TRASH IN MY EYE Reviews: Mystery

Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts

Sunday, March 1, 2026

Review: "SCREAM 7" Will Make You Laugh... and Scream

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 4 of 2026 (No. 2052) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream 7 (2026)

Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)

Rating: MPA – R for strong bloody violence, gore, and language

DIRECTOR: Kevin Williamson

WRITERS: Kevin Williamson and Guy Busick; from a story by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick (based on characters created by Kevin Williamson)

PRODUCERS: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, and James Vanderbilt

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ramsey Nickell (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jim Page

COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Mckenna Grace, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Asa Germann, Celeste O'Connor, Sam Rechner, Ethan Embry, Mark Consuelos, Jeremy Connor, Matthew Lillard, and Roger L. Jackson (voice)

SUMMARY OF REVIEW:

“Scream 7” is pure entertainment,a truly scary movie that is also a genuinely funny in all its mayhem and gore.

Neve Campbell makes a welcome return as Sidney Prescott, and dominates the film in a way that recalls that old “Scream” feeling.

I highly recommend “Scream 7” to fans of the franchise and also to people who just want to enjoy a good movie.

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Scream 7 is a 2023 slasher horror film from director Kevin Williamson. It is the seventh film in the Scream film series and is a sequel to Scream VI. In Scream 7, Sidney Prescott is living in a new town, but she cannot escape her past as a new Ghostface killer has emerged to target her teenage daughter.

Scream 7 finds original Woodsboro victim, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), living in Pine Grove, Indiana with her husband, Police Chief Mark Evans (Joel McHale), and their two daughters. Now known as Sidney Prescott-Evans, she has her own small business, tea and coffeehouse, “The Little Latte.”

Despite her new life, Sidney is still vigilante, always expecting “the Ghostface Killer” to invade her life again. Then, it happens; Sidney gets a call from Ghostface, and he is requesting a video call. And right before Sidney's eyes is a ghost from the past, and this time, he declares that he is targeting Sidney's older daughter, teenager Tatum (Isabel May). Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and her new assistants, siblings Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding), come to rescue. Before they can stop this new Ghostface, however, Sidney and company must discover how many Ghostface killers there are and who they are.

Personally, I believe that the previous film, Scream VI (2023), is the best Scream film since the original trilogy of films, and is closest to the original Scream (1996) in terms of entertainment value. So I am surprised by how much I really enjoyed the new film, Scream 7, and I'll say the same for it as I did for the sixth. Director Kevin Williamson, the who created Scream over three decades ago with his original screenplay for the first film, finally got his shot at directing a Scream film. Scream 7 is so good that it makes me think that Williamson should have directed a film in this series long ago.

I saw this film with a predominately Black audience, and we all enjoyed talking to the screen the entire time (Girl, don't put the gun down!) simply because Scream 7 is so freaking entertaining. It is as if Williamson deliberately has his characters do nonsensical things while in the throws of panic and terror in order to give the audience a reason to yell at them. I can't say for certain that Williamson did that, but, if he did, it is like an ultimate meta experience.

Neve Campbell makes a killer return as the ultimate survivor. Isabel May is good as her daughter, Tatum, but she can't help but be in the fearsome shadow Sidney/Neve casts. Courteney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding provide excellent support and comic relief in a film that is, at times, as shockingly gory and gruesome as Final Destination (2000) and its progeny.

I don't want to spoil Scream 7 by talking about all the scenes that held me, thrilled me, kissed me, and killed me. Instead I will tell you, dear readers, that like Scream VI, Scream 7 is easily one of the series' best entries.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, March 1, 2026

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Thursday, February 26, 2026

Review: "SCREAM VI" Thrills at Will

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 of 2026 (No. 2051) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream VI (2023)

Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)

Rating: MPA – R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and brief drug use

DIRECTORS: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

WRITER: James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick (based on characters created by Kevin Williamson)

PRODUCERS: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, and James Vanderbilt

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Brett Jutkiewicz (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jay Prychidny

COMPOSERS: Sven Faulconer and Brian Tyler

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Courteney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Hayden Panettiere, Dermot Mulroney, Jack Champion, Josh Segarra, Liana Liberato, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving, Henry Czerny, Andre Anthony, Skeet Ulrich, Max Laferriere, and Roger L. Jackson (voice)

Scream VI is a 2023 slasher horror film from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. It is the sixth film in the Scream film series and is a direct sequel to Scream (2022). In Scream VI, the survivors of the most recent Woodsboro murders move to New York City for a fresh start only to find that a new Ghostface killer is stalking them.

Scream VI opens one year after the latest Woodsboro murders that were orchestrated by Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman (as seen in the 2022 film). The survivors of the murders: sisters – Samantha “Sam” Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) – and their friends, siblings Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding), have moved to New York City for a fresh start.

Tara, Mindy, and Chad attend Blackmore University and have new roommates and friends: Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato), Anika Kayoko (Devyn Nekoda), and Ethan Landry (Jack Champion). Sam attends therapy with Dr. Christopher Stone (Henry Czerny), who views her with a skeptical eye. Sam has also become the target of public ire because of an online conspiracy theory that says that she – not Richie and Amber – is the real killer behind the last Woodsboro murders. It doesn't help that many know that Sam is the biological daughter of one of the original Woodsboro killers, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich).

But “the Ghostface killer” (Max Laferriere and the voice of Roger L. Jackson) has returned, more brutal and vicious than ever. And he intends to pick up where the last Ghostface killer left off.

One then I didn't mention in my synopsis is that that two other franchise characters play a big role in Scream VI. They are Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who has been with the franchise since the original Scream 1996), and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), a survivor of the Woodsboro murders depicted in Scream 4 (2011).

Personally, I find Scream VI to be the best Scream film since the original trilogy of films. It feels like this film's writers (James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick) and directors (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) had a freer hand to be wild and crazy, relentless and merciless, and imaginative and inventive in a way I don't think they did in Scream (2022). From the opening twist killings to the last act, Scream VI is edgy and adventurous. Only the best and most daring film franchises dig into the dysfunction of franchise characters, and Scream VI does that. The result is a slasher film that is as much a family drama and thriller as it is a scary movie, and it is excellent as all three.

