I avoided this movie not only when it was in the theaters, but this month during the June Swoon 3. I had a feeling that this would not be a film that I would enjoy. Infinity Pool was a Brandon Cronenberg directed film. Brandon’s father is David Cronenberg, who was renown for his body horror films. I am not big on the body horror.
Despite my hesitancy, I gave Infinity Pool a chance on Hulu.
Boy, was I right.
I did not enjoy this movie at all.
According to IMDB, “While staying at an isolated island resort, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi (Mia Goth), they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror“
I will start with the positive. Mia Goth is a star. She has been amazing in other films such as Pearl and X and she is just as frightening here. I look forward to seeing her career move on.
That was about it. I had no character in this movie that I could support or root for. They were all just horrific people. I think I was meant to cheer for Alexander Skarsgård’s character, but I found him unlikable in just about every way.
The bizarre sequences of the film were not enjoyable to watch for me and just did not engage me with the story.
It was unsatisfying and I was right to skip it last year. I wish I had skipped it this year too.
I wonder what the producers have on Russell Crowe? They must have something for him to appear in this train wreck.
Russell Crowe played Tony Miller, an actor with his share of personal problems, takes a job playing a priest in an exorcism/possession movie, and the role is bringing up all kinds of past troubles. Meanwhile, his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) is trying to get past her own problematic history with her dad.
David Hyde Pierce is here too, playing Father Conor, and being a huge distraction as he just looks too much like Niles Crane. Sam Worthington is in the movie, but he is totally underused, and Chloe Bailey is here too for some reason.
I found this to be trash. The first two-thirds of the film was dull and then the final act of the film was so off-the-track that had there been any goodwill generated previously, it would be spent completely. The story was ridiculous. The characters were wasted. The backstory of Tony was jumbled and not delivered in a manner in which it could be understood. Poor Niles was there looking for Frasier.
The acting was not very good. I mean, I believe that Russell Crowe was giving it his all, but I felt as if the director of the film in the film, played by Adam Goldberg, was constantly berating Tony’s performance and it made me question what Crowe was doing too.
There was a potential story that was here that could have been different and potentially fascinating, but this was not it. This was another terrible movie this year, which seems to be packing them up all over the place.
All of Us Strangers is the next film on the schedule for the June Swoon 3, and it is a lovely movie that deals with deep seeded loss and grief, while not falling into the trap of making the film maudlin or depressing.
Adam Scott gives a tremendous performance as Adam, a screenwriter who has a chance encounter with Harry (Paul Mescal) at his apartment building. Harry was drunk and looking for someone to spend time with, but Adam rejects him. Then, Adam goes to see and spend time with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) at his childhood home. The only drawback… Adam’s parents died in a tragic car crash when he was a little boy.
As the audience member, you are never quite sure through the run of the film what was going on. Was this a ghost story? Was this all invented inside Adam’s mind? What exactly was happening? The uncertainty of the film played well as you connect with Adam and feel the pain that his unresolved grief was causing in him.
The film was beautifully shot. Andrew Haigh was the director and he did a fantastic job constructing the scenes, such as the trip to the night club, which had a dream-like aesthetic to it. It helped to create the mood of the piece, keeping the magical feel of the film while still rooting everything in the loneliness and grief felt by Adam.
I also thought the ending of the film was wonderfully constructed. While I had an idea by this point of what was going on, the actual truth of the story was unexpected and fit amazingly in the structure of the story. The very end was a lovely design to express such a hope of the world.
The four main actors: Adam Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell are astonishing in these performances and their interactions with the others. The performances are the best part of the film, but far from the only parts that make this a beautiful film.
The directorial debut by Randall Park is today’s entry in the June Swoon 3. It is an unconventional rom-com called Shortcomings.
According to IMDB, “Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices, and begins to explore what he thinks he might want.”
This was an interesting film. Usually, I have problems when the protagonist is such an unlikable character, and Ben (Justin H. Min) is absolutely in that category. He is opinionated, mouthy, rude and arrogant. It seems like every scene he is in, all I want to do is yell at him to shut up. Yet, there was something about Ben that was appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I was cheering actively for him to understand what a jerk he was being, but I was also ready to support him learning from the events of the film and adjusting his behavior.
