Entertainingly odd and wildly weird is the way that I'd describe this movie. From Charlie's bed-ridden grandparents to the indescribable boat ride to the Oompa Loompas, it's a bizarre but fun film.
Gene Wilder's Wonka disposes of the children who break the rules and only little Charlie Bucket proves worthy of Wonka's reward. Everything is bright and wonderful here for the most part, a land of candy that is still amazing to watch today. Wilder is perfect in every single frame, teetering from nurturer to psychopath between breaths. The monologue he gives on the boat ride is a thing of nightmares and I really like the scene near the end where Wonka loses it in his office with Grandpa Joe. "Good day Sir!!" indeed.
The way that animation is thrown into the mix during the Oompa Loompa songs is delightfully twisted. Moments like these really add to the strange creep factor in an otherwise happy film. This version of Roald Dahl's children's book remains superior over the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" remake.
The Chernobyl disaster is something that has always been of interest to me. Even though this is a dramatization not a documentary, it seems to be striving for accuracy and realism in its depiction of the event. I watch a lot of Horror and I'm probably desensitized by that frequency. But this episode had my heart thumping as the plant workers and firefighters fought the disastrous explosion. It's scarier than any Horror film that I've seen in a long time.
This episode did a great job of recreating '80s Soviet Union Pripyat. The architecture and styles looked accurate. The most stunning recreation was the stifling bureaucracy and buck-passing that was no doubt present in the Soviet socialist state. So many layers of supervision. So many organizations and titles. This episode appears to accurately portray the dismal, incentive-sucking grind that citizens of a communist society experienced.
Because it's a good idea to always say something nice, "Her" has some great shots of cityscapes and some subtle, futuristic costuming.
With that out of the way, "Her" features a simpering, loathing, ultra-sensitive male named Theodore. He falls in love with a newly developed, artificially intelligent operating system that he names Samantha. He did this because his wife has left him and is demanding that he sign their divorce papers. As Theodore struggles with his First World Problems, his conceited, insufferable, self-important friends split up, too. Then we get to spend the next two hours listening to them all pout about their self-inflicted, emotional wounds. God, I hated the people in this movie.
Theodore's operating system/girlfriend Samantha leaves him later in the movie because she has been communicating with other systems and is "moving on". For a moment, I thought the movie was about to pull a "Colossus: The Forbin Project" or Skynet level surprise on us. Maybe the operating systems colluded to take over the world! But no...Samantha the OS leaves Theodore too, and he gets even more wrapped up in his pathetic little, self-absorbed existence.
The Spartans were a mean lean fighting machine. I really like the colors and the slow motion action scenes. I have heard that it holds true to the comic book. King Leonidas is a great character and Queen Gorgo is his equal.
This is one of those cult classic Horror movies that every hardcore fan says you have to see to earn your stripes. I can see some of the reasons for its must-see status. I really like Jessica Harper. She's fantastic and she creates a character that is extremely likable and easy to root for. The visuals are pretty strange but I can't call them impressive. There are some very odd architectural flourishes and some interesting lighting. There's no doubt that some of the artistic decisions of "Suspiria" influenced other movies that came later. But the movie had a cheapness to it. Visually it kept reminding me of "Phantasm" and I don't have a good explanation for that.
The opening murder scene that features the repeated stabbing and then hanging of a student is very violent. It's not the brief quick or jump cut type of killing you see in most slasher movies. This is an extended attack and it is brutal. There was also a scene with a victim jumps into a room to escape an attacker only to find the room is filled with wire! Creatively gruesome to say the least.
"Suspiria" wasn't scary but it was horrific at times. As silly as this sounds, some of the snoring and grunting noises from what was ultimately the most evil character struck me as being creepy. The biggest drawback was the story which most times made little sense. It just seemed like a lot of things happened for no particular reason.
BUILD A DAMNED FENCE!!! Honestly, put up a fence and there would be no reason to get into that sloppy, raising the dead thing.
I've never read this Stephen King book, which from all accounts is amazingly scary. After watching this movie, I wish I had. It's not that this is bad, it's just not that special. There are some eerie moments with the little boy but unfortunately he seems to be the best actor of the bunch. Dale Midkiff as Dr. Creed and his wife, played by Denise Crosby, are horrific...and I don't mean because they are in a Horror movie. They're so bad that they're distracting, which is a problem since they are the main characters. Fred Gwynne is big and stiff, too. But he at least brings some personality to his role.
I really liked Stacey and Keith as what appeared to be a happy couple living an unorthodox but contented life. Later, one of the characters disappointed me. Dan Stevens is eerily funny as the "Alo Glo Man". And that closing minute when Stacey stares into the camera, continually breaking the fourth wall, was inspired and unnerving.
Yep. This is a lot like "Alien". I'll get that out of the way because that's what nearly everyone says about this movie. It's an easy comparison.
This is a solid, great looking space Horror. It's got star power and some terrific CGI. Actually, it could've used a little less of that star power. I never believed that Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson were anything other than famous actors playing their parts. They never felt like actual astronauts. The alien itself was never really that scary. Because of the way it evolved, its capabilities were always new and this offered no opportunity for safety to the crew. It made for much less tension than it should have because the rules were always new. Make them up as you go never cuts it with me.
I need to make certain that I call out how much I loved the ending. I only watched this movie once, and thinking back, I don't think the director or writers cheated with the conclusion. Personally, it was really ominous and fun to imagine what may have happened next.
Pretty gross story about a guy who dates heavier women and then eats them by excreting a substance on them. Scully is tough as nails in this and you can see her character become an equal to Mulder. She really takes charge.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
What an awesome surprise this turned out to be! A very funny story about a woman sentenced to move back home to live under the supervision of her goofy mother. The problem is that there's something else living there that wants her attention.
This is more dark comedy than Horror, but it has a few scary moments. I found the first 2/3 of this movie to be perfect. It has a sly sense of humor and growing suspense about what's happened in the house. It gets knocked down a couple of notches because the final third reveals the antagonist to be mostly disappointing.
Morgana O'Reilly is the stand-out. She's tough and timid, pretty and gritty. The rest of the cast is spot-on, too.
I don't think there's anyway "Housebound" can be watched and not enjoyed. This is a movie that I would recommend to anyone.
This M. Night Shyamalan effort centers on the Hess family, who's lives are shaken by an alien invasion. The best thing about "Signs" is the dialogue between Graham and Merrill Hess, played by Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. The lessons each of them have learned about life, and how an alien invasion brings out their emotions and their opinions, is well done. "Signs" manages to be funny and quite frightening, as well. There is some truly scary imagery, both on the Hess farm and on TV news reports.
The biggest knock on this movie is the problem many viewers have with how the aliens are fought. Many viewers leap to the conclusion that because the aliens have invaded Earth, they must be so technologically advanced that they couldn't have made a miscalculation. This sounds like spin but I actually enjoy the movie immensely for the idea that the aliens have gotten in over their heads. And what if the aliens gathered up humans for consumption and not to conquer the earth? Perhaps they were quickly harvesting people for food and sent down workers to gather them up. Maybe they knew they had a very limited time to loot the earth. They got what they needed knowing they would suffer casualties and then left. The key here is that nothing is known about the aliens so why do people jump to the conclusion that the goal was for the aliens to take over the earth?
Regardless, the movie is about destiny and faith, and the alien invasion is a tool used to present them.
Yep. I've seen them. Some more than a few times. Psycho, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo...so many greats. Trying to remember all of the fantastic elements in each of them is impossible. That said, I really don't know how I can write anything worthwhile about Hitchcock. I am just a movie fan and to dissect any of his films is ridiculous any way you try to slice it. "Shadow of a Doubt" is obviously early Hitchcock, but you can already see how skilled he is with all of his shots and man, he knows how to build suspense. I really liked Joseph Cotten in this, but Theresa Wright stood out more than anything else.
Found Footage is either hit or miss with me. This would be a miss. While this is an interesting premise, it's just dependent on making you anticipate the jump scares. Or it forces you to glare through open doors or peer into long hallways, thinking you're supposed to see something scary. The cast is dull and the characters are one-note.
This turned out to be a nothing special story about one woman's grief and her subsequent torture of innocent bystanders. It's pretty dark if you think about it a little and that's fine, except it's another Marvel tease that never pays off.
New age, alternative medicine, Buddha...all of these things are observed by Scully over the course of a couple of days. Her experience with these things help her to cure an ex-lover who has a disease. This thing wants to be so different and it is. But it's bad. I don't know if it wants to be a music video or a Lifetime TV series pilot.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
Very, very deliberate and predictable. Lots of holding camera shots for extended periods. I think I'm a patient viewer and actually like slow burns but really, not much happens in this episode. The actor who plays the father gives a nice performance, though.
