Reviews

When it came to this movie I had no idea what to fully expect from it other than thinking it wasn't going to be my cup of tea. So walking into this movie I had very low expectations which I think worked in this movie's favour. When it comes to the story there's not much implicit in it with the overall message, especially with it being the movie's tagline, being front and centre. I'm actually fine with this being the case here as no matter what it's an important message to have. The movie is all about empowering women to stand up for themselves and be confident in who they are but also about how women should support other women as well. Especially given how this movie takes place in a high school this is an important message to tell and it's handled really well here. It perfectly shows how with the right support group of people everybody can believe in themselves. This is especially important for those who are in high school where it might be hard to be yourself and find that support group. How sometimes the best way for people to find their support group is to push themselves out of their comfort zones to connect with people. Of course, I wouldn't recommend joining an all-girl fight club in order to do so, which is where the other part of the story comes into play. The overall message aside, the story of this movie is such an over-the-top comedy and I surprisingly loved it. The comedy of this movie isn't the kind that I usually enjoy, yet it worked for me here and I think it's due to just how over-the-top it is. Over the years there have been a lot of comedy movies that take place in a high school and this one is able to stand out amongst them. This is primarily due to just how over-the-top the comedy in this movie is and the school system itself. The school is the most stereotypical idea of a school ever where it cares more about its sports team, more specifically the star player, than anything else. I know there are some schools out there where this is true but I don't think any of them are as extreme as what's shown here which is what's funny about it. It's funny to think of a school like this existing and just imagine going there and how awful it would be. But the humour doesn't just stem from the school but also the students that attend it as well. Just like with the school pretty much everybody who attends this school is just a huge walking cliche stereotype. Yet it's because of how cliched the students are that the lines in this movie are hilarious. There are so many funny lines said that might not have gotten a huge laugh from the audience I saw the movie with but I did. The lines are stuff that I could never see anybody ever saying but just like with the school stuff is hilarious to imagine. Pretty much the story just draws you into it and makes you thankful that none of this actually happens in real life. Honestly, the only thing I didn't really like about the story is a nitpick which is how predictable it is. Despite the best efforts from the writers to make it a breath of fresh air it still has a few cliches in it that make it predictable. If they still had done the cliches but instead of fully committing to them and instead changed it then it would've made this movie fully be a breath of fresh air. Another nitpick I had in regard to the story is just how short it is. The movie itself with credits is one hour and thirty-two minutes long and I kind of wish this movie was slightly longer just to fully expand on things. Overall, the story paces itself well, ensuring everything has time to be as fleshed out as possible. With that being said though there are still some moments that I feel like with a longer run time could've been more explored. This is specifically for the club itself as most of what happens in it is in a montage and then we get one scene showing the other side of it and that's it. I wish we got to see more of how this club helped these girls out and how it's given them all a support group. But again that's just a nitpick and doesn't take away from the movie itself as like I said everything is fleshed out pretty well. It's honestly due to how fleshed out the story is that all of the actors have a lot to work with and perfectly capture these characters.

You can easily tell right away that all of the actors in this movie knew and understood what kind of movie it was and were fully committed to it. The best example of this is Nicholas Galitzine, who plays Jeff, and his full commitment to the dumb jock stereotype. Jeff is the most important person to this school and always overlooks whatever he does and makes sure to do anything to keep him happy. With all that being said though Jeff isn't the smartest person out there and is best described as a man-child. So Nicholas Galitzine had the tough job of trying to find a way to balance being over-the-top with this role and still being subtle and I think he found it. He knew when he needed to be over the top with both his actions and line delivery and when he needed to bring it down a notch. It makes for a very entertaining watch where you kind of want to see more of this character despite hating him. When it comes to the main characters though it's thanks to both of their actors that it's easy to both route for them but also hate them. This is specifically true when it comes to PJ and thanks to Rachel Sennott I didn't know how to feel about PJ. PJ is the primary reason for the idea behind the fight club and helping her and Josie to get laid by their crushes. It's due to this reason that the audience starts to feel weird about PJ and their motivations and Rachel Sennott helps cause this super well. Rachel Sennott easily shows how conflicting PJ is as a character as you want to route for her but she just goes about it the wrong way. I enjoyed watching her play this kind of person whom some people can relate to, to some extent of course. For me though the real scene-stealer was Ayo Edebiri as Josie due to being one of the only static characters. The Josie who we see at the start of the movie isn't the same as the one at the end. Sure, she's still this nervous introvert but she still was able to gain some confidence along the way. Ayo Edebiri did a great job of showing the changes Josie goes through and specifically the confidence she gains. It's because of her performance that Josie seems like a real person whom you could meet in real life compared to all of the over exaggerated stereotype characters. This is why I loved watching Ayo Edebiri in every scene she was in because of how relatable Josie was to me. In the end, Bottoms is what you get when you mix Mean Girls and Fight Club together and make it queer. It's a combination that shouldn't work and yet it somehow does and I'm so glad it does. This movie is definitely worth watching at least once just to truly see how crazy it is.

When I first heard about this book, I thought the story sounded super intriguing and unique and couldn't wait to read it. After reading it I really enjoyed the story just as I had thought I would but I still found some issues with it as well. So when I heard there was going to be a movie adaptation I was worried about it but hoped that potentially it would fix the problems I had. In regards to fixing the problems I had with the original story, the movie did kind of fix them. One of my biggest problems with the original story is how it wasn't able to balance the politics and the relationship. The movie fixes this problem by pretty much getting rid of all the political talk and just focusing on the developing relationship. This was something that really impressed me and I enjoyed it as we could properly see how their relationship progressed. We could see Alex and Henry together more, making the audience who haven't read the book want to root for them to succeed. But with that being said that was the only change to the story that I enjoyed. Obviously, with this being an adaptation of a 421-page book some changes had to be made for the movie in order for it to work better. But there were some changes made that left me wondering why they had to be removed. This is especially true when some of the things removed are important to certain characters and their motivations and decisions. There are characters completely removed from the story that even if they were kept in wouldn't have changed the story that much. The same goes for certain situations that happen as well which helps influence certain characters in their lives. It's because of these removals that I honestly didn't find the characters in this movie to be all that interesting specifically with Alex and Henry. In the book, both of these characters are relatable due to the situations they go through and the character development they get along the way. You can easily see yourself in either one or both of the main guys. But in the movie, both of these guys just felt flat to me like we barely knew them. This probably sounds weird since I said the story focuses more on their relationship which it does it just doesn't properly develop it. This is due to a combination of things, one being the removal of certain book scenes as mentioned before but also some scenes being out of order. This didn't happen too often but there were two scenes that I can say for certain were shown in the opposite order of the book. Due to the scenes being flipped the moments between the two guys don't feel as genuine or make a lot of sense. This leads me to my second reason why they felt flat, which is the dialogue. The dialogue in this movie isn't bad per se but there were some lines I wish they had copied from the book. This is because after rereading certain scenes in the book I found them to be much more heartfelt and romantic. I know that some of the lines probably would've had to be changed slightly due to the changes made but the lines would've still worked. Including these lines would've added so much more depth to not just the characters but the main relationship as well as some of them involve one of them being vulnerable to the other. But of course, even with including the book's accurate lines nothing could've saved the characters from the biggest problem the story faced which is the pacing. As I mentioned before the book is 421 pages long and turning that into a 2-hour long movie is a tough job. You can tell the writers for this movie, Matthew Løpez and Ted Malawer, did the best they could by trimming it down and keeping the focus on Henry and Alex. But in doing so the movie felt very rushed which is what ended up causing the relationship and the characters to feel flat instead of static. The biggest example of this is the main relationship of the story between Henry and Alex. Due to the pacing, their relationship didn't have proper time to be fully fleshed out and the audience wanted them to get together. It pretty much felt like one second they hated each other, you blink and the next thing you know they're together now. Everything moved at lightning speed leaving zero room to breathe and letting things sit with the viewer. This lightning speed might work for those like me who have read the book and can easily fill in the gaps but not for those who haven't. Those who haven't read the book might struggle a bit in trying to figure everything out and how exactly we got from one scene to another. There is an element in this movie that definitely didn't help with the storytelling problems and that was the editing. The editing for this movie is very distracting in that you can clearly see where the cuts to the scenes are. Instead of them being camouflaged to hide the cuts in some of the scenes it will just randomly end and then cut to a new scene. The new scene usually won't connect to the previous one and the viewer has to try and figure out how they got there. There's one scene in particular that perfectly demonstrates this where two characters are talking about one thing and in the next scene they're talking about something else entirely different. There's no transition to smoothly connect the two scenes and instead, it felt like there was a deleted scene there. Which is another issue with how the movie was edited is you could easily tell where there most likely was a deleted scene. For certain scenes, it at times felt like there was information missing in them and that there most likely was a scene before it that would explain it. This is once again where having read the book would come in handy as it partially helps fill in those blanks.

Yet despite the problems regarding the story and editing the acting in this movie is pretty decent. I remember seeing the casting announcement for this movie and being worried. I honestly didn't think the cast was going to work but I ended up being surprised. Every actor in this movie did the best job they could to bring their characters to life despite the changes made. They all stayed true to the book version of their character all while making it their own at the same time. The person who stayed the most true to their character though and being the scene stealer as well was Nicholas Galitzine. Henry is an introverted person who faces a lot of internal conflict due to his position. He knows he's gay but knows that his grandfather and brother wouldn't support him so has to keep it hidden away. Nicholas Galitizine perfectly encapsulates this part of Henry making him the most relatable character in this movie. He shows through his facial expressions and body language the conflict that Henry faces throughout the movie. If you put the movie on mute and just looked at those elements of his performance you would still be able to tell what Henry is feeling in those moments. I loved seeing him show all of the different sides of Henry from his more vulnerable sides to his press persona. It makes Henry this sympathetic character that the audience routes for to get his happy ending. In order for him to get his happy ending though he needs a partner in crime and Taylor Zakhar Perez did a good job being that person. Alex is the complete opposite of Henry being an extrovert and confident in who is and what he wants to do. Due to Alex being the main character of the book his character had the most changes made. So Taylor Zakhar Perez already had the tough job to try and stay true to the book version all while incorporating the changes made. Even though the changes made did drastically change his character making him less relatable Taylor Zakhar Perez still did a good job bringing Alex to life. He easily stays true to Alex's personality of being a workaholic all while still being the life of the party. But what I enjoyed the most about his performance was when he showed Alex's more vulnerable side. It was during these moments that I saw the relatable character from the book that I liked. Taylor Zakhar Perez perfectly showed how down-to-earth and caring Alex truly is and how just like with Henry only certain people get to see this side of him. I enjoyed getting to see him balance all the different sides of Alex but it was the vulnerable moments that made me see him as this character. Another person who surprised me with how accurate they were was Uma Thurman as president Ellen Claremont. The book describes Ellen as someone who finds it hard to balance being a mom and president at times. Uma Thurman despite not being in the movie that much captures this to perfection. She easily shows how hard-working Ellen is to continue to prove why she deserves to be in office. Yet at times that work can take over her life and ends up ignoring her family when they need her the most. Uma Thurman also shows how much of a caring mom Ellen can be at times though whenever she gets those moments. I especially love the scene where she supports Alex's coming out and asks him an important question. It's because of Uma Thurman's performance that if Ellen Claremont was real I think a lot of people would vote for her as president.

In the end, Red White and Royal Blue might continue the trend of being a mediocre adaptation but still have some heart to it. I still think the story would've worked best as a TV series adaptation but still give this one a watch just read the book first.

