Jeepers Creepers: Reborn

“Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” is a 2022 horror movie and the fourth instalment in the “Jeepers Creepers” series. This one stars Sydney Craven (EastEnders), Imran Adams (Hollyoaks), Peter Brooker (Wonder Woman 1984), and Jarreau Benjamin (Red Devil) as the creeper.

A young couple go to a horror convention because the boyfriend wants to, and the girlfriend reluctantly goes with him. The couple wins a grand prize at the convention where they get to stay a night at the creepers house with a film crew. Unkown to them, it’s been 23 years and once again the creeper is back to feast. They’ve been set up by members of the town for the creeper to feast on them. Specifically, the girlfriend since she is pregnant, and the creeper wants her baby.

There was a lot of hype for this one when it was announced. It’s been five years since the third one and twenty-one years since the original. The first one is a classic, and the second one, though not as good as the first, is still pretty good. I haven’t watched the third one in the series, but with a new “Jeepers Creepers” out, I knew I had to watch this one. It has received a ton of hate with a measly score of 2.5/10 on IMDb.

There’s a lot to unpack here. As a stand-alone horror movie, it’s not too bad. There is a lot worse out there. As one of the Jeepers Creeper movies, I can see why people are hating on it. There’s a lot of reasons. First off it seems pretty low budget, which for a horror movie that isn’t uncommon, but the first two in the series aren’t. So, compared to them, that’s pretty bad. Secondly the acting is terrible, but that normally comes with a low budget film. Third, is the creeper himself. Which I think is the main reason it’s being hated on, for me personally anyway. They changed the actor who plays him. The new creeper looks horrible, a low budget order off wish creeper. The original actually looks like a creature. This one looks like a latex costume. Plus, he looks and seems smaller, not at all intimidating and badass like the original. I feel like I could take this creeper in a fight. Now again, if you watch it as a stand-alone horror movie, it’s okay, but in the creeper franchise, it is awful. I am a little disappointed myself, I was hoping for better with the new one. Overall, I give it a 5/10. Just an eh film. If you do want to check it out, you can currently find it on Hulu.

You People

“You People” is a Netflix original 2023 comedy/drama starring Eddie Murphy (Meet Dave), Jonah Hill (Superbad), Lauren London (ATL), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld), David Duchovny (The X-Files) Mike Epps (Friday After Next), and Rhea Perlman (Cheers).

A young white Jewish man and young African American Muslim woman fall in love and get engaged. Being different skin colors and from different worlds may prove to be too big of a hurdle to overcome with tension from their families mounting.

Eddie Murphy is the GOAT of comedy to me, and I also like Jonah Hill. They bring in the star power also adding Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Mike Epps. So, it looks like a no brainer, that it’s a must see. It’s currently sitting at number one in movies on Netflix. So, how is it? They missed the mark somewhere. It’s two hours of focusing on race. Which is an important issue, but they tried to also make a comedy out of it and ended up falling flat. Either make it a drama, or a comedy with the star power you have. Instead, its a two hour bore, with a couple of good jokes here and there. Overall though, you just want it to end. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like this one, but I give it a 5/10.

The Curse of Bridge Hollow

“The Curse of Bridge Hollow” is Netflix’s newest Halloween themed movie. It’s a 2022 family/comedy starring Marlon Wayans (White Chicks), Priah Ferguson (Stranger Things), Kelly Rowland (Empire), John Michael Higgins (Pitch Perfect), Lauren Lapkus (The Wrong Missy), and Rob Riggle (Holey Moley).

A teenage girl (Ferguson), her mom (Rowland), and her dad (Wayans) move to a small town from the city around Halloween time. The small town is all about Halloween and all the houses deck out their yards in decorations. The girl accidently unleashes an ancient spirit who brings all the yard decorations in town to life. She now must team up with her dad, who doesn’t believe in the paranormal but only science, to stop the curse before it’s too late.

I like Priah Ferguson, she’s great in “Stranger Things”, and I also like Marlon Wayans, he’s a very funny dude. It also looks like it would be good, an original concept. However, it’s not funny and just seems to be a rip off of “Goosebumps” with Jack Black but not near as good. It didn’t seem to know its target audience. It’s labeled a family film, but it appears to be too scary for kids, maybe not older kids, but not scary enough to be a horror. It also drops a couple of random curse words that don’t seem to be family friendly but again too dumb/not scary to be for adults either. It just falls in that weird void. Instead of battling R.L. Stein’s monsters in “Goosebumps” they run around defeating yard decorations while maintaining too not being funny. It sets up for a sequel at the end, but I hope Netflix spares us from that atrocity. I would give this one a pass this Halloween. I give it a 5/10.

