Creepshow (1982) - Fun, campy horror anthology from King and Romero

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The morbidly festive poster for George A. Romero's Creepshow

QUICK REVIEW:

With a framing story about a voodoo-practicing boy, whose father throws his Creepshow comic out, 5 ghoulish stories are served: SPOILER About a living corpse, who wants his cake; a meteor, which transforms a fool into a Plant Man; a jealous millionaire, who favors monitored drowning; a monster from the North Pole in a crate; and finally one about a neurotic city magnate with a bug problem ...

- Particularly this last story is a true nightmare for all of us who can't stand tingling insects, (in this case cockroaches.) 
Creepshow is an anthology horror movie homage to 1950's horror comic, written by horror maestro Stephen King (Christine (1983)) and directed by master horror director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead (1978)). Its stories are deliberately corny and sensationalist with some holes here and there.
The film boasts several stars: Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild (2007)), Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)), Ted Danson (Cheers (1982-93)), King gives a highly physical performance as the fool, and E. G. Marshall (Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)) amuses as the unlucky magnate in the final story, which also showcases Romero's keen satirical talent.
The lighting throughout is refreshingly high-key Bavaesque, the animations are cool, and Tom Savini's (Martin (1976)) special effects are somewhat crude but effective. The film is a joy (especially for a horror-fan.)

Related reviews:

George A. Romero: Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death!

Watch the awesome original trailer here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 21 mil. $ (US only)
= Box office success
[The film is labeled a sleeper hit. Including other territories (which I can't find numbers for, except that nearly 350,000 people paid admission in Spain) and video, TV and merchandise, Creepshow must surely have been a great source of income for Warner Bros. It took First Blood's #1 spot at the US box office and was Warner's top horror film of the year. It got one official sequel in 1987 and a direct-to-DVD unrelated sequel in 2007.]

What do you think of Creepshow?
Other horror anthologies that you like or dislike?

Big Miracle (2012) or, Those Three Whales Must Live!

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Whales are at the center of this film, and so also appropriately on its poster here, for Ken Kwapis' Big Miracle

QUICK REVIEW:

3 whales are trapped around an air-hole in Alaska, when a reporter brings the story, and his Greenpeace-ex-girlfriend jumps on it. Soon the whole nation is involved: They must be saved!
Ted Danson (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) is good as a not so unbearable oil-tycoon, and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) is equally good as an ambitious news-bimbo. John Krasinski (The Office (2005-13)) slant-smiles his way through the film to quite annoying effect, but Drew Barrymore's (Donnie Darko (2001)) hysterical, combative character is, however, worse. Those are the two leads, which isn't exactly lucky for Big Miracle.
Everything pretty much looks like cartoonish caricatures in the first act, and no miracle seems in sight. Later the good story, - the film is based on actual events, - wins back a lot.
It is all tied together in a SPOILER feel-good-ending with romantic ornaments. Big Miracle is a sometimes sweet trifle. The whales are great, and I could have wished for a better movie for them.
For all of us who like ourselves a hope-filled, inspiring true-story family movie, it is a shame that Big Miracle flopped badly at the box office.
Director Ken Kwapis (He's Just Not That Into You (2009)) is busy today with his next film, A Walk in the Woods (2015) a dramedy with Robert Redford, Nick Offerman and many other good names.

Drew Barrymore touches a whale that has touched her, in Ken Kwapis' Big Miracle

Watch the trailer for the film here 

Budget: 30-40 mil. $
Box office: 24.7 mil. $
= Huge flop

What do you think of Big Miracle?
What's the world come to, if people won't take their kids to see a happy movie about saving whales?