The Monkey 🐵 review

 

A man is drawn back into his family drama, which involves secrets, grisly murders… And a monkey.

This movie is marketed as a regular horror movie, but it’s more of a dark pitch-black comedy/horror movie. There are so many bloody, over-the-top deaths that are both horrifying and hilarious. It’s like Final Destination meets The Evil Dead, but also what if Death were the Three Stooges lol?

Theo James is really good in the movie playing twins, and is really good at making them both distinct and both sympathetic and kind of not the same time… It makes him interesting characters, and you’re not sure where the story will go.

I like the actor who plays the main character.

son (Pete) He’s good about playing but never seems annoying or too mopey, plus he’s really good at humor. This actor (Colin O’Brien) has a bright future ahead of him.

Tatiana Maslany is an actress I like, who is in the film. I wish you’d been in more, but she knows how to ride that line between heartfelt, tragic, and funny at the same time, plus that girl knows how to scream.

Osgood Perkins is one of those directors who knows how to ride the line between artistic, dreamlike imagery while also having good pacing and down-to-earth, funny characters, so it’s the best of both worlds.

The beginning of the film takes place in the late 90s or very early 2000s, and they did a really good job of capturing the vibe and fashion of the time.

I like the design of the monkey; I don’t know if they designed it specifically for the movie, but it’s definitely memorable and looks… Bananas 🍌

I like the use of color and cinematography, it was very splashy and colorful.

This has nothing to do with the movie, but the aunts house in the film was in Dirk Gently Season 2, Elijah Wood was the star of that show, and has Elijah Wood in a small role in the movie, so that’s a funny coincidence.

There is this side character who is funny and has a very distinct look, but their overall role in the stories is kind of just to accomplish two things and… That’s about it… Like, the character's inclusion feels more like plot convenience than anything else, but the actor brings some nice levity to the role, so I enjoyed the character; he was a barrel of laughs lol.

Also, there is a post-credit scene… It has nothing to do with the actual movie but just sets up the director's next film, which looks interesting. That’ll be a cool thing for directors to do, revealing the teasers for the next movie at the end of their last movie.

The monkey is very straightforward; either people are trying to destroy a monkey or are killed by a monkey in very over-the-top, funny, and bloody ways. If any of that sounds appealing, then I definitely think you’ll go bananas 🍌 for the film. I give it four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Captain America: Brave New World Review

I finally saw Captain America: Brave New World, and here are my thoughts…

So I’ve been a little hesitant to see this movie just because it’s beginning to get SO MUCH negative reception, and after seeing it, I can safely say… it’s a mixed bag. 

This movie has some serious high-quality moments and some serious lows, like this thing is more scattered in quality than dropping a car engine off the Empire State Building… like everything is all over the place lol. 

Anthony Mackey is very likable as Sam Wilson. He’s funny, smart, caring, and down-to-earth; he makes a very likable hero with strong convictions that makes you root for his character… Plus, he has some pretty fun fight scenes. I should start calling him “Jumpy,” because every fight move he made when he was facing off against one, he’d find some reason to put a jump kick move in.

I like the villain… Without spoiling anything, I don’t know why he’s here of all places, and they tease some cool plot ideas that would have been very cool to see in another character’s movie, but for ridiculous reasons I can’t get those, so… I have to make do. I can certainly think of a better place he would be, but again… No spoilers; the look, ideas behind the character, and the performance were all good.

Carl Lumley can’t poop after this movie because he acts his ass off. He and Harrison Ford are the best things about this movie; Harrison Ford gives one of the most layered and emotionally complex character performances in the MCU. Even you as the audience aren’t sure where his character stands and his motivation. 

Shira Haas as Ruth was a fun and mysterious character. I wish she had more to do in the movie or at least in future projects because she’s cool. 

The movie has fun action. The special effects look incredible; they mix up fight and defense ideas so something exciting is always going on, and the cinematography looks stunning. As far as bringing comic book visuals to the big screen, this movie is one of the better examples of it liking realistic and cool. 

They work in some things from the streaming shows, and if you’ve been paying attention, it’s kind of cool… If you haven’t been keeping up, it might make some viewers feel lost, but not too bad. 

There is some cheesy dialogue and clunky exposition. The actors charisma and humor helped pull most of it off, but it could have been improved. I don’t blame the actors and writers for this; the movie just had too many cooks in the kitchen watching different things. 