I have to say, I did like this conclusion to the movie. It felt real and played with all of the conventions of the rom-com.
The movie had some great laughs in in, although nothing that was going to be over the top hilarious. The situations are where the humor came from and they all worked very well. Probably the one moment that stood out was when actor Jacob Batalon joked about loving the Spider-Man movies, considering he played Ned in the MCU Spider-Man movies
Sherry Cola played Alice, Ben’s friend, and she was the standout performance for me in the movie. She had an Awkwafina type vibe about her and she was both funny and an excellent ‘straight-man’ character.
I found this to be very entertaining and a creative way to take the rom-com genre in a new way.
This is another Oscar nominated film from 2023 that I missed. Flamin’ Hot received an Oscar nomination for Best Song, which was quite an accomplishment for this biopic about Richard Montañez and the beginning of the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
I will address the controversy off the top. As I was researching the film, I discovered that a report from the LA Times indicated that Richard Montañez did not have any direct involvement in the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and that the film was inaccurate. I won’t lie, when I first saw this, it did affect my thoughts on the film, but, the more I thought about it, the more I let that go. This is not a documentary. I know plenty of biopics that have exaggerated or downright made things up. So the accuracy or lack thereof of Flamin’ Hot, as a movie, will not go into my consideration of the film.
And, when it comes to my consideration of the movie, I loved it very much.
This was the first time directorial feature from director Eva Longoria, well known actor from Desperate Housewives among other shows. Longoria does a tremendous job of telling this story with a very distinct voice and a humorous touch.
Some of the scenes of Richard’s narration, which remind me of Luis (Michael Pena) from Ant Man, are very funny and show how the mind works in many ways.
Jesse Garcia played Richard Montañez and he has a natural charm in doing so. You can’t be help to root for him as an underdog, looking to escape the life of crime that threatened to ruin his life.
Two distinguished actors had supporting roles in Flamin’ Hot that gave the movie even more credibility. Bennis Haysbert played Clarence Baker (whose middle name is Charisma) as one of Montañez’s co-workers, and Tony Shalhoub, the star of Monk, appeared as Roger Enrico, the CEO of Frito Lays. Both actors are excellent as always and their roles do a great job of elevating the performance of Jesse Garcia.
The tone of this movie was very light and engaging, as Richard told the story of his life. The film’s focus was on the character of Richard Montañez, not specifically on the Cheetos.
This was an easy, enjoyable watch and worth the time. It is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney +.
Reptile is on Netflix and is a mystery/thriller starring Benicio Del Toro and it is the entry for the June Swoon 3.
According to IMDB, “Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) is a hardened New England detective, unflinching in his pursuit of a case where nothing is as it seems and it begins to dismantle the illusions in his own life.”
Benicio Del Toro is always great and this is no exception. He is well cast in this murder mystery and you buy everything that he does. Justin Timberlake stars along side Del Toro as a scummy real estate agent whose girlfriend is murdered. Interestingly enough, I buy him in that role very much too.
The acting is excellent. The story is less so. Honestly, there were times when I would start losing focus on what was happening and it felt as if the story became too messy as it continued. The film is well over two hours and you feel that run time. I think this could have been tighter with 20 minutes cut out of the film.
However, there were some good points, especially Del Toro’s performance. He is the later actor to take what is an average script/film and elevate it with what he does. In the hands of a lesser actor, Reptile would be a sub par film. What makes this watchable is Del Toro and his connections with the other actors around him.
One of those actors is Alicia Silverstone, who played Tom Nichols’ wife, Judy. The relationship between them was one of the best parts of the film and more of it would have aided the story.
I’m not sure how I feel about the resolution of the mystery, but I did think the final scene was strong and very tense.
In the end, Reptile has its moments, but feels too long and is unnecessarily complicated.
It was Netflix again for this June Swoon as I pulled up The Book of Clarence, a retelling f the story of the crucifixion through the eyes of a down-on-his-luck loser named Clarence.
