Author Archives: Doc

Best and Worst Horror 2022

Posted on by

The horror genre has been one of the top genres over the last few years and 2022 is one of the best years for horror movies in a long time. There are so many great horror or horror-centric films this year that my list of horror films for consideration was really long, including several that have a chance to end up in the top 10 films of the year.

However, there were also some poor horror films as well. So we will start off with the Worst Horror films of the year…

Worst Horror Films Runners-Up: Sadly, there were some real stinkers in horror this year too. Start off with some of the poor remakes such as Firestarter, House of Darkness and one of the absolutely worst films in Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Netflix. Choose or Die was one of the first worst films of the year. My Best Friend’s Exorcism was a ridiculous film. Very bad and really disappointing was the Edgar Allan Poe film Raven’s Hollow from Shudder. I wanted to love that movie, but it just was not up to the quality I had hoped for. She Will was a film that the critics liked, but I just could not get into it. Finally, Halloween Ends could have been so much better, but it was promoted incorrectly and the big showdown between Michael and Laurie felt like an add on part.

Worst Horror Film of the Year…

Studio 666

Another film that I had high expectations for that was just a horrible flop. Poor acting, poor story, just everything lacking and it is in contention for the worst movie of the year.

Best Horror Movie of 2022

Best Horror Movie

Previous Winners:  A Quiet Place, It, Don’t Breathe, It Follows, The Conjuring, As Above So Below, Cabin in the Woods, Doctor Sleep, Black Box, Fear Street trilogy

Honorable Mentions: One of my biggest surprises this year was the Shudder film called Deadstream. This was nearly the winner of this award, but it slipped just below the mark. Another absolute epic film this year was Black Phone, one of the most clever and most dramatic films in the genre. One of the more unexpected horror films of 2022 was Barbarian, which I went into with no idea what it was about and found myself completely thrilled with the film. V/H/S 99 was a lot of fun on Shudder as it took this franchise in a bit of a new direction. Hulu’s Hellraiser was surprisingly good. I really thought this one was going to be one of those really bad remakes, but it overcame those issues. One of the scariest and creepiest films this year was the excellent Smile. I was truly shaken at times in the theater. Jordan Peele had another solid film with Nope. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies was a clever and enjoyable film with a cool ending. Another Hulu film that was one of the most creative was Fresh. The Sadness and The Cursed are both poorly titled, but both are very good horror films. We got a new entry in the Scream franchise and the new cast knocked it out of the park. Finally, we had two movies featuring a great character. X and Pearl were awesome as we learn more about the character of Pearl.

2022 Horror Movie of the Year…

The Menu

One of the best movies of the year, Ralph Fiennes and the awesome ensemble cast were delicious in The Menu. I was so entertained during this film. It was a psychological horror film with some terrible things happening to the characters.

Catch the Fair One

Posted on by

As I was watching John Rocha and Jeff Sneider on their podcast The Hot Mike, they were talking about some of their favorite movies from 2022, and Sneider mentioned one that he thought was fantastic. It was entitled Catch the Fair One and he said it was available on VOD. Intrigued by the recommendation, I went to Vudu and, sure enough, the film was there and I thought this would be a great film to watch when travel is discouraged on a snowy Friday morning in Eastern Iowa.

Jeff Sneider was right. It was quite the movie, full of tension and intensity.

Kaylee (Kali Reis) was once a championship level boxer whose life had taken a downward turn since her sister was missing. The loss and grief set her on an obsessive path to try and find her sister. The path led her to a sex trafficking ring and a violent journey of vengeance.

Kali Reis gets to take her character on quite the character arc, though she probably does not learn much during the film. She went from a hugely successful boxer to someone who sees what the life of revenge can do to you. There are several scenes that, while you understand why Kaylee is doing what she is doing, it is very difficult to root for her while she is doing it.

Catch the Fair One does an admirable job of creating a sense of anxiety among the viewers while Kaylee continued to make poor choices on her road of vengeance. You could feel that the road she was on was leading to something terrible and yet you could see that Kaylee did not seem to care about what was going to happen.

Yet, you could tell that she still had some of her humanity with the way she conducted herself at times, and you know that she had good motivations, even if her intentions were not positive.

