There’s a real shortage of good horror films recently, and although this isn’t phenomenal, it’s still a reasonable watch.
I liked because it’s not your normal overly repetitive storyline; you know, the house a family moves in to and is haunted etc...yawn.
Although this isn’t phenomenal, it’s got a different tale. It’s well done with a good cast. A bit slow, not really scary, but overall I enjoyed it.
I was cringing at the antagonist’s dumb mistakes like I would the protagonists in a horror movie.
Movie took itself way too seriously to have such a generic motivation for henry cavil. First half of the movie was fine. IMO first half should've had more henry, and there should’ve been more focus on the fights rather than the chases. but the second half was so predictable and boring, really just took me outta the movie.
This movie is trash, and they should stop making this series.
it's actually quite interesting, but also repetitive about the same statue story
It was like watch E.T and The Goonies at the same time, but with the knowledge we have nowadays.
I really enjoyed it and Michael Giachinno was wonderful as always.
J.J Abrams abusing of lens flare, as expected, but it wasn't a bad thing most of the time.
John Krasinski has proven to have a decent level of craftsmanship behind the camera but this movie proves that he should be kept away from screenwriting.
I’m really surprised at a lot of the positive reviews because the plotting and beats in this movie are super dumb. There is a small hint at the level we are working at when we are with Krasinski on “Day 1” where we get a small peek at life before the aliens came and they make a choice to drop in an Easter egg reference to the toy spaceship that gets his child killed from the first one. It’s a seemingly innocuous little call back, foreshadow, wink, knudge, whatever, but it is a perfect example of the types of choices made in this movie. I mean not to ruin anything but essentially an alien pilots a boat in this film. Overall it just bugged me.
Like most PG-13 offerings, Searching is just emmental: full of holes, cheesy and too much will make you queasy. And it's not really gouda.
The movie's not a total waste, however. The found footage aspect (the film is entirely presented through screen activity on mobile phones, laptops, desktops...) is well done and the actors often hit their marks.
The film's major drawbacks, however, are the ending, which we know as soon as we see the film's MPAA rating (no matter how clever they think they are at trying to convince us otherwise) and the WTFs, like the police don't check a missing teen's text messages and no one has ever heard of catfishing .
Hey, if the film isn't going to give me any credit, I'm certainly not above doing the same.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
I'm old enough to remember the original Hellraiser (1987). That was a true horror film. There were horrible people, doing horrible things. It left you feeling really quite disturbed about the worst aspects of human nature.
The follow-up Hellraiser 2 (1988) managed to recapture a small part of that. But after that it was downhill fast. The sequels were nothing but parodies.
Well, for some reason, Hulu decided to remake it.
Shamefully, the film fails on nearly every level. It's not well written (terrible dialogue) and poorly acted. There's little horror and you simply do not care about anyone or anything happening in it. It doesn't give you a reason to care either. The Cenobites are not scary, or grotesque looking... they just look like cheap make-up and some bad CGI.
Like the later Hellraiser films It has more in common with trashy slasher flicks than anything else. Poorly done ones at that.
As is common today they gender-switched the main role. Did it add anything? Nope. In fact, I keep hearing about what a good performance Jamie Clayton was as The Priest. I don't know what they were watching. There isn't a performance, it's literally all make up and some lines read out flat. Look at the originals: Pinhead's character is all about small, slow movements and looming dread. He's literally an overwhelming threat and you are the prey. Not in this one though.
Or look at the secondary villain. In the original it's Uncle Frank, who is an awful person who fully deserves his fate. Even in the end as he's pulled apart by the Cenobites... he's drawn to it, and much as he tried to run he still wants what the Cenobites offer. In this new version... there's none of that same grimy, disturbing look into subcultures. It's all clean, boring and badly acted.
Watch Hellraiser (1987) and Hellraiser 2 (1988) and stop there. They did it better on much smaller budgets.
Not great, not bad; I despise the decision to erase Nazi symbols in the name of political correctness. Surprisingly, Hitler isn't referred to as Hydra... this PC stuff is actually dumb because their usage is fair under the context, its omission not only does a disservice to historical authenticity, but it also breaks some of the immersion - obviously that the movie isn't a "true story", but neither is Indiana Jones. I'm not really sure why though, but for whatever reason I found the movie less compelling than it potentially could have been. A good watch nonetheless.
I have to agree with MajorMercyFLush and stryjewski. This movie is a snorefest. The amount of acclaim it recievs saddens me when shallow drivel like this is going to be held as a blueprint of successful filmaking.
It's nothing more than a set of video game like sequences sans the interactivity that makes video games appealing. So you can't interact with it, and the plot is for the lowest common denominator. Where does that leave it in my books? In the trash.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Halloween Ends’:
You’re tasked with creating a franchise-ending chapter of a legendary horror series with the iconic star/character that started it all, and this is what you put together? A “final” Halloween film that’s barely about Michael Myers. GTFO. Missed opportunities GALORE.
