From the Universehall Mind

My stuffs.

[universehall]

My Virtual Shelf: "Garfield and Friends" (1988)

Because I'm definitely at the forefront of what is cutting-edge in pop-culture discussions, let's chat about Garfield and Friends (1988).

I didn’t watch Garfield and Friends the first time around. I considered myself a bit old for cartoons at that point (I mean, I was almost NINE. Practically a senior citizen), so this particular bit of pop culture passed me by. As an adult, I have (up until this point) been relatively confused by the apparent popularity of Garfield… I mean, multiple movies, TV specials, merchandise, and a…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Matrix Resurrections (2022)

I watched #MatrixRevolutions. It surprised me... but not in the way you might think.

This is one of those movies where… it’s just hard to know where to start. As you know, I recently re-watched Matrix 2 and 3, as I hadn’t seen them since they came out nineteen years ago (and I couldn’t remember a darn thing that happened in them because they’re just a mess). But, I figured, with that long to sort things out, there was a good possibility that the filmmakers had managed to…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Mini-Review: Final Exam (1981)

Mini-Review: Final Exam (1981)

Plot: Some annoying people on a college campus are murdered by some guy. 

I was excited about this film, because it looked like a fun, undiscovered 80’s slasher movie. My husband and I work in higher education, so we were excited about the setting, and the opening of the movie made it seem like it had what it takes to be entertaining, silly and surprising and all the things one wants out of that…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Mini-Review: Sleepaway Camp II - Unhappy Campers (1988)

Mini-Review: Sleepaway Camp II – Unhappy Campers (1988)

Plot: The murderer from Sleepaway Camp is fully rehabilitated and in charge of a new sleepaway camp! Murders start happening there… and the original murderer is responsible! SURPRISED?!

Remember how there was a big, surprise ending on the first movie? Well, this one subverts your expectation for a sequel to a movie with a surprise ending by HAVING NO SURPRISES WHATSOEVER. They straight-up tell…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Mini-Review: Deep Red (1975)

Mini-Review: Deep Red (1975)

Plot: A concert pianist witnesses the murder of the psychic who lives below him in his apartment complex, and he decides to investigate. Italian confusion ensues.

This is another giallo film by Dario Argento, the Italian gentleman who brought us one of my favorite weird-as-weird-comes movies, Phenomena — as well as the acclaimed Suspiria(which was also weird, and visually arresting, but not…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Mini-Review: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Mini-Review: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Plot: Vincent Price is a bad guy who makes no bones about being bad — he straight-up worships the devil. He stays indoors and throws a masquerade party for all his evil friends while the simple villagers die of ‘The Red Death’! Everybody involved wastes a lot of time, and then (considering the title of the film) it plays out exactly as you would expect.

This is one of a series of Edgar Allan Poe…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Pocahontas (1995)

Off My Shelf: Pocahontas (1995)

One of the advantages of having kids around is that I get to re-visit kid movies that I missed out on in the first place. I was way out of the range of the Disney Princess movie when this one came out — but now I have kids who are not — so this made a good “Dad’s working late” movie one night.

Plot: Pocahontas, the most beautiful Native American girl in town, has a goal in life to do something…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: It - Chapter 2

Off My Shelf: It – Chapter 2

So, there once was a nice little monster movie called It. It was not without its faults, but it was basically a well-paced, enjoyable little scary movie.

And then there was this.

I had hoped, going into it, that this movie would repeat the successes of the first part (by being concise and somewhat spooky) and avoid the failures of the first part (as in, the at-times out-of-place goofy humor, an…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Detective Pikachu (2019)

Off My Shelf: Detective Pikachu (2019)

Sometimes, one goes to see a movie about an electric mouse detective and has one’s expectations not entirely met.

I admit — for whatever reason, I went into this movie with high expectations. The previews made it look like a modern Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – interactions of humans with (essentially) cartoon characters, wrapped around a fun mystery that needs solving.

Wellll… It had those…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Split (2016)

Off My Shelf: Split (2016)

Who doesn’t want to watch a movie with James McAvoy? He’s so charming. And director M. Night Shyamalan has had some good films in the past. What could go wrong? Turns out, just one simple thing.

 Plot: Casey, our heroine, is a teenage loner who seems to have unspecified emotional/psychological problems — but, along with a couple popular girls, finds herself abruptly kidnapped from a mall parking…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

On My Shelf: Office Space (1999)

On My Shelf: Office Space (1999)

This is one of those movies that I watched initially when it was pretty new, and didn’t like it very much. But then I watched it again many years later (last week) and had an entirely different experience.

Plot: Everyman Peter hates his office job. He goes to a hypnotherapist who removes his inhibitions and worries — and then the hypnotherapist dies before he can bring Peter out of it.  Our hero…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

On My Shelf: Fargo (1996)

On My Shelf: Fargo (1996)

Fargo is one of my go-to, post-Christmas “winter” movies. (Well, it’s basically my one go-to, post-Christmas “winter” movie, outside Groundhog Day.) It’s also on my list of tip-top, favorite-ever films — and even I find it a bit odd that I like it that much.

Have you seen it? Because, if you haven’t, and aren’t familiar with the films of the Cohen Brothers, it’s a little hard to describe. In a…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Off My Shelf: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

We finished up 2018 by seeing a new movie which I really didn’t have a lot of hopes for — the animated, full-length feature, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Why did I not have a lot of hope for this? A) I haven’t cared for the last couple incarnations of Spider-Man (aka all the ones since Tobey McGuire got the boot; they were either straight-up unwatchable [The Amazing Spider-man] or they…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

On My Shelf: Hot Shots! (1991)

On My Shelf: Hot Shots! (1991)

I really, really like the Naked Gun movies — not to mention Airplane! This movie was made by one of the people involved — and whether or not he succeeds in creating a similar movie is very questionable.

Plot: Topper Harley was a hotshot pilot who left the Navy due to insecurities about his father’s mysterious failure as a Navy pilot. However, the Navy needs him back because (insert cliche reason…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Off My Shelf: Top Gun (1986)

Off My Shelf: Top Gun (1986)

Despite having been alive in 1986 and all the years following, I had never seen the movie Top Gun. I recently related this fact at a wedding reception I attended, and everyone there was horrified that I talk about all these movies — but I hadn’t ever seen Top Gun. So I watched it! And… it definitely was a 1980’s movie, all right. WAS IT EVER. But I couldn’t help but somehow feel that I was not…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

On My Shelf: The Invisible Man (1933)

On My Shelf: The Invisible Man (1933)

All the “first” Universal monster movies all have some merit – but (ironically) The Invisible Man stands out, head above the crowd.

Plot: The Invisible Man is invisible and CRAZY!

When we were making our way through the original Universal monster movies (you know, the big ones: Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) it became apparent that they developed a formula for their movies whereby we watch the…

View On WordPress

[universehall]

Movie Shelf Mini-Review: The Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

Movie Shelf Mini-Review: The Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

According to the cover, Vincent Price said of this film, “Mar-vel-ous! I was terrified!” and I was like, “I AM INTRIGUED.”

Plot: Southern vigilante justice goes off the rails and then there is revenge.

I had never heard of this movie. I borrowed it from the library based wholly on the cover (which looked reasonably spooky), the fact it was from the 1980’s, and the quote from Vincent Price.

And…

View On WordPress