This is the first John Wick I was able to see in theatres and it was a great experience. The audience collectively would gasp and cheer at some of the intense fight sequences. Most notably the knife fight towards the beginning. This sequence was an expertly crafted scene in which characters are smashing glass cabinets to retrieve weapons and desperately throw them at each other. It was a more unique aspect to an action sequence than your typical point and shoot, which is becoming more or less tedious as the series goes on.

I made the mistake of watching John Wick right before I saw John Wick 2, I think that hurt my appreciation of the sequel a little. It felt a tad redundant and I preferred the original whereas everyone else I talk to loves the sequel. So I made a conscious effort to not watch either films before seeing this one. Even so, at the point Halle Berry shows up, the sequences were becoming a tad bland. Sure, they still look cool and there were some new elements involving dogs, but more or less I was watching a video game. Halle Berry's character feels forced into this series, maybe as a backdoor spin-off attempt for the female aspect. Not sure, but that's how it felt because she shows up and disappears just as quickly.

We are shown more of this unique world these characters inhabit and as the layers are peeled away, the more we understand. I don't know how much money these people have, but it seems to be endless. We get a sequence where John meets someone important in the middle of the desert. A Saudi prince type character, covered in gold and asking for John's "devotion". What happens next was somewhat shocking, but ultimately pointless. John decision doesn't affect how he operates later on, when one would think it might. It's almost as if nothing happened at all, which is a little disappointing. It would be interesting to see John be forced to change up how he does things because of a disadvantage.

I might be nitpicking and this review may seem more negative than the rating suggests. The movie was great. It's everything fans want from this series. It does feel a little bit video game like, as John goes through one bad guy to the next in order to get to the final "boss", but everything this film does, it does it very well. I've always been a fan of Reeves and it's nice to see him have a bit of a resurgence right now. John Wick might be his most famous character too, that's saying a lot from the guy who played Neo and Ted.

The biggest debate for me about this movie is regarding Dom's decision to go rogue. I'm trying to figure out the timeline for the baby and then I'm trying to figure out what Dom saw on the phone. He's willing to go through all this just for her? I ask this because he is surprised to see that he has a son. I would understand him doing this for his son, but not really just for her.

F8 wants you to ignore that past and embrace the future. Statham killed Han, but everything is good by the end of this film. Does this series have a confusing sense of good guys and bad guys? Is Theron going to be on their side in the next film? Maybe "familia" isn't as important to them as they claim. The film ends with a BBQ and Dom introducing his son to his "familia"...but where is Brian and his sister? Yes, I get it, Paul Walker is no longer with us, but for the sake of the story here it doesn't make sense. They don't want to include him in the dangerous missions because he has a family now. Okay, that makes sense, but what about random BBQ's? Brian is still alive in this world so naming his son after him is a little random too. Why not Paul? I thin that would have made it a bit more sentimental.

I forgot to mention how Kurt Russell is in these films now. He does nothing but looks good in a suit and makes quips. Im fine with that, I can always use more Kurt Russell in my movies. Helen Mirren makes a small cameo as well. Have they decided to up the "classy" factor here and have two Oscar winners in this series?

The writer's room was probably them brainstorming how to up the ante and someone yelled out "They out race a submarine!!!" Then they decided to try and write a script around that one basic idea. Cue Tyrese yelling more one-liners, Ludacris being more tech-savy and The Rock being more muscular. F8 does more of the same as the other films, but maybe the magic is wearing thin a little bit? It's still one of the better entries and I eagerly await the film where they drive in outer space.

This is the type of movie I would have rushed to see when I was in high school. I went to check it out with a friend of mine that I haven't seen a movie with in years. We always saw films together but the last one we saw was Now You See Me. So Brightburn came up and it had a high school nostalgia feel to it so we checked it out. Despite it hitting the marks that were expected, there is nothing really present here in the film to grab the viewer and be memorable.

Take the story of Superman and add a horror spin to it. Instead of being a hero for the people, he has an internal sense to destroy. Interesting take on a "classic" origin story. Unfortunately the filmmakers don't go far enough with it to truly make the horror aspect stick. There are a few scenes of gore that park some creativity, but not enough in my opinion.

Elizabeth Banks plays the mother, someone who will love her "son" undyingly. No matter what happens, he is her son. One would think that she would go to some extreme lengths to protect him, possibly a Rosemary's Baby type ending, but we don't get that. Fine, no big deal, but that would have really added a bit more of a gruelling sense of depression to it.

A lot of the final act is Man of Steel territory. The kid flies super fast through things, into people, etc. That is a little disappointing because it seems lazy. The more interesting use of his "skills" involve terrorizing someone in a vehicle in the middle of the road at night. Good use of horror tension in that scene.

It tries to add more of a troubled family dynamic, but it doesn't feel natural. At times I wondered where the hell the father was during some of the more creepier scenes, sequences that he should be there but it's only the mother. A cool looking mask helps bring a bit more evil comic book character vibes that I hoped the film would drench itself in. Brightburn is a tad predictable with some gore elements that don't add up to a full fledged entertaining film.

An exhale through your nose type laughter in a harmless comedy from Sandler and Aniston.

Sandler's Netflix movies haven't been that great. In fact I only kind of tolerated one of them, The Do-Over and that was because it had an actual plot. With Murder Mystery, Sandler teams up with his friend Aniston and they actually have a story to tell. Take your typical murder mystery set-up and throw in the standard Sandler style comedy (as of late, not his earlier stuff) and you get this. Not great, not bad, just kind of existing.

Sandler and Aniston have great chemistry, this was evident in their earlier film Just Go With It. That's the one benefit this film has going for it, the chemistry elevates the lacklustre comedy. There are no real laugh out loud moments or memorable comedy bits in this entire movie, instead you might smile and chuckle from time to time. Completely harmless, but nothing to laugh home about. Sandler continues to make films in exotic locations for the hell of it, good for him. He also continues to act like himself in his movies and throw sarcastic jabs at people. This is his thing now, so accept it I guess.

I expected the mystery element to add up differently and the lead you to believe that way for a lot of the film. So subverting expectations a little bit with the outcome, but at the same time it doesn't surprise you with the reveal. It's all there on the screen and a lot of it seems obvious. The murder mystery element leaves the one location set-up and our protagonists are 'on the run' trying to solver the murder and clear their names.

The supporting cast doesn't do much to assist with the comedy. Everyone except one person plays it straight. That one character that leans heavily into comedy feels like they belong in earlier Sandler films, so it's a bit jarring. You don't really end up caring for the murder mystery part by the end of it, but the journey there was tolerable and compared to every other Sandler/Netflix entry, this might be the best one.

After a devastating break-up just before she is suppose to move across the country for a new job, Jenny goes out for one last great NYC night with her two best friends.

A romantic comedy that likes to wallow in the depression of its characters. Gina Rodriguez plays Jenny, who is going through a bad breakup with LaKeith Stansfield. The chemistry between these two is really great and helps generate a believable relationship that one would be sad when over. I actually wanted the two to get back together by the end of the film. Both brought a welcomed sense of realism to their characters and their bond together.

The film litters in some flashbacks to the relationship, showing how good they are together, so we can be really sad back in the present when they are not together. Her two best friends are played by Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise. Each have their own little stories to tell as well, but neither really dive into something tangible. Snow is in a relationship where she doesn't like the man and secretly wants to be with someone Jenny use to like and Wise is a lesbian who is afraid to commit to any real relationship. Just enough to flesh out some of their characteristics, but not enough to really make them interesting.

The film is a little different compared to the usual fare and we get to see the ups and downs of a relationship, something like 500 Days of Summer, but less cute indie and more female empowerment on the streets. Rodriguez really shines here and I wish she gets more roles in the future and Wise does well for a character that I normally wouldn't like. I've seen Snow in a lot of things and she tends to play the same character, nothing really different from her this time around.

Someone Great feels like a film that people should watch when they are going through the same events of the main character.

A "classic" comedy that feels like a great throwback to the 90's rom-coms that actually make you laugh and feel like the two should be together in the end. Two people who grew up as best friends are reunited when her fiancé wants a break before the wedding.

Randall Park does a great job here in a leading role. He embodied the lazy but funny guy from those 90's rom-coms. Ali Wong is someone that I knew about, but never really experienced her stand-up. She comes off as someone who has dirty material and despite never seeing her material, I felt like she was being 'denied' her natural comedic chops and was a little restricted. Despite that, it doesn't hurt the film. She does a good job here and made me want to seek out her material.

Yes, Keanu Reeves makes a funny cameo and he plays himself. Really funny moments and he seems to be having a great resurgence which I am totally on board for. I'd like to also throw a shout out to James Saito, who plays Park's father. Really surprising role here as I was expecting a more stereotypical strict Asian father role, but they turn the expectations around and instead deliver a down to earth funny character that really stands out above the rest.

Always Be My Maybe is a welcomed entry on the "Netflix" roster.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

Where's My Minority Report!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

An entertaining sci-fi action film starring one of the biggest movie stars, a legend and an up and coming actor. Spielberg crafts a movie with entertaining thrills with thought provoking ideas and has a success on his hands.

People do indeed claim that the ending is more or less a dream. I kind of like that theory, it fits within the story as Cruise mentions how the criminals dream when they are put in those status tubes. So it would make sense he would dream up his own rescue as things do seems to become a lot easier and go his way. While it works within the story, it doesn't work within Spielberg's film wheelhouse. He prefers the happy ending over the depressing one. So this fan theory must remain a 'fan theory'.

The action set pieces are really good, but I do notice some awkward wirework, especially during the jetpack sequences. The look of the film has this oversaturated feel, feels like they want it to feel futuristic. You get use to it.

Watching it this time around hit me a little harder with the disappearance of his son. The marital break-up because Tom reminds her of their son is depressing. Makes you think about how a film doesn't change, but how you perceive it does.

I look back at this movie and I just have to ask myself, what was the point? It's not really about anything, no real plot, just a bunch of middle-aged women walking aimlessly around wine country cracking inside jokes and sometimes making some self discoveries. It's a film that seems safe, lacking more than soft chuckles and ultimately feels more or less pointless. Which is a shame because this is Amy Poehler's first directorial effort. She does nothing flashy with the camera and I felt like this film could have been done by anyone.

Abby decides to celebrate her friends 50th birthday with an all-out girls weekend, this is in an effort to ignore the fact that she was recently fired. The girls all have a good time, until their own insecurities and baggage bring down the festivities.

Having a career on SNL helps you make connections and Poehler leans heavily on her friends to make the funny happen. Five out of the seven cast members are former SNL players. Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and of course Poehler herself, all lend a helping hand to get some laughs. They all obviously have great chemistry and comedic timing. The other two ladies; Paula Pell & Emily Spivey have a connection to SNL as well, they were staff writers. So everyone is just a big happy loving family here. Pell actually gets the most laughs in the film, so it was a welcomed surprise to see someone fresh get the best material.

Wine Country is a film that you can miss. The laughs are very few and far between and the film offers very little of entertainment value. If you want to connect and enjoy the ladies on their someone conflict filled weekend, then by all means enjoy.

It's hard to get a handle on Midsommar, there is a lot going on with Ari Aster's sophomore effort. Those looking to find the next level in horror will surely be disappointed. This is more in line with his efforts in Hereditary, especially when both films deal with grief in such a personal and horrific way. This time around he feels like he can be a bit more creative with the camera, moving freely in the open land and leaving the family drama behind for a more blunt horror experience. With that being said, Midsommar is still not your typical horror film.

After a devastating loss in her life, Dani's relationship with her "on the fence" boyfriend gets even more strained. He plans on leaving for Sweden with his three friends, one of which is from there. He invites her to go with them, expecting her to say no, but she agrees and they soon find themselves at the mercy of a pagan cult.

