I Like Moobies: March 2020

Thursday, March 26, 2020

The Hunt

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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 Hunt G

This film’s initial release date was pushed back because I guess some people were offended by it whether they saw it or not. It does pretty much knock both sides of modern America’s divisive political spectrum. I personally don’t consider myself falling on either side of that spectrum, although I’d probably agree more with the liberals than conservatives for obvious reasons (if you know me well enough), but both groups have irritated me (I hate politics in general even though I shouldn’t, blah, blah, blah, spare me any lectures). For those that haven’t heard anything about this film, a group of apparent conservatives wake up gagged in a field and are provided weapons before those that don’t agree with their ideals begin offing them. The concept is very derivative---Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, The Condemned, and a recent title called The Furies are just some of the titles that came to mind---but it was fun, not great; its comic bits never felt out of place (especially for a theoretically ludicrous premise) and it doesn’t shy away from delivering the gory goods. 3/22/2020

Bonus review:

ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas OK/G

New documentary available on Netflix featuring “that little ol’ band from Texas” consisting of three members, two of which renowned for their lengthy beards (before those Duck Dynasty people); ironically, the only member without a beard (the drummer) has Beard as a surname! ZZ Top was never a band I truly got into, the first time hearing of them was seeing their name on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack in the Nineties, but I do like some of their songs. Oftentimes with bands/artists, even if I like them just a little or sometimes not at all, biopics and/or documentaries are always nice in giving them a human quality (also why I’m a big fan of reading interviews in magazines or on websites). I remember when I first heard a ZZ Top song (don’t ask me which one), I thought they had kind of a country sound while they’re really just “blues-influenced” via rock ‘n roll. This documentary details the band’s beginnings before they all met up to the release of their likely most famous record, Eliminator, which contains hits like “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and “Got Me Under Pressure.” While it states the band is still making music today and are still together (obviously since they’re all alive and giving interviews here), I kind of wish they would’ve included a bit more after Eliminator to the present day (unless a second part is planned). I did learn some things, such as how the band name came about (something I always wondered) and what lead to their iconic facial hair coming to be, as well as a certain musical genre having an influence on their later work. Decent albeit incomplete documentary on that little ol’ band from Texas. 3/25/2020

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

Birds of Passage >>>OK/G

Bumblebee >>>OK/G

Jojo Rabbit >>>OK

Knives Out >>>EH

---Sean O.

3/26/2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020

The Outsider: Season One

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The Outsider: Season One OK

Ten-episode series available on HBO based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King involving doppelgangers and a demon called different names in different cultures. I did read that book less than two years ago according to an Instagram/Facebook post and I do remember liking it. This series was largely faithful to the reading material from what I recall, many scenes returning to mind as they were shown. Is that a good thing or bad thing for this series? In this case, I actually liked the book better and that may be because I read it before watching this (as is often the case). Given the ten episodes were all roughly around the hour mark (give or take), many parts of this miniseries dragged. I also didn’t feel fully engaged with the characters as much as I did in the book (one of the qualities Mr. King excels at---characterization). I didn’t dislike this series at all, not one bit, but it wasn’t one of my favorite adaptations of his. I also remember being more satisfied with the book’s conclusion even though I don’t recall it exactly (I’ve seen and read lots of stuff since), but I wasn’t dissatisfied with the ending here. As I’ve said before, if you are more of a reader, read the book; if you’re more of a watcher, watch the series; and if you like to do both, like yours truly, read the book first. I’m always going to watch anything with the King’s name attached and I’m going to watch it all the way through even if it doesn’t start out that great (Kingdom Hospital being the only time I recall stopping). Not a fair assessment, no, since I wouldn’t give someone I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the same chance, but I’m a lifelong King fan, so what can I say? 3/21/2020

Bonus reviews:

The Back Pages: Season One EH/OK

I would’ve never heard of this (initially web) anthology series had their Instagram page not liked one of my posts. Seeing that it was a Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror anthology series, and that it was inspired by The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Tales from the Crypt, I had to check it out. It is available on Tubi or Amazon Prime (Tubi is free, with ads, for those unaware). There are only 7 episodes totaling 110 minutes (the shortest segment being 12 minutes and the longest being 20), so think of it as one anthology film, I guess. As with any anthology series/movie, there are bound to be misses as well as hits, some overpowering the other, and this series, unfortunately, had more misses. The first, “Dust to Dust,” was a fairly lame doppelganger-ish tale involving a prisoner on Mars that reminded me more of The Martian (with Matt Damon) than anything else. My favorite one, “Pique Par la Mort,” depicted what goes on in the mind of a comatose patient and could’ve actually worked as a longer feature. “To Belong” would’ve also been better fleshed out since it ultimately felt underdeveloped with potential; the ending reminded me of a Tales from the Cryptkeeper episode (one involving sea creatures). “Innocence Escaped” was too much of a Western for my tastes, while “Jing” was a simple relationship tale that could’ve passed as a barely average Twilight Zone episode. “Hairwolf: A Were-Removal Story” was a bit outlandish for me (and not in a good way) and contained a not-so-subtle nod to a traditional story involving a wolf and a little girl. Lastly, the longest and not-that-great segment, “The Woman from the Water,” reminded me of The Little Mermaid at first before revealing that the titular woman isn’t exactly Ariel. So, as you can gather, this wasn’t my favorite series as a whole (2 out of 7 and the 2 could’ve been better). You won’t waste too much time with it though if you feel you must give it a shot and who knows? Maybe you’ll like it better than I did being everyone is their own critic, as I always needlessly say. A season two is planned according to the Instagram page and, sure, I’ll check it out. Who knows? It might have more hits than misses. 3/20/2020

