TRASH IN MY EYE Reviews: Sequels

Showing posts with label Sequels. 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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Friday, February 13, 2026

Review: "FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES" Makes for a Happy Friday the 13th

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 of 2026 (No. 2050) by Leroy Douresseaux

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)

Rating: MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Tom McLoughlin

WRITER: Tom McLoughlin (based on characters created by Victor Miller)

PRODUCER: Don Behrns

CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Kranhouse (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Bruce Green

COMPOSER: Harry Manfredini

HORROR

Starring: Thom Matthews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Renee Jones, Kerry Noonan, Tom Fridley, Vincent Guastaferro, Tony Goldwyn, Nancy McLoughlin, Darcy DeMoss, Ron Palillo, and C.J. Graham

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a 1986 slasher horror film from writer-director Tom McLoughlin. It is a sequel to the 1985 film, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, and is the sixth movie in the Friday the 13th movie franchise. In Jason Lives, a former victim decides to cremate the corpse of Jason Voorhees only to inadvertently bring him back to life instead.

Following the events of the last film, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives focuses on Tommy Jarvis (Thom Matthews). As a 12-year-old, Tommy killed Jason Voorhees (as seen in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter). With his friend, Allen Hawes (Ron Palillo), adult Tommy travels to Forest Green County and arrives at Eternal Peace Cemetery where Jason is buried.

Tommy plans to cremate Jason's remains, in order to free himself of the misery that Jason brought into his life. Through a series of unfortunate events, however, Tommy inadvertently brings Jason back to life as a kind of revenant or undead monster with super-human powers.

Tommy flees to Forest Green County Sheriff's Office, where he attempts to warn Sheriff Michael Garris (David Kagen) that Jason is alive. However, the mean-spirited Garris is aware that Tommy is institutionalized and presumes that Tommy is hallucinating that Jason has returned from the grave.

Meanwhile, Camp Crystal Lake (a.k.a. “Camp Blood”) has been remade as “Camp Forest Green,” a camp for middle-school age children – boys and girls. The new camp's teen counselors don't know that Jason is already murdering his way towards them, but Tommy does. Only the Sheriff's daughter, Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke), believes Tommy's warnings about Jason's return. She is willing to help him stop Jason from turning Camp Forest Green into “Camp Blood,” again, but will that be enough?

In the wake of the box office failure of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Jason Voorhees returns as the series' villain in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. It may be my favorite film in the series, if not my favorite.

There are so many scenes and set pieces that I find likable, exciting, or even endearing. I won't spoil the film for those of you, dear readers, who have never seen it by mentioning these moments. However, I will say that I think the idea of making Camp Crystal Lake, with its history of brutal murders in and around the area, a camp for middle-school children, is both charming and crazy. Also, the scene of the first of the camp counselors to be Jason's victims is one of my favorite Friday the 13th moments.

I really like actors, Thom Matthews and Jennifer Cooke, as the heroic duo of Tommy and Megan. At the time, Matthews had recently been one of the main characters in 1985's cult, rock 'n' roll horror movie, Return of the Living Dead. Also, I always enjoy seeing now former actress, Renee Jones (as Sissy Baker), in film or television.

Let's give credit where credit is due. Writer-director Tom McLoughlin delivers one of this series' most unique offerings with its humor and self-referential elements. I consider Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives to be a must-see in the Friday the 13th film series.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, February 12, 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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Sunday, November 23, 2025

Review: "JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH" Hugs Up on "Jurassic Park"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 41 of 2025 (No. 2047) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Running time: 133 minutes (2 hours, 13 minutes)

Rating: MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence/action, bloody images, some suggestive references, language and a drug reference

DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards

WRITER: David Koepp (based on characters created by Michael Crichton)

PRODUCERS: Patrick Crowley and Frank Marshall

CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Mathieson (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jabez Olssen

COMPOSER: Alexandre Desplat

SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, and Ed Skrein

SUMMARY OF REVIEW:

-- Spiritually, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is closer to the original, 1993 “Jurassic Park” film than it is to any other “Jurassic World” film

-- Writer David Koepp humanizes the characters giving us their hopes, dreams, conflicts, and grief that helps us connect us with the characters. Director Gareth Edwards uses this to deliver an monster movie that is as dramatic as it is adventurous

-- I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed any “Jurassic World” film and especially to anyone who hasn't approached this franchise since the original trilogy

Jurassic World Rebirth is a 2025 American science fiction, action-adventure, and dinosaur film from director Gareth Edwards. It is the fourth film in the Jurassic World movie franchise and is a standalone sequel to Jurassic World Dominion (2022). This film is also the seventh entry overall in the Jurassic Park franchise. Rebirth focuses on a group of people stranded on a former island research facility where three types of massive dinosaurs and their monstrous mutant brethren reside.

