Another week where my local theatre doesn't really have anything that I want to watch. So, I dove into Netflix to try and find something fairly new. It came down to either Mute or The Outsider and I figured I would go for the newer of the two. It worked out nicely because I really enjoy japan and it's culture. From the few movies I've seen, manga and anime, the food and especially the wrestling, I always look forward to seeing something new coming from the other side of the planet. Out of everywhere I could go in the world, Japan is at the top of the list.

The Outsider was directed by Martin Zandvliet, written by Andrew Baldwin based on an idea by John Linson. It stars Jared Leto, Tadanobu Asano, Shiori Kutsuna, and Kippei Shiina among others. The story follows an American POW who joins the Yakuza after he gets out of prison. It was released on Netflix on March 9, 2018 and didn't really blow anybody's mind.

I'll come right out and say that I enjoyed this movie. It wasn't anything special but I wasn't bored. The story lacks a bit of originality and reminds me of The Last Samurai or the 47 Ronin remake with Keanu Reaves. I didn't enjoy either of these movies but this one felt more well done. I liked Nick (Leto) and the supporting cast were all really good. The ones that stood out the most to me were Kiyoshi (Asano) and his sister Miyu (Kutsuna). But overall, I felt that the acting was good enough that I was invested in the characters and the story, no matter how many times its been done. The style of the film was really well done as well. The setting was wonderful as I love seeing Japanese cities. They always have such a beautiful yet chaotic visual appeal to them that I really enjoy. The cinematography did a good job in showing off the scenery yet giving a good look at the characters and their expressions. The music and the sound were both good as well. But, when it comes down to it, everything was just good. There wasn't anything really special of ground breaking about the film but I liked it for what it was.

I would say that it's worth your time to check this one out. It's a little long but it didn't feel like it at all. Don't expect anything crazy good but I don't think it's deserving of the harsh reviews it's getting. People seem to love Netflix but anytime they produce or publish their own movies they get torn to shreds by critics and the general audience seems to enjoy them. It's one of the most consistent divides I've seen and I'm wondering if it's mainly because of the stigma around being released straight to Netflix. But, I don't really pay any head to critics and neither should you.

There are some movies that get so much hype come Oscar season that I really don't get. Just in the last decade alone there is Gravity, Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, Spotlight, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, and more recently Get Out. Now I can add Call Me by Your Name to that prestigious list.

It was directed by Luca Guadagnino from Italy and written by James Ivory based on a novel by André Aciman. The film stars Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar. It follows the blossoming romance between a boy and his father's research assistant while in Italy.

I'll be straight up and say that I didn't enjoy this movie. It made me quite uncomfortable and I felt that things were happening just for the sake of happening and I didn't know why. Nothing felt natural. The story was quite boring and the romance between the two characters came out of nowhere and didn't make much sense to me. I found myself having to play back certain points because I thought I missed something they said, but no, I got it all. They would be arguing and the next thing I know Oliver has Elio's dick in his mouth while I'm staring at my screen trying to figure out what I missed. Apart from the love story, which isn't even that present, there isn't much else to the story. Elio is growing up and coming into his own sexuality but even that doesn't seem like the main focus. In all honesty, I don't know what the main focus was and I think that really hurt the film for me. The acting was quite good, but the characters didn't seem real or logical so I didn't like them. It's nice to see Armie Hammer play a role quite different from his norm while I'm worried that such a promising actor as Chalamet will by typecast as this type of character. I've only seen him in Lady Bird and this, and each time he's a fairly similar role. I just hope he is able to strike out. Apart from them, the supporting cast were all good as well. They felt more real and I ended up relating more with the dad or Marzia. Everything else about the movie was much better than the story or acting. Every shot was beautiful and amplified even more by the wonderful score selected by Guadagnino. I got much more from the film by ignoring the actions of the characters and just taking in the visual beauty of it all. I don't want to say that it was a bad story, but I do want to say that if it made more sense to me or seemed more natural then I would have enjoyed it so much more. But, that's how it is.

I would probably refrain from recommending this movie. It's bad to say but it feels like one of those films that elitists hold over the average movie goer saying “It's too complex for someone like you to understand”, “It wasn't made for someone like you.” or “Maybe if you watched real movies then you would be able to appreciate it.” Movies should not make someone feel as isolated as this movie did. I constantly felt like I missed things, felt uncomfortable watching a near child and his peach or just felt bored trying to figure out what the point of this movie was. With a sequel on the horizon I'm even more baffled. I can't really see where they can go from here and I don't really care. I have zero interest in visiting these people again and I probably won't. I've seen enough to know that this movie wasn't made for someone like me and I struggle to see who the target audience is.

I'm someone who doesn't quite understand the love and admiration for H. P. Lovecraft's work. I've only read At the Mountains of Madness and that was because I was really interested in seeing why people were going crazy about the aspect of Guillermo Del Toro directing it. By the end I was pretty underwhelmed. I enjoy works based off of his ideas and themes more than his actual work, but I do plan on reading some more at some point. I enjoy the writing of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and Junji Ito and Del Toro is one of my favourite directors. While there haven't been many direct adaptations that I know of, there have been many films that are heavily inspired by Lovecraft. The few I've seen are Re-Animator, Event Horizon, Cabin in the Woods, Hellraiser, The Mist or maybe even The Thing. These films might not even be considered Lovecraftian by some people but they fit my description so I'll leave them there. Out of those films, I've enjoyed them all. So the track record for these types of films is pretty good. I wanted to be scared and I figured it might be nice to find another one, this led me to The Void.

