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Megalopolis (2024)
A Confusing Masterpiece
Of all the things that can be said about it, this is undoubtedly a piece of art from one of the finest masters in the genre. It's difficult to describe, and that may be the point.
It's based on an ancient Roman event and treated like a modern day spin of an ancient Greek opera. It's packed with subtext from the obvious to the obscure. Comparing current day America to the Roman Empire right before its collapse is inspiring, like substituting Madison Square Garden for the Colosseum. It requires paying close attention and even then a lot of stuff doesn't seem to make much sense. It's not sloppy like a poorly made movie, but something purposely convoluted like an arthouse film. There's so much going on and so much that isn't explained or concluded, ultimately left to the audience to figure out.
The cast is amazing. This is one of the most complex and dynamic roles Adam Driver has done, and he absolutely nails it. It's nice to see Giancarlo Esposito play someone other than the villain. Aubrey Plaza chews up the scenery. Shia LaBeouf disappears into the role. Talia Shire gives a touching performance.
The film looks amazing. Stylized and not quite realistic. The scenes atop the clock high above the city are the best looking. Considering that Coppola hasn't done a special effects heavy movie before, he does an amazing job with it here.
Ultimately, it's a movie that cannot be accurately described, only experienced. Like any piece of art, it will undoubtedly inspire discussion on its meaning and themes for a long time to come.
Transformers One (2024)
A Fine Prequel
A fine movie on its own that works as a fitting throwback to the classic animated series. It'll be sure to entertain kids with its bright colors and goofy characters. Adults will be bored until the classic Transformers action starts.
The story works but is overly familiar. Nobodies who dream of bigger things suddenly find themselves upending society. It was fresh back when Dreamworks did Antz but grew stale when every young adult story did the same exact thing. That plot is done better than some recent attempts like Disney's Wish. The real draw for the movie is the brotherly friendship between Orion Pax and D-16 as they slowly become Optimus Prime and Megatron. This is where the real heart of the movie lies. Little touches like the Decepticon symbol being a sticker Orion gives D-16 really builds on that, making their inevitable falling out that much more meaningful.
The cast is fine, though I wish they used traditional voice actors rather than celebrity voices. Chris Hemsworth and Scarlet Johansson work fine, but it's hard not to think of their Marvel roles. Keegan-Michael Key is doing a more annoying version of his usual shtick, which they kind of make fit the character but it doesn't fit with his much more beloved live action version. The two standouts are Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron and Steve Buscemi as Starscream. Henry's experience on the Spider-Verse movies makes for better voice acting here. He bounces well off Hemsworth during the early periods when he's D-16 but definitely morphs into that classic Frank Welker style Megatron by the end. And Buscemi fits perfectly into the voice of Starscream showing those early power-hungry signs.
The animation is a mixed bag. The scenes set in Iacon City and the mines feel a little cheap, like it was animated for a Saturday morning cartoon. Everything's a bit too shiny and neat, not really lived-in. The planet's surface is designed better, having a more natural look. It just doesn't quite match what Pixar and Dreamworks are doing, and considering Spider-Verse and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem are upping animation so drastically this really looks dated. I will say that the final battle in the third act look really impressive. There's a lot on screen but the filmmakers know where to keep the audience focused.
At times this feels like the pilot for an animated series, much like Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It's obviously meant for younger kids, not always finding the right balance to keep parents and older fans interested. It takes a while for it to get going, but takes off once it does. But the ending works so well and holds so much promise for more to come.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
A Fine Sequel Given the Series
This is the weakest of that original realistic series and probably should have been the end as intended. The series, while never particularly high quality, made its name in gruesome realism. This was the last of those original gritty sequels and should have been the end as intended. It works fine on its own even if it doesn't match the first three.
It has all the elements of what made the Friday the 13th movies memorable, they just don't quite work as well as the first three. There's plenty of kills but not the suspense and a lot less gore. There's plenty of victims killed in different and creative ways, but they're all one-note. Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover are the most memorable more because they went onto better movies later. The series always used nudity just for the sake of it, but this one ups it to ridiculous levels. It's also obvious that this was filmed in Southern California as it does nothing to actually show off the surrounding nature like the first two did.
Then again, it's pretty good compared to the subsequent sequels and most other 80s slashers. It does at least try to make the characters memorable before offing them. There's a lot of good kills. The effects we do get to see are all fantastic, due to make-up legend Tom Savini returning. The next sequel was too silly and the other sequels took a supernatural turn until the remake, so this is the last of the realistic series. Slashers always worked better the more real things seemed, so this one served as the last of its kind before the weird set in. And if it had been the end of the series as originally intended, it would have been a fine finale as it does bring some things back around.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Fun but Flawed Sequel
The long-awaited sequel has a lot to enjoy and a lot of problems keeping it from greatness. Original film fans will enjoy the returning characters and their progression, but the story is a mess.
The three returning actors are all terrific. Michael Keaton is the obvious standout. Like his return as Batman in The Flash, he slips back into the role like he never left. He brings all that same energy that made the role so iconic to begin with. I like how Delia and Lydia's characters are progressed. Catherine O'Hara still has that yuppie narcissism from the original but is has more of a softer side. Winona Ryder plays a similar mother to her Stranger Things role just with a goth side.
I'm disappointed with how the movie handled Charles Deetz. I get Jeffrey Jones wasn't going to return due to his legal issues, but the character was one of the good guys. This movie goes out of its way to disrespect Jones that it hurts Charles with an over-the-top death. It doesn't help that the movie similarly killed off Astrid's father also off-screen in another over-the-top way, almost like the movie has a thing against fathers.
Of the new characters, Jenna Ortega's Astrid has it best even if it's too close to her Wednesday Addams role. She has the most story and character development from doubting the events of the first movie to meeting a boy her age and then getting swept up in the supernatural. I wish the movie focused more on that, instead it gets lost in the sea of other subplots. I don't know why every single legacy sequel has to turn the original characters into bad parents whose kids hate them, but it has become an annoying cliche that Hollywood needs to stop.
The other new actors do what they can, but their characters aren't given much to do. Willem Dafoe's actor turned afterlife cop is lots of fun, but could have been written out and not be missed. The rest are pretty one-note. It's telling when Bob, a voiceless character with a shrunken head, is more interesting to watch than Lydia's boyfriend or Beetlejuice's ex-wife.
The main problem is that there are simply too many stories going on and none of them tie together in the end. And it spends too much time in the zany afterlife rather than living world. The first film had a simple plot and only used the afterlife sparingly. This film feels like several episodes of the animated series mashed together. Individual stories are fun but too often disappear for long stretches while it develops another. Besides concluding at the same physical location, none have much to do with the each other. There are also times a scene will just go on too long, like Charles' funeral or the wedding musical number. Someone should have exorcised the excess from the script.
Tim Burton continues killing it as Hollywood's most visually distinct director. Just like the first, the living world is a Norman Rockwell painting come to life while the afterlife is German expressionism pushed to the extreme. The cartoon's influence may have hurt the story but not the visuals. I also love how the visual effects continue that classic stop-motion look of the original rather than obvious CGI as it maintains continuity between films, something I wish the last two Ghostbuster movies did more of.
