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HAPPY 25th ANNIVERSARY to ALIEN 3

Hell yeah, as of today, Alien 3 was unleashed onto the world exactly 25 years ago. Now unfortunately, audiences were not treated to the amazing assembly cut, which I've already strongly recommended, but nonetheless, David Fincher's first film was released into theaters with a largely mixed reaction. It wouldn't be until 2001 that a proper fully recut version of the movie would be released, which is now available on the Alien Anthology Blu-ray box set.

I'm not going to write a super long review for this one, as I'm burnt out after that Alien: Covenant four page angry rant, but I'll write just a little on why this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

A lot of people are very quick to dismiss this movie, as one the surface, they judge the critical plot point that happens in the first 5 minutes of the movie, in which Hicks and Newt from James Cameron's Aliens are unceremoniously killed off-screen with a word of dialogue or screen-time. I wonder if audience members just tuned out after that scene and refused to accept and enjoy the movie with such a "FUCK YOU!" moment like that so early on. I personally don't mind it, as it perfectly sets the depressing tone the movie goes for. Put those characters to rest, as they're not the focus of the Alien universe. Ripley is the focus of the franchise.

Just a brief synopsis, Ripley is the soul survivor of an escape pod crash as she lands on a distant prison planet, Fiorina "Fury" 161. She's rescued and put with the other prisoners, where they must soon join forces as they face off an alien loose in the lead refinery prison plant, which stoad aboard the crashed escape pod.

I love the thematic elements Fincher tries to go for, mostly stuff that only appears in the assembly cut. A lot of people have pointed out all the religious symbolism that vapors over the entire movie, in it's imagery and storyline. Ripley comes to the planet almost like a Jesus figure. In this bleak and terrible environment, a group of people who are criminals and rapists, the prison inmates have converted to a kind of Christian religion, but are thrown off when a temptation figure, a woman, arrives on the planet. They question their own religion and existence even further with the presence of an evil figure, the xenomorph. By the person Ripley is, she forgives and atones for their sins, and ultimate sacrifices herself at the end for the good of mankind, destroying the last alien and even forming the crucifix at the end as she throws herself in the lava.

But besides it's rather heavy use of themes, it's a perfect sequel to the masterpiece Alien. Because it's not an action movie, it has the chance to recapture the close encounters claustrophobic and chaotic attitude the finale the first movie originally had. It's an incredibly nightmarish experience, in mood and events. Ripley has had to witness everyone she's ever known be killed and hasn't gotten a break since the first film. Even at the end of Alien 3, when human Bishop lies to Ripley that he'll kill the xenomorph chestburster and she can go live a normal, she can tell through his words his dishonesty, and decides she's had enough with the horror and "bullshit" she's had to endure. It's not a pleasant movie by any means, but the dark and terrible nature of the story and atmosphere makes it a true horror movie. The music by Elliot Goldenthal is on the same level as James Horner's score for Aliens. It's hopeless attitude and Alien-like sound makes it a true work of art for a movie soundtrack.

I'll take a religious-heavy, brilliantly written, visually terrifying, and wonderfully executed horror downer any day. I love this kind of shit. The characters are all interesting, especially Morse, who has a wicked dark sense of humor. Ripley's character is brought to a final close, and I consider this movie to be the true finale to the Alien franchise, and it really works. Trying to bring her back in Resurrection just screamed cash-grab. This is a fantastic film. Yes, it's depressing as hell and it's not for everyone, but that's to be expected going into a HORROR movie. PLEASE give it a chance, watch past the opening scene. It's not meant to have a happy ending where it's all smiles. Ridley Scott should've followed this movie for Alien: Covenant.

This isn't war. It's a game

Absolutely go see it. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is so great in this movie. The entire run-time of this feature could be his Best Actor Winner clip show reel. His dramatic and enticing performance in this just blew me away. You feel the pain he feels as he's pinned down to a small brick wall, being forced to remove a bullet from his leg, watching his partner being pushed to the ground by sniper-point; it's a lot like Dunkirk, but without the music. No music plays the whole movie. Isaac, played by Johnson, and his partner, played by John Cena, are currently out investigating a pipeline in Iraq when things go from suspicious to a nightmare. Cena's character gets pinned down after being shot by an unidentified sniper named Juba. Isaac is forced to stay behind a wall to hide from the shooter that that has both of them pinned down. From there, the movie becomes one big chess game. The sniper wants to get information from Isaac by talking to him over his radio transmission. What he wants to do with that information, we don't know yet. I actually don't want to say that much, in fear of spoiling, but this movie engrossed me from beginning to end. I've never seen an hour and a half fly by that quickly. I wasn't bored at any moment during this. You're constantly on the edge of your seat questioning what's going. The pieces slowly become clearer as time goes on, and the sniper's motivations, I suppose, are what constitutes as the the "twist" ending. The reveal will make you have one of two reactions... or both. Flipping fantastic stuff. You start to like it the more you think about it. I only loved it even more as I thought about while driving home from the theater. The actors did an incredible job with the material they were given, it's not exactly the happiest movie you'll ever see, but it sucked me in so much. One of my favorite movies of 2017 so far.

There's not too much I can say about this movie.

Chris Pratt has his usual funny moments, Dave Bautista has some very laugh-out-loud bits, and Rocket:tm:, played by Bradley Cooper, is given much more screentime than I thought he would get.

Kurt Russel, however, steals the fucking show. I love his roles in other movies to death, so it was great just to see him at all. He had much more weight to the story than I thought he would, and I didn't expect him to turn out as the villain, so that was a nice surprise.

However, the story itself did get pretty dang predictable at points. Characters go here, seemingly good guy turns out to be the villain, they fight him, the end. It's childish writing, but it works well enough. If Kurt Russel wasn't playing the father of Starlord:tm:, my rating of this movie would go down quite a bit.

What saves the movie though, besides Russel, is the scale of the story and the way the humor is implemented. Rocket:tm: steals battery components from a race of people at the beginning of the movie. This isn't just a one-off joke, this actually affects the course of the story. That little joke actually isn't just a side-gag, but actually pushes the narrative. I like that kind of shit.

The "Awesome Mix Vol. 2" has some great new tracks. It was fun hearing Mr. Blue Sky play as the crew fights the octopus monster in the opening credits. Now all the Youtube videos for that song will be flooded with, "Yo, , anyone?!" However, it is good newer movies are exposing this generation to all kinds of good music. I used to hate how new movies have soundtracks filled with just songs, but now I get it.

Going back to my point a paragraph ago, the scale of the story surprised me. There was no super giant evil bad guy that needed to be stopped (Not really), there was no big army to take down the villain, this wasn't just a retread of :tm:. It was a story of Starlord:tm: finding out who his father was, not liking was he was doing, and taking him down. That's about it. There's like 3 locations the whole movie and it's all centered on just one plot point. I appreciated that. Seeing the crew just stay in one place and talk was a refreshing take on a "superhero" movie.

This one will be a hard movie for me to judge. I'm just going to have to voice whatever comes to my mind as I'm typing, because this was a very interesting and all-over-the-place kind of experience for me.

