Dance of the Dead (2005) - Hooper's ugly Masters of Horror nonsense

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

This not exactly inspirational DVD cover for Tobe Hooper's Dance of the Dead speaks volumes of the product it advertises

QUICK REVIEW:

In a post-apocalyptic future, youths steal the blood of pedestrians and sell it to a club owner, who makes shows in which the dead are shot full of electricity, so that they dance.

Dance of the Dead is the 3rd entry in the first season of Mick Garris' (The Shining (1997), TV-miniseries) horror TV movie series Masters of Horror (2005-06). It is the first and pretty disappointing entry by horror legend/master filmmaker Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)), his other entry being The Damned Thing (2006). It is written by Richard Christian Matheson (Loose Cannons (1990)), based on a 1954 short story by his father Richard Matheson (I Am Legend (1954)).
The film is cut and filmed as unattractively as possible, it seems, and the content is not only revolting but also, crucially, devoid of charm or any decipherable ideas or intent. Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street (1954)) plays the club's emcee, who has an incredible amount of diabolical scenes. - Englund really should try to pursue different parts, if at all possible.
Music by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan (Spun (2002)) can't save this. - Dance of the Dead is a ridiculous turkey of a movie.

Related posts:
 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Masters of Horror: Chocolate (2005) - Flavors, visions and eroticism in Garris' TV movie thriller
Deer Woman (2005) - Landis and son's solid Masters of Horror entry 
Cigarette Burns (2005) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None
= Uncertainty
[But Showtime contracted Garris and his team of horror masters for a second season in which also Hooper contributed, which indicates that his first entry was good business.]

What do you think of Dance of the Dead?

Deer Woman (2005) - Landis and son's solid Masters of Horror entry

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+ Best TV movie of the Year

Here's a reasonably well-made, presumably DVD cover for John Landis' Deer Woman

QUICK REVIEW:

Somewhere in Northern America, a beautiful woman is roaming bars, where she seduces men and beats them to death with her hoofs! A burned-out policeman now begins to investigate the murders despite the ridicule of his colleagues.

Deer Woman is the 7th TV movie episode of the first (of two) seasons of Mick Garris' (Sleepwalkers (1992)) Masters of Horror Showtime TV movie series. It is the first of two (the other one being Family (2006)) entries by Chicagoan master filmmaker John Landis (Blues Brothers (1980)).
Landis is a damn skilled director, which is why it is such a shame that his capacity as such has fizzled out since the 90's and apparently ended in some TV projects completely unworthy of him in recent years. Deer Woman, however, is a bright hour, (also literally, as it runs 57 minutes), in his latter years.
The film presents no real surprises despite its original 'monster', but the fact that Landis wrings an entertaining and in the end somewhat exciting film from the tongue-in-cheek-heavy story, which he devised together with his son Max Landis (Chronicle (2012)), is something of an achievement.
A lavish amount of self-irony as well as Brian Benben (Private Practice (2008-13)) giving a great performance in the lead contribute to making Deer Woman among the best entries in Masters of Horror.

Related reviews:


Masters of Horror: Chocolate (2005) - Flavors, visions and eroticism in Garris' TV movie thriller
Cigarette Burns (2005) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie 
John Landis: 2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Coming to America (1988) - Landis and Murphy's second amusing but less well-constructed collaboration
The Twilight Zone (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
An American Werewolf in London (1981) - Landis' great, funny, scary wolf
The Blues Brothers (1980) - Try to sit still to this one!

Here's John Landis' Deer Woman's titular femme fatale, played by Brazilian beauty Cinthia Moura

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None
= Uncertainty
[But though Masters of Horror's quality was wobbly at best, Showtime ordered a second run of the anthology series, indicating that it was good business.]

What do you think of Deer Woman?

Weeds - season 1 (2005) - Kohan's 'suburbia askew' show

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The main characters (except the two sons of the protagonist) under a big marijuana cloud for Jenji Kohan's Weeds

Weeds is the long-running (8 seasons) dark satire/dramedy TV-series that broke new grounds for its broadcaster Showtime and showrunner Jenji Kohan (Orange Is the New Black (2013-15), executive producer). It presents a contemporary look at the not-so neat and clean life in an American suburb:

Nancy Botwin (Emmy-winning (2006) Mary-Louise Parker (RED (2010)) is the recently widowed mother of two boys. To sustain their high living expenses, she deals weed in the neighborhood. She has a good-for-nothing brother Andy (Justin Kirk (Modern Family (2010-13)) who comes to live with them, a good friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins (Fierce People (2005)) who obsesses about her young daughter and contracts cancer, a regular slacker customer Doug (Kevin Nealon (Blended (2014)) who works at her son's school, and her rough-mouthed supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano (The Savages (2007)), whose handsome cousin Conrad (Romany Malco (The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)) doesn't have much luck getting in contact with Nancy. Her two sons are Shane (Alexander Gould (Finding Nemo (2003), voice), a boy who acts out, and Silas (Hunter Parrish (Still Alice (2014)), a teenager who acts out.

