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Panic pick, but have wanted to watch the original and think it's on Amazon Prime/streaming right now.. A Star is Born (1937) And I'm sure we can definitely discuss/compare the remakes (especially the latest one)

Sorry I've been MIA in the forums : ( I have missed y'all and being in the discussions Let me think of a pick real quick!

Yes, most movie villains really need to have read the Evil Overlord List. This would seem to fall under #17: "When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice."

I've been good! Lot of changes and been a bit hectic but all good things hope everyone's been doing well

This will probably come off as a bit nitpicky, but it's a personal bugaboos so I'm going to point it out. When we are introduced to Mr. Hyde, we are shown that he's this hulking brute of a monster that appears to be about 3 ft. taller than Van Helsing with a head that is easily 3 times as large. Now, I have no problem with the fact that most of Hyde's clothes are still on him. Years of reading and watching the Incredible Hulk has given me pretty unreasonable expectations and a certain tolerance for extreme pant waist elasticity. Hell, it doesn't bother me that when he grows his pants are somehow loose enough that he actually has to pull his pants up to cover his butt crack (also, incidentally, confirming that Dr Jekyll goes commando). No, what bothers me is the fact that the cigar he is smoking is somehow proportionate to his increased mass and not to a normal human. How does that work? Where the Hell was he able to scrounge up a cigar the length of a adult man's femur?

This month, I’m going to let Grudlian dictate which Friday we do this since I know he watched all the other Twilights in preparation for this, and I would hate for him to have gone through all that effort just to miss out. Grud, which Friday is better for you: the 5th or the 12th?

Quite simple actually he rolled his own

For all the great jokes made about Van Helsing's hat, our hosts missed what I think is the most obvious one. Look at this damned Wanted poster: It shows you absolutely NOTHING about Van Helsing's face. Literally the only detail there for people to latch onto is his hat. If he's having so many problems with people telling "MURDERER!" at him everywhere he goes, TAKE OFF THE HAT. BUY A DIFFERENT HAT. NO ONE WILL RECOGNIZE YOU.

We've missed you too! I hope everything is going well with you

I just saw that all the Twilight movies are on Hulu right now.

I want to write a bit on Dracula’s peasant farming and its long term sustainability. We’re told that they only take “one or two [villagers] a month.” Or, as Dracula puts it, just enough to sustain them. First of all, I’m not sure if by “one or two” villagers per month they mean per vampire or if one or two villagers is the number of villagers required to comfortably feed a family of four adult vampires for an entire month. Since the movie’s phrasing is ambiguous, let’s err on the conservative side and say they share their victims. This means that each year, at the very least, somewhere between 12 and 24 villagers are devoured by the undead. I mean, that might not sound like a lot, but that’s a huge number - especially for a tiny village in the Romanian hinterlands. And while I admit I don’t exactly have the census information for the town on hand, based on what is shown in the movie, I would estimate that the town doesn’t have more than maybe 200 people in it. At one or two persons per month, that means that each year 6-12% of their total population is killed off by Dracula and his wives. To put that into perspective, if you were to apply the same percentage to modern day America, 6-12% would make “death by vampire” the third leading cause of death behind Heart Disease (23.4%) and Cancer (22.5%). Their harvesting of souls also doesn’t take into account for death from natural causes, accidents, or homicidal undertakers. And furthermore, at that rate of death, it would be impossible for the villagers to breed fast enough to create a state of equilibrium. Although, I suspect birth rates would drop precipitously. After all, what’s the point of having children if they’re destined to be chattel for your demonic overlords? What all this means is that in less than a decade, these four vampires will have completely exhausted their food supply. Of course, this is all assuming that Van Helsing never arrives and they are able maintain their status quo. Once “thousands” of baby vampires are unleashed upon the world, each eating at least a quarter human each month, it’s not going to be long before their New Vampire World Order comes crashing down from a full blown vampire famine. Not smart, Drac!

This was my first Chaplin film, and I loved it. I’ve seen lots of films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but always resisted Chaplin for some uncertain reason. I think it had to do with the way the Little Tramp character is all over pop culture, and my incorrect view of Chaplin as overly sentimental and sappy. Like Amy, I found myself laughing out loud at City Lights probably more than any other silent comedy I’ve watched. The boxing scene is physical comedy perfection, and every single actor involved does an amazing job. One small observation about the boxing match and its treatment of the Black boxer. It seems a lot of the films I’ve seen from the era either marginalize their Black characters as servants or in similar stereotypical roles, or they present them as minstrel show-like caricatures in an attempt at comedy. It was nice and a little surprising to see the boxer presented as just another character in the scene. City Lights definitely belongs in the AFI top 100.