Danny Elfman delivers another knockout score. There's just something extra special when he does a Tim Burton movie, like when John Williams works with Stephen Spielberg. Just like Batman Returns, Elfman keeps the main themes every fan loves while also bringing something new. The 70s pop songs are fun, though they don't quite hit the same as the original film's use of Harry Belafonte.
Like Deadpool and Wolverine, there's too much good stuff to just dismiss the movie as a pointless sequel but too many problems to equal the original. I certainly enjoyed it enough that I wish there would be a third film coming soon, but also too much wasted potential to be memorable thirty years later like the first.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Technically Good Mess of a Story
The longer the movie goes on, the worse it gets. It has promise, and the trailers certainly sold it. But it reminds me of the two worst Alien movies. Like Alien Resurrection, it's technically well done and has all the elements that should work but don't. Like Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, it's a collection of remade scenes from better Alien movies that comes across like a well-made fan film.
There is stuff to like. The visuals are amazing. The shots of space are the best in the series. There's a lot of extra attention paid to the ship drifting through space, the station, and the planetary rings. The sets are gorgeous, perfectly capturing the classic look and feel of the original film using old school tech. The practical alien effects mostly look good. It balances that fine line between audiences already knowing what they look like and keeping them mysterious and creepy.
Between this and 2022's Prey, it's disappointing that Disney's 20th Century Studios is just rehashing the original stories rather than give something new. Almost everything has a sense of been there, done that. The story is basically the same as the original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But this feels more like rehashing rather than homage. It's like a Greatest Hits collection by a cover band. It works, but why bother when the original stuff is so readily available and done so much better. They even threw in the "Get away from her..." line from Aliens. Throwbacks worked in the cheesy AvP movies but not in something trying to be serious.
There's really only two truly original moments worth noting. The first is when the characters try to get through a room full of facehuggers without being noticed. The reasoning behind this is dubious at best, but it is suspenseful. Except for the fact that the facehuggers look like the kind of animatronics that would appear in a Disneyland line queue. The other is the Zero-G sequence. I wish this had more than just the act one set up and third act pay off, since it's really an inventive idea. It throws the aliens off giving the characters an advantage, and getting through a tunnel filled with floating acid would be suspenseful. Except that the CGI in this one scene looks really fake.
I do like how they connected the events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant to the original Alien. Given the lackluster reception to the last two, it would've been easy to just ignore them and move on. This at least provides some closure on Ridley Scott's last two for those who did like them. And it connects to why the company wants the alien beyond just a bioweapon.
There's only one character that's interesting, Andy the defective android. He starts off mentally handicapped who is nice but is upgraded with the local science officer's chip making him effective yet part of the corporate machine. It's an interesting dynamic having the characters decide between the good but broken and the evil but effective versions. Rain is the main character, but the blandest heroine this series has produced. She's literally only there cause the others need Andy. The rest are basically characters straight out of an 80s slasher film. The dull heroic type, the jerk who just makes things worse, the pregnant girl who has no personality, and the Asian cannon fodder girl. The first three did a good job developing the cast so it was shocking when one died. But here it's pretty obvious who isn't making it.
The biggest problem with the cast is that none of them are really believable. The series, aside from AVP:R, has always featured more mature characters who generally made smart decisions. It's hard to buy this cast as a bunch of grizzled miners who have worked 1400+ hours. And they make really dumb Friday the 13th level decisions. Like in the finale when Rain goes back into the alien nest just to save someone who should be dead when she was in the clear. It's trying to have its Aliens finale without understanding what went into it. The actors are serviceable, but never portray the sheer terror that's needed for this series.
The legacy character cameo is, like the movie, technically well done but a terrible bit of story. Resurrecting Ian Holm seems like an interesting idea, and would have if it had been just a cameo. But he becomes central to the plot and is featured far too much. Beyond nostalgia bait, there's no reason not to just use another actor to be an entirely new android. The animatronics used for the puppet looks really good, and Daniel Betts does a near perfect job recreating the voice. It's like the Dr. Loomis cameo in Halloween Kills.
Then there's the other legacy cameo, the original alien. This has the unfortunate side effect of rendering everything Ripley did pointless. It then raises a bunch of questions the movie doesn't bother to address. Why is the Nostromo still so intact? How did the alien go from being vaporized in the shuttle's engines to being cocooned? How did the station get eggs from a single drone? Why is there now a pupae stage? How long is the development cycle? Stuff like this makes it seem like the script was a collection of moments that where later tied together.
And finally there's the horrible ending. It's the ending that really makes or breaks a film. For all the grief fans give Alien 3, it's hard not to find the last scene poignant with Ripley giving her life to end the alien threat once and for all. Instead of doing anything interesting, this film goes for a nearly beat-for-beat remake of the finale to Alien Resurrection. The absolute worst of the series. The one that fans remember more for Sigourney Weaver making a basketball shot than anything else in the film. They could have stole an ending from literally anything. But they chose to give us another alien-human hybrid that is just as dumb and somehow looks even worse.
I was really looking forward to this. Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead is an amazing reboot and I was hoping this would follow suit. But like James Mangold's Indiana Jones, there's just something lost when a great director tries to make lightning strike twice under Disney's leadership.
Twisters (2024)
A Fun Throwback
A fun throwback that captures much of what made the original film so enjoyable. It provides enough of the first film's thrills and adds some new stuff to work on its own.
The movie certainly delivers what it promises: characters chasing tornadoes and small towns being destroyed. Just like the original, it's a a bit more complex than that. But it's nice to see a modern movie without so many of those modern movie problems. Besides a brief mention of tornadoes getting worse there's no talk about climate change leaving the story to just focus on the characters and situation.
The main characters are smart, flawed, and well developed. Kate is the new Helen Hunt, trying to overcome a past trauma. Tyler the new Bill Paxton, the charming guy who knows his stuff. Javi the new Cary Elwes, the corporate guy trying to get his own project going. I did think it was interesting that this time the main character starts off on the corporate side and the band of misfits would be seen as the problem. The side characters are less interesting. The original had a fun cast of supporting characters who all stood out in their own small way. The minor characters in this one don't have the same interest. The YouTube chasers are quirky but don't do anything to stand out. There's none of that friendly banter that fleshes out their backstory.
The main story starts off well but loses it in the third act. It starts off with trying to get a new system to analyze tornadoes working, a good continuation of the first film's Dorothy Sensors. Unfortunately, it eventually abandons this to focus on stopping tornadoes using a chemical process. The problem there is that it begins stretching believability and opens up logistical problems. The real world is constantly upgrading how we understand things, but stopping a tornado is like stopping an earthquake or the tides and is a bit much for what is otherwise a believable story.
The special effects are terrific. It continues the first film's respect for nature, having plenty of beautiful shots of potentially dangerous storms. The effects of the original still hold up, and this look just as good. The visual effects know when to keep the tornadoes shrouded in mystery and when to show them off.
