Halloween Watch: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Watched:  10/17/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Michael Dougherty

I'm always surprised you don't hear more about Trick 'r Treat (2007).  It's kind of the *ideal* Halloween horror movie, but it just seems to float around the periphery.  

It has it's own little mascot fellow, just like a Friday the 13th or, I guess, Terrifier (I haven't seen those).  It's very much *about* the season while also telling tales for the season.  It has an all-timer sequence with Dylan Baker, the most under-appreciated actor of the last forty years.  

It plays with multiple horror genres, including kids telling a story about a tragedy, a maniacal killer, girls who maybe should be in peril, and a vicious little demon.  And manages to run strong threads to pull it all together.

It's well-shot, has a black little heart, and everyone gets the assignment.  

I don't have that much to say about it at the moment.  I was positive SimonUK and I had podcasted it, but apparently that was a no-podcast hang?  Oh, yeah, it was way back in 2015.  

If I go on, I'd likely spoil the whole thing.  But if you don't want to just watch a horror movie you could watch any old time, and you want one for the spooky season?  This perfectly fits the bill.

I do remember being much more aware of who much of the cast was in 2015, but watching it now...  I remember the name Leslie Bibb, but had to look her up to remember why.  The movie was also produced by Bryan Singer, which may be why there has not been a follow up.

Crampton Watch: Poison (2001)

Watched:  09/27/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jim Wynorski

Always a good sign when a movie has been given multiple names.  This one is listed as Poison (2001) on IMDB, but is also listed as Thy Neighbor's Wife, but I found it - for free - on Amazon as Midnight Vendetta.  

Why did I find it?  I was thinking "man, it's been a while since I watched a Barbara Crampton movie."  And while I am not gearing up to see *every* Barbara Crampton movie, stranger things have happened.  

Music Watch: 24 Hour Party People (2002)

Watched:  08/03/2026

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Michael Winterbottom

Somehow in the past two weeks, I was in a group chat (in theory about Texas football) where the folks were discussing 24 Hour Party People (2002), which I'd never seen.  Then, an artist I follow on socials was discussing it this last week. When I saw it was recently added to Criterion, I decided now was the time.

A while ago I took to watching some documentaries on YouTube (of varying professional quality) about bands I like, or liked once upon a time.  And it became clear that while I am aware of bands and some of their music, I sure don't know much about what it's like to come up in the British music scene.  You get a real feel for how small England really is sometimes with how the music scene there is treated like a popularity contest with winners and losers and how much bleed over there is between fan bases.  

24 Hour Party People covers the rise of the Manchester music scene, from the mid-70's to the early 90's.  I vaguely remember it coming out but in 2002, I was a busy bee.  And, frankly, a small film about a music scene I wasn't that into wasn't the biggest draw.

Too Much Title Watch: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

Watched:  05/23/2026

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Shûsuke Kaneko

So, I've only seen this movie once before - and while I've long loved Godzilla, I didn't really do a deep dive into the filmography of our giant pal - mostly because of a lack of availability of affordable Godzilla flicks in the US - until COVID hit.   At that time, affordability wasn't an issue and I picked up mostly every film just prior to lockdown.  With lockdown - we dove in kind of head first, with no plan.  Just grabbing movie based on which monsters were in them.  

When I watched Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), it was in, like April 2020.  So imagine the headspace we were all in.

Anyway - I think around this time was when I was trying to understand what the hell Toho was even doing in the 90's and 00's.  And the answer is - it gets really confusing after Godzilla Vs. Destroyah.  I have no idea if Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus are  in the prior continuity.  They certainly are not tied to this movie, which came next.  

There's a hard break in continuity with this movie, basically starting us over (again) as a direct sequel to the 1954 movie.  Just as we'd seen in Godzilla Raids Again (1955)  and Godzilla Returns (1984) and as we'd see in the movie following this one - Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla.  

All-Out Attack is trying on Godzilla as a horrifying antagonist again - or at least looking to turning a 15 story radioactive lizrd into something frightening after he'd maybe become a giant luchador.  

