Army of the Dead

So I’m a little late watching this one, and getting a review out. ‘Army of the Dead’ was shortly released after Zach Snyder’s cut of ‘The Justice League’ was released to HBO Max, I didn’t watch it but it was met with very strong reviews. So needless to say, there was a lot of anticipation for this film. ‘Army of the Dead’ is Zach Snyder’s newest film, a 2021 action/thriller starring Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Ana De La Reguera (The Forever Purge), Omari Hardwick (Power), Matthias Schweighofer (What a Man), and Nora Arnezeder (Zoo).

When Las Vegas is overran by zombies, a billionaire businessman hires a team to get into Vegas, break into a casino vault, and extract 200 million dollars.

Zach Snyder is coming off a huge win with ‘Justice League’, and my boy Bautista is in this, so I had to see it. The trailer it looks really good, non stop shoot em up style Zombie movie. However, this is a little different than what I was expecting. Not quite as much action as what I thought there would be, and the main issue for that is it’s run time. It’s a 2.5 hour movie, that is ridiculously long. The acting is good, the CGI is great, it’s just the run time. I feel the story changed directions three different times just to fill the run time. There could have easily been an hour cut out of this and it would have been a great film. The only thing that really saves this one is it’s ending. It has a great ending, that sets it up for a second one. I just hope if they do choose to do a second one they cut out all the fat and make it a strong movie in an 1.5 hour run time. You can currently catch this one on Netflix, I give it a 6/10.

Old

‘Old’ is a 2021 thriller by M. Night Shyamalan starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle), Rufus Sewell (A Knight’s Tale), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), Alex Wolff (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Thomasin Mckenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Ken Leung (Lost), Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad), Francesca Eastwood (Awake), and Abbey Lee (Elizabeth Harvest).

A family, and different couples go to a secluded beach arranged by a resort. However time moves differently on the beach, every thirty minutes is equivalent to one year, and they soon find out they can’t leave.

M. Night Shyamalan is known for his supernatural elements, and his twist endings, especially his twist endings. He does it every film. I love M. Night Shyamalan movies, so when I saw he had a new one coming out, I had to go see it. I saw a few mixed reviews before seeing it, some said it was a bore fest, while others claimed it was great movie. Honestly it didn’t disappoint, from start to finish it’s a great thrill ride. The entire movie I felt it had a good message and that enjoy the time we have and don’t look towards the future or back at the past, but after the twist ending it’s more of does the needs of the many outweigh the few? This movie will keep you guessing and coming up with your own theory the entire time, it’s a great watch. I give it a 9/10.

Elizabeth Harvest

‘Elizabeth Harvest’ is a 2018 Scifi/Horror starring Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road), Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game), Ciaran Hinds (The Woman in Black), and Matthew Beard (The Imitation Game).

A Scientist who lost his his wife successfully creates several clones of her in order to fulfill his lost desire and love.

This is a unique movie, and I can’t really think of one to compare it to. The story is original, I thought it was predictable but after the halfway mark, it takes several turns I didn’t see coming. The acting is great from everyone. The only thing I didn’t care for is how artsy it tried to get, different colors, different angles, time lapses etc.. I’m not sure why films feel the need to do this, it doesn’t add anything in my opinion. Just stick to the movie. If you’re looking for a decent scifi/horror movie, check this one out, also bonus points for originality. It leaves Netflix July 31st, so hurry up to check it out. I give it a 6.5/10.

Charlie Says

‘Charlie Says’ is a 2018 crime/drama/biopic starring Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Sosie Bacon (13 Reasons Why), Marianne Rendon (Imposters), Merritt Wever (Signs), and Chace Crawford (The Covenant).

‘Charlie Says’ is based on the book “The Family” written by Karlene Faith who worked with the Manson girls at the California Institute for Women. She viewed them as victims, and lobbied for early release.

