TFV: TOASTY OVERDRIVE Review: Firestarter

Hey everyone and welcome to the conclusion of TOASTY OVERDRIVE and man is it gonna end with a BANG.

So on to Firestarter; we start off with Andy McGee (played by David Keith) and his daughter Charlie (played by Drew Barrymore) on the run from unknown men. They’ve reached a taxi and escape from the man. We cut to a flashback where college students are given a dose of a hallucinogenic chemical compound called Lot-6 as an experiment. Andy and his future wife Vicky Tomlinson (played by Heather Locklear are one of the volunteers for this experiment. Later Andy and Vicky display mild telepathy between each other immediately falling in love. Back to present time Andy and Charlie arrive at the airport as they attempt to leave town. Charlie sees a man arguing with a pregnant woman and gets upset; so upset that she sets the man’s feet on fire. Talk about having a hot foot huh? Andy and Charlie leave the airport and check into a motel where we have another flashback where Andy and Vicky are married. Andy tries to teach Charlie to control her power but doesn’t turn out so well as she accidently burns her mother (Vicky) out of anger. Fortunately Vicky didn’t get burn too bad. The flashback continues as Andy returns home only to find Vicky dead and Charlie missing. It’s revealed that Charlie is being taken away by unknown men but Andy stops them by using his power to control; their thoughts as the flashback ends. We cut to a facility where we’re introduced to Hollister (played by Martin Sheen) and Rainbird (played by George C. Scott) as they discuss on how to capture the McGees and to use Charlie as a trained weapon.

Andy and Charlie hitch a ride to Knoxville, Tennessee and stayed at a farmer Irv’s (played by Art Carney) place. Irv notice something’s up and asks Andy the truth; Andy tells Irv that he and Charlie are being chase by the Department of Scientific Intelligence or The Shop. Basically they’re the same people behind the Lot 6 experiment years ago. Charlie senses the Shop agents arriving at the farm. Andy asks Charlie to use her power to stop and I think your know where this is going. After a few failed warnings, Charlie literally turns up the heat on the Shop agents. Even setting their cars on fire causing them to explode, the remaining agents take the hint and leave the farm. Irv offers Andy his jeep and he and Charlie drive off, they arrived at a summer cottage in the hope the Shop won’t find them. Unfortunately this doesn’t as Rainbird tracks them down by a letter mailed from their address. Rainbird arrives at the summer cottage and managed to incapacitate them with a tranquilizer gun. Charlie awakes at the Shop facility and is approached by Hollister while Andy in the next room is being force to take some pills which prevents him from using his powers. Later Rainbird approaches Charlie disguise as a friendly orderly, slowly gaining her trust in the hope to “use her at his disposal”. The next couple of day the Shop scientists test her pyrokinesis and results are quite pleasant for Hollister. But this doesn’t make Charlie too happy with this as they refuse to let see her father. Andy soon regains his powers upon not taking the pills; this gives him the upper hand as he puts Hollister under his control. Plotting on escaping by helicopter with Charlie and Hollister; Andy then tells Hollister send Charlie a message about the escape. But unfortunately Charlie tells Rainbird about the plan and sets a trap for Andy and Charlie at the stable. Charlie arrives at the stable with Andy following behind; a gunfight breaks between Rainbird and the mind controlled Hollister but Rainbird takes him out. Andy takes over Rainbird’s mind and tells him to jump, but only ended up injuring his leg and shoots Andy dead. Rainbird shoots at Charlie but she melts the bullet before it hits her and immediately burns Rainbird…TOASTY! With dying words Andy tells Charlie to “burn it all down” in order escape, in order that the Shop will never find her again. So in other words she mentally HULKS OUT and burns down everything. Even shooting these awesome fireballs at people; yeah sure these guys got guns but remember the near end of Pyrokinesis. Yup bullets are like marshmallows being thrown at her; so basically she kills everyone and escapes. The film ends with Charlie return Irv’s place on a rather happy note.

My Final Verdict: This film has a nice payoff in the end with its awesome fire effects. The flashbacks do help bring the plot just fine. This was Drew Barrymore’s first Stephen King film she starred in, the second is Cat’s Eye. Not sure if I’ll review this film, I’ll get back to you on that. But there’s another she stars in back in 1993 called Doppelganger, now that film I will review soon enough. Firestarter had a follow-up mini-series back in 2002 but Drew Barrymore never reprises her roll as Charlie and yes I’ll review that soon enough. So next time things will start to cool down a bit as we get back to our regularly schedule program as I review Deep Rising.

