Man, but the folks at Lions Gate have been putting out a lot of terrific titles of late, and though there’s a fair chance you’ve already seen a couple of these, with Halloween coming out, it’s a great time to cover some of the stuff that makes for a great party. And the crew out at Lions Gate sent over copies of Scary Movie 2, Scary Movie 3, and The Crow for us to cover.

Scary Movie 2 rejoins the crew from the original Scary Movie, and this time they’re off to college. And while they’re there, they’ve enrolled in a study geared toward studying sleep patterns. But the study turns out to be of something entirely different, and this is going to put the crew in some reasonably deep trouble at the hands of a sociopathic professor and his belligerently-abled disabled assistant.

If you have a tolerance for–or enjoyment of–movie parodies laden with dick and fart jokes, then you may rest assured that you will be very, very well taken care of here. In fact, it’s safe to say that your enjoyment of Scary Movie 2 will largely hinge on your tolerance for or enjoyment of dick and fart jokes because that’s primarily what’s in here. Of course, horror buffs should have a pleasant time spotting all the in-jokes and subreferences–the bit with Ray and the clown doll is a riot–but there’s going to be plenty in the crass and juvenile department for anyone.

Scary Movie 3 follows the events of Scary Movie 2, sufficiently so to put them in the working world. And while some of the cast has found jobs and is out to set up their lives, larger events in the world threaten to take them away before they can actually begin. There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, and by the time we find out what’s going on, we find out, in the grandest Scary Movie tradition, how little of it makes sense.

The thing about Scary Movie 3 is that it’s probably the biggest of the series so far, even beating out Scary Movie 4. Any time you bring in Leslie Nielsen to a comedy title, well, you know you’re going for full on over the top. However, in their rush to take refuge in sheer audacity, they lost a lot of what was good about the previous two, notably the depth of parody (this one seemed lighter), and the jokes (lighter here too, it seemed). Still, it’s not without its laughs, just not near so many as you might expect.

Lastly, The Crow takes us out to a world that seems significantly Darker and Edgier than our own–thank you TV Tropes for coining that wonder of a concept–and nudges a bit toward the Crapsack. As a rock star and his fiancee were killed by a gang of thugs, the rock star returns from the dead, aided and abetted by a crow who keeps his spirit tethered to the mortal plane. Kill the crow, and by extension, you kill The Crow. And while The Crow is up and operating, there’s going to be plenty of killing to go around.

If you were around when this movie first came out, you know a whole lot of disaffected high-school loners went totally bughouse nuts over this movie, and as a history lesson (or if you just want to remember what all the fuss was about), you’ll be able to get it in full digital remastering. And yes, this is indeed Brandon Lee’s last film, as he was killed in an on-set accident involving a prop handgun. The end result is rather gritty and stylized, but the story itself is actually pretty well done if you don’t mind a colossal downer in the middle of your day.

So there you go, a fresh set of three titles that ought to put a little extra jump in your Halloween viewing.

The folks out at The Asylum sent out a copy of The Haunting in Salem for us to cover–especially appropriate what with Halloween closing in on us and all–and I usually have at least some trepidations going into an Asylum title. But when I realized I couldn’t immediately pin down just what movie they had Asylumized this time, I realized it was something unexpected: one of the Asylum’s rare unique titles, and that perked my interest.

The town of Salem, Massachusetts, has a new sheriff, and that’s largely because the old one’s entire family was murdered under mysterious circumstances. But the new sheriff quickly discovers that he’s going to be part of something much, much larger: a curse going back several hundred years. But can this newest sheriff and his family survive the curse placed on him? Can they find out what’s behind it?

I have to admit, this is some pretty decent stuff. The early going offers some great tension building opportunities, and does a reasonably good job of releasing that tension. Sure, some points are stranger than others, like the ghost that communicates by instant messenger, but it’s all doing a very nice job of being ominous and then throwing out a few good scares every so often, and that’s half the point of watching a horror movie in the first place, for a good spooky time.

Sadly, the movie only gets stranger the farther in you get, but thankfully, there are still good scares to go around, almost in spite of the lackluster script. The strangeness does add to the suspense of the proceedings as well, because you’re never really all that sure of what’s going on, your connection to it, or how any of it at all relates to the rest of the movie. There will be quite a bit left unexplained by the end here, and in all honesty, that just makes things a bit scarier.

