to their elbows in blood, I mean it. This work takes its toll. Remy’s friend at work is a repo man named Jake, played by Forest Whitaker. Like most Forest Whitaker characters and Whitaker himself, he is a warm, nice man. I noticed for the second time in a week (after “Our Family Wedding”) that Whitaker has lost a lot of weight and looks great. I hope the extra pounds weren’t repo’ed.

(Moo and Oink’s funny. But what a weird way to end this review. Just a paragraph complimenting Whitaker for looking svelte.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl9Nvg4yuus/

(I mean, it isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I can see what people might find appealing about it. Feels a bit like Priest. Understandably interesting premise, but also understandably thin film in the end.)

Directors – Miguel Sapochnik – ( Known For: Finch; BMT: Repo Men; Notes: He’s directed mostly television including 6 episodes of Game of Thrones (for which he won two Emmys, one of which for directing the episode Battle of the Bastards).)

Writers – Eric Garcia – ( Known For: Matchstick Men; Strange But True; BMT: Repo Men; Notes: This book was optioned before it was completed, which makes sense since he had already had a book he wrote (Matchstick Men) optioned for a very successful film.)

Garrett Lerner – ( BMT: Repo Men; Notes: Almost exclusively a pretty big television writer (including for John Doe and Ordinary Joe). Nominated for four Emmys for his work on House M.D.)

Actors – Jude Law – ( Known For: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore; Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Captain Marvel; Gattaca; Contagion; The Talented Mr. Ripley; Road to Perdition; The Aviator; The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus; Closer; A.I. Artificial Intelligence; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Cold Mountain; Anna Karenina; Hugo; A Rainy Day in New York; Spy; The Holiday; Future BMT: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald; The Rhythm Section; King Arthur: Legend of the Sword; All the King’s Men; BMT: Repo Men; Notes: Born in London, and nominated for two Oscars (Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley). Playing Captain Hook in an upcoming adaptation of Peter Pan.)

Forest Whitaker – ( Known For: Black Panther; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; How It Ends; Arrival; Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Sorry to Bother You; Platoon; Panic Room; Good Morning, Vietnam; Where the Wild Things Are; The Butler; Southpaw; Bloodsport; The Crying Game; The Color of Money; Respect; Phone Booth; The Last King of Scotland; Out of the Furnace; City of Lies; Future BMT: Taken 3; Street Kings; Vantage Point; Blown Away; Consenting Adults; Ready to Wear; Our Family Wedding; Light It Up; BMT: Species; Battlefield Earth; First Daughter; Repo Men; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Supporting Actor for Battlefield Earth in 2001; Notes: Won an Oscar for The Last King of Scotland. Has said in interviews that he has considered corrective surgery for his eye, but that it was too late as it has become something of a trademark for him.)

Alice Braga – ( Known For: The Suicide Squad; Soul; City of God; I Am Legend; Elysium; Predators; On the Road; Redbelt; Blindness; Crossing Over; The Duel; Kill Me Three Times; Lower City; Journey to the End of the Night; Sólo Dios sabe; Ardor; O Cheiro do Ralo; Latitudes; Future BMT: The New Mutants; The Shack; BMT: The Rite; Repo Men; Notes: Brazilian. Is slated to appear in an upcoming murder mystery show called Retreat which sounds interesting.)

Budget/Gross – $32,000,000 / Domestic: $13,794,835 (Worldwide: $18,409,891)

(I mean … disastrous. How a film like this could only make $18 million is beyond me. And a rarity because it feels like $32 million is also a bargain on the budget as well considering the effects that it must have involved. Wild.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 22% (33/153): Repo Men has an intriguing premise, as well as a likable pair of leads, but they’re wasted on a rote screenplay, indifferent direction, and mind-numbing gore.

(Mind-numbing gore sounds about right for 2010. Right on the tail end of probably the worst (reviewed) decade in film history just from the perspective that there was actual junk being put into theaters on a regular basis. And not like Roger Corman junk, like big budget junk released to 2000 theaters. It mostly disappeared after 2010, probably due to streaming becoming a financially viable alternative. This would have definitely been a weird Netflix movie or series these days.)

Reviewer Highlight: There are plenty of moments when the appearance of a flying, green-glow Chevy Malibu would be a welcome distraction. – Keith Uhlich, Time Out

Poster – Beep-Boop Men

(I dig it. Fun font. Nice color scheme. Showing off your stars. Biggest complaints are that it’s not particularly interesting or artistic and it doesn’t tell me much about the film… so why would I be excited for it? B)

Tagline(s) – For a price, any organ in your body can be replaced. But it can also be repossessed. (F)

Consider them your final notice. (A)

(I feel like they needed these taglines because the poster wasn’t giving much information about the film. So the first one is like an elevator pitch. I hate it. Too long and boring. The second one is actually good. If the poster was better then they could have just used that one and really won the day. Cause it is short and sweet and good.)

Keyword(s) – future

Top 10: Dune (2021), The Adam Project (2022), Moonshot (2022), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Interstellar (2014), Dune (1984), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fifth Element (1997), Blade Runner (1982), The Hunger Games (2012)

Future BMT: 52.6 Tank Girl (1995), 51.9 Johnny Be Good (1988), 45.9 Virtuosity (1995), 45.6 Voyagers (2021), 44.4 Brick Mansions (2014), 42.2 Red Planet (2000), 35.0 The Ice Pirates (1984), 33.3 Lockout (2012), 30.4 Mortal Engines (2018), 30.3 Push (2009)

BMT: Barb Wire (1996), 2012 (2009), Event Horizon (1997), After Earth (2013), Demolition Man (1993), Lost in Space (1998), Dragonball Evolution (2009), The Postman (1997), Æon Flux (2005), Battlefield Earth (2000), RoboCop 2 (1990), Ghosts of Mars (2001), Judge Dredd (1995), Priest (2011), Cyborg (1989), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), RoboCop 3 (1993), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Soldier (1998), Repo Men (2010), Double Dragon (1994), Solarbabies (1986), Babylon A.D. (2008), Freejack (1992), Supernova (2000), The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), A Sound of Thunder (2005), Heartbeeps (1981)

Matches: Dune (2021), The Adam Project (2022), Moonshot (2022), Interstellar (2014), The Fifth Element (1997), Blade Runner (1982), Idiocracy (2006), Her (2013), Looper (2012), Black Panther (2018), Prometheus (2012), Starship Troopers (1997), In Time (2011), Alita: Battle Angel (2019), The Tomorrow War (2021), The Lobster (2015), Logan (2017), V for Vendetta (2005), The Terminator (1984), X-Men (2000), Star Trek (2009), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Master (2012), Oblivion (2013), 12 Monkeys (1995), WALL·E (2008), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), 2012 (2009), Mortal Engines (2018), Minority Report (2002), Waterworld (1995), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Mr. Nobody (2009), Back to the Future Part II (1989), I, Robot (2004), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Terminator Genisys (2015), Chappie (2015), Ghost in the Shell (2017), The Giver (2014), The Island (2005), Downsizing (2017), Demolition Man (1993), High Life (2018), Equilibrium (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Lost in Space (1998), Doomsday (2008), Surrogates (2009), Zone 414 (2021), Æon Flux (2005), Push (2009), The 6th Day (2000), Enemy Mine (1985), Ghosts of Mars (2001), Judge Dredd (1995), The Ice Pirates (1984), The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), City of Ember (2008), The Prototype (2022), Cyborg (1989), Paradise Hills (2019), Runaway (1984), Timecop (1994), Red Planet (2000), The Kid Who Would Be King (2019), Repo Men (2010), Double Dragon (1994), … (and many more)

(We have basically watched every “future” film released widely to theaters prior to 2000 according to this keyword except Virtuosity, Tank Girl, and The Ice Pirates. Virtuosity is the only real one left. Amazing we’ve left it so long.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 17) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Forest Whitaker is No. 2 billed in Repo Men and No. 3 billed in Battlefield Earth, which also stars John Travolta (No. 1 billed) who is in Wild Hogs (No. 2 billed) which also stars Tim Allen (No. 1 billed) who is in Jungle 2 Jungle (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 6 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (2 + 3) + (1 + 2) + (1 + 1) + (6 + 1) = 17. If we were to watch Jakob the Liar, Jack, and The Glass House we can get the HoE Number down to 14.

Notes – Moments before the filming of the Chinatown scene a crew member was approached by a local Chinese person who pointed out to him that all the neon signs with Chinese characters were upside down. A frantic rigging crew proceeded to flip all the signs while the shooting crew shot in the direction of the newly flipped signs.

In a scene showing the city a Fast and Furious X billboard can be seen.

The young Remy (Jude Law) seen during the school yard fight was played by Jude Law’s actual son, Raff Law.

Forest Whitaker has been studying Filipino Kali for several years under masters such as Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo. He utilizes his skills in several fight scenes in the film.

Note that Jude Law’s character does not have a name (a similar situation in the book). The mystery effect was somewhat ruined when marketing inserted a name for him in the film’s first trailer.

To secure a product placement deal with Volkswagen, the production was required to feature one of their cars for 9 minutes.

When Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are watching TV the Monty Python sketch about organ repo men is on the TV.

The film takes place in 2025.

There’s a scene showing a sign for Jarvik St. It’s actually Jarvis St. in Toronto. Jarvik is the name of the man who created the first artificial heart.

It has been widely speculated that Repo Men’s premise was lifted heavily from the rock opera/cult movie “Repo! The Genetic Opera”. Both stories center around a character in a dystopian future tasked with reposessing organs for a villainous corporation. The opera predates this film as well as the book it was based on, “Repossession Mambo”. However, apart from this basic premise, Repo! and Repo Men differ wildly, making such plagiarism accusations difficult to substantiate.

Part of the film’s promotion was a seven minute comic released on Apple.com.