The relationship with Laurie and her granddaughter starts out healthy and promising. A nice setup for chaos to ensue. Two seconds later, Allyson is ready to ditch her family for a random dude. So many out-of-character moments that made zero sense.
This wasn’t the film to introduce (and focus on!) a character like Corey. Maybe mid-franchise this could have been done to mix things up a bit. Friday the 13th kinda sorta did that, where the killer wasn’t always Jason. But NOT this time, not when you’re touting a final face-off between Michael and his Final Girl. You’re setting your fans up for disappointment.
Bonus Thought: I’m officially pretending that this new trilogy never existed, back to when Laurie Strode was Michael’s sister and everything made sense.
I went to a preview screening for this movie.
For the positives:
- there are some really good scores in this movie
- the title card flashes up in japanese which is a nice tribute
- the practical effects look amazing
- the casting is really good - at times the mother looks like she's on the verge of a mental breakdown
- some of the dialogue is really touching and heartbreaking
- strongly developed small-town cop feels
- some of the characters have really good backstories
- grief is a strong theme in this movie
But the negative...oh goodness. The idea of the curse...basically a police officer takes the curse back with her from Japan and it infects her house. Despite this being a movie with several main character police officers, there is no investigation. They do not actually investigate the curse at all, because a previous character did all of it before. You dont get to see any of the discovery, you dont even get to see anything in Japan.
This movie is not scary. You don't see any chasing or stalking, you don't see any deaths until the end of the movie. It is all jump scare/fade to black. The CGI does not look good. The cadavers spewing flies look very fake. The blood splatter scene where the mother stabs herself in the neck looks very fake. The blood particularly looks almost pixelated on the stained glass window. I just can't understand that there are no real chase /stalking or fighting the bad monster scenes. It feels like a tribute to The Grudge in that they couldn't show the monster because they couldn't afford it in the budget. The Grudge aspect in this film is more like vengeful spirit possession, less tied to the idea of a monster personifying a grudge brought on my death.
The tonal shifts are really confusing as is the direction the movie goes in. It feels like the director wanted to make a well-shot western film or something like There Will Be Blood, but only got a horror movie instead. Some character and story elements are really underused. The main character has a son but he's in like 10% of the movie. They have a dog but it isn't even in more than 3 scenes?
Overall I'm just really disappointed since I thought it started pretty strong.
My tolerance for SJW propaganda has been reached. Can we just get back to the entertainment where everyone can be an asshole and not just the "white male". What are we trying to achieve here? The exact reverse? An eye for an eye? Two balls on the wall?
If it weren't for being everywhere these days I might have found this episode "amusing" but alas... Decades from now, unless it all goes to shit, this age will be debated and people will have scientific essays about how a whole generation became so self-loathing they almost destroyed everything just for the sake of... Well I don't know what the point of all this is really.
Definitely had high hopes for this movie, was expecting something twisted and over the top, and what it turned out to be was a standard war movie with some extra gore and some monsters.
Way too much time spent on getting us to know the characters, and too little on action.
You're better off watching a real WW2 movie or a straight up zombie movie instead of this half-baked mix of them.
What a disappointing end to the Halloween reboot trilogy. Halloween Kills was so unbelievably good that I was excited to see what's next, it turns out that this film is vastly different. I'm aware that the filmmakers wanted to try different approach with this final entry but I wasn't expecting this messy. It's more of a drama, villain origin story, dark romance with some slashing. Definitely not an easy task to pull this off, but you can clearly see the struggle. The focus shifts on this new kid's descent into darkness which largely feels underdeveloped and hollow, with some super corny romance thrown in, cornier than people chanting 'evil dies tonight'. I find it super weird and get so frustrated because of how the kid got the main focus when this film is supposed to finish Laurie and Michael story which started a long time ago. Also, the romance part feels forced, downright cringy and unnecessary. Like seriously, who thought that it was a good idea?! The slashing is brutal and fun, at least, although you won't see the incredibly menacing Michael Myers like in the previous film. It honestly makes me appreciate Halloween Kills more since that one is the most 'slasher' out of 3.
Knives Out disappointed me, it’s cliched and not as clever as those it pays homage to. 2019 is really the wave of “woke” American movies that think they're way more clever than they actually are.
Every character is an exaggerated stereotype of some sort, shallow caricatures. The good senior millionaire – see he isn’t bad like the rest of his family! Except, who do you think raised this family? The well-intentioned “black” cop and dumb “white” detective. The members of the family are obviously meant to be parodies of stereotypes, but they’re either too on the nose or too underdeveloped, and just end up becoming the stereotypes they’re parodying.
But the impossibly kind messiah born to an illegal immigrant bothered me the most - Marta Cabrera has exactly two expressions throughout the whole movie, such an anti-feminist character, no agency whatsoever. She is the modern Mother Teresa – the best nurse, has to always tell the truth, and needs to save the woman blaming her for murder. It’s her story but she is so passive, and solves nothing. Her only defining character traits are that she’s an immigrant and has a kind heart. By the time Marta is referred to as good for the 20th time, they’ve ensured she feels less like a person and more like a symbol for The Perfect Immigrant.