I don't want to spoil Scream VI by talking about all the scenes that held me, thrilled me, kissed me, and killed me. Instead I will tell you, dear readers, that I highly recommend Scream VI, which easily one of the series' best entries.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, February 26, 2026

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Saturday, February 7, 2026

Review: "A HAUNTING IN VENICE" Shuffles Towards Its Happy Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 of 2026 (No. 2049) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Running time: 103 minutes

Rating: MPA – PG-13 for some strong violence, disturbing images and thematic elements

DIRECTOR: Kenneth Branagh

WRITER: Michael Green (based on the novel by Agatha Christie)

PRODUCERS: Kenneth Branagh, Judy Hofflund, Simon Kinberg, and Ridley Scott

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Haris Zambarloukos (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Lucy Donaldson

COMPOSER: Hildur Gudnadottir

MYSTERY

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cotton, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Rowan Robinson, Ricardo Scamarcio, and Michelle Yeoh

A Haunting in Venice is a 2023 mystery film directed by Kenneth Branagh. It is based on the 1969 novel, Hallowe'en Party, written by Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Set in post-World War II Venice, A Haunting in Venice finds Hercule Poirot retired and living in exile until he attends a séance where one of the guests is murdered.

A Haunting in Venice opens in Venice, Italy in 1947. There, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) lives in retirement and in exile, having lost his faith in nearly everything. He employs an ex-Venetian police officer, Vitale Portfoglio (Ricardo Scamarcio), as a bodyguard to keep perspective clients away. On Halloween, novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), a friend of Poirot's, convinces him to attend a séance at the Palazzo Lacrime dei Giovani, the home of retired opera singer, Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly).

The palazzo was once an orphanage, reputed to be haunted. In fact, the building is known for “the children's vendetta,” because the ghosts of the orphanage's murdered children haunt the place and sometimes kill people who visit the palazzo.

Rowena Drake's daughter, Alicia (Rowena Robinson), apparently committed suicide at the palazzo after her fiancé, chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), broke off their engagement... or was she a victim of “the children's vendetta.” Rowena has hired controversial medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), to help her commune with Alicia. Ariadne is attending the séance because she wants to expose Reynolds as a fraud – with Poirot's help – and make it the subject of a new book.

However, the séance turns out to be more shocking than anyone expected, and one of the guests ends up murdered. Now, the retired Poirot must once again uncover a killer, but he finds himself with a house full of suspects. And some of them border on the supernatural.

A Haunting in Venice is the third film adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel directed by and starring Oscar-winner, Kenneth Branagh (Belfast, 2021). It follows Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022). I had been planning on seeing this film for some time, but I kept forgetting. It was not until the release of Wake Up Dead Man (2025), director Rian Johnson's third film in his Poirot-like “Benoit Blanc” mystery film series, that I remembered I'd missed A Haunting in Venice.

A Haunting in Venice is a darker spin on Branagh's interpretation of Hercule Poirot, and this new spin also wants to be spookier, which ends up being a mistake for this film. In Michael Green's screenplay for A Haunting in Venice, the ghostly, supernatural, horror-like elements seem tacked-on more than they feel like natural elements. In turn, the whodunit narrative of this film becomes like a car stuck in the mud. Before I even reached the half way mark of this films' runtime, I was already struggling to stay involved in the mystery. I must also must admit that there were times when I was utterly bored with A Haunting in Venice.

However, the film's last act offers a reward for those patient enough to stick around, and that is a happy ending that returns a sense of normalcy to the world of Poirot. Also, I liked the cast because they did their best, even when the screenplay and their characters came across as anemic. I loved Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver, as she proved once again to be a lovable movie star who makes the characters she plays seem endearing even when they don't deserve it.

I like A Haunting in Venice because I feel like I need to like it. Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot intrigues me, and I can never get enough of him. Still, I can only honestly recommend A Haunting in Venice to dedicated fans of this film series.

6 out of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, February 7, 2026

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Saturday, December 6, 2025

Review: He Probably Thinks "GLASS ONION" is About Him

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 42 of 2025 (No. 2048) by Leroy Douresseaux

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Running time: 139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)

Rating: MPA – PG-13 for strong language, some violence, sexual material, and drug content

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Rian Johnson

PRODUCERS: Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steve Yedlin (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Bob Ducsay

COMPOSER: Nathan Johnson

Academy Award nominee

MYSTERY/COMEDY

Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom, Jr., Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Noah Segan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant, and Serena Williams

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a 2022 mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is the sequel to the 2019 film, Knives Out. The film is a “Netflix Original,” which began streaming on the service December 23, 2022, after a brief and limited theatrical release in November 2022. Glass Onion finds Detective Benoit Blanc on the case of a tech billionaire who invites his cronies to his private Greek island to play a murder mystery game that results in an actual murder.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery takes place in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Miles Bron (Edward Norton), the co-founder of the technology company, “Alpha,” is hosting a murder mystery game at “the Glass Onion,” his mansion on a private island in Greece. He sends invitations via intricate puzzle boxes to his friends, a group he called “the Disruptors.” They are a diverse group: Alpha head scientist, Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom, Jr.), Connecticut governor, Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn); controversial model-turned-fashion designer, Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson); and men's rights streamer and podcaster, Duke Cody (Dave Bautista).

There are two surprise guests to the island. The first is ousted Alpha co-founder, Cassandra “Andi” Brand (Janelle Monae), who is estranged from Miles and the other Disruptors. The second is world-famous private detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). In Miles murder mystery, he is the victim, and his guests have two days to solve his murder, but the arrival of Andi and Benoit are unexpected complications. Things really get crazy when someone really ends up dead. Can Benoit Blanc solve a murder when not everyone is who he or she is supposed to be?

Rian Johnson's 2019 whodunit, Knives Out, starts out with an excellent screenplay. It offers an exercise in private eye genre elements and mystery fiction trappings played out with wild twists and turns and with a cast of lovably eccentric characters. Knives Out is similar to and inspired by the works of the grand dame of mystery fiction, the late Agatha Christie (1890-1976), who also offered assemblages of intriguing outlandish and unconventional characters. Knives Out's gold is in the characters, the type that character actors can use to chew up movie scenery.

Glass Onion does the same, but not to the extent of its predecessor. Glass Onion offers unconventional characters, but Glass Onion's treasure is in Daniel Craig's Mr. Blanc and Janelle Monae's Ms. Bland. Glass Onion is a process of the team of Blanc and Bland sneaking and snooping around Miles Bron's paradise lost island. Blanc's supernatural attentiveness and Bland's unforgiving relentlessness are the spine of Glass Onion. They pick apart the secrets and lies of the other characters until the liars are exposed and shamed and their guilt laid bare.

Both Craig and Monae should have received more award nominations than they did during the 2022-23 movie award season. Still, this movie is a testament to their talents at creating endearing characters. Kate Hudson also chews up quite a bit of scenery as the firecracker Birdie Jay, a character who deserves another spin at the cinematic wheel. As Miles Bron, Edward Norton does the best allegorical skewering of Elon Musk outside of comedian Alex Biron.

