C-Younkin

Hiya Georgie

It Chapter 2 is the thrilling conclusion to Stephen King's classic clown novel which finds the losers club needing to go back to Derry after 27 years cause they did not kill Pennywise like they thought they did.

And first off let's just say that Pennywise has been a terrific villain through all this. Yes, clowns remind us all of serial killers anyway, there's not much Krusty can do about that, but if you also get one who knows your fears there really is no stoppage to the torments one could inflict.

Bill Skarsgard has really dug in here, he's having fun, and i'm loving how over the top he allows the voice and mannerisms to get.

The losers club comes back, this time as adults, in fine form.

Sure guys like James McAvoy, who carries Bill's guilt over the loss of his brother Georgie perfectly, and Bill Hader, whose the wise-ass Richie of the group, stand out but everyone here is allowed their moment.

And there are a lot of moments here. This is a lot of movie. Sometimes it's going for horror, sometimes it's comic, sometimes it's a coming of age drama, and in the case of the friend-zoned Ben and the only girl of the group, Beverly, there's a rootable romance here too.

One of the criticisms that has been labeled against this is that it's not a scare on top of scare style movie but I think that's cause this movie is smarter and way more ambitious than that.

This is a follow-up to the highest grossing horror flick of all time-why not going huge with it?

The losers club themselves are still a great bunch of guys and lady and it'a a huge laugh seeing them pick up right where they left off- ribbing each other, bringing up old memories, regretting the fact that as life often goes, we do lose contact with even close friends.

You also never see anyone of them with a cup of coffee- they're so high strung just by living in Derry that even tossing a red bull in the middle of them might result in explosion.

Director Andy Muschietti throws in even more creatures this time around- heads walking on spiders legs, decomposing bodies, statues, things just come alive with big booming voices.

Muscietti worked pretty well with these overgrown, gangly looking monsters in his first horror flick, Mama, but he has vastly improved the facial distortions, the creatures entrances, nearly every jump scare is part of a grander scene that just looks like nightmare fuel.

Like that scene with the old lady from the trailer is 10 times more creepy in this movie and is just a masterclass of suspense.

Yes at nearly 3 hours all of this can feel relentless but he moves these horrifying creatures around like a chessmaster and my heart pumped and my jaw dropped and that's no small feat.

I was also someaht worried about the ending here- mostly cause part 2 of the miniseries ends with kind of dud oh, they look like they're fighting something from Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

But Muscietti proves to completely understand psychological torment by movie's end and continuing to incorporate that in the final showdown is a smart move.

Story-wise this also does a hell of a lot- adding in a Native American subplot, telekinesis, tokens, and some really brutal acts of homophobia and spousal abuse that ties in later with a message about bullying.

I'm out of breath just trying to explain all this movie tries to do, so while it's not always scary and is definitely long winded,

It wants to be a lot of things, most surprising of all is it makes you want to call up a close friend you haven't spoken to in a while..if you have one. That shows this isn't just about the scares but about the characters too. On both counts I was more than satisfied.

If you liked this check out Craig James Review on Youtube for more

The Peanut Butter Falcon tells of the friendship between a mentally challenged man named Zack and a down on his luck fisherman named Tyler.

Both these guys bandits in their own way, they team up and head down river Mark Twain style, just here from North Carolina to Florida to help Zack get to meet his favorite wrestler and maybe be one himself.

And right off the bat this movie gets representation points.

You don't get many movies that really get what it's like to be mentally disabled but this brings that out super well.

Zack's predicament is one of many where the world really doesn't know what to do with people with down syndrome. Yes there are people who treat him cruelly but then there are also the ones who treat him in a workman-like way- who baby him and put him some place out of the way.

The world is trying to phase out the word retard but in one great scene here the movie shows that society still sees these people as less than and they need to reassess that.

One who deserves loads of credit here is Zack Gottsagen, who i'm not even overrating in saying I feel is a front runner for a best supporting actor oscar right now.

Zack's enthusiasm for wrestling is infectious, his personality is funny, his dreams and his goals become instantly rootable, his need for something more is universal and heartwarming. This is not just being, but also great acting.

His rapport with Shia LeBouf is terrific. LeBouf also has not been this good in a while. He takes on Tyler's feelings of isolation and regret.

This is a movie of two people, one feels he is not a good person because the world has made him feel less, the other because he has given up on himself because of past mistakes.

Another just beautiful scene between the two focuses on what makes a good and bad person.

Their time together definitely does bring to mind bayou movies like Mud, or classic characters of Mark Twain. They get into trouble, there are some really suspenseful close calls-one involving a sea boat is more suspenseful than most of the movies this summer.

But there is genuine affection there too. They both need each other, they both learn things from each other.

This is so lovably told that even the unbelievable logic, especially what happens in the last act of the movie, doesn't matter so much because you love them and love seeing them win.

Peanut Butter Falcon is as beautiful a movie as you've probably heard people say it is and if you haven't seen it yet, you're missing one of the top films of the year.

Let's put it this way- there are dissapointments and then there are Ready or Not Level disappointments.

Ready or Not is the new indie Hunger Games/Die Hard/You're Next-ish horror film from Fox Searchlight, I studio I constantly fear will suffer the same fate as the main character in this movie, just in this case, at the hands of a mouse.

The movie centers on a young bride named Grace, who gets caught up in a life or death hunting game with her very rich and eccentric new in-laws.

The game is hide and seek but once creepy Aunt Helene grabs a crossbow it's fair to say they don't play in the traditional way.

A lot of questions arise over the course of the evening. How does Grace win? How does this family justify murder? How bad is the honeymoon going to be if you don't support your wife through your family trying to kill her?

And what's surprising about it is that the movie makes a weird kind of satirical sense- that rich people so keen on getting away with things the rest of us can't will literally sink to any level to make sure they stay that way- even participate in something so supernaturally and superstitiously out there that you want to laugh at them.

The ace in the hole here is not so much how bloody, violent, or scary the movie gets, even though it does have a good share of those, but it's actually how funny it can be.

Members of the family are not just ridiculous but also downright lethally stupid- the cokehead sister may be my favorite comedic character this year.

There's also great scenes involving Justin the most unhelpful onstar employee ever and one involving an almost dead person that feels taken straight out of Austin Powers.

Other members of the family include a patriarch who feels like a evil cult leader, a matriarch who could either be friend or gravest enemy, a reluctant brother, and several murderous son and daughter in laws desperate not to return to the poverty they came from.

And we root for Grace. The movie does well to put her through every test it can think of, from a nail to the hand to bloody scraps to disturbing and disgusting torments.

It also does well to not revel in any kind of serious bloodlust, if she kills at all, it's usually for some kind of survival.

However the movie is being billed as a revenge flick and I guess that description is apt but also kind of an overstatement. I felt the movie could have let her loose a bit more in the later stages.

But the bigger dissapointment is that the movie could have ended on a great absurdist joke, that these people are in fact just psychotic from the disease called money.

Instead it does something that feels like it was focus-grouped in to leave people walking feeling blood-quenched.

It's a great satire and really funny comedy thriller up to this point but an ending that kinda robs it of the point it was trying to make about these people.