Taking a break from the horror movies, I watched a new animated film on Netflix that opened this weekend, Over the Moon.

A young girl Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) builds a rocket ship to fly to the moon in an attempt to find the moon goddess Chang’e (Phillipa Soo) hoping to have her help convince Fei Fei’s father (John Cho) not to remarry after the death of Fei Fei’s mother.

She is accompanied to the moon by Chin (Robert G. Chiu), the son of the woman Fei Fei’s father wanted to marry. Chin was excited about being a step-brother to Fei Fei, but she found him annoying and bothersome.

First and foremost, the animation is utterly gorgeous in this film. The colors were vibrant and filled the screen. The film is a visual masterpiece of animation and movie magic. Most animated movies fall far short of the level of beauty in this movie.

The voice cast was great. Along with our main characters, you can add Ken Jeong. Sandra Oh, Edie Ichioka, Margaret Cho, and Ruthie Ann Miles.

The songs in this musical are all catchy and feel good at the time that you are watching Over the Moon, however, I suspect that none of the songs involved here are going to be remembered past the movie’s run time. There is nothing here like a Disney classic film where you will remember the music and be humming it later in the night.

There is a strong message here about dealing with loss and grief and the continuation of the ideal of telling a story of diversity for all people.

The story itself may be a bit familiar in a lot of ways. It may be predictable, but for this type of animated movie, that may not be the worst thing. As a family film, Over the Moon succeeds tremendously. Again, I may not remember this years later as I might a film from Pixar, but there is no denying that the 1 hour 40 minutes on Netflix was entertaining and engaging. It struck a few emotional beats (especially in the film’s opening 10 minutes) and it should be effective on family movie night. Any problems that the film may have should be easily overcome by the charm presented.

3.8 stars

Blumhouse has released four new horror films on Amazon Prime for the month of October. Two of the films were dropped last week while this week sees the next two. The first one I saw was Evil Eye.

Usha (Sarita Choudhury) seemed to be a typical Indian mother, worrying that her only daughter Pallavi (Sunita Mani) would never find a husband. However, when Pallavi finds a new boyfriend Krishnan (Bernard White), Usha begins to have doubts about him and connects him to an incident she faced over 30 years before.

The premise of this film is interesting but it takes a while to get to it. While I do not mind a slow build, there needed to be some more drama along the way. And what was weird was that the film went from such a slow burn to full speed that it felt like a drastic tonal shift that practically gave me whiplash.

The performances were good. I believed everything that I saw and I thought each actor brought something original and intriguing to their roles. I liked that though it was an Indian culture on display that it did not dominate the film. It was not about trying to show the differences, it was more of a universal fear.

The idea behind the disapproving parent is all throughout the film and is taken to another level. The concept of the rebirth of evil is a constant that shows us how it can negatively affect a life.

While this kept my attention, it seemed as if the resolution came out of nowhere and derailed what was happening in the first part of the movie.

2.75 stars

The second movie from Blumhouse released on Amazon Prime this October is a huge step down from the first one that I watched. In fact, i would go as far as to say that The Lie is a truly gross movie.

Jay (Peter Sarsgaard) has to take his daughter Kayla (Joey King) to a dance camp in place of his ex-wife Rebecca (Mireille Enos). Along the way, they pick up one of Kayla’s friends Britney (Devery Jacobs) who was also heading to the dance camp. However, this moment lead to a terrible circumstance that would change the balance of their relationship forever.

I really did not like this movie. The situation was just ripe with nothing more than melodrama and ridiculous choices. When Jay and Rebecca began covering up for their daughter, the levels of plausibility just went through the roof and you could see that they were doing things that no right thinking person would do. There is better decision making on soap operas.

Jay and Rebecca did not seem to worry too much about their daughter and the fact that she appeared to be quite sociopathic at worst and manipulative at best. When Rebecca’s father (Cas Anvar) showed up, the film took an even worse route with Jay and Rebecca doing some of the most horrific things.

As if that was not enough, the film tossed in a little police racism, with one of the investigating officers, Detective Barnes (Nicholas Lea), asking about his nationality.

Then, there was a twist ending that totally came out of nowhere and that made zero sense. In fact, the way this film ended gave us even more proof that Kayla was sociopathic. She needs immediate and repetitive therapy.

The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, but had not been released until this month. There is an obvious reason why the movie had this long of a wait to be released. It was just a repulsive film with some of the most obnoxious characters as lead roles you have seen in a long time. Performances were okay, at best, but honestly, some of the shrieks were so over the top I did not believe any of them were real. Motivations were muddled and choices were brazen. Watch Black Box instead.

1.6 stars

A debut for writer-director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Black Box is one of the new Blumhouse films on Amazon Prime for October and I found this just exceptional.

