“Oubliette” was a stand alone “monster-of-the-week” episode that had a more human ‘monster’ than typical. The supernatural aspect was a strange, empathic connection between the current victim of the ‘monster’ and a previous victim from years before.
A young girl named Amy was abducted by photography assistant Carl Wade. At the same time across town, waitress Lucy was going through the same pain/injuries as Amy.
Lucy had been kidnapped by Carl Wade when she was younger and spent five years in a black pit as his captive. She survived, but the experience was scarring for her entire life.
The other two episodes returned to the government conspiracy/aliens mythology that the show had made so popular. It added layers of mystery to Scully’s abduction as well as laid out a plausible explanation of what was going on.
There was a fun, meta moment on the show as Mulder had purchased a video for $29.95 of a reported alien autopsy. Scully made a snide remark about the alien autopsy that was aired on FOX around the same time criticizing it as “even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network.” FOX, which was the network that aired the X-Files, had shown a TV special, Alien Autopsy (Fact or Fiction) in 1995 that was eventually shown to be a hoax.
The X-Files mythology is one of the problems of the show, especially as the seasons moved on. The mysteries felt too big, and as more and more was piled on, it got to the point that anything that they would do to reveal the truth would never be able to be sufficient. So while each episode on its own were highly entertaining and exciting, when looked at as a whole, I am not sure that everything worked together. ”Nisei” and “731” were great episodes with some excellent action, but did it work with other mythological episodes in the past or future of the series? I’m not so sure.
If I am being honest, I did doze off for a short time at the beginning of the new movie, Lisa Frankenstein. Sadly, I was awake for most of it.
According to IMDB, “After suffering an unspeakable tragedy, Lisa finds herself at a new school her senior year in 1989, struggling to fit in, despite her “sister” Taffy trying to get her to conform to her more typical cheerleader vibe. When a freak accident reanimates a corpse from the abandoned cemetery where she was spending time, she must keep his arrival a secret from her family and classmates, all while deciding how much she wants to help him, and at what cost.”
I really did not like Lisa Frankenstein. I found it unfunny, mean-spirited and filled with characters that I just did not like. Lisa, played very well by Kathryn Newton, was a protagonist that I found so unlikable that I did not know why I was supposed to be cheering for her. Maybe I wasn’t.
I will give the movie some credit in the fact that it did take some big swings and did not fall into the typical steps. I like the idea behind a lot of the film, but I just did not like the execution of these original ideas. I did enjoy the character of Taffy (Liza Soberano). She was a character that we have seen dozens of times and is always portrayed in a certain way, but this film took this character in a completely different direction. That was welcome and she was easily my favorite character in the movie.
Cole Sprouse was fine as the Creature. He did a solid job without any dialogue for most of the movie.
I can say that I did not think that the actors were part of my problem with this movie.
I found it to be cruel, filled with mean scenes toward the people of the film and I just did not appreciate it. I may have chuckled a few times during the movie, but, overall, the writing of it just did not inspire me in any manner.
This was another movie that I was disappointed by since I had been looking forward to seeing it since the trailers. I would say that as of February 10th, this is my least favorite movie of the year (although Madame Web is coming next week).
Well, it is January. That usually means that we are up for some terrible movies that the studios want to dump. Those January horror movies are typically some of the worst of the year. However, last year, January brought us some actually really great movies including M3GAN, Plane and Missing. Perhaps the month will be turning over a new leaf.
Nice thought, but nope, not with this movie.
Night Swim is a bad horror movie that had too many laughs, unintentional of course, and suffered from some of the worst writing that you’ll see.
A family moves into a new house. Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) was a baseball player who was diagnosed with MS so he and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon) and their two kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren) look to start over. One of the house’s biggest selling points was the swimming pool. Unfortunately, they did not know the tragedies surrounding the pool and the fact that it was haunted.
Yes, the pool was haunted. We don’t really know why or how. It was just there. And the actors had to do so many stupid things to keep the drama going. I don’t know how many times I just said, “Get out of the pool” during the film. It would have been over.
I will give credit to the four main actors. I think they did the best they could with this stinker. Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are both talented actors, and both kids were good. Amélie Hoeferle especially had a quality about her. It was just that the script was so dumb it did not give these actors much chance to make the material better.
The problem is that this movie was based on a live short from 2014 and it did not seem as if there was enough of a concept here to stretch it out to a 90-minute movie.