Alright, so basically, Percy Fawcett is a British officer commissioned to lead an expedition to find a hidden city in the middle of South America. You pretty much know what the movie is going to be like just based on that short description.

Charlie Hunnam does a great job playing a troubled husband who becomes gradually more obsessed with finding this city, but it's not like he goes insane as a result. Throughout the whole movie, he just wants to find it. It's not like he gets PTSD from exploring the jungle and it cripples his interactions with his family.

In fact, the final expedition has him voyaging off with his son, who actually pleaded to join him. There's a great scene in the middle where this oldest son, played by - 's Tom Holland, starts to chastise his father for abandoning his children and his wife, to which Percy slaps his son as he walks towards him. What makes the scene great is how realistic it is. Families have these kind of dramatic quarrels all the time, and it doesn't affect Percy and his son's interactions. This takes place before the son wants to join him on the expedition.

Robert Pattinson excellently plays Henry Costin, who voluntarily joins Percy after finding out about the expedition, revealing he has knowledge of the Amazonia. I didn't even recognize it was Pattinson until about halfway through the movie, but his acquaintanceship with Hunnam was very natural and likable.

Sienna Miller does a good job with the material she's given. I don't recall her having any giant dramatic moments, just her getting annoyed every now and then. They try to throw in some "feminist" message at one point in the movie, but it doesn't go anywhere and doesn't amount to anything. Still, she did a nice job with what she had.

I think the best way I would describe this movie to someone else is, "It's like if they took and and mixed them up as they please." It's a daring exploration movie that feels like it was made in the 90's. It's a period-piece movie that has the camera work and framing of a movie that was made with 1990's equipment. That sounds like a weird way of describing the visuals of the movie, but you'll see what I mean when you watch it.

Another weird point of the visual style that I kind of liked was the odd choice in the color palette. There are no pure whites anywhere in the movie. It was color corrected to have yellows in the white highs of the saturation. It gives the movie this dreamy feel, something I only started to really notice about towards the middle. Like, the clouds in the sky are fucking yellow. It's weird, but I like it.

The ending is very bold and a little sad, but it's based on a true story, so I can't expect them to have done something different. I'm not going to spoil it and I implore you to not look it up before-hand. Go see it without knowing.

I liked the movie a lot, it's always nice to see something fresh come out into theaters, and I definitely look forward to reviewing more of these kind of movies in the future. (Getting really sick of superhero movies, to be honest). I just think it needed to be tightened up a tiny bit in editing and needed a little better of a soundtrack. Otherwise, it was a great experience.

"I know you feel bad about the deer, but it's not your fault. Things die. That's part of life. It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die."

"Souls don't die."

The smartest animated movie ever crafted and blessed onto movie-goers. Brad Bird delivers the magnum opus of his career and he hasn't topped it since. He blew his creative load out into his first feature and it really shows. The meaning of life, the uselessness of war, death, fear-mongering, and parting of a loved one are all topics tackled wonderfully in this seemingly "made for kids" movie. Who knew a movie like this would be able to talk about 50's war propaganda in such a revealing and hard-hitting way that most movies wish they could dream of doing?

But on top of it's extremely mature themes, it's a fun adventure comedy movie for people of any age. Hogarth Hughes is an instantly lovable boy who just wants a friend, and eventually gets one who happens to be a 50-foot giant robot. Dean McCoppin is a junkyard owner who gave us one of the best memes on the internet, and Kent Mansley manages to deliver some amazing gags in-between his war-mongering freakout moments.

I love the setting the concept artists chose. The 50's look isn't just for aesthetic, as it does serve the time period to hit home the anti-war message, but it's just as fun to look at as ever. The Duck-And-Cover nuclear bomb classroom video, the classic diner with all the waitresses in dresses, the cheesy black-and-white horror movies playing late at night, etc. etc. It's such a fun movie to look at, just for the time period it's set in.

The Giant, I don't even need to elaborate on. Everyone's already written 20 page essays on why he's the greatest silent character ever animated, but I'll just repeat it in a sentence. You cry for a giant metal robot who only says a few words the whole movie.

It's a brilliantly crafted and gorgeous movie that actually manages to make adults cry at 2D drawings. The best written and animated movie ever made.

Eh, I've definitely seen worse films, especially in the horror genre, which is fucking littered with trash. John Carpenter has the bar set for him so high because of what he's done in the past. The Thing, Halloween, and They Live were revolutionary genre masterpieces. So, I can understand how it would be hard to not look at Carpenter with high expectations, especially for a horror film from him, the madman himself.

It's definitely not anything great or anything, and it's not terrible. It's just painfully average, which is it's biggest problem. I like movies that are either entertaining as fuck and very good, cinematic masterpieces, or movies that are so bad, they're funny. There's nothing in the middle for me. If you're movie is average, it's a damn shame. I'd rather laugh at a bad movie than be bored. I want to either be impressed, or entertained, not checking my phone's clock, which happened quite a bit throughout the middle of this.

It feels like a made-for-TV movie made by no-name director, it's that bland. There are some okay performances scattered throughout, and I admit, the twist did get me a little bit, but it's nothing that would shock the hell out of me, like 'Sinister' or 'Drag Me To Hell' did. So, everyone the girl knew was just a made-up personality trait of hers. Big-whoop. I'd rather go watch 'Psycho', at least it offered something to enhance the genre it's in. 'The Ward' is a horror movie that wants to be other, better, and more successful horror movies that came out when John Carpenter wasn't doing horror movies. I could name so many things from this movie that it does, that I've seen other movies do much better.

I didn't realize who directed the movie until after I watched it, and when I found out, I was a little disappointed. I'm not going to say John Carpenter has lost his mind or anything, unlike Ridley Scott, but Carpenter, is old and he made a bland, generic movie. Nothing I'd get too upset over, just disappointed.

I do enjoy this one to a certain extent, especially the design of the wasteland (I even had the art book when it came out) but story-wise, this movie does nothing for me. It's trying too hard to be Mad Max with Terminators, but it doesn't really work. I feel that part of the problem is that the main character Marcus, played by Sam Worthington, is spoiled to us in the trailer that he is actually a terminator when he is found in the 2018 present day war. It would've been a cool twist if the audience found out half-way through the movie that he was one, but NOPE. The same problem happened with Genisys. Give away the big twist right in the fucking trailer.

It needs work with character development. Marcus has the potential to be an interesting anti-hero, one that struggles with living reality as a Terminator, but he doesn't amount to much. We're told his backstory and... he can sometimes but kind to others... and... uh... yeah, I don't even know. I like the scene where Moon Bloodgood is lying her head on Worthington's chest and she says he has a strong heart. It's a clever double entendre. He has a strong heart because he's a Terminator and he has good in him.

Again, the action scenes are great and I love the set design. Probably the best (and only) Terminator war film we're going to get. If the script was reworked and Marcus had better character motives, this would be rated much higher.

Final note, this was the movie that introduced me to Anton Yelchin. May he rest in peace.

I got the chance to see the film again, this time without the muddy 3D. Boy, oh boy, did removing the 3D glasses make this movie better. I guess the glasses darkened the picture, because now, in standard 2D, the colors popped even more this time.

