Persecution (1974) Movie Review

Persecution (1974) (IMDB)

Persecution (2003) movie poster

I actively watch movies that are considered bombs at the box office. The majority of them bombed for a reason, a bad script or bad acting. So when I sat down to watch this movie about a overbearing mother tormenting her son I knew to have low expectations. You don’t have to wait long for a hedge maze scene, as just over 7 minutes into the movie our characters enter the hedge for the first time. The hedge maze continues to be an important character in the movie (you can see the second hedge maze scene in the video below). We also have a prominent role for Sheba, the white cat in the poster above. As the story unfolds we see our mother character, and her cat be more and more sinister. Unfortunately, the story is a bit bland and the storyline to me just is unbelievable.

I give it a 5/10. I had trouble finding a true trailer for the film, but did find this extended scene from the hedge maze !

The Whoopee Boys (1986) Movie Review

The Whoopee Boys (1986) (IMDB)

The Whoopee Boys movie poster

Two misfit men take an etiquette/charm class to help them fit into high society. They like to run street cons but one of them has the opportunity to win the heart of a wealthy families daughter. The daughter is in a rush to get married at her father’s request but only to a man he thinks is good enough for her. Her father as another man in mind. A series of events lead to contests between the possible fiancés, including a fencing match, skeet shooting and a game called cross courts. The fencing contest overflows into a hedge maze and then into a fountain. The humor feels very Revenge of the Nerds, and that may be because the writers and the producers of it also made this film. It has some funny moments, but not enough for me to recommend it.

I give it a 5.2/10

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 5

Welcome back to my series where I look at my making over time. Hopefully they have improved. For an explanation of the series you can check out part 1, but the tldr is I used to make daily mazes and now make weekly mazes allowing me to spend more time on each maze.

Here are the first 4 parts in the series:

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 1

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 2

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 3

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 4

Let’s compare 5 more mazes and see how much better the newest mazes are 5 years later.

Part 5 - Even More Animal Mazes

Kitten Maze

The initial maze is from July 2019. The new maze is from 2025 and is comic book style with free drawn pathways. The 2019 maze is embarrassing for me to look at and was removed from the website for good reason (it used to be in the Animal Maze section). 2025 is a great improvement. Both are of orange kittens.

Unicorn Maze

The initial unicorn maze was made in April 2019 and the illustration was made for kids. The 2025 is comic book style and a much better !

Flamingo Maze

June 2019 was the first flamingo maze. Honestly, compare to many of my mazes from then it isn’t so bad considering. And yes, it was actually a lawn flamingo. The flamingo from 2025 stands with confidence.

Sloth Maze

In October 2019 I made the original Sloth Maze which for kids. I really liked that maze at the time. Our sloth shows a bit of personality. But, 2025 is once again a better illustration !

Mushroom Maze

Hey, I thought this was all animals ? Here we have May 2020 vs 2025. The initial maze was constructed using a grid method and it is easy. My 2025 Mushroom maze is more “animated” and targets more of a Grateful Dead crowd.

See you again down the road when I remake (and hopefully improve) more mazes ! Happy Mazing !

If you want to see all case studies this post pulls them together:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to improve your Mazes

Attack of the Gryphon (2007) Movie Review

Attack of the Gryphon (2007) (IMDB)

Attack of the Gryphon movie poster

In a world….you know how it is popular for trailers to start with that in the deep male voice. Imagine this movie review being read in that voice, it will be more enjoyable. In an ancient fantasy kingdom plagued by a civil war a gryphon is unleashed. A gryphon is part lion and part eagle so you don’t want it on your bad side. Unfortunately this particular one is computer generated from 2007 and it does not look good. So a barely ok movie becomes bad because the terrible animation is so distracting. If the special effects were re-done the movie would improve to almost watchable. While this was not a made for tv movie it feels like one that would be on a random small channel late at night. Possibly with people sitting in a movie theater talking about it while it plays.

What is a good way to escape a gryphon who is attacking ? Enter an underground labyrinth, of course. It works, but this movie does not.

I give it a 4/10.