Movie Review: Gerald's Game (2017)

2017 has been a year of glory for Stephen King fans. Between The Dark Tower and 'It' King's quirky, if not exotic, universe has been saturated in the film world. Mike Flanagan brings 'Gerald's Game' to Netflix, which for a long time was deemed as impossible to film. Carla Gugino stars as Jessie Burlingame who takes a vacation with her husband Gerald (played brilliantly by Bruce Greenwood). The couple prepare to have sex, Gerald bands Jessie to the bedposts with metal handcuffs, and he (SPOILER ALERT) has a heart attack and dies. Now Jessie is stuck chained to a bed, nobody around, and a very hungry mutt on the loose. King's 1992 psychological thriller is a great, tight, and isolated novel. The book for the majority of it's pages, occurs entirely within Jessie's head, which is why adapting this movie does pose challenges. This movie could have been really boring, it could have come off as dumb or pretentious, yet it does none of those things. Gerald's Game is a great psychological thriller that is very creepy and boasts excellent performances from both of these leads who are so damn transfixing. From the opening credits we sense distance between this couple. These are not happily-married folks who live on the prairie, but a marriage dulled and maimed by sexual starvation and a lack of attachment from one's self. Once Gerald dies and the ball gets rolling, it never ever stops. This movie explores Jessie's character who experienced an extremely disturbing event as a child. Her memories are very much so intertwined with the current situation she's in with her distant husband. And it's that contrast that makes the film so haunting and effective. Everything in this movie is internal fear. Aside from a hungry stray (no spoilers this time) there aren't any real concrete scares in this film. Yet the camera movements and the way they act out Jessie's thoughts and emotions tell us otherwise. The cinematography is outstanding and every shot is framed with perfect lighting that illuminates these characters and shows us the true monsters inside all of us. Without divulging too deeply this film doesn't shy away from being truly scary. There are certain sequences in this film reminiscent of The Shining which was entirely out of left field and not expected in the least. The way Flanagan uses set design to perfectly adapt images and feelings from the novel was amazingly translated to screen. The smallest details, such as the grooved bed posts from the novel's cover, co-exist wonderfully with this breath of new vision into one of King's lesser works. Carla Gugino is outstanding in this role and is so great at delivering a pained performance. Bruce Greenwood is also excellent as his character has a control panel. One flick of the switch is a kind, compassionate partner, but the other is a creepy and deranged man who is driven to rape and violate Jessie. The film ends on a high note as well, which is good because that's easily where the novel faltered off. Overall, Gerald's Game is filled with astounding performances, has an excellent sense of suspense and scariness, and is a marvelous, very contained thriller. Three stars= A

Movie Review: It (2017)

It is a 2017 supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti. The movie stars Jaeden Liberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sohpia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The movie is an adaptation of the 1986 novel by Stephen King. Going into this film I was super pumped; this was one of my most anticipated movies of 2017 and I've read the entire novel, which I also thought was amazing. Then there's the miniseries which although I've not seen in a few years, remember mostly and enjoying and finding it effectively scary. This movie is a surprisingly hilarious, enoyably scary, heartfelt horror movie that I, in short, loved. The film follows a group of kids known as the losers club, constantly bullied and ignored by the adults in their lives, these kids band together after becoming targets of Pennywise the dancing clown, played by Bill Skarsgard. Every kid performance in this movie is nothing short of excellent. Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier was amazing and had some of the funniest one - liners in the entire film. Not to mention Jaeden Liberher who had a surprising level of range and, to my highest of expectations, isn't hard to sympathize with. My favorite amongst the losers was Sophia Lillis who plays Beverly Marsh. Her performance was exactly how I pictured her in the novel and I felt like she was easily the best in terms of emotion and feeling. Bill Skarsgard cannot escape from the Tim Curry comparison as Curry's version of Pennywise is so iconic and very very scary. Skarsgard was great and even though I wasn't as terrified as the last on-screen incarnation of this clown  (mostly due to the lack of the miniseries budget) he was amazing when it came to portraying such an inhuman force that comes upon this small town. The jokes in this film and the comedic writing were entirely on point. It is a hilarious movie at times and the gags blend perfectly without being a blatant distraction. Now a lot of critics have said how 'scary' and 'horrifying' this movie is. This isn't that scary..it's a creepy, very haunted house-esque horror film, but I didn't find the film to be as intensely scary as I thought it would be. When the scares go down though, this film gets really fun and once those credits rolled I felt as though I had just been on a fantastic roller coaster of great scary content. The film is also extremely emotional and heartfelt which was great to see since this was the last horror movie I'd really connected with (character - wise) in a long time. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch is tremendous with a hint of fantastical and magical realism. The ending effectively sets up a wonderful new series of movies with a true understanding and depth into Stephen King's original novel. Overall, 'It' is quite funny, relentlessly entertaining, and ranks as one of the best King adaptations yet. Three stars= A-