Jurassic World Rebirth finds formerly extinct dinosaurs in trouble. By 2025, most of Earth's climate is unsuitable for them, and most of the new dinosaurs have died. The remaining animals survive in a tropical band around the equator that is similar to the climates in which dinosaurs lived tens of millions ago. The governments of the world have turned these areas into “exclusion zones,” to which humans are forbidden to travel. Thus, the “Neo-Jurassic Age” has begun. However, there are always people who want their way...

The pharmaceutical company, ParkerGenix, wants to collect blood samples from three colossus dinosaur specimens: the Mosasaurus, the Titanosaurus, and the Quetzalcoatlus, in order to develop a revolutionary new cardiovascular disease treatment for humans. These animals can be found on the Atlantic Ocean island of Ile Saint Hubert, which is 260 miles from French Guiana (South America).

One of the company's executive, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), enlists Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), former black ops who specializes in retrieval missions and “situational security and reaction.” Zora will accompany Krebs and paleontologist, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), in order to collect the samples from the dinosaurs. Zora recruits longtime associate, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), to lead the expedition with the aid of a group of security experts and mercenaries.

As the mission gets underway, there is a complication. A civilian father, Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), is sailing in nearby waters with his daughters, Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa's boyfriend, Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono), whom Reuben openly disdains. Fate will find both groups shipwrecked on an island of mutants and monsters. First, they must survive. Then, they must escape.

I didn't expect much from Jurassic World Rebirth, especially as it arrived only three years after the final film in the original Jurassic World film trilogy, Jurassic World Dominion. I assumed that it would be a few more years before we'd see a new film in the series. However, Universal Pictures and executive producer Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment hired the right people. First, this film's screenwriter is David Koepp, who co-wrote Jurassic Park (1993) with author Michael Crichton, whose 1990 book, Jurassic Park, was the basis for the film. Koepp's screenwriting in Rebirth recalls the tone of the first Jurassic Park trilogy by focusing on the characters and delving into the underlying desires and doubt of the characters. In the case of Rebirth, it makes it easier to embrace the characters and actually see them as people rather than as character types waiting to be dinosaur food.

Gareth Edwards is also a great choice as the director for a dinosaur movie that emphasizes the personality of the human characters. His 2010 film, Monsters, and his 2014 film, Godzilla (the opening salvo in the Legendary Entertainment's “Monsterverse”), showed his deft touch with enticing characters and breathtaking monster movie action. Edwards helms hot dinosaur action in the scenes involving the Mosasaurus, the Titanosaurus, and the Quetzalcoatlus, and especially so in the breathtaking scenes featuring a romantic Titanosuarus couple. Also, race-with-the-devil scenes featuring the mutant dinosaurs froze me to my seat.

This film's cast genuinely conveys the interpersonal relationships of these characters, but Scarlett Johansson as Zora and Mahershala Ali as Duncan are the stars here. They make a great team, so I hope to see them doing the Jurassic thing again. I don't think that I've supported Jurassic lead actors this much since Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), and Jurassic Park III (2001).

Jurassic World Rebirth made me appreciate what the original Jurassic Park films brought to the world of cinema more than I have in a long time. As a standalone film, Rebirth stands on its own very strongly. I found myself thrilled and chilled and appreciative of each character's arc (at least the ones that lived). If Gareth Edwards and David Koepp don't return for the next film, I hope that the newcomers can capture Edwards and Koepp's lighting in a bottle that is Jurassic World Rebirth, which is a true rebirth of the best elements of this film franchise.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Sunday, November 23, 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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Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Review: "FRIDAY THE 13TH: A New Beginning" Fumbles a Chance to Be New and Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 of 2025 (No. 2033) by Leroy Douresseaux

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Running time: 92 minutes

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Danny Steinmann

WRITERS: Martin Kitrosser & David Cohen and Danny Steinmann; based on story by Martin Kitrosser & David Cohen

PRODUCER: Timothy Silver

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stephen L. Posey

EDITOR: Bruce Green

COMPOSER: Harry Manfredini

HORROR

Starring: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Shavar Ross, Richard Young, Marco St. John, Carol Locatell, Ron Sloan, Tiffany Helm, Jerry Pavlon, Jere Fields, John Robert Dixon, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Debisue Voorhees, Dick Wieand, Dominick Brascia, Bob De Simone, Vernon Washington, and Corey Feldman

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 slasher horror film from director Danny Steinmann. It is a direct sequel to the 1984 film, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and is the fifth movie in the Friday the 13th movie franchise. A New Beginning focuses on a young man who has a connection to Jason Voorhees and who is now living in an area beset by a series of brutal murders that resemble the work of Voorhees.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning begins with 12-year-old Tommy (Corey Feldman) facing the monster, Jason Voorhees, again. Now, in the present day, teenage Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), still haunted by his past, has departed the “Unger Institute for Mental Health.” He is being transported to “Pinehurst Youth Development Center,” where he will receive treatment.