Vacation Friends

‘Vacation Friends’ is a 2021 Hulu exclusive comedy starring John Cena (The Suicide Squad), Lil Rel Howery (Uncle Drew), Yvonne Orji (Insecure), Meredith Hagner (Search Party), and Robert Wisdom (Ray).

A straight laced couple (Howery, Orji) befriend a wild couple (Cena, Hagner) while vacationing in mexico. After a wild week of partying full of drugs and drinking, the straight laced couple thinks they’ll never see the wild couple again. Until the wild couple shows up announced to their wedding, and chaos seems to follow at every turn.

As I’ve said in previous reviews, I love John Cena, and Lil Rel. They are two of the funniest actors right now. ‘Uncle Drew’, and ‘Blockers’ are both hilarious, so I had high hopes watching this one. Maybe my hopes were too high, because this one is under whelming. The comedy seemed forced, and really wasn’t that funny. I hate to say it because I was really looking forward to this one, but it’s just okay and ultimately forgettable. I give it a 5/10.

Coming 2 America

‘Coming 2 America’ is the long awaited sequel to ‘Coming to America’, which is a little out of the blue considering the first one came out in 1988, over 30 years ago. However, Eddie Murphy is the king of comedy. ‘Bowfinger’, and ‘Meet Dave’, are two of the funniest movies ever made, so anything with Eddie Murphy I’m going to watch. ‘Coming 2 America’ has a blockbuster cast starring Eddie Murphy (Bowfinger), Arsenio Hall (Coming to America), Jermaine Fowler (Crashing), Leslie Jones (Ghostbusters), Tracy Morgan (30 Rock), Wesley Snipes (White Men Can’t Jump), and James Earl Jones (The Lion King).

Prince Akeem (Murphy), now King Akeem, travels back to America once again, this time to find his illegitimate son so he will have a male heir to the throne.

I’m not sure how anticipated this movie was, like I said earlier it was out of the blue, over 30 years later, I’m not sure if anyone was expecting it. But here it is, and the first one is such a cult classic, and with this firepower of comics it has to be good right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. This one drags, it has the potential to be great, but it just isn’t. Fowler plays Murphy’s part from the first one. He plays Murphy’s son and is brought back to Africa, and he’s the young naïve one like Murphy is in the first one, but he’s no where near as funny as Murphy is, not even in the same category. So that leaves Murphy, he plays a staunchly king in this one, which has no comic relief, so that takes out classic Eddie Murphy, that is typically hilarious. Which leaves Leslie Jones, and Tracy Morgan, and surprisingly they bring nothing to the table here. To say the least this one is underwhelming and a disappointment. They even make a joke in it about not needing sequels that is messes up the first one. They should have listened to their own joke. As much as it pains me to give an Eddie Murphy film a low score, I have to give it a 5/10. If you are interested, you can check it out on Amazon Prime.

Blow the Man Down

‘Blow the Man Down’ is a 2019 drama/mystery starring Sophie Lowe (The Slap), Morgan Saylor (White Girl), June Squibb (Hubie Halloween), Margo Martindale (Sneaky Pete), Will Brittain (Kong: Skull Island), and Gayle Rankin (Perry Mason). Two sisters cover up a grizzly murder when one of the sisters accidently murders a man in self defense. They quickly learn there’s more to their sleepy seaside fishing village than meets the eye.

If you watch the trailer for ‘Blow the Man Down’ it looks really good. It’s intriguing, full of suspense, and mystery. Unfortunately, the trailer is the best part of this movie. It has an odd artsy feel to it, with singing fisherman throughout, and I get it, they’re hammering in the history of the village even with the underbelly. But this movie is slow, very slow. The story is there, but there’s no action to it, about ten minuets in when they kill the guy but that’s it. This movie is a let down, if you want you can watch it on Amazon Prime, but I would say give it a pass. It’s easily forgettable, I give it a 5/10.

