obsession boyfriend i'm psyched girl crush i'm dreading enemy

(need an explanation?)

advertisements





when in Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K., I stay at
Adelphi Guest House




Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour (review)

Scooby Don’t

It sounds like one of those impossible math problems: “Ben’s only been dead for 13 years. A spirit needs at least two years to review its previous life before it can reincarnate. If Ben reincarnated right after he stopped haunting Mom, that would make him 11 years old.”

(more below the ad... scroll down...)

You know, like, “A ghost leaves Chicago haunting at a rate of two poltergeistings per hour, while another leaves New York...” It’s the kind of supernatural nonsense that fills Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour. Well, more than the usual kind of supernatural nonsense we find in movies, that is, which at least typically attempts to make us forget that it’s all nonsense and give us some good scares. I know this PG-rated “thriller” is supposed to be aimed at kids, but honestly, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo and the gang got into spookier situations than this. There is a creepy real-estate agent here, but his yelling at the meddling kids is relatively minor. Nope, the flick is all subclauses about two-year-reviews-prior-to-reincarnation.

Please, the management reminds patrons that no one will be admitted during the dramatic “maybe we should check the Internet” scene.

Checking the Internet are Sarah Landon (Rissa Walters), visiting the tiny burg of Pine Valley, California, and local boys Matt and David Baker (Dan and Brian Comrie). There’s a ghost, and a curse, and a small-town dark secret that apparently absolutely everyone knows about. How small a small town is Pine Valley? “It’s a small town,” one character assures us. “There’s only one taxidermy club.” As opposed to those bustling metropolises that are simply teeming with taxidermy clubs, and where dark secrets know their place. At least the dark secret isn’t on the Internet, where the kids go looking for information that may help them figure out the whole haunting deal. They should have Googled “red herring” and then let director-writer-producer Lisa Comrie in on that secret of even the mildest of mysteries -- she could have used the lesson.

Please, the management reminds patrons that no one will be admitted during the exciting “purchasing turnips for the Druid ritual” scene.

I knew there was something weird about this movie I’d been trying to remember, and I just got it: I wrote last year, in an article about nepotism in Hollywood, about the fact that Comrie cast not one, not two, but three of her brothers in this, her debut movie, and also cowrote the script with her uncle. In that sense, Paranormal Hour is a family movie. In any other sense, not so much. On the other hand, this is the only movie of 2007 that dared to note that “every year, 700 people die in electrical fires” and ask the question, “How many of those are started by evils spirits?” How many, indeed?

The DVD: Apparently this movie was sent to home video without any dessert. The only bonus material is “Frida’s Psychic Readings Game,” which is kinda like a video Magic 8-Ball. Ask Frida -- she’s a character in the film -- a yes-or-no question, such as, perhaps, “Will we ever see fulfilled the promise of the film’s official Web site, that this is ‘the first in a series of Sarah Landon mysteries’?” and you’ll get a random response like “It’s quite doubtful” or “Absolutely not.”

[buy at Amazon (Region 1)]    

viewed at home on a small screen
rated PG for thematic elements, mild peril and language
official site | IMDB
(more below the ad... scroll down...)



post a comment

who I am


I'm MaryAnn Johanson: writer and ponderer in New York City who drinks too much wine and thinks way too much about such inconsequences as movies, TV, books, and the meaning of life.
[email me]
[become a Facebook fan]
[visit my personal Facebook page]
[follow me on Twitter]
[friend me on MySpace]

FlickFilosopher.com is available on Kindle

• contributor, Film.com
• member, International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
• visit my scratchpad blog, MaryAnnJohanson.com
• read my Doctor Who fan fiction

photo by David Speranza

(postings feed)


top critic on Movie Review Query Engine


as seen on Rotten Tomatoes


member, Online Film Critics Society


member, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Add to Technorati Favorites