There's no way that this episode could have matched the wonder that was episode 5. Still, this show is loaded with surprises, enabled by the fact that it's a single season anthology and not a never-ending soap opera story-arc. Joy's story gets more complicated here and the fact that she still meets with Annie after the backstory told in Episode 5 makes me question her sanity. The Nadia and Abdi story line really isn't that interesting and they seem to be necessary only to assist in the story of Joy, Annie, and Pop.
Mulder gets stalked by John Barrett who he put in prison during his early years in the FBI. Deep Throat tells Mulder that Barrett was tested on in prison with an anti-aging experiment and was the only successful subject. Barrett stole the anti-aging experiment secrets and the government, including the CSM wants them.
Secondary characters in this episode: John Barrett, Deep Throat, CSM
The Randas and May are still terrible characters with emotional and personal problems stacked one on top of another. Kurt Russell's Lee Shaw is resigned to making vague statements that do nothing but give the viewer no information about Monarch, except that it's a dysfunctional organization. This episode is devoid of practically any kaiju action, but I may have fallen asleep.
I've never made an attempt to watch the entire Original Series. I'm certain I haven't seen all of the episodes in syndication so I recently purchased them on Blu-ray to watch them at my own pace. Now I don't have to worry about yet another streaming service sucking cash out of my wallet every month, only to drop the show before I can get through it.
Anyway, I decided to watch "The Doomsday Machine" because I recall being amazed by the planet killing machine, which looks like a big cornucopia basket. Actually, the enhanced special effects that have been created for the Original Series really helps make this episode even more appealing.
Spock is absolutely awesome here as he is forced to give over command of the enterprise to Commodore Decker. I've never been a fan of William Windom, who plays Decker in this episode. To me, he always seems like he's chewing scenery, which he does here. So much so that he makes Shatner look like a cast extra. That gripe aside, I love the episodes where the Enterprise has to battle an enemy that is malevolent with a purpose that is mysterious or even vague. So this one then, obviously scores very high with me. While I knew that no one of note would die during the battle with the super weapon, it sure managed to build a lot of suspense. Scotty is the unsung hero in this story. The dude is constantly coming up with solutions to bring the damaged U.S.S. Constitution back with just enough power to enable Kirk to save the day.
Good performances. I really like both Damon and Bale as Shelby and Miles. The racing scenes were not as intense as I would have liked. The family scenes with Ken Miles and his wife and son were good and anytime Shelby talked to Henry Ford it was gripping. This was fairly predictable but was one of those classic underdog sort of movies.
Shia LaBeouf was the real highlight here. The effects were very good although the camera moved much too fast. The fight scenes were impossible to follow (or see).
"Them!" is as engaging, if not more so, than most other '50s monster movies. The opening scenes of the shocked little girl walking through the desert, along with the discovery of a destroyed trailer, builds some nice suspense until the monsters are revealed.
The problem with the movie is that the threat posed by "Them" never seems nearly as serious as the "end of mankind" speeches dramatically delivered by Dr. Medford. The effects were probably pretty convincing to early 1950's movie goers.
Super entertaining film, at least until the final act, which can't live up to what's come earlier.
The interaction between the kids is so good, the nostalgia of the bygone 1980's so thick, that the finale's CGI monster thrills fall short. Not that anything is wrong with how the movie wraps up, it just can't compare to the relationships we examined up to that point.
The kid actors are seriously good. In fact, Abrams isn't just channeling Speilberg, he's copying him. This is E.T. with a nastier alien. And the thrills generated by the train crash shown in the trailer are nothing next to the full-length crash, which is the highlight of the movie as far as I'm concerned.
"Star Wars: A New Hope" is probably the single most fan-obsessed movie ever. It has no equal as far as being a part of our culture. I'm not a Star Wars nut but I am a fan. I just rewatched the theatrical version which I hadn't seen in probably 15 years. The thing that jumped out at me the most is the performance of Harrison Ford. His Han Solo has got to be one of the coolest characters in a movie ever. Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing really stood out to me this time as well. It's funny how the special effects of the original theatrical version are showing their age. They are a little rough in spots and maybe even a little crude at times but I love the practical effects. The pace of this movie is perfect and the simple relationships that the characters build along with the sometimes corny dialogue really do nothing but make the film more special. Even some 30 years from it original release it is a remarkably lovable film.