Managed by its director, Dr. Matthew Letter (Richard Young), and assistant director, Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman), the center works on the “honor system” and gives its patients more freedom in their mental health journey. Tommy learns just how different Pinehurst is when he encounters a kid, Reggie the Reckless (Shavar Ross), who hangs around because his grandfather, George (Vernon Washington), is the center's cook.

Not long after Tommy arrives, however, a shocking and savage killing occurs at Pinehurst. That seems to kick off a brutal series of murders in the area. As the bodies pile-up, the area's top law enforcement official, Sheriff Tucker (Marco St. John), believes that Jason Voorhees is the killer. But Tommy Jarvis, as a 12-year-old boy, killed Jason (as seen in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), didn't he?

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was apparently going to be the first in a new trilogy of Friday the 13th films featuring a different villain. Disappointing box office returns, however, meant that Jason returned as the villain in the series' sixth film, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). Thus, A New Beginning remains only the second film in the series in which Jason Voorhees is not the main villain. The original film, Friday the 13th (1980), features (spoiler alert) Jason's mother, Mrs. (Pamela) Voorhees, as the killer.

Like the fourth film, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, A New Beginning has a high body count. I counted at least 15 people murdered. Like many of the films in the series, A New Beginning has an interesting menagerie of eccentric characters, many worth exploring, but all of them exist in the story in order to be murder victims or almost-murder victims.

This film's plot and narrative bounces around so that various characters can be killed. For me, the most interesting thing about this film is that it features some character actors whom I encounter in film and television from time to time. They are Shavar Ross, Marco St. John, and Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has an interesting plot, characters, and setting, and the film's prologue or opening scene is surprisingly eerie and weird. This film in not really suspenseful, and it wants to be vulgar and raunchy as much as it is brutal and crude. Of course, it certainly is brutal and crude. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a beginning that deserved to end after one film... but it could have been something better.

4 of 10

★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

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Saturday, May 24, 2025

Review: "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING" is a Long Goodbye

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 of 2025 (No. 2029) by Leroy Douresseaux

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

Running time: 169 minutes (2 hours, 49 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language

DIRECTOR: Christopher McQuarrie

WRITERS: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen (based upon the television series created by Bruce Geller)

PRODUCERS: Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Fraser Taggart (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Eddie Hamilton

COMPOSERS: Max Aruj and Alfie Godfey

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SPY/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, and Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett

SUMMARY OF REVIEW:

-- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a Mission: Impossible film, and fans of the franchise will like it to one extent or another

-- However, even as a fan, I find it to be too long and not as good as the previous film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

-- I think that the possibility of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning being Tom Cruise's final Mission: Impossible film (at least as a lead) added to my desire to like it more than I probably should

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 action-thriller and espionage film directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise. It is the eighth film in the Mission: Impossible film series which began with the 1996 film, Mission: Impossible, and is based on the American television series, “Mission: Impossible” (CBS, 1966-73), that was created by Bruce Geller. This film is also a direct sequel to 2013's Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. In The Final Reckoning, Ethan Hunt learns that our lives are the sum of our choices as he and his IMF team race to stop an assassin from gaining control of a rogue AI that wants to destroy humanity.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in the wake of the events depicted in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The IMF (Impossible Mission Force) has failed to put an end to the machinations of either “The Entity,” the most powerful ever AI (artificial intelligence), or the assassin, Gabriel (Esai Morales), who wants to control The Entity. The Entity is plotting global nuclear annihilation against humanity.

IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) turns himself over to authorities and is brought before President of the United States Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), who was once the Director of the CIA. He asks her for the resources to find the sunken advanced Russian submarine, the “Sevastopol.” There, he hopes to obtain the “the Rabbit's Foot,” the core module that contains the original source code for The Entity. IMF computer technician, Luther Stickwell (Ving Rhames), has created malware in the form of a kind of flash drive that when inserted into the core module will help imprison The Entity where it can no longer be a threat to humanity.

President Sloane gives Ethan permission to act independently, and he brings together a new ragtag IMF team that includes technical field agent, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg); a professional thief, Grace (Hayley Atwell), a French assassin, Paris (Pom Klementieff), a U.S. intelligence agent, Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis); CIA agent William Donloe (Rolf Saxon); and Rolf's wife, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). Ethan and his IMF team head to South Africa for an epic showdown while the world's nuclear powers await nuclear Armageddon.

I divide the six Mission: Impossible movies into two trilogies. Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), and Mission: Impossible III (2006) make up the first trilogy. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) form the second trilogy. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are, for the time being, the two-part conclusion to Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise.