There is a sense of pride as it was made in Canada and as someone who would love to make his own movie someday, it is quite inspiring. It was written and directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski after being funded on Indiegogo. It premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2016 and showed up later at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, the latter of which I would love to attend someday. The story follows a group as they are trapped in a hospital by hooded figures while monstrous creatures emerge from within.

The movie was pretty good as a whole. The story leaves a little to be desired in terms of horror and mystery but it was enough that I was enjoying myself. There were a few slow moments that I found my mind drifting but I was brought back one the blood started to flow. The acting could have been better but I'm not really expecting master class performances from a horror film. Normally the story and the acting are my biggest talking points in these reviews but that is really all I have to say. The real strengths of this film are the incredible practical effects. The comparison is often drawn between this and The Thing and it is a fairly good comparison. The creature effects look great and made me completely drawn into the beautiful design. Both of the directors work in special effects and art as their main trade so I can see why they looked so good. It's clear that these two have a wonderful love for practical effects and it makes for something special. Looking at the production section on Wikipedia you will see that they had help from the team that worked on Suicide Squad, while you can say whatever you want about the movie as a whole you have to admit that the make up and art design in the film is actually really good. It's probably the only strong thing about that train wreck. But, we are not here to talk about Suicide Squad. Another really good feature of the film is the set design. The whole thing takes place in an abandoned school made to look like a hospital. The main floors of the hospital look like a hospital should, but when you get into the sub levels is when things really stand out. Once more, they did an incredible job with creating atmosphere and tension just by the way everything looked. The camera work did a great job showing all of this off as well. It's one of the rare films where the technical side stands high above the creative side.

Would I recommend this film? The answer depends on whether you like any of the films mentioned above or if you have any interest in exploring the genre of Lovecraftian horror. If you enjoy these types of films or want to check them out, this one is most certainly worth the viewing. But, keep in mind that it is fairly gore heavy and the monsters, while I think they are stunningly beautiful, would be quite gross to the average person. Keep in mind that the story isn't the strong point. A lot of the mystery is gone by the end of the film and the acting isn't anything to fawn over. This is a creature movie and a pretty good one at that. Throw in my Canadian pride and this is a movie that I would bring up to many people that I know.

There are a few movies out there that I have an irrational love for. Dredd, Bunraku, Hobo with a Shotgun, John Dies at the End, but the biggest and best example is Pacific Rim. These movies are all over the place when it comes to themes and stories but the main thing they have in common is that they were all very innovative and original, didn't do that well and will likely never see a sequel because of this. Once in a while though, a miracle happens and it's announced that there will be more. More often then not, it ends up being a curse in disguise.

Pacific Rim Uprising was written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight, who is known for working on all of the Spartacus shows as well as being the show runner for Netflix's Dardevil. Along with DeKnight there were three other writers, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and T.S. Nowlin, all of which couldn't make the characters have any life nor give the plot anything worth caring. The film had a rather large cast with John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day and Tian Jing. The story takes place ten years after the events of the first film as society is partially rebuilt and the threat of a kaiju return has dwindled to nothing.

Oh boy. Where do I start with this movie? I normally start with the story but I feel like the acting and main characters are a more pressing matter. As a whole, all of the acting was terrible and the characters were just as bad. I'm not saying the acting in the first was anything amazing, but it at least fit the tone of the film. This time around the main two actors, John Boyega and Scott Eastwood are boring and uninspired. I didn't care at all because everything they did was awful. I've enjoyed every role I've seen Boyega in but this time around it felt like he was phoning it in with the awful delivery of even worse lines. Scott Eastwood as always is merely a pretty face, which they reference all the time. He continues to be one of the most generic pretty boy actors in film today which is a real shame. Apart from the new recruits, the only other actor worth mentioning is Charlie Day. I adore Charlie Day, but in this film he was so bad that I kept rolling my eyes whenever he was on screen. I can't say too much without giving away a pretty big plot point, but it's safe to say that his availability must have been pretty limited and they just said stand in front of this green screen and say stuff. The charm his character had in the first film was lost nearly immediately. Now for the new recruits. They were unbearable. I hated every one of them and everything they said. Out of everything in the film, they were responsible for brutally murdering the tone of the film. They all had these stupid one liners and awful quips that ruined every scene they were in. All of their delivery was horrible, there was no chemistry between any of them, and none of them felt believable in their roles. A line from Jake comes to mind and described my feelings perfectly: “Freaking teenagers.” Once more, the acting in the first film was not good by any means, but it was suitable. This time around it felt out of place and ruined anything they were trying to accomplish.

