M. Night Shyamalan is back again with his next trip into the bizarre world of movie making with Old, a horror/thriller with that definitive Shyamalan flavor. M. Night has had some tremendous successes, specifically early in his career with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. He followed those up in the middle with some horrendous films such as The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth. The last few years, Shyamalan has righted the ship with The Visit and the Split/Glass films. I no longer look at a film with the name M. Night Shyamalan attached to it as something I desperately want to avoid.

In fact, even with the films that he failed with, you can generally consider Shyamalan’s film, at the very least, original and creative. They may not always be good, but he takes a swing.

So I did approach the new film, Old, with a hopeful thought. I knew the premise of the film from the trailers (which give away too much) that a group of people are stranded on a beach where they are aging rapidly. Unfortunately, I came our of Old feeling underwhelmed. I did not hate the movie, but it seemed to be missing some important parts to it.

The early film spends some time with a family of four, Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), his wife Prisca (Vicky Krieps), their 11-year old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and 6-year old Trent (Nolan River). Guy and Prisca were having problems but wanted to give the kids one more weekend before they told them about whatever the trouble was. So they went to this special resort. The resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) met them and offered them a special trip to a hidden beach. The family took him up on it. They were joined by several other characters who had less character development than our family of four on the trip.

They had to hike through some strange rock formations to reach the beach, but once there, everyone seemed happy. That would not last.

Honestly, the acting performances were not top level. I actually found the young version of Trent, Nolan River, to be cute and charming, especially when he was paired with another young actor named Kailen Jude who played Idlib. Of course, he would eventually age into Alex Wolff and Maddox would age into Thomasin McKenzie. As I said, the acting was not great, but I do not think they were given a great script to work with. The dialogue, in particular, felt really clunky and not realistic. Even Alex Wolff, who I have really enjoyed in past films, did not standout in a positive manner. To be fair, Wolff was trying to act as a 15 year old kid with the mind of a 6 year old. The problem was this was not shown well enough. Trent as Nolan did not act in the manner that Alex did and so we had nothing to compare it with.

Another issue was that the time on the beach did not lead to anything. It was like we saw a laundry list of things happen but they had no lasting implications outside of the ones that led to a specific character death. Those deaths did not factor into the plot much either. It was more like a slasher movie than a psychological thriller.

Ken Jeong was in the movie and he distracted me. It is not his fault, but he was on LOST and I spent ever second of the time he was on screen trying to remember his LOST character’s name (it’s Miles, by the way. I don’t know why I can never remember that). That is my issue, not the movie’s, of course.

There was another scene, which I will not spoil, that has to be considered weirdly icky. I am not saying that it couldn’t have worked, but the execution on it just was missing and there was zero consequences of the situation.

Oh, and there was a famous rapper already on the beach when they arrived. The character’s name was… Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre). I’m not even kidding. It was not played for a joke. I actually liked the character, the actor gave one of the better performances and there were some good things done with him, but Mid-Sized Sedan???

There were some good part as well. Some of the middle section scenes were decent and did build some tension and confusion. There were some good scares, one in particular involving the stunningly beautiful Madrid (Francesca Eastwood) in a cave with Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie.

The ‘Shyamalan ending twist’ was one of the best parts of the movie. I wish that this was shown earlier in the film and that we developed it more because this could have changed the idea of the film.

Old is based on the Swiss graphic novel called Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters and there are some interesting ideas here, but, unfortunately, it is just not tied together well enough to be effective. The film has some moments but it feels as if the negatives outweigh the positives. It is better than those really bad Shyamalan movies, but does not hold up to the best of the director, either.

2.8 stars

Crazy Nicolas Cage trying to get his stolen pig back. That is what I thought of this movie when I first saw the trailer for Pig, and I was fully bought in. However, after seeing the movie, I can honestly say that this is 100% deeper than I thought it was going to be.

