Come Play (2020)

It has been over a decade since writer-director Jacob Chase served up a movie for viewing audiences, and I don’t think you will find many people who were waiting with bated breath after watching The Four-Faced Liar back in 2010 (no comment on the movie, which I haven’t seen, simply a comment on the fact that it didn’t seem to make any impact). Regardless, Chase has built up a fairly decent selection of short films, and Come Play is adapted from one of those, a 2017 short titled Larry.

The plot is very simple, and also very predictable. Gillian Jacobs plays Sarah, a mother who struggles with her autistic child, Oliver (Azhy Robertson). She has to battle through many difficult episodes while Oliver’s father (Marty, played by John Gallagher Jr.) does that typically annoying thing of just being the fun parent. As Oliver becomes more lonely, with his main company being a phone or tablet, he is approached by an entity named Larry. Larry can be seen through various screens, but he wants to break into our world. And he wants to be good friends with Oliver.

Very slick and familiar, Come Play is also, thankfully, very well-crafted when it comes to the scares. Although some imagery appears suddenly in the frame, it doesn’t feel like a film reliant on jump scares. This is a horror movie that at least tries to be creepy, and there is excellent use of technology to show Larry appearing to people (either directly or, for example, being shown up by an app/filter). Chase doesn’t bring anything truly new to the genre, nor does he mess things up. This is enjoyable, entertaining, stuff.

Young Robertson is the lead here, basically, and does good in a role that is mostly communicating in a non-verbal way. He has the big eyes and the nerves, but also has an interesting obliviousness to certain moments that have other characters more afraid of things around them. Jacobs and Gallagher Jr. are both good enough in their roles, although the former is playing someone who has to be set up as a bit selfish and misguided, even compared to the less responsible male parent.

I am sure that many people will dismiss this, it certainly doesn’t need to be high on any prioritised viewing list, but there’s a lot to appreciate. From the performances to the creature design, and the audio work throughout is also excellent, this maintains a standard of quality that you don’t always get in mainstream horror (certainly not from anything that doesn’t feature those pesky Warrens). For the kind of film this is, you could do a lot worse.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: Fear Street: Part Three - 1666 (2021)

Here we are, the third and final part of the Fear Street trilogy (or, perhaps, the first of a number of film events adapted from the R. L. Stine books). I'll try to avoid spoilers, although I advise that you have at least seen the previous two films before reading this review.

Following on immediately from the end of the second film, Deena (Kiana Madeira) finds herself in the body of Sarah Fier in 1666. We already know the fate of Sarah Fier, which makes almost half of this film seem a bit redundant. There are one or two twists, but they're not executed well enough to make this an instalment that is even on a par with the previous two films. And the last 20-30 minutes whisk us all back to 1994 for an enjoyable, if altogether implausible, finale.

Where to begin here? Let's start with a compliment. Director Leigh Janiak, who was this time joined in the writing department by Kate Trefry, as well as a returning Phil Graziadei, does a decent job of making this consistent in the way it has one main tale to focus on and the overarching storyline that links all three movies. The production design is decent, and there are some nice shots here and there, particularly in the finale. And I still like Gillian Jacobs, who returns for a very small amount of screentime.

That's about it for the good stuff.

Taking the main action back to 1666 means that everyone has to try on an accent. If you thought some of these cast members weren't that great in the 1994 instalment then you're going to tear your hair out watching them pretend to be in 1666. Madeira is, once again, a disappointingly weak lead. And there's no relief this time around, with her character remaining the focus for the majority of the film. Olivia Scott Welch is just fine, but given a lot less to do (in terms of characterisation), and Ashley Zukerman at least gets to have some fun with his role this time around, coming to the fore as the story fully unfolds. Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd are both underused, while McCabe Slye is annoyingly overused (playing a drunken villager who can see signs of evil everywhere and helps agitate people to find a scapegoat and punish them).

I'm not sure if things are a lot clearer in the book(s), but a big problem with Fear Street Part Three is the way things seems to work against the rules that were previously established. The twists and turns may be interesting, to some degree, but they also make you rethink previous situations and wonder why certain moments played out as they did. I might have missed a detail here and there, admittedly, but I don't believe this script holds together as well as any of the others. That applies to a moment in which someone is accused of evil deeds, despite being able to lead everyone directly to an "altar" that would at least cast doubt upon their guilt.

