Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)

If it’s one thing I’ve learned about myself that surprised me is that I like musicals. I was never a My Fair Lady-type of girl, but with more horror films featuring song and dance numbers (Sweeney Todd, Repo!, Poultrygeist) I’ve discovered I’m a sucker for these kind of productions!

So you can imagine my delight when I watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a short film by creators Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Dr. Horrible was an internet sensation last summer, crashing the site on the release of the first installment after generating more than 1,000 hits per second. Well, I’m here to tell you it sure does live up to the hype and praise it has generated! It’s top-notch performances, quirky characters, catchy songs and overall fun atmosphere make this a must-see for all Whedon and musical fans alike.

Dr. Horrible is about a wannabe villain, Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) who is trying to get into the Evil League of Evil but not having very good luck, even though he claims he has a “Ph.D in horribleness!!” By day he is the mild-mannered Billy and hopelessly in love with Penny (Felicia Day) whom he admires every Wednesday and Saturday at the Laundromat. By night (or whenever he slips into his doctor’s coat and evil-scientist goggles and gloves) he’s Dr. Horrible, who has plans to use his freeze ray to re-structure what he sees as a crumbling, corrupt society and eventually rule the world. One thing that stands in his way is arrogant hero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), who always swoops in to thwart his plans.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was conceived during the writer’s strike and financed entirely by Whedon’s own production company, Mutant Enemy. It’s a pretty low-key, low-budget affair, but this actually works in its favor and lets the performances from Harris, Fillion and Day and the writing from the Whedon’s and Tancharoen really stand out).

The film has a decidedly light-hearted tone, but it really shines when it delves into the darker themes of lost innocence and the villain-as-the-hero and the hero-as-the-villain motifs. The ending is also decidedly down-beat, but this being a Whedon project it is to be expected that the characters don’t exactly get all they wanted.

All of the actors do a fine job in their roles. Nathan Fillion really nails the cheesy yet cocksure Captain Hammer. His performance brings to mind his character from Firefly, just with a slightly more crooked moral compass. Neil Patrick Harris is a delight to watch as the bumbling Dr. Horrible as he grows more and more evil and determined to succeed every time he is undermined by Captain Hammer. Comedic relief is found in many places, one of those being Dr. Horrible’s useless sidekick Moist (Simon Helberg) who says, “At my most badass, I make people want to take a shower.” All characters are larger than life and played with bombast, with the exception of Penny, played by Felicia Day, who is just your everyday sweetheart. Surprisingly, all of the actors also sing (and quite well, I might add), belting out Broadway-worthy tunes.

The songs themselves are witty and extremely catchy, covering many different genres from rock to soul to just straight showtunes! I dare you not to get them stuck in your head…

If you’ve already seen the show online, you might be wondering what the draw of the DVD is. Well, let me tell you that the DVD is worth its price for the commentary alone!! One of the commentary tracks, called Commentary: The Musical! is just that – a commentary done completely as a musical! For the entire running time of the film, the movie’s dialogue is muted and there are entirely new songs that tell us about the making of the movie during the writer’s strike (“Strike!”), the price of fame (“$10 Dollar Solo”), how the cast got along (“Better Than Neil”) the actor’s process (“The Art”), writing the script (“Zack’s Rap”), how the cast passed the time on-set (“Ninja Ropes”), racial tension (“Nobody’s Asian in the Movies”) and much, much more! Of course, just like the movie these are all done very tongue-in-cheek, if you couldn’t guess that already! The special features also include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a more straightforward commentary that is spoken, not sung.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog yet, I highly recommend this whimsical and fun musical. Even if you don’t like musicals, give it a whirl – you might surprise yourself like I did.

Available from Amazon!

When Evil Calls (2008)

When Evil Calls is so downright AWFUL that I’ll try and keep this review as short as possible – I don’t want to waste any more effort on this pathetic attempt at a horror movie!

If you want the super-short version, here it is: THIS MOVIE ISN’T WORTH WATCHING EVEN IF THEY WERE GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE!!

If you want the slightly longer review of how and why this movie is so wretched, keep reading…

Originally released as 20 downloadable episodes for your cell phone, When Evil Calls has been released on DVD by (who else would release such crap) Lionsgate. They’ve linked together the episodes by having Sean Pertwee narrate as the drunken janitor. He begins by telling us how it all started…with a very unpopular girl (Jennifer Lim, whom most will recognize from Hostel). One night, she receives a text that says, “Congratulations! You have won a wish!” (we are subjected to this annoying phrase at the beginning of EVERY episode…complete with cheesy graphics and bad music). A creepy clown visits her in her bedroom and tells her she can have anything she wants as long as she passes the text on to two more people. She wishes to be popular and gets her wish. After that, the text gets passed all around the school and people start dying from their stupid wishes…Be careful what you wish for!

The movie is less than an hour and a half long, but it was just so BAD that I had to shut it off at about 50 minutes in. First thing you’ll notice is that the film looks horrible…Lionsgate did a terrible job with this release! The film was made for cell phones, but it doesn’t look like they made any effort to upgrade it for DVD! It just looks very low-budget. Furthermore, there is no story, just short segments about people’s stupid wishes backfiring on them. Lastly, there is no good gore, just silly CGI that looks absolutely cheesy. Sean Pertwee is the only good thing about the film, but his one-liners are cringe-worthy. I bet that instead of acting like a drunken janitor, he actually was getting drunk just to make it through appearing in this movie. Hell, you’d have to be unconscious to enjoy this flick!

If the cover of the film happens to catch your eye, don’t be suckered into checking out When Evil Calls. It has one of the most misleading covers I’ve ever seen!! From the cover (and even the title), it looks like an Asian horror flick that could be half-way decent. The text message thing is even a cool-sounding premise, but DON’T BE SUCKERED LIKE I WAS!! You’ll definitely regret it.

I wish this piece of crap had never been made…where’s a genie when I really need one?

Available from Amazon!