Scream 2 (1997)

Scream 2 (1997)

7/10

               

Starring

David Arquette

Neve Campbell

Courteney Cox

Directed by Wes Craven

As with the first Scream movie, the first scene of the movie star actors who are now established by their own rights. The first death scene was acted by Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps.

Well, this first murder scene was not as spectacular as the first iconic murder scene in the first movie, but it did deliver something very different. Our victims were murdered at a cinema, one got stabbed through the ear while eavesdropping, the other killed while watching a movie and she walked to the front and bled out.

What I love about this second part is that Gale (Courtney Cox) got sucker punched again by Sidney. This movie had more teen actors who ended up becoming stars, Sarah Michelle Geller, Timothy Olyphant and Portia de Rossi were in this movie.

Scream 2 is considered by many to be better than Scream (1996), but to me both delivered the same power punch needed to make me always remember the movies.

Well this time in this Scream masterful acting was the driving force. I guess a seen it all before was already the thing the writer and director duo were afraid of, with the movie being done a year after the first, so more obvious steps were taken in the quality of the production and the writing.

If you have not seen this movie before, the killer too was given enough camouflage this time, to keep you the viewer guessing.

The twist in this movie was, crazy runs in the family. An idea which the makers sold as we watch things unfold in the second movie in the scream series.

This time our leading lady Sidney has moved to a new town and started some new life two years after the incident in the first movie. Thanks to Gale's new book which was about the incidents in the first movie, a movie has been made and was airing when this movie starts. It was in the airing of this movie that the first murder occurred.

At first it seems the murders were not connected to Sidney, but as the killings continue the police saw a pattern and Sidney was placed under protective custody. Soon the killings brought the survivors of the first incident together as they begin to look for the killer. As they get attacked one by one, desperation sets in, here is where I stop. But like the first movie it could not have been one person behind it all, so we must find out who the new killers are.

Scream 2 was also a critical and commercial success like its predecessor and both movies are a must have.

Scream (1996)

Scream (1996)

7/10

               

Starring

David Arquette

Neve Campbell

Courteney Cox

Directed by Wes Craven

The first scenes in the Scream movie is so epic and unique that you can never get tired of it. Drew Barrymore’s performance was just classic and unique that I will forever remember her for it. Wes Craven directed the hell out of this movie to deliver the needed slasher feel. Scream follows the character of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) as she is up against a killer in a “Ghostface” mask.

Many other slasher and horror movies have tried doing something like this great welcoming, that Scream delivers in the first thirteen minutes (thirteen minutes exactly) but have failed.

How many movies does the lead actor get attacked in the first thirty minutes. This movie was awesomeness after awesomeness, scene after scene was thrilling, the first slasher movie I can remember seeing and it will always be one of the best, if not the best. As Wes Craven delivered a directorial masterpiece.

The movie plot like I said followed the life of Sidney Prescott who lives in Woodsboro, as she copes with the gruesome murder of her mother.

Her friend (who was acted by Drew Barrymore and delivered the best of the best movie intro ever) was killed with her boyfriend at their house. What caught the eye of the public was the killing, it was gruesome as the couple was gutted severely.

It did not take long, before Sidney herself was attacked, but she was not ready to die yet she fought off the killer and escaped. The killer continued his torment by calling her at her friend’s home where she was staying after the incident at her place, vowing to catch her and killer her the very first chance he gets.

She believes he attacked her in the school again, and with the attacks becoming irregular the whole town was placed on a curfew from 9:00 PM. Sidney’s friend convinced her to go to a party, where someone also got killed and that is when things get more interesting.

Scream was unique at its time for having characters who were aware of real world horror films and discuss, the flaws and clichés that happen in them. Wes Craven and the writer Kevin Williamson try to dodge these clichés.

Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson went ahead to direct and write Scream 2 and Scream 4. Scream 3 was directed by Wes Craven but written by Ehren Kruger.

The movie was a critical and commercial success and it turned out to be a cult classic. If you have not gotten to see this movie (I find that hard to believe) I should ask you what rock have you been living under?

The Mummy (2017)

The Mummy (2017)

5/10

Starring

Tom Cruise

Annabelle Wallis

Sofia Boutella

Jake Johnson

Directed by Alex Kurtzman

This movie deserved the Razzie nominations it got.

I felt like I was watching Mission Impossible with a mix of some Indiana Jones. Let us be honest there is little to expect in a mummy movie. You will expect a raggedy old mummy, some mystic powers and a deep thriller. Now all that we can get with ease from the first mummy flick done in 1932.

