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When I first put on "Mr. Vampire" (on the Criterion Channel) I thought I was in for a goofy but serious karate monster movie. It's not. It's a goofy karate monster comedy. Okay, fine. I changed gears and, for the most part, I enjoyed the movie. The cast is likeable and the jokes were pretty funny. "Mr. Vampire" runs out of steam towards the end mostly because the boss vampire looks ridiculous. I also could have done without spending the last five minutes of the movie re-watching the movies' "highlights".

I was a kid when all of this was going on. I also lived a few blocks from where the third shooting took place. (I still live a few blocks from that location but I'm east of it now instead of west of it.) Because of those reasons I'll watch pretty much anything that comes out about the killings. "Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes" does a pretty job telling the story. I found the actual recordings of David Berkowitz' voice uninteresting. I have no interest in listening to what a murderer has to say, especially one who keeps changing his story. I also didn't like how the show poo-poos the idea of there being more than one shooter. If it was only Berkowitz, why, all of these years later, is the case still considered open in the borough of Queens?

Writer/director Akiva Schaffer and company deserve a lot of credit for "The Naked Gun". Although not entirely successful, it wasn't for lack of trying. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson both also deserve a lot of credit for trusting Schaffer the way they did in this movie. They both took a gamble and it paid off. Neeson does a good job (even though I spent quite a bit of time looking at his "hair"). Anderson is also vey good and during the night club scene she is fearless. "The Naked Gun" is not as good as the original, or its sequels, but it's still worth seeing.