The Haunted World of El Superbeasto [Blu-ray]

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(4 stars) - Zombie Comes Back
Rob Zombie has done it again and come back with another twisted but funny movie. Bought this as a gift for my adult son who is a R. Zombie fan. He is pleased with it and looking forward to another. Thank you Amazon for the reasonable pricing and worry-free shipping.

(3 stars) - The same old story
I really want to like Rob Zombie's body of film work. I really do. I made excuses for his early stuff since he was just starting out. I made excuses for Halloween since it really wasn't his story. But now he's come out with something uniquely his and it's just a tad disappointing. Maybe I'm just expecting too much, but Superbeasto just leaves me flat. It plays out like a Ren and Stimpy episode in overdrive. At first blush that might not sound like a bad thing, except that R&S was awesome when it first came out almost 20 years ago - and to still ape that style and vibe is just a little tired. Sadly, I'm starting to think RZ just doesn't have the film-making chops to make the movies he sees in his head - kinda like giving a five year old sheet music for Mozart and expecting a symphony.

Potty humor abounds and there are even some clever moments, but all in all The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is simply unremarkable.

Two and a half stars if they had it.

(2 stars) - Wink Wink, Nod Nod
Zombie's animated homage to the cartoon sleaze of the 70s and 80s finally sees the light of day and it's easy to understand why this over-budgeted, under-scripted cult cinema monster mash took so long to hit shelves...it just wasn't all that good. Even with above-average, though dated, animation and a bunch of A-list talent to voice characters, Zombie was unable to bring this concept to life, make us love his main character or even deliver on any quality sleaze. Some topless cartoon nudity doesn't make this Fritz The Cat.

Hardcore horror fans will likely get all the winks and nods that Zombie laced throughout his film and, to be fair, there are indeed one or two comical sequences on display but it all just felt so uninspired, generally unfunny and a bit of a drag. The film was about a masked wrestler questing to get "lucky"...and that's really it...end of story. There was a silly little subplot that featured Sherri Moon Zombie's character and her on and off battle with a bunch of undead zombies but none of it seemed to hit the right note.

Could this have been raunchier? It probably couldn't have hurt this flick. As it stands right now it'll titillate a few teens and end up in some collections to gather dust after one viewing.

I wanted to like Zombie's cartoon but it was too cult for mainstream viewers, wasn't scary enough for the horror crowd and not nearly sleazy enough for the exploitation fans. Honestly it felt like an extended and uncut episode of Ren & Stimpy with less comedy and zero boogers.

(3 stars) - Eh.
Packed with a lot of inside genre nods and homage praising Russ Meyer to John Carpenter to Stanley Kubrick and, etc. - El Superbeasto is a bit overwhelming with a kitchen sink on top of that mountain. It seems to try to be like so many things and it's just a lot to process - it's like a Tarintino flick, but animated with stolen scenes from a million little unknown cult faves from yore. I liked it, glad I saw it. But it's not something I need to see again or even have in my collection. I appreciate what Zombie tries to do and wants to do, but he just never seems to pull it off and I am not really sure why. My major problem with the movie is Rosario Dawson's character's dialogue - the excessive Urban style yammering is not cute, funny, it's just plain annoying. This movie has everything I like in movies, packed full of all the genre greats - boobs, nazi's, werewolves, aliens, monster, devils, the list goes on, but it's just lifeless.

(3 stars) - Enjoyable, but much of the same from Zombie (sort of)
THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO

*** ½ Out of 5

Release Date- September 12th, 2009

Running Time- 77-Minutes

Rating- R

Screenplay- Tom Papa & Rob Zombie

Director- Rob Zombie

Starring- Tom Papa, Sheri Moon Zombie, Rosario Dawson, Brian Posehn and Paul Giamatti as Dr. Satan

