This week I’m sharing my thoughts about my new toy, Vivino. Jeff Hollar turned me on to it Monday. What exactly is Vivino? This video explains it.
The app was easy enough to set up and I added 7 wines right away. At first it was so much fun I had to stop myself before I went through the entire wine cabinet.
The app allows you to manage wines from both your phone and the web, a plus. I downloaded the free app, so what I can do on my phone is limited at the moment. I’ve promised myself I’ll try other apps before buying one.
Taking pictures of wine label is a snap. It then scans the label and, in most cases, finds the wine in their database. If it doesn’t find the exact wine, it’s easy enough to change the year and type, or you can search by text for the right wine. The wine info page provides a decent amount of information about the wine and plenty of places to add your own thoughts and opinions. Tonight I learned about our wine choice before we opened it, paired it with the right meat and chilled it to the best temperature. Doing a happy dance. I’m not overly happy with the way you view lists of wines on your phone. I want more flexibility to create my own lists for shopping trips and parties. I guess maybe I could use the wish list. There is a nice section for wine pairing.
You can do a lot more with wine on the app than on the website. Viewing the wines on the website is easy enough though. They provide a list of your wines and the ability to sort them by categories. If a wine is missing information, it will drop off a category sort though. Plus, there is no heading for certain categories, so you can’t quickly find a grouping of a certain grape. The information about wines on the website is equivalent to the app, plus there’s additional vineyard and winery information with a map. I also like that you can look up a varietal and get suggestions. This wasn’t accessible from a wine page on the app. Maybe it’s in the Pro version.
Here’s a link to my page on Vivino at http://www.vivino.com/users/WinO-Wendy. They originally set my account up with the extension wendy-ho, which luckily I was allowed to change.
Last but not least, I have to add a link to The Ultimate List of Beer Apps for Blaze and our beer drinking friends—even though I’m pretty sure Blaze still uses a candlestick style phone.
Cynthia Woolf 
Warlock (1989), gosh has it been that long since I first saw this movie? Anyways, here’s what it’s about. “In 17th century Boston, a warlock (Julian Sands) escapes death and magically leaps 300 years into the future, where he searches in Los Angeles for the three parts of the Devil’s Bible that will unmake the world.” I love this movie and the book and it doesn’t happen often that I equally enjoy both. Warlock is a witty horror movie with great characters. Julian Sands was a perfect cast as the warlock, although the other members of the cast could use a few acting lessons considering this movie had an actual budget. Okay, they weren’t that bad, and if that’s my only complaint about the movie, well… What’s great about this movie is that it still stands apart as a good horror movie without all the special effects. If you can get your hands on the book, read it, although I think it might be out of print. There were some awesome scenes cut out of the movie, which is understandable. Let’s just say the warlock has a gigantic penis that is the true weapon used to kill his first victim, and so well written in the book that I vividly remember it over 20 years later. All in all, 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
In Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) “Satan’s favorite son, the Warlock, returns — this time to collect six ancient stones that will unlock his father from hell and return him to Earth. Complicating matters are two high schoolers who unknowingly hold the power to save the world.” No where near as good as the first movie, but enjoyable. This is one of those movies where the plot tried too hard and fell flatter because of the acting. I didn’t care though because Julian Sands returned and carried the movie. There were also some fun parts, like the movie opener. Don’t expect much from this one and you might just enjoy it too. 3 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Warlock 3: The End of Innocence (1999) can’t be compared to the first and second movie because it has no connection to them and unfortunately no Julian Sands. Luckily I knew this going in or I’d have been reallllly disappointed. What’s it about? “When a rich uncle leaves her a sprawlin crumbling 16th-century mansion as part of her inheritance, a college student (Ashley Laurence) and her friends leave campus behind for a fun-filled weekend in the country. But their holiday quickly morphs into hell on earth.” Expect a slasher movie and it’ll deliver. This is a B grade film and should be watched as such. I liked the atmosphere of the house in this film and thought the acting was better than in Armageddon. You do have to remember that in cheesy horror films, cars don’t start and characters do bizarre things like walk barefoot in a nightgown through an old dirty house about to be tore down. Or find beds clean enough to sleep in. I don’t think it’s as bad as the other amateur critics out there and give it 3 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Santa Claus was the first movie I watched because I was curious about it’s 1959 release date. Most of the Christmas horror movies are dated from the 1970s on, considering a religious holiday like Christmas was once off limits except for the scary ghosts in A Christmas Carole and greedy rich men like Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. I never really thought about holiday horror movies being influenced by the Vietnam War, Watergate, Recession Era and further commercialization of the giving season, but there is was, right in front of my face as I put together the list of holiday horror movies for the marathon. It has me wondering how our current times will influence holiday movies.
