Megalopolis Review

I saw Megalopolis with my Uncle Donald, and here are my thoughts…

In New Rome (a hybrid of New York City, and ancient Rome), Adam Driver plays a futuristic architect who comes into conflict with the Mayor (played by Giancarlo Esposito) about a building development, and the city's future. While the mayor's daughter (played by Nathalie Emmanuel), falls in love with the architect, she tries to be between these two powerful men…

So I was into the first half of this movie. Now it took some getting used to, one of the big influences for Francis Ford Coppola's vision of the film was Shakespeare, and ancient Greek plays. Much of the dialogue and staging tries to reenact the feel of that. Staging for a play and framing for a film is very different, so it can feel a bit stagy at points, but there is a level of craftsmanship involved that makes it intriguing and accessible to the audience. 

I liked the mixing of the two different worlds… Turning Madison Square Garden into a Colosseum. People wear these suit Greek robe business suit hybrid outfits. Or a pop star auctioning off her virginity to appease a fertility goddess… Kind of like Baz Luhrmann’s, Romeo and Juliet, but a little bit more cohesive and creative and less bombastic.

Adam Driver does a good job. His character of a tortured artist and visionary, who is solitary and has a drug habit to escape his demons can be a bit prickly to feel sympathy for… It’s hard to connect to someone so aloof. But Adam Driver is a talented actor, and while there are a few hurdles he must jump, he crosses more than he doesn’t and does a good job.

Nathalie Emmanuel is the real heart of the movie… she has this angelic way of acting and speaking that conveys a lot of compassion, understanding, love, and hope. Now her character arc from a spoiled party girl to an angelic beam of hope is a bit quick, but Nathalie gives the most nuance and maybe my favorite performance of the film, so that was nice. 

Giancarlo Esposito is one of those actors who is always enjoyable and good in whatever project is in and this is no different. He and his daughter both do very good New York accents?

Shia LaBeouf is basically auditioning to be the MCU Green Goblin in this film. At first, he just comes off as a spoiled rich boy, but threw out so much in this movie, that he’s just cackling and scheming and just acting crazy. He literally says at one point “Revenge is best while wearing a dress, he-he-he-he-he”, like get this man a glider, and have him go fight Spider-Man.

Aubrey Plaza is fun in a '60s Batman villain meets evil “Bond girl” sort of way, I mean she turns up the sexy Machiavellian scenery chewing femme fatale vibe up to 11.

This movie has a big cast with many characters… maybe too many. There are just so many recognizable people who go in and out of the movie. For example, they’ll set up one character to be a big thing, and then halfway through there just gone. Or another character gets set up and then disappears for chunks. Also, strange choices like Shia LaBeouf’s three sisters, who are also friends with Nathalie are said to be sleeping with their brother, but one also might be sleeping with Nathalie… that’s introduced but doesn’t really go anywhere.

Chloe Fineman is in the movie in a small part, and she’s enjoyable

There are some interesting metaphors at work, like they’re driving through an impoverished town, and Greek statues are looking tired and disheveled, and it’s a big allegory for failing justice… stuff like that can come off a bit heavy-handed, but it’s one of the things that “your mileage may vary”. There were some I enjoyed.

Now I liked the first half, it definitely was different, but still interesting… Then things just kind of go off the rails.

The second half just gets scatterbrained. Now Francis Ford Coppola has been working on this movie for decades, he had the idea in the early 80s and tried to get it going, tried to restart it in 2001, and it has finally made it now… and the last hour or so, it’s just what Francis Ford Coppola thinks about things that happened in America over the last 25 years… There’s a natural disaster that makes a lot of allusions to 9/11, the Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza subplot turns into her metaphor for the housing market crisis and Wall Street, and there are literal riots with people wearing red caps, which are clear references to MAGA and the tea party. Now real-life things influencing your work are one thing, but squeezing in the highlights of the last 20 years of American event plot points just muddies the water of the story you’re trying to tell, some wrapping up as quickly as soon as it is introduced.

This is the textbook definition of an “art house” movie, there are tons of these trippy and abstract images set to violin music while characters pontificate about their emotions in a beat poetry-type way… The only thing it was missing was a black-and-white scene with a woman talking in French. It very much goes for the mood and feel of the narrative storytelling which again… Your mileage may vary.

