Movie Review: Ready or Not

One of my favourite things about seeing movies in the fall is that once we've left blockbuster season behind us, movies have to focus on character, concept, and story, rather than simply air conditioning, to get us back into our seats.

Probably my favourite horror movie this year, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Ready or Not, was a delightful thriller, with a neat little twist, and just about the best theme song for a game of hide and seek you could possibly imagine.

The film follows a young woman named Grace (Samara Weaving) on her wedding day to Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), a member of an extremely wealthy family which owns a board game empire. As part of family tradition, newly married in members are invited to play a game at midnight on the wedding day, and Grace draws the childhood classic, Hide and Seek. Unfortunately for Grace, when Hide & Seek is chosen, the game becomes much deadlier than expected.

Overall there were two things I loved about this movie. First off, the portrayal of the Le Domas family, a group that had inherited their status in life, was a really fun look at what can happen when your only succession plan is based on birth, rather than merit, and the fact that Grace is portrayed as a foster child who grew up to be a smart, resourceful and decent person. So often in stories foster-care seems to be used as code for damaged, and I thought the fact that Grace had basically the opposite of every member of the wealthy family in upbringing was a nice touch.

The story moves quite nicely, has a lot great twists and turns and will definitely be getting a place on my DVD/Blu-ray shelves in the future.

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Ok - should you see Spider-Man: Far From Home?

Absolutely!

Now let me try to tell you why with as little spoilers as possible...

After the events of Avengers: Endgame I think there were a lot of "but what about..." questions by the audience, and Spider-Man: Far From Home attempts to answer as many of them as it can while staying true to a pretty fun, Spidey-goes-on-vacation style story.

The action scenes are a lot of fun, and the big players; Spider-Man, Mysterio, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill are all pretty great, but for my money this fill really shines with it's use of the supporting staff and focusing on Peter's normal life and attempting to balance it out with his superhero responsibilities.

For me, the standouts of the film are Peter (Tom Holland) and MJ (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Betty (Angourie Rice), and a lot of great work from Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Although the action is really great, the way Spider-Man has always worked best in balancing the focus between the fight scenes and real world stories.

In the end, the film was funny, more emotional than I had expected, and has me looking forward to more in the future.

Movie Review: Us

Like a lot of people, I took some time this weekend to check out Us, Jordan Peele's follow up to his 2017 film Get Out.

Us is the story of the Wilsons, Adelaide, Gabe, Zora, and Jason, and the family vacation they take that goes terribly, horribly wrong. If you've seen the trailer, you can see the basic concept - what if your home was invaded... by you? One of the creepiest (and most effective) aspects of the film is the fact that both the protagonists and the antagonists are played by the same actors, and leads Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke are both really great playing both regular folk and their own terrifying reflections.

Without going into spoilers, I'll say the film was a lot of fun, kept me on the edge of my seat, and is my current front-runner for favourite film of 2019 (although to be fair I love horror and it is only March).

Well worth seeing, but bring a friend, you wouldn't want just yourself for company, not for this film.

Movie Review: The Nun

So yesterday my friend Mike and I went to see the latest film in the Conjuring Universe The Nun, a film that works as a prequel to the series, but certainly requires viewers have seen the previous films or they will be spoiled.

The Nun is the fifth film in the series and although I wasn't quite as excited to see it as I was Annabelle Creation (mostly because I had seen other films by the director), in for a penny in for a pound as they say.

Set in 1952 the film follows Sister Irene (Taisa Farmiga) and Father Burke ( Demián Bichir) as they investigate a recent death at a convent in Romania. As can be expected in any type of horror film, there is a spooky old building, a number of jump scares and a sinister backstory for the duo to uncover.

In the end the film was a fun watch, but stand up as well as either of the main Conjuring Films or as well as Annabelle Creation (Still haven't seen the original Annabelle - maybe someday).

So if you're a fan of the series, check it out, otherwise perhaps check out some great classic Hammer films for a similar feel.

Movie Review: A Quiet Place

John Krasinski's A Quiet Place begins with an intriguing concept; what if there were creatures that could kill you if you made any noise? Following an alien invasion (I'm assuming, the particulars are never mentioned), creatures have effectively overtaken the earth in a matter of months and those who still live on day 89 (where the film begins) only do so by keeping incredibly quiet.