The only way to make it different is to add something new, which the Brendan Fraser movies (the first two movies) that starred Rachael Weisz did. The Mummy (1999) the first in the Fraser trilogy had wit, romance and an exceptional comedic cast. Those additional factors made the movie exceptionally good and inviting to watch anytime. The second movie The Mummy Returns (2001) just rode on the first, trying to increase the intensity of the exceptional cast and making sure that we do not forget Imhotep that easily.

This new Mummy movie just washes away very quickly. Universal studios ended up being what D.C. is, struggling to make a Universe that can be a rival to Marvel. Instead of learning from Marvel, they tried to do it the D.C. way, connect all the dots in one movie.

It did not work for D.C. and it did not work for Universal here also. In this movie we are meant to be introduced into the Dark Universe, where the creatures of Universal studios live. Our lead in this movie, the man that will start things up is Tom Cruise playing Sergeant Nick Morton of the U.S. Army. His antics led to the discovery of a tomb of the mummified Princess Ahmanet whose crime was that she joined forces with the dark power of Set and murdered her family to take the throne.

Nick was not an all around good guy he was a thief who uses his military deployment to steal relics and sell in the black market. The plot starts to unravel to reveal boring directing path and a weak plot from here down.

The movie was set in London in present day which now makes you wonder, why not just set the movie in the old days of horses and swords like the Fraser movies, that was cool. But Universal wanted to waste finances showing us a wasteful plane scene, bus scenes, underground tunnel scene and the movie had too many guns and explosions.

My God the movie was just too much happening at once, Ahmanet is resurrected and wants to kill Nick as he has been chosen as the vessel to bring back Set (Egyptian God of the desert). A ritual Ahmanet was performing before she was captured and mummified. Now there is a secret society, this society is the thin thread that Universal is going to tie all their Dark Universe movies, the society is led by Dr. Henry Jekyll (you know, Jekyll and Hyde). We get to see him turn in this movie, which was another distraction from an already distracted movie, as we get to watch Mr. Edward Hyde battle it out with Nick at some point.

Please note, the outcome of this fight had nothing to do with the present movie, but Universal needed to lay down some ground work for future movies, ground work that could have been done in a movie of its own. It will now be in that movie that Tom Cruise will have a cameo, that is how you link stuff and create a Universe, not like this.

In the end, thanks to the huge marketing cost that Universal pumped into this, then the bad plot, not so good acting cause all Cruise had to do was run around – add to that the huge CGI effects, the movie ended up being a commercial loss. This made Universal pull back on the reigns of their Dark Universe and even though there will be a Bride of Frankenstein much later, I hope Universal will be wiser this time.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

4/10

Starring

Brendan Fraser

Jet Li

Maria Bello

John Hannah

Directed by Rob Cohen

The third movie in the mummy trilogy happens during the time of World War II and the movie has too much going on from the fortieth minute than it should and less happening before that. This time we are not dealing with an Egyptian mummy like we did in The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), so there is no Imhotep, this time the bad guy is some Chinese tyranny warlord, called the Dragon Emperor.

The movie is not spectacular, and it deals with too many daddy and son issues.

The acting from Maria Bello as someone with martial art and fighting skill, was not bad seeing. But the rest of the cast were swamped in too much action scenes requiring guns and all that to be as impressive as they were in the previous two films.

All that comedic and awesome supporting cast that made the first two movies magnificent, gone. All we have is just too much fighting.

The plot as with the first two films introduces the mummy we shall be dealing with, this time he is a Chinese bad guy. He wanted to live forever and so made all the necessary plans to have everlasting life, but things did not go as planned as he betrayed those who helped him and they in turn betrayed him. He was in a way mummified in stone and kept underground away from everyone and a bunch of people were guarding him, as with Imhotep.

But as things will have it, the Mummy got resurrected again. The people behind the resurrection as you can guess are the O’Connell.

Now as they have done in the previous movies, they must now work with the people guarding the mummy, who in all the movies never do a good job at this guarding thing, to stop the mummy.

The movie was a commercial success, but not a critical one. The movie’s pulsating could have been done better and the writing had all the comedy removed and the movie was made too serious for its own good. I ended up missing the presence of Imhotep and his lover Anck-su-namun.

The series was supposed to get a forth, with the cast from this movie planned to reprise their roles and Anthonio Banderas set to be the new bad guy.

Universal pulled the plug on this and decided to launch their Dark Universe Franchise, with The Mummy (2017) reboot being the first film in the upcoming series.