jctundis

Let me preface this by saying I only recently watched the 2013 version of Evil Dead. I surprised myself with how much I liked it. I guess having a 10 year separation made the tone of it work, harkening back to the relentless and serious tone of the original 1981 movie.

So Evil Dead Rise. I didn't hate it... but I sure didn't love it. It has some great moments but is largely bland. Beginning with a very late 90s factory horror film, it does ratchet up the tension and has a tremendous title sequence.

It meanders for a bit before all hell breaks loose (in the usual way) with one great performance and some solid gore. However, it felt like the director was holding back. It wasn't nearly as intense as the hype would have you believe. I have to assume there's and extended, unrated cut coming at some point. It was a bit inconsistent in the f/x department right to the end with the finale having both the best and worst examples side by side.

Hate to say it, but the messaging is a bit heavy handed in it, too. Not that there was anything I disagreed with but there was just too much for this type of film -- it felt awkward and forced.

The mom (Ellie played by Alyssa Sutherland) is easily the best character in the movie. The best character in the last 2 movies. Her physicality and acting chops made every darkly sadistic, comic line land perfectly.

One of the biggest problems with the movie is that I really don't care about any of the other characters - and that includes the main protagonist (Beth played by Lily Sullivan). Not that Evil Dead movies are known for their characters' depth, but at least they're interesting. A large part of this rolls on like a one dimensional soap opera about maternal instincts which could work in a context with more time to develop relationships and personalities.

There were tons of callbacks to previous Evil Dead entries (some of which just did not work with the overall serious tone of this movie) as well as classics such as The Shining and The Thing.

Is it worth seeing? Sure! It has enough fun stuff to keep you engaged and the change of setting away from the cabin is refreshing. Is it a game changer for the franchise and the scariest film of the year? No.

So, yeah, I finally got around to seeing Spider-Man: Far From Home. Meh. I know it's primarily a YA movie, but I expected more "pop" and fun judging from all the positive feedback I've heard. I was largely bored.

Other than Ned (or Ganke) all the supporting cast was lifeless to awful (looking at you, JB Smoove), having lost any charm they had from the first movie. Why anyone would be interested in this one-note, repetitively morose version of "MJ" is beyond me. Tom Holland is still fantastic as Peter/Spidey. Samuel L Jackson just looks tired and Jake Gyllenhaal phones in possibly the flattest performance I've ever seen from him. As with most MCU movies, the humor is plastic and forced. The writers also repeatedly screwed up the rules of the "blip."

On the plus side, there are some very cool action and F/X scenes - especially during the final battle.

There's also a scene in the middle of the movie that is EVERYTHING I've always wanted in an onscreen Spidey vs Mysterio confrontation. Pure magic!

Sure, the plot was always going to be 100% predictable (unless you've never read a Spider-Man comic or watched a cartoon in your life), but these movies aren't made for comic book fans. So I was fine with that, as long the execution was good. It wasn't bad... just mediocre. A nice, safe film for the family.

There are two post movie scenes - one mid-credits that screws up continuity, makes very little narrative sense, and looks awful - and a second one at the very end of one of the longest credit scrolls in history that ties directly into one of the worst MCU movies, is painfully unfunny, and seriously lowers my interest in seeing any further MCU product.

In the end Spider-Man: Far From Home is, with the exception of 2 extremely bright spots, a fairly banal, tween product for the masses. So of course, it's going to make a crapload of money (636 million worldwide and counting).

5.5/10

Obviously, this film is largely an homage to George Romero's zombie films (Night of the Living Dead, etc) but I also got a sense of the delightfully absurd a la Plan 9 From Outer Space. First and foremost, however, this is a Jim Jarmusch film -- a quirky, modestly paced, clever, slightly off kilter character study where events take place, but very little actually happens. His 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive cemented Jarmusch among my favorite directors. That film also featured my favorite actress, Tilda Swinton...

Who makes a brilliant return in The Dead Don't Die as the long white haired Scottish samurai funeral home director... with a secret! I mean, she's amazing. Adam Driver is also great, and delivers the biggest laugh of the movie.

The messaging about consumerism does get a little heavy handed late in the film, and some of the fourth wall breaking might alienate some audiences (although it works for me here as a kind of commentary on the pointless foolishness of the zombie genre).

7.5/10