After surviving a car wreck that cost him his wife and his memory, Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) agrees to enlist in an experimental treatment from Dr. Lillian Brooks (Phylicia Rashad) to help recover those deep seeded memories. However, during the process, Nolan encountered a malevolent presence in his mind that seemed to be attempting to prevent him from remembering.

This was a horror/thriller film that truly put me on edge and made me think about the potential moral dilemma behind the use of science and the manipulation of technology for personal reasons. When the twist came in the film, and I realized what had happened, I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. I usually do not have that kind of an emotional reaction to a film like this, so it is clearly doing its job.

The film boasted some great performances too. Not only was Phylicia Rashad and Mamoudou Athie excellent, but the young actress who played Nolan’s daughter Ava (Amanda Christine) brought a strength to this performance. There was some great chemistry between Nolan and Ava and I bought every second of them as father and daughter who had suffered a terrible loss.

Phylicia Rashad was as menacing as I have ever seen her in this role. She does a fantastic job of making you believe in her motives here and you believed that she would do whatever it took.

Once the twist happened, the film was fairly predictable, but that does not make it bad. It simply meant that it provided the proper finale that you had been waiting for. Yes, they may have telegraphed a few plot points, but that is a minor gripe in an overall outstanding psychological thriller.

Amazon Films has been on quite the roll recently.

4.4 stars

Spontaneous blends together any number of genres, from horror to coming of age to comedy, and it does it with an effectiveness that you might not have expected.

Shocking events begin to happen at Covington High School when students begin to literally explode in a massive bloody blast. Mara (Katherine Langford) was one of the seniors who seemed to be infected with this bizarre “disease”. Dylan (Charlie Plummer), who had had a crush on Mara for years, decided that there was no time like the present to tell her about his feelings. Mara and Dylan’s burgeoning relationship continued to grow as their classmates continued to spontaneously combust.

When I saw this trailer last night, I immediately went to find this movie. The trailer was extremely funny and felt more satiric than the movie turned out to be. The movie had those comedic beats, but there was more of a darkness to it than I thought. It makes sense because it deals with grief, in particular survivor’s grief, and the perils faced by young people today. The pain of watching people that you know die in front of you is a traumatic event but this shows the resiliency of youth.

I found the relationship between Mara and Dylan to be sweet and entertaining, but there was a cloud over it as I was scared of seeing one of them, most likely Dylan, explode. Every minute they were together felt of vital importance.

Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer were charming and brought a realness to the outlandish and strange story. The “E.T./Eliot” scene in the film was just about as wonderful as you are going to get. This couple had a rooting for quality that some times are missing from these teenager movies.

I was not as connected to the relationship between Mara and her best friend Tess (Hayley Law). They seemed to be an added on relationship to give Mara more to her character. Hayley Law was an interesting actor though and I did like watching her when she was on the screen. Law was on Riverdale and she is a future star.

As I mentioned, the trailer was funny, but, as the film progressed, the exploding kids became less funny and more unnerving. I found myself cringing every time it happened, and the scene where the class ran from the building as classmates exploded felt reminiscent of a school shooting situation. It was very difficult to watch at times.

Spontaneous mixed a lot of genres together and worked very well. There were moments of comedy that were extremely funny, but also plenty of heart-touching scenes that tugged at the emotions. Spontaneous was a very solid film.

4 stars

This was quite an unexpected film. When I read the synopsis of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, I was intrigued enough to purchase it on Vudu. After watching it, this movie was very odd.

The small town of Snow Hollow was enthralled by terror as a young woman was brutally murdered and carved up in an attack during a full moon. This was just the first murder and the anger and fear from the citizens were directed at the police.

Officer John Marshall (Jim Cummings) was at the heart of the investigation, but he was struggling already. With an alcohol problem, a failed marriage, an estranged daughter (Chloe East), a father (Robert Forster) who was the sheriff but suffered from health issues that he refused to cop to, and a police force that had little respect or ability, the stresses of these brutal murders took its toll on him.

It was strange too that, as our protagonist, John Marshall was very difficult to like. He had distinct anger issues and was constantly screaming at people around him. He was distant from his daughter and the scenes of him with his ex-wife were hard to watch. Still, Jim Cummings pulls off this character with a deft touch where many other actors might have fallen into parody.

There were a ton of details and specifics that felt added on as if they were intended to be red herrings. Some of the details just are not important to the story and are there to throw the viewers off. To be fair, the mystery aspect of this film was one of the weaker aspects of it. It all kind of wrapped up suddenly and without much explanation.

There is a quirkiness to the film that kept me engaged throughout. I have to admit that there were a couple of moments where I felt as if I was ready to turn on the film, but there was just something about it that kept me watching.

The film felt to me like Fargo and Twin Peaks took on the werewolf movie. The Twin Peaks feel might come from the appearance of the late Robert Forster, who seemed to be playing the same character he played in the third extended season of Twin Peaks (Sheriff Truman) right down to the same white hat.

