Prime Time: The Addams Family 2 (2021)

As much as everyone seemed ready to dismiss, and even hate, the recent animated The Addams Family movie, I was still happy to give it my time. I enjoy macabre humour, even (especially?) in animated form. I was happy enough with the voice cast. And I am a fan of the main characters. It ended up being absolutely fine, but not something I would revisit ahead of some of the live-action adventures. I had forgotten that a sequel was made though, leading to a pleasant surprise when I saw that it was already available online.

The plot is enjoyably simple, and enjoyably all about the bond of family in a way that both embraces and pushes aside the traditional “blood is thicker than water” idea. Having done her usual great work at a science show, “improving” Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) with some serum created from an octopus, Wednesday Addams (Chloe Grace Moretz) gets herself noticed by the successful scientist named Cyrus Strange (Bill Hader). Not only has he noticed her, he claims that she is actually HIS daughter, having been switched around in the hospital. Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) strongly deny this, of course, but things don’t look good, and even an impromptu family holiday may not help out things right.

Unsurprisingly not quite as good as the first movie, this is a sequel that hits a lot of expected points. They have to create a crisis for the central characters, removing them from the comfort of their home environment helps, and it all feels a bit more contrived, and a bit less necessary than the previous film, which was hardly all that necessary anyway.

What is a surprise is the fact that it took about four directors and four writers to get this crafted into a feature. That is eight people in total. EIGHT. To deliver something that, while far from offensively bad, is a very obvious and safe bit of work.

It’s a good job that the voice cast are still a big plus, with Theron and Isaac both arguably as good in the lead roles as anyone could be. Helped by the obvious, but enjoyable, lines of dialogue that allow them to deride the normal world around them while loving one another, and their family, with an amusingly unrestrained approach, both feel completely in line with how we have known the characters over the years. Moretz also does very well in the role of Wednesday, dour and dangerous, especially to her brother, Pugsley (voiced this time by Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, and no, I also have no idea why he decided to insert an incomplete Spice Girls song title into his name). Nick Kroll is amusing enough as Uncle Fester, Bette Midler is wonderful in her cameo role (playing Granny), and director Conrad Vernon has fun portraying Lurch. Hader is always welcome in any movie, and is especially fun when it comes to voice work, so his character is another plus, and it helps that one of his assistants is voiced by the instantly recognisable Wallace Shawn.

The animation is fine, there’s at least one ridiculous use of a familiar pop song, and Wednesday Addams is pushed into a teen beauty pageant at one point, for reasons vital to the plot (of course). This is a step down from the previous film, but it’s still not bad, although it is worth noting that any entertainment that mixes kid-friendly material with some dark humour is usually okay by me.

6/10

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The Addams Family (2019)

I think it's safe to say that when most people heard about an animated movie version of The Addams Family, it didn't seem to be the best idea. Having now seen the film, it was actually a smart way to refresh the property and present it to a new audience. Can you imagine a new live-action version? Who would try to replace the incomparable Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston? This side-steps that problem, but also assembles a bloody great voice cast to take on the iconic roles.

The plot is nice and simple. We start with Morticia (Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) about to get married. Angry locals barge into the ceremony, and the Addams family end up in the old gothic home that we know. Life seems good, even as Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard) spend most of their time trying to harm one another. But things are happening downhill from their home, where Margaux Needler (Allison Janney), a famous TV home makeover personality is creating a whole idyllic little suburb. She wants it to be perfect, and wants to make a profit from selling all of the homes, so when the Addams home comes into view . . . something has to be done about it.

This is a very pleasant surprise from start to finish. The screenplay, by Matt Lieberman (with a number of people involved in shaping the story), is full of fun little gags most people would expect from any Addams Family tale. There are the usual macabre details, the sibling rivalry, a big family event coming up, and even a fun story strand that sees Wednesday becoming slightly corrupted by the influence of a young girl she befriends (when I say corrupted I mean there's at least one worrying moment when Wednesday looks to add a bit of colour to her usual look).