The Haunting in Salem, supposedly based on a true story (likely the Salem Witch Trials, which were quite true indeed) is a pretty strange little title, but it’s not without plenty of creepy scares that make for a fairly worthwhile time. If you’re having a party and want something low-grade scary for some horror neophytes, then you should do just fine here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Haunting in Salem a seven out of ten for doing a reasonably good job putting out the frights out there, though it’s not without its problems, largest of which is a sublime lack of rational thought put into the narrative.

Another exciting bit comes our way from the crew out at Bloody Disgusting, who sent over a copy of Atrocious in their Bloody Disgusting Selects line for us to review. And Atrocious promises to be a pretty good piece indeed as it’s one of my personal favorite subclasses–a found footage title. It’s not going to be without its problems, but it will manage to deliver the scares in a reasonably believable fashion. You’re not going to be able to get your hands on this one until this Tuesday, but when you do, you’ll be in for a somewhat flawed treat.

Atrocious joins us up with Cristian and July Quintanilla, a brother and sister who have gone out to their family’s summer home in a bid to investigate a local legend while spending time with the family on vacation. But what they’ll find in the midst of their investigation is a whole lot more dangerous than they ever dreamed.

I admit that Atrocious did do a terrific job of building tension, mostly because I had nary a clue just when something was going to happen, or just what we’d see from one moment to the next. The problem here, is that they didn’t do a whole lot to release all that tension for about the first forty minutes. This wouldn’t be too terrible except that the movie has a run time of just seventy four minutes. You lose four sevenths of a movie to boredom and you’re going to have to do some bang-up stuff on the back end to keep things worthwhile.

Thankfully, Atrocious delivers that bang-up on the back end. Oh, does it ever. Frankly, the last twenty minutes or so of this thing are going to be patently monstrous. It’s just amazing stuff, actually, and that’s something. The entire first half of this movie does not so much as hint at the aggressive, terrifying roller coaster that the last half will soon become. It’s going to hit you from out of nowhere, and while there’s plenty of appeal in something like that, it doesn’t exactly bode well for the folks who like coherent narratives.

Still though, it’s a pretty impressive piece of footage, and you’re likely going to enjoy it if you want a horror movie that will give you a few good jump scares.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Atrocious an eight out of ten for putting on a great show, even if it takes its sweet time getting the real horror action started. A decent addition to most any Halloween horror lineup, Atrocious should do a nice job of scaring you.

MobileWhack is sponsoring a giveaway of Atrocious if you are interested in winning a copy of the DVD.

One of the grandest traditions in all of Discovery Channel, one of the only good reasons to actually have cable any more, is Shark Week. And seeing as we’ve just left behind another season of Shark Week, it’s always good to get caught up in case there was anything you missed. The folks out at Discovery sent out a copy of Shark Week: Restless Fury to help us get reacquainted, and if you like sharks, you’ll be all over this one.

Shark Week: Restless Fury sets us up with a variety of shark-themed programs spread over two discs, including a best-of disc with some bonus features. You’ll also get a set of individual shows featuring sharks from various angles and under various premises, including a shark filmed in ultra slow motion, a series of stories from survivors of shark attacks, and a whole sequence devoted to surviving a shark attack hosted by a former Special Forces operative. Whether you’re interested in what sharks look like or what kind of damage they can do, you’re going to be pretty well covered here…as long as you like sharks.

Basically, no matter what your particular interest in sharks, you’re almost certain to be covered here. They’ve covered the waterfront with this small selection of shark fare. Basically, if you’re looking for an introduction to Shark Week (or, parenthetically, looking to introduce someone else to Shark Week), then you’re going to have most everything you need right here to show off the full range of Shark Week phenomena. And considering that this sucker’s got two discs and a total run time of three hundred eighty seven minutes, you’ll want to have a good chunk of a week (well, okay, only about five percent of a week) available anyway to get through all of this.

And naturally, some of this will be better than other parts. But no matter what, if you’re not into sharks, you’re going to be caught somewhat flat-footed here, because that’s all this is about. They’ve even got it stamped on the front. But still, Shark Week is some of Discovery’s best stuff, and should be judged accordingly.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Shark Week: Restless Fury a seven out of ten for providing a great selection of Shark Week fare. Some of it is better than others, of course, but most of it will still be very much worth your time. Admittedly, you’ll have to be into sharks to enjoy it, but still–most of it is sufficiently exciting to be interesting.

