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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Summer of 84 (2018) in Movies
Sep 26, 2020 (Updated Sep 26, 2020)
Contains spoilers, click to show
I have mixed feelings about Summer of 84, another 80s love letter following in the wake of the cataclysmic popularity of Stranger Things. Probably easier to break this one down into bullet points.
- The four main characters are pretty hit and miss. The actors are all fine, but some of the dialogue and pop culture references seem very forced. They provide the movie with some funny moments for sure, but their characters are fairly cliché and the chemistry goes through some flat moments.
- The story is pretty straightforward and decent, and provides an entertaining mystery, but some of the plot points are odd and a lot of the characters are just insufferably stupid.
- The ending is conflicting as well. Considering the majority of the film is quite comedic and seems intended towards a family audience, the ending is pretty bleak. My initial thoughts were "fair enough, quite ballsy" but now I can't decide whether it was in fact just plain mean spirited. Either way, it left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
- A couple of positives - I really enjoyed the music score, and the cinematography. The film has a lovely aesthetic to it.
- Not sure how the babysitter character was supposed to be portrayed, but she seemed a bit too old for a love interest to the 15 year old protagonist. Made me feel uncomfortable...
Summer of 84 is an entertaining enough psuedo-slasher thriller, but it suffers from pacing issues amongst other things that stops it being as good is it could have been.
- The four main characters are pretty hit and miss. The actors are all fine, but some of the dialogue and pop culture references seem very forced. They provide the movie with some funny moments for sure, but their characters are fairly cliché and the chemistry goes through some flat moments.
- The story is pretty straightforward and decent, and provides an entertaining mystery, but some of the plot points are odd and a lot of the characters are just insufferably stupid.
- The ending is conflicting as well. Considering the majority of the film is quite comedic and seems intended towards a family audience, the ending is pretty bleak. My initial thoughts were "fair enough, quite ballsy" but now I can't decide whether it was in fact just plain mean spirited. Either way, it left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
- A couple of positives - I really enjoyed the music score, and the cinematography. The film has a lovely aesthetic to it.
- Not sure how the babysitter character was supposed to be portrayed, but she seemed a bit too old for a love interest to the 15 year old protagonist. Made me feel uncomfortable...
Summer of 84 is an entertaining enough psuedo-slasher thriller, but it suffers from pacing issues amongst other things that stops it being as good is it could have been.

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) in Movies
Oct 6, 2020
Alternative/goth female lead? Check. Atrocious CGI? Check. Casual homophobic slurs? Check. We are deep into shitty 90s straight-to-video territory here.
Wishmaster 2 is a big step down from the first film in almost every way. In its defense, it had a pretty small budget, but Christ it looks cheap. All of the characters are boring and under-developed, the lead character is somehow more irritating than the girl from the first Wishmaster, some of the acting on display is pretty horrific and the sound mix is just all over the place.
I found myself forgetting the general plot as I was watching it - what the fuck was that Russian gangster side plot all about?
If there are some positives to take from Wishmaster 2 (and believe me, there aren't many) then the best one is obviously Andrew Divoff, returning as The Djinn. He hams it up a storm, and provides the only entertainment value this movie has to offer. I will also say that the make up work on his demonic form looks pretty good.
Aside from that, there are a couple of good gore scenes, the guy forcing himself through the prison bars is a particularly gratuitous and bloody moment and the practical effects are decent enough, it's just that these fleeting moments of something resembling quality are few and far between. There's also a bit where a guy contorts his body to literally fuck himself, so there's that...
Overall then, Wishmaster 2 is pretty crap, which is a shame, as the flawed but entertaing first movie showed some franchise potential. Can't wait to put myself through Wishmaster 3 and 4....
Wishmaster 2 is a big step down from the first film in almost every way. In its defense, it had a pretty small budget, but Christ it looks cheap. All of the characters are boring and under-developed, the lead character is somehow more irritating than the girl from the first Wishmaster, some of the acting on display is pretty horrific and the sound mix is just all over the place.
I found myself forgetting the general plot as I was watching it - what the fuck was that Russian gangster side plot all about?
If there are some positives to take from Wishmaster 2 (and believe me, there aren't many) then the best one is obviously Andrew Divoff, returning as The Djinn. He hams it up a storm, and provides the only entertainment value this movie has to offer. I will also say that the make up work on his demonic form looks pretty good.
Aside from that, there are a couple of good gore scenes, the guy forcing himself through the prison bars is a particularly gratuitous and bloody moment and the practical effects are decent enough, it's just that these fleeting moments of something resembling quality are few and far between. There's also a bit where a guy contorts his body to literally fuck himself, so there's that...
Overall then, Wishmaster 2 is pretty crap, which is a shame, as the flawed but entertaing first movie showed some franchise potential. Can't wait to put myself through Wishmaster 3 and 4....