The direction from Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon all seems fine (even if it is a mile away from their last feature, Sausage Party, although both men have a good selection of child-friendly work in their filmography) as they take simple plot beats and allow the characters to lift the material. You also get a couple of musical moments, including the familiar theme near the start of the movie, and some enjoyably over the top fight choreography (mainly between Gomez and Pudsley, as the former prepares the latter for a rite of passage ceremony that will take place in front of the whole family.

Theron and Isaac are great in the lead roles, and I think both COULD possibly work as live-action versions of these characters, and Moretz, Wolfhard, and Kroll are very enjoyable as the two kids and Uncle Fester, respectively. Janney is as fun as she usually is, and her voice also perfectly suits her character, while everyone else does decent work. It's also worth noting that, despite not really being as recognisable as usual, it's fun to have Snoop Dogg voicing Cousin It.

I hoped that this wouldn't prove to be too painful. Instead, I ended up quite enjoying it. It still sits behind the Sonnenfeld movies and the TV show, but it's a nicely detailed bit of fun that balances everything between the fun for kids and the recognisable elements that fans of the characters will appreciate.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

The Miseducation Of Cameron Post (2018)

When Cameron Post (Chloe Grace Moretz) is caught in a sexual encounter with another girl, she is sent away to a gay conversion therapy centre. Here she meets Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr) and his sister, Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle), who run the centre, and other teenagers who are supposed to be being "cured" of their sickness. The teens include Cameron's roommate, Erin (Emily Skeggs), and the likes of Jane (Sasha Lane), Adam (Forrest Goodluck), and Mark (Owen Campbell). Very few of them seem to believe what the adults are trying to sell to them, but that doesn't make the whole process any less harmful.

The fact that The Miseducation Of Cameron Post can both make you very angry while also proving to be enjoyable entertainment is testament to the quality work put in by everyone involved, from page (it's base on a novel by Emily M. Danforth) to screen.

Indeed, there are many scenes here that you've seen many times before. Standard coming-of-age stuff, or moments of individuals who feel like outcasts meeting kindred spirits and finding strength in that revelation that they're not as alone as they first thought. But everything is freshened up by the setting, the background to why all of these characters are here, and not just the teenagers but the adults too (it's revealed early on that Reverend Rick was "cured" some time ago).

All of the younger cast members do great work, although it's strange that Moretz, who is often so good, feels like she spends many scenes taking a step back while she remains the lead character. This isn't a major criticism, it's a compliment if anything, but Cameron is more our lens through which we get to view this warped world rather than someone going on their own journey. She may be moved around physically but Cameron very rarely feels anything but disdain for the process that she has been pushed into. The same goes for the characters played by Lane and Goodluck, both are confident in just knowing who they are while trying to do what needs done to placate the adults and get themselves out of there as quickly as possible. More interesting conflict comes from the moments involving Skeggs, who tries to act positively saintly at times, and Campbell, who obviously feels the most pain from how his sexuality has damaged his relationship with an uncaring father. Ehle is very good, and most worryingly self-satisfied at the fact that they are doing the right thing for the teenagers they view as sick, but Gallagher Jr. is given at least one great moment in which he expresses a major moment of self-doubt and shows that the harm being caused, the lives being potentially shattered, all stem from someone who means well but is also being ignorant and selfish. We all know what road is paved with good intentions.

Director Desiree Akhavan, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Cecilia Frugiuele, does an excellent job of showing who is in the right and who is in the wrong without turning anyone into outright heroes or villains. You can easily boo and hiss the adults here, and with good reason, but the script and direction doesn't demonise them. What induces rage and frustration also induces no small amount of sadness, and the inevitable thought that these people work with teenagers because adults would be in more of as position to shut their bullshit down within seconds and push them aside as they headed out the door.

The Miseducation Of Cameron Post is, undoubtedly, a film about abuse, and the way in which it sugarcoats the bitter pill is very impressive indeed, making it more accessible to some who might otherwise have avoided it. Check it out when you can, and I hope you're also moved and angered by it.

