hereditary

I'll start off by saying that after seeing this movie, I felt like I needed to immediately go to Church, just to wash off the evil that I witnessed in "Hereditary." Things happen in this film that made me think that I'm watching something that I really shouldn't be watching. The premise of the story is definitely the most haunting thing about it, and the main reason why you should or shouldn't see it. I can see why people are comparing this to "The Exorcist," although I'll argue that it doesn't top that classic horror film. 

I got to give a lot of accolades to Writer-Director Ari Aster for making a fantastic piece of horror cinema. He pulled from a lot of classic scary movie techniques, mashed them all together, and mixed them with his own vision. The ominous tone. The creepy sound design. The scary imagery. The slow burn that builds up to a frightening pace. The subversion of familiar tropes. The unnerving and unsettling plot. Even the specific framing of certain scenes that mimics how one looks at doll houses, all add to an incredible package of a horror movie. It also helps that it has a very talented cast of actors, from Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne. 

It's not all perfect however. There were some scenes that I genuinely thought were kinda boring, and left me restless to move things along. Some of the actions by certain characters also seemed to rely on particular caveats and coincidences, just for the sake of the plot. Despite the hype surrounding this film, it's not what I would consider the scariest movie of all time either; but it is better than most. I can imagine some people might not even find it scary at all, and end up frustrated by some of the more artistically stylistic decisions this film makes to try and scare a movie audience. 

With some of my more critical thoughts out of the way, I still can't deny the effect it had on me as a scary movie. There are some scenes that I simply will not be forgetting anytime soon, and will cause me to question some of the things I see in the corner of my eye. There will be moments; and there already have been, when I would have a slight pause from hearing a bump in the night, because that's how much this film creeped me out. 

For those people who aren't used to watching horror movies, I can only imagine "Hereditary" being really successful in making a big impact on them. Possibly even in a traumatic way. For horror movie veterans, I think it'll be more a case of appreciating what was pulled off on screen, and still succumbing to some effecting scares. Either way, this is a solid horror movie all around. 

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adrift

POSITIVES  
- based on an incredible true story
- premise is relatively straight forward, but the narrative itself keeps things interesting
- the survival story angle always keeps you engaged
- Shailene Woodley excels in the role of Tami Oldham

NEGATIVES 
- it may be a true story, but it unfortunately feels derivative the majority of the time
- especially the love story, which felt too forced at the beginning, although it's more believable during the second half. Just got to put up with it at first
- the movie overall should be more memorable than it actually is
- Shailene Woodley's very present nipples might be too distracting for the boys... or should this be in the "positives" category?  

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action point

POSITIVES 
- Huge kudos to all the actors willing to do their own stunts for this movie
- the cast looked like they were having a lot of fun filming this

NEGATIVES 
- it wasn't that funny. A few chuckles at best. 
- story is very pedestrian
- the outrageous moments felt very forced and unearned
- backstory of the real theme park this movie is inspired by sounds more interesting than this
- they should have just did a series of YouTube videos involving each of the stunts and hi-jinks featured in this movie, as that would have probably been more entertaining

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upgrade

In a crowded market of movies populated by superheroes or Star Wars, "Upgrade" seems destined to be a vastly overlooked piece of sci-fi cinema. This is unfortunate, because this movie is clearly geared for that particular audience who would watch those comic book space opera films. In fact, I would say that the kind of fan who goes deep into these kinds of genre films should really appreciate what this movie has to offer. 

Writer-Director Leigh Whannell seems to have been clearly influenced by many genre films. I'm talking about movies like Robocop, John Wick, Death Wish, anime like Ghost In The Shell, or even 2001 A Space Odyssey. There are shades of those movies scattered throughout, which gives us the movie audience a comfortable sense of watching something pleasantly familiar, but at the same time recognizing it still having a fresh feel to the whole thing. 

The premise of this being a revenge tale, set in the near future, involving humans that are upgraded by cybernetics and artificial intelligence, makes this movie automatically awesome. With that said, it's not perfect. The derivative elements might not excite some people, and I know there's one particular plot point in the story that is just a tired piece of writing. There are also some plot conveniences that could have been handled a little better as well. Also, I can't deny that the characters in this movie are generic as heck! 

While the movie isn't necessarily genre-breaking, what happens in this movie will still at least give it a chance to be an instant cult classic. Any scene involving Logan Marshall-Green's character bantering with the Artificial Intelligence named STEM that Simon Maiden voices, are all just quite entertaining to watch. The hand to hand action sequences are just a blast to see on screen. Plus the follow-up camera that is utilized many different times gives this movie a kinetic personality to how it looks. I should also mention that it made the right call of not shying away from showing graphic death scenes, that's also a call back to the violent sci-fi flicks from the 1980s. 