TFV: TOASTY OVERDRIVE Review: Reign of Fire

Before I get started I want to take a moment silence for the innocent movie-goers that have prematurely lost their lives by a deeply disturbed individual.................OK lets continue on with Reign of Fire.

We start off in London 2002 where a young boy named Quinn heads to an underground construction site to visit his mother. They share a moment until one of the workers comes complaining that came across some kind a void. One of workers asked Quinn to go inside and look around…why comes to mind. Quinn enters the void to see that it’s a cave of some sort. Suddenly fire starts forming on the ground near Quinn; he then hears a heavy breathing noise. Quinn looks up only to see a shadowy monstrous figure that makes Quinn running out of the void and back to his mother. OK I want to do this bit before moving on because there’s no telling if I’ll use it ever again…..ZUUL MOTHERFUCKER ZUUL! As the other workers about to investigate the void a large ball of fire comes blazing out while Quinn and his mother haul ass to the elevator. As they slowly head to the surface the monstrous appears only too revealed to be a very large dragon. The dragon crashes to the elevator and flies off Quinn looks around only to see that his mother dead…somehow. Seriously how she died I would say the dragon but they didn’t show anything to establish this. All the dragon did was just gave the elevator a tap did that kill her? The film goes to a fast forward over an 18 year period as Quinn narrates of what’s been happening. I would make a show don’t tell argument but I doubt they’ll have the budget to show anything so I won’t do that. Long story short Quinn explains that these dragons have been around even before dinosaurs. World governments use most of their nuclear weapons against them but only to become futile in the end. We cut to the year 2020 where humanity is now on the verge of extinction, struggling to survive as the dragons are now the most dominant species. We cut to a castle in Northumberland, England where the surviving humans live as a community with Quinn (now played by Christian Bale) is in charged. Later a few of the commuters have grown restless and decided to steal a truck and harvest the tomatoes but unfortunately a dragon appears and set fire to the tomato field. Quinn and his friend Creedy (played by Gerard Butler) arrived in old fire engines and rescue the commuters and ecsape the dragon. The next day a group of solders the Kentucky Irregulars arrived at the castle; they’re led by Denton Van Zan (played by Matthew McConaughey looking a hell of a bit like Stone Cold Steve Austin if Stone Cold Steve Austin had better acting roles). It’s revealed that Van Zan and his Kentucky Irregulars are “Dragon Slayers”; Quinn allows them in the castle to replenish their supplies. We’re introduced to Alexandra Jensen (played by Izabella Scorupco) and her “Archangels” (basically paratroopers that use bulla nets to snare in dragons).

Soon after they’re settled in a dragon appears which brings the Irregulars into action. On the ground Van Zan sends three men to deploy “verticals” in order to set up a triangulator mapping radar. This allows Alex in the CHOPPA to see any visible activities in the air. The third man is about to set up his vertical but is immediately killed by the dragon. Quinn has been notified about the situation and heads out on horseback to deploy the third vertical. Their radar is set up just in time just as the dragon come flying at the chopper head on; the Archangels are deployed soon after. Now this free fall scene is pretty impressive, sure they’ve used blue screen but still I give it credit. One archangel is followed by the dragon while the other two are trailing behind the dragon. The two launched their nets and made a direct hit but the dragon shakes off the nets immediately. Still on the first guy tail; the dragon then retreats upon that the first guy is about to hit the ground like a stone…OUCH! Second guy gets eaten while the third guy makes to the ground safely. Van Zan tells Quinn to act as bait to lure the dragon to him and Quinn complies. As Quinn approaches to Van Zan’s position he ready’s a harpoon gun targeting at Quinn’s direction. The dragon tails Quinn Van Zan fires the harpoon and shoots down the dragon dead. After a short celebration at the castle; Van Zan and Alex explains that the dragon they killed earlier was female. In fact over 200 dragons they killed were all females. It’s revealed these dragons are like fish, (one female lays her eggs and the male fertilizes the eggs). Van Zan and Alex figure out that there are not so many male dragons as there female, so upon killing the male they kill the species. The one male they’re looking is located in London and then Van Zan asks for volunteers to go there and kill it. Quinn refuses to let his people to join him and the male will backtrack and kill everyone. This leads to a small fight between Quinn and Van Zan but it’s immediately broken up. The Irregulars plus 4 of Quinn’s people reached the outskirts of London but are immediately taken out by the male dragon except for Van Zan. The male dragon heads to the castle and proceeds to burn the place down. Quinn and Creedy gathered most of the children and putting out the fire. A lot of people still above the castle’s shelter, Creedy heads off to gather them but was consume by a wave of fire. Ah damn it and didn’t even make a SPARTA joke. Quinn and the others are found by Van Zan and Alex; Quinn decides that the three head to London and kill the male. So it’s back to the CHOPPA and they fly in low until they’ve reached London. At the heart of London they snuck in to the male’s lair via tunnels. Things get intense on the street level as Van Zan fires an explosive crossbow bolt but the male deflects it with its fire. So like a BIG ASS MOTHERFUCKER, Van Zan comes flying off of a balcony towards the male as the male comes flying towards him ultimately the male kills Van Zan. Quinn set up his crossbow as he and the male have a tense stare down. As the male is about to fire Quinn fires the crossbow the arrow goes right in the mouth and explodes killing the male dragon and thus the film ends.

