Sean’s movie thoughts

Hell Fest is getting bad reviews but I have seen a few positive reviews. The design of the carnival is supposed to be good. Maybe the film will be decent. I will probably see it sometime. Why do movies go to Netflix after I buy them digitally? It happens sometimes. Netflix does drop movies seemingly at random. Night School looks bad. Also I don’t find assualting a person to get him to concentrate funny. I also hear the movie is nearly two hours long, that seems long for this type of movie. I am sure Kevin Hart will have another movie in six months, maybe that will look better.

Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 11/9 is scattershot. It lacks a strong central point and it moves from subject to subject and it uses the Flint Water Crisis as something to return to from time to time.  Maybe a documentary just on the Flint Water Crisis would have been better. Or maybe a documentary about the Parkland students would be interesting. They have tried to change things after the mass shooting at their school. They have not accepted the idea that these mass shootings can’t be prevented.  Or maybe a documentary about being a teacher in America would be interesting. Teachers in some states qualify for food stamps and some teachers have to buy school supplies. There were mass teacher strikes in some states. I am not sure if this is worth re-watching.

This is a movie that is a little odd. The director Gus Van Zant remade the Alfred Hitchcock Pyscho shot for shot but he did not update the story or find a new take on it. It was an experiment. I am not sure what the point was though. The performances are good. It is weird to see someone else as Norman Bates but Vince Vaughn is pretty good in the role. I thought there were hints of danger that came across from him. Vaughn is not as good as Anthony Perkins was or maybe it just feels wrong to see someone else play the role. This film might just be a curoristy at best. It might be interesting to watch to compare it to the original or enjoy some performances including William H. Macy’s. It is not terrible but in hindsight it might be forgettable or a footnote in Van Zant’s or Vaughn’s career.

Why so the Dark Phoniex plot again? I like the X-Men movies as much as anyone I know but why do another variant of the Dark Phoniex plot again? I do not find it that interesting and we have seen it. Okay, X-Men the Last Stand is bad but it did include aspects of the Dark Phoenix storyline. The new trailer is out. I need sometimes to remind myself not to get too excited about a movie’s trailer. This trailer is not exciting. I might need to remind myself not to get too disappointed about a trailer. There are other X-men stories that they could have adapted into a movie. I don’t know why they made this story into a movie again.

Ben Foster stars as Will, a veteran, who is living in a park in Oregon with his daughter Tom. One day someone sees Tom and then the police and social services come to investigate.  A compromise is reached and a living situation is set up. Will wants to live off the land again but Tom starts to want something more. This is a good movie. It is based on a novel that I never heard of, so I cannot say if the movie adapted the novel well. Some things are alluded to instead of outright explained. Tom’s mother is not with them but i was not sure if she left the family or if she died. Also I am not sure if Tom wanted to be found. Foster is good as Will. He doesn’t overact but there is something subtly off about him. Thomasin McKenzie is good as Tom. She has been compared to Jennifer Lawrence and I am not sure I see that. (Sometimes I don’t get the appeal of Jennifer Lawrence.) I thought it was an interesting story with good performances.

The Uncle Drew movie shouldn’t work. This movie is silly but it is nice to see Chris Weber and Reggie Miller on screen. The old man makeup could have been a little better. For a movie produced by Pepsi, the product placement is not overwhelming. Solo is not terrible. I have defiantly seen worse movies in theaters than Solo. The last act is pretty good, so that is something. If there is not a Solo sequel, I think I am okay with that. Maybe after re-watching the movie, I will feel differently. I wonder if the Subspecies movies hold up. I think they might not. I have not seen them in at least 8 years.

The Walking Dead (or a spin-off of it) is reportedly heading to the big screen. I am not sure how that will work but maybe it is worth a shot, it is a popular franchise. If you are getting the Walking Dead on cable, what is the incentive to go to theaters to see a spin-off? Maybe it could be done on a reasonable budget. Michael Moore has a new movie, 11/9. It is supposed to be more than just an anti-Trump movie but it is at least parrially an anti-Trump. Reviews are mixed, of course.  (People have strong reactions to his films.) I hope it is good. A photo from the Men in Black remake have surfaced.

Vampire Circus is a later day Hammer film from 1972. In a small19th century village a vampire is killing people and causing other troubles. The villagers kill him but as he died he cursed them. Years later people in the town are dying from mysterious diseases and the other towns(or villages) have put up road blocks to keep the people in the town. Then a circus comes to town. The circus performers can do amazing things. (The movie is called Vampire Circus for a reason). The villagers seem capitivated but the circus is out to do more than just perform. It is not bad. Some of the performances are good but I did not think the master vampire was in Christopher Lee’s class. I might sample of the bonus features on the Blu-ray later.

I have seen worse movies than the 2015 Fantastic Four movie. Maybe not recently but I have. The first act is not bad and some of the actors are good. However the movie does make at least one bad choice in the first act (proving that not everything needs an explanation).  Some people online reacted badly to the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). He is not one of the movie’s problems. Luckily he went on to better things like Creed and Black Panther. Things start to go bad in the second act. Did anyone working on the movie understand the appeal of the comic and team that inspired it? I doubt it. I am not saying you cannot have a new take on established material but this take feels wrong. Josh Trank was the director of this film. He was reportedly so unprofessional that the producer got Trank removed from a Star Wars movie. There were reports of massive reshoots. It is not worth seeing out. If you have not seen it yet, that is okay. The first two Fa...

