Knives Out

Knives Out (2019)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jaime Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Stanfield, Noah Segan, Katherine Langford, Riki Lindhome, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer

Being familiar with Rian Johnson's filmography, I was hesitant in looking at this. I was spoiled a bit about who done it, but the clues were there if you picked it up. Now, that the atrociously named sequel in coming out soonish on Netflix. This whodunit was good, but long in the tooth.

On the day of his 85th birthday, Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found dead in his study. Private Investigator Benoit Blanc (Craig) along with Lt. Elliott (Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Segan) question all of the members of the Thrombey family where something sinister is waiting to bubble up.

Can we get this out of the way? Daniel Craig's accent. What is that? I deduced that it was either Louisiana, because of the French name or it was South Carolina with that thick drawl. My assumption in the latter. It was something. Could have had a generic American accent, but when the exaggerated accent are there, you have to take pause.

Johnson did a similar style film with Brick that I didn't care for that much. This felt like a better attempt at the whodunit. I felt like there were some pacing issues. There is a scene where you see what happened and you have to sit through another hour of movie. The last twenty minutes of the movie were good with the reveal, but then you go back and find holes in plot. It kinda ruins the expierence.

I enjoyed the movie. Some characters could have been cut or combined into one character. Some characters were very one-dimensional.

Rating: 8/10

Nightmare Alley

 Nightmare Alley (2021)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan

Based on the novel by Lindsay Gresham

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, David Strathairn, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins and Ron Perlman

Oh, boy. How do I start this? I love Guillermo del Toro. His movies from the past five years have been a miss for me. The Shape of Water was another movie of his that I did not like. I was bored to tears with it, because I could not connect with the characters. It's the same with this movie that I am reviewing.

The visuals of the movie are gorgeous. The costumes, the production design, the cinematography are immaculate, but the biggest problem with this movie is the story. You follow this grifter (Cooper) as he falls into the carny life. The thing is I don't care about Cooper's character, Stanton to get me invested in the story. I was bored to tears with this movie. No character was fully fleshed out. They were cupboard cutouts that could talk. I would rather watch the original Nightmare Alley than this.

Rating: 4/10

Fright Night

Fright Night (2011)

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Story by Tom Holland

Screenplay by Marti Noxon

Based on the film, "Fright Night" by Tom Holland

Stars: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco and Reid Ewing

Pretty much everybody knows that horror films are not my forte. When Halloween rolls around, I want to see something different the million slasher films, torture porn or ghost films with freaky children in it. The original Fright Night was one of a handful of films that I saw when I was a kid, including Once Bitten and Creepshow 2. The remake would not on my radar or anybody else's when it was released. The movie is not great, but it's watchable.

Picture it, Las Vegas 2011. Charley (Yelchin) is gangly boy that has the perfect life with douchebag friends,  Mark and Ben (Franco, Ewing) and his hot girlfriend, Amy (Poots). Strange things has been happening with classmates disappearing. Charley's estranged friend, Ed (Mintz-Plasse) tries to tell him that Charley's new next door neighbor, Jerry (Farrell). Ed disappears and Charley takes the torch to see if Ed was correct.

The movie tries to be very now, but it a couple of years the pop culture references would be out of date. I understand that people want to have these youth centric films with characters that supposedly would speak very hipster and with it. It doesn't work here.It seemed like the movie was supposed to be in 3D because the CG blood is flying weirdly at the screen.

Even though I remember bits and pieces of the original movie, it was nice to see Chris Sarandon make a cameo in the movie. I know they have to make dramatic changes with the original story to make it work today. It's understandable, but silly. Would Charley really seek out a David Blaine wannabe named Peter Vincent (Tennant) for vampire advice?

I had some problems with the movie from a logical and physical standpoint. Why would Jerry would exert all this energy on Charley that lives next door? I did not get the layout concept of Jerry's house. I cannot talk too much to spoil that plot point for those that have not seen it.

I enjoyed Anton Yelchin in the film. He is not the likeliest of heroes, but looked like a badass. David Tennant was hilarious in the movie. Colin Farrell was a big problem for me. I did not believe that he was this bloodthirsty 400-year-old vampire. He would be a lot smarter with his tactics towards Charley. His intentions and actions seemed dumb.

My Rating