When people think about Into the Spider-verse, one thing stands out for them: the animation of it. The animation for that movie looked and felt like a comic book brought to life and was unique. So the animators for this movie had the challenge to try and replicate it and they did that but also, somehow making it look even more beautiful than the first. The animation continues to be breathtaking and creative with the designs of the different worlds and characters. This is especially true here since we get to see more worlds and spider-people in this movie. I love how you can easily tell which world we're in just based on animation alone. You can tell how much effort the animators put into this movie by wanting everything in it to look and feel like it was ripped out of the comic that character was from. From the oil painting look of Gwen's world to the futuristic New York that's home to the spider-people task force every world is designed in a unique way to have it stand out. My personal favourite world we got to see was Gwen's world and its painting look to it. It's a design I haven't seen much in any sort of media and I could tell the animators had the most fun with this world, especially with the colours. The colours are what make this world and really make it different from all the others as it utilizes them in a creative way. The colours reflect how a character is feeling in that scene so they're constantly changing making it hypnotizing to look and watch. But the most impressive part of this movie is the designs for all of the spider-people. One of the highlights of this movie is the fact we get to see so many different spider-people in this movie. Some are classics that everybody knows and loves while others I feel like might've just been made up for this movie. But no matter what, every single spider-person has a different look to them and the classic ones look right out of their source material. You can tell how much passion the animators had for this movie and want to do every single character justice. With the gorgeous animation, it would be able to distract from the fact that the story isn't that good but thankfully here it helps tell this fantastic story.

The story for this one is exactly what I think most people would want for a sequel. A story that continues off of the first one, showing how the characters have grown and most importantly upping the stacks. You get all of that in this story as we get to see how Miles is handling being Spider-Man and a student, giving pretty much all of the characters from the first movie character growth and upping the stakes with Spot. I especially loved how well the story for this movie balanced everything in it. When I say this I don't just mean the comedy and drama but also all of the easter eggs in it as well. This movie could've easily just been easter eggs the movie where all of the cameos and blink-and-you-miss-it moments took over but no that's not what happens. What actually ends up happening is just acknowledgment of all of this material that exists and moving on with the story. It doesn't overtake the story in any way and only happens in natural moments when it's called for. But for the main story, the balance between comedy and drama is phenomenal. Sure, this movie does have a lot of humour in it but whenever it happens it fits perfectly in that scene. The comedy never feels forced in any way and whenever there's a dramatic moment they let it just be this emotional moment and not ruin it with some comedic bit. The more dramatic moments are probably the highlights as well just due to how honest and real they feel. If you just take out the superpowers from the equation what the characters in this movie go through pretty much most people can relate to. This is all thanks to the writers as they crafted this meaningful story. You can tell how much thought and effort they put into crafting the story based on small details that carry over from the first movie. There are also some questions that get answered that most viewers probably didn't even think about at first. Most importantly though, they knew how to perfectly balance everything that happens to make sure the audience doesn't grow bored or tired of the comedy. It's so perfectly crafted that the pacing wasn't an issue at all. I never once felt the story start to drag or rush and instead, I kept wanting more. Once the credits started to roll I felt like I could've sat there for two more hours and not care or notice.

Another factor that played into why I was so hooked on the story was because of the voice acting. All of the voice actors brought their all to their roles no matter how big or small. Every single person easily conveyed how their characters were feeling in particular moments and this made the emotions feel honest and real. They were also able to switch between being more comedic to dramatic smoothly as well to keep up with whatever tone was in that scene. I enjoyed how the returning voice actors were also able to demonstrate the character growth their character had gone through. There are two perfect examples of this with Hailee Steinfeld, who voices Gwen Stacy, and Jake Johnson, who voices Peter B. Parker. Hailee Steinfeld was definitely the standout for me due to this reason. Gwen goes through so much in this movie and it's heartbreaking to watch everything that happens to her. It's thanks to Hailee Steinfeld that we the audience really feel for Gwen and her journey of discovery. Honestly, it's thanks to her performance that Gwen is a very relatable character for some people. Another character that has always been relatable but becomes less so for some people in this one is Peter B. Parker. Peter B. Parker has always been relatable due to how relaxed and depressed he is but also because of Jake Johnson's performance. Jake Johnson brings this everyday guy attitude to his performance that captures both sides of Peter. But, in this movie, he brings a much more mature nature that excellently captures the growth his character had. The Peter B. Parker we see is not the same one we saw in the first movie. Jake Johnson understood this and was able to change his performance in order to show this growth. It wasn't just the old cast though that blew it out of the water but the newbies as well. One of them is Oscar Isaac, who voices Miguel O'Hara, and boy was I scared of him in this movie. Miguel O'Hara is this terrifying character who is passionate about what he believes in and nothing will change his mind. Oscar Isaac did a great job capturing all of that and keeping it in a monotone voice as well. Due to speaking in a monotone voice for most of the movie whenever he does raise his voice you are terrified. You have no clue what this man is going to do and can understand why everybody is on edge. Most importantly though, he made it super easy for the audience to not want to root for him and have him be proven wrong. Yet at the same time, we sympathize with him and can kind of see his point of view on things. This is all thanks to Oscar Isaac just giving his all with this character. Another new person who gave it their all to their role was Jason Schwartzman, who voices Spot. Spot easily could've just been a villain of the week that nobody cares about but definitely not here. Spot himself goes through some growth in this movie and Jason Schwartzman encapsulates it amazingly. Obviously, he nails the more comedic moments and gets a lot of laughs because of them. But as the movie progresses he slowly stops being comedic and is instead terrifying. Jason Schwartzman does this switch masterfully and when he does the more scary dialogue it is just that, terrifying. You have to stop and remind yourself how Spot first was at the start of the movie versus what he is now. I just loved seeing the transformation and can't wait to see what Jason Schwartzman does in this next movie.

Another element of the first movie everybody still talks about is the music in it, both the songs and the score. Although the songs in here might not be as memorable as the first, the score, composed by Daniel Pemberton, definitely matches and or beats the first. The score is just incredible and I could see myself just listening to it whenever I'm doing any kind of work. Just like with the animation I love how the music will change to match whatever universe we're in at that moment. So when we're in Gwen's world there's more of a rock tone to it versus Pavitr's, voiced by Karan Soni, which has a more Indian inspiration to it. It really helped elevate the environment the scene was in and whatever was going on as well. In the end, Across the Spider-Verse is a worthy sequel to Into the Spider-verse and shows how to do a multiverse movie. I can't wait to see the next part of this story and see if they can match and or beat this one.

When I stop and try to think of what exactly happened in this movie or even the story, I draw a blank. The story of this movie is such a mess that I can't tell you what was happening in it. I think the biggest reason for this mess is the order in which this story was told. My best example of this point is the opening scenes for this movie and how I believe they should've been switched around. The very opening scene for this movie very much felt like the inciting incident where we see the setup for what the main conflict will be, whereas the very next scene directly after feels like the exposition part as we catch up with our heroes and where they are currently. I know this is such a small detail and not all stories need to follow the story structure but in the grand scheme of things it helps keep things organized and told in a clear way. But this isn't just seen in the first few minutes of the movie but throughout it entirely. I started trying to figure out where exactly the second act was and if it had happened already or not. I asked this question due to how fast we had gotten to the third act and I felt like nothing had happened at all in this movie and I feel like this is due to the writers not properly knowing how to properly execute this story. So much happens in this movie and yet so little at the same time all because you can tell the writing team had so many ideas they wanted to do. You can tell they wanted to continue on the story and themes from the first film and build on it but it's the building on that was the downfall.

The building on is primarily when they focus on the goddess and all of the creatures from that realm. This is specific to the creatures from that realm and how much of an afterthought they felt that they easily could've been removed entirely. But whenever the story primarily focused on the family it felt like we were going backwards in storytelling. What I mean by this is how the message of the first movie is all about family and this one is all about letting go. I get that in this movie everybody has grown up and wants to do their own thing now but it just feels weird to me. Even if I was to look past that part of the story the family element in this movie was just lacking to me and just doesn't give that same gut punch effect. The family in this one doesn't feel like the same family we saw in the first one and instead feels like complete strangers so whenever there's supposed to be an emotional moment I just didn't care. I think one of the biggest reasons for this is that none of them have character development except for Billy, played by Asher Angel. Everybody except for Billy stays pretty much the exact same from beginning to end and it just made it tough to route for them to win. When it comes to Billy's character his development isn't major but by the end of the movie, he's at least grown a bit and learned a lesson about letting go. But I think the biggest reason for none of the characters having time to grow and develop is because of the pacing. I was surprised to learn that this movie has the exact same run time as the first movie despite this movie feeling like it was moving at lightning speed. What's funny is that this movie started off having pretty decent pacing despite the story structure problems but soon just hit the fast-forward button and forgot to hit play. This movie doesn't give you time to breathe ever as it quickly moves on from one thing to the next causing the audience to play catch up along the way. Usually when the story ends up failing the acting can help save the movie but for this movie, it, unfortunately, doesn't.

Let me start off by saying that the acting in this movie isn't the worst, just that due to what they were given not everybody could bring their A-game. Honestly, there were lots of performances in this movie that I actually really enjoyed and wished this movie was better so I could fully appreciate their skill. One person who really shocked me with how good his performance was is Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Freddy Freeman. I loved getting to see him continue to play this awkward and shy nerdy guy and do his best to have some kind of growth. Honestly, out of all the characters in this movie I had the most emotional attachment to Freddy because of Jack Dylan Grazer's performance. He made it so easy to route for this character and I kind of wish the story was more focused on him. But for me, the biggest standouts of this movie were the three daughters of Atlas's actresses. Funny enough, out of all the characters in this movie the only ones who actually have depth to their characters are the daughters of Atlas. Due to this reason all of the actresses had a lot to work with in order to bring these characters to life and feel like actual people. Right from the start of the movie Lucy Liu, who plays Kalypso, and Helen Mirren, who plays Hespera, show how menacing these two characters are and why we should fear them. They continue this nature all throughout the movie but they also do a great job of creating these sympathetic villains. This primarily applies to Hespera and Anthea, played by Rachel Zegler, as towards the end of the movie we learn the truth behind their acts. I also have to praise Helen Mirren for this one line she read regarding Gatorade and keeping a straight face. But I really enjoyed watching Lucy Liu play this menacing villain that can't be redeemed. Whenever she was on screen you didn't know fully what she was going to do which is fitting for her character as Kalyspo's powers is chaos. Kalypso might not be the most memorable villain but Lucy Liu gave it her all to try and make her memorable.

But the performance I really loved watching was Rachel Zegler as Anthea. I loved how she was able to perfectly show the two sides of her character as this awkward teen Anne and this confident and powerful goddess Anthea. She perfectly blends the two once we learn the truth and I love how because of this she stands out amongst the other two. This is something I actually love about all three's performances is how they all create these unique personalities for their respective character which backs the decisions they make. But I also love how vulnerable Rachel Zegler gets with Anthea and just like with Freddy we as the audience sympathize with her and just want to see her happy. Actually, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Jack Dylan Grazer and Rachel Zegler. They had this really sweet connection between the two of them and I hope we get to see more of them. I just wanted to quickly shout out Meagan Good, who plays Superhero Darla, because I enjoyed watching her play this child as an adult. I also wanted to say that Zachary Levi, who plays Shazam, did his best in this movie and I wanted to acknowledge that. You can tell that he was bringing his A-game to this movie but unfortunately the movie didn't help him show off his strengths. He was trying to continue on that emotion from the first movie and it does work but the story just made it fall flat. He still continues though to be the best casting choice for this role and being this child disguised as an adult. After watching the trailer I held out hope that the CGI would be better in the final version but unfortunately, it wasn't for the most part. When it comes to the backgrounds in this movie you can see the actors standing out and it just looks terrible. But, when you look at the mythical creatures like the Unicorns, dragon and Steve, they actually looked really good and like they were really there. I wish they put more effort into the backgrounds than the mythical creatures since we see more of the backgrounds than the creatures.

In the end, Shazam Fury of the Gods had so much potential to be good but was just brought down by a rushed story. This movie also faced the problem of the advertising just spoiling the movie and showing pretty much the entire ending. For those who enjoyed the first movie or are looking for a good family movie to see give this one a chance but probably on a cheap day at the theatre.