I do generally like that the movie doesn't resort to blatant nostalgia bait to sell the movie, instead standing on its own. Too many legacy sequels are obsessed with recapturing the glory days rather than forge its own thing. That being said, I wish the movie had a few more connections to the first. The opening scene has a Dorothy V, which is a nice touch. But little else connecting the two movies. There was a perfect moment when Kate goes back home for a legacy character moment. Hunt, Jami Gertz, or anyone would've been fitting, the idea of someone passing the torch to a new generation. Maybe another sequel will connect Tyler in some way.
The original Twister came out when disaster movies were making a comeback, and movies could be sold on simply but entertaining stories and good visual effects. While not perfect, this one does a good enough job bringing that back to modern audiences. Hopefully a third film will continue the good work and fix those few problems.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
15 Years in the Making
This one is the weakest in the Deadpool series but also has so much to enjoy. It's more like the swan song of the Fox X-Men series rather than an MCU entry.
First the bad. It's pretty tame compared to the first two Deadpool movies. It may be because it's now under the official Disney-Marvel banner, or maybe it's because the Writers and Actors strikes during development. Whatever the reason, it seems like it's pulling its punches. It still has plenty of bite, but there's some obvious stuff the movie avoids going after.
Already, some of the worst of the MCU is bleeding in. Mostly, that it relies too much on other works. Don't know the entire history of Marvel movies including undeveloped ones then the cameos don't feel special. Some of the stuff can go over the heads of casual fans. Didn't see Loki on Disney+? Then a lot of the second half won't make any sense. Deadpool has always used references to other Marvel work, but this is the first time it's necessary to the plot to know this stuff.
Sadly, the supporting cast seems to have been tossed aside. There's the party scenes that bookend the movie, but they're entirely gone. None of the fun interactions with Colossus, Negasonic, Dopinder, etc that made the first two so much fun. There's a moment that seems like a set-up to a side story about them rescuing Wade, but nothing comes from it.
The movie doesn't have the emotional core that the earlier two did. The first was a love story and the second about family. They had personal stakes. This one is about the destruction of the universe, which is big but lacks that personal touch. It also doesn't connect to the end of the second film as far as where the characters are. Too much of the in-between has to be explained when it would've been easier to just rewrite some scenes.
There are two villains, but neither are interesting. Both seem to do whatever furthers the plot but not what makes sense. Neither have a plan that seems thought out, just to make the most problem at any given moment. The previous two had great conflicts, and this points to that lack of personal stakes.
And finally, the Multiverse. Marvel and DC Comics have made great use of alternate realities, What Ifs, and possible futures. The movies not so much. I love seeing Patrick Stewart, Michael Keaton, and Tobey Maguire back in costume. But bringing back beloved actors, and occasionally listening to fan castings, seems to be the extent of what the movies are doing. The Deadpool Corps are also wasted. The idea of dozens of alternate Deadpools coming together should be cinematic gold. Instead they're mostly treated as cannon fodder.
Now the good. The titular duo are amazing together. Reynolds and Jackman know how to bounce off each other. Both are in perfect form, showing the kind of rapport that's straight out of the comics. This is a team up that's been fifteen years in the making, and it doesn't disappoint in that regard. Though it's definitely more Wolverine's movie. It acknowledges how terrific Logan is, but gives this new Wolverine plenty of depth in what might be the best example of having its cake and eating it too.
The movie does for the X-Men movies what No Way Home did for Spider-Man. It expertly includes the previous movie into the MCU while making a great case for their continuation. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies are the reason the MCU even exists so it's nice to see them treated so lovingly.
Just like the original Deadpool did, the movie expertly brings the R rating to the MCU. In fact, there's more blood, swearing, and carnage than the other Deadpool movies. The only thing I know they couldn't do is hardcore drug use, and this makes for some fun scenes with Blind Al. This may be under the family friendly Disney banner, but Marvel seems to realize it's best for some franchises do their own thing.
Deadpool has always had fun with Easter eggs, cameos, and references. This one more than most. The fight at the 20th Century Fox logo being a big one. It brings back a lot of characters from the franchise, and some from others like the Russian guy from the Thomas Jane Punisher movie. It may be more in-your-face than the previous two, but it's a lot of fun for the hardcore fans.
This one feels like Avengers: Endgame. Too many problems to really match up to the previous entries, but too much good stuff to be bad. The MCU has been in a rough spot, but if anything this movie proves that Marvel can acknowledge that and work to fix it. Hopefully this won't be the last we see of Deadpool and Wolverine.
Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
Two Good Stories Not Well Integrated
It's really two good movies put together that don't really mesh well. One is a standard rom-com set against the Apollo 11 launch. The other is a fun look at the supposedly fictional fake moon landing. Each is well done and interesting on its own, but they're not integrated well.
There's nothing about the rom-com story that is all that new. In fact, all the characters are pretty standard for stories like this.
It's the faked landing story that's the real meat of the story. I wish this was the entire movie and not just something they introduced in the second half.
All of the actors are good and well cast. The standouts are Channing Tatum as the overly serious NASA guy and Scarlett Johansson as the wily con-artist turned media specialist. They may not be Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, but they play well off each other. They're at their most fun one-upping each other, though Kelly is often played as too smug.
Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson are great in their supporting roles. Romano has some of the more heartfelt moments. Harrelson has some of the funniest. Of course, it's Jim Rash as the self-absorbed film director who steals the movie. He upstages everyone every time he's on screen.
The film looks good. The stuff film at the actual Cape Canaveral is gorgeous, and the classic buildings are shot with plenty of reverence. The launch itself looks great, even if it doesn't quite match the spectacle of 1995's Apollo 13.
It's a good movie for what it is. It's entertaining and well-made. But it would've been better if the two stories were more integrated or if it was split into two separate movies.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
Better Than Most Legacy Sequels
This is one of the better legacy sequels and at least better than the third movie. It's a fun movie to watch that brings the classic gang back together. Though it's a lot of just copying the better movies.
There's not a lot new, even the music is just the iconic stuff from the first two. The Heat-style shootout and the helicopter chase are both standout sequences and offer something different.
Eddie Murphy is still in top shape. He easily slides back into the role, though he's missing that iconic laugh. He can still effortlessly talk his way out of anything. It's nice seeing both Rosewood and Taggart back, the latter skipping the third movie. They too slip easily back into that banter that made them so lovable. It's just a shame that Judge Reinhold and John Ashton look really old, and they spend too much of the movie apart.
Paul Reiser is good, though he's saddled with trying to do Gil Hill's Inspector Todd role. Bronson Pinchot is always fun, but like the third movie he isn't necessary.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the best new addition. He feels like the kind of modern version of Rosewood the story needs. He's got some great banter with Axel.
Taylour Paige is fine in her role as Axel's daughter. But the character is burdened with the kind of legacy character's child story every single other movie has done. Why does every studio feels the need to make every lovable character into a terrible parent? Han Solo, Laurie Strode, Indiana Jones. Do all Hollywood writers need to talk to a therapist about their parental issues?
Kevin Bacon does his usual good work as the head of gang of corrupt cops. But his character is the most forgettable villain in the series.
It recaptures the magic better than most, but it still is a few decades late.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It
Another solid entry in the franchise, even if it doesn't match the first two. It gives us more of what made the series so entertaining, though it offers nothing new.