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated 30 Days of Night (2007) in Movies
Oct 28, 2020
Bloodthirsty Alaskan Vampires
30 Days of Night- has been a film ive wanted to see for couple years now and it was not disappointed. It was viloence, gory, suspenseful, thrilling and bloody.
The plot: In the far Northern Hemisphere, the small town of Barrow, Alaska, experiences a solid month of darkness every year. Though most of the residents head south for the winter, some townspeople remain behind. However, those that stay regret their decision when, one year, hungry vampires descend on Barrow to feed. Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his wife (Melissa George) and a dwindling band of survivors must try to last until dawn breaks over Barrow's monthlong twilight.
30 Days of Night was originally pitched as a comic, then as a film, but it was rejected. Years later, Steve Niles showed IDW Publishing the idea and it took off.
30 Days of Night author Steve Niles conceived of the story in the form of a comic, but—after meeting a lack of interest in initial pitches—tried to pitch it as a film. When this did not work out, Niles shelved the idea until he showed it to IDW Publishing. IDW published the comic and Ben Templesmith provided the artwork.
When Niles and his agent, Jon Levin, shopped the comic around again as a potential film adaptation, Niles found that the idea "went shockingly well," with Sam Raimi and Senator International picking up the property rights based on the original concept and Templesmith's unique mood and concepts for the vampires. According to Raimi, the potential project was "unlike the horror films of recent years".
Its a excellent vampire movie.
The plot: In the far Northern Hemisphere, the small town of Barrow, Alaska, experiences a solid month of darkness every year. Though most of the residents head south for the winter, some townspeople remain behind. However, those that stay regret their decision when, one year, hungry vampires descend on Barrow to feed. Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his wife (Melissa George) and a dwindling band of survivors must try to last until dawn breaks over Barrow's monthlong twilight.
30 Days of Night was originally pitched as a comic, then as a film, but it was rejected. Years later, Steve Niles showed IDW Publishing the idea and it took off.
30 Days of Night author Steve Niles conceived of the story in the form of a comic, but—after meeting a lack of interest in initial pitches—tried to pitch it as a film. When this did not work out, Niles shelved the idea until he showed it to IDW Publishing. IDW published the comic and Ben Templesmith provided the artwork.
When Niles and his agent, Jon Levin, shopped the comic around again as a potential film adaptation, Niles found that the idea "went shockingly well," with Sam Raimi and Senator International picking up the property rights based on the original concept and Templesmith's unique mood and concepts for the vampires. According to Raimi, the potential project was "unlike the horror films of recent years".
Its a excellent vampire movie.

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Halloween (1978) in Movies
Oct 29, 2020 (Updated Oct 29, 2020)
I think this is so good that it actually sort of suffers because of it, if that makes any sense? Starts off phenomenally - exemplifies what the best of horror movies can be and quite honestly does continue most of the way through. The formal precision is just insane, Dean Cundey naturally makes sure this looks nothing short of remarkable and the music is some of the all-time best ever contributed to a horror movie. So simple yet so effective, so suspenseful all these decades later. It never really loses any sort of quality outside of waning some of its tightness near the middle, but despite the fact that it's objectively exemplary it still feels like it lacks something, that oomph that this by all means should have. A huge factor, I think, is that truthfully this overuses a lot of its tricks. I mean Michael Myers, mysterious and intimidating, often framed from below the neck or behind the head is a staggering image in horror history - him disappearing and suddenly reappearing outside of a window or doorway? Truly haunting the first couple times, even a time or two after that. But again, then again, then again? It starts to lose its luster fast and really flattens the eerie wavelength of not really knowing what's going on. Though I think even this movie's fans don't give enough credit to how it (quite obviously and vocally) portrays Laurie, Loomis, and Michael as being tied irreversibly by fate where each attempt at either one getting out is merely one of a never-ending amount of predetermined actions merely to mirror randomness.

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Lost in Me (Here and Now, #1) in Books
Jan 11, 2021
*I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
4.25 stars
This book grabbed me from the first chapter. I was interested in how Lizzy was going to help her get her crush and then we're thrown straight into the next chapter and she's suffering from amnesia and can't remember anything of the last year but her life has changed considerably.
I just HAD to keep reading so I could unravel the mystery of what had happened to Hanna and to figure out how everything had changed in those months she couldn't remember. I read this in one sitting, I was that addicted.
Being a bigger girl myself I was invested in Hanna getting her guy. I wanted her to be happy and body confident. But figuring out who was the right guy when she can't remember anything was hard. I was invested in it. In her.
And then those last couple of chapters... I was in floods of tears towards the end.
Then that last sentence turned it into a cliff-hanger ending and I now NEED to read the next book to see what happens next with Hanna. That's my reasoning for knocking the story down half a star. I was looking forward to a happy ending for them and currently they haven't got one.
There are also still several unanswered questions: What happened the day she fell down the bakery stairs? Who's the anonymous investor in the bakery? (Though we may already know the answer). Did Hanna put the ring on that day, or did someone put it on for her?
Off to buy book 2.
4.25 stars
This book grabbed me from the first chapter. I was interested in how Lizzy was going to help her get her crush and then we're thrown straight into the next chapter and she's suffering from amnesia and can't remember anything of the last year but her life has changed considerably.
I just HAD to keep reading so I could unravel the mystery of what had happened to Hanna and to figure out how everything had changed in those months she couldn't remember. I read this in one sitting, I was that addicted.
Being a bigger girl myself I was invested in Hanna getting her guy. I wanted her to be happy and body confident. But figuring out who was the right guy when she can't remember anything was hard. I was invested in it. In her.
And then those last couple of chapters... I was in floods of tears towards the end.
Then that last sentence turned it into a cliff-hanger ending and I now NEED to read the next book to see what happens next with Hanna. That's my reasoning for knocking the story down half a star. I was looking forward to a happy ending for them and currently they haven't got one.
There are also still several unanswered questions: What happened the day she fell down the bakery stairs? Who's the anonymous investor in the bakery? (Though we may already know the answer). Did Hanna put the ring on that day, or did someone put it on for her?
Off to buy book 2.