I’ve Been Watching Thangs, Y’all!

On By lkeke35In Action, Comedy, Horror, Lists, Movies, TV ShowsLeave a comment

So, for the past few months I kind of lost track of the things I watched on TV. However, most of the time I watched old movies, and not a lot of TV series.

This Summer and Fall, I finished up some TV series, while others I entirely skipped, like the latest Daredevil, for example. I didn’t skip these because they were bad shows. I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to pick them up. Some series I did make some real time for because I was very enthused about seeing them, like Alien Earth. However, I did skip Andor, despite all the rave reviews, because I wasn’t ready to watch anything that was explicitly political, which I understand it is. One day, I’ll get around to it because i heard its a great series, (and I’ve seen snippets), but I already have a list of shows I’m already not looking at.

I watched some great stuff, that I had absolutely no plans to watch though, so me making plans to watch anything is just a roll of the dice, like Pluribus and Last Samurai Standing, and the occasional batshit movie, Coyotes and Bambi: The Reckoning, just for the fun of it.

Last Samurai Standing (Season One)

This turned out to be a pretty good series, although not entirely what I expected, and I actually like it when series do things I wasn’t expecting. I thought this was just going to be like that Samurai movie where the guy fights 400 other Samurai in one long take, or maybe like 2019’s Samurai Marathon. and it is sort of like those two, but not really, because there is a lot more going on than just fight scenes, although those are pretty good, too.

This is set in the Late Meiji Era, and based on a manga that Ive never read or even heard of, but that’s okay. I think the spirit is there. Actually, the series heavily reminded me of the Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Franchise, because it contains a lot of the same themes: A former killer who regrets it, his past coming back to bite him in the ass, a vulnerable person he decides to protect from harm, and some political intrigue.

The first episode is all setup, with hundreds of Samurai, (and some people who only claim to be Samurai, having gotten hold of swords somehow), being called to meet to have a contest to the last man, to win 100,000 (or 1 million, I forget), Yen, although none of the Samurai know they’re gong to be doing a whole lot of kill or be killed when they sign up. They are all issued wooden markers, and are required to collect the markers of their opponents, to move on to the next station in a the race. Shujiro Saga is one of these Samurai, and fairly well known, since he has a backstory, an enemy, and a sick wife and child.

There are several other people with agendas besides winning the contest, including a young girl fighting on behalf of her sick father, named Futaba, whom Saga decides to protect (otherwise she would have died in the first wave of attacks, since she cannot actually fight), and an old family member, named Iroha, who is seeking revenge against him for leaving his siblings to be killed by their adoptive grandfather. There is also a major villain, named Bukotsu, who has entered the contest for the express purpose of defeating Saga, and a Ninja, named Kyojin, who is attempting to find out why this contest was called in the first place, and who is putting up the money for all these swordbearers to conveniently get rid of each other.

Once again, I was surprised that I cared more about the political machinations than the fight scenes, although those are all very well done. Bukotsu is suitably horrible, Kyojin is charming and mysterious, Futaba is innocent and kindhearted, and a good representation of all that Saga is trying to protect. One of the more touching scenes is when the group encounters a beautiful young man who has been conscripted into the fight by a nefarious grifter, and doesn’t want to die because he didn’t collect enough markers (because he hasn’t killed anyone), and Futaba decides to give him some of hers, (which were extra ones given to her by the other three members in their group who actually are killers), and this young man consequently joins their group.

The first season ends on an intrigue cliffhanger, and final showdowns between Bukotsu and Saga, and Iroha, and her murderous grandfather. If there is a second season (and it looks like that might happen because the series seemed pretty popular), I will check it out. The series is compelling enough. Although it did remind me of other shows and movies, it didn’t remind me very much of Squid Game, though there is the plot element of collecting enough markers to move to the next station in the contest. This series is a bit more dynamic, with more political intrigue, and not as much emphasis on social issues.

Pluribus (Season One)

This series came out of left field. I have, to date, only watched maybe five or six episodes. I knew nothing about this beyond the title, and had pretty much dismissed it, but Youtube kept recommending about a million reviews of this series on my FYP, so I guess Youtube knows things about my tastes that I’m not always aware of. I genuinely like this series, although I can’t really relate too much to the lead character, Carol. I’m a very different person from Carol, so I don’t always approve of, or even jibe with some of her actions, although I understand them, within the context of her personality. She is unlikable, but in that way that real life people are sometimes unlikeable, but still somehow manage to be likeable, because you understand why they are that way.

Anyway, I found the plot intriguing, since there’s this Invasion of the Bodysnatchers type of vibe going on, after aliens send information to Earth that, when humans follow the instructions, result in a virus that infects almost all of humanity, except for about 9 or 10 people, who seem to be immune to it. Carol is one of those people. The virus causes humanity to form into a happy hive-mind, where all thoughts, feelings, and information is shared. (Yes, even the children, which I find kind of icky!) It also has the side effect of pacifying the entre human race (which sounds good on the surface, but has some sinister overtones).

This is a comedy though, so some things get glossed over in favor of a good laugh. While the hive-mind seeks to assimilate Carol and the others, the cynical and unlikable Carol works diligently to disrupt the hive as much as possible, and avoid assimilation. Since the hive cannot abide causing any form of harm to living beings, Carol’s behavior results in the hive distancing itself from her, and an entire town full of people abandoning her for its own protection, (something I thought was both sad and hilarious). One of the reasons Carol is so unlikable is because she is also in mourning for her lover, who was one of the many millions of people who lost their lives on the night the infection took effect.

I think I got as far as episode 6, where Carol, who has been doing some investigating, comes across a horrible truth, but even that is played for laughs, later. This is a comedy, so while some of the ideas are serious, many of the events themselves are pretty funny, and only occasionally at Carol’s expense. She is never mocked, but she is shown as someone who takes herself far too seriously, and sometimes the events she plans go horribly awry. I really like this show, and it’s been a lot of fun so far, although I got some questions!

My only real complaint is that I can’t really relate to Carol. If I were in her situation, I would still be upset, because the world has changed so drastically, but unlike Carol, I genuinely mostly like people (in theory) and want human beings to be happy, and I’d also use the event as an opportunity to have the time of my life, as there are quite a huge number of things I’d be celebrating. Also, once again, we have this type of story being told from the PoV of a middle-class, white American, who has led a relatively comfortable life of privilege with minimal violence (despite the fact that she is gay), and I would still like to see this type of invasion/bodysnatcher story, from the point of view of someone who isn’t from these circumstances, (a domestic/assault survivor, a trauma victim, a war refugee, etc. , and while there are a couple of characters like that, the show isn’t about them specifically), and how they might feel about what the world has become. I know there are millions of men, women, and children who wouldn’t be working as hard as Carol is to return things back the way they were, and even if she did succeed at that, the world would never be the same after such an event, (and maybe the series can explore that).

Alien Earth (Season One)

I actually did enjoy this series but I had questions and a couple of misgivings. I would say the show has been a good addition to the franchise though. Alien Earth involves various Earth Corporations vying for control of a deliberately crash landed ship that contains multiple dangerous alien creatures, and their interacitons with a group of human/android hybrids made with the minds of children. So we are being introduced to new alien species, as wel as watching the development of these human hybrid people, while they deal with a very dangeorus situation that seems far out of their league.

And it is kinda out of their league because they are, after all, children, and the adults are as equally ill equipped to handle the invasion of these alien creatures. One drawback for me was how thoroughly unlikable and assholish, and just sheerly stupid, was the lead villain, named Boy Kavalier. He is predictably shortsighted and arrogant and I hated him with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, so in that sense, the writers did a swell job, albeit somewhat over the top. The most likable characters were, once again, the children, including the lead character, named Wendy, who proved to be stronger and braver than expected, and I can see where they are trying to use Ripley as a template for her character (something that’s done in every Aliens film).

One of the surprise characters, i really enjoyed was a full android character, named Kirsch, played by Timothy Olyphant, who has some kind of running feud with a cyborg, named Morrow, and I thought that was interesting that all these different artificial and semi-artificial beings had a hierarchy among themselves, and occasionally clashed about it, (which is a lowkey plot echo from Bladerunner 2049).

The standout part of the series, which made it really worth my time and energy, is the cinematography, and the scares. Its a gorgeous looking show, and the new aliens are pure nightmare fuel, and seriously terrifying, and I loved being introduced to these brand new menaces, where the audience has no idea of their actual capabilities, and some of which are a serious rival to the actual Aliens.

One of the creatures, which audiences nicknamed Octo-Eye, (but the name for it in the series is the T. Ocellus) was a fan favorite, and a small sentient octopus like creature, with multiple eyes, that dislodges the eye of its prey, implants itself in the eye socket and then takes over the body of its new host. It makes up for its size by being a human level intelligent menace. It is cunning, deceptive, and has some kind of personal beef with the Alien.

In fact, the actual Aliens, (there are at least wo of them), are the least frightening creatures in the series, and that’s saying something!

There are also some creatures the audience referred to as Ticks, a thing that looks like a giant man-eating plant, (which it is), and some giant wasps (called Flies) that spew acid at their prey. ( I got stung for the first time in my life this Summer, by a yellowjacket wasp, and I can honestly say the pain of that, while momentary – it only lasted about 24 hours – was absolutely immeasurable. I can see why people react the way they do when getting stung, since screaming in pain is not at all helpful), and I don’t know why, but whoever invented these new monsters had to give us not just football sized wasps, but football sized wasps that spit hydrochloric acid at their prey!

Why?!! Who hurt them?!!

https://mashable.com/article/alien-earth-species

Anyway, I really, really, liked the show, and while I do love talking about a show with fans, I don’t like speculating too much about the future plot, and there is far too much of that when it comes to Science Fiction shows. I’m not watching the series to figure it out, or predict what will happen, (although I will accept theorizing as long as the theories are supported by the events of the show, and are relatively logical).

I watch most series just to be along for the ride, and I am not particularly interested in trying to figure out where the ride will go. When people start doing that, they start having expectations that the series will do certain things, and when the show refuses to do those things, people start getting disgruntled, and end up hating the show, not for what it was, but for what it wasn’t. I did have that problem at the season finale. I had expectations of where the finale would lead, becasue I joined in on the speculation, and then I was unhappy because I didn’t get the end I wanted, rather than accepting the point the writers were trying to give me.

Well, I learned a lesson from that, and will be back next season, with only the basic expectations that are directly related to the plot.

Coyotes 2025

This was a silly little confection of a film, with some light body Horror in it. I kinda liked it, although the characters are just a little too silly, I think. The only real drawbacks I had is that the makers of this movie didn’t go far enough. They should have either gone serious with it, or leaned into the crazy. It actually reminded me of Arachnophobia, only with Coyotes.

The story centers around Justin Long’s hapless, and rather lazy father, as a writer who lives in the hills near Hollywood. He is forever being told to do or fix things around the house, but he doesn’t do them, things go wrong, and then his long suffering wife and daughter chastise him for it. The relationship dynamics aren’t as annoying as they sound, since Long’s character is really likable, and his more annoying habits are offset by a much more annoying exterminator character, that gets called to their house because his wife hears strange noises.

The funny noises are the reason the family gets targeted by a pack of coyotes, but we don’t learn that until the end of the film. In the meantime, there are several superfluous deaths of their unlikable, and/or just dumb, neighbors. Why the coyotes are attacking them is never made clear, but the movie is a comedy, so that’s not the point. The point is that these characters have some of the grossest, and dumbest deaths, caused by the coyotes, who I don’t think, ever actually eat anyone. They just show up looking angry, and the victims panic, which is what I meant by stupid deaths.

