 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1995 release ice cream man, and I watched my vinegar syndrome Copy that I purchased for their black Friday. I did none Unboxing a haul unboxing for their black Friday deal Actually got a good amount of views on here So I'm gonna go through all those movies ice cream man is the first of them This is their blu-ray DVD combo pack, and I do have to say that first of all the artwork looks nice Looking good on there. I Don't know if you really need to see the back But some of the special features on this which I have not watched yet because I wanted to just watch the movie first Because this is my first time watching it So I wanted to watch that first take my notes and then do my video as kind of like a reaction But definitely a review and analysis of it like I normally do And then eventually I'm gonna go through all the special features just for my own satisfaction They have like some interviews on here one with Clint Howard who's obviously in the film one with the director one with the Producer and then they have obviously a commentary track with the director and then they also have Joe Bob Briggs monster vision when he showed it on monster vision, which was on cable some Long time ago, so I know some people have been calling for Joe Bob do it on the last drive-in. He would be redoing work basically So I would just say if you really want it just buy this from vinegar syndrome because it's on here His original one so and apparently Clint Howard actually shows up as a guest during it as well So definitely worth checking out so I do want to say I'm not like she'll necessarily ever see this But I want to dedicate this review to Darcy the male girl from Joe Bob's last drive-in show because she is a huge huge fan of ice cream man And I've been wanting to see this movie for a long time But it's because she's talked about it so much that that kind of gave me that extra push to be like You know, I'm just gonna buy this because it's you know, I'm on vinegar syndrome and there it is So now's the time Darcy said a lot about it. So let's check it out So this is dedicated to you Darcy if you see it If not, whatever So anyway, first of all, I'm glad that I finally saw this movie because it's very fun It's it does fall into the realm of those like so bad They're good films, but it's also a little bit more than that which I wasn't expecting at all And I'll kind of talk about that as I go on but so this was directed by a Paul Norman Who has 125 credits and it's also almost all porn So I think for that reason is why in the credits of this actual version of it. His name is Paul apstein not Paul Norman, so He's tied his name Paul Norman is tied to all the porn's that he directed And I just I found some of these names funny like porn names are always very funny to me Especially when they're pretty inventive. So I wanted to read off some of them from his IMDB list big and thick Edward Penis hands Paul Norman's nastiest orgies intercourse with the vampire and Hungry Holes So almost everything is porn. There's a little bit of other stuff here and there and ice cream man is obviously the most recognizable actual film that this person is Has directed This was written by David Dobkin, which just so people know David Dobkin went on to do other things such as he provided the story For the screenplays for Jack the Giant Slayer RIPD which I think had Ryan Reynolds in it and the King Arthur legend of the sword movie which had Charlie Hunnam in it it that didn't look so great to me to be honest and I didn't hear good things but but on the directing side Dobkin went and did some directing and he directed some stuff that I really enjoy Including clay pigeons, which I feel like I could do a review for that because it's kind of like horror adjacent That's a great film wedding crashers who doesn't like that comedy. That's a great one the change up also another good comedy I think and Fred Claus which you know, it's more of like a kids movie, but I know a lot of people like it I think it was executed well, but you know, it's not one of my things, but it's recognizable So obviously like I said Clint Howard is in this and I want to say Clint Howard is the best thing about this film I know, you know ice cream man and Clint Howard have kind of become synonymous amongst a certain subgroup of of horror culture And rightfully so because his performance in this is really really good. It seems Inspired so I don't know if he was faking it or not But if he faked it he did a great job faking it because it seems very very inspired Because it's not just that he delivers the lines well And he has that natural look of like someone who's menacing But his physical acting of it like the way he like he's like hunched over in the film and he moves kind of oddly Was a really interesting choice and it brings a lot to the actual character That just makes it more interesting like every time he's on the screen. He's stealing the show and I mean It's not hard in the sense that a lot of the other acting is really bad But he just does such a good job, it's so enjoyable to watch him He choose the scenery and he looks like he's having fun with it And that's one of the things I love most about this film. So the estimated budget for this film was about two million dollars So I mean in 1995 that's you know, it's more than that is now But it's still pretty low budget and you can tell it's it's a low budget film So people have been calling for a sequel to this film and they haven't ruled anything out But they did give it a shot back in 2014 they did a Kickstarter that was actually backed by Clint Howard himself Trying to get three hundred thousand dollars to make a second ice cream man film called ice cream man Sunday Bloody Sunday, you see what they did there very funny And I want this but it got closed down With only 70 backers and only four thousand dollars, so they came very very short now It's been said I've heard on the internet that on the internet's that It's not dead there and they're exploring more options that kind of restructure the crowd funding and go after it again To see if they can have it remade so I hope that happens But then again, this was back in 2014, you know Here we are about six years later, and I haven't really heard anything haven't