kcrisenphoenix's reviews

I honestly think that this is one of those movies where we are seeing how deeply unhealthy mentally the director is. This movie was his way of doing horrible things to people and not going to jail. AVOID this movie. Absolutely terrible. Watching paint dry would be more enjoyable that this watching this film.

I really don't understand movies like this. I understand wanting to present something we haven't seen before, but in this case it really wasn't something I would have seen. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't.

The acting was terrific, and it was shot well.

But in the end this was another movie that I simply couldn't help but wonder in the director and writers need serious help. Does he really see the world this darkly? Does her really want to push that darkness onto others? Why? This had so much potential, but it got lost, and had some ... things happen that really didn't need to happen, and an artsy fartsy ending that I could have done without. DEEPLY unsatisfying experience. I will watch for the director's and writer's names so I don't watch anything else they do.

It started clever enough. There was some amazing acting. And then that PRETENTIOUS bull**** ending?? Not clever. Not thought provoking. A WASTE of time!

I am so furious! I wasted my afternoon on this? I am writing down the author's name, and director's name. I will NEVER watch anything by either of them ever again. I don't demand a happy ending. But I do require an ending!!

Seven minutes in and it looked as if it was one of those movies where I was going to dislike a lot of the characters and wouldn't care if most of them died. The sister I disliked immediately, the two girls seemed airheaded, the ex-prisoner was pretty much a jerk, but....there was this HOT bear of a dude who seemed like the best guy in the movie. Would there be a twist and I'd find out I feel differently about them all?

Well guess what...? I found out this little movie was well worth my time..... It doesn't get all that good when it was "supposed to," but instead about ten to fifteen minutes later. It was as if another director took over. The acting leapt in quality and the tension started mounting. I am quite glad I watched it and would watch it again!

Production values were pretty good, the acting got better as it went, the script was better than average in a low budget movie, the editing was smooth enough, and there was acceptable but not brilliant cinematography. I TOOK A CHANCE, AND I AM GLAD I DID.

If you are one of those people that loves movies that are so bad that they're good, you're going to be disappointed. This movie was so bad it was bad.

I think my biggest surprise about this movie was to discover that it's not a comedy horror. The people who made this were trying to be serious!

I mean, the entire plot itself is utterly ridiculous. A supermoon turned everybody on earth into a werewolf for one night. Or percentage of people. It wasn't clear. And I don't know how much I cared. It is filled with terrible dialogue, the some of the worst acting I've seen in quite a while, and obviously used its entire budget on specials.....

Which sad to say was wasted. Because the werewolves look SO fakey they are hysterically funny. I mean there's times I was practically spitting out my drink. They are obviously just these great big huge head and shoulders rubber pieces stuck on an actor who then runs around trying to look menacing. The mouth of the headpiece is like something out of 60s horror. The lower jaw never moves in any way. The mouth hardly ever, if ever, actually closes.

Add to this the fact that the rampant werewolves seem to enjoy nothing more than picking people up and flinging them through the air. Why they do that, instead of just attacking, I have no clue. Didn't make any sense.

But then nothing about this movie makes any sense. It's absolutely TERRIBLE. It took me two nights to get through it. And the second night I took three breaks.

This is one god-awful movie.

But you know, there are people who really like bad bad bad movies. If that is you, then you'll love this.

I'm giving it one out of 10. And I was being generous.

Can't say I was a big fan. In fact, I started getting bored. There were a lot of awful people in it, and it was also a bit too "artsy fartsy" to me, with a god-awful soundtrack. The acting was okay, especially Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the star of the first tale, but the rest? Again, not great. Much of the movie simply didn't make any sense, and I chalk it up to too much drugs on the part of the writer/director. It was very British, and in fact reminded me strongly in every aspect of British horror from the sixties and early seventies. By the end of the movie, it became on ordeal to watch, and I only reason I finished was because I had gotten through so much of it, why not the rest? I wouldn't waste your time if I was you.

THE HUNTING PARTY: Yes or No?

My thoughts are a little lower.....

Follows a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers ever seen, all who have escaped a secret high security prison known as The Pit, and all who the world believes are dead.

Genre: Procedural drama/Crime drama Created by JJ Bailey Starring Melissa Roxburgh, Nick Wechsler, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie, and Sara Garcia

Okay. It's interesting. Unique concept, although so far, not written as well as I prefer (have you seen "Paradise" for instance?), but I'm still watching, so there's that.

The bad thing is the acting is pretty bad. Melodramatic. Over the top, but not in a goodway.

