SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE Review

How do you make another zombie movie in a market saturated by the like truly stand out? Contemporary audiences are so accustomed to seeing people get their throats ripped out by the undead that they settle in for it every Sunday night. So, the questions remains: if you're set on making a movie featuring zombies, how do you make it feel fresh? Or necessary? Director Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) answers that question by combining the zombie genre with that of a raunchy teen sex comedy and allowing this interesting hybrid of styles to both acknowledge their debt to where they came from while at the same time pushing the boundaries as far as they can go so as to appease that "contemporary" part of the audience. The result of such experimenting? A really fun time. More over, a better time than you'd likely expect after just hearing that pitch. That Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse goes in such the opposite direction of what expectations were, it immediately becomes something of a treasure trove of a movie-making audience members wonder with anticipation about what we might come across next. There is something to be said about the type of film that initially seems to be nothing more than a rejected, cheap satirical comedy that stars David Koechner, but is slowly accepted over time for being judged not purely on it's credentials or the circumstances of the time in which it was made, but rather for the singular type of experience it's viewing brings. I'm not saying the same with will happen with this film as say Hocus Pocus, but the film in and of itself is way too enjoyable and way too appealing (especially to teen audiences) to fall by the wayside forever. At an hour and a half the film breezes by with an effortless ease that sets up it's (mostly) likable characters, presents us with it's conflict and then utilizes it's quirky premise to round things out in a satisfying and largely hilarious manner.

GOOSEBUMPS Review

As a child of the nineties, as someone who was in fourth and fifth grade at the dead center of the decade I was completely immersed in the Goosebumps books. I can easily recall going to Wal-Mart with my mom every month and constantly checking to see if the new book was on the shelves yet. I would devour these books to the point of ridiculousness and their popularity was such that at this point in time even my fourth grade teacher decided to read one of author R.L. Stine's works of adolescent horror to the class so as to appeal to those who weren't on board with Tuck Everlasting. While the books meant a great deal to me and I was a big fan of the Fox Kids Saturday morning line-up at the time I was unfortunately never able to get into their live-action adaptations of Stine's stories in the TV series that ran from 1995 to 1998. There was all the excitement in the world for such a series, but once it premiered there was never enough to keep me coming back-unlike the books. And so, how would a live-action movie version of such stories be any different? Given I was also twenty years removed from the source material, would I even care if a Goosebumps movie did honorable service to the literature or was it time to move on and accept that whatever it was that made these books so captivating to so many kids on the brink of their teenage years in the mid-nineties was just an elusive quality never to be contained on celluloid? It turns out, all the material needed was a dash of meta-comedy that allowed the story to not only incorporate several of Stine's most popular characters, but Stine himself. With this opportunity to tell a brand new story rather than simply rehashing one of Stine's more popular titles the film is given a fresh idea that combines the likes of something akin to Jumanji or Zathura with the perfect balance of slightly off-kilter comedy and scary scenarios with over-the-top monsters that made the books so engaging. In short, this new Goosebumps film exceeded all expectations by delivering a fun and charming horror flick for kids that will undoubtedly be brought out every year around Halloween for a long time to come.

Red-Band Trailer for SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

It's hard to figure out who exactly Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse was made for. While initially seeming like something aimed at the kiddes for the Halloween season it is now abundantly clear that is not the case as we have our first real look at the film (previously titled Scouts vs Zombies) via a very red-band trailer. While this is probably the more financially responsible choice (do live action kids movies make money anymore? Of course, if the budgets are small enough) I still don't know exactly who is going to see this beyond the crowd who enjoy horror/comedies, but how big could that fan base be? Otherwise, this thing is slated on a "holiday" weekend where the weekend before will see five new major releases including a Bradley Cooper movie, a Vin Diesel movie, a Bill Murray movie, another Paranormal Activity flick and Jem and the Holograms. In essence, the previous weekend will hit a wide array of demographics and I imagine most general movie goers will decide to opt out of the theater experience the next weekend given Halloween falls on a Saturday this year and Goosebumps and Crimson Peak will have opened two weeks prior satisfying anyone's urge for horror or horror/comedy. The only way Paramount will get something out of this seems to be through their new distribution plan or if it somehow becomes something of a cult favorite after hitting home video. All of that aside, the trailer has it's moments that at least feel inspired in terms of telling another zombie movie in a familiar way, but I can't say I'm really excited to see if it holds up against all it has going against it. Who knows, maybe it'll surprise. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse stars Halston Sage, Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, David Koechner, Patrick Schwarzegger and opens on October 30th.

First Trailer for GOOSEBUMPS

If you're a kid who grew up in the nineties then odds are you read a Goosebumps book or two. If that first sentence is true odds are also pretty good you woke up on Saturday mornings to enjoy Fox Kids line-up of cartoons and other child's entertainment that, at one point, included a live-action adaptation of some of the more popular stories from the books. I remember enjoying it fine enough, but I also remember going to Wal-Mart in order to pick up the next book in the series every month or so. The consistency with which author R.L. Stine pumped these things out was rather insane. As hardly anything can be released with expectations of doing well without being based on an already established brand these days it comes as no surprise that we now have a new film adaptation of Stine's series, this time brought to you by the team who gave us 2010's Gulliver's Travels (remember that one?). Still, without holding anything against it, this first trailer for the kid-friendly horror comedy is somewhat surprising if not rather by the numbers. From this almost 3-minute clip it is easy to glean what story beats will be hit upon and what tone of humor is being chased, but all in all it looks pretty solid in terms of the idea of how to bring multiple characters and stories from the books to life while incorporating a semi-fictionalized version of Stine himself in the form of Jack Black. The monster designs look pretty neat and the trailer got at least one legitimate chuckle out of me, so here's hoping the film is more about the journey than the destination. Goosebumps also stars Amy Ryan, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell, Ken Marino, Kumail Nanjiani and arrives just in time for Halloween on October 16th.

First Trailer for PAPER TOWNS

Just for the record, The Fault in Our Stars made over $300 million worldwide on a budget of $12 million which is, to put it calmly, completely BONKERS! You bet your ass the minute Fox saw those returns they were gearing up for another John Green adaptation if not as many of them as they could get their hands on. Honestly though, the next Green adaptation was already in motion by the time Stars hit theaters last summer and like Nicholas Sparks before him (though a much, much better writer in general) Green will seemingly pump out an adaptation annually at this point until the well runs dry. The second big adaptation being Paper Towns has once again been adapted by Scott Neustadter (Fault in Our Stars, The Spectacular Now, (500) Days of Summer) and will this time be directed by Jake Schreier of Robot & Frank fame which I really enjoyed back in 2012. Needless to say, the film has a lot going for it and as I read Fault in Our Stars within the few days before the movie premiered and enjoyed them both immensely I am looking forward to this next adaptation despite not having read the source material...yet. The good news is that tonally this looks to be a big difference from what we encountered last year and that seems to be the general rule for Green's work across the board as even standing in a Target aisle looking at his titles doesn't allow for any real sense of connection between them. Not only is this interesting from a writing perspective, but is good news for audiences if his work continues to get adapted and make money. The more diversity, the better! Nat Wolff is promoted from supporting character in Stars to leading man here and is joined by the likes of Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Halston Sage, and Justice Smith. Paper Towns opens on July 24th.