The movie started and I thought that this was going to be the second Nicolas Cage this movie this year where Cage doesn’t say much of anything (Willy’s Wonderland), but as Pig progressed, we got more dialogue from Cage. Not a lot, mind you, but more than Willy’s Wonderland.

Rob (Nicolas Cage) was a former chef who retreated to the wilderness of Oregon with his truffle pig to hunt truffles for a younger truffle entrepreneur Amir (Alex Wolff). One day, someone arrived and attacks Rob, taking his pig. Rob leaves the wilderness in search of his missing pig.

Do not make the mistake that I have heard many people making. This is not John Wick or Taken with a pig. Pig does not turn into a revenge thriller. Nic Cage’s Rob may have a set of particular skills, but they’re not the same kind of skills Liam Neeson or Keanu Reeves’s characters possessed. To be fair, I don’t know if John Wick or Bryan Mills could cook up a tasty pheasant dinner.

This is a deeply emotional character piece, looking into Rob, Amir, Darius (played by Adam Arkin) with some wonderful writing and amazing performances. Nicolas Cage gives one of his best performances of the last several years, taking nothing away from his other work, but he is completely standout here. The scene where Cage and Wolff go to a Portland restaurant and Cage winds up dressing down the chef (David Knell) who was a former apprentice of Rob’s, is a masterclass in writing and execution. That scene alone is worth the admission to the film.

I also love that Nic Cage goes the entire movie with the blood stained face that happened when he was attacked by the pig-nappers. People kept asking him if he needed medical attention or if he were alright and Cage just kept on going. It is a true character choice that tells you more about that character than you expect.

Alex Wolff is also very good here. Wolff who has been playing the young teen/adult characters steps into a more mature role than what I am used to and he knocks it out of the park. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Pig is a really exceptional film with great performances, especially the lead performance from Nicolas Cage. It may seem silly, but the film takes you into an emotional depth that I did not expect. Pig is a beautiful tale of love and loss.

4.4 stars

A film that will certainly reignite the debate over who is the true GOAT of the NBA and the Space Jam universe: Michael Jordan or LeBron James.

Other than that… not much here.

I watched Space Jam: A New Legacy on HBO Max today. I was always a fan of the Looney Tunes but this really stretched that fandom thin.

LeBron James and his video game loving son Dom (Cedric Joe) are abducted by artificial intelligence Al G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle) into the Internet via a video game that Dom created. Al G. forces James to play a basketball game for their freedom. James is sent through the Warner Brothers world to recruit players for his team and he wound up with a group that he did not expect.

I don’t know if this sounds familiar, but the plot is pretty much the original Space Jam with Michael Jordan. There are some new twists here and there, but the general idea is the same. The special effects are really well done here and certainly surpassed the original. That is about where that ends.

The film spends a good deal of time simply promoting all of the Warner Brothers franchises out there, from DC to King Kong to Harry Potter. Most of the opening of the film was a giant advertisement for the WB. Some of these are fun, but they get old quickly and most of them are at the cost of the story.

I give LeBron James and Don Cheadle a lot of credit though because they are doing the best they can with what they have. Cheadle seemed like he was having a lot of fun with his over-the-top villainy and James does not make himself look good in the first half of the movie. LeBron James is a bad dad? That was unexpected.

However, the rest of the movie is predictable as can be. I wonder who was going to win? Yeah, I know already.

There was one cameo during the halftime of the basketball game that was clever and funny.

I was bored with most of the new movie and I expect that most adults would be. I will say that kids will probably enjoy this as it is targeted more towards them than me.

I’m not sure why this movie needed to be made. There does not seem to be any purpose to do another Space Jam movie outside of ego. Maybe that is the true story.

1.9 stars

Three weeks. Three movies. Netflix has something special here.

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a hugely satisfying conclusion to the Fear Street trilogy that started just a few weeks ago on the streaming service.