It's easy to make things scary when things take place at night, Aster has the ambition to craft a horror film that takes place entirely in the daytime. He expertly crafts a sense of dread throughout the film, which is an incredibly slow burner one as well. We know what to expect, to some degree, when these people arrive at this commune, in the middle of nowhere. The characters of course, do not. We as an audience know we are watching a horror film, the characters think they are just at a friend's family home. Slowly the safety and sanity is picked away one by one, until we have no idea what we are witnessing and neither do the characters. Is a drink being offered simply a drink? Or is there something more sinister in the liquid? These were questions I was constantly asking myself throughout the film.

Is the film scary? Not at all. It's terrifying in a morbid way, but you never feel scared. Instead you are repulsed by the imagery Aster forces you to watch. These images are violent in nature, absurd to the next level and are few and far between. He simply sprinkles these moments in, which add a shock value because everything leading up to these moments have been a little slow.

Florence Pugh leads the film and has the difficult task of being incredibly fragile, but needing to be a strong presence. She pulls it off with ease. Hearing her tormented crying is painful and strikes right through the heart. The rest of the cast includes her boyfriend played by Jack Reynor and his three friends, played by William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren and Will Poulter. You look at these people and you just know that nothing good is going to happen to them.

I suspect that this film will be dissected, much like Jordan Peele's recent horror entry, Us. Aster litters the film with literal images depicting what could possibly happen to these characters at some point in time. You'll be looking in the background for these pictures to get a sense of what's to come. One sequence uses this to comedic effect, which then turns extremely weird and than horrifying. That's how Midsommar is in a nutshell. It plays with tone and at points the audience is laughing at the absurdity on the screen. I still have no idea if the funny bits are intentional or not.

I do prefer Hereditary to this, as I was simply not prepared for that film whatsoever. It left me speechless. Midsommar treads familiar ground and could leave some people shocked, but it might even leave some people wanting more. Aster, after two films is an auteur and he loves taking his time getting to where he wants you to go, to the point where it could frustrate some viewers.

Oh yeah, great score too.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

I mostly agree with you on Midsommar. I definitely felt terrified at moments, but I feel it would be more of a comedy on a rewatch. The characters do play dumb on more than one occasion, tragically towards the end. This is a hard movie to recommend, but I THINK I'm glad I saw it haha

Man....that was tough...

So as I mentioned previously, we did a Fast and Furious marathon for a friend of mine. It was decided that we should make this a regular thing and each of us pick a movie that we all sit down to watch. My friend was nervous about picking his movie because he was the first one to go. He decided to go with this piece of work because he bought it from a dollar bin and was curious to see it.

I am considering unfriending him in life.

Going Overboard is Adam Sandler's first starring role film in which he plays a waiter on a cruise that desperately wants to become a comedian. Cue unfunny jokes throughout the entire movie and you have yourself something that soldier's should use to torture prisoners.

I hated this movie. It wasn't even so bad that it was fun to make fun of it. It was just bad. a boring film with piss poor production quality. I can't stress enough for you to stay away from this movie. Just stay away. Burn it should you ever come across it.

It has a 1.9/10 on IMDB. Think about that for a second. Battlefield Earth has a higher rating. As does Glitter, Gili, Kazaa and God damn Bratz.

Trash...utter and complete trash. Sandler is so shamed of it, he doesn't even list it on his credits.

Nominated by my friend Tyler.

I nominated this for the B-Movie HoF Sequel and it won. So when it was my turn to nominate a movie for out little movie chat sessions, I felt like this would be a decent one to start off with. It's something to watch in a Mystery Science Theatre type setting and it worked. They liked it a lot. We had a lot of laughs and comments on the cheese factor being pretty high.

It's a shame that Fred Dekker's career basically died with Robocop 3. This and Monster Squad (more on that later) are real gems and capture the b-movie 80's spirit perfectly.

Our third friend chose this little 90's gem. It's a romantic comedy about a hitman going back to his hometown for a high school graduation. His mark is there, so it's the perfect time to check in on the high school sweetheart he left high and dry on prom night.

John Cusack when he was still a bankable star, brings his usual awkward charms here. The added layer of him being a hired killer is unique enough to spin an interesting yarn for the viewer. Cusack manages to be believable enough unlike the other hitman, Dan Aykroyd. Minnie Driver is an actress I wish had bigger career, she is instantly likeable in a lot of her roles and this one is no exception.

A typical 90's soundtrack (which his a good thing) and good chemistry between the cast make this action romantic comedy a decent watch.

Another entry in our PSN chat flicks. Another comedy from Tyler.

This time it's watchable and has a Jeremy Piven as a Van Wilder type character that must come up with X amount of money or their club will be kicked off campus. So what do they do? They throw a party of course. Also starring David Spade in his typical David Spade smart ass roles. Jake Busey, Jon Favreau and Jessica Walter round out the supporting characters.

Typical college comedy that doesn't have any real memorable laughs, just soft chuckles at most. I've seen these movies done before and done better. PCU is a forgettable flick that doesn't really hurt anyone. Would I watch it again? Probably not.

This film was a childhood classic of mine and it was my choice to view with our chat group. It went very well as they enjoyed the hell out of it and it holds up pretty well.

The universal monsters are in town and are looking for an emulate to destroy so that evil can roam the world freely, forever. Only a small group of kids who call themselves The Monster Squad can stop them.

Really great monster effects, especially on the creature from the black lagoon. A pretty scary Dracula performance and a creepy mummy all make this film extremely memorable. Let's not forget the wolf man, a creature that can survive TNT because it wasn't a silver bullet.

Complete with an 80's montage, Monster Squad is a great throwback film that any fan of the decade/genre will enjoy. People call it a ripoff of The Goonies but I disagree.

In an effort to nominate a "so bad it's good" movie, we have Teen Witch. This was originally supposed to be the female version of Teen Wolf, but I guess the translation was lost somewhere between the filming of the movie and the editing. Teen Witch is indeed a terrible movie and I only had a good time watching it because I was chatting with friends.

I had never heard of it before, but the film seems to have a cult following. It's easy to see why. Just look at this scene for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxxBXpnn2Jw

I don't think anything could top that.

This film was nominated because our one friend saw it as a kid and wanted to revisit it.

The film is a whose who of future stars with Matthew Perry, Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano and Tracey Gold with Alan Thicke and Kelsey Grammer playing parents to the kids.

One of those films that take place in one night and follows multiple people with their own little storylines. I appreciate those movies as they feel "in the moment". This film was a decent attempt at that and managed to surprise me in an odd way with avoiding, yet falling trap to character cliches. I say both because we have the classic case of the good looking guy asking out the geek girl for bad reasons. She finds out, but he has fallen for her. Cliche... So what grand gesture can he do to win her back? Nothing...he doesn't. Surprising. The guy looks like a typical good looking jerk and his original intentions were questionable, but by the end he sees his wrong doings and wants to right them. Didn't expect that.

A lot of the comedy falls flat, but Kelsey Grammer manages to get a few laughs as the overprotective dad who follows hi daughter around town to make sure she doesn't do any funny business. Dance Till Dawn was a TV movie and not a terrible one at that. It would also fall into the it's bad, but kinda good at the same time.

Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood doesn't feel like a typical Tarantino movie for the simple fact that this movie has no real plot or story. Instead of following a plot, we are basically dropped into this immersive world and spend 3 days with these dynamic characters Tarantino has given us. At 160 minutes, it would seem like a lot to ask the audience to sit in a theatre and watch a film sort of meander around for the middle portion and I can see a lot of people hating this movie because of this, but I found myself immersed in this world, these characters and my expectations of what was going to happen went wild.

Rick Dalton is a washed up TV actor coming to terms with the fact that he's a
'has-been'. His best friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth can't find work due to a shady past and finds himself being Dalton's driver and pretty much does anything Dalton asks. It's Hollywood in the late 60's and the hippie movement is taking over and right next door to Dalton is Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate.

The more I think about this movie after the fact, the more I like it. DiCaprio is absolutely stellar as Dalton. His insecurities, ego and alcoholism are all traits for a great performance and DiCaprio nails it. His chemistry with Pitt is spectacular, Pitt himself plays calm cool and collected so well. Is it the writing or the acting, that make people like a character like Cliff when in reality they should probably hate him? He has a backstory that seems completely out of place at first, but then a lot of the scenes in this film feel that way until they all come together in the end.

Then there is the case of Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate. Tarantino and Robbie humanize her here. She has forever been known as the famous murder victim of the Manson family, but now we have a look into the life of a young girl just enjoying life. There is a sequence when she is in a movie theatre watching one of her latest movies. She is taking in the pure enjoyment of the audience reacting positively to her scenes. It's a nice way to have the audience view this person in a different light, despite what we expect to happen to her by the film's end.

This wouldn't be a Tarantino movie without a killer soundtrack, which this film has, obscene violence, which this film ends with and an over infatuation with women's feet. In the same vein of Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino plays with history a bit and yet it works when it takes place in his universe. The climax is where the violence comes in, it's bloody and gruesome. It feels more over the top given the fact that there is virtually no violence in the entire film until that moment. We do get a tense sequence involving Pitt at the Spahn Movie Ranch and I was on the edge of my seat not knowing what to expect.

What a lot of films lack these days is surprise. With sequels, adaptations and reboots we get a sense of what the characters want and where the story will go. With Once Upon a Time, you get to enjoy the sheer unpredictability of it. I didn't know where Tarantino was going to take us and I was happy to go along for the ride. As the title suggest, this is a fairytale and I await my chance to re-enter this world.

Impressive that you're still churning out so many reviews even with a newborn in the house. Let the wife handle those baby duties. Gotta keep your priorities straight. After all, who else is going to write reviews for the latest Netflix exclusive?

Can't comment much since I haven't seen most of these recently reviewed films. It's a shame that everyone seems so underwhelmed by Brightburn since the premise boasts a lot of potential. I thought Murder Mystery was ass. It was annoying, lazy, devoid of laughs. Felt like I was watching Sandler play Clue in an exotic locale, and I don't even like Clue all that much (the game or the movie). Sounds like the talented ladies of Wine Country followed Sandler's template, using a paid vacation as an excuse to make a half-assed movie. I'd thought about watching it but will probably skip it now.

I wasn't as crazy about Hereditary as most. I felt that the movie took a nosedive in the last act. Still curious about Midsommar, though. Gonna have to check out Going Overboard sometime to see if it's as terrible as people make it out to be. Minority Report is great. Night of the Creeps is a really fun B-movie. Loved Monster Squad as a kid but haven't watched it in ages. At least you've picked worthwhile movies for your little viewing parties, unlike your friends. I've always wanted to do something similar with my own friends, but they'd probably hate everything I made them watch and vice-versa.

A few comments from the last few posts. Firstly, Monster Squad is great. To even compare it to the crap that is The Goonies is evil. I've probably not seen it for 7-10 years now, but it was great in the 80's, it was great in the 90's and in the 00's so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's still great.

How have I not seen Teen Witch? I don't know if I could take that amount of cringe for 90 minutes but I might have to give it a go and see. That clip was like a musical episode of Saved By The Bell or a suburban Electric Boogaloo. Both of which are descriptions which would get me in front of a screen. :D

Thirdly, I really like him, but has John Cusack even been a 'bankable star'? Wonderful film though.