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Mubi Monday: Suspiria (2018)

There's no such thing as an untouchable classic, when it comes to movies, but that still doesn't stop you from receiving certain news with trepidation. And when I heard that this remake of Suspiria was finally coming to fruition, I had the same reaction as many others. Why bother? What could be done to improve on the original? How bad would it end up being? Then I started to hear some advance word and some views from people I trusted, a lot of them saying that the film was, amazingly, good. Not just good, but also great. And not just great as a film, but even great in comparison to the original. Well, curiosity got the better of me, as I knew it would, and I headed along as soon as I could to see what all the fuss was about.

Dakota Johnson plays Susie Bannion, a young woman who makes quite an impression from her very first appearance in a ballet school she has long dreamed of attending. The main teacher is Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), and she takes a major interest in Susie, viewing her as the potential conduit for a performance/ceremony that is necessary for the continuing good of the witches. Oh yes, the ballet school has a high number of witches on the staff, all working in service of the powerful Mother Of Sighs, and Susie is a valuable asset to all of them.

Director Luca Guadagnino has certainly created an impressive work of art here. The visuals are often absolutely gorgeous, from the many mirrored surfaces to the shots of bare feet working on smooth wooden floors, from the nightmare sequences depicted to a brutal blend of dance and physical assault that will leave most viewers stunned (it's the first, and arguably only, big horror moment). Accompanied by a fine score from Thom Yorke, it's difficult to fault the style and aesthetic of the movie, for the most part. There were times while watching this movie where I was trying to take in every single detail, even if the framing left a lot of the screen full of relatively empty space. Mirrors play a big part in things, and not just the obvious reflections that contain the dancers in their main space, but there's a constant, pleasing, mix of limbs, muscles, and undulating lines.

The cast who cause a lot of those lines all deserve heaps of praise, especially the younger contingent. This is the best that I've ever seen Johnson, delivering a performance so impressive that I'll now seek out the rest of her filmography (even those damn Grey films), and she's given great support by Mia Goth, playing a dancer named Sara who starts to get a bit too curious after the absence of Patricia (Chloe Grace Moretz, doing well with a smaller role). Tilda Swinton is good, no denying that, but her performance is either far too similar to so many other performances we have seen from her or just completely unnecessary and self-indulgent.

And, speaking of completely unnecessary and self-indulgent, the script by David Kajganic is a real mess. There's no need for this film to be as long as it is, one main sub-plot feels completely unnecessary (and I know that some people may use that criticism to accuse me of missing the whole point of it - I got it, the film really didn't need it), and the whole thing is unbalanced by the fact that Susie always comes across as knowing that something is strange, yet never being put off by the strangeness. She is, in fact, drawn to it, unafraid and eager to find her place somewhere in the world that she immediately feels comfortable in. If the film was striding along a very different path from the original, which it does at times, then it wouldn't seem so bad. Sadly, it brings to mind too many comparisons, suffering when you think of the atmosphere created in the original, and the finale that Argento made as wild and vivid as this one is just overblown and silly.

You can't spend one minute trying to invert Suspiria and then the next running parallel to it, even going so far as to placing an obvious cameo appearance in there that will a) please some people, b) make others (like me) roll their eyes at the cynical attempt to get some easy goodwill, or c) not be recognised by younger viewers who may perhaps check this out before the original.

Yet I'll still rewatch this film, for the performance of Johnson and the dance sequences alone. I'll buy it and sit it on a shelf alongside the original. And I'll encourage people to make their own minds up about it. But I'll be ready to share this review and argue vehemently if they try to sell it as a remake equal to, or even superior than, the original.

6/10

You can get the original movie here.
Americans can get it here.

The Equalizer (2014)

I'm pretty sure that if Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson ever starred in a movie together then every criminal on the planet would either be dead, dying or fleeing to outer space to escape their fate. These two men have kicked more ass in the latter portion of their careers than most younger stars do in their entire filmographies. And I, for one, am happy to see it.