According to IMDB, “Struggling to find a better life, Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) is captivated by the power of the rising Messiah and soon risks everything to carve a path to a divine existence.“
This movie was very up and down for me. The biggest issue I had with it was that it lacked a consistent tone. There were deadly serious scenes that were well done, particularly with the strength of LaKeith Stanfield’s performance, but other scenes that felt like it was pulled right out of a Monty Python skit. I was not sure if this was meant to be a serious movie or a satire. Or was it meant to be some kind of amalgam between the two? This uncertainty hurt this film in my eyes.
As I mentioned, the performance of LaKeith Stanfield was excellent, as he went from a disbeliever to one who exceeded belief. Stanfield was believable in every moment he was on screen and he gave the film a credibility that I do not think it would have had if it were another actor in this potentially divisive role.
There is an excellent cast in this movie including Benedict Cumberbatch (whole role felt as if it were one of the most satirical of them all), Omar Sy, Anna Diop, RJ Cyler, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Caleb McLaughlin, James McAvoy, Nicholas Pinnock, Marianne-Jean Baptiste, Teyana Taylor and Michael Ward.
I can see this film stirring up the audience, depending on who was watching. For me, there are some good ideas in here, but the film can’t decide what exactly it wants to be, and that demeans the positives that are here.
Another horror movie highlights today’s June Swoon as I watched the Australian film Run Rabbit Run on Netflix.
Run Rabbit Run is more of a psychological thriller than it is a horror film as there are not many scares and it really does focus on the mental state of the characters involved. It was effective in this manner as I felt a connection with the two lead characters as they went through their memories of tragic events from the past.
However, it does take a while to get rolling. The film seemed a bit long and the pacing was not the best. Some of the beats felt as if they were repeated during the story and it seemed that this could have been a tighter film with some of this narrowed down.
The lead performances are the reason to watch Run Rabbit Run. Sarah Snook played Sarah, the mother whose past was coming back to cause trouble with her daughter. The daughter, Mia, was played well by young actor Lily LaTorre. She provided many of the film’s creepiest moments as she was seemingly being possessed by the spirit of Alice, Sarah’s missing sister.
These performances overcame the weaknesses in the plot, which included a predictable outcome, and made this a film I would say that I enjoyed watching. It is not a perfect horror movie, but it does enough things well that make it interesting.
I did not see Uatu the Watcher anywhere in this movie.
Seriously though, the question I had was What If … I had liked this crappy movie?.
According to IMDB, “This forest isn’t charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina’s (Dakota Fanning) is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams. Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn’t reach the bunker in time.“
The premise sounded interesting, but the film was anything but. Directed by Ishana Shyamalan, the feature directorial debut for the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, The Watchers had lots of familiar elements to it, but nothing that feels as though it was necessary to make a movie out of.
The characters were all fairly simplistic. Even Mina’s backstory did not make me connect to Mina at all. In fact, I did not like her much at all. I was more connected to the bird, Darwin, and I continuously wondered if they ever fed or watered that poor bird.
Those were the things I thought about instead of the purported plot that the film tossed us into.
The ending, which there were two… just be aware, was very anticlimactic and did little to salvage what had been a boring time inside these scary, supernatural woods.
It constantly make little sense and there was a ton of exposition that you are never sure is accurate. I found myself wishing this was over early on in the film. I did not find this engaging at all.
As I was searching for movies to put on the possible list for this June Swoon, I came across this horror film on Shudder. It sounded interesting and so I placed it on the list. I had no idea that this was the fourth film of the series, with the first Hell House LLC being released in 2015. I guess I have some films to watch during The October 13 this year.
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor looks to have built on the previous installments (though I can’t say that for sure) and provided a found footage horror film that was extremely creepy and had its share of effective scares.
According to IMDB, “A group of cold case investigators stay at the Carmichael Manor. After four nights, the group was never heard from again. What is discovered on their footage is even more disturbing than anything found on the Hell House tapes.”
The three main characters that went to stay at the Carmichael Manor did a great job of selling the mysterious feel and the fright that this situation would entail inside a person. The story of the events really work well here, as Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta) ties the story into her background. The film does this in a very strong manner, not bashing the audience over the head with it. In fact, it is possible that some may miss the connection to Margot if they are not paying attention.
Then, I enjoyed the way the film kind of makes this found footage/haunted house film into a sort of documentary, with a couple of people commenting about the footage that was found of these missing people.
