Hell Baby

"It started with white people moving into the neighborhood." Jack (Corddry) and Vanessa (Bibb) are expecting twins and have just moved into a new neighborhood. Before they can get settled they are told the history of the house they are in. Vanessa begins to experience strange things but doesn't realize it. Jack is worried and questions what is happening. So, what can I say about this. The group that did Reno 911 did this movie so that is the baseline to go off of. The jokes that were in Haunted House and Scary Movie 5 are pretty much repeated again here. Some of the jokes go on a little too long while others are funny at first but begin to tire after the repetition. It is hard to say too many bad things about this because the cast is funny and really carry the movie for as long as they can but like the other two movies I mentioned it can't sustain laughs the entire time. This is a movie that would be better watched in twenty minute segments rather then all at once. Overall, a movie that is funny but gets repetitive and loses steam toward the end. I give it a B-.

It's clear from the get go that this is gonna be a silly film. It started to worry me early on that it may be too low brow for even my unrefined pallet, so I played a game of chicken with it and attempted to remain stone faced for as long as I could. As is often the case with this brand of brazen comedy, it certainly takes a lot of swings at humour, and many are bound to miss. Yet as I stared it down, it eventually got the best of me and managed to elicit a good chuckle from a handful of it's dumb jokes. The cast is a rather impressive lineup of familiar faces, most of them cracking a good line here and there while rarely crossing a threshold of irredeemable obnoxiousness. It doesn't win any points for creativity as it merely rehashes worn possession film tropes, and it's not even the first film to spoof the genre. But the comfortingly familiar horror elements do meld well with the goofy stoner humour, making for crude, unchallenging entertainment.

I loved this movie. If you go in expecting some big budget plot driven parody you'll be disappointed. What you get is sketch based comedy where the absurd situations are purely reasons for the characters to improv some hilarious one liners. These guys can all deadpan with the best of 'em and the whole movie is played that way perfectly. Bonus love if you are from the south and familiar with Cajun cuisine and stereotypes. There is gore, over the top gore but the movie is not based around that nor does it derive it's comedy from the gross factor. I have no doubt that time will be kind to this movie and it will get cult status, there are so many great quotes for it not to have a long life. I hope it makes enough money so the writers and actors can make more improv based deadpan insanity.

I was hesitant to put this one in for a while. Bad reviews and all. But a lot of people that I admire are in it. So today I finally watched it. (and I can watch very few movies these days since I am in the hospital for 5 weeks and only seldom get out (waiting for surgery)), well back to the movie. It's structured like a spoof but has an original actor and features most of L.A's stand up elite. (Some of the have already got their own TV Shows). Thomas Lennon not only has a huge part in this movie he also directed it and he did that very well. They had a limited budget but you can't tell the difference from a big studio in any way. The jokes were original and very well executed. Never does it stupe to the level of a Scary Moie 5 or Haunted House.I also loved the constant smoking by the two priests. Usually these days when someone smokes in a movie he's automatically a bad guy. I hate that. All the creature effects are done very well too, especially considering the budget. If you have a couple of extra buck be sure to pick up the Blu Ray.

It just ended up feeling like a kind of disjointed, slow sketch comedy American Horror Story.

The whole movie felt too flat and blunt. It's like they thought up clever or funny ideas, but threw them out in the simple way possible. And then they made sure to let them linger, as if they were pausing for audience laughter. Hell, sometimes it even felt like a laugh track would improve the movie.

I mean, the "Scary Movie"s are full of those broad and cheap laughs. This on the other hand, is quirkier and WANTS to be more than that. And unlike the Scary Movies, it DOES feel like one whole story, instead of a bunch of sketches spoofing horror flicks. But every scene felt like it dragged on for too long, way past when you "got" the joke and were ready for them to go deeper or move on or add more layers or something. And that made it come out stale. Over and over, it took you out of the movie, and reminded you that this is just a bunch of funny friends who went out there with a camera and a simple idea to have fun. That idea...just happened to only be 20 minutes worth of story and gags, that they had to stretch out to an hour and a half.

And as much as I could respect the kind of story they wanted to tell, the ways they were trying to milk comedy, and the characters they created...it's just not well edited or put together. There's not enough story, the jokes were too on the nose, and I left it kinda disappointed. This had a lot going for it: great cast, clever creative people behind it. But you might be better off just watching "This Is the End" instead.

Oh, and a certain scene with Riki Lindhome was really random and fully appreciated...