My Life and Code

Synopsis '60s/'70s television mainstay hosts a Halloween show that is filled with singing, "humorous" skits, and everything else that was a staple of those gawdawful 1970s variety shows... Review ...and that's what I love about it. Where to begin, where to begin? Well, for starters, I wasn't super familiar with Paul Lynde, though I'm sure I'd caught his appearances on Bewitched  in re-runs when I was a kid (we had a local station in the area that would show sitcoms from that era in syndication). But the first I'd heard of this special was while reading something about the band KISS . They had appeared in the special. I'm a fan, and my brother-in-law is a real die-hard, one of those people who buys pretty much anything the band releases, be it music or other merchandise. After I'd learned about this special, I was over his house one day and asked if he knew about it. He replied that not only was he aware of it, he owned a copy, and asked if...

Synopsis Panicky townsfolk unleash the very terror they fear, but it's okay, it just moves to another town to find yet another  son of Dr. Frankenstein. More chaos ensues. Review This was an unexpected gem. Over the past few years, during the Halloween season, I've been watching the Universal Monster movies, and they're really hit or miss. Sometimes, they're great, sometimes the ones you think  would be great aren't , and the ones that should stink are excellent . You never know. Personally, for example, I found Bride of Frankenstein  better than the original, and hated the original Mummy . The previous film in the Frankenstein series, Son of Frankenstein , was one of my least favorite, but this one  I really enjoyed. Mild Spoilers ahead! The basic plot is that the villagers from the previous film have learned that Ygor is still alive, so they go to burn down Frankenstein's castle, fearing that Ygor was/is doing them harm somehow. During the siege, they inadvert...

I'm a sucker for anything retro that triggers nostalgia. Every few years General Mills releases their Monster Cereals in retro packaging for Halloween, and when they do, I can't help but pick them up. This year they have a QR code on the back of the box that takes you  here , where you'll find a Behind the Music -esque video about the Monsters recording a version of Monster Mash that I thought was funny. In addition, I found this Monster Mash Fruit Snacks  product which I thought was neat, until actually trying it -- not a fan. It tastes like fruit, but has the consistency of plastic. But still, the packaging drew me in!

Synopsis Count Dracula and the Wolf Man appeal to altruistic Dr. Edelmann to cure what ails them. Chaos ensues. Oh, and Frankenstein's monster is there too, and doesn't do much. Review Every Halloween season I watch some of the old Universal Monster movies, seeing them for the first time. I tend to enjoy the cheesier sequels more than the classic originals, so I was hoping this one would be as enjoyable as I found House of Frankenstein  (which is so far my favorite). However, these films seem to be real  hit or miss: either I really enjoy them, or couldn't care less. This one, unfortunately, fell into the latter category. I lost interest about halfway through. One of the things I like about these films is that they're all relatively short. This one clocks in at 67 minutes, so I didn't lose much of my life watching it. But a lot of it seemed familiar, to the point of me wondering if I'd ever seen it  before. Lon Cheney Jr. is excellent (as always) as the continua...

Synopsis A guy returns home and runs afoul of a local werewolf. Review My first exposure to Lon Chaney Jr. (credited here simply as Lon Chaney , not to be confused with his father) as The Wolf Man was in The House of Frankenstein . I haven't been watching these Universal Monster films in order, and that was the first one I'd seen with The Wolf Man. I was immediately impressed with Chaney's performance, his talent as an actor really standing out. I was curious as to how his character's story began, and this film doesn't disappoint. The story is well thought out and Chaney is exceptional as Larry Talbot, a guy who has an unfortunate chance encounter with a werewolf. Bela Lugosi also appears, playing a character named "Bela" (go figure). This one's a classic. Each Halloween season I check out a few more of these Universal Monster films, watching ones I haven't watched yet, but I think next season I'll give this one another go even before I...

Synopsis After finding a fossilized hand with webbed fingers, scientists go searching for the rest of the skeleton. And, as luck would have it, there's a living specimen roaming around, and he starts killing members of the group. Review The first time I saw this film was about 2 weeks ago, but that creature always freaked me out as a kid. The costume is well done, and from a technical perspective the film is impressive, not only for the creature costume but for the fact that it's worn underwater for swimming scenes as well. There's a lot of underwater footage here, all very well done, and I can only imagine how difficult it must've been to do it. As for the plot/story, it's not bad, though they could've named this one "Creature from the Lagoon of Bad Decisions". The lead character continues to want to go easy on the creature, despite it continuing  to kill members of the expedition. There is  a member of the group who just wants to shoot it, but ...

Synopsis A real estate agent travels to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania to have him sign a lease on an abbey in London. Seriously. That's how this starts. Then we travel to London and vampire stuff happens. Review You probably have a good idea about the story behind this one even if you haven't seen it. And so did I...except for the lease part. But this was an entertaining film which runs a little longer than most of the other Universal Monster movies I've watched (this one was 85 minutes, but most of the others I've watched have been 70 minutes or so). It's all here: Dracula turning into a bat, sucking blood, crucifixes, stakes, leases, the whole nine yards. This is one I'll probably watch again sooner rather than later just to pick up on the things I missed (I was a little distracted at the time). Lives up to its reputation.