Upstate Story G

One of the perks of social media is the occasional message I receive about reviewing a film, such as this instance where I was sent a personal message on Facebook from Shaun Rose, the star/writer/director/etc. of this feature available on YouTube. I always hate when I end up not liking the movie though, even though it’s not my fault I didn’t like it, and I always tell the message sender before I watch their film that I’ll be completely honest in my review (no ass-kissing here). Here is one that I actually liked! In this existential independent film, we follow the life of a 20-something year old named Ellis (played by Mr. Rose) in the span of one week. The ‘upstate’ refers to Saratoga Springs, New York. Ellis lives with a roommate he’s not too fond of, hates his job (cleaning houses and such on Monday through Friday), looks for other work to no avail, and is only happy on the weekends (which you’ll see why when the film cleverly transitions from black & white to color). This shit is real life as depressing as it may be and we all have a bit of Ellis in us from time to time (yes, some more than others, but “bullshit happens to people and that’s life” as he states at one time). It is only an hour, so it won’t take up too much of your time, and I feel that was just enough time to get to know this Ellis character. Perhaps with an actual budget (this film worked perfectly fine with an apparent zero budget as well) and judging on this product, I think Shaun Rose has the potential to make an indie gem alongside the likes of Clerks, Duck Season, Pieces of April, and others. In the meantime, you can watch this on YouTube and tell as many people as you can to watch it and have them keep telling people since Mr. Rose just wants exposure which I feel this film rightfully deserves. 3/21/2020

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

Cake >>>OK

Last Christmas >>>EH/OK

Level 16 >>>OK/G

Teen Spirit >>>B/EH

Transit >>>EH/OK

---Sean O.
3/22/2020

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Bloodride: Season One

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Bloodride: Season One OK

New horror anthology series available on Netflix? I hate repeating myself but, in case you don’t keep up with my reviews or know me that well, I was in given my love for anthology shows/movies (particularly horror). This 6-episode series comes from Norway so, yes, that means subtitles for those not fluent in Norwegian, but if you don’t like reading subtitles nor mind poor dubbing, you can set it up where the audio is your preferred language (I personally can’t stand dubbing, especially when its poorly done, and find it distracting; I always use the same example, but High Tension was much better the second time with subtitles). “Ultimate Sacrifice” shows what some would do for fortune and it does come easy for these people living in the countryside as long as they’re willing to do something drastic; PETA wouldn’t be too happy with this segment. “Three Sick Brothers” starts off promising before finishing with one of the oldest twists in the book (or film, in this case) that wasn’t too surprising anyhow. “Bad Writer” felt largely derivative, feeling more fitting for a kiddie horror anthology series like Are You Afraid of the Dark? or Creeped Out (which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with), but it was still okay. “Lab Rats” involves a group of workers accused of stealing something valuable from their boss and was fairly straightforward (read: standard). My favorite of the bunch was “The Old School” which begins as a typical yet intriguing ghost story that takes an unexpected (yet not altogether shocking) turn at the end. Lastly, there’s “The Elephant in the Room” about an office costume party wherein more and more revelations come to light in regards to a tragedy involving a previous employee. All in all, the episodes were generally just okay (I didn’t necessarily detest any of them). They seemed to be more of the psychological thriller variety (which isn’t a criticism), although I was reminded most of an underrated Eighties anthology film, Chillers (which I recommend), during the intro showing all the characters in each story riding a bus (the “bloodride”). You can binge the entire series in roughly 3 hours (the longest episode being 32 minutes, the shortest, 27), so if you’re bored and looking for something new to watch, there’re worse ways you can spend 3 hours, like wasting an additional half hour watching that overrated snoozefest, The Irishman (which luckily, and rightfully, didn’t win best picture)! 3/14/2020

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

Autumn Blood >>>EH

Cutting Class >>>EH/OK

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors >>>OK

Dogman >>>EH

Midnighters >>>OK

Pledge >>>OK/G

---Sean O.