I really enjoyed Glass Onion, although it is probably at least 10 minutes too long. I laughed a lot, and the cathartic ending was a sweet sensation. I watched Glass Onion in anticipation of the December 12, 2025 Netflix debut of the third Benoit Blanc film, Wake Up Dead Man. However, I got more than I expected from this film because overall Rian Johnson created a superb mystery film series that is its own thing in spite of what inspired it. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is like fine crystal. As a whodunit, it sparkles brilliantly.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, December 6, 2025

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Rian Johnson)

2023 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Daniel Craig)

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Saturday, November 8, 2025

Review: "WEAPONS" is a Brilliant, Crazy-Ass Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2025 (No. 2045) by Leroy Douresseaux

Weapons (2025)

Running time: 128 minutes (2 hour, 8 minutes)

Rating: MPA – R for strong bloody violence and grisly images, language throughout, some sexual content and drug use

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Zach Cregger

PRODUCERS: Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, J.D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules, and Miri Yoon

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Larkin Seiple (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Joe Murphy

COMPOSERS: Zach Cregger and Hays Holladay & Ray Holladay

HORROR/THRILLER/MYSTERY

Starring: Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Austin Abrams, Amy Madigan, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera, June Diane Raphael, Toby Huss, Justin Long, and Scarlett Sher (narrator)

SUMMARY OF REVIEW:

Weapons is one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. Thrilling and chilling, it actually gets scarier and crazier the deeper we get into the story

It features a number of strong performances, led by Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Josh Brolin, and Amy Madigan, which an unusual film story needs

Weapons has an exhilarating, cathartic ending for the ages. I get that some people did not like the ending, but I can't stop thinking about it or most of the rest of this film.

Weapons is a 2025 American horror thriller and mystery film from writer-director Zach Cregger. The film focuses on a community mystery in which every child except one from the same elementary school class disappears on the same night at the same time.

Weapons is set in fictional McCarren County, which is the location of a terrible mystery centered at Maybrook Elementary School. Seventeen of the 18 children in the fifth grade class of Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) all disappeared one Wednesday morning at 2:17 am. All 17 children ran from their homes into the darkness of the early morning.

One month later, not one of the children has been found. The community and the parents – led Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), one of the parents of the missing children – are blaming Justine for the disappearances. Justine believes that Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the child from her class who did not disappear, may know something. The key to unraveling the mystery of the disappearances is something people don't discover. It's something they stumble onto... if they don't end up dead first.

Like writer-director Zach Cregger's second feature film and breakthrough movie, Barbarian (2022), Weapons is presented as a nonlinear narrative. What Cregger's screenplays for Barbarian and Weapons do well is to give each major character his or her own chapter within the films. Both films are like anthologies or short story collections that eventually reunite the surviving characters for a hellified final act, and Weapons' final act is a helluva thing. For me, Weapons may the most cathartic ending since Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019).

As much as I want to praise Cregger, I also have to throw it up to his film editor, Joe Murphy, for his contributions to the wicked flow of this film's narrative. This review would be remiss if I did not shout out Cregger's cinematographer, Larkin Seiple, for this film's haunting atmosphere and for the way Seiple makes the night in Weapons seem like another character in the film.

Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Austin Abrams, and Amy Madigan give stellar performances. Julia Garner brings steadiness to the craziness and weirdness of Weapons, continuing her stellar 2025 after performances in Wolf Man (2025) and in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025).

By now, many people know the secrets and lies of Weapons, but still, I am loathe to spoil things. I think Weapons is one of the greatest horror films that I have ever seen, and it has given me Weapons-themed nightmares. It is a crazy-ass work of film-storytelling brilliance. I could not believe what I was seeing in this film's last act, but Weapons has me laughing and cheering, even as it is chilling me.

10 of 10

Saturday, November 8, 2025

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Friday, October 3, 2025

Review: In "THE GRUDGE," That Ghost Bitch is Really Mad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 216 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Road to Halloween 2025

The Grudge (2004)

Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing images/terror/violence, and some sensuality

DIRECTOR: Takashi Shimizu

WRITER: Stephen Susco (based upon the Japanese film Ju-On: The Grudge, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu)

PRODUCERS: Taka Ichise, Sam Raimi, and Robert G. Tapert

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hideo Yamamoto (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jeff Betancourt

COMPOSER: Christopher Young

HORROR with elements of thriller and mystery

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Ted Raimi, Ryo Ishibashi, Yoko Maki, Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji, and Takashi Matsunaga

The Grudge is a 2004 American supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu. The film is a remake of Shimizu's 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge, and it is the first installment in The Grudge film series. The Grudge focuses on an American nurse living and working in Tokyo who is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse.

When a person dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born. If that person dies in his house, then, the curse stays in the house like a stain making the house death itself. Any person who goes into the house is touched by death and will be killed by the curse, usually in the form of an angry spirit. So goes The Grudge, the latest American remake of a Japanese horror film, but unlike 2002’s The Ring, the writer/director of the original Japanese film, Ju-On: The Grudge, Takashi Shimizu helms the remake. Does that make a difference? Very likely, it does.

The Ring and its forefather, Ringu, were similar, but The Ring clearly showed American sensibilities, as well as being set in the U.S. The Grudge, like the original, is set in Japan, and Shimizu apparently treats the film as a sequel rather than as a remake. And The Grudge certainly comes across as a kooky, as weird, and as very, very creepy horror movie, fitting right in with other Japanese horror films.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is Kare Davis, an American exchange student who somewhat reluctantly moved to Japan with her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr), also a student. When a fellow student who is working as a nurse doesn’t show up for work, Kare gets the fill-in assignment of going to a home in a Tokyo suburb to care for an invalid older woman. What she doesn’t know, nor apparently does anyone else, is that the house has a horrible curse on it due to a double murder and suicide committed within its walls. The curse touches anyone who enters the house, and Kare unwittingly unleashes a diabolical supernatural killing machine.

The Grudge is one of the scariest pure horror films that I’ve seen in awhile. It’s unabashedly about the evil dead, wicked spirits, and mysterious supernatural curses that come and go with no explanation. Some audiences may be put off by the fact that the curse doesn’t really follow the rules. That’s because humans are explaining something they only halfway understand; like explaining the unknown and unknowable in human terms. The may not be steadfast rules to how the curse in The Grudge works, and Japanese filmmakers seem to understand that capricious nature of the supernatural, or at least they aren’t always trying to order it like Western filmmakers.

There’s almost zero characterization in this film, and the fact that the audience doesn’t really get to know the characters keeps this from being a great horror movie. Ms. Gellar, however, is now without a doubt, a great screen star of horror and thriller genres. She centers this film and keeps the kookiness from getting out of hand.

