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Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

I was about to give a 2 1/2 for the cool action, but the storyline is so… One note and bland… as are the characters.

A satirical romantic comedy slasher that pokes fun at all of the cliché, romantic comedy tropes.

Good characters and funny humor are good enough to keep this Valentine’s Day slasher going.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s an enjoyable action movie with characters you care about.

Fun movie.

Soft 4

With the title like “clown in a cornfield” I didn’t expect too much going into this film. I’ve seen the books around, and I hear they are pretty good. And then when this movie got positive word-of-mouth, I had to put it on my watchlist.

Luckily, I wasn’t subjected to a bunch of hyperbole and over the top praise for this film as some people have. It’s not a groundbreaking, iconic horror film of the century, but damn is it a good time.

The film delivered more than what I was expecting, it delivered interesting characters and an emotional through line of the film. I love the main character and her dad. Both of those actors do a great job, and are very believable.

The group of teens, while archetypes, are well written and fun.

It’s hard to reinvent the slasher formula, and this one doesn’t try to, it just tries to be a good slasher film, and it succeeds.

There are a few things about it that are a little weird, I don’t really buy the motivation of the killer, and the answers of everything happening. I felt were a little weak.

But overall, it’s a scary good time! Put this in your Halloween watchlist!

Awesome animation! And a cool take on the turtles by making them actual teenagers.

They did my boy Sentry right! Sentry has always been one of my favorite marvel heroes so I’m glad they didn’t nerf/butcher him.

A deep meditation on mental health and your purpose in life. And in a superhero film!

Good stuff!!

Watched on Wednesday April 30, 2025.

A celebration of black music, and an allegory for cultural appropriation and letting people inside your culture. At least that’s what I took from it.

I want to like this film more than I do. I feel like I’m missing something because I don’t see the masterpiece everyone else is seeing, and some might attribute that to my lack of understanding of black culture because well… I am white. But even with that, I can see what the film is (mostly) trying to say, I just couldn’t really relate to the characters that much. The performances are amazing, but I just didn’t really care about any of the characters. And when 3/4 of the movie is set up for the characters… I found myself checking my watch a bit.

The vampire stuff is cool, but nothing groundbreaking, we really don’t get a definitive explanation of why they are there, and I’m not saying you need that, but the explanation they do give is kind of ambiguous? Was it really the music, or were they being metaphorical? I’m a little confused with the symbolism and what they were trying to say. If the music really did bring the vampires, then that music is evil… But the movie is a celebration of black music so I don’t think that’s what it’s going for?

Speaking of music, I wanna say that the score is freaking awesome. I want to buy that soundtrack ASAP.

There’s also this strange out of nowhere end segment that I feel like didn’t fit. I’m not talking about the mid credits, I’m talking about the actual end of the film. It felt so tacked on to me.

It’s a good movie, I just wish I liked it more. But I’m glad people are really loving it.

So I will say this… A lot of people were upset that the game wasn’t directly translated to the screen. I feel like that would’ve been the wrong choice, because the game itself is so much like a movie that making it into an actual movie would be redundant. The game is such a movie that the people cast in it are actual screen actors like Hayden Panettiere, Brett Dalton, Brenda song, and Rami Malek. If they remade this film verbatim, do you really think they could get Oscar-winner Rami Malek to come in and do a small budget horror film like until Dawn? I don’t think so.

I think taking the story in a new direction was a cool way to go. To bring the players experience of constantly respawning and making different choices an actual aspect of the plot.

This film has a lot of cool concepts, but ultimately I don’t think they are utilized to their full potential. I saw a behind the scenes clip where David F Sandberg, the director of the film, stated that every time the clock resets, the night would take on a new genre of horror. And while there are elements of that, I feel like they didn’t push it far enough. Having the first night be a slasher film, and then the second night being a possession film, and then having the third night be a found footage film, a vampire film, a killer clown film, a monster film, etc., etc. would have been really cool. Would that be like cabin in the woods? Yes, but to that I would say it’s different in the respect that this film would actually take the concept of cabin in the woods and show us what the machine was like before the entire thing fell apart. In cabin in the woods, you see the whole thing fall apart, but you never get to see the actual different genres of horror come to fruition. You don’t get to see each “movie”. I feel like this film could’ve done that, and it would have been something new, even if people compared it to cabin in the woods.

Ultimately, my biggest problem with the film is this… If you’re going to do a horror movie, you either have to give me interesting characters, or good scares. Ideally, you would want both, but if you can, at least have one of those things. And I just don’t feel like this movie had that going for it, so it was hard for me to get invested.

I will say I did like a things about the film, though. I like how it’s shot, and I like the practical effects, and the one thing I really like is I can feel David F Sandberg‘s ion behind this film. His story is super inspiring, and I have been a fan of all of his movies. While there are some that fall below expectations for me, I don’t think he’s made a “bad” movie. lights out, Annabelle creation, and Shazam are really good, while Shazam 2, and this film fall a little short, but they aren’t bad.

Overall, it’s a fun time at the movies, and if you go into it wanting that, you will get it. If you go in expecting this masterpiece of horror cinema that’s gonna change the landscape, you probably won’t get that, but that’s OK. This film achieved what it wanted to do.

Very soft 3.

Watched on Wednesday April 23, 2025.

Shit n’ Cockey…

A cube shaped fever dream. I have never done drugs but this is probably the closest I have ever been to knowing what the experience is like. I have also never played a single frame of Minecraft, and this movie makes me never want to.

I like Christopher Landon. Happy death day 1 and 2 and freaky are pretty good! I like his blend of horror and comedy.

This is his least horror and least comedic film, but it’s a cool modern Hitchcockian style film.

An 80s synth soaked post apocalyptic musical? Count me in!

Is it good?… Not really.

There are some cool concepts and cool visuals and great music, but in the end the movie as a whole just seems a little half-baked.

Honestly, I’m starting to think that the way to get me to go easy on movies that aren’t great is to just hyperbolically rave about how much of a disaster they are…

This is another one. People are calling it one of the worst movies of the year, that it’s awful, it’s soulless… And to some of that, I do agree, but this film isn’t the travesty that it’s painted to be.

First the positives, the visual effects are spectacular. I don’t know which company worked on them, but they are fantastic. There wasn’t a single shot in this movie that didn’t look photo real to me. VFX artist get the shaft in today’s Hollywood machine, and I want to give them the credit they deserve. The designs and animation and rendering that are brought to life from the book to the screen are amazing.

OK, now with the bad… I do feel like this movie is soulless. I have never seen or read the book but I know it’s by the same author from “tales from the loop“ and knowing his work, it seems to be very deep rooted in Messaging, symbolism, and metaphor. I’ve seen some pictures of the book the electric state and I can definitely see where people are coming from when they say that Netflix and the Russo Brothers completely missed the point of the book. There’s a dark somber quality to the book, and that is very much missing in this film. Instead, it is a paint by numbers, generic action sci-fi movie. 

It really is a bummer that the Russo’s never really hit the mark post-Endgame. I didn’t see Cherry, the gray man I saw maybe 20 minutes of it and got bored, and now this one is unfortunately another notch on there “misses” belt. They have produced some great films via AGBO, so I hope they find their footing with their next couple of projects - with Marvel and outside.

That being said, this movie is not great… But it’s a generic Netflix action movie, if the book didn’t exist, and this was an original concept, I feel like people would watch this and completely forget about it, but because it has such strong source material and the fact that it has a supposedly $320 million budget (insane), people are being really hard on it.

Did I like the movie? Not really. Is it one of the worst things I’ve ever seen? No. I’m honestly forgetting about it the more I write this review lol. However, there are some good things about it and I do feel like in this current state of hyperbole, it’s really not that bad.

I do want to say however… $320 million!? Where the hell did that money go? That’s almost the same budget as infinity war! Nuts.

Ehh it was okay. I was kind of expecting this movie to do something different with the slasher genre and it ended up being your run of the mill slasher with a comedic twist… and even that’s been done before… so I guess as a tribute to the camp counselor slashers of the 80s, it’s fine. You could add this to your slasher movie marathon but don’t expect it to stand out in the crowd.

This review may contain spoilers.

Never in a million years did I expect the twist in this movie to be a giant frog man lol…

Watched on Wednesday February 19, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 14, 2025.

Does this harmless kids movie deserve one star? Yes, and I’ll tell you why.

This movie pissed me off.

I have never seen a movie so single handedly ruined by voice over in my life. Whoever directed the movie and whoever directed the VO were clearly not on the same page.

There are scenes with main dinosaur characters LITERALLY DYING (swelling music and all) and the VO is all jokey jokey like something out of Barney.

If this movie had taken out the voice overs and just been a straight forward, no dialogue Dino film, I would have given it another one or two stars at least. It still wouldn’t be perfect, but it woulda been better.

Instead it’s this weird pseudo-documentary… thing? I don’t even know.

The CGi is great though. Too bad the VO ruins the entire film, it feels like an after thought, and it most likely was… like THEIR MOUTHS DON’T EVEN MOVE WITH THE VO!! if you’re going to anthropomorphize the dinosaurs, at least you go all the way, like land before time or something.

Or remove it completely and make it just a dialogue-less feature.

And so… it goes with God.

Masterpiece.

Someone hand Leigh Whannell the keys to the dark universe right now.

I don’t really know what the word on this film is yet, but people seem to be pretty in the middle on it.

I’ll it, when I first saw the trailer for this film I did not have high hopes. And then I saw it had a January release date!? Yeah, not a good sign.

I was pleasantly surprised with this film. It’s a tight, 90 minute suspense film that is creepy, shot well, and even has a few good moments of heart.

I’m a fan of the universal monsters, and I was excited to see Whannells second take on one after “The Invisible Man”. A lot of people are dogging on the wolf man design, and I can see why, but it didn’t bother me too much as I see the intention behind Whannells take on the universal monsters.

Just like The Invisible Man, Whannell takes Wolf Man and grounds it more in reality than the supernatural. This movies take on lycanthropy is a much more grounded take…well… as grounded as you can be with a property like The Wolf Man. Whannell takes out the supernatural and mystical elements of the characters, and I think it’s an interesting take. Back in the day, people called it “Nolanizing”.

Leigh Whannell is 4/4 for me. I liked Insidious 3  and wolf man, and I loved upgrade and the invisible man.

I heard James Wan (who got his start with Whannell) is doing a new Creature from the Black Lagoon movie. I can’t wait to see it.

Soft 4. Really good movie.

This film is so beautiful.

Oh boy I can already hear the film snobs and A24 whores seething with rage at my review for this one.

First things first, I liked the 1922 German expressionist Dracula knockoff that became one of the most influential films ever made. I like it, okay? 

I never seen the Werner Herzog remake all the way through, although I do like Shadow of the Vampire (if that counts).

I was not in the right headspace for this movie, right now, in my life and as a Christian, it’s getting hard for me to watch such bleak and devoid of fun horror. That’s ironic if you know me because I really like horror.

I think what it comes down to is simply this: I’m not a fan of Robert Eggers. I hated the lighthouse and have outright refused to watch the witch. I did like the Northman however. I feel like Eggars feels the need to put weird shit in his movies because he feels like he has to. The weird sexual themes and connotations throughout the film are very strange and odd, but not to a degree that engaged me or scared me, it was uncomfortable - and not in the way the film wanted. It was uncomfortable in the “this is stupid” kinda way.

I know that this story has been told to death, via Dracula or Nosferatu, and that you want to bring something new to the table, but I feel like it was on the right path without the excessive over the top weird “look at how deep and weird my film is” type stuff.

The cinematography is freaking gorgeous, and most performances are very good! Especially bill scarsguard as the title vampire.

This just wasn’t for me, which is ironic because I like horror, and I even like Longlegs (a film with a very similar feel as this one) but I can’t explain it… this film just didn’t hit the right notes. Maybe it will later when I’m in the right mindset for a bleak gothic horror with no levity. But for now, it just didn’t hit for me.

P.S. Nosferatu with a mustache looked stupid.

This movie is fricken hilarious.

ittedly, I haven’t really given Aardman a shot. I don’t exactly know why… maybe it’s because chicken run creeped me tf out as a kid. To be fair, the character design in most Aardman films is very creepy. Wallace and gromit look scary, like their eyes aren’t in their head!

I need to give more of their films a shot, because this film was hilarious. Right up my alley in of humor. Dry and witty, with a little slapstick thrown in for good measure.

The only other Aardman film I’ve seen is Arthur Christmas, another film I really enjoyed. 

