Reviews

It feels like there are two directors that made two different movies and then edited them together to get "The Conference"

On one hand you have this fun, campy horror comedy with Shaun of the Dead style snap zooms followed by an immediate cut to a rag tag group of survivors bickering while doing some preparation activity/plan. This vision includes a baby mask wearing killer a la Happy Death Day, a 2 on 1 fight against two old people, and a ridiculous solid gold shovel. This direction feels like a genre staple for horror comedy and is the more fun, arguably more fully realized style of the movie. If they had leaned all the way into this direction and style of filming the movie could have been truly great.

The other directorial style in the movie is a very stylized, hyper realistic, gritty slasher movie with colour graded shots of bodies being dragged into closets, dramatic lens flares in the camera work, a real time hanging scene, a character peeling his own scalp back, and a victim being made into a human smoothie. Because if its brutal, creative kills and violence this lends itself to feel like a grind house horror flick with buckets of blood, under developed characters, and what I assumed would have the genre staple of a "final girl".

Honestly the combination of these two distinctly different sub genres of horror could have been a very cool combination if there was a more seamless blend of the two styles, but unfortunately the end result is something that is a good time but feels so disjointed. They did not lean far enough into the team survival aspect or the final girl that the movie sets up. The character development is very minimal and I think they were trying to set up a twist in regards to who the mystery killer is but it was added in too late with someone who is unknown to the majority of the movie's victims. The final show down between the movie's secondary antagonist and the character that was set up as the "final girl" ends with a creatively gory kill but is too short. The romantic interest (I think, it was not super clear) is killed off in what was supposed to be a grand gesture but because the relationship and the character is so under developed it has virtually no impact.

In summation; this is not a terrible movie, parts of it are funny and parts of it are gritty. I see what the vision was but the style is not refined enough for this to be a stand out horror movie. It is worth the watch but probably not a rewatch.

Very minor spoilers:

The premise of "Old Lady House-A Situation Comedy" is so simple and so well executed! The jokes are very tight and the way they went about showcasing two side characters with the gang as a framing device is excellent.

They really showcase the character dynamics between Mac and his mom, Charlie and his mom, and the relationship both moms have with each other. It is very much a "so messed up it is hilarious" which feels very sunny. They really chose to play up the polarizing energy and relationship between Mac and his mom, he thinks she is an angel who loves him very much and he truly cherishes her, while she is over all of it, she wants nothing more than to be left alone to chain smoke until she keels over. She is the only character who never smiles in the episode and it just gets me.

I watch this episode if I have had a really hard day and it lightens the mood every time.

Warning: minor spoilers**

This movie came out when I was 11 or 12 and I remember watching it with the girls I babysat. It was their favourite and it was one if mine too. Fast forward about 13 years and it is still one of my all time favourite disney movies. I would put it in my top three with Mulan and Aladdin.

The music is so well suited to the setting and the period of the movie. The soulful big band jazz and the bluesy solo numbers just fit so perfectly.

I love the voodoo that gets brought in, I was then and am now very fascinated by the American voodoo religion and its culture especially as it developed historically.

Also, this is Tiana's story and her love of cooking is beautifully animated, the food looks incredible and you can tell that extreme attention was taken when the food was animated.

Lastly, I love this movie and its titular princess because she is strong, independent, and she works hard to get what she wants. Her dreams were her priority, honouring her family and their heritage by cooking the food that she loved for the people of her city. She is not concerned about what everyone thinks of her, she is not vapid or vain, and she stays humble but recognizes her own talent.

I am just going to start off by saying that this is genuinely my favourite spy movie franchise, I loved everything about the first two, from the believable and at times sweet chemistry between the cast, to the campy violence, to the set design and world building. The main cast of three is so deeply missed in this god awful prequel.

The first thing that sets this apart from the first two, is that they used a real event (world war I) as the backdrop for the movie, where as the first two use fictional events to build a word that you can get lost in. The bastardization of WWI is laughable (and not in a funny way). The use of real political figures fails to capture the magic of "the Kingsmen", and it is a little insulting if you are at all interested in that part of world history. FFS they made Rasputin into a filthy, horny, dark wizard creature who (beyond his name and beard) bares very little resemblance to his real life counterpart.

The second thing that adds to the strange, uncomfortable, and overall upset that I felt while watching this movie is that it does not feel like a kingsmen movie. Other than a few shots of the taylor shop and the mansion, nothing about these characters, the cinematography, the tone, or the fight scenes remind me of the thing that made the first two stand out. A huge part of that is because it is set at a time in the past where the kingsman technology would have been 100 years away, making the first person glasses POV fight scenes harder to justify shooting. They could have done it but they didn't.

Finally, the reason that I can't find it in myself to like this movie is the absolute waste of a talented cast. This could have been so good, and instead it is almost unwatchable. I have never in my life walked out of a movie, ever. If I had paid money to see this in the theatre, I would have walked out. The only reason i gave it 2 stars instead of one is because the acting in this is genuinely good. They really tried to make the script they were given work, and the fact that the incredible talent of the cast does not make this watchable is a true mark of just how big of an absolute dumpster fire this movie turned out to be.

This episode reminds me so much of my dad, it is a great reminder that at its core Homer and Marge are just trying to do right by eachother and their children. As a kid I remember this being one of my favourite episodes because of the flashback story format. As an adult i see so much of my father in this episode, as a child I didmt understand the sacrifice that my dad made to keep the three of us fed and happy, he worked a job that he hated just like Homer. I sob every time I see the sign at the end of the episode that says "Do it For Her" Every good parent can relate to sacrificing some of their own dreams for their children. I tear up thinling about this episode. A complete masterpiece.