I've already said so much and I haven't even touched the story yet. This will get into spoiler territory, but I will indicate when I will start doing that. To put it in simple terms and avoid any real spoilers, the story was so bad. It was clear they didn't want to use anything the original set up and what they put before us was a sloppy mess. You are now entering spoiler land. You have been warned. Skip ahead if you don't want anything spoiled for you. So, the setting puts us ten years after the first film. Kaiju are gone with no signs of them coming back and everybody has been rebuilding. As predicted, things are not the way they seem as a rogue Jaeger shows up and starts wrecking things. This pushes the drone project ahead as Mako died in an attack. It turns out that the drone program is a ploy used by Newt to open more breaches along the pacific rim using the drones, who use Kaiju bits. So yes, Newt is the bad guy in this film and it feels just as bad as you would think. They showed us that he has been drifting with the Kaiju brain piece all this time and that has allowed the precursors to control him. They could have gone any direction with the groundwork Guillermo Del Toro and Travis Beacham but instead we got a generic human bad guy, with other jaegers being the main opposing force for most of the movie and the Kaiju only show up in the last twenty minutes or so. Another problem arises here as the Kaiju just don't feel like a treat. While the drones had the breaches open three Kaiju managed to get through, two Class-4 and one Class-5. In the original these were the biggest and the baddest that experienced Jaeger pilots could barely handle. This time around the four Jaeger they had were able to hold off the Kaiju to an extent. The plan for the Kaiju is to go to mount Fuji and blow it up using a mixture of their blood and rare earth elements, something mentioned by Herman earlier in the film. They figure this out by looking at where the Kaiju breached and triangulating their paths. But when the Jaeger reach Japan all of the Kaiju are standing next to each other despite coming from complete opposite directions. This means that instead of rushing towards the mountain as the PPDC said and bombarding it from multiple sides, they went out of their way to gather up and move as a group towards the mountain. Sure, from a visual standpoint it looks cool but it doesn't make much sense. The idea of having to divide the Jaeger to fight on multiple fronts as the Kaiju move towards the mountain seems so much cooler. You would have three isolated fights where the pilots are greatly outclassed and can't rely on each other to help out. But, doing this would have prevented the merging of the Kaiju which has been shown in every trailer since the movie was conceived. The whole thing just felt bad. Even more so, the precursors don't want to destroy the Earth. The original film stated that they were going to take over the planet as it was now perfect to be turned into something they can use. But why would the enemies keep any form of intelligence. Scrap that, just make them angry and bitter that they were defeated and have them try to destroy the planet. They took such a cool concept and just trashed it because they couldn't find a way to use it. There will not be any more spoilers now. You're safe to continue reading.

So we have generic characters with no chemistry, really bad dialogue, a story that ignored just about anything that was set up from the original, and a severe lack of Kaiju. What good thing do we have? Most of the new Jaeger look quite good. Out of the final four we have in the climax only one, Guardian Bravo, looked uninspired and boring. They even introduced a smaller one that could be piloted by a single user which was quite cool. While the movie lacked the originals dark and gritty look, it was quite nice to have some fights in the day time where everything was clear and able to be seen. I found that the fight scenes never quite wandered into Transformers territory of incomprehensible visual noise which was a big concern for me. The soundtrack felt nearly non-existent which wasn't a bad thing. The trailers were plagued with music that felt out of place and I was quite relieved not the hear “war ready” or whatever it's called in the film. There was a return of the Pacific Rim theme and that brought a slight smile to my face. And those are the only good things I could pull from this film.

As much as I want to, as much as I want this franchise to do good, I can not in good conscience recommend this film. As a fan of the original, I felt betrayed, defeated, and disappointed. Everything that made the original great is gone. They scrapped all of the groundwork for a potential sequel and used a really cool moment from the original to create a human villain instead. The rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, was great but I don't watch these movies for robots fighting robots. It is clear that the people behind this film had no love for the original. Boyega was a producer on this one and this quote from an interview he did with yahoo comes to mind: “The plasma sword is big; when you swing that, it’s not just your strength coming out, it’s also the robot’s. And if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll notice we’ve got two of those babies. When I saw the first film, I was like, ‘Why don’t they put in another one?'” Behold the power that comes with being a producer.” And I say, behold a man who didn't watch the original and only signed on for the cash. Seeing this movie brought to mind all of those stories of loved ones being brought back to life, but something is a little off. I'm looking at something that I've grown to love, but looking back at me is something that doesn't recognize me. The shell is there, but what made it special is gone. The first movie looked cool but the heart, the soul and the love that Del Toro put in the film made it clear that he is a fan of the strange genre of giant robots and giant monsters and he actually cared about how it felt. This time around the producers were looking at revitalizing a movie for a new audience to fill the void that the new Power Rangers or Transformers left. They ignored everything that made the first one great and threw the undead husk into the world hoping they wouldn't notice just how truly shallow and empty it was. And that is how this movie made me feel.

Every now and then I hear about a movie that I should be really excited about but I just don't care. I see the trailers and the concept seems really cool but everything else about it seems to push me away from seeing it. Annihilation is a perfect example of this. When it was released in theatres in my area I couldn't care less. I had many opportunities to go see it but I thought it would be a waste of my time and I didn't bother. It got released on Netflix and I was able to watch it in my home and sure enough, it felt like a huge waste of my time.

It was written and directed by Alex Garland based off of a trilogy of novels written by Jeff Vandermeer. It stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. Paramount Pictures released it on February 23 in North America and then it was released on Netflix internationally on March 12. The reason for them releasing it on Netflix is because they didn't think it would do well in theatres. Honestly, they were right. The movie had a budget of $40 million and it didn't reach $30 million domestically. While an international release could have pushed it over the budget, there are other costs associated that may have made it a futile effort. Either way, it's an interesting topic to think about.

