Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story Film Review

 

For some strange reason this year seems to be the year that horror icons are getting their own documentaries. As the Chucky franchise recently got one with the great Living With Chucky and now another icon of not just horror but cinema and TV as a whole has just released his very own documentary and so then join me as I review the film that proves playing a nightmare of a character like Freddy Krueger can turn into a dream acting career with the film in question being called simply just "Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story" enjoy.

As this is a documentary this film really doesn't have a plot to speak as all it is is Robert talking about his life and his career. This is something that I think both works for and against he film it works for the film as it gives you the chance to hear more about the this man who has terrified us for decades but it works against the film as large portions of his life are either skipped over or just straight up forgotten about which makes the film feel more like an adaptation of Robert Englund's Wikipedia page and nothing more then that in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is Robert Englund , Eli Roth , Lance Henriksen , Amanda Wyss , Lin Shaye and Tony Todd. Also starring in this film is Monica Keena , Miko Hughes  , Heather Langenkamp , Andrew Divoff , Bill Moseley , Dennis Christopher , Tammy Lauren , Kane Hodder , Jill Schoelen , Kelly Jo Minter , Mick Garris , Tuesday Knight , Adam Green , Corey Taylor , Jeffrey Reddick , Dwight H. Little , Kenneth Johnson , Nathan Baesel , Michael Leavy , Janus Blythe , Gary Sherman , Steve Johnson , Danny Hassel , Diane Cary , Tim Sullivan , Peter Atkins , Bobby C. King , Bart Mixon , Andy Palmer , Michelle Zeitlin , Jaron Presant , David Stump , James Chressanthis , David J. Stieve and Jonathan Glendening.

As with Living With Chucky I really did like alot of the people that were interviewed for this film as alot them did have very unique things to say. However with that being said all of them praise Robert which granted is to be expected but at the same time tho it does get boring after awhile and while it's great to see alot of the cast not covering the same points as each other I just wish that they'd gotten more people from Robert's private live just so we the fans can hear about what he's like when he's not making a movie or a TV show.

As was to be expected he does cover the same old Star Wars story that he seems to cover which was to be expected. As much as I love hearing the story of how he told Mark Hamill to go in and audition for the role of Luke Skywalker it's a story that i've heard so many times now that it's become kind of a cliche to expect that story to show up in any documentary that Robert Englund appears in but I will admit I did enjoy the fact that he added to the story as he does say that he stole a piece of paper with the list of things that they were looking for in Luke Skywalker and that he auditioned for the role of Han Solo. 

I really did enjoy finding out about all of the other films that Robert Englund did both prior to and after A Nightmare On Elm Street. As it goes to show you just how much of a good actor he is as alot of films prior to being cast as Freddy Krueger were either drama's or comedies and you can just tell from the very brief clips of each films that they show that he had alot of fun making them as his charm really does shine through and it's hearing these stories that makes me want to check out more of his filmography.

What really saddened me was the fact that his father didn't fully get on board with him wanting to be an actor. Even when he started to become successful even tho his father did get to live through the rise of Freddy Krueger mania Robert himself says that him wanting to become an actor instead of a lawyer strained his relationship with his father even tho his mother was quite happy with him choosing to be an actor even tho she didn't get to live through Freddy Krueger mania but sadly he never mentions if he and his dad ever fully became close again but given that his dad appeared on set the day they were filming Freddy's death at the end of A Nightmare On Em Street 4: The Dream Master we can safely assume that they did mend there relationship at some point. 

For me this documentary would have been made better if we to see what Robert Englund the family man at home is like. As we have tons of DVD's and Blu-Rays to see what Robert Englund the entertainer is like and this would have given us a more dramatic hook as well as we'd get to see how the role of Freddy Krueger effected not only him but also his friends and his family as well which would have been more interesting then seeing people talk about alot of very little known films that as much as I hate to it just aren't that relevant to this films story.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and ten minuets and eleven seconds. Which for a documentary about one person's life is a bit on the long side even more so when you realise that this film feels like it's repeat on alot of the time with the film going interview and clip several times over and maybe just maybe you'll get some interesting facts or you'll find out about a film that you never knew about but I will however very much admit that this film does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as there are some comedy moments in this film that means that I have to actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With alot of this films comedy coming from seeing how Robert acted behind the scenes on some of his movies which was just a pure joy tom watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall while I can't say that this documentary is better then either I Am Nancy or Living With Chucky for that matter I can say this film is a must watch for any fan of either Robert Englund or A Nightmare On Elm Street in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that means that this very film earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all f the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Star Wars fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Image actually has images from this film up on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.