A lot of people are obsessed with serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. The one I find most fascinating though is Charles Manson. He never physically lifted a finger in the nine grisly murders in the summer of 1969, but brainwashed others to do the dirty work. It’s all fascinating. ‘Charlie Says’ focuses on the three main girls involved in the murders, and Tex Watson (Crawford), where as Charlie Manson isn’t the lime light. It’s an interesting view point and makes for an interesting movie. My only complaint would be is Smith is too tall for Manson, he plays a great role, but Smith is 6’0 and Manson was 5’2. Almost a whole foot difference, Manson was known for his small stature, and would supposedly go crazy when someone mentioned it. If you didn’t know how short Manson was, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it was a little distracting for me. Other than that it’s great, and I loved the perspective of the film. I give it a 7/10.

The Forever Purge

‘The Forever Purge’ is the fifth installment of the horror series ‘The Purge’. It stars Ana de la Reguera (Nacho Libre), Cassidy Freeman (Longmire), Leven Rambin (The Hunger Games), Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama), Tenoch Huerta (Get the Gringo), and Zahn Mcclarnon (Longmire).

When the siren sounds to end the annual purge, a group decides the purge shouldn’t end, and continues to wreck havoc.

I love ‘The Purge’ series, it’s one of the best horror series out there. I’ve seen all of them in theaters including this one, and none of them have disappointed. That is until, now. Somehow ‘The Purge’ has managed to shock and awe me every time, I remember watching the first one, and I was in shock how insane this movie was. 24 hours where anything is legal, and each movie lived up to it time and time again, but maybe now it’s played out. This one gets really political, while the U.S. is suffering the never ending purge, Mexico and Canada open up their borders for a brief time for sanctuary. So now its a flee to the Mexican border. The Border crisis is a hot button issue right now regardless of which political side you fall on. This movie basically just hammers this topic over and over, but that’s not why this movie was bad. This movie is bad, because well, it’s boring. It just felt like an empty shell, yes they were running for their lives trying to get to the Mexican border, but most of the movie they were just hiding. Not a lot of action at all for a Purge movie. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, but it never really did, just a few spots here and there. Towards the end of the movie I just wanted it to end, I couldn’t care less if they even made it to the border by that point. Maybe five purges is just one too many. This will be the one that puts an asterisks beside the film series for me. I give it a 4/10.

Avengement

‘Avengement’ is a 2019 Action movie starring Scott Adkins (The Expendables 2), Craig Fairbrass (Villian), Nick Moran (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Thomas Turgoose (This is England) and, Kierston Wareing (Fish Tank).

A convict (Adkins) escapes prison in order to seek revenge on those responsible for putting him in there.

This movie isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s a gritty martial arts movie, a lot of fighting, blood, and cursing. To me though, it was awesome. I love martial art movies, problem is though a lot of the time, the acting and/ or story is cheesy. Which will sink a martial arts film fast, this one though, has a great story. I haven’t heard of Adkins before or just haven’t recognized him, but he can fight. He is Jason Statham esque, even with the way he walks and talks. Although you’re going to see more fighting in this than in one of Statham’s new movies. Sorry Statham, but it’s true. I give this one a 7.5/10. You can currently catch it on Netflix.

The Open House

‘The Open House’ is a 2018 Netflix original horror movie starring Dylan Minnette (13 Reasons Why), Piercey Dalton (Interrogation), Patricia Bethune (True Blood), and Sharif Atkins (ER).

A son and mother stay in a family member’s mountain home while trying to get back on their feet. The only stipulation is the family member is selling the house, so the mom and son must be out at certain times for the open house times.