The story follows a group of scientists as they enter a strange bubble that is slowly growing and enveloping the area around a lighthouse. Inside the bubble there is some crazy genetic mutations going on that are seemingly merging species together. This premise is really cool and quite original, but I didn't care. The further they went into the bubble, or the shimmer if you will, the less invested I became as none of the characters connected with me at all. Watching them travel through this incredible world tainted the experience because they all fell into cliches where infighting and arguments caused most of the tension. When the world did attack them in some way I didn't care as nothing had been done to make me give a shit about what happened to them. All I wanted to know was what was causing this and then by the time it was revealed it was too late. I felt nothing but disappointment and the whole movie just left a bad taste in my mouth. As you might have guessed, I didn't like any of the acting. Natalie Portman was exactly as she always is. She is one of the actresses who constantly underwhelms me and actually deters me from seeing a movie. Jennifer Jason Leigh played a monotone emotionless character while every other character were constantly overwhelmed with emotion and let that influence their choices. It became incredibly annoying. The thing is, everything else was great. The world looked incredible, the music and sounds were great and worked wonderfully to create an amazing setting that was ultimately ruined by the slow, boring pace and the horrible characters.

When it comes down to it, I would not recommend this film. It had so much potential and it was squandered by poor performances and pacing. I was bored throughout and the length didn't help. It felt like nothing was happening for three quarters of the film and I was left just staring at the screen as I didn't care about the characters in front of me. The grand revelation left me feeling nothing as the journey to it was unforgivingly boring. I can see why the test audience reactions were so poor and makes me worry about Garland's future. He made one incredible movie with Ex Machina and the follow up could be very detrimental to how he is perceived from here on out. Either way, I'll still keep an eye on him as I've enjoyed every other film he's written. I just hope his next project is a bit more accessible. Or maybe I'm just an idiot and not intellectual enough to enjoy this movie.

Ever since I read “The Disaster Artist” I've really wanted to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley because of the joy I get out of Tommy Wiseau's mysterious past and the fact that Greg Sestero was reminded of Tommy when he watched the film. This was finally enough to push me towards watching it. Skip ahead two months or so and I finally got around to it. Boy was I uncomfortable.

It was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and was based upon a novel written by Patricia Highsmith. It was released in 1999 through Paramount Pictures and Miramax films. The cast was very impressive. Headlined by Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow with a supporting cast of Cate Blanchett, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and James Rebhorn. It was fairly early in each of the actors careers and they all pulled off great performances. The story follows a mysterious man known as Tom Ripley (Damon) as he is tasked with going to Italy to bring home the son of a very rich man.

Where to start with his incredibly bizarre movie. The typical place to start would be the story, so I'll go ahead with that. Following Ripley through his strange progression is super uncomfortable. He is essentially an incredibly talented con artist. He is able to imitate accents, forge signatures and even change his appearance, to an extent, to match his target. The simple premise of bringing the son back quickly devolves into a disturbing sequence of events where he goes further and further into becoming a truly horrible person who will do whatever he feels he needs to do to meet his desires. I became very uncomfortable with everything that was happening, rooting against Ripley anytime he would do something horrible but yet I was rooting for him in a way because I wanted to see where the story would go. All of this was executed wonderfully because of the performances of each actor. Matt Damon was incredible. Knowing that he learned how to play piano and sing for this role was impressive enough, but seeing him imitate all of those people was great. That being said, they could have had the voices dubbed over and I just didn't notice. I just saw his mannerisms changing slightly as he did each voice. Jude Law played another horrible person but in such a different way. He plays a spoiled rich kid who doesn't want to go home so he would have to work and instead wanders through Italy doing whatever and whoever he wants. Then when he's lost interest in people he simply shrugs them off and moves on. Gwyneth Paltrow played probably the only decent human being in the whole film. She just gets caught up in all the trouble caused by Ripley. She is the character I got behind and it was one of the few times that I enjoyed Paltrow's acting. I felt really bad for her throughout as things turned from really good to terrible. The supporting cast were all good as well and made the world feel quite believable. That being said, I hated Hoffman's character and could not stand him whenever he showed up, which is probably what they were going for. As for all the technical aspects, they were all very nice. The movie looked great, both when it comes to the setting and the shots they used. The music choices were great as well and fit the tone and moods being set wonderfully. The only bad thing I could think of is that the length feels like an issue. Around the halfway mark there is a big event and after I was left feeling lost as to what would happen next. I was still interested but it did take quite a dip and the movie really felt its length after that point.

As a whole, I would still recommend this movie. It has a very interesting story and the characters are all very well played keeping me interested in what was happening. It feels a little long at times but it wasn't too bad. It was nice to finally see this film after hearing about it for so long and I would say that seeing these actors early on is also worth it. Just remember, this is a movie about horrible people doing horrible things. There are very few people to root for and it becomes very clear, very quickly that nobody is really showing their true selves and once you see who they really are, you may wish that you hadn't.

I'm in a weird place where I'm not sure if/how much longer I'm going to keep this blog of mine running. But until then, I'll still talk about movies I've watched into this monitor and see what bounces back. The past couple weeks have been pretty strange because of how sick I was and hopefully I'll get it back to what it was next week or the week after. Until then, I watched Coco and it was quite a nice movie.

The newest Pixar film was co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina. It had a fairly large writing crew comprised of Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina, Jason Katz, and Matthew Aldrich. While I didn't recognize any of the cast besides Edward James Olmos, they were all wonderful and deserve the recognition. Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt and Alanna Ubach along with so many more. Once more the crew behind the film did a wonderful job.