The story feels like it started as one thing, then the plot changed to another, then another, then a TV show, another character came in, the story was changed to a Marvel “let’s tie up these loose ends” idea, brought back the original idea, all that other stuff, and recycled some old ideas into the plot and characters. Add this villain, add this Hulk, give it about 12 reshoots, and boom… there is your movie. 

The movie is a bit of a catch-up as far as coming back around to previous movies post-credit scenes and plots as a way to connect everything, which I appreciate the thought and creativity of, but it does make the plot a bit scattershot. 

There is one cameo I dug; it was interesting and had some fun future implications. 

The MCU has a serious problem of hiring these amazing actors who can give layered and memorable performances, and they underutilize them in small roles. Like, you got Giancarlo Esposito; he could’ve been a perfect Mr. Sinister or Norman Osborn, would’ve knocked that performance out of the park, but you give him this, and it’s like… that’s it? 

The ending was a bit anti-climactic, like they had a climax, then added another to make it more thrilling. 

I most enjoyed the spy thriller aspect, taking fantastical ideas and mixing real-world politics with time; that was very intriguing and felt fresh. 

This movie is kind of a Frankenstein of ideas, themes, influences, cooks in the kitchen, and feeling like a movie and a TV show episode at the same time… This leads to a very mixed page experience. 

The movie works better in moments than as a whole, but there are some well-done moments here. 

Brave New World isn’t as bad as people say, but there are problems here, and I get people’s frustration; maybe it will be reevaluated in 20 years… I give it 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I know Marvel has said they are course correcting, and all the things I liked seemed to have come from the reshoots, so it makes me look forward to the next two Marvel movies this year. 

Heart Eyes 😍 Review

 

I just got back from seeing Heart Eyes 😍😍 and let me tell you… it was Eye-mazing ❤️👁️❤️👁️😂

The trailers show this to be a sort of more straightforward slasher flick with some comedy, but this is more like a meta-movie. The same Scream was a meta-movie about horror films, Unforgiven was a meta-film about westerns, and all Shane Black films, but especially Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, are meta-buddy films/detective noir. Heart Eyes is a meta-deconstruction and then affirmation of classic 1930s and screwball comedies and many other tropes within the romantic genre, but it also mixes that with horror that it uses to highlight certain tropes in the romance genre.

 

Olivia Holt is so vulnerable and funny, and Mason Gooding could very easily become the next Cary Grant or Michael B. Jordan because that kid is so smooth. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was made of butter lol.

 

I really like the slasher Heart Eyes; this dude is prepared and methodical. If Art the Clown is this generation's Freddy Krueger, then I think Heart Eyes might be this generation's Jason Voorhees… That’s a pretty big claim, but these filmmakers know Friday the 13th well and how to recreate them. There was one scene I’ve always wanted to be done in a Friday the 13th film, and they kind of did it here, so maybe it’s just a personal bias, but I think these filmmakers should be given a Friday the 13th film because they know their stuff.

 

The cinematographer got to do a lot; some scenes look like a modern romantic comedy, and some scenes look straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode. It’s like Nora F. Bomb directed S Nightmare on Elm Street movie… It would be called "Nightmare in Seattle," lol. But seriously, the way they fused the two genres of romance and horror so that they’re almost indistinguishable at certain points was very interesting.

 

Speaking of sharp, I really want to read the script to this movie for creative help and influence, but I’m afraid I’ll get a paper cut because this dialogue is really sharp with the jokes; not all of it works, like there are some dudes in there, and to preview my thoughts on the third act… It gets rather all over the place, but when the land is like Babe Ruth nailing a home run, it’s just out-of-the-park fantastic.

 

There were some interesting surprises in this movie. The lady who plays Ally’s boss (Michaela Watkins) I thought was another actress who I really like, who I was happy to see because I haven’t seen her in a while, but her humor was still as sharp… So to find out it was someone else was an interesting surprise; this lady has some serious comedy talent.

 

Devon Sawa is having a bit of a career resurgence thanks to the Chucky TV series, which allowed him to really stretch his acting ability, so I’m glad he’s getting more work out of it because he’s really good at taking what is on paper to be a very cliché part and bringing a lot of character to it through acting choices.

 

Jordana Brewster plays Devon Sawa's partner, and I also really enjoyed her in this; she was a fun surprise; it was cool getting to see her do comedy. In fact, there were even some small actors who were only on screen for a few seconds but were funny and gave memorable performances, so it’s cool every actor in this gets their little moment to shine.

