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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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Color Out of Space G
I wanted to see this film ever since reading about it in Fangoria
and then Rue Morgue (two of my favorite magazines). Seeing that it was going to be theatrically
released at the end of January, I forced myself to finally get around to
reading the short story (“The Colour Out of Space”) by H.P. Lovecraft in
preparation. I really liked the short
story and couldn’t wait to see the movie, actually hoping it would be a
faithful adaptation. Well, the end of
January comes around and the movie isn’t playing anywhere near me! I was bummed, as you can imagine, but saw it
was being released on video (DVD/Blu-ray) at the end of this month, so I said I could wait as much as I didn’t want
to. I put it on the top of my Netflix
queue this week and it wasn’t sent to me, so I went to rent it at Redbox (I
waited too damn long). Was it worth the
wait? Yes and no, ultimately yes. I wasn’t a fan of some of the special
effects, namely the ones involving alpacas and a mother/son hybrid, but I still
didn’t hate them and both were practical (they reminded me too much of John
Carpenter’s The Thing, a movie I
think is highly overrated and I seem to be in the minority with my opinion,
especially in the horror world). The
effects were a combination of practical and CGI, some naturally had to be CGI
(like the colors) and many of those I forgave (although there’s a CGI cat I wasn’t
a fan of). Ultimately, I liked it better
on paper (as a short story), but I was still mesmerized by much of it, as I
hoped I’d be, and satisfied enough by the time it ended despite my
aforementioned misgivings. I’ve never
seen any other adapted versions of this story, except for maybe The Curse, but this was more of a direct
adaptation. This is also Richard
Stanley’s first feature film in over 20 years (not counting documentaries and a
segment in The Theater Bizarre),
having been fired from 1996’s The Island
of Dr. Moreau (if interested in the entire story, just Google his name or
there’s a documentary titled Lost Soul
which I haven’t seen). I am a fan of his
first film, Hardware, and finally got
around to seeing Dust Devil (it was
just okay) not that long ago after reading about it in conjunction with this
film’s article in Rue Morgue.
He’s mentioned plans on adapting another Lovecraft work, The Dunwich
Horror, and I’d definitely be interested; I just have to make sure I get
around to reading that short story
beforehand. 2/26/2020
Lords of Chaos VG
Mayhem. That infamous
Norwegian black metal band in which one member committed suicide and another
was murdered by another band member. I
always knew the story surrounding the band, as any metalhead or open-minded music
historian likely would, but that’s all I ever knew about them. Black metal was never my favorite metal
subgenre, but I have listened to bands like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Chthonic,
and, probably the most famous of them all, Cradle of Filth, Mayhem not being
one I ever truly got into. I am
definitely fascinated by the subculture surrounding the subgenre though (as
with most metal given it’s been one of my favorite music genres since 7th
grade; I’m 37 now). The beginning stated
this was “based on truth, lies, and what actually happened,” but as with any
work based on “fact,” I’m sure there were parts to this story that may have
been slightly fabricated. As with
anything based on history though, I viewed this as its own entity and whether
it entertained me or not. It did. I enjoyed this movie as should any
open-minded metalhead, music historian, or just historian, but I can certainly
never speak for anyone else, especially if they know more about the overall
story than I did (that being said, I’d be curious to hear what Mayhem fans think). It ultimately gave the members a human
quality, if that’s even the right description for a group of misanthropic,
church-burning musicians in which some are actually violent, even going so far
as labeling other death metal bands (particularly Swedish death metal) as “life
metal” since they appear to celebrate life (their words, not mine). It is fairly brutal at times for sensitive
viewers, as can be expected given the subject matter (I even flinched once or
twice), but I personally recommend it, highly.
2/24/2020
Bonus review:
Brahms: The Boy II OK
I wasn’t originally planning on seeing this sequel right
away, but after seeing it received a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes (11% out of
36 critics as of this writing, but even less when I checked a day or two ago)
and that I still have a Cinemark gift card, I decided to go during bargain
times! What can I say? I love when I like critically panned movies
just as much as acclaimed movies (strange mentality, I know), so I went in
hoping I would like it. Also, upon
hearing of this sequel, it made me wonder how it could be effectively done
considering the twist at the end of The
Boy (I won’t reveal it in case you haven’t seen it). Speaking of that twist, I felt it was a bit
of a letdown that ruined an otherwise pretty good movie. [By the way, there’s
another movie called The Boy released
in 2015 directed by Craig Macneill that I recommend!] So did this sequel (directed again by William
Brent Bell) manage to be effective after the first film and did I end up being
one of its few fans? Well…they did
manage to make it work after the previous film’s twist and the revelations in
this film made me dislike that twist just a little bit less (just a little bit), enough to maybe give it another viewing. And while this film may be largely flat, it
does look good (much like its predecessor) and isn’t the worst sequel I’ve
seen, let alone movie. That’s about as
nice as I can get which is probably nicer than what many others would have to
say. It was free too (for me) and not
too long, so…2/25/2020
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Hotel Mumbai >>>OK/G
Into the Dark: All That We Destroy >>>EH
(Hulu)
Into the Dark: I’m Just F*cking with You >>>G
(Hulu)
Rocketman >>>OK
---Sean O.
2/27/2020
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