Jim Gore

The strongest element of this movie was the atmospheric photography. Bleak, gray, somber, macabrely elegant. Everything cast in granite and shadow and blue moonlight. Beautiful to look at. Per usual for Eggers, the period sets were meticulous down to the finest 19th century detail. Not much to sink one’s teeth into, however, in terms of story. Much of the basic vampire lore from the source material is here. A few jump scares. Dafoe chews the scenery as always. The biggest disappointment for me was the one thing I was most stoked about. Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok screamed must-see cinema. Instead we got an unrecognizable Skarsgard buried under facial prosthetics, whose voice sounded like it had been run through a Victorian wheezebox, his slavic Carpathian accent so thick at times as to require subtitles to understand. The deviations in plot and backstory from both Stoker’s novel and the F.W. Murnau classic were at times hard to follow and ultimately unsatisfying. Worth watching once but not much here worth remembering.

Look. This series isn’t a Billy Graham crusade. No one is shoving religion down anyone’s throat here. The Chosen is a smartly written, beautifully photographed and superbly acted depiction of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, his followers and their opponents. It is faithful to the essence of the Gospels while presenting characters and situations which do not specifically appear in them to enhance and advance the dramatic narrative. This project’s greatest gift is making the greatest story ever told accessible, relevant and riveting to a post-Christian generation in desperate need of hope. Can’t recommend it strongly enough.

The series got off to a great start with an intriguing storyline and cool monster action sequences. By episode 5 (at this writing) things really bogged down. It seems like the showrunners had to stretch the middle episodes with unnecessary and redundant character development to avoid getting to the season finale too quickly. The more dialogue we get the more the amateurish writing is exposed. Less yada yada, more monsters would be smart.

Snappy dialogue is occasionally pretty funny and some slapstick action sequences work fairly well. The pacing is just terrible with multiple “relationship” sequences that bring the film to a screeching halt before trying to rev things back up. Like a herky-jerky ride with a new stick-shift driver who can’t get the hang of the clutch. Strong cast is wasted on a half-baked screenplay and directionless direction.

Nonsensical premise of a modern ghost town purchased by obnoxious millenials for gentrification. Boring, slow-paced, poorly conceived and badly written. Blatant attempt to mimic the successes of the two recent “Halloween” sequels, minus an actual story vehicle or Jamie Lee Curtis to drive it. The most positive aspect of this turkey is it’s mercifully short at an hour and twenty-three torturous minutes. Actually manages to make “The Beginning” look legit. Hard pass.

Very uneven. This was the smaller scale filler series produced when COVID shut down & delayed AHS. Kudos for the feels in bringing fresh content to a quarantined American audience. Even if it was largely half-baked and forgettable. On a wider topic, is anyone else frequently put off by Ryan Murphy’s obsession with a totally gay universe of his own creation? I mean, yay for diversity and inclusion, but does every single project have to be saturated with gay themes and characters? Great storyteller but the avalanche of same-sex content gets tiresome. Find some balance, dude.

Binged season 1 this week. Have to admit there was so much going on that I found no plot anchor in the non-linear mishmash of 1996 vs the present. Is this a nightmarish survival tale? A crime story? A supernatural creepfest? An essay on friendship, shared trauma and the meaning of life? As it turns out, the answer is all of the above and then some. The sum of the first seven episodes did not strike me as greater than the myriad moving parts but the sheer style and stellar performances from the ensemble, youthful and adult, kept me watching. The final three episodes were the payoff and why I will be a Yellowjacket diehard for the remainder of its run. Brilliant storytelling. Brilliant acting. The dark forces shuffling about in the shadows of our mundane, everyday lives and within us ourselves are the real stars of this show. Season 2 should be a great ride. Can’t wait.

Never want to judge an entire series from the first episode, but I have to say today’s Disney+ premiere of Marvel’s “Moon Knight” struck me as a hot mess. Guess we’ll see if some clarity is injected at some point in the storyline. For now I feel like I walked into the middle of a heated conversation without knowing the topic or the people talking. (Side note: the end credits are the most extensive I’ve ever seen for a television production. Thought I was watching the credits for an MCU movie. Obviously a lot of time, money and manpower went into this show. Let’s hope there’s a viewer payoff over the next five weeks.)

A solid entry in the MCU catalog. Certainly much better than the other recent Disney+ and theatrical releases. Be advised that it greatly pushes the envelope on its “PG-13” rating. The battles are ultra-violent, the creatures and some characters are nightmarish and the profanity is ramped way up from the first two Guardian movies. Even contains a surprising “F-bomb” from Captain Quill. I only mention it due to the number of young kids present at the showing I attended. I’m sure the adults who brought them didn’t expect those elements to dominate the story.

Quirky, slow, smart, disjointed, oddly charming, dry-witted, mostly dialogue driven. Think Wes Anderson and George Romero collaborated on a low-budget zombie flick with an A-list cast. Just not nearly as good as either of those guys would deliver. The sum is not greater than the parts. In fact, it’s pretty much DOA.