Anyways, I still really enjoyed this film. I got the chance to purchase the art book and read through the production. Matt Damon got really involved with the project, spending over 6 months in China to get this dream made into a reality. Quite an interesting read, I recommend picking it up. Lots of gorgeous artwork in it too.

As for this film, this time, I was actually able to focus on the story and dialogue a little bit more this time. The first viewing I was little bit more focused on the visuals. I admit, the script should've gone through just one more rewrite. That, or the film needed an extra 10 minutes added. Some scenes feel a little too short, and the funeral sequence came a little too early with not enough build-up to it. It kind of feels like the studio forced the filmmakers to trim the movie down to less than 2 hours, which I think is a mistake. I was a little more satisfied with the ending this time, but I still wish it was longer.

That's the only thing I can really complain about this movie: I wish it was a longer. I guess that's a good thing, that I want more of it, but that's also a negative. I think if it was a tad longer and some scenes were a little more fleshed out, this could be a GREAT film, and not just VERY GOOD.

I still really liked it and I think it is underrated. If you still haven't seen it, I recommend checking it out. Be sure to read my original review for more on the film.

As a kaiju monster movie from the studio themselves, Toho Productions, it's a freaking blast.

As an adaptation of the original manga, it's complete bullshit.

With that out of the way, it's a guilty pleasure for me. Since I'm such a geek for monster films, I loved that the titans in this movie were all portrayed with puppets and men in suits. It was like watching a silly Godzilla movie from the 60's, with Eren as a titan jumping in the air and drop-kicking another titan in the face. It's super ridiculous and over-the-top, but it can be really enjoyable if you like that sort of thing.

The story does crawl a bit during the middle, but enough twists are presented to keep you interested. This is not a well-done adaptation. Hell, this isn't really a great story on it's own right. It's a cheesy silly monster movie with barely fleshed out characters.

The music by Shiro Sagisu is also just as a great as he always is. It sounds a little derivative of Evangelion 3.0 at times, but 'Temper The Wind' is easily the best track on the whole album. I'd argue the score is better than the movie.

Oh, how the might hath fallen.

There isn't anything I can say that hasn't been stretched out to a two hour YouTube analysis video, but the state of Star Wars is depressing to say the least, and Disney knows it. The High Republic project they just announced is a direct response to the fans' disdain for this entire sequel trilogy and it's disrespect to the last six films. You have grade-A talent on display, in front and behind the camera, and the result is a two film story squished in to two hours, strung together with some of the most headache inducing pacing I've seen in a major studio film. Ian is wasted as the great Emperor Palpatine, John has no arcs as Finn, Daisy has the same expression she's had in the last two films, stonefaced and Pennywise, and Oscar Isaac wished they killed his character off in the first film so he wouldn't have to do the next two. The only thing I can feel during the final scene at Luke's old home on Tatooine is heartbreak. Hearing John Williams' brilliant last score for the series (and probably just a few years before he dies, he's so old), but coupled with the imagery of Rey taking the spot for herself feels so unearned and lost potential. Had our main lead been written with so much more thought and consistency, it could be a real heart tugger like it's meant to by, but all it does for me is remind me how the series has been ruined in just five short years. It's never explained who made the Sith wayfinders, who made the dagger, why they made the dagger, why they made it the way they did, who are the Knights of Ren, how did Palpatine come back, is he a clone, or is he the original version, how did he have all the resources to make like a thousand Star Destroyers (all with planet killing weapons), who are his faithful followers, what happened to the Republic that was destroyed in The Force Awakens, how did Han come back (was that really a memory or a vision, because it's never revealed Han could have force powers), why can force ghosts interact with the physical world, when did force healing become a thing, why is the Holdo maneuver one in a million, and so on. The film is a complete disaster when it comes to the writing, because it's very evident the film is a collection of twenty or so re-edits all with clashing ideas, in some desperate vein to get fans back on board after the abysmal The Last Jedi. But instead of digging themselves out of the coffin, they put the final nail in.

I had to see it twice to confirm if I was crazy that I enjoyed this conventional safe corporate product. and to see Statham naked again, i ain't gay You all know what this is and what to expect from it. Just look at the poster and the title. The bar for quality has been set right there. But does that make experience inherently not worth bothering with? Would you be satisfied putting your money down for it? I can argue I got my money's worth, even if some of the blood and gore was neutered to reach a PG-13 and Chinese market. A shame uncut and more grotesque scenes were filmed, but will never be completed due to money. Despite it's lack of Piranha 3D ludicrous blood shed, there is a lot of action and spectacle to be had with The Meg. The plot is nothing more inventive than what The Asylum and syfy would greenlit, I've never read the novel, so I can't speak for the consistency. What bolsters the script up from it's depths of potential obscurity, is it's high budget crowd pleasing intuition. Lots of emphasis on quips, something I'm usually against, but luckily are implemented smoothly into each character. Not everyone is a damn comedian, it just feels more natural, only once did I feel the placement of a joke was unneeded. This is like what you'd expect from an old 70's exploitation flick, Statham is like the classic adventure hero; even one scene, he lifts his hat up like Indiana Jones. After a traumatizing incident in which he's forced to leave behind a group of people to save another set, he quits diving and retires to Thailand. But when an ocean trench expedition involving his ex-wife goes wrong, he's persuaded to come back in and help. The first half of the film is like Deep Blue Sea, setting up the locations in characters; it's more of a rescue set-up for the megalodon to come in later. It's not like the story of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla, how Godzilla's origins are deeply intertwined into the narrative. This, you could replace the shark with any deep sea creature, it doesn't matter too much, except for the finale. Once the titular monster comes on screen, the movie officially begins. From there, you get the dumb fun you want, and there's a good amount of it. Want to see the shark swallow a diving cage whole? Sure, why not? Anything you want to see the shark do, it's in here somewhere. It's like Rampage in the sense it understands you just want dumb fun. I can respect a blockbuster that doesn't aim for quality, just looking to give you loads of delicious flavorful eye candy. What makes something like this work over another "dumb fun" blockbuster like Pacific Rim: Uprising, comes down to two things: The Meg isn't a sequel with expectations to be lived up to, and there's a competent story, start to finish. While it's not original, could be to blame that the novel is old, it works enough. The characters make up for any tiny lack of shark presence. If we can get more Asian actors in front of the camera like this, by all means, go for it. I'm just a sucker for the Asian aesthetic, see, this whole movie takes place in China and stars one of the country's biggest stars, so you can see why it's doing so great at the box office. This is how you do a silly summer cheese fest, it's not too over the top, it understands you want to see the shark, it has a classic story behind it, and places emphasis on the leads being at least entertaining to latch onto. Did any of you notice the nod to Jaws at the end? When the Meg sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it makes the same growling sound the blown up shark in Jaws did. Trivial knowledge for the hardcore fans out there.