This movie was also pretty funny to me personally, because while I have not actually seen a coyote, I am reliably told by my brother, (who lives next door to me), that he saw one wandering down our street one night this Fall. For the record, we do not live in the country. We are smack dab in the Inner City. Although, this is the Midwest/Northeast, this is not a rural area at all, but we do live next to a huge Park system that has a lot of wildlife that keeps escaping it, like deer, skunks, possums, and groundhogs. So hey, why not coyotes, I guess. My brother did express some concern about the coyote bothering me, since its dark by the time I get home, but I am not as stupid as the people in this movie, so I’m not worried about being killed by a coyote showing up in my driveway.

I am more mildly alarmed at the idea of one of those little black bears showing up in my yard, than a coyote, but only because I seemed to have developed (out of nowhere and nothing) a bear-phobia. Or, I just learned that’s called Ursophobia! But only just real bears though. Stuffed bears are fine! This does lead me into the next movie on my watch list: Grizzly Night, arriving next year, and based on a real story, about multiple bear attacks in 1967 Montana. This is not an unusual thing for me, since I am an arachnophobe, who has watched a good dozen movies involving spiders just in the past five years!

Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)

And, continuing with our animal themed reviews, this was indeed a movie.

But why?

I thought it was going to be worse than it was, but it turned out not to be as bad as you’d think, although it wasn’t especially good. There has lately been this whole thing of previously copyrighted characters being turned into Horror movies, and I’m only partially here for that trend. I skipped the Popeye the Sailorman movies because I don’t wish to sully my memories of Robin Williams as Popeye, and these movies aren’t worth it. But I was never a fan of Bambi, (I’ve never seen the movie), so there was nothing to sully, and I checked this one out.

The movie was just okay. Its not an American film though. It’s Danish, British, or Finnish, or something, because everyone had accents. There is some child endangerment, and also some grandma endangerment involved. Also, there is some deer endangerment, as well. It’s about a giant zombie-like, monster deer, that is hunting down the family of the people who killed it’s parent, while being hunted by some pseudo-paramilitary type guys who (you know, I have no idea why they’re after it. They just want, and that’s all we need to know).

The movie was not a greatly spent two hours, but I was mildly entertained. Yes, I actually sat and watched it. It’s played completely straight too, which kind of surprised me, because I expected the creators would lean into the inherent ridiculousness of people being attacked by a giant zombie deer. This should have been a comedy, as a result it’s not as entertaining as the movie I saw earlier this year, about a giant zombie Kangaroo, called Rippy, which understood how incredibly silly it was, and yet, still managed to be terrifying!

Game of Wool

I love to knit, so I was cautiously excited about this show. Sad to say, it was something of a disappointment. Its not a complete disappointment, because it had some moments, but mostly, it was not very good. Game of Wool is hosted by Tom Daley, who is famous for being seen knitting during the Olympics. I am not into his particular knitting style, which is extremely loud in color and quirky, and that is sort of the aura of this show.

It’s kind of like one of those Baking contest shows, ony its knitting. Every week there are various challenges, and then someone gets voted Top Knitter for the week, while another person gets “cast off”. I am not a fan of the contest idea, although I did like that there was a team effort portion of the show. The judgement section of the show is all over the place. The Judges are supposedly professional knitting designers or something, but they seemed to be judging most of the work that gets done based on their feelings, rather than any objective criteria. The judges have also critiqued the knitters styles themselves.

For example, in the first episode, the contestants were asked to make vests that revealed some aspect of their life and who they are. I liked the results, but the judges seem to base who won on how good they felt about the work, not on if it looked professional, or well done, like keeping good tension throughout, color choices, ir if the knitter properly answered the theme. I also felt that they voted off one of the best knitters on the show, for exhibiting one of the more advanced techniques for making a jumper or vest, called “steeking”, and that seemed like a backwards kind of thing to do.

There were also some episodes that involved crocheting, and a lot of knitter’s pet peeves is when people who do neither, mix up these activities, and the show didn’t help that at all. There was also an episode that required team work on knitting a couch cover, and I hated that theme, and I wasn’t too keen on the finished covers, either. I tihnk the worst episode was knitted the one with a contest of knitted swimwear, where the show invited a couple of Daley’s friends to model the swim trunks and bikinis. All of the results, I felt, were uniformly ugly, and there should never have been a swimsuit contest, at all.

That said, I sort of liked the rest of it. The knitters were, of course, lovely (but exhausted) people, and I liked the idea behind the show. It wasn’t a terrible show, but I kept getting pulled out of it, by daydreaming about what I would do in that situation, and how the show could have been better, even though those contestants are much better knitters than me. I don’t even know how to steek yet!

Here’s some stuff I watched that I shouldn’t have:

Ballerina – This was alright but kind of pointless.

Jurassic World: Rebirth – This wasn’t even alright and pointless. I didn’t hate it but this sloppy.

Ziam – This was silly and not in a good way.

The Gorge – I hated this movie.

Electric State – I wish I had these two hours back.

Here are some movies I enjoyed a lot:

Thunderbolts – There aren’t too many superhero movies that can make me cry. As someone who has experienced mental illness (and suicidal depression), this really resonated with me.

Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League – The supreme levels of batshittery continue in this sequel to the first movie, Batman Ninja, only this time we also get the JLA reimagined as Old School Samurai. My favorites were Yakuza/Ninja assassins raining out of the sky onto a displaced Gotham, and the reimagining of Superman and Wonder Woman as Samurai! This was a lot of fun.

Weapons/Sinners – These are my two favorite Horror movies this year.

Superman – This was my favorite superhero film this year. I’ve re-watched this about 6 or 7 times!

I watched a lot of stuff this year, and actually like most of it, so I feel like this was a good year for both TV series and movies. Every year (at least for me) there are at least two or three standout movies and at least one or two TV series worth watching, so this year worked for me.

A Short List Of Dubious Trailers (And More Interesting Games)

On By lkeke35In Fantasy, Horror, Lists, Movies, Television, TrailersLeave a comment

Here is a short list of movies and TV series that I’m not especially excited about, but thought I should put them here, because someone will like them. It’s not even that I dislike these, but I had to post something before Christmas, Hollywood insists on posting more trailers every week, and I need some content.

But seriously, I don’t hate these trailers. I just know I’m probably not going to see these movies in theaters, and probably not going to get too het up about the various TV series I listed, either. I may or may not catch any one, or none of these, on some random streaming platform.

At the end of the list, I drop a couple of games I thought people might be interested in playing, which I’m not going to do, because I’m still working through Untitled Goose Game.

Disclosure Day

This is a Steven Spielberg Joint, so I am moderately excited about this. The trailer gives not give much of a clue about what this could be about, and that’s what gives me mixed feelings, because while I do sometimes like to walk into a movie blind, when I’m spending as much money as it costs to go to the theater these days, I want to know a little bit more.

I am not one of those people who is enamored of the movie theater experience (although some movies can only be truly experienced in that manner). I just reject the idea that the only way to experience a story is in a movie theater. That said, this appears to be about an alien invasion, but I could be wrong. For all I know, it could be ghosts, or demons, or something.

The Sheep Detectives

This is a silly movie starring Hugh Jackman. That guy is so versatile! Singing, dancing, killing people while he roars at the top of his voice…what can he not do? Apparently, he cannot act next to sheep.

This trailer is really cute, and mildly funny, which is not good enough to get my butt in a theater seat, unless one of my nieces requests it, and the two of them are so weird, they just might.

Street Fighter

This actually looks like a lot of fun, but I’m only saying that because I used to play this game, back in the 90s. It certainly looks faithful to the characters, and it does look better than the 90s version, which starred Jean Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia!

You know, sometimes it’s okay to just lean into the craziness of something, and that’s what it looks like is happening here. Some things do call for restraint, but I love it when some directors just know what they’re working with, and just allow the story, characters, and plot to go buck-wild. Street Fighter is like that.

Note: I only ever played as either Ken, Ryu, or Chun Li, because I thought they had the most interesting moves.

Dracula

I know this is an all new retelling of Bram Stokers’ Dracula, but the trailer keeps reminding me of the Coppola version from 1992. I’ve seen enough of this trailer, over the past few weeks, to know that this is a very different story, but it still looks like it’s hitting a lot of the same story beats as the 1992 version, and some people were confused an thought it was a remake of Coppola’s version.

Hell, maybe it is. It looks really pretty though. I’m not going to be seeing this in the theater, mostly because it will not be playing in a theater anywhere near me, and I refuse to drive too far out of my way to see it. I’ll watch it on some streaming service in a few months.

Young Sherlock

I’m not feeling too good about this specific interpretation of the character, but it is Guy Ritchie, and I do remember the last iteration of Young Sherlock was kinda okay. There have been five bajillion different versions of Sherlock Holmes on TV, but my favorites are still the last British version, called Sherlock, the Robert Downey version, and the Korean version, titled Miss Sherlock!

It’s okay I guess. I’m not clamoring to see it, and as far as I know nobody was asking for it, but we’ll see how I feel about watching it, when it gets released next year.

Hamlet

I often say that Summer is for Blockbusters, (which I love), but Fall is for some of the more serious, and darker films. I am looking forward to seeing this. I really like Riz Ahmed, (he’s always doing something good!), and I am always a sucker for a gritty, modern retelling of Shakespeare, which uses the original dialogue, although I think the last one I truly enjoyed was the one with Mel Gibson, (and I haven’t watched that one in a great while).

This is, from what I understand, set in modern London, but with an Asian cast.

Coven of the Chicken Foot

I just found the title of this particular game delightful. This is definitely something I would play. Its not often you get games with a Senior protagonist and her weird and bushy friend.

Supreme Experiment

I don’t think I would ever play this, but the visuals are incredible. I love ’em!

Are You Not Entertained…By These Trailers?

On By lkeke35In Action, Book Adaptations, Fantasy, Lists, Movies, TelevisionLeave a comment

Well, I am. I thought these trailers were lots of fun, and I’ll probably check out at least a couple of these.

All You Need Is Kill

I have no idea where this is playing, or if its a movie or a series, but I love the animation style, and I’m intrigued by the story. I have a vague memory of the Manga, which I didn’t read, and I sort of remember this was kinda popular, for about two minutes, a long time ago. I’m going to actually put some effort into finding out more about this, and take a look at it.

I did enjoy the movie, Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise, which was based on this story, and now that I know there’s going to be an anime, I want to go watch it again, (but I probably won’t. We’ll see.)

Supergirl

I’m very excited for this, and will be going to see this, even without my nieces and nephews in tow. I don’t know a whole lot about Supergirl, because I never read any of her comics, but I really like Milly Alcock, and Jason Momoa was born to play Lobo, (whose books I actually read)! I was kind of surprised to see the movie doesn’t take place on Earth, and learned that it’s based on a comic book I never read, titled Woman of Tomorrow. Note: I’ve never been even the slightest bit interested in Supergirl. I’ve never read a single one of her books, and have never seen the first movie. I only know of her existence and backstory through Superman.

I suppose I need to pick up the Woman of Tomorrow book, at some point, before the movie gets released. I was a little put off by her character at the beginning of the trailer even though I liked her cameo in Superman. I think two hours of watching that would be like torture, but I finally came to understand that what we’re seeing from her is the fallout from grief and trauma, which makes her a lot more sympathetic, and the action scenes looked like fun.

Avatar – Seas. 2

I am cautiously excited for the newest season of this series. This one looks a bit more exciting to me than the first season. It’s not that the first season was bad, but it was not as good as it could have been. It had some problems, which I hope the writers have paid attention to, and fixed. It wasn’t bad, just a little bit boring, and I still prefer the anime. (I think that probably goes without saying.)

I’m still watching this though. I don’t know if I’ll love it, but I am curious.

Lone Samurai

This looks kind of interesting, so I may watch this depending on where it gets released.