The Grudge is certainly peculiar. As frightening as I found it, I can easily see where some people might find the concept of the curse and the film itself farcical and utterly hilarious. Be warned; it could be your cup of tea or have you rolling your eyes in disgust.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

RE-EDITED: Thursday, October 2, 2025

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Sunday, August 24, 2025

Review: "FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES" is a Deathly Frightener

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 of 2025 (No. 2043) by Leroy Douresseaux

Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)

Rating: MPA – R for strong violent/grisly accidents, and language

DIRECTORS: Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein

WRITERS: Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor; from a story by Jon Watts and Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor (based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick)

PRODUCERS: Craig Perry, Toby Emmerich, Dianne McGunigle, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, and Jon Watts

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Christian Sebaldt

EDITOR: Sabrina Pitre

COMPOSER: Tim Wynn

HORROR/THRILLER/MYSTERY

Starring: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Alex Zahara, April Amber Telek, Tinpo Lee, Gabriel Rose, Brec Bassinger, Max Lloyd-Jones, and Tony Todd

SUMMARY OF REVIEW:

-- “Final Destination Bloodlines” is the best “Final Destination” film in over 20 years. It has a great opening, a 19-minute prologue, and the rest of film takes on a race against time as Death stalks a bloodline.

-- The film gets two solid scream queen performances from Kaitlyn Santa Juana and Brec Bassinger, good enough to make us feel sad about their ultimate fates...

Final Destination Bloodlines is a 2025 supernatural horror film from directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B Stein. It is the sixth entry in the Final Destination film series. Bloodlines follows a young woman whose recurring nightmares are warnings of the horrific fate that awaits her family.

Final Destination Bloodline introduces college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Recently, she has been plagued by recurring nightmares about a disaster from some time in the past. It involves her maternal grandmother, Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger), and her then-boyfriend and later husband, Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones). Almost six decades ago, Iris and Paul attended the grand opening of the Sky View Tower (which is similar to the real-life “Space Needle” in Seattle Washington).

Stefani's nightmares usually end in tragedy with Iris, Paul, and the others at the opening dying horrible deaths. However, Iris and Paul did attend the grand opening of the Sky View Tower and lived. Now, Stefani wants to find Iris, her grandmother, whom she has never met, but her father, Marty Reyes (Tinpo Lee), is resistant to the idea. He barely even wants to speak about Stefani and her brother, Charlie's (Teo Briones), estranged mother, Darlene Campbell (Rya Kihlstedt), who is both Iris' daughter and Marty's wife; Darlene abandoned the family long ago. Dysfunctional family aside, Stefani knows that she must find the now elderly Iris (Gabrielle Rose) if she is going to discover the cause of her nightmares. Stefani will have to hurry, as Death is already stalking her family.

Final Destination Bloodlines is set about a decade and a half after the events depicted in the series' fourth film, The Final Destination (2009). The fifth film, Final Destination 5 (2011), actually takes place around the same time as the events depicted in the original film, Final Destination (2000).

I did not realize how long it had been between the fifth film and the arrival of Final Destination Bloodlines. The Final Destination franchise is one of the few horror film franchises that have been consistently good, with only 2006's Final Destination 3 being a slight misstep. The first 19 minutes of Final Destination Bloodlines had me mesmerized, and I can call this prologue (of sorts) heart-pounding because it certainly had my aging ticker pounding in my chest.

The rest of the film does not have the same edge-of-your-seat thrills, but its focus on death stalking one particular family and bloodline makes the entire film seem crazy, surreal, and creepy. The entire film is braced by two pitch perfect horror film performances. Brec Bassinger as young Iris Campbell in the first 19 minutes and Kaitlyn Santa Juana as the heroine in the film's present day turn in tight and riveting “scream queen” performances.

As a side note, Final Destination Bloodlines is dedicated to the late actor, Tony Todd (1954-2024). Although best known for playing the lead role the 1992 horror film, Candyman, and its two sequels, Todd is also known for playing the recurring role of “William Bludworth” in the Final Destination franchise. Todd died of stomach cancer in 2024, but he was able to film all his scenes for Bloodlines before his passing. He appears gaunt in this film, likely due to the ravages of his cancer, but I was happy to see him. Todd got a good send off for his character. Also, as movie fans, we have been gifted one of the series' best entries in Final Destination Bloodlines.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, August 24, 2025

There is a six-film Blu-ray and DVD collection of the six "FINAL DESTINATION" films available at Amazon.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Review: "ULTRAVIOLET" is Mostly Misspent Potential

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 164 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ultraviolet (2006)

Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of violent action throughout, partial nudity, and language

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Kurt Wimmer

PRODUCERS: John Badecchi and Lucas Foster

CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Arthur Wong Ngok Tai and Jimmy Wong

EDITOR: William Yeh

COMPOSER: Klaus Badelt

SCI-FI/ACTION and MARTIAL ARTS/MYSTERY

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund, Sebastien Andrieu, Ida Martin, and William Fichtner

Ultraviolet is a 2006 American science fiction action film from writer-director Kurt Wimmer. The film focuses on a woman infected with a virus that gives her superhuman and vampire-like powers who has to protect a boy thought to carry antigens that would destroy others like her.

Ultraviolet opens in the late 21st century. The Hemoglophagic Virus has infected the human population – a disease causing symptoms that many associate with vampires. Those afflicted gain enhanced intelligence, fantastic stamina, and lightning-fast speed (like the vampires in Blade). The world is divided into those who don’t have it (normal humans), and those who do (called “hemophages”).

The government, led by the powerful scientist, Vicecardinum Ferdinand Daxus (Nick Chinlund), hunts hemophages in hopes of wiping them out. One woman, a highly-skilled hemophage warrior named Violet Song jat Shariff (Milla Jovovich), infiltrates a governmental research station. Violet steals a case containing a secret weapon that will reportedly wipe out the infected. However, Violet finds herself on the run and protecting a mysterious child, called “Six” (Cameron Bright), who may or may not be infected with a virus dangerous to hemophages. Now, Daxus and his entire military force is out to get her and the child.

From writer/director Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium), Ultraviolet is non-interactive entertainment (a movie) trying to act like interactive entertainment (a videogame). Awash in bright colors (computer-generated neon), the film looks like a comic book, especially when Milla Jovovich poses – standing still and trying to look badass before she begins a fight sequence. It’s the only time her performance can be said to be anything near good. Most of the time, she is so dreadful that it’s impossible to believe that she’s been acting for nearly two decades.

