It's a Thriller!



Wow 35 years ago the biggest selling album hit store shelves just in time for the holidays. The former Jackson 5 singer releases 'Thriller.' Of the album's nine tracks, seven will reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. 'Thriller' will be among the first albums to use music videos as a marketing tool. Sure I loved "Beat It" but "PYT" was the track that blew me away as a young child. It's a shame he is gone but his music was never as good as "Thriller:.




It's the most Wonderful time of the Year!


Wow, its that time already!!! I have to say Creepmas seems to be flowing into the mainstream as the mix of Halloween has crept into the Christmas realm. So starting December 1st may of us bloggers will celebrate the spirit of Creepmas. If you would like to join in on the fun and to check out all the other bloggers head over to Creepmas.com today!

Holiday Treat


The Strokes frontman turns an SNL skit into a full-length song a few years back, the song and skit were I wish it was Christmas today back in 2000 kicked off an SNL holiday tradition.







So enjoy and let the crazy time of the season begin!

Let it Snow?


Hey, gang yep still alive just so much going on the past few weeks. Work always gets a little crazy as we set up for Black Friday. I really hope everyone had a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving, we celebrated with our traditional BBQ sandwichs and pumpkin squares yeah we are a tad odd. So the weather has been a huge pain in my butt lately too. On Halloween it was like no leafs wanted to fall to the ground, well they decided to all fall at once which is fine but every time I was off and could take care of the yard it Snow/Rained!


Man the leaves where soaked but one day after work I raked them anyway what could I do? And that was a mistake as this caused my Broncitus to flare up once again. The yard is done in fact the 65-degree day on Friday allowed me to cut the grass one more time.


Per my last post, it is National Diabetes month and thanks to the support of work we all wore Blue on Friday to show our support. My team has always stood by my side for years when it comes to Ella's heath. Say what you will about retail but the Home Depot really knows how to take care of there associates.


"So do you Black Friday Bro" was the text I got from my daughter who wants to go out into the wild,  why who knows. This year wife's store opened on Thanksgiving at 11am. They all thought it would silly and nobody would show up well this is the line that went around the corner and only one side at 9am when the associates arrived to set up.



As you can see we did go out and yeah I might have found a few movies. Honestly, I was only looking for Kong Skull Island and Spiderman the rest were so cheap that it was worth it.  The crowds surprised me (Let me say we waited to go out so we did not go during the heat of the moment) they were very well behaved nobody was pushing around most were talking to others in line seems to be having fun.



Last but not least College Football season is over and now I practically wait to see what bowl game my beloved Northwestern Wildcats get into this year. The season sure started off rough but they gained momentum finishing this year ranked in the top 25. SO Go Cats!



#diabetesawarenessmonth


I still love the strength my daughter has when it comes to this disease. Sadly the past year it really has changed her mentally as she enters new struggles. She is my sunshine that I will continue to fight for!


BC The Frist Thanksgiving


B.C. The First Thanksgiving
1973 | Color | 25 Min | Comedy | G | Levitow/Hanson Films

Director: Abe Levitow

Writers: 
Johnny Hart
Jack Caprio

Stars: 
Daws Butler
Bob Holt
Don Messick





To add flavor to her rock soup, the Fat Broad commands Wiley, Peter, Thor, etc. to catch a turkey. The problem is that no one knows what a turkey is except for the turkey himself. In spite of this, the chase is on. Mostly a series of running gags, this animated special did a superb job of capturing the humor of Johnny Hart's B.C. comic strip.


Wow, who remembers this TV show? I loved reading the Sunday paper comic and I remember all the holiday specials. What I did not remember was how silly this was and how it felt like an hour watching this thirty-minute cartoon. 



This story has a basic plot about the turkey that starts about halfway through the show, the first half is mostly unrelated gags strung together. This animated special was made for T.V. that first aired on November 19, 1973, on NBC Television. So I was 3 so pretty sure I'm remembering the reruns at this point. The jazz soundtrack is by Danny Darpino and gives you a nice Pink Panter style vibe. The jazz fits the bill very well.


