July 17, 2021

Let Him Go

Rating: 3 of 5 Frozen song titles Kevin Costner and Diane Lane (who we’ve met in person!). For a while, thought it might be a Rob Zombie movie. Excellent acting from everyone, disturbing plot that gets a little nuts. One of those movies I can’t say I enjoyed, although I appreciated the effort and talent it took to make it.

July 14, 2021

Evil Dead (remake)

Rating: 1/2 of 5 necronomicons This is the remake with Rami/Tapert/Campbell not involved in writing/directing/acting, just producing. You know the plot, I had no idea why they made this. Still don’t. Not as scary as either the original or first remake. No humor, which even for the less-funny/more scary Rami version was a keystone.No reason to watch it, really. Only gets a 1/2 because it was slightly interesting to see Jane Levy in another roll after liking her a lot in “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”.

July 4, 2021

The Tomorrow War

Rating: 4 of 5 unstoppable alien hordes WAY better than I expected. Good concept, good acting, good action. Somewhat original ideas (but a reminder that Alien was the progenitor of all decent alien movies). Exploding aliens, totally mismatched weaponry, impossible odds. What’s not to like?

June 13, 2021

In The Heights

Rating: 3 out of 4 bodegas Fun music, great ensemble dances, liked the sets a lot. Camera work was a bit frantic at times, and on the big screen, sometimes hard to watch. Plot was simple, nothing that’ll require a deep attention span.

June 13, 2021

The History of Future Folk

Rating: 3 of 4 space helmets
A fun sorta mockumentary about a couple guys who started playing Bluegrass in 2004 in NYC cosplaying aliens visiting earth. The guys are endearing, other actors not bad, and Dee Snyder runs the bar where they play. It’s definitely worth a watch, unless you hate Bluegrass. On Netflix.

June 3, 2021

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Rating: 3 out of 4 demonic possessed kids As good as the best of the Conjuring/Anabelle movies. Aside from the standard not turning on lights, and 20w bulbs in the lights that are on, good scares with strategic, but not too frequent scary imagery.

May 22, 2021

Army of the Dead

Rating: Two of four zombies
Sounded awesome. Zach Snyder? Zombies (again)? Should be awesome. Was just OK. Many slow parts, a bunch of fun scenes, but it just didn’t gel.

May 1, 2021

A Touch of Evil

Rating: 5 of 5 camera cranes
Orson Welles last US film as a director. The first shot, about 4 minutes long, is a masterpiece. 1958, and an amazing non-stop tracking shot with what had to be a crane truck that could retract to follow people walking on the street. I’m sure Tarantino studied it closely.

March 22, 2021

Godzilla vs. Kong

Rating: skip it
Wasn’t expecting much, even though one writer did Avengers movies and the other the Godzilla/Kong movies. It was atrocious. So, so so bad. Nearly every scene a ripoff of a good monster film, terrible dialog, stupid plot. Expensive effects. Do not recommend.

March 15, 2021

Parasite

Rating: Amazeballs 5 out of 5 subtitles Refreshingly original concept and story, good acting and situations. Unexpected plot twists seal the deal.