I've never read the comic by Zombie, but what got me interested in seeing The Haunted World of El Superbeasto was for the most part I've liked Rob Zombies work; House of 1000 Corpses his debut was flawed, but a lot of fun and I think The Devil's Rejects will go down as one of the best of the decade and while inferior to the original I thought the Halloween remake was good, but I almost skipped out on Superbeasto due to how much I hated Halloween II. But 3 out of 4 I've liked so I ended up giving El Superbeasto a shot.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a slight stray from what Zombie has done previously, but a lot of his style is on full display here, which isn't a bad thing. Even though I liked Halloween I did feel the mix of Halloween and what Zombie brings to his films was a bit out of place at times, but El Superbeasto is an original Zombie idea so therefore his style is fine this time around. El Superbeasto is filled with nudity, sex, violence and a whole lot of cursing.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is by no means a great movie, but it is highly entertaining and it's never boring. El Superbeasto isn't my favorite movie by Rob Zombie, but I might rate it as his most entertaining film to date. If you are a fan of Rob Zombie you'll probably enjoy this if you aren't a fan of his work it can still be enjoyed, but odds are you won't like it too much; like I said this does stray from his style enough for those that don't care for it can still maybe like this and it has enough of Rob's style that those who like it can also enjoy it.

The screenplay was written by Tom Papa & Rob Zombie and there really isn't much of a plot so there isn't really a need to get into it. My only problem with Zombie's work is at times the writing. He seems to have trouble writing for normal characters and the excessive amount of cursing can get a bit annoying; these elements work a little better in Corpses and Rejects than they do Halloween and these elements work well with El Superbeasto. The cursing can be annoying since it's used so much it becomes silly. El Superbeasto is a silly movie, but the cursing was overdone.

But overall the script by Papa and Zombie was highly fun and entertaining; the material is a bit silly and crude and has at times been described as an X-rated Scooby Doo; since this is a Rob Zombie original movie all the elements we know from Zombie's other film does mostly work. Like I said the cursing can be a little over done and the characters in typical Zombie fashion are obnoxious, but these elements do work well. Papa & Zombie write an entertaining script and El Superbeasto is what it is. Everything here comes out the way it's meant to be and is enjoyable if not a little too silly at times.

As director Rob Zombie does a solid job, but like I said in my Halloween II review, Zombie is pretty much a one trick pony and his direction is more of the same, but also a little different. If you don't like Zombie's work odds this won't change your mind on him. The pacing of El Superbeasto is solid and it's never really slow and almost always entertaining. When doing his own original work Zombie is a much better filmmaker even if still a one trick pony. Like I said the direction is more of the same, but works well due to the material.

While I don't think The Haunted World of El Superbeasto will go down as a classic film, odds are it will reach cult status and I think it is deserving of that. We get Nazi werewolves and Nazi zombies, which also have their own really cool theme song. The cast is once again consisted of all the actors from past Zombie movies, but since it's done in a voice over it doesn't serve as a distraction.

The characters are typical Zombie characters, but like I said they work due to the material. Suzi X voiced by Sheri Moon Zombie was by far my favorite character and I would love a sequel where she's the main focus.

El Superbeasto has a lot of homage's and I'm sure that I probably missed some since there were so many. The opening scene was probably my favorite, which was a spoof of the opening of the 1931 classic Frankenstein and the opening credits were in the style of the 30s horror flicks. Characters such as Michael Myers, Leatherface, Jack Torrance, Jason Voorhees, The Fly and my personal favorite the Bride from Bride of Frankenstein all appear. There are many, many more brief cameos from Iconic horror characters. Also briefly appearing are Otis and Captain Spaulding from Corpses and Rejects.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a highly entertaining film and the target audience will be fans of Zombie's work. I know some people liked Corpses and Rejects, but hated his Halloween movies due to the trashy element. In that case you'll probably like Superbeasto, but if you haven't liked any of his work, while different it's still your typical Zombie movie so keep that in mind. Again this isn't a great film and it can be a little too over the top, but it's pretty much always entertaining.

The Blu-ray release is quite pathetic; the picture and audio is top notch and worth buying simply for that the extras are downright pathetic.

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