The story is good, focusing on the early days of the invasion and learning about how the aliens operate. Though it's nothing that a hundred other apocalyptic movies have done. The movie's biggest drawback is that it doesn't do anything the previous two haven't done. Sneaking around silently, accidentally bumping something, using ambient noise to talk, etc.
The city setting and the fact that there's so many of the aliens does change the film's mood, but it's all the same situations. It's really the characters and actors who make this one stand out.
Lupita Nyong'o really makes us character for a character who isn't all that interesting. Sam starts off crass and selfish, then goes on an illogical journey that only makes sense at the end. It's a great payoff, but only after a long frustrating time wondering why it's happening. Some other more simple kind of motivation would have been better since the nature of the movie doesn't let characters talk.
Joseph Quinn is terrific as the PTSD-afflicted foreigner just looking for some human connection. Both actors do amazing work without dialogue, but Quinn does better not having any pre-invasion scenes to build his character.
Of course the real scene-stealer is Frodo, otherwise known as the most relaxed feline ever in the history of the world. He's the real star and central character, having both the best and most outlandish moments. It's in the calm moments when the cat really shines, providing the kind of comfort only a feline can. On the other hand, it's in the tense or thrilling moments that the ridiculousness of the cat is apparent. It doesn't react at all to the explosions, tearing, or growling. During one action scene he gets away from Sam only to find her after several moments of chaos. It's kind of touching when he returns but also any real cat would be in hiding.
After three movies, most movie monsters would be played out especially the CGI ones. But this movie manages to keep them scary. None of the movies have made an effort to not show them, but each one has kept them scary. This one may have done the best at keeping them scary, powerful, and mysterious.
The series may be moving in circles regarding the lore but so far hasn't delivered one not worth watching.
The Bikeriders (2023)
Good Movie But Needs to Go Deeper
A mostly enjoyable, though imperfect, film. It's like Goodfellas meets Sons of Anarchy, though it doesn't come close to either.
It doesn't always get the tone right. At times it uses voiceovers and freeze-frames for comedic effect then goes completely serious. The acting is good and nearly everyone has some terrific dramatic moments. Though the movie never really delves too deep into why these people form a bike gang.
Jodie Comer and Austin Butler are both terrific. Norman Reedus and Michael Shannon give their usual good work. It's Tom Hardy who really stands out, probably because his character is the most interesting and should have been the real focus of the story. Though Comer does a better job hiding her English accent than Hardy does, who's just doing his Venom voice.
The movie begins and ends with Johnny's forming and eventual departure from the gang. Kathy and Benny may be the main characters but they don't really impact the story much and at times they disappear for long periods. The real drama is Johnny watching his bike enthusiasts group devolve into petty thugs and criminals.
The film is certainly well shot and knows how to make the motorcycles look good. There are times the movie makes motorcycle riding very appealing. It has more heart than last year's Napoleon but has as much depth.
Inside Out 2 (2024)
Riley Grows Up, Pixar Stands Still
This is not a bad movie but it's more of the same thing.
The story works but it's the same one as the first movie. Joy is overbearing and controlling, forced through physical representations of abstract concepts, and ultimately learning to cooperate with other emotions.
Besides Anxiety, the new emotions don't have much memorable about them. It is odd how their first major action of the movie is to do something completely villainous when they're supposed to be equals. Of the returning emotions, Anger is the only one besides Joy to have memorable moments. And that's mostly due to Lewis Black's terrific performance. Too often is seems like they had separate ideas but didn't know how to connect them all.
Riley's story is the real heart of the movie. Her journey of growing up, losing some friends, and making new friends is more universal than the first film. The emotional beats seem more relatable this time. The scene where she wakes up the morning after puberty hits is a lot of fun, with the emotion board being ultra-sensitive. Too bad they didn't keep that going. Her story, at least, is a good continuation from the first film.
One thing missing is the insight into other people's minds. A big part of the first film was seeing how the experienced emotions of the parents dealt with the situations. Too bad they're reduced to one-off jokes and lame explanations for why Riley's new emotions weren't in their heads in the first film.
There is a lot of fun with the vault characters of the cartoon and video game hero. The animators had fun with their individual styles, at least taking something from the Spider-Verse films. The build-up for Riley's "big secret" is ultimately wasted. It seems like Pixar had one thing planned but Disney got scared at the last moment and replaced it with something pointless.
The film looks fine but, again, nothing special. The first was already impressive and this just looks like they're reusing the digital assets.
Like a lot of the recent Disney and Pixar sequels, this one works fine but is forgettable and unnecessary.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Enter the Halls of Valhalla
Considering the high bar set by Fury Road, any spin-off would have to be utterly brilliant just to match it. While it doesn't come close to the 2015 classic, it is a fine movie on its own terms.
There are several problems holding it back from being a true classic. First, it's very much tied to the last film. The Mad Max series has always been separated from each other, with George Miller comparing it to classic mythological tales. So it's a bit odd for longtime viewers to see another Mad Max story so closely related to another.
Second, a problem inherent to any prequel is how to make tension when the ending is already known. We know Furiosa won't get home and we know Dementus won't take over, so it takes a lot of tension out of their stories. Plus it makes a big deal out of the origin of several things we don't really need an origin for like the War Rig and Furiosa's shaved head.
And finally, the pacing is off. It's the longest in the series, but a lot could be cut out. The prologue before Anya Taylor-Joy's Furiosa appears is far too long and should've been maybe ten minutes. There's also long periods with no action when all four previous movies kept it going. But those are mostly minor quibbles to the rest of the story.
Miller has always been great at world building and this one expands on previous film brilliantly. We see much more of the Citadel and it explores the Fury Road, Bullet Town, and the Bullet Farm.
Furiosa is an engaging protagonist, and this does an excellent job fleshing out of her character. Dementus makes for a terrific villain in the vein of Toecutter or Lord Humungus. He's smart, devious, dangerous, and fun to watch.
Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth are both amazing, and the movie's worth it just for them. She balances channeling Charlize Theron and making the role her own. She does a lot with just body language and looks. Hemsworth is an excellent villain, knowing exactly how much scenery to chew. This proves he can do so much more than the handsome hero.
Tom Burke is a pleasant surprise as Jack, a kind of Proto-Max. Just like Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy, he can do a lot with a little to develop his character. Lachy Hulme does an admirable job as Immortan Joe, but no one could match the late Hugh Keays-Byrne.
The movie looks amazing. It's well shot and the graphics are well done. Though there's none of the iconic shots of Fury Road. Plus there's a lot more obvious CGI when the series has always been lauded for its practical effects, even though the CGI looks good compared to so many other big budget movies.
The action scenes are great. The biggest set piece occurs about halfway, but each one is well done. Again, none of it comes close to Fury Road but it's right alongside The Fall Guy in terms of fun and spectacle.
It will suffer from comparisons to its Academy Award winning successor, and it's a bit of an outlier compared to the rest of the series. But it's another argument for going to the big screen for the spectacle.
IF (2024)
Missed Opportunity
A movie that should appeal to little kids but will bore adults, like a live-action Minions movie. There's lots of goofy brightly-colored animated characters. But some quirky childish magic, like Willy Wonka, would have helped sell the movie.
