Scream 5 (2022)

Scream 5 (2022)

 

4/10

Starring

Melissa Barrera

Mason Gooding

Jenna Ortega

Jack Quaid

Marley Shelton

Courteney Cox

David Arquette

 

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

 

Contains Spoilers

I am a huge fan of the Scream franchise. I enjoyed the plot of the first two Scream movies, done in 1996 and 1997, by Wes Craven (director) and Kevin Williamson (writer). The two worked together on the first four Scream movies, but neither was involved in this one, with Wes Craven having passed away.

I, for one, felt this movie was a mess, thanks to the plot and the lack of a strong, convincing heroine. The plot failed to do justice to the killings starting again. Then there’s the nonsense where the bad guys holding knives are unkillable. They have superhuman strength and are relentless until the very end. I had no problem with this cliché happening all over again; this is Scream—it’s all about the clichés. But there is always something driving these killings. The first Scream movie had the men doing this because they wanted to wreck the Prescott family. The second was about revenge for the happenings of the first movie. The third (let’s forget about that mistake of a movie). The fourth movie was about revenge for fame, which today we have seen the extent to which people will go for fame, so killing is not off the table. Here, the whole point of the killings happening again is… to assist their favorite movie as muses.

The two idiots are fans of the Stab movies. If you’re a fan of Scream, you will know there’s a running gag where there is a movie within the movie, which almost emulates what happened in the Scream stories. Here, the idiot fans felt the movies had declined in quality, so they decided to embark on this killing spree to give the Stab movie good source material to work with. What the hell?

When you’re watching Scream, you’re being plagued with fun clichés, the movie mocking other horror movies and trying to get a head start on what bad guys do in the horror movies we see. What makes Scream magnificent for me is when the reveal of the killings happens, and you discover somehow that Sydney Prescott’s mother’s affair is forever haunting Sydney, even though she had nothing to do with it.

Here, the bad guys pick their mark, start killing them and their friends to make a good enough story for the next sequel to their favorite movie.

Knowing there are plans to make more Scream movies, I do hope this time they give us a better reason for the killings to come back. Scream has always been my only stab movie that I enjoy. Now, this horrible addition is giving me more reasons to give up watching the franchise.

This movie brings back the golden trio—Sydney, Gale, and Dewey—and then kills off one of them.

The King's Man (2021)

The King's Man (2021)

 

 6/10

 Starring

Ralph Fiennes

Gemma Arterton

Rhys Ifans

Matthew Goode 

 

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

 

The King’s Man prequel starts with a very detailed and long introduction about why the King’s Man operates in the shadows and what drives it. The head of the organization, Orlando (Ralph Fiennes), is the man who started it to stop things before they happen.

Although I believe the movie is very good and worthy of being part of the King’s Man movie franchise, I also think the writers and producers wasted too much time making this movie longer than necessary. They added too many layers that don’t really matter. We watch the King’s Man movies because of the surprises the characters bring on screen and the action with gadgets, which, in my opinion, rival that of the James Bond franchise. You’ll have to wait more than fifty minutes before you see such a character surprise when Rasputin takes on Orlando, his son, and the people in his keep.

This long intro about what made Orlando become more of a pacifist begins with the death of his wife in front of their son, Conrad. These events lead him to build a small spy network made up of house staff and have secret meetings with military heads in a tailor shop known as King’s Man. The shop was seen as the only safe place to discuss critical issues concerning the nations without being overheard by anyone. He had two people in his employ, responsible for the well-being of his son. Orlando became very protective of his son, not wanting him to go anywhere for fear of his life. But brewing in the corners are men building their own organization, which they intend to use to disrupt things and start a war that will pit Germany, Russia, and the British Empire against one another.

A trip with his son had them witness firsthand the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne.

As movies like this go, while Orlando and his group were working behind the scenes to keep the peace, Conrad wanted to be a soldier. When he was of age, he was drafted against his father’s wishes.

At this point, much of the film has turned into an action thriller. Situations beyond Orlando’s control lead him to set up the King’s Man organization using the names of the knights from King Arthur’s Round Table in honor of those dearly departed.

The movie opened a nice door to what I see as a good way to bridge the gap between the past and present King’s Man movies. I can see them making more movies set between this one and the first King’s Man movie. The problem is, I hope they learn a little and try to make better use of time. Instead of dropping us into one of the most needless tales of how some men are trying to start a war, they should summarize these plans in the first ten minutes, rather than dragging it out for over forty-five minutes, and give us more of the action King’s Man is known for.

