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Halloween II (1981)
Halloween II (1981)
1981 | Horror
6
7.4 (23 Ratings)
Movie Rating
There's a fair amount to love about Halloween II, a sequel set on the same night as the original, immediately following that films ending.
For instance, I can admire the style that director Rick Rosenthal was going for, attempting to make his sequel feel as much like the first film as possible, the idea being that you could watch both back to back.
There a few creepy shots here and there. One that really sticks is the shot of Michael in the darkness just before the poor nurse get killed with a syringe. Another is Michael on the CCTV when he first enters the hospital. Another is when Laurie see Michael across the parking lot underneath a red light. and then there's Michael with blood running out of the eye holes in his mask, followed by him walking out of that one room completely ablaze. It's all to do with Michael then! Once again, this movie showcases how his straightforward design is striking and rightly iconic.
It's nice to see Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie, and Donald Pleasance back as Loomis. All in all, it does truly feel like a sequel, but there's something missing.

The original is one of my favourite horrors ever made, and Halloween II, despite its positives, just fails to capture the same essence. This is partly to do with the script. It feels like a lot of the actors were just told to ad lib all their lines or something. The tension building scenes go on for a little too long also, ironically voiding a few scenes of said tension. It's feels like the first film in everything but execution pretty much.

It's a heavily flawed sequel, but it's still a decent watch, and is certainly one of the better sequels in this long running series. It deserves credit for the bit near the beginning where Loomis shouts "you don't know what death is!" before the synth heavy version of the theme tune kicks in, that was badass.
  
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed
1976 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Coney Island Baby by Lou Reed

(0 Ratings)

Track

"This is from Lou Reed’s sixth solo record Coney Island Baby, which was released in 1975. Whenever this song comes on it has this incredible ability to transport me back to a specific car journey; I was nine years old and I was being driven to Heathrow in the back of my Dad's car. “My parents had recently separated, and I was living with my Mum in France. I had to fly back to the UK for hospital operations, which is why Dad was driving me to the airport, to fly home to France. Nine years old is quite young to fly on your own, and I remember it being a traumatic experience to say goodbye to one parent and then fly across what felt like an entire ocean, especially after surgery. “On this occasion my Dad had Lou Reed playing and “Coney Island Baby” came on. I was too young to understand the lyrics, but I felt them. I received the sentiment of the song even in my tiny child mind. It cut through everything in that moment - I can still smell the leather of the car seats, I can still taste the tears rolling down my cheek and still see the tears on my Dad’s face in the rear-view mirror. I actually usually skip this song when it comes on, because it’s almost too much to be transported back into that sort of pain. “As a lyricist, I really scrutinize lyrics and I always try and follow the story when I listen to music. When I fall in love with an artist, I’m always Googling the lyrics and trying to work out the various meanings and duality behind the words. With a song like this, which I discovered when I was so young, the lyrics are almost unimportant. It’s more about the feeling that they convey. “There probably is a narrative there, but when I listen to the song its lost on me. I’m absorbed by the feeling of being in that car."

Source
  
Yesterday (2019)
Yesterday (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Fantasy, Music
A part time musician and shop worker, Jack wants nothing more than to become a successful recording artist. He busks in the street and sings in various small venues with not much of an audience and soon realises he is getting nowhere and decides to quit performing. On his way home from his last gig, there's a blackout and Jack is hit by a bus ending up in hospital. Upon his release, he sings a beatles song for his friends and he comes to the realisation that the beatles have been wiped from existence as his friends had no idea who he was talking about. Jack sees this as the perfect opportunity to sing and perform their songs as if they were his own and he becomes an overnight success.

As someone who wasn't around when the beatles were around, I wasn't sure if I would like this movie, but I actually enjoyed it. I recognised many songs as I grew up with a dad who is a massive fan and even found myself singing along, though there were a few I had never heard of.

Ed sheeran is a surprisingly good actor too and makes a great addition to the cast, I did find it funny when his phones ringtone was one of his own songs.

The movie has a good mixture of drama and comedy, when it first started I expected it to be a slapstick comedy, but thankfully it wasn't that at all.

I quite liked the scene with John lennon, I've seen him in pictures and Documentaries and he looked so much like him. It was lovely to see what could have been.

The ending didn't end how I expected it to end, I won't spoil it but if you think of the ending of every movie where someone or something changes, for example switching bodies and you'll know what I mean.

Overall it was a good movie and I definitely recommend it, even if you're not a beatles fan.
  
Blood Alone
Blood Alone
James R. Benn | 2008 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Can Billy Recover His Memory in Time to Complete His Mission?
As this book opens, Billy Boyle is waking up in a field hospital. He can’t remember who he is or what he is doing there. Slowly, he begins to piece together things like his name and the fact that he is in Sicily in the summer of 1942. He also believes he has an important mission to carry out for his uncle, General Eisenhower. But he can’t remember what that mission is. However, he knows he has to keep moving, especially when he stumbles upon a dead body. Following the only clues he has, he sets out across the island, soon joined by a local doctor. Will he recover his memory in time?
 
Amnesia isn’t a new plot device, but I thought it was handled well here to set up the story and draw us in. As Billy relearns who he is, it also offers reminders on what has happened before without saddling us with long exposition. New readers should be warned that this does contain some pretty major spoilers for the first two books, however. That information is needed since it allows us to see real growth in the characters; I love how they are developing. We also see the impact of the war, not only on Billy and the other soldiers but also on the people living in Sicily at the time. All of this does sidetrack the mystery at times, and I’m torn on this. I appreciate how rich the book is, but I wish the pacing were a little better. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of action; so much so that Billy feels like an action hero at times. There is a solid mystery in the book with some good twists that took me by surprise. Overall, this is a great third book in a series I wish I had started sooner.
  
The Blackcoat's Daughter (February) (2015)
The Blackcoat's Daughter (February) (2015)
2015 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Characters – Joan is a lost girl that is trying to return home from a hospital which brings along a couple that want to help her to make up for the fact they lost their daughter, Kat is the emotionless quiet girl at the school who hasn’t heard from her parents before winter break and must stay there with Rose. Rose is the other girl that got left at the home, I feel she is older and expected to be the one to look after Kat.

Performance – The three girls Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka and Lucy Boynton are all good through the film, they each create their own personality for their characters which does make us care what they are up to however confusing it all gets.

Story – The story here is very confusing, we follow two seemingly different story arcs about girls that find themselves becoming possessed by an evil spirit, we don’t get to focus on either of them enough and they don’t seem to meet up at any point to explain why we need to watch two different stories unfold. I do feel this does end up coming off attempting to be too smart for its own good leaving us with nothing important happening.

Horror – This tries to play into the psycological horror but ends up falling slightly short because it ends up being confusing.

Settings – The settings don’t help here either because we follow the two stories one is on the road while the other is around the middle of the home the girls are staying.

Special Effects – The effects are good without being overused and mostly used for gore effects.

Scene of the Movie – Stop here, because it is shocking.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It was just too confusing.

Tagline – She Returns.

Final Thoughts – This film is just too confusing really, it makes everything hard to follow which didn’t make it enjoyable to follow.

 

Overall: Too Confusing.

Rating