My Final Verdict: Say what you want but I love this film it was one of best summer films I’ve seen at the time. This is a decent post-apocalyptic film with a touch of fantasy in the mix. Unlike most post-apocalypse films nowadays, the pacing is good it doesn’t drag or wonders to the point of boring. And may I say that Reign of Fire is the one out of two best Matthew McConaughey films. The second being Frailty; oh I’ll get to that film soon enough.

Well we’re at the home stretch now so stay tuned next time for the conclusion of TOASTY OVERDRIVE as I review Firestarter.

TFV: TOASTY OVERDRIVE Review: Pyrokinesis

Well we’re about half way through TOASTY OVERDRIVE but the most scorching made films are yet to come starting with Pyrokinesis (or Crossfire as it’s called in Japan). Some of you are may be familiar with the film studio Toho, yes the same Toho that gave us the ultimate big ass motherfucker Godzilla. I bring this up because around 2004 it came to my attention that Godzilla wasn’t the only made from Toho and Pyrokinesis is one of MANY films.

We start off with a flashback of a little girl all alone until a little boy comes up to her ready to hit her with a hammer. But the little girl immediately sets the little boy ablaze; OK you know it’s coming…TOASTY! The flashback continues with the little girl and mother; she explains that the fire inside her is from the anger she accumulates and must release the fire before it consumes her. We cut to the present with the little girl now grown up Junko Aoki (played by Akiko Yada); later that night she wakes up in heat and quickly leaves the house. She heads to a closed swimming pool and unleashes her fire so intense that it evaporated the pool. We’re introduced to detectives Chikako Ishizu (played by Kaori Momoi) and Yasuaki Makihara (played by Ryûji Harada) who found a young girl who appeared to tortured and murdered. The following day Junko bumps into Tada Kazuki (played by Hideaki Itô); he invites her to a college party which she accepted. There we’re introduced to Tada’s sister Yukie (uncredited) and her and Junko immediately become friends and for Tada to asked Junko out on a date. We cut to Junko and Yukie leaving out of a train station but unaware to them they’re being watched by unknown stalkers. As them Junko and Yukie separated as they head home, the unknown stalkers nabbed Yukie and taken her to a nearby van. Here it’s revealed that the leader of this gang is Masaki Kogure (played by Hidenori Tokuyama). The following morning Tada receives the unfortunate news that his sister has been murdered and rushes to the morgue. Makihara approaches to Ishizu with a lead to a suspect Kogure and immediately brings him in for questioning. But the police in this film seem to run on stupid that they released Kogure from lock up. Of course this doesn’t sit well with Tada and attempts to kill Kogure with a kitchen knife. But Junko stops him by burning the knife out of his hand. At a restaurant Tada still devastated of Yukie’s untimely death deeply angered by the police releasing Kogure. With deep sympathy Junko tells him that she’ll use her power to exact revenge on Yukie’s death. At first Tada doesn’t believe her so Junko displays her power on a car until Tada is completely convinced. In a short scene we’re introduced to Kaori Kurata (played by Masami Nagasawa) a young girl with autism who possess similar pyrokinesis as Junko, can read minds by touching, and can witness past events by touching objects or people that were there. Junko and Tada spots Kogure at a park; Tada gets hesitate until Junko explains that she interviewed Kogure blindly admitting that he murdered Yukie. Not to mention other young girls he murdered for his snuff films. With that Junko attempts to burn Kogure but Tada is still hesitate and stops Junko. However, Junko can’t seem to contain her power and asked Tada to take her somewhere that has water. They stop by a garage where Junko gets dowsed with water bringing her power under control. Deeply disgusted of what they attempted to do, Junko goes into hiding and Tada forgets the whole thing and goes back to work.