Characters start talking in this flowery poetry-like dialogue, which may sound nice and intellectual but becomes a bit repetitive and highfalutin. It's just a lot of pontificating on the themes and thoughts Francis Ford Coppola has about life, art, humanity, and the future, and you like… OK, where are we going with all this? Making a movie based on your feelings as an artist and human being is fine, but that’s better suited for a documentary, trying to weave all these different thoughts and feelings into a narrative film is like trying to put a square block in a round hole. I just kept feeling “You’re biting off all these big pieces of pie and you’re not finishing them all and just stuffing the movie with them, and it’s giving the audience a tummy ache”. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was going to be a miniseries or if there was a 4 to 6-hour cut of the film that got trimmed down to a little over two hours.

Also, Adam Driver’s character can stop time which doesn’t really affect the plot much. Like he’ll stop time and be like… That was nice.

I do like the cinematography, the heavenly gold lighting is nice to look at, and many of the shots are constructed to look artistic and colorful, true “cinema”

craftsmanship, which I appreciate.

Some of the green screens can come off a bit like “Attack of the Clones” at points, back when the technology was new and rough around the edges, but others can be quite beautiful, I respect a lot of the filmmaking craftsmanship put into the film.

So overall… While I appreciate the fact that Francis Ford Coppola got to make the exact movie he wanted to make, swing for the Fences creatively and narratively on a duvet of this scale… I appreciate the effort more than the product. The film just has too many ideas going on and too loose a narrative structure to be satisfying in a major way. While the actors give the performances they’re all and can be rather entertaining in parts. the characters could’ve used a bit more development. And to quote Peter Griffin in his thoughts on The Godfather… “it insists upon itself, Lois, insist upon itself”.

I give it an encouraging two stars ⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed aspects of the film, but overall it was just kind of a mess. But I’m happy that Francis Ford Coppola had one of his dream projects come true, I hope I can be so lucky someday. So while the product might not be for me, I am happy for him, and that creative risks can still be taken.

The Killer’s Game

 

I saw The Killer’s Game, and here are my thoughts…

Dave Bautista plays Joe, a hitman who wants to retire after meeting a girl… but then puts a hit on himself after being diagnosed with a fatal disease… unfortunately, he was misdiagnosed and he has to fight off the killers coming after him.

Joe is a typical action hero, he has a certain set of skills, which he has acquired after a very long career. Plus he’s a nice guy, only killing evil criminals for a secret assassin organization called “The Game”. 

The film could have been a John Wick spin-off, it has a similar slick colorful style, a quiet, brooding, but kind-hearted hero, a secret group of assassins, and cool hand-to-hand combat and gunplay.

Dave Bautista is a likable lead, he kicks a lot of butt in the action scenes, is sweet in the romantic scenes, and has a nice sense of humor for moments of levity.

Sofia Boutella plays his love interest, and she’s very natural and sweet in the role, plus she and Batista have great chemistry, you like them as a couple.

The first half of this movie feels like a slice-of-life romantic drama, with action touches. Ben Kingsley plays Joe’s hitman agent, he and Batista seem like excellent friends and bounce well off each other. Also props to Alex Kingston, who plays Ben Kingsley’s wife, she’s not in the movie much, but she is a hoot and makes the most of her screen time.

This movie feels like two parts, and I was digging the first half of this movie. While very boilerplate plot-wise (we’ve all seen plenty of action movies where there is a guy who’s got skills and he’s got a kick a lot of ass to save loved ones), this film had style, well-done action, plus the romance was very down to earth and cute in a non-schmaltzy way, it was cute in an innocent way.

Then about halfway through, once the hit went out, it took a shift… before I get there, I should mention the main villainess, Pom Klementieff as Marianna Antoinette. She’s another assassin agent who Joe asks to put the hit on himself, and she’s happy too because he killed (__insert generic loved one here__). Again, you’ve seen this cliche in other action movies, but it’s what you do with them that matters, and for the most part, this movie makes them fun. For example, Antoinette does the villain cliche of “I’ll get you Joe”, “I’ll hire every badass on this continent to hunt you down”, and even the old Chestnut off “even he can’t fight off an army“ threats, but Pom makes a meal out of her scenery chewing, and like a roller coaster, you’re enjoying the ride.