The very end saves it. It still doesn't make as much sense as it should, but it's at least fun, and goes back to the neon-lit mall where we started this journey. You also get some timely music tracks once again, just in case you forget that it is 1994 within minutes of a title card explicitly stating that we're now back at 1994.

This has been a fun way to draw out the experience, overall, but I have to say that this third Fear Street movie is easily the weakest of the three. It lacks the fun of the previous films, for the most part, and also lacks the smarts. I know that some will disagree with me on the notion of the previous two movies actually having smarts, but they did. There was intelligence and decent internal logic there. This film reminds you of that fact, because of it lacking both.

5/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Netflix And Chill: Fear Street Part 2: 1978 (2021)

Leigh Janiak is once again directing this second instalment of the Fear Street trilogy, but it's Zak Olkewicz responsible for co-writing the screenplay with her this time around. Following on from the events of the first film, our leads end up at the home of C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), someone who previously survived an attack from the witch Sarah Fier. A tale is told that takes us back to a summer of 1978 at Camp Nightwing.

Emily Rudd is Cindy Berman, a well-behaved and ambitious young woman at the camp, committed to completing tasks like cleaning the outhouse, with her boyfriend (Tommy Slater, played by McCabe Sly). Cindy's younger sister, Ziggy (Sadie Sink), isn't so well-behaved, and she's clearly getting a tough time from some of the other kids. But it turns out that she has an ally in the shape of young Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland). To cut a long story short, blood is spilled, the spirit of Sarah Fier grows restless again, and someone is turned into a mad axe murderer, looking to hack their way through camp and kill off every Shadyside kid that they encounter. Cindy and Alice (Ryan Simpkins), a close friend she grew apart from, end up stuck in a strange area that spreads out under the camp. They need to find a way out, but they also want to find a way to stop the killing, and/or stop the curse.

So, as you may have guessed, Fear Street Part 2 is basically a very familiar campground slasher movie, with nods to so many others coming thick and fast in every scene. The main characters are fine to spend time with, the rest of the plot is finely balanced between adding more to the overarching storyline without getting too much in the way, the kills are decent, if lacking any creativity, and there’s a decent twist before the end credits roll.

Janiak proves a good pair of hands once again, shamelessly revelling in the straightforward moments that could easily have been lifted from any Friday The 13th movie and circling around in ever-decreasing circles towards an ending that has to set up the starting point of the third, and final, instalment. The script does what needs to be done, weaker in the character development side of things (but what slasher isn’t?) while easily wandering from one plot point to the next, with an axe swing here and there to spray blood everywhere.

Sink and Sutherland work well together, Rudd and Simpkins also do good work, and Sly does well with the mean expression he has to plaster on his face for most of the runtime. And the other main character, yet again, is the overstuffed soundtrack, this time playing a selection of tunes from the seventies.

If you liked the first part of the trilogy then you should enjoy this one. It is fun, nothing more and nothing less, and it will be interesting to see if the final instalment manages to be just as entertaining.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (2021)

Based on the books by R. L. Stine, and directed by Leigh Janiak (who co-wrote the screenplay with Phil Graziadei), Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (which I will just be referring to from here on out as Fear Street) is an unsophisticated slasher movie that is happy to wallow in the familiar tropes of the subgenre until a supernatural element comes to the fore, providing a mystery that needs to be solved by some plucky leads.

Kiana Madeira is Deena, a young woman who is upset after recently separating from her partner. Her friends, Kate (Julia Rehwad) and Simon (Fred Hechinger), want to help her through the grieving process by helping her direct her rage towards Sunnyvale, the neighbouring town that her ex has moved to. Sunnyvale seems nice and prosperous, which is the exact opposite of Shadyside, where Deena and her friends reside. Shadyside seems to be cursed, deranged killers cropping up every few years, creating a bloody and murderous timeline that intrigues many who try to connect the dots, with one of those people being Deena's young brother, Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.). Anyway, in typical slasher movie tradition, a prank gone awry sets off a chain of events that leaves Deena and friends on the run from a killer who seems unstoppable. And that killer isn't alone. 