Despite it not being a typical blockbuster of a movie, "Upgrade" was undeniably a very fun science-fiction action flick. By the end of it all, don't be surprised if you find yourself wanting there to be a sequel for you to watch immediately. 

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the tale

First off, kudos to Jennifer Fox for being courageous enough to tell this story about her own experience being sexually molested as a child, but in a fictionalized version of it. Now, right there and then from that first sentence (plus that trailer), you can probably already tell if this is a movie that you yourself want to watch. If you're still unsure if this is for you, let me go ahead and warn you that while it isn't explicitly graphic visually, this movie does not cut away from the actual act put on young Jenny Fox. You're not going to see anything in detail, but you're uncomfortably going to be witness to more than you'd prefer to see and hear. 

Considering the tough subject matter, I have to admit that I was surprised at how this story was not told in a straight forward manner. I was expecting a typical memoir of what happened, but what Jennifer Fox gave us is a much more introspective and very compelling narrative that plays on one of the main themes of this story. Memory. Our memories of our past defines our present life, but our present memories of what happened in the past may not necessarily define it accurately. There are other important themes to tackle here, but it might be better to find out yourself. 

The movie did start off a bit slow and mundane in some regards, but once it got it's proper footing in showing us that the narrative isn't as typical as we thought it would be, that's when it just hooks you into this tale, beyond just the sensitive subject matter. I loved how it showed us the different perspectives of what may or may not have happened, the time jumps between present and past, plus moments where the present day Jenny actually has conversations with young Jenny from the past. Fantastic work by Laura Dern and Isabelle Nelisse, whose roles couldn't have been easy to portray here, what with all the specific nuances to their characters. 

If you weren't already scared enough of the fact that sexual abuse happens more often than we prefer, "The Tale" should give you some additional perspectives on the topic. It's an incredible piece of emotional film-making that should remind you that this isn't a subject matter to be ignorant about. 

Grade : B+ 

P.S. sorry, but I couldn't use my standard loveditenjoyeditlikedit... rating system for this, because how could I possibly say "I enjoyed" a movie about sexual abuse. 

You can watch "The Tale" on HBO  

beast

You may want to watch this movie just for Jessie Buckley alone. Her character of Moll is quite the fascinating person here. Those who have felt neglected or under-appreciated by their family or friends are going to probably relate with her very much, or at least sympathize with her. The roller coaster ride of a journey that she goes through in this movie are filled with many moments where you just hope she is making the correct decisions. Maybe those are decisions you yourself would have made, or maybe not. 

A lot of the drama and tension in the premise does revolve primarily around Moll, but it also owes a lot to the character of Pascal Renouf; played excellently by Johnny Flynn. Moll meets this bad boy of a character, and some huge life changing turn of events happens to her from then on. In the backdrop of that relationship and her own life anxieties, there is also a serial killer on the loose, which only makes things even more complicated. The movie follows these three major elements, Moll herself, her relationship with Pascal, and the presence of this serial killer in their town. 

Written and Directed by Michael Pearce, he has a confident way of telling this story. From the seemingly innocent beginnings that's filled with a sense of caution, the rebellious romance that you're going to want to root for, to the final acts of the movie where you just hope there's a happy ending. There will be a point in this movie that you will definitely want to see how it all plays out until the very last frame of this film. Michael Pearce's direction and Jesse Buckely's Moll are simply going to capture your attention until the end credits roll. 

It's not completely easy to describe "Beast" simply as a drama. Some might call it a psychological thriller, or even a murder mystery. Not to mention the romantic angle to the whole thing, although it's not a "Beauty & The Beast" kind of story; just in case that title makes you think that. I thought the movie has solid pacing, but I can imagine some people getting restless as the plot moves along. The movie also wouldn't work on you if you find yourself not caring for the main character, so that's important. However, I think you will care about Moll, and she will make this movie worth seeing. 

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batman ninja

Positives 
- The art style is pretty cool
- tons of Anime tropes that Anime fans will enjoy

Negatives 
- tons of Anime tropes that Anime fans should be tired of
- animation fluctuates from really good, to lazily made video game style movements
- at certain points the animation becomes a simple slide show... 
- it's overly ridiculous that it doesn't reflect the serious tone of the movie
- plot conveniences to the max! 
- lazy writing all around
- stupid things happen constantly

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solo : a star wars story

If you're looking for a Star Wars movie that isn't going to be heavy on your mind and soul, then you may have found that story here. I'm not saying that it's dumb and that you should leave your brain at the door kind of movie, but let's just say that it isn't going to challenge your perception of the franchise like a certain other Star Wars film. Now before you say that I didn't like the movie, you're wrong. 