A Recipe for Seduction

This is arguably the most anticipated movie of 2020. Is it the one we asked for, or the one we expected? well no. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, KFC and Lifetime paired up to make a movie. Yes, you read that right, KFC made a romantic movie. In their defense it is only a mini movie that runs 16 minutes. Why they would make this, or anyone would agree to making this, is anyone’s guess.

‘A Recipe for Seduction’ stars Mario Lopez (Saved by the Bell), Justene Alpert (Bosh), Tessa Munro (The Adventures of Craig’s List), and Chad Doreck (iCarly). A young heiress struggles (Alpert) between picking between a rich suitor (Doreck), and the new house chef (Lopez). Besides the chef’s good looks he’s also bringing 11 herbs and spices to the table.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Lifetime is already known for their cheesy movies, but now they’re teaming up with KFC? It’s all a glorified stunt to bring views to KFC, and guess what? It worked, I’m writing a review about it, and the internet is obsessed with it. Is the movie good? No, it’s a train wreck. It’s the soap opera you see in the trailer. I give KFC props though, it gets us all talking about them. For that alone I give it a 5/10.

Vampires vs the Bronx

I love October, the fall weather, the changing of the leaves, the whole spookiness of the season. One of the best parts of the season is all the horror movies that come out during this time of the year. Unfortunately, Regal announced they’re closing down theaters across the board for the rest of the year, so not a lot of horror/thriller’s dropping this year. So we have to take what we can get.

There’s not a lot of great vampire movies out there, so I was pretty excited when Netflix announced this one. ‘Vampires vs the Bronx’ is about a local kid trying to save his neighborhood from going under as rent is being steadily raised. A real state company moves in offering to buy people’s businesses and homes, only problem is, they’re vampires.

‘Vampires vs the Bronx’ stars Sarah Gadon (True Detective), The Kid Mero (Desus & Mero), Jaden Michael (The Get Down), Gerald Jones III (Blue Bloods), Gregory Diaz IV (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), and Method Man (How High).

As I said earlier there isn’t a lot of great vampire movies out there, and unfortunately this movie falls into this category. They just didn’t seem to know what direction they wanted to go with it. At times it was a horror film, then a comedy, then a cheesy mixture of both. The vampires also looked like they were borrowed from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, just a cheesy look. It just didn’t work, and in the end it’s a forgettable film. I give it a 5/10.

Home is Where the Killer is

‘Home is Where the Killer is’ is a 2019 thriller you can find on Netflix. It stars Stacy Haiduk (The Young and the Restless), Kelly Kruger (Blue Mountain State), Beth Littleford (Drillbit Taylor), Anne Leighton (Grimm), and Christopher Sean (Days of Our Lives). Nicole Turner (Kruger) is down on her luck after a bout with cancer. She rents a room in Julie Thomason’s (Haiduk) house. Little does she know her landlord is crazy and will do anything to keep her there.

This is an interesting movie, the story plot is good, the actors and actresses aren’t really known, and the acting is bad and way over the top. This deserves to be on lifetime, but as I say if it’s not a Netflix original it’s probably trash. It has flashes of being good, but overall the bad acting and over the top cheesiness ruins it. With the story line though, if a good director got a hold of this, and hired some good actors, this would be a great film. However, that’s the case with most cheesy movies. If nothing else is on I would say give it a watch, but you’re not missing anything either. It’s your run of the mill movie, I give it a 5/10

The Night Clerk

‘The Night Clerk’ is a 2020 thriller starring Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Ana De Armas (Knock Knock), John Leguizamo (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar), Helen Hunt (Girls Just Want to Have Fun), and Jonathon Schaech (That Thing you Do!) ‘The Night Clerk’ is about a young man (Sheridan) who works at a hotel as the night clerk. He suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and has several hidden cameras in the rooms in order for him to study and mimic people which helps him with his social awkwardness. He ends up witnessing a murder on one of his live feeds.

‘The Night Clerk’ has a great cast, Tye Sheridan really nails his role as a man with Asperger’s Syndrome, and the story is there. However, after that, that’s it. It falls flat, and I mean it falls hard. This story has so much potential, but nothing happens. Sheridan witnesses the murder in the beginning of the film, and that’s it, that’s the most action the movie has. It’s a disappointment with the caliber cast and story line. I would pass this one up, but if you do want to watch it, you can find it on Netflix. It falls into what I’ve said before, if it’s not a Netflix original it’s probably not worth watching on Netflix. I give it a 5/10.