Friday, December 31, 2021

Below the Fold/I Know What You Did Last Summer (Season One)

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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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Below the Fold                                                            G
Murder mystery set in Missouri.  A male and female journalist, with a history, team up to investigate a cold case involving a girl that went missing ten years ago.  This isn’t groundbreaking at all (but what really is these days?), but it was generally intriguing from start to finish; its tone is very bleak.  It is a bit inconclusive, and I was bummed when it ended, but after I thought about it, it kind of did end because we, as well as the journalists, are quite certain who was responsible, but, as with many cold cases in reality, there’s not enough evidence.  I’m still going to recommend it since I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I do think a limited TV series involving the same characters and locations would work, because there’s undoubtedly more to this microcosmic world, and it could definitely rival the first season of True Detective.  12/31/2021

I Know What You Did Last Summer (Season One)    B/EH
I finally got around to this eight-episode remake series available on Amazon Prime, and let me just say that’s roughly 6 ½ hours of my life I’ll never get back!  For those of you that thought the first movie was lame (and many did upon its release back in 1997), it’s a masterpiece compared to this poop.  The first movie was watchable in that “corny, I’m a teenager in the 90’s way” and I’ve seen it enough times to call myself somewhat of a fan; it definitely is corny though (I first read the book by Lois Duncan just a couple years ago and thought that was even lamer).  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer was worse, but it was slightly watchable in that so-bad-its-watchable way.  As for the third movie, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer?  Let’s not even go there.  I honestly don’t know which was worse though, that or this series.  A bunch of teenagers do take a ride at night and hit someone on the road (trying their best to cover it up), and then some of them as well as others gradually get offed the next summer, just like the first movie.  There be no killer in a fisherman suit with a hook here though.  This also takes place in Hawaii instead of a coastal North Carolina town like the first film (I personally don’t think tropical locations are the best for horror entertainment; the only example that comes to mind where it worked was Club Dread, that being a meta horror film; I wouldn’t exactly include I Still Know as an example of when it worked either, but it worked better than here).  Being eight episodes that range from 45-to-58-minutes each, you can imagine there’s a lot of filler.  Oh, there’s a whole lot of filler, unnecessary at that, with the occasional kill, some worthy, yes (examples being ones involving a tractor and slushee machine), but not nearly enough to make the rest of this series worth sitting through.  I cared not about any of the characters as much as we got to know a good portion of them.  This doesn’t even work as a teen series; the last time teen entertainment was truly done well was Mean Girls (17 years ago!).  This was definitely a chore to get through.  I was a bit under the weather when I binged it, so I had nothing better to do.  Then again, all I do is watch movies and shows anyway, so being a little sick would never be an excuse to sit through something.  I could’ve spent my time, sick or not, watching something a whole lot better.  If I haven’t made it clear, I highly suggest you don’t waste your time with this series.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you don’t take my advice.  12/30/2021

Bonus review:

Encanto                                                                       OK/G
(haiku review)
Pretty to behold.
Most of the songs are catchy.
Story’s a bit thin.  12/26/2021

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

Don’t Look Up  >>>EH
            (Netflix)

The Land of Blue Lakes  >>>EH/OK
            (In Russian with subtitles)

Love Hard  >>>EH/OK
            (Netflix)

My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To  >>>EH/OK

---Sean O.
12/31/2021

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