As the origin story for Han Solo, this movie did a good job checking off the boxes on certain huge character plot background stories that we've been hearing about him for ages. Some might argue that's all the movie did that was interesting, but that's not entirely true. It's not entirely wrong either. The fact of the matter is that if this story was not made in the Star Wars universe, and didn't have characters we already loved, it's flaws would be more obvious. However it is part of the Star Wars franchise, so flaws be damned, this turned out to be an entertaining film. 

The main reason why this was fun to watch was because Alden Ehrenreich was successful in filling in the shoes of Harrison Ford's Han Solo. Alden is charming as heck in the role, and you would be hard pressed to root against him. Then add the great chemistry he has with the always enjoyable Chewbacca, and you can't go wrong with the pair. Not only that, but the rest of the supporting cast are good in this. Woody Harrelson. Emilia Clarke. Donald Glover. Phoebe Waller-Bridge. All playing characters you want to keep watching on screen. L3-3T in particular is quite the scene stealer. 

I already implied that the story is relatively straight forward, and nothing that will blow up genre films. It simply jumps from plot to plot, action set pieces to action set pieces, and location to another location. To me it felt like I watched 3 or 4 TV episodes, stitched together into one 135 minutes film, and each of those episodes are ninety-percent action scenes. Like I said, it's just not a complicated story, because you are mostly just watching action set pieces. That's fun right? 

It's important to just accept that "Solo : A Star Wars Story" isn't suppose to be this epic look at events that are taking place parallel to other huge events taking place in a galactic space war. If I was to give this movie a label to what it is, then I would say that it's closer to heist films than anything else. If you like heist films, then go see this movie. 

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fahrenheit 451 (2018)

Positives 
- the premise is solid and provocative enough to be incredibly compelling
- some inspired updates to the world building over what was already in the Bradbury classic
- you can't go wrong with Michael Shannon

Negatives 
- a fantastic premise does not automatically make a good movie
- world building is a mixed bag of some amazing things drowned by conveniently lazy writing
- dialogue is hackneyed, and tries to be so profound to the point of being on the nose cliches and heavy handed
- most of the characters are uninteresting one dimensional caricatures
- the movie is kinda stupid and boring multiple times over
- a lot of eye rolling moments abound

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WATCHED IT ON HBO  

deadpool 2

Simply put, if you were a fan of the first Deadpool movie, then there is no reason why you wouldn't want to watch the sequel. It delivers many aspects that you liked from the first movie, plus more. It still has that irreverent self-aware humor, it increased the production budget for more visual effects and locations, introduced a couple of new characters that you will love, gets more ambitious with the plot, tons of cool action sequences, and there's even more Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. 

Let me repeat that last statement from the previous paragraph. "There's even more Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool." I know it's kind of an inside joke that Deadpool doesn't want to share the spotlight with anybody else, but wow was he not kidding. Deadpool almost single handily carries this sequel by hogging almost all of the screen time befitting of the fact his name is the title of this movie. Everyone else are really relegated to supporting characters status. You want more insight and character arcs for the other characters besides Deadpool? Too bad. It's not their movie. So a lot of Deadpool can be seen as a good thing, but depending on what else you want from this sequel, that may be slightly bad too; like if you wanted more of that supporting cast. 

If there are any other characters that remotely comes close to taking some of that spotlight off Deadpool, it's Cable and Domino. Josh Brolin is perfect for the role of Cable, and plays that angry disgruntled relentless violent character excellently. Just don't expect too much more than that. Zazie Beetz is amazing as Domino, and practically steals the movie with every moment she is on screen, as this super confident cool as a cucumber kickass badass of a woman. More of her! More of her! Colossus is also back in this movie, and he's as likable as he was in the previous film. We love you and your moral values Colossus! 

The unconventional crazy story telling, outrageous sense of humor, and how unafraid it is of showing violence in what is technically a comic book super hero movie, is a large part of the charm that is the world of Deadpool. There are definitely several scenes that focus on specific jokes that you will find super entertaining, and that's the high bar of this movie's sense of humor. The low bar are when the jokes don't completely stick the landing, and I will admit that there seems to be more of that in this sequel. Don't get me wrong, it's funny often enough, but the movie didn't feel as consistently funny like the first one felt like it did. 

Despite me pointing out that this isn't as perfect as it could have been; and I also question some of the plot developments, "Deadpool 2" is still an absolutely fun and enjoyable time at the movies. It may be silly and stupid at times, or unnecessarily too serious at other times, but you should find it to be very entertaining nonetheless. 

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