I think my favorite character is Ally’s best friend Monica, the character brings a lot of sassy but fun and sweet engery to the role which felt fresh.

 

The directors (Josh Ruben's) direction in this is really good, like he knows when to just let the camera roll and let the actors act because they’re so solid at it, and he knows how to do creative and action thrill shots to get people's hearts going and not only suspense and comedy separately but even mixes the two in exciting ways.

 

It isn’t a perfect movie: the second act sort of drags, and there’s sort of a reason for it, but they try and make you think they’re going to pull a switcheroo, but obviously it can’t be true because we definitively know the truth, so it’s hard to buy what they’re selling when we know the truth.

 

The movie also suffers from one of my least favorite movie tropes… Really DUMB cop characters… it’s one of those things that if the cops were any smarter, the movie plot wouldn’t continue so they kinda have to be dumb, but I feel like they could’ve come up with maybe another way for things to get to where they wanted them to go without sacrificing character intelligence, especially from police to have to be smart. They make Barney Fife look like Robocop lol

 

I’m not going to spoil anything, but let me just say… That’s not how glass works.

 

The climax has its ups and downs; there’s another sort of switcheroo that happens that honestly… If the remixing of genre tropes was spinning plates on sticks, then the third act got pretty wobbly… They did manage to stick the landing, but the two genres didn’t feel as mixed and more of well. Here’s this one, and then here’s this one.

 

Plus, boy oh boy, does it go to some silly places. I’m talking like full “Daytime Soap Opera—Telenovela” levels of ridiculousness, like I’m expecting the bad guy to be revealed to be the main character Ally’s evil eyepatch-wearing twin she forgot about when she was in a coma lol

 

However, despite its leaps and logic, the third act is still entertaining on a pure fun level. Plus, it does have the best kill in the movie, which I have to give a tip of my hat to because… Creative lol

 

I will say there is a subtle joke that is set up at the beginning but then eventually pays off at the end that I don’t know. A lot of people are going to catch, but if you do… That was some good setup right there.

 

Heart Eyes definitely has its fumbles. I may like this movie, but I have to admit there are moments that took me out of it. But like I just said, I overall really do enjoy this movie, the way it meshed ideas between genres; everyone gave top-notch performances and direction. Clever and funny dialogue and situations that switch with the genre cliché and make the story feel fresh; this is a really entertaining and original film that I hope a lot of couples get to see because I think it’ll be a fun film for both chick flick lovers and horror hounds.

 

If I’m being super objective, it’s really a four star movie, But since I had so much fun watching it, and I am a sucker for good comedies, I give it a low five stars… Actually, a very low “just squeaking over the finish line” five hearts ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

September 5 Review

 

I recently saw September 5 with my aunt and uncle; we all had fun.

 

The story of the NBC news team that reported on the Munich Olympics attack.

 

September 5 tells the truth of the NBC newscasters who followed and reported the Munich Olympic German attack by terrorists in real time.

 

So I didn’t know this, but the news team that covered Munich was not the news team but actually the sports division, because they were so close they took the lead. Which was interesting, seeing these characters trying to problem-solve in this crazy situation. You feel sympathy for them, and them feeling out of their element made for good ride-along characters.

 

I will say we don’t get a whole lot of character development for each character, like I can’t really describe the personalities beyond the one trait, but that being said, the actors bring a lot of gravitas and humanity to the roles that any details that are left out of the script are made up for in the performances.

 

This movie feels tight, the way things escalate and them trying to figure out what’s going on in the government being out of their depth, the terrorist purpose causing confusion, not to mention athletes just relaxing and training outside the building while all this craziness is happening; it gave everything a frantic media circus feel.

 

They used actual news footage in the movie, like they don’t have an actor play newscaster Jim McKay; they just use the actual news footage, which gives everything an authentic feel.

 

A lot of the intrigue of the movies is just watching events occur and how the people respond to them.

 

Historically, this was the first major terrorist attack broadcast on live TV in real time, and throughout the movie, they don’t really leave the control room or newsroom. You’ll see things on monitors, but that’s about it, so you don’t get the full impact of everyone all over the world, but the characters just look shocked and stunned by everything. You still get the impact of the seriousness of the situation.

 

I went with my aunt and uncle to see it, so all three of us enjoying it was the best part.