Stop motion is a dying art form, and I think we really need to companies like Aardman and Laika.

Watched on Saturday December 21, 2024.

Extra half star for its unintentional humor. So bad. What a waste of an interesting premise.

Cute movie. We need more good, non-hallmark Christmas movies.

Thank goodness it’s over….

Film vs dreams vs memory vs reality in Bi Gahns second feature.

“A long day’s journey in tonight” is one of those films that kept me thinking after I watched it. The themes presented throughout the film are subtle, and not in your face, yet the execution is so bold it can’t help but leave you inspired.

The film is told in two parts… The first half of the film is shot in 2-D, and is shot in a standard way. The second half of the film (which begins after the title card 75 minutes into the movie) is an unbroken one take shot in 3-D…

The bold way to tell this story is on the forefront here, and its themes about memory, reality, dreams, and love is so interesting. To me one of the biggest themes I got out of this film was what it said about depression, but I don’t even know if that was the filmmaker‘s intention… Anyone who watches this film Can have a different sensibility toward it, and get something completely different out of it. 

The second half of the film is one of the most accurate depictions of a dream sequence I have ever seen. A beautiful and melancholy depiction of sadness, and loss.

This is a slow burn movie, it’s an art house drama told in an unconventional way. And I loved it.

Watched on Wednesday November 27, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday November 26, 2024.

FINALLY saw this film.

What am I missing here?

I don’t get the hype.

Wicked is my girlfriend‘s favorite musical, and she took me to it to see it for the first time around a year ago. I liked the play, but it didn’t strike me the way this film adaptation does. That’s most likely because film is more of a medium that resonates with me as opposed to stage plays.

That being said, this film is amazing. The music is good, the two lead performances are stellar, and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t really like musicals. That being said, you still have to go into this knowing that it’s a musical lol. If you go into it, it’s a musical about the aspects of the musical that are musical, that’s on you lol.

This is a part one, and I can see why they are doing a part 1/2 thing, because the play has a lot of story, and the film flashes it out even more.

Fingers crossed that part two will stick the landing, I believe it will!

The craziest thing about this movie is the fact that The Rock had a child when he was 14 years old.

This movie takes itself WAAAAAAAAAY to seriously. Even 2012 knew what it was lol.

Adding another star for the VFX artists.

I mean, if you’re into astronomy (as I am) this 3D IMAX documentary is for you!

Watched on Wednesday November 6, 2024.

Bro…

Happy Halloween…

In 2010 this might have been some satire on… something, but in 2024 it ends up just being a satire on itself. It’s the most painfully 2010 movie ever lol.

They made a parody of B movies… Why would you parody B-movies when B movies are basically parodies in and of themselves?

The 3D was also aaaaaaass. you’re telling me they couldn’t film 3-D underwater because of the technical problems yet creature from the black Lagoon did it in 1954? Nahhhh.

When I was in high school I had a friend named Eric, and for some reason he would obsess over a handful of movies. Cloverfield was one of them, and the other was this one. I have no idea why but he always talked about it. 

Well, Eric… Ihaven’t spoken to you in over 10 years since we graduated, but I’m sorry man… This movie is ass.

Watched on Monday October 28, 2024.

As a Christian myself, I’m finding a hard time with this one. I enjoyed X and I loved pearl, because I thought its themes were subtle enough to be interpreted in many different ways. This one is not as subtle, and in being so, I have a hard time grasping what Ti West was going for. I don’t know what side the film takes, or even if the film takes sides in general. I had a hard time understanding what the film was trying to say. I feel like it might be some allegory about good versus evil, but I don’t exactly know what it’s trying to say. Is it about losing your soul to the industry, and doing everything you can just to make it big that you eventually lose yourself? 

Again, I don’t really know. An ambiguous theme like that are not necessarily a bad thing but I feel like this film is trying to tell you it’s theme but it’s telling it to you unclearly.

I kinda was left unfulfilled with this one. I don’t know why, but there’s a bad taste in my mouth, I didn’t find it as enjoyable or as deep as pearl.

That being said, I love the style, cinematography, and production design. I just wish it would’ve been a little bit, tightened up in the story department.

This review may contain spoilers.

The only reason I put a spoiler warning is because I feel like this is a movie you should go into completely blind with no pre-suppositions of what the film is like.