seen anything going on so kind of dashes my hopes a little bit, but Fingers crossed that another one will happen so let's jump into the actual film itself, so the backstory is really really quick and I mean at least that's what you think up front It's it's the whole thing with the ice cream man being killed in front of the kid And then obviously you get the idea of this kid who's been traumatized by the events of seeing this beloved ice cream Man killed in front of them. That's what leads us to this serial killer ice cream man that everyone knows That's what it is going into the film so It just seemed like a really quick like a quick and dirty back story But you then realize that as the film goes on it kind of flushes out more of it And I was wondering if they were gonna do that while I was watching the film And I was very happy that they went ahead and did that because it adds a lot to it that like I said I wasn't expecting from the film. It makes it a much richer story a much richer experience and like I said Unexpected I really was not expecting that angle of it. I thought it was just gonna be pure dumb Hilariously so bad. It's good fun and there is that there's a lot of that but at the core There's an interesting inspired story, so it's kind of like huh so The Pied Piper thing though the the kid with the Pied Piper book like immediately when I saw that he said he's at the at the Playground he's got his Pied Piper book He brings it everywhere, which is kind of weird because it's not a large book. It's it's very short, but he When I saw that I was like, oh, yeah, okay, that's cool There's some kind of subtext here of the ice cream man's like the Pied Piper He gives us false sense of security to kids and can lead them away to their deaths like oh, that's cool I like that, but then they went and kind of ruined that by literally saying it in the dialogue of the film When one of the girls makes the connections, she's like the ice cream man It's just like the Pied Piper blah blah blah and I was just like oh you ruined it man Like people get it like when they just see the Pied Piper book and the kid just like mentions it We get it as an audience like you don't have to like beat us over the head And that's one of the things that I really don't like in films is when they have that subtext there And then they call it out for you later because it's just like why did you? Why did you introduce it kind of subtly in the first place and let us do a little bit of work, you know but you know To each their own it's just one of the things that irks me. It's my thing So I but I did like that tie-in of the Pied Piper with ice cream man They waste no time showing what's wrong with the ice cream because I mean They don't get immediately to like the dead bodies and the ice cream and stuff like that But they immediately show that the ice cream is disgusting like the first time you see the ice cream man They show them like scooping ice cream and there's like cockroaches in one of them And I think that's a really good way to kind of show like this guy's kind of crazy and the ice cream is not clean It's disgusting which then leads me to believe that people would be able to taste that most likely and Why do they keep going back to the ice cream man unless they're buying those like pre-package things like the bomb pop or the fudge sickles or whatever? His actual ice cream that he's making I'm sure was not tasting good Especially with things like eyeballs in it which by the way that scene I was gonna talk about this later But I'll just do it now that scene where the police officer gets the rocky road ice cream And he puts like the little scoop of the eyeball in there Was kind of ridiculous because when they showed the close-up of his mouth where he's like just moving the eyeball around with his Tongue first of all he would take it out and be like what is this because the consistency is so weird Second of all nobody would move something around in their mouth for that long It's just a very excessively long shot that they should have cut down at least halved that scene Like show a quick thing of it and be like oh my god That's so disgusting, but they just like linger on it and I had to laugh at that because it's like it's ridiculous It's totally ridiculous, but you know whatever it's part of the charm of the film the ridiculous moments like that The level of idiotic obliviousness from all adults in this Actually at first you're just like this is ridiculous like when these parents pick up on some of this stuff But it actually serves to kind of isolate the children even more as characters in the story To kind of up the stakes of these kids are truly alone The adults are not gonna come to their rescue even though the police officers try to do that But you know they're very ineffective as well But like not even the parents are gonna save them and actually there are a lot of problems going on with the parents themselves And I'll kind of talk a little bit more about that at the very end when I'm talking about themes and Something I saw in this film that kind of ties into a beloved story slash movie You'll see what I'm talking about. I like how when the warrant is being served when they're searching Gregory aka the ice ice cream man's House which is like an old it looks like an old bar kind of converted to look like an old ice cream shop When they're searching his house, they literally just like break in They go in break a bunch of stuff barely look at anything and they're just like oh, there's nothing here. We're out It was like the worst detective work slash police work I've ever seen and it's definitely seems like they just wanted to be a Demolition crew and just go in and rough this guy's stuff up and just be like how that was fun under the guise of having a search warrant Let's go. It's just a little much But once again one of those moments that's like it's so bad. It's good The scene with the kid shooting the rocket off his bike is also another kind of funny ridiculous Moment he like shoots the rocket off and like hits the the grill of the police officer and the police officer Like the kids got a gun and it's like the act first of all the acting is bad And so anytime they say something like that excitedly. It's it comes off horrible Which makes you laugh and once