The Watcher 003 // Sweet Tooth, Spiderman - Across the Spiderverse, Evil Dead Rise, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Star Wars Visions, Fast X
Flicks, Flicks, Flicks.
Spiderman - Across the Spiderverse: I refuse to write Spiderman as ‘Spider-Man’ as they officially do, because the hyphen sucks and when Superman is Superman and Batman is Batman, then Spiderman is Spiderman. However.
This is a near perfect superhero movie and it’s kind of a surprise to me that, given the flood of caped crusaders invading the screen, it is an animated movie that tops them all, maybe with Guardian of the Galaxy being a contender.
The first Spiderverse movie already was very excellent and a milestone for Animation, and this one actually is even better, with the stylistic extravaganza even more top notch and made corresponding to the plot.
Fast X: An elaborate version of this Youtube-video, and yes, it hurts to use the word elaborate in context of Fast and the Furious. Only Jason Momoa kinda saves this crap from being a complete waste of time, giving his villain a flamboyant edge that’s just fun to watch. The rest is just shallow and stupid and family family family family family family family FAMILY!!!, and the seemingly bonkers action sequences are so bonkers it’s bordering on annoying.
Sweet Tooth S02: I’m still in awe that they even really did it and produced a series based on one of my favorite indie comics ever. See, I’m a follower of Jeff Lemire since his early days and wrote one of my first comic reviews about his take on The Invisible Man, which was some sort of weird mashup of Twin Peaks, Fargo and the scifi-horror-classic. I sucked up everything from his early Essex County to his fantastic Black Hammer series to his runs with DC Comics, where he wrote the best run of Animal Man since Alan Moore, turning the story into an outright experimental horror romp. Back when Sweet Tooth came out, i reviewed every collected paperback, and it’s such a, well, sweet story brought to life with drawings that look crude but always fitting. The series is a well done adaption of this story, they changed a lot and added a lot of stuff, with Jeff Lemire being part of the production all the time, afaik. It’s really great and original storytelling, and you should give it a shot.
Sisu: Finnish piece of action pulp about a gold miner blowing up Nazis in WWII. Tons of outrageous gore, over the top and sometimes hilarious action. This is what pulp movies should be: Highly entertaining, featuring a well but simple structure and splashing guts all over the place. This was great.
The Power: A great and cool adaption of the novel, which i also read and loved. I liked pretty much all about this adaption, great acting and Tony Collette steals the show ofcourse. I missed some of the more feminist-critical undertones of the book though, which was especially great because it told the ambivalent story of how power corrupts and leads to violence, which also holds true for feminists and which is a rare statement in that area of politics, if you know what i mean. But even when this stuff got buried, it’s still a great series, and i loved it. Highly recommended.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3: Just like the previous parts, this is a highly fun ride featuring some of the best and most creative world building in the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, and on a sidenote, this may be the best movie about animal rights this year. A visually stunning send-off for the most original Marvel team on screen.
James Gunn was the best thing that happened to the MCU, and I’m more than happy that he now takes over the reign at DC filming Superman Legacy. They are using the cover visual of All-Star Superman for marketing purposes, and i really hope they use elements of the story too, as this is one of the finest super-stories of the last twenty years or so.
The Chemistry of Death: I read the books by Simon Beckett ages ago and while i liked this adaption, it’s not very remarkable and sadly, quite forgetable. If you are a fan of Beckett, this surely will be down your alley, but else this is just a standard thriller-series. Not bad, nothing special.
The Pope’s Exorcist: Fun horror romp with Russell Crowe playing Chief Exorcist of the Vatican fighting all kinds of demons. I liked the pulpy tone of this one, decidedly non-atmospheric and in that sense sort of an Anti-The Exorcist, which, besides the pea soup-scenes always worked for me because of it’s ultracreepy, ice-cold atmosphere which is essential to shock you out of your pants. This is different, it’s a fun pulpy horror ride more related to Sam Raimi- or James Wan-stuff than The Exorcist and it’s modern variations. Cool, liked it.
Evil Dead Rise: Definitely better than the first one, which was just cruel and not much else. It’s a bit uneven and can’t decide if it just wants to be mean, bloody and sincere about that, or if it wants to go over the top with slapstick gore elements. They cite the flying eyeball from Evil Dead 2, which is nice in itself, but it feels out of place. It’s a good entry in the Necronomicon-canon, but not excellent or innovative like Ash vs Evil Dead or the original Raimi-movies.
Star Wars Andor: Finally got around watching this and it’s just as good as everybody says. Didn’t like it as much as Visions (see below), but that’s just me. Definitely recommended.
Star Wars Visions : Finally got around watching this too and I binged both seasons in one long setting. It’s fantastic and surely one of the best things coming out of Disneys Star Wars run. I absolutely want to see more non-CGI Star Wars-animation, and I hope they take a lesson from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Kids vs Aliens: I wanted to like this, but it’s just not very good. Not a big waste of time though, just mediocre scifi-schlock about, well, kids vs aliens.
65: Slightly better than Kids vs Aliens, but not the fun pulpy scifi-horror thing i expected. Liked the dynamic between Adam Driver and the kid, but some stuff doesn’t make sense and it’s too simplistic to be anything else.
Clerks III: Kevin Smiths second sequel to the ultra-nerdy original. It’s flawed but likable, mostly because we’ve grown old with the characters and they make exactly that the focus of the story: how to deal with growing old. Should’ve been better, but it is what it is.
Skinamarink: Everybody loves this and I’m like, eh? Found Footage style but even cheaper, confuses experimental style with weird framing and being boring. Lame.