There's one element of these Scream movies that almost everybody loves which is the whodunnit mystery part. Audiences get the enjoyment of feeling like one of the characters and trying to figure out who the new Ghostface is. For the past couple of movies, the reveal of who it was has been very underwhelming but Scream 6 makes a redemption. One of the things that are popular for these movies is to have two Ghostfaces and while in this movie you can kind of figure out who the first one is the second is as easy. I myself kept trying to figure out who it could be and not being able to put the pieces together so once the reveal happened I was shocked. The story does a good job of keeping you on your toes the entire time and throwing in curveballs to throw you off the scent. It was this mystery element of the movie that made me really enjoy it as I couldn't wait to learn who Ghostface was and what their motive is. Honestly, the only thing I didn't enjoy about this movie's Ghostface is the motive but honestly, I have a problem with lots of Ghostface's motives. The motives here do make sense I just wish they did something as it's kind of copying from a different Scream movie. But even if you take out the mystery part of the story this movie is still a solid movie. During the down beats where it was just exploring how the previous movie's events affected the survivors was really interesting to me. We get to see the different ways people cope with traumatic events and how it changes them as a person. It's an interesting study that the Scream movies are known for doing and I'm glad they kept it up with this movie.

Aside from the mystery the Scream franchise is well known for its comedy and I really liked the comedy in this one. The comedy in this one wasn't too forceful and was shoved down your throat and instead only pops up in moments that it would work in. Whenever a scene did have comedy in it though I actually did end up laughing which is a hard task to pull off. But what really shocked me about this movie is how well-paced it was. There wasn't a single second in this movie where I felt it dragging or rushing and just felt the time fly away. This just shows how well done the story was in that it keeps your attention whether it be with the kills and action or the mystery of who's the new Ghostface. I especially liked how the pacing for this movie worked for the more tension-building scenes which I absolutely loved. I feel like one of the biggest reasons that the tension in this movie was incredible is thanks to the directors of this movie Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The directing duo easily knows how to keep the tension up for certain sequences leaving the audience wondering what exactly is going to happen. What helps is that most of the tension is developed through mind games tricking the audience into thinking one thing but then something else happens. The best example to show how well they did the tension is the subway scene where the audience is left guessing if Ghostface is in the train car or not. It's an incredibly done scene that shows that this directing duo knows exactly what they're doing in this genre of film and how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. But it's not just the horror element they succeed with but also directing the actors to perfectly show how they should feel in those certain moments. This, of course, wouldn't be possible without having an incredible cast already which thankfully this movie has. All of the actors in this movie brought their a-game and it was incredible to see. I especially loved seeing all of the returning actors and how they developed their characters from the last time we saw them.

As I had mentioned earlier, pretty much none of the characters in this movie are the same as when we last saw them. Each of the core four who survived the last movie has changed in some way whether in a healthy way or not. This is especially shown with the Carpenter sisters portrayed by Melissa Barrera, who plays Sam, and Jenna Ortega, who plays Tara. The two sisters have very different ways of coping with the tragedy that happened to them and both actresses do a spectacular job of showing it. Jenna Ortega does a great job of showing how Tara just wants to keep living her life and focus on the future she wants instead of the past. She doesn't want this tragedy to define who she is and instead shows that she is more than just this tragic event that happened to her. Whereas Melissa Barrera shows how a parental figure might act after something like that and felt like Sidney Prescott in a way. She's paranoid that something might happen again and just wants to protect her little sister and keep her safe. Melissa Barrera was amazing in this kind of role and it helped make Sam this interesting character to watch throughout the movie. Especially when you consider who her father is and I love that we still get to see her deal with those issues instead of just pushing them to the side. I originally wasn't a big Sam fan but after seeing her in this movie I can't wait to see what else they do with her. I do wish though that we got to see more of Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays Mindy, and Mason Gooding, who plays Chad, because I would've loved to have fully explored how the murder spree affected them. I do see why they were pushed to the sidelines since they're like the comedic relief in a way especially when it comes to Mindy. But just like with Scream five I really didn't see the reason for bringing Courteney Cox, who plays Gale Weathers, back for this movie. Now, I don't have a problem with bringing back legacy characters from previous movies as I did enjoy what they did with Kirby, played by Hayden Panettiere, for this movie I just don't like it when they come back and have no reason to be there.

Gale literally has no purpose in this movie and is barely seen anyways so I don't see the reason for having her in it at all. She pretty much does one helpful thing that easily could've been done by two other characters and is even a joke in the movie. But I will say that I did enjoy seeing Gale be a badass and fight back against Ghostface. In the end, Scream 6 greatly improves on some of the issues people had with the fifth movie and brings it back to its original ways. This movie is perfect for those who enjoy whodunnits and for those who might not be big fans of horror movies.

With a story like that the most important aspect the movie would need to do is keep the tension going and in regards to the story that does not happen. When it comes to the tension in this movie it more comes from the environment than the story itself at least for me. The cabin is the only environment we're in for pretty much the entire movie and for the audience, we feel this dread of not knowing how these characters are going to be able to escape from these people. Usually, I prefer to have a decent understanding of the layout of wherever the movie takes place but here the not knowing helps. The only possible escape routes that we know of for sure are those on the main floor of this cabin which is being blocked by the four people. We also have no clue how far from civilization this cabin is so even if one of them is able to escape we have no clue if they would be able to get help. Honestly, the most tension we get from the story is the wondering if all of this is real or not. The story does a good job of keeping the audience wondering if the apocalypse is actually happening or if this is just a social experiment or a giant group delusion. The story is told perfectly to keep the audience asking these questions and finding ways to believe a certain way. What also helps this movie is the fact that it has M. Night Shyamalan, writer and director, attached to the project who's known for having plot twists in his movies. This movie does kind of have a plot twist to it but it all heavily relies on audience members not having prior knowledge on a certain topic.

For me personally, the biggest reason though the story's tension doesn't work is that we don't know anything about the family. I kind of wish the movie had started by showing the family together and interacting so we at least build a connection to them and want to route for them all to survive. In a movie like this, that aspect is very important as it helps the audience root against the invaders and for this helpless family to make it out alive. But with how the story for this movie was told we get none of that and in all honesty, I was rooting for one of them to die because of it. Sure it tries to correct this throughout the movie by showing us flashbacks but these flashbacks come at random points in the movie and don't last that long. I will give the story this is the fact you could never fully tell where the movie was going. This connects with my earlier point of how we have no clue if this is actually happening or not but even then we have no clue who they might sacrifice or if they'll just let the whole world die. But I did say that for the most part, you couldn't figure out how the story was going to go as it's kind of easy to predict what the most likely outcome is going to be. Funny enough I went into this movie thinking I had the whole ending figured out but I only got one part of my prediction correct and even that part I started thinking I was going to be wrong. With that being said if you've seen the trailers for this movie it's going to make it easier to figure out what exactly is going on and what the ending is going to be. Overall though the story of this movie is really well done and despite being on the slower side it's able to hold your attention from beginning to end. One thing you need to know is that this movie isn't fast-paced but instead takes its time to explore the characters in this movie. Despite the fact, we don't have a strong connection with these characters, we still get a good understanding of their thought process with the help of the actors. For me, the best aspect of this movie is the acting in it because everybody in this movie was perfectly able to depict the kind of character they are playing.

None of the characters in this movie are similar and all of them have different ways of handling the situation they're in. Of course, this is best shown with Eric and Andrew but surprisingly we also see this fact with the invaders as well. Obviously, all of the invaders believe in their cause but where they differ is their approach to how they handle it. From Dave Bautista, who plays Leonard, being the calm-headed one with a soft-spoken voice in order to calm the family down to Rupert Grint, who plays Redmond, being hot-headed and just wanting to get this over with. Each person is well-defined and makes most of them, except for Redmond, sympathetic and you want the family to make a decision quickly to save them. But of course, one of the best performances in this movie is Dave Bautista due to his calming nature. When you look at Dave Bautista you're immediately terrified of him due to how strong he is and it's this that makes him the perfect choice for Leonard. He terrifies us because we feel like if any of the characters do something wrong he could snap and hurt them but at the same time he calms us down with the tone of his voice. His voice is calming and makes you want to trust him and do whatever he says because of how sincere he is. But the performances I really enjoyed in this movie were Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge. I specifically love how each one showed a different way someone might act in this kind of situation with Andrew not believing it to be real while Eric kind of does. Due to this dynamic between the two the audience is constantly flipping back and forth between who they think will be sacrificed or if they'll decide to do nothing. Between the two though I have to say that I really enjoyed watching Ben Aldridge slowly lose his mind. Most people in this situation would most likely be like Andrew and try to deny everything happening. Ben Aldridge perfectly shows this in his performance of how he cares for his family so much that he will do anything to protect it. But at the same time, he plays Andrew in such a way that you kind of start rooting for him to be killed.

As the movie progresses Andrew does and says some things that you can easily write off as being under pressure but makes you think he's been keeping this hidden for a while. Ben Aldridge's performance of Andrew is amazing to watch as we see this man go through so much. I also would like to mention that if you do go see this movie pay close attention to Jonathan Groff as in one scene you can clearly see him spit. But none of this would've been possible without the help of a talented director and M. Night Shyamalan was the right choice. In recent years M. Night Shyamalan has been making hit-or-miss movies and with this one, he hits it out of the park. He's a big reason the environment causes so much tension by limiting the area shown. He also used these extremely tight close-ups of the actors which I didn't really enjoy but helped create this unsettling element. In the end, Knock at the Cabin shows that M. Night Shyamalan can still make good movies with the right material. Despite this movie's flaws, it's still worth checking out at least once especially if you enjoy character-study movies.

The main aspect of this movie that always amazes me whenever I watch it is the animation. The animation in this movie is just so gorgeous to look at and you can tell the animators put so much thought into how they wanted it to look. There aren't that many animated movies that have this kind of look to them and it really reminds me of an old children's book. The animation here is unique in that this movie is a hand-drawn animated movie but through the power of lighting, everything looks and feels 3D. One of the biggest things I noticed in this movie was the lighting and how well it was used. The lighting in every scene helped the audience get a feel for the environment or how a character was feeling at that certain moment. I especially love comparing the lighting for the town of Smeerensburg from the start of the movie to the ending. When we first see the town it's hidden away in a thick fog to where you can't see anything and whatever you do see is dreary to look at. Whereas in the end everything is bright and colourful and it's easy to see everything in the small town. This perfectly shows the change that's happened to this town that once was at each other's throats and now live in harmony with one another. When it comes to the lighting of the characters the best example is Klaus. Klaus is usually seen in darker lighting when we the audience don't fully know him and what exactly his story is but once we learn more about him we see him in brighter lighting.

This visually shows the audience how mysterious of a character Klaus is at first but how he's such a kind-hearted character at his core. Honestly, the animation for this movie is so good that if you took the dialogue away the audience would still be able to grasp what's going on and what the moral of the story is. That's how expressive the characters in this movie are and there are actually a few scenes in this movie where there's either no dialogue or little dialogue and you can tell what exactly is going on. I also just wanted to talk about the character designs in this movie. All of the characters have a unique look to them that helps them stand out and you can easily tell them apart from all of the others. When rewatching this movie I especially noticed this with the children in town. It's such a subtle thing that if you're not looking for it you won't notice it but from what I could tell none of the kid's designs looked the same as the others. Something that was a bit harder to tell but once again when you look at the kid's you can tell which family they're from. Even with gorgeous animation, a movie can't be made without a story and the story of this movie is incredible. The story for this movie is one that's never really been talked about or shown in any kind of media. Despite there being lots of Christmas movies about Santa Claus there haven't been many about how exactly this legend began. This movie dared to tell that story and I love how they executed it. The story covers every single thing we know about Santa and shows how exactly it came to be. I especially loved how they covered the aspect of writing a letter to Santa as I feel like that one would be the trickiest one to figure out how it started. But by having this movie follow a postman they solved that tricky problem with grace. But even taking all of that away, the story of this movie is just beautiful. On the surface, this movie is about the origin of Santa Claus but underneath that, it's about how Christmas can bring people together and how it's okay to break traditions. When the movie starts we understand that the Ellingboes and Krums have been at war with each other.

