Review of Dead & Breakfast (2004) by Aaron B — 21 Jun 2006

[b]Dead & Breakfast[/b].

I'm ashamed to admit that I enjoyed this movie A LOT seeing it again. The first time I put it on, I couldn't even finish it...it was honestly one of the most loathesome experiences I have ever had watching a movie. The acting was bad, the story was bad, and the musical numbers involving the cowboy bugged the hell out of me.

I decided to throw it on again last night and see if it really was as much a waste of money as I remembered it, and I had a fun-as-hell time. I watched it in my room after midnight, and ended up having to laugh into my pillow because some of the lines were so hilarious. Jeremy Sisto is priceless at many points, and Oz Perkins is a hilarious villain.

What REALLY stunned me about the movie was not knowing who would die next. So many horror films, you can basically predict from the very start who is going to survive, and you always know when something is coming. Here, you have no idea who is going to die, when or how.

Anyways, I had a hell of a fun time with this.

6.5.

[b]Tron[/b].

I have been wanting to see this movie for YEARS, and was greatly disappointed when I found out that the beautiful 2-disc set was out of print. Lucky for me, Wal-Mart was liquidating all of their Disney DVDs yesterday, and I got a copy for $10.

I can honestly say this is one of the biggest disappointments to come along in a very long time. While the special effects are not my main compalint, I simply must address them - they did not engage me in any way. I do not feel the need to give it special grading because it is 24 years old...I just did not find the effects or action sequences to be exciting at all. The colours, costumes and ideas are beautiful, but scenes such as the legendary light-cycle chase did absolutely nothing for me.

I really couldn't stand any of the acting, either. It's simply the fact that the film takes itself so seriously in its constant religious allegory and its strange idea that this is somehow the future of computers, that I couldn't take any of the acting seriously. Jeff Bridges was the only saving grace, and mainly because I kept envisioning The Dude flying a tank program through a stylized computer network, saying things like "that's far out, man" and "wow...that's a bummer".

I was greatly reminded of one of my favorite TV shows as a kid - a computer animated action/adventure show titled [b]ReBoot[/b], in which the various elements of a computer live their day to day lives on a circuit board, and are occasionally bombarded with games and must fight it out against users. They also - similar to [b]Tron[/b] - all have names that are cute little computer puns, such as Dot Matrix and Megabyte. However, while many would argue [b]ReBoot[/b] is a rip-off of [b]Tron[/b] -and it may very well be - I find it to be much better.

I really did not enjoy [b]Tron[/b] at all, and I wish I had gone with my original gut instinct to buy [b]House[/b] (the 80s horror/comedy, not the show).

4.5.