Review – Rabid (2019)

This started out looking like a loving tribute to the original. Though clearly a creature of the 21st century, it had some of Cronenberg’s look and feel to it. Alas, it swiftly descended into the realm of cheap, unnecessary remake. See if desperate

Review – Brahms: The Boy 2

I actually liked this one better than the first one. It’s more of a straight supernatural tale, so it spends much less time on what’s-really-going-on plot twists. To be sure, this isn’t a rewarding experience. But it isn’t a demanding one either. Mildly amusing

Review – Class Action Park

The folks who made this documentary have a truly excellent sense of how to tell an emotional story. The story of Action Park – a popular attraction in New Jersey back in the 1980s – begins by diving right into the sheer craziness of an entire amusement park designed not by safety-conscious engineers but by adults and teens possessed by a spirit of “wouldn’t it be cool if?” The sheer absurdity of this exercise in anarchy is hysterical; more than once I had to stop the movie so I could let my laughter die down and regain control of my breathing. But then toward the end we get a grim reminder of the serious and permanent damage done to many park visitors as well as the arrogant refusal of the park’s owner to take any kind of responsibility for the suffering he caused. Buy the movie

Review – Wonder Woman 1984

I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie on opening day, and I certainly never went to opening day on Christmas. Coronaworld continues to be a strange place. And appropriately enough, this is a strange movie. Someone else already made the joke about not being able to follow the plot after missing Wonder Woman 2 through 1983. It’s an on-target bit of sarcasm, as this doesn’t do much that we haven’t seen in a dozen superhero movies already. Further, other than the presence of retro fashion choices and a shopping mall early in the story, there isn’t much to root this in the title time frame. Mildly amusing

Review – The Christmas Chronicles

Brother and sister face the holidays after the recent loss of their father and without their extra-shift-working mother. Left to their own devices, they end up waylaying Santa Claus, throwing all of Christmas into jeopardy. This would be another run-of-the-mill seasonal movie if not for some unwelcome twists. The disturbed family seems a little too disturbed for comfort, particularly the brother’s membership in a car theft ring, which comes across less as a youthful prank and more of a serious crime. But the real killer is Kurt Russell’s portrayal of Santa as a churlish jerk who acts like he’d rather get drunk and sing karaoke than spread Christmas cheer throughout the world. See if desperate

Review – The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two

Because someone at Netflix watched the first one and said to himself, “What this needed was way more Goldie Hawn.” In her defense, her wooden performance as Mrs. Claus to her real-life partner Kurt Russell’s Santa is far from the worst moment in this galling parade of holiday nonsense. The dysfunctional family from the original is back, this time magically transported from the beach vacation they’ve found ways to hate to the North Pole, where a rebel elf plots to take over Santa’s kingdom and ruin Christmas for everyone. Before the end of the picture we get an odd adaptation of the actual life of St. Nicholas, elves driven insane by a magic potion, Dasher mauled by a Yule Cat, and the whole mess tied up via time travel. Yeesh. See if desperate
 

Review – The Hobbit (1977)

I remember loving this when I first saw it on TV. Of course I was 11 at the time, and standards for quality animation – especially on this side of the Pacific – were generally lower back then. But for the time and place, it’s not bad. The voice cast features some familiar names, including John Huston as Gandalf and Hans Conried as Thorin. In its limited running time, it stays fairly faithful to its well-known source. Mildly amusing