Brian Sager

Movie Review Spiral: From The Book of Saw I love the Saw franchise and defend the series with a passion when people dismiss it as just nothing other than gorefest, torture porn, etc. Each entry furthered the story of John Kramer adding more layers to him and his accomplices. This entry does none of that. If they didn't even mention Jigsaw, this film could have been been it's own thing and that maybe could have helped it. Chris Rock plays Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks (a head detective of a police department) along with Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Banks' Dad, Marcus (a former captain of the department). The film centers around a copycat Jigsaw killer who is targeting dirty cops. The plot is interesting, but Rock's stiff and laughably bad acting take you out of some moments. I like Chris Rock, but Rock is clearly out of his element. He even walks around through the film puffing his chest out and walking around with imaginary lat syndrome. Just can not take him seriously as a lead detective. Jackson is fantastic as always, but he's under-utilized. Must have been too busy with those Capital One commercials... The traps are done amazingly, but lack Jigsaw's motive and demented sense of fairness to the game he is playing with the victim. The voice recordings on the tape players are AWFUL. Hardly menacing and lack the dreadful tone of Tobin Bell. The film ends in an abrupt, extremely unsatisfying way that made me feel empty and disappointed. I even stuck around after the credits in hopes that a post credit scene could redeem the ending. Spoiler: there wasn't one. Final thoughts: An interesting plot with cool traps is severely hurt by unfaithful fan service to the series and a bad lead. This is the Halloween: Resurrection of the Saw Franchise. 2 1/2 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐1/2

Mortal Kombat Review (Minor Spoilers) Two things I want to establish. 1. I am aware of how uneasy it is to make a movie based on a video game. It can be absolutely difficult to build something around the source material (i.e. Super Mario Bros) 2. Growing up, I was a Mortal Kombat NERD!!! I knew every code, every move, every secret. Hell, I even tried to skip school once, just to have the chance to play Ultimate MK3 when it finally came out. So, you can imagine the hype I had for this one. Not only were we getting a new MK movie, but it was going to be a rated R and more adult version that we wanted. Sometimes, things cannot live up to the hype... For everytime this movie does something right, it does something wrong. The movie and story is meant to revolve around a tournament to save Earth from Outworld. A tournament called Mortal Kombat. Yet, (brace yourselves) there is no tournament in this movie. Shang Tsung and his henchmen cheat and want to kill the combatants of Earth realm before the tournament, which is forbidden and against the rules. Yet the elder gods are described as being lazy and uncaring to do anything about it. More like the writers were lazy and uncaring. Instead of some cool training montages and major character development, the middle of the movie has them trying to discover they're "powers" and how to use them like a mutant from X-Men. The characters look amazing and there is so much fan service. Fan service galore!!! The opening scene is superb, leading you to believe we might be seeing more of an origins story of Scorpion and Sub-Zero. The film introduces a brand new main character, instead. Even though he is connected to one of the most popular characters in the franchise, Cole Young is just so uninspired and uninteresting. Maybe if they spent more time developing him, but they can't because there is other main characters from the game to introduce (who I care more about then Cole Young). His daughter seemed more interesting for the few minutes of screen time she had, should of had it based around her. Can you imagine? Kano (played by Josh Lawson) is an absolute riot in this. He steals the show in every scene he's in. However, his blood feud and history with Sonya Blade and the Special Forces is ignored. Liu Kang seems to be a minor character and pushed to the back for more time for Cole Young. Same for Shang Tsung, who is supposed to be the main antagonist. And that is one of the biggest problems with the movie, main characters are undeveloped. The ending gives a grand finale with the two characters any true MK fan will go crazy over. Yet, the ending left me with a feeling of no resolution and being completely underwhelmed. Even with the cliffhanger tease at the end. Final thoughts. Fan service and blood galore puts a thick coat over bad storytelling and character developing. Not a Flawless victory, but hopefully not a Fatality for future film adaptations. P.S. If you listen close enough you can hear a faint bit of the awesome techno theme from the 1995 film. Also, no post credit scene. ⭐⭐⭐1/2 3.5 stars out 5

Review: Come Play (2020) Although the film is closely reminiscent of The Babadook, it does deliver and I believe it is one of the best horror movies of the year. Azhy Robertson plays Oliver, an autistic boy who has difficulty fitting in and making friends. He somehow comes in contact with a being from another dimension named Larry, who communicates through electrical devices and an e-book. Larry looks to take Oliver away from his world; to be his friend. The social commentary and underlying theme of the dangers of technology addictions is done well. A very eerie thriller with heart. 4.5 out of 5 stars.