most important notes:
a strong end to a charming trilogy. i grew up reading everything rl stine and as much as i love watching other horror novels brought to life there's something especially charming and nostalgic about stine's work. this trilogy paid homage to the books, to popular film franchises, and to gen z teen films. there were weak points for sure, but overall? this was undeniably entertaining and memorable.
the end is a little illogical, but hey—it's shadyside, remember? it's always going to need a little bit of haunting. and really, it's nothing in the grand scheme of horror loopholes.
i also take back some of my criticisms of the first movie's leads and their acting skills; most of them brought decent accents to the 1666 scenes and played out the satanic panic excellently. tbh i think i just have an inexplicable dislike for how madeira's mouth moves in emotional scenes.
this is understandably not a happy or even enjoyable watch, but it's a very good documentary. it's stressful and a little embarrassing in a way. you can immediately identify your own habits as well as people in your life who have fallen for the algorithms in play on social media—someone i thought to be very smart and compassionate has turned into a complete conspiracy nut thanks to facebook, for example.
(i really just wish i were friends with the instagram developers so they could give me the original algorithm and ad free fork they all use. i miss chronological instagram ALL THE TIME.)
its based on a ryu murakami novel, so. it's not all going to make sense, but it's all going to be fucking weird.
and good. weird good. i loved the acting. also, this movie is what happens when an american movie adapts a weird japanese story correctly.
a delightful slasher flick that calls for some major suspension of disbelief but like, it's a freaky friday plot, you've got a lot to suspend to begin with. vince vaughn is such an underrated actor. HIM DOING THE SCENE WITH MILLIE AND BOOKER IN THE BACKSEAT, COMEDIC GOLD AND YET STILL TENDER
lovecraft vibes, with a score and cinematography that makes you feel weirdly off-balance. i'd say that was the strongest part of the movie—the inherent suspense and tension throughout it made me thoroughly enjoy every minute. and then the ending happened, and i don't know, it just felt like a letdown after all that unnerving suspense.
it definitely started stronger than it ended, and the introductory scene feels like it could've been a mind blowing short on its own. acting is great, pacing is good, it just didn't really pay off with its ending. i know what i would have wanted for an ending and since this followed an existing graphic novel, maybe that ending wasn't an option, which i get. BUT STILL.
i'm still not ready to go into a movie theater so i'm really here for hbo max and paramount+ giving me the Best sound quality. i paid like $50 for my headphones and the sound is amazing?? don't watch it without solid headphones or a surround sound setup, i realized how much i was missing out on in the first five minutes just using my tv's speakers and started over. i think i liked the first one better just because it was more horror than action, but the acting in this was just as great as the first and i spent the whole last act of the film tense as all get out. also thank god for the runtime, i'm too old for two hour movies.
it never ceases to amaze me how many people go into sci fi films expecting realism. don't expect realism. there are alien monsters who can't see their prey if said prey isn't making noise, that's your baseline for suspension of disbelief.
why do i always forget how good of an actor ben affleck is between watching movies of his
i watched this entirely on a whim since epix is free through apple+ right now, and this might be a case of low expectations surpassed beyond belief but i legitimately loved this? it's just the right amount of weird, unsettling and funny. kind of in the vein of things like after midnight and the finger. this was someone's ridiculous fever dream and i'm glad it got made.
i'm using this movie as a fun measuring tool for how little attention i should give a man and his opinions, which boosts it from a 7 to an 8. i can take or leave some of the actors in this normally but all the roles were great and worked well together. like i genuinely haven't loved hbc in a movie in years and the character rose was a delight.
mostly i'm just sad cate and sandra didn't kiss at the end.
rosamund pike is the only villain i ever want to see on my screen for the rest of my life the end
probably an infuriating watch for anyone who knows anything about physics but guess who didn't learn about that in high school? i liked this a lot, it was easier to follow than inception (or maybe my brain is just old enough to pay attention finally) and didn't feel like it was dragging on despite the runtime. saw the rpattz twist coming but it was still exciting when the movie revealed it proper! i also like the decision to use practical effects. cgi is great for big crazy stuff but it gets overused sometimes and makes said big crazy scenes have less of an impact, which doesn't happen with practical effects. all in all the reviews i read online made me worry i'd get bored halfway through but it was a fun movie with a lot of rewatch potential!
this movie made me feel a lot of things but mostly unnerved and unsettled, aka my favorite kind of movie. definitely recommend.
someone else on the internet somewhere has said what i want to say about this movie more eloquently than me so i'm just gonna skip all that and say i'm still mad about fat thor. he's a GOD. of all the things i had to suspend disbelief about this is the one i can't stand for because i refuse to believe a god's metabolism is that easily crippled by beer. BEER.
charming and fun to watch just like the first one! the actress playing scott's daughter is such a delight, it makes movies a cut above the rest when they've got good kid actors rounding out a cast.
beautiful effects for a superhero's solo film. i've got feelings about some of the casting choices and they're not good ones but second time around i'm still fairly impressed with bibidipop huhuhatch's performance. he's definitely a great actor considering i'm still not totally convinced he isn't half lizard.