The story is all over the place and the human characters are pretty dull. The story doesn't really know what it's trying to say. It starts off trying to find new homes for the IFs, then completely changes directions to reuniting IFs with their humans, then finishes off with helping the main girl through a tough time. It's not hard to think about far better works Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and A Monster Calls, which handled this exact same story far better.
There's a few twists, but they're so predictable they can be figured out from the trailers. There's a lot of huge holes the movie doesn't bother with, like why the grandmother doesn't seem to care where her granddaughter is most of the day or why the father is in the hospital for days but never seems sick. The IFs could be a big more imaginative, as most of them just seem like random objects with a face and not all what a kid would make into a friend.
It has a huge cast that it doesn't fully utilize. Steve Carrell's Blue is fun to watch. Louis Gossett Jr.'s has some meaningful moments in one of his final performances. Jon Stewart's Robot has some good one-liners. But the rest of the voice cast is forgettable. The other IFs have pretty forgettable voices, and should have gone to actual voice actors.
Cailey Fleming is fine though nothing special. John Krasinski is trying maybe a bit too hard to be fun and silly. Ryan Reynolds is completely underutilized, too much of the straight man which goes against his skills. It almost seems like Krasinski and Reynolds should have switched roles.
The movie looks nice but is forgettable. For the same story, 2016's A Monster Calls handled it far better.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Great Sequel
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review
It's the weakest entry in the rebooted series but still better than most other movies coming out nowadays.
Visually, the film is gorgeous. Serkis' films got the visuals better with each entry, and this may equal or top them. With so many big budget movies coming out looking half baked, and too many of them coming from Disney, it's nice to know that Hollywood can still do amazing visuals. All the apes look real. The ruins of human society slowly being reclaimed by nature are amazing. It has some of the best visual shots of someone walking through nature on a quest since Lord of the Rings. It has the best looking talking animals since The Jungle Book. The only minor quibble is that some of the apes look too similar to each other making it hard to know who's who at the beginning.
The cast is good all around. There's no new version of Andy Serkis, who brought a lot extra to the role, but again the movie doesn't try to just copy what worked before. Owen Teague's Noa goes through the classic hero's journey. Kevin Durand's Proximus chews the scenery and has some great dynamics and motivation, though he's introduced far too late. Though it's Peter Macon's Raka who has the best lines and most meaningful moments.
The story mostly works, though there's some glaring issues. The story takes a while to get going and the main conflict isn't even introduced till the third act. It continues having several Easter eggs for longtime fans, like having all the female humans named Nova though they don't know why. It's set hundreds of years after the fall of man, with our civilization being treated as a myth while Caesar has become a legend. It offers an interesting look at religious zealotry, with Proximus twisting Caesar's teachings to further his own selfish ambitions. Some of the best parts are the apes learning about the failed human society through old airports, apartments, vaults, etc.
In fact, it would have been better to just have the humans be the primitive tribes seen by Charlton Heston because the human in the story is the weakest part, at times being completely unnecessary. Freya Allan's Nova is obviously out of place, maintaining her model good looks and wearing modern clothes more appropriate to a weekend of camping than post-apocalypse surviving. At least the original movies tried to make Linda Harrison fit in. She also fits that annoying girlboss trend Disney is pushing so hard by being good at literally everything, knowing everything, manipulating everyone, and getting exactly her way. Thankfully, this comes pretty late in the movie and is used to further divide apes and humans. Her story is also used to very obviously set up a sequel and has little payoff. William H. Macy appears for a bit, though he phones it in and it seems they brought him on just because the previous three movies had big names as humans.
It would have been better to just get rid of the humans and rely on the strength of the apes' story alone. The last one did an excellent job wrapping up humanity's story and this could have easily just been about the ape society before Heston crash landed.
The Andy Serkis trilogy was something special that would've been difficult for most to follow. Luckily, this one doesn't try to top or even match it, just going its own way and doing a pretty good job in the process.
Tell Your Children (1936)
The Original So-Bad-It's-Good
Look, this movie isn't good. Not in any way, shape, or form. It looks awful. It's poorly acted. The writing is atrocious. It's clearly propaganda, and poorly thought out at that. But that's why it's so much fun.
The film is unintentionally hilarious. It's why it did so well on the midnight runs and '70s drug culture. The opening scrawl had me busting up, and that was just after I had an edible before it kicked in. Telling the audience that smoking "Marihuana" (?) will lead to uncontrollable laughter, insanity, murder, and suicide. It's presented as a "documentary" for a PTA meeting. Showing a pot dealer living the high life, having wild parties, and sex with beautiful woman all before he loses it all. The obvious dummy in the suicide scene. Scarface this is not.
It strangely works preciously because it is a mess. It's all so over the top that it comes across more as a parody like Airplane, Scary Movie, or Deadpool. It's like a feature length Saturday Night Live skit. Not Wayne's World but at least better than It's Pat. It's fun bad movie to watch, especially if you've had a little Reeder Madness to help it along.
Beyond the Reach (2014)
Good Movie, But One Ending Too Much
I read the book Deathwatch by Robb White back in middle school. I always thought it was a good story that deserved a movie. It wasn't until I saw the trailer for this that I learned this was actually the second adaptation of the book.
Beyond the Reach follows Ben, a down-on-his-luck young man who wants to go to college with his girlfriend but can't afford it. He is hired by ruthless businessman Madec who weaseled his way into a bighorn hunting permit. When Madec accidentally shoots a drifter he attempts to cover it up and begins hunting Ben through the desert.
The movie is largely faithful to the book. Of course, the book focuses on the inner dialogue of Ben as he struggles to stay alive which is hard to translate to film. The movie at least maintains the psychological part of the story with a few brief moments of "action," wisely keeping it a thriller.
Michael Douglas does a terrific job playing the villain. There isn't really much for him to do in the story but he makes every moment he's in much more interesting. Jeremy Irvine also does a great job given that he spends most of the time alone in the desert running around.
My only real problem is the ending. (Only paragraph with SPOILERS) The book ends with Ben taking Madec back to town and both are arrested. Both are questioned and the authorities believe Madec's story since Ben's sounds crazier. But then they examine the dead body and find Ben's story is true. The movie tacks on a jail escape scene, that makes little sense, and a scene with Madec breaking into Ben's girlfriend's home ending in a big shootout. The whole movie before then was a psychological thriller and this scene goes against that. Keeping the original ending would have maintained the battle of wits between these two characters.
For the most part, I enjoyed the movie. I liked how the book was adapted. I just wish it ended about five minutes earlier than it did.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Good in a Psychological Sci-Fi Way
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was heralded as the big resurrection of the franchise. The original series lasted three seasons. They managed a two season animated series that wasn't much remembered at the time. But it became a huge phenomenon in syndication. After the enormous success of Star Wars, studios looked to any science fiction franchise and Paramount had Star Trek. The genius Gene Roddenberry was at the time making a second live series and essentially reformatted some ideas into a feature and thus TMP was born.
The movie follows James T. Kirk after being promoted to admiral as he retakes control of the revamped Enterprise. His mission is to stop an unknown force that destroys everything in its path from reaching Earth. He butts heads with the Enterprise's new captain, William Decker, and reunites with Spock, who has been away on his own mission.