At one time these were fun for us to watch as a family but fast forward 44 years later and my girls thought I was nuts for watching this old looking cartoon. Well, they had a good point it is not really about Thanksgiving and the pace is pretty slow with gags are no longer funny. And that is sad it still has the charm for those of us that grew up watching these specials. Seventies cartoons sure have an odd look that you instantly know it was from that decade.  


On a good note if you have Amazon Prime you can catch this today. But through some quick research, this has fallen into public domain and can be watched anytime for free at the Archive.org website.

Sorry B.C. I can only give you...

2 Turkey Legs out of 5



Trick or treat, fools.

Boo! A Madea Halloween
2016 | Color | 1Hr 43 Min | Comedy | PG-13 | Lionsgate

Director: Tyler Perry

Writer: Tyler Perry

Stars:
Tyler Perry
Cassi Davis
Patrice Lovely
Diamond White

Madea winds up in the middle of mayhem when she spends a haunted Halloween fending off killers, paranormal poltergeists, ghosts, ghouls, and zombies while keeping a watchful eye on a group of misbehaving teens.


Sure I watched this little gem after Halloween only because it was just added to Amazon's streaming service. And honestly, I was looking for something lite to watch and Tyler Perry movies have always piqued my curiosity so why not start with a little Halloween. 

Perry as with his other films wrote, directed, and starred in Boo! The look and feel of the movie is not bad you get the sense of a lower budget on a bigger scale. I'm not familiar with his other movies so I am not sure if the polished look is how these all play out but I will let you know more soon as I will be digging into these a little bit more. Perry and his crew shot this film in 6 days with a $20,000,000 budget. The film would go on to net $74 million domestic and international. Of course with numbers like that, you can go ahead and make Boo 2!


Other than the returning cast of misfits from the past movies this flick is chalked full of YouTube stars. Yeah (hangs head) the only way I knew that was my kids were watching and filling me in. If they were not YouTubers they where Disney cast members. Bella Thorne makes an appearance for what was my guess to show a not so wholesome girl next door charter. Don't get me wrong I really like her its just once she left Disney she went on to do the Scream series for MTV and Amityville the Awaking showing a much more mature side of her career. These seem to happen a lot once these teens leave the house of mouse. 


One of those Disney stars Diamond White lit up the screen. Sure she was the sassy paints that will get the story rolling and that is ok she nails the part. As for the rest of the cast, they all seem to be part of the Madea/Perry mix and bounce well-rounded jokes off of each other like they have been together since birth.


So if you are a little like me and have never seen a Tylor Perry movie this was a good one to jump on board with. I defiantly will check out a few more in the series. Boo! A Madea Halloween was well worth it, it is fun and entertaining without going over your head. Let's just say its Ernest for a new generation but with more of a story.

I give Boo!...

4 Bloody Brains out of 5
and why not it was a good story that had me laughing out loud!






nature fights back ...


Barracuda
1978 | Color | 1Hr 38 Min | Horror | PG | Republic Pictures

Directors:
Harry Kerwin
Wayne Crawford

Writers: 
Wayne Crawford 
Harry Kerwin

Stars: 
Wayne Crawford
Jason Evers 
Roberta Leighton 



A top-secret government experiment leads to fatal barracuda attacks on the beaches of a small coastal town formerly renowned for its lobster. A marine biologist (Wayne Crawford) and sheriff (William Kerwin) uncover a plot involving a mentally unstable former war-medic (Evers) pioneering research into hyperglycemia and the effect on human behavior.

Yes, finally a new movie on Svengoolie!! And one I remember growing up hearing about. This would be Harry Kerwin's  last movie before his death at the age of 48. Joe Dante was offered to direct the film because of his experience with the aquatic creature feature film Piranha which had been released earlier that year.


“Barracuda” swims into sight tonight on MeTV at 8 pm eastern/Pacific, 7 central, or check your local listings (or at www.metv.com) for channel and time in your area.Chicago area viewers will see an encore of “Deadly Mantis” at 11 am on WCIU, the U.

Looking forward to some fresh meat...

Halloween Left Overs


How about some Halloween left overs? I just did not get enough time to post a few of these odd's and ends this past season.

