Halloween Kills (2021)

Halloween Kills (2021)

 

3/10

Starring

Jamie Lee Curtis

Judy Greer

Andi Matichak

Will Patton

 

Directed by David Gordon Green

 

Lazy writing, lazy editing, and directed like a low-budget horror movie—Halloween Kills is packed with all the cliché horror movie antics but completely lacks style. This movie wasted the strong setup provided by Halloween (2018).

A third of the movie is just people running around aimlessly, getting in each other's way. The second third focuses on flashbacks and past events, which ultimately add nothing to the present. The final third is pure Michael Myers killing spree, riddled with every horror movie trope you can think of.

Back in 2018, when we returned to the Michael Myers saga, I wasn’t expecting much from the first movie—but it surprised me. Halloween (2018) had suspense, thrills, and just enough horror to keep you hooked and excited to see what the trilogy had in store. Now, after watching Halloween Kills, I can safely say they used up all their tricks in the first movie. This one was dreadful.

Honestly, you could skip the first 20 minutes entirely—it’s all flashbacks and scenes of the town losing their minds. After that, the movie crams in so much death and violence that it becomes boring.

Halloween Kills sticks to the typical slasher formula: one unstoppable killer wreaking havoc while everyone else scrambles in vain to stop him. The main takeaway here seems to be that even a mob of angry, bloodthirsty townspeople can’t put an end to Michael Myers’ killing spree.

After wasting the opening 20 minutes on rehashing events from the last movie and years before, we finally see Michael back on the prowl. He kills everyone in his path without missing a beat. The townspeople, now furious, form a militia to hunt him down. But as horror movies go, Michael is practically superhuman, and luck is always on his side. Either people run out of bullets right as he’s closing in on them, or they miss their shots entirely out of fear. You know how these things go—someone freezes in place, and he walks over and kills them.

One standout moment of ridiculousness involves a man sitting in the back seat of a car, waiting his turn to be stabbed through the eye. And of course, we get the usual “stupid people logic” where someone thinks, “Sure, he’s killed everyone else, but I’m different—I’ll take him on!” Spoiler: they’re not different.

The movie completely squanders the solid foundation laid by the 2018 reboot. Instead of building on that momentum, it kicks off with chaos and then bounces from one chaotic scene to the next. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has little to do here since she’s recovering from her injuries in the first film. That leaves her daughter and granddaughter to step up. The granddaughter, in particular, decides that she and her group of soon-to-be victims are somehow qualified to stop Michael. Predictably, since there’s a third movie coming, they fail.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

 

6/10

Starring

Tom Hardy

Michelle Williams

Naomie Harris

Reid Scott

Stephen Graham

Woody Harrelson

 

 

Directed by Andy Serkis

 

 

Succinct and straight to the point, Venom 2 doesn’t waste any time messing around—just straight-to-the-point delivery on comedy and action.

The movie takes on a sort of superhero buddy-cop vibe, with Venom being the loose cannon. If you liked the first Venom movie, you’ll like this one too. The focus here is more on the comedic side, with Tom Hardy having so much fun playing the character that it practically oozes off the screen. Venom 2 has a PG rating, so don’t expect anything remotely close to what you’d see in a Deadpool movie.

The break in communication between the characters is fun to watch, as both fight for individualism within the same body. Venom is majorly upset about being downgraded from eating brains to munching on chickens and chocolate, while Eddie (Hardy) struggles to keep his life together as Venom continues to make a mess of things. The whole Venom and Eddie being a perfect host and symbiote combination takes a backseat a little, with Venom jumping around after he and Eddie have a breakup.

What led to this is a string of bad choices that started when Eddie interviewed Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Venom, after seeing Kasady’s cell and listening to Eddie’s conversation, deduces where the psychotic serial killer (Kasady) buried the bodies of his victims.

In a final interview before Kasady receives the lethal injection, Kasady bites Eddie and gets a bit of Venom in him. From here, the symbiote Carnage is born—an offspring of Venom living inside Kasady as his host.