again the charm of it, but I thought that moment was kind of ridiculous and over the top and funny I Wrote down I recognize the dude from the photoshop when the girl goes to get her film Developed that she took all the pictures inside the ice chest in the ice cream truck I recognize that guy. He's been in a few things including like Adams family values and a bunch of TV shows So if you were watching TV and movies a lot during the 90s, I guess like late 80s early to mid 90s I'm sure you recognize that guy as well He's a very particular looking dude with a very particular style of acting and he's a fun character He could be a sidekick to the ice cream man. That would have been fun The waffle iron kill in this one I did not see coming and I enjoyed it and Even better is the follow-up to that where he takes that giant waffle cone and puts the severed head in the waffle cone Unbelievable and let me say because there's some severed heads later on in the film They looked really good. The practical effects for this were well well pulled off especially those severed heads like they looked great and I was impressed by that Yeah, but that that waffle iron kill not so much the kill itself But the after effects of it is one of my favorite parts of the movie There are a few other favorite parts. I'll talk about the mental Institution scene where the police go in and they're walking around Looks like a low-budget haunted house attraction and the other thing is that scene is excessively long Where they're just like walking through the hallways and seeing all that's going on That's another one of those scenes that I feel like they should have just like cut that in half You didn't need all that but it's just one of those things where it's just like gratuitously long So you kind of laugh about it and you're just like well, this is ridiculous. I Wrote down a really awesome quote here the quote Janet I got the gun the badge will follow the one kid's brother who's who decides to you know, take it upon himself to go after Gregory aka ice cream man That just that's just a really funny quote and it kind of rings true to like how some people are with things where they're just like I got the thing. I'll get the training later And it's just as ridiculous But it was a funny funny quote it was played very well, and it was it was funny at the time So the relationship that ends up forming between Gregory and small Paul is one of my other favorite parts of this movie And I really wanted more of that especially because it kind of gave you this idea of the possibilities that could be there of like Like more of a friendship between the two and seeing how that unfolds but also seeing how deep small Paul would get into Things with the ice cream man and then also seeing like would he eventually take over for him? Would he become a sidekick? Whatever, but that's like, you know thinking that before the end of the movie because obviously in the end of the movie ice cream man's killed we think and The kids in the mental institution and he's like churning ice cream by hand So it gives you the idea that there's a possibility That if there is a sequel that the kid would end up becoming the new ice cream man because he's unhinged at this point Which I really liked that twist to it So but I just wanted more portions of the bonding going on between Ice cream man aka Gregory and the kid then small Paul Those were fun really really fun to watch and that's kind of part of where you saw more of the inner portions of Gregory coming out and started to kind of realize that You felt a little bit for him because it wasn't all about just him being crazy and him being terrible But talk a little bit more about that later Let's get through the rest of the actual movie stuff Ice cream man acting like a photo was a funny dumb moment when the police go in and it's dark and they're looking for him and They're just going past with their with their flash like just like the photos and then he's just like Standing there with a frame around his face frozen and the guys just like yep Just another picture and he goes on I was like such a dumb moment So dumb I laughed out loud at that because I was like oh my god, so dumb But fun, you know and then the severed head puppet show This is another one of my favorite moments of the film and like I said the heads look amazing in this I really like also like the touch of like the ice cream scoops being up in the heads And as he's like clicking those like that's what's moving the mouths That's a funny slash fun slash cool touch to it and just like the way He's doing that like puppet show verb from behind the car is just it's unhinged and unsettling But it's also really funny the way they carry it out I love that scene and then I laughed when the cops Get knocked out by the ice cream scoops when they're when he's inside of it And then he's on top of the ice cream truck and they're just like stand there And then he jumps down with the two ice cream scoops like bashes them on the head real quick And they both go down immediately. It's just like There's no way that that would have worked pretty much no way that would have worked, but you know funny So that's all I have to say about the actual events of the film. I like how it ended. It was fun Obviously set it up for a second one And if they did do a second one, I feel like they would have to have Clint Howard in it. They might do it as like flashbacks or Maybe he didn't die. I don't know they could come up with some way that maybe he didn't die So the directing in this was okay, it wasn't great. It was okay The center cinematography is kind of like low rate a lot of the shots were just kind of We got this shot. There it is The acting was rough like I said a lot of the interactions were actually very Awkward because there are a lot of pauses that go a little bit too long in between like an interchange of Dialogue between characters So it's just like that bit of a beat too long where you're just like Say something, you know The music is hokey in this super super hokey that adds to the overall ambiance of an experience of it being one of those So bad it's good movies and then there are some scenes. This is a really big problem for me I don't know if it had something to do with how they had to like restore the film or if