josiv89

"The Exorcist: Believer" was...fine. Lidya Jewett and Olivia Marcum do a magnificent job as the possessed children and the surrounding cast is convincing as well. The story could easily pass as a straight forward movie on possessions, however. Like it genuinely feels like a movie that just happened to have the exorcist brand slapped onto it with Ellen Burnstyn slapped as an afterthought. There are some subplots that were entirely pointless for the film, particularly with Ann Dowd's character that had zero impact on the film while other characters weren't flushed out quite nearly enough.

As a casual fan of the exorcist I wasn't offended but I'm not sure how the rest of fans will feel. I think the exorcist III will be the closest thing we'll get to a justifiable "sequel." There are some questions that need to be answered, which, depending on the success of this movie, we may or may not get. Time will tell I guess.

So today I (mis)treated myself to a double feature of Meg 2 and Til Death Do Us Part. After Meg 2 failed to deliver on its minimal promises of schlocky fun I had my hopes that this would meet my expectations of being mildly entertaining. Unfortunately this couldn't even pass the lowest bar: at least be more entertaining than the movie I watched prior.

This movie is a beat-by-beat ripoff to the far superior Kill Bill films with lifeless performances from a cast that looked like they didn't want to be there. The characters are monotone, obnoxious, and one note. Cam Gigandet's character is by far the most insufferable of the bunch. Putting on random classic songs on vinyl and foolishly dancing around is his sole personality trait that probably took up to a total of 15 minutes of the film runtime throughout. If you want your character to be demented maybe...I don't know...do more?

It delivers on the blood and gore for the most part and usually when a film is this bad this can be a redeeming quality, even if it doesn't save the film entirely. But this did nothing for me. The jokes fall flat, the characters are cringe, and the film is about 20-25 minutes too long. There was no heart in this. The only positives I can give this are some decent fighting scenes and two pretty cool and bloody kills.

Idk man...his stuff is just hit or miss for me. I've seen a decent chunk of his films and while some were hits (LOVE the Fantastic Mr. Fox) most of his movies just aren't for me. And this was something in the middle. Great filmmaker-sure. But he's not really my taste and if you're like me, this will more than likely do very little to sway you in the other direction.

But I somehow get sucked in out of curiosity almost every time, so I give Wes credit there. The quirky and monotone humor with some dark subject material and shallow plot just doesn't do much for me. Speaking on Astroid City in particular, it is exhausting how all of his characters are very well written and multi-layered and yet present themselves as one-dimensional on the surface; it's no longer clever and I'm now rarely feeling intrigued or inquisitive. The irony and wit goes in full overdose which makes this Wes Anderson movie his most Wes Anderson movie to date which, depending on your taste is for better or for worse (worse for me), but also the most beautifully shot of the work I've seen of his with a decent but shallow premise, which saves it but not enough. But I feel like I can copy and paste this exact same review for so much of his other recent work.

Wes Anderson fans will love this but it doesn't go or do beyond much else for casual moviegoers. And it appears that even some cinephiles are feeling the fatigue as well.