Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

"YOU BOYS LIKE MEXICO!?" -Mac In northern Vermont, near the Canadian border, a group of State Troopers patrol the highway near the town of Spurbury.  With budget cuts threatening their employment, and the Spurbury police doing everything in their power to make sure they lose their post, these reckless, crazy, and unreliable Troopers have to actually do their job and prove to the state that they are worth the taxpayers money.  When they discover a possible drug trafficking ring running through their turf, the Troopers have to take on Spurbury P.D. to take credit for the case, but they also have to keep their obnoxious dispatch operator, Farva (Kevin Heffernan) from screwing everything up. What Works: Super Troopers has one of the greatest opening sequences of all time.  This movie peaks almost immediately.  It involves the Troopers messing with a group of teenagers who are driving, while stoned out of their minds.  It just keeps escalating to greater lev

I have only seen The Secret of NIMH once before, and I was about five years old at the time, so I didn't remember very much of it.  All I could remember was how scared of this movie I was.  The Great Owl and Nicodemus were horrifying and the storyline was much more dark than your typical kids, animated movie.  I think it was the combination of this movie and The Land Before Time  that warped me and probably many others.  But, how does it hold up all these years later? Mrs. Brisby (Elizabeth Hartman) is a field mouse who lives with her four children and her husband in a cinder block in a farmer's field.  She runs into a string of terrible luck, after her husband is mysteriously killed and her son, Timothy (Ian Fried) falls seriously ill.  With the harvest about to start, Mrs. Brisby needs to move her family out of the field to avoid being killed by the farmer's tractor, but can't risk moving Timothy outside in the chilly weather, as it could kill him.  She a

"Hon, you got to stop stabbing him." -Ed Blumquist "Loplop" is a very interesting episode of Fargo , as to takes place mostly at the same time as the previous episode, filling in the blanks by showing us the events from the perspectives of Ed and Peggy Blumquist (Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst), Dodd Gerhardt (Jeffery Donovan), and Hanzee Dent (Zahn McClarnon). Ed and Peggy manage to escape their house before the cops and Hanzee arrive, and they take Dodd with them to use as a bargaining chip.  They decide to hide out at Ed's uncle's cabin in South Dakota. They keep Dodd tied up in the cabin and Peggy keeps watch over him, while Ed makes repeated trips to the nearby gas station.  He uses the pay phone there to call both the Gerhardt's and Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine). Meanwhile, Hanzee finds a lead in the Blumquist house, which sends him on the trail of Constance Heck (Elizabeth Marvel), who is attending the Lifespring conference.

"Would you like to have dinner some night?" -Honey "Oh, I like to have dinner every night." -Garth Having moved out of his parent's house, Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) is trying to figure out what to do with his life.  He is visited in a dream by the legendary Jim Morrison (Michael A. Nickles) who tells him he must put on a concert called Waynestock.  Wayne recruits his best friend, Garth (Dan Carvey), and several others to put on the concert together, but he must also contend with music producer, Bobby Zahn (Christopher Walken), who is trying to steal Wayne's girlfriend, Cassandra (Tia Carerre), and get her to move to Los Angeles instead of staying in Aurora with Wayne. What Works: Once again, Wayne's World 2 works because it's funny.  It's got some really great moments and some hilarious jokes.  The best ones are the longer elaborate ones, rather than the one-liners.  My two favorites are the Y.M.C.A. joke and the on

"Here's Johnny!" -Jack Torrance Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) gets hired as the winter caretaker for the isolated Overlook Hotel, deep in the mountains of Colorado.  He bring his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) with him to the hotel, where they face six months of isolation, as they are the only people in the hotel.  Jack plans on using the time to write, but slowly starts to go insane due to the isolation.  Danny, who is psychic, has premonitions about terrible things happening.  The stress, isolation, and strangeness becomes too much and Jack snaps and tries to murder his family, who must find a way to survive and escape the snowed-in hotel. What Works: If you're going to talk about The Shining , you have to talk about Jack Nicholson's performance.  He is unbelievably terrific.  You get a few moments of him being a loving husband and father before the film puts him on the train to crazy-town.  And man, once he

"I don't like sand.  It's coarse and rough and irritating...and it gets everywhere." -Anakin Skywalker The second episode of Star Wars picks up 10 years after the events of the first movie.  Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) is now a Senator for Naboo, and one of the chief opponents of a movement to create an army for the Republic, which is on the very of collapse due to a large amount of systems wanting to leave the Republic.  This Separatist movement is led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), a former Jedi. Padmé narrowly survive two assassination attempts, so she is sent back to Naboo with Jedi Apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who is madly in love with her, to protect her.   Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), now a Jedi Master, is sent to track down the bounty hunter responsible for the attacks on Padmé, and discovers that someone has already created an army of clones for the Republic. What Works  Unlike The Phantom Mena

"I hate you." -Lando Calrissian "I know." -Han Solo Solo: A Star Wars Story is about Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and how he got started on his path to the original movies.  After escaping his miserable home planet, Han joins the empire in the infantry, and from there joins up with a gang of thieves led by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson).  When their job fails, Han and Tobias have one last shot to pay back what they owe to crime lord, Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) or they will be killed.  But they can't do it alone, so they put together a team, including Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Lando Carrissian (Donald Glover), and Han's old flame, Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke).  Together they take on the seemingly impossible job, the infamous Kessel Run.  Heads up: there will be spoilers ahead.  I'm giving this movie a 7/10.  So go see it and if you want to know why it's a 7, come back and read this. What Works: I'll be honest, I had e

