Reviews by Kyle Ellis

Vikings is one of the rare shows where it is never dull and full of entertainment. It's a show with plenty of violence, drama, mystery, etc. The character development is what keeps the show fresh and interesting. It takes you into this world of Vikings and keeps you intrigued throughout the series. I just loved this show so much and even though it hasn't been gone that long I already miss it! Obviously, the first four seasons were better with Travis Fimmel as Ragnar, it was actually one of the best shows on tv with him, but the show was still pretty good after he left (as long as you try not to compare it to those first 4 seasons). It was brought to Amazon Prime Video for the final ten episodes and really got back on track to end the series on a real high note!

Every once in a while a special kind of bad movie appears that falls into the "so-bad-it's-good" subgenre of B-movies. There are plenty of B-movies that are entertaining due to the fact that their badness itself makes them interesting. The Godmonster of Indian Flats, The Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies, Blood Feast and of course the immortal Plan 9 From Outer Space are all low budget disasters that are as fascinating as they are terrible.

And it's not just low budget drive-in fare that fall into this category. Hollywood has produced more than its share of gargantuan exercises in laughable awfulness: Valley of the Dolls, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Michael Cimino's psychotic remake of The Desperate Hours, and even Richard Rush's unfortunate return to the director's chair, the bewildering Color of Night.

All these movies have something special in common. They're not just bad; they're insane. They're the work of a demented genius whose grandiose ideas of how to make an entertaining movie got lost in translation and resulted in the glorious mess that now spills across the screen. And for many fans, the infamous Troll 2 falls into this category.

Not me, however. No frigging way.

Troll 2 is mind-numbing. It is undoubtedly one of the worst movies ever made. I agree with that. Unlike the movies listed above, however, there is no joy to be found. Other than a few admittedly weird moments, Troll 2 is a movie completely devoid of entertainment value. The moronic dialog, juvenile acting, incoherent story, pedestrian direction, pathetic special effects and irritating music swallow up the few chuckle-worthy tidbits in a black hole of banality.

I tried to watch Troll 2 first not knowing of its cult following. Having found the original Troll moderately entertaining, I figured the second one would be another amusing little schlock fest. Needless to say, I was aghast at how dreadful it was. I watched it to the end only out of pure morbid curiosity. When it was over, I popped it out of the VCR, returned it to the video store and made a mental note to never watch it again. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Then I heard there was a Rocky Horror-like cult following that held festivals and attended theatrical screenings of the movie. I thought maybe I had missed something, so I went out and plopped down $10 for the double feature DVD of Troll and Troll 2. While Troll was the same oddball slice of cheese I recalled, watching Troll 2 again opened my eyes up to the true nature of the movie: it is even worse than I remembered. I recall finding it to be a terrible but harmless little movie that I had no interest in ever bothering with again.

But watching it a second time I was shocked at how offensive the movie is. Not because of the subject matter or gore, but because of the filmmakers' obvious contempt for their audience. This is a movie that tries to cash in on the success of Gremlins (and its subsequent low budget rip-offs) without bothering to put any effort at all into making it the least bit interesting or entertaining. The undeniably bizarre feel to the movie is not intentional on the part of the filmmakers, but the result of a perfect storm of bad writing, acting, directing and special effects.

There's none of the earnestness of Ed Wood, none of the enthusiasm of H.G. Lewis, none of the misplaced zeal of Ray Dennis Steckler that made their movies so entertaining; just the half-assed efforts of some lazy, inept hacks trying to make a quick buck.

Troll 2 sucks.

As said before, the 'Ernest' films will always garner a mixed reception, with people finding it easier than others to take them for what they are and how they execute what they set out to do (that's how my judgement on any film always fares). Rather than having any stereotypical notion of what a film of a certain genre or overall ought to do (there are no rules in film-making, people seem to forget that, not trying to be arrogant in any way, it just seems that way).

The 'Ernest' films are in no way perfect films. They are not even great films, they do have obvious flaws and it is easy to see why there are those who struggle to see the appeal in them and also the character of Ernest. However, to me, none of the films are bad and much better than reputed, though they are more guilty pleasure sort of films that still get a lot of enjoyment out of me. 'Ernest Scared Stupid' is the fourth film, this time celebrating Halloween (inevitable after 'Saves Christmas' celebrated Christmas), and celebrates it it does and in a fun way too.