It’s hard not to love the Pickers, and if you were around for our previous coverage of American Pickers the Complete First Season, you’ll be happy to see another go-round with our favorite crew of antique hunters. The folks at the History Channel sent over a copy of American Pickers Volume Two, and it’s time to hit the road with an admittedly slightly disappointing voyage, and you can catch this one just today.

American Pickers Volume Two gives us another run out–several of them, really–with Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, the American Pickers, (backed up, as always, by intrepid office manager  as they go forth to the barns and basements and decommissioned amusement parks of America, looking for their favorite thing: rusty gold. And the things they’ll find here will impress you, make you laugh, and sometimes, just plain old blow your mind.

American Pickers Volume Two isn’t the entire second season, sadly, but rather  eight episodes from season two. And admittedly, this is some really good stuff in a bid to get you interested in the full second season release, which will likely take a while, but still. You’re still going to see some stuff that will amaze you (for instance, when Frank finds himself coming face to face with a rotten ham hanging from a ceiling in a barn, and then follow that up by discovering a rusty old Studebaker), and they’ll both show you the values of some of the items, as well as have one big ticket item appraised.

I’m always a bit disappointed by this; we don’t see actual values so much as we see what Mike and Frank “figure” they “can get for it”. It doesn’t matter to me so much what they think they can get so much as what they actually do get, and I’d prefer to hear that than their valuations. But still, it’s not so much about the money as it is about the stuff itself, and the stuff itself is so wildly varied that it’s well worth the look. Of course, Frank still loves signage, and Mike still goes gaga for bicycles, and Danielle barely keeps the multi-state mayhem under control, but the threesome that comprises Antique Archaeology will still put on a great show.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives American Pickers Volume Two an eight out of ten–it’s not the second season I was hoping for, but it’s still a great shot of Pickers fun that’s well worth your time to watch. Unless, of course, you’d rather wait for the complete second season, which makes perfect sense, but if you can’t wait or didn’t run your DVR, this is a great opportunity to get caught up.

With the recent release of a new Spy Kids title, the folks out at Lions Gate shipped over copies of the first three titles for us to review. And thus, they’re completely sponsoring the second of our big multi-reviews, covering Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, and Spy Kids 3: Game Over.

Spy Kids kicks the series off with a family, of whom the mother and father were spies in competing countries. And while you might think they’d no longer be in the spy game following their retirement, they were still just as much targets as they were in their previous life. And when they go on what they believe to be one last mission, and find themselves captured by a rather unlikely target, it’s now up to their children to recover them.

This one is likely the best of the lot, with a sufficiently compelling mixture of laughs and action to keep interest throughout. Robert Rodriguez has often done a good job of blending humor and action–you’ll all remember our previous reviews of the movie Shorts–and it shines through here quite nicely indeed. This one should be a lot of fun for both kids and grownups alike, which is no mean feat and well worth celebrating.

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams takes us back into the fray with the Cortez family–three generations worth of them, in fact, as not only father and mother Cortez, son and daughter Cortez, but even the grandparents Cortez–as the whole brood finds themselves tackling a crazed geneticist with a penchant for bizarre creatures.

This is where the series starts to lose steam. Sure, it’s still got many of the grander elements that made the first one good, but the problem here actually is that they’ve discarded most of their subtlety in favor of a much bigger project. The grandiose nature, this kiddie-grade Island of Dr. Moreau with godawful CG effects, proves to be a detriment on this one. The second title suffers from what a lot of sequels suffer from–a little too much ambition for their own good. They lose focus on what made them great in the first place. They’re so focused on what they CAN do that they don’t stop to consider whether or not they SHOULD do it. Thankfully, there’s still quite a bit of the same good stuff from the first in here, but they’ve lost a good piece of it. It only starts to lose steam here, not lose it altogether.

Spy Kids 3: Game Over pretty much ignores the parents Cortez this time around and sticks to the kids–with the exception of a brief cameo–and puts the kids into a video game with a whole lot more danger than you’d expect from a video game, driven by a madman with ambitions of global domination.

And this one, well, this one just loses pretty much all of it together. It’s a little too much CG and not enough story, and bringing in Sylvester Stallone to play the film’s nominal villain (pretty much the entire series doesn’t really specialize in is any kind of villain past the Saturday morning cartoon school of supervillainy) smacks more of a desperation move than a good call in casting. It’s not terrible, but it’s still a pretty low-rent exercise compared to the first two.

