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fire_bat777
Reviews
Fog City (2023)
Shockingly Awful All-Around
Wooden acting? Check.
Ridiculous premise? Check.
Nonsensical decisions made by nearly every character? Also yes.
This is like a high school drama club was given too large of a budget and decided "cars and boobs are cool!" and built random scenes around that.
This was a complete waste of time, not even deserving a "so bad it's good" accolade.
I have seen films with nearly no budget outperform every aspect of Fog City in every way. This is the definition of someone being provided funding that should have NEVER been given money to make a film.
I feel like our current movie cycle is getting close to the direct-to-video quality we experienced in the 80's. A few diamonds in the rough, but mostly barely-watchable garbage.
Deadstream (2022)
Who are writing these reviews?
This was pretty terrible. I'd expect to see this as a b-level Netflix release or something.
The main character is annoying, the story is lame, it relies solely on jump scares, and is generally just not very interesting g or entertaining.
Honestly, I was hoping the main guy would die from the first few minutes of the movie's opening.
I'm not sure what's happening with reviews lately, but I find it implausible that these absolutely (by definition) mediocre films are getting rave reviews. I have to assume they're paid for by the production company or people have low standards now.
There's no way this can garner the reviews its gotten. It's pretty awful.
Euphoria (2019)
If a second rate Larry Clark's Kids was made into a series
This has been done before and far better. Larry Clark did this back in 1995 and his efforts yielded a far more believable and sympathetic result.
It's become a recent trend to take superior films and shows and dumb them down to a point where they're a shadow of what they're mimicking.
Euphoria is just another take on a tale that's been done far better before. There's nothing original or groundbreaking about it. Just a second rate imitation of a movie that was original and amazing.
Halloween (2007)
House of Rejects on Halloween
I believe the summary line says it all. This isn't a reinvisioning as much as it is a mismash of different horror movies rolled into one film.
I went into this film with great optimism. I was always hoping (with extreme optimism) that nobody would ever try to remake/recreate Halloween. When I heard Rob Zombie was taking the helm I was quite happy. I enjoyed The Devil's Rejects greatly and was hoping that Rob Zombie could do the original justice. Boy, was I wrong.
The beginning of the film starts out very nicely. The atmosphere and mood was spot on. The acting on young Michael's part was wonderful. Daeg Faerch plays the part to a T. There is a gruesome scene that really got to me. That, to me, is the essence of good directing. I really felt dirty watching what was happening on the screen. I became very optimistic at this point.
Young Michael's time at Smith's Grove was insightful and interesting. Malcolm McDowll really plays the part of the caring, helpful psychologist well here.
Adult Michael's time in Smith's Grove was pure torture. Malcolm McDowell was absolutely awful at this point. I'm not sure if it was the acting, the writing, or a combination of the two. I wasn't comparing MM to Donald Pleasance. I was seeing if MM could make me feel like Dr Loomis cared for Michael. He seemed, at first, to really be a good person. Suddenly, he flips to not caring at all. This is where the movie goes downhill.
Rob Zombie's adult Michael Myers just isn't scary. The MM in this film reminds me of Tiny from HOTC and TDR. There is nothing abnormal about being scared of a seven foot tall gigantic person. It is the everyday, normal looking homicidal maniac that scares the hell out of people.
Enter the babysitters. In the original, you got to know Laurie, Annie, and Lynda. You felt for them. You knew what they were like. You really could tell they were the girls next door. It makes caring for them much easier. In this film, you generally can't like them. They all act like complete sluts. You meet them for a few minutes, you don't care what happens to them because they're not very nice and generally THEY CAN'T ACT.
The entire second half seems rushed. The final "chase" is dragged out to the point of agony. Nothing about Michael is scary anymore because his childhood sets up sympathy for the main antagonist which is suicide on the big screen. In The Devil's Rejects you were supposed to be rooting for the antihero. In Halloween, you're supposed to be rooting for Loomis and Laurie.
The whole movie just seems to suffer from poor dialog and seems to be rushed. I was happy with the first half of the film, but once adult Michael enters the picture, it is pretty much downhill.
The ending has to be the most upsetting thing I've ever seen. Fans of the original will be furious with the ending of RZ's Halloween. All and all, it didn't totally fail, but it was a far from perfect film.