Hereditary has a lot going for it. Toni Collette steals the Oscar win halfway into the year, Ari Aster writes a well thought out script at the tender age of 31, and A24 gets to keep repackaging the same movie with the same misleading trailer. Many are going at this movie as a resurgence of the horror genre, everyone complaining about the overuse of "cheap" jumpscares in more mainstream filth, but this being an unprecedented achievement? It is not. That doesn't mean it's bad, or even overpraised. I can see why people will fawn all over this. It's a tightly built, marvelously crafted family drama, filled to the brim with emotionally petrifying moments. It's always the worst kind of feeling you get when you can relate to unpleasant scenario in film (or any medium), but hearing and seeing Collette scream got to my head. Not sure what happened to Aster in his short life where he was able to capture a shouting match so accurately, but I feel you, man. I would rather not say much more, because bringing up any details could delude the twist and mystery. Simply put, if you want a more intense version of The Witch, it parallels a lot, right down to some select story beats. However, unlike the historical and somewhat fable feeling of the latter, Hereditary feels very grounded in the real world of today, sometimes to an unnerving extent. There are grotesque moments, but the bits here that stick with you rely on the characters' actions. When Peter Graham is laying down in bed and he's just waiting for his mom to discover the corpse, then hear her blood curdling screams, that's something that will stick with me. Annie pleading to her husband over and over to burn the book is a performance I won't shake off. I've seen this story done before, and better at that. I think my bigger issue with the movie isn't any of the technical stuff, everything presented is visually stunning, I just don't think I was as impressed as I should've been.

Goddamn, this movie has no right to be as boring as it is and also have a budget of 50 million dollars. There's a few nuggets of gold, some good and even great scenes here and there with combination of score and decent cinematography; but overall, I kept checking the time like every 10 minutes. Whenever I watch a movie, and I'm constantly waiting for the movie to just end, or I'm checking the time in boredom, the movie automatically gets a below average rating. The number one goal of any filmmaker should be to keep the audience interested. I was not interested throughout the majority of this. Nothing gripped me. There was no tension. The style just didn't lend itself to this kind of story. I don't know who looked at this final product and decided it would work in appealing to a mainstream audience. It's slothy with poor pacing, mediocre acting, half-decent music, amateurish camera work, and only a couple good scene set-ups. I can now say with full confidence I think Daisy Ridley is a bad actress...

I really don't know what else to say. Just don't bother with it. I'm going to go watch the original by Sidney Lumet now. Should be way more interesting and worthwhile. I need to get into the habit of just walking out of movies I don't like. I've never done it, but I need to start doing it.

Okay, here's a question to my followers. How do I rate a movie that's so shitty, it's enjoyable? Like, I had fun watching this, but I understood it's schlock. Once I get some comments, I'll lower or keep this score.

I never, ever thought I'd be here saying this, but I actually had a little fun watching Geostorm. Yeah, like, no shit. This was more fun than Independence Day: Resurgence and San Andreas, the last two big disaster movies to come out. I think what Dean Devlin understood over the last two attempts was to just have fun with the project. It's like he knew what he was doing was making shit, but said, "Fuck, just go all out with it." The disaster scenes are upped a few notches, they're crazy, loud, extreme, and laughably put together. This movie's all over the place for me. I'm not sure how to feel. Some parts of this movie are just straight-up bad, like not thought out well, yet some other parts I thought were competently done and nicely written, and other parts are so-bad-it's-funny. The movie's everywhere in terms of my enjoyment. I think there's actually some decent writing here and there, leagues above Independence Day: Resurgence, and other parts where the dialogue is laughably bad. I don't know if Devlin did this on purpose, but it's very interesting to say the least. The story is not original at all, it's borrowed heavily from previous disaster movies, even ones not produced by Roland Emmerich, but for some reason, I didn't mind most of the time. Maybe it was the character writing or order of sequences, but I didn't really get annoyed or frustrated with seeing the same plot again. There was some kind of flavor this time around I was actually getting into. It's not great writing, like I've said, but I didn't hate watching it. There's even a couple genuinely humorous moments, that actually landed, which shocked me. But more often than not, the movie serves as a shit fest that's fun. And I love that stuff. If you've followed me for some time, you know I enjoy shit that's fun. And that's what this is. It's popcorn entertainment and that's what Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin do best. Even Godzilla (1998) I didn't hate because it's enjoyable, though I know it's a crappy movie. There's been a couple movies like that this year, that I think are crappy movies, but fun, like The Great Wall and Kong: Skull Island. However, those have at least artistic merit to them, standing as solid movies, even if they're mindless popcorn flicks. We're at an age where it's really hard to rate movies, at least for me. How do you rate something of this nature? And what counts as so-bad-it's-fun and actually good? Kong: Skull Island I think is a well-enough written movie and competently directed movie that gets it well above shit-but-fun-tier, so that's not on the same level as Geostorm, even though both are just popcorn flicks. Geostorm is enjoyable because of it's shitty quality, so I think that's where we need to make the distinction here. This is getting really fucking confusing for me now, but I love this discussion. It just goes to show judging movies are not all about the rating, but the discussion. This is such a weird movie for me. I need to let it sit with me for a little longer, and I might update this post.

This movie gave me a revelation. About movie-making. Both in a good way and a bad way. On one side of the coin, you now have studios like Blumhouse and Rat-Pac making decent competent horror movies that will satisfy audiences, as opposed to the shit that was being churned out for the last few years. But on the other side of the coin, they're not doing anything super unique or original. You always have to have child actors, you have to have the priest, you have to have a demon, you have to have this old secluded house where people move in, and etc. It's not automatically bad or lazy to use these tropes, but only if they're done with a unique style. And the problem is, I've seen a TON of movies lately use these common ingredients. I liked Ouija: Origin of Evil, but again in that, there was a demon possession, a priest, and house with a dark history to it. I get that doing this is safe and people will go to see it, but I'm hoping directors like David F. Sandberg and other people working with Rat-Pac try to move away from these plot threads. I don't know how much longer I can stand studios think they can get away with using this story over and over. That goes for you too Blumhouse.

Sorry, that was something I had to write down, because I started thinking about it a little more towards the end of this movie. In general, I start to know how I'm going to rate a movie when I reach a certain point. And I knew then how I thought of this Annabelle: Creation. It's safe. It works, but it's safe, and I don't know if I like that or not. I'm a huge fan of older horror pieces and B-movie-esque grindhouse, and it's a little sad directors and executives aren't trying to push the envelope.

But with everything out of the way, this on it's own isn't bad. It's pretty good. The child actresses all do a great job with the script they're given and I believed I was watching actual children interact with one another, which is a problem sometimes with kids. Lulu Wilson, who already starred in Ouija: Origin of Evil, gives another solid performance, and I want to see what else she does with the horror genre, if she decides to keep acting in it. I would love to see a The Exorcist-eque movie with her getting possessed. I believe she could pull off a Linda Blair. But in this, she isn't the one who gets taken over by a demon, but still perseveres and gives us a great scared child acting job. Talitha Bateman, who acts opposite Wilson and the two of them are like bonded sisters, she especially delivers an exceptionally dreary and depressing performance. She's crippled with polio and spends most of the movie in a wheelchair or walking with a support. And what I liked about this facet, is that it wasn't a tacked-on sub-plot or sob story; her condition plays into some of the scares. In one scene, she uses the automatic moving chair thing on the staircase to get away from the demon that's coming closer to her. The chair makes it's way down, but stops and malfunctions half-way down. Then the chair starts to go back up, and the demon is waiting for her right at the top and there's nothing she can do about it. If she didn't have the condition, she could've just ran out of the house. But little touches like that can make for a richer story. It's also why the girls are surprised later when she can walk fine, because she's taken over. Another great scene was in the barn with one of the older girls, played by Grace Fulton, when the demon takes over a scarecrow and slowly unscrews the lightbulbs in fixtures to turn off the lights. I don't know why the demon would care about something trivial like light-fixtures, but I guess you could say because the demon is used to being shut-in the darkness, so whatever. It was a nice set-up.

