3.5 stars

Aquaman

Had some misses in the middle. But a good Hero’s Journey. Very King Arthur.

Of the recent batch of Warner Brothers DC movies, it is second only to Wonder Woman. But it does meander some in the middle. I appreciated the way Arthur’s young life is sprinkled throughout the film in small bits.

Aquaman is set after the events of Justice League. There is a mid-credits scene, but it is not needed. It basically tells you what you expect. Remember, if you do not see the body, they are not dead.

Synopsis from IMDB:
Arthur Curry learns that he is the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, and must step forward to lead his people and be a hero to the world. And prevent war between land and sea.

Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison, Ludi Lin

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Halloween, 2018



Halloween 2018 is a sequel to the original Halloween from 1978. The other sequels and remake do not exist in this continuity. They are treated as embellished stories .

Michael, the Shape, is more brutal and violent in this entry. Body count is definitely higher than the original. You get nods aplenty to the original. No pet deaths. The only nudity is a bit of a flashback to Michael killing his sister from the first movie. But no one is safe from Michael. No one.

This movie also gives us a broken, but determined Laurie Strode. Someone dubbed “the new Loomis” who unfortunately does exactly what you expect him to. It is nice seeing 3 generations of Strodes on screen.

The movie does end with the possibility of a sequel in one fashion or another.

Synopsis: Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer, Rhian Rees, Jefferson Hall, Toby Huss, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, Miles Robbins, Jibrail Nantambu, Omar J. Dorsey

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Tag



This was more touching than I expected it to be. It was not a laugh a minute comedy, but did showcase a group of friends using a game of tag to stay in each others lives.

The videos at the end show the real life men this movie is based on. Showing that part of the mall scene was based directly on real life events.

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, LilRel Howery, Jon Hamm, Annabelle Wallis, Isla Fisher, Hannibal Buress, Nora Dunn, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones

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Hereditary



I am not sure how I feel about this one. This is another movie you can take a face value – the events happened as we see them – or there is mental illness involved along the maternal line. Making just about everyone in the movie an unreliable narrator.

Hereditary is a slow burn, atmospheric piece. Definitely some WTF moments in the movie.

We start with the funeral of Annie’s mother. Someone she was not close to. After an accident and another funeral, events begin to spiral out of control.

During the course of the movie, we learn her mother had Disassociative Identity Disorder and Dementia. Her brother killed himself as a teenager. Her daughter has something going on. She herself slept walked and almost killed her kids a few years ago. All of this makes Annie and her kids unreliable narrators.

I prefer to think Annie experienced a psychotic break instead of the devil-cult ending we get.

Starring: Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd

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Pacific Rim: Uprising



Pacific Rim: Uprising takes us to a world still recovering from the Kaiju attacks that ended 10 years ago.

We see the current state of the Jaeger program and how it is set to progress. We learn that even with the breach closed, the invaders are not done with us yet.

The trailer gives a lot of the action beats away. You see Jaeger fighting Jaeger. You see Kaijus voltroning themselves together.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is enjoyable enough. But it is missing that touch from the first one. Maybe its the lack of Ron Perlman…

Starring: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, Tian Jing, Rinko Kikuchi

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