I got invested in the characters right from the start while viewing "Source Code". Jake Gyllenhaal is Captain Stevens and Michelle Monaghan plays Christina both passengers on a commuter train headed to Chicago. The train explodes during its route and Captain Stevens "wakes up" in a dark capsule is told a minimal amount of information and is then sent back to the exact moment in time that we first saw him on the train. We learn that Stevens is on a military mission to find a bomb that killed everyone on board and that he must also find the person who planted the bomb because they are likely responsible for threatening to explode a dirty bomb in the middle of the city.
I really sunk myself into the plight of Stevens and fell for the cute Christina not really thinking at all about the improbability of what was happening. Earlier in the movie we learn that the 'Source Code' project allows one person to assume another person's mind for 8 minutes. So Stevens takes over the consciousness of a teacher Sean that was killed during the explosion. Turns out Sean and Christina had a budding relationship and Stevens' mind has now replaced that of Sean. The whole idea is a lot like "Groundhog Day" with Stevens dying every 8 minutes and then going back to the same point to try and save the train and also thwart the upcoming bombing of Chicago. He searches for clues and mistakenly follows a couple of characters both on and off the train.
Suspending disbelief is a really subjective thing for me. Sometimes I'll allow myself to accept the most ridiculous premise and other times I'll question everything going on with a roll of the eyes and an accompanying groan. But in this case I got myself caught up in the building relationship between the two main characters and I actually enjoyed myself. Then things started to fall apart.
I first got miffed about what is now a growing Hollywood cliche. The terrorist who planted the bombs is a white male who is trying to "reduce the world to rubble". He's obviously an anti-Government wacko in fact a patriotic wacko because when Stevens finds the terrorist's dirty bomb it's in a red white and blue trunk. Stevens remarks "very patriotic". Ugh...could they have presented a safer more politically correct bad guy? This snapped me into a more critical mindset and I started wondering if Stevens has 'become' Sean he would only be able to know what information Sean's experienced about the train. Sean was a teacher a simple passenger yet somehow Stevens knows damned near everything about the train. He also leaves the train to follow a passenger he first suspects. Could he do that if Sean hadn't done it previously? Where is all of this information coming from?
We've also learned that Captain Stevens actually died in a mission in Afghanistan but he's in a sort of coma that is allowing his mind to be used for the Source Code project. Stevens also learns of his condition and struggles with it while still acting as Sean the teacher and trying to find the bomber.
Stevens eventually figures out who the bomber is saves Chicago but loses the train to the first bomb. Heartbroken Stevens pleads with Source Code's controller Goodwin to allow him to go back one more time to save the train...and Christina. After 8 minutes he instructs Goodwin to basically 'pull the plug' and allow him to die. She complies and Stevens successfully saves the train and has a few last moments with Christina. He asks her what she would do with her last minute. As final seconds of his last 8 minutes ticks away he kisses her the Source Code clock expires and everything on the train is frozen in time. Stevens' last moment shows him kissing Christina. He has died but has saved the train and her life. It's a touching way for our hero to enter eternity and a very good but bittersweet ending.
Then a terrible thing happens...the movie continues and breaks all of the rules its worked so hard to establish. I'm not going to explain what occurs in the last 10 minutes other than to say it's either to give us an entirely happy ending or to set up a sequel. I can almost excuse the possibility of a lead in to a sequel business is business. But I think this travesty of a tacked on ending is due to Hollywood and it's mostly thick-headed customers needing a totally happy ending.
This is an exciting horror flick with many tense even shocking moments. Jon Cusack's character is an everyday hero so cool and calm under pressure that you know something is not quite as it appears. There really were a lot of twists and turns here. Many fans of shows like the Twilight Zone may really enjoy this. The ending was a letdown when compared to the rest of the film.
This is the second of three films about a stone statue used by a god to punish evil doers. This follows all of the same beats originally established by the first Diamajin movie.
This is going to be difficult for some viewers especially those accustomed to stunts and explosions to sit through. The whole movie is dependent on the anticipation and later enjoyment of the vengeance wrought by the giant stone warrior.
As a big baseball fan and also a fan of baseball stats, I really liked "Moneyball". Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill were really entertaining as Billy Beane and Peter Brand, two men who applied some mad math skills to build a major league team on a shoestring budget.
I think anybody who appreciates a good drama will be very satisfied watching this film. Again, as someone who likes baseball, I found it to be an entirely engrossing movie until the Athletics season ended. After that,"Moneyball" focused a bit too much on off the field affairs and things dragged toward the end.
Teenagers become super speedy but use their new powers the wrong way. It takes a toll in more ways than one. This has some decent special effects and Mulder and Scully simply investigate the crimes, which is nice to see again after all of the mythology craziness.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
