Halloween H20


Halloween H20.  Halloween: 20 years later.  Not Halloween water.  Do not call it Halloween water.  Please don’t.  That’s downright annoying and, in my honest opinion, dumb.  I’m getting that out of the way so that I can move right on into this, my second favourite film in the original Halloween series, and perhaps the entire franchise.

Halloween H20 takes place twenty years after the first film.  Laurie Strode has faked her death and taken on the name Karen Tate, I believe.  She is headmistress of a private school in California.  Her seventeen year old son is one of the students.  When the majority of the students go to Yosemite on a trip, Michael shows up to hunt down his family once again, as well as anyone who stands in the way.

The thing most surprising about this instalment of the Halloween franchise is the people involved.  Of course you have Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role of Laurie Strode.  Joining her are Josh Hartnett as her son, Michelle Williams as his girlfriend, Janet Leigh as the school secretary, and LL Cool J as the gate keeper.  Also in a small role, Joseph Gordon-Levitt shows up in the opening scene.  Seems to me like this is a good cast for a slasher flick.

After watching Halloween 4-6, this instalment is definitely a step up.  The acting is better, the writing is better, and I dare say the direction is much better.  Quality wise, the seventh Halloween is leagues above Halloween 4, Halloween 5, and Halloween 6.  If I had to choose a Halloween film to take to a desert island and it wasn’t going to be the first, it would easily be this one.  This whole paragraph is me basically getting nasty with how much I like this movie.

The biggest issue I have with this movie, and it doesn’t bother me that much, is what happens with LL Cool J’s character.  Without spoiling anything I’m going to simply put it like this.  With how much he can take without consequences, he should have been put one on one against Michael Myers.

Big change in topic again.  Jamie Lee Curtis is kind of a badass in this movie.  I would put her on par with Sigourney Weaver in Aliens.  She protects her son, faces off against Michael Myers by herself, runs a school, and the final five minutes are crazy badass.  I can’t get in depth because I don’t like spoiling the ending of movies.  I love it.  Love it.  Love it.

I know that at some point Kevin Williamson was involved.  Does anyone out there know how much of what he wrote actually made it into the movie?  I’m kind of curious because a few of the scenes had dialogue that sounded very similar to Scream, without all of the meta aspects that come with that movie.  I’m really curious to know.

And on a completely different note...to all of you Canadians out there, I bid thee a merry Thanksgiving and hope you fill your stomachs to your stomach’s desires.  To all of you Americans out there, have a great Colombus Day night even though you only have the holiday because “Well, Canadians get the day off, so why not us too?”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is "Real Steel" Like "Over the Top"?

When I was going through my weekly movie binge a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon two movies that I had never seen before that tackled a very similar story.   It was an odd thing to have happen because I didn’t know of any similarities between the two movies.   The first was Real Steel, a movie about a man who participates in robot boxing while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   The second was Over the Top, a movie about a man who participates in arm wrestling while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   Similar?   I think so. Let’s begin with Real Steel.   I watched this one because, why the hell not?   I quite enjoyed the movie and by the end I was rooting for Hugh Jackman’s character to help his robot, Atom, to a victory.   The thing to point out about Real Steel is how good the visual effects were.   I wasn’t expecting too much going in, but I thought they masterfully crafted each robot in a way that it entirely fit its surroundings and didn’t
Read more

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 8: The Power Stealer

Image
Last time we sat down with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , Tommy was going through some serious stuff.   His powers were running low because Lord Zedd was targeting him.   He felt hopeless.   His friends were comforting him.   There was also a Robo Goat trying to take a powerful sword and use it against the Earth.   There were fights all over the place and an emotional hook that was unmatched in any episode that wasn’t in a multi-part arc. This episode, there might be follow-up to the Tommy storyline.   It would be nice to see more of the struggle with his powers.   Right now, that’s the one throughline that has been playing out.   II hope this episode continues to have some sort of meaning to the overall story, instead of being a self-contained and meaningless.   The show needs to grow and evolve, with a storyline that builds to something significant.   Having episodes that keep the story at a standstill is boring.   The story needs to move forward.   Will this episode d
Read more

A Short Description of how Baby's Day Out (1994) is a Live Action Cartoon

Image
Animated movies have been a large fixture throughout cinematic history.   There is currently an Academy Award category devoted entirely to animated features.   They are an important part of the cinematic landscape.   Movies would be completely different if not for the animated films that have been popular throughout the past century. Children have always been a large part of the popularity of cartoons.   This has not been solely a movie based genre.   Television also thrives on animated shows.   As a child, I can remember watching cartoons on Saturday mornings.   In the children’s cartoons, characters could be forced into dangerous predicaments, get injured or nearly killed, and continue on with their lives as if nothing ever happened to them.   This was the way of cartoons such as Looney Toons , where Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, and Yosemite Sam would always suffer great physical trauma, then return to their normal selves in the next scene. This is probably
Read more