ZeldaFan2929

Opening up with a recap on what has happened so far, "Phantasm IV: Oblivion" begins with the ending of "Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead" and continues the ongoing struggle of good vs. evil with Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). We see Mike driving a hearse down a desert road in effort to get as far away from the mysterious Tall Man with Reggie (Reggie Bannister) following Mike. While Reggie deals with demon cops and a sexy lady (Heidi Maranhout), Mike travels through multiple portals and discovers how The Tall Man came to this dimension and if his brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) is really what he seems to be.

Phantasm IV is the most recent entry in the series to date but thank god it is not the last as there will be one more film on the way. While Phantasm II and Phantasm III were both very straightforward, Oblivion brings back the strange and unique feel of the original. So in short, you often have no idea what the hell is going on. ANd the fact that they show deleted scenes from the original Phantasm as part of the story really doesn't help either. I consider Phantasm IV to be a little better than the disappointing (but still good) third entry of the series, but my issue with this one is that even though you are entertained throughout and your eyes will probably be glued to the screen, nothing really happens when you think about it. You see a lot of Mike driving. Then Reggie driving, then Mike sitting in the desert. Reggie driving some more. Mike still sitting in the desert. Had the movie had more than one setting (not counting the ones in the portal jumping) it may not have felt this way. Towards the end it gets a lot more interesting and a lot of stuff happens but everything else was more or less a build up. The other thing is the ending. Thank god Phantasm V was announced because this has an extremely vague and unsatisfying ending. If you have seen 1-3, which all have the same ending more or less (which is vague also), this one blows it out of the park. Basically the film reaches it's climax, drifts to something completely random, and just ends out of the blue. And this is ten years (1998 at the time) before another film will be seen. Wow...

Continuity errors are what really disappointed me about the third movie, but aside from The Tall Man's need for Mike to be alive carried over from the third, one this one luckily has none. The amazing Phantasm score isn't really played, but a slow violin version that sounds great is herd often which adds to the drama of the film (also herd in 2 and 3). Despite that there isn't much going on in the middle, the film manages to be extremely entertaining and if you are a fan of the series your sure to really like this one. Reggie Bannister serves as the source of humor and bad-ass hero who once was an ice cream vendor once again gives a great performance as does Angus Scimm as the sinister Tall Man as usual. Michael Baldwin gives a much better performance than in Phantasm III which was good to know. Like Phantasm III, Bill Thornbury is just kind of there but unlike Phantasm III he actually has importance in this one.

The Breakdown:

PROS: Captivating story, Great score, Likable characters, Dosen't contain many continuity errors unlike it's predecessor, Attractive women (Heidi Maranhout), Very surreal, And who wouldn't like to see a bald and middle-aged ex-ice cream vendor dressed in his old uniform shooting demon midgets with a quad barrel shot-gun?

CONS: The ending will really annoy you for a really long time, Though the film contains many of silver spheres, there arn't any real drilling's:(, and you occasionally have no idea what is going on.

OVERALL: It isn't as good as "Phantasm" or "Phantasm II", but "Phantasm IV: Oblivion" is yet another satisfying entry to this amazing fantasy/horror series. While the series tends to be more horror, this one seems more of a fantasy/drama. Not that thats bad thing though. If you haven't seen any of the Phantasm movies I recommend you do as it is a great franchise. Also Reggie Bannister does a surprisingly good song called "Have You Seen It?" played in the credits and was made for th film.

Rated R: Mild Violence and Language; Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes; Score: 8/10

"D.E.B.S." is about four teen secret spy agents known as (you guessed it) D.E.B.S. (Disipline Energy Beauty Strength; no it makes no sense). Together they fight crime in plad mini-skirts, and just because their special like that they always manage to kick everyones ass. Eventually they get a call to go after Lucy Diamond (Jordanna Brewster), the worlds most notorious and dangerous criminal. She somehow manages to get away, but not before meeting Amy (Sara Foster), the leader of the D.E.B.S. squad. Lucy becomes obsessed with Amy and arranges a meeting for the two of them and before she knows it, Amy falls madly in love with Lucy. Amy is then forced into a decision: run away and be with Lucy or do the responsible thing and apprehend Lucy and stay with the organization. Guess which one she chooses?

