Category: Uncategorized

The Evil Dead Movies Part 3: Army of Darkness, Hail to the king!

CategoriesUncategorizedPosted on

Army of DarknessArmy of Darkness was a movie that came along at the perfect time for me. I first saw it on VHS as a teen and its mix of comedy, humor and downright goofiness totally clicked with my sensibilities back then. In fact, I only sought out and saw Evil Dead II then watched The Evil Dead again for the first time in years after seeing Army of Darkness.

Army of Darkness begins right where Evil Dead II ends; Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself transported back in time to the 14th century where he’s seen as a prophesied hero that will destroy the evil forces that are plaguing that time.

Click here to continue reading this column on the movie Army of Darkness.

Bates Motel isn’t about Norman and Norma Bates, it’s about everything else

CategoriesUncategorizedPosted on

bates_motelI dug the first episode of the Bates Motel TV series on A&E, but after two episodes I’m starting to have a few reservations with this show about the birth of Psycho movie serial killer Norman Bates. The idea of a teen Norman Bates, the wonderful Freddie Highmore, being slowly molded into a murderer by his mother Norma, the superb Vera Farmiga, is a great idea for a show. But it sure seemed with the second episode that the producers of Bates Motel were worried that a show JUST about Norman and Norma would be to limiting, so they decided to add a lot of little mysteries to the plot to shake things up.

These include:

  • A car driven by a guy suffering from massive burns.
  • The mean (evil?) town sheriff looking for his missing friend.
  • The addition of Norman’s older brother Dylan.
  • Dylan getting a job where he needs to know how to “use a gun.”
  • Norman and his (girl)friend Emma finding a diary in one of the motel rooms that seems to chronicle some very bad things that went on in that motel.
  • Norman and Emma searching for evidence that the diary is true, stumbling across a gigantic marijuana farm and being chased off by men with AK-47s.
  • A deputy sheriff telling Norma that the town isn’t what it seems.
  • A guy hanging upside down in the town square on fire.

And I thought Bates Motel was going to be about Norman and Norma, not a weird Eerie Indiana/Eureka type town! 😉

The first episode of Bates Motel was wonderful, but this second episode and its million and one Lost-ish mystery storylines was a let down. Honestly, if this is where Bates Motel is going I probably won’t stick around with it for that long.