The story follows Miguel, born into a family who hates music, as he gets trapped in the afterlife during the day of the dead. That is a very simplified description of the story and all I really want to say. The strength of all Pixar films are the story and the visuals. Their stories are always so well written to bring the characters to life and create a real feeling of an emotional bond for the viewers and characters. This movie is another example of just how well they are able to craft a world. I was sceptical at first but as the movie went on I became heavily invested and when the ending came I found myself tearing up. It ended up being a beautiful story with lovely characters. I find it a little hard to talk about the voice acting so I will leave it alone. The visuals and the soundtrack were a very strong aspect of the film. The world was colourful and vibrant and coupled with the great music it felt truly alive. That is all I have to say about the movie.

This is one of the easiest recommendations that I could make, yes, most certainly watch this movie. Pixar, along with Studio Ghibli, continuously make the best animated films. Seeing their name associated with a movie is more then enough reason to watch it. But, I never feel the need to see Pixar movies in theatre. I'm more then willing to wait to watch them in the comfort of my own home. That is a wonderful way to watch them. Now that Coco is readily available, it's the perfect time to look into it if you already haven't.

I won't pad this review with anymore fluff then this. The Strangers: Prey at Night is a bad film. It takes everything that made the first one good and wiped it all away. The majority of the characters are boring and annoying while anyone that would be any bit tolerable barely have any screen time once the film picks up. It was directed by Johannes Roberts who did a really bad job bringing Ben Ketai's awful script to life. The creator of the original, Bryan Bertino, was not involved beyond writing the first screenplay which clearly removed all of the tension building aspects of the original. Christina Hendricks and Martin Henderson played the parents who just try and deal with their children. Said children were played by Lewis Pullman and Bailee Madison. Pullman was fine as the older brother but Madison just played a snivelling whiny brat who sadly becomes the main character when things start to go down. They're not memorable or endearing in any way and I just wanted the Strangers to kill them. Speaking of, the Strangers were a shell of their former selves. The last movie they seemed smart and scared the heck out of me even when they weren't on screen while this time I was just bored. They didn't scare me and they greatly struggled to kill injured children. The jump scares were pitiful and predictable. I sat motionless waiting for something to happen and was left disappointed. So many times the camera was left sitting on nothing while ominous music played overstaying its welcome way too quickly. Since I feel like I have to, I picked out one thing that I liked, well, one scene really. Towards the end of the movie there was a pool scene. That was the best scene in the whole film and the only good thing I can think of.

I was so disappointed. That is the only way to describe how I felt. I would put the first film in my top ten list of horror movies just because of the incredible job it did at building tension and fear. Clearly, in the ten years it took to make the sequel they lost anything that made the original great. Roberts and Ketai turned a slow paced masterclass in tension into a boring trek through mediocrity while tainting whatever hopes I had of seeing a good Strangers film again. The worst part of it all is this line of text from Wikipedia: “It was praised for the tone of the film, the character work, its scary sequences and was considered by critics better compared to the 2008 original.” Just so I'm understood, under no circumstances would I recommend this movie. I wish I never saw it and just ignored its existence. The tone of the film pales in comparison to the original, the characters are all laughably bad with horrible dialogue and its “scary sequences” were positively terrible and kept me settled snugly and comfortably in my seat. Not once did I jump, feel for the characters, or give a single semblance or a flying frack for what was happening. As it stands right now, The Strangers never did get a proper sequel to me and it stands as a testament to thrillers done right.

I didn't know what mood I was in today. I didn't want a long movie that told a big epic tale and made me grow as a person in my post thoughts but I wanted something that could evoke some sort of emotion in a short amount of time. That is normally the perfect spot where romantic comedies fit right in. I scrolled through Netflix for a while and my fond memories of Workaholics helped me settle on this one.

When we First Met was directed by Ari Sandel and written by John Whittington. It stars Adam Devine, Alexandra Daddario, Shelley Hennig and Robbie Amell. The story follows Noah (Devine) as he travels back in time to the night he met Avery (Daddario) so he can try and make it so they end up together over and over again. Simple enough and I was in a pretty good mood that I actually enjoyed most of it.

The story is one that's been done before and I honestly got tired of it pretty quickly, but the characters and the new twists kept it interesting enough and eventually made me quite invested in both. It's a nice feeling movie and sometimes there is nothing wrong with that. As much as I love ending a movie with my whole world twisted into a strange knot that I have to carefully unravel like I'm eating a very intricate and fancy meal, it is very nice sometimes to have a simple ending put before you that you can just chow down on like a delicious greasy burger. Each of the actors were perfect for their roles, not saying their roles were anything to right home about, but they were exactly what was needed. The rest of the package was fairly generic and fit the template well. I didn't expect anything groundbreaking, I just wanted to sit comfortably inside the mold and enjoy something easy to digest.

This is a very short review because there isn't much to say, simply put: it's a rom-com. The characters grow and change in front of you, there are hijinks throughout and it ends with a nice feeling that leaves you feeling content, or sad, or angry, who knows. It all depends on who you are and what your mindset is going in. I'll say to watch this movie because every now and then we need a break. We need everything to work out nicely and to see that life can be pretty great sometimes. We forget that in our daily lives and we would all be much better people if we just appreciated all the little things that influenced us. I appreciate any reblogs or likes that I get. I don't understand what it does, nor do I really care. Tumblr is an enigma to me and that's alright. I appreciate anyone that takes the time to read my silly blog, no matter how briefly. Maybe if I appreciated more then I wouldn't be as deeply miserable and sad as I am most of the time. But that's something we work on. Life would be pretty boring if you didn't have the sadness to make the rest seem better. I'll leave it on that thought I guess. That took a turn.

