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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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The Lodge OK
A lodge in the middle of nowhere during the winter in I’m
guessing Massachusetts based on the license plates (at least set there). What a great location for a horror movie,
no? Two kids that just lost their mother
to a tragedy go stay at said lodge with their father’s new fiancé around
Christmastime while he goes on a business trip.
This new fiancé has a pretty shady history in which any movie, let alone
reality, would tell you to steer clear from.
There’s a twist towards the end, which isn’t even entirely shocking,
that actually makes the film less effective, silly even despite still
maintaining a very somber tone up until it ends. It’s a shame too because, in addition to anticipating
it for a while now, I had high hopes for this film in which the location and
atmosphere are superb and I actually liked where it was going before the twist. 2/21/2020
Bonus reviews:
Castle Rock: Season Two OK/G
Round 2 of this Hulu series taking place in the titular fictional
town created by Stephen King. It is an
anthology series, not show, meaning each season, not episode, involves a
different story and different characters, much like American Horror Story or Channel
Zero or True Detective. Therefore, you don’t necessarily have to see
season one before this season, there being just a very few references to the
first, but I would assume most people have OCD like me and wouldn’t want to
watch part two of anything before part one.
I did like the first season, enough to be my favorite TV show of 2018
(you can read my review in the archives at www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com and check out any yearly ‘best of’ list at www.bestworstarchive.blogspot.com). Stephen King is apparently only an executive
producer for this series and didn’t write any of the episodes for either season
(nor is either season based directly off any of his works). Without Mr. King’s fictional works though,
this series would’ve never existed (like I mentioned in my review of season
one). This season appeared to be a
prequel of sorts to Misery being that
it contained a younger, non-Kathy Bates version of Annie Wilkes from that story
as one of the main characters, although I think the season overall was more of
an homage to Salem’s Lot. There are no vampires, just souls possessing
bodies, but King fans, or at least those that have seen or are familiar with
that vampire tale, will understand my comparison. This season (containing ten episodes with the
longest one being an hour and the shortest being 35 minutes) wasn’t as good as
the last one, but is still decent enough to check out and I will definitely
keep returning to any seasons made in the future. I never felt like I was forcing myself to
continue with this season and that’s usually a good sign. 2/22/2020
Pen15: Season One G
Hulu series involving two girls starting 7th
grade in 2000. I was starting my senior
year in 2000, but I vividly recalled some of the stuff featured here---Instant
Messenger (AIM) being the social
media before Myspace, Facebook, and such; VHS still being the only way to watch
movies at home; landlines being the way to vocally communicate other than
face-to-face before cell phones became big.
[Speaking of 7th grade and the title of this series…I
remember being tricked by the “cool” kids, or popular more appropriately, to
join the Pen15 club before realizing it spelled Penis after one of them wrote
it on my hand. I hated 7th
grade and the majority of people in my class (not just in 7th grade
either)…whatever.] In typical visual
teen entertainment, the two main characters, Anna and Maya, are much older than
7th graders, allegedly playing versions of their younger selves (and
somewhat passing as looking much younger than their actual age), but the rest
of the 7th graders looked like they were actually that age. I felt it could’ve been more raw aside from
certain instances like Maya being voted UGIS (watch and you’ll know what that
stands for) or when those girls were real mean at the dance in the last
episode, but this generally fun ten-episode series (all under 30 minutes) does
get a lot of stuff right and was better than many a recent teen film/show
without ever really feeling like it was overstaying its welcome. 2/22/2020
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Dora and the Lost
City of Gold >>>EH/OK
Into the Dark: Down
>>>OK
(Hulu)
Into the Dark: Flesh & Blood >>>EH/OK
(Hulu)
Into the Dark: New Year, New You >>>OK/G
(Hulu)
Into the Dark: Pooka
>>>EH/OK
(Hulu)
Into the Dark: Treehouse
>>>EH
(Hulu)
Little Monsters
(2019)
>>>OK/G
Teorema >>>B
Villains >>>EH/OK
---Sean O.
2/24/2020
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