Halloween October 19, 2018

"The new Halloween 
SUCKS!" 

 -Nameless Facebook Troll

Hee! I'm starting my review of the new Halloween with the first review I read after seeing the movie! And yes! I totally . . . DISAGREE with the "reviewer" who wrote the above quote. But he's not alone. WAY too many negative reviews to take any of them seriously. What I've read of the reviews so far there's a dislike for the new sequel because  . . .  "well, dang it, we don't like new movies based on the movies we grew up on! Nothing can replace the movies of our youth!"

Yes, I understand the sentiment. The popular art of our youth is always important to us, it's after all . . . our youth! But to base your opinion on whether a movie is a good movie or not solely on a desire to keep the memory of your "youth" forever alive is ridiculous. When the remake a movie or create a new sequel to an original script, they don't destroy all the copies of the older movies, the ones you grew up on. They are still there, and you can watch them whenever you want. There. Problem solved. 

For this lover of the original Halloween and the Laurie/Michael storyline, I think this sequel is the best of them all. Okay, Yes! I am a big fan of Halloween III: Season of the Witch, WHICH I just learned there is sequel in the works for 2019! Yea! BUT it is NOT a sequel to the original Laurie/Michael storyline and ANY sequel worth it's horror socks should be based on the original, a continuation of the original story . . . but I digress!

Halloween 2018 is a "perfect" sequel; it does two thing that I think a sequel needs to do:
1. The storyline doesn't "repeat" the story of Laurie and Michael but expands on it.  
Yes, I can hear you yelling at me, "What do you mean?! It's exactly like the storyline in the original Halloween!" Yes, I understand why you're yelling at me (please, use your diaphragmatic breathing skills you acquired in you Voice for the Stage class when yelling . . . it will save your voice.) because it might look like the same storyline . . . but it's not.

It is a continuation of the story but from forty years later.  Of course, that doesn't mean that the screenwriter couldn't just repeat the same story . . . but they don't. One big difference, and maybe the only difference, between Halloween today and Halloween forty years ago is Laurie and Michael. Laurie is nothing like the high school girl she was before she "met" Michael:

Laurie Strode: Do you know that I pray every night that he would escape?

Hawkins: What the hell did you do that for?

Laurie Strode: So I can kill him. -moviequotesandmore.com/

And that is the big change in Laurie's life that made me sit up and pay attention. She's no longer fodder for a psychotic killer, she IS the cunning, ruthless killer . . . just like Michael. AND Michael? Yeah, he's changed too, at least, to me. He's even more dangerous and the brought back the idea that there is something more than human about him.  

2. A good sequel needs to pay homage to what has gone before in the franchise.
And this movie has some kind of Easter Egg from every franchise sequel out. Okay, at least that's what I'm told . . . I have seen all the sequels and the remakes but I don't remember everything that went on in them. But I do know the Halloween III has some goodies thrown in there as does Halloween 2. However, there's a neat little bit of juxtaposing characters that goes on it one scene that received a small round of applause from the audience. Not gonna tell you what it is. 

So, though I hear a lot of bad mouthing going around on Facebook, I think this sequel will appeal to most lovers of the franchise. And I hope this is just the beginning of beautiful relationship between Blumhouse Productions and Halloween. 

GRADE 93% = A-

Bad Times at the El Royale, October 12, 2018

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face. 

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 4

And THAT quote by King Duncan from Shakespeare's Macbeth sums up the whole structure and storyline of Bad Times at The El Royale. We, the audience, have little knowledge of what is going on in this movie from moment to moment. Nothing is what it appears to be. And no one is exactly who we think they are. And that weird approach to storytelling, the lack of exposition in the first part of the story is what makes El Royale one damn interesting movie . . . but for some it might be  a boring mass of sluggishness! Why? Well, because it's less an action film as it is a character study of four strangers who just happen to be in the same place at a very wrong time. And what a great cast makes up this formable ensemble, Jeff Bridges as the old priest  who appears to not always be quite mentally in touch with what's going on,  Cynthia Erivo as the mysterious lounge singer with an even more shady past following her, and Jon Hamm the upbeat vacuum cleaner salesman . . . or is he? There are even more characters who are EVEN MORE enigmatic, such as, the humorless, hippie chick who checks in under the nom de plume: Fuck You.

And another aspect to this movie that might turn some folks off is the dialogue. There's a lot of it. In fact, the primary vehicle for the action is the dialogue. They talk a lot about themselves, a lot about life or at least they lie about it. Because we really can't tell if the characters are telling us the truth or not. The only way we get to the truth about what's going on with this group of people is through . . . flashbacks! The life, the truth of these souls adrift in the metaphorical ocean of the El Royale are expressed to us in flashbacks of their individual lives. But not before an action that is important to the development of the story or the plot, but afterwards as an explanation for the actions of the character. But the one character that we think is so unimportant to the story's end, that flashback . . . well, I don't want to tell you TOO much because this movie needs to be experienced by audience and not gossiped about in a review!

So, El Royale is a challenging movie for the audience. It asks you to listen and watch and not be worried about NOT understanding what is going on . . . just enjoy the weird-ass ride that Bad Times at the El Royale offers the audience. 

Grade: 98% = A+