When last we left Deena (Kiana Madeira), she was seeing through the eyes of the witch Sarah Fier (Elizabeth Scopel) back in the days just prior to the infamous curse that split apart the settlement of Union into the two rival cities Sunnyvale and Shadyside. We then follow Sarah along through the tragic circumstances that led her to be hanged by the town for witchcraft.

I do not want to spoil anything here because the film is exceptional and the story takes a distinct path that is going to be enjoyed more with the uncertainty of what is being seen. I will say that the first half of the film takes place in 1666 and is paced remarkably. The film was moving at such a rapid fire pace that it looked as if everything was going to be wrapped up within the first hour and I was wondering what the rest of the film was going to be.

The answer to that is the film gives us Fear Street: 1994 Part Two (which they actually label as such). It takes us back to Deena and her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr) and they continue on their efforts to try to break the curse and save their town from the continual murders that happen over the years.

1666 stuck the landing here beautifully, giving us a great conclusion to the story. The film is shot exceptionally, creating a distinct feel between the two parts of the film. The first part makes one think of horror movies like The Witch with the way it looked. It also showed us the way of the mob mentality and how easily it is to have one’s faith and identity manipulated and taken advantage of.

The tone remained consistent through the whole trilogy, creating some really solid frights and an anxiousness for the audience. It carefully honored the different types of horror movies and genres through the trilogy and made each one fit within the narrative that they were telling. Director Leigh Janiak brings everything together masterfully and shows that she has a flair for the horror genre.

This trilogy, based upon the books of R.L. Stein, was a risky proposition from Netflix, especially with some of the other original movies they have on their site, which runs has a low level of success per flick. However, Fear Street has three excellent horror movies and should be considered the pattern for future efforts on the streaming site.

4.5 stars

The adaptation of one of DC Comics’ most classic Batman stories is split into two parts, with part one of The Long Halloween debuting first. And what an adaptation it was.

DC Animation has been very successful over the years, but this one feels as if they took an extra step to make this special. The animation here is so much better than what we have seen before from DC and the story is done extremely well.

There is a killer running around Gotham knocking off people tied to Carmine Falcone (Titus Welliver) on holidays, starting with Halloween. Batman (Jensen Ackles), Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) and D.A. Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) team up in an attempt to stop the Holiday Killer from continuing the reign of terror.

I have not read The Long Halloween comic, though I have heard of it. I am unaware at the comic adaptation which makes me all the more anxious to see this wrap up in Part Two. Part One showed a Batman who had not mastered the art of detective skills as he jumped from one theory to another. The film added the confrontation with the Joker (Troy Baker) in an airplane over Gotham, which was exciting and very much in character with the Clown Prince of Crime.

We meet Selina Kyle (Naya Rivera), who is in a relationship with Bruce Wayne while playing around as Catwoman. The Dark Knight visited Calendar Man (David Dastmalchian) at Arkham in an attempt to get a clue on the identity of Holiday. Calendar Man was creepier here than I had ever seen him as a character in the books.

The voice cast is really good, but, to be fair, it sounded as if Ackles and Baker were doing imitations of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, the two most iconic voice actors for batman and the Joker (both Conroy and Hamill are in the EYG Hall of Fame).

It was a fascinating choice to set this in the early days of Batman before he had become the “World’s Greatest Detective.” Seeing Batman struggle with the clues and fail with his theories creates an air of fallibility in Batman that is not usually there and it helps maintain the mystery.

With the inferior adaptation of The Killing Joke, it looks like more care and love has gone into bringing The Long Halloween to the screen. I am anxious to see if I am correct with my guess on who Holiday is (I am avoiding looking it up on Wikipedia) and I am excited for the release of Part Two at the end of July.

4.25 stars

Netflix has promised to release a new movie every week to their streaming service. Unfortunately, for every Fear Street and Army of the Dead we get, there is a The Devil Below to balance it out. In fact, I would dare to say that the quality of the movies such as The Devil Below is what is the rule instead of the exception.

By that I mean that it is crappy.

