Movie Review – Halloween

I’m a fan of all of the movies in the Halloween series, and last night I saw Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of the original Halloween movie for the first time. I’m sure I’ll probably include some spoilers in my review, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet and want to be surprised, you might not want to read my review at this time. Also note that I watched the Director’s Cut of the movie, so if you’ve seen the movie and I mention something that you didn’t see in the version of the movie that you watched, that is probably why.

The Halloween remake is really like two movies in one. The first hour is mostly all-new material which covers the years that Michael Myers spent in the asylum. The second hour is pretty much a remake of the original movie.

The first part of the movie covers the period between the time that 10 year old Michael murdered his family until he escaped from the asylum 15 years later. I thought this part of the movie was very well done. It effectively explained how Michael came to be a deranged murderer, and it covered material that hadn’t been seen in the Halloween movies before, except for a few brief additional scenes that were inserted into the TV version of the original movie.

When I realized that there was only an hour left in the new movie before any of the events that took place in the original movie began, I knew that this part of the movie was going to be rushed. It really showed for the next 30 minutes, from about the 60 to 90 minute mark of the movie. There was practically no character development for Laurie, Annie, and Lynda before Annie and Lynda were killed. There was also very little interaction between these three characters. This part of the movie wasn’t bad, and it stayed true to the original for the most part; it just felt very rushed.

The final 20 to 30 minutes of the movie were, for the most part, completely different than the original. I have to say that this part of the movie, especially the ending, were quite run-of-the-mill and disappointing. Nothing here was nearly as good as the original movie. The scene where Dr. Loomis shoots Michael now happens much earlier, and takes place while Michael has Laurie trapped in an empty swimming pool. The famous scene where Michael has Laurie trapped in a closet, and Laurie stabs him in the eye with a wire clothes hanger, is missing. In its place is a fairly boring scene where Michael tears the house apart while searching for Laurie. The best scene of the original movie, where Loomis empties his gun into Michael and stares in terror when he looks off the balcony Michael fell from and realizes Michael is gone, is missing as well. In the new movie, Michael tackles Laurie and they both fall from the balcony to the ground, and Laurie shoots Michael in the head. The movie ends almost immediately after the shooting, and we are led to believe that Laurie has killed Michael. I didn’t like this part of the movie very much at all.

One thing that pleased me is that the familiar musical score from the original movie was used in the remake. Some things I didn’t like were that the profanity, nudity, and sex scenes were excessive, even for a horror movie.

I’ve heard that before they decided to go with Rob Zombie’s version of the Halloween remake, the studio almost green-lighted a movie called “Halloween: The Missing Years”, which would have covered the years that Michael spent in the asylum. Ultimately, I think it would have been better if they had stuck with that idea instead of doing it in combination with a remake of the original movie. The part of Rob Zombie’s Halloween that covered those early years of Michael’s life was quite good, while the part of the movie that was a remake of the original was far inferior to John Carpenter’s original movie.

Despite the fact that I didn’t like the end of the movie, I’ll still give this one 3 out of 4 stars.

Ryan’s Retrospective

On the heels of last week’s closing of the Kingsport Ryan’s, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the restaurant throughout the years.

The Early Years (~1986 to 1991)

Ryan’s opened across the street from my middle school when I was in seventh or eighth grade. My family’s original opinion of the place was that it was good, but not as good as Prime Sirloin. However, I preferred eating at Ryan’s personally, due to the free dessert bar. Being a bit immature in those days, I would complain loudly whenever we went to Prime Sirloin (so that employees could hear me) about how ridiculous it was that they charged for their dessert bar when Ryan’s was free.

During this time, I really liked the buffet at Ryan’s. In particular, I remember their unique miniature slices of pizza with a really nice crust, and their excellent mexican/taco bar. On the days that I didn’t order the buffet, I’d order the flounder instead. It was very good, but alas, they removed flounder from their menu by the time I graduated high school, and they never offered it again. Oddly enough, I rarely ate steak at Ryan’s for the first several years of its existence.

The Middle Years (1991 to ~2004 )

Sometime around 1991, Ryan’s made some changes to their buffet (called the Megabar by this time) that I didn’t like. The pizza disappeared, and the mexican bar was reduced to nothing much more than some ground beef and cheese sauce. Being a bit immature in those days, I remember complaining loudly so the managers could hear me about how much better the buffet used to be.

Due to the flounder no longer being offered and the fact that I didn’t care much for the buffet any longer, my standard meal during this period became hamburger steak with mushroom gravy and fries. You never knew quite what you’d get with hamburger steak at Ryan’s. Sometimes it would be juicy and prepared just right, while at other times it resembled a used piece of charcoal.

Renovations were also made to the restaurant during this period. It went from being a traditional looking steakhouse with large, dark wooden beams to a much brighter, casual dining style. I didn’t like that change, either, but being a bit more mature by then, I didn’t complain about it too loudly.

The real problem with Ryan’s during this time period is that quality of both the food and the service became terribly inconsistent. It went through some periods where it would be really good, but they also went through some phases where it was so bad that we would stop eating there for a while.

The Later Years (2004-2008 )

Sometime between the later part of the middle years and the early part of the later years, the Megabar began to improve again. They added a carving station that featured ham and roast beef, and even steak on some nights. They frequently offered some pretty decent seafood, and I particularly liked the whole fried catfish. To this day, I don’t know the proper way to eat those, but I developed a method that worked pretty well and allowed me to get most of the fish without too many bones. The downside was that I thought the Megabar was way overpriced during this time.