The Old Woman With The Knife

I’m not gonna lie, I was instantly intrigued by this, based solely on the title, which just totally tickles me! I know nothing at all about the source material for this movie, although now that I know about it, I want to read it. It’s not actually based on an anime either, but a Korean Thriller novel, involving topics of ageism and womanhood. I like the lead actress here, (and I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before, so now I need to look that up).

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

I have not watched the first part of this movie, but it still looks very interesting. I have a list of movies to watch before the end of the year, (Eddington, 28 Years Later, Flow), so in the next couple of weeks I need to catch up, and I should probably catch up before I watch this.

This Weekend:

I’m catching up on, Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix, Flow, which is streaming on HBOMax, and either The Phoenician Scheme, or Sisu: Road to Revenge. I haven’t decided yet.

Great Forgotten Animation II

On By lkeke35In Film Reviews, Lists, Movies2 Comments

All of these animations are favorites of mine. I just want to post these to let everyone know not to forget that these exist, and that all are well worth watching. Some of these I may have spoken of in a previous post but I certainly don’t mind mentioning them again.

The Illusionist

This is the second film by the director of Triplets of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet. There is another, very odd, film before that one called The Old lady and the Pigeons, which is simply “bizarre:” and it’s on a whole other level, but this movie is very accessible, even though it too has almost no dialogue.

Here, a failed magician, having been pushed out of the entertainment industry by Rock music, packs up his act, (and his pet rabbit), and moves to Scotland, where he meets a little girl who believes he has genuine magical powers. The little girl follows him to his next gig, where they become increasingly impoverished, as he takes care of her. Eventually however, she meets a young man who fancies her, after which the magician leaves her, to get on with her life, without him.

I absolutely loved this movie. It is the very definition of bittersweet. There’s less grotesqueness here than in Triplets, but the characters are no less charming. I do have to admit, the first time I watched it, I was expecting something a bit more wild and zany, like Triplets. I was disappointed that it wasn’t, and barely paid attention, but after subsequent viewings, this movie really grew on me. It’s a soft film, without much bombast, which gets right to the point, and is definitely easier to understand than The Old Lady and the Pigeons.

The Illusionist is available for rent on Amazon Prime.

Aeon Flux – Liquid Television

Waaay back in the 90s, there was a network that used to air music videos. At some point, it kind of stopped doing that, and started playing reality TV shows, and then late at night, it would air things like this, on a show called Liquid Television. This is a pretty weird episode, but it’s not even the weirdest one I first saw. When I first saw these I had no f*cking idea what to think of these tall, extremely thin, characters, wearing barely any clothes, shooting guns at each other. I just knew this was different from anything else on TV at the time.

The first episode I saw had Aeon tongue kissing some guy on a train, in great detail, and then having her neck broken, by her own rope, as she tried to jump off. The signature tropes of the Aeon Flux cartoons were that everyone (and I do mean everyone), was just casually walking around in bondage gear, and Aeon died in every episode. I would stay up until 11 or 12 at night to watch these, knowing I had to get my ass up n the morning, to get ready for work.

Later, there was a movie about this character, starring Charlize Theron, but it flopped. (I do not recommend it, because it bears almost no resemblance to the cartoon, beyond the wearing of the pseudo-fetish gear.) The story was bad, the acting was worse, and it was basically directed by someone who had no understanding of what made the cartoon so iconic.

Aeon Flux can be watched on Amazon Prime, MTV (on the app for free) and the CBS subscription.

Neo-Tokyo

Neo Tokyo is an animated anthology film released in 1987, just one year before Akira. But I didn’t see it then. I saw it a few years later on MTV’s Liquid Television, along with Aeon Flux. Actually what I saw was the middle story by Yoshiaka Kawajiri, called The Running Man. (Kawajiri is the director of Vampire Hunter D.) The Running Man was “haunting”, and the memory of it stayed with me for years.

It’s the story of a champion race car driver, who has been winning his races by using Carrie-like superpowers, which eventually run out of control. This particular segment is iconic, but the other little-known segments include one by Katsuhiro Otomo, (the director of Akira), called Construction Cancellation, about a lone man trying to deliver a pink slip to an automated construction center, that refuses to cancel itself.

Sections of this anthology are available for viewing on the Dailymotion and Vimeo apps for free.

Atom Ant – Cartoon Network Groovies

I remember Cartoon Network’s little music jams that played in between ads. There’s no plot here, but this is one of my favorites. I remember watching Atom Ant, when I was a little kid, and I just liked this little electro-remix.

Atom Ant was part of the 1965 Hanna Barbera cartoon series, called Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel, so I watched it in syndication, on idle Saturday mornings. This video was directed by Jonas Odell, with music by Michael Kohler. There were several other Groovies that played at the time, with one of my top favorites being The Powerpuff Girls Remixed theme song.

Atom Ant is available to watch …here, and on Youtube.

Metropolis

Metropolis is one of my quiet favorites, and rarely makes it to most people’s lists of favorite anime movies. This is a worthy successor to Katsuhiro Otomo’s Steamboy. Yes, there are robots, and yes, there is an apocalypse, but that’s where the similarity to robot dystopias ends.

This movie, about a little girl robot, named Tima, whose destiny is to destroy the city of Metropolis, is full of genuine feeling, as she tries to find a way to avert an evil future, through her love for a human boy, named Kenichi. The animation is open, clear, and well done, with beautiful scenery, and great characterization, and the ending might well have you in happy tears.

Metropolis is available for streaming now on Crackle, and Apple TV

Family Dog

While I fondly remember the brief television series called Family Dog, my greatest nostalgia is for the original episode, that was featured in the second season of Steven Spielberg’s 1987 television series, Amazing Stories.

In the pilot episode, the nameless, little, Bull Terrier, (who was later named Jonah for the TV series), had to put up with two obnoxious kids, shameless house burglars, guard dog training, and becoming famous, all in the space of thirty minutes. The series itself eventually failed, because although the dog was the hero of the episode, and sweetly charming, his family was thoroughly unlikable.

The very first episode is available for streaming on Dailymotion, and Vimeo.

Cool World

There was this thing in the 90s where creators wanted to put live-action and animation in the same movie together, and I don’t know what that was all about, but Cool World was one of the results, along with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Of the two, Cool World was the least accessible to a regular audience, because the creator was Ralph Bakshi who did not make animation for children. I watched this because I was a big Ralph Bakshi fan. I very distinctly remember watching his version of The Lord of the Rings on television when I was a kid, multiple times, even though it wasn’t for kids, along with American Pop, when I was an adult. Needless to say, Bakshi is an acquired taste because he has a very distinctive style.

This isn’t an especially good movie, and there are parts of it that make little sense, but I do feel it’s worth looking at, even if it’s just for what could have been.

Battle of the Planets/Infini-T Force

The original title of this anime was Gatchaman, but I was introduced to it in the US as a child, as Battle of the Planets. I came across this on Youtube, and it was a very nice surprise to realize I was watching a remake of something I loved as a child, and that it was as fascinating as the original. I think I was maybe about ten or eleven when I first watched Battle of the Planets, and I remember totally girl crushing on the character in the black suit.

I watched this series twice and I could make neither heads nor tails of the plot. I mean, I sort of know what the plot was, (involving a Mcguffin in the shape of a giant pencil), but I was easily distracted by the smoothness of the animation, and the well done action scenes, and when I wasn’t watching all that I was just sort of staring at the characters.

Oh and here is the original Battle of the Planets. Some of y’all might remember this:

Honorable Mentions:

Blood the Last Vampire – I like this more than I liked Vampire Hunter D, about a young vampire who is hunting vampires at a school. Its very graphic. This is on the Honorable Mention List, because its really hard to find a copy of it, and I don’t think its streaming anywhere.

Rock and Rule – This is an oldie I like to look up from time to time. it was on Tubi for a while but now I think it cna be found for free on YouTube. I watched this when I was a kid, late one night, when I was supposed ot be in bed. It features the music of Debbie Harry ,and Lou Reed, and yes, I still remember all the songs.

A Letter to Momo – I watched this with my niece. I remember we both really liked it, but it’s been about ten years since I watched it. It’s available for free on YouTube, so I’ll be watching this again soon.

Short Peace – This anthology has some really beautiful shorts, especially the first one about an umbrella maker who stops at a haunted inn, and meets a bunch of cast off yokai. This is also not available anywhere I could find.

Roujin Z – This is one of Katsuhiro Otomo’s lesser known films. I remember watching this a very long time ago and finding it very funny. It’s about an automated bed that kidnaps a bedridden old man, and destroys most of Tokyo, after it adopts the personality of his late wife. This is also available on YouTube for free!

New Trailers? Let’s Toss ‘Em Up!

On By lkeke35In Horror, Lists, Movies, Reviews, Trailers2 Comments

Okay, for some reason, Hollywood keeps putting out new trailers for stuff, so here we go again, with a short list of trailers I think are really interesting. As I’ve said before, just because I like the trailer doesn’t mean I will see it in the theater, but I will probably watch whatever it is at some point. There’s one TV series listed here, which I will most definitely be watching, though.

Michael

This looks to be the hot ticket next year. I’ve seen some interesting reactions on YouTube to this trailer, and people seem very excited about it. I really like the trailer. It seems thorough and detailed. The guy in the trailer who looks so much like Michael is his nephew, the son of Jermaine Jackson, and I have to admit, with a touch of makeup, the resemblance is uncanny. Of course, I remember a lot of these moments from watching them when they happened so there’s a huge nostalgia factor for me. I’m here for this.

Arco

I like the clear simple animation of this movie. Plus, it’s about kids having an adventure, so I may introduce this to me nieces and nephews.

Resurrection

I love the weirdness, so this looks really intriguing to me. I have no idea what the story is about and sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s also a gorgeous looking film, so I’ll watch this when it streams.

Testament of Ann Lee

This looks suitably strange. I won’t see it in the theater, (mostly because it’s not going to play where I live), but I will be sure to check it out when it streams. This is just the teaser, but I will be here with the full trailer when it drops.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

Yeah, I got nothing. This looks wacky, wild, and weird, and I’m here for it. Plus, I like Sam Rockwell.

Is it just me or do you ever have the sudden realization that you’ve been following some actor’s career for years? Looking back, I think I’ve seen just about ever one of Sam Rockwell’s films, and I just realized that I just really like him.

Fall Out Season 2

I’m getting ready for this new season. It should be fun revisiting these characters and seeing what they’re getting up too. Once again, I’ve not played a single one of these games, and only know about this series from hearsay, and watching the first season, although I did watch a few videos on the lore of hits universe, (because the existence of ghouls was confusing to me), which was a lot of fun.

Now we get to visit the apocalypse of Las Vegas.

10Dance

Its been a minute since I’ve seen a good Yaoi series from Japan, and I love movies and shows about Ballroom dancing. Yes, it looks cheesy, but it also looks gorgeous, the men are gorgeous, and the music is kicking. I might check this out.

What I’m Watching Next:

Eddington is streaming on HBO this weekend, and I’m looking forward to that, and I just started watching Last Samurai Standing on Netflix. Last Samurai turned out to be a 6 part series, which just tickles me no end, since I thought it would be a one-and-done, two hour, John Wick, Samurai film! I watched the first two episodes, and while it’s not “Shogun” good, it is definitely interesting, and a lot deeper than I thought it would be. Its like a cross between the Rurouni Kenshin film series, Squid Game, and Samurai Marathon, only not as lighthearted as any of those!

I just finished Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein and while I don’t consider it his best film, it was very good. I expected to be more into Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth but it was the Monster that really resonated with me, and I get the impression that is the character that most resonated with Del Toro, as well, since ( just like Clive Barker), he is a master at writing sympathetic monsters.

I watched the first couple of episodes of the new series Talamasca, which I talked about on here before, and quite frankly, I’m unimpressed. Maybe it will get better later in the season, but it’s hard for me to want to spend time with characters who are boring and/or unlikable, and there’s just not enough in the show for me to get past that.