This film provided a real-life feel to a movie subgenre that, many times over, becomes unrealistic or even cartoonish. There is nothing cartoonish about Catch the Fair One. It is brutally real and tough to watch at times.

3.6 stars

A Vicious Circle Book 1

Posted on by

A Vicious Circle Book 1

Boom! Studios

Written by Mattson Tomlin

Illustrated by Lee Bermejo

The first issue of the three issue series from BOOM! Studios was released this week and it was a sensational comic.

We are introduced to Shawn Thacker, who appeared to be a happy, family man, happily married with a son who wanted nothing more than to go fishing with his father. However, we see almost immediately that there was so much more to Shawn Thacker than we ever would have expected.

We find out that there is a monster in the cellar that was ready to shake Shawn’s life to the foundation. What is the relationship between Shawn and this monster and how does it connect to the future?

A Vicious Circle Book 1 is very compelling and a fascinating read. The story grabs you immediately and it does not shy away from a shocking circumstance.

The words provided by Mattson Tomlin are brutal and quick to engage. However, the artwork of this issue is, perhaps, the finest art that I have ever seen within a comic book. Lee Bermejo begins in beautiful black and white with some of the most detailed and realistic art imaginable. When the color comes, the story takers another turn and elevates the illustration to yet another level.

The last panel of the book introduces us to yet another amazing image that promises that this story is taking yet another turn. So much happened in this first issue and yet we really do not know that much. It provided some outstanding storytelling and I am excited to see where this continues moving forward.

Frequency (2000)

Posted on by

I was watching the Top 10 Show today and they were live and were talking about sci-fi movies. I know that my overall sci-fi movie fandom is not as full as it should be and they started talking about a film called Frequency. I had heard the title before, but I had never seen the film. It sounded as if it were an interesting movie and I wanted to watch it. I found it on Vudu and I was able to rent it.

According to IMDB, “A rare atmospheric phenomenon allows a New York City firefighter to communicate with his son 30 years in the future via HAM radio. The son uses this opportunity to warn the father of his impending death in a warehouse fire, and manages to save his life. However, what he does not realize is that changing history has triggered a new set of tragic events, including the murder of his mother. The two men must now work together, 30 years apart, to find the murderer before he strikes so that they can change history–again.”

The firefighter was named Frank Sullivan and he was played by Dennis Quaid. Frank’s son was John and was played by Jim Caviezel. LOST’s Elizabeth Mitchell played John’s mother and Frank’s wife, Julia.

The movie was very original and creative, taking the idea of communicating with the past in order to adjust what happened to a new level. As John was able to convince his father about what was going to happen (thanks heavily to the Amazin’ Mets of 1969), things continued to change, including a serial killer case that suddenly became so much worse.

The function of the communication was a neat idea and was steeped in the relationship between father and son. The way things changed were clever and worked very well. You could feel the continual desperation of both Frank and John as they tried to find a way to make everything alright.

Sure, with every time travel story, there are flaws and imperfections and Frequency is no different. However, most of the things that happen make sense and work with the story that they were setting up. They never broke their own rules, which many of these types of movie do.

Both Quaid and Caviezel were strong in their roles. They had a great chemistry and I believed that they were father-son.

Other actors involved in Frequency included Andre Braugher, Noah Emmerich, Shawn Doyle, Daniel Henson, Michael Cera, and Melissa Errico.

This was a gripping thriller that I was never quite sure where it was going. The two lead performances were great and the serial killer angle worked very well. Frequency was a lot of fun and I’m glad I heard the Top 10 Show talking about it.

EYG Year in Review- TV

Posted on by

TV watching has been ups and downs for me. Some years I have watched a ton of TV, but other years there are not as much that interests me. Fact is that I watch so much more comic book TV shows than I do regular shows. So, I decided to split them into two sections- Regular TV and Comic Book TV.

Of course, there are only winners here from shows that I actually watch so if your favorites are not here, that is probably the reason.