The film goes to great lengths to build a mythology, which I can only assume included a bunch of Easter eggs from the previous three movies.
I found this extremely creepy and a little unnerving as I watched it this morning in the dark. That means this horror film did its job. I was entertained and I look forward to going back and seeing some more of this franchise.
I was not a fan of the first two Bad Boys movies. However, the last film, Bad Boys for Life was a lot of fun. I have heard some positive word of mouth for this new film, so I went into Bad Boys: Ride or Die with a positive feel.
Then, I did not like this one much at all.
Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are back once again. This time, their friend and former boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), who was killed in the previous film, looked to be crooked. Mike and Marcus are on the case in order to attempt to clear the name of their captain.
I did not like the interaction between Smith and Lawrence. It felt so silly, bordering on stupid. I know that is kind of the vibe of their typical relationship, but I have not liked three of the four so obviously their chemistry, which sells this movie, does not work for me.
I did not like what happened to Marcus at the beginning of the film and I do not like how it affected his character. It also had no lasting effect on the character and was like it never happened. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but I found this to be a huge weakness of the film.
The action was hard to watch for me too. I thought it was so shaky and wobbled during the action that I hated watching it.
And there was a killer alligator and my friend know how much I hate killer alligators.
Something happens with Mike about halfway through the film that I do not think has ever happened before and had no reason why it now suddenly happened. Perhaps I missed the reason for this thing to have happened outside of they needed a reason to create more conflict. Again, I do not want to spoil the situation, but I found this to be totally shoved in for no reason.
There were some okay moments, but I just found this to be ridiculous, annoying and hard to watch. Will Smith was decent and many of his reactions to Martin Lawrence were mine as well. I was very disappointed with the next installment of the Bad Boys franchise.
Man, Freddie Highmore can give some death stares unlike anyone else. His eyes are amazingly creepy and, at times, simply frightening. You can see the insanity inside them, making him a great Norman Bates.
Norma’s first son and Norman’s half-brother Dylan arrived at the beginning of episode, creating tension within the Bates family. He had so much anger directed toward Norma, who he did not call Mom, but by her actual name, and the tension between him and Norman was obvious. Dylan’s anger toward Norma boiled over as Norman tried to defend his mother’s honor.
Vera Farmiga played Norma with such a depth that elevated this character into one of the most compelling character on the show. She is so mysterious and enigmatic. You are never quite sure what she is thinking behind each stare. When she was questioning Emma about her disease, I could not tell if she was interested because she was being empathic or if she was saying it to let Norman hear about the things about her cystic fibrosis because she was jealous of any other girl who might have a connection to Norman.
Romero continued to be suspicious of Norma after they found the truck of Keith Summers and a witness had said that Keith was seen arguing with Norma and Norman at the Hotel. Norma is cool as can be during the interactions, hiding the real anxiety beneath the surface. Keith was the man who raped Norma and whom she killed and dumped in the lake. Some of the word play between Norma and Romero was well written and jumped off the screen.
The town that they have moved to is shown to be a darker place than Norma had expected, with a deep criminal underground involved.
After episode number two, the storytelling is excellent. They bring up storylines that continue to service these characters while focusing on the unhealthy relationship between mother and son. A relationship that we know will end up in tragedy.
Whoa. I had forgotten how much I loved this series.
I needed a new series to rewatch and I came across Bates Motel on Amazon Prime. I used to love this show when it was on A & E, but rewatching this first episode reminded me how amazing this show was.
Norma Bates and her son Norman leave Arizona to get a new start six months after her husband died. They wind up at an iconic house and motel from the movie, Psycho.
The idea of having a show that took place as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho was a great idea and the execution was even better.
Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga are absolutely brilliant as son and mother in this remarkable series. They both totally embody these characters and you just ache for them, especially knowing their ultimate fates.
The first episode pulled no punches either as there is a brutal scene where Norma is raped by the motel’s disgruntled former owner and an equally brutal scene where Norma stabbed said rapist to death with a butcher’s knife.
You can’t help but root for these people as Highmore and Farmiga are absolutely exceptional. You can see the mental illness that takes root inside Norman. Just a glance in his eyes tells so much about his lack of stability.