Ultraviolet has a lot of potential, but ultimately it’s just a poorly developed and disastrously executed movie that a computer made all gooey with color and the filmmakers filled with an electronics expo full of fancy gadgets.

3 of 10

C-

★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Edited: Monday, March 24, 2025

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Saturday, August 24, 2024

Review: "BLINK TWICE" is Incredible; 2024's Best Film, Thus Far...

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2024 (No. 1983) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blink Twice (2024)

Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)

MPA – R for strong violent content, sexual assault, drug use and language throughout, and some sexual references.

DIRECTORS: Zöe Kravitz

WRITERS: Zöe Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum

PRODUCERS: Zöe Kravitz, Bruce Cohen, Garret Levitz, Tiffany Persons, and Channing Tatum

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adam Newport-Berra (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Kathryn J. Schubert

COMPOSER: Chanda Dancy

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, Levon Hawke, Trew Mullen, Geena Davis, and Kyle MacLachlan

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

Blink Twice is a both an incredible psychological thriller and mesmerizing mystery thriller and is sort of a spiritual sibling of Jordan Peele's “Get Out”

Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum gives stellar performances that really sell this film's frequent weirdness

This is a stunning directorial debut on the part of Zöe Kravitz, and thus far, it is the best film released in 2024

Blink Twice is a 2024 psychological thriller and mystery film from director Zöe Kravitz. The film focuses on a cocktail waitress who accepts a tech billionaire's offer to vacation on his private island, after which, she begins to question her reality of the situation.

Blink Twice introduces Frida (Naomi Ackie), a cocktail waitress. She is working an exclusive event with her roommate and best friend and roommate, Jess (Alia Shawkat). The event's V.I.P. is billionaire tech mogul, Slater King (Channing Tatum), who recently stepped down as CEO of King Tech amid a public apology for some bad behavior on his part in the past. Frida and Slater quickly strike up a friendship, and he invites her and Jess to join him and his friends to holiday at his private island.

Arriving at the island, Slater's assistant, Stacy (Geena Davis), confiscates the everyone's phone. Also on the island for some fun are Slater's friends and business partners: Vic (Christian Slater), Cody (Simon Rex), Tom (Haley Joel Osment), and Lucas (Levon Hawke). In addition to Frida and Jess, there are three female guests: Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel), and Heather (Trew Mullen). The women are treated to lavish rooms, gift bags with perfume, gourmet meals, and a luxurious, carefree holiday experience.

But something is wrong. Frida has a hard time keeping track of time, and she begins to question her perception of reality. Also, there is a strange maid who is saying something to her that she can't quite make out. When one of the women disappears, Frida is forced to confront this luxurious holiday, the kind she always wanted... as troubling as this dream vacay has turned out to be.

After director Steven Soderbergh made his feature film debut with sex, lies, and videotape (1989), some may have wondered if his rousing success with it (winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1989 and earning a “Best Original Screenplay” nomination) was “beginner's luck” or perhaps, a fluke. For several years, the film did seem like a fluke, but by the time Soderbergh won a “Best Director” Oscar 12 years later, one could say that sex, lies, and videotape was not a fluke, but was a calling card.

I'd like to believe that Blink Twice will also be a calling card for its young first-time director Zoe Kravitz. Right now, it is the best new film to debut in 2024, and I wouldn't be surprised if I am calling it the “Best Picture of the Year 2024” deep into the 2024-25 movie awards season. Blink Twice is an astounding debut, a mystery thriller and psychological terror that recalls Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. And no, I would not be embarrassed to reference Lynch's legendary Blue Velvet (1986), of which I am not a big fan, when discussing Blink Twice. I am also calling Blink Twice a spiritual sibling of Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) and a distant relative of Alex Garland's Men (2022). Blink Twice even has a element similar to one found in the underrated horror thriller, You're Next (2011).

Kathryn J. Schubert's film editing for Blink Twice is superb, and I think that should be mentioned. Of course, I think Schubert has superb material with which to work. Kravitz has an eye for storytelling which finds pleasure in accepting that altered states of reality are a norm for many of us, especially when we obtain something we always wanted in a way that seems to be too good to be true. Dressing her film in Biblical themes, “Me Too” politics, gender dynamics, and sexual gamesmanship, Kravitz takes the screenplay she wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum and grapples with the modern battle of the sexes.

Behind the pulpy entertainment and popcorn horror thrills of this psychological thriller is a movie that does a deep dive into the modern psyche. Kravitz isn't afraid to examine the social hierarchies and assumed and presumed privileges. It is refreshing that Kravitz so boldly answers any questions her film asks with a resounding, “Because he can.”

Actress Naomi Ackie is the perfect choice to be this film's lead. Her face, with its wide mouth and big expressive eyes, is an artist's canvas. Whatever her director needs in terms of emotion and action, Ackie can deliver. Also, I must say that Channing Tatum shocks me in Blink Twice. I never thought that he was really a good actor. However, he gives Slater King so many layers that there are moments when I feel sympathy for him. Tatum makes King innocent, childish, childlike, and monstrous, and he can do all of that in the span of a minute.

Wow. I'm still stunned. I've wanted to see Blink Twice since it was first announced last year under the title, “Pussy Island,” but I never thought I'd get this nearly perfect film, a film so good that its flaws seem like artistic choices rather than mistakes. I heartily recommend this to movie fans looking for great films in a time when the various movie factories seem determined to only deliver entertainment that dare not make a statement lest “middle America” take offense. Blink Twice is both – tremendous cinematic art and delightfully good entertainment.

10 of 10

Saturday, August 24, 2024

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Monday, July 15, 2024

Review: "THEY CLONED TYRONE" Digs in the Past to Raise Hell Today

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 of 2024 (No. 1974) by Leroy Douresseaux

They Cloned Tyrone (2023)

Running time: 119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPA – R for pervasive language, violence, some sexual material and drug use

DIRECTOR: Juel Taylor

WRITERS: Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor

PRODUCERS: Jamie Foxx, Charles D. King, Stephen “Dr.” Love, Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor, and Datari Turner

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ken Seng (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Saira Haider

COMPOSERS: Pierre Charles and Desmond Murray

SCI-FI/COMEDY/DRAMA and MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, David Alan Grier, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Tamberla Perry, Eric B. Robinson Jr., Trayce Malachi, Leon Lamar, Joshua Mikel, and Keifer Sutherland and Jamie Foxx

They Cloned Tyrone is a 2023 American science fiction comedy-drama and mystery-thriller from director Juel Taylor. After receiving a limited theatrical release, the film began streaming on Netflix on July 21, 2023 as a “Netflix Original.” The film focuses on a drug dealer, a pimp, and sex worker, who must uncover a bizarre mystery that seems to originate from an underground facility beneath their predominantly Black neighborhood.