Melissa Roxburgh, who has certainly improved since her "Manifest" days, hasn't improved as much as she needs to if she ever hopes to be nominated for anything. But then there's the dialogue. It runs rampant between really, really good, to corny as hell. She plays edit a FBI Special Agent.

Patrick Sabongui plays Ryan Hassani, a CIA agent, and he certainly is the best actor. Sadly his character is not. However, he proves a good actor can bring life to any character.

Josh McKenzie plays Shane Florence, a prison officer from the The Pit. He's the pretty face. There's even a joke, which he says, about. But beyond that? My goodness, he's a terrible actor. Wooden. Stilted. I keep expecting him to say, "Next page please." I would wonder who he (censored) off to get the part, but then I know you are with scold me vicious before that. And I may or may not deserve it.

But making Josh look like a multiple Oscar and Emmy award winner is Nick Wechsler as Oliver Odell, Bex's former partner and lover. Oh, dear JC, when my daughter was in a Thanksgiving play when she was in first grade, the acting was superior. He plays his character like a campy villain from the 1960s "Batman" television series. I keep expecting him to burst into evil laughter. "Bwaaa haaa haaa haaa haaa!". It's really sad.

So why do I keep watching?

Because the concept really is cool. Very interesting. Serial killers who escaped from an off-the-books prison built inside a middle silo, with it's very science fiction look, and the explosion that happens in the opening moments of the pilot episode. Most of the prisoners and personnel are killed, but that still leaves a whole lot (I can't remember how many, but at least 75) who promptly escaped. "The biggest mystery that the team of experts must solve is how serial killers managed to escape the most secure and secretive prison in the world. We find out almost immediately, so I'm not spoiling anything here, that it's almost surely sabotage.

So for at least awhile, I'm going to keep giving the show a chance. Luckily, at least so far, it hasn't convinced me to be committed to "The Hunting Party." If it's cancelled, I won't be bereft.

Hey, that's better than all those shows where I fell madly in love, only to have the rug yanked out from under me, like with "Surface," and "Flashforward." Now that was rough.

So what do you think of the show, if you've watched it? I would love your thoughts and opinions. And please give me your thoughts for sure if you don't think the acting is bad.....

Absolutely stupid. Many new shows, while trying to get it's legs, will create bad episodes. And this one is pretty much the worst episode not only of the series, but every Star Trek episode ever. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Horrible acting, simply PAINFUL to watch. But with the script, what could they do? The episode makes no real sense, probably written by a gamer, it was all I could do not to just fast forward on through. If I were you, I would do what I was unable to do. Even if you like to watch an entire series, there is nothing here you need to see. Nothing that moves the characters on, let along home.

"A frustrated, angst-ridden teenage girl awakens something in the woods when she naively performs an occult ritual to evoke a witch to kill her mother."

And with that description, we know just about everything we need to know about this 2017 Canadian film. I was very impressed with the acting by Nicole Muñoz who literally played one of the most believable teenagers I think I've ever seen. From her immaturity, rash behavior, regret, attempts at atonement, to her TERROR of Pyewacket when it shows up. But then....what?

Exactly. One of those. Does her mother die. Is it all in her head? Does she do the unspeakable and kill her mother? We don't know. And I really can't forgive the filmmakers for that. They did so incredibly well for the first hour, only to just end it. As if they suddenly ran out of money, shrugged, and said, "Okay. Let's end it there."

So I'll give it five out of ten for how well they did on what we got to see. But that's it. Endings like that are intellectual or clever. They just tell me they didn't have the imagination to come up with an ending. Oh, well.

Holy crap!! Wow! Fantastic! Marvel is back! Not to be missed! I am so pleased with this new show. And as far as I am concerned, this is Marvel at it's best.

Katherine Hahn really shows a remarkable range I had no idea that she had. Patti LuPone was wonderful. Aubrey Plaza was deliciously menacing and I can not wait to see who she is. I got a great kick out Debra Jo Rupp who I think will turn out to be more than a ditzy neighbor. And I simply can't wait to see who the mysterious Joe Locke will be revealed to be. He is absolutely all but stealing the show....but so far he's barely kept from doing it by Ms Hahn. I also love the cues they are taking from "WandaVision." Perfect. Do not miss this show!

