Movie Review: Halloween (1978)

Happy Friday, everyone! In honor of the end of another week, I will review one of my favorite movies of all time: Halloween. Halloween is a 1978 horror/slasher movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis. This is one of the horror movies in Hollywood that I consider to be the golden age for that genre. This movie had it all; good acting, scenes that are actually scary, and a story that actually works and makes sense. Nowadays horror movies just consist of one jump scare after another, with nothing really ever paying off and making the movie complete. This movie does have some jump scares, but they are executed well enough because of who we align ourselves with in the film. Halloween is about this serial killer named Michael Myers. He murdered his sister when he was a kid, and is once again stalking young girls. Among those girls is Laurie Strode. Who is acted very well by Jamie Lee Curtis. I'm telling no joke when I say that. This may be one of the best roles that I've ever seen Jamie Lee C in. One thing that makes this movie truly horrifying is the fact that we often are in Myer's shoes, literally. There are consistent POV shots that put us in his position. So whenever he's doing creepy stuff, we're actually feeling like we are doing that stuff as well. That's what makes it scary. What's also interesting about this movie is how accurate the time period is. Most people don't mention this when they review this movie. This movie takes place about/around the time that it was released. And yeah, I'd believe that's the time period. The friendships that we see on screen are really reminiscent of that time period. Overall, Halloween is a great movie that actually taps into our fears, rather than setting up something creepy without a follow through. Three stars.

Goosebumps: Movie Trailer Review

So a few days ago, Goosebumps released their first trailer for the upcoming movie. Now before I even read about this movie coming out, I had made the assumption that it was going to be a movie that was based off of an original Goosebumps story. Something like those you would find in the series of books or the short television mini-movies. Then I saw the trailer, and everything changed. However, to say everything went from good to meh isn't entirely accurate. Goosebumps the movie follows a single mom and her new son as they move into a new house. Already, we're getting the same formula to every single horror movie. At this point in the trailer, I thought my expectations could potentially live up to the actual film itself. Then the trailer shows how across the street, a girl lives with her dad whose name is R.L. Stine. What? R.L. Stine wrote the books in the Goosebumps series, he wasn't a part of them himself. This is where my assumption faltered. It is because Goosebumps, the movie, is about people in our world interacting from characters in the world that the series and TV show took place. That was interesting to see, from this point, how they're going to pull this off. What happens is that the boy unleashes old manuscripts from Goosebumps novels. Then creatures and things and all that stuff that kids (our past selves) used to scare us, come into the real world. Only way to get them out, is to recreate the stories in which they came from. Now when I was younger I loved the Goosebumps. I say that strangely because everything that Goosebumps was in the media with, I was a fan of. That being said, I'm curious as to why the groups that put together this movie, didn't go with a Goosebumps-like storyline and instead went to cast Jack Black in the movie as a cash grab. That really doesn't seem like it will be memorable or all that profitable. What would be cool, was if they adapted a story that came from the bowels of Goosebumps. That we would all like to see. I'm not saying that this movie looks bad. In fact, it looks funny and like it could be good with the blending of horror and teenagers playing The Goonies. However, we'll have to wait until october (on halloween, I think) to see this movie come to life and try to get above a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Movie Review: Hannibal (2001)

Ten years after The Silence of the Lambs we get Hannibal, and in some ways this movie does have good points and some aren't as good. Hannibal takes place ten years after Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal is in hiding and has to hide from a disfigured victim of his (played by Gary Oldman). There is also a detective on his trail who wants him so he himself can be rewarded. Hannibal then calls Clarice and tries to meet up with her once again. Clarice is played in this movie by Julianne Moore. It might be obvious to those who are reading, but Moore doesn't even touch close to the talent that Jodie Foster brought to the original movie. Her southern accent sounds fake and all the horror of Clarice's past doesn't go through Moore's character. Her acting in this movie isn't even close to her best. She still does have a few good qualities, but that doesn't overshadow the lack of emotion in this one performance. Anthony Hopkins in this movie is the only good actor throughout the entire film. He's almost always good. I can't think of a time where I've been disappointed with Hopkin's performances. That being said, since Hannibal is the only good actor, the movie can get really boring really quickly. Gary Oldman's character is good, but his character is all over the place. In one scene he's happy and then in the next scene he's doing something for revenge. There's no steady flow with Mason Verger. We don't understand or sympathize with him because he's almost more of a bad guy then Hannibal Lectar himself. Ray Liotta's character was so bland that it was hard to get to understand what  he was trying to portray. As for horror movie quality, I wouldn't say that this movie is scary, but this film is definitely creepy. The disfigured face and the way it's shot gives you chills. There is also one scene with Hannibal eating out Ray Liotta's brain. It's one of the grossest, most graphic things that I ever have seen in a movie. So gross, it might make some want to vomit. So in that regard, Hannibal does succeed as the sub genre of horror which is a gross-out film. I won't rant about this one. Overall guys, Hannibal is a so-so sequel to a great horror movie. Two stars.

Movie Review: Jurassic World (2015)

Alright, it's been fourteen years since Jurassic Park III came out, and now we have another sequel to the Jurassic Park franchise. Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt and Bryan Dallas Howard. Even though their not in every scene of this movie, they are pretty much what makes the movie complete. It's been twenty-two years since the events of Jurassic Park. Jurassic World is being built, which is a theme park that has been built on the same grounds as the original Jurassic Park. Basically these greedy scientists start thinking up ways to recreate more dinosaurs that could be even more dangerous. Bryce Dallas Howard plays a person who works at Jurassic World. She's not filled with greed, but everyone around her is. Chris Pratt plays a trainer of the dinosaurs. He was WAY better in this movie then in Guardians of the Galaxy. He's much more human and he also is sort of like a protagonist of the movie, but he's on the side (If that even makes any sense). Then, you guessed it, we have this movie where dinosaurs get out and wreck havoc on society. First off, let me just say that there were no performances that disappointed me in this film. Not that all of them impressed me, but I think the majority of them were all very functional and worked well together. Especially the chemistry between Bryce Dallas Howard's character and Chris Pratt. Wow, that was good chemistry right there. Another thing I think makes this movie so interesting is the fact that it adds real human emotion. Not that the other films in the series didn't have this, but this was really apparent. There's one scene where Pratt and Howard are together and they're watching a dinosaur pass away. It's so emotional, it's the first time we see Howard become emotional and break away from her Jordan Belford ways and actually show some emotion. Action sequences were great and entertaining. Especially the scenes with the machine guns. Special effects were excellent. Overall, Jurassic World is a surprisingly good sequel in the array of Jurassic Park movies. Three stars.