Lastly, I know it has it in the title, but I think I've only read two reviews (yours and MV's) and both have mentioned fairy tale. :( I mean, I probably wasn't going to see it at the cinema anyway, as I just have no faith in QT anymore, hell I might never see it, but I was hoping this'd be different and be something I could get excited about.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

@honeykid I guess more bankable than his current status.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

I'd certainly agree with that. :yup:

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the movie I've watched the most times this year. Was it my choice? No, it wasn't. It was my 2 1/2 year old son's choice. One that I am happy and sad about. Happy because he wants to watch something scary, sad because it's this movie. Now whenever he asks to watch a movie he goes; "Daddy....can we watch...GOOOOOOOSEBUMPS?" How can I say no to that?

The first film was okay. It tickled the nostalgia bone of those who read the books when the were younger and had a decent Jack Black portraying author R.L. Stone. The story was simple and hit the marks it needed to hit. It was a kids movie, but could entertain those Goosebumps kids who are now adults. Now the sequel comes around, how do you make a story about Goosebumps after the first film had every book character come to life? The answer is with an unfinished manuscript for the first ever Goosebumps story R.L. Stone wrote; Haunted Hallowen.

It's not the Goosebumps characters coming to life now, it's Halloween decorations. A little bit of a spin on the costumes becoming real bit we see in Halloween III or that one episode of Buffy. The scary bits are toned down and these decorations are more of a nuance than a threat. Creepy dummy Slappy returns, he's the 'mascot' of the series (voiced by Black again) and the main villain.

Jack Black returns but in a much smaller role. I guess you could say they subverted expectations by having him race to the town to fix things, but end up not being needed at all. The kids aren't too annoying, but lead Jeremy Ray Taylor (from the new It films) tests my patience. Maybe it's just me and I'm out of touch, but the kids in these movies do not seem believable. Stick to the original, if you're even the slightest bit interested in these films.

It gets an extra half popcorn for letting my take a nap while my kid is occupied.

Did anyone think that the more successful "Universe" series after MCU was going to be a Conjuring universe and not the DCEU? Was this even intentional or did it happen organically? Even Universal's Dark Universe failed to generate steam. The Nun is another spin-off of The Conjuring movies. After the success of Annabelle and it's own sequel (prequel), The Nun was put into production. Now we have a third Annabelle movie and what looks to be another spin-off with The Crooked Man coming. Throw The Conjuring 3 into the mix and that is 8 freaking movies (maybe 9 from another one I don't want to spoil).

The Conjuring was successful for a few reasons, one of them was James Wan. So when these spin-offs are coming and you don't have a talented eye behind the camera, it drags itself down into generic bad horror. The first Annabelle was terrible, but made enough money to warrant a sequel. With the sequel they actually got someone who has some talent and made it a decent entry. We get it, dolls are creepy and the opening to The Conjuring was scary enough for people to want to see these movies. Move onto the sequel and we get another creepy image in The Nun. One of the more memorable horror sequence in The Conjuring 2 features a painting of a nun and again, people thought this scary image deserved its own movie.

Scary images alone, do not mean you can craft a story around it. The Nun fails on many fronts and the most egregious one is being scary. There are scary images of nuns in the background, but how many movies have done this? It's not something new, it's something expected and tiresome. There are only so many times you can throw a nun in the background of a scene before it becomes boring. That's the one and only image they had in this movie and they ran with it. A lot of the movie is covered in darkness, making it hard to see what's happening. People confuse darkness for scary and they bathe their films in black. It doesn't work.

A scary image is scary, but to make it terrifying you have to give it substance. The Nun has no substance. It's obvious storytelling from the get-go with characters we couldn't give to holy poops about.I love the fact that they try desperately to have a "Oh wow, that's so cool" moment to tie this film in with the original, but since they literally change the actor playing the particular character, it makes no sense. Just like the inane story in this garbage.

A heist film that plays more into what a realistic heist would entail, dropping the gun glamour and cool as hell criminals for a slower and more dramatic take. Directed by Steve McQueen and boasting a strong cast, Widows is an under seen and underrated film that deserves a bit more attention.

A heist gone wrong ends the lives of four criminals. With them in a blaze of fire went up $2 million dollars. The person whose money that belongs to wants to be reimbursed and he goes after the widow of one of the criminals. She finds an old notebook with details on a big job and recruits the widows of the other criminals in an effort to pay back what is owed and have enough to start a new life. The trouble is that these ladies are no professionals and the man demanding his money is getting impatient.

When you think of heist films, you think of something along the lines of Point Break or Baby Driver. Those films are action packed. Heat is considered the granddaddy of them all and it builds up to one of the best shootout sequences put on film. So how does Widows compare to those movies? It doesn't. It doesn't even attempt to, it focuses on other things and has no intention of being called an action movie. The heist happens and yes, it has tense moments, but it's over in a blink of an eye and grounded in reality that we don't get your typical Hollywood set pieces. McQueen fills this world with real characters with real problems and the viewer feels each and every one of them.

Strong performances from everyone involved, lead by Viola Davis. She always seems to play strong willed characters and this one is no exception. She is dealing with a tragic loss in her life and must find the strength to tackle this head on. Supported by Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki, these ladies make a strong team.

McQueen shoots Chicago like it's another character itself. We have a scene where Colin Farrel has a rally because he's running for Mayor. It's in the run down part of the city and he gets in his car to go back home, which is a big house with security and maids. We never get inside that car with him, we stay outside viewing the city literally changing from the ghetto to the rich. We hear what he's saying, but we are seeing what he is talking about. I don't think you'd find a shot like this in Den of Thieves.

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Haven't been keeping up so...

I re-watched Furious 7 and F8 in the lead-up to Hobbs and Shaw - the former is worse than I remember, the latter about the same. Neither one really made me particularly pumped for a spin-off.

As far as I'm concerned, Brightburn is *this* close to being the worst movie of the year (Serenity just edges it out). Just one idea driven into the ground again and again for 90 minutes.

I figure Minority Report is just pulling the same ending as Total Recall except without feeling the need to beat you over the head with its ambiguity. Spielberg's tendency towards happy endings doesn't really enter into it.

Between Midsommar and Hereditary, I've decided that I can't really f*ck with Ari Aster not so much because they're 2spooky4me but because they're just so...whatever. They're sluggish in ways that the sporadic moments of violent punctuation fail to impact and they're so blunt about what they're about that there's no enjoyment to be had in piecing together what they're about - and that only adds to the idea that this one doesn't earn its lengthy running time. I am still undecided as to which of the two is "better", if only because the more I think about either, the less I like them.

My pick this time around. I felt like my first two entries (night of the Creeps and Monster Squad) are genuinely good movies. Now I wanted something that I thought was bad, but could be fun when watching with other people. I was right!!! Watching this film by yourself might be a bad choice, but with a few friends and you'll have a good time.

A group of mercenaries board a luxury cruise linear, but instead of finding thousands of rich people drunk, they find a boat that is deserted, with blood everywhere. What happened? As they search the cruise ship they discover something else is there, something big. Coming out a month after another boat disaster film (Titanic) people decided to give this Stephen Sommers directed monster action flick a miss. It starts Treat Williams in the lead role, which is an odd choice. The guy gives good one-liners, can handle the material well, but doesn't scream action star.

Also starring Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, and Anthony Heald. None of these people were big stars, so you had to be a fan of the genre to want to check this one out. I'm a fan of horror at sea, but this film leans heavily on the action and less on the horror. The climax scene involves two characters on a jet-ski, outrunning the tentacle monster and an explosion. It's guilty pleasure material for sure. The film has scenes where people don't need to reload, a bit from Anaconda where a tentacle regurgitates a character and out of place comedy. It's dumb, but dumb fun.

As for the ending, it's comical. Apparently they wanted it to lead into a King Kong remake, which would have been pretty funny. That got scrapped and we eventually got the Peter Jackson version.

I'm conflicted. I really liked this movie, but feel it is still unnecessary and falls short in some key areas. Those key areas are keeping me from loving it and I find myself not a fan of the ending.

Andy is gone and the toys are now under Bonnie's control. She'll be starting school soon and is frightened, so she makes herself a new friend; Forky. Her parents decide to do one last trip before her school starts and on the way she loses Forky. Woody makes it his mission to get him back to her and along the way meets an old friend.

The opening sequence in this film is truly astounding. The animation itself had me wide-eyed. I'm talking about the rain. It looks so damn real that I am truly amazed at how far we have come with animation. Looking back at the original it feels clunky, but still works because they are toys. Even though these character look exactly the same, you can tell how detailed they really are with this film. We stop at a carnival of sorts and are introduced to some new characters. While none of them are as memorable as a Ken from Toy Story 3, they do manage to be fun enough for the story. Duke Caboom takes the spotlight here, voiced by Keanu Reeves. He's depressed that he didn't do what his commercial said he could, he let his child down and can't let it go.

Buzz Lightyear has a really odd character turn here. He questions how Woody knows what to do all the time and Woody says it's his inner voice telling him what to do. So Buzz decides that his toy voice button on his front is now his inner voice? It felt like he came straight out of the box again. His literally taking of inner voice seemed strange to me and somewhat out of character. Then we get to the ending; I know they wanted it to be extremely emotional, but I felt like it was empty. I had a more emotional connection to the ending of Toy Story 3 than this one. To me, this one felt unearned and makes Woody look bad.

Toy Story 4 also decides to sideline all the other toys. They sit in the trailer while Woody and Buzz have the adventure. I can't help but feel like this is a missed opportunity. I was interested in seeing how they would handle Mr. Potato Head, since the passing of Don Rickles. They didn't re-cast the role like they did with Slinky the Dog, instead they used old voice recording to get a new performance. He has maybe two lines of dialogue.

For what it's worth, this movie is good. It's better than it needs to be, but I just hope we leave these toys alone now.

It takes a special film to live up to the reputation of how terrible it is. Holmes & Watson rises to the occasion and manages to be a truly God-Awful attempt at humour from some talented people.

The comedy duo of John C Reilly and Will Ferrell saw some great success with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers. They tried to recapture that creative comedy absurdity with a Sherlock Holmes spin, but my God do they misfire incredibly. The two men don't seem to be giving it their all, but most likely the bare minimum needed to garner a chuckle.

There is a level of dullness one might hit to make people yawn, roll their eyes or even shut off the movie. Holmes & Watson hits that level and goes a few inches deeper. Not a funny moment, scene, sequence or situation is found here. It's quite remarkable to be honest, for a film to swing for the fences and miss so wildly. Every punchline becomes obvious after the first 30 seconds that it makes you feel like you're doing the movie a favour by watching it. It becomes a slow slog of a movie to get through and you hate yourself for watching it afterwards.

Skip it like the plague unless you want to see how bad it really is.

It's a damn shame that The Possession of Hannah Grace is as dull as it is, there is a lot of potential here and the film feels like a giant missed opportunity. There are so many moments where the film just scratches the surface of tense and scary moments that could have resulted in a really good horror film with memorable scares.

You know how horror films purposely put in something so obvious that you know expect it to pop up later on simply for scare purposes? Sometimes it's done naturally and the scares work, think of the clapping game the family plays in The Conjuring. Other times it's ham-fisted so much that the expectation takes over the scare. With The Possession of Hannah Grace the morgue where our lead character works in has lights that only operate via motion sensor. So you can expect scenes where lights go on themselves in the background while she isn't looking. Ooohhh so spooky.

A thin layer of what the writers want to call character work is laid onto our lead, she has PTSD regarding her dead partner. She use to be a cop, but now takes the midnight shift in the morgue to get away from it all. A dead body comes in and strange things start happening. The dead body is a result of an exorcism gone wrong. Kudos for some nice imagery regarding the body as she crawls across the floor contorting her body, but then they ruin it with needless CGI sequences with her body.