Boy Eats Girl is one of those movies I should have sat down and reviewed right away because it’s forgettable. I think Boy Eats Girl tried to be like Sean of the Dead, but fell short. It was predictable and boring where it tried to be funny. I also found it to be one of those movies where you spend more time questioning the character’s actions, which take away from the story and the viewers ability to just sit back and enjoy the movie. However, while I didn’t enjoy it, I think young teens might like it, and let me repeat young teens. My son is 17 and had the same opinion I did about this movie. We both agreed it was worthy of 2 out of 5 bloody brains.
Jake and I enjoyed Return of the Living Dead 3. I haven’t seen the first two movies, which surprises me, but shouldn’t matter from what I’ve read in other reviews because this one is so different from the others. The teen love story in this one was good. Boy’s passionate for his girl and when he’s responsible for her death, his grief makes him desperate enough to turn her into the undead using some fucked up serum. It felt a little like Pet Cemetary in that regard. *SPOILER* Watching her transform and self-inflict pain upon herself the suppress her hunger was the best part. She did some really freaky shit you’ve gotta see. What really added to the atmosphere was the darkness of the way this movie was filmed. The characters always doing the wrong thing also worked in this film unlike the movie above. Jake and I agreed it deserved 3 out of 5 bloody brains.
Zombie High is NOT a zombie movie. Instead, it tries to make a political statement, but fails because most viewers would fall asleep or turn the movie off out of boredom. I feel like I’m the mindless zombie for watching the whole damn thing. That aside, the message is conform or die. Those who submit to the procedure that make them conform are working for the side of evil, but they walk around like zombies, metaphorically. There’s a school dance scene that shows couples dancing like mindless, emotionless zombies (right-wing conservative republicans–clearing my throat). By the way, that was one of the hardest scenes to sit through. All I’m saying here is if you want to point the finger at your political enemy in a horror movie, make them bad and evil and interesting enough to carry the movie, PLEASE! I generously give it 1 out of 5 bloody brains.
Revenge of the Living Dead Girls is about three young women killed in their prime by tainted milk. They come back form the grave for revenge in scenes that mix sex and gore that carried the movie and made it okay. This movie has an overdone plot, more of a 1970s feel and I really don’t consider this a zombie movie so much. Still, I think it’s worthy of 3 out of 5 bloody brains based on a few of the gory sex scenes. As long as you don’t have high expectations going in, you might enjoy it.
Doctor Blood’s Coffin is more of the typical Frankensteinian mad scientist movie than a zombie movie. Also more thriller and suspense than gore. I actually enjoyed the movie and the interaction of the characters. Dr. Blood’s character successfully portrayed his decent into insanity as he became more obsessed with resurrection and his love interest. The amazing scenery was an added extra. Not the best sci fi/horror mix of the 1960s, but entertaining. I give it 3 out of 5 bloody brains.
Beneath the Surface was my favorite zombie movie this week, and an excellent teenage love story. A blossoming romance between beauty and the geek is cut short when her ex-boyfriend tries to take advantage of her but ends up killing her and staging the scene to look like a suicide. Right off the bat, the movie does a good job of portraying teen cruelty. Geeky Ethan is sure Kahlah was murdered and steals his neighbor’s voodoo mix to bring her back and find out the truth. So this one is a true zombie tale that follows the predicament Ethan’s gotten himself into, including what to do with his undead girlfriend he keeps in a drawer under his bed after he finds she is nothing more than a mindless, speechless zombie willing to do anything he requests. For a B-movie, this film had some great characters, decent acting and storyline, and enough blood and guts to carry you through the end of the movie. The relationship between Ethan and Kahlah while she was both alive and undead was sweet and exactly what teens would love to watch. Much better than any Twilight movie in my book. I loved it and gave it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.
The Walking Dead was not on my original bad zombie movie list, but I happened upon it, available for viewing on Netflix. So I opted out of watching Survival of the Dead and sat glued to the TV for the first six episodes of The Walking Dead. WOW! It’s amazing! I wasn’t so sure about it at first, when Rick Grimes woke up in the hospital like in 28 Weeks Later. I’d heard only good things about the series, so I watched on. Reviews are all over the internet and so many people have watched this series that I’m not going waste my time telling you what you already know. What I will say is that they did an excellent job setting up this series, which is basically what you got in the first 6 episodes. They did exactly what I hoped for in this series and reminded us that the undead are not our only enemies during times of strife. I also think that anyone who does not normally watch zombie movies, but can take the gore would really enjoy this series as well. I personally can’t wait to watch more! I give it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.