Synopsis A mysterious stranger arrives at an Inn, freaks everyone out, throws a guy down a flight of stairs, and then begins a reign of terror. Review I hated this movie, for the simple fact that I hated  the villain. In that aspect, the film succeeds in providing a detestable antagonist, but I loathed him so much that the film just made me angry. I don't usually get like that...and actually, I'm trying to think of another movie with a character I despised and I'm drawing a blank. This film is considered a classic and is based on a novel by H.G. Wells. From a technical standpoint, the film does a great job with the invisibility illusion, such as when the main character removes some of his bandages, revealing nothing but emptiness underneath. When it comes to these classic Universal Monster movies, sometimes I find I dislike the original film but more enjoy the lesser-known sequels, so I have to wonder if that will be the case with the Invisible Man series of films as ...

Synopsis Two museum archaeologists arrive at a swamp 25 years after the events of the previous film, The Mummy's Ghost , looking for the mummy's remains. The swamp is being drained, and the archaeologists would like to take ownership of the mummy. But, as bad luck would have it, the mummy is still undead, and chaos ensues. Review The film is similar to not only the previous film , but also to the film prior to that , The Mummy's Tomb . I liked The Mummy's Tomb , but disliked The Mummy's Ghost . The small differences between each made a lot of difference in my enjoyment or lack thereof. And in the case of this film, I enjoyed it. Sure, it's mostly a repeat, but it moves along at a quick pace and there's some good acting and action. On the downside, there's a rather offensive stereotype in the film as well, and every time this character opened his mouth I both laughed and cringed. If  you watch the film, you'll know who I'm talking about. ...

Superfriends  was a cartoon by Hanna Barbara that ran from the early ‘70s to the mid ‘80s. It was very much a product of its time and is very  cheesy by today’s standards. And I love it. So I was happy to find these two figures at Target recently on separate trips. They are re-releases of pervious figures but modified to more match their cartoon appearance. Apparently, these had been released as an exclusive somewhere else a few years ago but now they’re back, but at Target. I already own the non-Superfriends versions of these but being a fan of all things ‘70s I had to pick these up.

Synopsis The Mummy terrorizes New England. Again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Review This movie is almost an exact copy of the previous film, The Mummy's Tomb , which I enjoyed (read my review  here  -- shameless plug). So why didn't I like this one ? For starters, I didn't find any of the characters likable. The plot was too similar to the previous film -- I was hoping for something different this time around. This was just more of the same. There's an additional plot twist this time around, with the main character ( Biff? Joe? Butch? ) having a girlfriend of Egyptian descent who has a strange connection to the Mummy and (SPOILER) is the reincarnation of the Mummy's old love...which was part of he plot of the original  film. It did  have an ending I didn't expect. I'll give it that  much. It just felt like a rehash. Also, I'm not sure why it was called The Mummy's Ghost .  Unless I missed something, he was just the same old undead Mummy we'...

Synopsis The villagers thought they destroyed the monster, but they were wrong. As he makes his way through the countryside, Dr. Frankenstein’s mentor returns, on a quest to once again create new life. Review I enjoyed this film more than the original. Even though it’s titled  Bride of Frankenstein  (though the poster and advertising refer to it as The  Bride of Frankenstein ), the movie is about much more than that. We see the monster grow and develop. He becomes a sympathetic character. Meanwhile, Frankenstein’s former mentor Dr. Pretorius arrives at the castle and shows Henry Frankenstein the life forms he’s created, which I found to be unexpected. It was an odd turn for the film, but one that isn’t lingered on. The ending is a little predictable, but also has an unexpected bit of heart to it. I found this one to be an enjoyable entry Universal’s series of monster films.

Synopsis 30 years after the events of the previous film, Steve Banning is telling his house guests about the undead mummy he and Babe Jensen (now named Babe Hanson  for some reason) battled in Egypt all those years ago. But unbeknownst to any of them, the villains from the previous film survived and have waited 30 years (again, for some reason) to plot their revenge. Review Now we're talkin'. I found the original 1932 The Mummy  to be tedious (and lacking in much mummy, ironically), and found the sequel, 1940s The Mummy's Hand  to be an improvement, but still...lacking much of the mummy. However, this time around he gets plenty of screen time and the plot moves at a quicker pace. I found the timing to be too coincidental: Steve is telling his guests about the mummy, and miles away in Egypt, the plot for revenge is being hatched. What timing. And yes, that's  the part I find unbelievable, and not that an ancient mummy walks the earth! But I digress. The film t...

I've only recently become a fan of the old Universal monster movies. My interest was first piqued a long time ago by one of my favorite retro video games, Zombies Ate My Neighbors , with its extensive use of classic monster movie imagery. But only in the past two years have I begun going through those old films. And while they're not specific to Halloween, so closely has this imagery been associated with the season that they may as well be Halloween movies for me, and that's when I watch them. These films tend to run a little over an hour, which is obviously very short for a film by today's standards. And even though they're quite old, I was surprised by how well some of them still hold up. For example, I think House of Frankenstein  is a great film. I recently watched The Mummy's Hand , which is the first sequel to 1932's The Mummy . Even though that film is considered a horror classic, I don't care much for it, as I found it extremely slow and not ...

Found these at Target last week. Was surprised they used the classic '70s artwork for these characters rather than anything newer. I ended up buying these just because I liked the packaging -- but the granola bars are actually pretty good. :)

I hadn't been born when either of these breakfast cereals debuted, yet I still get a kick out of the recent retro packaging for these two. 

Among the things I enjoy in life are retro/nostalgia, autumn, and Halloween, so when I saw the following at Target today I couldn't help but smile.