And let's be honest, unlike the original “Mission: Impossible” TV series, which was an ensemble espionage drama, the Mission: Impossible films are a Tom Cruise vehicle / espionage action movies. The Final Reckoning is all about Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt. Heck, the theme of this film is that Ethan's life is the sum of his choices. Yes, the other characters all get their moment or, in some cases, moments to shine, but this film is about Tom/Ethan.

Like Dead Reckoning Part One, The Final Reckoning is a non-stop thrill machine full of heart-pounding races, chases, standoffs, last-second escapes, and near death experiences with Tom Cruise running more than he ever has. I initially balked at Dead Reckoning's runtime of two hours and forty-three minutes, but the film didn't feel that long. The Final Reckoning feels too long at two hours and forty-nine minutes.

I don't really have anything else to say. Like all the previous films, The Final Reckoning is a perpetual thrill-machine. If it were any other film, I'd give it a grade of “B.” However, I am a sucker for both Tom Cruise and for his Mission: Impossible films, which I still, for the most part, re-watch. I will watch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning again – many times, so it gets a preferential grade.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

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Thursday, April 24, 2025

Review: "STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH" is Darker Than Ever

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 82 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Running time: 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images

DIRECTOR: George Lucas

WRITER: George Lucas

PRODUCER: Rick McCallum

CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tattersall (D.o.P.)

EDITORS: Roger Barton and Ben Burtt

COMPOSER: John Williams

Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY and ACTION/ADVENTURE and WAR/THRILLER

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, (voice) Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Silas Carson, Ahmed Best, and Kenny Baker

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American science fiction, war, action, and epic space opera film from writer-director George Lucas. It is the sixth film in the Star Wars film franchise, which began with 1977's Star Wars. Revenge of the Sith is chronologically the third film in the “Skywalker Saga,” and is a direct sequel to the second film in the saga, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Revenge of the Sith opens near the end of the Clone Wars, as a Jedi Master pursues a new threat, while his former apprentice is lured into a sinister plot for galactic domination.

George Lucas had access to digital cameras, computer generated images, or CGI, and better special effects for his Star Wars prequel trilogy, technology he didn’t have when he made his original trilogy. Still, after the first two films of the prequel trilogy, it was obvious that the newer series lacked the heart of the original series. It didn’t seem to resonate with audiences, critics, and hardcore Star Wars fans the way the original had.

That changes with the closing film of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Revenge of the Sith is about three times the film that Episodes I and II are, at least the second half of Sith is. The first hour gets bogged down in those SFX that Lucas loves so much and that, because of his over reliance on them, hurt the first two prequel films, but this time improved digital photography makes the merger of the real and CGI appear seamless. Watch this film and you realize that Lucas has learned one thing – make it look so good that they don’t see the smoke dissipating and the mirrors crack.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith opens three years after the events depicted in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The war between the Republic and the separatist’s droid army is at a standstill. Led by General Grievous, the separatists have laid siege to the Republic’s capitol home world, and Grievous is holding the Republic’s leader, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), hostage. The Jedi heroes, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), arrive just in time to rescue the Chancellor. After Anakin rescues him, the Machiavellian Palpatine, who has always taken an interest in the young Jedi hero, entices Anakin to become closer to him and takes him into his confidence.

As Jedi leaders, Obi-Wan, Yoda (voice of Frank Oz), and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) try to hold the Republic together and defeat the separatists. Meanwhile, Anakin begins his journey to the Dark Side, putting his friendship with Obi-Wan and his marriage to his wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman), who is pregnant, at risk.

The CGI (computer generated imagery) and special effects blend in so well with the real actors and (what there is of it) props, better than they have in previous Star Wars films, perhaps because the film was shot using digital cameras. Don’t know, but I know the film looks darn good. Beautiful cinematography, riveting battle scenes set deep in space, over great cities, and in exotic alien locales. Maybe, Lucas decided that Star Wars films work best when they look like the kind of video games that really click with gamers – tight story, but even tighter action. Don’t let drama get in the way of great duels, spectacular battles, and awesome explosions.

The acting is shaky, and the actors deliver 98 percent of the mediocre dialogue in a mantra-like neutral monotone. Hayden Christensen waffles between acceptable and lame. Ewan McGregor is about the same as before. Samuel L. Jackson and Natalie Portman were better than I’d heard in early reviews of this film (at least to me). Ian McDiarmid is suave and deliciously evil as the Supreme Chancellor; he’s the great villain as superb cinematic dessert. Sadly, only the CGI Yoda matches the intensity that McDiarmid brings to his performance as the wicked Palpatine.

I won’t blame it all on the actors because it’s not as if the plot, script, and concept often make sense. Anakin is lame, unlikable, and whiny. The Jedi, at least the prequel version, aren’t as bright and as perceptive as one would assume of a group that wields such power; they certainly don’t have their shit together. Watch them interact with Anakin, and this whole “chosen one” thing just seems like malarkey; he doesn’t act like one, and the rest of the Jedi certainly don’t seem like they know how to handle one or at least monitor one.