Yes, there is something perfectly apt about putting stupid in the title because that is what 'Ernest Scared Stupid' is. Even for an 'Ernest' film the plot is incredibly dumb and sometimes contrived with a thin plot that would have been old-hat in the Laurel and Hardy and Three Stooges days. Like most 'Ernest' films, not all the humour works with some of the slapstick oriented scenes being tiring.

Despite great production design and surprisingly not bad special effects, the cheap camera work mars things somewhat. And apart from Jim Varney and Eartha Kitt, the cast are not particularly memorable with the performances of the children being pretty grating.

However, as aforementioned, there is some atmospheric production design that captures the spirit of Halloween really well. The special effects are surprisingly not bad, in fact they're quite good considering the budget, was in all honesty expecting them to be terrible.

'Ernest Scared Stupid's' soundtrack is full of energy and creates unsettling atmosphere and a sense of nostalgia. Most of the humour does work, with some very entertaining writing and gags, even if not sophisticated or subtle (then again who expects either of those things in an 'Ernest' film?). Pacing is bright and breezy, and the film really captures the fun of Halloween and what it's like to be a kid again.

Varney is immensely likable and a lot of fun as Ernest, and to me the character appeals to me despite potentially being the sort of character that doesn't do it for me usually to put it mildly. Ernest is the sort of the character one can relate to easily, the sort of character that is a well-intended serial bumbler with a strong heart but always finding himself messing up. Eartha Kitt is alluring and snappy support.

In conclusion, a fun Halloween time, as long as you don't expect too much and take it for what it's meant to be. 7/10 Bethany Cox

As a lover of movies, I sat down to see The Garbage Pail Kids Movie after hearing from so many people how bad it was. Sometimes when I see "bad" movies, they are not so bad if mediocre,or movies that are so bad they're good, but there are other times when the movie that is supposed to be bad IS bad. This garbage belongs in the latter, it was so awful(in my opinion that is) that I didn't know whether to vomit or cry. I will give credit and say it is not quite the worst movie I have ever seen, but that isn't saying much.

Firstly, I do have to agree with other reviewers that this is one of the poorly written kids movies out there. I know this movie is supposed to be bad and mindless trash, but the dialogue alone makes it not only bad, it makes it garbage. The dialogue is mega lame and not quotable at all, and I didn't laugh once. The humour was also very grotesque, I know the cards are quite grotesque, and movies like Freddy Got Fingered had grotesque and very unsubtle humour, but The Garbage Pail Kids Movie takes the whole meaning of the word "grotesque" to a whole new level and in a bad way. Plus the pranks are very mean-spirited, as is the knockabout violence.

Then there is the story. What was the story again? To me, it had those talentless hacks Friedberg and Seltzer written over it, it is one of the most poorly constructed stories in a movie, with drawn out scenes, plodding pace you name it. Next, the production values, am I the only person who thought they were appalling? The sets were poor, the lighting was dim, the camera work was like direct to video quality, the special effects were laughable and the costumes were horrible. Don't get me wrong, I like 1980s fashion, it is funky and cool, but the costumes here made me want to gouge my eyes out.

Even the soundtrack was awful. Generic, lifeless and uninspired, even worse than the music in Disaster Movie, which sounded like it had been made up on the spot at last minute. Not to mention it is the epitome of cheesiness. And the acting was atrocious. Anthony Newley was wasted as Captain Manzini, and MacKenzie Astin is a bland and inept child protagonist. Juice and Tangerine are underdeveloped and clichéd, and Ali Gator, Greaser Greg and Nat Nerd are unlikeable and I think ugly characters with voices that have haunted me in my sleep since seeing the movie last night. And they wasted Jim Cummings completely here, the immortal voice actor who gave us Darkwing Duck, Dr RobotNik and Don Karnage has sounds utterly embarrassed here, it makes me want to cry.

Overall, absolutely awful. When I finished watching it, yes I watched the whole thing, I was like what was that? 1/10(and that is being kind, I could tell even from the title it wasn't going to be good). Bethany Cox

Warning: Spoilers
1. The drinking game I played for every product placement I saw in Mac and Me was over within 20 minutes when I nearly died of alcohol poisoning.

2. If the Special Olympics were as hilarious as when wheelchair-bound Eric rolled uncontrollably down a hill, off a cliff and into a body of water, I'd be someone's sponsor just so I can see it for myself in person.