A team of researchers arrive in the Appalachian country to investigate a series of coal mines that have been ablaze for decades. When the open one up, they realize quickly that they have made a mistake and have unleashed something previously contained.

BO-RING!

There is nothing here to grab your attention or to make you give a care about any of the characters here. All of the characters are lacking any depth to their character, being nothing more than one trait, a one-trick pony.

And the monsters… well, let’s just say that they resembled the Flukeman on The X-Files crossed with Audrey II, but not quite as scary. They are shot in the worst way possible, that made them more funny than frightening.

This is the type of movie that makes me not want to explore the rest of these Netflix movies.

1 star

Son, the new horror film on Shudder, is really frightening.

I mean, frightening as hell.

After a terrible childhood and past, Laura (Andi Matichak) seemed to have gotten past it. She lived alone with her son David (Luke David Blumm). One night, she woke up and found a group of people in her son’s room. She ran for help, and, when she returned, they were all gone. Police detective Paul (Emile Hirsch) believed her when no one else would.

At this point, David got real sick, puking blood and going through convulsions. The doctors had no idea what was happening to him, but Laura knew that it was somehow connected to her past. When David’s illness took an unexpected turn, things became even more frightening.

Holy crap was this intense.

This is one of the better of the creepy child category of horror genre we have seen in quite awhile. I was very impressed with Luke David Blumm, who carried some powerful moments in the film with a great maturity. He and Andi Matichak had a wonderful chemistry, and you believe that she loved her son no matter what.

As the film moved on, you are never quite sure what was happening even when you see it before your eyes. With the questions of Laura’s background in play, the thought that none of it was real was a possibility, which helped bring a surreal quality to the movie.

The movie is unnerving and packed a surprisingly powerful emotional beat to it. This is one that you do not want to watch late at night in the dark if you expect to sleep. A well done, suspenseful horror film that had me not sure what was going to happen next.

4.1 stars

There was a joke here. It got old quickly.

It is possible that the idea here was a way to speak on the fact that Americans do not know there history. However, this is filled with crassness, crudeness, and stupidity.

George Washington (Channing Tatum) and his best friend Abe Lincoln (Will Forte) were preparing to revolt against the British. When Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg) betrayed them, and killing Abe.

Washington compiled a team including Sam Adams (Jason Mantzoukas), a gender bent Thomas Edison (Olivia Munn), Paul Revere (Bobby Moynihan) and Geronimo (Raoul Max Trujillo) to find the Gettysburg Address and create “America” a name Lincoln gave for the new country as he died.

This film is totally batshit crazy. There is so much ridiculousness tossed into this movie because the joke is too think to stretch to a 90 minute movie. This might have been effective for an animated short, but there is not enough here to make it fun.

There was so much swearing and crude language and they tried to make that funny.

Great use of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird though.

I was looking forward to seeing this film and I was really disappointed with the results.

1.5 stars

Here is one of those movies from VOD that I might not have ever seen if I hadn’t had to spend most of the last year searching for movies online. I found this on Vudu, and the synopsis sounded cool. So I gave it a chance and it was a great movie that really highlights the acting chops of Megan Fox.

I know, right? Megan Fox has never been someone who I thought of when the term “acting chops” came up, but here she not only shows her kick ass tendencies, but also her skill as a thespian.

Megan Fox is Emma, a woman who had been involved in a violent encounter years before with a man named Bobby Ray (Callan Mulvey). Her husband was a successful lawyer Mark (Eoin Macken) but heir marriage was having problems. Emma was having an affair with Tom (Aml Ameen), a co-worker of Mark.

Mark set up a surprise for Emma and his anniversary, a trip to a remote lakehouse in the winter. He prepared a romantic evening, isolated with only them.

The next morning, Emma awakens to find that she is handcuffed to Mark and that he had a gun. He shoots himself in the head, with blood and brains splattering across Emma. She realized that he had removed anything that could unshackle her from him. Worse yet, she soon learns that he had hired Bobby Ray and his brother Jimmy (Jack Roth) to kill her and they were on their way.