Still, in spite of shaky internal logic and the senses-shattering siege of digital glory, Revenge of the Sith is, not only the best of the prequels, it competes with Return of the Jedi to be the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back. It’s fun, and the second half is so thrilling that it makes up for a meandering first half full of overdone effects. It’s tragic. It’s dark, and it sweetly unites the prequel trilogy with the original, answering some old questions and justifying some of the revisions Lucas has been putting the original series through for two and a half decades. It’s a grand finish, and if you’ve ever seen the 1977 film, Star Wars, or any other Star Wars film, then you must also see this one.

I must add that Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is my favorite of the prequel films for nostalgic reasons. It is the only Star Wars film that I watched with a group of friends, whereas I saw the others alone.

It is not that this is a great film, and it’s more skillful than artful. This is simply the best that a Star Wars prequel film could be. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is the one that brings balance to the Force.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

May 22, 2005

Reedited and rewritten: Tuesday, April 22, 2025

NOTES:

2006 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Makeup” (Dave Elsey and Nikki Gooley)

2006 Grammy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” (John Williams)

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Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Review: "STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES" is Stuffed with Spectacle

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 93 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)

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

MPAA – PG for sustained sequences of sci-fi action/violence

DIRECTOR: George Lucas

WRITERS: Jonathan Hales and George Lucas; from a story by George Lucas

PRODUCER: Rick McCallum

CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tattersall (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Ben Burtt with George Lucas

COMPOSER: John Williams

Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY and ACTION/ADVENTURE/WAR

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz (voice), Ian McDiarmid, Temuera Morrison, Jimmy Smits, Ahmed Best (voice), and Anthony Daniels & Kenny Baker

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American science fiction, war, action, and epic space opera film from director George Lucas. It is the fifth film in the “Star Wars” film franchise, which began with 1977's Star Wars. Attack of the Clones is chronologically the second film in the “Skywalker Saga,” and is a direct sequel to the first film in the saga, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Attack of the Clones finds a Jedi Master investigating the mystery behind a secret clone army allegedly created at the behest of the Jedi, while his young Jedi apprentice engages in romance forbidden by the Jedi Order.

What a difference a year makes. When I first saw Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in theaters last year, I hated it. Now a year later, I’ve watched it on home video, and the movie sure seems a lot better. Attack of the Clones is the second of three prequels to Star Wars, the 1977 film that had two sequels. The prequels, of which includes this film and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, are the backstory to Star Wars, what happened before the 1977 film that is now called Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. For one thing, the plot of Episode II is much better than Episode I’s plot.

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones begins something like 10 years after Menace. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is now the Padawan learner (apprentice) to his master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The Jedi Council assigns master and student to guard Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), who has had two close attempts on her life.

While Anakin guards Amidala, Kenobi rushes across the galaxy to track the assassin who targeted her, a bounty hunter named Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison). Kenobi discovers a mysterious Clone Army supposedly ordered ten years earlier by representatives of the galactic Republic. That is just the outer strand of an ever-widening web of mystery and intrigue that began with an attempt on Amidala’s life. Meanwhile, Anakin and Amidala are dangerously falling in love against a backdrop of political turmoil.

There are two holdovers from The Phantom Menace that I had hoped would not make it to Clones, mediocre acting and wooden dialogue. Although the actors seem more comfortable and there is a tad bit more rhythm to the acting, the performances are still too stiff and formal and the dialogue is delivered in an awkward fashion as if everyone in the cast were rank-amateurs. Sometimes I get the feeling that director/creator George Lucas thinks he’s making some great sprawling British epic film in the vein of Sir David Lean, so all of his actors’ speeches must be affected. It just comes across as fake.

The action sequences and fight scenes are good, especially the Yoda (voice of Frank Oz) and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) lightsaber duel, which has to be seen to be believed. I never knew Yoda had it in him. The special effects in The Phantom Menace were impressive, but no thanks to The Matrix, released the same year, the SFX in The Phantom Menace suddenly seemed dated, compared to the revolutionary work in The Matrix. The SFX are still good in Attack of the Clones, and there is so much of it; sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between what’s live action and what’s computer-generated. However, Star Wars SFX is no longer as awe-inspiring as it once was; now it comes across as looking like the effects in a really good video game.

The film does have the feel of a sprawling epic, but Lucas’s direction hops around too much. He seems uncomfortable dealing with emotion and love in his story lines. He doesn’t have to turn on the waterworks as if this was some Technicolor melodramatic weepy, but he should give the actors enough screen time to make the emotions palatable. Before any kind of mood can be established, Lucas is racing off to the next battle scene. He comfortable staging awesome battles filled war machines of the most fantastic and imaginative designs. However, his “character moments” feel as if he shoehorned them in, if only to remind his audience that this is supposed to be the love story of Anakin and Amidala that would later lead to such tragedy and heartbreak. Before any heat can generate, he drops the personal moments like soiled diapers and is off to the next videogame-style battle scene.