We don't know the exact reasons why we just know that this is what the children have been taught as well. But once Klaus and Jesper start to drop off gifts everything in the village starts to change for the better. The whole moral of the story is that one small good deed can set off a chain reaction in others to do the same. The story shows this really well, despite spelling it out for the audience, that you get the proper understanding of what exactly Christmas is meant to be. It's a holiday meant for giving whatever you can, helping out others and spending time with friends and family. It's a beautiful lesson, especially for the kids this movie is targeted towards. But, there's one element to this story that surprised me which is the raw emotion in it. The story for this movie, no matter how cliche it might be, will tug at your heartstrings for all the right reasons. This movie takes you on one wild rollercoaster of emotion but most of the emotion doesn't happen till the second half of the movie. Once the emotional beats hit you though you're already sucked into this movie so it hits even harder. But the story of the movie is so hooking that you don't even notice how much time has passed. The pacing for this movie is honestly great and you don't notice how much time has gone by till you see the credits start rolling. Oddly enough I kind of wish this movie was a bit longer. Even though the movie covers everything given how long the movie is there are still some things that could've been explored a bit more given more run time. Such as Jesper's character development and his relationship with Alva, voiced by Rashida Jones. All of that to me just seemed rushed and I wish it was explored a bit more especially the character growth for Jesper. Without a talented cast of actors to give voices to the characters in this movie then none of this would be possible and the cast for this movie was pretty good. Everybody in this movie was able to convey just through their voice alone the kind of person their character was.

The best example of this is Jason Schwartzman as Jesper. He perfectly encapsulated the snobby rich person that is Jesper and how exactly he would feel in certain moments. I loved how he also changed his voice depending on what was needed for the scene and especially as the movie went on. When we first meet him he has that stereotypical rich person voice that he deserves everything and is better than everybody else. Compared to his voice as the movie goes on where he starts to sound more like a natural voice as he starts to realize his situation isn't as bad as he made it out to be. But the real scene stealer for this movie doesn't even talk that much which is J. K. Simmons as Klaus. Klaus is this mysterious woodsman that lives out in the woods by himself and J. K. Simmons voices this character to perfection. He gives Klaus a slightly rougher voice that's still gentle to hear that represents the character well. He was able to switch his voice from this harsher tone to a more gentle one smoothly and that's what really captivates the audience to his performance. I was shocked to hear that this was Sergio Pablos, the director and co-writer, first time directing a movie. This movie was directed so well that he seemed like a professional already. Obviously, being one of the writers of this movie helps him understand what exactly he wanted out of this movie but still. He was able to execute this story so well that as I said earlier this movie sucks you in for this wild ride. The last thing I'll mention is the music in this movie that was composed by Alfonso G. Aguilar. The music in this movie was so well done and brought back those memories of being a kid around Christmas time. All of the music in this movie fits perfectly in whatever scene it's playing in. In the end, Klaus is a unique Christmas movie that deserves checking out. It tells a story that's never been done before and is perfect for the whole family.

The biggest thing for me when it came to this movie was the story for it. I was worried about how exactly they would continue this story naturally and keep the audience interested as well. While I do think the story was able to do all of that I also still think it might've needed a few more edits to make it a bit better. What I enjoyed the most was the family element in this movie. Obviously, between the first movie and this one, it was inevitable that Jake and Neytiri would have a family of their own. So I really enjoyed getting to see how connected this family is and showing the different dynamics in it as well. They felt like a real family with how the siblings would stand up for each other one second and the next just make fun of them. But due to how many new characters there are in this movie an important thing to have is balance. When a movie has new characters to introduce and have the audience build connections with them it's important to give them all enough time to develop and show their dynamics with other characters. Although I would love to say this movie does a good job balancing all of the characters in it, I can't say that fully. When it comes to the kid characters in particular the story does a good job of spending time on them depending on how important they are. But when it comes to the other characters in this movie at times I forgot they even existed due to how little screen time they get. I can see why in this movie Jake and Neytiri weren't shown as much but there was one character, in particular, I was surprised didn't get that much screen time.

Spider, played by Jack Champion, despite being an interesting character didn't get that much screen time which was disappointing. He had so much potential to be this really interesting character to study but just ends up being forgotten along the way. But he wasn't the only new character who was just tossed to the side but also a lot of the Metkayina's were also just pushed to the side. I feel like when it came to pushing characters to the side it primarily affected the water tribe and none of the characters there were fully fleshed out. So many of them just ended up being flat characters and I really hope in future movies they get more screen time so they can be proper static characters. I think the biggest reason why some of the other characters who aren't a part of the Sully family get pushed to the side is due to the part of this story I didn't really enjoy which is the sky people returning. I'm not against them returning and kind of figured they were going to return it's just how they choose to have them return. In particular, how they decided to have Quaritch, played by Stephen Lang, return to be the big bad in this movie. I will applaud the movie for actually addressing how this is possible, despite it making zero sense, but I wish they created a new bad guy for this movie. But that wasn't my only problem with the sky people's storyline which is that it didn't feel fully thought out. There were two different storylines going on with the sky people with one of them just randomly being forgotten about and the other one literally appearing out of nowhere. I can see what the ideas were for this but I wish they had just adjusted it a bit to make it a bit more interesting. It's also because of this that at times the movie feels like it comes to a screeching halt. Overall, the pacing of this movie was surprisingly well done and I didn't notice how much time had passed. One of my biggest concerns was with the over three-hour-long run time and thinking there were going to be scenes that could've been cut or shortened down and I was partially correct.

For the most part, I never felt like the movie was dragging at all and was moving at a decent pace especially in the opening scene when we're being reintroduced to the characters and the Sully family. But I did start to feel the pacing issues once the sky people return and the family go to the Pandora reefs. Once at this point in the movie is when I started to find scenes that could've been cut down or cut out. What I find the funniest thing though about this movie is despite everything flowing well the ending for this movie was so rushed. The ending can be best described as don't blink or you'll miss it due to how fast it goes. But I think the real biggest reason you don't notice how much time has passed is due to the special effects in this movie. Despite how many years have passed since the first Avatar movie came out there's one thing everybody can agree on which is the special effects aged super well. I specifically love how if you compare the motion capture from the first movie to this one you can for sure see a difference in the CGI. From the Na'vi to the creatures of Pandora everything looks so much cleaner and natural. This is especially true when it comes to the look of the creatures of Pandora. By getting to properly explore the reefs of Pandora we get to see all new creatures that mainly inhabit the ocean and once again I'm asking how can I ride them. The Ilu, Skimwing and Tulkun are all well-designed creatures that look incredible. But it's not just the people or creatures that are jaw-dropping but the environment of Pandora as well. We've already seen what the forest of Pandora looks like so it's exciting getting to see this whole other area and how gorgeous it is. Every scene that's underwater is just breathtaking and makes you wish you could go and visit this place. Definitely a huge round of applause for every single special effects crew person for their hard work creating these underwater creatures, the environments and the Na'vi people. But of course, without actors in the Motion capture suits, none of this would work out.

I can't say the acting in this movie was the best but what I will say is that all of the kids in this movie really stole the show. For most of the teenage actors in this movie, this was their very first big movie role and it really doesn't show. All of them are able to convey the proper emotion that's needed for the scene and make their character stand out amongst the others. For those who have siblings will be able to most likely relate to one of the Sulley siblings due to how well they demonstrate the different kinds of siblings everybody has or are. A person who was a surprise to me was Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, who plays Tuk, as I expected Tuk to be the cliche annoying little sibling but was actually fun to watch. I will say as the youngest I did relate to her the most but the other person I related to and really enjoyed watching was Lo'ak, portrayed by Britain Dalton. Out of all of the Sully kids, Lo'ak was honestly the most interesting to watch due in part to Britain Dalton's portrayal of this character. He conveyed perfectly this kid who's trying his best to fit in with the others in his family while still being true to himself. He always stands up for what he believes in and despite everything is always there for his siblings to protect them from anything. Despite not having that much screen time another actor who surprised me was Jack Champion. Like I said earlier Spider is such an interesting character study as he's human but raised among the Na'vi. I feel like with more screen time Jack Champion could really bring so much to his character and make him a fan favourite. I remember looking at the cast list and seeing that Sigourney Weaver, who plays Kiri, was coming back for this movie and was curious to see how. Well, Sigourney Weaver did an incredible job playing the teenage daughter of Grace. I know for the most part it was because of the CGI that she looked completely different but I still couldn't tell that it was her playing this character. I thought they brought in a young actress to do all of the motion capture and she just did the voice work but no.

Sigourney Weaver actually played Kiri from the physicality to the vocals and you can tell she put in the effort. She comes across as a regular teenage actor from her voice to her body posture and conveys that emotion so well. I will quickly say that despite not having a lot of screen time Zoe Saldana was also pretty good. Every time Zoe Saldana was on screen you saw Neytiri's character growth over the past years and how becoming a mother has changed her. She's super supportive of her family and just wants what's best for them. She also just brings such raw emotion to this character as well that you're just hypnotized by her performance. Everybody else in this movie was also pretty good but due to many of them not getting much screen time they couldn't fully show off their acting ability. The last thing I want to mention is the editing in this movie because it was just weird. For the most part, the editing in this movie was just fine but there were a few occasions where the editing was just weird. There's this one scene where this one thing is happening and then it randomly cuts to something else not related for only a couple of seconds before cutting back to the original thing. It was during these few moments that I was taken out of the movie experience and decently confused. In the end, Avatar: The Way of Water surprised me but also proved me right by still having some issues with the story. But, this movie is definitely worth seeing at least once on whatever specialized screen your local theatre has just for the special effects alone. I'm curious to see what will happen in Avatar 3.

Once again Steven Spielberg, director and co-writer, knocks it out of the park with this movie. This movie is a love letter to cinema and all of those who love this art form. This is best shown with the story for this movie but specifically on the surface level. On the surface level, this movie is about a young boy who has a dream but some of his family members consider it a hobby. Lots of people will see themselves in Sammy and relate to him due to this aspiration he has. How so many people want to work in the movie industry but there are those who say it's not a stable career option or that it's just a hobby. That's what makes this movie so incredible to watch is how relatable it is. You connect with the characters in this movie and want to keep watching to see what's going to happen next. This especially connects well when you look at the movie in a deeper way. When you look past everything on the surface level this story is about a family wanting to be there for each other and how film can capture that. Some of the earliest movies people make are family home videos and that's exactly what this movie feels like. You follow this family through different experiences and moments in their lives and how it changes and affects them. You feel like a fly on the wall throughout the entire movie. This brings me to what I loved the most about this movie which is the emotion it has in it. The movie brings you on a wild roller coaster and from beginning to end you're hooked. One second you're laughing and the next you're starting to tear up which I actually did while watching. But again, that just shows how powerful film is and what this whole movie is about is how it can move and affect you.

To tie this all together with what I originally said, this movie's story is really for those who love this art form but even for those who don't. The story does an excellent job of explaining certain things for those who might not be as well educated in the way of film but more specifically the behind-the-scenes aspects of it. I really enjoyed the scenes where we got to see the making of process for Sammy's movies as it shows what are some aspects of what directors do on sets and what it was like to edit movies back in the old days. I especially liked getting to see how exactly they edited movies back then and seeing how tough it was. This movie's story really makes you reflect back to the moment you first fell in love with film and how it's impacted you. Despite how long this movie is, it honestly flashes before your eyes. I didn't notice how long I had been sitting there due to how memorized and hooked I was with this movie's story. This movie is paced super well and knows how long each moment should be in order for the audience to get the full effect of it. But the true reason this story is so engaging to watch is the performances in this movie. All of the acting in this movie was incredibly well done and makes you feel like this is a real family. Everybody works off of each other in order to help the audience fully understand both their character and their dynamic in the household. This is best explored with Michelle Williams's, who plays Mitzi Fabelman, performance as the mother and past dreamer. Michelle Williams's character is the one who is most similar to Sammy so it's understandable why she would be encouraging him to pursue his dreams. She's been where he was and it almost seems like she regrets her decision to not properly pursue her dream. It's also great to see one of the parents fully support Sammy's dreams from the very beginning and continually encourage him along the way. But, it's not just, for this reason, she was captivating to watch but also because of her character's mental health issues. Her character's mental health issues are so interesting to watch especially as they spiral downwards.