And this re-telling leads me to one of the bigger pros and cons with the movie. Each of these scary sequences are great, well-done little pieces, but as a whole feature, doesn't really flow well. There isn't a lot of super big tension built up or a looming threat that lurks over the picture. In one scene, Wilson is terrified beyond belief as the doll and the demon have made their way into her room and the bed underneath her bunk-bed. But then, the scene ends, she falls asleep, and it's the next day. Next we see her, she's happily playing with the other girls. Are we not going to talk about what just happened there? And that's my only big problem with this. David F. Sandberg started out doing short horror movies and that seems to be his expertise. These are great little scenes, but don't complement one another always in the larger scope of it all. However, the movie does get really good towards the end, when the demon goes all out on the girls. It was nice to see something quite grand and on an ambitious scale. A lot of times with these movies, the finale is just a small group of people trying to get out of a house and there's a couple jumpscares there and here. But Sandberg decides to throw in everything he can. The demon teleports all over the place and gets at the different separated groups of kids. Scarecrow in the barn? Check. Creepy adventures in the basement? Check. Car won't start? Check. Hiding in the doll room? Check. I know all that sounds very cliche, but it's done rather unique, as it's not the same person who experiences all of it.

But I think I've rambled on long enough. It's a little funny seeing how these origin prequel horror movies end up being better than the originals they're based off of. Now people are going to go watch the first Annabelle and remember just how fucking terrible it is. But I am a little worried about the state of horror movies. I liked this, it was good, I had fun watching it, but I want to see more come out of this genre. I don't really want to see the same plot threads being copied over and over. If you just want to see a fun horror movie to share with friends or family, you'll definitely get a kick out of this, I recommend it. However, as massive fan of this genre, I want more.

Literally the greatest film I have ever seen. Marvel can just go the fuck home. They've got nothing on this academy award winning masterpiece. 'Batman v Superman' is going to end up in a hospital after witnessing this absolute blessing onto the world, not like my ex-wife who I thought was a blessing to me...

I thought 'Jaws' and 'King Kong' were my favorite movies of all time, but pfffff, bruh. This is the real classic. Those other two are fucking trash in comparison.

I can't even tell what I was watching, I remember hearing dialogue and a lot of pop songs, but fuck you. I remember listening to 'Paranoid' as I argued with my ex-wife. This movie is funny because I said so. Jared Leto as the joker was a brilliant choice. Who was that fucker, Heath Ledger? No one cares about him, Jared is the REAL choice pick for the joker. All 5 minutes of his screentime made me orgasm, his Hot Topic portrayal would totally appeal to mainstream critics.

Actually, all the characters would appeal to critics. Will Smith totally sells this movie and Jai Courtney is the greatest actor of all time. I used to love Marlon Brando and Robert Shaw, but those two fuckwads don't stand a chance in an audition against Jai Courtney. I loved it when Courtney terribly read dialogue off a prompter with no emotion. Best Actor Award winner right here, folks! I bet my ex-wife would win Best Actress.

I love how cringeworthy every line of dialogue is. This is supposed to be a group of funny characters in the style of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' but this movie actually works. Not like my ex-wife. Batman makes a small appearance here and there, which makes me can't wait to shill hard for the new Batman solo production. I can't wait to see the high score on Rottentomatoes for it. I heard Ben Affleck had to go to rehabilitation for alcohol addiction. Why go to rehab for alcohol addiction? I love beer and I don't have an addiction...

The rest of the characters I don't even know they're names, but they all said some funny dialogue, so that makes them well-developed and likable characters. Harley Quin was super hot, I loved the way her body looked in that outfit, like how my ex-wife's body looks in the bathtub. Crocodile head made me laugh a lot and Boomerang, AKA Jai Courtney, has the most useful super power on the planet. I never realized all you needed to be a super hero was having a boomerang as a weapon.

A true cinematic masterpiece. 'Casablanca' and 'Star Wars' have nothing on this true work of modern art. I wish I could talk more about, but the cops just showed up to the front door, so I gotta go. See y'all later!

Happy April Fools' Day!

"You hear that? That sounds like a bird, but it's not, it's a fucking ant."

I can't get enough of this film.

I love every thing about it. Jordan Vogt-Roberts more than pleasantly surprised me. I will not doubt him in the future.

The set-up, the story, the characters, the set pieces, the direction, the soundtrack, visuals, the colors, the action, just, everything. I don't understand how someone could not love this.

Even though the original 1933 King Kong is still the best film to date, Kong: Skull Island comes close to matching it's brilliance. Many people have to remember that while the 1933 classic was undeniably groundbreaking for it's time and carries a more subdued and personal story of beauty and the beast, the core story of the film is very much basic.

Here's a rundown:

A group of people are brought together for a mission to go to an uncharted island in the south pacific, dubbed Skull Island. They don't know what's there, but decide to head there to finally unravel the mystery behind one of the last unexplored places on Earth. Once they arrive, things go to hell. They meet natives, all sorts of creatures that want to eat them alive, and they encounter a giant destructive ape. The surviving explorers have to survive the horrors of the island and make it off alive in one piece.

Did I just describe King Kong (1933) or Kong: Skull Island (2016)? Eh, they sound similar? Both have different characters, subplots, and completely different tones, but metabolically is the same.

John Goodman is great in any role he's in. His best scene is his monologue towards Sam Jackson's character, Packard. Tom Hiddleston plays a standard mercenary, named James Conrad. He's a badass bar-fighting navigator who's paid to join Monarch's escort mission. Just same the as Goodman, he's great at delivering memorable lines. He reminds me a lot of Indiana Jones. But the emotional core of the film comes from John C. Reilly's character, Marlow. He lands on Skull Island back in World War 2 and is stranded there for over 20 years with a fellow enemy from the war. After the uniforms come off, they practically become brothers. He makes for a good comic relief, but soon takes over the story, as he reveals he has a wife and possible son that he's never met. He's the one you really root for, hoping he makes it off the island alive. I was surprised how deep Packard got as far as a character. He becomes a more tragic villain towards the end, as he slowly grows more and more obsessed with taking down Kong. After witnessing the giant ape take down all of his men, he kind of snaps. He couldn't handle another defeat after Vietnam, or has he says it, "We abandoned the war," and so his sanity was barely hanging on. Very pleasant surprise and Jackson does a great job as always. My favorite line of his is, "Bitch, please!" that he snaps at Brie Larson. Pretty epic shit.