it was from the original Cinematography or whatever, but there were scenes where the the camera frame kept jumping from side to side And it's very distracting and it's awful and that's not supposed to happen But like I said, like I don't know where the issue is with that how that happened, but it's distracting and it sucks That's one of the technical bad things about this film It doesn't happen a ton, but enough that you notice it and it's annoying It has a strong theme in this film of kids in danger from adult predators now It's not just ice cream man, but it's also the the guy in the Park in the beginning because when the kids kind of like sitting on the swing set reading the Pied Piper book You see that that guy behind him and it looks like he's like creeping up on him So they intentionally through the way they shot it made it look like he was kind of like a sexual predator Coming after the kid so when the ice cream man actually you find out he killed him You kind of like well, is that really that bad of a thing in the context of the story? So that was interesting, but also there there are problems at home as well You know all the kids have their own issues like they're kind of out there because they don't want to be at home You have like the one family that's this religious nutcase family where the mom like they're saying that like the Archangel Gabriel is speaking through her and obviously the kids like oh my god because she doesn't want the other kids to come in She's like I'm just gonna go inside and she like runs up to her room She's obviously embarrassed by it or like freaked out by it or something She doesn't want to have anything to do with it and then the one kid whose dad is cheating on his mom and Yeah So they're they're a bunch of problems Gives you the idea that Gregory wasn't crazy in this film Actually as it goes on that he wasn't actually initially crazy He just suffered a trauma had an issue with that was put into a mental institution because of it And then he was made the way he ended up being his ice cream man Because of the institution itself and the people in it because really you just kind of see that He was really mirroring things from his past and that's seen in like his dreams His like daydreams the flashbacks of what went on there And then also that little bit that's revealed when the police go to the mental institution, which I think is called wishing well Yeah, it was called wishing well, which is a good name for it because if you think about it when you are at a wishing Well, you just throw a coin down and you just hope you like make a wish and hope for something So it kind of seems like in in the context of this They were just throwing people into this mental institution and hoping something good came out of it So aptly named so I really like that kind of twist to it And this is what I was saying in the beginning of like there's more to it than I thought there was gonna be and there was heart Like real heart to the actual script is that you know, it's not face value And you think that going into it and then eventually you realize through all these like I was saying like flashbacks and the daydreams And dreams that he's has that he was kind of made that way in a sense So it gives you this little bit of like feeling for Gregory as a person which is Weird because it pulls both ways with you. It's just like oh, man He's so terrible right now But did he have to end up this way because it's not necessarily his fault that he got here and I like that I like that. So you kind of feel for him by the end of it So this is the one thing I kind of alluded to I was gonna talk about So I was saying that it reminded me a bit of a beloved story slash movie. Well a few movies It reminds me of it the story it in the sense that the kids are facing an evil while their parents are Uninvolved and behaving badly. That is something that's very very strong in it. And also if you just substitute Pennywise for the ice cream man. It's basically the same thing. It is the same story at heart as Stephen King's it Just saying but anyway, that's all I have to say about ice cream man This was a fun watch. Like I said, this is the first time seeing it. So I really enjoyed it I'm excited to get more into this and Check out the all those special features, especially the monster vision Showing of it with Clint Howard talking and just an interview with Clint Howard because I like Clint Howard I think it does a really good good job with his roles and like I said in this film He did a really good job with that role. It could have been something he phoned in and he didn't and I like that But let's go ahead and give this thing a rating This is one of those films that I have to do two separate ratings on Because my first rating will be just in the whole pantheon of films Like is this actually a really good film when you look at it from a Filmmaker or film appreciation standpoint and then I rated on the scale of so bad. They're good movies So with five stars Possible with half stars in play for the overall rating I'm gonna give it a one and a half stars as like against all films One and a half now when you switch over to so good. It's bad movies. I Gotta put this up at a four. I mean, it's up there to be honest It doesn't quite get that four point five, but if I did quarters I probably go four point two five, but I'm putting it at a four star. That's great for this Subgenre of horror of like it's so bad. It's good. This one's a keeper. It's and like I said Buy it on vinegar syndrome. It's available. It's not too crazy priced and the amount of special features on this are getting me excited I'm gonna go check this out, but thanks everyone for checking this out. Please put some comments down there I know plenty of you have seen ice cream man. I Want your thoughts on it as well hit that subscribe if you can that's the best way to repay me I would love it. I don't you know, I don't get any money from any of this stuff I just do it for fun because I want to interact with the horror community out there and provide my creative thinking on these things and Analysis so please hit that subscribe for me You can do likes but the subscribe is more important and then like I said any comments you have But thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal