The New Mutants – Movie Review

Produced by 20th Century Studios and released in 2020. It’s directed by Josh Boone who cowrote the screenplay with Knate Lee. It’s loosely based on the Marvel comics series The New Mutants. It stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga.

The movie is about five teenage mutants being kept in a “hospital” of sort and looked after by a “doctor” who not only tends to their physical needs but their mental states as well. All five have killed people whether by accident or on purpose. They are all quite powerful though Rahne Sinclair is the lowest on the scale with her werewolf alter ego. The most powerful is Danielle “Dani” Moonstar whose psychic abilities are on par with Jean Gray pre Phoenix.

I am a big fan of the comic book series this movie is loosely based on, and I can tell you they mucked up the backstories on ALL of the characters. Illyana is very powerful in the comics and she’s also the youngest of the group. Her dragon, Lockheed is real and not a sock puppet. Illyana, in the comics was never abused in any way, she’s actually a devilish little git with the ability to go to hell and control demons.

In short, the comics are way better than the movie as far as stories go.

Still, the show had a decent plot, and the action was good. The actors were okay too, nobody really stood out as an Oscar winner – not to me. Still, it’s better than a poke in the eye.

As always, don’t take my word for it. See the movie for yourself and then, let’s chat about it. I love discussing things with people, even if they have different opinions than mine – even more so in fact.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Movie Review: Daybreakers

I found this movie on Peacock, and I decided to watch it because I had never heard of it before.

This film was originally released during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 and later, produced and distributed by Lionsgate in Australia and the United States in 2010. It was written and directed by The Spierig Brothers, Michael and Peter.

It stars Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan and Sam Neill.

According to Rotten Tomatoes “Though it arrives during an unfortunate glut of vampire movies, Daybreakers offers enough dark sci-fi thrills — and enough of a unique twist on the genre — to satisfy filmgoers. “

Set in 2019, most of the world’s population are vampires, and they’re running out of humans to harvest for blood. Ethan Hawke plays a vampire hematologist looking for an alternative. He meets some humans and a former vampire who are trying to recreate the process that changes the vampire (played by Dafoe) back into a human when there wasn’t supposed to be a “cure” for the condition. Sam Neill is a very powerful man and Hawke’s boss, and he is intent on keeping his wealth and power as a vampire at any cost – even the life of his daughter who didn’t want to become a vampire. As the supply of blood dwindles starving vampires are turning into something that looks like Nosferatu with bat ears, bald heads and wings.

I watched all the way up until Ethan is being recruited by Dafoe and his humans. They even show him their base even though he hasn’t committed to their cause. The movie was a bit slow for me and seemed to struggle. Dafoe wasn’t his usual powerful self either, most likely because he had a supporting role and couldn’t do more than the leads. I was quite disappointed in Hawke’s performance.

The movie has a good plot, but I just couldn’t get into the story in general.

As always, don’t take my work for it. Check out the movie for yourself and if you like it, great, if you don’t, it’s still all good. I am not an expert on movies though I have seen a great many vampire films, good and bad. It’s all a matter of personal taste.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Movie Review – Burlesque

Has anyone else seen this movie??? It was released in 2010 by ScreenGems. The screenplay was originally written by Steven Antin and it was revised twice, first by Diablo Cody and later, by Susannah Grant. It starred Cher and Christina Aguilera. It was Cher’s first musical – this surprised me because I’ve seen her in movies before and just assumed she’d done some musicals I’d never seen. This was also the first film Aguilera had ever been in.

I’m not a big fan of Aguilera’s music or her singing, but she did pretty good with her acting. Cher did a great job in her supporting role, and I really wish she’d done more singing. The movie itself was fantastic, all the dancing, singing and even the little risque comedy routine during one of the shows. I really enjoyed the movie. I recommend it to anyone who likes comedic musicals.

Don’t take my word for it, check out Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Movie Review – Enola Holmes

I found this movie on Netflix and since I’m a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, I decided to give it a try.

Enola is the baby sister to the two Holmes brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock. A late in life baby, she loses her father while she’s still young. The two older boys leave home shortly after, and she is left to be raised solely by her mother who is brilliant and liberated.

On Enola’s 16th birthday, her mother goes missing, and the boys are called home. Enola must then deal with Mycroft’s attempts to force her to go to finishing school and try to get Sherlock’s attention all while helping a young man she deems “useless” when she first meets him.

I didn’t bother to find out who the actors were because the movie wasn’t really my thing. It wasn’t boring, it just wasn’t that interesting either.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

The Limehouse Golem – Movie Review

This movie is a Victorian era horror movie starring Bill Nighy and Olivia Cooke, among others.

It’s a fantastic movie. The creep factor is high, but it adds to it. The movie shows the reality of the society in that era. At one point, there was a little Irish girl who spoke only Gaelic. She was a witness to one of the murders, and she was being brought to speak to the police without understanding what was going on. The detective was using a nun to translate, and the little girl told her to tell him she wasn’t for sale. She said her mother had a gentleman coming for her on her next birthday. That was the reality of the lives of the poor of that era.

It’s this attention to detail that made this movie so good! The acting was superb as well. It has a fine cast. The story was well written, and the action was engrossing. Yes, I really liked the movie.

I give this movie five stars and strongly recommend it. I found it on Hulu.com, but it’s also on Amazon, VUDU and iTunes. Don’t take my word for it, of course, see it for yourself!

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Fullmetal Alchemist(2017)

Apparently, I’m a sucker for subtitles no matter what language the movie is in. This one is in Japanese – I think. I have only caught bits and pieces of the anime this movie is based on, but I know my sons enjoyed it – might still enjoy it; I’ll have to ask.

Anyway, this is a live action film from Netflix based on the anime by the same name. The site doesn’t give much information about the film such as who plays whom and whatnot so, I’m going to guess. Ryosuke Yamada must play Edward while Dean Fujioka is Alphonse, his brother. That’s all I’m going to guess at because I’m not sure which are female names and which are male names.

In this film which is full of lots of fun action and some great special effects, is about two brothers living in something like a Communist country. The uniforms are reminiscent of Communist Russian uniforms with some slight modification and the color is blue. The state controls who is allowed to practive alchemy and who is not based on how “useful” their abilities are.

The movie opens with the two brothers as little boys, Their mom is killed, and the boys are wrecked, Alphonse more than Edward. They were already training to be alchemists like their absent father so they decide to bring Mom back with alchemy. Something goes horribly wrong, and the movie fast forwards. You learn fairly quickly that Al’s spirit is stuck inside a suit of armor while Ed is missing an arm and a leg – he has metal prosthesis instead.

The main plot of the movie is the pair finding the Philosopher’s Stone so Ed can get Al’s body back. It ends up not being as simple as it sounds.

I enjoyed this movie, most likely because I’ve not really scene the anime. People who have panned the movie just because. I’m more of a realist – nobody is going to do an anime just in live action. The animes are full of things you can’t do with live actors and cameras – not even with CGI. I like the movie just as it stands, no comparison to the anime.

I do wish they’d done more with Al but the interaction with him and Ed as well as others in the show was still good.

See the movie, or don’t see the movie. I believe everyone should do as they like instead of what the critics say. Me, I’m not a critic, I just like movies, and I like telling people about them. I’ve enjoyed movies that movie critics said were not worth wasting my time on – who are they to know what I like or don’t like. Whom am I to know what you do, or don’t like. Have fun and have a great time doing whatever you like!

See you on the flipside movie watchers and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Bright(2017)

This is a Netflix created and produced movie starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. I read all the bad reviews about the movie from the news stories, they even went so far as to say it was the worst film of 2017. How did they come to this conclusion – money. It didn’t make a lot of money from people wanting to see it before it came out and from other factors I know nothing about. These stories said it was Will’s worst movie to date even. Thing was, none of these reporters thought to ask what people thought – real people like you and me.

On Facebook, not long after the show aired in December 2017, lots of people were posting about how good it was. They liked the revamping of the Orc story as well as the great way Elves were portrayed. With the good and the bad reviews in mind, I decided to watch the show myself – I’ve always hated to be told what to do.

Will Smith is Officer Daryl Ward, a father and a husband. He’s also just recovered from being shot by a gang member because his partner didn’t have his back. It’s something he’s still having issues with.

Joel Edgerton is Officer Nick Jakoby, an unblooded Orc, and the partner whose mistake got Officer Ward shot.

This movie addresses racism in a roundabout way as well as being pretty tongue-in-cheek about a lot of other issues our society is dealing with now.

The story is about the partners coming upon the scene of a horrendous attack, finding a girl mounted on a wall, still alive and *gasp* a magic wand.

In this world, a magic wand is a weapon of mass destruction – only a Bright, a mage, can handle it, and they are considered criminals who are usually terminated on the spot. If anyone besides a Bright handles the wand, it goes off like a massive energy wave killing anyone in its path – vaporizes them.