This film is full of those almost moments. You think it's going to be great, but it ends up lacklustre. It's disappointing more than anything. This film feels incomplete in its delivery. Watch The Autopsy of Jane Doe instead, it has more claustrophobic sequences and genuine horror.

Here is a film that I wanted to love, but ended up just liking. It has everything that I like going for it; interesting premise, great cast, a focused writer/director and a welcomed score. I've been a fan of Drew Goddard since his days on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Looking at his filmography, he's been apart of some projects that I love, or at the very least found interesting; Lost, Cloverfield, Daredevil, World War Z, The Martian and of course one of my favourite films in recent years, The Cabin in the Woods. Since he directed the later, I was immediately interested in seeing what his follow-up film would be and everything that I saw about Bad Times looked great. It's a shame that both his directorial efforts didn't make more money because he seems to be offering something a little more than what your average film seems to be.

Bad Times boasts a pretty decent cast with Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Offerman and relative newcomer Lewis Pullman. Each person is clearly given a defined persona for their character and they seem to run with it pretty well. This is an ensemble piece, so no one is front and centre and you feel like anyone can bite the dust at any moment.

Goddard introduced the hotel being on a stateline between California and Nevada, with each side having their own colour scheme and decor. I was waiting for this to somehow factor into the story, but it never really does. It seems to be just a quirk to talk about it and look interesting. I was with this film until the third act, when it dovetails into a more cliched film. It felt like maybe Goddard didn't know how to end things, so he introduces Hemsworth and tries his best to consolidate characters and it sort of backfires. It becomes old-hat and tiresome. What was once something interesting and new ends up being just like every other film.

With the misstep towards the end, the film doesn't reach the heights of where it wants to be. I see people comparing it to what a typical Tarantino film might be and sure I see some similarities, but Goddard has a unique enough spin to make it his own. The obnoxious runtime doesn't help keep things moving at a brisk pace, we tend to slow down here and there for conversations between characters that I think needed a jolt of something to keep a bit more interesting. Bad Times wants to be something great, but it needs to settle with being something good.

So this was Astrid's pick for out movie night and for some reason we each roped out significant others in to watch it with us. So a 3 person movie night became a 6 person movie night. Of all the films to see with everyone, it had to be these 90's Teen Thriller, Fear. My wife had never heard of it, but laughed throughout. Her laughter mostly was caused by Marky Mark's bad kissing habits. He tends two go for any feature on the face other than the lips. Throwing in that 90's grunge music and bad fashion sense and you'll have a great time revisiting Fear today.

Marky Mark's first leading film and we get to see his third nipple. His accent is peaking through and he has his usual soft tone voice that makes me strain to hear his words. His good boy looks can only go so far and William Petersen isn't having any of it. The over protective father sees right through his BS, but looking at these two guys, who is going to win in a fight?

A 20 something Reese Witherspoon is the object of Marky Marks affection. Mark Mark is genuinely crazy, but he thinks he's in love with her. I try not to question a crazy person's motives, but his lust for her to be together "4 eva" becomes a little confusing when he rapes her best friend in the film. Then the movie decides to have Witherspoon blame her friend. What??? She even says that she was raped by him and she's crying, begging for her only friend not to turn her back on her...but Reese Witherspoon doesn't want anything to do with her. Who's the real crappy friend here? She witnesses the Marky Mark grab her friend's hair, threaten her and grab her ass as he throws her over his shoulders. We all know what's going to happen, but Witherspoon is perfectly fine leaving the house and her friend. So not only do you not help your friend from being raped, but you shun her afterwards? It's not until your lives are literally in danger do you somewhat reconcile? Boo-urns.

The crazy stalker boyfriend genre soon turns into a home invasion film for the climax. Nothing too gruesome, other than a severed dog head poking through the doggy door. Fear is a film for teenage girls wanting a thrilling scare. A few of my female friends have seen this film dozens of times and I'm not surprised that my "sheltered" wife never saw it.

We have decided to change up our viewing habits a bit and alternate some choices. So one week will be our usual random movie pick and the next week we choose a director and each pick a film from his/her filmography. I threw Alfred Hitchcock as the first choice and they agreed. The first film chosen was North by Northwest. My choice was Rear Window and the third shall be Shadow of a Doubt. I've seen 2/3 of these and the one film I was going in blind was indeed, North by Northwest.

North by Northwest felt very James Bond-esque the moment the film started. The opening title sequence could be mistake for early Bond movies and of course we have the plot involving spies, jumping from location to location and a random love interest that doesn't feel real to the audience, but works for the characters. For the most part, I enjoyed this film. I'd be lying if I didn't walk away a tad confused here or there, but that is due to me not paying close attention and Hitchcock's constant use of the maguffin.

I was along for the ride. Hitchcock crafts his films with intelligence and care and with this film he brings iconic images to Hollywood. This was my first time seeing this film, but even I knew of the crop dusting plane escape and the suspense atop Mount Rushmore. Both scenes executed very well, even if the later seems to be a staple in Hitchcock adventure films.

Kudos on getting a really big laugh from me with the last image.

Will do :yup:

I think you should just let Astrid pick the films for you all. Not that you've done too badly, TUS. I wouldn't let Tyler have another go. :D

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

Ha. Tyler almost ruined the whole thing before we got it going. Going Overboard was a nightmare.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

I feel like you’ve been living under a rock or our paths haven’t crossed too often recently on MoFos.

I think the barometer for people enjoying this film would be how much they can handle a person like Jason Mantzoukas. His voice and aggressive comedy style might turn people off the content. It's like how some people can't stand Charlie Day simply because of his voice and comedy style. For me, I love Mantzoukas and think he does an admirable job here with a role that could have gone either way.

The Long Dumb Road is indeed a road trip movie. Our main characters meet after Tony Revolori has car trouble. Mantzoukas just happens to be a mechanic and offers to help fix it for free if the kid will give him a ride. He agrees and thus the adventure begins. The two characters couldn't be further away from each other. Revolori plays a kid going to art school to find his craft and hopefully see what "Real America". He's lived a sheltered life and going out on his on is a big step in the right direction for independence. Mantzoukas on the other hand is living life to the fullest, in both good and bad terms. He's the grab life by the balls type guy who might have a drinking problem. I wonder if the wild one is going to get the sheltered one to come out of his shell. I also wonder if he might go one step too far and then get lectured by the sheltered one on how much of a juvenile he is. These are just guesses, but they fall perfectly in line with the type of movie this wants to be....and ultimately becomes.

That's not to say this film is bad, it's pretty good. I connected with the two guys on the road, their misadventures and in the end I wanted both of them to be happy. Some events that happen are out of left field and I feel like Mantzoukas' character is written in such a way that it steers the story into those wild moments, which makes it feel not as natural as it could be.

This film eyes its focus on characters instead of dumb comedy. There are funny moments and it's mostly in the charisma of the two leads, but don't expect a Due Date rip-off.

I won't write too much about this one as I've covered it before. It's simply great. One of, if not, THE best Hitchcock movie in his filmography.

Beautiful set design that brings the film to life, each apartment feels lived in. Each character seen through the lens has their own life, their own problems and successes, we get a glimpse of their lives and it makes the film feel richer. Getting a glimpse into one life proves too intrusive as we find ourselves wrapped in a murder mystery. Hitchcock loves his murder mysteries and he crafts magnificent suspense and we never leave the damn room.

It was reimagined with Shia LaBeouf, but in that film he is under house arrest and has an electronic ankle bracelet keeping him at bay. The filmmakers immediately "date" the film when they use technology as a barrier for our lead character and in a few years it will feel old and outdated. Whereas a broken leg...is a broken leg. You're not going anywhere with a cast on ya.

Another film I won't go into too much detail about and still one that I appreciate and feel like it holds up today. You can't beat a good suspense film with a well written ambiguous character and that is exactly what Uncle Charlie is. A wonderful performance from Joseph Cotten, he adds tension with a simple glance. I mentioned in my original review how the weird sexual undertones of the film were a bit much and @Markf responded saying he never saw the relationship between the two Charlie's being sexual. After another viewing, I stand by my original statement. Awkward hand holding, close quarter conversations, weird infatuations...it's all there on the screen in my opinion.

Hitchcock tends to end his films abruptly. After the big suspenseful moment, you'll have a very quick denouement and then credits. I guess in his mind the story is over and he wants a quick exit but it feels way too abrupt in many cases and jarring. Shadow of a Doubt is a perfectly example of this.

4th favourite Hitchcock movie and I still haven't seen many.

Rear Window
Psycho
Rope
Shadow of a Doubt
North by Northwest
Sabatuer

This film shot across the street from my work. They built the entire Christmas Carnival section at an abandoned lot. The testing of his superpowers was filmed down the street from my work and you've seen that location in numerous other films, most recently the RoboCop remake. So I was excited to see how it all looked on the big screen. Seeing a city you are familiar with double for another sometimes takes you out of the experience. Seeing Toronto in this film did that for me, but the overall experience was still a fun one.

Shazam! is a meta superhero film. What would happen if a 14 year old kid got superpowers? This film tries to answer that and you see how a self centred boy becomes a "hero" for others. Everything is cool when they try and test out the powers, but once real trouble comes his way, our hero hides. Will he muster up enough courage and strength to defeat the bad guy? Of course he will, we all know how these movies go. Shazam! follows the superhero origin story perfectly, so perfectly that it doesn't ever throw and curveballs at ya, which is a tad disappointing.

The fun you have while watching this film is seeing the pure joy on Zachary Levi's face. He really sells the character here and makes the film. Mark Strong does his usual bad guy scary face and Jack Dylan Grazer from Stephen King's IT, does a really good job of being the jealous "brother", but still be in awe of it all.

Shazam! is a lighthearted fun superhero film that surprisingly has some dark scenes. The film opens with a bad car accident and in one scene people are thrown out of windows and heads are bitten off. This reminds me of the old days when PG-13 movies actually had some gruesome sequences in them instead of what we see now which is watered-down violence. Granted, we see no real blood in these scenes, but it was a bit of a surprise to see nonetheless.

Shazam! is fun, bottom line is that you'll enjoy yourself if you don't want to see anything groundbreaking in a tired genre.

On a side note: There's a good video online from the director talking about running into production problems for a movie like this. He points out one sequence when crew members were in the background of a shot in a mall when people were suppose to be running away. To circumvent this, he had his vex team digitally put shopping bags in their hands to hide gear and make two of them janitors. Check it out for some nice behind the scenes productions on films.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this film is: clinical; efficient and unemotional; coldly detached. This description encapsulates the characters perfectly and it parallels the cold direction this film takes on. Cory Finley crafts a film with the same viewpoints of his two characters and it works.

Originally written as a stageplay, Finley lets us look inside the minds of two detached "haves" and makes us question which one is really the deranged psycho of the two. You'll change your mind multiple times throughout the film and question your own conclusion by the time the credits roll. Much of this is because of the writing of these two ladies, but you also have to praise the acting abilities.

Starring Me, Earl and the Dying Girls Olivia Cooke alongside The Witch's Anna-Taylor Joy, these two ladies have great chemistry when the chemistry is apparently lacking. It's such an odd description to use but that's how I see it. One lacks any kind of emotion whatsoever, a younger Patrick Bateman if you will, while the other strives for manipulation tactics to win over situations. Also starring the late Anton Yelchin as a drug dealer who is in over his head, it was nice to see yet another great performance from him and remind myself of the great talent we lost.

This film is clean, cold and calculated. It knows what its audience wants and withholds it from them. The quote on the cover of American Psycho meets Heathers is a perfect description for it.

Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with this movie. It's a good lessen in genre blending and has a few comical moments, I just wish there were more moments of laughter for me. Had I been finding the humour in this film more often, it would have gotten a higher rating.

