Fellowship of Filming(s)

LEGO Ninjago and Friends (2011)

Wikipedia:

Long long ago before time had a name, the realm of Ninjago was created by the all powerful First Spinjitzu Master, by harnessing the four Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu. Each weapon possessed one of the elements of creation and carried immense power. The First Spinjitzu Master leaves them in the care of his sons. However the older son, Garmadon, becomes consumed by darkness; leaving his brother Wu to protect the weapons himself until new warriors are needed to safeguard them.

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This is a little DVD of the first two pilot episodes of LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu. Both episodes (“Way of the Ninja” and “King of Shadows”) combine to make a 44 minute mini-movie that starts off the Ninjago series. There are more episodes, but not on this DVD.

There’s not much to say, it’s Lego, it’s ninjas, it’s short, it’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s a cartoon. So this is a short, sweet, review about ninjas.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Wikipedia:

Rosemary’s Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film with elements of supernatural horror written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the novel Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects that an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals.

This is one of those cult films that came out in the midst of a resurgence of witches (The Church of Satan was founded in 1966) and satanism. It perfect timing for this film to add to the fear and confusion arising. It’s more psychological than anything, as there is only one scene that is truly supernatural.

Rosemary is lied to by pretty much everyone in her life, but soon becomes suspicious after the death of one of the apartment residents. A good friend’s illness also makes her question her surroundings.

I do like the ending though, if for nothing else that Rosemary finally knows the truth, and gets to decide for herself how to move forward.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Little Unicorn (2002)

Wikipedia

The Little Unicorn is a 2002 direct-to-video film written, co-produced and directed by Paul Matthews. Polly Regan and her grandfather have to rescue a little unicorn, when it’s captured by a circus’ owners.

My first thoughts on this one is that it’s almost exactly the same as Nico the Unicorn, except it’s a girl instead of a boy.

Well, the movie starts off pretty quickly, a foal is born during a lightning storm, and hey, it’s a unicorn. A nosy reporter soon shows up and the world suddenly has a real live unicorn. Shortly after a broke circus troop wants the unicorn to resurrect their show, a magician is after the horn so he can do real magic, and the owners of a horse farm want it for a stud.

Now its up to Polly to save the magical beast.

Obviously she does, and her fractured family learns to love again (what’s with all the missing family members in family fantasy movies??). There is a little more to the plot, as some of the villains get their way for awhile, and the others just get in the way, but the unicorn is saved, and the little girl gets her family back.

My Rating: ★ ★

The Magic Door (2007)

IMDB:

A magic Troll aims to defeat the Black Witch and find the magic door that will lead him home with the help of the Elf Flip, and the children Sally and Liam.

I actually liked this one. It’s a made for TV movie, but that actually makes it better (?). Another thing is: why do all family fantasy movies feature broken families? Most only have one parent figure (or no parent figure), or one parent and one step-parent. I’ll digress and get back to the movie.

There is quite a plot here between all the fairy folk, and the human children get mixed up in it by befriending a troll who’s been cast out. There’s also some evil step-mother tendencies leading the children to run away from home with the troll, which starts the adventure.

Although, I don’t think elves should growl, fairies shouldn’t be bigger than elves (also why are all the elves children?), and the troll gets a pass.

My Rating: ★★★

The Last Leprechaun (1998)

Wikipedia

Tommy and Ethel Barridge, the children of multi-millionaire American business man Henry Barridge, go to Ireland to spend the summer holidays with Laura Duvall, who is engaged to marry their father. However, they find she is a wicked banshee with strong black magic powers who does not wish them well. Laura is busy cutting down trees on her estate and is also planning the destruction of the last king of the little people, or leprechauns. Tommy and Ethel take his side against their wicked future stepmother.

I wasn’t sure where this movie was going at first, but then I quickly caught on. Evil stepmother syndrome, except she’s not stepmother yet, and she’s a banshee living next to a leprechaun’s forest. So it soon becomes an environmental struggle, the leprechaun to save the forest and the banshee to flood it.

Toss in a bit of magic and power, and human enterprise and there is this movie.

In the end the family (plus the housekeeper, who Dad is really in love with before the banshee interfered), must pull together to save each other from the banshee. They even save the leprechaun.

My Rating: ★★★

The Fairy King of Ar (1998)

Wikipedia

Since as far back as Kyle and Evie Preston can remember, their grandmother told fantastical tales about fairies who had been trapped underground by giants for thousands of years. Now their grandmother is gone, and the siblings are surprised to discover that she has left them a decrepit gold mine and a family home they never even knew existed. Upon discovering that grandmother’s far-fetched stories have a bizarre basis in reality, and that by freeing the fairies from the mine they will discover a cure for their terminally ill father, Kyle and Evie race against time to free the trapped fairies and save their father’s life.