After a reveal in the movie, you see Michelle Williams completely change the way you see her portray her character. She's still this loving mother who cares for her children but she's also very depressed and doing her best to try and understand why. To counteract Michelle Williams's performance we have Paul Dano, who plays Burt Fabelman, as the doting father. Paul Dano plays this by the book's character who doesn't fully believe his son could make a career by making movies. But no matter what his thoughts are he still cares for his family, especially his son, and wants what's best for them. He's always looking for ways to cheer up his wife and care for her. Paul Dano plays this so well that you can't help but like his character. I just wanted to quickly shout out Mateo Zoryan, who plays younger Sammy, as he perfectly portrayed the childhood wonders a lot of people got from watching movies at a young age. The scene stealer in this movie was hands down Gabriel LaBelle. Just like with Mateo Zoryan, Gabriel is able to show how movies can impact and shape us. Those who want to work in the film industry will be able to relate to him. He shows how much hard work goes into making movies and how directors look at all of the different reactions to their movies. Gabriel Labelle also demonstrates so well how passionate directors can be when it comes to making movies and especially when directing their actors. During the scene where he's making the WW2 movie, you see this. He always knows what exactly he wants to be done and how to get it executed that way. But what really makes his performance stand out amongst the others is how down-to-earth his performance is. He plays Sammy in such a way that during the moments he isn't directing movies you can still relate to him. When it comes to him learning the truth he reacts the same way any teenager would learning this kind of truth. It's thanks to Gabriel LaBelle's performance in this movie that we the audience are taken on a rollercoaster ride of emotion.

But none of this could've been done without the help of an incredible director and Steven Spielberg proves he's still got it with this movie. I think what really helped him with directing this movie is how this movie is semi-autobiographical about his early years. So he has a deeper connection to this story but either way Steven Spielberg continues showing why he's one of the best directors of all time here. He knew how to direct his actors to make sure he got the correct reaction out of them that was needed for whatever scene it was. I especially loved the scenes where we only saw the reaction shots before we got the reveal of what they were looking at. He knows how to keep the audience wondering what's going on and what's going to happen next. In the end, The Fabelmans is a must-see movie for those who love the cinema or just want to watch a really good drama movie. This movie is for all those with a dream to keep pursuing it no matter what.

This movie had such potential to be a good movie. The trailers were appealing to watch and it seemed like a unique Christmas movie like Die Hard meets John Wick. But in the end, this movie is just another forgettable Christmas movie and the biggest reason for this is the story. The story of this movie takes itself way too seriously and doesn't fully embrace the oddness of the plot. This is a movie where Santa is going after a bunch of mercenaries it should be so much fun to watch. Getting to see another side to an iconic character that most of us have never seen before in any kind of media. But instead, this movie doesn't fully focus on that concept and instead brings drama into the mix. The drama just feels so out of place and that it shouldn't have been included at all. Especially since the dramatic plotline in this movie brings the movie to a standstill. I legit checked my watch in the movie just to figure out how much action was in this hour-and-fifty-two-minute-long movie and got a grand total of roughly thirty-five minutes. For a movie where the top genre is action, there isn't a lot of action in this movie and instead just so much talking. Also, a good chunk of the action is in the last part of this movie. I get that action movies need to have filler scenes so it's not constant action scenes after another and let the audience breathe but that seems like a lot of breathing room. Even with the breathing room though we never get to properly learn about our main characters. The biggest reason that you can't root for any of the characters is due to the fact the story for this movie doesn't balance its plotlines well. It keeps jumping around all of the time and can't decide which characters to focus on.

This entire story only works if we the audience actually want Santa Claus to save them but due to the lack of knowledge of them, you don't really care if they live or die. In all honesty, I was kind of rooting for one of them to die just to amp up the action and tension in this movie. But even the mercenaries storyline isn't fully explored and we only get to really learn about the leader of the group. Another factor the story of this movie doesn't have is tension. A good action movie has tension in it where you don't know what exactly is going to happen to the characters or how the hero is going to save them. Here, there was one scene with tension in it but even in that scene, you didn't really care what was happening. If this movie had just cut down on a good chunk of the scenes, especially the one ripping off another iconic Christmas movie, then this movie would've had the potential to be just a tiny bit better. But honestly, even with the cuts to the story, the pacing for this movie is just so slow. Like I said earlier I was constantly checking my watch during this movie which I never do. Whenever I did check my watch I would notice that time had passed but it felt like nothing was happening in the movie. Again, this is primarily due to the story issues but even without those the movie just moved at such a slow pace. When I checked my watch for the last time it was when the movie was starting to kick itself into gear and noticed it was ending soon. Due to the slower pacing in this movie the whole final part in this movie is rushed. From finally giving us the action that was advertised to randomly fixing this one story point between two characters the whole final part is rushed and feels lacklustre. Then the rest of this movie was just so slow and uninteresting. I probably wouldn't have noticed if the acting in this movie was entertaining but unfortunately there was only one good performance in this movie. All of the actors in this movie tried their best and you can tell that but in the end, they all just ended up being cardboard cutouts.

None of the actors in this movie could fully make their characters interesting or memorable. I can understand why the wealthy family members weren't that interesting but the mercenary team should've been fun to watch. Besides the leader of the group the only mercenary who was memorable and fun to watch was Krampus, played by Brendan Fletcher, just due to the fact he fully embraced the oddness of this movie. He made his character this odd psychopath that you obviously were rooting for to die but at least you were rooting for him in some way, unlike the others. Just like with Brendan Fletcher, the only other person I really enjoyed in this movie was John Leguizamo, who plays Scrooge. Between the two of them, they were the only ones to properly embrace what this movie truly is. John Leguizamo portrayed this leader who you can tell has a grudge against the holiday for some reason but you don't fully know why until later on. Due to this, it creates this uneasiness with his character that you don't know if he's doing this just because he just wants to or because he wants revenge and because of this he creates one of the only interesting characters in this movie. But, the only actor in this movie who I can say with confidence I fully enjoyed watching was David Harbour as Santa Claus. He portrayed this completely different version of old St. Nick to perfection with how he's started to not really care about the holiday to beating these guys up. It makes for the only entertaining part of this movie with him fully embracing the action Santa character. I would like to say that Tommy Wirkola, the director, did a pretty good job for his first time directing this movie. He knew how to properly direct the action scenes and how to try and hold the audience's attention during those dramatic parts. But no matter what the only fun thing in this movie is the Christmas-related codenames the mercenaries use. In the end, Violent Night tries to combine Die Hard and John Wick and just ends up failing. I don't see this becoming a Christmas classic anytime soon but I would say check it out on a streaming service.

I honestly went into this movie not properly knowing what to expect which worked in my favour. I didn't know what to expect from this movie's story and I ended up loving it. The story for this movie is so unique and well executed. I love how the story for this movie was broken down into meal courses. It's something that for those who understand how many courses there are in a meal can keep track of how much longer the movie is. But even those who don't know meal courses can use these breakdowns to see how this night is slowly turning into a nightmare. With each course in this movie, the tension and anxiety of the diners keep going up as more and more twisted things start to occur that night. This goes into how unpredictable this movie's story is. Sure there are some things in this movie that are predictable where you can figure out what exactly is going to happen but for a good chunk of this movie, you're left in the dark. You don't know what the next meal is going to be and what exactly is going to happen to the guests. It keeps you hooked and on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next. Another thing I really liked about this story is how it balanced the comedy and horror elements in it. This movie is the perfect example of how to make a horror comedy. The movie mainly focuses on the horror of this movie and builds up the tension of this situation. Whenever the comedy does show up it feels natural and works for what's happening and actually got a laugh out of me. But, another big reason I like this story is the themes it has in it.

The themes in this movie might not be the most subtle but are still interesting to think about. I don't want to fully say what the themes are as I want to let you guys try and figure them out. A big reason why the story for this movie works is obviously because of the writers, Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, but also because of the acting. The acting in this movie was well done all around by everybody. The cast in this movie might be on the smaller side but everybody in this movie did their best to have their character stand out. Not all of the characters in this movie might be memorable but at least they all were different and fun to watch. I wish all of the secondary characters in this movie had a bit more time to fully explore them and why exactly they're there. But no matter what the acting in this movie was still incredible and the scene stealer easily was Ralph Fiennes. Ralph Fiennes played this terrifying character who you could not figure out what exactly was going on in his head. But what makes him the most intriguing to watch is his calm exterior. No matter what happens around him he stays calm and doesn't react at all. It makes for this interesting character that makes the audience want to know more about him and what caused him to be this way. There's a small thing I noticed while watching this movie that ties into what I just said about Ralph Fiennes's performance which is the background chefs. The background chefs don't react to what's happening and always stay focused on their tasks. This creates an interesting parallel to the reactions we get out of the guests attending that night who are freaking out. Just like with Chef Slowik it makes you wonder why they're here and working for this man. You get to learn about two of the chefs that work for Chef Slowik but that's it. But another performance from the main cast I really enjoyed was Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Margot. Out of all the characters in this movie, she's the only one who doesn't really care about being there. Due to this fact it's fun to watch her being a contrast to everyone else there that night.

Another aspect I enjoyed about Anya Taylor-Joy's performance is how well she bounced off of Ralph Fiennes. Anya Taylor'Joy's character isn't meant to be at the restaurant that night and this fact disturbs Chef Slowik. It's interesting to watch how these two interact with one another with this thought in mind. You have a man who's very proud of his food and this person who doesn't really care about this experience at all. This can also be connected to seeing her bounce off of Nicholas Hoult's, who plays Tyler, character. Nicholas Hoult's character has been dying to eat at this restaurant and meet Chef Slowick forever and he won't let anything ruin his night. So when you pair him up with Anya Taylor-Joy you get this strange partnership that's enticing to watch. Due to this movie primarily taking place on an isolated island the set design is very limited and despite that fact the sets were incredible. The primary set in this movie is the dining area of the restaurant and the design alone feels like an expensive restaurant with having the dining area overlooking the ocean and seeing the kitchen staff cooking. It really makes the audience feel like this could be a real-life restaurant. It's also due to this set design that we get some great cinematography, especially with mise-en-scene. Due to the limited set, it makes it easy to frame the shots and show the audience what needs to be seen in order to convey the theme and message of the film. Like I said earlier, the background chefs keep cooking when things start to go down and the guests are freaking out we get to see that. It gives the audience a proper sense of how everybody feels about everything happening around them. In the end, The Menu is a deliciously good movie that needs to be savoured. It's one of those movies that you might think you're not going to enjoy but you end up having a blast with.

When Knives Out came out in 2019 the thing that most enticed people to see this movie was the story of it. Not many murder mystery movies were coming out in recent years so it was a shock to finally get one that was good. That trend continues here with Glass Onion even if the story for this one might feel a bit more clunky. When it comes to the mystery element of this movie, Glass Onion knocks it out of the park. Rian Johnson, the writer and director, cleverly wrote this movie in order to confuse the audience and not know exactly who the murderer might be. Unlike in Knives Out, where the clues are obvious and easy to figure out, this movie cleverly makes those hints subtle so even the most sharpest-eyed person can't figure it out. This to me is what makes this movie's story so interesting. It makes you want to rewatch it in order to see if you can pick up on those subtle hints that you missed the first time around. Of course, there are some elements in this movie where you can easily figure out they're going to be used or mentioned in some way later on. The plot twists in this movie are also really well done but are what makes this movie feel clunky. The twist in this movie causes the movie to come to a screeching halt just to properly explain it and how it ties into everything. Once we learn how it ties into everything the movie takes a while to get back on track to the original story happening. This isn't the only part of this movie that makes it feel clunky. Roughly the first twenty to thirty minutes of this movie somehow both feel necessary and unnecessary.