Of course, Kong is just as amazing as ever. They perfected him this time around, the special effects are as good as you can get, on-par with the amazing Peter Jackson version. Before I went into the film, I was worried Kong was just going to become a standard giant monster that you wouldn't be able to relate to or get emotional with, but I was proven dead wrong. When I look at this ape, I see the same Kong I love and grew up with in the 1933 and 2005 versions; he's just a lot bigger here.

Jordon Vogt-Roberts absolutely nails the style of this film. I suppose a lot of the credit could be given to his cinematographer, who also does all the work for Zack Snyder, on films like 300 and Watchmen. But the slow-motion shots of the helicopter blades rotating, sunrise backdrops with Kong in the foreground, and Hideaki Anno style shots are littered all throughout... and it is just glorious. This is one of the most gorgeous films I've ever watched in a theater. The colors just pop out in every shot; every shot is just teaming with detail and beauty. I can't get enough of it. The slow-motion sequence with Tom Hiddleston in the green smoke, the blue and red color contrast in the bar scene, the sunset backdrop with the helicopters flying, the IMAX camera shots of Vietnam mountains, and the final monster battle are all wonderful. I can't list them all, because the entire film is just beautiful. Absolute perfection on a technical level here.

As I said in my previous review, This is the movie Jurassic World wanted to be. It's an epic, funny, loud, explosive, and visually incredible film giving us tons of great character moments and monster action. I absolutely love this.

OLD REVIEW:

The second best Godzilla film ever made, right behind the 1954 original. That's quite an accomplishment, but it's Hideaki Anno, so I mean, what did you expect?

Right now, the film is nominated for an astonishing 11 Japan Academy Prizes. It really is one of the most beautiful films I've seen. It's easily my personal favorite film of 2016, just barely ahead of La La Land.

Anno's signature editing and block direction is all throughout this film. His set-up of shots, for example, with electrical poles and train cars framed horizontally, are just so gorgeous, but there are just too many gorgeous ones to list. Godzilla standing in front of a wall of fire, Godzilla blowing non-stop flames out of his mouth while the city around him just collapses, and the final shot with the humanoid creatures coming out of Godzilla's tail gave me nightmares.

But most importantly, I'd like to mention that the reason I rated so high is that it's not a typical monster film. This is an attack on Japan's government and U.S relations. There are plenty of hysterical scenes in this where the Prime Minister and the rest of the senators have to take literally 5 minutes in board room meetings to approve to start firing at the monster. That, and the requirement later on in asking the U.S military for assistance in taking down the monster.

There's also a lot of allusions to the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan. The original 1954 was based off the 1945 atomic bomb droppings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So now, this film has it's own disaster it's based on. Some shots in the movie are exact references to found footage of the tsunami disaster, and Godzilla himself starts out the movie flooding the canals in Tokyo Bay.

Overall, this film is incredible. It's better than the 2014, but in itself, it's a masterpiece. The music by Shiro Sagisu is like a voice from the heavens, and a plea for forgiveness from God. The song "Who Will Know" is actually told from the perspective of Godzilla, telling us he's not just a monster rampaging Japan, but he's a messenger. He's the voice of all the people killed by the incompetence of the Japanese government, and he's here to let them know that.

I am now giving this film an 8 because of the workprint version. For those that aren't aware, recently, the original version of the film from 2000 was leaked online by a couple documentary filmmakers, creating drama in the community as a result, but finally giving out the long awaited, Allcroft version of the film, at least as of the second edit during the post-production process. I watched a fan edited, new audio mixed version of the cut available on some private torrent sites, and honestly, it fixes the movie. All the issues people have with plot holes, logic gaps, childish humor, conflicting tones, unmotivated villains, and confusing characters, are all completely fixed. The film's story is re-ordered, over 20 minutes of footage is reinstated, thus creating a more cohesive, interesting dramatic narrative that centers around all the human characters, and not just oddly Mr. Conductor and Diesel 10. Grandpa Burnett is fleshed out much more, P.T. Boomer is all back in the picture, fixing the villain problem, Lily has a little more to do, and the chemistry all around benefits from the shared conflict of stopping Boomer from destroying the island. The tone is much more mature, but still kid friendly. After seeing this, there's no reason this shouldn't have been released. Little kids would've been bored for sure, but older children and adults would've loved it. It just feels weird being able to write these words after all these years, waiting for something to come out about this production, and now it's here. If you can find a copy, I highly recommend it. You all will love it.

Wow, this latest Jennifer Lawrence "movie" is a lifeless slog, complete with horrible, uninteresting leads, unrecognizable bland locations, improper direction, lack of an emotional connection, and feels like only an edgy teenager would consider "artsy" because it's slow and quiet. Who the hell made this?

looks up the director's filmography

Oh, that explains a lot.

I know I keep giving mainstream movies a hard time. We're living in an age where blockbusters, like Black Panther, are superficial and lazy committee projects used to sell products to the general public. But then on the other hand, you got this stuff like Red Sparrow that just turns off said masses from the more original and creative small projects. I know this isn't a small movie, but it's an original movie not tied to some cinematic universe. The issue is, this movie's a piece of shit. It's the dilemma Downsizing and It Comes At Night had with audiences: being lousy "art" movies that are miss-marketed to a mainstream demographic. Doing this shit is only driving people back to the "safe" movies made by Disney. When people are dropping over $10 on a ticket, your film better match up to that selling price. There's a reason Black Panther is winning the box office right now, because people would rather trust a certified movie like that, than take a risk with a shit movie like this. I guess my incoherent rambling just boils down to... stop making bad movies? I don't know, my mind is spinning right now. Black Panther is undeniably a more coherent and gratifying experience, so they got me there, but at the same time, it's barely above this. Quality control has definitely been abolished, I will say that. These studios view something like Red Sparrow as the answer to the pleading call from losers like me, for more original projects. So, they don't care what it is or how good, just that it's the answer. We're already on the road where the only profitable movies will be the spectacle Disney movies, full of action and product placement. They infect all the months around them, so none of the smaller movies stand any chance. Only the few meme movies that Reddit and the Oscars pick up stand a chance at making an impact. Why else does Chris Hemsworth keep choosing to play Thor instead of doing other movies? Because they don't make as much money, and most of them aren't good movies either. Maybe cinema has always been like this, a handful of movies each year are worthwhile and the rest just aren't.

A gripping, underrated horror film that relies on it's characters and old fashioned cinematography to step up it's game. Leonetti coming up being the camera operator for many old and new classic horror films like Poltergeist and The Conjuring, uses simple direction to his advantage. I miss horror using laidback tricks and basic blocking to deliver the scares, all too many now rely on stylish or even action choreography to create it's jumps, but Annabelle opts for looks that reminisce 70's and 80's horror, fitting for the story's time period. No offense to James Wan, but this is the best looking (and sounding) out of the Conjuring series. The leads and film's social commentary though are what really strike with me. Many fail to understand the point of the Annabelle trilogy, being it's all a story of the destruction of the family bond and even the nuclear family image. Repeatedly at the start of the film, it's made clear that times have changed, it's not okay to keep your doors unlocked anymore, and the innocence of the American family has been destroyed. The nail in the coffin is their attack by the occult members and a fire damaging the house, prompting the couple to leave it behind and have their newborn baby in an apartment. All a great metaphor for the changing times. The importance of religion to the story can not be understated, that every action has it's roots deep in biblical and satanic text, the film is built around the idea of the corruption of innocence, the separation of a mother from her child, and the sacrifice to save a life, even if it's resolution is twisted. God honors sacrifice, and our sacrifices touch God's heart, and move his hand. Something simple as the demon waiting for Mia at the end of a staircase, shrouded in black is an unforgettable image. I love the bevy of details like Mia trapped on the basement floor of her apartment, but the elevator won't go back up. She hits the floor 6 button 3 times, by which point, the demonic activity rapidly increases and she's forced to ascend the staircase herself. As Mia had stated earlier in the film to Father Perez, there are some things we have to do ourselves.

