Chuck's Movie Breakdown

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's Halloween day, so it's time to wrap up this year's HallowScream with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown .          This 1966 television special opens with siblings Linus and Lucy heading to the pumpkin patch and picking out a giant pumpkin to carve. When Lucy starts carving the pumpkin, an upset Linus exclaims " You didn't tell me you were gonna kill it!"            After the opening credits, we see all the kids getting ready for Halloween, and Charlie Brown excited that he's been invited to a Halloween party. Linus, meanwhile, has a really bizarre Halloween tradition of writing to the Great Pumpkin, a made-up figure that (according to Linus) rises up from the pumpkin patch to deliver toys to all the good little children. So, Linus skips out of trick-or-treating every year to sit in the pumpkin patch and await the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, despite all of the other ch...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, this is surreal, but here we are. I just got home from seeing the new movie Dune,  and I have quite a bit to say about the movie. Now, I'm going to do my best to avoid any spoilers, so here we go. Now, the story of the Dune novel is a very dense one, and this movie only covers about the first half of the book. Now, I'll do my best to describe it here.           So, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV of House Corrino has sent an envoy to the planet Caladan to offer the Duke Leto Atreides the job of overseeing the spice mining operations on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis, taking operations away from the Duke's rival, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. So, the Duke, his concubine Lady Jessica, their son Paul, and the various members of House Atreides leave Caladan behind to set up shop on Arrakis, where the Duke hopes to make allies of the native tribe of warriors known as the Fremen. And that's as far...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, today for HallowScream , I thought it would be fun to return to the world of Stephen King with the 2020 miniseries adaptation of his book The Stand . A book that, for all intents and purposes, is a Lord of the Rings  esque epic, The Stand was previously adapted into a television miniseries in 1994. However, with today's technology, as well as the openness of being aired on the streaming service CBS All Access (now Paramount+), how does the new adaptation fair? Let's find out as we take a look at the 2020 version of  The Stand .          The miniseries starts off with the reveal that a massive plague, referred to as Captain Trips, has wiped out most of the American population, with the survivors traveling either to Boulder, Colorado or Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the survivors, we meet Harold Lauder and his former babysitter Fran Goldsmith, both from Ogunquit, Maine. The two decide to travel we...