It’s a slow descent into low-rent for us on the Spy Kids series, but while it starts out good, it doesn’t manage to stay that way for long. Still though, a great series for the kids and a vaguely tolerable one for their parents.

Glamour and glitter, fashion and fame…if you grew up in the eighties and happen to be down a Y chromosome, you probably can sing the rest of that song, the theme song to Jem. The folks out at Shout Factory sent out a little something impressive for us to review for you, namely, the first season of Jem, more recently retitled Jem And The Holograms. And if you’re in the market for a shot of retro animation, then man, are you in the right place.

Jem follows Jerrica Benton, the operator of the Starlight House, a home for orphaned girls, and daughter of the current head of Starlight Records. And when said head dies, he leaves his estate to his daughter. But the rest of the board of Starlight Records, represented by Eric Raymond, a man who not only makes Carter Burke from Aliens look like a god among philanthropists, but on a personal note, makes my skin crawl. Raymond, meanwhile, is not only out to take over Starlight Records and leaves Jerrica out in the cold, he’s out to do it by the most bizarre method possible: by backing a punk band full of big-haired lunatics called The Misfits. Jerrica, meanwhile, has discovered the full extent of her father’s estate, including a computer that specializes in hard-light holography called Synergy. Jerrica uses Synergy to give her and her friends alter egos, which they form into the titular band Jem and the Holograms to secure Starlight Records from The Misfits and Eric Raymond.

Admittedly, I didn’t follow Jem much. As a boy of eight I recall being distinctly annoyed that this “girls’ show” got between me and Robotix. And watching it now hasn’t been much help; Jem and her ilk have not aged well. Looking at this rationally doesn’t help either, with the discovery that The Misfits are actually some kind of insane cult of musical evil. Because come on…how many times have these four nimrods almost killed Jem and the Holograms? And I can’t help but think that all of Jem’s problems would be taken care of–and most of Jerrica’s too–if they’d just press charges on The Misfits for attempted murder. These big-haired wackadoos almost kill that woman more times than I care to count. And for a show geared toward girls age four to ten, roughly, there sure was an awful lot of attempted homicide. And why the hell didn’t Kimber, Jerrica’s sister, put up more of a fight? She’s just as much a Benton as Jerrica, but daddy keels over and where’s her inheritance? I can see that part of the will–”I leave my record company, the charity it’s named after, my holographic supercomputer, my costumes and my antique roadster to my daughter Jerrica. To my other, lesser, daughter Kimber, I leave a raised middle finger because she kept dating that greaseball biker through the tenth grade.”

But despite the sheer lunacy of the show in retrospect, it no doubt has plenty of great memories for those who grew up with Jem, and they likely won’t care how many holes the plot has.

Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives Jem and the Holograms Season One a seven out of ten, as it does so often with niche products, knowing that for some this will be a dream come true, but for those not living the dream, it will still be a worthwhile watch but with plenty of holes.

The folks out at Image Entertainment followed up their last round of Ghost Hunters with Ghost Hunters Season Six Part Two, a copy of which they sent out for us to review, and while you’d be justified in thinking this like the first, you won’t be completely accurate.

Once again, Jason and Grant and the rest of the TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) team will pack up their variety of hardware and go forth to several places that believe themselves the subjects of hauntings and other paranormal phenomena. They’ll set up their cameras, wander around with their recorders, and attempt to figure out whether or not the places in question are haunted or have some kind of other explanation going on to account for what’s going on in these places.

And once again, the standard Ghost Hunters format of The Investigation, The Analysis, and The Reveal will be used throughout the various episodes. Some of which, as is usually the case with a collection like this, will be better than others, though all of them will be at least reasonably entertaining. In fact, I’d say on average, this part of the sixth season is just a little better than the previous season. There seems to be just a bit more going on than in the previous rounds.

Still though, despite the new things, and the more interesting things, there’s still a whole lot of repetition going on. It’s still the same format, still much the same methodology. You already have a reasonable idea of what will happen here, and nothing’s really going to shake that. It’s not that this is particularly bad, mind you, it’s just that it’s really rather predictable. However, there does seem to be a bit less of people jumping at things that no one can tell what they are. This set, if someone’s jumping, you have a pretty good idea why. I find that a great relief, actually, and it makes this one slightly better.