3. No, no, McDonald's. The line "Why don't you stop by for a Big Mac?" was completely subtle.

4. As were: "You know what I feel like?" – "A Big Mac?"

5. Nice touch on the Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter overtones in the scoredespite being a kid's movie.

6. Jennifer Anniston's acting debut was Mac and Me. Later, she starred in Marley & Me. Is Murdering Me coming soon?

7. It shouldn't have taken two times for Mac to be sucked hard for us to get the hint the writers were trying to tell us something.

8. I usually try to avoid spoiling movies, but E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. There you go.

9. Mac gets stuck in a tree, dogs threaten to rip him apart and they cue the heart-felt music. I haven't laughed that hard since wheelchair-bound Eric plunged 50 feet into the water.

10. Ironically, it does take a lot of coke to enjoy a feature like this.

11. Code name: "One Hundred X-Ray?" Really?

12. I waited the whole movie for the dance party inside and out of McDonald's and it was so worth it. Everyone was having a blast and I want my next birthday party there, too!

13. Sometimes Mac can fly and sometimes he can control electrical objects, but when running from the suits, Mac chooses to ride on Eric's lap down another hill in his speeding wheelchair. ??

14. Oh, and try not to be in tears from laughter after that chase scene's over.

15. Skittles? Seriously? Stop.

16. "How long have you been in lingerie?" might not be the best question to ask the most blatantly obvious sex offender working at Sears.

17. There were more discounts in this movie than on McDonald's value menu. Like Discount Drew Barrymore, Discount Dee Wallace, Discount Henry Thomas.

18. I'm probably taking the lines "I sucked him upand then we blew him" way out of context.

19. Traveling billions of miles for a three-minute rock collecting experiment might sound like a waste of NASA's talent and money.

20. And how they missed the straws the aliens used for mud slurping should get at least one of them fired.

21. But, the genius of getting the spacecraft across the galaxy in less time than it takes the Enterprise, would probably get someone a raise.

22. Maybe Joe Arpaio saw this movie and that's why he is the way he is.

23. The end taught me three things: Ronald McDonald is a real person, aliens can reanimate life but not fix dead legs and the MacFamily will be back. Orso they promised before anyone actually saw this.

24. The moral of the story is simple: You better be rooting for either the Chicago Bears (on WGN) or the Chicago Cubs while having a Coke. Only the weird neighbor roots for the Dodgers, but he probably eats at Burger King, anyways.

ET:The Extra Terrestrial is one of Steven Spielberg's better movies, funny, touching and just wonderful. It not only entertains very young children and their parents but it reaches out to the child within us, that is something I want to feel when I watch a movie from my childhood. I love films like Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins and The NeverEnding Story for exactly that reason. The film is beautifully filmed, with breathtaking cinematography and beautiful scenery. The scene with ET and Elliot on the bicycle is just an amazing scene, I think John Williams's amazing score is to thank for that. The special effects are excellent, and the script is funny and touching. There is one sight gag with ET hiding among Elliot's stuffed animal toys that warms my heart every time. The acting is very good, with Henry Thomas appealing as Elliot and Dee Wallace sincere and sensitive as the mother. I also loved Drew Barrymore as the sassy and big-mouthed sister. What makes this film though is ET himself, even with his large eyes and long arms for an alien ET is adorable, sad and sweet. The part when Elliot cries when ET is dying is a real tearjerker, it kills me every time I see this film. Overall, I love this film, it is so special and delightful. 10/10 Bethany Cox

It doesn't get much worse than this folks. To Catch A Yeti is bad in every respect, beginning with the creature itself. The bug-eyed gooning animatronic representing said beast is an insult to cinema, with movement literally restricted to the thing being dragged along, on a poorly disguised sled, through the snow. Similarly the annoying coos which emanate from the Yeti's static plastic face are an annoying as they are bizarre.

Beyond that the production values are below par from children's television, never mind a movie, and its star, one Meat Loaf, though tasked with the difficult job astonishingly manages to be the worst feature in the entire film, proving once and for all that rock music saved many a movie audience from his bewilderingly insensate acting style.

Plot and characters, in as much as they exists, are instantly forgettable, and quite honestly you'll spend the entire film being obsessively irritated by the Yeti. Yes, it really is that lamentable.