Super Watch: Superman Returns (2006)

Watched:  04/26/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Bryan Singer

I was maybe ten minutes into this rewatch of Superman Returns (2006) when I messaged Stuart that we needed to bring back the podcast just to do a ten-part series on this movie.  The pre-history of the movie is worth discussing, as is the production, months up to the release, the lackluster response to the movie, what came after with a reboot in the form of the Snyder movies, and that both the director and Spacey were canceled.  

It's also a movie from the wild west, exciting days of the superhero explosion that came after two great Spider-Man and X-Men movies, Batman Begins and a terrible Catwoman film.*  But no real rules had been written yet for how superhero films should work.  We're two years prior to Iron Man here.

The DVD releases of the Superman quadrilogy had really brought the Donner film (and its sequels) back to the public consciousness, and looking for a safe bet, with Batman done and Wonder Woman the only other DC IP that seemed possible - but that was a girl and Catwoman had failed -Warner Bros went back to DC's original moneymaker.  

Here, I'm just really going to cover the movie - but really what I thought at the time versus where I am in 2026.

Lawyer Watch: Michael Clayton (2007)

Watched:  04/21/2026

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Tony Gilroy

Well, MBell will be happy not just that I finally watched this movie, but that I agree:  great movie.

It stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and muh gurl Tilda Swinton.*  And that's good, because this is a movie that requires that level of performance so it doesn't just melt into cheap melodrama.

Michael Clayton (2007) is the kind of thriller-for-adults I really need to engage in more.  It borders on neo-noir, but doesn't descend enough into the tropes for that, and the movie's focus is elsewhere, even if the lead - the eponymous Michael Clayton (Clooney) sure feels like a noir lead.  

This is a legal thriller, which is not something I dislike, but not something I seek out.  And part of the wave of socially-minded, evils-of-corporations media that was once a big staple of movies.  I'm thinking everything from Erin Brockovich to Thank You For Smoking.  

Do they make those anymore?

Chabert Watch Bonus: She Said/He Said - a 2006 Unaired TV Pilot

Well, every once in a while I'll hit the internet to see if I can turn up one of the remaining items on the 'ol Chabert-a-Tron 3000, and this time we came up yahtzee, finding the unaired TV Pilot for a little show called She Said/ He Said - a title sure to plague any SEO and likely made IT folks very sad if this got aired.

Fortunately, they were never in any danger of that.  This pilot is so bad, it's absolutely stunning anyone wanted to make it based on the script alone.  

But here it is (until it gets pulled down):

Chabert Watch: High Hopes (2006)

the actual two leads aren't on the poster?

Watched:  02/21/2026

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  First (and last)

Director:  Joe Eckardt

Blogger's Note:  Well, pals, here we hit a major milestone of ChabertQuest.  As far as I know, this movie is the last live-action Chabert movie on the list that seems to be available on disc and/ or streaming.  Of the 90 films on my list, only five remain, and I am not sure two of them ever saw the light of day.  And the others may just disappear into the fog of time, never having had a physical or streaming media release.  That said, I'd love to finish off the list.  

As near as I can guess, this movie was a money laundering scheme.  Like, bring in money saying you have name people but spend none of it on the actual movie as you shoot in your house.

There's no obvious script to High Hopes (2006), it genuinely feels like they had a rough idea of what they wanted to do, but then they just kind of shot a movie - sometimes with lines, sometimes not - when they had enough actors in the room.  Or, they had rewrites and more rewrites on a movie that is 99.99% set up for a punchline that is telegraphed well in advance, bigoted and was never going to be funny.

Chabert Watch: What If God Were The Sun? (2007)

Watched:  02/07/2026

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stephen Tolkin

We're still working our way through the Chabert-a-Tron 3000, and this checks another box.  I think I've only found one more movie was released on disc, so after that... who knows?

A pre-Hallmark Chabert had such a weird career.  Maybe all actors have an odd, bumpy start, but this movie was made in the thick of the period where Chabert was doing a lot of roles in scrappy indie movies you've never heard of, but then she was getting good work in smaller movies like Reach For Me which feel like they're at least trying to do something a bit more meaningful.  

