(film review) [STREAMING] - The Devil All The Time

When I finished watching this movie, I felt I had to watch it again.  I felt like I wasn't paying all the attention that I had needed to.  Possibly because there was narration, I wasn't fully focused, but I genuinely felt like I wasn't understanding what was going on although it was fairly simple.  Not to say it was difficult to understand but maybe it's all this streaming movies than going to the cinema.  Maybe I'm tired of it.  Maybe the film didn't really grip me, but...I enjoyed it!? So, I watched it again and this is what I have to say.

The film centers around Arvin (Tom Holland) whose father served in World War II.  After the war, Willard (Bill Skarsgård) meets a lady in a diner (Haley Bennett ) and also meets a couple who are dining there.  Willard eventually marries the lady and moves to Knockemstiff, Ohio where Arvin is born.  Being haunted by the war, Willard is somewhat troubled and tries to influence God to help assist him in a situation he is going through believing he has this power to do so due to his blind faith but the situation doesn't work out.  Some years later, Lenora's (Eliza Scanlen) father dies after he also thought he had power due to his blind faith and Arvin becomes her overprotective stepbrother.  On his birthday, Arvin is given his father's gun from World War II which ultimately gives him power.  The Reverend of the local church, Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson) uses his position of power to his own benefits and when Lenora tragically dies, Arvin goes looking for the reverend for answers.  Later Arvin is confronted by the same couple who were dining in the diner his father met his mother in where the two have their own ritual they often carry out which ultimately gives them power, although there is a power dynamic between them.

This film is really about religion, power, the butterfly effect and what would happen if certain situations happened how they were possibly "meant" to happen.  This film also questions faith and religion as well as the famous saying "absolute power, corrupts absolutely".  Where there are various story arcs that meet to create the over-arching story, there are a lot of people who use their "power" to control and/or influence.

This film is dark and most definitely not a kids film because young looking Tom Holland plays Peter Parker.  The cinematography is gloomy and dark.  The setting is lonely and isolating.  You are given the sense that although these people are very religious, some characters are loners and very much have their own battles they are battling regardless of having faith.  Some of the characters are predators in their own way using their power to get what they want.  The acting is great and couldn't be any better than it was from every actor in this piece.  Robert and Jason are very convincing that you may even despise them.  Tom Holland was also very good in this, especially his accent.  Along with Robert, both being British, their accents were great.  This film is also fairly slow paced with not much action so may come across boring as the story really revolves around these various characters and their life and/or actions.

I may actually watch it again as it is indeed a decent movie, but I just wouldn't rush to see it.

(trailer review) - WondaVision

As we are nearing to the end of September and it was only like a few days I saw somewhere that it's only 100 days until Christmas (like anyone wants to know about that right now as this pandemic has been zapping the life out of everyone), Disney are fully on their promotion of DisneyPlus and their shows.  Only a few days ago we had a trailer for The Mandalorian: Season 2 and now we have this, WondaVision, a continuation of the stories post Marvel's Infinity Saga.  While The Falcon & The Winter Soldier was meant to be first out of the gates in August, but they had to stop due to quarantining and lockdowns etc, WondaVision might actually be the first out since The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is currently back to filming as I type.  With that said AND the fact that the Black Widow film has been pushed back from May (I think) until November (unless it moves again), THIS is the only thing that is semi-concrete enough to actually go ahead.  And this trailer...GREAT!

I can see why this show might NOT be the big spectacle that some fans might want, but there are a lot of things that can come off the back of this show.  It has been said that it will link heavily into the sequel of Doctor Strange.  We have the possibility that it may introduce mutants into the MCU finally since the Fox Acquisition and with the different time periods and the Chaos Magic used by Wonda Maximoff, it seems as though this show will be not only the intro, but the gatekeeper, no...keymaster that will unlock the future of the MCU and this trailer to me looks like something really small and isolated, but has the possibility to do just that.

From Black and White to Technicolour, to Vision being told he is dead and the fabric of reality changing and the cracks beginning to show, I feel the second trailer will get those who are not onboard, on board in a major way.

