Sunday, November 24, 2019

Haunt/Good Boys


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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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Haunt                                                                          OK/G
Extreme haunted houses.  What a concept.  A group of people go to one of these very places, sign liability papers before entering, and eventually learn they appear to be in very real danger.  You might be reminded of The Houses October Built and its sequel among other things, but this movie and those have their differences.  Haunted houses are fun, at least they’re supposed to be, and (appropriately) tend to be the most enjoyable around the Halloween season (as many of these attractions are ran).  This movie was fun (for the most part; violent at times too) and there’s a clever twist (sort of) a little after midway that I didn’t see coming, but I wish we could’ve learned a bit more.  [POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD]  Who exactly were the ones running this haunted house?  Where were they from?  What was their ultimate motive?  I also (personally) think it would’ve been better (situationally) if good didn’t prevail over evil as generally expected in horror movies.  11/20/2019



Good Boys                                                                  G
To be young again.  Like the 12-year-olds in this film.  The insecurities.  Puberty.  Social statuses.  The foul language used before knowing the true meanings.  I can recall kids using language they had no business saying and watching movies they were arguably too young for as early as second grade.  South Park has been largely successful in portraying how kids really are and I remember reading that that was their (Matt Stone and Trey Parker) intention.  This film doesn’t quite have the feel of South Park though, more like Superbad involving younger characters (ironically, some of the same people were involved with both movies). It is very much rated R and contains quite a bit of adult content which basically makes the target audience unaligned with the main characters, so I’ll let all you parents/guardians decide if your children (specifically pre-teen) should watch this (even though the majority of them probably act like these kids anyway).  I thought it had some laugh-out-loud moments and I liked the rapport amongst the three primary boys.  It’s far from great, that’s why it’s called Good Boys and not Great Boys, and part of me feels I’m being a teeny tiny bit generous with my rating, but it was a decent amount of fun to recommend and, to reiterate, generally shows how young people really act as opposed to many sugarcoated films/TV shows.  11/19/2019


Bonus review:


Polaroid                                                                      B
An old camera is used to take pictures of people.  Said people in said pictures end up dying because of a curse attached to said camera.  The concept sounds awfully derivative, but one story I was reminded of the most was Say Cheese and Die! (a Goosebumps book with an adapted television episode).  This is nothing like that R.L. Stine story though.  You’d actually be better off reading that book and watching the episode (if you haven’t already) instead of wasting any time with this unscary formulaic lamefest.  Luckily I used a free Redbox code and time was the only thing I wasted.  I suggest you don’t waste either and use a free code for a different movie.  11/19/2019



Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

American Woman  >>>OK/G

Bloodline  >>>OK

Cabin 28  >>>EH/OK

Charlie Says  >>>EH/OK

Corporate Animals  >>>OK

Earthquake Bird  >>>EH/OK
            (Netflix)

The Kitchen  >>>EH/OK

Let It Snow  >>>OK
            (Netflix)

We Die Young  >>>OK


---Sean O.
11/24/2019

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