If you like the Netflix series “dark“ you will like this movie.

it’s not as crazy or overcomplicated as “dark“, but it still has that same mindbending nature to it. 

A trip.

The problem with the Venom movies from the very beginning have been the writing… it is the epitome of first draft dialogue. If Venom didn’t predate Chat GPT I would have thought it was written by A.I.

The writer of the first two movies is now making her directorial debut with this movie and oh boy… 

Pointless side characters getting way too much attention, plot contrivances, bad pacing, dialogue, and acting. When Venom starts dancing to ABBA with Mrs. Chen I legit thought I was having a fever dream I couldn’t escape. All needle-drops in this movie are nearly the entire song!

When the movie ends with this heartfelt montage of Eddie and Venom to Maroon 5’s “memories” trying to have this sincere moment that is supposed to tug at your heartstrings, I freaking died laughing.

Worst of the 3, and that is saying something.

Knull was cool though. He’s barely in it.

Out of the big cheesy, gimmicky 80s horror films, this one takes itself the most seriously. So I commend it for that I also commend it for not being AS gimmicky as some other cheesy 80s horror like jaws 3-D, and especially Friday the 13th 3-D. However, don’t get me wrong there is still a good amount of gimmicky 3-D cheesiness, just not as much lol.

The movie was a bit boring up until the last five minutes where the film just decided to absolutely lose its mind and go freaking nuts, and I love that part lol. I was cracking up.

Still better than the remake.

Watched on Monday October 21, 2024.

OK… What highschooler wrote this film?

It was so horrendously bad… But it’s also hilarious how bad it is. I can’t tell if the filmmaking is intentionally bad, but it doesn’t feel that way, which makes it even funnier.

The only decent thing about the film is the 3-D, I think it enhanced the found footage, which is something I was very skeptical of… However, the 3-D is turned up to 11, and after a while it hurts to look at.

Soft 4. 

Definitely an interesting concept and it makes you think about humanity and revenge in a different light.

There were just some weird moments that I didn’t necessarily understand that made the final act a little disappointing.

It’s heart pumping, but some of the things the characters say confused me. Obviously, I can’t tell you what without getting into spoilers, but if you see the film, you might know what I’m talking about.

More like Na.

Octavia Spencer gives it her all, and it’s cool to see her in a different type of role, but man… This was pretty bad.

Watched on Wednesday October 16, 2024.

3D movies I own. Ordered in the best to worst 3D quality…. Not story quality lol.

• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
• Avatar: The Way of Water
• A*P*E
• It Came from Outer Space
• Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
• House of Wax
• Anselm
• Step Up 3D
• Step Up Revolution

...plus 72 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Have not seen a lot of films this year…

• The Wild Robot
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Wicked
• It's What's Inside
• Cabrini
• Caddo Lake
• A Quiet Place: Day One
• Dune: Part Two

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Half 2D, half 3D Halloween!

3D films:
Coraline
The mad magician
Hansel and Gretal: witch hunters
Jaws 3D
Parasite
Monster House
Bunker of the dead
Amityville 3D
Piranha 3D

• Coraline
• Milk & Serial

  4/5 for what it is. Inspiring. Some props and fight scenes could have been better, but the execution and the story telling device was really cool. Makes you think about what’s real or fake.
  
  Gives me Blair Witch Project vibes.

• The Mad Magician
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
• Sick
• Jaws 3-D
• Parasite
• Hold Your Breath
• Monster House
• It's What's Inside

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This has got to be my worst year in of actually keeping my pulse on the films coming out, so don’t expect this list to be a real indication of how good or bad the year was lol.

• Sound of Freedom
• The Iron Claw
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• Air
• No One Will Save You
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Godzilla Minus One
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
• Creed III

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Final Girls
• Bodies Bodies Bodies
• The Strangers
• The Nun II
• Haunted Mansion
• No One Will Save You
• Totally Killer
• Smile
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• The Curse of Bridge Hollow

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
• Father Stu
• Violent Night
• The Batman
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Scream
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Prey
• Elvis
• X

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• They/Them
• Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
• Barbarian
• Rogue
• Pearl
• The Wolf of Snow Hollow
• Fright Night
• Fright Night
• The Munsters
• Over the Garden Wall

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.