Just had to share this one.



Digging these Monster Babies!




In Case you still feel like making cupcakes

This is just plain old scary!



Jack Albertson, Mandy



Jack Albertson, performs Barry Manilow's smash hit Mandy. Does life get any better than this?

The Vegetables of Doom!


Return of The Killer Tomatoes
1988 | Color | 1Hr 38 Min | Horror, Comedy | PG | New World


Director: John De Bello

Writers: 
Stephen Andrich 
John De Bello

Stars: 
Anthony Starke
George Clooney
Karen M. Waldron
John Astin



Mad scientist Professor Gangreen is cooking up the second coming of the Great Tomato Uprising, in which music converted tomatoes into human form to war against mankind. Pizza delivery man Chad Finletter must save the world and beautiful tomato-girl Tara.


After Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and his flop, Happy Hour John De Bello tries to strike gold once again with Return of the Killer Tomatoes! Why you might ask? Well hell if I know I did not get the dark humor of the first one. Yet us kids of the 80's embraced the silliness of Return that it somehow paved its way into the heart of us kids. 

This being the sequel to Attac of the Killer Tomatoes we also would receive Killer Tomatoes Strike Back in 1990 and in 1991 Killer Tomatoes Eat France! Of Course for the sequel Return Of The Killer Tomatoes, the story picks up ten years later and is notable for George Clooney in one of his frist major film roles.


The Tomato franchise will go on to live in our hearts through video games as well. Who could forget the incredibly long and hard 8 Bit video game? Along with an earlier game for the PC based on the original movie. Now the video game was based on the Saturday Morning Cartoon! Yep, thats right we had a cartoon that ran on the Fox Box in 1990! We were also treated to a Game Boy game as well. 


Let's face the facts the cartoon was probably more entertaining the movie. Also in 2008, we were graced with a comic book and a few novels sprinkled throughout the same decade. Will we ever be able to stop these Killer Tomatoes? So far yes but beware the talk of a remake looms in the air.


Now we can not fool our self there is a great cast hidden within this flick. Coming fresh off of the TV show Beans and Baxotr the beautiful Karen Waldron makes her big screen debut and follows this movie up with yet another food-themed flick Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle the same year! (Click on my lick for that review.) And speaking of beautiful the sexiest man alive George Cloney has arrived. Even though us horror hounds know he was in Horror High first everybody loves to give him credit for his role in this movie. My personal opinion he is the one reason to watch this movie and most likely the reason anybody showed up at the cineplex.


But let's stop fooling ourselves the only reason to watch this movie nowadays would have to be Gomez Adams himself, John Astin. Sadly Astin will go on and star in the next two of the series. And again be the only reason worth checking in for. Astin is fun and giddy like a little schoolboy who has a great time playing jokes on his classmates.  Astin picks up this movie in loving arms and carries it on his back the whole way.



So what you really want to know is Return of the Killer Tomatoes worth watching? Well, the answer is not so simple if you like B movie spoof's that dive right in! If you want to see George fresh off of Facts of Life then yes, he is a lot of fun to watch. But in the long run, it falls a little flat and if you are not familiar with the first one some of the jokes just won't fit. And John is wild making it worth the trip if you are willing to check this out.

3 Bloody Brains out of 5

Better yet follow this link to an episode of the cartoon.

Return of the Killer Tomatoes was apart of the Blogathon Food in Movies make sure to check them out ton fo cool stories out there.

Happy Halloween

Sorry, gang a day late I know but man was yesterday one busy day! From Trunk or Treat at school to meeting up with friends to circle the neighborhood. Yeah, our group was well over 25 crazy kids and adults.



This year Lainey went as a pig in a blanket and Ella well somebody from Falsettos musical.

Trunk or Treat



Here is a very short video of the night. Short because when your watching that many kids it gets crazy really fast.



Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and even tho my wife worked and by the time we where done with the party and trick or treating our anniversary was spent exhausted on the couch lol that's what happens when you get married on Halloween I guess. 

Ok one more quick photo...



Halloween 9 years ago! Where does the time go? I can not believe how much they have grown up and so fast! 

Now off to catch up on everybody's posts!