#tv syndication

[the-ram-67]

And CHiPs at 6:30

[lukegreensmith]

Sharknado 2: The Second One - TV Syndication Review

Sharknado 2: The Second One - TV Syndication Review What is it? On the back of a pretty big fatigue crash this weekend (sorry there was no Sunday post), I lay half alive on the couch wondering what to review. Pick TV had me covered. Deliberate cheese fest B-movie sequel, as freak weather hits New York with sharks. Sharks that are whipped around in a tornado. A "Sharknado", if you will... Somehow the sharks are alive in the tornado, not just high speed fishcicles. At one point the sharks are on fire. Is it good? It's certainly SOMETHING. This doesn't really exist on the good/bad scale. "So bad it's good" is usually only something that can happen as a wonderful accident but this series has quite the following and a fourth Sharknado is on the way. This kind of balancing act is like an optical illusion. Approach it with childish glee and childish glee you will recieve. Come for a serious film and you'll be disappointed by the low-fi effects and over the top acting. It's one thing or the other depending on how you look at it. Is it scary? Tongue is firmly in cheek throughout this whole thing. To be afraid of the daft CGI sharks here would take some serious galeophobia (I Googled A Thing). There's blood and gore at times, with a few neat death scenes, but so determinedly played for laughs even the mildest of friend could be dragged along to see this for movie night. Genre value Being fun is hardly a crime, neither taking itself too seriously or dousing itself in irony to try and excuse its excess. Doesn't do it any favours as a horror film though. (Now I've said that, IS this even a horror film?) There are a fair few references lurking within. The opening gave a fun 'Nightmare At 20,000 Feet' vibe, and the New York setting is used pretty well with plenty of cameos to spot. For all its deliberate excess there were some legitimate supernatural disaster ideas lurking in there. I found my mind drifting to wonder how those ideas would look transplanted into straight horror. This does a lot of work in the "impending doom" stages of the events that are usually the best five minutes at the start of a film that usually get glossed over. Taking a step back from the over the top window dressing this has a solid plot structure underneath. Verdict A deliberate good bad B movie is tricky, but this pulls it off. It embraces its own silliness and runs with it, there's an earnestness to everything going on that makes it work. Don't watch this looking for a deeper meaning and you'll get a fun time out of this. No news yet as to whether a Sharknado marathon could be bad for your mental health though. Give it a few more installments and I'll test that for you though! SCIENCE!

[lukegreensmith]

The Inside - TV Syndication Review

The Inside - TV Syndication Review What is it? Brutal low budget found footage film, making full use of a great location. A party in an abandoned building gets crashed by violent vagrants but things don't go as planned for anyone involved when a supernatural element disrupts the prolonged attack. Currently on the Horror Channel, whose move to Freview Channel 70 is going to really help content creation on my busy weeks. Is it good? It's bloody good at what it did, but watching it was a beating. The attack the first half hinges on is almost physically ardous to get through. The second half is a relief as it diverts into just a haunted house! A well executed haunted house, but the attack is a hard act to follow. Is it scary? It shifts gears, but manages to hit its mark. I've pretty much covered it: Terrifying slice of life violence that managed to rile me up, then some conventional peek-a-boo with some neat creep outs that comes as a relief after such a full on opening. Genre value Aspiring film makers really should watch this for how great they did on a shoe string. It's good at real, it's solid at unreal, and is a good example of a false climax with a first act it just never matches for the rest of its runtime. Everyone else could probably watch this without appreciating just how little they were working with given the high impact results. Other key things of note: The conflicting mundane and fantastic threats are interesting (although a bit counterproductive), plus it attempts to address its found footage nature within the context of the film which was a neat touch. Verdict New school video nasty that's a bit of a mishmash which gets REALLY intense then diffuses with its attempt at supernatural escalation. The random attack on the women is something else. EVERY TRIGGER WARNING EVER but worth the watch if you can handle it. While it stays interesting after the tone shift the real horror was the realistic violence. It doesn't quite nail the landing either, but I left with an itch to own the DVD. Pleasantly surprising solid stuff when I was only after fluff.