Why is it now a thing for beloved kids characters that have only just entered the public domain to get turned into slasher villains. As now we have yet another slasher film that has a beloved kids cartoon character as it's main villain and just like with both The Mouse Trap and Mouse Of Horrors this one is also the first of at least three maybe even more movies at least two more of which are due out this year and both of which have Popeye as the main villain and so the join me as I review the film that really should have eaten more spinach with the film in question being called simply just "Popeye's Revenge" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when a group of friends arrive to renovate a friends house they find themselves being stalked by mysterious person dressed in a sailors uniform. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot 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 plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty rather bland as it just comes comes across as being every single eighties slasher summer film plot rolled into run with a dose of the The Evil Dead's setting thrown into it with nothing new or interesting added to it which is something that does make sense as lets be honest here the main focus and selling point of these films is never going to be the plot it's going to be seeing a beloved kids cartoon character be the villain of the film but even then you still need to have a decent enough plot to keep viewers interested in your film and when you don't have all you have is a bland selling point that thanks to other similar films like this one is becoming more and more generic by the film and as such these types of films really do need to up there game when it comes to there plots say what you will about the Blood And Honey films but at least they gave some fresh new plots where as this films plot is nothing more then generic with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Emily Mogilner as Tara , Connor Powles as Dylan , Danielle Ronald as Donna and Bruno Cryan as Nick. Also starring in this film is Atlanta Moreno as Sky , Karolina Ugrenyuk as Kathy , Fyn Phoenixx as Max , Kyle Jordan as Alan , Eva Ray as Cherry , Danielle Scott as Mia , Amanda Jane York as Lora , Oliver Mason as George , Kathi DeCouto as Jane , Paul Frost as A Fisherman , Kelly Rian Sanson as Olive Oyl and Steven Murphy as Popeye.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting 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 acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty about as bad as you'd expect from one of these films. As this films acting whilst it is alot more better then the acting in Mickey's Mouse Hunt is still pretty bad as while it is clear as day that alot of this films actors are indeed trying to turn in a good performance alot of this films actors just feel lost with that mainly being due to the fact that this films director William Stead quite clearly has no idea just how to get a good performance out of his actors with that being something that does hold the acting acting back with his of talking to his actors to give them a good performance mainly coming from the fact that he's only directed two feature films with the rest of his filmography being made up of short films that he's directed and working in other film departments with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Not only is this film basically copying the plot of quite literally alot of the summer camp slasher movies from the nineteen eighties. It's also just straight up copying the opening of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey by having the origin of the killer be told in poorly done animation with a narrator that sounds bored this right here is one the major issues with this film because there is nothing original about this film for the most part heck even the fact that the killer is believe to have been burnt alive could also be seen as copying the original of Freddy Krueger even down to both characters having actually committed the crimes that got them murdered the only difference being that Popeye or Johnny as his real name is meant to be was just a kid who didn't know his own strength and that's really it and that's not enough as you have who is perhaps the worlds most famous sailor and you give him an origin that was done better in 1984 and is was told alot better in 2023 and all of this just screams of the makers of this film just cashing in on what's popular and not bothering to give there villain an origin that's unique to him Popeye is meant to be a sailor so have his origin be something that's related to that and tell it in a way that's unique to your film and not something that was ripped off of a film that whilst it was still bad was still alot more better then this film was since as things stand this film is trying to hard to copy a bunch of ideas from other horror films without understanding what it was that made them so popular in the first place.
Whilst Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey did indeed start of the trend of turning popular kids characters into slasher film villains. With that film you could at least tell that the makers of that film were at least trying to make a decent film and while they may not have succeeded in there task you could see there passion for the film on screen where as here it just felt all of the people that where making this film hadn't even seen a Popeye cartoon let alone read one of the comics as there's no passion for this character or for this film for that matter seen in this film an the reason as to why i'm being so hard on these films is because I want them to be better and part of that does include showing some level of passion for the characters and your film as here it just comes across as the makers of this film saw that Popeye had entered the public domain and saw that these types of films where making some small amounts of money and saw a way to ern some quick money easily and that's really it as everything about this film just scream generic and while they do credit for at least trying to explain why Popeye has some large biceps and having a spinach reference near the end of the movie those feel like that they were included to appease the people who love the Popeye character when all you have to do is make an actually good and scary film with a unique premise and the fans of that character would still be somewhat pleased but because they went the easy route and didn't bother to put in the actual work all we ended up with is a film that is just generic and will be forgotten about by both the people who love the Popeye character and by the people who love horror films within the end of the week.