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Okay so this movie is less about the fairies, and more about a toxic community with a mob mentality. Their race against time is more against Mom wanting Dad to get better, and to stop with the fairy nonsense! Or the toxic attitude of the community: that place is cursed!

I will have to say that the fairies of the mine are a bit ugly and I do see why the community thought they were goblins or demons instead of fairies. The kids do not do well acting out the scary bits, its basically just shouting.

It’s not a bad kids movie, but I wouldn’t call it a good one either.

My Rating: ★★

Evil Dead 2 (1987)

Wikipedia

Evil Dead II (also known in publicity materials as Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn) is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi, and both a sequel to and a parody of the 1981 horror film The Evil Dead.Written by Raimi and Scott Spiegel, Evil Dead II is produced by Robert Tapert and stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who vacations with his girlfriend to a remote cabin in the woods. He discovers an audio tape of recitations from a book of ancient texts, and when the recording is played, it unleashes a number of demons which possess and torment him.

Honestly, this is pretty much a remake of the first movie. I know there’s a thing about the original people losing the rights to the first movie so they made a second one to replace it or whatever, but I actually prefer this version.

There’s more to it, it has more of a plot, more characters, more substance.

I can’t really see the comedy or parody parts of it, not really. It has no relation to either genre, unless you take in the fact that it’s basically the first movie, but again. It moves a little faster than the first movie, which I like. It gets to the point.

I just really like the plot better, and there are more people than just a group of college kids; there are locals, relatives, and more relatives.

My Rating: ★★★★

The Evil Dead (1981)

Wikipedia:

The Evil Dead is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and executive produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The film focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem. Raimi and the cast produced the short film Within the Woods as a “prototype” to build the interest of potential investors, which secured US$90,000 to produce The Evil Dead. The film was shot on location in a remote cabin located in Morristown, Tennessee, in a difficult filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew.

If I had to choose, I would say that horror is one of my favorite movie genres to watch, it’s right up with Fantasy/Sci-Fi and Adventure. I consider myself, maybe not an expert, but I know what I like in horror films.

While this one did not have much of a budget (it does show), they used it wisely, giving the possessed victims a rather outlandish and grotesque look that works. It is a bit of a slasher film, there is a lot of blood and gore with this one (blood and gore does not a horror film make), as the only way to kill these demons is dismemberment.

I still don’t know how Ash was the only one not affected by what was going on, and he wasn’t even the bravest one of the group. I wouldn’t even say the group had a “hero” type which was unusual. But hey, there’s a sequel.

My Rating: ★ ★★

Nico the Unicorn (1998)

Wikipedia:

Nico the Unicorn is the name of a 1996 juvenile fiction book and its 1998 film adaptation. The book was written by Frank Sacks; he also wrote the screenplay for the film, which was directed by Graeme Campbell. The film was directed by Graeme Campbell based on a screenplay by Frank Sacks, who authored the book. Filming took place in Canada’s Eastern Townships. The Canadian production was released in 1998. It was originally set to be distributed by CineTel Films but the distribution rights were later sold to Moonstone Entertainment.

Our main character is the new kid at school, doing his best to fit in, but just not quite getting there. Then he comes across a pony that’s headed to the slaughterhouse…and well she has a baby, and that baby is Nico.

Which leads to some adult scheming from the townsfolk, someone wants to make a news story out of it, another one wants the unicorn stuffed and mounted, and Mom is just worried about her kid.

The last part of the movie is a good old fashioned horse chase through the mountains, with nearly every person in pursuit of the unicorn.

It’s a movie I could definitely have seen myself watching as a child, as I was obsessed with unicorns like most young girls.

My Rating: ★★★

The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997)

IMDB:

Stuck in their late Grandfather’s (Sir Peter Ustinov’s) country cottage with no television, Anthea (Laura Kamrath), Robert (Nick Klein), and Chris (Timothy Hegeman) are resigned to a boring week until they find a moldy old carpet and a strange golden egg. But when the egg accidentally falls into the bonfire, it hatches into the mythical firebird, the Golden Phoenix. So begins an amazing journey and the adventure of a lifetime, as the Phoenix takes them to a land of enchantment, magic, and fantasy, via a magic flying carpet.

This is actually a TV series from England, spliced together into a family movie. I’m not sure exactly how Phoenix and the Carpet ended up together, as that is never completely explained. The movie just shows the adventures the four children have whilst in possession of the Phoenix and the Carpet.

I did enjoy some of the adventures, their cook became a queen and married the burglar the children rescued after all.

It basically just follows the life cycle of the Phoenix who apparently owns a magic carpet. There are some hints that this is only for a few months (3 at the most), before it begins it’s life cycle anew.

My Rating: ★★