I'm not really familiar with the Lifetime Network oeuvre, but this movie is much more in line with Reach For Me than it is, say, Be My Baby or The Pleasure Drivers.  And, it's another one of Chabert's movies where she works with one of the greats.  This time, her co-star is Gena Rowlands.

The six degrees of separation with Chabert is bananas.

Chabert Watch: Be My Baby (2007)

Watched:  01/29/2026

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Bryce Olson

One of the worst movies I've ever seen.  

Just amazing.

I found this disc for cheap a couple weeks back and have been putting this off because the reviews were not kind.  And for a long time, I was fine avoiding it, because it looked awful.  But here we are.

Be My Baby (2007) wants to be a particular kind of comedy about stunted adulthood and the world's most this-would-never-work scam.  It's entirely misanthropic til its confusing and unearned ending, and I cannot fathom how this got funding if someone didn't just have rich parents.

The script is a trainwreck starting with the concept.  The issues continue with the look and sound of the film - all very "student film" with awkward set-ups and occasional room echoes, etc... which do the movie no favors.  Completely flat lighting, etc.. Wooden acting.  Every take feels like "we're gonna get this in two takes and then we have to move on."  A product of a low-rent production.  Fine.  I've seen way worse.

But, my god, the actual story....

I don't know what was going on in Los Angeles from about 1995-2015, but the belief in the baseline shittiness of humanity that drives the whole premise of so many of these low budget movies is absolutely wild.

Not for my Demographic Watch: 13 Going on 30 (2004)

Watched:  01/02/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Gary Winick

So, yeah, this movie was never aimed at me.  I'm fine with that.  It wasn't aimed at me in 2004 when I was 29, and in 2026, it's even less for me.  

It's also not very good.  And not good in ways that I don't really understand.  YMMV with Jennifer Garner as a lead, but mostly the movie is a mess while also managing to feel... boring.  

It's another in a long line of movies about someone who is young getting to be an adult - like Big, Vice-Versa or...  Shazam, I guess.  Oddly, Jenna (as a teen played by Christa B. Allen and by Garner as a 13-year-old) really wants to be... thirty?  

I'll buy the magic as the conceit, sure!  I've bought Duck Planet refugees and Ewoks.   

Chabert Watch: Sherman's Way (2008)

Watched:  12/28/2025

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Craig M. Saavedra

This is my final Chabert film of ChabertQuest 2025.  Please clap.  

Well, first, this movie has a surprising lack of Chabert in it whatsoever.  She's in the opening scenes as our lead's girlfriend who predictably dumps him, which is the catalyst for the rest of the film.  I think she's gone 10 minutes in.

So, that's that.

Chabert Watch: Home Front (2002) (aka: The Scoundrel's Wife)

Watched:  12/22/2025

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Glen Pitre

There's a lot going on in Home Front (aka: The Scoundrel's Wife - 2002).  Some might argue too much.  

A period piece taking place mostly during World War II, it's about a woman and her family living on Louisiana's Gulf Coast, who are pariahs already when the war breaks out.  It seems some years before the woman (Tatum O'Neal) and her husband may have gotten up to misdeeds that will be shared later.

It's a bit of a frustrating movie because it's a look at some real life things - that German U-Boats were off the US coast causing havoc, there was concern about internal collaborators, etc....  And some of this forgotten history is illuminated brilliantly, really, as O'Neal's family is awakened by a fire's glow off in the distance, out over the water as a U-Boat hits a shipping vessel.  

Meanwhile, life in the small fishing village carries on for O'Neal and her teenage son, Blue, and her daughter, Florida (Chabert), just aging into adulthood.  A doctor moves in nextdoor, but he has what seems to be a German accent (Julian Sands).  Meanwhile, the town Priest (Tim Curry) wrestles with alcohol.