The oddball characters and offbeat situations gives the viewer something different and original in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Surprisingly emotional, the battle of Officer Marshall to solve this case while traversing his troubled life is compelling and the messages are loud and clear.

3.5 stars

One of the recent films appearing on Amazon Prime’s Shudder is the horror film called Spiral.

A same-sex couple and their daughter move to a small town where they are hoping to live happily. However, the town is not as idyllic as they thought. One of the couple, Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman), had lived in the town before and had suffered a traumatic event as a young boy.

Malik had been uneasy about the town, but his husband Aaron (Ari Cohen) told him he was overreacting and that everything was going to be okay.

Unfortunately, it was not going to be okay.

There was some good suspense in Spiral and what exactly was happening was nicely hidden in the uncertainty of the situation. It seemed as if Malik may have been imagining some of it because of his past trauma and it felt like a nightmare scenario.

I have to say though that the ending of the film was shocking and disturbing for sure. The final few scenes were unbelievably creepy.

Lochlyn Munro, Hall Cooper on the TV show Riverdale, plays a superiorly creepy villain and he does a very solid job of it.

Another good watch for this time of year, Spiral has that Get Out feel to it. While it is not at that level, this is a good film for October.

3.5 stars 

October is underway and a new Netflix horror/comedy movie starring vampires hit the streaming service today.

Miguel (Jaden Michael), Bobby (Gerald Jones III) and Luis (Gregory Diaz IV) were best friends but they had to deal with plenty of issues as many young black kids may face. Then, when you add in vampires, well, that flips the script.

The three young actors do a great job here. Their chemistry together is one of the strongest part of the film. They were all extremely likable and worked well together. I especially liked Jaden Michael, who I kept thinking would make a tremendous Miles Morales in the MCU.

The first two-thirds of the movie were very solid. The time spent on these three characters was time well spent and helped pull the movie through some challenges in the third act.

Because the problems in the third act were large. The biggest of the problems was the special effects of the vampires. They looked cheap and amateurish. Those effects took me out of the film that I had been enjoying quite a bit up until that point.

The story did not help much in the conflict with the vampires. They seemed to die easily and everything that the three boys did seemed to work perfectly. Heck, even Blade, who we saw clips from in the film, had some troubles when fighting the vampires. Some of the emotion from the beginning of the film wound up being drained by the third act.

While it did not end strong, the first part of the film was pretty decent and it made me recommend the movie. It makes a nice Halloween month watch.

Vampires vs. The Bronx brings the feeling of the silliness of The Monster Squad and mixes it with the cheesy-factor of a Fright Night. It is a lot of fun, albeit fairly dumb fun. It survives the weak third act because of the early strength.

3.2 stars

I have always been a fan of the Sherlock Holmes mythos. I loved the Benedict Cumberbatch series, the Robert Downey Jr. movies and the characters are iconic. I enjoy the universe.

So hearing that the universe would be expanding to include Sherlock Holmes’ sister, Enola, I was excited.

When Enola wakes up one day to find her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) gone, she begins to investigate the reasons behind the disappearance. Her older brothers show up after being gone for years and try to force the young and wild child into a finishing school, but Enola had plans of her own, which was to find her mother.

Along the way, Enola finds herself wrapped up with another event happening in the world. A young Lord named Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) was looking to escape from his own personal situation, which included being pursued by a bowler-hat wearing killer (Burn Gorman). Together, Enola and Viscount try to survive long enough to unravel the mystery.

Turned out that this movie is based on a series of books written in 2006 by Nancy Springer and that she created the Enola Holmes character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not have another sibling officially for Sherlock than Mycroft. A sister was introduced in the Cumberbatch TV series, but that came after the books.

Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame is the lead role here and she is a wonderful choice for Enola. She is able to show her charm, confidence and strength in this role as the exceptional sister. The movie smartly leans on that charm as well, having her be the focus of the film and having her talk the audience though the film with her fourth-wall-breaking narration.

The movie was fully enjoyable and a breath of fresh air. It had a brisk pace and, even being over 2 hours, never once felt its length. The story is cleverly written and weaves the Sherlock Holmes universe into this narrative beautifully.

That would include the strong performances as Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Sam Claflin as Mycroft. Both actors were able to bring to life their versions of these iconic characters without just copying the blueprint that has come before them. Cavill, in particular, really brings Sherlock Holmes into the film in just the right manner, fitting what this film required of Sherlock without losing what makes the character amazing to begin with. I did wonder about the absence of John Watson and how that character would fit into the life of Henry Cavill’s Sherlock, but that is a minor gripe that could be easily addressed at a future time.

Still, Millie Bobby Brown is the star here, bringing another level to her career. This Netflix film is great entertainment for the whole family and can provide young girls a real role model to look up to who is smart, funny and extremely capable.

4.1 stars