Anyway, forget about Liam Neeson now. He's not in this film. This is a vehicle for Denzel, and what a great vehicle it is. Updating a popular TV show from the 1980s, director Antoine Fuqua reunites with his Training Day star to deliver an immensely entertaining tale of vigilante justice.

Washington plays Robert McCall, a quiet, kind man with a secret past. He works in a DIY store, he likes to read books, and he often heads out to a local diner for a cup of tea when he can't settle down for the evening. This diner also has a regular patron in the shape of a young prostitute named Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz). Teri dreams of becoming a singer one day, and McCall encourages her to keep striving to make that dream a reality. That becomes a lot harder to do when Teri is hospitalised after being beaten by her boss. Which is when McCall realises that he needs to step up and try to make things right. He's civil at first, but when that civility is thrown back in his face he replies in the only language that these people seem to understand. Violence and death.

Although it runs for a little over two hours, The Equalizer is not a film that feels bloated. The few main characters are set up nicely, the action set-pieces deliver plenty of impressive pain and bloodshed, and there's a lot of fun to be had in watching McCall resign himself to the fact that what he does best involves punishing criminals who have managed to evade the long arm of the law.

Denzel is excellent in the lead role. Some may feel that he's simply repeating the performance he gave in Man On Fire, but I prefer his work here. It's more fun to watch him move between two different personas, and the editing and other technical aspects are much better, complementing rather than obfuscating the acting on display. Moretz does just fine in her role, even if it is the pretty standard "young innocent in trouble/hooker with a good heart" that we've seen many times before. Marton Csokas is an entertaining, ruthless villain, and David Harbour does well as his temporary right hand man. Johnny Skourtis should win over most viewers as Ralphie, a man being helped by McCall to lose weight and pass the fitness test required for a security guard job that he's keen to land. There are also a couple of good cameos that I won't spoil here, although I am still sorry that we never heard an updated version of the classic TV show theme tune.

The script by Richard Wenk is well put together - having McCall work in a DIY store is a stroke of genius (okay, I might be overstating it, but it's a very good move) - and it's nice to see the film take the time to properly establish all of the main characters, even if some of their moments are cliched and slightly cheesy.

Fuqua manages to keep everything tense and visceral, handling the material with ease. Those with weak stomachs may find some of the violence a bit strong, but I think Fuqua knows his audience well and pitches the nastier moments at just the right level. The action is shot in a way that makes it cool, admittedly, yet it also constantly reminds viewers of just how quickly McCall gets himself into situations that are very, VERY dangerous.

The film covers a lot of familiar ground, yet it doesn't feel lazy or stale. And it has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fan-pleasing Denzel moments. Not quite as good as the TV show I was so fond of (and, yes, I have my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses on), this does end up being a surprisingly close contender. Dare I say that it's . . . . . . . . . . . almost its equal.

8/10

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Carrie (2013)

"You will know her name" was the tagline used to advertise Carrie, which kind of highlights the whole problem with the film. Any horror fan already DOES know her name, from either the source novel (by Stephen King), or the original movie, or the belated sequel, or even the OTHER remake. Let's not mention the stage musical. Which means that Carrie is a film pushed/marketed towards younger viewers, or perhaps even non-horror fans.

It all starts off with a bit of unnecessary unpleasantness as we get to see Julianne Moore endure an unexpected home birth, welcoming Carrie White into the world. Moving forward many years, Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) is now in high school. She's not that popular, and it probably doesn't help that her mother is a strict religious zealot. Things come to a head when Carrie is surprised by her first period while showering. She has never been told about the changes that her body will go through. While needing help, and being terrified, the other girls simply taunt and humiliate her. As well as the usual changes that young women go through, Carrie also finds that she has a unique talent for telekinesis. Studying up on the subject, Carrie decides to develop her powers. Meanwhile, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) is one of the few young women feeling bad for her part in mocking Carrie, and convinces her boyfriend, Tommy (Ansel Elgort), to take the poor lass to the prom. Mean Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday), however, plans to make sure that the night is memorable for all the wrong reasons.