"I didn't even have strategy, you know?" -Sebastian Noel Well, it's over.  It's finally over.   Ghost Island has spooked us for the last time.  It's time to break down the finale, and who played well, and who sucked.  I'm going to break this down by round of play, so we'll start with the... Final 6: Who Played Well: We'll start with Domenick, who had a mixed round, but overall, it was positive.  His plan to prevent Sebastian and Donathan from putting the votes on him worked perfectly.  He scared Sebastian off and managed to knock him out of the game, plus he kept his idol, guaranteeing himself a spot in the final 4.  On the downside, he come off as a jerk during Tribal Council and rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. We also have Donathan, who did about as well as he could do this round.  He got on board with the plan to knock Domenick out of the game and he was the only one who followed through.  It wasn't his

Quick confession: I have never seen Wayne's World until now, so I have no nostalgic attachment to it.  Just felt that should be noted before I get to my review. "If she were president, she'd be Baberaham Lincoln." -Garth Wayne's World follows two rock-n-roll fans, Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) who host a public access TV show called Wayne's World out of Wayne's parent's basement.  TV producer Benjamin Oliver (Robe Lowe) spots an opportunity to make some money and signs Wayne's World  with the intent to sell out.  Wayne and Garth make things difficult, as they don't want to sell out.  The dudes gotta save Wayne's World and win over their dream girls, all while having an excellent time. What Works: Simply put, Wayne's World is freakin' hilarious.  The most important part of making a comedy is the actual humor, and Wayne's World pulls it off with ease.  I rarely stopped laughing and had a great

Well, with Solo coming out, I figured I should probably watch the Star Wars movies again.  It's been about six years since I watched most of them, so I figured now is as good a time as any to revisit a galaxy far, far, away.  I'm going to be watching these in chronological order, so without further ado, let's start with the infamous  Phantom Menace. .. "I'll try spinning.  That's a good trick." -Anakin Skywalker During a trade dispute, an organization called the Trade Federation, which is being manipulated by Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid), forms a blockade around the planet Naboo.  Two Jedi Knights, the keepers of the peace in the Galactic Republic, are sent to negotiate with the Trade Federation, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor).  The Trade Federation quickly tries to assassinate them, forcing the Jedi to flee to Naboo.  With the help of a creature called Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best), they manage

I am a huge fan of the original Tremors.   I don't know anyone who doesn't like that film.  It's an absolute classic and a must-watch.  You wouldn't think a movie about giant, killer worms would be this good, but it is.  I'm also fan of the five sequels to Tremors .  I think they are all entertaining and at least ok movies.  But how do the movies stack up?  Which one is the best, and which is the worst?  Let's take a look. #1: Tremors (1990) Let's be honest: was there any other option?   Tremors is pretty much as close to movie perfection as you can get.  We have likable, intelligent characters, a really interesting premise, and great pacing and plot escalation.  It's a fun movie and better than it has any right to be.  Plus it has Kevin Bacon.  Without exaggeration, Tremors is one of my favorite movies of all time.  10/10: Fantastic  #2: Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996) I like Tremors 2  because it does something different from the or

"You'd be surprised at the things you find when you go looking." -Dr. Richard Powell Deputy Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole) is out on patrol one night when he spots a bloody and disoriented man (Evan Stern) stumble out of the woods.  Daniel brings him to a small medical center for treatment, which has a tiny staff and only a handful of patients.  But things get out of hand fast when one of the nurses murders a patient and starts mutilating herself.  To make things worse, robed cultists surround the center, preventing anyone from leaving.  And the people trapped inside are starting to change... What Works: If you're familiar with any of my blog posts, than you'll know I'm a sucker for practical gore effects, and The Void has them in spades.  It's horrific, gross, and impressive.  I just love how gnarly the creatures look and the transformations the characters undergo are spectacular.  It's refreshing to not just have CGI effects in a

"I'll be dead when I say I'm dead!" -Bert Gummer The 6th film in the Tremors series once again follows paranoid, right-wing, gun-nut Bert Gummer (Michael Gross), who is faced with losing everything he owns to the IRS.  After being contacted by a team of scientists in the arctic circle who are facing an attack from graboids, Bert's son, Travis (Jamie Kennedy) convinces him to go help out in order to bring some interest back to Bert's failing brand.  Bert, Travis, and a team of scientists, which includes Valerie McKee (Jamie-Lee Money), the daughter of the Val McKee (Kevin Bacon), the hero from the original film, are forced to team up to fight off the graboids and the ass-blasters of they ever want to make it out of Canada. What Works: Bert Gummer is one of my all time favorite movie characters.  Michael Gross is consistently great in all of the Tremors movies and that holds true here.  Every time he is on screen, he steals the show. J

"You're a shit cop.  You know that, right?" -Lou Solverson The 7th episode of season 2 of Fargo picks up with the escalation of the war between the Gerhardt's and Kansas City, with both sides taking casualties.  With Otto (Michael Hogan) dead, Dodd (Jeffery Donovan) and Hanzee Dent (Zahn McClarnon) missing, and Charlie (Allan Dobrescu) in jail, the Gerhardt numbers are dwindling.  Floyd (Jean Smart) is taken into police custody and is convinced to snitch on the Kansas City Mob, which cause several successful busts on Kansas City. Simone Gerhardt (Rachel Keller) confronts Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) for betraying her and killing Otto instead of Dodd.  Before things can turn more violent, Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson), and Ben Schmidt (Keir O'Donnell) arrive and try to convince Mike to leave Fargo.  Simone is picked up by Bear Gerhardt (Angus Sampson), who drives her out to the middle of the woods and reveals he knows that she was sleeping with