Two freight handlers are given the coffin of Dracula and Frankenstein and must transport them to a House of Horrors museum. Things go awry when Dracula exits his coffin and resurrects Frankenstein. Frankenstein is weak and Dracula plans to re-energize him with a new brain and Costello is the perfect specimen.

I only know of two skits from Abbott & Costello, the infamous Who's On First and 7 into 28, both I thought were hilarious. I was excited to see a feature film from these two, but a lot of the bits dragged on a bit too long, such as reading the bio of Dracula.

It was a little confusing seeing the title Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein, but then they play characters with different names....whatever.

I think more people need to see this movie. I suggested it for our movie chat nights because I was aiming for a music centric flick. Rudderless was a movie that I immediately downloaded the soundtrack afterwards and watching it again got me right back into the music, the drama and the heartbreak.

Here is my original review here

Back in college I saw a short film that inspired one of my favourite scripts that I've written. It was about a little dead girl who wanted to have a friend so she killed the boy next door. It felt like a tribute to Tim Burton and was unique enough to grab my attention. Flash forward 8 years and Brad Peyton, the director, gets a big budget Hollywood film; Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Big opportunity, so take it, why not? 2 years later he would direct The Rock in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. I'm assuming the two hit it off extremely well because Peyton directed the Rock in San Andreas and Rampage as well. None of these movies had the spirit, originality or creativity of his short film.

Journey 2 is something that I can see myself loving if I were a kid. It's got a charismatic lead with The Rock, a comedic old-timer with My Cocaine an exotic beauty in Vanessa Hudgens and the hilarity of Luis Guzmán. On top of that, the adventure is a amalgamation of numerous other adventure tales. You've got the mysterious island, captain nemo, Atlantis, Poseidon, etc. Kid me would eat this movie up.

Adult me recognizes the films faults, abuse of in your face 3D, the obvious set pieces and lack of a strong cohesive script. I'll shut my brain off for an hour and a half and enjoy the Rock's smoulder, but I'm not going to smile when he deflects berries off his pecs. This feels like a Land of the Lost episode and an excuse to get creative with CGI, which doesn't always look great. No matter how good you are, having My Cocaine ride a giant bumblebee will never look realistic.

Written by Dan Harmon, of Community and Rick & Morty fame, Monster House was a film that I honestly didn't know what to expect. How scary was it going to be? How in touch with the horror crowd will it be? Will it be too kiddie or not kiddie enough? This film had the difficult task of balancing a lot these questions and it worked, for the most part.

I feel like the of the main reasons an animated film is successful is the animation of the people. How cartoony are they? Disney had a specific look with big eyes for the princesses and Pixar made their characters cute or marketable. Monster House falls somewhere in between Polar Express and ParaNorman. The character designs are not cartoony enough to draw in the crowd and not realistic enough to make me take it a little more seriously. One of the reasons Mars Needs Moms failed is because the animation was stuck in-between the two. The aliens looked cartoony but the humans looked too real. Nothing about it jumps out at you and you know kids are not going to want a stuffed toy that isn't cute.

So while I think this film fails on the animation of the people, it makes up for it in the animation of the house itself. Most likely inspired by Stephen King's house that eats people in The Wastelands, the depiction here has enough creativity to make me want to look at every aspect of this building. Once inside we get a more "organic" feel for things and the filmmakers cleverly use house items as the inner workings of a body.

The film takes awhile to get going, but once our characters get more interaction with the house, it engages enough to keep the viewer interested. Monster House could potentially be a repeat viewing for Halloween-Month because I know my kid wants to watch "spooky movies".

A film with a hokey premise that shouldn't be really good ends up being rather entertaining and until the third act was pretty thrilling. Escape Room surprised me, it's Saw meets Cube minus the blood and guts. If you like the idea of Saw but can't get over the gruesomeness that the character's find themselves in, then Escape Room is for you.

Six people sign up to be part of a brand new and advanced Escape Room where the person who escapes wins $10,000. Exciting for these people, but they soon find out that the game isn't like any other escape room and if you don't manage to escape, you die. Can our characters put their own personal survival instincts aside and work as a team to solve riddles and clues in order to escape?

Each character has a tragic backstory and just maybe that backstory has something to do with why they were chosen. The film peels back at those mysteries a bit here and there until all is revealed. Nothing surprising or twist worthy comes from it, but it adds more depth to the characters on the screen. The film opens with the introduction of three characters and I bet you can guess which characters are still standing towards the end. This little set-up does nothing but take away the surprise of who is going to bite the dust earlier than others. It gives very little time to get to know the other characters and we rely on the actors to inject some life into thinly written roles. In the end, most of these characters are simply fodder for the kill.

Each room our characters find themselves in is unique enough to generate a building interest in how are they going to solve it. One room in particular has everything upside down and with some nice camera movements/visuals, you have a sequences that stands above the rest. With an entertaining cast of characters and a good premise, Escape Room should be a great addition to the horror/thriller genre, but missteps towards the end in order to set up unnecessary sequels damage a lot of good will. The first 2/3's of this film is good and it fumbles towards the finish line that might leave a sour taste in your mouth.

If you're a fan of You're Next, Ready or Not is right up your alley. Dysfunctional family drama wrapped up in comedic horror, Ready or Not serves up laughs, excitement and blood.

It is Grace and Alex's wedding day, but to be welcomed into Alex's family Grace must play a game. Each new member of the family must play a random game and Grace is given Hide & Seek. She laughs it off, but goes with it. She has to stay hidden until dawn or he loses. What she doesn't realize, is that her life depends on it.

Ready or Not is a smart and stylish thriller that has enough winks and nods to the audience, letting them in on the fun. The writers immediately find easy ways to seclude our lead character, cutting her off from the outside world. The setting is inside a mansion, complete with hidden doors for servants and dumbwaiters to hide in. This is all very "clue"-ish and to further make ties within the board game characters are picked off with certain weapons one might find in the game.

As the film progresses certain members of the family question their participation in the game. We are slowly given reasons as to why they feel the 'need' to complete this game with her death, but Alex does what he can to try and save her. This might cause some tension between family members, who seem inept at killing people resulting in some funny moments.

I do question if previous games played were simply games or if the stakes were as high. One character proclaims she had to play chess to get into the family. Was it just regular chess? They mention how they only have played Hide & Seek once before and seem nervous about it. Yet everyone seems guns-ho to get into kill mode.

The film takes aim at the rich and pulls no punches. Those with money are buffoons and their absurd games are inane. Ready or Not boasts stellar acting, slick direction and a strong script that supports the initial concept. Ready or Not is a lot of fun.

There is a lot to unpack with the second chapter of IT. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, this horror "epic" tries to cover a lot of ground, live up to insane expectations and stay true to a classic horror novel. For the most part the film delivers the goods, but it trips along the way to get to the finish line.

It's been 27 years since the Losers Club defeated the demonic clown known as Pennywise and they've all tried to move on with their lives as far away from Derry as possible. Mike decides to stay behind and research as much as he can about Pennywise in the event he should return. With the death of a young man at a carnival and a cryptic message written in blood, Mike soon discovers that Pennywise is indeed back and he must round up the losers once again in order to defeat Pennywise once and for all.

Since Mike is the only one who stays behind, he is the only one to retain his memories of Pennywise. Everyone else has seem to forgotten about him and their childhood in general. They might have moved away from Derry, but they can't seem to escape the damage their traumatic childhood as inflicted on them. Both Bev and Eddie have married people that represent their parental figures; Bev has an abusive husband while Eddie has an overweight and overprotective wife. This is further cemented by the fact that Molly Atkinson plays both his mother and his wife in the film. Bill becomes a famous author, but has trouble coming up with endings that aren't terrible (something King himself as been criticized for). Ben becomes a wealthy architect and loses a ton of weight, but doesn't seem to have a happy life. Finally Richie uses his sarcastic comedic tone in life to become a stand-up comic, but we soon find out that he doesn't write his own material, so he feels like he's living a lie.

Chapter 2 boasts a stellar cast and one that is pitch perfect casting for each character. Not only do the adult actors look exactly like their younger counter-parts, but they bring a sense of familiarity to the screen. They are believable and sympathetic and you want things to turn out well for them despite knowing that things most likely won't. With each character returning to Derry, they start to get their memories back. In order to defeat Pennywise, they must remember everything and we are treated to scene by scene "scares" that become a little redundant. It's almost as if Muschietti decided to throw everything that could be scary at the screen and hopes something sticks. He relies a little too much on CGI, which lessens the scare. He does lift a scene directly from Carpenter's The Thing and it works here more than I thought it would.

One of the things that made the first film a success was the chemistry between the kids and that chemistry transitions well for the cast now. McAvoy nails the stutter that resurfaces once he returns to Derry and Hader himself is the big stand out, delivering comedy and fear on a perfect balance. There is a moment of sheer terror involving Hader that is played perfectly which involves the Deadlights. While the film doesn't out right say that Richie is gay, there are a lot of clues to this, which further cements that he's currently living a lie when his comedy bits involve being married to a woman. We get a flashback scene with Richie at an arcade and he is scared off by being called numerous gay slurs by the town bully Henry Bowers. He runs away ashamed and sits at a bench in front of a giant statue of Paul Bunyan, the American version of a man's man. It then comes alive and attacks him and when we flashback to the present where Pennywise sits on his shoulder telling Richie he knows his secret. This adds bit of depth to someone who might be seen as simple comedic relief.

Another character that finds himself with more material is Mike. In the novel and the original mini series he is injured by Bowers and can't partake in the final showdown. That doesn't happen here and he gets the chance to try his theory of how to defeat Pennywise. With this change in his character I can't help but feel that Henry Bowers becomes rather useless. He doesn't have Pennywise talking in his ear manipulating him to be a tangible threat to the Losers. He had a purpose in the previous works but only eats up the running time here. For a film clocking in at 2 hours and 50 minutes, his story could have been completely cut and nothing would have been lost from the story. Easily saving the filmmakers 20 minutes making the film a bit tighter.

It: Chapter 2 feels bigger, but that doesn't make it better or scarier. With kids taking a backseat here, the fear does as well. We are not as scared as we were from Pennywise, but the one scene that does elicit the charm from the first film involves Pennywise luring a child under some bleachers. Simple and effective scene with two people talking. The more that Muschietti wants to throw weird on the screen, the less scary it gets.

The first line of dialogue spoken by our lead character is..."I can't stay long, I've got to poo." Ladies and gentlemen, I present John Travolta at his lowest. The Fanatic is such an odd movie that I don't know if I should be offended by the performance, hate myself for laughing at it or simply go for the ride and try to find some Tommy Wiseau level of trash in between the lines.

Moose is a movie fan and his favourite movie star is Hunter Dumbar. When a chance to get his autograph slips away from him, he goes a little off the deep end and becomes a stalker. Don't call him a stalker though, he hates that word.

I honestly don't know where to start. Do we begin with the wardrobe and make-up decisions John Travolta has? The fact that Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst is directing this film? Or how about the fact that Dumbar asks his son if he's ever heard of Limp Bizkit and then proceeds to blast some of their tunes? I couldn't believe that part actually happened. Can anyone be anymore self indulgent?

The story is told from Travolta's perspective, but there is narration from a third character. His friend who is a paparazzi. Why? Why are we being narrated by one person and seeing the film through the eyes of another? It's illogical. I guess they didn't want Travolta narrating due to the way he speaks. Moose is socially slow and has trouble comprehending day to day social cues. Some people may be offended by the performance or question whether it's okay to laugh at the ridiculousness on the screen.