Movie Review: Dead Presidents (1995)

Dead Presidents is a 1995 crime/thriller movie directed by the Hughes brothers. The film stars Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez, N'Bushe Wright, and Bokeem Woodbine. The movie focuses on the upbringing of Anthony (Tate) a young man who grows up in the bronx, has a love affair with a young lady, goes off to Vietnam against his parents desires, and returns to become involved in a heist during which he must paint his face a creepy white. I'll give the positives first..it's alright. This movie isn't horrible and that's due to the performances (which even though are off and on) do provide us with some interesting characters. Larenz Tate is easily the most relatable and engaging aspect of this film. I also really liked Keith David who ends up being a criminal mentor for young Anthony. While this film is entertaining throughout, I have to talk about what's bad about this film. Dead Presidents is essentially four different movies packed into two hours. The first chronicles Anthony's coming of age and life growing up in the bronx (which was my favorite), the second goes to Vietnam where we spend WAY too much time and it's not even that interesting, third is the return to the bronx where the movie loses the majority of it's steam as we're forced to watch a heist that we've no interest in, and finally our lead is arrested and that's where the film ends. Surprisingly this film is a great mess and I say 'surprisingly' because the Hughes brothers directed Menace II Society, which is a great film that I love and have virtually no flaws with. This movie is too many different ideas being forced into a film that's too short, and doesn't boast the correct amount of talent to carry this narrative. There are some really solid scenes in this movie. For example, I found the opening sequences with Anthony's job as a milk man to be an average and somewhat interesting start to this movie. There's also some factors in Dead Presidents that could go either way for me. Rose Jackson as Juanita was one of these elements. Her role as Anthony's girlfriend was fine to me. I could regard it as a functional performance, but I could also say that since I felt neutral on her character, she didn't sell the role well. Then there's the soundtrack. Now I'm a big music buff and this soundtrack contains The Temptations and The O'jays, but it doesn't always integrate those classic songs seamlessly. Sometimes the soundtrack was on point (like in the first club scene), but then at other times it just sort of plays in the background with no meaning (like Temptations music in Vietnam scene). It's a very mixed bag of a movie and what I felt at the end was a sort of relief and also a sense of missed potential. There's a good movie in here somewhere, a great one in fact, but there's too much packed into too little. A coming of age story, like in the beginning, would have been a more interesting route to take and I think coming off the heals of Menace II Society, that story line might've even made for a great film. Overall, Dead Presidents is messy, inconsistently acted, but there are good elements in here, they just have to be dug in order to be found. Two stars= C

Movie Review: Graveyard Shift (1990)

When I saw that Ralph S. Singleton, the man behind Taxi Driver, directed Graveyard Shift I was blown away in amazement. Graveyard Shift stars David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, Stephen Macht, and Brad Dourif. The film follows the workers in a textile mill who are preyed upon by the over-population of rats, but more importantly have fallen victim to a much larger beast that lurks within the depths of the factory. All I have to say, is that this movie is so squeaking bad, it's good. This is a complete guilty pleasure movie from start to finish. Clocking in at 89 minutes however, didn't stop me from noting how flawed this movie is, even though it's wildly fun..just not in the way it was intended to be. None of the performances in this movie are good. This is one of the King movies that goes for the over the top and hysterical performances that make it impossible to get behind any of these characters. Now the script isn't any better, but these actors and actresses really do not try at all. Although, actor David Andrews gives the most effort, the performances in this movie were complete failures. I think the acting might also have something to do with the screenplay. None of the characters in Graveyard Shift have any known motives. We have an evil textile mill owner, the drifter who gets thrown into this fiasco with a giant (SPOILER ALERT) bat, and a relationship that blossoms between that character and a girl who fled her town in Maine. The characters need more flushing out in order to be effectively identifiable and strong. And one certainly would need to be strong if a giant bat and a bunch of small rats were attacking them, right? Sure, but the issue is other than a few close ups of mice, we don't actually see the beast. The camera gives us a face, a wing, some legs, but at no point are we ever given a wide angle view of what this creature looks like and is capable of. When the stuff goes down in the mill, is when Graveyard Shift turns into a blast. This movie gets hilarious and from the get go we can tell it's going to be an entertaining ride..but as I said before, not as Singleton wanted. Next time it's raining and you're without anything to do, watch this..seriously it's a blast. You'll laugh, cringe with the lack of acting school in all of these performers, and you might discover a fear of rats you never knew you'd had. It's not as bad as The Mangler, though. Which coincidentally, also takes place inside a factory where people get killed and are hilariously thrown into dangerous machinery. Overall, Graveyard Shift is so bad that it's good, with no good performances, but I did like the intensity of the rodent acting. 1.5 stars= D+