Nick Tropiano

Monster manages to be sick and disgusting but illiciting zero shocks or chills. It is completely ineffective as a horror film. In old movies made during the Hayes code era, filmmakers were very wary of depicting violence againt children or putting children in mortal jeopardy-- and after about a half hour of watching children being sadisticly tormented, killed, and butchered I couldn't help but think maybe we should consider reimplimenting some of these restrictions on content as it pertains to children. It's distasteful and disturbing to say the least. But it's also a cinematic cheap shot. Far from being cinematically interesting, it beyond clched. We're treated to endless scenes of someone hiding under beds and in closets with the big bad "right there". How many times have you seen such scenes? Wanna see that sort of thing go on for an hour? Clichéd, tedious, tiresome. Terrible flick. Just is.

Wow. Not sure who's posting 5-star reviews for this dreck. People who never saw a movie before? Some review bomb company? Ignore that noise. Bloody awful is this. This is the worst super hero flick I've seen since The Fantastic Four. Sony? Methinks you need to get out of the content creation business. Stick to semiconductors and consumer electronics. Putrid.

Like Bug, this is an absolutely underappreciated late-career (he was in his 70's and in poor health) William Friedkin (French Connection, Exorcist) masterpiece lensed when Friedkin was mostly directing live operas on stage. Killer Joe is a pitch-black NC-17 comedy. Fantastic script, performances, cinematography, and direction. Lots of violence and a good dollop of sex, nudity, depravity, and in-general sickness. One of the first films to be shot and edited digitally with an Arri Alexa. Unlike a lot of work that's "over-graded" today, you'd swear this was shot (quite beautifully I might add) on film.

Taut liittle supernatural B flick. Nicely acted. Not sure why the bad reviews. Maybe too "woke" for the weirdos? Don't know. I decided watching this I'm tired of anamorphic lenses. They're distracting. Or if they are used, quit with the scene spoiling flare (not in this film) and don't pull focus with them (done pretty often here). In both cases the distortion takes you out of the scene. Batista gave an especially nice performance. Could have done without the Boogie Shoes ending. Didn't match the tone of the film.

Fail. This series simply can not extricate itself from it's own idiotic fake BS science. It wallows in its own made up BS science scene, after scene, after scene. What is the worst part of science fiction? The BS fake science in the science fiction -- always. Monster action takes a back seat to stock animated PhD types discussing uninteresting, totally boring, completely made-up nonsense of how these giant monsters came to be with us due to some tedious BS hypothesis involving blah, blah, space/time blah, blah. On top of this, it's apes the 90's Gamera series shamelessly. There's not ONE "Rodan" there is a "flock" of Rodan, you see. If you're a kaijuphile you know where this is from. Godzilla is straight from Shin. Then there are the worst, cringe-y, anime tropes and cliches present in all its glory. It's also way for confusing with way too many (uninteresting) characters for a simple monster mash. In a way, I'm glad this is such a spectacular fail. Godzilla = tokusatsu, "special effects" films... not cheap dopey anime. So maybe after multiple disasters trying to turn Godzilla (and Ultraman -- another anime fail) into an anime property, Toho will realize it's was never meant to be and give up on this dumb idea.

Solid zombie series. It's the anti-TWD; the characters don't stand around philosophizing, moralizing, dating and impregnating each other, and breaking into lengthy monologues during the zombie Apocalypse Which is to say, this is not a zombie soap opera like TWD. The zombies are of the 28 Days Later variety -- agile rabid maniacs, not the slow moving creep-up-on-ya Night of the Living Dead original kind. It's more centered around action than gross-out gore (though there's a bit of that too -- unavoidable in this genre). It's quite cinematic, especially season two. Dialog is kept to a minimum and the threadbare plot is kept engaging by flashbacks and flash forwards that can be a bit confusing at times but it works. Essentially, this is a series of zombie action set-pieces with an ensemble cast reacting, surviving, to each situation... the "action" equivalent to situation comedy. It's refreshingly vapid, entertaining, engaging, and fun. Downside is it does stumble on the occasional predictable trope. Unavoidable at this point in the never ending zombie cycle. And finally, I do so wish producers would go back to using film. It seems to me digital cameras can not handle bright exteriors without blowing everything out. Since a lot of this series takes place outdoors in the bright snow, there are severe and distracting visual issues. Also, no. You can not get the same "look" doing color grading with software in post as you can with creative lighting and use of filters during capture. Just say no to all this color grading. It always looks awful. Between overuse of (and horrible application of) color grading and exteriors too bright for digital sensors, like so many other shows these days, it looks like crud on-screen. That's not me being an old foggie. I long for the great "look" of features shot on film (esp. the 70's). And also stay away from high frame rates. Christ does that REALLY look horrible. Good for video games -- HORRIBLE for movies and series. Horrible. Film, 24 fps please, no color grading in post, and a cinematographer who knows how to properly light interior and exterior scenes (and use that old-fashioned device called "a tripod") to elicit mood. Go back and study Bava and Argento's early stuff. Thank you. The 70's was the era where films were gorgeous (see The Fifth Chord, as one example, to rediscover what a film shot by talented professionals should look like). The 2020's is the era where "films" look like s--t. We're going backwards here.

A briskly paced fun little horror flick that puts an Agatha Christie whodunnit and a werewolf flick in a smoothie maker and presses "pulse". They don't make'em like they used to back in the 70's -- and the art of cinema is worse off for it.

Forget about the boxing piece of this. It's "okay". Thrill of the Fight is best for boxing. The real deal of Knockout League is the training. Simply put, this is the best workout in vr. The heavy bag and the mitts especially. Fantastic. Excellent game that will have sweat pouring off you. Since you're playing a game and not :"working out" time flies by.

Undeserving of the negative reviews and some insipid criticism it has received. Yes, this film hikes down a well-worn path. But it's executed extremely well on all levels from acting to sound to direction to FX and is engaging throughout. A very solid horror entry well worth a watch.

The Shining it ain't but watchable enough. No suspense, you don't care about the soap opera-like cast, not atmospheric, rather paint-by-the-numbers as if an AI bot was tasked with writing a haunted house script. But there are enough horror set-pieces strung together quickly enough around its threadbare plot to keep you from watching something else. The kind of film you can "watch" while checking your phone or your Twitter feed. Instantly forgettable. Though not engaging, interesting, original, or even mildly chilling -- it at least manages not to be dull and is somewhat entertaining. A passable TV movie pulled off with TV movie-level style and panache but with some added gore.