Monday, July 6, 2020

Becky


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


Becky                                                                           OK
The eponymous 13-year-old recently lost her mother and goes with her father (played by Joel McHale) to their lake house where his new girlfriend and her son meet them.  Needless to say, she isn’t too happy about it.  Meanwhile, a group of prisoners nearby are being transported and somehow manage to escape (won’t they ever learn in movies?).  One of the prisoners (played by Kevin James) is looking for something at said lake house, the titular character has that something, and I don’t think I need to tell you that things don’t turn out so well for everyone involved.  I could say it’s an R-rated Home Alone, but not quite.  I could also say it reminded me a bit of the original I Spit on Your Grave without the brutal rape scenes, one of the kills here cribbed right from it.  Or I could just say it’s like any other home invasion film with a plot similar to the synopsis mentioned above.  Becky certainly doesn’t win any points for originality.  The violence would likely be its only redeemable factor, some being noteworthy (particularly one scene involving school supplies), while one part is too dark (as in lighting) to fully appreciate it.  I credit Lulu Wilson’s performance of Becky, as she portrayed how a 13-year-old likely would act in this situation, but I still don’t think we truly got to know most of the characters (both good and bad) even in 93-minutes (good characterizations could have been another redeemable factor).  If you’ve never happened to see a film with the description above, I would say you could do worse, but if you have (like me), this is ultimately forgettable.  7/3/2020


Bonus review:


Ju-On:  Origins (season one)                                      EH
New six-episode series available on Netflix revolving around the Ju-On/Grudge property created by Takashi Shimizu.  Mr. Shimizu has no involvement and I’m guessing this is a prequel to the movies (I read it’s sort of a prequel, whatever that means), as it takes place from 1988 to 1997 (which was before any of the movies came out), but I think it’s just a spinoff, unnecessary at that.  It has the same framework as the franchise---a particular house is haunted due to someone dying there (the house here isn’t even the same as the other entries), a resulting curse is born, and anyone that enters said house is cursed no matter where they go.  This series adds nothing new to the overall story which I don’t even think needs to be expanded any further given how repetitive it is (the curse can just keep endlessly affecting more and more people that come into contact with it).  The only positive thing I can say is that it is only six episodes ranging from 27 to 31 minutes, but that’s still roughly 3 hours of lost time, so, nevermind, there really is nothing positive I can say.  Not only was the second Grudge remake the worst movie of the year so far, but I think this lame cash-in might be the worst TV show of the year so far.  Therefore, I think I’m all Grudged out; this year and from here on out for that matter!  7/5/2020


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

Benjamin (2019)  >>>EH

Blood on Her Name  >>>OK/G

George Lopez:  We’ll Do It for Half  >>>OK
            (Netflix)

---Sean O.
7/6/2020

No comments:

Post a Comment