Tag: made for tv
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Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Oh hey! Another made-for-TV Star Wars documentary directed by Mr. Robert Guenette coming out almost immediately after one of the main films! I had planned on covering documentaries at some point when I dreamed up 2024: A Star Wars Event, but it was only after watching The Making of Star Wars and finding out the director did two more–SP FX: Special Effects – The Empire Strikes Back and this one–that I decided to follow each of the original trilogy films with their corresponding doc. And I–a former die hard Star Wars nerd–actually learned a fair amount watching these, so I…
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SP FX: Special Effects – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
This documentary made me sad, and I have no one to blame but myself. Not that it’s depressing or anything–it’s rather technical and really makes it seem that Mr. Mark Hamill’s narration comes straight off of a cue card. But rather this is all about the various special effects and techniques used while making Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, the second Star Wars documentary directed by Robert Guenette and written by Robert Schickel (the previous one being The Making of Star Wars). But as for why I got sad, well… I’ll get to that.
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The Making of Star Wars (1977)
Oh ho! You expected me to cover Stars Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back immediately after talking about Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, didn’t you? But surprise! In between rewatching the two films I checked out an old documentary on the Star Wars phenomenon, and I thought it was interesting enough to cover. While many documentaries cover their subjects long after the fact, this one stands out for coming out in September of 1977, four months after the film’s debut. So this is not only informative, but it’s a look into a world where the…
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2gether (2000)
So last week I talked about Brightburn being disappointing and how it made me long for–and I quote–“a mockumentary from 2000 about a fake boy band.” Very specific, right? Well let’s take a trip back two decades and talk about a forgotten… “gem” isn’t the right word because this isn’t an objectively good MTV made-for-TV movie, but it knew exactly what it was and leaned into it appropriately.
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A Puppy for Christmas (2016)
Christmas means many things to many people, but its true meaning is to be in a relationship with someone who will help you decorate a tree for the holidays. Oh, you doubt me? Then why are there a million different Christmas romances where that’s the message? Checkmate. In this particular case, A Puppy for Christmas is about finding your one true Christmas love AND adopting the worst puppy ever. Just a garbage dog. Girl, you’re ruining your life with this animal.
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Santa Jaws (2018)
Ho ho ho! Merry December! That’s right, the guy who hisses like a frightened possum when he hears Christmas music before Thanksgiving is setting up another month dedicated to winter-themed holiday movies. But I’m not dedicating the entire month to it, as The Cabinet of Caligari and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari remake indicate. Anyway, remember that poorly planned Shark Week I did back in August? It was an excuse to cover most of the films on the “Shark Bait: 6 Killer Shark Films” DVD pack I picked up during quarantine. I had previously covered Ghost Shark, but that week…
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Alligator Alley (2013)
We’ve reached the end of Shark Week (or at least the version I planned back before they changed the date to July). But wait, you might say, I saw the title of today’s movie, and that doesn’t appear to involve sharks. And you’re right! Alligator Alley–sometimes known as the infinitely better name Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators–has absolutely no sharks in it. However, in the “Shark Bait: 6 Killer Shark Films” DVD collection, this is covered under “Plus a BONUS 7th BITE to sink your teeth into.” Yup, this DVD 6 pack actually had 7 movies. What a twist!
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Shark Island (2015)
My very own Shark Week continues! Sure, it’s a month after the actual Shark Week, but the best laid plans of sharks and men, or something like that. I’m burning through the “Shark Bait: 6 Killer Shark Films” DVD collection and we’re at the sixth film: Zombie Shark. Sorry, I mean Shark Island, even though everything on the DVD says that this movie should be called Zombie Shark. I guess they decided to go with the less provocative title since there’s actually more than one undead shark in this film, but whatever.
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Swamp Shark (2011)
My celebration of Shark Week continues, now officially one month late as of today! I’m continuing on partly because this was all planned ahead of time and partially out of spite. Going by the listing on the back of the “Shark Bait: 6 Killer shark Films” DVD case I’ve been pulling movies from, today would be Santa Jaws, but I’m saving that one for Christmas. The gay kid from Joe Bell manifesting a Santa hat wearing nightmare shark? Sounds hilarious! But that means today I’m stuck watching Swamp Shark. It’s not the worst shark movie I’ve seen, but it’s far…
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Ozark Sharks (2016)
So I obviously missed Shark Week this year. It was supposed to happen in August during this week, but sometime around the end of June or beginning of July, it got rescheduled to July 11th. The problem was that well before that time I had already planned on what to review this week, so why would I think to double check when Shark Week was happening? So here were are, a month after the actual event, watching some absolutely awful SyFy Channel original shark movies. Well, at least Ozark Sharks wasn’t as bad as Mississippi River Sharks.
Chwineka Watches 