Category: Horror
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Hell Fest (**1/2) – Surprise! It doesn’t suck!
#hellfest “…The success of the scenarios with which the characters are dispatched varies. There are some pretty good scares and some surprising misses. Then there’s some dumb stuff to balance it out. Whether this is good or not depends on how you think the good compares to the bad. For this viewer, the last scene…
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Mandy (***1/2) has a terrible beauty
If all things are fair and square, there will be a good, long career for Panos Cosmatos and his Cinematographer, Benjamin Loeb. The images they create in the time frame of 2 hours could last in the minds of viewers for a lifetime. The story may hold less complication than the images deserve, but together…
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The Predator (***1/2) gets chopped up
The Predator is enjoyable, but it sure is fast, hard and choppy. Many of the scenes that might help build pull the story along for the slow and dimwitted are excised in favor of seeing people get sliced in half and repeatedly skewered by those massive retractable claws. Whether it’s a fair trade or not…
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The NuN (***): Can’t quite live up to its incredible promise.
There are some good moments here, but in general, this film doesn’t measure up to any of the previous efforts of Hardy or the Conjuring films. It feels like a placeholder, when it is clear the crowds that are going to swarm to this film expected a tentpole.
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Slender Man (*1/2) scares are between slim and none
Ultimately, this is a light scare of a film, made for young-ish teenage girls who may have heard that Slender Man is likely fake but they’re still not sure about that Ouija Board.
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The Meg (**) – Internationally Bad
Nothing I say here will likely prevent you from seeing this film. That’s fine. It works sort of hard sometimes (very few, really) to entertain. It is definitely a likable venture. If I can save you a few bucks on the Imax price, my job is done. If I had run out of steam on…
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The First Purge (no stars) please let this be the last one
The First Purge shows oppressed black people at peaceful rallies, innocent black folks in a housing project being killed room to room and a black drug dealer as its hero. There’s even a neighbor Lady who’s essentially Oprah. This is intended to put the butts in the seats, not to be intellectually honest.
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The Death of Stalin (****): A demo of socialists
The Death of Stalin – 2017 Director Armando Iannucci Screenplay Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin, Peter Fellows based on the book by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin Starring Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Chahidi, Dermot Crowley, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, Jeffrey Tambor I have little desire to learn the inner workings of failed experiments. Soviet Russia and Kurt…
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Adams and Jefferson on Movies: Hereditary, etc…I Feel Possessed
In which two old friends discuss Hereditary, The VVitch and Rosemary’s Baby, among other things.
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Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare: It Follows rules, blandly (***)
“Truth or Dare is an example of what having a good producer can do for an average film. ”
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 