But once Antoinette shows up, her scenery-chewing affects the rest of the movie. Because she calls tons of assassins, and in this world, to be an effective assassin… you have to have a gimmick. We get drunk Irish brothers, two gun-toting strippers, to even a smooth Spaniard who slices deviance by salsa dancing… they all feel like they should be auditioning as Batman villains. 

And this half really lens into the comedy aspects, which gave me some chuckles. Joe definitely has his Arnold Schwarzenegger moments by saying a few classic one-liners, and while a couple of them were high-rolling, some of these would put a proud tear into Arnie’s eyes. 

But other stuff just feels like we’re in a knockoff Quentin Tarantino, Guy, Ritchie, or Robert Rodriguez movie… with funky music and title cards to introduce new characters, the assassins having “jokey stick” with each other, and funny death scenes that’ll go “you son of a… BANG”. It all just feels like you’ve seen this before in other movies.

Terry Crews is also in the movie, and I liked him, everybody loves Terry Crews. But he is paired with this Wigger sidekick for flimsy reasons, and they try to have a mismatch comedy duo thing with them but there's not great material for them to work with. Plus they’re not given a whole lot of screen time together, so honestly, this subplot could’ve been cut. It’s like they wanted someone for Terry Crews to work off of and facilitate a plot point, but it didn’t really pan out as hoped 

These parts can be hit or miss, (I had more hits than misses personally), but it’s defiantly a “your mileage may vary” thing, and I definitely felt a tonal shift compared to the more grounded feeling of the first half, I think the movie would’ve been stronger they had stuck with one tone throughout, or leave them throughout better. I liked both tones, but they were definitely different so the contrast was noticeable.

I will say the action does kick in high gear during this half, and if you’re a fan of the genre, you will definitely be entertained. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but I like Joe… it gets the job done.

The movie does wrap itself up rather quickly like things start going “and then this happens and then this happens, then this happens” in rapid fire, and feels more like plot points than character progression.

Then the movie just sort of goes “And that’s that”, it felt rather anti-climactic. It was like they looked at their watches and went “Oh crap, we have two days left to film, Go go go, wrap it up”. 

There is one character that shows up towards the end that did give me some good laughs, and props to the actor on that one.

This movie is a standard action movie. While it entertain me and filled its ass-kicking, shotgun-blasting, big explosion quota… at a certain point it just started going by the “guy kicks ass in movies” handbook and hit all the familiar beats it needed to, maybe if it had a stronger ending and then a little bit more character work towards the end, it could have turned some of these stale ideas into a reheated pizza (fun and filling), but for now it’s just one of those movies that on a lazy Saturday, if you come across on the Sci-Fi Network, and you just wanna watch some ass kicking… you’ll have a good time 

I give somewhere between low three stars and height two stars ⭐️⭐️ or ⭐️⭐️⭐️… the cast, style, and action really carried the flick, but that script needed some buffering and polishing.

The Substance Review

I saw The Substance, here are my thoughts…

The Substance tells the story of Demi Moore as Elizabeth Sparkles, a Hollywood starlet whose fame is fading after hitting 50… She is then informed of a substance that would create a younger, better version of herself. We then see what happens when she takes it…

This movie is like if David Cronenberg wanted to make a Twilight Zone episode in the style of Michael Bay.

The sound design is easily the best thing about this film. You hear every little creek, croak, moan, snap, crackle, pop, sounds you haven’t heard before. The sound mixers should get an Oscar or at least a nomination.

There are a lot of extreme close-ups, like there’s one scene with Dennis Quaid, it looks like he’s about to kiss the camera because we go right in his face. I went from Dylan to Dillon in that moment, “You’re too close man, you’re too close” lol. But that feels intentional by the filmmakers like they’re commenting on society's beauty standards, and how people are obsessed with people's looks and it’s always in your face with billboards and TV, so they like “OK, we’re literally gonna be in your face, look at all these pores and crevices”. Which I thought was kind of an interesting way to visually explain their theme, it definitely felt like something different.

