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Banshee Chapter (2013)
Idiotic, Boring, and Insults the Memory of Hunter S. Thompson
The plot plays out like an over caffeinated 12-year-old telling a campfire story secondhand. The story doesn't seem to know what to do with itself, is it found footage? Is it a horror movie? Is this supposed to be some kind of highbrow conspiracy flick sprinkled with a little cosmic horror? I get that uncertainty can add to the creepiness of a film, but they really tried to pack way too much into too small a package here.
Now let's get to the elephant in the room. The character who is clearly modeled after the late great Hunter S Thompson, played by the "it puts the lotion on its skin" dude from Silence of the Lambs. What the hell were they thinking? Throughout the entire film, he's just doing a very poor impression of Johnny Depp's take on HST from Fear and Loathing. A very poor impression. There are some things you can't simply ape and get by.
Thompson took his own life during a time when we needed him the most, the Bush/Cheney era. It was a staggering loss, and one that we will never recover from, because no one has or ever will be able to fill his shoes. He wasn't simply a junkie who lived in the woods, he was something more akin to an American Diogenes. Having the character take his own life in the same manner as the real HST was staggeringly disrespectful and unnecessary.
This movie is trash. If you are looking for a good "found footage" movie, this isn't it. If you are looking for a decent horror flick to munch popcorn to, this isn't it. The only redeeming quality this movie had, and the only reason it got a single star from me, was a performance of the female lead who wholeheartedly gets my sympathy for being cast in this dumpster fire.
The Freak Brothers (2020)
The Most Iconic Underground Comic FINALLY Gets Its Due!
The cast is perfect and the source material is well respected. Gilbert Shelton's spirit is definitely visible in each of the episodes I've seen so far. I really hope the suits in whatever board room this show is beholden to keep it going for a few years!
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)
Hereditary, Rec, and Midsommar Thrown into a Blender
When it was announced that there was going to be an addition to this series and that they were keeping the plot under wraps, I was pretty excited. The Paranormal Activity series started out with an absolute masterpiece of a found footage film, then took a weird nosedive from there. I thought maybe this was an attempt to redeem it and maybe even bring it back to its more simple roots.
Nope. This was an absolutely ridiculous film that was a blatant copy of much better ones that have been carrying the horror genre for the last couple of years. The only saving grace was the performance of the protagonists who really did a bang up job with what they were handed. The first hour of the movie is just (really) cheap jump scares, then it devolves into a convoluted mish mash of the movies I cited in this review's title.
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020)
Who Asked for This?!
I definitely consider myself an "old school" Trekkie, running home from school every day to catch the syndicated version of the original series, and I loved every other series that came out afterwards, even Enterprise (which is sorely underrated).
Discovery took the series in a cool new direction that I absolutely love, and Picard was a phenomenal production, even though it made my stupid eyes leak every other episode. It was a really pleasant surprise when they announced there would be a Star Trek animated series, and I was looking forward to it.
I chuckled at the first couple of episodes, and definitely saw it as a niche program. I don't think anyone who isn't into Star Trek to begin with will really be drawn to it in any way, but I could be wrong. However, I've come to a very sad conclusion:
It sucks.
I get that animation styles are different now, and maybe this was going for more of a "Rick and Morty" look instead of "Gravity Falls" one, but it still looks like it was intended for small children. That's a problem I have with most animated series nowadays, and is probably just a sign of my age.
I really wish they had looked to other successful animated series like "Archer", or even some anime studios for inspiration. Your typical Adult Swim lineup is far more engaging and hilarious than anything I've seen come out of this series so far, and that's a real shame considering the brand they are working with.
The humor is juvenile and completely out of place for any Star Trek series. They could have done so much more with this, it's heartbreaking. The characters are ridiculous, as are situations that pass for the plot of each episode so far. Easy to see this was just churned out at the lowest price possible by the studio.
The biggest travesty is the fact that the TNG episode "The Lower Decks" was a brilliant perspective into the lives of junior officers on board Starfleet vessels. It had a heart wrenching ending, and is up there with some of the best episodes that series produced. Why would they crap all over it like this?
I get this was supposed to be a comedy, and I welcomed that. But none of it is funny. The most I could muster was a slight chuckle at references to obscure Trek lore in a few of the episodes, but that was it. They really dropped the ball here, this could have been so much better.
Breaking Barbi (2019)
Terrible
Stay away from this movie. It would appear that whoever worked on it also flooded with fake ratings. This steaming pile of crap is barely a "movie" at all, and is insultingly stupid. Literally. If you are over the age of nine, and/or have a functioning IQ, you WILL be offended by the amount of your life lost paying attention to it.
I went into this thinking that it would be full of ironic humor, maybe some light camp, or other self-aware treats we all enjoy from "bad" movies. I was absolutely wrong.
This could have been written and directed by a group of sixth graders. The acting isn't even community theater grade, it's just flat and cliché.
Watchmen (2019)
I like what I see so far!
I am basing this review on the first episode which I just finished viewing, and it has certainly left me eager to discover more. I really like the way they have fleshed out the alternate timeline involved in this story, and I always felt it was something missing from the original source material.
I can see that some reviewers are upset by the political outlook that's expressed here, but I would urge them to keep watching. From what I've seen so far, it seems deeper than what appears on the surface. I don't want to give any spoilers, but the presidential situation is a polar opposite from the movie.
On a side note, they really need to put Don Johnson into more roles. He has a surprising versatility and humanity to him, especially in this particular story.
Overlord (2018)
If Clive Barker Wrote the Captain America Origin Story
I want to like JJ Abrams, I do. But this movie along with a lot of other of his recent projects have shown me without a doubt that the man does not have a single original idea in his head.
I've seen a lot of other reviewers on this site compare this movie to the Wolfenstein videogame franchise, but I haven't played any of those, so I can't really comment on any similarities. To me, it was more of a twisted take on the Captain America mythos, with Ford (Wyatt Russell) playing the role of a reluctant Steve Rogers, and Waffner (Pilou Asbæk) playing The Red Skull.
I give it three stars due to the legitimate entertainment the action scenes gave me, despite the blatant historical inaccuracies. I'm all for standing for equality, and Jovan Adepo's character was well thought out and played, but we shouldn't be rewriting history, even if we are ashamed of it.
The Trump Prophecy (2018)
What in blazes did I just watch?
This blatant propaganda piece was so bad, it changed me from a lurker to an actual reviewer on this website for the first time in over a decade. Acting was atrocious, the dialogue was delivered with the same gusto of a middle school play, and that's not even touching on the subject matter.
Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. Hard stop. As long as you are not bothering me or someone I love, or interfering with the freedom of others, I could care less what you believe.
It's really hard to apply that philosophy when you are dealing with a dangerous cult that is wanting to transform society to reflect their own narrow interpretation of a 3000-year-old text.
"Movies" like these are designed to appeal to the ignorant and uneducated, stir up their hostilities through their confirmation biases, and have them walk away from the experience more deeply entrenched in their bubbles, ready to take on "the libs". That term, of course, has slowly transformed over the course of the years to mean every single person that does not 100% agree with them.
This movie was physically painful to watch, and even more agonizing knowing that other people were buying into it hook, line, and sinker. These are sad times, friends.