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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Hocus Pocus (1993) in Movies
Mar 16, 2021
A full-tilt ball, I tend to be averse to anything ruminating with *this* much untamed theater kid energy - but Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and of-fucking-course Bette Midler are 110% off the chain. I admit that the odious 90s stereotypes in this are hard to stomach, but I miss when Disney's live action allowed for such sublime scenery-chewing like this trio of perfect performances instead of Will Smith and some dude tepidly talking about jelly for what feels like an hour. I hate to be that guy, but something this lively just couldn't be recreated from the company today; Kenny Ortega's knack for brilliant practical effects and super impressive CGI for the time today is replaced by plastic visuals and flat soundstages where any sense of fun all but evaporates. Make no mistake, this is still not much more than pure fluff at the end of the day - but Lord it's such a blast. One of the few millennial-worship films I can fully understand the hype for, a delightful cross between šš©š¦ ššŖšµš¤š©š¦š“ š°š§ šš¢š“šµšøšŖš¤š¬ and "The Three Stooges". It's also consistently funny. "I Put A Spell On You" is a bop, and maybe I'm just getting old but the stuff at the end had me genuinely choked up.
Tom Chaplin recommended Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in Music (curated)
David Hudson recommended Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) in Movies (curated)
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Half Baked (1998) in Movies
Jul 4, 2021
Ironically, not even that much better while high. I liked this for the majority of the runtime but that third act really tried my patience - falls into the exact line as other late 90s/early 00s buddy comedies in vein of šš¶š„š¦, šš©š¦š³š¦'š“ ššŗ šš¢š³? and the like that I just fucking hate, where the film completely gives up and a bunch of tiring 'wacky' stuff happens until it abruptly ends. Pretty typical hit-or-miss stoner comedy of the era but easy to forgive when the thing isn't even 85 minutes in length. It's agreeable enough with some seriously funny shit in it every now and again, mostly only holding its own in the sea of other similar movies due to its trio of three sharp, exuberant lead performances - Jim Breuer's final boss tie-dyed pothead steals the show with extreme prejudice (seriously, has anyone else in a movie ever exuded *more* stoner energy than this guy?). Can be lumped right in with ššŖš“š“ šš¢š³š¤š© in the "kind of funny, semi-decent films written by people who are clearly above such work but also maybe that was the point of it to begin with?" pile. But Bob Saget's "I used to suck dick for coke!" bit remains as iconic and effortlessly hysterical as ever.
Justin Hawkins recommended Exile on Main St. by The Rolling Stones in Music (curated)
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Slumdog Millionaire (2008) in Movies
Sep 21, 2020
A once again astounding Dev Patel sells otherwise sulking, superficial melodrama. Don't you hate when the framing device is more interesting than the actual story? If not for the calamitous š š¦š“šµš¦š³š„š¢šŗ then the stuff when they were kids here would be some of the worst moments of Boyle's entire career - overedited to smithereens, fetishistic of plight, and vaguely offensive. Even when this gets good I'm convinced this movie is much more concerned with dragging these characters through the mud and inflicting pain to wring synthetic sympathy rather than fleshing them out beyond one-note characterizations and abrupt turnarounds. Still pressed this brilliant premise didn't get the justice it truly deserved but the last hour of this is executed about as engagingly as it could have been, for what it ended up being (which only makes the transition from the older stuff to the newer stuff more jarring) and randomly gets super entertaining, if not much less simplistic. Score is pretty decent, too. It's alright but not sure why this shook everyone's world back in the day, you guys do know Indian cinema exists too, no? Way better than šš¦š¢š“šµš“ š°š§ šµš©š¦ šš°š¶šµš©š¦š³šÆ ššŖšš„ but way shittier than ššŖš°šÆ. The "Jai Ho" segment is as cringey as it is memorable.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Onward (2020) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
This could have been the whole game, instead just feels like a fetch quest. Gotta say, (sarcasm incoming) really love the idea here to get two once-charming actors who have since had most of their personality sucked dry by the Marvel beast to lend their hardly descript vocal talents to a hardly descript movie of hardly descript characters. Did we just collectively decide against actual voice acting anymore over dry celebrities practically voicing themselves? Ends with a complete cop-out and its breathtaking animation is clouded by either murk or oversaturation seemingly deliberately. Not to mention the character design is ass-ugly. Can't entirely hate it though, not without some charm and handful of okay moments - but whose idea was it to set up this gold mine premise of magic being systematically pushed out of the world by technology for nothing more than simple convenience... and then do fucking nothing with it while setting it in this bland suburbia of normalcy? Potential brilliance in storytelling through an epic, gorgeous video game-esque Disney film is squandered for another antiseptic, indifferent retread of the most basic themes from the company. Not even funny, either. Had more fun with it than I'm probably letting on but I simultaneously loathe what this represents.