3/15/2020

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

The House That Jack Built

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The House That Jack Built VG

Most recent film from Danish filmmaker, Lars von Trier (Dogville, Antichrist, Melancholia), in which Matt Dillon plays a serial killer (Jack) and we’re shown five “incidents” of his killings. It may sound like a simple premise and I initially thought it wouldn’t be able to sustain watchability given it’s 2 ½ hours, but I actually enjoyed it and wasn’t bored once. Of course “enjoy” may be a highly subjective as well as contentious term to describe such a picture most sane people wouldn’t label “enjoyable,” but I guess it comes down to that already argued notion that films are different than reality and us fans (the majority of us) are sensible enough to know the difference (Alfred Hitchcock once said something along the lines of cinema being voyeuristic and we, the viewers, are the voyeurs). So, I guess it was enjoyable in the same way other films like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, I Spit on Your Grave (both versions), The Last House on the Left (both versions), Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox (a.k.a. Make Them Die Slowly), The Devil’s Rejects, and others I felt were “enjoyable.” I can see this film being compared to American Psycho and the aforementioned Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, although it’s not as sardonic as the former and not as harrowing as the latter. This guy Jack is truly a psychopath, not holding back from offing men, women, or children; there’s even one flashback scene in which he does something to a small animal as a child that undeniably made me wince a little. After the five incidents, the film takes another somewhat dark turn, dark in the sense it made this critic smile with glee. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this 151-minute film. 3/8/2020

Bonus reviews:

Into the Dark: Crawlers G

Into the Dark is a Hulu anthology series wherein one episode is released monthly and they all take place during a holiday coinciding with that month’s release. Even “holidays” like International Women’s Day (“Treehouse”) and Father-Daughter Day (“Pure”) are represented. It’s more of a franchise than a series since all the episodes are feature-length. I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed with the series as a whole, my primary criticism being their lengths as I didn’t feel many needed to be feature-length, and also that many just happened to take place around a holiday and could’ve taken place any time of the year. That being said, I do think this series would’ve been better had the episodes been 30-45-minutes. This is the first “episode” I’m reviewing and the last one I’ll be seeing for a while since I’m all caught up and my free trial of Hulu ends soon. This one also takes place around St. Patrick’s Day (a.k.a. Eradicate the Pagans Day), so I figured ‘tis the season (blah, blah, blah), and was one of the few I actually enjoyed. The only other “episodes” I gave G ratings for were “I’m Just F*cking with You (April Fools’ Day, season one),” “Culture Shock (Independence Day, season one),” and “Pilgrim (Thanksgiving, season two),” but even those I didn’t think were that great. This one, involving aliens/doppelgangers and set-up like a zombie movie at times, may have been a bit corny, derivative, lacking overall and somewhat too short (a rarity with this series, as I implied above), but I had generally had fun with it and didn’t feel like there was too much filler like the majority of the series so far (hence why I probably felt it was lacking and too short). 3/9/2020

What We Do in the Shadows: Season One OK

I had no initial interest in checking out this spinoff series that originally aired on FX and is also available on Hulu (which I currently have a free month of), but gave in when I saw it was only 10 episodes all under a half hour. I re-watched the movie in the midst of it, which apparently I gave a good rating for when I first saw it in 2015, and I did enjoy it the second time. Horror-comedies have to be done right (of course that’s always subjective) and I’ve usually never been the biggest fan of ones that lean more towards the comedy. In all fairness though, I don’t think the movie or this series was meant to be strictly horror, more comedy-dramas by way of mockumentary, simply containing traditional horror characters (vampires as the main characters and there’s also werewolves and zombies, at least in the movie for the latter). While the movie does have its tongue-in-cheek moments, I think it simultaneously had more of a serious tone than this series that definitely felt more comedic. While the characters in both the film and series are aware of being filmed by a crew, more attention was definitely brought to that aspect in the series. Although I mentioned this was a spinoff series, that may not exactly be the best word since the characters here are different and the location moved from New Zealand to Staten Island, New York. Whatever, you don’t really need to see the movie before watching this series based on the differences I mentioned, specifically the tonal changes. This series was decent, a bit of fun generally, occasionally bloody (like the film), and none of the short episodes really felt like they overstayed their welcome, but I, personally, liked the movie better. Season 2 premieres next month (maybe I’ll watch, eventually). 3/7/2020

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

Into the Dark: Midnight Kiss >>>EH/OK

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: My Valentine >>>EH/OK

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: A Nasty Piece of Work >>>EH/OK

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: Pilgrim >>>G

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: Uncanny Annie >>>EH

(Hulu)

Rabid (2020) >>>OK

Snatchers >>>OK

Trespassers >>>EH/OK

---Sean O.
3/10/2020

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Knives and Skin

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Knives and Skin OK

This is a different kind of teen movie (kind of). It’s also a mystery and kind of a musical (kind of; you have to see it to understand). All the characters appear to be in a daze and there’s definitely a David Lynch vibe (Twin Peaks comparisons are highly likely). A teenage girl goes missing in the beginning and a decent amount of people in this small town have secrets (as is common in such film environments and even reality). The film may be well-made and mesmerizing to look at, but it ultimately lacks in substance. I felt there really was no mystery aspect and the conclusion was rather dry. 3/5/2020

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

The Beach Bum >>>B/EH

Into the Dark: Culture Shock >>>G

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: Pure >>>OK

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: School Spirit >>>OK

(Hulu)

Into the Dark: They Come Knocking >>>OK

(Hulu)

The Nightingale >>>OK/G

Thunder Road >>>OK

Wrinkles the Clown >>>G

---Sean O.
3/5/2020