Anyway, Will reports the finding of the wand and then, he and his partner find themselves running from the law, from gang members, from demented Elves and from this world’s version of the FBI, all with the injured girl who is an Elf and a Bright.

I think people should see this movie if only so they can thumb their noses at the critics. In my humble opinion this was not one of Will Smith’s worst movies, it’s not one of his best either but hey, it’s paying his bills. 🙂 I enjoyed the movie itself though some parts were just plain silly – the rest made up for it.

See you on the flipside my friends and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Daemonium aka Daemonium: Underground Soldier(2015 )

This movie was made in Argentina and seems to be only be available on Netflix. There is nothing on who did the sound track or who the company was that actually produced the film. It has subtitles for those who don’t speak Spanish(like me), and I seem to have a thing going for subtitled movies. 🙂

I can tell you the Director is Pablo Pares. Our lead ladies are Caro Angus who plays several parts including Rebecca/Azazel and Rocio Rodriguez Presedo who plays Lisa. Our leading men are Dany Casco who plays Razorback, Walter Counas who plays Lucio Fulcanelli and Chucho Fernandez who plays Cortes/El Lobo. Our main demon, Rufus the Ancient Demon(that is how he is listed no joke!) is played by Jofar Tarruella. I can honestly say I have never heard of any of these people before but Rocio looks familiar.

So this story is set in a seriously messed up world where humans and demons exist together and not all in mutual harmony either. Our leading man, Razorback, is to blame for all that when he is part of a group of idiots who force our wizard Fulcanelli to open the portal to hell so the leader of the group(unnamed in the above because he’s an idiot who doesn’t deserve mention) can make a deal with the summoned demon. The result of this meeting is Fulcanelli runs for the hills and Razorback becomes a despot.

Enter Lisa the poor abandoned wife of Razorback who, at the start of her part of the story, has just found out she’d preggers. Yay Lisa, but not so much since she ends up getting kidnapped by a religious group opposed to Razorback and his demon minions. They manage to get Lisa on their side, and the story progresses.

I won’t tell you much more than that except ole Rufus does his best impression of Skeletor and then, he and Rebecca/Azazel get down to some serious Kung Fu fighting against each other. It was weird and yet amusing at the same time.

Now the beginning isn’t all that great – I had flashbacks of Japanese anime come to life – but it got a bit better after that.

If I didn’t know better I would’ve said this movie was Japanese because of the fighting – lots of martial arts mixed in with gunplay and other mayhem. Costumes were a mix with lots of anime and Steampunk influence. Wasn’t a great deal of music because there was always a lot of action going on. There is some blood and gore, but it’s not that disgusting.

In short, in my humble opinion, don’t expect much out of this movie and don’t take it too seriously. It’s amusing, dark, violent and simply mindless fun to watch. There is foul language, some weird nudity, lots of violence and other stuff so I don’t suggest allowing impressionable children to watch.

Thus ends my movie review, I hope you enjoyed it and might, if you feel bored, take a gander at the movie.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!

Wristcutters: A Love Story(2007)

Before I begin, let me just say that this movie review in no way advocates suicide, or self murder as it used to be called and should still be imho. If you are feeling suicidal, please, get help!! I know how hard it is to reach out and ask for the help you need, I tried to murder myself three times; the last time would’ve killed me if I hadn’t been found in time. It was then, in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm and tears running down my face from all the pain, inside and out, that I finally asked for help. I don’t want you to even get that close. Talk to someone, anyone!

If need be, call the Suicide Hotline:1-800-273-8255

You are not alone, I promise.

Now, to the review:

I was sitting here, bored to tears, and I hopped on Hulu just to see what movie might catch my eye. I scrolled through a bunch before I saw the grouping called Cult Classics. It looked interesting so, I started looking for movies I knew. I ended up seeing this really odd movie title: Wristcutters: A Love Story. Wait, this was a Cult Classic?? Why hadn’t I heard of it before if it was good enough to be called that? Surely, one of my friends has seen it before. I’m going to ask Joshua today; he seems to be up on all the odd and rarely seen movies.

