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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated
1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going
to review every single movie I see. I’m
going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the
rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future). You can always ask me why I gave the ratings
for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under
the ‘About Me’ section).
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Squid Game (Season
Two) G
I liked the first season of this Korean Netflix series, but
didn’t think it was as good as the hype (you can read my review for it in
here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2021/11/squid-game.html). I did not think they needed another season,
let alone two (the third and final season, as they say, is coming sometime this
year); you’ll see I wrote at the end of the first review that the novelty has already worn itself thin. I was also a little hesitant seeing the
episodes (seven, this time) were all roughly an hour (some a bit shorter, some
a bit longer). I gave in a week after it
was released (the day after Christmas) and, lo and behold, I actually enjoyed
this season a lot more than I thought I would.
The main protagonist, played by Lee Jung-jae, returns and re-enters the
games for a different reason, said reason backfiring, thus he’s stuck
again. The games are different, other
than one, and there’s more characters (obviously), the characters being one of
the main reasons this works (we do get to know most of them well enough);
there’s enough bloodshed too. There are
a few instances where scenes go on longer than they should, i.e. when players
choose whether they want to continue or go home (I mean, come on, you know
they’re not going to go home because then there’d be no show), but the episodes
do generally go by pretty quickly (a plus, given how long they are), and I
never felt forced to continue (also a plus).
Since I knew a third season was coming before even watching this I
didn’t necessarily expect a conclusion, and there isn’t one. I actually want to watch the third season
based on how surprised I was with this season, but I hope it actually is the
final one; otherwise the novelty will definitely wear itself thin…1/5/2025
Bonus reviews:
Booger OK/G
I watched this twice, and I often don’t do that in such
proximity (it is barely even 80-minutes though), but there was something
strangely compelling about it where I needed to run through it again before knowing
my true opinion. I also read up on other
reviews to see if I missed something (like I always do whenever I don’t feel
satisfied but want to). It’s not
perfect, but definitely unique and won’t be for all tastes. In it, Anna and Izzy are best friends that
live together. Booger is the name of the
cat that entered their apartment one day via the fire escape. Izzy dies.
Booger bites Anna on the hand some time afterwards and she gradually exhibits
feline tendencies, i.e. eating cat food, coughing up hair balls, etc. It’s not as silly as it sounds, or as silly
as it could’ve been (not the way Nightbitch
was; that movie sucked); it’s an indie psychological horror film with a very
simple concept that occasionally goes down the rabbit hole, ultimately portraying
how one processes grief (as one review I read also clarified). People grieve differently, as I always say (and needless to say), and Anna’s way surely
stands in a class by itself. 1/10/2025
Get Away EH/OK
A family of four (the father played by Nick Frost) heads to
a remote Swedish island for vacation.
Let’s check off the clichés. The
family is given warnings about going to the island. The fact they’re going to a remote island,
said island only accessible by ferry, said ferry not returning to the mainland
until after the “holiday” celebrated there (one based on a historical
tragedy). Uh-huh. They’re then urged to return back the minute
they set foot on the island. No, there’s
no Wicker Man vibes! Not with that classic set-up in a movie
called Get Away! And of course the warnings won’t be heeded,
because then no movie! We find out right
away the isolated house (no way!) they are staying at is being monitored
(again, no way!). You almost think
you’re watching a parody despite the semi-serious tone. There is a twist that was a little too
obvious for me fairly early on (sorry, I’ve seen too many movies), said twist
actually making me prefer it continued down the clichéd path it was setting us
up for; it ends up being a violent black comedy (yes, it is violent). Despite all the intended clichés and foreseen
twist though, I did still kind of, somewhat, in a teensy-tiny bit way, enjoy
it, but not really; it does come off as a bit too tongue-in-cheek for me where the
horror and comedy don’t mesh well. I did
enjoy it more than Frost’s other recent film, Black Cab, though; definitely.
1/10/2025
Other movies and TV show(s) I’ve seen and their ratings (see above):
Before (2024) >>>OK
(Apple+; 10
episodes)
Hauntology >>>EH/OK
Invoking Yell >>>EH/OK
(In Spanish with
subtitles)
Jerry Springer:
Fights, Camera, Action >>>OK
(Netflix; 2 episodes)
Juror #2 >>>G
Kneecap >>>EH
(Often in Irish
with subtitles)
Mothers’ Instinct (2024) >>>OK
The Piano Lesson >>>EH/OK
(Netflix)
Piece by Piece >>>EH
The Wild Robot >>>OK
---Sean O.
1/11/2025
