Saturday, January 18, 2020

7 Reviews, 17 Ratings


-------------------------------------------------------------------
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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This entry will be an exception to the above statement since its been longer than usual since my last entry (almost a month; 26 days to be exact), and that was mainly due to waiting for my one computer with lots of my saved stuff on it to be hooked up.  Hopefully it won't be as long until the next entry from now on.  Anyway, I'm back.  Enjoy, or not....


Another Wolf Cop                                                       EH/OK
I think Wolf Cop is one word with the “C” still capitalized, but whatever.  Leo Fafard returns as the titular being in addition to some of the same cast members, and the same director of the first is behind this sequel.  I did enjoy Wolf Cop; it was a flawed yet fun horror-comedy with more emphasis on the comedy.  This one had its moments, particularly in the beginning and end when the lycanthropic officer doles out some bloody violence, but it was a bit too silly this time, ultimately suffering from sequel-itis; not even an appearance from Kevin Smith worked.  It wasn’t quite silly in the vein of Teen Wolf; well, they’re both silly in different ways, I just don’t remember the Michael J. Fox film being gory or containing any other creatures.  It also felt slightly inconclusive before the end credits revealed Wolf Cop will return.  I hate to say it, but I don’t think we need another Wolf Cop; I don’t think we even needed this one.  1/13/2020



Boar                                                                            OK/G

This Shudder exclusive, also available on DVD, bears a title needing no explanation and delivers pretty much what you’d expect.  It’ll likely draw comparisons to Razorback, another Australian movie featuring a killer wild pig.  I haven’t seen that film in quite a while even though I do actually own it, so I, myself, can’t yet tell you how similar they might actually be.  One thing I will commend this film on, considering it was made in 2019, is the use of practical effects for the creature and pretty impressive at that.  A few parts looked like CGI was utilized and you could obviously tell it was never a real animal, but I will absolutely take unrealistic practical effects over CGI any day!  The critic in me would’ve liked to know how this boar came to be gigantic and murderous (it was just labeled “diseased” at one point) and the film sure felt like a formulaic slasher movie since we as an audience knew when and where someone was likely going to be attacked, but, like I said above, what do you really expect from a movie called Boar other than the titular creature killing people?  It is rather gory too.  It’s an enjoyable creature feature for a decent amount of the time despite its flaws.  1/11/2020

Dracula:  Season One                                                 G
This Netflix series consists of three episodes roughly 90 minutes each, so it could either be viewed as three separate movies or as one 4 ½ hour film, however you see fit.  Now, I haven’t seen every single film containing the titular count, not even close, but I’ve seen and read my fair share of vampire entertainment to be familiar with the subgenre.  I’ve also never read the famous Bram Stoker novel so I couldn’t tell you if this adaptation is faithful or not.  I heard that it is, at least for the first two episodes; obviously the third one wasn’t based on the novel since it took place in modern times.  Ironically, I liked the first two episodes better than the third (it felt too modern for this story if that makes sense; almost like a sequel made many years after the first two episodes/”movies”); I didn’t loathe the last episode though and I thought it ended just right (fitting for a traditional gothic tale one could say).  I wasn’t completely enamored with this series in general, but I enjoyed it enough; the performances are worthy, it looked slick for a BBC production, and it’s violent when it wants to be.  Overall it’s a decent vampire tale based on “classic” literature (subjective label, yes).  1/12/2020

Girl on the Third Floor                                               G
This at first appeared to be like one of those shows where someone completely renovates a house, but it still held my interest knowing it was a horror movie I was watching.  At one time I was reminded of a certain animated movie released in the 2000s that I don’t want to reveal in case of spoilers.  It is essentially a haunted house movie containing a gradually disclosed history and, while not perfect, is more intriguing than not and bears that “maybe I’ll pick up more during repeat viewings” quality.  There was one part that actually made me cringe a bit too, although I felt somewhat jubilant afterwards.  Mild recommendation, or medium maybe (like I suggested, my opinion might change if I watch it again).  1/11/2020


I Trapped the Devil                                                     OK/G
I wanted to watch a new Christmas movie (it does take place around the holiday) and I wanted to see this film, so I paid to watch it via Vudu on Christmas Eve.  This film involving a man proclaiming to have trapped (wanna guess…) the devil behind a door in his basement before his brother and wife show up unannounced is infinitely more style than substance.  I would rate the atmosphere alone as VG.  However, I don’t think it was entirely able to sustain itself as a feature-length film despite being short.  The whole mystery of the film is wondering if we’ll get to see what’s behind that door in which we only hear a deep voice speaking and no one likes to feel cheated, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying you do find out who or what is behind that door and it isn’t necessarily disappointing considering it felt right in regards to the overall narrative and mythology.  1/10/2020