Directed by Jac Schaeffer and starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, Kat Dennings, Randall Park & Kathryn Hahn

(trailer review) - The Mandalorian: Season 2

Since Disney has joined the streaming wars, one thing they said they were going to do, was to make sure they had more Star Wars content.  And although the year of 2020 has been a shambles in many ways, not just affecting the lives and livelihood of actors, filming and movie studios, not to mentioned closed cinemas/theatres, having a soundstage (or whatever they use to make the Mandalorian, has worked out in everyones favour.  Granted, the pandemic hadn't hit their production as they had finished filming before the worldwide lockdown, but with the equipment they have, it goes to show that they have got a system in place where they can churn out episodes after episodes after episodes quickly and easily.

This initial trailer is amazing!  There isn't much to it at all and it is also fairly short, but the music, what they show you and if you have seen the first season, WHAT YOU KNOW SO FAR!? It looks soo much better visually and even the world has been expanded, sorry the universe, we are going deeper and deeper into what we know from Star Wars and the Jedi.  As we found out at the end of the first season, The Mandalorian (Hey Mando) is on a quest to find the species of 'the baby' (dubbed Baby Yoda) or the scorchers know as Jedi!  Another trailer will definitely sell this even more if you are not already sold by seeing Tatooine, a Tusken Raider or X-Wings!

Word on the street is that, Pedro wants to have is helmet off, became difficult and has walked from the project.  This baffles me as he signed on to play a character who keeps his helmet on.  I hope they can write into the story reasons as to why some Mandalorians wear helmets and keep them on and why some don't and take them off.

Directed by John Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal

(trailer review) - Star Trek: Discovery: Season 3

I love me some Sci-Fi.  A lot of people feel the same like me and there are others that don't.  Personally, I don't get it - unless someone can tell me as to why they do not like Sci-Fi and their reasons, then maybe I'll accept what they are saying and leave them alone, forever... but what is there NOT to like.  Sci-Fi can essentially be fantasy, advanced technology we will never see in our lifetime, flying cars, spaceships, interstellar travel, aliens, living on beautiful worlds in distant galaxies or trying to figure out if Darth Vader is your father!  I know that was a Star Wars reference and we are talking Star Trek here and they are NOT the same, but I love me some Sci-Fi.  I like all that stuff and it amazes me that there are people who don't. 

With that said, imagination, the future, all of it is captured in this trailer and having a show which is now 3 seasons in, it's only getting better and better.  You can tell more money has gone into it.  The storyline, no federation??? It looks as though it would be even more intriguing than Season 2 and Season 2 was really good.  The special effects AND make-up looks even better and generally, from what we see in this trailer, it looks as though the cast are having a lot of fun.  This looks like it's going to be really good.  I understand there are some Trekkies that don't like Discovery and MY only gripe with the show is the ships capabilities...but other than that, it's really good! Let see how well this season ends up being.

Directed by Bryan Fuller and starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Jason Isaacs, Wilson Cruz, Anson Mount, David Ajala

(trailer review) - Freaky

From the Get-Go, the name of this movie is straight up Trash!  I get the premise of the movie which is Freaky Friday but with a serial killer, but why not just add the Friday to it?  Or call it Killingly Freaky? I dunno, but Freaky by itself just sounds silly or maybe it's just me!?

Anywho, this trailer, I thought it was going to be some nonsense and although it might still end up being some nonsense, I'm not going to lie to you all, but this trailer made me laugh out loud on several occasions.  Freaky Friday with a grown man playing a teenage girl like Jack black in Jumanji (and he was seriously killing it, it was freakily funny), I would simply watch this film for exactly what it is intended to do, scare you but bring in some laughs.  Blumhouse have churned out a few really good ones and a few stinkers here and there, but for the most part, they are mostly great quality.  I'd like to see another trailer, I think, but if I need something to switch off and get a few creepy and likely predictable scary scares and and some laughs, this is going to be that!