The only thing I knew about Johnny Sunshine going in was what I read in the Netflix description, which really leaves out much of what the film is really about. Here’s what I read: “In a world overrun by zombies, drugs and violence, entertainment is hard to come by. Enter Johnny Sunshine, the beautiful yet cold-blooded assassin whose zombie-killing exploits are the basis for the world’s most popular reality television show. When she discovers that her double-crossing producer has arranged to have her taken out, Johnny decides it’s time to take her world-famous murdering skills behind the scenes.” The film tried to shock the viewer from the very beginning and it delivered. A few minutes in I worried that’s all it would do, fortunately, there was a loose storyline I half way enjoyed. Johnny actually makes snuff films for her show. The only way she can get off is by torturing and killing her sexual partners. She also tortures and kills zombies on film. The film producer is a major producer of zombie/human porn movies and personifies greed in the world. When Johnny’s rating go down, he hires a bad cop to do to Johnny what she does to her victims. I actually enjoyed the movie because I could see this happening if our world were overrun with zombies. You really need to open your mind and at least halfway enjoy torture movies and horror porn to watch this one, which I do. For a low budget film, I think they did a pretty good job despite everyone else’s loathing of it, so I gave it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.
Return in Red was a strange one and I loved its storyline about “A small town’s population dwindles to dangerously low levels when the residents unknowingly become guinea pigs in an unethical science experiment designed to test the effect of electromagnetic frequencies on the human brain.” Unfortunately this is another film that has been bashed by viewers expecting all zombie films to be packed with action, blood and guts, which you don’t get a lot of until later in the film. There was very little dialog and a lot of background noise that worked well with the whole theme of the movie. It mesmerized me as I watched the townspeople who already live their day to day lives a bit like voodoo zombies. Add in the affects of the experiment and it delivered a pretty good psychological horror movie. Watch it closely and you’ll get drawn in by the moodiness and darkness of what is happening to the townspeople. Of all the movies I’ll watch this month, this will be one of the most memorable. I say kudos to the director and give it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.
Nightmare Alley is an extremely low budget Tales from the Crypt rip off that was okay. There was only one zombie short in the collection, which was also okay. According to the cover it won an award, although I couldn’t find any information about the contest on the IMDB page nor could I read the name of the contest. I can’t say much more about this collection and quickly forgot most of what I saw, so I give it barely 2 1/2 out of 5 bloody brains.
Wicked Little Things struck me as a typical Hollywood produced horror movie, set on drawing in crowds with the same old format, although the storyline was a little different. So it was all a bit predictable in regards to how it would end. I mean, look at the movie description. “When a grieving widow moves her two daughters to a rustic house in the Pennsylvania mountains, she hopes the solitude will help them work through feelings of abandonment. But they hardly have time to reflect, as they discover unexpected neighbors. As it turns out, the ghosts of children who were killed in a tragic accident more than 90 years before are still “playing” in the mine shaft nearby, and would love to have the neighborhood kids join them.” Pretty typical, huh? The dark atmosphere of the movie is what I enjoyed most, so I give it 3 out of 5 bloody brains.
I finally watched Stake Land last week and loved it. I had to sneak it in here because it felt like a zombie movie to me. Have we created a new creature lately, trying to keep horror movies fresh? Do these horrific creatures have a name, zompires or vambies? Please help me, people, because I haven’t been paying attention. I’m certainly not complaining because they created quite a horrific monster in Stake Land. I just wouldn’t call them vampires. Anyways, I have only one complaint about Stake Land, the script felt borrowed from too many other movies. Still, I loved the characters and atmosphere. I give it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.
I don’t understand why people hate Zombie Farm. It’s not that bad. The acting is pretty good, the characters are likeable and it has a decent voodoo zombie storyline. There are a few complaints about women being treated badly in this movie, but, um, there would be no storyline without it and it is horror. The movie isn’t the best zombie movie out there, but it held my attention and my sons. I was a little surprised it was made in 2009 because it felt like it could have been made sometime in the 1970s. For a low budget film, it rates pretty high in quality compared to other zombie films. This movie doesn’t stand out, but it is entertaining. Jake and I agreed it deserved 3 out of 5 bloody brains.
Zombies Zombies Zombies is about “an unorthodox drug experiment conducted by a mad scientist transforms the residents of a small town into flesh-eating zombies, a motley crew of exotic dancers, pimps, hookers and johns are forced to take refuge inside a seedy strip club.” I really couldn’t have explained it any better. This was a FUN FUN FUN film and BLOODY BLOODY BLOODY! Especially loved that they pitted the hookers and the strippers against each other, and the cat fights made it even more of a hoot to watch. You’ve gotta ignore the reviews and at least try watching this one. Pop some corn, turn it on and sit back and enjoy it. I loved it and give it 4 out of 5 bloody brains.