Now I have not seen Demi Moore’s complete filmography, but her as Elizabeth Sparkles is easily one of her best performances. She has to portray a lot of intense and raw emotions, some unflattering, and do some wild things throughout that will make people uneasy, while also keeping you sympathetic to her she really put herself out there in a lot of ways and is successful at it. I hope she gets a lot of recognition and awards for the role.

Margaret Qualley plays Sue, and over the last year, I’ve been seeing this actress pop up again and again in these quirky indie films giving interesting performances, and it’s the same thing here. She has to play very bubbly and enticing, while at points hitting those same level of raw emotion that Demi is hitting. These two performances have to work well off each other, and, I think the two actresses play each other nicely.

Dennis Quaid gives a fun performance, it’s very over the top and scenery chewing. Dude was like a sleazy game show host mixed with Yosemite Sam at pints, but he was entertaining in a creepy cartoonish-ness sort of way.

I don’t know who does the voice for the substance commercial within the flick, but that guy got a cool, smooth voice. I had to check Wikipedia, just to make sure it wasn’t Stephen Blum (a famous voice actor, for people I don’t know)

There is a subtle “sterile 80’s beer commercials” to everything that adds to the tension in an uncomfortable and “this will not end well/monkey paw” kind of way. 

Some parts are definitely going to make you feel uncomfortable, whether it’s a performance by a character or a sound design or the visuals, but it’s for artistic merit, so it’s not just weird for weirdness's sake, there is a reason for it.

Unfortunately, I do think the movie runs a bit too long. If they had cut a half hour out of this, and made it a little tighter, it would be something really special. That being said,

it is hard to say what to cut exactly, but I do think it runs a tad too long and would’ve packed more punch if it was shorter by about 30 minutes.

The film has a lot of two things… nudity and body horror. Now that the first one is a mileage may vary situation. I will say 95% of it is not sexual, more of the character “just so happens” to be naked while performing tasks, and again they are leading to a parallel with it, but just be prepared to see a lot of skin in this movie. 

But that body horror… now it’s impressive throughout, and I would say while definitely significant, I don’t think it will drive away the general audience unless you just have a super aversion to that sort of thing… Until that ending. BOY oh boy, does this thing go full Troma or a Brian Yuzna nightmare with those effects. Some of you might not know what I’m talking about, but let me just say without giving anything away… I would not recommend eating during this movie, or else, you’ll be wondering if they sell Pepto-Bismol at concessions, even I squirmed in my seat at points… so beware.

You can tell the director (Coralie Fargeat) is very much influenced by Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, certain shots feel very reminiscent or callbacks to shots from their work, which I only really noticed because I watch a lot of movies, so for regular viewers wouldn’t notice it. Sometimes it can feel a bit blatant with the reference, but with this movie… everything else is as blatant as a Mike Tyson knockout, so no harm or foul.

This movie explores themes of aging, how we view our bodies, self-worth, self-esteem, and what society places on beauty… for the most part I think they’re handled well. There are some points you wanna give Demi Moore’s character a smack on the forehead for making dumb decisions, but given what she’s going through and her feelings, you can see where she’s coming from, not necessarily agree but you understand it.

I also thought they made some interesting comparisons between the bodies' hotness and grossness. That both are extremes, yet people act extreme in two different ways, depending on which one, even though both are gratuitous… if you see the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Interesting soundtrack, sometimes it’s very industrial, other part sound like you’re at a rave. 

This is a hard movie to recommend to people I don’t know if it’s for general audiences just because of some of the places it goes, this definitely isn’t a movie to watch with your parents. Now that being said, I do believe there is enough entertainment, interesting themes, and creativity, that if you are aware that you are going to see something strange and unusual, you might enjoy how out of the box it is. Just be aware you were going to be watching something that for better or worse, you’re gonna remember… then again, I watch all types of crazy movies, so what do I know? lol

Personally, I think I would give this movie, a low for stars… the entire cast gives strong and very impressive performances, it oozes creativity (figuratively and literally), and is unique, memorable, and re-watchable (although I might be a while, I need to detox lol). However, while I do really like the movie, I think I would’ve loved the film if it was 30 minutes shorter… I could see my opinion changing a watch, but will just have to wait and see ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Speak No Evil Review