Moose crosses the line when he trespasses and won't take no for an answer. Dumbar is immediately hostile to Moose when he sees him. All he wants is an autograph and Dunbar threatens him with violence. We are given no one to root for in this film. Both sides are wrong, both sides are ridiculous. The film doesn't know how to deal with the toxicity of extreme fandom, it feels hollow and one would go watch DeNiro and Snipes in The Fan instead.

The original film was your typical good guy not wanting any trouble, but finds it anyways when he tries to protect a young girl. The bad guys don't know how dangerous he is, but the audience does so we get to enjoy the death and destruction he brings upon those unwitting victims. I don't know who asked for a sequel to such a film, but we got one.

We open with a fight that serves no purpose on the story other than to show that Washington is bad-ass, something we already knew from the first film. We then get a montage of Washington being a lyft driver and when one girl enters his car, he recognizes the trauma she just endured from what looks like a bachelor party. Fight number two happens and it is yet again another sequence that has no affect on the story or plot. At this point it becomes very apparent that there was little to no story to tell here, so they open with an exciting fight scene and then we chug along until the producers think the audience is getting a little too sleepy and they throw in something to wake us up.

The story finally kicks in when someone is killed, but it is staged to look like a suicide. Melissa Leo and Pedro Pascal are sent to investigate and when she returns to her hotel room, she is killed. Washington takes it upon himself to get revenge on those responsible because they were friends. When the trailer for this film came out, I casually leaned over to my friend and predicted how it would end....ladies and gentlemen, it ended exactly how I predicted it. Not a good sign when the trailer gives away how telegraphed, generic and unimportant this film is.

One interesting sequence has Washington on the phone with a young guy who is in his apartment. The bad guys are coming to kill Washington, but he isn't there, it's just this kid. So Washington has to direct him where to go in the apartment to avoid the bad guys. Small bit of tension is sprinkled here and even though the sequence itself isn't anything to write home about, it stands out in an otherwise by the numbers flick.

While the film looks and acts the same as the original, the feeling is off. Maybe it was a lack of connection to the characters this time, but the revenge aspect didn't engage with me emotionally. The ending sequence changes this up a bit by having it take place outside during a Hurricane storm, but at that point you feel like you've been wasting a lot of your time.

This is the third time I've seen this movie and this was Tyler's pick. The first was in theatres because it looked like a funny movie and seeing Seth McFarlane uncensored by network television interested me. I went to a drive-in a week or so later and it was a triple feature; Ted was one of those movies. Still funny, but some of the humour still felt forced. This time around, nothing really changed. Ted is overall a funny movie and the VFX on the bear are quite good, but much like the more recent Sausage Party, the idea of a foul mouthed teddy bear might wear a little thin for some.

Original review here, my opinion has not changed.

This was my #1 film of 2016.

How far would you go to impress the girl of your dreams? Would you start a band and ask her to be in your music videos?

John Carney's Sing Street is his third feature that deals heavily with music and this one has the most heart. The film is a feel good fun filled time and I enjoyed every minute of it. The music is catchy, well written and performed. The performances are sweet and funny and this film is a must watch.

I do wish that Carney gave a bit more screen time to some of the band members, but at its core, this is a story about a boy falling in love with a girl and the lengths he'd go to win her heart.

Beautifully shot and a well crafted martial arts film that blew up in the West. Crouching Tiger has some really well balanced and choreographed fight sequences, specifically the two sequences involving Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. The first is when the sword is stolen and we get out first real glimpse at the gravity defy spectacle this film will be. The racing along the rooftops and walls is well done and has a heightened sense of magical realism to it. The fight that ensues with Yeoh trying her best to keep Ziyi on the ground is a great way to set up what is to come. The second time these two meet up and the most impressive fight in the entire film is when Yeoh has to constantly grab a new weapon off the shelf due to the sword Green Destiny destroying everything she picks up. The sequence is fast, elegant and showcases character development when you least expect it.

Some people might laugh at the walking on air sequences and sometimes it looks a little flimsy. I would imagine it would be 100 times better today with our technology. The only times I thought it was laughable were the medium close up on them, seeing their arms while they run gave off a Loony Tunes vibe.

If the overly long flashback was cut down several minutes, it would help with the run time. Some of it is beautiful to see, but it's these moments that drag out. Crouching Tiger paved the way for more asian inspired cinema making its way over here and I thank it for that.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

I liked Sing Street but didn’t love it. Maybe it’s because I didn’t like the music they played.

I imagine that would be a big part of it.

For some reason I didn't enjoyed this last Equalizer, I just didn't like it that much, but you managed to simplistically tell me why. Don't fell the same about the first one, I liked that one. I also didn't get why would they do a sequel, but they say people prefered the second film, so I guess that's the reason.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

For my own records:

Movie Chat Picks


Tyler
Going Overboard
PCU
Dance Till Dawn
North by Northwest
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
Ted
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Blues Brothers


Matt
Night of the Creeps
The Monster Squad
Deep Rising
Rear Window
Rudderless
Sing Street
Heathers


Astrid
Grosse Point Blank
Teen Witch
Fear
Shadow of a Doubt
Monster House
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dope

I'd consider this a classic teen comedy. Since it's September it was decided to have a Movie Chat Teen School Theme week and Bill & Ted made the cut.

For a film about two idiots, the film is smartly written and uses time travel to comedic heights that few films are able to do. Anchored by great performances that people usually overlook, Bill & Ted managed to stay in the pop culture relevance for a long time. We even have another film coming our way in 2020.

Most of the jokes still land and even though it is a product of its time, I feel like people can still enjoy this film today. It's absurd to just the right levels.

I remember seeing Bogus Journey more times as a kid, but have now seen Excellent Adventure more times as an adult.

I had always wanted to check out Heathers and when teen school theme hit, this was the perfect opportunity to knock it off my list. Added bonus, none of us had seen this film, so we were all fresh eyes.

Heather's is a dark and subversive comedy that would never get made today. Heck, they tried to make a television series just a few years ago and it was cancelled before it even aired. Teens, schools and killings are too topical these days in the states that it's hard to push a film looking at these topics through a darkly comedic yet introspective lens. Killing off other students and making them look like suicides is a tricky rope to walk on, but Heathers pulls it off with a dip into absurd comedy here and a dive into look at our culture there.

Heathers had a lot to say and people didn't seem to listen back then. It has since gained a cult following and is a film that people hear about before seeing it. Heathers know how to lampoon a demographic and how to talk to another.

I didn't know what to expect with Dope and I got something that deserved my attention years earlier. Dope is After Hours with a Boyz in the Hood spin, set during the day time and able to surprise you with a curveball or two. The third and final film in our Teen School Week.

Saying little about the plot, Dope manages to surprise at almost every turn. Based on the title one can suspect where the film might go, but the journey to get there is crazy, funny and unique. Not to mention it has a performance recognizing turn from Shameik Moore, aka Mile Morales. He carries the weight of the film on his shoulders and doesn't fault.

The soundtrack is pretty dope too.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

I linked to my October thread for that month and hope to catch up for November soon.

With a friend of mine seeing The Lighthouse and putting it at the top of her list of movies this year, she wanted to see what Eggers had done previously, so we watched The Witch. A family is outed from their community over religious differences and build their own home on some land near the woods. After their infant son disappears the family goes into a downward spiral and their daughter blames a witch from the woods.

I had to watch this one with subtitles as the characters spoke true to the times and dialect. It helped immensely and I know that he incorporates similar things to The Lighthouse. The Witch isn't scary, it's just a little unsettling. One by one this family falls apart and it's somewhat a slap to the face of religion, intentionally or not. With modern horror films relying on the classic jump scares and blood to entertain or incorporate "gotcha" moments, The Witch was a surprisingly refreshing slow burn of a film that eats away at you from the inside.

Hey Matt, vvhy is it called The VVitch instead of The Witch. VVell, back in the day, vvhich vvas a VVednesday, in order to save on typeface, they vvould simply use a double V instead of vvasting money on creating a W. Even the title stays true to the times....

Also...hell yeah thou wants to live deliciously.

Towards the end of November, we all picked one horror film. The three chosen films were The Witch, It and Dead-Alive aka Braindead. I only chose Braindead because neither of them had seen it and I wanted their take on what is considered the goriest film of all-time. It was indeed, to this day, super gross, but the humour helped alleviate some of those stomach woes. A Sumatran rat monkey from Skull Island is transported to a local zoo in New Zealand. It just so happened to bite an overbearing mother on the ankle. She slowly becomes infected with zombie like symptoms and infects other people. Soon, her son and the girl he loves must face off against an entire house of dead party guests.

I don't really have much else to add to what I've already said about this film. It's funny, it's odd, and it's fun. The version we saw had some deleted scenes added back in, which did change the pace up a bit, but it was still an overall enjoyable experience. I had to keep reminding them that this is an Oscar winning director making a film about zombies having sex and becoming instantly pregnant.

An entity of evil takes the form of a creepy clown and preys on the fear of children in the town of Derry. A group of kids who call themselves The Losers Club, must band together to defeat this evil before more kids go missing.

Still not scary, but still effective. Pennywise is a great villain, but the more we see of him the less scared we become. He works in small doses and when the CGI elements overtake the practical it becomes a little cheesy. This is only a small part of this film, but it seems to have multiplied in the sequel.

The kids are great, the make-up is creepy and the film does a decent job of adapting the book. It seems that Muschietti doubled down on the things that didn't really work in this film for the sequel which is a shame, but for the most part IT is an effective horror film.

I'm pleased that you chose Deep Rising for your weekly movie night, but I disagree that it's a bad movie. I'm sure my opinion is partly influenced by nostalgia, as it was one of my go-to rentals as a kid, but my enjoyment of it has never waned as an adult. I think it's a cool mish-mash of genres (horror, action, comedy, science-fiction). I love the setting. The cast play their parts well. Famke Janssen has always been an underrated beauty, and she was still in her prime in 1998. The image of the regurgitated dude has always stuck with me. The ending was equally memorable. I think the movie delivers B-movie monster thrills on a Hollywood budget.

The wannabe-Tarantino dialogue in the lobby scene at the beginning of Bad Times at the El Royale had me cringing, but once the mystery deepened and we slowly learned more about each character, I found myself loving every twist and turn. I was teetering between 3.5 and 4 stars when the oft-criticized last act arrived, but instead of being disappointed with it as many others were, I found myself mesmerized by Hemsworth's swaggering intensity. His Charles Manson with washboard abs had me questioning my sexuality almost as much as that picture of you in your wife's thong. The explosive finale was the exclamation point the movie needed to transition from very good to great. One of my favorites from 2018.

I rarely see you talk about classic films, so it's good to see you and your friends exploring Hitchcock. The scene on the roller-coaster is the only thing I remember from Fear. Sounds like we felt the same about Thoroughbreds, while I seem to like Monster House just a tad more. It held up well for me on a second viewing, thanks to the strength and camaraderie of the young cast, but I never found time to check out the sequel in theaters due to its length. I thought The Equalizer was rather dull and generic, and the sequel even more so. Dope is an underseen gem.

I've read numerous scathing reviews for The Fanatic, and each one has increased my interest in seeing the film. Despite clearly being a train wreck, people seem to be equally bemused and bewildered by it. Sounds like it might be headed for cult status like The Room and Troll 2.

It's a bad movie that I will watch over and over again. It's one of those last 90's action films that we simply do not see anymore, which is a shame.

Wait a minute....how did YOU see that picture.

The "classics" are definitely a blindspot for me. While I've seen my fair share, there are plenty of more for me to dive into. Any suggestions?

I honestly don't think it will reach that cult like status. There'e just something about it to me that will make it fall short of those labels.

Glad to see your review of this...I really liked this movie too.

