Reviews

This Guardian's did something that I've not seen from any other Guardian's, it felt lazy both in writing and directing. Sure it had the usual laughs and fun fight scenes, but the heart tugs were all telegraphed and so maudlin, they felt cheap.

Adam Warlock was underutilized, especially since that actor can do so much.

Growth and Nebula's arm both felt like sonic screwdrivers. Need something done but can be bothered to find an intelligent way to write it in, just use the sonic screwdriver. When Groot grew wings, I decided I was glad this is supposed to be the last Guardian's, because the franchise has officially jumped the shark.

Just another white men are bad, black men are good and white women need to be screwed by black men. So many movies follow this same, shallow formula. It's old, tired and frankly insulting.

Where are the black women falling in love with Indian men, or Asian women needing to be screwed by Peruvian men? No, it's always white women with black men.

Time to try something new Hollywood.

The worst part, though, is that the movie is boring. The pacing is poor. It's supposed to be a drama and with the storyline, you'd imagine drama would be easy to come by, but it's excruciatingly dull. There are many better options.

Here's the thing, Terrifier 2 is a campy slasher, a throwback to the slashers of the late 70s and early 80s. The problem is that it doesn't commit all the way. The gore is there for sure, but the over-the-top acting was only partially embraced and only by some of the characters. Or maybe the actors were just unintentionally bad -- tough to tell.

Speaking of bad actors, and I hope the kid doesn't read this, the little brother actor was just horrible. The casting people should be fired for that choice. He was so bad, and not intentionally so, that he nearly ruined the movie.

The last thing I want to talk about is how the movie is long, like nearly 2.5 hours long. That's about and hour and ten minute too long and it caused problems. The movie's pacing dragged and it was boring in a few parts. With a movie like this, boring is not allowed - ever.

There will be spoilers. I used the tag, but still, spoilers ahead.

I gave Halloween Ends five stars because the acting was fine, the cinematography and music and some of the other technical aspects were fine. Those aspects of the film do deserve some stars. But that's all the good that can be said about the movie.

Let's just say it, the story is crap. Not only does it not make for an interesting plot line, it is guilty of an irredeemable offense -- it's the end of Michael Myers and he's barely in the movie. The writer ends the story of an OG horror villain and barely gives him air time. Instead the primary antagonist of the movie is an intensely bland man that I thought maybe the film was setting up to be a new iteration of Michael Myers, but nope movie didn't go that way, because that guy died too, though not nearly soon enough.

Jamie Lee Curtis, great in most of her roles, didn't seem to have her heart in this performance, which makes sense since she's admitted never liking the role or the movies, but she's always put forth a good effort in previous roles. This time, while technically proficient, there was no real soul behind her character.

The movie chose to focus primarily on Lori's granddaughter and her mopey, sad-sack, milquetoast boyfriend. The characters make few decisions that make sense from an emotional and often intellectual standpoint and fail to be interesting or engaging enough to befit the end of an iconic horror movie franchise.

I don't always pick up a movie's deeper meaning upon first viewing. Usually for the first watch, I just want to enjoy the plot. That's how it was with Barbarian, a monster movie with more to say hiding below the surface.

Barbarian is a story about a woman interviewing for a job in Detroit, and the troubles that arise when she finds that her AirBnB is already occupied. I won't go into more plot details and I recommend you go into this movie knowing as little as possible.

It isn't possible, though, to avoid some spoilers in discussing the layers to Barbarian. So, spoilers ahead.

Beneath the horror movie lies a conversation about women and men. There are dangers in being a woman, which two of the primary characters briefly discuss. But there are also misperceptions that can lead to disaster. Who is good and who is bad, and how can one tell? Does a woman let bad men change her perception of the entire gender? Does she let it make her into a monster? Can a man change? What is a woman? What is a man? What should they be?

I went back and forth several times on whether the character Keith was going to be the movie's villain or not. Well done to the writers and director for that. Upon second watch of the film, I realized that many or maybe even all of the circumstances that put the audience and the character Tess on alert about Keith are situations outside of his control. He didn't mix-up the AirBnB reservations. He didn't open Tess's bedroom door as she slept. He didn't choose to get lost in the cavernous dungeon. But, he might have, and up until the very last second, the audience is left guessing about Keith. How difficult it is to judge someone's character.

Then, we switch to Justin Long's character AJ, a magnificent cut scene that left me surprised and delighted upon first viewing. Here's another man that we the audience might have a little trouble getting a solid handle on. The movie beautifully puts AJ in different situations in which we for a moment feel for him, or think that maybe he is innocent of his accused crimes, and then the movie yanks that thought away from us with AJ doing something bad. For example, we have AJ talking to his mom on the phone. How sweet, he's talking with his mom. He seems genuinely certain he didn't do anything wrong with that other actress. Then he hangs up on his mom without even saying goodbye. There goes that idea of him being a good son. Then, later in the movie, he's around the campfire with the unhoused man and Tess and he seems to be having a genuine moment of contrition and making the decision to grow and become better. Then, Mother busts into the scene and AJ runs off as quickly as possible, leaving Tess, whom he accidentally shot earlier, and the homeless man that gave them shelter in the dust.

The movie explores the ideas of character and how difficult it is to judge another's character, or even know our own character in an expertly crafted manner. The themes of gender, and trust, and abuse, are wonderfully couched in a genuinely scary and excellent horror movie.

Horror is thriving these days, with The Witch, Midsommar, It Follows, Hereditary, Us, Brandon Cronenberg's amazing film Possessor, and many more. Smart, well-crafted films that are both intense, frightening and thoughtful.