So this has every aspect to not only be a good horror film, but an amazing one. Big secluded mountain house.. check, son and mom by themselves… check, and random strangers coming into the house while the mom and son are gone… check. It has the perfect set up, and then that’s it. It’s like the writers came up with a shell and then just gave up and left it empty. My wife referred to it as lazy writing, which I hate to call the writers lazy, so I’m just going to go with they didn’t know what to do with the plot. So let’s dive into it. It’s a very slow burn where nothing really happens till the last 20 minutes or so, which is okay a lot of movies do this. However I’ve never seen a movie where so much stuff was added that had nothing to do with helping the story. They kept focusing on the water heater, the basement, the kid’s mile time, and the neighbor with Alzheimer’s. None of these things ever come into play and have absolutely nothing to do in furthering the story. In Stephen King’s book “On Writing” he mentions that you never write anything into a story if it doesn’t have a purpose, otherwise it’s just wasted. These writers should have read his book. When we finally get to the end, it doesn’t explain anything. So this movie looks good, but that’s it, avoid it like a bad open house. I give it a 4/10.

Good on Paper

‘Good on Paper’ is a 2021 original Netflix romantic comedy starring lliza Shlesinger (Spencer Confidential), Ryan Hansen (Fantasy Island), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood), and Margaret Cho (The Masked Singer).

A standup comedian, (Shlesinger), who is trying to make it as an actress in L.A., meets a man who is not her typical type. They quickly become friends, and then boyfriend and girlfriend. Everything seems to be coming together in her life until she finds out everything about him is a lie.

One of the funny things about this movie is it’s based on some real experiences Shlesinger had, not sure how much is real and how much is for entertainment purposes, either way it makes for a good movie. It’s not as funny as I thought it would be after watching the trailer, it still has its funny parts but not laugh out loud funny. It still has a great story and everyone plays a good part. I give it a 7/10

Fatherhood

‘Fatherhood’ is currently the number one movie on Netflix starring Kevin Hart (Jumangi Welcome to the Jungle), Lil Rel Howery (Uncle Drew), Melody Hurd (Them), Anthony Carrigan (Gotham), Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave), DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It), and Paul Reiser (Mad About You).

‘Fatherhood’ is based off the true story of a father who raises his baby girl on his own after his wife dies shortly after child birth.

Netflix recently gave Kevin Hart the Adam Sandler deal, where they signed him to a series of movies for really big money. Smart move on Netflix, as Kevin Hart is one of the biggest comics in the game right now and I imagine highly sought after. This isn’t his typical role as he normally plays a goofy role, and this one is more serious, as he is playing a single father raising a daughter. He still adds his sense of humor and jokes making it not a total serious/dramatic movie. I liked the movie, it’s heartfelt, funny while touching at the same time. Kevin Hart plays a great role. My wife found it more sad than heartfelt, and cried through the majority of it, but she liked it as well. So whether you find it more funny and heartfelt like I did, or sad like she did, you’ll still enjoy it, and enjoy Hart’s performance. I give it a 6.5/10.

Welcome Home

‘Welcome Home’ is a 2018 thriller starring Emily Ratajkowski (Gone Girl), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick: Chapter 2), and Francesco Acquaroli (Fargo). A couple (Ratajkowski, Paul) whose relationship is on the rocks spend a week in the Italian Countryside in an attempt to fix their relationship. They won’t be left alone by the overfriendly neighbor, and they soon find out his sinister plans.

This movie is basically ‘The Intruder’ with Dennis Quaid mixed with ’13 Cameras’. Instead of the overly nice creepy seller, you have the overly nice creepy neighbor. Then like ’13 Cameras’ you have cameras set up all over the house, with the creepy guy sitting there watching the couple. The best way to describe this movie is, it’s the perfect mashup of those two. I haven’t heard of ‘Welcome Home’, but it just came to Netflix, and I like Aaron Paul, so I figured I would watch it. Honestly it’s a pretty solid movie. It doesn’t have as many twists and turns as I would prefer in a thriller and it was a little predictable, but the acting is really good. Scamarcio plays the creeper part perfect. He reminds me a lot of Javier Bardem’s character in ‘No Country for Old Men’. I was surprised how well Ratajkowski does, she is mostly a model, not a whole lot under her belt as far as acting, but she plays a good part. Overall I give it a 7.5/10.