Still, Star Wars fans should like Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (which Disney renamed Star Wars: Attack of the Clones) for the most part, and I imagine that it will hold up over time. I know Star Wars fans always have such high hopes. However, after the first two prequels, I think we should understand that the films are meant simply to enforce brand awareness and sell merchandise. Any pretense to cinematic art is just that – a pretense...

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

RE-edited with some rewriting: Monday, April 21, 2025

NOTES:

2003 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Visual Effects” (Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll,and Ben Snow)

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Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Review: "HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN" Raises All Kinds of Hell, Boy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 of 2025 (No. 2018) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)

Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)

MPA – R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, and language

DIRECTOR: Brian Taylor

WRITERS: Brian Taylor, Christopher Golden, and Mike Mignola (based upon the Dark Horse comic book series created by Mike Mignola)

PRODUCERS: Jeffrey Greenstein, Sam Schulte, Robert Van Norden, Yariv Lerner, Mike Richardson, Les Weldon, and Jonathan Yunger

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ivan Vatsov (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Ryan Denmark

COMPOSER: Sven Faulconer

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR

Starring: Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Martin Bassindale, Hannah Margetson, Bogdan Haralambov, Carola Columbo, Anton Trendafilov, Michael Flemming, and Suzanne Bertish

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a 2024 superhero, horror, and dark fantasy film from director Brian Taylor. The film is based on the Hellboy character and comic books created by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics. The film is also the second reboot of the Hellboy film franchise. In Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Hellboy and a first-time field agent unexpectedly find themselves in a mountain community dominated by witchcraft and ruled over by a local demon.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man opens in 1959. We meet Hellboy (Jack Kesy) and Special Agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph), both of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). The two are transporting a supernatural toxic spider by train when something goes awry, and they suddenly find themselves stranded in the Appalachian Mountains. They wander until they come to a backwoods community that is filled with superstition and with the belief in witches.

They meet a former local, Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White), himself a witch, who has home to atone for his sins and to settle a hateful debt he owes. Witches and witchcraft, however, are not the only things that haunt this isolated mountain community. The devil is about in the form of Mister Onselm (Martin Bassindale), also known as “The Crooked Man.” He has come to collect a debt, and Hellboy, Song and Ferrell are the resistance. Soon, the mountain church of the blind Reverend Watts (Joseph Marcell) will be the scene of an epic battle of good versus evil.

I am not a big fan of Guillermo del Toro's 2004 film, Hellboy, the first film in the series. It has great production values, and it is a gorgeous movie filled with fantastical visual elements. On the other hand, the story is executed in a clunky and awkward fashion, and the characters are not particularly interesting. However, del Toro's follow-up to that film, the Oscar-nominated Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), is one of my all-time favorite films, and I consider it to be one of the best-ever films adapted from a comic book. Director Neil Marshall's 2019 film, Hellboy, was supposed to reboot the Hellboy film franchise. It was a box office bomb, with its worldwide box office failing to recoup even the film's production costs, but Hellboy 2019 is far superior to Hellboy 2004. It is closer to Hellboy II, in terms of quality, and almost seems like a reworking of the plot of the 2008 film.

All that said, Hellboy: The Crooked Man is another try at rebooting or restarting the series. I remember reading press and promotion for The Crooked Man stating that it was the closest of the four films in terms of being faithful to the comic book. I get that being faithful to the comic book is important to comic book people, especially the comic book creators and fans, but in the larger world of the film business, that is irrelevant. What the people behind Hellboy: The Crooked Man should have been doing is telling the world that The Crooked Man is one helluva movie...

...Because it is. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a mutha f**kin' good movie. I enjoyed the hell outta it, so much so that I might owe The Crooked Man of the film a debt. I am not trying to say that it is perfect, because it is not. Hellboy: The Crooked Man starts off slow, dry, awkward, and forced, and its first act seems like a collection of contrivances.

Then, the movie loses it mind and goes bonkers, and Hellboy: The Crooked Man flips the script so fast that I didn't know what hit me. The Crooked Man's director, Brian Taylor, is known for his work with fellow writer-director Mark Neveldine, and the duo specializes in directing nutty and bonkers film like Crank (2006) and the 2011 comic book movie, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. The duo also wrote the kooky horror-Western film hybrid, Jonah Hex (2010).

Going solo on The Crooked Man, Taylor busts out a film that takes the gruesome dead of the 1982 film, Creepshow, and mixes them with hoary hell hounds of director Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981). The result is the most horrifying film in the Hellboy franchise, a film with enough bone-rattling folk horror to convince many viewers that it is a legit horror flick.