Marry Me (2022)

Marry Me (2022)

3/10

Starring

Jennifer Lopez

Owen Wilson

 

Directed by Kat Coiro

 

You know that icky, annoying feeling that makes you want to puke? Well, when such scenes and moments come up, you just use the skip button and thank God you're not watching this in the theatre. This movie has it in loads.

The key plot is: my heart got broken on my wedding day because my man is cheating. Wow, I guess that’s 10/10 for originality. This happens stupidly in the most cringey way, in front of over 20 million people (either watching on a screen or in attendance). I give the worst speech ever and decide to marry the first guy my eyes come across… who wrote this crap?

This feels like one of those things you see on South American soap operas that make you glad you have no idea what led to this, and you’re not interested in knowing how it’s going to end.

My case is different—trapped in another state and having this for what’s supposed to be entertainment, it made me wish for something better for my life.

Skipping all the nonsense, the movie proceeds to jump into a Notting Hill-kind of put together. This time, there’s no secret about the big star (Kat, played by Jennifer Lopez) and the Mr. Nobody being together. You must remember Mr. Nobody (Charlie, played by Owen Wilson). You see, neither of them considered for a second the impact of the on-stage million-viewers marriage they did, so when the whole thing blows up, the movie turns the two leads into idiots.

How did they think that this wasn’t going to blow up and have its own repercussions? It’s one of those things that made me wonder if this movie had a director at all. If the writers skipped some of these idiotic ideas they let spew out of their pens, at least the director would notice it and do something, but nope, the nonsense continues.

Then, instead of cleaning up the mess, Kat decides to move on with the marriage by filing the marriage papers and convincing Charlie to go along with it, in the most unconvincing way ever. At this point, I’m now the idiot who chose to continue watching instead of switching this thing off. Curiosity got the best of me; I wanted to see how it would play out. I had hoped the movie would save itself with this turning of events. Well, it got mushier for some parts, and in the end, this is one movie I will not be telling anyone to take their time out to go see.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

 6/10

 Starring

Carrie Coon

Finn Wolfhard

Mckenna Grace

Paul Rudd

 

Directed by Jason Reitman

 

This movie is not as amazing as the first two original Ghostbusters movies, but it outshines the third. When I saw the name Paul Rudd, I expected him to somehow take the spotlight and lead the way, but his role in the movie is more of a supporting character. He wasn't too present in driving the story. The main character and the lady who stole the show is Mckenna Grace, who plays Phoebe Spengler, the granddaughter of Egon Spengler.

Mckenna was so amazing in this movie that she became like a beacon for the other actors to reflect from. The movie doesn't focus on the adults, but the three young ones: Phoebe, Trevor Spengler, and their friend, Podcast.

Afterlife is the sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). It is the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise and is set 32 years after the events of Ghostbusters II. This movie sidesteps Ghostbusters (2016), and I’m more than glad it did, treating it like it didn’t happen.

I like the idea of how they incorporated the passing of the late Harold Ramis into the movie and made him somewhat of a hero who sacrificed everything to save the world. The movie spent so much on location and sets but had little left for graphics, because the graphics in this movie were weak.

The story starts with an old man on a farm who seems to be setting up something to catch a ghost. The suspicion of who that was didn’t last long, as we discover many years later who it was and how he died. It was Egon Spengler, and he died at the hands of a ghost.

Now, his daughter, who is the mother of two—Trevor and Phoebe—is facing financial strain and chooses to live on her father’s farm. On getting there, we learn that Egon was called "the dirt farmer," as his farm had no produce and was covered in dirt, which he seemed to always be bothered to care for.

Phoebe soon discovers that there is a ghost in the house—a nice, friendly one—and when she gets to school, she learns that her grandfather was Egon Spengler, a ghostbuster. She makes friends with a young man in her class named Podcast, whom she shows the ghost trap that the ghost in her house showed her. Their summer class teacher sees the two with the trap and knows immediately what it is. He activates it and releases a ghost.

She then deduces that the ghost was Egon and, together, they repair a faulty proton pack. From there, she, Trevor, and Podcast become unlicensed ghostbusters. They chase down a ghost at a foundry and make a mess of the town using the single proton pack.

It was from there that the movie kicked off a new drive, as we discover what Egon was working on and why he distanced himself from his friends and family.

The movie brought back the old crew in one way or another. We even see Sigourney Weaver in the after-credits. The guys pick up their proton packs again and save the world. Harold Ramis, who passed away before the shooting of the movie, is seen as a ghost.