I finished Alien Earth, and I really enjoyed it, up until the last episode, which I feel fell kinda flat. But I’m looking forward to next season very much, because the whole series was intriguing, disgusting, and kinda deep. Alien Earth is a series for the serious Horror fan, since it has quite a bit of gore. I mean a lot! I also started the John Wick Documentary on Netflix, but I got tired and stopped watching about thirty minutes in. The Doc is two hours long, and almost as exhausting as the actual film, and I was already tired. I’ll have to finish it later.

And I watched a vampire film called The Vourdalak, which I greatly enjoyed. It’s one of those movies where I read a brief synopsis, and then just walked in blind. In that respect, the movie was genuinely scary, because I had no idea what was going on, and the vampire, (which looks like a puppet), managed to hit that uncanny valley terror, so yeah, I was “deliciously” frightened! More on this later.

Last weekend I watched Bambi The Reckoning and it was genuinely scary. I thought it was going to be a comedy, but it was not funny, played for straight, and was pretty gory. The only absurdity was the idea of a killer deer. No, its not deep, but it was very effective.

Here is a short list of things to be watched in the next week or so:

Abraham’s Boys – a Horror movie about the sons of Van Helsing fighting vampires.

Project Silence – A Korean film bout a group of people trapped on a destroyed bridge with some experimental dog-monsters.

Playdate – Looks like some stupid Action Comedy fun, like something I put on in the background, while knitting a scarf.

Do You Love Gory Films?

On By lkeke35In Horror, Lists, Movies4 Comments

These movies are not for the faint of heart, or the easily disturbed. They are full of gore, goop, body horror, glop, oozes, and all kinds of “bodily excretions”. Some of them are deeply serious, some are so over-the-top, they become comedies, but no matter where they lie on the spectrum, it takes a strong stomach to watch them. I deliberately left out movies where the primary purpose was the torture of the human body, and movies where people consume bodily excretions, mostly because I don’t watch those. Hey, even I have limits on what I will sit through.

If you’re a big Horror fan, you probably have your own list of extreme body Horror movies on a list somewhere, and I’ve probably even seen some of them, even if you think this list is pretty tame. After all, there have been movies I watched and regretted. Throw it in the comments and I’ll let you know if I have.

Feast (Series) (2006)

I had no idea what I was getting into when I watched the first movie. I just walked in there with nothing but a brief summary. These aren’t bad films although if you need to like your protagonists, your mileage may vary, and none of them have any plot armor. It’s not exactly a comedy series, but its not entirely to be taken seriously either, because the gore is just too over the top when a bunch of disgusting, goo dripping, monsters attack a patron filled bar, in the middle of nowhere.

Dead Alive (1992)

This is from the same director as…get this! Lord of the Rings. I remember watching this movie many years before I watched LOTR, and laughing my ass off. The gore in this movie is so ridiculous, you cannot for a moment take any of it seriously. Its a movie about a zombie infection caused by some kind of rabid monkey at a zoo, biting someone’s grandma, who then goes on to infect everyone (and everything) else in her vicinity…dogs, babies, other seniors.

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

This is one of my favorite zombie movies about a bunch of teenagers who get trapped between a medical supply warehouse, and a crematorium, when a zombie outbreak occurs. This isn’t as gory as other movies but I think it’s a lot of fun.

Street Trash (1987)

This is supposed to be funny, but when I watched it as a teen I was fascinated by how goopy, and disgusting this movie was. I didn’t want to watch it, but I did watch this horrible body -horror movie, about a bunch of homeless men getting deconstructed after drinking some cheap wine. If you’re a fan of Troma films, like Toxic Avenger, it’s that type of film.

Evil Dead 2 (1981)

This is another one of my all-time favorites from Sam Raimi, the director of the early Spiderman movies. This is so over the top you can’t help but laugh at it, and it is meant to be a tasteless comedy. It acts as both a remake and a sequel to the first Evil Dead movie, but I think this one is far better, mostly because it has better acting, and a much larger budget. Bruce Campbell, as Ash, does a wonderful job of carrying the majority of this movie mostly by himself.

Re-Animator (1985)/Frankenhooker (1990)

I couldn’t choose between these two becasue they are both very funny. They are also both ridiculous films, but Re-Animator is the more serious of the two and I prefer more comedy, so I’m leaning a bit more towards Frankenhooker, a film that is surprisingly sympathetic towards its characters, while still being laugh out loud funny. After his girlfriend is beheaded in a lawnmower incident, the descendent of Dr. Frankenstein decides to resurrect her by splicing together the bodies of murdered sex workers, and of course, the results do not go as planned.

High Tension (2003)

This is one of the few movies on this list that is not a comedy and is in French. I liked this movie, including the twist ending that doesn’t make any actual sense to most people who watch it. I am not normally attracted to Slasher films, (beyond the Classics like Texas Chainsaw and Halloween), so I walked into this one blind, with no more than a brief synopsis, thinking it would be not too different from those. The movie tried to be different than your typical Slasher, with two female protagonists, as one tries to save the other from a serial killer. I don’t think the gore is especially over the top but even the offscreen deaths feel kind of graphic.

The Thing (1982)

This is one of the ultimate body horror movies, and a remake of the 1951 film, The Thing From Another World. When an alien infiltrates an isolated Antarctic science station, wackiness ensues when the men all turn on one another, in their efforts to find who is the alien, since it can mimic the appearance of anyone. Trust me, you will be surprised by who gets infected, and astounded by the practical special effects, which have not been surpassed in the more than forty years since this movie was released. That this is one of the most perfect Horror movies ever made is generally agreed upon by most fans.

The Blob (1988)

The 80s was the age of the great body Horror remake, and this version of 1958’s The Blob, does its absolute best to outclass the original. The practical special effects are outstanding, the characters are likable, and there’s even a bit of humor added. I saw this with my Mom who was a fan of the original and, fiend that she is, she laughed at it, while I was absolutely horrified and disgusted, (because I got goop issues).

In A Violent Nature (2024)

This is one of the newer gory films I actually enjoyed. It,s not especially gory, but it is a Slasher film, just not a typical one, and not especially bloody, compared to some of the 80s films on this list, but there is one death in this movie that is especially spectacular, that even I had trouble watching, peeking through my fingers once I realized what I was about to see! The plot is pretty simple. Some campers steal an object that resurrects a zombified killer who hunts them through the woods to retrieve it. I genuinely liked the vibe of this movie, which has no soundtrack beyond nature sounds, as the killer tramps through the woods looking for victims.

Honorable Mentions:

Evil Dead Rise – I have to admit, I put off watching this becasue I wasn’t too impressed with the first movie but eventually decided to sit down and watch this based on the trailer. Its not anything like the original Horror Comedy, but I thought it was very good.

The Fly (1986) – The ultimate Body Horror movie from the incredible master of such films David Cronenberg.

Cabin Fever (2002) – I got one word for you if you watch this movie: Pancakes!

Hellraiser (1987) – The entire point of this movie, is the horror of having a human body, so this gets very graphic.

Further Viewing:

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Bad Taste (1987)

The Substance (2025)

Scared Shitless (2024)

Too Much For Me

The Sadness (2024) – This film is so gross, I checked out about 20-30 minutes into it. Figured out the movie’s entire point was being disgusting and and that was as far as I was willing to go with it.

Human Centipede (2009) – I didn’t go anywhere with this movie at all. I didn’t even contemplate giving this one a date. My mom watch it, though, and thought it was “meh”. Momma was a real one!

Let’s Watch Some (Kinda) Scary Tiny Movies

On By lkeke35In Horror, Lists, MoviesLeave a comment

Halloween is next week, and I have been dutifully watching all manner of scary things (that have nothing to do with our political system, btw), and I came across a few gems I’d like to share. I love these little mini-movies, which are often very effective, imaginative, and sometimes heartfelt. I tried to choose movies that had little to no gore, so don’t worry on that front. (I will offer a warning of what to expect in each one, since I know that Horror movies isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.) There are no slasher villains, screaming women being chased, or onscreen deaths. Most of these are just disquieting, creepy, disturbing, and sometimes funny, and I hope that works for you.

All that said, here are seven tiny, scary, (or maybe not), movies to enjoy for Octoberween!

Passengers (2024)

We’ll start off with a wholesome little interaction between the world’s scariest creatures.

Fish Night

This is some disturbing cosmic Horror. I really liked this one.

Trollied

This is a funny, very British, mini-movie, that could probably get turned into a full length feature, like Shaun of the Dead. (There is a bit of gore at the very end.)

The Pale Ones

Here is a another deeply disturbing short film. Forests at night are always scary but this one is actually dangerous.

Detour

This one will make you think twice about taking that little short cut to avoid a traffic jam. Better to just wait that out, methinks.

Intruders

This one genuinely scared the bejeebus out of me, but I can’t put my finger on exactly why. This contains three parts. (Note: This is very dark, but no gore.)

Bonus Round: Occupied

I thought this one was pretty funny. It’s promising one thing and delivering something a bit more…satisfying.

Horror I’m Reading For October-ween

On By lkeke35In Critiques, Horror, Lists, SupernaturalLeave a comment

This is a short selection of Horror novels and anthologies I’m working on this month. Some of these are physical copies, and some are E-books. Some of these I started a while ago, and have been slowly working my way through them, and a couple I’ve yet to begin, but looking forward to starting, and one I’ve already finished

King Sorrow – Joe Hill

I started this book back in July. I received a free copy from Netgalley and I haven’t finished it yet. It’s just a really big, really deep book, and I keep getting sidetracked by an industry that insists on publishing new books every month! The nerve of them!

Anyway, I am loving it so far. I’m about halfway through it, and the “venue” or rather “genre” of the book has changed at least twice, starting off as a collegiate drama, moving into the crime genre, and then from there quickly moving into dark fantasy, and then secret government agency drama, (which I was totally not expecting), but it’s all handled so well, that I didn’t see it while I was reading it. I mostly like the characters, but its definitely the plot that has pulled me in. Joe Hill is really good at handling multiple topics and characters here, and this is a very ambitious novel.

And yes! There is an actual mother f***ing dragon in this book. Before I got started, I was wondering if there was going to be an actual dragon, or if the blurb or title was a metaphor for something else, (perhaps some kind of creature that simply thinks it’s a dragon, or that the characters think looks like a dragon), but no its a real motherf***ing dragon, that the characters can summon at will, and I really should have expected that (because we are, after all, talking about Joe Hill), and I didn’t do that.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter – Stephen Graham Jones

I have become a huge fan of Stephen Graham Jones in the last five years or so. I kept seeing his name as the editor of some of my favorite anthologies, and then I was encountering his name on his own anthologies, which were very intriguing books, and finally he’s just writing his own novels, so I was very much looking forward to reading this. I tried to get Netgalley to gift me a copy and they denied my request! Well they will rue the day! (Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, but it sounds suitably villainous.)

Anyway, this has been a joy to read. I’m not finished yet. I’m about two thirds of the way through it, and its enlightening, a kind of old school horror that’s been made brand new because of who is telling the story. See…Jones is from the Blackfeet tribe, and this is his take on both the Classic Western, and the vampire. Its also written as a story, within a story, within a story.

A young woman in the modern age is gifted with the story of an Old West Catholic priest, who met an Indigenous vampire, who dines exclusively on the colonizers who destroyed his people’s way of life, by killing buffalo, hence the title, Buffalo Hunter Hunter. I didn’t know I needed a story about a Blackfeet vampire, or ever contemplated what vampirism would look like from the perspective of someone for whom it’s simply not part of their folklore, and yeah, it did take me a minute to figure out the glossary, because the narrator has totally different names for perfectly ordinary creatures, that make them sound very majestic, (but he’s just talking about deer, or raccoons, the kinds of animals we don’t think very highly of in the modern world, but meant everything in his.)