 

I saw Speak No Evil, here are my thoughts…

After meeting on vacation, a couple invites another couple to stay at their English cottage, and then things get awkward and dark, brought on by a kid who can’t speak and is acting weird…

Now this is one of those movies I can’t say much about. Part of the enjoyment comes from seeing how everything unfolds, so I recommend you go into this movie as blind as possible, but here are my basic thoughts…

So I would categorize this movie as a thriller. Still, a lot of the thrill doesn’t necessarily come from scares, but from awkward social situations (like a weird glance, uncomfortable comment, or overly insistent), so watching the movie feels as if "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was a horror movie. In the sense that, how that show explores comedy in mundane social situations, this one explores horror and thrills. It helps make the movie feel unique and stand out from other films in the genre.

James McAvoy is a beast in this movie, not just because he got jacked for the role, but while he comes off as fun-loving and charming, there’s underlining “aggressive with kindness” to everything he does, if that makes sense. Plus he’s almost guerrilla-like in his performance, like he’s always touching people and turning on a dime (although to his credit, he can turn quickly on a dime so you don’t see it coming), he’s one of my favorite actors working right now, because he’s always so committed and unpredictable in his roles.

I would say the whole cast does a great job. Mackenzie Davis, as strange as a comment this is, she really good at playing a mom. And by that I mean, she’s got to balance handling all the crazy stuff coming at her while also being protective and not freaking out her kid, and she rides that line very well, and comes off natural with a lot of good micro reactions to the situation she’s in. 

Also, she and her husband, played by Scoot McNairy, have a very natural “couple fight” in the film. You can tell they’re going through something and it’s rough, but they’re working on it. I’ve seen films where they really try to milk the drama out of those types of scenes, and I appreciated it feeling more underplayed, it helped it feel like a real argument couples have.

Now there are certain parts where red flags are waving, and you as the audience member thinking “Get Out!!! Run!!!”, it could be frustrating that the main characters don’t run for the hills and never look back. Now granted, they do explain why and give reasons, and while sometimes  I was slapping my forehead going “Really dude?!”, I understood where they were coming from, and as far as these “keep the plot going” excuses go… these were valid, or at least made more sense than some others I’ve seen, but that’s a mileage may vary situation.

Scoot McNairy gives a very subtle but good performance. His character is more reserved and is definitely going through an internal crisis, so while not as “showy” as some other performances, he does a lot of internal acting and subtle reactions that fit the character and make you sympathetic towards him… Now at some parts, you are definitely thinking “Why are you not reacting to these warning signs?” or “Why are you acting this way bro?”, but it’s more intentional than bad writing, so I’m able to roll with it.

I gotta give a lot of credit to the kid that plays the mute boy. He must be between 10 and 12 and I don’t know what kind of life this kid had but he is really good at conveying that this character has seen some shit in their life, and the fact that he’s able to draw such heavy emotions at such a young age is really impressive.

Aisling Franciosi who plays James McAvoy’s wife, had a very interesting role in the film. At first, she comes off as very like free loving and sweet, but as the film progresses, more information comes out, and they make insinuations about her and James McAvoy's past that get really dark and really add a lot of layers to her character that on paper is hard to pull off, but she does a really interesting job at portraying it, it keeps you guessing on what exactly her position in the whole situation is.

The actress that plays Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy’s daughter has a lot of emotional scenes. Her characters deal with a lot of anxiety, which can be hard for any kid actors to convey, but she does a very convincing job, also, considering how much of it she has to show throughout the movie.

The movie has a very slow build, which is very well executed. It almost starts out as like a family drama/comedy, then the tension ratchets up slowly, eking in more and more and it gets really heavy. Then when some information drops, it gets really tense and nail-biting about what’s going to happen, and the filmmakers are really good about milking that. Finally, when things really pop off, you’re really on the edge of your seat wondering what’s gonna happen. 

The filmmaking, while nothing flashy, is very effective in its presentation. There are interesting ideas, like filming certain scenes  to make it feel like you're watching a “handheld slasher scene” for that subtle extra tension, the way editing cuts back and forth when people are having a disagreement, and certain parts in the middle where things are at their most stressed almost come off like an Alfred 

Hitchcock movie

In the third act, while things are definitely dire and intense, I appreciate how grounded and realistic things unfolded. 

