(1990)
Dir - Jerry Zucker
Overall: GOOD
Knocking it out of the park for his first solo effort behind the lens, Jerry Zucker's Ghost plays an entirely different game than the director's legendary laugh fest collaborations with his brother David and Jim Abrahams. He is hardly the sole individual to take the credit though as all parties involved make it a top to bottom crowd pleaser that perfectly weaves its various genre components. A romance story first and foremost, the on screen chemistry between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore is the stuff of Hollywood legend and the tearjerker elements to the story are infections to say the least. Whoopi Goldberg is quite scene-stealing and hilarious as a con-artist turned genuine spiritual medium and both Tony Goldwyn and Rick Aviles make excellently loathsome villains. While the horror elements are comparatively underplayed, the script by Bruce Joel Rubin still offers up some clever supernatural ideas and both scenes where demonic shadows drag the bad guys presumably to hell are pretty chilling. Commercially successful on a massive scale, the movie helped revitalize "Unchained Melody" as the ultimate love song and made both pottery and female boy cuts sexy, but thankfully it also holds up as something emotionally impactful, funny, and slightly spooky.
(1993)
Dir - Brian Yuzna
Overall: MEH
Pivoting quite noticeably from the first two installments, Return of the Living Dead 3 sees filmmaker Brian Yuzna taking at crack at the franchise with mixed results. The characters and setting are practically all new, focusing on a military operation that moronically wants to make zombies into controllable weapons because of course they do. This goes as awry as it always does when such scenarios play out and on top of this, Melinda Clarke and J. Trevor Edmoond are the hoodlum couple thrown into the proceedings with the former turning into a punk rock wet dream version of a brain-munching babe. While there are plenty of goofy details and a sufficient amount of preposterous gore, it is still a toned down effort coming from Yuzna who does not embrace a schlocky enough tone to make it as hilarious as it should be. Also, the minimal budget shows throughout, with below average, straight-to-video special effects making it look like the cheap B-movie that it is. It is worth seeing at least for fans of campy zombie tropes, blood, and menacing keyboard soundtracks that play throughout every scene.
(1997)
Dir - Gilbert Adler
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
The cinematic property that finally put the lid on the Tales from the Crypt coffin, Bordello of Blood is a remarkably juvenile vampire yarn that is both half bad and half hilariously bad. Originally conceived of by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale back in the 1970s as an exploitation cheapie, it was dug up decades later by Universal Pictures as a follow-up to Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, upping the comedy angle tenfold while still indulging in loads of gore and naked women. On paper, the concept kind of works, but the resulting script from A.L. Katz and Gilbert Adler is exceptionally stupid and only befitting to something that is not even remotely taking itself seriously. On that note, the casting of Denis Miller in the lead is a particularly daft move as the helplessly smart-assed comedian allegedly only agreed to star if the payday was a million dollars and then proceeded to improvise all of his lines. His utter disdain for the material cuts through every moment that he is on screen, which actually makes his "performance" rather a hoot. Less is the case for Corey Feldman and especially Angie Everhart whose actually scripted dialog is as wretchedly embarrassing as their ham-fisted mannerisms. Still, watching Miller and Chris Sarandon murder a bunch of vampires with super-soakers to the tune of "Ballroom Blitz" is something more movies probably need.
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