monthly archives

recent screenings and hot movies

just opened (U.S.)
red for no The Twilight Saga: New Moon
yellow for maybe Planet 51
not viewed by me The Blind Side [trailer]
not viewed by me Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [trailer]
yellow for maybe Broken Embraces
green for go Red Cliff [trailer]
yellow for maybe The Missing Person [trailer]
green for go Precious (expanding)
green for go Fantastic Mr. Fox (expanding)
just opened (U.K.)
red for no The Twilight Saga: New Moon
green for go A Serious Man
green for go The Informant!
box office top 5 (U.S.)
yellow for maybe 2012
red for no A Christmas Carol
green for go Precious
green for go The Men Who Stare at Goats
yellow for maybe Michael Jackson's This Is It
top limited releases (U.S.)
green for go Precious
red for no The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
green for go An Education
green for go A Serious Man
yellow for maybe Coco Before Chanel
box office top 5 (U.K.)
yellow for maybe 2012
red for no A Christmas Carol
not viewed by me Harry Brown
green for go Up
green for go The Men Who Stare at Goats
coming soon (U.S./U.K.)
red for no The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
yellow for maybe Serious Moonlight [trailer]
yellow for maybe A Single Man [trailer]
green for go Everybody's Fine [trailer]
red for no The Strip
green for go The Private Lives of Pippa Lee [trailer]
green for go The Young Victoria [trailer]
green for go Creation [trailer]
green for go The Road [trailer]
green for go The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [trailer]
other current flicks (U.S./U.K.)
green for go Amelia
red for no Antichrist [trailer]
red for no Astro Boy
yellow for maybe The Box
green for go The Boys Are Back
green for go Bright Star
green for go Capitalism: A Love Story [trailer]
yellow for maybe Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
yellow for maybe Collapse
red for no Couples Retreat
green for go Creation [trailer]
green for go The Damned United
green for go An Education
green for go Five Minutes of Heaven
yellow for maybe The Fourth Kind
red for no Gentlemen Broncos [trailer]
green for go The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [trailer]
green for go The Invention of Lying
red for no Jennifer's Body
green for go The Messenger [trailer]
green for go Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
yellow for maybe Paranormal Activity
red for no Pirate Radio (aka The Boat That Rocked)
yellow for maybe A Single Man [trailer]
yellow for maybe Where the Wild Things Are
red for no Whiteout
red for no Women in Trouble
green for go Zombieland

2009 screening log

new on dvd

11.17 (Region 1)
green for go Star Trek [buy]
green for go Humpday [buy]
green for go Bruno [buy]
green for go Is Anybody There? [buy]
yellow for maybe The Limits of Control [buy]
yellow for maybe My Sister's Keeper [buy]
yellow for maybe How to Be [buy]
green for go Farscape: The Complete Series [buy]
green for go Gone with the Wind: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.S.)

11.16 (Region 2)
green for go Star Trek [buy]
green for go Moon [buy]
green for go Sunshine Cleaning [buy]
yellow for maybe Four Christmases [buy]
yellow for maybe Tyson [buy]
green for go An Evening with John Barrowman [buy]
green for go Doctor Who: The Key to Time [buy]
green for go South Park: Christmas Time in South Park [buy]
green for go Star Trek Trilogy [buy]
green for go Star Trek: The Next Generation Movie Collection [buy]
green for go Star Trek: Films 1-10 Remastered Special Edition [buy]
yellow for maybe Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.K.)

11.10 (Region 1)
green for go Up [buy]
red for no The Ugly Truth [buy]
green for go The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Second Season [buy]
green for go Ink [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.S.)

11.09 (Region 2)
green for go Bruno [buy]
yellow for maybe The Age of Stupid [buy]
red for no Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian [buy]
green for go The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Second Season [buy]
green for go All Creatures Great and Small: Christmas Specials [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.K.)

11.03 (Region 1)
green for go The Taking of Pelham 123 [buy]
green for go Thicker Than Water: The Vampire Diaries Part 1 [buy]
yellow for maybe Food, Inc. [buy]
red for no G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra [buy]
red for no Aliens in the Attic [buy]
red for no I Love You, Beth Cooper [buy]
green for go North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition) [buy]
green for go Doctor Who: The War Games [buy]
green for go Doctor Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy [buy]
green for go National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Ultimate Collector's Edition) [buy]
green for go Mission: Impossible: Complete Series [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.S.)

11.02 (Region 2)
green for go Public Enemies [buy]
yellow for maybe Last Chance Harvey [buy]
red for no Year One [buy]
red for no Blood: The Last Vampire [buy]
green for go Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Collection [buy]
(complete list of this week's new releases at Amazon U.K.)

my book (Amazon U.S.)

my book (Amazon U.K.)

advertisements

search

Google
flickfilosopher.com
web