V'Ger is the kind of story that the series did quite often. Unfortunately, the story as it is comes off as a single episode stretched to two hours. There's a lot of filler and sequences stretched out to overly long lengths. The warp sequence is one that is largely unnecessary except to show that Kirk doesn't know all about the new design, which they did in other ways. The shuttle trip around the Enterprise is nice to see the new ship, but goes on too long. And there's far too many long shots of going through V'Ger where nothing happens except the ship moving. They could have fleshed the story out, but instead they padded it. The ending is nice and thoughtful in the way the show was. However, it ultimately lacks that personal touch. Voyage Home would do the overpowering object attacking Earth story much better.
The entire main cast returns. That in itself was special considering that some had disliked their time on the show and they all had moved on to other things. The characters are a mixed bag. They don't have much of a story besides Kirk and Spock. Kirk is dealing with his "desk job." Spock is searching for peace between his human and Vulcan sides. McCoy provides the same great humor but he, Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu are just there. Decker seems to have the beginnings of a story, but he is only really interesting because his relationship with Ilia is the prototype for Riker and Troi in The Next Generation.
The special effects were considerably good for its time. The redesigned Enterprise is absolutely gorgeous, probably the best looking ship in the franchise. While going on too long, the scene of Scotty and Kirk flying around the ship is a beautiful scene to see. The look of V'Ger and the dissolving effects are top notch. It is still great to look at. Honestly, I would love to see this rereleased in theaters in 3D.
Promoting Kirk to admiral was a great storytelling device that served the franchise well. Sure, the following movies would deal with it better. Stuff that paid off in Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, and Generations started here. The fact that he's jealous of his subordinate Decker for commanding "his ship" really speaks to his character. The scene where the two argue following the comet incident was well written.
The music made for this movie became the iconic music of the franchise. The main theme here became the recurring theme of every following film through Nemesis and the main score for The Next Generation. Goldsmith's score is fantastic, and easily as iconic as Williams' Star Wars music. The soundtrack is worth buying, especially for the bonus disc with all the insightful interviews.
This was the movie that introduced the redesigned Klingon make-up that would be featured in the franchise to come. In the series, they came off as just recolored Oriental-looking humans. This made them look truly alien.
In retrospect, it's really only notable as the movie that brought the franchise back into public attention. I will say that the movie works in a slow, methodical 2001: A Space Odyssey way. There isn't any big action sequence, besides the Klingons and space station getting attacked. It's more contemplative, allowing you time to think. If you don't mind the slowness, it is enjoyable. It may not rank among the best of Star Trek, but it's a fine movie on its own. The movie helped revive Star Trek. Though it was Wrath of Khan that saved its life.
Gears of War: Judgment (2013)
Should Have Been Gears of War 3 DLC
Gears of War: Judgment is both a prequel to the first game and midquel to the third. That's because the game is broken into two parts: Judgement which follows Baird's Kilo company shortly after E-Day, and Aftermath which follows Baird and Cole's adventures during GoW3. Each part plays like two completely different games simply put together because of the similar characters.
The graphics are just as good as GoW3, though no better. The voice acting is still good. The basic game mechanics are still fun. The controls have changed from previous games, such as no longer having to switch from guns to grenades to use them. It's a little strange at first but they're quick to get used to. They also add some fun new guns.
Judgment is simply too different from other Gears. Normally you play long drawn out sections, but in this section you play very short parts. At the end they add up your score and give you stars. It feels very much like an Arcade game rather than regular campaign. It seems like just as you're getting into the groove you have to stop and see your score. The series has never had an outstanding story, but this really ruins what story the game has. If you are playing for points or difficulty, you can add an extra wrinkle to the game like tougher enemies, less ammo, or a time limit. They call it declassified missions, but it adds nothing to the story. It's okay, but only worth it for those looking for a challenge.
The story follows Baird leading Kilo squad just after E-Day. They've been put on trial for disobeying orders. Each of the four get their own section where you get to play as them. None of them play any different, it's just cosmetic. It's nothing too important to the series, just go after some general named Karn. Given the title, it would have been better to follow Marcus' trial since that actually impacts the overall story. Or maybe the actual E-Day rather than some random battle after. It doesn't feel like there's any real weight to the story here since we already know the ending. It's nice to see things before the Hammer Strikes left the world in grey ruins. Baird is there, but not his snarky self. I guess it's because he's supposed to be in charge, but it just feels off. Cole hardly says anything which is very weird considering how talkative he is in the other games. At the very least they could have brought in some story from the books and explained that he's so quiet because his family just died. Sofia is nice to look at, but mostly there for exposition. Paduk, a former enemy of the COG just trying to fight the greater enemy, is incredibly dynamic. He makes the section worth it. However, the whole thing just feels like a set-up for the story in Aftermath.
Aftermath is basically GoW3 DLC. Remember how you spent that one level playing as Cole trying to save Delta from events in the previous level? That's pretty much what this is. While in GoW3 you went after the submarine, this takes place at the same time as you find a reinforcements. Carmine shows up, with no introduction here, and you team up with Paduk, set up in Judgment. It plays like the classic Gears, with the new controls, but it's not particularly long. It felt like the deleted scene from GoW2, like it was something they just didn't have time for the GoW3 release.
Sadly, this hardly feels like the full-fledged game they charged. It's a little less than what we got with Halo: ODST. Instead of the Horde mode that the last two popularized you get Overrun, which you have to defend three points until they're all destroyed. It's okay but not as fun as Horde. There was so much potential that was wasted. If you enjoyed the Gears of War series you would enjoy it if you don't expect too much from it. But this won't make any new fans.
Yami no teiô kyuketsuki dorakyura (1980)
The Tomb of Dracula
I love Marvel Comics. I love all the shows (for the most part) and the movies (again, mostly). I find the characters incredibly interesting and love to know about it. I'm particularly interested in animation. I had read all about Marvel's modern animated movies, but learned that there were two relatively unknown movies: Dracula and The Monster of Frankenstein. Marvel and Toei Animation made a deal to make several of their properties, but those were the only two produced.
Dracula is inspired by The Tomb of Dracula. The comic features Dracula's grandson finding his body and encountering vampire hunters like Blade. I picked up a collected edition and it's quite...odd to say the least (it was the 70s). This film is loosely inspired by the comics and features a few of the characters, but greatly alters the story. Oddly enough, the comics weren't available in Japan at the time so it's an odd choice that this was made above Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or Hulk.
The film follows both Dracula and his grandson Drake. Dracula meets a woman, falls in love, and has a child. Drake meets a team of vampire hunters and searches for his grandfather. Satan, angry at Dracula for stealing his bride, plans to destroy the vampire lord. The meeting of the three stories eventually leads to a big climatic showdown.