The food and service were still somewhat hit and miss during this time, but for the most part, it was much improved.

The End (Feb. 12, 2008 )

On Feb. 12, 2008, Ryan’s suddenly closed. Since my last post, I learned that the parent company of Ryan’s filed bankruptcy, and several lower-performing restaurants around the country were being closed. However, the Kingsport Ryan’s was the only one in our region to shut down.

Originally, I had thought that I would still drive to Bristol or Johnson City occasionally to eat at Ryan’s. However, after hearing how the company treated their employees in Kingsport, I do not intend to give that company any more of my money. The employees were told the day of the closing that the restaurant had been shut down, with no prior warning. You can’t tell me that the corporate management of that company didn’t know at least a few days in advance that the restaurant would be closing. They could have let the employees know so they could be looking for another job. That is a lousy way to treat your employees.

Ryan’s is gone!

I learned today that the Kingsport Ryan’s is closed and the building is empty! I’m trying to find out what happened, but if anyone knows, please post a comment!

Dollywood Part 3 – Rides of the Past

In this post, I’m going to discuss some of the rides that I remember being in Silver Dollar City / Dollywood in years gone by that are no longer there. I’ve really been looking forward to doing this post. Hopefully I can share some information that some of you might not have known. In the list below, I’ll include the name of the ride (if I remember it), the very general time frame when the ride was in the park (remember, I’m doing this from memory), a description of the ride, and my comments on the ride.

“Wagon Wheel” (?-mid 80s): I don’t remember what Silver Dollar City called this ride, but I always referred to it as the Wagon Wheel. I think the generic name for the ride is the Trabant. I’ve also seen photos of it at some parks themed as a roulette wheel. This ride is a round disk with the riders sitting around the edges. A hydraulic lift raises one side of the ride until it’s leaning at a 45 degree angle, and then the ride rotates. This ride was in the area that is now the Country Fair.

The Cloud Grabber (?-mid 80s): This ride was similar to a space needle, except that the cars hung from cables and were pulled to the top of the tower by the cables. The version of the ride that I remember seeing in person had 2 large gondolas, but an old Silver Dollar City pamphlet that I remember showed 4 smaller gondolas.

Log Flume (70s-approximately 2003; also known as Country Fair Falls): This was a traditional-style log flume, and a ride that I was very sad to see go. It was always one of my favorite rides, and was actually one the park’s flagship rides in the 70s. I recently learned that this ride was actually relocated to Silver Dollar City from the New York World’s Fair. I think a couple of things led to the demise of this ride. First, the park needed the room so they could add several new rides during the Country Fair expansion from 3 or 4 years ago. Secondly, I think park management probably viewed the ride as being expendable, since the park also has Daredevil Falls, which is a more modern version of the log flume. The original log flume was sold to another park, so as far as I know, it is still intact and running somewhere.

Tilt-a-Whirl(?-approximately 2003): The Tilt-a-Whirl is one of the most common carnival rides of my lifetime, but Dollywood’s Tilt-a-Whirl deserves special mention because it was the BEST Tilt-a-Whirl I ever rode. The cars spun so fast that the G-forces felt during the ride were incredible. I think I could feel my face rippling, like what happened to James Bond when that guy trapped him in the training module that astronauts use to train for rocket launches and turned it on “high”.

The Mountain Swinger (?-approximately 2003): This ride was replaced by a new swinger during the Country Fair expansion. The main difference between the old ride and the new one is that the seats on the Mountain Swinger were in a single-file line, while there are side-by-side seats on the new swinger (which is commonly known as the Wave Swinger, as there are several of them in existence).

The Inventor’s Mansion (?-1985): This attraction was located in that building up on the hill that looks like a haunted house. It was like a Fun House, and included one of those “anti-gravity” rooms with the slanted floor. When Silver Dollar City changed to Dollywood, this attraction was temporarily changed to the Dolly Parton Museum, until the museum was moved to another part of the park. The Inventor’s Building Mansion is no longer open the public, and I don’t know what is in there now. I’ve thought for years that they need to re-open this building as a haunted house.

The Flooded Mine (probably 1970s-mid 90s): This was a gentle dark-ride themed as…a flooded mine! It was a lot of fun, and included some technology that I feel was state-of-the art for the 70s. The mine was full of animatronic characters, and they had rounded T.V. screens as faces. I’d like to think that they saved some of these characters somewhere, and if so, I’d like to see a couple of them put on display somewhere in the park. The ride also had a couple of cool sections with strobe lights and water flying everywhere. The story of why the ride closed (which I consider an urban legend) is that tons of poisonous snakes were found living in the ride. Some versions of the story say that a rider was bitten. In the “cave” beneath the former Inventor’s Mansion (where the Gem Mine store is located), you can see the last remaining tie-in to the flooded mine ride if you look closely enough. In one of the small openings in the cave wall, you can see a small waterfall running into a wooden bucket, with a sign on the back wall making reference to “Flooded Mine #1″ (the ride was “Flooded Mine #2″). That illustrates how big of a deal the ride was at one time…there were actually references to it throughout the park to get you geared up for the experience of the ride itself.

Thunder Express (early 90s-late 90s): By today’s standards, this was a fairly mild steel rollercoaster. It did not contain any loops. It was removed to make room for the Tennessee Tornado.

I think that covers the major rides that I have seen disappear from the park during my lifetime. If anyone can think of any I’ve missed, let me know!