Women deserve better films than this, don't give them this. We're not helping women, whatever the hell that means, by giving them the most basic, bare bones, modern, disgusting trite nonsense this is. There's an eyerolling "girl power" montage right before the main titles appear. For no reason. It's not a commercial on television, it's not an advertisement, it's just a random clip show of girls doing stuff. It's just gross. There's no point to it other than flaunt, "Aren't I doing the female sex a positive by saying how good it is to have a vagina?!" All of the male characters are very comically sexist, white, and troublesome, outside of Patrick Stewart of course. The action is tired, a lot of it borrowed from stuff like Now You See Me and Mission Impossible, except much more obnoxious, thanks to Banks needlessly making all of our three new leads as insufferable as possible. Stewart especially I've never hated this much, not even back in the Twilight days. None of her jokes make any sense, she babbles every line, and she does it every time she opens her mouth. I was able to endure fifty minutes or so before realizing I didn't even know any of their names or what was going on because the film's priorities lie in all the wrong places, establishing the organization and the villain rather than our leads. There's even a humorous piece during the first major car chase where one of them asks, "Who is that? Why is he shooting at us?" And I was like, "I'm asking the same thing!" The first line in the film is, "I think women can do anything." Is this really a debate we're still trying to have and the media trying to push on to the general American public? Women in the west are the most freed and supported than at any other point in human history. How fucking ironic that this film that wants to act as a female power move is funded in part by China, a place that has internment camps for Muslims; they show happy Muslims in the film in that opening montage. Hey Banks, why don't you use some of your money you had to make this movie and go help out those people instead of sucking more Hollywood dick to get to make the Invisible Woman film you're now directing? I guess virtue signalling is more important. I only get heated about this because how hypocritical the people who are making this film are being. Glad this shit bombed.

As a lifelong SpongeBob admirer, since I was little, this film feels like the proper jumping off point for most longtime fans. It's the last thing Tim Hill, one of the original creators, will be involved with on the series, and it's the last SpongeBob piece of media that was in production while Stephen Hillenburg was still alive. The in memoriam at the end was a tasteful farewell. But the biggest issues plaguing the film are it's retreads of the 2004 original and it's constant retconning of SpongeBob lore. I know many casual viewers and especially parents will not care at all about any of the changes, but all you have to do is watch season 1 of the show to see how inconsistent and mandated the inclusions are. SpongeBob met Sandy as an adult, same with Squidward, same with Mr. Krabs. And SpongeBob knew Patrick since birth. The Nickelodean enforced 'Camp Coral' spin-off advertisement flashbacks were irritating and ruined what could've been otherwise extremely heartfelt speeches by SpongeBob's friends. I can see I'm not the only one voicing those complaints, so it's upsetting Nick forced them in, especially when Hillenburg was very openly against spin-offs or side shows of the characters. Putting that aside, the animation is gorgeous, rivaling The Peanuts Movie in presentation, and love and care in to the environments. Plenty of easter eggs are afoot, the Patty wagon makes a return, and so much more. It's a feast for the eyes above anything else. There are funny bits, Danny Trejo shows up for a few minutes as the ruler of these ghostly zombie pirates, called El Diablo. Keanu Reeves plays a pretty major character called Sage, a tumbleweed who acts as a voice of guidance, pretty much the Mindy of this film. Snoop Dogg has a short musical number, and Take On Me plays as the film closes. It banks on celebrity appearances and the occasional song reference, but the banter between SpongeBob and Patrick is what keeps it afloat. I think what disappointed me was it never tugged at my heart strings like the original did. There's no similar scene where the duo sing "I'm A Goofy Goober" with their last breath as they're dying. There are glimpses for sure, but never reach that peak. The majority of the runtime is a clone of 'Beavis and Butthead Do America' fused with 'Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.' I recommend only watching if you are in the same demographic as me. An adult who grew up with the series and wants to see one final film to close the curtain. Because I'm done with the series now that Hillenburg is gone and I'm sure that's exactly what he would've wanted.

All the people talking about race and whatever bullshit with Peele's films kind of sour me on the projects. It's reminding me of Hideaki Anno and the collective analysis that happened with Evangelion. People trying to find this grandeur meaning behind the imagery used in the film, when the mundane reality could just be Peele is making more cliché horror, albeit with a more careful and artistic lens. Everyone labeled Get Out as this masterpiece of screenwriting that's a commentary on whites using blacks for their own gain, and that's not to say those themes aren't present, that doesn't mean it makes the film's formulaic storytelling a step above or revolutionary, or dare I say it, "brave." Peele's previous felt very much like a typical Blumhouse horror movie, but because some notes about his views of race where used as a piece of the storytelling, the critical circles lavished it with, in my opinion, unwarranted praise. It was a standard family horror fair, if you've ever watched horror, you can pick out the set pieces and notes from a mile away, I know I did, but oh, now critics will pay attention to horror because it has some undertone "messages" about race relations. Just because you have those themes does not automatically elevate your film above others, and that's the sad narrative surrounding Peele's otherwise decent movies.

I've enjoyed both of his films so far, and Us I actually enjoyed even more. It's a neat little film that has much more in the way of set ups and pay offs. This is a better constructed screenplay. Every beat and cue comes back to finish off it's arc with amusing grandiose. The hands across America commercial, use of handcuffs, the flare gun line (which comes back in the form of a weapon), and little pieces in the dialogue like, "Doesn't anyone care about the apocalypse?" there's quite a jam packed screenplay in the first and third act. I think it's the second act things get a little too padded out. It's entertaining with some almost hilarious displays, like the neighbor (on her last breath) telling the device to call the police, but it turns on Fuck the police the song instead. There's a surprising amount of humor in here, some working better than others. The family is likable enough, but isn't developed much outside their ambiguous goals, like the daughter conveniently was on the track team, and she's the one who's told to run. The characters serve the plot for the majority of the run time, it's not about them, it's what happens to them and their clones. If you just want action, there's lots of it in the second part, like I was saying, it just gets too long with seemingly not much purpose, upon which is gets exhausting. The third act comes around to finish off the story (and show off the facility underground I called) that was set up and kind of forgotten about, in a nice little bow that's not as clever as any of Shyamalam's twists, but at least brings everything full circle. Maybe everything was a little too predictable. My family guessed the mother was actually switched around in the Merlin's Forest like a half hour before it was revealed. I think this is a case of a script, and I know, who am I to judge Peele, but everything was in place here, I just wanted more a reason to care. I don't really know anything about this family or why I should care about them. The mother is coming to terms with her fear and really, the fact she stole her way in to what she wanted, so there's some nice conflict there. The daughter is mostly a reclusive young girl that sticks to her headphones, the boy likes to wear masks and is also a bit reclusive and weird, and the dad is... well, dad. I enjoyed it enough, but nothing that sets much apart from other things like it. Just some nice camera work (the telephoto shot of the clone boy walking backward in to the fire was a real treat) and editing that kept me engaged. Probably won't rewatch it soon.

initial impressions incoming

Just like the characters in the film repeatedly like to chant in gleeful unison: Everything is not awesome. Coming from someone who had a deep admiration for the first film way back five years ago, because of it's inventive storytelling, quotable dialogue, and surprisingly lovable brick characters, I was given the impression the follow up would match or come close to capturing that lightning in a bottle the first had. However, about fifty minutes in, I realized this film straight up barred in to awful realms. This film is now proof that having an inventive style doesn't mean anything if not for the characters. Oh sure, the presentation here is top notch, as is expected from Phil Lord and Chris Miller's other work, I'm looking at you Spider-Verse, but unless you can enrich my experience with some amazing action to fill that void, or characters that I can at least follow through the dreck, there won't be anything to chew on. The Lego Movie 2 suffers from extreme sequelitis, much in the same vein as Incredibles 2, where in order for a sequel to justify it's existence, characters have to take steps back in their development, arcs have to be completely disregarded that way the sequel can essentially remake it's predecessor to keep that tone and flavor audiences liked about the previous installment. This has only worked a handful of times on some films I find guilty pleasures, but rarely does this tactic pay off. It comes off like you're watching a shittier version of something you liked. Trust me, they try to redo that ingenious human connection that the first's twist gave us, but it's almost overdone to an annoying extent and doesn't have any of the impact the first had, where the LEGO story was revealed as one big parallel to the boy's real life relationship with his father. Doing that again, offers nothing new. Now that little kid has to overcome his sibling rivalry with his sister, as the two bicker over who should have control over the lego's, and at a few moments, you feel like it'll work, but just comes across stale and almost like a television continuation. This doesn't have the grand, epic scope of the first, instead opting for something more personal, that oddly, doesn't explore the characters it's attempting to deconstruct. It acts as a self reflection of Emmett and his relationship with himself, and in turn, affects his interactions with his sister. Something much more ambitious could've been done here, but it feels like half a script is missing and a ton of filler is thrown in instead, like the cringe inducing musical numbers. I wouldn't recommend checking this out, which is a shame, and my expectations weren't high.

This movie suffers from a little problem. It doesn't know if it wants to go balls to the wall horror with the violence and show graphic imagery, or be tame enough so those just getting into horror can be comfortable. I would say it goes for the Carpenter angle and tries to play a mystique towards it's killer. Hell Fest's greatest claim to it's name is it's location. You'd think because it's just a shitty little movie, the sets and costuming would be lame, but it's the opposite. This place almost puts Halloween Horror Nights to shame. It's so elaborate and unrealistically over the top, there are definitely some park regulation violations. The costumes are so grotesque; dripping liquid and touching visitors as they walk down the paths. I find it hard to believe this is a traveling amusement park, some of the rides are built into like the wooden bridges of the park. I don't see how they could pack all this stuff up. But if the nitpick part of your brain can ignore the limitations of reality, it's beautiful to look at. The park is beaming with lights, decorations, stage shows, and set pieces. It's probably the most detailed amusement park I've seen on film. The movie's other greatest claim to fame is it's clever idea, sticking an actual killer into this horror themed park. You'd never know who was the guy because he blends into all the scenery and actors. The mask he wears is even a park issued prop for the actors. He can just walk up and kill someone and no one would know it's for real, or even creepier, the guests would laugh it off. There's some real great shit going on with this premise and they take advantage of it multiple times. On this stage, the main character's ditzy friend is participating in a sacrificing act where she'll be put in a guillotine, but it's revealed the guy performing it is the killer that's been stalking them all night. The way the scene slows down as the lead tries to warn the guards about what's about to happen, it actually puts you on edge. You wonder will the man kill her right on stage in front of the audience, or fool the lead as part of the act. It's a great moment. The biggest issue I have with the movie comes down to parts of it's script. There are too many scenes where the killer stalks them like in the bathroom or the back alleys of the park, away from the crowds of guests. They fell into the trap of doing the "character isolated from the group" dreck. The whole gimmick is the guy can kill anyone in plain sight, and they only do it a few times. Killing the lead's boyfriend in the employee locker room sucks. Why couldn't he do it right in her face and make it seem like part of a performance? And, aside from our head girl and her surprisingly likable boyfriend, the rest of the friends are just eccentric party goers, but luckily, the way scenes are paced still makes you care who's going to die, which I can happily say about this over many other generic slashers. The only other obvious glaring issue is the last half hour, which is an overly long chase through a couple of the haunted houses. It's a fun sequence for like five minutes, but then well overstays it's welcome. If someone could just edit it down, and then put in some alternate scenes with more murders in plain sight of the crowds of visitors, this could easily be one of my favorites of the year. But as now, it's just a fun little time.

It's odd, I write longer reviews for movies I don't like, but rarely for ones I love. I guess it's hard for me to express the feelings I get from watching a truly great work of art without sounding like I'm full of myself. Night is Short, Walk on Girl came out early last year, but I just caught it for the GKids fathom events in the theatre. Seeing Masaaki Yuasa's mug on screen for the after credits interview is an image I'll never forget. This Science Saru masterpiece deals with a lot of themes; the ever increasing passage of time that seems to go faster as you age, the dangers but also carefree excitement of adult life, love at first sight, etc. It's one of the craziest, but also extremely heartfelt journeys that I think a lot of us have felt in our lives at least once. Going back to American Graffiti or even Ferris Bueller, doing everything you see in sight to take advantage of the moment, because you have to leave and grow up. It's that crazy prom night you look back on with fond memories, remembering all the stuff you did, wanting to recapture that magic. Yuasa's fluid style really lends itself to this fast paced narrative, moreso than Lu Over The Wall, and the use of physical renderings to emulate emotions, like a court room scene symbolizing a conflict of emotions that's happening in a head, and flowers blooming from the stomach to capture that bubbly feeling you can get from drinking. It's hard to pick on scene I love the most, it's all so memorable, like one night, the entire journey is the best moment. The girl with black hair, mirroring her counterpart from The Tatami Galaxy, is just on a quest to become an adult, so she goes across town to different bars just drinking and meeting all these odd assortment of people. Each of them have their own strange romantic stories they're still a part in, and little does the girl know, she's in one too. The first three fourths of the movie is just a wild, crazy, silly extravaganza across the city, but the last half hour takes a more restrained tone as the girl starts to visit people who have gotten colds, laying in their beds, each of who's story has found some kind of end. Seeing the girl mature throughout the story is one of the greatest experiences I've seen on screen, and it's surprisingly funny too. If you're in the mood for just some crazy animation, but a story with all of life in it, you may want to pop it up, by chance.