Although I was in the minority with my lack of love for the debut feature film, Honeymoon, from Janiak and Graziadei, there was something there that makes it surprising that it took so long for them to land another chance to show what they're capable of. Fear Street is a much easier sell for them, superficially. It's got the Netflix push, it has many moments that play out as a simple throwback to the many post-Scream slashers of the late '90s and early 2000s, and it's obvious that the budget is a nice chunk of change (judging from the soundtrack choices alone). But it's clear why Janiak and Graziadei were good choices for this material when twists and turns start to occur, and one or two tropes are subverted on the way to a third act that keeps moving further and further away from the slasher movie template viewers were given in the opening sequence.

The youthful cast all do a pretty good job. Madeira may not be a great lead, but that's easier to put up with in the second half of the movie, when Flores Jr. gets more screentime. Rehwald and Hechinger are both entertaining enough, and Olivia Scott Welch isn't too bad in the role of Samantha Fraser, the young woman who unwittingly becomes the target of killers out for blood, literally. Ashley Zukerman is the local Sheriff, and there's a small voice cameo for Gillian Jacobs, who I assume will be onscreen for a while in the next instalment(s).

It may be a bit dim throughout, but you also get a good share of neon here and there and it's never too dark to stop you from seeing everything that's happening onscreen. The score is decent, the soundtrack is a busy clash of tunes from "Now That's What I Call 1990s" throughout the first half, and the pacing picks up in the second half to ensure that viewers should be looking forward to the next part of the story. 

It's just a shame that some may be put off by the first half, with that opening homage to Scream feeling a bit too slavishly close to something that was already quite perfect and the lead character lacking much warmth or charisma. Sticking with it proves ultimately worthwhile though, and it's still a decent bit of bloody fun, overall.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.

It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA

Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Magic Camp (2020)

I think I would have reached the inevitable conclusion eventually, but it was about a third of the way into Magic Camp when I realised exactly what it is. My girlfriend had been listening to my viewing choice and asked if Jack Black was a lead character. It was not. It was Adam Devine, playing a magician named Andy. Except he isn’t doing his magic act. He is a driver. And ends up given a chance to shape some young minds at the titular Magic Camp he had so much success at in his youth. The kids who end up being led/taught by Adam are a mismatched bunch who need to find their confidence and tap into their potential. Magic Camp is School Of Rock, but with magic in place of rock music. 

Andy is a main character, the adult encouraged to remember what he so loved about a life full of magic by the camp owner (Jeffrey Tambor). The actual REAL main character is Theo (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre), a kid who is a real whizz with a deck of cards. He also really misses his father, who passed away, and thinks that both his mother and little brother don’t sense the wonder and skill as much as his father always would. Lessons are to be learned, the various kids involved in the storyline make friends and enemies, and Andy gets to air some of his grievances with ex-partner Kristina Darkwood (Gillian Jacobs), even if he perhaps can nowadays admit that Abracaduo was a terrible name for their act.

Although it took about seven people to write this thing (how? how does something so formulaic take seven main credited writers??), Magic Camp benefits from being directed by Mark Waters. If you recognise the name, that's because he has probably directed a few films you have enjoyed. The House Of Yes, Freaky Friday (2003), Mean Girls, and, errrr, Mr. Popper's Penguins are some of them. He's well-suited to material that focuses on the journey of the kids while also allowing for plenty of time with the older characters sorting out their lives. The script is decent, don't get me wrong, I just struggle to think of seven people hammering it into shape.

Devine is someone I can like or loathe, depending on the movie. He's in good form here, working well with the kids. McIntyre is a decent lead, playing the usual notes that any Disney child actor is required to play, and Jacobs is perfectly fine, if wasted, in her supporting role. Tambor is a lot of fun, appearing at just the right times to offer pearls of wisdom, and Rochelle Aytes and Aldis Hodge both do well enough as Theo's loving parents, one being deceased and shown in flashback only. Most of the young cast do well, but I'll single out Isabella Crovetti, who made me properly laugh with her turn, playing a young girl who is obsessed with the idea of performing magic tricks with bunny rabbits. Cole Sand is also a LOT of fun as Nathan, a kid who can actually work magic with numbers.