I can’t say what they are, but there are two songs in this movie I gotta take a break from because boy this movie put a “Jordan Peele” type spin on them lol

So this movie is very much a tense thriller, there are interesting “dark comedy” bits, and how it explores social awkwardness is impressive, but at the end of the day it didn’t reinvent the wheel as far as thrillers go, and it didn’t have to. It it came, did its job (effectively I would add), and entertained, so it accomplished what it set out to do. So if thrillers aren’t your thing, this won’t change your mind, but if you’re looking for like a movie, that’s gonna give you surprises and a roller coaster feel on what’s going to happen, this is a great one to watch.

I give it four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review

I saw Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and here are my thoughts…

Beetlejuice returns to pull deviant mischief on the Deetz family while dealing with new characters…

So the best thing about this movie is the look. The sets, ghosts, creatures, lighting, and color grading are FULL Tim Burton. It’s so unique, colorful, and imaginative, and it rides that line between creepy and fun, perfectly, like the best haunted house.

Michael Keaton, no pun intended, kills it in the role. He has so much energy, comedic, timing, and carefree menace, it’s like he didn’t miss a beat over the last 36 years.

The entire cast brought their A-game. Catherine O’Hare is constantly hilarious, and Jenna Ortega continues to show her range as an up-and-coming actress (she could very easily be the next Emma Stone). Winona Ryder continued to be a great audience surrogate for all this craziness, bringing realism to this “undead circus”.

My favorite new character is Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson, a former actor turned undead, detective. he has some good, almost (again, no pun intended) deadpanned comedy. Plus, he has a subtle, recurring gag with his assistant, which I found very funny and clever.

Monica Bellucci is very striking as Beetlejuice's “Bride of Frankenstein esque“ ex-wife. You can you can tell she’s having a blast in the role.

It was nice seeing Justin Theroux again, it’s been a while, but he got a lot of comedic mileage out of playing a “pompous fame and self-obsessed new age shady dude”.

Danny Elfman does a very in theme and fun score, plus some cool more recognizable songs are incorporated.

I think my favorite scene is either a musical number towards the end, in which a lot of the cast get to show off their comedic chops in a fun way, or a “Beetlejuice origin” scene which feels ripped out of a 1960's Mario Bava horror movie. In the same way, Fede Alvarez studied the feel of Alien for Alien: Romulus, you can really tell Tim Burton's love and knowledge of those films because he captures them perfectly.

The voodoo head dudes with the big bodies were also fun, in a “ fun mascot type minions” kind of way, I feel like the younger viewers will get a kick out of them.

The character of Charles Deetz is in the movie, which they do think of a clever and kind of fun way to work around the whole “Jeffrey Jones situation”… for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, just Google it, he did some very bad things.

Unfortunately, there is a noticeable flaw with the movie storyline, or should I say “storylines”, namely, there’s way too much stuff going on in this movie. It’s like the writers came to Tim Burton and said “ok, we have six possible storylines for the movie, which ones do you want to focus on”, And Tim Burton said “Yes”, and they said “Yes to what?" and he said “all of them”. 

You got that Lydia and Astrid having tension storyline, you got Lydia dealing with her shady boyfriend storyline, you got Beetlejuice and his ex-wife storyline, you got Astrid developing a romance storyline, you have a Charles Deetz storyline, you got Beetlejuice and Lydia storyline, you got Wolf Jackson running around, Delia it’s up to shenanigans, and even hijinks happens with the voodoo guys that never comes back around.

Plus, two things happened in this movie that should be like big emotional or at least feel more important scenes, but just gonna come off as “ Well, this is nice”, and “Oh darn… ah well”. It could be the case, that, for the characters involved (and the knowledge of this world afterlife) how they react can be explained and fit within their characters, but even so it does feel like we should’ve gotten more out of it, but that could just be a personal thing with me.

But that’s kind of the problem with having all these storylines, things should feel more developed and have more payoff, but instead things feel underdeveloped or rushed a long because we’re trying to fit a certain runtime, which messed with the pacing. Not too bad, because I was never bored, but it definitely fell off.