Directed by Christopher Landon and starring Kathryn Newton, Vince Vaughn, Uriah Shelton, Alan Ruck, Katie Finneran, Celeste O'Connor, Misha Osherovich

(trailer review) - Dune

What is wild is that, I remembered the Dune trailer was dropping today.  Just watched the trailer for the trailer and said, "The trailer is probably going to drop in the next few minutes...lol" because I sensed the trailer was about to drop, finished posting, searched for the trailer and there it was...posted 3minutes ago...WILD!!!

THIS TRAILER THOUGH!!!

I've never watched the original Dune from back in the day.  I saw some pictures prior to posting this and it doesn't hold up at all.  Everything looks like a set, it looks like the old Planet of the Apes from way back when.  Maybe they came out at a similar time, I would need to look that up.  But I wasn't captivated by the small images I saw to want to watch.  Maybe in 40-60 years time, folks would look at this trailer and think the same, but damn does this film look beautiful!  Visually stunning and a film that seems to be about two families who have been in a life long beef with one another on a Lord of the Rings meets Star Wars for real!  The ships look great!  That land vehicle has Jawa angles, I'm not the only person who noticed that, surely.  But seeing Jason Mamoa, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac brought some heavy weight to this film. Dave Batista and Josh Brolin, damn!  I think I saw Stellan, but I'm not sure.  Glad to see a black person as well, for crying out loud, even if it IS just one.

Oh, and that THING AT THE END!!! 

Having watched this trailer, I can only assume the film is going to be as great as the trailer...I want to see a Mass Effect film now!

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa & Javier Bardem.

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(trailer review) - Dune

I didn't want to do this, but I remembered I did one for the Fast and Furious latest one which has now been pushed back to next year. Great call...but a trailer for a trailer? I'll say it again, is stupid. It's just unnecessary hype.  If you had no idea or a slight idea that a film was in the works, why tease someone even further with a trailer to a trailer because dependant on how great the trailer is, you will capture those who are interested, no?  I mean, if not a lot of people watch the trailer to the trailer, you are going to drop the trailer regardless, no?  Not like you are going to make any changes because the 30seconds people saw, people just wasn't feeling it? It's silly, it really is, but here I am.

Looking at a trailer, with faces on it (which I must say, is one of the better trailers to a trailer...lol) which is giving NOTHING away apart from a Luke Skywalker moment at the end.  Consider Dune is meant to have deserts in it or something, meant to be Lord of the Rings meets Star Wars (or is that He-Man)? I like the actors involved...well 4-5 of them anyway and if anything, if they ARE going to keep this pointless trailer for a trailer going...at least do it like this!  This way you get to know who is in it rather that silly snippets of action and face shots.

The trailer is probably going to drop in the next few minutes...lol

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa & Javier Bardem, 

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(film review) - The New Mutants

20th Century Fox had purchased the X-Men off of Marvel when Marvel was heading into bankruptcy and in a desperate attempt, to gain some money to stay afloat, Marvel sold a lot of their characters.  It meant that everything to do with X-Men and Mutants belonged to Fox.  They sold Spider-Man and his universe, Ghost Rider, Blade, Hulk, Namor, Daredevil and only kept a handful of heroes.  Fox also purchased The Fantastic 4, so Fox had both the world of the X-Men and Fantastic 4 to do what they will with.  The only stipulation like the others, keep making films and if there is a period of possibly 5 years (I could be wrong, might be 10 years - as it's from memory) where there is no production on a movie, then the rights will go back to Marvel.  We have seen this play out twice between movie studios.  One with The Fantastic 4 and another with The Spider-Man movies (Hence why we are on our 3rd Spidey).  Where Fantastic 4, seems to have NOW gone back to Marvel (although there has been no talk on it) and will likely be an announcement of a upcoming film by Marvel in the next few years, the X-Men franchise and their weird success over the years stayed with Fox until Disney bought Fox whilst they were making this movie.

Disney's purchase of Fox Studios meant that not only would Disney automatically acquire The fantastic 4 (if they didn't already have it by then), they would also acquire all the rights to the X-Men and the word Mutants.  What it meant for the movie though, was that the film had finished initial production and then went into a limbo state.  No reshoots, no release date, just nothing.  The film was meant to come out 2 years ago and it kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed back.  The end product is this and personally, while I don't think the film is terrible, reshoots or a more in-depth storyline would have been more beneficial and would have went a long way.  I'll explain.