I wish more was done with the big name actors. Daniel Craig (along with Ana de Armas) got the most screentime but his performance of attempted humor didn’t translate, and his fake Southern accent was really irritating. I get that it was exaggerated, but his acting sucked. A bad casting choice, he just doesn’t fit the character.
I felt like the story was building to something more than it actually was the entire time. The mystery felt like a backdrop for Rian Johnson to vent off his own political frustrations. You can tell he is way too online. Expect to hear things like, “How's your SJW degree coming?”, “Alt right troll”, or “Liberal snowflake”. This clunky use of buzzwords doesn't add anything to the characters or the story. These are manufactured quirks that try to disguise underdeveloped characters as developed. They don't even qualify as satire, because satire needs actual insight and depth to it, some sort of critique. The movie doesn't make any real points about class or privilege. Rian Johnson needs to learn few things about subtlety while bringing his ideologies in movie. And whoever has to clean his house should be given all his wealth I guess.
Overall, it's an 'immigrants vs. the rich people' movie and you can guess where it goes from the beginning because well, it's Hollywood.
It was obviously a product: "Hey Dad! I wanna play in a movie too! Can I, Daddy? Pleaeaeaeasse?"
Seriously, this movie was offensive towards the original. You suck, Will Smith, for presenting this movie to the youth of today and ruining youth sentiments for me, and many others.
This is atrocious. How this has the Halloween name on it is beyond me. Why are these 30 years olds acting like edgy, emo 15 year olds in an MCR music video? Why is Allyson so willing to go along with all this, and why is she so stupid compared to how she has acted in previous movies? Why does it feel like no one gives a shit and wants nothing to do with this production of this beloved franchise? The root message here about evil being born or created is an interesting one, but the implementation is some of the most amateur, hamfisted dialogue and storytelling I've ever seen, especially in a high profile franchise film like Halloween.
I was one of the few people that gave Halloween Kills the benefit of the doubt. I enjoyed it's metaphor-lead plot about mob mentality and the instigators being no better than the original perpetrator; but I felt it had middle movie syndrome that comes with being a planned trilogy. It couldn't push far enough because the finale still needs to be made so it just has to awkwardly tread water. Comparatively now to Ends, it appears they were just stalling for time. They had nothing left in the tank and were simply delaying the inevitable for this creatively bankrupt franchise.
Does that mean there is nothing of merit here? Not quite. The intro babysitting scene is very good and really sets your expectations far too high for the rest of the movie, and the compilation of kills throughout the last half of the movie are still decent enough for pure slasher fans. There is equally enough throwback visuals and easter eggs that will either be fun or annoying dependant on your tolerance for nostalgia bait and audience winks.
I'm just glad it's finally over, which I guess is the worst thing to say about a revival trilogy of a beloved franchise. Almost poetically, Mike Myers met his end just like this franchise. Slowly being chopped, cut and impaled until it didn't represent itself anymore, bleeding out slowly before being dramatically crushed before our eyes.
The "movie" sucks, that's a fact. I cant understand why they use Green screen everywhere. And a really bad one. And the colour of the movie, i cant even
Terrible.
Update to my original 2021 review with new 2022 content. Will Smith's slap was more thrilling than this movie!
I've watched a lot of horror, I've watched my fair share of good and bad horror. Its been a long time since a movie has genuinely angered me, the characters were just awful people and I couldn't muster any sympathy whatsoever for any of them (maybe Michelle). But if you take away the terrible characters the movie itself was pretty mediocre, nothing new or inventive and pretty snail pace until the final 20/30 minutes. The ending credits were quite cool though although it says a lot when the rolling credits was the part that stuck out the most.
I've read a lot of Stephen King but I don't remember this story, which would make sense because this isn't good. The field of grass is cool and the whole evil rock thing is fine. But I'm totally baffled why rock-toucher Ross (Patrick Wilson) turns into an insane killer yet the other rock-toucher, Travis (Harrison Gilbertson), helps girlfriend Becky and little boy Tobin leave the tall grass. Maybe the rock has an adverse effect on realtors but rockers aren't affected as much. Eh...whatever.
The time line confused me and try as I might, I could not figure out when Becky, Cal, Ross, Tobin, or Travis were coming or going. I thought about that time line for a good while but to this point, I have no idea who arrived before who, who showed up after who. Eh...whatever. There was also something significant about the church, I suppose. I just haven't the slightest idea what it might have been. I'm going to just go ahead and assume that I wasn't paying attention and not blame Netflix for creating another crappy movie.
Watch as though a child and don't let the more annoying performances, lackluster script, and none-too-subtle social justice statements laced throughout get to you and you'll be fine. I'm not going to lie - this movie has some serious issues, but if you can reign in your expectations and just enjoy it for the visual majesty it is (and on the big screen in 3D), then you got a shot enjoying yourself.
Far superior to the previous film, it's unfortunately let down by the nature of being a prequel; we know where the pieces are all going to end up which takes away much of the tension.