Starting with Regular TV

Best Show: Stranger Things season 4 Runners-up: Cobra Kai, Andor, Wednesday, Only Murders in the Building

Best Game Show: Password Runners-Up: Celebrity Jeopardy, Jeopardy, Celebrity Family Feud, 100,000 Pyramid

Best Actor: Diego Luna (Andor) Runners-Up: Ralph Macchio, Nathan Fillion, Ewan McGregor, Himesh Patel

Best Actress: Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) Runners-Up: Jenna Ortega, Mackenzie Davis, Selena Gomez

Best Cameo: Shirley MacLaine (Only Murders in the Building) Runners-Up: Andy Serkis (Andor), Liam Neeson (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Paul Rudd, Amy Schumer, Tina Fey (Only Murders in the Building), Robert Englund (Stranger Things)

Best Villain: Vecna (Stranger Things) Runners-Up: Terry Silver, Darth Vader, Cad Bane

Best Finale: Cobra Kai “Head of the Snake” Runners-Up: Stranger Things, Only Murders in the Building

Best Song: “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. Runners-Up: Master of Puppets by Metallica (Stranger Things)

Best Moment: Daniel uses the Crane Kick (Cobra Kai). Runners-Up: Hopper escapes the gulag (Stranger Things)

Favorite Network Show: The Rookie (ABC). Runners-Up: Celebrity Jeopardy, Password

Best Episode: “Dear Billy” (Stranger Things)

Comic Book TV

Best Series: Peacemaker Runners-Up: Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, The Boys

Best Actor: Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight) Runners-Up: Antony Starr, John Cena, Karl Urban

Best Actress: Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) Runners-Up: Erin Moriarty, Iman Vellani

Shock of the Year: The Termite explodes out of lover’s penis (The Boys). Runners-Up: She-Hulk breaks 4th Wall and goes to Marvel Studios, Soldier Boy is Homelander’s father, Homelander kills Black Noir

Best Ensemble Cast: Ms. Marvel Runners-Up: The Boys, Peacemaker, Superman and Lois

Best Villain: Homelander (The Boys). Runners-Up: Soldier Boy, Arthur Harrow, Auggie Smith

Best Animation: Baymax Runner-Up: I Am Groot

Best Theme: Peacemaker

Best episode: “Asylum” Moon Knight. Runners-Up: “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed” (The Boys), “Whose Show Is This?” (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), “The Choad Less Traveled” (Peacemaker)

Best Cameo: Charlie Cox (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) Runners-Up: The Justice League (Peacemaker), Benedict Wong (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Mark Ruffalo (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law)

Best Casting: Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel) Runners-Up: Jensen Ackles (The Boys), Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight)

The “I Am Groot” Voice Acting Award 2022

Posted on by

It is time for the “I Am Groot” Award. This does not necessarily have to be an award for voice over animation only. We have awarded those who may have performed in motion capture suits as well. If your main way of getting your character across is through your voice, this is the award for you.

“I am Groot” Voice Acting Award

Previous Winners:  Robin Williams (Aladdin- honorary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes),  Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Jeffrey Wright and Chadwick Boseman (What If…?)

Honorary Mention: Truthfully, I almost gave this award as a tie. We did that last year, but, at the last moment, I decided to single out one performance. That meant that the other performance that ALMOST tied the winner was Ewan McGregor from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. McGregor was the Cricket and narrator of the film and he was sensational. Also from that Netflix film was Gregory Mann, who voiced the puppet and did a great job of bringing the little wooden boy to life. Dwayne Johnson was Superman’s best friend, Krypto, in the DC League of Super Pets. Jake Gyllenhaal was one of the top positives in Disney’s Strange World. Lightyear was also not a huge success for Disney/Pixar, but Chris Evans was great in the title role. Turning Red featured a typically strong voice performance from Sandra Oh, but the star of that film was Rosalie Chiang. One of the top surprise characters came in The Book of Boba Fett when Corey Burton brought Cad Bane into the world of the live action Star Wars canon. Vin Diesel returned to the role that this award was named after in a series of animated shorts on Disney + called I Am Groot.

The performer who will be awarded the I Am Groot Voice Acting Award will be…

Antonio Banderas

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

I specifically waited to give this award until after I saw Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and I am glad that I did. Antonio Banderas was masterful in this action/comedy giving a voice to the legendary gato.

The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award

Posted on by

The EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award

Previous winners:  Stan Lee (three times), John Cena, Chris Evans (two times), Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, Yoda, J.K. Simmons, Harrison Ford, Rudy Giuliani

Honorary Mentions: I really wanted to give this award to one of the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story cameos, whether it be Jack Black as Wolfman Jack, Will Forte as one of the Scotti Brothers, Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol or “Weird Al” Yankovic himself as the other Scotti Brother, but, unfortunately, the cameo this year that wins the Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award is just ahead of these. Marvel Studios had a bunch of intriguing cameos this year too as Julia Louis Dreyfus showed up in Wakanda Forever as did Michael B. Jordan, Brett Goldstein appeared as Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder, Charlize Theron was Clea in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, John Krasinski and Patrick Stewart in the same film, and Kevin Bacon as himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers cameo had Paul Rudd. That film had a lot of cameos from characters such as Ugly Sonic. Of course, Michael Keaton had one of the worst cameos of the year as Adrian Toomes in Morbius. Though he is going to wind up on the Supporting Actor list, Judd Hirsch‘s role in The Fabelmans would be considered a cameo. Also in that film we saw David Lynch appear as director John Ford. And then… we have the film that has the cameo of the year…

Winner of the EYG Stan Lee Movie Cameo Award is….

Val Kilmer, Top Gun: Maverick

Yeah, when researching this award, I came across the Val Kilmer cameo from Top Gun: Maverick, which filled the movie with so much nostalgia and real emotion that I couldn’t, in all honesty, give this award to anyone from Weird, as I had intended. Val Kilmer has had such a challenging life, especially recently, that his appearance in Maverick was a game changer and the movie was made so much better by his performance. Congrats. Iceman.

Best and Worst Animated Movies of 2022- The Frame Award

Posted on by

This has been an excellent year for animation. I would say especially over the last couple of months.

However, let’s start with the lower level of animation. The films that I did not like and consider the worst of animation of 2022.

Runners-Up: I only have three runners-up. As I said, a pretty good year for animation. First one to mention is Bob’s Burgers. Though I did not hate the film, I was never a fan of the TV show and that made the movie experience less engaging for me. The most recent Netflix Christmas animation was one of the worst versions of Charles Dickens classic tale and it was called Scrooge: A Christmas Carol. It was amazing that someone could mess that story up. The third and final runner-up goes to Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. I considered this as the “winner” but there were enough okay moments to save it. The worst animated film of the year went back to an old offender…

Worst Animated Film of the Year is…

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

I have not been a fan of any of this franchise and this new version, that turns all the monsters back human, is no exception. I am surely hoping that this is the final installment.

BEST ANIMATED MOVIES OF 2022

EYG Frame Award- Best Animation

Previous Winners: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Coco, Moana, Inside Out, Big Hero 6, Flashpoint Paradox, Paranorman, Winnie the Pooh, Klaus, Wolfwalkers, Mitchells vs. the Machines

I am going to place this in a top 10 list.

#10. Minions: Rise of Gru. Big surprise. I hated the last Minions movie, but this was more entertaining.

#9. Sea Beast. One of the better Netflix animations of the year.

#8. Wendell & Wild. Another good Netflix film. Very creative and a reunion of Key & Peele.

#7. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood. A great story of a young boy becoming an astronaut.

#6. Strange World. This is one that I really enjoyed at first, but upon reflection, may not have been as good as I thought. Still worth a spot on the list.

#5. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons. DC Animation continues to be really good. Nice characterization of the two young heroes.

#4. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Who would have thought this Internet short would be such a powerful film?

#3. Turning Red. This Pixar film was number one for a good chunk of the year. A wonderful story of a young girl becoming a woman by turning into a panda.

#2. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Most years, this is number one. I loved this film with a great voice performance by Antonio Banderas.

And the Frame Award winner for 2022 is…

#1.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro created such a masterpiece of a film that it has to be the number one animated film of the year. He took the story of Pinocchio, which just earlier in the year had a Disney + film that was terrible, and made a special film dealing with a dark story, Fascism, and the loss of a child. The stop motion animation of the film was lovely and the story brought tears to my eyes.

Honorable Mentions: DC League of Super Pets, Luck, Beavis & Butthead Do the Universe, The Bad Guys, and My Father’s Dragon

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Posted on by

I loved the character of Puss in Boots from his appearances in the Shrek film franchise. However, I did not love the solo film he had a few years back. I mean, it was fine, but for a character that I thought was such a standout on the Shrek films, I found the solo adventure to be somewhat lacking. Because of that, I doubted the need for another Puss in Boots film, but I had heard positives about it so I went in with a hopeful attitude. And Puss in Boots: The Last Wish delivered big time.

The film caught up with our awesome hero Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) doing his signature heroic actions and singing about his conquests. However, after saving several villagers from a rampaging giant, Puss in Boots is killed by a falling bell.

No worries though because Puss in Boots has nine lives, as he arrogantly told the doctor. After a recount of deaths, Puss realized that he was on his final life. One more careless adventure and there would be no coming back for the cat.

Even worse, Puss is being stalked by a monstrous wolf (Wagner Moura) who struck fear into the feline’s heart for the first (or second) time. Puss ran from the wolf, finding shelter in a cat sanctuary. This did not last for long as Goldi (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, and Olivia Colman, respectively) were searching for Puss in order to have him steal a map to the Last Wish from Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney). When Puss discovered about the wish, he decided that this was his chance to regain his lost lives.

Puss in Boots is joined by both Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and a dog (Harvey Guillén) who had been impersonating a cat at the sanctuary. This set up a race to find the mythical Last Wish from all of the factions.

I was thoroughly entertained by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It was funny, engaging action film with characters that were cleverly adapted and beautifully rendered. The animation style reminded me at times of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as it varied the style multiple times through the film, in particular when there were fight scenes. There were a bunch of times where I stopped and watched the animation in awe of the creativity and design of it.

There was also a great job from Antonio Banderas, as well as the other voice actors, in bringing their characters to life. Banderas was the captain of this film and his work is absolutely stellar. He had great chemistry with Selma Hayek, as they have been together in multiple films.

I loved all the villains involved here too as they all took the general stories of the fairy tales/nursery rhymes they were based upon and made them into fully functioning characters with understandable motives and real depth. None of them were just the typical fairy tale villain that was just out for evil. However, I do think the joke about Goldilocks and the “Just right” bit was used way too much and I found it annoying at the end instead of moving as it was intended. It would have helped the film to have toned back the number of times that comment was used.

Still, the film moved at a brisk pace and was rarely boring. It went to great effort to give us characters with understandable motives and reasons for their actions and Puss in Boots is truly an epic hero. The confrontations between Puss and the Wolf were very frightening as the design of that character certainly is meant to be fearful.

Puss in Boots capped off an excellent year for animation and is a film that everyone in the family should enjoy.

4.4 stars

Spoiler Alert

Posted on by

I was surprised to see Spoiler Alert available on Vudu today. I had not been able to see it in the theaters, but I had wanted to see this. I have always enjoyed Jim Parsons and Sally Field and the trailers looked decent.

It was strange as I was watching the film because I thought the name of Jim Parson’s character sounded familiar. He played Michael Ausiello who was a journalist from TV Guide at the beginning of the film. As I was watching, I started thinking that maybe this was a true story.

Sure enough, Michael Ausiello was a name that I remembered back when I would read through TV Guide and that this film was based on a memoir by Ausiello called Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies.

The memoir is about Ausiello’s marriage to photographer Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge) and Cowan’s eventual death from cancer.

The story was sweet and well told. It focused on the relationship between Michael and Kit earlier, before the cancer reared its evil head. Though much of the relationship, which lasted 13 years, is skimmed over with photos of Christmas trees, but they do spend time at the beginning few months as well as the final few months.

Jim Parsons does a great job as Michael. The fact that I watched this movie and I did not look at him as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory showed how effective he had done in Spoiler Alert. Parsons and Ben Aldridge had good chemistry and worked very well together. Earlier this year, there was a film called Bros that had some scenes that made me uncomfortable. I never felt anything uncomfortable here. I just enjoyed the pairing.

Sally Field was exceptional here too. She played Kit’s mother, with a ton of perspective and a strength that was put to the challenge. I really liked how she and Bill Irwin, who played Bob, Kit’s father, interacted and fit together as a pair of parents that felt familiar. I also loved how they did not make a big issue over their son’s homosexuality and, instead, made the issue that he had not told them. This was a nice switch for this type of film.

The later part of the film where Kit begins dealing with the cancer was emotional and really tested the relationship between Kit and Michael, a relationship that had been failing prior to that. Of course, the film’s title tells you right away that the movie was going to be about the loss of this man.

There were some interesting parts of the film where Michael imagined himself as a child in a sitcom, dealing with the terrible losses of his life, including the death of his mother to cancer.

The film blends the drama and the comedy together nicely and feels like one of the best comedy/drama films about cancer since 50/50.

Michael Showalter directed this film. He was coming off the excellent comedy/drama The Big Sick.

Spoiler Alert tells an interesting story of a gay couple and their thirteen years together, through trials and tribulations, until death did they part. Solid performances helped the film, which did feel a touch long.

3.75 stars

If These Walls Could Sing

Posted on by

The iconic recording studio, Abbey Road, in London was the home to some of the biggest musical acts of all time and the new documentary on Disney +, If These Walls Could Sing, detailed some of those moments in time.

Directed by Mary McCartney in her directorial debut, If These Walls Could Sing included interviews with Elton John, John Williams, Jimmy Page, Kate Bush, Shirley Bassey, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Celeste, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Giles Martin, Ringo Starr, and, of course, her father, Paul McCartney.

With this array of musical talent, McCartney wanted to provide the musicians the chance to explain how much Abbey Road Studios meant to them and to share the feeling of history and of magic that enveloped the studios at Abbey Road.

Each of the performers spoke about the way that the studio helped their recordings and discussed some of their greatest records that were recorded in the studio. One of my favorite moments was with Paul McCartney, who was telling a story about a recording session and how they had a specific piano available. He turned around and looked behind him and he saw that exact piano, got up and started to play it.

As a huge Beatles fan, I really enjoyed the reminiscing from Paul McCartney about the recording of Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and the White Album. Though it did not have the in-depth details as last year’s Get Back documentary, it was still very interesting and engaging.

It was also great watching John Williams and his work on Star Wars, with George Lucas sitting there watching and listening.

I thought this was a great debut from Mary McCartney and she explored some wonderful moments that happened in the studio of Abbey Road. There may not have been anything to tie the differing sections together, but it was fun to hear the stories of the stars about the studio.

4 stars

Pearl

Posted on by

Pearl is a film that is a prequel of a film called X that was also released in 2022. Directed by Ti West, Pearl is the basic origin story of the character Pearl, the old lady in the film X.

Pearl (Mia Goth) was isolated on a farm, trying to help to take care of her infirm and paralyzed father (Matthew Sunderland) while under the thumb of her controlling and paranoid mother Ruth (Tandi Wright). Pearl’s husband Howard was serving overseas during World War I, and Pearl dreamed of escaping from the farm and making it big in the movie industry.

However, as things begin to unravel for Pearl, her dark tendencies begin to shine through the façade she had in place.

Mia Goth is completely brilliant here. She portrayed the slow descent into madness perfectly and she created a tension on the screen where you just were never sure what she was about to do. The final scene of the movie (no spoilers, of course) is one of the creepiest sections of a movie this year.

There was also one of the year’s greatest monologue when Pearl was speaking to her sister-in-law, Mitzi (Emma Jenkins-Purro). She was truly frightening during this scene as you see the mental chasm forming across her mind.

Some of the kills in this slasher film are really well executed and create a tense atmosphere of uncertainty. All of that is simply elevated even more by the performance of Mia Goth. She gave, seriously, one of the top performances of 2022.

I enjoyed X, but I will admit to having to refresh my memory about what happened in it. I do not think I will need a refresher on Pearl. This was one more excellent horror film from 2022.

4.1 stars

Best and Worst Sci-Fi Movies of the Year

Posted on by

Science Fiction has seen better days. There are a few good sci-fi films that come out every year but there is not a huge run on the genre. Perhaps the continuing Dune franchise can help, but it feels as if the sci-fi film is too easily poorly constructed.

So it is a little challenging to choose the best sci-fi movie of the year. I do remove super hero movies from the mix. That leaves a lesser amount.

I’ll start with the worst.

Worst Sci-Fi Movie of the Year

Runners-Up: Crimes of the Future, Don’t Worry Darling, The School for Good & Evil, Jurassic World: Dominion, Firestarter, Moonfall

Worst: RIPD 2: Rise of the Damned

Who wanted a sequel of this movie? It is not as if RIPD was a huge hit. It was a minor film that was bad and went away. RIPD 2 is just a cheap knockoff without any of the stars of the original.

Best Sci-Fi Movie of the Year

Best Sci-Fi Movie

Previous Winners:  Upgrade, Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, The Martian, Ex Machina, Star Trek Into Darkness, Edge of Tomorrow, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Dune

Runners-Up: Day Shift, Lightyear, The Adam Project

Best (TIE): Everything Everywhere All At Once

AND…

Best (TIE): Avatar: The Way of Water

Two opposite types of films this year. The small, low budget movie that could and the giant, high budget blockbuster. Yet both came up with wonderful movies. Everything Everywhere All at Once had a tighter story and plot, but the new Avatar had the most spectacular special effects, surely revolutionizing the industry.

The X-Mas Movie of the Year

Posted on by

As I was watching Christmas Bloody Christmas this morning on Shudder, I realized that I had seen a lot of Christmas movies this year and that this might be the perfect opportunity to create a new category/Award for the Year in Review. So, I created the banner that is above this post and came up with my favorite X-Mas Movies of the Year.

Of course, the letter X is big in the geek world, so it felt natural to use it instead of writing out the word Christmas. Looking back over the years, there have been several epic Christmas movies. I watch The Muppet Christmas Carol every year. The constant argument over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie rages on. I loved the animated Klaus a few years ago on Netflix. Just to name a few.

Runners-Up for 2022: The film that would have been number two on a list of Christmas movies for 2022 was Spirited, a fun musical movie featuring Ryan Reynolds and Will Farrell, once again tapping into the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. The music in that film was excellent and Ferrell provided some solid work. Another big film was the long time sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas on HBO Max. Bringing back several of the original actors from A Christmas Story found all of the nostalgia for the season. Marvel Studios provided us with a special presentation on Disney + of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which included Drax and Mantis kidnapping Kevin Bacon as they tried to boosts the spirits of Peter Quill. I saw Christmas Bloody Christmas just this morning on Shudder and found the robot Santa Claus slasher that I did not know that I needed. Then, there were two Netflix films that were not particular favorites of mine, but I would include on this list at the bottom. That would be Falling for Christmas and the animated Scrooge: A Christmas Carol. Both very disappointing, especially Scrooge which somehow messed up the easiest of all stories.

The X-Mas Movie of the Year…

Violent Night

David Harbour starred in Violent Night, a film that was a surprise because of how much they actually spent on characterization and the depth of the story. It is not just Santa Claus being a bad ass. Of course, he is a bad ass. This was a hoot of a film with a ton of fun and some serious violence. And it is one of my favorite movies of the year.

The Volcano: Rescue for Whakaari

Posted on by

Netflix debuted a new documentary this weekend called The Volcano: Rescue for Whakaari, which illustrated the 2019 tragic events when there was a volcanic explosion on the island of Whakaari, which led to the deaths of 22 people.

In 2019, a group of tourist went to Whakaari, off the coast of New Zealand, to go on an adventure to see the magma of the volcano. Several of the survivors were interviewed throughout the documentary, talking about their reasons for going to the island in the first in the first place, dealing with the horrors of the eruption and their
struggles to survive their injuries and after effects of the ash.

While there may not have been as much in depth evaluation of the topic, the documentary had no lack of emotions and feels for these people who went through such a terrible even over the two hours of eruption time.

Then, the after effects, seeing the scars and the pain that the survivors suffered was something to behold. It is amazing what they had to do and seeing how they handled life after the eruption was emotional.

The film does a solid job of telling this story and setting up these people as survivors. The doc was a good watch.

3.85 stars