Tada is approached by Ishizu and Makihara asking where Junko is; they suspected that she may be involved with Kogure’s accident. At a small apartment Junko gets a mysterious phone call asking her to come to a park and she does. She meets up with Kouichi Kido (played by Hisashi Yoshizawa) who has the ability to control peoples’ minds by touching them. Kouichi explains that he’s part of a group that utilizes Espers to take out criminals and asked her to join him. Junko immediately declines but Kouichi gives her a video tape of a snuff film which upon watching it back at her place show Yukie being tortured and killed. Ishizu and Makihara continue to search for Junko as Makihara is convinced that Junko has the power of pyrokinesis but Ishizu remains skeptic about that. With an address given by Kouichi, Junko arrives at an abandon factory where Kogure and his gang are torturing a woman. One of Kogure’s men attempts to run her down with a motorcycle but Junko launches a fireball at him immediately killing him. Another guy jumps on Junko but she begins to set him on fire at a very graphic level. A third guy grabs a gun and shoots her in the arm but she immediately burns him. Junko is distracted when Kouichi arrives which leads Kogure and the last of his friends to escape. They track them down at a plaza bar unfortunately finding the tortured woman shot in the head, Junko becomes heavily exhausted and passes out. The next day after Ishizu and Makihara investigate the factory; Ishizu questions Makihara why he believes that Junko is the one behind these mysterious burnings. He tells her that years ago his step-brother who was a bit of loony was burn to death by a little girl who turns out to be Junko. However, she and her mother already skipped town before he report her to the police. We cut to Kouichi’s place where Junko wakes up fully recuperated and proceeds to find Kogure. She later approached by Kaori who was apparently looking for Junko; they shared a moment until Kaori touched a digital camera from the tortured woman and gets a psychic reading. It’s revealed that someone else shot the woman in the head. At the police station Junko approaches Ishizu with the camera that now has Kaori’s “psychic photos” just…go with it. It’s revealed that the shooter is Ishizu’s police Chief Yoshihiro Hasagawa (played by Toshiyuki Nagashima). Makihara approaches Junko with his gun drawn to her ready to shoot but Ishizu manages to calm him down. Despite the evidence Ishizu attempts to arrest Junko but she gets upset and starts burning items and then escapes. Ishizu and Makihara decided to take this evidence and covertly investigate Chief Hasagawa. Speaking of Chief Hasagawa we cut to undisclosed location where it’s revealed that he is in charge of a secret law enforcement called “Guardians”. But he got corrupted and giving Kogure protection by putting the blame on Junko so he could make snuff films for him.

Junko heads back to Kouichi’s place as he and Kaori not there. She gets a call from Kouichi apparently having Kaori under his control, he tells Junko to meet up at amusement park and she does. The police are notified by Hasagawa of Junko’s whereabouts and head out. But Ishizu realizes that it’s all a set up by Hasagawa and tries to get to the amusement before the cops. At the amusement park Junko confronts Kouichi about Hasagawa not even aware of him making the snuff films or protecting Kogure. Despite that Kouichi still proceeds to kill her with Kaori’s pyrokinesis, Junko tries to push off her attack but Kaori overpowers her. Sending Junko flying in a fireball into a Merry-Go-Round and then explodes killing some of the people in it. Kouichi lets Kaori go from his control before he’s shot dead by Hasagawa’s sniper. Junko emerges from the fire untouched and attends to Kaori. Tada catches up with Ishizu in the hope to save Junko and they both reached the amusement park. Hasagawa arrives with armed police force as Junko with Kaori in tow makes it to the front entrance. Hasagawa orders the police force to shoot her but hesitate to do so since Kaori is in the crossfire. So Hasagawa attempts to shoot Junko but Tada arrives in time to stop him but Hasagawa knocks him out. Junko starts setting off fires to fend off the police force, they return fire but Junko sets up a heat barrier to stop the bullets. Fire fighters use their water hose but upon hitting the heat barrier causes the water to turn into hot steam. In the middle of the confusion Tada is taken away by Kogure while Ishizu gets Kaori out of harm’s way. Ishizu has Junko in custody in order to get her out safely but Kogure interferes as holds Tada hostage with a crossbow and has him doused in gasoline. Junko uses her power to create moisture in the air surprisingly causing rain. This gives Tada the chance to run for it as Junko makes Kogure go KABOOM. Hasagawa shoots at Junko but Tada pulls her out of the way hitting a fuel truck instead causing it to explode. Junko gets in front of the explosion to contain it but gets shot by Hasagawa getting consumed by the explosion and dies. The film ends with Hasagawa labeling Junko as a terrorist however; Hasagawa begins to catch on fire and burns to a crisp.

My Final Verdict: This film has some really nice fire effects when seeing people set on fire. I mean you see people being burn in stages. I honestly got nothing to say of how good this film is…except that this film is pretty good to watch.

We’re only two films left in the TOASTY OVERDRIVE special so prepare yourselves next time as I review Reign of Fire.