Five teenagers coming into Mutant-hood have been sent to a facility where a doctor named Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) is assigned to help them harness and control their powers when they first discover them, however when newcomer Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt) arrives, everyones greatest fears come to life and an entity called the Demon Bear arrives to feast off of their fear and kill them.  The New Mutants, Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Cannonball (Charlie Heaton) and Sunspot (Henry Zaga) along with Dani Moonstar must band together, confront their fears and defeat the Demon Bear.

So, as I've previously stated, the film isn't terrible.  However, where I think they tripped up, was trying to do a horror movie for kids.  Josh Boone was not ideal or he didn't push the boat out far enough.  Drag Me to Hell by Sam Rami is a PG-13 and successfully bridges that gap between horror and child-friendly (PG-13), where this movie, although has some scary-ish imagery, I didn't find it creepy, atmospheric, spooky or frightening at all.  That could well be due to my fresh-hold and Drag Me to Hell is a completely different movie, but this movie tries, but not successfully.  You are not allowed enough time with the characters or to get inside their heads to understand their personal problems, journey or their powers.  When I think of this movie, I think of Leonardo DiCaprio's Shutter Island, mixed with some kind of home invasion movie like Home Alone, but with a bunch of kids, The Goonies, but this movie only scratches the surface.  The story was decent but could have been more compelling and gripping.  The film was fairly choppy at the beginning and felt slightly rushed.  The connection between the Demon Bear and Danielle, although obvious, could have played out better.  It would have been nice if the movie was slower paced and more character driven with insane things happening in spats only to become a big deal later.  The film does that, but it just wasn't long enough, you are simply not engaged with the characters or feel for them other than the fact that they are a bunch of kids.  Even the final fight could have been longer and mo cohesive.

Not to bash the film, but I loved the acting between the characters although the LGBTQ+ moment felt forced.  The special effects were great especially something as ridiculous as a Demon Bear, looked amazing with smokey red eyes.  Magik and Sunspot looked great.  I loved the effects on the eyes.  The Magik scenes were also great.  The Wolfsbane design was ok and I loved the Cannonball look as well as Sunspot, but I wish I got more from the.  Even those things which were meant to be scary looked ok, but could have been a touch scarier but I liked the design of them.  

Since the acquisition, I know a lot of people were wondering if there was any reshoots or anything that could tie into the MCU.  Could this be a standalone movie they can incorporate into the MCU?  The answer is no.  This is likely a one and done and although established connections to the X-Men universe of years that have passed, this movie doesn't carry near enough the same weight as those films.  Possibly without the merger or at least with the reshoots, we may have had something better, but this film is more or less on the same scale as Apocalypse and the Phoenix one... Average at best, but had a lot of potential.

(trailer review) - James Bond: No Time To Die

(Trailer 2)

(Big Game Spot Trailer)

(Original Trailer)

Whoa whoa whoa!!!  It seems like they are back on the promoting of this movie and they have certainly AMPED up the trailer to slap us in the face with some James Bond Double Zero goodness and I can assure you, that not only am I ready for it, I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT. *throws non-existent money in the air*.

I grew up on Roger Moore.  Pierce was decent but I believe i only saw one movie of his. Daniel on the other hand is my guy and this just looks amazing.  The last oe wasn't as good as Skyfall but this one looks sooo much more great, I just feel they will handle this differently and very well.
Lashana Lynch, whether she will be the next Bond or codename 007 remains to be seen, but damn doesn't she move with grace and elegance in these shots.  I'm soo loving it!
I'm loving that Rami's face isn't completely disfigured and i'm glad we see more of him.  I kept thinking, he doesn't want to play a terrorist but if he is trying to kill everyone, doesn't that make him one or are they pulling a bait and switch? Whatever it is, he is a credible actor and I have nothing but a good feel for this movie.
I just hope hey keep in that bridge jumping scene where you see him scoop up the cable with his foot! Also, it reminded me of 'Because the lady loves Milk Tray', he just needed a dark suit.

