The Munsters Redux

According to Entertainment Weekly’s Ausiello Files, NBC is planning a new version of the campy 1960s TV series The Munsters. I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t see how this will turn out well.

Oh, and did you know they’ve done a porn version of The Munsters? Neither did I, until I started googling images to find one to use with this item. Ay caramba! That took me by surprise.
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Transylmania

So, last night I’m looking for something to watch, knowing I will be having (very minor) surgery this afternoon. Although it’s simple, the procedure involves a scalpel jabbed next to my eye, so I’m looking for something light on the gore. Definitely no movies where something horrible happens to someone during surgery. I decide to go light with a comedy, completely ignoring the fact that comedies and I have a tortured relationship at best, and pick the horror spoof Transylmania. I should have picked Awake instead. Sure, it’s about the horrors of being awake during surgery, but at least I would have had Jessica Alba to look at.

The plot such as it is, involves American college students going to Romania to…do something. One of them is the dead ringer for the local head vampire, who is trying to resurrect his long lost love. Hijinks ensue. For some reason, the plot reminded me of an episode of Gilligan’s Island. There are flatulence jokes, vomiting jokes, etc., none of which are particularly funny. The movie is surprisingly light on sex jokes for what it is, and for what it’s worth.

The movie was made by some of the people behind the National Lampoon movies, but not any of the good ones. According to background info, it was filmed in 2007, but didn’t escape until 2009, when it went direct to dvd. The only cast member I recognized was Musetta Vander, who played the bug woman who tried to eat Zander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was better off as a bug.

Pass.
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Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind The Mask has received almost universal good reviews, so I was very much looking forward to this. Unfortunately, my opinion is a bit lower than most.

The first two-thirds of the movie is a mock documentary, with a reporter-wannabe and a film crew following around Leslie Vernon, who is in training with a mentor to be an unstoppable serial killer in the manner of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger. This is played for laughs, with Leslie having an almost childish glee in perfecting his craft. The only problem is, it goes on too long. A mockumentary about a movie slasher – we get it. The joke turns tired before they are through with it. Then the last third switches gears and becomes a traditional slasher film – too traditional. There is little new in this section, and I had a strong sense of “Been there, done that.” The main twist is fairly obvious, and the viewer figures it out far too long before the characters in the movie do.

There are a lot of in-jokes, making me wonder if the average viewer even got them. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Kane Hodder is seen going into 1428 Elm Street. To appreciate this joke fully, you had to know (a) 1428 is an address from A Nightmare On Elm Street and (b) Kane Hodder is the actor most closely associated with Jason Vorhees. I dunno.

The cast is very good, with Nathan Baesel (Invasion) as Leslie Vernon, Scott Wilson (In Cold Blood) as his mentor, and several others. As I said before, my negative opinion is not in the majority here.