The Frighteners (1996) Film Review

Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) can see ghosts. He has been able to since a car tragic accident that he survived but took his wife. It has been relatively light, with ghosts like The Judge (John Astin) who help him in his spirit psychic business. Things turn for the worse as the townsfolk start dropping dead of heart failure, and Frank sees numbers appearing on their heads before they go. An evil spirit is in town, and the incompetent and strange FBI Agent Milton Dammers (Jeffrey Combs) believes that Frank is responsible. It is only with the help of recently widowed Dr Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvardo) that they have any chance of stopping the murders.

I think this is a really clever film. It’s quite funny, but also scary, and as he has shown over and over again, Peter Jackson can tell a good story. I suspect that if you love horror films, you’d not enjoy this as it is possibly way down the scale for horrors, but for a wuss like me, it’s a good combo of horror and comedy. And Michael J Fox *sigh*.

Starship Troopers (1997) Film Review

 

You want fighting and guns and big teeth and patriotism for the planet Earth? This is your film. Set sometime in the future, with Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) graduating high school. There are two key options for them; college or service in the army – and with this comes citizenship. The world is in a universe overrun by alien insects, and soldiers are needed. If you get through the battle, you have additional rights that not citizens have. Rico, however, joins because he is in love with Carmen. Dizzy is in love with Rico. Carmen is kind of falling for Rico’s former sports rival, Zander (Patrick Muldoon). It’s not all soap opera, though. In training, these guys meet Ace Levy (Jake Busey) the man with the largest teeth ever and a desire to kill bugs.

Doesn’t sound like sophisticated festival fare? It’s not. It’s gory and gross, and overacted with a cheesy script and generally a whole heap of ridiculousness. I love it. I’ve seen it at least half a dozen times, and I fully intend to watch it again and again.