The tone is all over the place. There's a lot of late 70s and early 80s camp, silly hairstyles, plot devices that stretch believability, and other problems that were common in anime at the time. On the other hand, there's a lot of dark stuff. Early on, Dracula graphically kills two women on screen. There's a flashback to his days of Vlad the Impaler which is more historically accurate than most other screen versions (violence-wise). Some of the characters even take a side-trip to Hell. And one female character appears fully naked from the side. I wouldn't say it's scary, but there's a shot of birds picking at dead bodies on pikes (hence the real-life Vlad's nickname) that could be disturbing. I actually applaud the darker elements. That's something almost no one in animation deals with. The problem is, the campier elements make it too silly for adults but the sex and violence make it a bit much for children.
The voice acting is, again, standard for anime at the time. Unless it was Disney or Don Bluth, no one took animation seriously and certainly not anime (Akira being nearly a decade away). At the time, translations were done quickly and cheaply. It seemed that the same ten people did everything anime. The voices work for their purposes but not a one is anything more than adequate.
The animation is astounding. Anime has always featured terrific animation. Characters look realistic, not the oversized hands and eyes that American animation often has. There's a great richness to the images and backgrounds. Lots of interesting looking set pieces, even for tiny little scenes or just single shots. They do have the occasional problem, but it was typical to cheat every once in a while.
Dracula is an interesting tale. I would recommend it to anime and/or Marvel buffs looking for something different. There's actually a lot of interesting ideas. For example, Dracula resents his life as a vampire and his need to consume people, though Let the Right One In would do that idea better. If only this movie was simply a better movie. There's simply too many problems to take this seriously.
Alan Wake (2010)
One of the Best Games Ever Made
Alan Wake is a third-person shooter where you fight darkness with light. You have to burn off the darkness (basically a shield) before you can kill them. Enemies will pop out of nowhere and sometimes surround you easily. You're not some invincible soldier with unlimited ammo, but a simple guy scrounging what you can find.
The story is fairly straightforward. You've lost your wife and a week of your life. You search the Washington wilderness encountered people, objects, and even animals possessed by a dark force. Meanwhile, you find pages to a book you haven't written but is coming true around you. As you go on, you learn that there is an evil force in Cauldron Lake that takes control of creative people. You battle this ancient evil using only the tools you have.
I really enjoyed the story. I'm a big fan of Stephen King books, horror movies, and suspenseful shows. I very much appreciated the media references, almost like a video game Scream. One of the big things about the story is that it is quite scary. And not just a pop-out and say boo kind of way. There were times when the dark fog would roll in and I'd almost be too afraid to move ahead.
I play a lot of shooters (Halo, Gears of War, etc), but I enjoyed playing a game with a different kind of mechanic. It's not just point and shoot. There's a lot more thinking involved. One enemy can easily overwhelm, so being surrounded is a big problem. They also don't drop ammo so you have to be mindful of how you fight. On the other hand, there's only so many enemies in an area (none of that annoying unlimited enemies other games use) and then you can explore without harassment. There's several collectibles (cans, manuscript pages, caches), though only the pages contribute anything to the story.
The thing I like is that this feels like a real place with real people. The women aren't all bustling supermodels (Alice Wake aside). The town seems like it's living and breathing, or what little you experience is. The characters are all written well with believable dialogue. The voice acting is really good, not just the same five voice actors that are in every other game. Alan is amazing, and his narration never gets dull. Barry is funny and is dynamic enough to be more than mere comedy relief. The amount of detail in the levels is amazing. I know it was originally supposed to be open world, and I kind of wish it was since there seems like so much to look around. Though, I really like the structure of the game as it is.
If I have any complaints, it's just two. First, while the animation is generally fantastic the mouths sometimes move like they're made of rubber. Second, there are times when enemies can be too overwhelming and others when ammo is too scarce. The level where you first run from the cops, I had to play several times cause I kept running out of flashbangs. There were some big battles where I seemed to be burning through all my flares and ammo cause there was simply too many enemies or too many tough enemies.
Alan Wake is drastically underrated with audiences. I recommend any gamer to try it out. I also played through the two DLC and American Nightmare. All of it was fun and exciting and makes me wish Alan Wake 2 was on the horizon.
Alan Wake's American Nightmare (2012)
As Good as the First, in Different Ways
I really liked Alan Wake. It was a different shooter game. I was quite disappointed that it didn't do better with audiences. Certainly not getting the recognition it deserved, thus not making enough to warrant a sequel. So I was very happy to hear that while we may not be getting Alan Wake 2, we got something more than just DLC like The Signal and The Writer.
American Nightmare isn't Alan Wake 2 but nor is it just DLC. It's a full game in its own right. Not really part of the story but a part of the universe. The closest thing I can think of is Halo 3: ODST. Fans of the game will certainly enjoy the new story, characters, settings, weapons, and enemies. Though I don't think it will draw in new fans since so much of the story relies on the previous game.
The game follows Wake, still trapped in the Dark Place, as he navigates a television show he wrote that came to life thanks to his evil twin Mr. Scratch. He meets three women who help him along the way. I'm a little disappointed that the only three people he meets are gorgeous supermodels when the first game featured more realistic women. When he reaches a certain point, Scratch resets the story and Wake tries again. Scratch is constantly tormenting Wake with what he's doing while the good guy's trapped. Each cycle Wake and his friends do a little better until Scratch is finally defeated. As I said, it doesn't seem part of the story as it doesn't have much to do with Wake leaving Cauldron Lake, but we'll have to wait for Alan Wake 2, if any, to see if this does matter.
The game play is essentially the same. Burn off the darkness before you can kill Taken. There's new enemies like those who split in light and can be defeated right away, flocks of birds that form into men, and giants. I don't care for the giants as they're a bit too stereotypical of video game enemies, and Alan Wake was anything but typical. You're given much more weapons than the first game. In the other, you had two shotguns, a rifle, pistol, and two "grenades". This features a wide variety including nail guns, magnums, semi- and automatic weapons. You can also access weapon caches basically for unlimited ammo. It makes the game slightly easier as it's easier to take down bigger foes and no real need to watch your aim.
If I have any complaint, it's that the game isn't as scary as the first. The first was tense, suspenseful, and fear inducing. I've read some reviews saying this is more like a Tarantino film, and I generally agree. I had lots of fun, but there was never any part I was afraid to go on. At times I felt a little too invincible. I don't think I actually died at all. This time around, only concentrating the light burns off darkness (rather than the first game where it simply burned it faster). But then the batteries quickly refill so I almost never had to replace batteries except in tough battles. The story is somewhat short, though I didn't bother with the arcade mode. Also, beyond The Twilight Zone, there's not really the book, television, and movie references that were a big part of the first game.
This is another entry is a very enjoyable series. I'm saddened that it doesn't sound like Alan Wake 2 is coming any time soon. But what we did get was worth the ride.
Dark Shadows (2012)
Poor Effort from Burton
I don't know what to make of this movie. I really don't. It tries to do so many things and ends up doing nothing. The plot is all over the place. There's a lot going on so it's hard to find the important details.
I've been a fan of Tim Burton as long as I can remember. I grew up watching his two Batman films, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. I've followed his work from Pee-wee's Big Adventure through Big Fish. His recent efforts (Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland) have noticeably lacked his earlier charm. I've only been disappointed with two of his movies: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which was more due to how good the original is) and now Dark Shadows.
