The Vault

‘The Vault’ is a 2021 action/heist movie starring Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel), Astrid Berges-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Sam Riley (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Liam Cunningham (Clash of the Titans), Luis Tosar (Take My Eyes), and Axel Stein (More Ants in the Pants).

The top engineering student (Highmore) is recruited to help a team break into the Bank of Spain. The Vault is considered impenetrable, and he is the only one that may be able to come up with a solution.

This is an ‘Oceans Eleven’ mixed with ‘Mission Impossible’, they gather their perfect crew for an impossible job. Even though the concept isn’t new, this is a great film. I love Highmore, he’s a great actor, I loved him in ‘Bates Motel’. He plays the same type of character in this, minus the whole psycho aspect. The whole cast is great, and it’s written really well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole the time, and small aspects that are written in end up playing major roles. Again great writing. You can check this one out on Netflix. I give it a 10/10.

Fear Street Part 2: 1978

‘Fear Street Part 2: 1978’ is the second instalment of the Fear Street horror series, it stars Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), Emily Rudd (Dynasty), Ryan Simpkins (A Single Man), McCabe Slye (Destroyer), Ted Sutherland (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and Drew Scheid (Words on Bathroom Walls).

The year is 1978, it’s summer time at camp Nightwing, all is fun and games until the witch posses one of the camp consolers. Now it’s a fight for survival as an axe wielding maniac wrecks havoc in camp Nightwing.

This one picks up directly from where the first one left off, and answers questions that we had from the first one. Who is C. Berman, what is her relationship with Sherriff Goode, and what do they have to do with the witch? This one answers those questions, this one is their story. This one is great, it has all the feels of a 80’s slasher movie, Friday the 13th vibes, an axe wielding maniac is running around killing campers. How can it not be good right? The thing stopping this movie though is it’s dark scenes, a lot of the movie takes place at night or in a cave, so it’s really hard to tell what’s going on. I always hate when movies do that, what’s the point of adding dark scenes if you can’t tell what’s going on? Other than that it’s another solid movie, and it sets up for the third one ‘Fear Street Part 3: 1666’ where we get to see the witch’s story. I can’t wait to check it out, I give this one a 7/10.

Fear Street Part One 1994

‘Fear Street Part One 1994’ is Netflix’s newest horror movie series based off the ‘Fear Street’ books by R.L. Stine. ‘Fear Street Part One 1994’ is the first one in the trilogy, starring Kiana Madeira (Sacred Lies), Olivia Scott Welch (Modern Family), Benjamin Flores Jr. (Rim of the World), Julia Rehwald (Where’s Darren?), Fred Hechinger (News of the World), and Maya Hawke (Stranger Things).

A group of teenage friends from Shadyside, are hunted by a group of killers who are possessed by a witch that has been wreaking havoc on the town for three hundred years.

I’m a huge R.L. Stine fan, I grew up reading ‘Goosebumps’, ‘Fear Street’, ‘Ghosts of Fear Street’, and the ‘Goosebumps 2000’ series. I even still have the original 100 ‘Goosebumps” packed up, so when I saw Netflix was doing a ‘Fear Street’ adaption, I had to watch it. It’s not quite what I was expecting, this is pretty much your teen slasher flick but on steroids. Not one killer is after a group of teens but three are. It’s a little more graphic, and gory than what I would expect from a R.L. Stine adaptation, but it makes for a great slasher flick. A cool Easter egg too is in the beginning when they’re in the bookstore, the books shown are ‘Fear Street’ covers, just has a fake authors name on them. I’m looking forward to watching the next two, I give it a 8/10.

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.

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.

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.