Now to be fair this is a comedy, and there are plenty of comedies I love (like Animal House or Back to School) that are basically a bunch of different skits and scenarios thinly held together by a shoestring plot, but the first Beetlejuice movie had more ideas and stories going on than those films, so it does seem like a setback.

Plus they’ll spend big chunks in the movie building something up and then be like “Well that’s over now” and it’s like “That was anticlimactic”.

So on paper, this movie is scatterbrained and should not work as well as it does, but there’s just a unique charm and fun to the movie that while watching it, I found the storylines interesting, so you can’t help but have a good time.

Overall the movie has a lot of imagination, doesn’t take itself seriously, and is fun in a refreshing way (despite its flaws) which is pulled off mostly by the cast's dedication and strong skills as actors.

I give it a low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alien: Romulus review (SPOILERS)

So I saw Alien: Romulus hear my thoughts: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!… SPOILERS AHEAD!!!… SPOILERS AHEAD!!!… SPOILERS AHEAD!!!… don’t say I didn’t warn you lol 

So there’s a bunch of young adults who live on this planet with no sun, tons of diseases, and crappy, hard labor corporate jobs, who sneak up on a space station to steal sleeping pods so they can escape this nice planet nine years away (hence why they need the pods so they can just). They run into some face-huggers in Aliens… and, shenanigans ensue.

So I really loved the opening scene during the credits, it felt like creepy 70s Steven Spielberg, à la Close Encounters, you can tell Fede Alvarez has a deep love for Alien and went over every detail with a fine toothcomb because he is gotten every little aesthetic choice to feel like that original film and the direction was just so on point to feel like when were classic films but also bring a modern creepiness to it… I will say, while the rest of the film is never on that level, it’s not that much of a step down, It’s still very high in quality, and the aesthetic never wavers. I am convinced there was a substantial amount of miniature work for the spaceships and such, and I really appreciated that.

The best character in this movie was Andy, the actor gave a great performance, he was likable and the subtle changes to the “updated” version were very well done, and there’s a lot of tension with wondering if you could trust him or not after a certain point. I also like Rain (the main girl), it took me some time to like her since throughout the movie she’s just sad, which I would be to living on this planet but it’s like she was hitting the same note over and over and it just got repetitive, but I eventually came around to her, she had some pretty cool moments, and by the end, I was rooting for her, so I must’ve liked her if I want her to live… And the rest of the cast is fine, nothing bad and they all gave solid performances, but the characters are just underwritten and feel very one note. You have the handsome leader dude, the jerk guy, the nice lady, and the pilot girl… Notice I didn’t use any names because even when you’re watching the movie, you’ll probably forget them.

So when the second android popped up, I saw from the back of my head and thought… that kind of looks like Ash from the original, that’s probably a fun Easter egg. Then they go and restart him and at first you kind of see him in shadow and far away and I’m like “Oh, cool, they’re doing the in-world thing of the robots looking like, so of course one looks like Ash from the original, clever use of continuity”. And it’s good at first… They like to show him directly with good lighting and it’s like “Oh we’re in the uncanny valley”… now I will say overall, I thought the effect looked good, whenever it was far away, his face was in shadow, or on a monitor screen, I thought wow this is really convincing but whenever they showed him with like good lighting straight on, you can definitely tell it was CGI fakery. It was cool to see that Easter egg, but I thought maybe they could’ve filmed it in a way so it wasn’t so obvious with the CGI. I will say they do get the worst shots out of the way first so the more the movie goes on the better it.

I liked a lot of the creepy imagery like all the weird sexual vagina penis interconnective goopy alien anatomy was very well done with the special effects, I’m telling you this guy has to direct a Clive Barker movie, he gets the feel of those movies perfectly.