So, this movie is a dark comedy like Pulp Fiction or Juno – fair warning. It’s also pretty weird – just like Pulp Fiction. It stars Patrick Fugit as Zia, our erstwhile hero. He is known for his roles in Gone Girl and Almost Famous. I haven’t seen either one. There is Shannyn Sossamon as Mikal, our leading lady. She is known for her roles in Wayward Pines and A Knight’s Tale. I’ve watched bits of the first and all of the second. Then, to round out our trio of leading actors/actresses is Shea Whigham as Eugene. He is known for his roles in Take Shelter and Non-Stop. I’ve not seen either one of those before.

The movie is produced by No Matters Pictures, Crispy Films and Adam Sherman Inc. The soundtrack mostly features songs performed by Gogol Bordello(never heard of them) including the song the actors sing or listen to so much it became annoying: Roof n Underground. The rest of the songs were fairly weird too if you paid attention to them.

Now, the movie begins with our young lad, Zia, offing himself (their words, not mine). His only reaction as he lay on the bathroom floor bleeding out is not that he was dieing, it was that he’d left dust bunnies behind the bathroom door after meticulously cleaning his efficiency apartment. Cue the weirdness.

Zia narrates some of the movie by the way. He ends up in a city just like the one he left, living a life just like he’d led before – only they’re worse. Not one person every smiles, not because they’re happy anyway. Not one person is happy. This place is like limbo for all the people who have committed suicide.

Zia meets Eugene in a dive bar, and after sharing how they killed themselves – Eugene’s death is NOT something anyone should do – they become friends. They go on a journey looking for Zia’s ex girlfriend, Desiree, when he finds out she also committed suicide. He had been in a relationship with her before he killed himself.

Anyway, they’re go off looking for Desiree in the countryside because Zia is sure she’s not in the city they were in. Along the way, they pick up Mikal who is hitchhiking. She tells them she’s not a suicide and she’s looking for the People In Charge(PIC) because she’d been sent there by mistake. She didn’t off herself, she OD’ed. Cue more weirdness .

Along the way to finding both Desiree and the People In Charge, Zia finds himself in love with Mikal – she reminds him of the nice things of life that he was now missing.

I won’t ruin the movie for you. It’s not all doom and gloom. It’s more like watching a train wreck and not being able to pull your eyes away from the horror and mayhem you believe you’re about to see. Relax, it’s not all that bad.

I’d rate this movie a 3 out of 5 simply because the only thing I really liked about it was the acting. This is definitely a character driven movie. Enjoy, or not. Drop me a line either way if you do watch it and want to share your feelings about it.

Time to fly so see you all on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Winchester – the movie

I went to the District Theatre in Webster, Texas to see the premier of this show in my area. It’s a horror film produced by Lionsgate starring Helen Mirren and several other actors whose names escape me; I’m not familiar with their work. This movie is directed by a pair of brothers I’ve never heard of, but who had a sound bite just before the movie began introducing themselves to the audience. Wanna be Cohen Brothers perhaps?

The movie is based on the real life story of Widow Winchester, her late husband having invented the famous, and infamous, Winchester rifle. Using the tales of the poor woman and her need to build, always building, on her home around the clock even unto her deathbed, the aim is to draw you into her world of fear and superstition.

The soundtrack was nice, but it was lacking. A soundtrack is supposed to add to the movie it’s with. It’s supposed to aid in developing ambience, evoking emotions in step with the scenes being shown. In my humble opinion, the soundtrack fell short in a couple of key areas.

Maybe I am jaded from seeing so many horror movies in my life – psychological thrillers more than the inane gore fests you see mostly nowadays – I wasn’t really scared. I did jump a couple of times, with a tiny bit of thrill going through me, but that was more due to special effects than the movie itself.

There is a scene that made me reference Poltergeist which made my companion smile – he got the joke. Maybe you’ll be able to spot it too. Let me know if you do. 🙂

I had thought, hoped even, that since this was a Lionsgate picture, it would be more, so much more than it ended up being. I mean, they’ve done some killer flicks in the past full of horror and drama, evoking fear with sound and sight combined. This one, in my humble opinion, fell short of the mark.

Does this mean don’t go see the movie? Who am I to tell you that?? I am just voicing an opinion, something everyone has. If you want to go see the movie, Go! Don’t let me stop you, don’t even hesitate if it’s something you want to do. Feel free to share your opinion, politely phrased in case there are children reading this post too, here and on your own blogs. I encourage you not to allow yourself to be led, and fed, by the so called “critics” out there who think everyone should listen to them just because. Make up your own mind and think, do, for yourselves!!

Okay folks, that’s it for today. I’ll see you on the flipside and don’t forget your towels and sonic screwdrivers – you never know.