The Twilight Zone:  Season One                                 EH/OK

You all should know by now (if you actually read and keep up with my reviews) that I love me some anthology films and TV.  I will never get tired of or cease looking forward to watching short films or reading short stories.  The brevity (a.k.a. not taking up too much time) and needlessness for sequential viewing/reading may be part of their appeal.  Now, as much as I love The Twilight Zone, I admittedly haven’t seen every single episode of the original series or even the Eighties version (156 total for the former, 65 for the latter) and I own them both; apparently there was a series from 2002-2003 that somehow bypassed my radar, so I’ve seen zero of those 43 episodes (I Wikipedia’ed all this information).  I figured since this latest 2019 version was only 10 episodes I’d binge them with a free week of CBS All Access.  As with any anthology series (film or TV show), there’re apt to be misses as well as hits and, unfortunately, this version had more misses than hits.  None were particularly spectacular, my favorites among the bunch being “A Traveler” and “Point of Origin,” the former an atmospheric Christmas tale set in Alaska (my birthplace), the latter sort of paralleling recent events while also staying true to the series in general.  As for the rest?  “The Comedian” was lame and the only one I saw when the series first aired because it was available on YouTube.  The updated “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” couldn’t hold a candle to the original; the ending may have been a bit dark, but the story didn’t work without a creature (which makes an appearance as a stuffed animal).  “Replay” was undoubtedly as interesting as any “Butterfly Effect/go-back-in-time-to-change-the-present” film, but was ultimately a message movie about race.  I’m more interested in representation than messages, whether pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, gender identity, etc., since the same ones (however important they may be) have basically become clichés after continuously being relayed.  I couldn’t take “The Wunderkind” too seriously since it was reminiscent of outlandish family entertainment in which young kids hold authority over adults.  Yes, being The Twilight Zone, all disbelief is supposed to be suspended, but I still felt this episode was too childish for the series.  “Six Degrees of Freedom” was a space tale (not really a fan of those types of entertainment) where a group of people slowly go crazy on their way to Mars that ended just when I thought it was getting better.  “Not All Men” wasn’t a bad infection tale involving a meteorite although very derivative (I was most reminded of Slither in plot, not effects) and obviously a metaphor for these Me Too times.  “The Blue Scorpion” was pretty dumb, it involving a gun with a personality, and the final episode, “Blurryman,” was kind of decent aside from revealing we were actually watching a TV show the whole season; and there was a poor digital creation of a certain someone that made them look more belonging in The Polar Express.  Again, it may not have been the best collection, but there were only ten and it’s very hard to be original anymore.  There is a second season allegedly being released sometime this year and I will eventually check it out while trying not to keep my expectations too high.  One thing they might benefit from though is making the episodes shorter (the original and Eighties ones were generally less than 30 minutes without the commercials; these ones ranged from 37 to 54 minutes).  1/16/2020


You:  Season 2                                                                        G
I’ll admit to enjoying season one of this series that initially aired on Lifetime before becoming available on Netflix which this season premiered on right away.  I never read any of the books by Caroline Kepnes, but my interest in checking out the first season happened as a result of reading about it in, I’m gonna say, Entertainment Weekly since that’s one of the only non-horror magazines I read regularly (and I don’t believe You would qualify enough to be covered in Rue Morgue or Fangoria, but feel free to prove me wrong).  Watching it on Lifetime as I’ve said, I had to wait every week to see an episode (like the old days).  It appeared to become more popular once it aired on Netflix and people could choose whether to binge it or not (which I imagine most Netflix viewers like to do, especially if engaged with a show).  I liked being able to binge this season as, like the first season, it was undeniably addictive in making me want to continue although there’s really nothing truly distinctive about it (like most entertainment these days).  The anti-hero (debatable description) serial killer from the first season, played by Penn Badgley, returns in a different location (California instead of New York) with a new obsession that isn’t quite like his last one (Beck).  I thought the conclusion was a bit weaker than expected, but the episodes go by rather quickly and, much like last season, I somehow grew to like Penn’s character as well as some of the supporting ones.  Well, I’ll be…I actually kinda do want to watch season three which is allegedly going to happen.  1/10/2020



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

Crown Vic  >>>G

Crypto  >>>EH

Dead Kids  >>>EH/OK

Freaks (2019)  >>>EH

Hell Comes to Frogtown  >>>EH/OK

Joker  >>>VG

A Kid Like Jake  >>>OK/G

Killerman  >>>EH

The Last Black Man in San Francisco  >>>OK

The Lighthouse  >>>EH

Low Tide  >>>G

Luce  >>>OK

Nekrotronic  >>>EH

Paradise Hills  >>>OK

Primal  >>>EH/OK

78/52  >>>G

Wild Rose  >>>OK


---Sean O.
1/18/2020

No comments:

Post a Comment