I find that David Harbour, who played Hellboy in the 2019 film, didn't stray far in his performance from what Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy star, Ron Perlman, did with the character. The Crooked Man's Hellboy actor, Jack Kesy, is more like Jeff Bridges' “Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski” (from The Big Lebowski) than he is like the dark-fantasy action hero of the previous Hellboy films. It is not that Kesy is better or worse, for the matter; it is just that he takes a different path to bringing the character to life.

There are other good performances in this film. Jefferson White makes a mark as Tom Ferrell, but there are times when both White and his character, Ferrell, seem to get lost in the hell-raising of this film. Adeline Rudolph, however, does not get lost as Bobbie Jo Song, and Rudolph's robust performance makes Song not so much a supporting character as she is a co-lead. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Joseph Marcell as Reverend Watts because he is a scene-stealer in the role. I was shocked to learn that Marcell played “Geoffrey Butler,” the butler on the former NBC sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96).

Hellboy: The Crooked Man lacks the superhero fantasy, blockbuster bombast of its predecessors, but it is a truly unique superhero movie convincingly cos-playing a scary movie. I don't want to give away too many of its chilling, goose flesh-raising frights. The film did receive mixed reviews, but here, I won't send a mixed message. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a damn good movie, and I would be damned if I said otherwise.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Review: "VENOM: THE LAST DANCE" Has a Death Wish

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 of 2025 (No. 2016) by Leroy Douresseaux

Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

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

MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images and strong language

DIRECTOR: Kelly Marcel

WRITERS: Kelly Marcel; from a story by Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy (based on the Marvel Comics)

PRODUCERS: Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach, Tom Hardy, Kelly Marcel, and Hutch Parker

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Fabian Wagner (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Mark Sanger

COMPOSER: Dan Deacon

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach, Hala Finley, Dash McCloud, Cristo Fernandez, Jared Abrahamson, Jack Brady, Reid Scott, and Andy Serkis

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

Venom: The Last Dance is the least of the three films in this series in terms of quality.

The entire point of the movie seems to be to end the series as soon as possible, so it is strictly for fans of this series

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Venom: The Last Dance is a 2024 superhero fantasy-action film directed by Kelly Marcel. The film is based on the Marvel Comics super-villain/anti-hero characters, Eddie Brock/Venom. Several comic book writers, artists, and editors contributed in the development of this duo, and artist Todd McFarlane and writer David Michelinie are the creators of Venom. This is also the third entry in the Venom film series. In Venom: The Last Dance, Eddie Brock and Venom are on the run from both an alien monster and a mysterious military officer, and they may be forced to break up their symbiotic partnership.

Venom: The Last Dance opens on Klyntar, the home world of the symbiotes. Knull (Andy Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, seeks a way to escape the prison made for him by his rebellious creations. To that end, he has discovered a key – some thing called a “Codex” – that will free him. What and where is the codex?

Well, it is on Earth, and the Codex exists because of the relationship between the symbiote, Venom, and his human host, the former investigative reporter, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy). They have just returned to Earth after their short stay in the multiverse (as seen in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home) and has landed in the Mexico of their own Earth. While there, Eddie and Venom learn that Eddie is being blamed for the death of Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham).

Mulligan is not dead. He was infected by a symbiote (as seen in 2021's Venom: Let There Be Carnage). He has been imprisoned in an underground facility at “Area 55” (which is beneath “Area 51”), and is being held in captivity by the “Imperium Program.” There, Mulligan and his symbiote are under the watchful gazes of Imperium scientist, Dr. Teddy Paine (Juno Temple), and the Imperium's military commander, General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Eddie and Venom are headed for New York City in a bid to clear Eddie's name, unaware that General Strickland is hunting them. The duo, however, is soon made aware of an even more dangerous hunter. Knull has sent a creature known as a “Xenophage” to capture the Codex within Eddie and Venom. Now, a year into their symbiotic relationship, Eddie Brock and Venom may have to make a most devastating and heart-wrenching decision in order to save the Earth and at least one of their lives.

Venom: The Last Dance is the fifth film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” line of films. It follows Venom (2018), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Morbius (2022), and Madame Web (2024). The Last Dance arrived in movie theaters a little more than a month before the series' sixth film, Kraven the Hunter (2024). This film series stars characters and properties commonly associated with Marvel Comics' character, Spider-Man. Sadly, media reports indicate that Kraven the Hunter will be the last entry in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

Anyway, just before the halfway mark in Venom: The Last Dance, the Venom symbiote enters a horse, and “venomizes” it, creating a “Venom horse.” The sequence featuring Venom as a horse, which becomes a wild ride across the desert with Eddie on its back, is probably the liveliest moment in this movie. Venom does not venomize any more animals the rest of the way, but strangely, the beginning of the film's end-credits is a montage of venomized animals, everything from insects and birds to mammals and amphibians. A Venom movie featuring the Venom symbiote venomizing countless different insects and animals?! – now, that would be a Venom movie I'd love and a lot of people would watch. Sadly, that is what we get in Venom: The Last Dance.