I'm still under the effects of this debilitating fever so I haven't been able to go out and see any movies. Just for anybody who is curious what I would've seen, Annihilation was my go to option but I'm not in a good state to be in a theatre. I wouldn't get the full effect and I'm sure my coughing would be annoying to everyone. So, instead of going out anywhere I sat at home to check out any new stuff that Netflix had to offer. I came upon The Ritual and figured it would be a worthwhile use of my time and fevered state.

This film was released back on February 9 on Netflix so I'm a little behind but that's ok. The story follows a group of friends as they travel to Sweden on a hiking trip to deal with the grief of a friend who was murdered during a robbery. They take a shortcut through the woods and strange things start to happen and it turns out that there is something following them. It was directed by David Bruckner, written by Joe Barton and stars Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier and Sam Troughton. It's also worth noting that one of the producers was Andy Serkis through his production company The Imaginarium Studios.

As a whole, I enjoyed this movie. The premise of four guys being stalked through some unfamiliar woods being stalked by a potentially supernatural being is a story that I can just shut my brain off and enjoy. But, that wasn't it of course. The characters are constantly copping with the loss of their friend and for Luke (Rafe Spall) it becomes an actual aspect of terror as he has to relive the moment over and over again. You see how this affects the group as a whole as things start to go south and creates some tense moments. The acting was decent enough, I wasn't blown away by anything but that was more on the writing then anything. I don't expect to have incredibly high calibre acting in a horror film. I don't watch horror movies for that, I watch it to be spooked, scared or creeped out. That being said, Spall was excellent in his role but I have trouble separating him from his role in Shaun of the Dead. The pacing of the film was great, the area that they filmed in was beautiful and they had some really nice shots. I will avoid saying any spoilers about the creature itself or the setting around it. All I need to say is that it was probably one of the coolest designs for a monster that I have ever seen. Throughout you had odd glances here and there but when you finally get a full shot of it in all its glory, it is incredible. I would love to find out a little more about it besides the bit they said in the movie. I would very much welcome a sequel just for another chance to learn more.

I would say that this is an easy recommendation. I'm a big fan of horror films and it's really nice to see one where the tension and fear is built throughout the film through partial shots, teasing, and not the overuse of jump scares. The cast all worked well together and when they were presented with this supernatural being things began to ramp up quickly. It did all of this in a such short amount of time that other recent horror movies have been unable to do across multiple sequels and prequels. I loved the world that they created and they left it open that we could return to it. It was a refreshing breath of fresh air when most horror films from the past decade have been a shallow husk of what they were. I've said it before and I will say it anytime I can, jump scares are the worst.

This wasn't supposed to be today's review. Wednesday has been reserved for new home releases but I said early on that it would be subject to change if something came up. I would consider a fever that caused me to sleep for fifteen hours to be a decent reason. So for today's review I'm taking a look at a movie with a very large cult fan base. Ichi the Killer is known as an ultraviolent movie that caused mass amounts of controversy upon release and is straight up banned in a few countries because of its violence and cruelty. This is another one of those films that for some reason I just haven't given it the time and I think waiting as long as I did hurt my viewing experience.

This is another film by Takashi Miike and is probably his most well known. It was written by Sakichi Satô with Hideo Yamamoto, the creator of the manga. It stars Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto among others. The story follows Kakihara, a yakuza enforcer, as he tries to figure out what happened to the boss of his gang who has gone missing.

The story is fairly simple and I can't say I was too invested in it. I'm having a really hard time trying to put my thoughts into words here. It all felt like a weird fever dream which I guess is pretty fitting all things considered. The acting was exactly what it needed to be. With the small amount I've seen of the manga it seems that they played it pretty close to the source material. The most appealing aspect of the film are the visuals. From the first opening scene I was pretty drawn in by Miike's style choices. The strange shots mixed with the bizarre camera movements made it all pretty memorable. I'll be honest in saying that I wouldn't really say that I liked the movie but I loved the visual style. Normally I don't see length as an issue but in this case I would say that it was very detrimental to the film. I found myself checking the run time multiple times because the progression seemed to be so slow. At times it felt like nothing was happening or was ever going to happen. I mentioned earlier that I think waiting hurt my viewing experience and that was most evident with the makeup and special effects of the blood and gore. At times it looked really bad as I can clearly see the fake skin attached to the actors and completely pulled me out of the film. I'm not really sure what to say about it either because I don't know if it felt dated when it came out so it leaves me feeling pretty weird, which is a pretty good way to describe my feelings towards this movie anyway.

When it comes down to it, I would still recommend it, if not just for its cultural significance. While I may not have liked the movie, I did enjoy it. The characters were pretty fun, the story was strange and the visual style is very appealing. But on the other hand, it feels very dated. The special effects look bad, it really feels its length, and while the story may be strange it didn't really keep me invested in anything that was going on. I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did but when it comes down to it, I think I waited a little too long to watch it. I will try and get my hands on the manga to see how it compares. Maybe I'll enjoy that a little more.