Carnage is a red symbiote, and from the get-go, it’s clear he’s more powerful than Venom, the black symbiote. Kasady uses his new powers to free his lady, Shriek, and together, the trio decides to get revenge on everyone they believe has hurt or hindered them in some way.

The movie uses CG effects to the max to showcase most of what you see on screen, but it doesn’t overdo it. One thing about the movie that I didn’t feel worked was the final battle between Venom and Carnage—it seemed to drag on for way too long.

With the way this Spider-verse is growing and making massive millions for Sony, I don’t think Disney has any chance of getting Spider-Man (and his friends and villains) back into the MCU.

I really enjoyed the movie and believe you will too if you’re a fan.

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

 

 

3/10

Starring

Alessandro Nivola

Leslie Odom Jr.

Jon Bernthal

Corey Stoll

 

Directed by Alan Taylor

 

This movie is really into itself, busy achieving nothing. It's occupied with unnecessary violence that goes nowhere, and the ending doesn’t matter—nothing spectacular. It's such an ordinary movie that it doesn't deserve to be recommended to anyone. When you make a movie that’s unnecessary, just to please fans, this waste of movie reel is what you get.

They could have called this movie anything else other than the prequel to The Sopranos, and it would still work. That’s because nothing in this movie sheds any light on what you didn’t already know about Tony Soprano, and it doesn’t give any depth to the things you suspected. In fact, Tony Soprano wasn’t even a major character or even a main supporting character in this movie. Yes, his name is mentioned, and we see him hopping around. The only time he becomes a focus in this 120-minute movie is in the last 10 minutes. Then, Chase says there’s a planned sequel about Tony in his twenties (suggesting more focus on him). Well, why not do that movie then? What was the point of this?

From the series, we know there is a strained relationship between Junior and his nephew Tony. In this movie, we see that Junior has always struggled to have a hold on things in the DiMeo crime family. Set in the 1960s and '70s, the movie depicts the humble beginnings of the DiMeo crime family and how they struggled to maintain order during the riots that broke out in the '60s, caused by the maltreatment of black people.

The movie focuses more on the teenage years of Tony, with the young Tony being played by the late James Gandolfini’s (Tony Soprano in the series) son, Michael Gandolfini.

Fans will get to see how Tony related to Dickie Moltisanti, who was the main driving force in Tony’s life. We also get to see how Dickie took charge of things in the DiMeo crime family, the atrocities he committed, and how they played out for the other family members. Tony never talked much about his father in the series. We just know there was a lot of respect from him toward the man. In this movie, we get to see how his father’s criminal dealings influenced Tony’s upbringing.

Unlike the series, where we get to enjoy the intricate dealings of the crime world, here things flash about a lot, lacking that fun.

As time goes on, the more I grow stronger in the resolution that you don’t have to see every movie. Even though you saw the first part, you don’t need to see the second part if the first one was crap. For those who want to see this movie, I advise you not to.

Queenpins (2021)

Queenpins (2021)

 

7/10

Starring

Kristen Bell

Kirby Howell-Baptiste

 

Directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly

 

Contains Spoilers

I have to say Queenpins is one of those movies that doesn’t try to pass any moral message, just two women who decided to beat the system—and they did. The movie is loosely based on a real coupon scam. When watching, though, what you end up wishing is that the movie itself was totally real, and that the ladies got away with their scam with just a slap on the wrist.

Acting-wise, Kristen Bell (Connie) and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (JoJo) made this comedy worth every minute. I feel the movie could have hit a home run with a shorter running time, but that said, the comedy was subtle. The movie had more of a drama feel, and the best way to describe it is as a drama with some light comedy, which I believe wasn’t what the writers and director were aiming for.

Here, you’re watching a movie about a woman who is going through a huge blow to her existence. Connie has had four miscarriages from IVF treatments, which have sunk the family into a financial black hole. Her husband was written to be a jerk—something I believe the movie should have done something more creative with. It was clear the writers wanted him out of the way so the ladies could carry out their scam with freedom, but making him the monster has been overdone. Like I said, his presence in the movie wasn’t needed. He was written to blame his wife for their current financial issues. The way he decided to handle it was by spending three out of four weeks flying about for work.