Anyway, I’m yet done with this, and so far, I’m enjoying the journey, but I think the ending is probably going to be explosive. This is definitely going on my “best of” list this year.

Come Knocking – Mike Bockoven

I have yet to start this in any great amount. I’m perhaps ten to fifteen pages in, and looking forward to the rest. I first heard of Bockoven when I came across his first book called Fantastic Land, and it just blew me away. I picked up a free copy of it from Netgalley, and I remember not taking it too seriously, because the setting was an amusement park, so I expected it to be funny.

It was not funny. In fact, it was a very intense, semi-apocalyptic horror novel, about a bunch of college students trapped in a theme park, after a tropical storm cuts them off from the rest of the state. They proceed to go insane and start killing each other. It’s an epistolary novel, (like Dracula or Carrie), told through flashbacks, first person interviews, and news stories. It’s like if the writer of World War Z had also written Lord of the Flies.

This new novel is also in the epistolary style, but chronicles some kind of audience engagement, haunted house play, that goes horribly wrong, resulting in multiple deaths, murders, and explosions, which sounds sort of like World War Z, crossed with The King in Yellow. It’s okay, Bockoven has a very accessible writing style. He isn’t trying to be pretentious or anything. He just wants to scare the shit out of you.

The last book he wrote was about a community of werewolves being hunted by government agents, and another epistolary style novel, about a disastrous comedy show.

I think I’m starting to really like this guy.

Where Nightmares Live – MrBallen

This was another book I got from Netgalley this Summer, but not all of the stories were available, so I never finished it. Well its just been published, so now I can finish the four stories that were missing from the free copy.. MrBallen is another YouTuber I’ve grown addicted to in the past year. I wish I’d known about him sooner becasue he is simply a great teller of stories. He specializes in True Crime stories, and Paranormal/Mystery stories, which can sometimes overlap.

The first book was more about True Crime, but this book, (and the accompanying illustrations), just wants to scare the pants off you, with bizarre stories, and thoroughly unexplainable occurrences, like the very first story in the book, titled The Thing, about a ghost ship.

I think the best time to read these is late at night, during a thunderstorm, (although a snow storm will work too). I’m looking forward to re-reading the entire book.

Finished:

The End of the World As We Know It

This is a Stephen King The Stand anthology from various writers. I was really looking forward to reading this, and very much enjoyed it, although some people’s mileage may vary, because it is after all, an anthology, and some stories can be hit or miss. Most of the stories hit for me, especially the ones that dealt with events happening in other parts of the world, before and during Mr. Tripps. A story set in Puerto Rico, and another set in England were particularly memorable. Lansdale contributed a story and it was a very hopeful adventure thriller, unlike most of the other stories in the book, which were, of course, sorrowful and dark, (but I liked them anyway).

There’s that one chapter in The Stand, that chronicles the kinds of deaths that couldn’t be directly attributed to the Superflu, and that’s what many of these stories are like. None of these stories feature any of the cast from the original story, which is what I was expecting, but I was very satisfied with what was given, because that’s one of my favorite chapters from the book.

This isn’t something I’m going to recommend to everyone. You really do have to either be a huge fan of the various writers here, or a huge fan of The Stand, because it’s that excitement to read what’s next that will carry you through some of the less memorable, or frustrating stories.

Exciting New Trailers This Week!

On By lkeke35In Book Adaptations, Horror, Lists, Movies, TV ShowsLeave a comment

In all honesty, nowhere did I mention that these trailers would be exciting for anyone other than me. If you’re excited for these, then fine, but if not, well I don’t know what to tell you. You may opt out of these at any time.

Here is a short list of movies and shows I’m looking forward to in the next six months.

Okay, technically, I am more what could be called “cautiously excited” for this. I really like Holly Hunter though, so I’m checking this out on the strength of her presence, and the other female characters I already like, Tilly and Jet. I still don’t think there are enough Black women in the cast, but I guess I should be happy there is at least one. Sometimes I just have to settle for being remembered (at least in Popular culture) that Black women exist…somewhere. For those not knowing, this series take place in the same time and universe as Star Trek Discovery.

To be honest, this is only the trailer, and I really cannot say what the series is going to be like just from that. I can only say, it looks intriguing, and has some characters I like.

I skipped most of Season Three of this series because I couldn’t find the time between this, Alien Earth, Peacemaker, and the half dozen Martial Arts movies I was enjoying multiple times. So I guess I’m going to need to backtrack to watch that season before the next season streams next year. I’m looking forward to that, and the new season, after I finish watching the Peacemaker Finale, I guess.

This series has been moved back a month, so I’m a little bit disappointed that I won’t be watching it this December. I’m still very eager to see it though. Now, admittedly, I don’t know much about Wonder Man, other than a few cameos he made in the comic books, but I love the lead actor, Yahya, and Trevor Slattery (played by my man, Ben Kingsley), is always a hilarious treat, no matter what he’s doing.

I actually enjoy these Meta-Disney-MCU series, (like She-Hulk), because they’re just my type of humor, with more or less regular characters, reacting to weird, but lighthearted situations, the same way any normal person would, where none of the writers are trying too hard to be edgy, dark, and mean, and this actually looks like fun.

I’m not certain if this is serious, but badly written, or dark and meant to be funny. I have not yet gotten tired of fast zombies, although the last Filipino zombie movie I watched was kind of a bust, and I wish I had that time back. This does look very intense, but like I said, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be laughing at it, because of the dialogue and the way its shot.

This is a series I am very excited about of course, and I’m glad to see the band is back together again, for more vampiric shenanigans. I liked Interview with the Vampire the book, but The Vampire Lestat is still my favorite, and I’m happy to see Lestat’s backstory finally put to screen. Sam Reid is, as always, incredible as Lestat, being loud, campy, very gay, too much, and a total queen.

But of course, you guys want to know if Akasha is going to be present?

Hell yeah!

Akasha is being played by Sheila Atim. I’ve only seen her in only a couple of things: in Doctor Strange, as a sorcerer, and in The Woman King, as a soldier. Sheila embodies the look of a Queen at 6 feet tall, just the right age (34), of Ugandan heritage, and is totally giving me Grace Jones vibes, which I love, since Grace is the very first Black female vampire I ever saw onscreen, (in the movie Vamp, where she floored it). I trust that the showrunners have chosen well, since they have done a very good job with the cast so far. So, I hope she is as good a fit for the role, as Sam Reid has been as Lestat.

Aaliyah, of course, is absolutely iconic, and Anne Rice specifically stated that for the show, she wanted Akasha to be portrayed by a Black woman, as an homage to Aaliyah’s performance. I see the showrunners aren’t trying to repeat Aaliyah’s role, while still respecting her performance, and offering something a bit new. I have heard that some Middle Eastern women are a bit disappointed, they were hoping for some more Arabic representation, and I get that, because it’s a valid request, but I also understand what the showrunners are doing, by respecting the wishes of the creator.

Newly Released Trailers: October

On By lkeke35In Action, Horror, Lists, Movies, TV ShowLeave a comment

No, these are not all Horror movie trailers, but most of them are. I added a couple of trailers of movies that just looked intriguing to me, and at least one trailer for a movie I will not be watching, just because someone else might be interested in it.

Kokuho

This movie had me at Ken Watanabe. I must confess I’ve developed a bit of a crush on him, and like Hiroyuki Sanada, and Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa before him, I will watch anything in which he stars. I’m also a sucker for anything involving Kabuki theater, from documentaries, to essays on YouTube. However, this will probably not be playing in a theater near me, so I will have to wait until it streams.

The Great Flood

This looks really intense. For some reason, I end up watching movies about great floods a lot. I just watched a Danish (or Finnish) movie about a giant dam bursting and flooding a small town, and then I watched an anime about a building full of children, that’s been set adrift on an ocean, after yet another great flood. This looks really intense.

I’ve taken a short hiatus from Netflix in the past month, but I will probably be watching some stuff on there soon, because its October-Ween.

The Mandalorian and Grogu

I loved the series because I thought it was kind of silly, even though the Mandalorian himself seemed to take it all quite seriously. Nobody was asking for this, though. I think we were all expecting another season of the show, and I think I would prefer that to this. I also think I’m going to see this in the theater with my nieces and nephew next Summer, whether I want to or not.

Joseon Exorcist

If this is on one of the streaming Networks, I will watch this, although it mostly reminds me of the Kingdom series. It does look suitably intense though. If this is showing in theaters, it won’t be anywhere near me, so I’d have to wait for it to stream, anyway.

We Bury the Dead

I’m not a Daisy Ridley fan, (she is easy on the eyes, but seems to have only two facial expressions), but I do like zombie films, so I’m willing to either ignore, or tolerate, her presence in this. I actually thought she was Natalie Portman, and I kept asking myself, why is Ms. Portman in this zombie movie, and then I actually paid attention, and figured out it was Ridley, so there is that.

This will be playing in a theater near me, but while I really like zombie movies, I usually don’t watch them in theaters. When you have anxiety issues, there are a lot of things you just don’t do in public, and sometimes that means not watching emotionally intense films, even if watching them in your house is fine.

Frankenstein

I trust Guillermo Del Toro to do this film justice. I know he loves this particular story, that it’s kind of a dream project for him, and this is entirely in keeping with a lot of his stories, about visible outsiders (monsters) navigating their way in the world, from Hellboy, to Pinocchio. It seems to be a theme threading its way through all of his work, and I appreciate that.

Mr. K

I don’t know if this is coming to a theater near me, but I am intrigued becasue it reminds me heavily of a movie I saw back in the 90s called Delicatessen by Jean=Pierre Jeunet.

Synopsis: Mr. K, a traveling magician, finds himself in a  nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he has slept in. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper inside, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

Okay, that does sound like a Horror movie, but I like the quirky actors, and the set design, so I’m here for it. This movie was made in 2024, but it’s only getting released in the US this year, I guess.

Scurry

I already don’t like the characters in this trailer. How is that even possible, when the two of them are onscreen for all of 30 seconds! *Sigh*! Maybe it will turn out to be an okay film, but I’m telling y’all right now, although I love Creature Features, some of them can get a big-ass NOPE from me, (like the monsters from Arcadian, for example). These look like the kind of monsters that get a NOPE, and when you put that together with unlikable characters, well…

IT: Welcome to Derry

This is not streaming until near the end of the month. I’m semi-intrigued, if you can understand that. I tolerated the book. I finished it, but it was a very long time ago, and I never re-visited it. I hated the original series, but really enjoyed the recent remake, so my mileage varies on this particular story.

Bambi: The Reckoning

This looks disgusting, terrible, and yet, utterly ridiculous. I’m here for it!

I still don’t quite understand why, when these old characters become public domain, people’s first impulse is to make a Horror movie out of them. We’ve already had three Popeye movies, and a Steamboat Willie Horror movie.

Movies I Can Fall Asleep To!

On By lkeke35In Essay, Lists, MoviesLeave a comment

Hi Guys!

It is officially Halloween Month, so let’s get started.

I live alone now, and sometimes the house is just waaay too quiet, although even when I lived with people, I couldn’t fall asleep unless something or someone was making noise.

So, I must confess to being a Movie Sleeper. I’m the kind of person who is most comfortable falling asleep in the evening to an old favorite, and some of these movies really help to knock me right out.

I have gotten some of the best sleep when reclining to these. I suppose, since I fall asleep to these movies I cannot be said to actually be watching them, but I have also watched them many times without falling asleep.

Let’s just say, the movie is made in such a way that it doesn’t hinder sleep, and in some cases actually aids it. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad or boring movie. It has to meet a certain criteria, like being old and familiar, (something I’ve watched multiple times, already). There has to be a certain mood. It has to sound a specific way, so that, if I’m especially tired, the music and dialogue doesn’t keep me awake.