Fantastic episode! Seth Rogen's exuberance is contagious. One thing that really bugged me about this movie is that Beckinsale and her ancestors get to go to Heaven on a bullshit technicality. We're told by Van Helsing's boss that 450 years ago Beckinsale's great-great-great grandfather made a vow to God that his family would "neither rest nor enter Heaven until they vanquished Dracula from their land." But...they didn't vanquish him - Van Helsing did. In order to fulfill this vow and lift the family curse, shouldn't Beckinsale be the one to deliver the killing blow? Otherwise, it's just a bunch of nonsense. That means it never really mattered how Dracula died, just that he did - eventually. They could have just waited him out until he choked on some Texas Toast or slipped in the shower or some shit. Because, apparently, it really didn't fucking matter. What this movie really needed was a mid-credits scene where Kate and her lover-brother march up to St. Peter only for him to tell them, "Um, not so fast..."

I went and saw Van Helsing in theaters and at the end of the movie when we see Anna’s face in the sky my buddy said “Simba” in his best James Earl Jones voice. The entire theater erupted in laughter and as we were walking out people were asking each other who said it. We kept our mouths shut smiled and walked out. Funniest part of the movie!!

I remember watching this movie and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters back-to-back one day when I was home sick (and, apparently, mentally impaired). It seemed like a great double-header idea at the time, but ultimately left me feeling sick; like eating an entire box of Peeps and chasing it down with cotton candy and Jolt Cola.

I love you for b bringing back old Buffy fandom debate thoughts

Yes, health first! The boards are always here. I actually enjoyed watching this for once, even with its flaws. Thanks for hosting, and bringing your perspective to it!

In response to Riki Lindhome not being able to sit through 'Shape of Water,' here is me guesting on one of my favorite podcasts getting EXUBERANT about how much I love everything Guillermo del Toro: https://hellbentforhorror.com/2019/03/25/episode-083-we-need-to-talk-about-guillermo/

I'm curious with how many people are in line with Amy in thinking that she rejects him at the end. Maybe I am a hopeless romantic or something but I thought it was 100% clear that she accepts him for who he is. I think she does the mental math a bit in that moment as well. He's poor and penniless now, but he gave her a lot of money before going away for awhile. She might not have all the facts right, but she understands that whether he was rich or not before he gave up everything he had for her with no expectation of anything in return other than her happiness. Her pulling his hand in closer to her chest says it all. Again, the brilliance of little actions telling a story rather than words.

Sorry, the school year in Japan ends in March and starts in April so I've been a bit too busy to contribute to this film. As I said the was a book on tape we had my parents would put on for my sister and I when driving to our relatives. I was shocked by how much of this I didn't remember. Pretty much all I remember is the story DvD tells and I thought that was the movie. I had no idea that they weren't a coupes, those weren't her kids, and there is a whole story that does not involve the car in any way shape or form. Maybe it's just childhood memories making me a bit basis here, but if the story was simply a family on their day out and the father tells his kids a story about them and the car before they go home it would make it a lot tighter and better. Also, I thought it was a bit crazy the opening scene is just 10 minutes of car racing to explain how this one car, who is not in two of the three races, got to be in a junk yard. That said I did enjoy a lot of the musical numbers. I forget what a joy DvD is to actually watch and move around.

Ray Liotta is a Marine, serving a life sentence for killing his commanding officer, and keeps causing trouble by escaping maximum security prisons, so he is delivered to a deserted island prison. Naturally he tries to escape but ends up caught in a war between two island gangs. The movie takes place in 2022, in a futuristic society where corporations run prisons (nailed it) and they can scan and track prisoners anywhere on the plan it (basically nailed it). Also in the beginning when they explain Ray Liotta's incident with his commanding officer, it happened during an armed conflict in Benghazi in 2011! A pretty decent action movie for its time, but definitely has its logic flaws that are ripe for picking for this show. Why is the island, seemingly stuck in the dark ages, capable of manufacturing high tech rocket launchers and satellite-proof boats? Why is the gang that captures Ray Liotta so fascinated by his ability to kill a person (he was sent to the island for a reason)? Movie might be kinda hard to get. It's not on Netflix, YouTube rentals or Prime, and the DVD on Amazon is still going for $20. I recommend this movie but don't know if I recommend it at $20. There's a full version of it on YouTube but it may not last for long. Trailer:

I'd just like to offer this gem observation : spoiler for the first 5 minutes... ....It starts with the main character as a child. She rides up to her house on a bike, dumps the bike on the lawn, then enters the house and witnesses her mother hanging herself. We then see the title announce "Ten years later" and the bike is still in the exact same spot on the lawn. Oooo! Oooo! Wait I've got one more. This one is more of a spoiler, and is just yet another example of how the protagonist is the worst person ever. By over the halfway mark, she has to know for sure that bad things happen to people she knows whenever she makes a wish. Does she do the right thing and stop making wishes? Is she forced into making a wish for something really important? Nope! She makes "I wish my dad was cool" because she's embarrassed by him being addicted to dumpster diving (even though they're millionaires now). Cut to her and her girlfriends gazing dreamily at her dad (who looks just 10 years older than her) playing smooth jazz with his band in their living room. Her friend's cousin then dies horribly as the price to pay for cool jazz dad. Best final scene in a horror too.