While it felt redundant to surmise the plot in that previous paragraph, it seems most appropriate for this review. Because the main word to use in describing Carrie is redundant. Writers Lawrence D. Cohen and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa bring nothing new to the table, because there's nothing else to be siphoned from the story. Director Kimberly Peirce then makes everything worse by throwing around a load of unnecessary, though not unexpected, CGI and by the poor choices that she makes with the direction given to the cast.

Oh, that cast. I actually feel quite sorry for most of the people involved here. One fantastic cameo from Hart Bochner aside, the cast all have the potential to be great in their roles, but are largely wasted by the script and inept direction. Doubleday wasn't great in the role of Chris, but Wilde and Elgort were both perfectly fine as the two youngsters trying to give Carrie one great night out. Greer comes out of it best, portraying a sympathetic P.E. teacher without overdoing it. The same can't be said of Moore and Moretz, unfortunately. The former pitches her performance in line with the original turn by Piper Laurie, so that's not so bad, but Moretz is asked to portray Carrie in full telekinetic mode as someone twitching their head around and making wiggly hand movements like someone overacting at a Harry Potter LARP event. She's great with the other aspects of the role, portraying the sweetness, shyness and general insecurities of the character with ease, but the last 20-30 minutes leave her flailing, literally.

Yet, as much as it angered and frustrated me, I still found enough individual moments in Carrie to stop me from completely hating it. I couldn't say that it ever even reached the level of average, but the cast helped it to stay away from the very bottom of the barrel. They just couldn't stop it from being so, and you have already guessed my next word, redundant.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Carrie-Blu-ray-DVD-Digital-UltraViolet/dp/B00GNAO796/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404752854&sr=1-1&keywords=carrie

The Amityville Horror (2005)

Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George play George and Kathy Lutz respectively in this remake of the much-loved 1979 haunted house movie. While it may lack some of the original's more memorable moments and Lalo Schifrin's haunting score it certainly does enough to entertain modern audiences and at least keeps the character of the house, and it's "face", intact.

Many people already know the (in)famous tale but for those who don't it's relatively simple to recap. A couple bought themselves a house with a troubled history (most notably, the murder of the DeFeo family by Ronald DeFeo, Jr) and only managed to stay there 28 days before fleeing a place they claimed was evil and full of demonic influence.

Let's be very clear about the aim of this movie; it's an entertaining horror and not meant to be an accurate depiction of something many people are already very well-informed about. Yes, it takes liberties with certain truths and even puts its own spin on certain character motivations but the gist of the matter is still all about the effect the house itself purportedly had on those living within and, in that regard, the film does a very good job.

One of the main, and most interesting, differences between this movie and the original is one of its strengths. The original Amityville movie was classed by many as a "mortgage horror", one of a subset of movies detailing how horror could impact on day-to-day activities and social standing, whereas the remake weaves a more interesting strand in adding to the financial strains the family experiences with the weight of Reynolds' character stepping into the shoes of a much-missed husband and father. This group dynamic really helps to create small divisive cracks that look set to become chasms with only the smallest of help from the malevolence residing in 112 Ocean Avenue.

Director Andrew Douglas doesn't do a bad job at all and, in fact, manages to create one or two moments that are arguably better than anything in the original movie. He gets decent performances from everyone involved, especially the child actors (though a bad child performance from Chloe Grace Moretz seems impossible now that we've seen her in so many great roles). Reynolds really only manages to show what he can do when allowed to show the darker side of George Lutz but he's very entertaining while he does it. Philip Baker Hall plays a priest, and you can imagine his presence not being very welcome in the house, while Rachel Nichols plays a pretty irresponsible babysitter who gets a comeuppance way too harsh for her misdeeds in a most memorable manner. Reynolds is probably the weakest of the cast members but it's unfair to really be too negative to the guy when he still manages to make so many scenes work as he gets more and more freedom to succumb to darkness.