All that said, some movies are not good sleeping films. Movies that are not good sleep films include, Action movies like John Wick, or movies that contain a lot of screaming, which means the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a no-go. I cannot fall asleep to any of hte Jurassic park films, and I tried falling asleep to the Dawn of the Dead remake, and found that watching zombie movies, before bedtime, only results in dreaming about being chased by zombies. The same thing goes for certain types of creature features, like The Mist, and Aliens because they have the wrong mood.

Here, in no particular order, is a short list of movies that are easy to fall asleep to.

Spirited Away (2001)

This movie is a Classic in my family. I introduced this movie to my little sisters when they were kids, and they have since introduced their own kids to this movie. In fact, my youngest (11) and oldest (19) nieces both love this movie, and the youngest insists on watching it whenever she visits. She says she enjoys watching it with me, since no one else in the house, (her Mom, who prefers Totoro, her 2 year old sister, or her brother, will watch it with her). Sometimes I like to put this movie on when I’m engaged in some simple activity, like cleaning, knitting, or drawing.

This movie has recently been supplanted by Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, although almost any Studio Ghibli film will work in this capacity, since all of those movies have a calm and thoughtful aura to them. Other animated films that are good for sleeping are Fantasia 1 and 2, WALL-E, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo.

Alien (1979)

This one of my all-time favorite movies to fall asleep to. I don’t fall asleep to these types of movies because they’re boring, (I sometimes watch this one when I’m wide awake, too), but because they’re just quiet films, with a minimum of loud noises, and I’ve seen them so many times that I can tell where I am in the story just by listening to the music. Another Horror favorite is the 1982 version of The Thing, although that movie ‘s visuals can be distracting when I’m trying to fall asleep. I will sit up to watch a favorite scene, and then have to try to get back to sleep.

Strangely enough, (and this is pretty funny to me), none of The Quiet Place films qualify as good sleeping films, while other Horror movies I’ve fallen asleep to include Suspiria from 2018, It Follows, and Se7en.

Men (2022)

This is another one of those quiet films that I don’t always need to look at to know where I am in the plot. This is one of those movies that made me really start paying attention to the sound editing of films. Now I can’t unhear any of the films I love. I’ve been “re-watching” some of my old favorites, just “listening” to them, and realizing just how much of my love for a movie is a result of good sound editing. Outside of the trippy visuals, MEN is a movie that just sounds beautiful. There is very little dialogue, mostly because the film consists of just the two main actors, and the music is gorgeous.

Other great sounding films, to fall asleep to, include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dune 1 and 2, and Terence Malick’s 2011 film, Tree of Life.

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

This is another movie I’ve been great at falling asleep to. I never get tired of watching it either, and it’s absurdly stupid every time I see it. I think some movies are good for falling asleep to because if the characters have accents, it’s easy to lose yourself in the cadences. Like with MEN, the accents of the characters is very rolling and gentle. There’s not a whole lot of screeching (okay, there’s a little bit of screeching!), and the characters are often doing quiet things, so there are long periods of just music, or quiet dialogue. It’s a deeply funny movie though which can be distracting at 3 in the morning.

I have also found that movies with voice-overs or narrators work really good for sleep, like the original Bladerunner, Tree of Life, Goodfellas, and oddly enough, Fight Club.

The Grandmaster (2013)

This movie is maybe too quiet. If I lay down on the bed to watch this while I’m tired, it will knock me right out. If I want to catch the stunning visuals I need to be sitting up, wide awake, and engaged in some other activity that doesn’t require me to look at what I’m doing (like knitting). The visuals are so captivating that I never get tired of watching this, and Tony Leung, is simply dreamy in this movie. There are a few more Tony Leung films that are good for sleeping: In the Mood for Love, The Hidden Blade, and 2046.

Other Martial Arts films that are a good sleep aid are House of Flying Daggers, Ip Man, and the 2003 version of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman.

The Triplets Of Belleville (2003)

My youngest niece has the distinct memory of watching this movie with me. We have talked about French animated films off and on for a while. I don’t just want her to get comfortable watching only American stuff, and she seemed really into it, and I wish someone had done the same for me when I was her age. Of course, she tries to repay the favor by getting me to watch shows and movies I wouldn’t normally choose for myself, but that she loves, and that’s okay.

She seems to have pretty good taste, and I’m starting to trust her judgement about what she thinks is good. That was also a skill I had to develop on my own, by simply watching everything that wandered into my line of sight, but she has a pretty good idea of what interests her, and I admire that. My job here is to introduce her to new movies that she wouldn’t normally encounter, and not let her get stuck in a comfortable rut.

Anyway, this film is all sound effects and music, with no dialogue, so its perfect for sleeping.

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

I love this movie. I’ve watched it enough times that I know where I am in the plot, just by the music, but I also love to watch it while I’m wide awake, because I always catch some new thing I didn’t notice on my last watch, like the fact that the lead female character always dresses as various plants and vegetables, and there’s a scene in a church where the primary antagonist sprouts devil’s horns, while she wears a halo behind her. These are tiny little things, that a person will only catch after multiple viewings. And of course the movie has some truly hilarious moments, like all the little, mischievous rabbits, and Gromit’s interactions with them, and the were-rabbit itself.

It Follows (2014)

Like The Grandmaster, I am capable of engaging in other activities while this plays in the background. It’s a quiet movie, but it’s also a movie that you simply have to watch, since it’s kind of hypnotic.

It’s also one of those films where, if you’re paying attention to it, is genuinely terrifying, no matter how many times you see it.

Pontypool (2008)

This is a movie I just like listening to. The visuals aren’t that interesting, so there’s no need to watch the screen, in case you miss something. Some Sleeper movies are distracting. They have such great visuals they are impossible to sleep through.

In Pontypool, all of the plot is in what’s said, since most of the action takes place in only one location, and there are only three main characters. But what is said can be distracting, so I don’t usually put this one on for sleep, but for actual sit down watching.

In order to be a good falling asleep movie there has to be a good ratio of dialogue, action, and music.

Suspiria (2018)

And finally this is my current favorite. I love the sound editing in this one. I love to listen to this while falling asleep since the sounds in this movie largely consist of lots of breathing and sighing, rain, (Did you know you can hear snow falling? Well ,you can in this movie!), and Thom Yorke’s sublime musical score, especially the primary theme song, Unmade, which plays at the end of the film.

It’s also a visually interesting film, with its mid-70s vibe, but not so busy and compelling that I can’t ignore them, and drowse along to the music and dialogue. This is another movie that I’ve become fascinated with, and have sought out multiple, long-winded, essays on what other women thought about it.

Honorable Mentions For Sleeping

Nope (2022)

Ravenous (1999)

Inception (2010)

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Thangs I Watched: Summer Edition (Pt. II)

On By lkeke35In Action, Critiques, Horror, Lists, MCU, Movies, Reviews, Science Fiction, TV ShowsLeave a comment

Here is a short list of movies I saw in theaters this Summer. I usually carefully plan what movies I’m going to see with the nieces and nephew every year, and I tried to do that this year, but really, the only thing I listed were superhero films. Some of these I had no plans to see, but my family wanted to see them and I obliged. That said, I always hope I enjoy the movies we see, and I’m starting to trust my nieces and nephew about their film tastes. (Their Mom – my little sister – has pretty good tastes in movies, I think. She recently watched the last Quiet Place movie with me, and she watched three of the Texas Chainsaw films on her own. I have not seen any of them beyond the original, but she says the three movies she watched were alright, and I should check them out.)

Regardless of whether or not other people liked these movies, I always enjoy movie watching with the family, so for me, all the movies are likable. My criteria for theater films is pretty soft: Did I have a good time? How did the movie look? Was the movie fun? Did the movie do what it promised to do, like scaring me, or making me laugh?

There are some films I will analyze later, after a repeat viewing, but lets be honest, some of them won’t get a repeat viewing, even if I thought they were fun in the theater. I mostly save analysis essays for movies I watched multiple times at home. These mini-reviews are not analysis. They aren’t really even reviews, since none of them are designed to convince you that they are good or bad, or get you to see them. These are just my impressions and feelings during the watching of whatever it was, and if you do decide to see them, I hope you like them.

Weapons

My oldest niece is just starting to get her “Film Wonk” certificate. This is the first movie I’ve seen in the theater with her in quite a few years now, and I think the last thing she and I watched together was Jordan Peele’s Nope. She is also a Horror Movie Fan, which means I’ve successfully completed my task of being a bad influence on my family members.

I took all the “kids” to see this, and we had a great time analyzing the meaning behind all the images and symbolism in the film. I didn’t think the movie was especially frightening, but there was some gore and it was more of a thriller/mystery, with a surprising amount of humor. The end of the movie is both horrifying, and hilarious, and I’m not sure exactly how to feel about such a mixed reaction.

I got really caught up in the characters, who were unexpectedly unlikable, especially Julia Garner’s character, who I thought would be more vulnerable and sympathetic, at least from watching the trailer, but she is the opposite of all that, and that was deeply funny to me. The story is told Ran style, from multiple points of view, which was also unexpected, and I loved that, because I’m a sucker for nonlinear storytelling.

Next to Sinners, I think this is one of my favorite movies of the year. In fact, I’m having a really hard time choosing between the two films.

Final Destination: Bloodlines

I have watched at least three of these movies. My youngest niece wanted to see this, and I had no other plans, (including watching this movie), so I said oaky. I cannot say the movie was enjoyable. it wasn’t bad. I was entertained and I was engaged all the way through, but this is one of those films that isn’t going to get a second viewing. Once was enough.

It did help me reach one conclusion about these series of films, and its a topic I believe deserves an essay, and that’s not so much about how the death entity works in this universe, (which is what most people focus on), but about how this universe is self-correcting. There’s a certain way things are supposed to be, where only certain people, or a certain number of them are supposed to be alive at any one time, and things are supposed to happen in a particular order. When that order is disrupted, (usually because someone has inadvertently tapped into that universal knowledge), its not death that is trying to make corrections, so much as it is the universe trying to correct the problem and get things back on track.

This is not a movie for everyone, because it is extremely gory, (also there are scenes of people burning alive, so if that is as much of a trigger for you, as it is for me, you might want to skip this). There is a lot of head-crushing happening in this film, and I was kinda wondering about that. Just note that it’s a thing, but if you’ve seen the other films in this series, you should already be well aware of that.

The movie also marks the last role of Tony Todd, (may goth rest him). It was a very touching and fitting send off for him, in one of his most iconic roles, as the voice of the universe, dispensing the film’s wisdom. Tony was a huge part of my Horror movie watching experiences, and I’m going to miss him.

Still, despite my feelings during the movie, this is not going on my favorites list for the year. It just doesn’t reach that level.

Fantastic Four: First Steps

First, some backstory. I have never been an FF fan. At least not the comic book version. Of the four of them, I only liked Ben, and mostly because I sympathized with him from the John Byrne run of the comics. Sue cried too much for my tastes, and I thought her powers were kind of useless, (I was 12, y’all!), Mr. Fantastic was too aloof, and the stretchiness was kind of creepy (I’m still 12!), and I thought Johnny was an idiot, and I had zero respect for him, (still a pre-teen, y’all!) So when a movie was announced, lets just say I was less than “whelmed”.

But my nephew and I have a pact to go see every superhero film, (or as many as we can afford), and I took him to see this, and it turned out to be pretty good. Sue was actually well written and turned out to be a “Momma Bad Ass”. They put some respect on her powers too, and I liked that. Okay, Mr. Fantastic’s powers are still kinda creepy, but it’s Pedro Pascal, and I simply cannot dislike him. He didn’t make a huge impression on me, but he was less creepy. Sue kind of stole the movie from him, which is really saying something because she is still not an exciting character. Johnny was actually given a brain, and watching a human being catch on fire, and then fly around, (while still on fire), looked a lot less terrifying than it did in the previous films.