Joe Goodhart (27 KP) rated Doctor Who: The Death of Art in Books
Nov 30, 2020
Time for some troof! I tried reading this back when it first came out. I found it $2.95 at a used book store in the U.S. (Philadelphia, to be exact). The premise seemed neat and I saw a mention of Ace in the first few pages, so I felt I was on board. Yeah, no.
Jump ahead to now, I have been re-visiting key 7th Doctor NAs (sorry, but anyone who thinks NuWHO is groundbreaking or mentally stimulating, needs to read some of these and re-evaluate that statement. Just steer clear of this one!). This one was next on my list, as I wanted to give it a second chance, as my mind is so much more freer these days.
Unfortunately, my original opinion still stands for me: this book is rubbish! The beginning is interesting, but then goes so far out of the loop with that Chapter about alien race the Quoth. When Simon Bucher-Jones is on his game, he is A-MAZ-ING, not unlike Brian Michael Bendis when he writes his own creations, but when he sucks like this? <b>PEEEEE-YOOOO!</b>
By all means, do not waste any time, energy, etc. trying to endure this! Your mind will hate for years to come!
Jump ahead to now, I have been re-visiting key 7th Doctor NAs (sorry, but anyone who thinks NuWHO is groundbreaking or mentally stimulating, needs to read some of these and re-evaluate that statement. Just steer clear of this one!). This one was next on my list, as I wanted to give it a second chance, as my mind is so much more freer these days.
Unfortunately, my original opinion still stands for me: this book is rubbish! The beginning is interesting, but then goes so far out of the loop with that Chapter about alien race the Quoth. When Simon Bucher-Jones is on his game, he is A-MAZ-ING, not unlike Brian Michael Bendis when he writes his own creations, but when he sucks like this? <b>PEEEEE-YOOOO!</b>
By all means, do not waste any time, energy, etc. trying to endure this! Your mind will hate for years to come!
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Leprechaun (1993) in Movies
Oct 19, 2020
The original Leprechaun is so so silly. It's low budget, it's brimming with unfunny jokes, it's not scary in the slightest, but dammit it's hard to hate on it too much.
The characters in Leprechaun are mostly typical easy-to-dislike personality voids (apart from my boy Ozzie), but some of the casting is notable. Of course, a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston takes the lead and is likable enough, but the main star is obviously Warwick Davis. This being the early nineties, the horror genre was firmly set on its villains being the star, following the success of 80s icons such as Freddy Krueger, and the titular creature takes up most of the spotlight.
The Leprechaun himself is so-so. He's more of a little shit than a full blown monster, and the majority of his one liners aren't particularly funny, but Davis is clearly giving his all in this role, and is no doubt the sole reason why this movie spawned an entire franchise, even if Lep is ultimately a poor man's Chucky.
As far as cheesy horror films go, you could do a lot worse than Leprechaun (it's many sequels for example). It's cheap and trashy, but it's still pretty entertaining.
The characters in Leprechaun are mostly typical easy-to-dislike personality voids (apart from my boy Ozzie), but some of the casting is notable. Of course, a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston takes the lead and is likable enough, but the main star is obviously Warwick Davis. This being the early nineties, the horror genre was firmly set on its villains being the star, following the success of 80s icons such as Freddy Krueger, and the titular creature takes up most of the spotlight.
The Leprechaun himself is so-so. He's more of a little shit than a full blown monster, and the majority of his one liners aren't particularly funny, but Davis is clearly giving his all in this role, and is no doubt the sole reason why this movie spawned an entire franchise, even if Lep is ultimately a poor man's Chucky.
As far as cheesy horror films go, you could do a lot worse than Leprechaun (it's many sequels for example). It's cheap and trashy, but it's still pretty entertaining.
Kristina (502 KP) rated The Beast (The Beast, #1) in Books
Dec 7, 2020
I felt like this story had some potential, especially with the first few chapters. However, it quickly changed for me. "The Beast' is written in dual personalities, that of Dimitri and Columbia, which suited the story fine, but a lot of it felt boringly repetitious - reading almost the exact same moments, just with different points of view. Then came the instalove. Sure, Columbia put up a decent fight, but everything that happens before Columbia returns home literally happens within 2 days, tops. By then, Dimitri is already changing and deciding she's the cure to his darkness and Columbia is trying not to confess that she's already in love with him. I hate to say it, but once both characters suddenly decided it didn't matter how fast they fell for each other, it's what they truly felt, I lost a lot of interest in the story. Jaden promises a tale of darkness without the "typical love story" aspect. Sure, most love stories don't involve an ex-Russian mafia murderer falling in love with a self-harming, sexually abused young woman... But the instalove, the immediate realization that this person is "different", the sudden desire to change a characteristic that's been ingrained for years... That stuff was fluff.