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Oddity (2024)
Old-fashioned ghost horror made to (near) perfection
A terrific and supremely creepy, scary, and entertaining morality tale reminiscent of horror comics from the 70's or from horror anthologies like "Creepshow". Easily the best horror movie I've seen so far this year.
I don't want to say too much about the plot, but the craft in making this movie is just outstanding - it gave me the scariest and creepiest sequence I've seen in a long time, that literally gave me chills and made the hairs on my arms stand up. I can't remember the last time a movie scared me like this (certainly "Longlegs" didn't come close).
What makes the movie so effective is that each scene is set up with seemingly the single goal of making us in the audience be tense and on the lookout for things that may appear at the edges of the frame or in the background, which when done well eventually leaves us in a state of constant fear - and then it takes that and adds a horror element that is FRONT and CENTER, but unpredictable and we don't know what that element is going to do, or how and when it will strike. Add those two techniques up, and you've got a helluva horror movie. There's literally only ONE scene that rang a little false, the only thing keeping it from being a 10 for me.
There's such a fine line between horrific and ridiculous when it comes to really effective monster movies, and this one stays on the right side, which definitely wasn't an easy thing to pull off. Absolutely brilliant directing.
It's always tricky to go into a movie with high expectations, so I don't want to raise them. But "Oddity" is a true gem of a horror movie, and one of the best movies of the year of ANY kind, period.
Biosphere (2022)
Funny, profound and entertaining
I love how the movie sticks to its limited scope - no expository dialog to explain the situation to the viewers, no attempt to show the outside world, just two lifelong male friends on a journey to survive the apocalypse the best they can.
We get bits and pieces of what happened through their dialog, but that's just circumstantial to the plot - it's just the setup, not the payoff.
Great actors deliver this really funny dialog in a completely believable way, and the movie managed to keep me engaged thoughout, in fact the only bad thing about the ending was that it came too soon.
Highly recommended.
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Ridiculously entertaining
Look, I get why this is not a highly rated movie, but also, I've watched it many times, and it never fails to entertain. Much goofier than the first movie, more like Transformers, it is just pure adventure, comparable in tone to Godzilla vs Kong.
Serenity (2019)
Top five worst movies I've ever seen
This movie is just so incredibly bad. I loved "Locke" and had high expectations, and the first half hour or so of the movie feels like it's doing a version of the 90's faux noir movies like "The Big Easy" or "Color of Night", and I'm with it. Sure, some scenes indicate something weird is going on, but still, it's just a little over the top noir.
Then it takes a turn for the ludicrous with the movie being - SPOILER - a video game programmed by the kid of the main character who turns out to be dead. It is so dumb, so illogical, and so full of plot holes that the movie just could not win me over after that.
Stay away. This is awful.
Team America: World Police (2004)
Satire misses the mark, but the action works
"Team America: World Police" has more poignant political satire in the title than in the movie itself. Parker & Stone swing in all directions, but none of their swings really hit anything. Almost any random editorial cartoon in any random newspaper on any random day gives you more political satire than this movie manages to produce. It just isn't that funny in that respect.
However, the action movie spoof part of it works great, and produces plenty of laughs. It spoofs the standard elements of the Bruckheimer/Bay formula (love story, lost love, overcoming the odds, the cheesy music, the montage, and so on), while managing to be a damn fine action movie in its own right, even though (or maybe because) it's all done with marionettes. The sets are beautiful, the action scenes are carefully staged and the story would fit any Bond movie without much tweaking. Overall, solid entertainment well worth seeing, but if you're looking for engaging political satire, look elsewhere. Grade 7/10.
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)
Not bad, and plenty of gore
I love the first movie, and didn't expect this one to live up to it, and of course it didn't.
However, on its own terms it's a successful movie. It is much smaller in scale due to the lower budget, and is basically a retreat of the "group of people trapped" formula. The troopers are holed up in a small abandoned base, and are attacked by a new breed of bug. The titular "hero" is a murderer who hates the Federation but fights for the soldiers who he feel are betrayed by their superiors.
The first one was brimming with satire, but the sequel tones that down, until the last scene (which is great and lifts the movie a notch). It focuses more on horror than action, and there's plenty of gore (which I liked). The new breed of bug is cool but derivative. The acting is uneven but it worked well when it needed to, and the main characters were interesting.
All in all, it's good entertainment and I think the filmmakers achieved what they wanted. Well worth seeing!
Romeo Must Die (2000)
So-so... could have been much better
Standard story about avenging the death of a brother, Jet-Li doesn't have enough screen-time, and the fights aren't very exciting. The actors are all good enough, especially Delroy Lindo and Aaliyah, but you'd be better off renting one of Jet Li's older Hong Kong movies.