The film follows a family as they attempt to deal with their new world, and for me the family drama going on was one of the most exiting parts of the film. Yes, the monsters are quite scary and the tension is very high, but by stripping away almost all spoken dialogue, you are left focusing on the actors faces and actions. Both leads, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt were really fantastic, but for me the standout was Millicent Simmonds, who was really fantastic throughout.

Also, the experience of watching the film in a packed theatre, where the only sounds were people occasionally coughing or rustling their bags of popcorn, made the film much more immersive for me.

Ultimately the film comes down to questions of what would you do to keep your family safe? What I loved was the fact that is in effect asked not just of the parents, but of the children as well. An incredibly engrossing film, and one I would gladly see again.

Moive Review: The Shape of Water

Ok, so no surprise, I really really loved Guillermo Del Toro's 2017 film The Shape of Water.  

Focusing on the relationship between a woman (Sally Hawkins) and an aquatic creature being studied at a Baltimore research facility in the early '60s, the film clearly borrows some inspiration from the classic 1954 film The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but is such an engrossing look at a relationship unlike any I had ever seen before that I have a little trouble describing it.

Honestly, do yourself a favour and go see this if you've got the time, because honestly, it is simply a delight to see, mixing the mundane with the fantastic and the hopeful with the horrific.

Movie Review: Insidious: The Last Key

My first theatre film of 2018 was Insidious: The Last Key and in the end I had some mixed feelings about it.

The Good: Lin Shaye's performance as parapsychologist Elise Rainer is consistently the best part of these films.  Honestly, I'm thrilled to see any franchise with a female lead older than 40, regardless of genre and her brave, yet troubled character makes each film the franchise much more emotionally involved than I have any right to expect.

In addition, although yes, the film does have a few jump scares and fake outs, (the lack of which were a huge part of why I loved the first film in the series), much of the best stuff happens on the astral plane (called "the further" in the film series), and that exploration is a really interesting journey that I don't see very often in haunted house films.

The Bad: The film suffers from working as a joining piece, stretching in between the events of Insidious Chapter 3 and the first film in the series.  In many ways there are sequences in this film that I wish had been done different (specifically one taking place in the further and an early sequence with a six or seven year old Elise) but I'll shy away from specifics to avoid spoilers.

In the end the film is a functional conclusion to the series and was a fun filmgoing experience, but would not be for newcomers and suffers from a need to reinforce the franchise, rather than telling its own story.

Movie Review: The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist, James Franco's 2017 retelling of the making of The Room is a really fascinating look at the lure of Hollywood, Celebrity, and film making in general.

The Room is a 2003 cult film that has been referred to as Garbage, The Citizen Kane of Bad Films, and Trash Cinema. As an owner of the film myself, I'll say it is bizarrely watchable, nonsensical and the cinematic equivalent of an ear-worm. Once you've seen it, the movie just sticks with you and the more you try to explain its appeal to others the crazier you seem.

Based on the book The Disaster Artist: My Life inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, the film follows the friendship of the two leads of The Room, Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, from meeting in an acting class through their experiences trying to find work in Hollywood and finally through the creation and production of this truly strange film.

The very first thing I've got to say about the film itself is just how blown away I was by James Franco's performance; his Tommy goes beyond a one note parody of Wiseau's accent; Franco's Tommy is an incredibly interesting portrait of a man who is famously unwilling to share personal information about himself. Yes there are a number of laughs at Tommy's expense, but the character is more than a simple impression, showing a deep loneliness and strong sense of loyalty to the young man who has reached out to him in friendship.

As with other comedic films about filmmakers, Ed Wood (1994), Bowfinger (1999), etc., The Disaster Artist takes a gleeful look at how the industry can run versus how it does, and then exactly how it interacts with a man who completely ignores every piece of advice offered to him and simply makes exactly the film he wants to make.

Movie Review: Annabelle Creation

Last night my friend Mike and I were able to catch an advanced screening of the horror Prequel prequel Annabelle Creation, and it was pretty great!

So a few years back I saw, and really enjoyed, James Wan's The Conjuring, a neat little ghost story set in the seventies and featuring Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple who made hunting these things down their business for years (including the Amnityville Horror and the Enfeld Poltergeist).  The movie had some pretty great scares, and I was quick to talk my friend Mike into checking out the sequel with me a few years later.

The Conjuring begins with a story about a demonic doll called Annabelle, as a way to quickly show the audience the types of things the Warren's would deal with, and as the doll had a distinct look and the story was creepy, a spin off was soon to follow.  I never saw Annabelle (2014) as the reviews were terrible and I wasn't sure if the character had enough interesting things to sustain a movie (it didn't).