They Cloned Tyrone focuses on Fontaine (John Boyega), a drug dealer living and slanging in the predominantly African-American, poverty-stricken, and crime ridden suburban neighborhood called “the Glen.” One night, Fontaine arrives at the hotel hideaway of the pimp, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), to get money owed to him. Slick freaks out when he sees Fontaine, who apparently had visited him the previous night just before being gunned down by Isaac (Eric B. Robinson Jr.), a rival drug dealer.

Fontaine does not remember the previous night's events, so Slick takes him to one of his ho's, Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), in order to confirm his claims of Fontaine's death. Yo-Yo does just that, but later, a series of eerie events thrusts the three onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. But can a drug dealer, a pimp, and a ho really solve a mind-bending mystery that threatens not only their own neighborhood, but Black neighborhoods everywhere?

They Cloned Tyrone got lost in the glare of two of 2023's mega-box office hits, the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer. This month – specifically July 14th – is the one year anniversary of its limited theatrical release. I had been putting off seeing They Cloned Tyrone, so I thought now was a good time to do so.

In They Cloned Tyrone, co-writer-director Juel Taylor and co-writer Tony Rettenmaier make many references to American popular storytelling via the characters dialogue. However, the film's plot and narrative reference numerous previous Black speculative and genre films. They Cloned Tyrone's conspiracy around consumer products recalls the blaxploitation homage and spoof films, Undercover Brother (2002) and Black Dynamite (2009). Director Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) are spectral presences in They Cloned Tyrone's narrative, and I also see a passing resemblance to elements from Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (2018). The essences of two landmark 1971 films, A Clockwork Orange and Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, as well as that of the 1988 cult classic, They Live, are in pungent evidence here.

Still, They Cloned Tyrone is an original. It is a gleeful comedy and satire of America. It also manages to be a bolder and more imaginative science fiction film than the pew-pew-pew, space opera epics that pass for modern sci-fi cinematic storytelling. Taylor and Rettenmaier are correct. The Founding Father's of the United States of America came up with some high ideals, but then, died and left us with the messy reality of a fractured disunited state of affairs. These two writers are among the few to plainly state via metaphor and allegory that for too long, Black people have carried the weight of fixing that mess and trying to make the experiment called America an actual thing.

The film has great production values all around, from cinematography and editing to art direction, costume design, and score. You might, dear readers, miss that because They Cloned Tyrone is such an engaging, crazy, lovable story driven by powerhouse performances. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris give killer performances, and if they were nepo babies, at least one of them (likely Foxx) would have received Oscar nominations for his or her performance here. Parris clearly has leading lady chops, which she wields in this film to make herself a co-lead rather than a supporting player. Foxx balances pathos and absurdity in making Slick Charles a wonderfully engaging and exceedingly likable character.

But John Boyega: let's be honest. His career in America has not exploded like that of his Star Wars sequel trilogy co-star, Adam Driver... and we know why. Boyega is every bit as good as everything that passes for the young Hollywood's A-list. Boyega disappears inside Fontaine and makes him not so much a tragic figure or even criminal for that matter. Fontaine's is the hero's journey even if he is not fair of hair and skin. Boyega has moments here that are most poignant and dramatic and that only an actor both talented and skilled can pull off.

Boyega makes They Cloned Tyrone more than satire, blaxploitation, horror, science fiction, and absurdist comedy. Boyega gives the film dramatic heft and weight. They Cloned Tyrone is memorable and is also one of 2023's very best films because John Boyega is one of a kind.

10 of 10

Monday, July 15, 2024

NOTES:

2024 NAACP Image Awards: 9 nominations: “Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (John Boyega), “Outstanding Breakthrough Creative-Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor), “Cinematography in a Motion Picture” (Ken Seng), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Jamie Foxx), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier), and “Outstanding Stunt Ensemble-Television or Film”

2024 Black Reel Awards: 8 nominations: “Outstanding Lead Performance” (John Boyega), “Outstanding Supporting Performance” (Jamie Foxx), “Outstanding Screenplay” (Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Ensemble” (Kim Coleman), “Outstanding Emerging Director” (Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Score” (Desmond Murray and Pierre Charles), “Outstanding Costume Design” (Francine Jamison-Tanchuck), and “Outstanding Editing” (Saira Haider)

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Friday, March 22, 2024

Review: "GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE" is Lukewarm

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 of 2024 (No. 1960) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for supernatural action/violence, language and suggestive references

DIRECTOR: Gil Kenan

WRITERS: Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman (based on the film, Ghost Busters, written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman)

PRODUCERS: Jason Reitman, Jason Blumenfeld, and Ivan Reitman

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Eric Steelberg

EDITORS: Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid

COMPOSER: Dario Marianelli

FANTASY/COMEDY/ACTION/MYSTERY

Starring: Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Ernie Hudson, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Emily Alyn Lind, James Acaster, Dan Ackroyd, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Bill Murray

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a 2024 supernatural comedy, action and mystery film from director Gil Kenan. It is the fifth entry in the Ghostbusters film franchise, and it is the third sequel to the original film, 1984's Ghost Busters (now known as “Ghostbusters”). In Frozen Empire, the old and new Ghostbusters must take on an evil force unleashed from an ancient artifact.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire opens in New York City in 1904 where a group of fireman enters a hotel suite and finds an entire party frozen solid in the middle of an extremely hot summer. In the present day, Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) and her two children, son, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and daughter, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), have moved from Summerville, Oklahoma to New York City, with Phoebe's former summer school teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), in tow. The four live in the old Ghostbusters' NYC firehouse that had been maintained by original Ghostbuster, Dr. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson).

Now, Phoebe, Trevor, Callie, and Gary are the active Ghostbusters, but a particular Ghostbusting case leads to significant damage in the city. That brings them to the attention of the mayor and leads to Phoebe being forced out of the Ghostbusters because she is underage at 15-years-old. But the world of the supernatural does not stop because of the human world's concerns.

Original Ghostbuster, Dr. Raymond “Ray” Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), has come into possession of a peculiar artifact, which he turns over to Winston Zeddemore's top-secret research lab. Meanwhile, Phoebe, sidelined as a Ghostbuster, is trying to find her place in the world of the Ghostbusters. Then, Garraka, an ancient god, is freed. He wants to gather all the ghosts ever captured by the Ghostbusters and turn them into his personal army as he brings about a new ice age. Despite her troubles, Phoebe will have to figure out how to stop the ancient evil that is Garraka before it's too late.

