the audience applauded

One of my all time favorites.

one of my absolute favorites!

Awesome Movie

Now, I can understand very well why many people would hate this movie. All of the characters either fell face first into their stereotypes or were unrealistic beyond belief. If you go to watch it with no expectations of a great movie, you'll love it.I personally feel that Josh Hammond would make a really good stage actor, or someone in the live performing arts. As he ranted on in these pointless monologues, a flicker of a true actor popped up every now and then (granted, probably on accident.) Jeff Lucas was the ultimate goth. Hateful, twisted, weird, black clothing, black make up. He even has a black cloak that he wears. To pool parties.Zara Light, his minion, does not seem to be an important character at first. But she soon emerges as the leader of the gang. The gang is also a stereotypical gang: Even number of boys and girls who are dating each other. The black guy talks with "the most ghetto", the jock is the most hot headed, and his blonde girlfriend is the stupidest.How does Zara lead this gang? Well, seeing as Jeff Lucas acted like he was possessed - she lead with séances, of course.Slasher-film wise, it was indeed a slasher flick. I mean, guy in cloak popped up three or so times and killed people with this (incredibly fake) ax. In fact, there was more ax-wielding in the opening credits then anything else.The worst part was the end. I will never understand why two people must physically try to beat each other up when one is a cop (with a gun) and the other has a big ax. Oh wait, that'd just be too easy.

OK, first of all, I consider myself to be a fan of B Movies, so I shant write this as if I actually intended to enjoy the film in the least. And Ill tell you right now, this movie didn't disappoint me; a small piece of my soul died while watching Dead Above Ground.The movie itself takes place in a very rich suburb of California, and nearly everyone around has ties to the film making business. I noticed a sign somewhere that said it was called Bay City, but after a thirty seconds of Google, I couldn't find out if Bay City, CA was real or not. And frankly, I don't care. I will just assume it is in Orange County, because that makes me feel a little less disturbed when teenagers die.Anyway, the movie starts with some director and his wife being murdered. This is totally irrelevant until the last few minutes of the movie, when weaker souls will have already walked out.Flash-forward a few months and we meet our main characters: Jeffery, the incredibly angry goth-kid; Zara, the goth chick who adores Jeffery; Mr. Hadden the bumbling teacher/principal; Dillon, the poor jock kid; Kelly, the cheerleader; Monster, the incredibly annoying, incredibly white guy who is really nerdy and acts like a gangsta; some black kid; and a slew of other not noteworthy teenagers. Basically everyone listed follows their respective stereotypes to a T, and don't need to describe any of them further.Anyway, they are all in a class where they make documentaries, and they watch the Goth-Kids. Surprise, surprise, his film is a fake snuff film, portraying someone else in the class (kelly?...) Everyone gets upset, there's yelling and fighting, and the goth kid says a barrage of random trash. Honestly, every time this kid opened his mouth, I wanted to vomit, just for an excuse to leave the room.So they decide that hes probably insane, and he tries to fight people. For some reason, it cuts to a party scene at the professors house and Jeffery says something ridiculous, pushes a girl into the pool, then David fights with him for a while, i had a hernia, and then Jeffery drives off in a fury, David follows him, and Jeffery ends up dying.Some people hold séances, and some ravens fly around, Jeff comes back from the grave and makes people die, and a detective shows up and shoves his fist up other peoples ...Our detective is so oblivious to the world around him, that I think he would improve his record by choosing suspects out of a hat. For instance, when the coach dies (which is cool by the way because the coach is an ass clown), the killer tapes up a picture of Mr. Hadden. Guess who Detective Dimwit brings in the next day? yeah... the logical choice, Mr. Hadden. I always thought leaving pictures of yourself at the scene of the crime was a very good idea, like a calling card. I know I do it whenever I kill someone.Anyway, there are some very good one-liners in this film, and they really make the movie. As per usual with most b flicks. Listen to Monsters talk about PMS and pretty much everything Jeffery says closely. The very best part of this movie was when I remembered that I had some juice in the fridge and I went up and got it. Apparently i missed something boring, and I had juice for a while. Tres Sweet.Also noteworthy is that the actor who portrayed Dr. Boon, Lisa Ann Hadley, was also a character in Infested, which is a great bad flick about bug-spray and bad relationships. Watch it tonight.

Stephen Cannell?! The man behind the A-Team? And my favorites "Rip Tide" and "Wiseguy"? This... TURKEY... is an example of what the poorest written low-budget horror film would look like. I mean, a team of monkeys could do better than this.I've seen many, many horror flicks, and this rates so far down there. It's completely unwatchable. I mean, there's no payoff anywhere. It's an insult to view. Even worse that George Lucas was drawn into this for no reason. Worse, the acting, characters, story, dialog, plot, and everything else just suck, suck, suck. On the positive side, if you're looking to make a horror film yourself, view this film to see how NOT to do it. If you have an idea that's even a little better than this one, you can be one- up on Cannell himself. Speaking of which, WHY was he even in this film? He looked like this old dude in a film that presents a plot SO implausible... it's an insult. To whit: the coach gets fired, yet hangs around the parking lot to harass a teacher (Cannell), and he doesn't do anything about it. The best part of the film is Sabato, Jr, though you have to wonder why he had anything to do with this piece of detritus.The original title was "Director's Cut", and according to Cannell's website the movie would allow them to "experiment with new narrative ideas, visual styles and different approaches to editing". Also on the website "We were really stepping out," said Bowman. "So we needed to keep absolute creative control." Uh, yeah. Just promise me never, EVER do it again.

Note to Stephen Cannell: please, just stop. Even when you were at the top of your game, doing things like 21 Jump Street, no one would have called you a genius. And now, you've slipped down the ladder, Stephen. If this is the best thing you can come up with, I would suggest a career change.This movie is all about an aging Hollywood Screenwriter and his daughter. It features all the typical stereotypes, a Director who is sleeping with a Bimbo Starlet, the Kid From the Wrong Side of Town who wants to date the Screenwriter's daughter. It's like a really bad combination of "Pretty in Pink" and "The Player", trying to be a horror movie.The concept and the writing are just plain dead. It makes you wonder, when Stephen Cannell came up with the title "Dead Above Ground", was he describing himself?