The show establishes its brand of very busy raunch-based comedy, which mixes the wholesome suburbia image with some taboo topics (homosexuality, death, sorrow, drugs, violence, bullying etc.) to elicit effect. The style sometimes comes to feel superficial, as it nearly permeates every important aspect of the character's lives. The show pushes its indie and upbeat feel beyond my patience at times. It works hard to include lots of heavy topics without ever becoming heavy, which some may find commendable, while it at times alienated me.
Kohan pushes the liberal-minded raunch at every turn, and it becomes tiring and overbearing. Especially Nancy's brother-character Andy is an often disgusting, despicable character, often with no real purpose action-wise on the show, who gets so much room that he nullifies quite a lot of enjoyment in the show. On the other hand, Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock (2006-13)) as Nancy's young helper Sanjay is very funny and counter-weighs him some.
While Silas dates a mute girl and experiments with drugs, Nancy opens a bakery to front for her real activities, (the particulars surrounding opening such a business totally escape our (and apparently, incredibly, also Nancy's) attention. Finally, she gets talked into ending this business in favor of a more ambitious drug collective with some friends. Meanwhile, she has started, mysteriously, dating the boring father of one of Shane's karate opponents, Peter, who, in the season's 'cliffhanger' ending, turns out to be a DEA agent.
Guest stars include Jane Lynch (Glee (2009-15)), Lorna Raver (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) and Allison Janney (Bad Words (2013)). The show has a cute, poignant opening song (Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds) to fit its neat suburbia opening sequence.
The first season opens up a universe that seems fairly promising and original, but it also leaves plenty of room for future improvements.

Best episodes:

Episode 1: You Can't Miss the Bear
Written by Kohan; directed by Brian Dannelly (Struck by Lightning (2012))
Sets up the environment, style and characters.

Episode 2: Free Goat
Written by Kohan; directed by Dannelly
With Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Salvation (2014)) as the late father. Every character has their problems.

Watch the season one trailer here 

Budget: Unknown
Box office: None
= Uncertainty
[But, even without sales figures, Weeds definitely has been a profitable product for its cast, crew and production and broadcasting companies, - otherwise it simply wouldn't have lasted as long as it did!]

What do you think of Weeds' first season?
And the following ones, if you've seen them?

Dexter - season 1 (2006) - Manos Jr.'s blood-splatter show provides the cheap thrills it promises

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+ Best Miami Title of the Year

Michael C. Hall is James Manos Jr.'s Dexter

Dexter is Showtime's biggest TV series hit yet, which ended in 2013 after impressive 8 seasons. It is created by James Manos Jr. (The Sopranos (1999), co-producer), and master filmmaker Michael Cuesta (L.I.E. (2001)) is the most recurring director (with 5 out of 12 of the approximately 55 minutes long episodes) in the series' first season.

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under (2001-05)) is a blood splatter expert with the Miami Police. But privately he is also a resourceful, socially inhibited serial killer.
Miami now gets haunted by a clinical serial killer known as the ice truck killer, who sends Dexter messages, while he in turn savors his hunt for this somewhat related, sicko subject.

Supplying the subplots that fill out the majority of the show we have:
Jennifer Carpenter (Faster (2010)), (who since married and divorced Hall in real life), as Dexter's clingy sister/co-detective Debra; Christian Camargo (The Hurt Locker (2008)) as Debra's creepy boyfriend Rudy; David Zayas (Annie (2014)) as co-detective Angel, who faces divorce from his beloved wife; Erik King (Oz (2000-01)) as the suspicious co-detective Doakes; James Remar (Sex and the City (2001-04)) as Dexter's stepfather Harry, whose 'code'/childhood teachings, about how Dexter should put his savage personality to appropriate use, Dexter refers to time and again; C. S. Lee (True Detective (2015) TV-series) as sex-crazed co-cop Masuka; Lauren Vélez (Ugly Betty (2009-10)) is good as the struggling boss Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta; and finally there's Julie Benz (Rambo (2008)) as Dexter's girlfriend Rita, whose ex-husband/co-parent causes disturbances for their tentative, new family.
The Guardian calls Dexter an "amorality tale" on the poster above, and that description is to-the-point; the show's title hero's several vigilante killings are in a way implicitly justified by the show and its audience as it moves along. - And perhaps due to this moral grey zone which Dexter rests in, the show has inspired several killers in real life, which you can read about here.

The main cast of James Manos Jr.'s Dexter season 1

The details:

Dexter is a glitzy, vulgar, gory and amoral entertainment injection, lighted and shot in a TV-trashy, cheap style, not necessarily cheaply made, but cheap in the sense of promiscuous or simple: Dexter's dense narration throughout the season, (about his childhood, actions, feelings, kills, personality, philosophy etc.) gets to feel like getting spoon-fed in the series' worst passages.
But besides sometimes being a bit contrived and convoluted, Dexter is also filled with game actors, at times smart writing and enthusiastically morbid, if sometimes overly disgusting, visuals, (as in episode 10, Seeing Red, in which SPOILER Dexter and Co. discover a completely blood-covered hotel room.) The show has some real Miami flavor and ambiance, which adds to the experience.
Dexter marks itself as entertaining television, but nothing much more than that, in its first season, which ends well, leaving us with the feeling that more mysteries, intrigues and cases await around the corner.

Best episodes:

Episode 11: Truth Be Told (directed by Keith Gordon (The Killing (2011-13)))
With guest star Margo Martindale (August: Osage County (2013)). The loop tightens, (and gets more suspenseful), as Rudy proposes to Debra, and Dexter finally learns the identity of the ice truck killer.

Episode 12: Born Free (directed by Cuesta)
LaGuerta suffers for her macho boss' mistakes, as Dex confronts the sociopath killer.

Related post:

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch an official promo for the first season of Dexter here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None
= Uncertainty
[Dexter's first season won 2 Primetime Emmys; for Best Editing and Best Main Title Design.]

What do you think of Dexter? 
Over-all and season by season?