I was a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters films, Ghostbusters (1984) and its sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989). I enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and I thought that film's teen characters, siblings Phoebe and Trevor, and their friends, Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky Domingo (Celeste O'Connor), made a great foundation for the new Ghostbusters.

Thus, I was surprised to see Phoebe and Trevor playing Ghostbusters with the adults, their mother, Callie, and their quasi-stepfather, Gary. Honestly, I find Carrie Coon's Callie and Paul Rudd's Gary to be extraneous here. I have no interest in their characters beyond what they did in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. In fact, this film has too many characters. Bill Murray's Dr. Peter Venkman, Annie Potts' Janine Melnitz, and William Atherton's Mayor Walter Peck are also mostly irrelevant. Pretty much everything these characters do could have been passed off to other characters or deleted because it wasn't important enough to clutter up the narrative.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire spends much of its first half meandering around assorted relationship dysfunction, including one involving a ghost. Then, the film rushes to a forced satisfactory conclusion that wastes a truly scary monster in Garraka. I am glad that Ernie Hudson's Winston Zeddemore has a substantial part in this film, especially because Hudson spent the first two films fighting off Columbia Pictures' executives and Ghostbusters cast mates who were determined to sideline his character.

As a franchise, Ghostbusters needs to move on from its past or just die. The young characters: Phoebe and Trevor Spengler, Podcast, and Lucky Domingo are the franchise's present and true future. When this Ghostbusters film focuses on them, it feels alive and is fun. When it doesn't, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is frozen and freezer-burned.

[This film has one mid-credits scene.]

5 out of 10

C+

★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, March 22, 2024

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Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Review: Phoenix is the Man in Woody Allen's "IRRATIONAL MAN"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2023 (No. 1940) by Leroy Douresseaux

Irrational Man (2015)

Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)

MPAA – R for some language and sexual content

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Woody Allen

PRODUCERS: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Darius Khondji

EDITOR: Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/DRAMA/MYSTERY/ROMANCE

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Joe Stapleton, Nancy Carroll, Betsy Aidem, Ethan Phillips, Jamie Blackley, Nancy Giles, and Tom Kemp

Irrational Man is a 2015 comedy-drama, romance, and mystery film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film focuses on a college professor who finds the will to live after committing the act of murder and the young student who falls deeply in love with him.

Philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives in Newport, Rhode Island with some acclaim. He joins the faculty of (fictional) Braylin College where he will teach “ethical strategies.” Abe is depressed, is experiencing an existential crisis, and sees no meaning in his life. He drinks excessively and considers suicide.

Despite his tormented state, Abe catches the attention of two women. The first is chemistry professor, Rita Richards (Parker Posey), and the second is Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), one of his students. Each is crazy about him in her own way. Abe's relationship with the two really goes nowhere … at first.

Abe hatches the idea of murdering Judge Thomas Augustus Spangler (Tom Kemp), an unethical family court judge who is plotting to take the custody of her children away from a woman. Plotting and committing murder has given Abe's life a sense of purpose that he has not felt in ages. For various reasons, however, both Rita and Jill suspect Abe of Judge Spangler's murder.

Coup de chance, the film Woody Allen says will likely be his final directorial effort, was released in France in September (2023). Because of the controversies surrounding Allen the last few decades, especially the last five years, the film may not get a U.S. theatrical release. In anticipation of seeing Coup de chance, I have decided to watch the recent Woody Allen films that I missed, beginning with the most recent that I had not seen, Irrational Man.

Some of Woody Allen's films have previously focused on a lead character who is involved in murder or commits murder. Examples include Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Match Point (2005). Having murder as subplot gives Allen's films an edge they don't normally have. Irrational Man seems to drift with no purpose until Abe Lucas actually commits murder, and suddenly this film seems like a totally different movie from what it was during its first half. Frankly, Irrational Man seems to be asleep for at least half its runtime.

I find myself entirely sympathetic with Phoenix's Abe Lucas. Of course, I would feel differently if this were a real murder victim that was friends or family to me. As it is, I find myself really liking the post-crime Abe Lucas, and I found his later, darker turn to be a bit alluring.

Phoenix gives life to a character that Allen does not develop very well. As the narrative moves towards its conclusion, Phoenix makes Abe feel richer, and the character might have improved even more with a longer runtime, more because of what Phoenix would do rather than what Allen would not. Emma Stone is whiny and unlikable as Jill Pollard, but Parker Posey makes the best of horny Rita Richards. I wish Rita had more screen time.

Irrational Man is strictly for Woody Allen fans, although Phoenix is the one who saves this film and uplifts it. So Joaquin Phoenix fans may find something in Irrational Man to like, also.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

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Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Review: "SCOOBY-DOO and the Witch's Ghost" is Kind of Witchy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 48 of 2023 (No. 1937) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999) – Video

Running time: 66 minutes (1 hour, 6 minutes)

Unrated

DIRECTOR: Jim Stenstrum

WRITERS: Rick Copp, David A. Goodman, Davis Doi, and Glenn Leopold

PRODUCER: Cos Anzilotti

EDITOR: Rob DeSales

COMPOSER: Louis Febre

ANIMATION STUDIO: Mook Animation

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring: (voices) Frank Welker, Scott Innes, Mary Kay Bergman, B.J. Ward, Tim Curry, Kimberly Brooks, Jennifer Hale, Jane Wiedlin, Bob Joles, Tress MacNeille, Peter Reneday, and Neil Ross

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is a 1999 straight-to-video, animated horror-comedy film that was directed by Jim Stenstrum and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. It was the second film in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video film series that began with 1998's Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. It was released on VHS on October 5, 1999, then on DVD on March 6, 2001. In the film, Scooby and the company get involved with a famous horror novelist and his ancestor who was rumored to be a witch.

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost opens with Mystery Incorporated: Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Mary Kay Bergman), Velma Dinkley (B.J. Ward), Shaggy Rogers (Scott Innes), and Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) solving a case at a San Francisco museum. There, they meet the famous horror novelist, Ben Ravencroft (Tim Curry). Velma Dinkley is a huge fan of Ravencroft, so he invites her and the rest of the gang to his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts.

Upon arrival, Ravencroft and Mystery Inc. discover that the town's Mayor Corey (Neil Ross) has transformed Oakhaven into a tourist trap. The town is even putting on a concert featuring an all-female gothic rock band, the Hex Girls: Thorn (Jennifer Hale), Dusk (Jane Wiedlin), and Luna (Kimberly Brooks).