Sure the premise is a little out there, but the performers all do a wonderful job, in particular Megan Fox, who struggles to survive with all of these hurdles tossed in her way. She shows smarts and determination, as well as a bad ass streak. The physical performance from Fox shows how much she was willing to go for it.

The film was short, and paced extremely well. There was little wasted time, especially once they arrived at the lakehouse. It was tense and taut and even clever at times.

Till Death is a solid revenge/thriller that gives us a new look at Megan Fox. It was easy to root for her and you can feel every frightening moment as she is desperately trying to save her life. Yes, there may be an unlikely situation or two, but they are worth it with the solid make up of the remainder of the film.

4 stars

Wow.

The second part of Netflix’s three week Fear Street trilogy was amazing. What a middle chapter of this tale being told in three movies every Friday. This cool concept is really delivering us some powerful horror.

After last week’s Fear Street Part One: 1994, Deenna (Kiana Madeira) and Josh (Benjamin Flore Jr) found themselves at the door of C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), the survivor of the slaughter at Camp Nightwing in 1978. Deenna and Josh were looking to discover how she survived the attack by Sarah Fier and her magical killers. After some opposition, Ms. Berman finally sat down and told them the story of Camp Nightwing.

This was a great camp slasher flick. I have to say, at least in the first act, the difference for me between 1994 and 1978 was that the characters in 1994 were characters that I liked, while the campers and counselors at Camp Nightwing were characters that I was rooting to get an axe to the face. To be fair, several of those characters grew on me or showed me another side to their personality making me less anxious for them to die.

Perfect example was Alice (Ryan Simpkins), who was the one-time best friend of Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd) until Cindy “snitched” on her and got her in trouble. Alice was such a rotten person early in the movie that I just disliked her tremendously. However, as the film progressed and we discovered more about Alice and her story, she became someone I no longer wanted to get her head chopped off.

Cindy and her little sister Ziggy (Sadie Sink) were having plenty of issues with one another too. Ziggy was more rebellious and getting into trouble at the camp. We meet her getting stringed up by other campers who were joking about setting her on fire. They actually burned her with a lighter. Again, here are several characters who I would not mind seeing chopped to death.

We get more of the backstory of the curse on the town of Shadyside by the witch Sarah Fier. One of the camp nurses, whose daughter had been one of the people who were possessed and killed a bunch of people, had done research on Sarah Fier and had filled a journal with all of the details, including a map.

The killings were brutal and bloody, but, admittedly, not overly creative. The origin of the Camp Nightwing killer, who we had seen in 1994, is revealed here as Cindy’s perfect boyfriend Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye). It is awesome seeing how he became the monster that we knew he was.

The middle of the trilogy does a great job setting up next week, when we head back to 1666 for the third and final entry in the Fear Street trilogy. This one got me all the more excited for next week.

4.5 stars

It has been almost two years since the last MCU movie in theaters. Spider-Man: Far From Home came out at the end of July in 2019, a few month after the gigantic Avengers: Endgame. Little did we know that it wouldn’t be until just past the first week of July 2021 until we get another.

Sure, we have been tided over with some awesome Disney + TV shows in the meantime, but there is just something about the Marvel heroes on the big screen.

Finally, we have a new film, and it is one that has gone through a lot to make its way onto the movie screen. Black Widow was originally scheduled for May 2020, but had to be delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It got pushed several times and calls to just put it out on Disney + were coming from MCU-content starved fans, but Marvel Studios held off, trusting their movie. They finally set July 9th as the release date for Natasha’s first big screen stand alone epic and this time things looked good. Of course, they are also releasing it as their Premium release on the streaming site for another fee as well.

