LIL' MOVIE REVIEWS: The 2016 Before Beer.Movies.Music Existed Edition
Though the Movies page will feature at least two, well... feature articles a month, many more movies will be seen aside from said features and will be collected in these shorter reviews we call LIL' MOVIE REVIEWS. They should all be spoiler-free and be given a letter grade.
Your humble writer here has been slacking, and has not seen many movies this year, but here they are combined in this edition I'm calling the 2016 Before Beer.Movies.Music Existed Edition...
THE BOY
Directed by William Brent Bell/Written by Stacey Menear
The setup for The Boy is quite impressive, creating an uneasy, creepy atmosphere and sprinkles in some fascinating questions we desperately want answers to. The characters are interesting and the opening scares are exactly what you want in a film like this. Unfortunately, once the film reaches the point where the answers come, the film changes gear and becomes less and less interesting. Good premise, looks good, fairly well-acted, but the second half of the film fails to live up to the promising start.
GRADE: C
THE WITCH
Written and Directed by Robert Eggers
The Witch is quite terrifying, but not so much in the way horror fans have become accustomed to in recent years, trading in the blood, guts and jump scares for atmosphere, beautiful cinematography and character development, which makes the horror psychological and much more unnerving for a patient audience. Sadly, many of today's moviegoers lack that patience and therefore it's received mixed reviews; some flat-out hating the film. This reviewer, on the other hand, can't recommend it enough.
GRADE: A
DEADPOOL
Directed by Tim Miller/Written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
Finally, the film has come for comic book movie fans who have grown tired of the same old comic book movie formula that has becomes the recent standard-- it's fucking rated R, man! And sure it's got the graphic language and violence as well as nudity that we desire from our R movies, but what makes Deadpool even better is just how smart and funny it is, poking fun at everything from itself to superheroes to the Marvel Universe to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And most importantly, Ryan Reynolds totally redeems himself for Green Lantern.
GRADE: A
10 CLOVERFIELD LANE
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg/Written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken & Damien Chazelle
Cloverfield was terrible. But thankfully it made enough money that eight years later, it's much superior sequel could be made. 10 Cloverfield Lane is an excellent example of doing a whole lot with very little. With a smaller budget than the original, it focuses more on the script and what we get is a very tense, masterfully crafted, slowly unraveling mystery in the middle of a low-budget survival film. Also, a brilliant performance from the legendary John Goodman doesn't hurt, either. The only reason this thing doesn't get an A is the tie-in to the original kind of ruins how great this film would've been as a stand alone.
GRADE: B+