Yes, there are some genuine character moments – such as Eddie/Venom's relationship with the Moon family – but even that is overwhelmed by Venom: The Last Dance's need to end. Yes, this isn't so much a movie as it is an execution or suicide pact. Venom is a trilogy and Venom: The Last Dance must be the end of it: that's what this movie feels like – a race to the end.

I found myself unable to really enjoy this movie. I really didn't connect with the film's best action scenes, and there were a few really good ones. Also, I feel like the Knull subplot was woefully underutilized. There are some good moments here, and by the end of the film, I thought the good things had been downplayed in favor of this movie's fatalistic mood. Ultimately, I think Venom: The Last Dance is only for fans of the series who will want to see it through to the end.

5 of 10

C+

★★½ out of 4 stars out of 4 stars

[This film has one mid-credits scene and one scene that occurs at the end of the credits.]

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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Review: "AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM" is Water-Logged Entertainment

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 of 2025 (No. 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some language

DIRECTOR: James Wan

WRITERS: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; from a story by James Wan and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick & Jason Momoa and Thomas Pa'a Sibbett (based on the character created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger and appearing in DC Comics)

PRODUCERS: James Wan, Rob Cowan, and Peter Safran

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Don Burgess

EDITOR: Kirk M. Morri

COMPOSER: Rupert Gregson-Williams

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/SCI-FI and ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Randall Park, Jani Zhao, Indya Moore, and Nicole Kidman with the voices of Martin Short, John Rhys-Davies, and Pilou Asbaek

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a 2023 superhero, action-adventure and science fiction-fantasy film from director James Wan. It is a direct sequel to the 2018 film, Aquaman, and it is also the 15th and final installment of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is based on the DC Comics character, Aquaman, that was created by artist Paul Norris and editor Mort Weisinger and first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (cover dated: November 1941). In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Black Manta forges a deal with a mysterious evil from Atlantis' past, forcing Aquaman to forge an alliance with his imprisoned brother in order to save Atlantis.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens four years after Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) became King of Atlantis and married Mera (Amber Heard). They are now parents to a son, Arthur Jr. Aquaman splits his life between land and sea, strengthening his bond with his father, Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison), and getting wise advice about being a father from him. However, splitting time between his life on land and his life as the ruler of Atlantis has led to clashes with the High Council of the Seven Kingdoms.

Meanwhile, David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen) continues to seek revenge against Aquaman for the death of his father (as seen in Aquaman). With the help of marine biologist, Stephen Shin (Randall Park), Kane finds a mysterious artifact, “the Black Trident.” As soon Kane touches the trident, it possesses him and connects his mind to the mysterious Kordax, the undead king of the lost undersea kingdom of Necrus. Soon, Kane, at Kordax's command, is poisoning the surface world with an element known as “Orichalcum.”

Aquaman's mother, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), the former queen of Atlantis, implores him to seek the help of his imprisoned brother, Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson), the deposed King of Atlantis in order to stop Kane. But can Aquaman trust Orm, who tried to kill him and whom he removed from the throne of Atlantis?

While watching the original film, Aquaman, I could not help but notice that many of its story points and plot elements were glaringly similar to those found in Marvel Studios' Black Panther, which debuted earlier in the same year, 2018, that Aquaman hit theaters. I also find Black Panther elements in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but none as pronounced as in the first film. I also believe that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is strongly influenced by the Star Wars “prequel” films, especially Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

That said, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is like the first film – a grand, old-fashioned, action-adventure fantasy film. The sequel is quite entertaining, but not as solidly entertaining as the first film.

The plot, narrative, and character drama in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom seem forced when they are not being over-the-top, and are lacking in genuine emotion and feeling when they not being forced and over-the-top. Director James Wan and his co-writers emphasize sound and fury. It is as if they believe that the more CGI, action scenes, explosions, subplots, and weird-looking things they throw on the screen the less likely that the audience will realize how ungainly this film is. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn't cinematic art; it's merely corporate entertainment product, and unlike the first time, Warner Bros. Pictures didn't as lucky with the sequel.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom treads water just not to be mediocre. I will admit that its production values and special visual effects all look quite good. Visually, the film is sumptuous even if the drama is rickety. And as I write this, I am just remembering that I like the film score, although I am sure that I have heard parts of it in another film.

Also, I admire that Jason Momoa throws himself into this film, doing his best to make it seem like the most fun he and the audience could ever have in a superhero movie. Unfortunately, it was the Aquaman movie before Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom that was really fun.

B-

5 of 10

★★½ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

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