 

This is definitely a smart thriller, and by that I mean problems can’t be solved with punches and explosions, but like there’s a clear serious thing going on, and people kind of have to use their natural smarts and luck to get through it, so it’s interesting. Watching these characters adapt to the situation and trying to navigate it. I give it a low five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Companion Review

 

I usually don’t do this, but if you plan on seeing Companion, please do not read anything about it; go in as blind as possible because the less you know, the more enjoyable the movies… So have fun and come back when you’re done watching the movie.… Is everybody gone? Good, so let’s talk about this.

 

I saw Companion, which tells the story of a young romantic couple going on vacation in the woods with friends… And then things get bloody.

 

For a sci-fi movie, this actually did a pretty convincing job at trying to show that this science fiction premise might actually happen one day, like, you know, when you watch Star Trek and they’ll show people talking on iPads and you think, “They unintentionally predicted the iPad; that’s neat…” Well, Companion shows that robotic partners are probably going to happen someday, just based on how close we are technology-wise and how easy and enjoyable it would be. We are headed to a Jeff Bezos-controlled sex bots era, which in turn could lead to a Terminator-style Robopocalypse… And I can’t wait 😂 so we might be headed to a strange Twilight Zone/Black Mirror techno sort of corporate dystopian future, but we’re going to get some cool robots out of it, so it kind of evens out 😂 

 

Sophie Thatcher is going to have to change her name to the Manhattan Project because she’s going to blow up after this. The performance she gives is just so on point, and she knocks it out of the park. I can see her becoming the next big Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, or Zendaya after this.

 

Also move over Jennifer Check from Jennifer’s Body, Grace from Ready or Not, Sienna Shawna from Terrifier, and Maxxxine & Pearl in the X trilogy; Iris from Companion is a new female horror icon.

 

This might be Jack Quaid's best performance; he gives a very multilayered and complex performance that again leaves you guessing about what kind of person this character really is.

 

I could see the other cast blowing up after this movie too; there’s just one guy in it who I would describe as the gay Mexican Jack Black, who was very funny and apparently is very popular on What We Do in the Shadows, which I can see why. Also, this other female character is floating around and, well, not given a whole lot to do as everyone else; the actress does bring a groundedness and underlining straight-man humor to the part.

 

There’s a lot of cat-and-mouse, narrow misses, and narrow escapes shenanigans throughout the film, which I tend to enjoy, so a lot of people will have a good time with that.

 

The movie explores a lot of themes like control, emotions, loneliness, consciousness, manipulation, plus the line between loving someone else and loving yourself, and the manipulation. And while sometimes the characters sound like Talking Heads just explaining the theme of the film, for the most part, they work in that Twilight Zone, the monster-is-a-metaphor kind of way.

 

I loved the style with subtle changes to mimic romantic movies from different eras, like it’s never as drastic as going from black-and-white to, let’s say, technicolor, but the way something is filmed or a music choice. The movie feels like you’re watching a love story from the 60s, then another subtle change feels like you’re watching John Hughes in the 80s. And the comment, different versions of people associate with, was an interesting choice.

 

Don’t quote me, but “Companion” feels like another sci-fi and horror classic in the making, like Upgrade, Ready or Not, or Abigail.

 

It’s not a perfect film; there is a cliché that I have never really liked the movie relies on, and, well, it’s one of the better examples I’ve seen used. It’s just never been something I’ve been the biggest fan of. So while I personally might’ve been sitting there going, “Are we really doing this?” I do recognize that I and other people may not have that experience.

 

The ending does feel a bit rushed, and it’s pretty predictable where the story is headed pretty early on, but the movie is very entertaining, so any flaws I had didn’t take away from the overall film too much.

 

Just a small, small nitpick, but the movie never explains how this group of friends all knows each other, and I would’ve liked an explanation. I mean, it didn’t take away from the movie. I assumed they were just all old friends from high school, but there’s such an odd collection of characters you kind of wonder points… OK, why are this person and that person really good friends? Like, one or two bits of dialogue is all I would’ve needed, so it’s not that big an issue.

 

Also, shout out to this random woman who was sitting next to me; she was just so entertained by all the twists and turns. You could hear her going “oh” and “ah” whenever something crazy happened. She was like a little kid meeting Santa Claus. It helped make the experience more fun.

 

This movie is like The Stepford Wives meets Get Out in the style of a Black Mirror episode. I can definitely see Companion becoming a cult classic or just a regular classic someday in the sci-fi or horror genre; it’s smart while also being entertaining. The cast each gives such impressive and emotional performances; it was a nice surprise and definitely a movie I think people will enjoy seeing. I give it a low five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️