The first part of this movie is necessary as it gives us the audience exposition about the characters in this movie but it's unnecessary as we can visually see and verbally hear later on everything we need to know about them. It takes time away from the mystery itself and causes the movie to move at an odd pace. The pacing for this movie is weird in how you never notice how quickly time flies while watching it but at the same time it feels slow. This just has to do with what's happening in the story and at what point in time. When the movie is focusing on the mystery part of the story then it feels like it's moving at the right speed. At any other point in this movie though you definitely feel the pacing of this movie go slow. But as I said, the story for this movie no matter what has you hooked from beginning to end that you don't even notice how much time has passed till the credits start rolling. Another thing I enjoyed about the writing in this movie is the humour of it all. The humour in this movie worked so well that I think all of the jokes in this movie got laughs. Rian Johnson did a good job of balancing the seriousness of the movie and knowing when to throw in some humour. But even if the story for this movie is clunky, the biggest reason why the audience doesn't really care is because of the acting. The acting in this movie is just as good as the first movie with a wide range of wacky characters. You can tell all of the actors in this movie fully knew what kind of character they were playing and made it their own. Everyone in this movie did an outstanding job portraying all of the different kinds of obnoxious rich people. The two actors who showed this the best are Kate Hudson, who plays Birdie Jay, and Dave Bautista, who plays Duke Cody. Both of them played the most obnoxious ones in the group which just made for a fun time. Kate Hudson plays this fashion model who's constantly being called out for some kind of controversy online and not caring about it whereas Dave Bautista plays this streamer who's all about men's rights.

I think what makes them stand out to me is that there are actual people out there like this that we see all the time. It just makes you shake your head in disappointment all while laughing at their antics. For the movie as a whole though there were two people who really stole the show for me the first one is Janelle Monáe, who plays Andi Brand. Janelle Monáe plays the outcast of the group so well and really makes the audience wonder what's up with her. You can tell that Andi doesn't want to be there but also comes across as someone with a purpose and mission and they show that so well. But of course, the real scene stealer of this movie is Daniel Craig as the weirdest detective ever. I will never get sick of seeing Daniel Craig playing Detective Blanc just because you can tell he has so much fun playing this role. He so easily switches between being this serious detective to joking around and having fun. He understands in what moments he needs to be which version of his character and it just makes for an iconic character. Also, it was great getting to hear his weird southern accent again. An element in this movie that surprised me was the set design for it. The set design in this movie was so well done and I wish I was in the room where they designed this island. Everything on the island looks incredible and like something a tech billionaire would have. But even the simplest of rooms look outstanding and you can see they wanted each room to have its own unique look and feel. My personal favourite room is the glass onion itself because that room is both terrifying, and 100% would give people a fear of heights, and gorgeous. In the end, Glass Onion is one of those sequels that both improves on the first movie but still doesn't surpass it. It's still a good murder mystery movie that you'll definitely need to rewatch in order to pick up on everything.

She Said joins the movies of this year that nearly went under my radar but I'm so glad that I ended up watching it.

I feel like for the most part, we all know the basic facts about this story. Allegations were brought up against Harvey Weinstein; he denied them, this article was posted, and then many more women spoke up afterwards. What I like about this movie's story is that it goes deeper than just those basic facts. Obviously, none of us got to be in the room where this all happens and this movie does a good job of putting the audience there. We get to see what it was like for these journalists to try and get these women to go on the record and say what happened to them. The audience gets to fully experience what it's like to be an investigative journalist and it helps this movie stand out amongst others like it. I also like how this film handled what happened to these women. Some other movies might've actually shown the audience what happened behind closed doors but not this movie. This movie pays respect to the survivors by not showing anything graphic but instead leaving it up to the audience's imagination. I also enjoyed the fact that this movie wasn't just about the investigation but we also got a deep dive into the actual lives of the journalists. The audience gets to see how exactly this kind of work can impact those with families. I do have to admit though that at times this part of the story did feel kind of out of place. It was mainly at the beginning of the movie and then interweaves with the rest of the movie pretty well. But no matter what the story of this movie is going to have you hooked from beginning to end due to getting to learn more about how this groundbreaking article came to be. We get to see how vulnerable these women felt and the difficulties they faced trying to come forward.

This movie's story will most likely give you a whole new appreciation for the MeToo movement. Now, like most journalism movies the pacing for this movie isn't the fastest and I was totally cool with that. Like I said before the story of this movie keeps you hooked from start to finish so you never notice how long this movie is. You're constantly wondering what's going to happen next, what's going to come up and how exactly are they going to break this story. With that being said, if you have a short attention span, don't like thought-provoking movies or get bored easily then this movie isn't for you. It takes a while for the movie to start picking up the pace a bit and even by then nothing shocking really happens in this movie. I will say that the pacing in this movie did impact the ending in a way. The ending to me just seemed kind of rushed like they had to quickly get things wrapped up. But what's funny about that is it's not the entire ending. The last couple minutes of this movie are at the right pace, it's just the previous parts of it that seemed rushed to me. But that's just a nitpick that doesn't take away anything from this movie at all. Every other scene in this movie feels like the right amount of time to give them. But honestly, the biggest reason you don't notice the pacing in this movie is because of the acting in it. I will admit at first I didn't really like the acting in it but then I started to look at it in a different way. I started to view the acting as how would these people act in this kind of situation and realized it was good. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are the real standouts in this movie for me. They had this incredible dynamic between the two of them that made the audience want to route for them to get this article printed. Through both of their performances, you get to see how despite everything happening they still keep fighting for the truth. This part is especially true when it comes to Zoe Kazan and her performance. You follow both of the women equally in this movie but a good chunk mainly follows Jodi as she goes around trying to get women to talk.

During those moments you see some defeat in her as she continues to hit dead ends with people not wanting to go on the record but never giving up. The same goes for Carey Mulligan as Megan but I enjoy how in her performance she makes it harder to see. You can tell she's been through this before and no matter what happens it never gets easier. It's because of both of their performances that you feel the heartbreak they're going through and are just hoping for them to get some kind of victory. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't give time to the other people a part of this story but no matter how small their part was they gave it their all. I will say though that all of the women who portrayed the survivors in this story did incredible jobs. All of the portrayals of them in this movie felt honest and real. Obviously, all of the actors portraying them probably felt this responsibility to portray them in that honest way and they knocked it out of the park. Every single performance felt vulnerable and you could see how hard it was for them to recount what happened and their experiences. You can see that they want change to happen but feel trapped and scared to do so due to not knowing what coming forward would mean for them and their careers. The specific actors I want to shout out for this are Jennifer Ehle, who plays Laura Madden, and Angela Yeoh, who plays Rowena Chiu. But of course, none of this would be possible without the right director for this movie and Maria Schrader was definitely the right pick here. You can tell she wanted to handle this movie as sensitively as possible while still telling this story as honestly as possible. In the end, She Said brings the audience into the room where it happens and brings them along for this wild ride. For those who want to know more about what Weinstein did or are just interested in movies based on true stories, this one is worth a watch.

I really gave this movie a chance to be good but in the end, I was right and this movie just fell flat on its face. For me, my biggest issue with this movie is the story but especially how it was handled. The story for this movie wasn't bad at all and easily could've worked too. The only reason it didn't work here is that it bit off more than it could chew. It tried to give each character a plot line of their own which is where it goes wrong. Due to this characters are just ignored or skipped over for long periods of time and when they show up again it's like oh right you exist. It's also due to this that character arcs just feel rushed or none existent. We don't get to spend time with these characters so we don't grow attached to them or want them to succeed in their mission. There are also elements in this story that aren't fully explained. There's a major element in this movie that involves a character that is never explained and I know most people will overlook this but it just bugged me. But like I said this story isn't bad by any means. It still has its moments of heartwarming moments but they all get overshadowed or forgotten about so quickly. The first Enchanted movie has become a classic in these past years with people still being able to quote the story to this day but I don't see this one being quotable at all. The story is just that forgettable and what doesn't help is how predictable it is. I legit guessed how this movie was going to end at the 30-minute mark and I know this because I legit paused the movie in order to write it down. But even without the movie being predictable a big problem with the movie's story is the pacing of it.

I was hoping that one of the things that would be fixed for this movie was the pacing but despite a slightly longer run time, it's somehow worse. I think the biggest issue with the pacing stems from what I mentioned earlier about the characters. The movie tries so hard to make sure each character has roughly the same amount of screen time that it ends up affecting the pacing of the movie. You're constantly wanting the movie to go back to Giselle just so the story can progress further. It's also due to this pacing issue that once the climax hits everything is sped up to the max. There was no time to breathe because the writers had to solve the problem in a natural way that conveyed the message of this movie properly. Then when the movie ended it just didn't feel satisfying at all and was more confusing than anything. Another big reason this movie's pacing was not the greatest is the song numbers. The first Enchanted movie only had four songs in it but the songs helped progress the story forward so it was okay to have them in it. The songs were also catchy so it helped distract the audience from the pacing issues that it had. Whereas in Disenchanted the songs just kind of bring the movie to a screeching halt. The songs do nothing to advance the plot and unlike the original songs, these ones just aren't catchy enough to distract the audience from the pacing issues. Instead of distracting us from how slow everything is moving it instead makes us wish everything was moving faster and the songs just weren't included. There also were scenes in this movie that either could've been cut out or cut down as well to help this movie move at a faster pace. Despite those major issues I will say there are things I enjoyed about this movie. The biggest thing I actually enjoyed about this movie was the acting in it. Pretty much every actor in this movie had to play two different versions of their character and you can tell they had fun with it. The best person to show how much fun he had while playing a different version of his character is Patrick Dempsey, who plays Robert.

You can just tell through his performance that he was so happy to play this different version of Robert. I can't properly describe how exactly he portrayed this fantasy version other than a crazy maniac who's slowly losing his mind. I just wish his fantasy version didn't sing because I definitely preferred him singing in the first movie to this one. But of course, the real scene stealer in this movie was Amy Adams. Her performance in this movie as Giselle feels the exact same way she played her back in 2007. It's almost like she never left this role and was able to just come back and play this character like it was yesterday. I also enjoyed how with her performance we got to see a different side of Giselle this time around. In the first movie we only saw her as this happy and bubbly person but in this movie not only do we get to see her be a bit more vulnerable but also has a darker side to her. It's this darker side that really makes this movie interesting. I love how she was able to smoothly switch between being good and evil so well. But like I said what was also enchanting about her performance is when she showed the vulnerable side to Giselle. It shows how much Giselle has grown over the past ten years and I wish we got to see more of it in this movie. A performance I surprisingly enjoyed was Gabriella Baldacchino, who plays Morgan. Her performance was a shock to me just due to the fact that she wasn't the original actress who played Morgan. I thought that her performance might make it obvious that she was played by someone else but no, she felt like the same little girl from the first Enchanted movie just all grown up now. Even though she does go through the stereotypical teenager mood swings it was still entertaining to watch especially in the moments where you see her caring for her family. I honestly wish we got to see more of her in this movie as her character was interesting to follow and her character arc would've been a sweet one. My friend would hunt me down and kill me if I didn't mention this one thing which is the CGI.

Was the CGI in this movie better than the first movie? Yes, but at what cost since the CGI appliances in this movie were just terrifying. I think they were trying to go for a real-life fantasy look to them but no matter what I will be seeing those singing appliances in my dreams tonight. But the terrifying appliances aside I have to shout out the costume and set designers for this movie especially once the wish had been granted. Once the wish happens the town and townspeople all look amazing and like real-life fairytale people. Of course, the town already looked like a fairytale village but the changes to it to make it look like an actual one is insane. Just like with the clothing as well which look exactly like medieval fairytale wear. I especially love the outfits that Amy Adams and Maya Rudolph, who plays Malvina, wear. I wouldn't wear them myself but you can see the detail that went into making them and the passion as well. In the end, Disenchanted is just a few years too late in its release and definitely won't hold up as well as the first movie. But at least we got Idina Menzel singing in this movie that's a plus.