Holiday Goofiness Watch: North Pole Nutrias (2002) and A Meowy Christmas (2017)

Watched:  NPN  12/07/2025, MC  12/14/2025

Format:  YouTube/ YouTube

Viewing:  First for both

Director:  Rick Dealup/ Steve Rudzinski

As we near Christmas, we did two quick watches with Dug and K to get ourselves in the Christmas Spirit.  The first was North Pole Nutrias (2002), a puppet-show running about 26 minutes and created by New Orleans-based pair Quintron and Miss Pussycat.  The second was a little indie movie out of Pittsburgh called A Meowy Christmas from 2018.  This one runs about 55 minutes, but feels like it's about 6 days.

While watching North Pole Nutrias, I learned not everyone knows what a Nutria is - which is a large-ish rodent that lives along rivers and near water.  They've invaded the waterways for New Orleans and cause enough problems that there's been a bounty on the animals.  But!

North Pole Nutrias is, apparently, a bit of a holiday tradition for the hep cats of New Orleans, and I get it.  It's a puppet show, shot on tape, and has some distinct vibes of music and art scenes of the late 90's.  Kind of an embracing of the media we'd grown up on - specials like Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas - but made with an intentional lo-fi feel and hand-made aesthetic.  Think Pee-Wee's Playhouse, that you know through the glossed up version and are just used to.  

Disney Doc Watch: The Sweatbox (2002)

Watched:  12/14/2025

Format:  Internet Archive

Viewing:  First

Director:  Trudie Styler

Hoo boy.

So, this was probably not the final form of the doc The Sweatbox (2002), but it is the one that I found online at The Internet Archive.  It's a little rough and incomplete, but was clearly heading toward a final cut.  Why is it in this state?  Apparently it's been quashed by Disney, and yet... here I am.  A man who watched it.

The Sweatbox is a doc about the making of what became The Emperor's New Groove, a film which we recently watched.  The film takes the viewer through the Disney process of making an animated film, giving viewers some insight into how the sausage is made, which may be surprising if your knowledge of film is based in live-action.  The Disney animation tradition established by Walt and the original Disney animation team was always to run story, gags, etc...  through a committee so you could be told honestly what worked and what didn't.  When Walt was around, he would ask how you could "plus" something - ie: make it better.* Or, sometimes, be honest that something may need to change, and/or you may need to dump a favored idea.

Disney Watch: The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Watched:  12/13/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Second (I think.  Maybe third?  Jamie will tell me.)

Director:  Mark Dindal

I remember quite liking The Emperor's New Groove (2000) when I saw it in December of 2000.  I believe Jamie, The Dug and I went to see it on Christmas Eve in Lawton during it's initial release.  But I haven't come back to it over the years.  No real reason - there are many movies and I don't rewatch everything.

The other week, I saw some memes using Gronk imagery and was thinking "man, why have I not rewatched that movie?"  Frankly, aside from David Spade's character becoming a llama, I didn't really remember much about the movie other than "it is funny".  

On a revisit, it's an odd Disney film.  It feels very... small.  And for a movie with "groove" in the title, it has I think one song and it's performed by Tom Jones?  

Chabert Watch: Hometown Legend (2002)

Watched:  12/05/2025

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Anderson (I fully believe this is an Alan Smithee name for someone)

Editor's note:  we've decided to Thelma and Louise our way through the remaining Chabert filmography.  I've been looking to see if I can find the Chabert films I haven't seen yet via very cheap used copies or online one way or another.  This one set me back about $6.10.

First, this DVD, purchased as "used" from a Goodwill had never been opened.  Not since the movie was released in, like, 2003 on DVD.  It was wrapped in some sort of transport wrap from the seller, then the original shrink wrap, and THEN still had the vertical AND horizontal security stickers across the packaging intact.

This movie was produced by a Christian production company and some involved are still in movies.  As I bought this on a 2000's-era DVD, it has bonus features including a full Director's commentary I really want to listen to.  But, more importantly, there's all kinds of bonus content about Jerry B. Jenkins - which the DVD itself says is the most famous writer you never heard of.  Apparently he's the mastermind behind this movie?  And (deep sigh) the guy who wrote the Left Behind books.  And a bunch of other stuff.  This seems to be the Jenkins family parlaying their book money into movies.