tom holland is a genuinely delightful spider-man, probably because he embodies peter parker in his own way as himself. his accent is spot on at all times; never once do i stop thinking this is a kid from new york. i think my favorite thing about this movie though is how well-rounded all the characters are. a lot of times in superhero films the only development we see is with the superheroes themselves, or even that gets cut at the expense of more action sequences. but everyone in peter's life has a story and a background and it makes the movie very feel good and fulfilling for its genre. this is my second time watching it and it's a rewatchable and enjoyable film for sure. best part is still the stupid captain america Hello Youth video clips that the gym teacher shows tbh.
haven't seen the theatrical cut and i still can't believe this was three hours long, but it's a very well done movie and i don't know that any of the scenes could've been omitted—maybe bruce wayne's montage of working out.
when your dad is such a helicopter parent that he follows you across london through fire and chemical warfare just to try and murder you
honestly not that bad for a netflix horror. with each movie in this genre though the concept gets a little less scary - and then i remember the real life versions of events like these and want to live in a panic room for the rest of my life. so it's pretty evergreen in that regard.
also, once you've watched the movie, look up the kathy rowe case - thats what the true events card at the beginning is referring to. but THEN, also look up the otto sanhuber case. this movie combines both of those - and pretty well, tbh.
it's a very good and well-acted movie. riz ahmed and the two young boys who play his sons are all incredible. the soundtrack is also great. it's not a sci-fi movie and while the movie makes that clear pretty early on, it's not early on enough to justify being labeled as sci-fi.
technically, the threat :asterisk_symbol:isn't:asterisk_symbol: human. mental illness doesn't feel at all like being a human.
for being a directorial debut (on the part of an incredibly talented woman to be fair) this was really solid. i think a lot of people might be unhappy with the unanswered aspects of it, or the lack of clarity or even the decision to film it in black and white and its aspect ratio. however, all of these work together to emphasize the nebulous gray area that being white-passing puts you in. it makes sense given hall's own experiences with racial identity.
(if you're like me and didn't know much about her beyond being a great but very british actor: her mother is originally from michigan and her grandfather was a man of color passing as white during his own time, presumed to be african-american and of native american descent.)
i think this was written well, directed well, and acted well. the source material is also worth a read. however, i'm white-passing myself (south asian, not bipoc) and i do think that my own experiences are part of why i found the lack of clarity and how much of this movie is open to interpretation to be part of what worked for it.
go into this expecting a thriller, you'll probably be bored. it's a drama, and it's poignant and intense. definitely not a thriller though.
overall a decent horror for its time, though there are definitely more frightening entries into the home invasion genre. mostly worth it for liv tyler's performance, and the character mike's scene, the latter of which you know what's coming but the tension is top tier regardless.
this feels a bit like a parody of horror films at times and because of that it's hard to know whether i'm supposed to be taking it seriously or not at any given moment. but it's definitely entertaining. knowing the cast can actually act (sometimes.....) and that m night shyamalan can do great things directorially (sometimes) makes me think that maybe everyone just had fun being ridiculous with this movie in the production phase and the result is a quirky, melodramatic horror.
love that these people couldn't manage to socially distance effectively at all - i think watching this in 2021 made it a lot funnier to see people screaming about needing to avoid large groups while also saying not to split up or get separated.
honestly much better than i expected it to be. i've seen bella thorne do a lot worse, her acting in this was believable and reminds me a lot of vanessa hudgens' darker roles. but lord time and surgery have not done mickey rourke any favors, looking at him was not a great side effect to this movie. twists were pretty good for the revenge thriller genre—it's pretty easy to see what's coming but it's still unusual enough of a choice to be invested the whole time. movie definitely starts out stronger than it ends, but it's worth a watch either way.
the ghost face killers have been getting knocked on their asses by small female characters since the original, if you're whining about this then you're a moron.
anyway, great for a requel/legacy sequel/whatever these are called. it's honestly the first time i've heard someone define the genre since i live under a rock and it's fitting that scream got to be the one to tell me about it. i think wes craven would've liked it, too.
maybe it's because i had a rough day to begin with but i swear i could feel the grime in this movie in my fucking mouth GOD
it's not bad for a spy action film—it's nothing super unique but look at the two genres. i didn't go in expecting a masterpiece and i was entertained for the whole two hours. great cast, either way, and even if the movie was kind of mediocre i still would love to see more of the characters because of the acting. i'd also like to take a moment to appreciate lupita's entire wardrobe, bless those suits and comfy sweaters.
i have one major complaint and that's that i'm tired of trailers remixing songs and then NEVER USING THEM IN THE SCORE. first the candyman sequel and now this movie. give me my orchestral epic version of rihanna's run this town please and thank you
solid and enjoyable for the excellent cast, but it isn't the sort of movie with a very clear or gripping storyline. i think a lot of books with very meandering plots end up being adapted into films when their themes just work better on paper.
the intensity and brutality of the first act of the film makes the rest of it drag on, but it's still a very good movie. definitely worth watching. daniel gillies and miriama mcdonald were amazing in particular as other comments have said.