It's all very paint-by-numbers stuff, but it's all done in a nice and entertaining way. And the moments showing magic being performed feel authentic. Everyone gets their moment, a number of running gags have solid pay-offs, and the predictable ending surely indicates a sequel coming along some time (that I will absolutely watch).

6/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Life Of The Party (2018)

The pizza had arrived, I was settling into the position I wanted to stay in for the evening, and I browsed the many selections available to me for my next viewing choice. And that's when I saw Life Of The Party, a film that I wasn't sure I would like but was sure I would at least be moderately amused by, at least occasionally. It turns out that this was much better than I expected it to be.

I am continually surprised by the constant dismissal of Melissa McCarthy, who has the starring role here. People seem to want to label her as a comic actor who does no more than "act fat and loud". I don't/won't take the time and space to make my full argument against that accusation, and I may have mentioned it in a previous review (and may well mention it in a future review), but it's just rubbish. She has shown more range in her comedic roles than many of her male peers, and that doesn't mean that I dislike them either (I still enjoy comedies starring Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, and even Adam Sandler, despite everyone telling me I am wrong for doing so).

In this movie, McCarthy plays Deanna, a doting mother who drops her daughter (Maddie, played by Molly Gordon) at university for her final year. As she heads away with her husband (Dan, played by Matt Walsh), he drops the bombshell that he wants a divorce. He has started a relationship with a new woman. This upheaval leads to Deanna returning to university to complete the degree she sacrificed many years ago. She immediately bonds with some of her daughter's friends, learns to relax and party, and even lands herself an attentive younger lover (Jack, played by Luke Benward).

What I thought I was going to get with Life Of The Party was a comedy in which McCarthy would spend a lot of time embarrassing her daugher, a number of scenes in which she got carried away reclaiming her lost youth, and then a finale that would see lessons learned and bonds reformed. What I got was something much better than that. Yes, there are a few moments in the early scenes that show a young woman being embarrassed by her mother, and McCarthy takes things too far once or twice, but it's a much more balanced, a much sweeter, film than it could have been.

Ben Falcone (AKA Mr McCarthy) directs, and he and McCarthy also co-wrote the script together. There's nothing here to single out as a stunning achievement in cinema, and nothing that will prove too surprising once the film settles in to exactly what it wants to be, but it's a very enjoyable time that provides a lot of little chuckles in between some big laughs. Okay, the third act may feel like it blends together a number of '80s teen movie moments . . . so what?

McCarthy is warm and witty in her role, transforming believably as she becomes more and more confident in the new path she is taking through life. Gordon is very good as her understanding daughter, and there's a lot of fun to be had with Gillian Jacobs, Adria Arjona, and Jessie Ennis as the main friends. Benward is likeable as a smitten young man, Heidi Gardner is a roommate who rarely seems to leave her room, and Chris Parnell is a pun-loving teacher. Oh, and Maya Rudolph is a comedy goddess . . . I mean . . . she is hilarious as the long-time friend who enjoys living vicariously through the exploits of McCarthy. You also get great little turns from Walsh, Julie Bowen, Jacki Weaver, and Stephen Root, among others, as well as a cheesy celebrity cameo to enjoy.

I doubt this will convert anyone who doesn't enjoy the screen presence of McCarthy. Everyone else can relax and allow themselves to be entertained for 100 minutes (approximately).

7/10

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

Walk Of Shame (2014)

Steven Brill isn't exactly a writer-director you may want to rely on for your comedy movie needs. He does, after all, have a filmography that includes Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Drillbit Taylor, and even a segment in Movie 43. I'm not saying that I dislike all of those films. I'm just saying that many other people dislike them. Despite how you feel about those films, Walk Of Shame still ends up being worth a watch thanks to the fact that it stars Elizabeth Banks.

Banks stars as Meghan Miles, a news reporter poised to get her dream job as an anchor. When it looks like she's lost the job, Meghan takes up an offer from her friends (Gillian Jacobs and Sarah Wright) to go out and drink lots, and LOTS, of alcohol. She ends up heading off with the cute barman (James Marsden) and they enjoy a magical night of shared booze, pizza and frolics. Waking up the next morning with a sore head, hazy memory of the events from the previous night, and a voicemail message informing her that she is now back in with a chance for the anchor job, Meghan has to get home and prepare to impress her potential new employers. Unfortunately, an incident with an aggressive cat leaves her outside with no phone, no car (it's been towed), and no knowledge of what button to buzz to wake up her new maybe-boyfriend. Things quickly go from bad to worse.