But, when Annabelle Creation was announced I got pretty excited.  Not so much for the doll, but for the director.  David F. Sandberg has been putting horror shorts on YouTube for a few years now, and one of his first was even adapted into a feature (check out the short here), so when I heard this was the fellow who would be directing the film, my interest was definitely peaked.

In the end the movie is pretty fun, the scares set up nicely and although it has to connect to the first prequel, it has enough other interesting things going on I found it was well worth my time.  Interesting note about The Conjuring and it's spin-offs, this horror series is the most successful franchise since the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with six films done, one more coming next year and a further two in development, and all of them have been profitable.

Well worth the look!

Movie Review: The Dark Tower

So let's begin with the fact that I'm a pretty big fan of The Dark Tower series.

1) I referred to the series in one of my very first posts on this blog
2) I've read my way through the series and its connected books twice
3) I've led my wife, my kids, and my sci-fi loving best friend to read their own ways through the series
4) I read my way through Peter David's excellent adaptation for Marvel Comics and get overly excited every time the Dark Tower is referred to in any of Stephen King's other books.
5) Even though the first book was basically a modified Western and I hated westerns as a kid (because my Mom liked them - read more here) I could not stop reading it and HAD to see what happened in the sequel.

So yeah, I think it's fair to say I was looking forward to the movie every time I head it was going to be made and especially this year when it finally got a release date.

I saw the film yesterday with my wife and kids and here are my first impressions:

1) Why did they make this film version a YA adaptation of the source material?
2) Why is one of the secondary characters now the main character?
3) Why did they have to front load a ton of exposition for a story that really needs to build slowly?
4) Why have you taken two talented actors and given them such a muddled script to work with?
5) Why, having given up on the idea of a faithful adaptation, did you have to slip in the first line of the first book both in the middle of the film and with no connection in any way to the narrative?
6) a;ds lkfj;aldf (sorry, I just face-planted into my keyboard)...

Okay - I liked the performances by both leads, the production values was pretty great and the Easter Eggs were a fun diversion, but in the end - why? Why did they take such an interesting story and turn it into a 95 minute shoot-em-up which ignored almost every aspect of the first three books in the series?

In conclusion the film doesn't make me less of a fan of The Dark Tower series, but will likely make it much harder for me to sell others on this great book series in future.

Movie Review: Dunkirk

Last night my wife and I saw an advanced screening of Christopher Nolan's WWII epic Dunkirk, and I'm still in awe of what we saw.

The film breaks down the rescue of nearly 400,000 allied soldiers in late May and early June of 1940 from three different points of view; Land, which follows the soldiers attempting to evacuate, Sea, which follows the civilian ships coming to their rescue, and Air, which follows two air force pilots attempting to offer as much cover as possible.

The film is sparse on dialogue, with the lead from the Land section speaking very little until the end, but massive on immersion.  Hans Zimmer's score, often timed out with a stopwatch keeps the tension high and the action moving.

The sheer spectacle of the film was pretty amazing for me, but after a day to think about it, I think I preferred the characterization in Saving Private Ryan to this, which focused much more on the people than the events it covered.

A few caveats: the movie is loud, and in many cases the accents are thick, so unless you've got an ear for English accents, you may have some difficulty understanding some of the dialogue. 

In the end I found the film to be an incredibly immersive experience, and well worth seeing in theatres.

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

So I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming on Wednesday with my oldest daughter and I really, really liked it. The film is bright and colourful, fits itself comfortably into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and focuses on a key aspect of any good Spider-Man story, Peter attempting to find the balance between his superhero and school lives. Equal time is given to both, and the film borrows liberally from both previous MCU films and the teen-focused films of John Hughes to place Peter in a really interesting niche in the continually expanding franchise.

I have to admit I was initially hesitant when Marisa Tomei played Aunt May in Captain America: Civil War, but I really liked her in the film, also, I think it works to make Peter appear even younger and the Avengers much older and established.

In the end the movie is a lot of fun, and not getting into any spoilers, was really satisfying - I would definitely see more Spider-Man if it was coming from this creative team.

Movie Review; Baby Driver

Okay, fair warning, I'm a pretty big fan of Edgar Wright's movies in general, I own the movies, a TV show and have made a point to see every one of his films in theatres I can when possible.