Scott Kosar has crafted a screenplay that nicely updates the  material for a new generation. It has a lot of familiar moments for fans of the original movie but also hits a few, enjoyable, fresh beats and does plenty to avoid feeling like a pale imitation.

Many people have found that this was yet another horror movie remake they could easily complain about with an abundance of computer effects and a few scenes involving far too much snappy editing. It is easy to complain about, agreed, but it's also quite an easy movie to enjoy and provides some enjoyably entertaining scares in a way that may not change the face of the genre but may remind some people of the "ghost train" reaction they can get from simple, well-executed scares. It's also worth noting, in the film's defence, that one of the more tense sequences actually sticks to a simple set-up with no visible flashiness or major CG histrionics. I certainly enjoyed it and hope others do too, though it's definitely not a movie to be taken seriously and it's not for anyone interested in the argued actual history of the case (from the DeFeo murders to the Lutz's ordeal). Just turn on and let yourself be entertained for 90 minutes.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Amityville-Horror-Ryan-Reynolds/dp/B000AND8L0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348168741&sr=8-1

Today You Die (2005)

If you hate this movie then you'd better go and take a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror. Because you, sir or madam, may have to admit that you're a racist. Maybe the ethnicity of the film displeases you. Maybe you're just put off because Steven Seagal is a successful black man in the action movie market. Of course, Seagal is not a black man (nor all that successful nowadays, is he?) but nobody remembered to tell him that when he decided to show his versatility in this dire action movie. It's a shame that a number of things couldn't have been changed and improved upon during the making of the film because the action scenes, when they occur, aren't actually all that bad and the plot of Seagal seeking out those who wronged him and putting things right almost reminds you of those enjoyably gritty early movies that all now seem like classics compared to his 21st century output.

The plot sees Seagal as a kindly thief who robs from criminals to distribute the wealth to the needy. He's kinda like Robin Hood. With a ponytail. And two extra chins. But this is all quite worrying for his good lady (Mari Morrow), who keeps having strange dreams and "psychic visions" that actually don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. So Seagal goes straight but, lo and behold, on a standard driving job he is forced to outrun the cops and struggle to survive when it turns out that he's mixed up in a lucrative robbery. Our man is apprehended and jailed, but not before he has managed to somehow hide $20 million. Never mind, in the space of a few scenes we get Seagal teaming up with Treach (who plays a crook named Ice Kool) and managing to escape in a surprisingly easily engineered scheme. Then it's time to kick ass in a number of unconnected moments, allow the movie to pretend that it has a depth and complexity in place of the laughs and confusion and head to a finale that may just let our hero get his justice, save the children of the world and prove to everyone, once again, that he is the slap-happy version of Jesus himself.

I won't pretend that most of this movie was something I could easily enjoy while it was on but as soon as the credits rolled and I began to think back through what I had just seen I couldn't help laughing and thinking of all the lazy mistakes throughout (usually with stunt doubles but the massive plot holes were also good for a giggle). This may be the fault of the script, by Kevin Moore, but it's probably not helped by the direction of Don E. FauntLeRoy, a man responsible for having the most annoying mix of upper- and lower-casing in his surname and also the third and fourth risible movies in the Anaconda franchise.

Seagal - he doesn't really know any better because he just keeps going as he always has. Treach is almost tolerable. Almost. Mia Morrow would have been fine if her character hadn't been so redundant and given such awful material to work with. Sarah Buxton is pretty bad, Nick Mancuso is terrible and only those with less screentime give better performances (Robert Miano and Kevin Tighe, in particular). Fans may be interested to know that Chloe Grace Moretz has a very small role but nothing that marks out her future potential.

Some decent action moments and a sprinkling of grit make you think this could end up similiar to the earlier movies in the Seagal filmography but, alas, it's not to be and we just get yet another stinker to add to the pile.

4/10.

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