Reviews

...witch, witch.. the witches are back! Fantastic sequel to the original. This film does not disappoint the viewer if they are not predisposed to only liking the original film for its sake of nostalgia. This film is fun for all ages, and it doesn't require a person to overthink the spookiness and family entertainment of the Halloween holiday.

In this film the three Sanderson sisters are brought back to life in 2022 (aka 30 years later than Hocus Pocus {original}. The sisters meet two teenage girls who take the Sanderson sisters on a wild goose chase to thwart the sisters from capturing and inhaling the essence of children's souls. Billy returns as the undead mummy, and while Zachary Binks joined his sister in the afterlife in the first movie, another black cat joins the film and after the credit rolls this cat shows us the location of the second Black Flame candle leading us to believe a third Hocus Pocus film could be in the making.

Lost in Space is the story of the Robinson family making a journey from earth to a distant plant who encounters an alien robot species programmed to kill with one exception being a broken robot that was damaged and found by the youngest Robinson, Will Robinson. Season 1 was extremely promising with top-notch CGI. In fact, the CGI made the choppy story line and gaping plot holes almost acceptable. I also had to remind myself this was a family oriented program and had to ignore the overflowing family issues the Robinsons were always arguing about amongst each other. At times I thought Maureen and John Robinson needed therapy to stop being so overbearing and pretentious towards their children and almost everyone they meet.

Because of the long gap before making the third season (due to the COVID pandemic), it was obvious the third season was going to be the shows final season. The third season was also only 8 episodes and not the usual 10. This also made the storyline feel rushed and choppy, and this forced viewers to endure obvious gaps and glaring oversights in the storyline.

Writing aside, the acting was excellent with Parker Posey being the true star of the cast, followed closely by Maxwell Jenkins (aka Will Robinson). While Parker Posey's character, Dr. Smith, was not not the leading role in Lost In Space, her acting skills shined!! She was the real reason I watched the final season.

While complaints about storyline holes abound, the acting and CGI along with the mechanical emotions of Will Robinson's Robot are truly worth 9 of 10 stars.

The first 10 minutes are creepy, but then it happens... the man vomits. Now you're probably asking why is that funny, well it's so poorly shot and the acting is so bad you could tell liquid was spraying from a hose. I just couldn't bring myself to watch any more of this one when I was done watching the scene for a second time and laughing even harder.

Julia Garner is the best actress of the show, and her character Ruth keeps me watching. Laura Linney, Lisa Emery, and Janet McTeer are exceptional actresses as well, and I love the characters they play. Bateman's bland facial expressions, all the time, reduce his character to a flat existence which could easily be written out of the script for season 4 and wouldn't be missed by many viewers. However, the character Ben Davis poorly played by Tom Pelphry is just enough to ruin the show for many viewers, including me, who didn't believe his portrayal of bipolar disorder to be real. For some viewers Ben Davis ruined the show for them, but having him off-d was the seasons saving grace. I don't understand the praise Pelphry gets for his acting. I have several family members with BP and they don't walk around trying to fix their mistakes to such extremes, or smack themselves in the face and cry while yelling 'stupid stupid stupid' when they do more damage to their situation. I'm sure some mentally ill people might do this, but this was just typical Hollywood's version of making an ill person look more ill for the sake of drama and discord onscreen. Mental illness manifests itself in many different ways, but don't believe the hype Hollywood forces everyone to believe. Thank goodness this is pure fiction.