3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’:
This film made me an INSTANT fan of a) Tom Blyth (get a buzzcut and marry me, please) and b) Rachel Zegler (that voice!). I truly can’t wait to see more of them — and I know Rachel is gonna be a fantastic Snow White!
I would love to see more of Dr. Volumnia Gaul! Viola Davis was brilliant in this role. A standout performance for sure.
I thought this was a great expansion of the mythology. It was fun seeing an early and “flawed” Hunger Games system (and its messy host lol) and why it went in the direction it did.
The start-of-the-apocalypse stuff in this episode was done better than anything on Fear the Walking Dead.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Poughkeepsie Tapes’:
I couldn’t wait for it to end. The acting was PAINFUL. And the story… it seemed like they made of list of the most shocking scenarios, peppered them throughout the movie, and hoped for the best.
The scariest part was the opening credits with the eerie music.
Maybe if the killer spoke less and didn’t dress like the Phantom of the Opera, I would have found him a little more terrifying.
When you take all the stakes away (aka no eliminations, prizes they aren’t winning for themselves, etc.), there’s clearly no sense of urgency to learn your lip sync lyrics. I love seeing all the queens every week, but we lose an element of what makes the show compelling.
3 Thoughts After Completing ‘True Blood’ (again):
This is not a perfect show by any means — few rarely are — but this is one of THE best vampire mythologies / worlds that ever existed in entertainment, right up there with Anne Rice and Buffy. They all got the rules right.
This is also one of the best ensemble casts, ever, on television. I can’t agree that some characters had the best arcs or went in the best directions (i.e. Tara), but they were still a helluva lot of fun to watch and they got us through some of the show’s weaker seasons.
I believe that mine is not the most popular opinion, but I felt that True Blood ended super strong. The final season is fantastic and, as for the finale itself, I couldn’t imagine the series ending any other way. It all came full circle in my eyes.
I disagree with any thoughts that this was a bad ending. I thought it was perfect.
That Ginger and Eric scene is one of the absolute best of the entire series. Hilarious perfection.
This episode serves as a proper reminder of how incredibly talented Nelsan Ellis was. He shined so brightly as Lafayette.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Strange Way of Life’:
I struggle to find the purpose of this.
As a Pedro Pascal-devoted gay myself, I just couldn’t get into their relationship. I don’t know if it was the complete lack of chemistry or the silly lines like “I know how to dry myself,” but I could NOT take them, or this short, very seriously. The poster doesn’t help.
The biggest contribution this short gave to the world of cinema is a little Pedro booty.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Monkey Man’:
I haven’t seen fight scenes this amazing in a very, very long time. Some of the absolute best, and they kept me on the edge of my seat. Brutal and so badass.
Dev Patel. Looking sexy AF. And the fact that he directed this film — where style seamlessly meets substance — makes him a whole lot sexier. Spectacular job.
I love love love that there was trans representation in this! AND that they literally kicked a whole lotta ass. Again, if I couldn’t love Dev Patel any more (see thought #2).
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Boy Kills World’:
This movie was such a hodgepodge of things. Part Hunger Games. Part Kill Bill. Part The Boys, even. I’m not sure that’s the best mix, but what saves this from being a disaster is that it doesn’t take itself very seriously and leans more into being a comedy. Sheer mindless entertainment.
The action and fight scenes were definitely impressive, but the shots (and even the movie itself) were so frenetic and fast, that they were often hard to fully appreciate.
My two favorite things were the silly interior dialogue and — of course — the insanely hot (and super frickin’ ripped) Bill Skarsgård.
I’m astonished at how much I’ve grown to love Roxxxy since her first season.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor’:
Look at Hell House LLC trying to be all MCU with their post-credits scene teaser. I’m definitely down for more.
This film singlehandedly elevated the franchise with MUCH better acting (the best of all four films) and a cohesive, uncomplicated storyline that expands upon the lore… even though said lore could still use a bit of tweaking. There’s still a ton of potential left in this series if it keeps on going in this direction.
I’m probably rating it higher than it might deserve, but I found it overall effective as a fully-rounded found-footage horror film. When “Chase’s final recording” appeared, I was totally unsettled.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire’:
Russell Wynn is a total hottie.
The acting improved a liiiiiiittle in comparison to the previous chapter… but literally everything else failed miserably. What could have been a deeper dive into the mythology turned into a total joke. The production value tanked. The found footage element was a thing and then it wasn’t. It started out in documentary style… and that went away at some point. The “happy ending” came out of NOWHERE. It just wasn’t good.
If I could praise anything here, I would give kudos for the attempt in keeping these three films connected, even bringing the whole original cast back. There IS somewhat of a continuity to appreciate.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel’:
The only redeeming qualities of this film are the expansion of the mythology, which actually has a shred of something compelling at its core… though it may prove difficult for these films to navigate towards it… AND the hotel itself. It’s a solid scary movie setting, and I appreciate that it maintains the setup from the original, when other sequels tend to change up things completely. All in all, this is enough for me, as I’m a sucker for haunted house stories.
In order to enjoy this one, you MUST see past the atrocious acting. Yikes, it gets rough. And good golly, miss Molly is the worst. Alex too.
HOW does Mitchell recognize Tully in the hotel, but not during the interview? Go ahead and cast actors who could use a little more training, but AT LEAST keep the story intact.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘In a Violent Nature’:
Obvious points are given for the showcase of very creative kills and flipping the script on the generic slasher formula. It was cool to “overhear” conversations from what would have been the main cast and see a horror film unfold from that perspective.