Fact is that the Black Widow has faced more than just a pandemic. Scarlett Johansson is a major star and one would think that a major star who is one of the Avengers would have received her own stand alone movie way before this, especially since the character perished in Endgame. Rumors persisted that SOME at Marvel Studios did not believe a woman could lead a major comic franchise (*cough* Ike P), and when Kevin Feige finally got total control of things at Marvel Studios, Black Widow was one of those things he wanted to get done. Unfortunately, at this point, plans were underway and it would have been difficult to toss Black Widow into the mix.

So one of the issues of Marvel Studio’s Black Widow is that it does feel as if it should have existed before this time in the MCU. That is not something the film could be blamed for, but the fact that Natasha Romanoff sacrificed herself on Vormir, does take away from much of the prequel’s punch.

Having said that, Black Widow is a rollicking good time, filled with action and wonderful characters. It is the MCU’s James Bond/Jason Bourne-type film and it holds it own with many, if not all, of these spy films.

Black Widow picks up directly after Captain America: Civil War with Natasha on the run for her actions against the Sokovia Accords. She is being pursued by ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt). There are some initial flashbacks to child Natasha (Ever Anderson) living in Ohio, a part of a Russian sleeper cell along with her “father” Alexi (David Harbour), “mother” Melina (Rachel Weisz) and “sister” Yelena (Violet McGraw). When the mission ended and the family had to retreat, the girls were taken by Dreykov Ray Winstone) to the Red Room to begin their training in the Widow program.

Natasha received some mail, part of which was some vials from her sister Yelena (now played by Florence Pugh), she is attacked by the mysterious Taskmaster, who had the ability to mimic any fighting style Taskmaster sees. Natasha escaped and returned to Budapest (the location she and Hawkeye talked about way back in the first Avengers movie) to search for Yelena.

Natasha found out from Yelena that the Red Room was still active and Dreykov, whom Natasha believed she had killed, was still alive and running the program. The “sisters” decided to take the Red Room down once and for all and they went to see Alexi, the Red Guardian and Melina for answers.

I loved the action sequences in this movie. There are some wonderfully designed and filmed action throughout the Black Widow. I will say that I did not love the hand-to-hand fights because the camera was just too bouncy to enjoy those. The rest of the action is filmed wonderfully. Cate Shortland directed Black Widow and, reportedly, was brought to Marvel Studios by Scarlett Johansson herself. That is quite the pat on the back for Shortland.

The relationship between Natasha and Yelena is beautifully constructed too. They have their issues. Yelena felt deserted while Natasha felt the sting of discovering that the entire family she had known was not real, that is was put together by the Russian government. Yelena and Natasha fought, both figuratively and literally, as sisters, but you could see the conflict within both of the,

Florence Pugh is a tremendous actor. She has been providing some outstanding work over the last few years and her turn as Yelena is one more triumph. David Harbour is every bit as great, promptly stealing every scene he is in. His boastful Red Guardian is a hoot and he is as compelling and real as any possible “super-solider” could be. Rachel Weisz has the least to do of the family unit, but she optimizes her screen time to be impactful.

Scarlett Johansson is so comfortable as Natasha by now, after making eight other appearances in MCU films, but she brought the fire in this movie. Her scenes with Ray Winstone were excellent and the way she handled the constant development of her past life is excellent.

I have heard some criticism that Taskmaster was a weak Marvel villain, but I think that was coming from people who expected Taskmaster to be a more vital character than what Taskmaster turned out to be. Taskmaster was more of a henchman than was expected and so did not receive as much depth as possible. However, I did enjoy the Taskmaster’s story and it fit nicely into Black Widow’s background.

The post credit scene was great, but it was exactly what I thought it was going to be. Make sure you sit through all the credits, because it sets up what is next for one certain character.

A Black Widow solo film should have happened years ago. Imagine all the great spy game action we could have gotten in the MCU with Natasha. Unfortunately, it did not and that is not a criticism for this film. Black Widow has some real connection among the characters and is filled with amazing action. Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh are a delight together and David Harbour has great comedic timing.