I can never get into movies that have terrible, unrelatable characters. I spend the whole time wondering why anyone would be following this person, why anyone would even care about them and finally when the ending comes and everything seems to work out for them, why would they possibly deserve anything good? Ingrid Goes West is another one of those movies. It was written and directed by Matt Spicer along with David Branson Smith co-writing. Neither of them have done much of anything of note and seeing this film doesn't give me much hope. The cast consists of Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, Billy Magnussen, Wyatt Russell and O'Shea Jackson Jr. I've enjoyed each of these actors in their past work but this time everyone felt terrible. We'll go into that shortly.

The story follows Ingrid (Plaza) as she starts stalking a girl from instagram after having gotten out of a mental institution for doing the exact same thing previously. Her mother died and left her money that she uses to travel to Los Angeles and start manipulating her way into Taylor Sloane's (Olsen) life. The whole time she is doing disgusting horrible things that people would be thrown into jail for but because she's our main character it's supposed to be funny. Having a main character who's problem is obsession with social media being allowed access to it doesn't make sense. People don't get sent to rehab and get handed some meth or something in a gift bag when they get out. It doesn't make any sense. This type of person would be heavily monitored but instead she's left to her own accord and immediately dives back into her issues. Ingrid wasn't the only unbearable character though. Every person thrown at me in the film felt fake and just as unrelatable. I didn't care for any of them and made the movie feel like such a drag. The technical aspects of the film were all lack luster as well. The soundtrack was forgettable, the shots were all boring and uninspired making it all feel as amateurish as it was.

If you like unrelatable characters based on the most horrible and pathetic traits of society then Ingrid Goes West is for you. But, if you have any common sense and function like a normal human being you're better off not wasting your time with this movie. The whole time I was reminded of The Florida Project and how the director wanted so bad for me to like the bottom feeding characters that he presented. I couldn't find one redeeming characteristic about this film. They describe it as a black comedy but I didn't even smile once. The jokes revolve around how sad and pathetic people are that spend nearly every waking hour on social media and the message at the end of the film is one of the worst I have EVER seen. No matter how terrible you are, no matter how horrible the things that you did, and no matter how negative of an influence social media is on you you will be able to be loved by thousands of people. It just reinforces in my mind how truly disgusting social media is and has me really doubting if I want to keep doing this review thing or just delete it all and move on with my life. What a wonderful feeling to have from a film.

The Oscars are upon us and much like everyone else, I’m doing some predictions. We’ll see how many I get right. That being said, these are only my humble opinions.

Best Picture - I feel Shape of Water will win but Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri will provide stiff contention.

Best Actor - This year seems fairly weak for this category. I wasn’t incredibly impressed with anyone besides Gary Oldman so I have to give it to him.

Best Actress - As much as I loved Sally Hawkins and Saoirse Ronan, Frances McDormand was incredible in Three Billboards. If McDormand doesn’t win then I can only hope that Hawkins would.

Best Supporting Actor -  Another category that I felt was fairly weak. My pick would be Richard Jenkins because he was the only actor here that made me truly care about his character. Willem Dafoe is getting a lot of praise but I don’t see it any better than what he’s done in the past and the two boys from Three Billboards were good but didn’t blow me away.

Best Supporting Actress - This is the category that I have seen the least of. I can only speak of the two that I’ve seen, which are Laurie Metcalf and Octavia Spencer. Out of those two, I would say Metcalf has it but I wouldn’t be surprised if any of the other nominees got it.

Best Director - As much as I would like to say my boy Guillermo Del Toro would win, I feel like the complex nature and scale of Dunkirk’s filming puts Christopher Nolan ahead of the rest. Being able to coordinate and direct everything that was going on was very impressive and something Nolan does better than anyone.

For the remaining nominations I’ll simply list who I think will win, if I have no opinion I’ll leave it and call it a day.

Animated Feature Film - Coco

Cinematography - Blade Runner 2049

Film Editing - Baby Driver

Music - Dunkirk

Production Design - The Shape of Water

Sound Editing - Baby Driver

Sound Mixing - Baby Driver

Visual Effects - Blade Runner 2049

Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - The Disaster Artist

Writing (Original Screenplay) - Get Out

Abstaining:  Costume Design, Documentary (Feature and Short), Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Song), Short Film (Animated and Live Action),

I enjoy having really low expectations for movies and being pleasantly surprised. Game Night was one of those movies. It's a black comedy where a board game night ends up involving the characters in black market deeds through a fake kidnapping gone wrong. It had all the potential to be terrible but actually ended up being quite enjoyable.

It was directed by the duo of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, both directed Vacation and wrote Horrible Bosses one and two along with Spider-Man: Homecoming. The writer, Mark Perez, seems a bit out of place as prior to this film he wrote the likes of Herbie Fully Loaded, Accepted, and whatever The Country Bears is. Despite the odd pairing and history of the creators, they made a really good movie. The cast helped quite a bit though. The film was fronted by Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, along with Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnussen, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury and the phenomenal Jesse Plemons.