The absolute only thing that prevents me from destroying my television after watching that waste of time is the performance of Rory Cullen. It made absolutely no sense and this is certainly another example of "The Emperor's New Clothes." People sitting around telling you how brilliant this movie is even though it's a waste because they realized they don't get it and they want to pretend they do cuz they don't want people to think they're not sophisticated. The writer is really cute. That's about the only other thing this movie has gone for it. Even the actress who plays Jack's mother, who I usually love, was terrible. There were about 87 storylines that were left unanswered. I'm just so mad I can hardly stand it. This is another director writer that I'm writing his name down to make sure that I never watch anything but he does again. I'm actually pissed that I spent my time watching this. I had a list of 10 movies I could watch tonight and I chose this one. I'm willing to bet all the other nine would have been a hundred times better. I'm pissed I tell you. I'm pissed.

This movie was obviously written by a very sick and deeply troubled man who is serious need of deep psychological help. For the most part this movie is just gore for gore's sake to see how gory can be and how hateful to human beings. Writer/Director Evans has obviously lost all faith in anything. This is his vision because of his life and what has happened in it. I can't see what else would make somebody make this movie. Sad.

If only I could go back in time and tell myself not to watch this movie. The absolute only thing that can redeem this movie in the tiniest bit is the acting of Dan Stevens and the cinematography of Matt Flannery.

But in the end, this is movie is nothing but a snuff film and a gorefest disguised, not so cleverly, as folk horror. Do yourself a favor. Do not watch this movie.

I give this movie zero 0 of 10 Stars.

Boy do I regret seeing this movie. Not that it wasn't well done, because it was. Acting, cinematography, etc, was well done. But there are countless hundred, if not thousands of scripts out there, many great ones, waiting to be filmed. This one? This was not one of them? Was this a lesson on how terrible the "Old West" and an attempt to make it less romantic? Well, it sure as heck did that. Was it attempting to entertain? Well that was an epic FAIL. My brain needs an enema after seeing this movie. And the big climax was just stupid. Let's see how depressing we can be. The writer and director need help. Serious help.

Do NOT WASTE your time. I want my time back. What a waste.

Wow! What can I say? If you liked the first season, and how couldn't you?, then you won't be able to help but like the second. Did I say lie? LOVE! The husband and I absolutely loved this. The story was outstanding. The acting was incredible. The "bad guy" absolutely needs to be nominated for an Emmy! He was quite simply outstanding, and Deborah Ayorinde as Detective Dawn Reeve was amazing! Top notch! A "modern" story of a classic style horror story and I will have to watch this over and over. Like "The Sixth Sense," it has stuff going on but I've just got to go back and watch and see again now that I know the twists and turns. And boy there was some doozies. And the Revelation at the end neither of us all coming and where that type that almost always figures everything out within the first 15 minutes. Not this time! I hope I hope I hope I hope there's a third season! I absolutely loved it!

When I was eighteen I read a book, recommended to me by a new female friend, called "The Persian Boy" by the critically acclaimed author Mary Renault. It was all about a young man in ancient Persia who becomes first the pleasure slave to King Darius of Persia. Then, after being defeated in battled by Alexander the Great. What amazed me was that was discovering that Alexander preferred men when it came to love. I went a did only the tinest bit of research, and everywhere I looked it verified that the two major loves of his life were thus Persian "boy," and Hephaestion. He loved Hephaestion so much in fact that he believed that in a previous life they were one soul. POW!

And now, finally, there comes a docudrama that presents Alexander not only as the brilliant general and conquerer that he was, but as a lover of men. In the first episode we see him show his love, very romantically and tastefully PG, to Hephaestion and my heart soared!

This series shows the history right. The battles right. The way ancient peoples perceived the world right. Religious beliefs right. And the actor chosen to play Alexander was a very good physical choice!

This series, for so many, many reasons is brilliant! Do not miss it!

Incredible, mind-boggling, and amazing. Each episode builds on the next which builds on the next. Edge of the seat, acting beyond brilliant. Writing is some of the best I've ever seen and I've been watching television for 55+ years. The wait each week for the next episode is just terrible. Every time somebody asked me to recommend a new show this is the show that I'm recommending. Jodie Foster and one of her best performances that I've ever seen her in. I've never seen Kali Reis before but I will be waiting and watching to see anything else she's ever in. The chemistry between these two characters is amazing. This is one of the best television shows since I've seen since the first couple of seasons of Lost. Do not miss this show.

"Howl" is about the most clever werewolf movie I've ever seen! I prefer it to "An American Werewolf in London."

*Gasp!* I know! Some of you think that's sacrilicious. But except for getting to see the heo's beautiful butt, it was far too silly and goofy for me. Note!! I said, "for me." I think the latter couldn't make up it's mind whether it's a horror film or a comedy. I could have liked either, but not one so fully confused in the middle.

"Howl" is a terrific old-fashioned horror movie, not too scary, not too gory, and great sort of werewolf twist to "Last Train to Busan."