Arguably children might get something out of this on a Saturday morning while mom and dad enjoy a lie in, but an enjoyable family film this isn't.

Warning: Spoilers
This movie is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Even the trailer was cringe worthy. The storyline is bad and the storyline is just like E.T.'s storyline. The effects are bad as well. Honestly, I hate this movie so much that I want to forget about it.

John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood remains one of the best fictionalized and most poignant summaries of some of America's toughest internal problems - racism, violence, poverty, and drug abuse. This is not a hip-hop film, nor a detached and dehumanized story about "gang violence" (the great over-simplified scapegoat of the issues treated in this film), its a story about growing up fatherless or motherless in a war zone with a faceless enemy, where people do not value each other's lives at all and value their own lives only slightly more.

Laurence Fishburn leads one of the best casts of the early 1990s, in his memorable portrayal of Furious Styles, a father trying to raise his son (Cuba Gooding Jr) well in an environment where murder and substance abuse are day-to-day realities - South Central L.A. The film follows his son, Tre, and his friends, from the hardships of childhood in an irrelevant educational system and a neighborhood which doesn't allow kids to be kids, through to the realities of making decisions about the value of life and the development of responsibility and hope as young adults.

The cast disappears into their characters and brings each one to life in a unique and powerful way. losing the identities of big personalities like Fishburne and Ice Cube is no mean feat. Many of the performances recorded here are award-worthy - Fishburne, Bassett, Chesnutt, Gooding, and Ice Cube are especially memorable. For me personally, this is the film that convinced me that Ice Cube was destined to become a major personality in American cinema. While I had enjoyed some of his music prior to this film, it was here that I was first exposed to his versatility and intelligence as an actor.

While some may see some of the film's messages as heavy-handed, and others might have issues with the fact that the film deals with so many of the problems of inner-city life in a very 'in-your-face' almost archetypal manner, I find these criticisms impossible to justify.

This is a great film about real issues, sensitively portrayed and thoughtfully examined. Every American who cares about the vast untapped potential of our people ought to take a long, hard look at this one. These are not 'black problems', they are everybody's problems, and their solutions will require everybody's understanding. I could think of far worse places to begin developing that understanding than Boyz n the Hood.

Will openly admit to having very fond memories of school discos, singing along (often forgetting words) and dancing (with some energy if not such a discernible beat) to music, a music college graduate has to start somewhere, that was great then and still is now.

'Saturday Night Fever' may not be a perfect film, or a masterpiece, but to me and many others it is high-energy and hugely enjoyable entertainment that took me back to nostalgic, and happier, times in my life. This was the late 90s-early 2000s, just to make things clear, memories of the 70s are none due to not having been born yet. 'Saturday Night Fever' is one of those films where it is easy to sit back and forget any problems and relax after a hard day (am hardly any stranger to those, so 'Saturday Night Fever' was a much needed distraction).

There are imperfections sure. Anybody looking for one of the all-time great scripts or a great story and iconic characters better look elsewhere. This said, the script is not all bad, but does have some cheesiness that will make one cringe, regardless of whether they are demanding much or not. The story and characterisation is somewhat more patchy though better than given credit for, the story does absorb but a couple of the subplots are silly and don't feel as resolved as they should, particularly that for the rival gang.

One of 'Saturday Night Fever's' biggest problems is how the character of Stephanie is written and how Karen Lynn Gorney plays her. The character is very underwritten and often very annoying, giving Gorney little to do and failing to inject much charm or likability, outside of some great dancing.

However, the production values are great with lots of glorious colour and style. John Bradham directs with a clear affectionate love for the period and subject, and the film does offer a more complex view of disco than one might think with some easy to relate to themes.

Best assets are the music, dancing and John Travolta. The soundtrack, with some of the most memorable contributions being from the Bee Gees, is one of the best, most unforgettable and iconic soundtracks of any film from the 70s, and great music in its own right. Music is a real passion and something that is always talked about in my prolific reviews here, and something that mostly garners a lot of praise but have also been known to be picky. The dancing is full of high-octane energy, snazz and pizazz, Travolta especially though the dancing is the best thing about Gorney's performance.

John Travolta is a revelation in the role that made him an overnight star and pop-culture icon. Danny from 'Grease' may be the slightly more famous role but to me Travolta is better here.

In conclusion, very enjoyable though not without its imperfections. 7/10 Bethany Cox