WINNIE THE POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY – Is it as bad as everyone says? Yep, in a way, but as if you haven’t seen a shite horror film before. I don’t know what they were all up in arms about. Winnie The Pooh and Piglet as lumbering serial killers, I think that’s genius; I mean, I always thought AA Milne was a load of toss anyway so it’s not like the makers of this lovely construction were shitting on any treasured memories or anything as far as I was concerned. As always, the little things amuse; the fact that some people who look like they belong in Hollyoakes have been shoehorned into the slasher template; the presence of a Hillbilly gang in the UK countryside; the bit when someone suddenly remembers they have a gun upstairs; that most of the insipid 'humour' falls away to reveal quite a grubby, meanspirited core; etc. Not much tension so it does get a little boring after a while, but there’s some nice visuals and even a bit of atmosphere. Mild / medium bloodshed and sleaze, which they might’ve considered upping slightly, but the obnoxiousness and the silliness of the set-up carry it through. You could say it was a missed opportunity – in the right hands, it could’ve been a beast. But yeah, I quite liked it, I had a good time with it, making it a guarded recommend for people who like shit movies ie most users of this forum.
THE DENTIST 2 – From Brian Yuzna. I quite liked ‘The Dentist’, but I was getting restless with this. Corbin Bernsen gives another good turn as whacko Dr Feinstone, this time washed up in hicksville. He’s a murderer on the run, but folks need their teeth sorting out so I guess they just leave him to it. A kind of ‘noirish small-town murder with intrigue and double crossing’ feeling evolves, but ‘The Dentist 2’, despite basically being an OKish watch, could have done with a few more of the kind of flourishes Yuzna gets into when he starts thinking he’s authentically weird like a Cronenberg or a Lynch – he treats us to a couple of insects-in-mouth hallucinations and some jagged toothy maws, but we really needed more of them. And just more horror stuff generally. Well, passable I suppose. Apparently the BBFC felt obliged “to remove sadistic details” from it back when it came out; you’d be forgiven for wondering which ones, though.
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