The movie is based on a Gothic soap opera from the 60s and 70s. Johnny Depp plays a vampire who awakes to find his dysfunctional descendants plagued by the witch who made him. I have very vague memories of the show, mostly when I caught the last five minutes while waiting for The Incredible Hulk on Sci-Fi Channel. I know little about the series, and it seems the movie is made for fans of the show with little effort to create new ones. Besides Barnabas and Angelique, there's little development in the other characters. They all have the occasional scene but nothing memorable. These seem mostly to reference some event in the show and not really help the movie in any significant way. Worse yet, Angelique makes a horrible villain. She has no reason to act other than she loves a man who doesn't love her. The whole time I kept waiting for some dynamic motivation that never appeared.
The movie is trying to be a comedy, Gothic horror, and romantic drama but never really succeeding at any. The problem is, anytime the movie starts getting into one particular genre it changes gears. The separate elements never really blend together. I understand that the show has a certain camp factor to it, but I've read that this was mostly unintentional. Perhaps if they had simply made it a comedic Hammer films style film, or romantic comedy, or Gothic romance. But the three together never work as a cohesive whole.
The finale (not really spoiling anything here) is representative of all the problems of the movie. By the time the third act came out I had somewhat zoned out. I knew what was going on, but simply didn't care. It felt like the movie was just going through a series of checkpoints but without any feeling. There are revelations that mostly come out of nowhere, but apparently are based on the show. The whole thing screams of committee filmmaking, like the studio put too many demands on the film without letting Burton be Burton. Either that, or since Depp and Burton were such fans of the show they tried to hit too many major story points and forgetting to make it into a single film. It's okay to cut stuff out for a sequel. The first Terminator and Indiana Jones films cut out material that they ended up putting into the second. It's okay to not include every single idea.
Had the movie stuck with the fish out of water story, this would have been great. The best scenes are Barnabas encountering "modern" life like roads, television, and pot-smoking hippies. Depp makes these moments quite hilarious. I found the line confusing McDonalds with Satan to be very effective.
The only really good thing about the movie is that Burton certainly has his unique look. He is definitely one of the most visually distinct directors out there, if not the most. Every frame of the movie has his visual stamp on it.
Honestly, I can't really recommend this to anyone. It's not even an okay-at-best effort from Burton like Alice in Wonderland was. The movie won't win over any new fans for the show. And fans of the show will probably find this to be little more than a overly-silly CliffNotes version. It's too dark to be a comedy and too silly to be a drama. The series is fondly remembered. The movie won't be.
Scream 2 (1997)
Exception to the Sequel Rule
In one early scene, Randy claims that sequels are inherently inferior. The characters then list several examples of sequels that have matched and possibly surpassed the original. And Scream 2 ranks among them.
Scream 1 was great. I gave it a wonderful review. But somehow, Scream 2 managed to do it all better. The suspense is greater, the kills gorier, the laughs funnier, and cast better.
With Scream 1 having been made into a movie within the movie, Sydney and the other survivors are all trying to move on with her and Randy in college finding new friends and loves. They're reunited when the killings begin again as someone sets out to make a sequel. A new setting means new rules with some twists and turns along the way.
Just as before, we have no idea who the killer(s) is until the final act. We get the same kind of false leads and misdirect, such as people being gone at Ghostface's appearances and wearing the same boots as the killer. Once the identity(ies) is revealed, it's great to go back and see how the person(s) manipulated events without the mask. SPOILER Mickey's motivation works well within the movie. Ms. Loomis' also works well, but I don't like that they never really built her up. She comes out of nowhere with little basis before the finale. END SPOILER
The cast are all wonderful. Neve Campbell shows a great progression in her character, and of the four movies this is the one I think she's sexiest in. Cox, Arquette, and Kennedy all return as wonderful as before. O'Connell, Gellar, Schreiber, and Neal are great in new, or at least expanded, roles. None of them are merely copies from the first movie. Though it's Kennedy and Olyphant steal every scene they're in, much like Randy and Stu did in the first. Their dialog together is great, especially as they keep referring to various sequels. At least none of them look quite as "evil" as Billy did.
Of course, being a horror movie it's the scares that are really matters. The suspense is built up much better than the first. The scene where Sydney must escape the cop car is probably the most suspenseful in the entire series, maybe in the genre. The movie also plays on the fact that audiences know the standards set by the original.
Scream 2 is definitely on par with the original, and in my opinion the best of the series. This is definitely a must-see for fans of the original and of horror. There's really nothing to disappoint here. It may share the same general story as the original, but like Terminator 2 it adds enough to be its own experience.
Scream (1996)
Modern Horror Classic
Scream was made at a time when slashers were on their way out. Michael, Jason, and Freddy had lost their touch. They were battling psychics, going to New York, and all sorts of weird stories that went completely against what the franchises built themselves on. Wes Craven had some luck with with New Nightmare, a meta return to the franchise he built. But it was this movie that really rebuilt the genre and brought it back to glory.
The movie is about a group of horror movie buffs who find themselves in a horror movie. Much like the original Friday the 13th, there is a mystery as to who the killer(s) is. It focuses on Sidney, the incredibly sexy Neve Campbell, whose mother was killed a year before and learns how she is tied to the killings. They are all aware of the movies this film references.
New Nightmare may have been the first, but Scream was the first to popularize the idea of self-aware characters. Any movie buff will recognize the references (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Prom Night, etc) beyond those the movie directly references. The movie is a love letter to the genre and will make film buffs out of anyone. I know this movie is probably the reason I'm such a film buff, particularly of horror movies, myself.
I love that the movie is a mystery. There's so few horror movies that include mystery aspects. The original Friday the 13th tried it, but Ms. Voorhees came out of nowhere. Prom Night did it, but the killer was pretty obvious. This is very much like an Agatha Christie story. The suspects are all there, and they're all guilty until they're gutted or the mask is taken off. The reveal is quite satisfying. Their motivation is fitting. Screams 3 and 4 would be disappointing, but this one was really good. And the movie just gets better with multiple viewings so you can see new layers to the real killer throughout the movie.
The cast is good. Campbell looks great and is a great heroine along the lines of Alien's Ripley. McGowan isn't just a dumb, horny blonde. Cox proves she isn't just her Friends character. Arquette is hilarious. Though it's Lillard and Kennedy who steal the movie. The two are terrific and hilarious in every scene they're in, especially the "Rules of Horror" scene. My only complaint is that Ulrich looks a little too "evil," though he otherwise does a great job. They all are convincing as high school students.
Of course, what really makes this movie great is the frights. This is an incredibly effective scary movie. Like all the best slasher films, this one relies on suspense over gore. There's plenty of blood, but it's the build up to the kills that really scare people. The opening scene is probably one of the best in the genre. Anyone can make a person jump and enough gore will gross even those with the best stomachs, but suspense is the best way to really scare someone. The movie really spends the time to make you care about the characters, so when their time comes you're actually rooting for them rather than the killer, the main problem with later Friday the 13th films. This is one that will have you hiding behind blankets and pillows on your first watch.
The movie's use of cell phones may date the film somewhat, but Scream is a terrific film otherwise. The movie knows the genre and is one of the best of it. This is a can't miss for any horror fan, and will likely make some new fans.