D.E.B.S. at first seems like a goofy movie you can just sit there and brainlessly chuckle at for a little while, which is exactly what I thought too. No, it's not. This movie is a steaming pile of crap, I have seen a lot of movies and don't dislike many but it's insane how bad this one is. First let me start with the acting and so-called "humor". Acting isn't god awful but in a lot of ways it was below par. Jordanna Brewster is a good actress but her character here required a terrible performance considering she is supposedly the most dangerous person on the planet and always seems to kick everyones ass, especially if that someone is male. If you want to see Jordanna give a really good performance, see her in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning"; the film may be a half-decent gore-fest but it was a good time killer and Jordanna gives a really good performance in it. Sara Foster was decent but her characters decisions throughout the movie didn't help things. The superiors (including Michael Clarke Duncan; don't know how they convinced him to do this) are all acted well but they have little part in the film. The rest of the D.E.B.S. agents are typical teen girls, complete with calling each other "bitches" and "whores". Movies that mirror teen life and high school (such as Mean Girls) get away with this fine and be funny, but here it's just really stupid. Almost nothing in this film is funny at all. It's not even hilariously bad, it just flat out sucks.

One matter you would never think to find in here is sexism believe it or not. Michael Clarke Duncan's character is the only smart male in the whole movie. The other one that comes close is Lucy's friend, though he never gets a hit in fighting the D.E.B.S. and gets his ass kicked horribly. Everyone else like Amy's ex-boyfriend are just complete retards, which there is no excuse for. I understand the director is a lesbian and she said this film is for teen girls to encourage them "it's okay", but there is no excuse for this, not all guys are retarded. Oh, and the infamous "love story" this film is famous for is one of the worst played out in cinematic history. I'm not kidding, wait 'til you hear this. At first Amy is straight and broken up with her ex-boyfriend, and you know she cared because she was a little sad about it. Then at a heist to catch Lucy (who is invincible apparently and can never be shot; even if she's three feet in front of the guns shooing at her) the two meet up and start talking about nothing really; just that Amy has been researching her and was surprised to find out that she was a lesbian (she was with a girl at the time). Lucy leaves when the other agents show up and says to her male friend "she was so into me" and arranges a meeting for her and Amy and a friend of Amy's comes too by accident. They have like two or three minutes of casual talk and all of a sudden a straight girl is in love with criminally infamous lesbian. Wow, is that all it takes? The movie is also advertised to be a complete spy spoof, but don't be fooled: the lesbian plot consumes 99% of the film.

The Breakdown:

PROS: Every now and then there will be a laugh or two because it did do a couble things right as far as spoofing goes, but not nearly enough to redeem itself from anything.

CONS: The movie sucked, the "love" plot is pathetically unrealistic and unbelievable, sexism, watching teen girls in plad mini-skirts beating the crap out of everyone may sound fun but it is portrayed so horribly here it's just plain stupid, Lucy and her inability to be show from three feet away, D.E.B.S. stands for Disipline Energy Beauty Strength..okay..., and do I really need to continue?

OVERALL: This is not so much as a review as it is a warning to stay away from the disaster known as "D.E.B.S." as if your life depends on it. All the movies it tries to be or tries to be a fusion of such as Mean Girls and Charlies Angles are all 100x better than this load of crap. This film had a chance to be something really fun and goofy, instead it was a really crappy "gay is OK" flick. I really wanted to like this one too (seriously, I did). AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!

(Side-Note)- Keep in mind this is coming from someone who thought "Lady in the Water" was an excellent movie. Because of this you may want to see it and make your own opinion, but unless you are A.) a lesbian, B.) an open-minded girl, C.) a horny dude, or D.) a retard your opinion is likely to be similar to mine.

Rated PG-13: Some Lesbian Sexuality (nothing special really) and Language; Runtime 91 minutes; Score: 1/10

"Stripperella" is an animated series about a girl named Erotica Jones (voiced by Pamela Anderson) who lives a double life as a stripper at a gentleman's club known as "The Tender Loins" and as a sexy crime-fighter known as Stripperella, a.k.a. Agent 69 who works for a government organization. As Stripperella, Erotica fights crime and the forces of evil such as a plastic surgeon who gives women breast implants that either explode or make them fat and Cheapo, a criminal who steals from 99 cent stores and makes his two henchmen share a gun. The creator of the character and the series is Stan Lee of Marvel fame (and creator of Spider-Man).