           Hey guys, Chuck here, and it's the official two year anniversary of Chuck's Movie Breakdown . And what better to commemorate two years of movie reviews than with my review of the latest film in the Halloween series: Halloween Kills .         So, the movie picks up where the 2018 Halloween film ended. Laurie Strode, along with her daughter Karen and granddaughter Allison, are escaping from Laurie's compound, where the house is burning with Michael Myers trapped inside. Unfortunately, a group of idiotic firefighters head to the house to put out the blaze, and Michael gets free and kills them all. Laurie is in the hospital for her injuries, as is Officer Frank Hawkins. Meanwhile, Tommy Doyle and a group of others who survived Michael's rampage in 1978 gather a few volunteers from across Haddonfield, including Allison, and they set out to put an end to the nightmare that is Michael Myers once and for all. And that is all I am...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. It's been a little bit, but I'm back with another HallowScream review. This time, we'll be looking at a fun, spooky episode of South Park  with Spookyfish .            In the episode, which is presented in SpookyVision (where images of Barbara Streisand's head are in all four corners of the screen), Stan's Aunt Flo is visiting the Marsh household, and she gives his sister Shelly a new stereo, white Stan gets a goldfish that he is bothered by how creepy it is. Meanwhile, an alternate universe version of Eric Cartman has arrived, and is confusing the likes of Stan, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick with a newfound charitable behavior, and exhibiting kindness by skipping school to take care of his sick mother.          Ultimately, Stan's fears about his new goldfish are proven to be true when it starts killing people. Stan's mother, Sharon, believes it to be Stan's doing, and co...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, I just got home from seeing No Time to Die , which is the latest film in the ongoing James Bond film series. Well, there's quite a bit to break down, so let's dive right on in. Don't worry, no spoilers in this review.         So, our main villain this time is Lyutsifer Safin, whose family was killed by Mr. White on the orders of Ernst Stavro Blofeld years before. In retaliation, Safin goes after Mr. White, but kills his wife, who is the mother of Mr. White's daughter Madeleine Swann. Safin is also revealed to be working with a scientist named Valdo Obruchev, who was working on a secret project called Heracles, which, according to M, was intended to allow for minimized collateral damage and civilian casualties when MI6 agents go after a target. However, Safin corrupted it to becoming a weapon of mass destruction.         Bond, meanwhile, has been living in seclusion five years ...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, I just finished watching the new Disney+ special Muppets Haunted Mansion , so let's discuss.          So, the story focuses on Gonzo and Pepe, who are invited to a "survive the night" gig at the Haunted Mansion, which Gonzo is excited for because he sees it as an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a legendary magician named the Great Macguffin. Upon arrival, a local caretaker tries to warn them off, and several ghosts pop up in the cemetery. As a storm approaches, Gonzo and Pepe head to the door of the mansion, where they're greeted by the Ghost Host. What follows are a slew of celebrity cameos by the likes of John Stamos, Danny Trejo, Yvette Nicole Brown, Taraji P. Henson, and so forth, nods to the ride with Miss Piggy as Madame Leota, Fozzie Bear as the Hatbox Ghost, and Rowlf playing the organ in the ballroom/dining room. And this is probably where I should stop with discussing the plot, bec...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, you guys probably remember me talking about Jeff Dunham a couple of years ago during 12 Reviews of Christmas . And this year, for HallowScream , I would like to go back and talk about another fun project that Jeff Dunham worked on a few years ago. But, this isn't one of his comedy specials. No, this was a little Halloween short he produced for his YouTube channel, which featured fellow ventriloquist Darci Lynne. This is The Haunted House on Dunham Hill .         We start off on Halloween night, where Darci Lynne and her puppets Petunia, Oscar, and Edna are all out trick-or-treating, and they arrive at a house that the three puppets are too afraid to go up to. Darci, to prove that the stories about the house are just stories, goes up first and rings the bell, only for the door to be opened by Bubba J, who converses with Darci, and because Bubba J is just that stupid, he gives her a can of soup as opposed to ...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, I think I've built up this review enough. So, let's dive into a 90's Halloween cult classic: Hocus Pocus . Originally meant to be a Disney Channel exclusive, this 1993 film became big enough to get a theatrical release, and in spite of an average box office take, the film got a major cult following due to subsequent television airings around Halloween. So, as part HallowScream , let's take a look at Hocus Pocus .          The movie starts off on Halloween night in Salem, Massachusetts during Colonial times, where a teenage boy named Thackery Binx, who attempts to save his younger sister Emily from a trio of witches, the Sanderson sisters: Winifred, Mary, and Sarah. Using a potion crafted by Winifred, the sisters absorb Emily's youth to make themselves younger again. Emily is left as a skeleton, while Thackery is turned into a black cat. The parents of Salem take the witches and hang them to death, bu...

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, as we continue HallowScream , I thought it would be fun to discuss a recently released interactive Halloween special currently on Netflix: Escape the Undertaker .             Starring WWE Superstars Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, and Big E, the trio also known as the New Day, and the Phenom himself, the Undertaker, this is an interactive film in which the New Day tries to claim the Undertaker's source of power: the Urn of the Undertaker. Now, because it's an interactive film, you as the viewer get to choose how the New Day's journey to obtaining the urn goes.           The real highlights in Escape the Undertaker are the gothic and horror imagery showcased throughout the Undertaker's house of nightmares. Of course, the Undertaker is always a ton of fun to watch, as are the New Day. The banter between Kofi, Xavier, and Big E is funny as hell, and it's great seeing ...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we're back with another review for HallowScream , and it's for Venom: Let There Be Carnage . I just got home from seeing it on the big screen, and I definitely have some things to say about it.            First off, I'd like to point out some behind the scenes changes between this movie and the first one. Mainly, the change in director. You see, Ruben Fleischer, director of the first Venom  movie, was unable to commit to directing this one due to commitments to his 2019 film Zombieland: Double Tap . In his place, director Andy Serkis, best known for his mocap performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cesar in the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, and Supreme Leader Snoke in Episodes VII and VIII of Star Wars , as well as his live-action performance as Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther,  was selected to take the dire...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's October once again, which means it's once again time for HallowScream . This year is going to be a little different from last year, as we'll be looking at a handful of Halloween favorites and horror movies new and old, but we'll be kicking this year's HallowScream off with my review of Venom .             The movie focuses on journalist Eddie Brock, whose gone from New York to San Francisco to further his career in journalism. However, after going too far with an interview with Carlton Drake, CEO of the Life Foundation, Eddie loses his job, and his fiancee Anne Weying breaks off their engagement. While this is going on, a Life Foundation probe carrying four alien symbiote specimens from space crashes in Malaysia, one symbiote escapes, and the rest are taken to San Francisco.          Six months pass, and Drake's experiments with the symbiotes are nearing completion, w...