A lot of practical aliens, and they were always shot to be the most creepy, I love that shot of them all running towards that one guy with the strobe lights, plus I really felt like the haunted house creature, the aliens always look scary, top-notch

They were a lot of fun set pieces, I would not be surprised if during Halloween Universal did some of these as a haunted attraction, like walking through, and not making noise while things jump out at you, you are trying to avoid getting misted by “Acid”, I feel like the attraction writes itself

I will say the movie does have a little bit of throwback kinks… Like reusing certain lines, or plot beets and Easter eggs, not the worst I’ve seen and mostly good, but there are definitely some moments that I was rolling my eyes. “Yes, I get the callback.”… in space no one can hear you scream, but they can definitely hear you roll your eyes lol

The movie also has a bit of a “greatest hits feel”, like it wasn’t a bad story or badly told, but it was a lot of things we had seen before just remix in a new way so not bad, but just nothing too fresh feeling.

There was one thing in this movie that I thought was ridiculous, so the jerk guy tries to destroy this like “vagina cocoon” the alien is in and it doesn’t go well and acid starts falling on Jerk Guy and he eventually dies… but he’s just laying there while acid is falling on him for a few good seconds. So you’re just sitting there going “dude roll!!!! Why are you just laying there? Get out of the acid”. Maybe you can make the case that he was just in a lot of pain and couldn’t move, but I feel like at a certain point with all the acid falling on him, his animal instinct would kick in and he just get out the way for self preservation.

So let’s talk about the ending… Wow… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. They pulled an Alien Resurrection with that ending… 

So I’ve been hearing some reviews about mixed feelings at the climax, nothing particular, but I know it was divisive, so I guessed maybe it was either gonna be revealed that this girl was Ripley’s daughter, or maybe the long shot of David (Michael Fassbender’s character from previous movies) popping back up for a cameo… so when they introduce the idea black life goo and it mutates people I thought “maybe they were going to retcon this is where the queen alien came from like humanity accidentally created the Queen and made them with a Xenomorph more dangerous by creating a creature that reproduces with a Xenomorph”. Plus, maybe they were trying to explain how in the director cut of Alien, where they show that humans who are captured by the alien become eggs that aliens are born from, so this is like a meta-way to patch up how that version can be in canon but also line up with Aliens. So it’s an interesting idea (greedy corporation wants some kind of ultimate weapon, but they end up making the weapon more powerful and turning against them. Monkey's paw twist, kind of way) but I know that kind of lore meddling could upset people, so in like “maybe that’s what is divisive”.

So the nice girl is pregnant and is hurt during the escape and takes that life and puts it into herself and then her body starts to mutate and then her baby is born in an egg… so when the egg hatches, see a little baby white face coming out. Then once we saw the face of the baby in the egg, I’m like “Wait a minute, are they going where I think they’re going?” Then, when you finally see the creature, I realized they were doing the same white-skinned Human/Alien hybrid idea from Alien Resurrection, just nuts

I mean, I like Alien Resurrection, but that kind of killed a franchise for a while, and when the series came back they did separate movies to distance themselves (Alien vs Predator, Prometheus), so bringing back the same wild white baby Human Alien idea that follows the original idea so closely would be like if they bring Kid Cudi to play a reality TV host to kung fu fight Michael Myers in the next Halloween movie, or Warner Brothers made a Batman movie that’s a little more lighthearted, where Batman, Robin, and Batgirl have to fight Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Bane… it’s like wow we’re doing THIS again, the thing you lost big on, you’re going to give it another shot… but I think I respect it, and take some tenacity to try a controversial idea again so points to you.

I do like the look of the creature, it’s a creepy and creative design, and the overall scene is fun but it’s again one of those backs of Rain in her skivvies, then having to put on a spacesuit and fighter creature after she thought she got away… Like in the original. Now that’s one of those callbacks where it’s it feels like “we’ll We’re in an Alien movie so we have to hit these beats on a checklist again”, like when you’re watching “The Godfather” movie and we have to have some sort of opening ceremony where we meet all the characters, not necessarily because it needs to be, but that’s what The Godfather movies do… You know what I mean?

So overall, I had fun with this movie for its aesthetic, the craft put into it, the creepy horror with the phallic imagery, the haunted house in space, cool alien creatures, and even somebody's body horror elements. I thought the cast was fine, but the two standouts were Cailee Spaeny & David Jonsson, and while feeling like a bit of the greatest hits and had more Easter eggs in it than an Easter egg hunt at church, it didn’t hurt the overall story too badly. Overall it was entertaining, it certainly was a fun ride and will give any alien fan what they’re looking for… I give four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️