Back in late June of 2003, Spike TV (then known as The New TNN) premiered a Thursday night block of three animated shows. Those shows were "Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon"; new adventures of classic kids show characters Ren and Stimpy for adults done by original creator John Kricfalusi, "Gary the Rat"; about a lawyer who is turned into a human sized rat starring Kelsee Grammar of "Cheers" and "Fraiser" fame, and "Stripperella"; the adventures of a stripper who doubles as a superhero voiced by Pamela Anderson and created by Stan Lee. I remember seeing all three of the premiers. I was anxious to see Ren and Stimpy as I love the original show. I was a little let down. It was alright but it seemed to take things a little too far; seeing the two have gay sex together was a bit much. Though Gary the Rat wasn't bad, the best of the three was easily Stripperella. The animation was really good, it had an awesome intro song, it had some good talent behind it, and it was funny as hell! The show was just so silly, I don't even know how to begin explaining it! After four of five weeks (if not a little less) the animation block disappeared, which was weird because I know it got good ratings and it was advertised everywhere. I was disappointed to see Stripperella go but several months later I found out about new episodes that aired at like 1:00 AM. I only got to see one and though it was funny as hell and I was glad to see the show back after all that time, something seemed a bit off....

In the beginning of it's short run, "Stripperella" had great animation. It was dark, moody, realistic, and somewhat sexy too. The Stripperella costumed looked good too, the character was drawn well. After the long hiatus and during the rest of the episodes, the animation was very different. Instead of dark and realistic look it originally had everything was now really colorful and cartoonish. Stripperella received the biggest changes though. Before she had normal long hair, now she had hair bigger than Peggy Bundy's (Married with Children) if even possible. Also, the eye mask actually shows her eyes now; before it was just white you saw which was cool since it was more superheroish. Also, the upper part of her costume was kind of a vest-type thing with a collar and her costume was dark blue; that changed to her costume being a bluish-violet color and her upper costume being really crappy looking in comparison. In short, the show was a cartoon and very over the top silly beforehand, but the second-half it became more cartoonish looking and though still laugh-out-loud hilarious, it became more zany as well; for example, there was a later episode about a were-beaver...yes, a were-beaver.

Anyway, instead of complaining about the mid-series changes, "Stripperella" only ran one season but it was a very good show. Like the Tales from the Crypt film "Bordello of Blood", it may be really campy but it's really fun. As long as your not a prude you'll find yourself laughing repeatedly at this show. I haven't seen every episode because I haven't got the DVD yet for two reasons: #1. Paramount released and they have this screwed up policy about not including any extras on nearly all released TV shows, even though this was the entire show (I would have liked to see some commentary's maby explaining the animation change and interviews with Pamela Anderson and Stan Lee) and #2. the awesome Kid Rock song during the opening was replaced. Now I'm not a fan of his, but that intro sang WAS the theme for the show! If your not going to pay to have any extras at least pay to have the original intro song you jack-asses. The show also had a few interesting guest stars such as John Lovitz as Cheapo and Mark Hamil as the plastic surgion who hates models. Also Tom Kenny (SpongeBob) was on the show as the owner of the strip club in most every episode. Stan Lee has a cameo in one episode too.

The Breakdown:

PROS: Had a great look to it at first, FUNNY AS HELL, a very fun show, great voice talent for the most part, Chief Strogenoff (watch the show and see some of the stuff he does), and was easily the best of the three animated shows mentioned earlier.

CONS: The mid-series animation change and the crappy DVD described earlier. Aside from the fact that some of the humor could be kind of dumb at times I have nothing really negative to say about this.

OVERALL: Stripperella is a huge guilty pleasure of mine and it's a shame it only ran one season. It was a very funny, sexy, actioned packed cult series that I hope to see air on Adult Swim someday with the original intro intact and possibly give it another season like Family Guy. Check it out even if it is on the lousy DVD. You will laugh yourself silly.

Rated TV-MA: Crude and Sexual Humor and Nudity, Runtime: About 25 minutes per episode, Score: 9/10