A robbery goes wrong at a small town diner, and Tom Stahl becomes a hero, his face shining on television screens across America. Suddenly, with the quick fame, he and his family become targets of a Philadelphia-based mob who know about Tom's past.
Mortensen, Harris and Hurt, through difference segments, pull this already-incredible film together, answering your questions before you can ask them, and tie it all together at the end. Kudos to the writers for an excellent set of characters who breathe life into the script.
<B>Final thoughts:</b>
Viggo Mortensen shines, but William Hurt's small appearance was a bonus. Fantastic cast and story that shine through Cronenberg's directing, which, with LG OLED's Filmmaker Mode, enhances every ounce of Cronenberg's craft on the small screen, as intended.
Recently Reviewed
A sequel that surpasses the original. I didn't expect to like this, and for most of the movie I was thinking, "Whoa, do I LOVE this? I think I love this." Then I thought it was over, and the feelings of love were locked in. It wasn't over though. There were fifteen more minutes, which were just okay.
Well, it’s no Rat-Fink A Boo-Boo, but then what is?
It isn’t so much that this is bad, it is just a bit indescribable!
Completely ridiculous and laugh out loud funny. The ending scene at the diner clinches it for me.
Criminal underuse of Bobby Lee though.
Favorite (Not Necessarily Best) Four From Every Year Since Birth
Filled with a number of cheap scares, bad decisions, and lousy footwork, <i>The Strangers: Chapter 1</i> tries to reinvent the fear that the 2008 original delivered. While it does succeed in some aspects, and, of course, we have two more films to go, expectations for the “strangers” to evolve character-wise, given that they’re just slow-paced attackers with simple weapons, is expected.
The cabin in the woods setting offers an underutilized experience. Shower scenes, record players and sheds (which was the size of a home, not a shed) force us to expect a scene to occur, but just continues to the next part.
<b>Final thoughts</b>:
An unnecessary, but not terrible revision that delivers more frustration than scares, but potentially holds promise with its two sequels.<i>The Strangers: Chapter 1</i> is now available on VOD, and is a fantastic watch on an LG OLED TV and its Perfect Black feature as it helped highlight the darkness in all of the right areas.
<i>Under Paris </i>starts off slow with a somewhat feel-good premise (yeah, save the sharks type of stuff), but then quickly spirals into a bloodbath where any character is easy prey. You’ll applaud a few kills here and there while laughing at how over-the-top ridiculous it is, but this is not a film to be taken seriously. Just go with the flow (of the water).
<i>A Quiet Place </i>> <i>The Silence</i>
I feel basically the same about this as I did in the theaters: too long, not a fan of the time travel. However I've warmed up to Phoebe in this role a bit during this rewatch, and this time around I really enjoyed the score.
Slow burn, but worth it. Really well shot and superbly directed. Maybe, MAYBE the overall story needed another pass through editing, but overall I was really pleased with this one!
Not my favorite Nikki Glaser set, but there are still a good amount of laugh out loud moments, and I'm glad to see her getting a lot of recognition after the Tom Brady roast. Some parts went on a bit too long. "Trans sister... radio" was very clever and gets a little lost in the shuffle.
I actually kind of liked this.
It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, the humor isn’t terrible, and in the end, it’s kind of cute.
Definitely much better than I was expecting.
<i>In a Violent Nature</i> is one of those horror films that comes along every once in a while and shakes things (the genre) up.
Seen mostly from the killer’s POV, a unique perspective that has been questioned for many years (e.g. What does Jason Voorhees do when it’s not camp season, or what does the Djinn do as he waits for someone to find the jewel). As he thrashes his way through the woods and knocks off one person after another, the creativity behind each kill takes the cake. However, as a viewer, these kills only happen because each character never saw a horror film or experienced any scary situations in their lives (It‘s also possible that they had a note that excused them from gym class while in grades k-12). Therefore, it was impossible to not root for the killer throughout the film.
<b>Final thoughts</b>:
As much as I love to watch a film in a theater, I can’t wait for this to land on Shudder so I can watch it at the gym while running on the treadmill. 🏃🏻♂️