This is probably for the best, in retrospect–let the season lead off with its lesser episodes and let it close on a high note. And indeed, a high note is just the way to end a season. It’s good that they held onto the good stuff until the end.

And the Screenhead Ten Scale responds in kind by giving Ghost Hunters Season Six Part Two a seven out of ten. It’s good, a bit repetitive, but good, and will be a nice way to finish out season six.

The Travel Channel, perhaps one of the last worthwhile reasons to actually subscribe to cable, has long had a tradition of showing off great “pig-out” restaurants, places where the food is big and the mystique bigger. And thanks to their new series, Man Vs. Food (which they sent out a copy of for review), they’ll give us a great look at some big names and some big entrees from all over the United States.

Man Vs. Food Season Three hooks us up with Adam Richman, dogged foodie who’s going all over the United States in search of a great meal. He’ll meet the staff, the patrons, and then eventually, the food. But it’s not about a dinner with Adam Richman–oh no. He’ll be taking on some big name food challenges–not the least of which is Phoenix, Arizona’s hollow-roll sliders special (a five pound platter of tiny sandwiches comprised of beef brisket and a potato pancake, backed up by an order of onion strings meant to be eaten in a half hour)–and see if he can manage to get his name into some record books…or at least local legends.

Obviously, the big draw here is for anyone who likes food. It’s not just about the food challenges, either. You’ll also see some truly preposterous stuff like the Big Unit at Alice Cooperstown, a twenty two inch hot dog served inside an entire French baguette (that’s a loaf of bread, for those of you what don’t…parlez…) and then topped off with a variety of toppings including chili and cheese. Then things get weirder and often bigger from there, breakfast, lunch and dinner alike.

And if you came for the chance to see big food, then you can stay for the chance to watch some guy take on said food. He won’t always win, but he’ll always put on a good show.

It’s amazing to see all these different giant foods, whether or not Adam’s in a competition with it, and seeing just what all is out there is exciting in its own right. Granted, you may not necessary be interested in big food, and you won’t get very far with this, so if you like the niche, then it’s certainly one to watch.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Man Vs. Food Season Three an eight out of ten–it’s great stuff if you enjoy the niche, and considering I do, I definitely enjoyed it. Whether you’ll enjoy it or not will depend on your fondness for food, but if you like to eat and see different foods, well, you’ll be very, very happy here indeed.

You know, I didn’t feel old until I discovered that this year, 2011, represents the 25th anniversary of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And as part of the celebration around this, the folks at Image Entertainment sent out a copy of The Pee-Wee Herman Show On Broadway for us to review, and if this looks familiar to you, well, you’ve probably recognized it from a variety of previous selections. But we’ll also get plenty of new features too.

Once again, we go back out to the place that can only be described as where we go when we want to go to do what we want–or possibly as a gigantic but largely benign insane asylum–where Pee-Wee Herman, his various friends (some old and some new) and various animated chunks of furniture and giant puppets alike, have a variety of adventures and just plain bizarre occurrences.

You might notice some differences, if you’ve been keeping up with Pee-Wee for any length of time. For instance, you might notice that for some reason Cowboy Curtis (played more than ably by Phil Lamaar) is doing most of the lines that would have been done by Captain Carl (formerly done by Phil Hartman), up to and including the subplot in which Miss Yvonne and Cowboy Curtis fall for each other. But much of the original work is still in tact. Yes, all the greatest parts of Pee-Wee Herman lore are still in effect, from the Secret Word (when anyone says the Secret Word, scream real loud) to a Penny cartoon. But there will be some new stuff going on here, like the reaction of Pee-Wee’s various puppet friends to Pee-Wee’s intention to get a computer into the playhouse.

And the combination of old and new mixes surprisingly well into a larger whole that’s pretty much as funny and as thoroughly preposterous as you’d likely expect from a guy who’s been playing an overgrown six year old for the last twenty five years. In fact, it’s amazing that Paul Reubens–still playing Pee-Wee–can still put up a presentation with this kind of energy and sheer vivaciousness even after twenty five years.

But either way, you’re still going to get a thoroughly bang-up time with this one, and a ton of laughs here. Some jokes will fall flat, but some will be an absolute delight. I had a great time with this one, and chances are you will too.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Pee-Wee Herman Show On Broadway an eight out of ten for being packed with laughs, even if they are somewhat unoriginal laughs, especially if you’ve been around for a while. But for an unquestioned shot of nostalgia, well, you’ll definitely be in for a great time.