With the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, the story for this movie needed to find a way to pass on the torch and honour him and this story does all of that to a certain extent. The story for this movie is unlike any other Marvel movie we've seen so far. There's so much raw emotion in this movie that will make everybody say either I'm not crying, you're crying or someone's cutting onions in here. But for the most part that's only the first part of this movie. The story of this movie is split into three different parts and they try to connect them seamlessly but it doesn't always work. The only parts of this movie's story that connect seamlessly are the second and third parts. I will give the movie this they tried to connect the first part into the third part and it did work. But honestly, nothing could save the second part of this movie's story from not being the slowest part of this movie. This movie is 2 hours and 41 minutes long and honestly, it didn't need to be that long. There's a lot of filler in this movie that easily could've been removed and nothing would've been missed. But at the end of the day, this movie just didn't feel like an MCU movie. There weren't that many jokes being shoved down your throat constantly or some slapstick just because. This movie just felt like a movie honouring a man who was lost way too early. This all can be traced back to one man who's Ryan Coogler, the writer and director. Ryan Coogler understood that once Chadwick Boseman had passed this movie had to honour him and his impact and did that flawlessly. Those who saw this movie either having not seen a previous Marvel movie with Black Panther in it could still understand the impact Chadwick Boseman had on those around him. (Continued in Comments)

He wrote this movie so beautifully and I would love to read what the original script was. It wasn't just his writing that made this movie but also his directing of it. He brings the same passion he had for the first movie to this one as well. He knew exactly how to get some kind of emotional reaction out of the audience or how to just keep their attention throughout this movie. It's due to Ryan Coogler's wonderful story and directing that all of the acting performances in this movie feel so raw. You could easily tell that every actor in this movie wanted to make this movie as great of a movie as can be to honour Chadwick Boseman. Due to this, it's hard to tell if this is the character's grief or the actors but no matter what it brings the audience to tears as well. There are so many amazing performances in this movie that it's hard to pick a favourite but I have to say that Letitia Wright really stood out. This movie mainly follows her and her journey of accepting that her brother is dead. She brought so much to this character that you really feel for her character and what she's going through. She goes on this emotional rollercoaster that anyone who has lost a close loved one can relate to her. But Shuri wasn't the only one to go through an emotional rollercoaster but Queen Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, also goes on one and it's amazing. Obviously, the biggest difference between Shuri and Queen Ramonda is the fact she lost her son and Angela Bassett shows that so well. She has so many emotional moments and all of them hit so hard that it leaves the audience on the verge of tears. Whenever she was on the screen she held the audience's attention with every single word she said. She shows how much Queen Ramonda cares for her family and how this loss has affected her in more ways than one. This movie also introduced the audience to two new characters in the MCU and I can't wait to see more of them. The first one we got to meet is Riri, played by Dominique Thorne, and I can't wait for her solo show. Dominique Thorne played her in such a way that she knows she's smart but doesn't brag about it. (Continued below)

She's this sympathetic character who just wants to do the right thing. I also love how down-to-earth she plays Riri. She reminds us that despite being a child prodigy she is just a kid who gets excited over things no matter how small. We don't get to see much of her in this movie so I can't wait to see how she'll expand the character in her own show. The other character we meet is Namor and I really hope we get to see more of him. Namor is easily one of the best MCU villains and that's all thanks to Tenoch Huerta's performance. He plays Namor in such a way you don't know whether he's a villain or not. He's this sympathetic guy that you can kind of understand where he's coming from. Unfortunately, we don't get to fully experience why exactly he's doing this but no matter what, Tenoch Huerta does a memorable job and I can't wait to see him in more MCU movies to come. A trademark of Marvel recently has been the bad CGI and for me personally, the CGI here wasn't bad at all. The CGI looked pretty good and helped the audience really feel like they were there in this underwater civilization. This also could be due to the darkness but I want to give them some credit okay. The last thing I'll mention is the music in this movie, composed by Ludwig Göransson. The music in this movie was incredible and really helped the scenes they were accompanying. Whether the scene was a sad one or one of tension the music matched perfectly to it. It wasn't just the musical score either but the regular music as well that helped this movie out. Through the actor's performances and the background music, the audience could easily figure out what exactly is going on and how to feel. In the end, Black Panther Wakanda Forever might not be the most perfect movie but you can feel how much emotion was put into making it. Definitely a good send-off to both phase 4 of the MCU and Chadwick Boseman.

Honestly, the only saving grace in this movie is the acting in it. The acting in this movie might not be the best out of the trilogy of these movies, but it was still entertaining to watch and kept the audience hooked till the very end. Obviously, the stand-out performance in this movie is Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie. Throughout all of these new Halloween movies, Jamie Lee Curtis has remained the best actor in all of them showing how hard it is to move on from a traumatic event and how it impacts your family as well. This continues with this movie but this time we finally get to see her in a different light. I enjoy the fact we get to see her in the final stage of grieving and not just this paranoid person anymore. A surprise performance I really enjoyed in this movie was Rohan Campbell, who plays Corey. I can't properly explain why his performance was one of my favourites due to it spoiling it but trust me when I say it's captivating. Corey is a very interesting character that has a deep significance when it comes to the story. He easily could've been a stereotypical character but Rohan Campbell brings so much passion to this role that you feel bad for this character and want to see him be forgiven. Unfortunately, other than those two performances the rest of the cast wasn't really that spectacular. This is especially sad to say about Andi Matichak, who plays Allyson, who was a standout in the other two movies due to being a tough finale girl. In this movie, though, her entire character got rewritten as it seems as if she feels like such an entirely different person. But I can't really talk as the actors did the best they could with the story that they had which is definitely going to divide people.

The most non-spoiler way I can describe this movie is that the advertisements for this movie don't properly show what happens in this movie. Most times misleading advertisements are a good choice to make as that means the movie isn't spoiled and the audience doesn't fully know what to expect. But for this movie, it flops as the audience goes in expecting one thing and comes out disappointed. This movie technically has two stories, one that isn't shown in the trailers and the other which is. Now having a dual storyline could work for this movie if the two stories were integrated properly and unfortunately that isn't the case here. The first story feels nothing like a Halloween movie until the writers remember what movie this is and try to connect it to the next storyline and just feels weak. While the second part of the movie's story fully feels like a Halloween movie but unfortunately it's all shown in the trailers. So once we actually get to the exciting part of the story everything has been spoiled for the audience and we already know what's going to happen. The story for this movie would've worked much better if they better integrated the two storylines. You can have the story of Laurie properly coming to terms with what happened to her while still preparing for his possible return. I know there's one part of this story that most audience people aren't going to like and I can see why as it is annoying but I also get why it was included. This part was included to be part of the deeper meaning of this movie's story of how society can create monsters. Just like everything else in this story it isn't handled well and just feels like something they threw in for possible future sequels. But honestly, even if the story wasn't a huge mess, another big issue this movie has is its pacing of it. The pacing of this movie is slow-burn and I know that Halloween movies are known for slow-burn but it didn't work here. The slow-burn pacing especially doesn't work when the last twenty minutes of this movie is so fast-paced in order to try and make up for the start of the movie.

I wouldn't really have an issue with this kind of pacing if it had led to a satisfying end for this iconic horror movie villain but it doesn't. Due to the fast-paced ending, everything is rushed and it doesn't feel like a satisfactory ending between Laurie and Michael. In the end, Halloween Ends is definitely the weakest film of this trilogy and ends the Laurie and Michael Myers story with a whimper. If the movie was more accurate to how it was advertised I probably would've enjoyed this movie a bit more.

Okay, let me start by saying that romcoms are my least favourite movie genre, but I actually found myself loving this movie. The biggest reason why I don't like romcoms is just due to the fact of how predictable and formulaic they are and despite Bros still being formulaic and predictable I had a great time here. The story for this movie still has all of the cliches of being a romantic comedy but what helps it stand out amongst the others is how this story is told. Obviously, the biggest difference between this movie and the others is the fact that this story follows two gay men instead of a man and a woman. Due to this fact, a lot of the jokes and story beats change and adapt to this which makes the story feel fresh and brand new. There's a line both in this movie and the trailer that best represents this which is how straight and gay relationships might seem the same but are completely different and the story for this movie shows that. There's another line from this movie that goes, "Something a straight guy might even like and watch with his girlfriend" and this perfectly describes this movie. This movie is perfect for those who are LGBTQ+ and or straight as the LGBTQ+ people will get a good kick out of the jokes in this movie while the straight people will still enjoy this movie and maybe learn something. But, like I said this movie's story isn't without its faults with how predictable it is but hey, at least if you watch the trailer you can't fully guess what's going to happen. I think the biggest reason why the story for this movie works is due to the fact that one of the writers for this movie is Billy Eichner who is in fact gay.

Having a writer who is a part of this community helps out as they best understand the community and have personal experience. It also helps keep stereotypes out of a movie like this in order for the audience to fully grasp what it's like to be a part of this community. But even without Billy Eichner's help Nicholas Stoller, the other writer and director for this movie, brings so much passion to the writing department. You can tell that both writers wanted to make this movie as authentically as possible and make sure that people who might not fully know or understand the dynamics of a gay relationship. Like I've been saying in this entire review, even the writing for this movie feels fresh and unique compared to other RomCom movie scripts. The writing for this movie feels like real people talking and getting to know each other instead of cardboard cutouts. With the writing not being like cardboard cutouts, it helps the characters in this movie not feel like cut-outs. This is also helped by the actors in this movie fully giving it their all in this movie. The acting in this movie might be really well done due to the fact that all of the cast members are openly a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I know this doesn't play a huge factor as someone could be a part of the community and still not be the best actor but, the reason I mention it here is that it once again brings more authenticity to the roles. All of these cast members know what it's like to be in this community and would best understand the jokes in this script. The biggest standouts in this movie are obviously the two leads Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane. They play two completely different characters, which I get is the whole point, it's entertaining to watch. Of the two actors, the biggest stand out for me was Billy Eichner because he was able to play both this funny character and also have some serious moments. If you've ever seen him in anything before this he still plays that loveable goofball type of character and adds some depth to it. Whereas Luke Macfarlane's character is more introverted and tries to keep to himself.

I actually enjoy the contrast between these two characters as they both represent the different stages some LGBTQ+ people might be at. People who are fully out and comfortable with their identities will be able to identify with Bobby while those who might not fully understand where they stand on their sexuality or orientation is/not fully out yet might relate to Aaron. One aspect of the movie I surprisingly enjoyed with this movie is the pacing in it. The pacing actually goes at the right speed and holds your attention for the entire movie. The pacing was so good that I started to forget I was watching a movie and felt like a fly on the wall of these two guys' lives. Of course, there were some scenes that went on for a bit too long but overall the movie flowed super well. In the end, Bros is a rare rom-com movie I would recommend people to go see and support. It's perfect for those in the LGBTQ+ community and those who are just allies of it.

You know, my favourite thing about the movie is, like, the acting in this movie. The acting in this movie makes it feel like a real, like, you know, go-to-the-theatre-film movie. Okay with that reference out of the way, in all honesty, the acting in this movie is definitely the best part of this movie. All of the actors in this movie played their roles to perfection of either being the hardworking husband or the stay-at-home wife. It's because of this that actors like Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde, who plays Bunny, can stand out amongst the rest. Both of these actresses had the tough job of pretty much playing two characters in this movie: the one who doesn't know the truth and the one who does. It makes for great entertainment especially when you pair them with others in this movie who know nothing. Florence Pugh really stole the show for me in this movie though due to her dual performance. It was amazing to see her easily switch between playing this stereotypical 1950s housewife to questioning her reality and what's really going on. She plays Alice in such a vulnerable way that you can't help but root for her to win in the end. Compared to Olivia Wilde who plays Bunny in such a way you have no clue whether she knows what's going on and chooses to ignore what's happening or is just like everybody else. It's because of this that the audience feels like Alice in this situation not knowing if they can fully trust her or not. I know a lot of people are going to talk about those two but I especially want to talk about Chris Pine, who plays Frank. Despite Frank not being the most menacing villain in movie history Chris Pine still does his best to make him as menacing as possible.

Whenever Frank is on screen you can't help but wonder how everybody trusts this guy because he seems like the least trustworthy guy ever and that's all thanks to Chris Pine's acting. Chris Pine plays Frank in a way that you can kind of find comfort in him but still feel wary of him. I do wish we got to see more of Gemma Chan, who plays Shelley, because she easily had the potential to be just as menacing of a villain as Chris Pine. Now for the moment, everybody has been waiting for my opinion on Harry Styles's acting and well it definitely wasn't Golden. At times his performance in this movie was tolerable and wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but that was only for a small chunk of this movie. For the majority of this movie you can tell he was trying his hardest to match up with his co-stars but just ends up falling on his face. There were scenes in this movie where you can easily tell he's not an actor as he has this confused look on his face. At one point during this movie, I decided to try and imagine Shia LaBeouf as the character Jack and came to the conclusion that neither actor really work as the male lead. The most disappointing element for me in this movie is the story. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a gender-swapped Truman Show with some social commentary in it and I was pretty much correct. The story for this movie easily is one that piques my interest and should've been a win in my book so what made it not work for me? Honestly, it's hard to fully explain why this story didn't work for me without diving into spoiler territory. But just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. I honestly think that most people will find enjoyment with this story even if it's not the most original story and have fun analyzing it as well. There are also certain story points in this movie that might seem insignificant at first but come into play later on in the movie. But this movie's story isn't without its plot holes and certain things that just don't add up one of these things ends up being the plot twist for this movie.

