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Reviews
Haunted (2018)
Disturbing, but not in a good way
I've watched the first two episodes and felt sick and unhappy. I don't enjoy watching people being tormented and children being corrupted. The second episode was particularly offensive, seeing two innocent girls struggling under the roof of a murderous serial killer and his accomplice wife. Perhaps I should give this show another chance. If I do and the episodes turn around, then I will come back and change this review. Until then, becoming depressed and having nightmares is not something I look for from a television program.
The Twilight Zone: The Encounter (1964)
Good episode but too cerebral for some people
Don't let the college professors who put this episode down fool you. This is a good episode. There is no over the top dialogue that Twilight Zone viewers "are familiar with." (Whatever that means. The dialogue in this series is always top notch.) The acting is excellent. The only problem I can see is that there is too much talking and not enough characters and action for the more dim-witted viewers. The ending is also sub-par in this regard and there is no magic twist that their tiny brains can marvel over. This is just a dramatic contest between two foes and it's a good story. Imagine going to a play. But the surprise ending connoisseurs probably don't care much for plays.
Also, the reason this episode is "lost" is not because it's so bad. Rather, the idea of referring to Asians as not human was offensive to some viewers and therefore this episode was taken off syndication. There are a lot of lousy episodes that see lots of air time, so the "magic twist" lovers need to come up with another justification for their nonsense theories.
The Twilight Zone: Five Characters in Search of an Exit (1961)
One of the Best
It seems there are two kinds of people in the world: those who think that "Five Characters" is one of the best episodes in the series and those who are so cool that they know it sucked because they were so clever and already predicted the "lame" twist at the end (which apparently, in their small minds, is the only reason the Twilight Zone exists: to come up with twists).
There are plenty of lame episodes in the series and I'm not one to rate all TZ episodes ten. But this one is certainly one of those that merit such a rating. It is claustrophobic and colorful. The suspense is built up and we cannot wait for the reveal of the secret at the end. But whatever that secret is, what these people are, it doesn't really matter. Most of the beauty of the episode is to lead up to that. It would be just as powerful if we never find out what these strangers in a strange place really are.
The Twilight Zone: What's in the Box (1964)
What's in the Box? A Creepy and Good Episode, on Channel 10
The point of the Twilight Zone is not to wait for the "twist." In some episodes, that was an added thing, but the strength of the episodes came from other directions as well. In the case of "What's in the Box," what impressed me was the homey feel of the situation, as if the story was taking place in a sit-com about two married people who were always at each other's throats. Despite the somewhat comical progression of the two bickering spouses, it ends oddly tragic, and after we see the wife fall out of the window to her death, it culminates with the husband being strapped into the electric chair and looking quite terrified.
Then there is the TV repairman who is very weird-looking, and acts even weirder. Did he have something to do with it, such as putting a curse on the obnoxious man who was accusing him of being dishonest, or is he just a dimwitted person who asks for more work at the end because that's all he knows to do, despite the murder that has just taken place? That ambiguity adds to the allure of this episode.
Perhaps one can argue that the episode is formulaic, or that it was done before. Well, any movie about anything has been done before, in this regard. Never mind that it may be considered corny that someone sees the future on a channel that should not be working. Rather, consider that what is shown of the future is bleak and negative and something that should be avoided, particularly to the person that can try to change it, and then watch in dismay as, even as any attempt to correct that future happening, it will ultimately lead to it as it was written to happen. If you do, instead of looking for a magic twist, then you'll agree with me that this episode is one of the best in the series. (Not the best, but up there.)
The Fly II (1989)
not bad, but barely
As an all-out revenge fantasy type of film, Fly 2 satisfies. The bad guys get their comeuppance and the good guys get turned back into humans. But as a sequel to the far superior original starring Jeff Goldblum, it leaves a whole lot more to be desired. Yes, the ending, creepy as it is, does give the main villain his justly deserved punishment, in appropriate fashion, punishing him for all the grief he caused to Brundle and his various specimens. It would have been a very satisfying ending to a Tales from the Crypt episode, or any other kind of similar genre. What bothered me, though, is that this was an entirely different genre altogether, and for most of the movie I felt it was continuing the spirit of the first movie. But by the time the completely metamorphosed fly-man starts to pet the police dog, I knew this movie had nowhere to go but down.
The idea of a man turning into a fly was brilliantly explored in the first movie. There are no winners. There is nothing but deterioration, dissolution. There are no fly politicians, as the Daddy Brundlefly said in the original. Insects do not have compassion, they are brutal. A full sized insect-monster shouldn't distinguish between the good guy humans (his pretty girlfriend) and the bad guy humans (the caricature of a security guard, for instance). The worst part of all was the ending, or just before the ending, when the "cure" is enacted and Martin comes out in one clean piece. One reviewer here mentioned that the happy ending was not "sappy" but I think that it was certainly contrived. If maybe he came back but in some deformed way, I could accept it but not the fact that, just because he pulled another human in there with him, one shot deal, he was reverted to his own human self (which he never was completely in the first place, since he always had dormant fly DNA in there waiting to sprout).
Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991)
funny and moving
The four main characters complemented each other very well. The movie was very intelligently written. It was funny and moving. The ending is quite appropriate as the overall film is just a snapshot of one Friday night of these four bickering friends.
I'm especially fond of Nestor Serrano's work in portraying Vinny/Fernando. Even though he was supposed to be a selfish womanizer, he did have certain qualities that made me sympathize with him. (For example, he did come to Willie's aid when he was thrown out of the party by the bigots, even though it meant giving up a chance with one of the few women in the movie who didn't flat out ignore his come-ons.)