Sadly, 2024 does not start off with a splash. More of a drip.
Boy, what a double feature this was. Satan worshipers and Voodoo practitioners. Spooky.
Episode 15 visited a small town that had a group of parents who were Satan worshipers and terrible things were happening and being covered up by the group. There was another teacher in the school, Mrs. Paddock, who was the true antagonist of the episode. She was a creepy
In Fresh Bones, there also a creepy semi-villain named Pierre Bauvais, who was an imprisoned refugee from Haiti. As well as him, there was a kid running around named Chester Bonaparte who Mulder and Scully discovered at the end of the episode had died weeks earlier. The real villain of this piece was Colonel Wharton, the head of the compound.
Both of these episodes had similar structure to them and both featured Mulder and Scully in real bad situations that looked as if they were doomed, only to sneak by with their lives intact.
Mulder and Scully are lucky to be alive after both of these episodes, neither of which they were able to capture the guilty party. Honestly, neither of them are very good field agents. They are much better in the lab or the profiling area.
It is that time. The Year in Review has come down to the final two lists. The big two. The Best and the Worst list movies this year.
I know that there are people out there who do not believe in “Worst” lists because of negativity or because of punching down, and I don’t disagree. I just believe that I have the right to state an opinion, and I can do it respectfully, without just making it a hate fest.
Honestly, this year I only have a Top 20 list of Worst Movies (which perhaps it should be listed as my Least Favorite Movies instead) and there was not as much vitriol for a lot of these as some past years. In fact, numbers 7-20 are all not actively horrible. They are just not very good movies.
Final point once again is that the star ratings that I give throughout the year do not factor into the final decisions on movies. Movies can change over time so just because a film gets 1 star doesn’t necessarily mean that it will get a higher spot on the list than a film that got 1.5 stars. Remember, it is all subjective.
And, as I have said before, this is my list. If there is a film on here that you love, I would say good for you. These are my thoughts and opinions. It is not an attack at anyone who may have loved the film. You are welcome to love any film you want.
Okay… here we go…
#20. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. I put this at #20 as a final placement, but I did have it higher at first. I kept thinking, would I rather watch this again or some of the others, and I would choose Aquaman over other movies on this list, so there is that.
#19. It Lives Inside. A horror movie that was pretty boring. This is one of those horror movies that shows us too much of the monster. Imagination can more more scary if you let it.
#18. About My Father. A comedic love story with characters that I just did not like or want to cheer for and one that lacked laughs.
#17. Next Goal Wins. One of the biggest disappointments of the year. I usually love Taika Waititi’s movies, but this one just missed the mark in so many ways.
#16. Ghosted. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas together should be a winner, yes? You would think so, but this movie does not live up to their charisma.
#15. Insidious: The Red Room. A fifth installment in a franchise that felt as if it should have closed the door on several films ago. A waste of Lin Shaye.
#14. The Baker. Despite charismatic lead characters, this film was nothing more than a cliché-ridden revenge film. Nothing new and very repetitive.
#13. Fast X. Stupid action film with lackluster dialogue and a story that truly does not go anywhere. Jason Momoa is the only saving grace and that is just because he was so over-the-top that he brought an energy the film was missing.
#12. Strays. Another unfunny comedy featuring several dogs trying to find their way back to one of their homes so he could bite the dick off his owner who had deserted him. A movie with a lot of mean-spirited scenes.
#11. Marlowe. A dull and plodding film that may have had a strong cast, but they did not seem to want to be involved in the movie at all.
#10. Family Switch. Merry Christmas to you, though not too merry if you had to watch this Freaky Friday rip off. Another comedy without much comedy.
#9. The Nun II. Nonsensical. Maybe better than the original film, but that is not saying much. First half of this film was boring and even a better ending could not save it.
#8. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Again. It’s Morphin’ Time! What a lackluster return of the original, surviving Power Rangers. What could have been filled with nostalgia and emotion was lacking all of that. Definitely a disappointment.
#7. Paint. I was sure this was a biopic of Bob Ross. Oh, how I was wrong. There was not even a slight connection to the painter outside of Owen Wilson’s ridiculous hairdo.
#6. Retribution. We are starting to get into the really bad films now. Liam Neeson in a car with a bomb. Of course, the real bomb was in the theater with all of us. Stupid film with the most predictable ending imaginable.