For me, the standout character was Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer. I liked her immensely. She wasn’t in the movie a lot, but when she showed up it mattered, and when things got down to the wire, she came through in the clench, which I also enjoyed. I also thought it was startling, and wonderful to finally see Galactus on the big screen.

I normally do not grade films but I feel like it would be helpful in this case to give the movie a good, solid, “B”. I wanted to like it more, but it simply didn’t reach “A” status.

Superman

We’re gonna talk about this more later, because I got a story that won’t fit here, but the quick review is, I really loved this movie, it lived up to its hype, and it did reach “A” status for me.

Jurassic World Rebirth

This movie had dinosaurs in it, and apparently that was enough to get my ass in a seat. There were some white knuckle moments, and some running, and some screaming, as expected. The movie worked for the two hours it took to watch it, then just like the last couple of Jurassic World films, was immediately forgettable. This is the kind of movie you put on in the background while you get your housework done. The best thing in the movie was the introduction of a mini-triceratops, (which I think is a very specific type of dinosaur), and now I want one! I do not think its a baby triceratops, but I could be wrong.

These movies still refuse to address the issue of just how much these big ass creatures eat, or where is all the dinosaur poop, because, for some reason, that really bothers me, and absolutely no one ever addresses that.

I Also Watched TV:

Iron Heart

This was really interesting, and I’m looking forward to the next season, whenever it shows up. I like Riri from the comic books, and the actress for her, Dominique Thorn, did a wonderful job, but it was her friend Natalie (Lyric Ross),who stole the show. Y’all need to get a friend like that. The Hood was creepy, the tech was, as always, lots of fun to watch, and the character interactions were very interesting. The standout character was Mephisto, someone that fans have been clamoring for for years, and is best known from the Spiderman comics, and they chose the perfect actor for him, Sasha Baron Cohen. He was absolutely perfect for the role.

Now that we’ve got some certified demonic/supernatural creatures in the MCU, (although we’ve seen a couple here and there in Doctor Strange, and Moon Knight shows), things are about to get a lot more “weird”, in the MCU, which is really saying something.

Cells At Work (Live Action)

Although this was a fun, and very cute, watch, it’s still pretty basic, and not as good as the anime. I don’t want to sound like one of those people, but the anime was better. Of course, the anime was several episodes long, and animated. I liked this well enough, (I finished it), because I’m a sucker for science-based anime, it was really, really cute and colorful (especially the little kids), and serves as a pretty good introduction to the animated version. I intend to introduce my youngest niece to this as soon as she is speaking well.

What I’ll Be Watching Soon

On By lkeke35In Action, Horror, Lists, Martial Arts, Movies, Netflix1 Comment

I know, I know. I always say I’m going to watch stuff, and then you never hear about it from me again, but this time, I promise, I will actually watch “some” of these movies and shows. No, seriously! I will!

Dust Bunny

This movie has all my favorite people in it. I’ve been a Mads Mikkelsen fan since his Pusher days. I’ve been a Bryan Fuller fan since Hannibal, and then we have David Dastmalchian (a recent fave), and an old fave, Sigourney Weaver!

This is about a little girl who hires her neighbor, to kill the monster under her bed, that she thinks killed both her parents, but he turns out to be something of a monster himself, apparently being hunted by other monsters! I don’t think this is a Horror movie (in the usual sense). I don’t even think there are critters in it. This looks more like an Action/Thriller, with human monsters fighting each other.

Also, its just nice to see Fuller and Mikkelsen working together, again.

Last Samurai Standing

It helps that this movie is streaming on Netflix because, for reasons, I don’t usually see Martial films in theaters. At any rate, this looks really intense, like a cross between Squid Game, Blade of the Immortal, and Samurai Marathon, and I’m here for it. Netflix has gotten pretty good about dropping some interesting Martial Arts movies onto the network.

I’ve really enjoyed this series, so I’m looking forward to the third iteration of the Knives Out series. It’s star studded, lots of fun, and has a compelling mystery. Benoit Blanc is becoming one of my favorite film detectives, right up there with Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I just like his whole attitude, especially his willingness to call out the ridiculousness of the people he’s working with. Plus, this role is so different from the character of James Bond, and it really shows Craig’s range and sense of humor.

The Smashing Machine

People have often criticized Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson for playing the same character in all his movies. Well, this is Dwayne (looking almost unrecognizable), putting in his bid for an Oscar consideration. It’s biographical, sports-related, and involves lot of drama. I guess he figured if Dave Bautista could do it, he might as well level up and get serious, too. Hell, even I’m interested in checking this movie out and I almost never watch anything involving sports, even though I do have a vague memory of Mark Kerr.

Coyotes

This is exactly the kind of craziness I enjoy in a Creature Feature, with its gore and humor, so I’m willing to check this out. It has an unlikely animal terror, some blood, cheeky humor, Justin Long, and some pretty-looking white people, none of whom have any idea how much danger they are in. Yeah, the movie gives the danger away, but the point of movies like this isn’t that the monster is mysterious. It’s about how the characters overcome/defeat the danger.

The Sentinels

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first Captain America film, since I don’t usually watch movies about either the first or second World Wars, (not that I dislike them, they just don’t take priority), but I’m willing to give this French movie, about super soldiers during WW2, a bit of a try. I generally do not track down and watch war movies, because I find a lot of them (except for some of the classic and bigger budgeted ones) not particularly interesting.

It helps that the movie is in French. I am sometimes willing to watch international films about a topic that I wouldn’t watch if it was an American film.

Savage Hunt

We must be in for a spate of killer animal movies, because we have another movie about a killer grizzly. I’m going to watch watch this, out of nostalgia of having watched at least half a dozen killer bear movies, with my Mom. She really loved these types of movies and would’ve wanted me to take her to the theater to see this one. So, in honor of my Mother, I will watch a an angry Grizzly Bear horribly maul some hikers and rangers.

I’m already terrified.

28 Years later: The Bone Temple

Okay, maybe I’m not going to see all of these movies. This looks interesting, but I didn’t even watch the first part of, what is apparently, a series. We’ll see how I feel once its released. Of course, I will then have to watch the first part of this movie. I know I said I was interested in it before it was released, but sometimes that’s just a mood that passes, and I ended up never watching it.

I did watch 28 Days Later and its one of my favorite films. I was a lot less impressed with the second one called 28 Weeks Later. I have not yet formed an opinion on these two sequels.

Okay! Let’s Watch Some Trailers!

On By lkeke35In Fantasy, Horror, Lists, Movies, TV ShowsLeave a comment

I was away for only a minute, and look what happened. A bunch of trailers dropped and I was not ready. Well here are a some traielrs for shows and movies that I think might be interesting. I cannot promise to see the movies in theaters, because that would require being out of doors, but I can act like I might watch them when they stream.

The Rage

Okay, I guess I’m not the only person who finds bear attacks in movies absolutely terrifying. This is going to sound weird, but I have watched a helluva lot of bear carnage movies, (most of them with my Mom, for whom these movies were also a favorite). It was just a thing we did.

I love this trailer, though. I am probably not going to see this in a theater. (Yeah, I’m not sitting in a dark room with strangers, to watch people get eaten by a bear!)

Good Boy

Movies about the Horror from an animal’s point of view are kind of rare. I remember reading a werewolf novel back in the 80s that was written from the point of view of the household pet and really enjoying that story. I don’t think this movie is based on that story (it already got a movie in the 90s), but I like how the horror in this trailer is a total mystery, as we focus on the dog’s eye view of it.

Sisu 2: Road to Revenge

I really liked the first film, which was like a Historical version of a John Wick movie. I don’t normally watch films set during various wars, but I’ve seen quite a few, because I sometimes make exceptions. That first film was intense but satisfying. I cannot say that it needed a sequel, but nevertheless, I will be watching this movie…at home.

Primitive War

This looks like it will be better than Jurassic World. I love movies with dinosaurs, and will watch pretty much all of them (and yes, that included Tammy and the T-Rex!), but Jurassic World was kinda “meh”, and this looks like the movie that Jurassic World should have been, only with 100% less annoying children.

We’ll see.

Fallout (Season 2)

I greatly enjoyed the first season, so I’m looking forward to the second. I still have absolutely no intention of ever playing the videogame, so just as with the first season, I’m walking in clueless.

V/H/S/Halloween

I’ve mostly enjoyed this series. I thought the last one (V/H/S/Beyond) was alright. There are like six or seven of these films in the series, and some of them are better than others, but I haven’t missed one. I’m interested to see what the episodes will look like for Halloween.

Cold Storage

This reminds me of one of those great, goopy, kinda cheap, body horror movies from the 80s, like Society, or Reanimator. Never to be taken seriously and looks like it might be fun.

Marvel Zombies

I remember I didn’t like the comic books this is based on. I thought the one book I read was depressing. Or maybe I simply wasn’t in the mood for it. I know a lot of people really liked the comic book series, but something about seeing all of my favorite superheroes, in such a degenerate state, upset me too much. This looks like it’s more fun than the books, but we’ll see how I feel on its release.

Beast of War

This reminds me of the story of the Indianapolis from Jaws (one of the greatest scenes in film history), which was an actual event. I have heard that this movie is based on a real event, that happened to an Australian ship in the Pacific, and it looks like Jaws on steroids.

Hamnet

This is from one of my favorite directors, Chloe Zhao, who directed one of the most unique looking MCU films, The Eternals, which totally didn’t fit the rest of the aesthetic of the MCU, which is probably why some people weren’t into it, but I liked it anyway.

Well, I like Hamlet, and I like Historical Shakespeare films, so I think I’ll like this too.

Blue Eye Samurai Season 2

That first season was a real ass-kicker. This season our cross dressing lead character, Mizu, takes her bad ass self to England, to avenge the murders of her family. I’m very much looking forward to it.

Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos has become one of my favorite Directors. I didn’t care too much for The Lobster, but I really enjoyed The Favorite, and Poor Things. I used to not pay much attention to Emma Stone. I thought she was a boring actress, in some fairly boring films, but I love this new thing she’s doing as she gets older, playing these quirky, Indie style roles, and I’m really starting to like her.

Exit 8

I’m a sucker for a good Liminal Space Horror movie. This looks genuinely disquieting, and I’m here for it.

Thangs I Watched: Summer Edition

On By lkeke35In Critiques, Film Reviews, Horror, Lists, Movies, TV ShowsLeave a comment

Here are five shows and movies I watched this Summer. To be honest, while I watch a lot of things, I don’t watch new stuff that often. I usually stick with old favorites even though I can get pretty enthusiastic about forthcoming events, which sometimes result in new stuff not getting seen, in favor of some oldie but goodie.

Severance Season 2

I was very eager to get to this newest season, especially after the earth shattering events (okay maybe not that big) events of the last season. I was not disappointed at all. This was a very, very satisfying season, with the exception of a couple of slow, but informative, episodes. The corporation featured in the series, Lumen, is becoming slightly less of a mystery, but for every piece of information that’s revealed, we still get yet another puzzle. For example, there are a number of things going on at the facility that are disturbingly cultish, outside of their worship of the creator of Lumen, like the indoor sheep farm, and the room where these lambs are sacrificed to…? For…?

Although compelling, the corporate batshittery isn’t the reason I love this series. I said before that what attracts me to different projects are the trailers, the visuals, the plot, sometimes the actors or directors, but what keeps me invested are the characters. Do I care about them? Do I want to know more about them? Do I want to spend time with them? For Severance, the answer is a big ol’ YES! I’m truly into those characters. I care what happens to them and what adventures they have, and the insights they reach.

