-
A Simple Favor
The film is a comedic thriller and it plays to Kendrick’s and Lively’s strengths and differences amazingly well. It’s both delightfully awkward and utterly elegant, good natured and devilishly twisted.
-
Bird Box
Turns out, all the positive hype I’ve heard is well deserved.
-
Venom
Now that I’ve seen it, I can say it was well-deserved. But I do still have some issues, mostly due to being a long-time Spider-Man fan.
-
Bloodsucking Bastards
Bloodsucking Bastards is a vampire movie you kind of have to warm up to. But if you just accept it for the fun blend of vampire flick and office comedy that it is, it ends up being a lot of fun. Campy fun, at that.
-
Midnight Texas, Season 2
Caught up with the tail end of the second season (and, so far, final) of Midnight, Texas. The show continues to bounce from “fun” to “good”… which is always nice. It has some eye-rolling bits, but so far it hasn’t really dipped too deeply into “bad” territory.
-
What I Watched (2018)
A few years back, I started keeping track of the movies I watched during the year. Just little notes on where I watched them (usually on the couch, via a streaming service) and when. Then I started posting mini-reviews over on Facebook. Completely neglecting my own ToobTalk webspace here. I’m going to try to change…
-
Oculus (2013): A Study in Perception and Dread
I love a good psychological horror film about as much as I love a good ghost story. In both those sub-genres, you have some question as to the actual nature of the events going on. When done right, it’s the film version of print’s “unreliable narrator” technique. It leaves the characters–and the audience–wondering, at least…
-
Young Frankenstein: Comedy Born From Horror
If you haven’t seen Young Frankenstein, you’re missing one of Mel Brooks’ greatest comedies. A good deal of that greatness rests on the shoulders of co-writer and star Gene Wilder… and the rest of the fantastic cast. This is one of those films that wouldn’t have existed at all if it weren’t for the original Universal…
-
House on Haunted Hill (1959): More Than Just a Gimmick
The House on Haunted Hill is one of the earlier horror films I saw growing up. It still stands as one of my favorite “haunted house” films, even though the question of just how haunted (if at all) the house is remains unanswered. There’s a lot to like right off the top. It’s got Vincent Price…
-
House: Not the Doctor Show, the Haunted Kind
When I first saw House, around the time it came out on home video or HBO in the late 80s, I don’t remember thinking of it as a horror-comedy. Part of the reason for that is that I saw House II first which is more of a comedy with horror elements in it. Putting the two side…
-
The Woman In Black (2012): A classic ghost story with a twist
I like ghost stories. Ghost stories aren’t always “monster movies” or the kind of horror that makes you jump out of your seat. A good ghost story will leave your skin crawling long after you’ve finished it. A great ghost story will leave you questioning reality at least a little. Sure, there may be a…
-
Frankenstein (1931)
Thanks to my father’s love of the monster movies of his youth, I grew up watching horror films. It started with the old Universal Pictures movies that were shown sporadically on channel 13, the PBS station out of NYC. One of the first I remember seeing, the lights dim in the living room, was the…
Watching Stuff With Our Brains Turned On