Black Widow is a fun way to welcome the MCU back to the big screen.

4.75 stars

Netflix has something really cool happening right now.

The Fear Street trilogy, one a week for three weeks.

Based on a book series from Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is a slasher movie featuring young actors trying to survive against magically powered killers. The film is directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak.

1994: Shadyside, Ohio. The story shows us a group of teenagers, dealing with their own typical high school problems, trying to discover who they are and hoping to escape the small town failure of Shadyside. However, there was more to impact their lives than just high school drama. They were being pursued by an ancient evil witch, Sarah Fier, and her cadre of murderers which had been causing trouble in the town for centuries.

The legends of the town were usually dismissed as urban legends, but when Samantha (Olivia Scott Welch) accidentally stumbled across a grave, she became the target of the witch’s evil. Sam’s former girlfriend Deena (Kiana Madeira) held a lot of anger over their break up, but, along with her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr) and the local high school drug suppliers Simon (Fred Hechinger) and Kate (Julia Rehwald), teamed up with Sam to try and stay alive.

This was a rousing good time and horror fans should have a lot of fun with this. There is a lot of gore and blood, but not so much as to be disturbing. The three main killers are each different and bring their own dynamic to the film and there is some extremely creepy imagery of the killers and of the witch. The design of the characters really work and create a tension that is effective in the film.

The young actors all do a fantastic job with their performances. Every one of them was believable and conveyed their emotional depth for each character. There is depth provided to them, more so than you usually see in a slasher film and that helps build the tension for the audience. You like these characters and so you are worried when they are placed in jeopardy.

There are several classic horror movies that inspire Fear Street Part 1: 1994. Scream is clearly one of them, as the cold open reminds you of that iconic opening of the first Scream movie with Drew Barrymore. There is also a major plot point here that is an allusion to Poltergeist.

Part 2 coming up is going to head to 1978 and will be dealing with a massacre at a youth camp, a well used premise for horror movies. I am anxious to see how this will tie together with what we got this week. There were multiple mentions of the camp during Part 1 and it will be a vial component to the overall story the trilogy is telling. Part 1 ended with a dramatic cliffhanger and the “To Be Continued” at the end helped to create a anxiousness to see the upcoming part 2.

4.2 stars

Here is one of the best movies of the year.

It is like Northern Exposure meets Twin Peaks.

Then, Sam Richardson is the lead of this movie, and he was just in Tomorrow Man, that opened this weekend and he was one of the best parts of that movie.

Sam Richardson plays Forest Ranger Finn Wheeler, who has been transferred to the little town of Beaverfield. When he arrived, he met the postal worker Cecily Moore (Milana Vayntrub) and she shows him around his new town. There are all kinds of weird and eccentric characters living in the town.

Sam Parker (Wayne Duvall) is in town trying to convince the locals to sell him their property for a pipeline and it divided the population.

However, something mysterious is happening. The generators in town have all been slashed with what looked like claw marks. The power is out everywhere, and then Finn discovered the body of one of the local residents who had been brutally killed and apparently attacked by some unknown and unidentifiable canine.

As a way of protecting themselves, the main residents came together at a bed and breakfast and decided that there was more safety in numbers and they would stay together. This did not prevent another resident from having his hand bitten off. The remaining residents became paranoid and suspicious of everyone else, and the accusations began to fly.

This is so great. The writing of the dialogue was just beautifully done, with each line having that sharp, comedic bent to it. I laughed throughout the film and much of the laughter came from the perfectly delivered dialogue. The characters were all intriguing. Some were exceptionally charming and fit well together and others were over-the-top out there and the film does a brilliant job of fitting these all together.

You would never be certain of who was doing what in the film and the mystery got around to making just about everybody in the town look suspicious. I had no idea who was guilty or even if there was an actual werewolf involved in the story. We are not even sure if this is just a cover story for whomever was pulling this off. There are a lot of red herrings, but they all fit together at the end in a nice, tight narrative.

Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntrub are great together and have a ton of chemistry. They are a couple that have a rooting interest. Milana Vayntrub is someone who I have not seen before, but she is fantastic and is on her way to being a star.

This is a great comedy/mystery film with splashes of horror/thriller. The tone is managed beautifully and the direction creates that tone with every shot. Josh Ruben directed this and he is another director who has a bright future ahead of him.

Werewolves Within is a hoot and I loved every second of the movie. It pulled me in and kept me guessing about what was going on and the pay off was well done.

5 stars

I can’t believe it, but I really enjoyed Boss Baby: Family Business.

The sequel was both in theaters and streaming on Peacock so I was able to watch this in the comfort of my own home. My memory was not being a fan of the original Boss Baby, and the initial scores on Rotten Tomatoes had The Boss Baby: Family Business scored low so my expectations were non-existant.

Then, I watched the film and I enjoyed it. Shock.

Admittedly, the main target of this movie is for the children. It is big, bombastic, full of color and humor that would appeal to a child. and I found myself laughing at several of the liens too.

The Templeton brothers Ted (Alec Baldwin) and Tim (James Marsden) are now adults and have grown apart from one another. Ted was a successful businessman and Tim had a family of his own. However, when Tim’s youngest daughter Tina (Amy Sedaris) revealed herself as an agent for the Baby Corp and that she had a special mission that could only be completed by Tim and Ted. They were given a special formula that aged them back to the age of babies they were in the original movie and they were to infiltrate a school, led by Dr. Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum). who had a secret plan.

Sure, the plot was shaky, but kids do not care about that. It was passable enough. The animation was really good, and many of the designs of the characters and the settings were excellently presented. There was a hectic pace of the film, which both keeps you from being bored and does not allow for much development.

I enjoyed the voice work. Alec Baldwin and James Marsden in particular, and Jeff Goldblum is always welcome in whatever movie he may be in. There are voice performances from as well from Jimmy Kimmel, Eva Longoria, Arianna Greenblatt, Lisa Kudrow, and Molly K. Gray.

While this is not at the level of the Pixar or Disney animated movies, The Boss Baby: Family Business has a solid place in the animation market place and is a decent film for the whole family, with some good messages for a family to hear.

3.4 stars

I was not looking forward to this Amazon Prime original film.

There were no previews or reviews before the film was released. That is a bad sign, typically.

So I watched the sci-fi future/time travel movie tonight, and… you know what… I liked it way more than I thought I was going to.

Humans from the future year 2051 come back and give a message that the human race is going to be wiped out by an alien race that will be invading the earth at some point in the future. The present day humans are the answer to the riddle so a draft is organized to send people to the future to fight.

The plot is convoluted. Some of the CGI was wonky. It feels as if it is an amalgam of plenty of other sci-fi movies that we have already seen. It was too long and crowded with ideas that may not have been fully developed.

And yet, there was something here that put the whole film together into a fun watch. Chris Pratt is great here. He brings some serious credibility to the role from his history as Star-Lord in the MCU. J.K. Simmons is here too as the estranged, conspiracy theory-spouting father of Chris Pratt. He has some of the best dialogue in the film and his chemistry with Pratt is great.

Pratt shares many scenes in the first and second acts with Yvonne Strahovski and they are great together too. It seems like you can put Pratt with most anyone and get chemistry.

Some of the action gets repetitive. There is just a bunch of gunfire at the monsters, and that gets old. There is a decent scene involving the queen of the monsters that is a little different and helps get the film going.

I think this would have been even more entertaining on the big screen, but its release on Amazon Prime prevents that. The Tomorrow War feels as if the pieces are weak, but everything pulls together and is held together by Chris Pratt and the rest of the decent cast. It is not the best sci-fi movie ever made, but it is not the worst one either. I had fun watching the movie and I did not expect to enjoy this.

3.4 stars