The most mysterious character on the show is of course Miss Huang, the little girl who is Mr. Milchick’s Second in Command. I don’t know much about this character, but I suspect her existence is related to one of the earlier episodes, where we found out that Lumen sometimes has women produce children especially for the company, the purpose of which is that they are sacrificed/consecrated, or something, to working for the company.

My favorite character last season was John Turturro’s Irving, but this season it was definitely Milchick, the Supervisor of the Lumen facility that houses the Severance Program. He is still as mysterious as anyone else that’s devoted to Lumen Industries, but it was very interesting to see some real character development for him, considering how limited a character he is. I think next season Milchick is going to have some kind of a breakdown, or a breakthrough, especially after the events of this season. He has not been able to control the Severed (as they are called) as well as he has been tasked to do by his superiors, and the end of this season feels even more disastrous (at least for him), than the last. Whatever happens to him next season is really gonna hurt.

This show delights in presenting us with some fascinating situations for our characters. I wasn’t much interested in Dylan in the first season, a seemingly disgruntled rebel, but we got to see a lot more of his Outtie life this season, so we were presented with the contrast between his corporate self, and his home self, which was fascinating as the show sets him up in an untenable situation of having his Innie, meet his Outtie’s wife.

The standout character, as he is for both seasons, since he’s out point of view character, is Mark. He has come a very long way not just in our understanding of him, (which is what the first season was about) but in his understanding of himself and just how far, just how radical he is willing to be, in terms of what he desires, and what he desires is his co-worker, Helly, and his late-wife, and if you watched the first season, then you understand that it’s impossible for him to have both.

Love, Death, And Robots (Season 4)

This fourth season was not as good as the third, but it was still lots of fun. I really liked most of the episodes, if not all of them , and there were a couple of surprises in there too. Let’s start with my top favorites.

I cannot stress enough how much the mini-apocalypses have tickled me. This time the apocalypse was an Alien Invasion that was every bit as silly and profane as the Mini-Zombie one from last season. I kinda hope they do these Mini-Apocalypses every season now. My second favorite episode was a surprise called Don’t Stop, which is basically an animated concert video, featuring puppet versions of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was a big fan during the 90s, so it was really fun to watch, and the concept was quite novel. I wasn’t expecting it, but I genuinely liked it.

Another surprise, which I had initially dismissed based on the title, was, How Zeke Got Religion. It was the best kind of gory, religious/historical/ Horror, featuring a callback to the movie Memphis Belle, some Nazi Demon Summoning, and a WW2 aircraft dogfight!

My two least favorite episodes were, For He Can Creep, a short story I read a little while ago, and while the story was okay, featuring a congregation of cats fighting the Devil, I lost interest at some point. I think it might have been the animation, or maybe just fatigue, since that was the last episode. And finally, one of my least favorite episodes was The Other Big Thing, based on a John Scalzi short story, which delighted me when I first read it, but lost that essential hilarious something in its interpretation to animation.

The rest of the stories were somewhere in the middle, with the episode titled Spider Rose near the bottom, and the episode Golgotha a little closer to the top. It was at least funny. I had mixed feelings about 400 Boys, which while interesting, and featured the voicework of John Boyega, wasn’t very compelling for me, and The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur, while great on the visuals, the story didn’t really move me.

As I said, this was a good, but not great, season. I think season two was the one that had the best, but fewer, episodes, followed by season three, which had a better all around balance of episodes, and this season runs close behind.

Predator: Killer of Killers

I thought I was going to be watching an anthology, and that’s what this was, but in a delightful twist it actually turned out to be a full movie, where all three anthology episodes, each set in a different time period, come together in a fun, action-packed, finale.

The first episode is titled, The Shield, and involves a Viking woman named Ursa, who unexpectedly squares up against a predator, while seeking revenge for the death of her father. She involves her son in the endeavor with mixed results. The animation and fight scenes here are top of the line, and yes, quite gory.

The second episode is set during Japan’s feudal Era (The Sword), and involves two brothers, once set against each other by their father, who must reconcile to defeat a Predator. The action scenes are also excellent, and the animation is very beautiful and romantic looking. I liked this character (Kenji) immensely but only because I’m a total sucker for any stories set in Japan’s Feudal period.

The last episode, (The Bullet), was the one I found the least compelling, but only because I am not particularly interested in WW2 airship battles, not because of the quality, which is splendid, or the character, one John Torres, an Airman in the US Navy, who manages to go toe to toe with a Predator starship, and win. This episode too was very well done.

In the final part of the movie, the three combatants (Ursa, John, and Kenji) are revived on the Predator planet, to fight each other to the death, but the three of them come up with another plan, and the movie doesn’t skimp on the emotional angle either. One of the most touching moments for me is when Ursa calls the two her sons, and Kenji refers to John as his brother.

One of the keystone points of the Predator movies is that the Predators are never defeated by brute force. The humans who run into them don’t win by fighting harder but by outsmarting them. This is true from the first movie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, (and one of my personal favorites), right up to this newest one, and its always fun watching these severely outgunned, and seemingly technologically outmatched humans, come up with tactics to actually win. I think by this point the Predator species is well aware that humanity is a worthy foe.

Another thing I really love about the Predator franchise is that it has always been inclusive of all people from Earth, from the mixed race cast of the first movie, to having Black and Latino, male and female leads in the second, to the Native American girl in Prey, the franchise has been very good at showing that any type of human can takeout a Predator, because intelligence doesn’t have a gender or racial barrier. It’s a form of inclusivity that was there from the beginning, and kinda flew beneath a lot of people’s radar.

Thunderbolts

Anytime I start sniffling during a superhero movie, you know the movie has done its fucking job, to the tee! That is where I was three quarters of the way through the film, and lets just say that Florence Pugh can act her ass off, and I think I’m in love with Yelena.

This movie has so much more depth than “some” people are giving it credit for, and it seems to have resonated with quite a number of other people. Yes, it is a superhero movie, but the characters are not heroes, and yeah, they save the world (sort of) but not by punching out the villain, or blowing stuff up, although plenty of that happens. This is largely Yelena’s (Black Widow’s little sister) story, since she gives voice to much of the thoughts of the other characters, and the plot during the film.

Yelena, after the death of her sister, is a very dark and depressed character. Like Bucky, (a character who has already had his redemption arc), she is beset by the regrets and horrible memories of her past deeds. She is lonely and looking for connection and purpose, and this is what guides her path in this movie. Its also what helps her to defeat the villain. I was in tears watching her journey of vulnerability, because I felt so deeply for this character, and understood some of her pain. When it comes to mental illness, the film doesn’t get everything about it right, but the point it’s trying to make is pretty clear – the answer to Yelena’s problems (and also the villain’s) is forming emotional connections to other people , and acceptance of one’s self. The point isn’t that the villain is cured by a group hug. (He really isn’t.) The point is that that human connection, the decision to care for and about each other as a family, is what saves all of them, and makes them a team. Yes, they still bicker, but not because they are trying to hurt each other, the way they were earlier in the movie, but rather that sibling type of bickering, where they have simply accepted each other’s faults, and moved on.

I was surprised to find my favorite character to be Yelena’s father, Alexei, who is so much fun in this movie. He is a total fanboy of both Bucky and Yelena, and makes no secret of his admiration for both of them, and that’s important to the group dynamic. He wants to be the kind of hero he sees in Bucky and his daughter, and it was very touching for me, that he ultimately achieves that goal, by the end of the film. Its a very exciting moment. He too is without emotional connection and purpose. He appears to be handling it slightly better than Yelena, but he at least knows what he needs, and is ready, willing, and able, to be vulnerable enough to reach out and seek that help, which is not something the other characters seem capable of. Despite Bucky’s and Yelena’s doubts about themselves, he can see the good in them. It is ultimately the father/daughter relationship that kind of ends up saving not just the other characters, but also the rest of the world, and its clear that its Alexei that is the team’s heart.

Sinners

I’ve already seen this movie three times. I cannot get it out of my head. I actually do have a backstory to this film. It’s set in 1930s Clarksdale Mississippi, the place my Mom and Grandma were born! She was a huge Blues fan, so I grew up listening to the songs/artists featured in the movie. I think I finally broke down at the end credits. Ryan Coogler does it again. He has such a way of making his movies so deep and resonating even with people who wouldn’t normally be the audience for his films.

But what I want to talk about though is the movie’s reception by white fans, some of whom are saying that this is, hands down, not just the best Horror movie of the year, but the best of the year entirely. In the past, white audiences have not been very good at watching and accepting films that were made by, for, and about Black culture, so it makes me immensely happy to see white audiences embracing this movie, even when they don’t understand everything in the film.

It is one of Coogler’s great skills to be able to make people he isn’t necessarily talking about, feel some type of way about the plots and characters, while maintaining that certain cultural something, that speaks directly to Black audiences, without watering any of it down. White audiences, who walk into this film with an open mind, a willingness to learn, and who just want to watch a great movie, will not be disappointed. It was a real joy for me to hear so many white people loving on this movie, and I just want to say I’m proud of them for not just being open to the experience, but speaking out, even when they didn’t always understand what they were watching.

That said, the surprise character for me was Remmick, the ancient Irish vampire who sets the second half of the film in motion. Coogler has a way of making you care about his primary villains (his films usually have more than one) and sympathize with them in a way no other director can. Yes, Remmick is a vampire. He is evil, but as always with Coogler’s villains, Remmick’s evil, within the context of the film, is understandable, and sometimes relatable. What does this movie have in common with Thunderbolts? You have villains who are depressed, and lonely, and who long for emotional connection, of some kind.

For most people, the stand-out scene was the musical scene in the Juke Joint, with Sammie burning down the roof, as he pulls from past and future cultures, to join in their celebration, but one of the scenes no one talks about is the scene in the aftermath of that first one, where Remmick and his vampire followers are having their own celebration, to the song Rocky Road to Dublin. Don’t ask me how I know the words to that song (I just do), and that scene evoked an enormous amount of sympathy from me, for him. Dancing with his followers (who are little more than extensions of his own memory) is the closest Remmick will ever get to connecting with his ancestors. Yes, he is evil, but in the end, he is also just lonely.

I also watched:

Mickey 17 – I generally enjoyed this movie. I laughed at all the right moments, and yelled at my tv during the more outrageous moments. While Robert Pattison played a funny, interesting character, and did some good work, the standout actor for me was Mark Ruffalo, who was such a great, despicable villain in this movie, with Toni Collette pulling up the rear.

What I’m Fixin’ To Watch

Iron Heart – I’m looking forward to watching this, although not for the characters, so much as the special effects and the tech. I like Riri Williams, but I am not a huge Iron-anything fan beyond the technology. I’m more of a Miles Morales fan. But Riri is a member of the Young Avengers, who have all mostly been cast in the past several films, so I want to see this.

Ballerina – Hey, it’s John Wick related so the Action scenes are going to hit. I am a little tired of the Russian Ballerina assassin thing, since Hollywood has gone to that well one too many times, but I like Ana de Armas, and maybe John will put in a cameo.

Fantastic Four – I’ve never been a huge FF fan, but I know a lot about this group from the comic books. My nephew and I have an agreement to see all of the MCU films. He has never read the comic books, but knows all these characters from tv shows, videogames, and YouTube videos. He seems really excited about this movie, so we’ll be seeing this soon.

Weapons – The plot of this movie has been kept mostly under wraps, and I haven’t sought out a lot of information about it, so I’m going in mostly blind. The one trailer I watched looked pretty interesting though, and some advance viewers have said that is has moments of humor.

Flow/Wild Robot/Robot Dreams/Deep Sea – I keep meaning to watch these beautiful animated feature films and keep putting them off. At some point, I really do need to sit my butt down and watch them, as they are all readily available through streaming, look absolutely gorgeous, and are not Disney films.