Your review pretty much sums up my feelings about the movie. I think I gave it the same rating you did.

You've never seen Commando? Stop right now, let's watch it.

Those words were spoken by me when I found out my friend had not seen this classic 80's action romp. From the opening credits when the Schwarz is feeding a wild deer with his daughter Alyssa Milano, I think my friend was sold on the film. We hadn't even gotten to the classic one-liners of the film and she was already a fan.

Arnold looks immaculate here, glistening with sweat and painted on black war paint for his kill mode climax. Commando is the prime example I show people of a movie where every bad guys misses the hero and the hero literally mows down an entire fleet of henchmen. It's so absurd that it is comical. Was that intentional? Who knows, but it's funny to watch and entertaining as hell.

The writer of the film would have one big directorial credit to his name and that was Street Fighter, which is just as funny, but for completely different reasons. Mark L. Lester directed this film and also did Firestarter. Those would be his two most well known films as he has fallen to direct low budget trash since then.

Commando is a perfect 80's action popcorn movie that is essential viewing.

Shogun plays out like a video game. Take this character across the land to another location and fight bad guys along the way. As you progress further, the challenges get more difficult until you meet the "boss" and battle it out.

Shogun is an oddity, it is literally spliced together from two other films in a series, based on the Lone Wolf and Cub manga. Robert Houston acquired the rights to the films and edited this one together for American audiences. I have no idea why, but the result is a bloody tale that one would hope would encourage people to seek out the original series and watch them. I know I want to.

Shogun is bloody and the inspiration on Tarantino in his Kill Bill movies is undeniable. Tarantino isn't shy about this though as the Bride watches this film at the end of Vol. 2. The fight sequences are unique enough each time we encounter a new enemy that the film never feels stale.

I do wish that our lead would have more difficulty towards the end when he meets more masters in their own right. He never really seems to have trouble cutting people down. He has as much trouble fighting these masters as he does regular ninjas earlier in the film. It takes away from the suspense and the climax a little. The abrupt ending doesn't help either, there's no real time to let things sink in and settle. We get the end credits as soon as a fight is over. No time to digest things.

If you're looking for bloody sword play, appendages flying off the screen and a cute kid being pushed around in a cart...Shogun is for you.

I had never seen Willow before it was nominated to be watched by a friend of mine. It was his childhood fantasy movie much like Lord of the Rings are for a bunch of people today. It had elements I knew I'd like so why it took me so long to watch it is a mystery.

A prophecy about a child being the downfall of an evil sorceress makes her imprison all the pregnant women in the kingdom. When that specific child is born, she is whisked away to safety and eventually is found by Willow, a dwarf. He is tasked with taking the child back to the humans so they can care for her. Soon Willow finds himself on a real adventure, not only fighting for the child's life, but fighting for his own.

Val Kilmer is my boy and it's depressing to see him in his current state. Here he shows charisma, great comedic timing and a sense of adventure. He has really good chemistry with Warwick Davis, as does the rest of the cast. The special effects are decent for the time and the story takes a classic tale and continues to find entertainment value out of it. It really does feel like an adventure as the landscape we inhabit changes from forest to village to snowy mountains and castles.

I always felt like this was one of those weird one-off fantasy films that only a few people know about. It never became an epic series or really famous in the zeitgeist, so it fell to the shadows.

Why did this movie fail at the box office? Multiple reasons; it was released after the classic horror movie month of October, it has an overly long run time of 152 minutes and a bunch of people had no idea it was a sequel to The Shining. Doctor Sleep as a title doesn't really translate enough information to the audience as to what the film is about. This is a shame because Doctor Sleep does the impossible task of being it's own movie while simultaneously honouring the legacy of Kubrick's Shining. It had to walk that tight rope of adapting a book and a movie at the same time, Mike Flanagan does a marvelous job of it and I applaud him.

Danny is older now and the trauma from the Overlook has followed him home. He's become an alcoholic, just like his father. Moving from town to town, he finally settles in a small town in New Hampshire and meets Billy, who becomes his AA sponsor and gets him a job at a hospice where he uses his shine to help people pass on, giving him the moniker of Doctor Sleep. While his life is slowly coming back together, a young girl named Abra is showcasing unbelievable Shine powers, Danny senses this...but so do a traveling group of vampire like creatures that feed on people with Shine.

A lot of things work here while only a few things don't. I think the performances from everyone is aces, with McGregor managing to make the role his own. The real stand out is Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat, one of those travelling shine suckers. They refer to it as steam since when they suck the power out it looks like steam escaping the victims mouth. In one horrifying scene we see them torture and suck the steam out of a young boy. The steam is better when they suffer.

Characters from the original show up here, but they make the interesting choice of recasting them instead of digitally manipulating the actor to look like the original counter-part. It worked for me until freaking Elliott from E.T. shows up and immediately takes you out of the emotional and creepy moment. I don't know which choice would have been better, but the recent move to the digital manipulation I think would have made it less distracting.

The film changes the ending to the book and it becomes what people have criticized as fan service. I don't really see it that way as the logical conclusion would be to "go back". I do prefer the film as its own thing though, instead of being The Shining 2.0 towards the climax, but it doesn't detract from the overall film.

Mike Flanagan should be the go-to adaptation guy of King's work, he simply "gets it". Doctor Sleep deserved to be seen by more people and Flanagan is a filmmaker whose work I greatly enjoy.

I don't know if Doctor Sleep was to long or they just didn't do enough with the horror. My biggest issue was Mrs. Massey shows up four times and she just looks ridiculous. I don't know why it's so hard to make a naked old woman terrifying but in both this and It Chapter 2 they missed the mark.

When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator.

The best line ever. This movie especially brings me lots of remembrances, my father was a aficionado of this kind of films, we used to make saturday and sunday marathons. I though no one else watched that stuff, I remember the first time I listened to Liquid Swords by GZA, I walked out thinking I was a lot cooler then I first thought I was.

Faves of the thread- The Amityville Horror, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Grease 2, and Night Of The Creeps, in that order. If my dad posted on here he'd only talk about Steven Seagal flicks, though years back he always enjoyed Willow, which is unusual bc he doesn't watch other movies like that. The romance actually works in the story, I could buy it, between Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley as Sorsha.

In order to join the notorious Axe Gang, a young man and his best friend must do some terribly nasty things to some nice people. Through a series of unfortunate events, the Axe Gang stumble upon a small community and cause chaos with those who live there. This causes Kung Fu Masters who live in hiding to reveal themselves and save the people.

I loved this film when I first saw it and I love to report that I still think it holds up. The comedy is on point, hilarious and at times heartfelt. The film never takes itself too seriously, how could it when the characters act like they're straight out of Looney Tunes.

The fight choreography still works, even when dozens of axe wielding gang members attack at once. The film manages to hide the one by one fighters and make it seem like a genuine brawl. I particularly liked when two masters are brought in to take out the three in hiding. The film takes have a small misstep with the female relationship. It doesn't feel explored enough, but the bits it does show us deliver, at least for me they did.

Give this film a shot, it's over the top and ridiculous in the right kind of way.

One of those films that you think is cool when you're a kid, but realize it's mediocre at best when older. The Replacement Killers is a generic plot about an assassin who refuses to kill a target and becomes a target himself.

The directorial debut of Antoine Fuqua, who would later go on to direct Denzel Washington in a bunch of films, his efforts here show some flash but little substance. It's the perfect example of a Hong Kong film Americanized.

One of the things that surprised me was there was no romantic connection between our two leads and this is not a criticism. It's refreshing to see this, but on the down side there is no chemistry between them either. This was Chow Yun Fat's big American debut and I think the fact that he was starting to learn English at the time had a hand in his chemistry with Sorvino. Chow Yun-Fat would later go on to do the forgettable The Corruptor and Bullet Proof Monk.

When I look back on this film, it instantly becomes one of those forgettable 90's action films that we just don't get to see anymore.I'll let you decide if that's good or bad.

This film was nominated and I remember liking it. I find that I own the dvd and my IMDB rating was an 8.

What the hell was I thinking.

While the film is indeed self aware, it is also surprisingly boring and inept. What did I like about this movie? The action is your typical shoot-em-up style while the comedy is mostly misfires. This film came out a year after Boogie Nights , two years after Fear. Mark Wahlberg was a young up and coming actor and he sports hilariously bad red hair here. He continues to have that annoyingly soft spoken vibe and is creepy to watch make-out with a younger actress. He looks like he's trying to eat her face.

The absolute highlight of this film is Lou Diamond Phillips, he steals the show with his over the top scene chewing dumb bad guy. He think's he's cool and plays it up. I can see how he might be annoying to some, but I had a good time watching him here and he saves the film from being a complete dumpster fire.

Small props for it being filmed in my city and around the areas I go hiking.

Hop on the hate train everybody, but I didn't love this film.

Maybe it was the hype, maybe it was how long it took me to see it, maybe it's because I'm not familiar enough with Belushi, but The Blues Brothers did not hold my attention, didn't make me laugh and didn't have me tapping my toes.

It did have me checking my watch, nodding off for a split second and questioning why it's so beloved.

As a musical, it falls short. As a comedy, the laughs are slight chuckles. As a road movie, there was little camaraderie...yes I didn't get the friendship between these two. The acting on display is wooden, specifically from Aykroyd and the film just felt like an homage to blues and blues legends more than something of its own. Maybe years down the road I could appreciate it differently, but right now I'm in the overrated camp. Have a seat next to 2001, Raging Bull and The Master.

That's my hot take...come at me bro.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

No hate here. Never understood the appeal and, while I've not seen it in decades, I don't think anything will have changed.

I ran through the Lone Wolf and Cub series last year. After years of anticipation, I found them somewhat underwhelming. Despite each movie clocking in under 90 minutes, I thought they each dragged when the slicing-and-dicing ceased. The violence is beautifully filmed and I loved all the blood geysers. The "Cub" was also super cute, but the "Lone Wolf" and his one expression wore thin over the series. I haven't seen Shogun Assassin, but I'm hopeful that I'll like it more than any of the individual entries. From what I understand, it's mostly the second movie in the series spliced together with the introductory stuff from the first one, and the second movie was my favorite, so . . .

I remember watching Willow when I was very young. I have no idea if I liked it or not. I want to revisit it someday. Five stars (or popcorns, rather) is awfully high for Kung-Fu Hustle, but it is highly entertaining with its cartoon-style violence. I think I've seen The Replacement Killers but I'm not positive. That probably speaks to how generic it is. I think the love for The Blues Brothers is based more on nostalgia than the movie's quality. I enjoyed it more than you did, but I wasn't crazy about it. The never-ending car chase was the best part for me. Usually it annoys me when movies deviate a lot from the source material, but I found the Doctor Sleep book pretty weak, so I'm hoping the adaptation borrows more from Kubrick's vision than King's.

BTW, I watched Holmes & Watson recently and I found it surprisingly funny. I went back and read your scathing review again, but it's very non-specific. I really don't get the overwhelming hatred for that movie. Admittedly, I had very low expectations, but I kept waiting for it to start sucking, and instead found myself chuckling throughout. I guess I just have a high tolerance for stupidity.

I would say it's pretty faithful to the book until the third act when it goes more towards Kubrick's version. It's funny because lots of people seem to have issues with that third act claiming it's fan service.

It's probably non-specific because I fell asleep for a portion of the film. That's the issue with comedies. What's funny to one person might not be funny to another, thus it makes it incredibly hard to find that sweet spot. I found the cast to be rather boring and going through the motions, most of them not being funny. The chemistry between John C Reilly and Will Ferrell isn't as strong as their previous efforts. Everything about the film felt lazy to me. The concept of making fun of people in their specific time period with updated humour can be comical, but here it lacked any originality or punch. Maybe more jokes should have been about Sherlock himself and not just generic slapstick. It didn't "feel" like a Sherlock movie to me, it felt like a Will Ferrell movie in costume. Ralph Finnes is wasted as a comedic talent or a straight man. He's barely in the film and the characters seem to bounce around aimlessly through the run time.