#5. Rebel Moon. Zack Snyder’s most recent visit to this list with his sci-fi epic that was not very epic. Even some of the CGI was lacking, which was uncommon for a Snyder film. He claims that a 4-hour director’s cut which will come out someday makes this a whole different story. Why am I watching this then?
#4. R.L. Stein’s Zombietown. This film had Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in it. Let that sink in a minute. This was a stupid movie that was intended to target younger viewers and introduce them to horror. There are much better ways to do it than this mess.
#3. Meg 2. Not a good sign when I found myself laughing at the movie in scenes that were not intended to be funny. And honestly, in a movie titled Meg 2, there sure wasn’t much with the shark in it. I guess we got to spend enough time with these plastic characters.
#2. Expen4bles. Why? What was the purpose of this film? It was a terrible film with little enjoyment as possible. Gee, you mean Stallone is not dead? Duh.
If you do not know my number one, you have not been paying attention…
#1. Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey. Where to start with this? It is the worst movie I have seen in quite awhile and it solidified this position as soon as I watched it. Sadly, I fell asleep during the film so I had to go back and watch the pieces I slept through again. Punishment? This was dumb. It was laughable. I hated it.
Special mention: Beau is Afraid is the only movie I have ever given a N/A star rating because I just could not wrap my mind around it.
The Joker/Hannibal Lecter/Mister Miyagi Award for Best Supporting Actor
Previous Winners:Patrick Stewart (Logan), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Edward Norton (Birdman), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Richard Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Robert Downey Jr (Avengers: Endgame), Sasha Baron Cohen (Trial of the Chicago 7), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Ke Huy Quen (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Supporting Actor. This is an important figure in the movie world since day one. I mean, you can’t have just one character in your film… it would get too dull.
We have a top 10 list of the best performances in a supporting role, according EYG.
#10. Joaquim de Almeida (Missing).
#9. Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw)
#8. Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)
#7. Willem Dafoe (Poor Things)
#6. Jeremy Allen White (The Iron Claw)
#5. Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw)
#4. Colman Domingo (The Color Purple)
#3. Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
#2. Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
And the winner…
#1. Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Robert Downey Jr. makes EYG history becoming the first actor to receive the Best Supporting Actor twice. He received this award in 2019 for his role as Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame and now he is awarded the Joker/Hannibal Lecter/Mister Miyagi Award for his role as Lewis Strauss. Many believe that RDJ is the front runner for the Oscar, and, if he wins it, he would deserve it. His performance was some of the best work of his career.
This is one of the top X-Files episodes of all time, one that I generally refer to as Flukeman. When I saw the whitish arm reach out of the water, I immediately said, “Oh, this is the Flukeman” episode.
Flukeman was one of the creepiest, monsters-of-the-week creatures that the series has ever had. It was also one of the most straightforward resolutions the show had. gotten. That fell into the storyline as a “friend” inside the FBI contacted Mulder and indicated that success of the case was important. Mainly because it needed to show that the X-Files was necessary. This new character would become known as “X” and turned into a sort of replacement for Deep Throat, whose time on the series came to an end at the end of season one.
We get the first, however minor, moment of Skinner seeming to be not the face of corruption at the FBI. When he said to Mulder that everyone has a boss to answer to, we get a glimpse into the fact that Skinner might be more than what he seemed. In hindsight, we know that Skinner is never truly trusted fully, but he does make his way into the ally category eventually.
This was one of the best episodes so far and I even have a Flukeman action figure.
The second season of The X-Files started with a solid episode involving the mythology of the series. The X-Files has been shut down at the FBI and Mulder and Scully have been reassigned. Mulder is doing brain-numbing stake-out, listening to tapes.
Mulder is starting to doubt what he had seen. Mulder losing his faith is a theme that has happened a couple of times over the series’ run.
Mulder gets pointed to a outpost where contact has been made from space. There is a frightened Puerto Rican man, Jorge. Jorge runs out during a storm and is killed.
Scully has to try and find where Mulder is, while avoiding the people watching his apartment.
There is a tense scene where we get a glimpse at the first extraterrestrial on the series.
Mulder showed off some awesome combat driving too as he and Scully tried escaping from a military outfit arriving to get rid of the evidence at the site.
It was a cool episode but I want the X-Files at the FBI back.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 