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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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Beast G
In case you didn’t see a preview, Idris Elba plays a man
taking his two daughters (one teen, one younger) to Africa near the village
their late mother was from. They
eventually go on a ride with a friend into an area that’s closed to the public
(never a good sign) and come across a lion gone rogue that begins to pursue
them. The night before his entire pride
was slaughtered by poachers, so do you really blame the lion for going rogue? Unfortunately all humans in his territory
become prey though. I remember thinking
the lion looked crappy in the preview, but it actually looked fine when I
watched it. This movie ended up being
better than I thought it would be. Sure,
it may not seem too distinguishable from other films in the natural horror
subgenre (Orca and 2007’s Prey came to mind the most---the latter another
killer lion flick I recommend), and it started to feel a bit padded out towards
the end (even at roughly 90 minutes), but for simply being exactly what it
intended to be and nothing more, and for enjoying it enough, I’m going to
recommend it. Currently available on
Peacock. 10/7/2022
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story OK/G
I heard several people say they stopped watching this
Netflix series because it was too gruesome. Well, if you know anything about Jeffrey
Dahmer (played here by Evan Peters), he was a serial killer that often ate his
victims. For the younger crowd that may
never knew of him before this, okay.
Some parts may be gruesome to the average viewer, yes, but it’s nothing
I haven’t seen before and I had somewhat of an idea what I was getting into. I’ve seen at least two movies that come to
mind on the serial killer, one being My
Friend Dahmer, which you can read my review for in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2018/03/mooby-reviews-31818.html. As you’ll see in my review for that film (if
you read it), I said this about visual media involving real-life serial killers---On one hand, you’re promoting them and
basically telling modern serial killers they’ll too be made famous one
day. On the other hand, you can’t deny
they’re part of history and do make for morbidly compelling sociological
studies. It is true, even though you
never have to support anything you don’t want to. History is rife with violence though, so one
should argue whether anything horrific that happened in the past should be
depicted. I’ll admit this series did
make me want to keep watching in the beginning.
It does lose a bit of steam towards the end, but there are ten episodes
all roughly between 50 and 60 minutes, so it was bound to happen. One thing I do like that they did was shine
some light on one of the victims (the deaf kid) in an episode, which I think
should occur more often in serial killer-related pictures as the killers are
often glorified and the majority of victims rarely remembered; plus, that sort
of makes it more disturbing knowing what happened to these people that are
humanized. They also showed how his
actions affected others around him, like his one next door neighbor and his
father. Will real-life serial killers
ever stop being promoted? Likely not,
but, again, you never have to promote anything you don’t want to. Currently there is a new 3-episode
documentary series also released on Netflix entitled Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. Is this the year of Dahmer? 10/7/2022
Hellraiser EH
I was never the biggest fan of the original. I did watch it a couple times when I was
younger, I’ll admit, and I did meet the original Pinhead, Doug Bradley, more
than once (while expressionless, he’s a pretty chill dude). I actually thought parts of it were, dare I
say, gross (yes, I do get sickened by some gore). There are ten films other than this one and I
believe I’ve only seen up to part three (that’s how much I care about the franchise). This Hulu update may contain some of the same
concepts as the original, but it is a quite different film (Pinhead played by a
woman has nothing to do with it either; the character here is pretty
androgynous anyway). It was worse
though, as remakes/re-imaginings often are.
Even though it was 2-hours, it hardly felt like there was much substance
to it (it seemed like it could’ve lead somewhere compelling in the beginning
too). It may not be as gory as the
original, but it definitely has its moments (I wasn’t a fan of the gore here
either; not so much on a repulsed level, more on an ‘I wasn’t impressed’ level). I just wasn’t a fan. Again, it was never one of my favorite
franchises to begin with. 10/7/2022
Bonus reviews:
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone OK
I did read the story from Stephen King’s 2020 collection, If
It Bleeds, and according to my review of the book, I said it was “simple with an air of predictability.” That’s pretty much how I would describe this
adaptation available on Netflix (I didn’t remember much from the story before
watching). It’s largely a coming-of-age
drama with a dash of thriller involving a boy given the task of reading books
to the man of the title due to his diminishing eyesight. He does this from a young age all the way
through high school until the old man passes.
Before he died, the boy gifted him a cell phone and he appears to still
receive messages from him posthumously, among other things. It does contain that cozy ‘small town in New
England’ vibe common for a Stephen King tale (here, it takes place in Maine, as
they often do). One of my dreams is to
live in such a town; the harsh winters being the main reason preventing that
dream. Anyway, the narrative feels
rushed at times, it doesn’t get as ominous as it could be, and it felt
incomplete by the time it was over.
Ultimately, like my description of the story, it’s simple with an air of
predictability. Part of me did enjoy that
cozy ‘small town in New England’ vibe though (perhaps why my rating may seem a
tad too kind). Not one of the best King
adaptations. 10/6/2022
Phantom Pups (Season
One) OK
(haiku review)
Corny but cute-ish.
Fine for the entire fam.
Perfect season too. 10/6/2022
*Netflix; 10 episodes*
Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Cosmic Dawn >>>EH
No Exit (2022) >>>OK
(Hulu)
The Summoned >>>OK
---Sean O.10/8/2022
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