The jokes didn't work for me, the "selfie" moment was one that stood out as really bad or when the bees escape. But if someone laughs at the comedy, then they're having a good time. Glad you got something out of it that I didn't.

The Skulls is a pure 90's film that came out in the year 2000. It wants to be slick and cool, but it is hilariously bad for all the wrong reasons. I remember thinking the film was boring when I first watched it when it came out and this recent re-watch did nothing to change my mind.

Joshua Jackson wants to be part of an elite club known as The Skulls. They are an illuminati type organization that don't follow the rules, or even laws for that matter. The only laws they obey are the ones they give themselves. Also wanting to join is Paul Walker, he has it easy though because his father is already part of the group. To get in they need to accomplish some college/university style pranks and then let the group freaking brand them on the wrist with a giant skull. Nothing says secretive organization than a giant branded skull on your wrist. Don't worry though, they're given watches to cover them up. Which they put on immediately...don't worry about any infection or anything either. Logic does not exist in this movie.

The stupidity continues when Jackson's best friend all of a sudden decides that he becoming a skull is a huge problem for him. This guy knew Jackson wanted to be a skull forever, so when he finally joins the team he storms off in a huff. Then this wannabe journalist friend of his goes on to "investigate" the organization. This leads to his untimely death and Jackson's dilemma of staying with the group or revealing their secrets.

Wooden acting, inept writing and flat direction with really weird flashback style lighting throughout the entire movie, The Skulls should remain a faint memory to those who've already seen it and a distant one for everyone else.

A feel good movie about hockey and since I live in Canada, I guess I have to love it, right? While the film is indeed a few good comedy centred around hockey, the film doesn't showcase any real exciting moments on the ice. It's a shame because the film does a decent build up to the "big game".

A small town hockey team is written about in a newspaper and a game is quickly set-up between them and the New York Rangers. Can this rag tag team of nobodies keep up with professionals?

Mystery, Alaska is pleasant, funny at times and well intentioned, while it lacks exciting ice sequences it makes up for it with the dedication it gives to the small town life and the characters that inhabit it. The film works mainly because of the cast, they all work well together, have fun and are believable...even Russell Crowe. Despite his lack of ice skating skills, you does well as the old-timer Sheriff who still wants to skate with the young kids. Burt Reynolds plays his usual curmudgeon self and a "that-guy" cast of characters fill out the rest.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

i like the Truth or Dare film

There is a scene in this film where a wealthy woman sits in the back seat of a car, with her bare feet up on the headrest of the passenger seat. Her feet are one seat over from her driver's face, he makes no issues of it. Yet she gets a whiff of his "smell" and immediately must open her window and look away in disgust. He catches this act, but doesn't say anything about it. You can't help but feel bad for the man, but then you remember why he is there and what he's doing and you find yourself at odds for who you want to "cheer" for in this gripping thriller that is this year's best film.

Bong Joon-ho has crafted a tense thriller that clearly divides the line between wealth and poverty, but blurs the lines between the characters on either side. A father, his wife and two children con their way into the home of a wealthy family by becoming their maid, driver, tutor and instructor. It seems simple enough, but Joon-ho injects Parasite with bone chilling imagery and intense sadness that leaves you not only gripping your seat by the climax, but days after you've seen it, you'll still be talking about it. Just when you think you know where the film is going, one stormy night a knock at a door changes everything.

As with his previous films, Joon-ho balances odd comedy with eye popping horror. In Snowpiercer you have masked men hacking people to bits with meat cleavers, but slipping on fish in a three stooges manner five seconds later. He brings some of that mentality here and you can't help but chuckle at some scenes, then immediately hold your mouth in fear/shock mere moments later. It's such a weird balancing act that very few people can pull it off.

As he does with Snowpiercer, we have a class warfare piece where we see how each side of the city lives. One house has massive glass windows that look out onto their perfectly kept lawn. The other home has flood waters crashing in, toilets erupting and people pissing in their window view. In one moment of brilliance we get a sequence where the family must vacate the rich family's house like cockroaches and they descent down the city to their home. Each shot is the family literally going down steps, deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the city until they reach their destination. It's some depressingly beautiful cinematography.

Parasite is this year's best film and one you shouldn't miss.

I remember watching this as a kid and feeling underwhelmed. What kind of reaction would I have more than 20 years later? Hilarity. The Phantom wants to be this rollicking Indiana Jones superhero adventure, but no one involved really has the talent to pull it off.

The Phantom is the protector of the jungle? So it makes sense he would wear a purple spandex fitting outfit. Megalomaniac Xander Drax is looking for 3 skulls that would give him unlimited power, which is represented by a single laser he must point at people while holding all three skulls. The Phantom, along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer must work together to stop him.

Drax is played by Treat Williams, the only person who understands the material and is having a blast hamming it up. He holds the skulls while everything around him explodes and he has a giant smile on his face while he yells "AMAZING!!!" "UNBELIEVABLE!!!". He's like a kid in a candy store. This film was an attempt to make Billy Zane a thing, so that obviously failed. I wonder how this film would have affected Bruce Campbell's career had he gotten the role instead.

Written as a comedy, shot and acted as a serious film, The Phantom is a perfect movie to watch with friends and have a good laugh at. Nothing in the film makes sense and the action sequences look straight out of a Universal stage show. Let's get that remake train going, shall we?

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

Awesome review, I agree, this is the best movie of the year.

Scorsese gets his opportunity to tell his "closing" gangster film in what many consider a swan song for a lot of these guys. Scorsese has no intention of slowing down or stopping, but if he did I'd be content with this being his last film. It's a reflective movie and one that they could only really make at this point in their careers. With that being said, it does show the cracks under the cgi masks when you have a 70+ year old man trying to look and act younger. The de-aging might be passable, but having someone "act" younger is a harder thing to do. Seeing DeNiro try his best to beat up a grocery clerk is a little embarrassingly distracting.

I find it hard to watch movies late at night at this point in my life. Working all day, coming home to a couple kids and having very little time to myself, mainly from 9:00 pm on. So when I sat down to watch this 3 and a half hour epic at 9pm, I half expected to turn it off mid way and finish the next day. Much to my surprise I watched the entire thing in one sitting, engrossed with the performances, pacing and story. Yes, it's is a long movie and you can sense that throughout, but it doesn't 'feel' long. I never checked to see how much time was left or wondered about it. I was in their world, part of their lives.

Everyone involved are bringing their A-game. It's nice to see Pesci back in film and subverting everyone's expectations of him. You expect him to explode at any minute, since we are used to this in his previous performances (Goodfellas, Casino, Home Alone). Yet he never does so much as raise an eyebrow. It's almost unsettling. Why is this man so calm all the time? That makes him scarier. Pacino seems the most lively here, with the most pep in his step as he finally got the chance to work with Scorsese and it flows nicely.

This is the anti-Goodfellas. It doesn't indulge in the lifestyle, it reflects on it. You expect Scorsese to give us an epic tracking shot to a memorable soundtrack when someone is about to get whacked...but we never get it. He starts it off, but ends before the pay-off. I found the denouement with DeNiro going through the motions of finding a plot, paying for a casket, tidying up loose ends in life...hauntingly real. I've spent some time in old-age homes and seeing DeNiro sitting there with no one to see him made me reflect on my own grandparents. Here is a guy who had a wild life, responsible for some crazy things, being just another old person in a home where someone else takes care of him. Surprisingly made me wish I got to know more about my grandparent's life when they were younger.

The Irishman is long, but I have no qualms about it. It sets out to tell a different type of crime story and achieves it. This isn't Scorsese falling back on a genre he's comfortable with, it's Scorsese being reflective on his career. The Irishman is one of this year's best films.

I have yet to see some heavyweights, such as The Lighthouse, Uncut Gems, 1917, Joker, Knives Out. I doubt any of those would knock Parasite from the top spot though.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

Same for me, Parasite is pretty steadily #1

It's funny seeing a modern update on an old story feeling old itself. I'm sure gifting VCRs to people for Christmas felt expensive back then, but it got a decent chuckle out of me this time.

This modern re-telling ups the cynicism in the Scrooge character, making the film have to work extra hard to get us to care about him towards the end. For the most part the film succeeds and that could be due to Murray. I still feel there is a cold calculating menace beneath his exterior waiting to burst out at any moment, but the last sequence is joyous enough to make me hide that notion deep down as well.

This is a Holiday classic that I've revisited numerous times.

A zombie Christmas musical...you don't get many of those.

While I applaud the effort, the comedy bits fall short and the musical numbers aren't very memorable. As I'm writing this I can't remember any of the songs. They work enough in the moment of the story, but have no 'staying power'. The story is pretty straight forward: Survive The Zombies.

Ripping off bits from Shaun of the Dead, specifically when Anna wakes up in the morning and goes about her morning routine without noticing the carnage all around her, most of the film lacks bite, for a lack of a better word. I wanted it to hit harder with almost everything. I couldn't help but feel a tad bored by it, which is not something you want for a zombie film...a musical...a Christmas themed movie...let alone all three wrapped up in one. In the hands of a more polished director, this could have been something special. I can see it possibly getting some kind of cult like status in the near future, but that's the film hoping for the best.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

After reading your Endgame review, I'm curious about your favorite superhero flicks.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

In retrospect, Anna and the Apocalypse definitely feels like the kind of movie that's trying to force a cult following and the people who first got to see it at festivals were all too willing to indulge that. As a result, finally getting to see it was quite underwhelming.

Why is that?

I'll have to look at the "superhero" genre as a whole and make some sort of list.

Re: Suspect's 2019 Movie Watch List
 

Just curious. You wrote a great review for it. You made a lot of the same points I did, but gave it four stars as opposed to my five. It's the second-highest rated superhero flick on my list, first being Avengers, so I'm curious if there are any five-star superhero flicks for you.

I'm amazed by the overwhelming popularity of Parasite. It's currently the highest rated film of all-time on Letterboxd, which is obviously going a little overboard, as I don't even think it's Joon-ho's best film. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about Parasite. I caught it in theaters a few months back, and I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I underrated it by only giving it 3.5 stars. I still think about several scenes on a weekly basis. There's a ton of subtext to mine from the film, and I imagine that applies even more if you're familiar with the economic situation in South Korea; yet the film's themes are also universal, as it clearly resonates with people from all different backgrounds. Besides that, the film is also just incredibly compelling, entertaining, suspenseful, unpredictable, and sporadically amusing, and I also admired how dark it ends up getting. As you mentioned in your (great) review, the film really takes a turn after that knock on the door one stormy night.

The Skulls never looked like something I'd like, so I've never bothered with it. Watched Mystery, Alaska on a plane a long time ago and just thought it was a routine inspirational sports movie. It's probably going to be awhile before I devote half my damn day to watching The Irishman, but you're not the first to mention that the mammoth run-time goes by relatively fast. (You're also one of many to mention how unconvincing it is to watch De Niro beat up a dude, so I'm really curious about that particular scene.) Scrooged is solid. I'd planned on watching Anna and the Apocalypse this past Christmas, but never got around to it, so I now might as well wait until next December. I watched The Phantom in my youth and remember thinking it was terrible even at an age when I was easily impressed. Been curious about revisiting it just to see Billy Zane in that ridiculous costume again riding around on a white horse or whatever the hell he does in that movie.