But, yeah, he essentially uses the bonus features to promote himself.  Amazing choice.

Neo-Noirvember Chabert Watch: The Pleasure Drivers (2006)

Watched:  11/29/2025

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  First

Director:  Andrzej Sekula

Editor's note:  we've decided to Thelma and Louise our way through the remaining Chabert filmography.  I've been looking to see if I can find the Chabert films I haven't seen yet via very cheap used copies or online one way or another.  This one set me back about $5.

Truly a product of a particular decade, somehow The Pleasure Drivers (2006) arrived about seven years after that decade.  It's another LA-based low-budget crime movie, with this one peppering itself with vague philosophical aspirations, but what they are saying lacks any insight and is dumb.  And, the movie is entirely populated by characters who take their cues from how human beings behave from other movies, leaving us with weird third-generation xeroxes of motivation instead of anything identifiable as human.  

Everything about the film feels late-90's, part of the post Pulp Fiction indie boom.  It's three stories that loosely intertwine, and, of course, collide at the end.  But none of the three stories is very interesting and none of the characters terribly watchable.  

G Watch: Godzilla - Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)

when I've been quiet too long and Jamie asks me what I'm thinking about

Watched:  06/21/2025

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  Fourth?  ha ha...  oh, mercy

Director:  Masaaki Tezuka, Koji Hashimoto, Takao Okawara

I was going to watch something else, but I wanted to, for once, watch Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) back-to-back and in order.  

Just yesterday I'd waxed rhapsodic about the first in this two-movie combo, and I'll continue to express my confusion about the sidelining of Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku) in this movie.  It's kind of a weird failure of narrative to hand over story-lead duties to someone else, especially when Yashiro is in the movie and it's obviously a direct sequel.

This movie sees the appearance of Mothra, who is miffed that humanity has decided to grab Godzilla 1954's bones and is muppeting them around inside Kiryu/ MechaGodzilla.  Her pals, the faeries, appear to the guy who was in Mothra back in the day, who now has a nephew and grandson hanging out with him.  Nephew happens to be a mechanic on Kiryu and needs to have a narrative arc about how he will come into his own as a hero.  

The Prime Minister hears out Grandpa about Mothra's warning, but... what's a brother gonna do when you just dumped a trillion dollars into a giant walking skeleton robot tank to stop the nuclear lizard?  

Anyway, this one has a long couple of battle scenes, and has lots of Mothra, which is why it's a fan favorite.  I think the design of the fights is groovy, and the inclusion of Mothra organic and cool.  Plus, our girl sends her two babies into the fray, so we get some good caterpillar action.  

Like everyone else, I like Tokyo S.O.S. a lot.  We've got one of my favorite Godzilla designs, an A+ MechaGodzilla design, I love the JXSDF concept (but miss all the weird psychic stuff Miki brought to the table), and this is how you include kids into one of these movies.  He's helpful and not annoying!  The fight in the city at night is super well done as G and MechaG take down buildings and level a neighborhood in high style.

 

G Watch: Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002)

Now this would be a prom photo

Watched:  06/19/2025

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Masaaki Tezuka

I've been fighting a cold for a few days, which has also meant my brain does not work good.  Jamie wanted to put on Wicked, which I haven't seen yet, and I looked at the near 3-hour run time and begged for mercy.  She gave up and I put on the Cherry Coke of Godzilla movies, Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002).  Plus, it's short and I wanted to watch the Indiana Fever at Golden State Valkyries game at  9:00.

Toho is good about reminding folks of the anniversaries of the debuts of various kaiju, and this is the 50th Anniversary of the MechaGodzilla (so we're of the same high school class, which makes me happy).  So when I knew I needed Godzilla comfort food while I nursed my cold, I had to include MechaG in my viewing.

If comics seem like they hit the reboot button way too often, Toho is like "hold my beer", with 3 different versions of MechaGodzilla in the character's first 25 years across about four movies (we won't count Moguera as a real MechaG - which would make it 4 versions).  I refuse to choose favorites between the designs, as they all fill me with joy, even the Truck-a-Saurus version in the Legendary movies.