The pacing is what killed it a little for me. I can appreciate the artistic approach… taking the time to paint a certain picture… but I can only watch little Johnny getting his steps in for so long.
That last (and ridiculously long) bit of dialogue was unnecessary and gave us a major womp-womp of an ending. It tried very, very hard to create a thoughtful comparison between the mindless violence in nature and our main monster’s journey. But, in my opinion, it ultimately fell flat.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Hell House LLC’:
There was no new ground broken here. This particular road was paved long ago by The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. But what I really enjoyed with this movie was the WAY the story was told… how all the details unfolded, the documentary style, the full circle reveal. Again, this wasn’t necessarily primo filmmaking, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t supremely sucked in to the mystery of it all.
I’m not always a fan of endings that are left open for interpretation, mysteries that aren’t fully explained… but I’m kinda okay with it here. We didn’t really get ANY answers, but I feel we were given enough story to be intrigued by what was missing, as opposed to being solely frustrated by it. But I do wanna know more!
I thought it was pretty creepy! The scares were super subtle but effective. A few “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” moments. No reliance on crazy effects. An eerie setting worthy of some quality Halloween viewing. And one super freaky mask. I’m here for it.
I love Nina, but she was trying wayyyyyyy too hard with those reveals. It just fell so flat.
Pedro might just be my favorite host of all time. He’s such a natural! And adorable to boot.
P.S. That groundhog Weekend Update sketch was so cringe.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Nightwatch’:
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is so hot. Yes, that’s my first thought.
My second thought is how on-the-fence I am about rating this thing. I didn’t hate it. It didn’t blow me away. I thought the progression in the first half was soooo frickin’ slowww. But it had some redeeming qualities, some quality horror moments. So I’m hopping on the side of the fence that says this was just aight.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated a bromance more. That challenge thing was infuriating and unnecessary.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Oldboy’:
Yeah, that was a royally messed up reveal and ending, but the journey getting there was — in my opinion — a bit of a mess. I found most of the film to be fairly confusing and overall unenjoyable. A connect-the-dots image of the plot progression would be one enormous scribble. More attention seemed to be spent on the twisted payoff than on the buildup making much sense.
I kinda expected this to be a Kill Bill-esque revenge movie, with some badass justice being served. Boy was I wrong. The fight scenes weren’t even very impressive.
I could give props to the film for some pretty creative shots and transitions. And some solid acting. That’s about it.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Strangers: Prey at Night’:
This is a solid example of why I need to ignore consensus scores on Rotten Tomatoes. This is NOT a bad movie by any means. Does it match the creep factor and punch of the original? Of course not. But it ups the ante by covering some new territory, with a family at stake this time around.
I recognized Bailee Madison from Once Upon a Time, where she played a young Snow White. She was a fantastic actress then and I thought she was the standout performance here. All of the acting was on point!
Those three maniacs sure cover a lot of ground pretty damn quick, don’t they?
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Final Girls’:
If Last Action Hero and Friday the 13th had a baby. I’m totally okay with that mix.
Silly and nonsensical, but a cute little homage to slasher films. I particularly enjoyed the faux end credits, the slo-mo bit, and the fun “twisty” ending.
At first, I thought they were trying just a liiiiiiittle too hard to tug at the heartstrings. But it actually ended up being somewhat touching.
I love that I get to see all these queens all season… but a couple of the runway looks, and even a comment by Nina, prove how the lack of eliminations might inspire them to play it a little safe.
Also, that lip sync was very underwhelming.
I’m not sure how I feel about the plan for this season. I love the charity element, and that these organizations are getting some visibility. But — with no eliminations — there are zero stakes each episode as a viewer.
And there doesn’t seem to be any criticisms coming from the judges either. The love fest is nice and all… and these queens have certainly earned their praise… but we still need some CRITIQUE… and I only foresee the concentrated love fest continuing.
My qualms aside… this is an EXCEPTIONAL cast. I can’t help but look forward to what they’ll bring to the stage each week. I think I have to look at this season as a celebration of this show’s legacy rather than a competition.
Officially a fan of Morphine now! She should totally be in the finale.
Plane DESTROYED that lip sync. Probably my fave moment of this season.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Innocents’:
Listen… I didn’t expect a Dumbledore vs. Voldemort battle at the end there, but I was hoping for more than a staring contest. This was shaping up to be an awesome movie, but I thought they supremely dropped the ball in the end. Points lost solely for that.
I gotta give the film credit for doing so much with so little. They didn’t depend on crazy special effects to tell a superpower story. Additional kudos to a young cast who did a spectacular job carrying the film. And props for going places I didn’t expect the plot to go. I could have done without the cat scenes though.
I don’t think they should have given Ida powers. It was an interesting layer that she was the only “normal” one. To reveal her powers at the eleventh hour didn’t serve the story at all.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’:
That was one of the oddest films I’ve ever seen. When you really think about it, it’s a rather simple story, but with a wildly peculiar, roundabout way of telling it.
Why did the characters speak as if they were devoid of a human soul? Was it to create a sense of confusion and unease? So very strange.
I still have so many questions… but I’m not in a race to get them answered… except maybe how they came up with the movie’s title. Otherwise, I’m very on-the-fence with this watch.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Glorious’:
I knew I heard J. Jonah Jameson in that stall.
The scariest part of this movie was the physical contact he came into with everything in that bathroom.
I saw the “twist” coming early on in those flashbacks. Wish it weren’t as obvious. Otherwise, it was nice to see Jason Stackhouse again in a decent flick.