So when I saw the first trailer for Baby Driver, I was already fairly certain it would be one of my "theatre flims" in 2017 (as compared to the "I'll wait for it on DVD" or the "I'll wait until I can borrow it from the library") films I see trailers for as well.

Although heist or crime films are not my favourite genre (no monsters, ghosts or things that go bump in the night), I've seen more than my share over the years, I've seen enough to understand the basic beats of the stories: successful heist to begin, introduction of the challenge, gathering of the gang, prep work, the heist, the heist goes wrong, the chase, the resolution.

Baby Driver hits all of its marks as a heist film, but then adds in music in a way I haven't seen outside of musicals before. As his previous film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World used fight scenes in place of musical numbers in a video-game themed boy-meets-girl story, Baby Driver uses music and sound from beginning to end to keep the audience engaged and the story moving.

Simply amazing, and currently my top pick for my favourite movie of the year.

Movie Review: Alien Covenant

Here's the thing with prequels: I'm actually pretty hard pressed to think of any that I loved more than the original - in fact, it may be fair to say:

You should see any movie that later had a prequel made, as for the prequel, it's kind of up to you.

Now, as my wife quickly pointed out to me, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly are both technically prequels, as they occur before the earlier film that introduced the main character - so maybe take my earlier statement as a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule.

Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant is both a sequel to the 2012 film Prometheus and a prequel to the Alien Franchise. The film follows the crew of the Covenant, a ship bringing two thousand cryosleeping colonists to a new world who, after a solar flare accident, find a signal coming from a nearby world and decide to investigate it. As with more and more genre films these days, the production company released a number of crew videos and even a short bridging film connecting Alien: Covenant directly to Prometheus ahead of the films release. At this point I haven't seen any of those, preferring to watch and review the film on its own merits.

The action is pretty great, the creatures are terrifying and the crew does a nice job of portraying space truckers. I left the film quite impressed with how it was all put together, but a week later, and I'm feeling a little confused as to my current state. On the one hand, as a fan of the original film, I'm happy to revisit a world I've enjoyed a number of times, on the other hand, much of this film felt either like a retread or giving too much backstory to a creature that should remain mysterious. I will say that I was interested enough to see if there was a novelization (there is) and to add it to my used-bookstore wish list.

After all, an examination of the Alien franchise could be an October theme month some year.

Movie Review: Colossal

Throughout our lives every action we take (or don't take) effects people around us in ways we can't often see until well after the fact. Nacho Vigalondo's 2016 film Colossal takes this concept into the fantasy genre when Gloria, a young woman in crisis finds that for a few minutes each morning her actions directly affect the people of Seoul South Korea when a giant Monster exactly mimics her actions, causing destruction and mayhem wherever it goes.

The film alternates quite nicely between small-town drama and the heightened reality of a monster attack on the other side of the world. Recently dumped by her long time boyfriend, Gloria (Anne Hathaway), has returned to her small hometown and is living in her childhood home while attempting to find something to do with her life. She reconnects with a friend from elementary school and gets a job in a local bar, she begins to put her living space and life together, and then she gets swept up in the news stories surrounding a monster attacking Seoul. Things take a strange turn however when she starts to realize the creature is mimicking her movements each morning when she crosses the same playground on her way home from work.

The story depends strongly on the relationship between Gloria and Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) and how their friendship begins to move in a direction Gloria isn't interested in.

Although darker in tone than I was expecting based on the trailers, Colossal was well worth the watch and a nice change from the comic-book adaptations that tend to fill my spring and summer theatre viewing.

Movie Review: Their Finest

Lone Scherfig's Their Finest, based on the 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans, focuses on a film production by the British Ministry of Propaganda during the Second World War about the evacuation of Dunkirk. In many ways however, the film is about stories; why we like them, how we use them, and what goes into them.

The film takes place in 1940 and follows Catrin Cole (played by Gemma Arterton), a young writer hired to work for the Ministry and her growth as a writer and teller of stories. The film looks at film production from the point of view of writers, editors, producers, actors and executives, and works as both a great war story, and a story about how to tell great war stories.

The concept for the film within a film, two sisters piloting a stolen boat to aid in the Dunkirk evacuation, shifts from the actual event to the varied ways in which the story must or might be modified to better work as a film to inspire Britain, and perhaps even America into joining the war effort.

A really great picture, filled with heart, hope, and a love of the medium of film.