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Ben Whishaw & Jeffrey Wright

(series review) [STREAMING] - DC's Stargirl

Greg Berlanti is the one guy who I can imagine in the most recent of years to be the living and breathing depiction of Scrooge McDuck jumping off of a diving board into a pool of money.  You see, he is solely responsible (to my knowledge anyway) for every single DC show you are seeing now, hearing of or have seen in recent years.
In 2012, the show Arrow starring Stephen Amell played the DC character Green Arrow.  Fans and critics alike deemed the show to be a Batman "Rip-off", not rip-off per-say but, his enemies were Batman's enemies.  That didn't stop the show as the show was great and improved by each season.  I believe it was season 2 where they introduced Barry Allen whom would later become The Flash, to then have his own series a year later, introducing crossovers from each show and then expanding the now aptly titled 'Arrowverse (Arrow universe) wider to include lot of other heroes and different teams throughout DC history.  Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman and the up and coming Superman & Lois, not to mention other DC shows he helps to produce, Titans, Doom Patrol and Stargirl.  Even when you watch the Chillin Adventures of Sabrina, Greg's name is there! But without him and his input and efforts, Stargirl may not have been made and be as good as it is.

I'm not sure which year Stargirl takes place, whether before the Arrowverse characters as I'm assuming, techinically, it is meant to be as Stargirl is part of the Justice Society of America which comes before the Justice League of America, but the JSA have been wiped out by the villains.  The villains win and the sole survivor, Stripesy meets and marrys a lady named Barbara, Courtney's mother and they move to a town called Blue Valley and he leaves his past behind him.  Unfortunately, Courtney stumbles across the Cosmic Staff, previously held by Starman and would ONLY work for Starman, Courtney, now Stargirl wants to pick up where Starman left off and try to uncover a plot of villainy.

This show is decent and well worth the watch.  Having watched ALL of The Arrow episodes season after season, fairly caught up with The Flash, up-to-date with Supergirl, Black Lightning and Titans (although Titans is a separate thing, kinda), I'd like to say that Stargirl has the tone of the Arrowverse, especially shows like Supergirl and The Flash as it is fairly lighthearted, but it does have some slightly darker elements, not enough to be Arrow dark or Black Lightning dark in some cases, but we are talking about a bunch of teens taking on supervillians and these supervillains are no joke.

With that said, the choreography, like all the aforementioned shows have been amazing.  This show, blatantly wirework, but the use of movement with these characters are excellent.  As stiffly fluid as they possibly can as most of if not all of the fight scenes are practical.  There are some fights that are blatantly special effects but most of the special effects are for other elements of the show, so i found that the fighting scenes were very entertaining.  Yes you can tell it is wirework, but the fights are just great.  These teens get slapped up soo much, it made me laugh out loud on numerous occasions.  They do give as hard as they get in some cases and the work with the cosmic staff is excellent.

The cosmic staff is essentially its own character.  If you are into Marvel movies and know about Thor's trusty hammer, the cosmic staff is similar to that in the sense that only the user can use it, but the staff is sentient.  The staff moves by itself, helps the user to fly, flashes a bright light and can be used as a formidable weapon in combat.  The way the staff moves with and around Stargirl helping her whilst she is wielding the staff is nothing like i've ever seen before.  The staff does however come across as very convenient to plot and story though.  When they want to have the staff work for the story or move/act in a particular way, it would. If they don't want it to work in a particular way and they want to show Courtney get hurt or whatever, then it won't.  There were times I felt like the Staff could have assisted Courtney in moments and it did nothing.

Onto doing nothing, some of these villains were just in the show for the numbers.  Some were pointless and others didn't really show face until the end and still didn't do anything.  I liked that some of the villains were selfish, had their own goals and ideas which caused conflict between some of them, that was good, but for the most part, you only had possibly 3-4 villains which were great and entertaining.  The music was decent and just overall, the story was intriguing enough to have you engaged.  A little fluffy and bubblegum in places but I liked how they managed to balance teenage angst and heroism.  If you can watch the show. It would be interesting how a second season would go especially how it ended.