Henry Cavill was reportedly out as Superman one day this week. A few hours later apparently he was not out. Cavill was not the problem in any of his movies. If he is out as Superman, I wish him well in his future endeavors. The new Halloween movie is either great or awful according to various critics. Well maybe a consensus will emerge by the time the movie opens. Has there been a good movie in this series in the last 15 years or so? I hear the Predator is pretty bad. (This is unrelated to the real life issues of the film.) Maybe this monster has had its day. At times I think about good movies that never got a sequel and get discouraged when franchises go on and slide into mediocrity. I see people online saying that they really liked Solo. I am glad someone did. I still have mixed feelings about it. I might re-watch it later.

My Cousin Vinny holds up. I had not seen it in a few years, so I wondered if it would hold up. It does. Joe Peschi stars as Vincent Vinny Gambini a lawyer who is called in to defend his cousin and his friend after they are charged with murder in a small town in Alabama. Vinny has never tried a case. (He had some trouble passing the bar exam.) He has a lot to learn. It was nice to see Vinny destroy the DA’s case. We know the guys did not kill the store clerk but the DA’s case on first appearance seems solid. The fun is seeing how Vinny will poke holes in the case. The cast is pretty good but Ralph Machio does not get a lot to do. I guess that is the biggest complaint  about the film. Marisa Tomei was really good in her role, I think she won an Oscar. Lane Smith is on hand as the DA and Fred Gywnne is the judge. 

John Cho stars as David Kim. His 15 year daughter Margot goes missing. He tries to help the police find her and he realizes that he does not know her well. The wife/mother has died and has been dead for about two years by the start of the film. It is pretty good. The whole movie is a series of computer screens. I think this is the third or fourth movie shot in this style. This could come off as a gimmick but it works. I am not sure if this format or stylistic choice might wear out its welcome if it is overused. John Cho is really good in this movie. The movie has a few surprises. I thought the actors playing Margot, and David’s brother were good too. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/searching-2018  Christy Lemire’s review is worth reading.

Burt Reynolds died recently. He was a big star in the 1970s and 1980s. He might be best known for his role as the Bandit in Smokey and the Bandit and its sequel. He also stared in the original the Longest Yard, Heat, the Cannonball Run movies, and the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  He said his best film was Deliverence. I always liked his movie Hooper about an aging stunt man. I am not saying that was his best film, it probably was not, but I liked it a lot. I have not seen that one in a few years, maybe it doesn’t hold up. I liked Heat too. Sharky’s Machine was also pretty good too. He made some good films, he made some bad films. It is not time to talk about his bad films though. His sitcom Evening Shade was good from what I remember. (It did not last that long.) He was also a part owner of the Tampa Bay USFL franchise and he played college football at Florida State. He was interviewed for the 30 for 30 about the USFL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeexDJgSUPg&fe...

I watched the third Venom trailer. I am still not convinced that I want a Venom movie without Spider-man. I think of Venom as an enemy of Spider-man first and foremost. I probably always will. Sort like I think of the Joker as an enemy of Batman and I am not sure if I want a Joker movie without Batman. The trailer looks good though. Tom Hardy seems a better choice for Venom than Topher Grace did back in the day. (I am not going to start a rant about how bad Spider-man 3 is.) Topher Grace has his talents but menacing might be beyond him.  This trailer looks like like Upgrade.  (Heh.) Well, I am considering seeing this. That is something.

Peppermint is getting bad reviews. Maybe Jennifer Garner will get a better action movie later or even a better movie in another genre. From the reviews I’ve seen she is not the problem with the movie. She was good in Daredevil and Elektra. I have not seen any of the Conjuring movies or their spin-offs. That expanded universe keeps on growing. I have heard good things about some of the films. The latest spin-off is the Nun. Maybe I will check out one of the films in this franchise some say. There is something missing in the story about the actor whose scene was removed from the Predator movie because he is on a sex offender list. Olivia Mun found out and told Fox executives but how did she find out? That detail seems to be missing. Shane Black knew and the actor was his friend. Now Black is claiming that his friend misled him.

Paradox is about Louis Koo’s cop from Hong Kong going to Thailand when his daughter disappeared. Tony Jaa has a brief cameo, it was nice to see him but he is not the star of the film. If you see a trailer or any advertising suggesting otherwise those are lies. This is a litttle like an Asian version of Taken but Koo doesn’t get to give a speech threatening the bad guys but he does get to beat the daylights of out of people. Also Koo’s cop has a more complicated relationship with his daughter than Liam Nelson’s character had with his daughter. Wu Yue co-stars as the Thailand cop helping Koo. I don’t think I have seen Yue in another film. Yue is pretty good here. This is pretty good. It is worth seeing at least once. The action sequences are good.

It was nice to see the first Harry Potter movie on the big screen. Cinemas are showing the Harry Potter movies for a limited time in honor of the 20th anniversary of the first book. I might go to another one of the films. I saw the House on Haunted Hill remake from 1999. It is okay and Geoffrey Rush did a nice impersonation of Vincent Price. The original is better but the remake has a few charms. I wouldn’t watch them as a double feature though. Lana Condor should have gotten more to do as Julibee in X-Men Apocalypse.  It is clear after seeing her in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I like the remake of the Blob more than the original. I think the remake is just better in a few ways and I like Kevin Dillion (when he is not in Entourage). (This is not the time or place to rip Entourage but I would be willing to rip it at the right time or the right place.) I don’t want a Star Trek movie without Chris Pine. I might get one if rumors are to be believed. I don’t blame Pine f...