Movie Review: Kong Skull Island

So last week I went out with the family to see Jordan Charles Vogt-Roberts Kong: Skull Island, which turned out to be a pretty great decision. As with any giant-sized monster movie, the film really benefits from being seen on a big screen. Past that, it was funnier, scarier, and much more interesting that I first imagined.

Taking place in 1973, the film follows a team of scientists, soldiers, a tracker, and a journalist, as they explore Skull Island, a previously undiscovered island for a simple geological survey, but things are not as they seem and the team quickly (and horrifyingly) meet Kong for the first time...

It's important to note for this film that the violence is pretty extreme (not to a horror-movie level, but definitely more intense than a standard action-adventure film), and that Kong himself (modelled largely after the original 1933 film) is pretty awe-inspiring in size and scope.

This film is meant to the first in Universals "Monsterverse", which will eventually include popular Japanese monsters such as Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan, but works as a nice stand-alone film using a historical setting to give the film an interesting aesthetic as well as great standout performances by Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly as well.

In the end the movie was a lot of fun, and considering it wasn't a horror film, a nice way to do a reimagining as well.

Movie Review: Get Out

After spending the last few months watching all sorts of Oscar-nominated films, it's finally time to get back into my regular viewing habits, which brings me to Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy.

My first must-see film of the year was Jordan Peele's Get Out.

The film follows Black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) on his first visit to his white girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) family home. Although friendly at first, things take a turn for the puzzling and then move towards terrifying throughout. As the story depends on a number of twists and turns, I hesitate to spoil anything, but I can say it's well worth the watch and left me quite impressed with how effectively comedy and horror can play off of each other.

A really good film.

Movie Review: Doctor Strange

Waiting a week to see the new Marvel film, Doctor Strange made me a little more careful around my social media outlets, and hesitant to read/view any comments due to potential spoilers, but in the end, I'm glad I held off.

The film focuses on the magical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and other than a few lines of dialouge, has virtually no crossover with any of the previous films in the MCU. As an origin story, it does well to stand on its own, letting us into Strange's world without feeling like we should have done our homework first (like I did for Avengers: Age of Ultron). As the lead, Benedict Cumberbatch has created a character that on the surface hearkens back to Robert Downy Jr.'s Tony Stark in Iron Man (2008) as both characters are top of their profession narcissists who receive epiphany after undergoing tragedy, but where Stark works to build his new life out of his old one, Strange effectively turns his back on his old life entirely and begins again.

The film has some pretty amazing visuals, and if you enjoy 3D, perhaps they are worth the higher ticket cost, but for me the effects worked fine and the story moved along quite nicely. Also, as a fellow Librarian, I was quite happy with the films character Wong (Benedict Wong), who had some of my favourite scenes in the film.

A really fun film and one I'll be hoping to watch again in the future.

Bookmonkey vs The Hoard: Post Eight - The Quiet Ones

I'm a little embarrassed to say that as a long term horror fan, it took me almost until I was twenty-five to see my first Hammer Horror film. Hammer Films, a production company out of the UK is most well-known for making a series of Gothic horror films from the '50s through the '70s featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, and other assorted monsters, in films like House of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, and The Mummy. These reinterpretations of the Universal monster movies of the '30s and '40s are all well worth the watch, and if you happen to catch one of the many directed by Terence Fisher, you are in for a real treat.

Although Hammer continued to produce stories into the 90s, it wasn't until 2010 that they began working in feature films again, with movies like The Woman in Black, Let Me In, and today's pick The Quiet Ones, once again working to create a brand in horror.

The Quiet Ones takes place in Britain in 1974 and follows a university experiment led by Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) who, along with a team of three students, attempt to cause a psychic manifestation from a young woman named Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke). In my opinion the two leads are the best part about the film, as the professor works as leader, father figure, and mad scientist, while the focus of the experiment, Jane, effectively straddles the line of victim or manipulator through the majority of the film. In addition the film has a fun use of the camera-as-viewer, as one of the main characters has been brought in to document the experiments, about 50% of the footage seen comes from his camera.

Where the film lost me was it's reliance on obvious tropes (pretty much the entire third act had little to no surprises for me), and an unfortunate use of CGI in the film looked fairly ridiculous - and was also fairly unnecessary - over the summer I've been watching the web series Marble Hornets which uses video film tracking errors and distortion to a much greater effect than the CGI in this film.

It was a pretty good horror movie, but no, I won't be keeping it.