I loved the inclusion of Richard of LOST, Nestor Carbonell as Sheriff Alex Romero. He is an excellent actor and he brings Alex alive. He creates a totally different character than Richard of LOST and that is a tough thing to do. Admittedly, he does not appear to be that quick in the opener as he takes a pee beside the shower where the dead body of the rapist was hidden. That’s okay. Just prevents Norma from having to kill a couple of more.
This was a fantastic show and I am really looking forward to rewatching the entire run over the next few months.
I wanted to do a rewatch of the 1996 film Twister starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton since there is the movie Twisters, which I do not know if it is a sequel, reboot or continuation, coming out this summer. I rented it on Amazon Prime tonight and gave it a rewatch.
I was not a fan of Twister the first time I watched it back in the 90s. I did not see it in a theater so it must have been a rental. I remember thinking it was pretty dumb.
I do not think my opinion of the film changed much after watching it in 2024.
According to IMDB, “TV weatherman Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) is trying to get his tornado-hunter wife, Jo (Helen Hunt), to sign divorce papers so he can marry his girlfriend Melissa (Jami Gertz). But Mother Nature, in the form of a series of intense storms sweeping across Oklahoma, has other plans. Soon the three have joined the team of stormchasers as they attempt to insert a revolutionary measuring device into the very heart of several extremely violent tornados.“
One of my biggest problems was the lack of any real characters. There was near zero development among any of the characters. A slight attempt was made to give Jo a background with a childhood trauma, but it was barely touched upon in the movie and the few times that it felt like it was handled, it was tossed in with little to no explanation.
The rest of the cast was just people to read the doppler and yell “Yahoo” as the tornados whipped.
Admittedly, the special effects looked pretty good for the mid-90s, although the flying cow was unintentionally funny. However, watching Bill and Jo running through the fields towards a barn with all kinds of things flying past them made me wonder why the tornado was unable to pick them up as it was pulling fences out of the ground.
The story is basically going between different tornados and trying to release this new device and failing. There is not much, if any, real human conflict. They gave them a rival tornado chaser, played by Westley himself, Cary Elwes, but that character was as one-dimensional as you could get.
I did not recognize the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in his role as Dusty, the oddball who yells a lot. Alan Ruck from Ferris Buhler’s Day Off and Jeremy Davies, who would play Faraday on LOST, were here too in unimportant background character roles.
I do like Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as leads, and their chemistry did make up for the lack of plotline between the couple. I did feel bad for the fiancé Melissa because you could tell that she never stood a chance. I did like how they wrapped up her story though, with her just realizing the truth and breaking it off like an adult.
Some of the tornado sequences became kind of boring after awhile since there was little else to keep me engaged. The final tornado was better than some of the others, but it was also a big chunk of the time I was rolling my eyes at this movie.
It is a watchable movie, but you have to shut down your brain and just watch the spectacle around it to enjoy it.
This film was promoted, seemingly, as a prequel to the original The Strangers, which was a surprise classic. However, it does not feel like a prequel when you watch it. Worse yet, this feels like a terrible movie.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 takes all the worst parts of the horror/thriller movie genre and highlights them through a ninety minute film that felt considerably longer.
The worst parts of horror? Jump scares. There are plenty. Characters being stupid? Check. I do not know how many times one of the Strangers appeared directly behind the character, particularly Maya (Madelaine Petsch), and was not seen, and was gone when she turned back. That is a scene that is overused in horror films and had to have happened in this movie ten times at least.
There were several times that I had to laugh out loud at what was happening in the movie, and it was not a scene that was intended to be a laugh moment.
I honestly would say that there was not one moment in the film that was an original idea. I think every last bit was from films that were much better. Now I understand that there have been a lot of horror films and it might be getting difficult to find things that have not been done before. So I would guess that you should just write something clever or create some suspense instead of just relying on the tropes.
The following may be considered a spoiler….
By the way, the ending of the film was quite a cop out. TO BE CONTINUED? I mean, really? My guess is, after watching this thing, we won’t have to worry about a Chapter 2.
End of Spoiler
So far this year, there are four films that are in contention for the worst film of the year and I am not sure which one will take that ‘crown.’ The Strangers: Chapter 1 is not at that level, but it is not too far off either.