Cocaine Bear: is exactly what you expect it to be. Fun and pulpy and full of gore. Loved it.
The Whale: Successfull oscar bait. Not much to add to that.
Knock at the Cabin: For once, a good Shyamalan movie. I like the guy, and i actually like many of his films for their ideas, i even liked The Happening, a guilty pleasure because i have a knack for subtle monster trees that just... stand there, releasing deadly something something in the air which somehow drives people to kill themselves. However, with Knock at the Cabin Shyamalan is back at being suspenseful and atmospheric, and this is what he does best. I think it’s no surprise that this is not an original screenplay and Shyamalan adapted this from a novel. Maybe he should do a franchise for Disney, and i mean this only half jokingly.
Prehistoric Planet S02: There’s nothing better than getting stoned while watching dinosaurs and lulling away to David Attenboroughs voice.
Malum: A young officer must survive against Satanists in a closed police station while solving the puzzle of her fathers death. The movie is shocking at times, leaning heavily into gore, fast paced with some unexpected turns. It’s pretty good.
Influencer: Excellent film about a woman stalking a successful influencer couple in Thailand. I’m usually not fond of the exotic thriller genre, and all movies about social media influencers are crap, so this beautifully shot and well acted thriller came as a complete surprise. Very good. Recommended.
Vamp: Old cheap vampire romp that somehow managed to get the one and only Grace Jones to play the monster and Keith Harring to do some fantastic bodypainting, both of which result in a strip club session like none before. A low budget classic from the 80s and one of the first movies i owned on VHS back then. Hasn’t aged well though, but i still like it for nostalgic reasons and Dedee Pfeiffer.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Pretty generic fantasy romp that leans too heavily into its RPG-roots. Not better than all those videogame-adaptions.
Robots: What should’ve been a likeable comedy about a couple trying to kill their robot-doppelgängers is just a mess full of unlikeable characters that you confuse all the time.
Dark Nature: Therapy group meets monsters in the forest. Nothing new under the sun, but an okay watch for its kind.
Planet of Storms: A not very good soviet russia scifi-film from 1962 made interesting by some outstanding FX-works that were pretty awesome for its time. Recommended for lovers of rare old time scifi b-movies. The rest may have a laugh.
Land of Doom: One of those cheap ass Mad Max-ripoffs that flooded the home cinema VHS-market when Thunderdome became a worldwide phenomenon. It’s cheap, it’s bad, the papercrafted bike-applications are hilarious, and the actors in their black leather costumes in the sun must have released an interesting odor on set. It’s one of those so bad it’s good-movies and i kind of liked it, in a psychotronic sense.
The Black Demon: The good old giant shark movie, jazzed up with some unnecessary mexican mythology, or whatever. This movie is watchable for the maincharacter alone, and by that i mean very, very, very bad acting.
The Little Mermaid: Ugh. I can’t even remember watching the original, though i think i’ve seen it at one point. I think there is some magic line that you cross at a certain age and all Disney-movies up to that point are great and lovely and all that and all the others which came after those are just not cool enough for you. For me, that was around The Little Mermaid, so she is not cool enough for me. Sorry, fishgirl.
Hypnotic: Ben Affleck hunts a hypnotist. Robert Rodriguez tries some psychological Actionthriller and fails. The plot is just too ridiculous and all those twists and turns are not clever but confusing.
Tin & Tina: After a miscarriage, a couple takes in two ultra-religious albino kids and you gotta wonder if the first thing you do after living through a trauma is facing a real parental challenge. It’s not the only lame duck in this script, and while this is not a complete stinker, it is boring and doesn’t go anywhere.
Paint: Carl Nargle — who looks totally like Bob Ross but isn’t — has a midlife crisis when a new painter steals his show at a TV channel. Pretty boring and unimaginative for a movie about art, and unfunny for a comedy too.
Organ Trail: Grim western about a woman surviving in winter in 19th century Montana, trying to get her horse back. Too grim for my taste, and it doesn’t really go anywhere.
Air: This was a surprisingly fun watch for a movie about a pair of sneakers, albeit if you are a sneakerhead, you can ofcourse point to the fact that the Air Jordans are an iconic piece of streetwear and you’d be right. I’m no sneakerhead, but i still liked this movie.
There’s Something Wrong with the Children: Kids are actually a strange species and start to kill the parents. I liked some of the creepy bits when the kids develop their own hissing-language, and the atmosphere overall. But to call this a good movie would be a bit of a stretch. Neat.
The Devil Conspiracy: Overstylized religious horror about a biotech company resurrecting Jesus and releasing Luzifer in the process. I didn’t like the production design, and while this is not a waste of time, i’ve already forgotten most of it.
The Bloodhound: Some guy visits his reclusive wealthy friend. This adaptation of Edgar Allan Poes The Fall of the House of Usher doesn’t work and what are supposed to be quirky characters are just pricks. Also, boring.
Chompy & the Girls: Weird and surreal horror comedy about a guy with a very big mouth who eats people and clones of little girls. They tried something new and strange on a very tight budget and i like that.
Blood Conscious: A black family on vacation find their relatives shot dead and the shooter talking about demons. Okay low budget horror flick that doesn’t surprise you much, but features some solid acting along the way.
Caveat: A guy with memory loss is supposed to look after a mentally ill woman in an abandoned house on an island, while he’s fixed to a bed with a very long chain. Twists and turns abound. A cheap horror movie that has some nice atmosphere and camera work, but suffers from the low budget and a slightly confusing script.