Oakhaven is like an amusement park with a theme based on the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft (Tress MacNeille), who is an ancestor of Ben Ravencroft. Ben describes Sara as a “wiccan” who used herbal remedies to heal the poor and less fortunate. In 1657, the townspeople of Oakhaven believed that Sarah was a witch, and they persecuted and executed her. Ben has spent years searching for Sarah's medical journal, which he believes will help him prove her innocence.

But now, the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft is really back, and she wants revenge. Scooby, Shaggy, and the gang are about to discover that this mystery turns out to have plenty of twists and turns.

Like a number of the early straight-to-video Scooby-Doo movies, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost has a tone that is darker than the franchise's usual fare. In this film, the supernatural elements are “real” as compared to the usual fake supernatural shenanigans committed by the adversaries in Mystery Inc.'s cases. Still, I was surprised that the film takes such a benevolent attitude about the modern pagan, earth-centered religion, “Wicca.” The film's story goes to some lengths to separate Wicca from “witchcraft,” which is generally seen as the use of magic for nefarious purposes.

Beyond that, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is a standard Scooby-Doo film. I find the “ghost of Sarah Ravencroft” to be less impressive than the “fake ghost witches” of earlier Scooby-Doo cartoons, such as “The Witch” in the “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” episode, “Which Witch is Which?” I can say that the film does have a nice twist involving Sarah Ravencroft that does darken the film's tone a bit more.

However, as a Scooby-Doo fan, I consider almost all Scooby-Doo productions to be must-see. And while, it isn't special, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is entertaining. And the Hex Girls are quite nice.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

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Thursday, October 5, 2023

Review: "THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF" is Crazy (Literally), Sexy, Cool

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Pacte des loups, Le (2001)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France; Language: French, German, Italian

The Brotherhood of the Wolf (2002) – USA title

Running time: 142 minutes (2 hours, and 22 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong violence, gore, and sexuality/nudity

DIRECTOR: Christophe Gans

WRITERS: Stephane Cabel and Christophe Gans

PRODUCERS: Richard Grandpierre and Samuel Hadida

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dan Laustsen

EDITORS: Xavier Loutreuil, Sébastien Prangère, and David Wu

COMPOSER: Joseph LoDuca

DRAMA/HISTORICAL AND HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of adventure

Starring: Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Emilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci, Jérémie Rénier, Mark Dacascos, Jean Yanne, Jean-Francois Stévenin, and Jacques Perrin

Le Pacte des loups is a 2001 French period film, action and horror movie directed by Christophe Gans. The film was released in the United States in early 2002 by Universal Pictures under the title, The Brotherhood of the Wolf (the title by which I will refer to this film in this review). The film's plot is loosely based on the legend of the “beast of Gévaudan” and a real-life series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century. The Brotherhood of the Wolf focuses on a French knight and his Native American companion who are sent to investigate the mysterious slaughter of hundreds of people by an unknown creature in the county of Gévaudan.

At the beginning of The Brotherhood of the Wolf, Old Thomas d'Apcher (Jacques Perrin) recounts a fantastic fable/story of his youth. It is France of 1765, and the King sends two envoys to the Gevaudan province (which no longer exists) to investigate a series of brutal murders of which the locals believe is committed by a mysterious beast. The envoys are the Chevalier Gregoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), a naturalist, and his companion, Mani (Mark Dacascos), a Mohawk Iroquois shaman of New France (Canada). They arrive in Gevandan to find the provincials bigoted and superstitious, even in the midst of the death all around them.

Among the colorful cast of characters include a mysterious and powerful priest, Henri Sardis (Jean-Francois Stevenin), and a sly and dangerous one-armed hunter, Jean Francois de Morangias (Vincent Cassel). The young Thomas d’Apcher (Jeremie Renier) becomes a hunting companion of Fronsac and Mani. Two strong female characters compete for the attentions of the virile and intelligent Fronsac: Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne), Jean Francois’s beautiful younger sister, and the nubile and hypnotic courtesan Sylvia (Monica Bellucci). As Fronsac and Mani pierce the veil of mystery and terror that covers the province, intrigue and deceit surround them, and the beast continues to kill.

Directed by Christophe Gans, The Brotherhood of the Wolf bends genres as easily as the film’s beast tears through its victims. Horror, thriller, western, martial arts, and mystery, the film is filled with suspense, terror, romance, eroticism, and political intrigue. It is at times intoxicating and mind bending and at other times, languid and thoughtful. It is difficult to categorize, but the movie is largely fantasy and action, but different from most of the movies that both genres recall.

Fronsac is a man of reason who sees a human conspiracy behind the killings that is darker and more insidious than any beast of Hell. Still, this man of science also understands the mystic worldview and belief system of his friend and blood brother, Mani. Fronsac is enlightenment’s soldier against the backward and ignorant peasants and nobles of Gevaudan. The provincials fear the ways of a city like Paris, and Sardis and Jean Francois resent the capital’s intrusion into their world. They disdain the confidence and intelligence of the King’s envoys. The beast is a physical manifestation of the provincials superstitions, isolationism, hatred, and evil that feeds upon the populace, and the creature resists the authority of the government.

The movie’s creature is a computer-generated image (CGI); at its best is fearsome. At its worst, the creature, especially during some daylight scenes, is hokey. However, Gans wisely holds revealing the beast in scenes that go by so quickly that we rarely get a good look at it. Sometimes, just the unseen beast’s roars, growls, and footsteps are enough to set the heart racing.

Le Bihan as Fronsac is strong and strongly confident. He is the romantic lead upon which the audience hitches its wagon. When he and Mani arrive early in the movie, after the film’s opening murder, they appear in a driving rainstorm, masked minutemen with the presence of demigods. Mani’s assault upon the villagers recalls fight scenes from The Matrix, but his are down to earth and more physical, more visceral; the threat of danger to him from the attackers is much greater. Decascos is mostly very good on the screen as Mani, though a few bits of his screen time are a little flat. When Gans unleashes him late in the movie, Decascos is a beautiful force a nature, a small storm in human guise tearing through his antagonists.

Vincent Cassel’s Jean Francois is the serpentine equal to Fronsac. He dominates all of his screen time, except for his scenes with Fronsac, in which both must share the screen. The movie nearly bursts from having to contain both their magnetic presences. They alone are worth the price of admission, but the rest of the cast, both veterans and newcomers, make the most of their roles.

Although a little long, The Brotherhood of the Wolf is wonderful; a dark horse, it is one of the best films of the year 2001. Gans and his screenwriting partner, Stephane Cabel, created a script that melds raw action with social intrigue, and the result is quite an accomplishment. The Brotherhood of the Wolf is plainly good entertainment. Not quite high art, it is eye candy that is very smart and very fun.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Edited: Wednesday, October 4, 2023

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