With his presence no longer influential in her life, Connie has dived into shopping to ward off depression and loneliness. Since they don’t have money, coupons have become her thing, and when I say her thing, she was a legend. She, with her neighbor JoJo, collected coupons to try and get ahead. JoJo had bad credit, and together, the pair came up with an idea after sending a customer complaint letter.

When she got a free coupon back from a product complaint letter, she wrote more (fake ones this time) and got more free coupons. From there, a scam was birthed. They tracked down the company that made the coupons for the big companies, got an inside man to help them steal coupons, and started selling fake coupons. They went further, got consulting from a tech guru, and did all they could to take advantage of the system. Then we have a character created to be another punk, who is tasked with finding out the people behind the scam and getting them to face the books.

In the end, I really enjoyed the movie, and I think you will too.

The Addams Family 2 (2021)

The Addams Family 2 (2021)

 

3/10

Starring the voices of

Oscar Isaac

Charlize Theron

Chloë Grace Moretz

Nick Kroll

 

Directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon

 

When the creepy, kooky Addams family gets together with the hope of delivering some entertainment, you should be wary. The glory days of the Addams family are long gone, and the first animated movie (The Addams Family (2019)) was, in my opinion, just a flash in the pan. At first, it felt like they’d found a way to bring back something nostalgic with a fresh twist, but this second CG animated movie proves that the franchise should go back into retirement.

This sequel manages to highlight everything wrong with the first movie while leaving out the excitement and fun. Imagine a family-themed animation that doesn’t give you a single reason to laugh. There’s no point in creating a sequel with a script that wastes so much time dragging us to an ending that feels completely inevitable.

Wednesday Addams feels like she doesn’t belong. You know that phase every kid goes through where you wish you were born into another family? It’s a relatable concept for teenagers and adults alike. But instead of making this a heartfelt or humorous journey, the movie marinates this familiar premise with unfunny incidents and parents trying far too hard to be irresponsibly quirky.

How the writers managed to stretch this plot for over an hour is beyond me. If there were an award for an animation that drags unnecessarily, this movie would win hands down. It could have been wrapped up in 20 minutes. Instead, Gomez and Morticia avoid facing the reality that Wednesday might not be their biological child and distract us with an unnecessary road trip.

The Addams family, as we know, is never lacking in resources. Wednesday already had access to all the gadgets she needed, and they clearly have enough money to handle this situation differently. You might think I’m overanalyzing, but the problem is that Gomez’s road trip plan to avoid a DNA test eventually ends with a DNA test anyway (which, admittedly, has some surprises). Watching this pointless delay tactic was just frustrating.

The charm of the Addams family lies in their interactions with the outside world. But here, those interactions fall flat and fail to bring out the best in the characters. The dynamic that made the first movie somewhat enjoyable is completely missing. Instead, we’re left with a too-Addams Addams family—awkwardly navigating a world that doesn’t suit them. At least in the first movie, I appreciated their attempts to blend in with the people around them. In this one, they just annoyed me.

The movie opens with the false promise of something interesting: Wednesday getting upset about children being handed participation trophies, which she feels undermine meaningful competition. At a school science fair, Wednesday’s brilliance shines as she merges the DNA of a smart octopus with that of her Uncle Fester. This catches the eye of Dr. Strange, the fair’s sponsor, who wants her creation for himself. But Wednesday refuses to share, leading him to devise a scheme to get what he wants.

This subplot ties into the larger storyline about Wednesday questioning whether she’s truly an Addams. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game that goes absolutely nowhere fun.

In the end, this movie misses the mark entirely. The jokes fall flat, the pacing drags, and the charm of the Addams family is lost. If you’re hoping for the nostalgic wit and humor of the original franchise, this sequel isn’t it.