You may or may not already know that Walk Of Shame didn't do well, to put it mildly. Not well at all. It flopped hard. Which I think is a great shame. I am willing to concede that, once again, I may be the lone voice of dissent here, but this is a fun romp that wrings most of the comedy from putting the lovely Miss Banks into increasingly dire circumstances. Whether she's avoiding police who think that she's a prostitute, stuck in a crackhouse or trying to get a ride on a bus despite having no money for the fare, Banks is always a lot of fun. Jacobs, Wright and Marsden all do well as the people who end up trying to track our leading lady down, while Bill Burr and Ethan Suplee provide laughs as the police officers doing the same thing for very different reasons. Lawrence Gilliard Jr, Da'vone McDonald and Alphonso McAuley are enjoyable enough as Scrilla, Hulk and Pookie, the three main men in the crackhouse that Banks ends up in, and Kevin Nealon is a lot of fun in his small role, the traffic reporter who looks down on the action from a helicopter.

Brill doesn't do anything to set your world on fire. He keeps everything moving along, and peppers the whole thing with a selection of amusing characters and lines of dialogue. In short, he does what's required. I'm not going to spend a lot of time and energy extolling this as some kind of misunderstood modern classic. It's not. I'm just surprised that it fared quite as badly as it did. There were quite a few movies released in 2014 far more deserving of your ire than this one. Although I admit that maybe my love of Elizabeth Banks makes me slightly biased.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Shame-Blu-ray-DIGITAL-UltraViolet/dp/B00JQF7ZTE/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420911341&sr=8-1&keywords=walk+of+shame

Bad Milo! (2013)

Bad Milo! is a lot of fun, I guess, but it's also yet another movie that seems to have been embraced by fans for reasons that I can't quite fathom. It's amusing, diverting stuff that benefits from solid performances, but *whisper it* it's not THAT good. Not really. Admit it. Or is it just me? Is it? Okay, maybe it's just me.

Ken Marino stars as Duncan, a man with a severe case of tummy trouble. As he gets more anxious and stressed he ends up spending more time on the toilet. It turns out that these bathroom visits are so strenuous, and leave him (sometimes waking up the next morning from the bathroom floor) so relieved, because he has a little creature living inside his body. A creature that pops out to deal with anyone who causes Duncan too much stress. And, with the people around him including a horrible boss (Patrick Warburton), a fairly inept work colleague or two and some interfering doctors, there's plenty to motivate Milo to come out of hiding.

Directed by Jacob Vaughan, who also co-wrote the movie with Benjamin Hayes, Bad Milo! simply ends up stumbling because it doesn't ever commit to any one approach to the material. While it's pretty heavily indebted to Basket Case it never embraces the craziness of the premise in the way that Henenlotter would. Of course, few people are as brilliantly barmy as Henenlotter, so if the film isn't quite as crazy as it could be then there are other ways in which it can impress. Sadly, it doesn't. The few gore gags are okay, but the rest of the humour is neither sharp or abundant enough to make this a really enjoyable experience.

The cast all do a good job, however, and Marino is particularly good in the lead role. Peter Stormare is the kindly doctor who tries to make Duncan and Milo develop a more harmonious relationship, Warburton puts in yet another great performance (the guy never really lets me down), Gillian Jacobs is Duncan's loving partner, Sarah, and there are good little supporting turns from Mary Kay Place, Kumail Nanjiani, Toby Huss, Steve Zissis and Stephen Root. And, despite my disappointment with the film, I have to admit that everyone involved does an admirable job of keeping a straight face.

If you're a fan of offbeat comedies or warped body horror fare then, judging by the reactions of others, you're likely to enjoy Bad Milo! a bit more than I did. I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't rule out giving it a rewatch one day, but I just didn't think it was anything great.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Milo-Blu-ray-Ken-Marino/dp/B00FYL087K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1391375702&sr=8-3&keywords=bad+milo