"When passengers on a train are attacked by a creature, they must band together in order to survive until morning."

But besides passengers trapped on a train with monsters, the similarity ends. And while that might be considered a pretty big similarity, it is a very different movie. We're getting something far more akin to the glory days of the Universal golden age of monster movies than that modern Korean flick.

However, before being considered a rip-off, it did come out in 2015 and "Last Train..." came out in 2016!

This movie stars Ed Speleers, who played Jean Luc Picard's son in the triumphant final season of "Star Trek: Picard." He's good too as Alpha Trax train guard Joe Griffin doing a shift on an overnight passenger train, which is scheduled to depart London at midnight. He has no idea what he's heading for.

The movie has a different twist or two on the werewolf legend and I liked them all.

How have I never heard of this movie? I will be getting me a copy for sure!

It is directed by Paul Hyett and also stars Sean Pertwee, Holly Weston, Shauna Macdonald, Elliot Cowan, Rosie Day, Calvin Dean, Duncan Preston and Ross Mullan.

If you like werewolf movies, don't miss this film!

Fascinating concept but quickly just getting more and more sick. Probably due to the whole concept of once you've done the horrible thing, what is to stop you from going further and further? Why not? You've already allowed this cruel ugly thing to happen, why not just revel in it? The thing is, I really began to feel as if this was just a fantasy of Brandon Cronenberg's. He'd like to murder someone and to do so in a bloody painful way. So after making this movie, maybe his next step will need to be to do the real deed. Because just as the characters had to keep going further to get the same thrill, making this movie won't be get him the same thrill either. Glad I watched this in the daylight. This will certainly cause some bad dreams.

Best MCU movie since "Spider-Mn: No Way Home!" SO good and not to be missed. I cannot wait to see this movie again. Totally stands on its own, but is going to be the next chapter. SOOOOO good! The world-building is some of the best I've seen, very believable. So often, when movie create a totally new world, it is silly and doesn't make sense. Not in this case. And the inhabitants are far more than just actors in corny makeup. This is SO much better than Thor: Love and Thunder. Wonderful fleshing out of characters! Kang was amazing, acted wonderfully! I look forward to where the MCU goes next!!

Billy Eichner hit it out of the park on every single level. What a wonderful movie! Yes, it is a rom com and of course there were things I knew would happen -- the classic boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back --but it was a rom com and that happens. How wonderful that it was GAY this time! And the BEST thing about it is that the gay men are REALY gay men! Gay men acting like real gay men. With all the silly cringy hilarious sexy weird wonderful things we gay men do. I LOVED THIS MOVIE! Why didn't it do better in the theater! Billy Eichner, you are a genius! Thank you so much for this movie! I will treasure it forever!

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" really was special!

Highly recommended. It was sweet and hilarious and well done and even brought a little tear to my eyes. And that is plenty! Destined to become one of those we watch every year at this time for our family! Wonderful! Loved it!

Plus it has a great rating both by critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes!

From the trailer....

Kraglin: I just saw on the calendar that right now on Earth it's almost Christmas time.

Nebula: We don't have time for trivialities like Christmas.

Mantis: But Peter's so sad about Gamora being gone. Maybe if we go to Earth for a really special gift, it would make him happy. Something he wouldn't forget.

Drax: What about someONE special?

I can't tell you who that someone is because that would be a spoiler. So check it out. You won't be disappointed!

NOT a fan of this episode. It feels like something written by a barely pubescent boy. It is corny, corny, corny. The author/s made up these words for the "alien" characters, and you could see they thought it was really clever, but it was just annoying. Words like "trunks" instead of trees, and "glimpse" instead of see/saw, "nullified" instead of dead/kill, "new light" instead of morning, "trembling" instead of afraid/scared, "soon after" instead of simply soon, "fast walk" instead of run, etc. The problem is they created far too little words and use these words over and over and OVER and OVER and it quickly becomes so irritating you just want to stop watching the episode and go onto the next one, not caring one bit what happens to any of the characters. The acting of almost every guest star was absolutely terrible and I can only attribute that to the simply terrible dialogue. What were they supposed to do with it? Meryl Streep and Anthony Hopkins couldn't have done anything with the script, let alone all the unknown actors. The slang simply makes no sense. Why would you say "soon after" instead of soon for instance? The big reveal was incredibly disappointing. They fact that it was going to be a twist was broadcast minutes after the theme song. SO boring and this is my second time in seeing it in 25 or more years and it will probably be 25 years before I subject myself to seeing it again.