If the makers of this film really wanted to do something new and different but still keep Popeye as the main villain. Then what they really should have done is have Bluto be in the movie and not only that but also have him be one of the hero characters in the movie as we are so used to seeing him be the bad guy it would make it more fun to see the roles reversed and that would at least then give the movie a reason for existing but they don't do that instead they have it so that whenever there's fog around Popeye is nearby which is great for atmosphere but it makes the movie less fun to watch and if there's anything that this movie shouldn't be is boring as you have a character who is a larger then live sailor being your main villain and yet the film plays in all completely straight which again is something that these films tend to do when leaning into the ridiculousness of it all would not only make your film alot more better then what it actually is but it would also make this film alot more fun to watch as well and this is something that hopefully the makers of Shiver Me Timbers do as Popeye is a character where you can get away with having over the top and funny moments in your movie and in your kills as Popeye is by nature an over the top and funny character and by playing it straight all your doing is making your film alot less fun to watch with thus being something that the makers of The Mean One knew to do as yes that film was a Grinch based horror film but it also knew to play moments for laughs as well as The Grinch is also a comedy character.
If you thought that Popeye was the only character from the Popeye comics strips and shorts to appear in this movie then you'd be wrong. As even tho in the movie he only goes by Olive the girl that's actually helping him is credited in the movies end credits as being none other then Olive Oyl with this films version of her not being Popeye's lover interested but instead being his equally twisted sister which is something that they really never hint at being the case at all during the movies animated prolog with it only being mentioned by Olive herself during the films third act which at that point in time it's two little to late with that plot twist not even playing a part in the movies plot and Olive herself just comes across as being a less interesting version of The Little Pale Girl from the Terrifier movies only not funny and less interesting but to this films credit they also don't go the obvious route with the character either by making her a really annoying love interest for Popeye which is something that they very easily could have done but at the same time tho if your going to have this big twist of her being Popeye's sister then at least hint at it a few times throughout the movie and heck you could even say that Popeye was his parents second child and yet all they do is have one line near the start of the movie where even then that line of dialog could literally mean that he's talking to anyone as it's not something that means that he not only has a sister but is also currently talking to her either.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and nineteen minuets and forty four seconds. Which is a solid running time for this film to have as this film really does have the right mount of plot there to cover it's running time but at the same time tho while the film does indeed devote alot of it's running time to Popeye and his backstory we get nothing for the rest of the characters with the characters that we want to see survive this movie being nothing more then the stereotypical characters that we see in all eighties summer camp slasher movies and having just as much dimension to them as well which is something that does make sense as the main selling point of this film is seeing Popeye being turned into a slasher villain but at the same time you still need to have interesting and likable characters that you actually want to see survive until the very end of this movie and yet because of the fact that the makers of this put alot more effort into making Popeye at least somewhat interesting the rest of this films characters just come as being bland , boring and forgettable characters that have been done better in other and better slasher movies and even Popeye himself isn't really given all that much dimension to him as while he does have a motive for wanting to get revenge on the PARENTS that killed him he ha no reason to go after the kids as they did nothing to him at least with Freddy Krueger we found out in hi debut movie why he's attacking the kids and not the adults but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a slasher film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty the best part of the film. As that's where the film gets to be somewhat entertaining with the film even making use of Popeye being a sailor by having him not only use an anchor alot of the time but also carry it around with him as well and it's during this films kills that we get to see just how good the gore effects where in this film with it being clear as day that alot of the films budget went into creating some really good gore effects which was money well spent as they do make the films kills alot better with the best kill in the whole entire movie bar none being when Popeye straight up rips out a persons spline and then rips there head off which was just such an over the top the kill that it makes you wonder why the rest of this films kills weren't as over the top and creative as alot of them where just Popeye strangling people until there eyes popped out of there head and that's really it and while that does lead to some really creative looking visuals and is indeed a really creative idea for a kill in it's own right you still need to have more a verity of fun kills in it as well and while this film does indeed have it's fair share of fun kills those are in the minority and are not the majority with the rest of this films kills despite them being really fun kills in there own right just aren't as fun as they really could have been in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is a trend that really does need to die down as it's getting old fast and this movie and Mouse Of Horrors is evidence of that as while this movie is at the very least a little bit better then Mouse Of Horrors it's still a really bad move in it's own right and it's one that will be forgotten about by alot of people who love both horror films and Popeye as well as it's just that bad of a film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of he good and as well as all of the bad things that are in his very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in his 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 Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment