A couple of horror movies highlighted the new releases today. The first one I saw was an original featuring Rebecca Hall, called The Night House, which takes another look at the horror trope of the haunted house and puts a brand new spin on it.
Beth (Rebecca Hall) was a teacher who had just suffered a terrible loss in her life. Her beloved husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit) killed himself in a rowboat just near their lakeside home. The unexpected suicide knocked Beth for a loop and sent her into an obsession to discover why he did what he did. What she found was both disturbing and frightening as she learned that Owen had a few secrets of his own.
Rebecca Hall carried much of this movie with her excellent work. She had to show that she was desperately trying to make sense of her husband’s suicide, comparing the facts that she was discovering with what she knew about him. The film is extremely dark and does engage a series of themes involving the afterlife or lack thereof that is fascinating and Hall is awesome at portraying the uncertainty and the confusion that all of this builds.
The story is surprisingly complex and has some really creepy moments involved. Hall seems to be losing her mind as she learns more about her husband’s dark choices.
I really liked this movie with one major exception and it is going to require a SPOILER to discuss. In the third act of the movie, Beth discovered what she thinks is the ghost of her husband and she embraces him, rubbing her hands across his invisible body and this looks just silly as hell. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud at this image. Thankfully, it is not too long before she realizes that this is not Owen but the dark force that has been following her since she nearly died as a younger girl. After that, the movie picks back up, but that invisible hugging was a definite lowlight. END OF SPOILER.
There are some wonderful imagery and the director, David Bruckner, provide some cool shots of the film. He does a great job of keeping the mystery of what this creature is for the whole film and we see shadows used to imply what is here.
The Night House is a solid horror movie with some good theme and lovely looking shots that is only momentarily dragged down by one of the sillier scenes of the year.
It is documentary day in the DailyView. This doc goes into specific about a group of childhood friends who wanted to and did film a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
In 1981, two 11-year old kids, Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala, started to work on the remake of Raiders, which took them seven years to complete. The only thing was they never were able to complete the airplane scene. Thirty years later, they reunite to finish the scene.
The documentary is more effective as a story between three people (including Jayson Lamb) and the struggles and interactions of their lives while they were attempting to make this childhood dream come true. While the parts involving the shooting of the airplane scene was interesting, the real strength of the doc is the connections.
There are so many obstacles faced by this group not only as young kids, but also as adults.
Some of the footage was so amazing. Seeing them set people on fire in their childhood home’s basement is just one of the shocking moments of the film. Chris took some bad steps leading him to a life of drugs and a betrayal of Eric and the splitting apart of the kids. It told an unbelievable story of obsession and dedication slamming into each other.
John Rhys-Davies appeared and spoke during the documentary. Rhys-Davies played Sallah in two of the Indiana Jones movies and his presence here really brought a gravitas to the doc.
I also loved the end of the doc as it brought a huge amount of tension to the film. An issue with an exploding plane made this filled with anxiety.
The only criticism I would have is that I would have liked to have seen more of the footage that they had shot from their original film interwoven in the doc. However, the comments made by family members and friends really brought a great energy to the doc. I enjoyed this documentary.
I love Alfred Hitchcock. However, when I selected the 1936 film Sabotage on HBO Max tonight for the next entry in the DailyView, I was unaware that it was directed by the master. I had read the summary on the HBO Max page and thought it sounded interesting. I saw Hitchcock’s name in the opening credits and I was immediately excited. I have not seen a lot of Hitchcock in the DailyView and this would be a treat.
Apparently, Sabotage was the final film of Hitchcock’s British movies before he came over to the States. I also discovered that the film was released in the US under the name The Woman Alone, but was not as well known among Hitchcock’s films.
Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) managed a little cinema in London along with his wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her teenage brother Steve (Desmond Tester). However, Mr. Verloc had a secret… he was a member of a gang of foreign saboteurs using bombs to spread their terror in London. Scotland Yard Detective Sgt. Ted Spencer (John Loder) was assigned to find out what he could about Mr. Verloc. He befriended Mrs. Verloc and Steve in an attempt to discover the connection between her husband and the espionage happening in the area.
This is another example of why Hitchcock is the master of suspense as this film is filled with it. There are some amazing sequences that build up the suspense of what the audience thinks is happening and it really works well.
The suspense is especially tense during a sequence in the film on a bus. It was a very controversial scene and, reportedly, even Hitchcock himself was unsure about it. That scene, which I will not reveal because of spoilers, is perhaps the best in the film.
Performances are solid and you do feel for Mrs. Verloc throughout the film. She is so supportive of her husband and he is just a monster. There are some satisfying moments in the third act.
It is a quick watch and, though the first part of the movie is a bit slow, Sabotage really builds up to a powerful second and third act. You can see the traits of Hitchcock’s directorial style in the movie and, if you are a fan of the director, you want to search out this film.
I was really short on time tonight, so I knew that it was time for yet another trip back into the very early days of cinema to find Charlie Chaplin once again. However, we went really short this time.
Nice and Friendly was directed by Charlie Chaplin and has the bare bones of a story. According to IMDB, the film was made only as a wedding present for Lord and Lady Mountbatten. In the film, Lady Mountbatten had an expensive pearl necklace that a group of crooks were trying to steal. The Tramp was called in to stop them. He did so with a big hammer. The unconscious crooks were lined up on the lawn afterward, next to Boy (Jackie Coogan).
There really is no reason for this. As I was looking into the background on this, it sounds as if Chaplin most likely never thought this would be shown for the public. I’m sure he never dreamed that it would find a home on HBO Max streaming for the world to see. It is not very funny and Chaplin barely appears in the 11-minute short.
If you are a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin and you want to be completist, you can watch this. Otherwise, you should only watch it if you have a very limited amount of time available to fulfill a movie viewing challenge.
Above all else, this What If…? episode reminded me how much I miss Agent Phil Coulson. It was great hearing Clark Gregg reprise his role as the biggest fanboy SHIELD agent around during the events of this story.
Somebody is out to put an end to the Avenger Initiative before it ever gets a chance to start. Who is it? We get a mystery in episode three dealing with the murders of several of the OG Avengers.
This was my least favorite of the three episodes so far because it felt too constricted. In a story that could have been widespread and sprawling, this one felt too constricted, hurt by the half hour time frame. That’s not to say that this was a bad episode, far from it. It just was the weakest of the three so far, IMO.
This takes place during the week in the MCU where we got Iron Man 2, Thor and The Incredible Hulk, those three movies happening basically at the same moments. Except the films take a turn and each of the main heroes end up dead. Iron Man, apparently at the hands of Black Widow and Thor by Hawkeye’s arrow.
Thor’s death brought the warriors of Asgard to earth looking to seek vengeance for his death. Led by Loki, the Asgardian forces faced off with SHIELD. Meanwhile, Agent Fury was desperately trying to figure out who was inside SHIELD and killing off these “assets.” Fury strikes a deal with Loki to give them a little time to figure out the truth.
Black Widow was voiced in this episode by Lake Bell, who has been doing the voice of Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn series. She does a solid job as our Russian assassin. Though it appeared that Widow had been the one to kill Tony Stark, she is given permission by Fury to keep investigating. One of the coolest part of What If…? is the way some scenes are echoes in the show from the MCU. In this case, we see Black Widow in the back of a SHIELD truck, surrounded by guards as she is being transported to a secure location. This imagery echoed the famous elevator scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, although this time with Natasha at the center.
You almost expect her to ask if anyone wants to get out.
Natasha figures the mystery out, but is killed before she can reveal the true answer. She is able to leave a voice mail message for Fury saying that it was “all about Hope” which, at first sounded like she said Hulk.
This was where the episode felt the most rushed. The conclusion featuring our villain, Hank Pym, angry over the death of his daughter Hope (who was working with SHIELD?) and we get a chance to see the way he is able to have killed these other heroes. The design on Hank Pym was cool, making him look very insane from grief.
After Pym’s capture, Loki decides that Midgard would be a nice planet to rule and he takes over the world. Does it pretty easy too. Every episode of What If…? so far feels as if it could be setting up for a continuation of the story. Here we get Fury discovering Captain America and welcoming Carol Danvers back to earth. Is this the formation of a new team of Avengers?
I guess only the Watcher knows for sure.
Good episode that felt too crunched. I just love Coulson.
It has been a long time since I have done one of these lists, but this week’s Top 10 Show with John Rocha and Matt Knost had a topic that interested me, and I had a spare moment to throw together a list. The topic was Top 10 Scariest Movie Horror Characters.
#10. Giant Ants (Empire of the Ants). Okay, so this one I left here despite it being a terrible movie that is not really scary. Thing is… I saw this as a very young boy. I demanded that my parents take me to this film and I spent most of the runtime hiding beneath my seat or crying to my mom. I have a distinct memory of that moment, even if I do not have much of a memory of the movie.
#9. The Thing(The Thing). One of the best horror films and it is very scary, mainly because of the practical effects. The fact that you could ever tell which of the people in that station was The Thing… adding to the claustrophobic aspects of the film… well, it is just a psychological horror.
#8. Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs). I almost put Hannibal Lecter in this spot, but when thinking about it, Buffalo Bill was way scarier because he was so crazy and so sick. It also felt real. There are serial killers who do terrible things like Buffalo Bill did and that reality overcomes the, let’s be honest, coolness factor of Dr. Lecter. It always blows my mind when I realize that Buffalo Bill is also Captain Leland Stottlemeyer from Monk, Ted Levine.
#7. Jack Torrance (Shining). One of Jack Nicholson’s most iconic roles. When he is chasing after his family with that ax and follows little Danny into the outside maze, it is one of the frighteningly intense scenes. The Shining is filled with horrible moments. The rolling blood. The woman from room 234. The murder of Scatman Crothers. All of it is based around Jack’s decent into madness.
#6. Annie Wilks (Misery). The Stephen King adaptation brought the superfan into focus in a horrific way. There may not be any scene on this list more frightening than the scene with the sledgehammer. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her performance in this role, and it is because she portrayed the crazy in such a perfect way.
#5. Xenomorph (Alien, Aliens). What a great design of a character. These monstrous creature bring the terror to two of the best movies. The first Alien film was more f the horror film while Aliens 2 brought more action. Either way, every time we would see the Xenomorph, you could feel the fear deep inside your heart. One of the most iconic movie aliens around.
#4. Pennywise (It). I considered this for number one, but clowns do not really scare me. There are some terrifying moments in It, though fewer in It Chapter Two. The scene with the Losers Club in the garage watching the slides and having Pennywise come out of the screen… whoa… no way. Just a horribly scary shock. Bill Skarsgård does a fantastic job filling the shoes of the iconic EYG Hall of Famer Tim Curry.
#3. Regan MacNeil (The Exorcist). The Exorcist is one of the scariest of all horror movies and it is mainly because of the efforts of the possessed young girl Regan MacNeil. Played brilliantly by Linda Blair, Regan defined several of the classic horror genre tropes including the scary kid, the possession, the Devil as an adversary. The Exorcist is a frightful film thanks to this performance.
#2. Killer alligators (Crawl). This is the reason I am never going to Florida. I am not sure if I have ever been as scared by a film as I was in Crawl. I was uneasy and every time one of those killer alligators appeared, killing some innocent bystander, I was all the more scared. It was an intense film that seriously brought me chills. I almost made this number one, but the alligators did not have their own distinct personalities, so I bowed to another giant man-eating creature.
#1. Jaws (Jaws). The scene where the shark devours Quint really scared me as a younger person. I can remember watching with horror not believing what I was seeing. The way the shark is barely seen in the early part of the film is awesome and builds such tension for the later reveals. The famous story was that the mechanical shark Bruce was not working well and this was something they had to do out of necessity. What a lucky break. Jaws is one of my favorite movies of all time and the shark deserves its spot atop this list.
Honorable mentions: There are a few extras that were considered. I already mentioned Hannibal Lecter, who was as close to being on the list as you get. Michael Meyers was a character that I tried to squeeze in, but just fell short. Leatherface was scary. Freddy Krueger had some moments but slipped back when he became more of a comedy character. The Babadook is a sleeper pick that I considered for the list to.
Going through Shudder to try and find a good movie for the DailyView tonight and I stumbled across the thumbnail with a picture of the awesome Roddy Piper on it. It was a movie called “Hell Comes to Frogtown,” a film I had never heard of before. It was released in 1988, which was the same year that Piper starred in John Carpenter’s They Live. Quite the year for Hot Rod.
After a worldwide nuclear war, 68% of the male population was wiped out and most of the surviving men had become sterile. A virile man was rare. Sam Hell (Roddy Piper) turned out to be extremely virile and was recruited by the government to become a breeder. Along with Spangle (Sandahl Bergman), a government agent out to make sure he followed the instructions, Sam went into Frogtown to attempt a rescue of a group of fertile women from the clutches of the humanized frogs.
What a silly movie this is. You could tell what it was going to be when we found out that the government had placed a booby trap on Sam Hell’s crotch, a device that would send a shock through him if he got too far away from Spangle. It was triggered by the earrings she wore. I, of course, would have chopped off her head and took it with me so I would not have to worry about it again, but that is just me.
Roddy Piper is easily the best part of this movie. He is extremely charming and has a pretty good screen presence. He is not the greatest actor around, but he does have qualities that make him entertaining to watch.
The story is ridiculous and the humanized frogs are funny, which, I am guessing, they are not supposed to be.
This is full of cheesy action and silly dialogue, but the charisma of Piper and Bergman help make this at least engaging. Probably a guilty pleasure.
One of the iconic Marx Brothers movies was A Night at the Opera, the 1935 slapstick classic, which was the first film from the Marx Brothers after some major changes. First, they went from Paramount Pictures to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and second, this was the first film since Zeppo left the act. Zeppo was very much a straight man in the act and was the lesser known of the quartet and, here, gets replaced with Alan Jones, a talented singer, in the basic role that would have been Zeppo’s.
In the film, Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) meets aspiring opera singer Ricardo (Allan Jones) and attempts to get him a job. Ricardo is determined to gain the love of singer Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Otis is helped by Fiorello (Chico Marx) and Tomasso (Harpo Marx). Chaos ensued.
The slapstick of the Marx Brothers was on clear display throughout the movie. There are some absolute amazing bits of comedy from the group, including the moving of beds between rooms to avoid capture by a policeman. The entire scene at the opera in the third act of this movie with Harpo swinging from the ropes above the stage was totally hilarious.
Is the story simple? Yes, but you are not watching Marx Brothers movies for deep, intricate plots. The interactions between Groucho and Chico are brilliantly scripted. They feel very much ad-libbed and are smooth as can be.
There are some great scenes of both Harpo and Chico showing off their musical skills. I can only assume that this is actually them performing. I know Harpo could play the harp, but Chico and his piano work was very impressive.
A Night at the Opera is a lot of fun and any fan of the Marx Brothers needs to see it.
The internet has been wanting the release of the first trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, for what seems like months now. With the rumors of the casting floating around, this trailer has become one of the most anticipated trailers in years.
However, the internet had an unfortunate sneak peak on Sunday when someone from Sony (reportedly) leaked a poor quality version of the trailer onto YouTube. Personally, I avoided watching the leaked trailer, expecting the real, fully developed trailer to be released in the next day or two.
I think it is a shame that this trailer was leaked and I wonder what was the motivation to leak it. Whoever it was, I am sure that Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was ready to reign fire. It is amazing that this stuff does not happen for Marvel Studios. No Way Home is being promoted by Sony, and Sony seems to have had this issue in the past.
I am very excited to see the trailer, whether it comes out tonight or tomorrow. Spider-Man: No Way Home features Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori and Marisa Tomei. The film has conformed that Alfred Molina is returning to the role of Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx is returning to the role of Electro.
The rumors indicate that the film will also feature a Spider-Verse story where Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield are reprising their own roles from Spider-Man movies of the past. This is what is causing such an uproar online. With villains confirmed from Spider-Man 2 and Amazing Spider-Man 2 respectively, it does make a lot of sense.
I do not expect Maguire and Garfield to make an appearance in the teaser trailer, but I sure hope they are in the film. If, at this point, they are not in the film, I would expect a huge backlash on the film. I do not think we have to worry about that though. I do believe they are in the movie.
Can’t wait to see the trailer… hopefully tonight after the Sony presentation at CinemaCon. We’ll see.
This is the last day of the Showtime channel that I got real cheap on Prime Day a couple of months ago and I figured that watching one more movie on the channel would be a good choice. Going through the list, I found the 2015 film starring Charlize Theron called Dark Places.
Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was the sole survivor of a massacre at her family’s home when she was 8 years old. Her testimony helped to convict her brother Ben (played as a youth by Tye Sheridan and later as an adult by Corey Stoll) for the murder.
Years later, Libby was approached by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult), a member of a club that investigates true crime cases, who believed Ben was innocent of the murders and wanted Libby to help them prove it. Of course, this opened several old wounds for Libby as she recounted the night her mother (Christina Hendricks) and two sisters died.
This one was a mixed bag of a movie. There were several bits that I really liked, and several bits that bother me. Starting with what I liked, Charlize Theron is great. I believed her as a traumatized adult who had gone through hell as a child and just wanted to be left alone. She had capitalized on the infamy of the case, which did not make her look like a good person, but she was clearly still being tortured by the memories of that night. Sterling Jerins, who played young Libby, was just a solid in the flashback scenes of Libby’s childhood.
I enjoyed the mystery of what exactly happened on the night in question, as Ben’s guilt had been questioned by Lyle and his Kill Club and their obsession with the case (however, the one woman in the club, Magda, played by Lori Cordova was a horribly cruel person and I did not like her immediately). Again, Theron is excellent here as she is just never quite sure what she remembered from that night.
Chloe Grace Moretz played Ben’s girlfriend in the flashbacks and she is a bit of a contradiction. I’m not sure how I am expected to feel about this character. Moretz is always a solid actor and she does a good job here too. I just wish her character was better written.
However, the way the movie revealed the story was very odd. It jumped around from point of view throughout the plot, sometimes showing us memories from Libby, sometimes showing us times when Libby was nowhere to be seen. Libby did a voice over during some of it, but they revealed scenes of flashbacks that Libby could not have known. The POV was so confused and inconsistent that it really messed with the story, which could have been told in a much more useful manner.
This movie was based on Gillian Flynn’s 2009 novel of the same name and it feels as if some of the important details were left out. At times the movie felt rushed, and could have allowed more time for scenes to breathe.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and the performances more than I disliked the structure of the filmmaking. I had seen the low Rotten Tomatoes score on this before I had started it (23%) so my expectations were low, which always seems to help when watching a movie. This was passable for me.
One of the most iconic quotes from any movie, it is from the classic dance movie of the 1980s, Dirty Dancing.
In the Catskills, “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey) spends the summer at a resort with her family. This year, she winds up taking the place of one of the dancers in a performance with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). Through their dancing, Baby and Johnny fall in love.
Another film that I never was interested in seeing. The rom com type dance flick never appealed to me. Yet, after watching it today for the first time, it was a decent watch. I liked the simplistic story, the development of the relationship between Johnny and Baby.
Both Swayze and Grey do a great job with the dance routines and the practice sessions, which is as fun as the finished product. The practice scenes with them in the outdoors were so much fun. The dancing on the fallen tree was impressive.
There are some excellent actors in supporting roles too, led by the late Jerry Orbach. The film also includes Cynthia Rhodes, Jack Weston, Jane Brucker, Wayne Knight, and Kelly Bishop.
Dirty Dancing is a fun movie with some great music and dance routines.
Tomorrow is my final day of a subscription to Paramount + that I got at an extremely low cost during Prime Day. I have not used the Paramount + subscription for as much as some of the other ones, but it has given me an opportunity to see a movie that I probably wouldn’t have seen in the theater. It is the first feature length film from the animated series Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol: The Movie is day and date release in theaters and on streaming and I’ve heard positive word of mouth on the film.
Ryder (Will Brisbin) and his Paw Patrol get a call for help from Adventure City because newly elected Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo) was causing chaos. However, returning to Adventure City caused a crisis of memory for team member Chase (Iain Armitage), the big city where he was dumped as a puppy.
Now, I am not the target audience for this movie. It is certainly targeted at a younger aged child. However, there have been movies that I said that same thing, but I gave negative reviews for because they were so dumb or poorly executed. Just because something is meant for children doesn’t give it a right to be bad.
After seeing the Paw Patrol movie, I can say that this is a good film for a family to spend watching together. It has a cute, simple story, with appealing characters, some quality animation, and several positive messages on teamwork, overcoming personal challenges, dedication and heroism.
The voice cast is solid. It includes Will Brisbin, Iain Armitage, Ron Pardo, Tyler Perry, Jimmy Kimmel, Randall Park, Kingsley Marshall, Keegan Hedley, Marsai Martin, Shayle Simons, Callum Shoniker, Lilly Bartlam, Dax Shepard and Kim Roberts.
Paw Patrol: The Movie is a film that the kids should love and one that the parents won’t hate having to sit through.
Reminiscence is the new science fiction, neo-noir starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. It is directed by Lisa Joy, a producer and writer from the HBO TV show Westworld.
In a dystopian futuristic world, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a private investigator of the mind who uses the reminiscence to search for information through the memories of his clients. When a simple case of missing keys from a woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) came into his office, Nick found that it was anything but simple. He fell for Mae and he became obsessed with her when she disappeared.
There are some good parts of the film, but, unfortunately, it is mixed in with a lot of negative. Starting off with the fact that I never bought the connection between Nick and Mae. Jackman and Ferguson are tremendous actors, but this story just did not provide them with the sufficient details to make me care about them together. Their chemistry was lacking. I do not think that is because of the acting, but because of the story.
The premise was pretty interesting, but it does feel like movies that we have already seen. There feels to be a lot of convoluted plot points that happen that are not needed. The run time is almost 2 hours and I feel every bit of the time.
There is a lot of stuff, characters in particular, that is thrown at the audience and they are not effectively explained, which makes their eventual importance less important for me. The only people who I had a real knowledge of was Nick and Mae, and not necessarily Mae. Thandiwe Newton played Nick’s partner in his reminiscence business and I did like her, but she felt underdeveloped and not used enough. She did have one bad ass fight scene with Nick, but she was someone I could have used more from. Cliff Curtis was a crooked cop at the heart of the convoluted plot that I really did not know much about and so when he was such a vital aspect of the ending, I was not as invested as I could have been.
I watched this on HBO Max this morning and I was glad that I did not have to go to the theater to see it. It is a film that feels as if it has wasted a solid cast and a potentially interesting premise for a mismanaged love story.
Today, the DailyView heads out to sea for a boy and his dolphin. It is the iconic tale of the dolphin that they call Flipper.
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning, No-one you see, is smarter than he, And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder, Flying there-under, under the sea!
The young boy Sandy (Luke Halpin), son of fisherman Porter Ricks (Chuck Connors), rescued a dolphin who had been injured by a spear, and nursed the animal back to health. When Sandy’s father discovered his son’s actions, he made Sandy release Flipper back to the sea. However, Flipper was not going to be out of their lives.
There are some neat tricks from Flipper and Luke Halpin, but, honestly, there is a lot of repeated images of the dolphin’s tricks. There are a plenty of reused scenes between the dialogue. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is obvious when it is happening.
Luke Halpin is fine in the film. He is not asked to go into depth with his performances, but what he does here is what the film needs and asks of him. Chuck Connors is the biggest star of the cast and he is the person who learns the biggest lesson. He and his son do have a solid relationship and they show it well.
This movie is not a fantastic movie, but it was fine. It was an entertaining
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 