Now about the film, the story is better off left unexplained. Any more than I have already said would be too much. There are twists and turns that really catch you off guard and result in some very tense moments. The cast as a whole were all good. They actually gave off the vibe of a group of friends who have known each other for years and it was nice to see. Jason Bateman, as always, was really enjoyable to watch, while Rachel McAdams can be hit or miss was really good this time as well. The strangest and most fun character was Officer Gary, played by Jesse Plemons. Daley and Goldstein did something really cool with the camera work where most shots were simply static on the actors but when Plemons was on screen it had a very slow subtle zoom on his face that gave off a really weird aura about him. Throw in his excellent performance and delivery and you have one of my favourite supporting characters in a movie in a very long time. Back to the shots though, they were incredible. For the shots where they zoom in on the houses while cars move around they made it look like an actual board game or toy cars. The driving scenes looked amazing because of the use of an R1 arm (I can't remember exactly what it is) and gave the driving scenes this really unique perspective that I don't remember seeing in film before. Throughout the movie you'll see these really cool shots that I don't think I've seen anything like it before. It really added to the visual appeal of the film. The sound design and editing were both great and rounded it all into a nice package.

As you may guess from what I've said so far, I would really recommend this movie. It's a good story with nice acting, innovative shots and sharp editing. There are loads of references to board games throughout and the twists and turns keep you invested. I would very much like to come back to the world that they made but I would be worried that a sequel wouldn't be able to capture the magic of the first film. But, I would certainly give it a shot anyway. Do yourself a favour and go watch it. It's a fun time and most certainly worth it.

March actually has quite a few movies I would like to see in theatre. Nostalgia is one I’ll try and see just based on the cast. The reviews don’t look great but that doesn’t bother me. Thoroughbreds features the late Anton Yelchin and that’s enough to make me see it. The first Strangers was the best horror movie in such a long time and I have high hopes for the new one. Hearing the word of mouth for The Death of Stalin really makes me want to see it. The last two come out on the same day and I’m very conflicted. Isle of Dogs looks absolutely amazing but Pacific Rim is one of my most beloved movies of all time. I will see both but which is first will be a hard choice. 

There are some movies that I watch, I enjoy but for some reason I can't think of much to say about it. Darkest Hour is one of those movies. It was directed by Joe Wright, written by Anthony McCarten and stars Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendolsohn, Stephen Dillaine and Ronald Pickup. The story follows Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) when he first gets the title of Prime Minister as Germany continues tearing through Europe during the early 1940s.

The story is a true story and fairly interesting at that. Once more not knowing much about anything when it comes to history helped me enjoy another movie. Having watched Dunkirk first some time ago it gave me another perspective. Seeing Churchill try and find a way to rescue the English troops on the beach while in the office was quite cool to see as opposed to seeing the actual operation in action. Oldman showed once more why he is one of the best chameleons in the business right now as he completely disappeared into the character under the multiple layers of make up and the unmistakable dialect of Churchill. The rest of the cast all did good jobs and that is really how I feel about the film as a whole. The shots, music, editing and so on didn't blow me away, it was all good but I didn't see anything special about it. That is really all I have to say about the film.

Despite the short review I would still say that it's a fairly worth while watch, in part just because of Gary Oldman's performance. It's a two hour movie and at times it feels it. I did like the story but during the slow times I found my mind wandering and that's not normally a good thing. I can see why it's getting praise from critics but apart from Oldman nothing stood out. I would still consider it a fairly good movie but if the subject doesn't interest you then you could probably pass on this one.

A really fun trend in independent films is using actors from large film series such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or even Twilight. The stars of those films normally end up with quite a bit of money and can start taking roles just because they seem fun. Sometimes this results in wonderful films like The Swiss Army Man with Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, Manic and I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore with Elijah Wood, and now Robert Pattinson has joined this group with the Safdie brother's Good Time.

It was directed by Ben and Josh Safdie. Josh pulled double duty writing it along with Ronald Bronstein. It stars Ben Safdie and Robert Pattinson with Barkhad Abdi and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The soundtrack was composed by Oneohtrix Point Never, also known as Daniel Lopatnin. It was distributed by A24, which should start ringing a few bells of familiarity by now. The story follows two brothers after a bank heist goes wrong. Fairly simple premise but the characters and style make it rather interesting.

Robert Pattinson plays the first brother Connie, while Ben Safdie plays Nick, Connie's younger mentally handicapped brother. The film picks up the pace fairly quickly after a bank heist that results in Nick being taken away to jail. Connie was already shown as the protective and loving brother early in the film so the rest of the movie follows him as he tries to get Nick out of jail. The story is simple, but just because it wasn't complex doesn't mean that it has a bad plot. I was completely invested in it just because of the relationship between the two brothers. This was my favourite role for Pattinson so far and Ben Safdie was very believable in his role. The supporting cast are great as well and greatly helped building up the world. Apart from the performance aspects of the film, the technical side was incredible. The shots and editing were really well done giving everything a real and gritty feeling. The soundtrack by 0PN was fantastic and fit the style of the Safdie brothers perfectly. I found myself tapping my feet or bobbing my head multiple times until I caught myself. There are two downsides that I felt dampened the appeal of the movie for me. Despite it being less than two hours in length a few scenes dragged and my attention started slipping. The second was that the ending felt a little anticlimactic and came pretty suddenly leaving me feeling like I missed something.

Overall I would highly recommend the film though. Visually it was very impressive but the acting by Robert Pattinson was some of the best I've seen in a while. The world and the characters were very believable and I felt for everyone that Connie came into contact with. He was seemingly so toxic to everyone around him and in the end I'm left assuming that he finally realized that maybe he wasn't what was best for his brother. Subtle character development in the very end that I never picked up until writing this review. Either way, it's not overly long and readily available on Netflix. It's very much worth your time to check out some of these indie films I mentioned above just to see what else those actors are able to do when given more freedom. It's easily one of my favourite trends in film right now.