Search

Search only in certain items:

Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses (2015)
Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses (2015)
2015 | Crime, Documentary, Drama
How mass hysteria and inverted cultural beliefs become fatal
Once more, Netflix has showcased another harrowing documentary, this time set in New Zealand.

In the heart of Maori culture, lies the belief of Makatu, a curse or demon, that can allegedly be 'exorcised'. A poor young mother, Janet Moses, who either had mental health issues or was seemingly depressed, was confronted by her large family attempting to help her. Unfortunately their misguided deeply held beliefs included holding her down and plying water into her for days on end in a bid to rid her of a demon. And while they believed they they were assisting her, she eventually died after five days.

And of course a court case ensued about culpability. A truly terrible instance of dogmatic beliefs, cabin fever, and hysteria.
  
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
9
7.7 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Powerful, epic, a real look into inhumanity
Reading this is obviously a struggle, the content of slavery is not something that can be trivialised so be warned.

While Colson Whitehead did not get into much character building, the focus on the underground railroad itself is detailed and descriptive. The protagonist Cora serves as a good barometer in understanding the level of horror that many African Americans faced hence the writer does not seem to concentrate on creating emotive backgrounds for each character.

Nevertheless, the terrifying incidents leave the reader empathising with the characters as it reflects the lack of safety and constant fear they had to face. It is a rollercoaster read, starting off slow but still horrifying, culminating in more and more terrible situations.

A 21st century tribute to the generations who have suffered.
  
Supernatural
Supernatural
2005 | Drama
Monsters and Man pain
Supernatural for me is really hard to rate because personally, I break it up into two:
Season 1-5 are pure just amazing the monsters of the week are all just as interesting as the main plot that starts to build-up near the end of season 1. The writers found such an amazing balance between myths and character development that you just get hooked so fast and they stay so strong for five season which is pretty hard to do in my opinion.

Now season 6 - current is an entirely different story while not completely terrible and some of the seasons being pretty good as a whole I feel like they really lost their footing after season 5 and just never really recovered all the way.
  
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
2017 | Action, Comedy
Elegantly Filmed (4 more)
Interesting American Twist
Action Packed
Creative Characters
Wonderful Acting
Gimmicky Jokes (2 more)
Trying to Hard in Some Scenes
A Little too Predictable
A wonderful Sequel... For a Sequel
Although i appreciate the film as a whole i was sadly expecting more. Although it isnt a terrible film and still holds to the elegance and spy classics presented in the original film, it still lacked a slight originality of its own and relied on many gimmicks to deliver good jokes. Much of the interesting scenes seemed to be cut short or have awkward interludes stuck between the action. The acting was fantastic and I love a good spy movie but I can only really appreciate this film in terms of the sequel to the original rather than a stand alone film of its own.
  
Aladdin (2019)
Aladdin (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Musical
The story (0 more)
The pacing in songs (1 more)
Jafar, just not malevolent
Not great, not terrible
So Aladdin came in for some possibly unjustified criticism when the trailers dropped and Will Smith was introduced as Genie, that though seriously is not the worst of the film.

The animated movie Jafar is evil, cunning and has the air of malevolence with every word he utters, in the live action, he's well, not, throughout the film he comes across weak, so that air just isn't there.

That though sad to say is not the worst, Jasmine and Aladdin, just no chemistry making the more romantic scenes more than a little painful to watch.

While kids will watch it and love the colorful genie, the parents will be fondly remembering the animated movie.