Now, I will give the movie this the plot twist despite it not fully making sense it was surprising and you couldn't see it coming. But I think one of the biggest reasons the story doesn't fully work is due to the pacing of it. The pacing for this movie is kind of wacky in that each act of this movie has a different pacing to it. The first act has a much slower pacing which is required to help set things up and make sure everything appears as normal as can be. Once the inciting incident happens is when the pacing starts to go all over the place. At times it will be going at the right speed, then it'll be slow and finally speed up. This goes on till the crazy final act which goes at an insanely fast pace. Due to this wacky pacing, the movie somehow feels both short and long all at the same time. What definitely doesn't help is including some scenes that easily could've been shortened or not included at all, I'm looking at you diner table scene. I would love to say the editing doesn't help with the pacing but while I was watching the movie I realized why it was jumpy. The editing in this movie is used so the audience gets insight into how Alice is feeling and experiencing what she's experiencing. It's honestly really creative and helps the audience feel like a character in this movie when they notice this as well. Or it's just me overanalyzing something very simple like I'm known to do. Another element in this movie that worked really well in this movie is the cinematography. The cinematography all around for this movie was gorgeous and helps tell this story perfectly. From the framing of certain scenes to the lighting of this movie everything just works perfectly. The last thing I'll talk about is the score, composed by John Powell, for this movie and how it adds to the scenes. When you listen to the score before the inciting incident the music sounds normal and like music you would hear in the 1950s but after the inciting incident, it starts to sound off. It's still nice to listen to but the music has something off about it nonetheless that makes it less appealing.

In the end, Don't Worry Darling isn't the best but also isn't the worst movie of this year and is worth checking out at least once on a cheap day at the theatre. I would personally recommend just staying home and watching The Truman Show as it's the same kind of story just done better.

This movie is first and foremost a murder mystery so that element of this story has to be good right well not really. Despite this movie being advertised as a murder mystery, it's first and foremost a comedy movie that's very self-aware. The murder mystery part of this story is very predictable and I get that's what this movie was going for but I just wish that some parts weren't that obvious or predictable and due to this it makes this movie hard to rewatch. I enjoy a good murder mystery movie and Knives Out proves that you can have humour in a murder mystery and have it work but the humour in this movie the humour was just too much for me. The humour in this movie is very much the self-aware kind that's almost 4th wall breaking. Now, I do enjoy 4th wall breaks in movies and can be funny when done correctly and in the right kind of movie and it could've worked in this movie but only if it was consistent. Due to it only happening sparsely throughout the movie whenever it does appear it's just odd and doesn't fit in as the rest of the humour for this movie relies on self-awareness. I will say in regards to the self-awareness in this when it happens it does work with the story and the only reason I didn't enjoy it is due to the fact it makes this movie predictable. Now, the other humour in this movie is definitely hit or miss depending on the person watching this movie. I have to give credit to the writer, Mark Chappell, for doing his research while writing this movie and I would suggest not looking up what I mean until after watching the movie as it fully spoils the plot of the movie. Another aspect of this movie's story I didn't like is how it handled its characters.

Just like many other murder mystery movies this movie has a decent size cast for its cast of murder suspects the only difference here is that this movie doesn't handle all of its actors the same. Despite this movie being an ensemble movie the story does nothing to try and make it so the side characters can have time to shine or so the audience can suspect them of the murder. One of the best parts of a good murder mystery movie is when you get to play detective and try to guess who the killer is which requires hearing everybody who's a suspect alibis. Unfortunately, the story doesn't do that and due to this fact, the actors who play the side characters are left in the dust. This is sad to say since there are some talented actors in this movie such as Harris Dickinson, who plays Richard Attenborough, and David Oyelowo, who plays Mervyn Cocker-Norris, whose characters if they were given more screen time could've been funny. This is especially the case with David Oyelowo who despite not having much screen time still managed to be one of the more memorable side characters in this movie. Thankfully though the two main actors in this movie were incredible and kept this movie entertaining. The stand-out performance for me was Saoirse Ronan who plays this quirky constable who for me personally was the funniest character in this movie. I don't know what it was that made me really enjoy her performance other than she stuck a good chunk of her comedic beats. In comparison to Sam Rockwell's character who is the super depressed Inspector who just can't wait till retirement. I honestly loved Sam Rockwell's performance in this as it gave a nice relief from the comedy aspect of this movie due to his cynical character. He plays the role of the old-timey cop who's counting the days till his retirement so well. He doesn't get many moments in this movie to be funny which is completely fine with me as it matches his character perfectly. The bright-eyed new cop and the cynical older cop might be an old movie trope but Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell help breathe fresh air into this trope and help it stand out among the others.

Honestly, there were only two things in this movie that I honestly really liked which are the cinematography and the score, composed by Daniel Pemberton, for this movie. The cinematography for this movie is gorgeous and really brings the audience into this 1950s era of the west end. It has this bright vibrating colour scheme that lots of audience members associate with the 1950s but it isn't used throughout the whole movie. Actually, I noticed that the vibrant colours are only used for those in the performing arts like the theatre and one of the character's houses while everywhere else was a more natural colour scheme. I feel like this was done on purpose to make the performing arts seem glamorous and a place you need to be at instead of the gloomy real world. I also loved how the musical score for this movie sounded like music from that era as well. The score for this movie was the right mix of more jazz music that some people associate with murder mystery movies and then switching the music up to be darker when the movie required it. Daniel Pemberton did a spectacular job of making sure the music fit whatever scene was being shown on screen. In the end, See How They Run is not going to be for everybody due to the story of this movie but I recommend checking this movie out at least once. If you enjoyed Hot Fuzz, Clue or Knives Out then you'll most likely enjoy this movie as well.

Despite this movie having a basic plot description for what happens in this movie, trust me when I say the story for this movie is incredible. The story of this movie doesn't just tell this story of a female-led army but serves up two different purposes. The first purpose of the story of this movie is to help bring light to this piece of history. Before this movie came out or even the trailer how many people actually knew about this kingdom and army? Probably not many people who aren't from that area of the world or from the culture. This is why this story is so incredible because even though most of what you're seeing is false it still makes you want to look up and learn more about the Dahomey and the Agojie. The movie's story does a great job of hocking the audience along for this journey and showing just how badass these women were. This brings me to the second purpose of this movie's story which is to show and empower women to be warriors. Recently Hollywood has been getting better at showing stories of women as more than just a side character and The Woman King thankfully joins those ranks. This movie does not hold back when showing how tough these women are in comparison to the men and it's amazing. Due to this movie having a majority female cast it wasn't the hardest task to show how strong women are and especially show younger girls how strong they can be. Another part of this movie's story I really enjoyed was the African culture it included. I have to admit I'm not the right person to talk about African culture so I can't say how accurate it is but it was still interesting to see it included in this movie during the downtime between action scenes.

But despite the incredible story of this movie the pacing for this movie is kind of weird. From the beginning of the movie to the end there is no clear passage of time so it's hard to tell how much time has passed. One second they're training the new recruits and the next it's the final test for the new recruits. This really isn't a big deal and doesn't take away from the movie as a whole but it kind of irks me. I would've loved to have seen them training more and seeing how they become to be these mighty warriors instead of some of the other scenes in this movie that easily could've been cut down or out of the movie and nothing would've changed. But it was hard to tell there were pacing issues when the acting for this movie was spectacular. Obviously one of the biggest names that's in this movie is Viola Davis, who plays Nanisca, and man does she steal the show. Viola Davis plays this no-nonsense leader who just cares about the people in her army while still showing some vulnerability. It's incredible to see her switch between being this serious leader and then showing vulnerability when she's around her closest friend. Another actress who stood out to me was Lashana Lynch, who plays Izogie. Lashana Lynch at first appears like she's going to be the comedic relief for this movie and in some ways she is but she also brings some humanity to this movie as well. With Izogie she shows how somebody can be this tough person on the outside but still be caring to those close to her. The last person I want to shout out is Sheila Atim, who plays Amenza. She doesn't get much screen time unfortunately but whenever she was on screen she was great. All of the actors in this movie did amazing jobs and helped bring the audience into this compound. I just want to quickly say if you ever get bored while watching this movie and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who plays Santo Ferreira, is ever on the screen keep count of how many times he breaks his accent because trust me it happens quite often.

With this movie being an action movie the pressure is on for the action scenes to be good and thankfully the action scenes in this movie kickass. All of the fighting in this movie is so well choreographed and knows how best to show off the strengths of each character in combat. The most impressive part of the action scenes is the knowledge that the actors all did their own stunts which helps bring the audience into the fights as well. What also helps with fight scenes is the framing and directing of the scenes to make sure they're easy to follow and Gina Prince-Bythewood, the director, did just that. The action scenes still had some edits put in to change the camera angle but you can tell that the directing for those scenes was to make them as clean and in focus as possible. But it wasn't just the fight scenes the directing was great during but the movie as a whole was directed so well. You can see how much passion Gina Prince-Bythewood had for this project and how she wanted to make sure the story was told and seen. Before I wrap this up I just want to rapid-fire shout out some other elements I loved from this movie due to how much it dived into African culture which are the costume designs, production design and the music, done by Terence Blanchard. In the end, The Woman King might not be fully truthful to the real Agojie army but this movie does an incredible job of making people want to learn about them. This is an important movie to check out, especially for women and probably will be an award-season favourite.

Finally, we have a horror movie whose trailer didn't spoil the whole movie for it with Barbarian and man am I thankful for that fact.

On that note let me start off by talking about the story of this movie and how well done it is. As I mentioned earlier the trailer for this movie keeps everything in this movie very vague so even if you watch it you have no clue what you're in for. The story for this movie takes you on a wild ride that leaves you guessing what exactly is going to happen next and wondering where exactly this story is going. Keeping things spoiler-free this movie story is broken up into three different parts and honestly, each one of them has its strengths and weaknesses that will for sure divide everybody who sees this movie. The first act's strengths is the tension that it starts to build up and feels like an actual horror movie while its weakness is the pacing of it as due to building up that tension requires time and it does move at a slower speed. The second act's story's strength is the same thing as its weakness, which is that this one feels much more like a drama than a horror movie. Due to this it kind of feels out of place with the rest of the movie and probably should've been changed for the final film product. It's also here where there are some "comedic" bits that some people might find funny but I didn't. I won't go fully into the strengths and weaknesses as I firmly believe you need to see it to believe it as this act is the most insane part of the movie. I will say that the story for this movie is definitely not for everybody and will 100% leave you feeling uncomfortable but somehow still wanting to keep watching.

Another element of this movie that will make you want to keep watching the movie is the acting in this movie. The acting in this film is very limited down to it being really only three actors and all of them are spectacular in this movie. Starting off with Georgina Campbell who plays the main character could easily just be another smart final girl but no she makes sure Tess stands out among the others. She plays Tess in such a down-to-earth way that the audience could easily relate to her, especially since she makes decisions that a majority of people would also make. That's not to say she always makes the right choices but she still makes a decent number of them compared to some other final girls. Next, you have Bill Skarsgård, who plays Keith, and man does he steal the show in my opinion. Right off the bat, you have no clue if this guy is good or not and keeps you guessing. This is what makes his performance so captivating to watch as you the audience member feel like Tess at that moment wondering if is he going to murder her or just a socially awkward guy. It's also that social awkwardness that some audience members might be able to cringe and think that they're like that as well. Finally wrapping up the cast is Justin Long, who plays AJ, and he was very much a close contender for being the best performance in this movie. You can easily tell that Justin Long just had so much fun with this role with how well he played his character. He definitely was the comedic relief in this movie but the writer of this movie knew when to give him more comedic lines and when to pull them back. There's one scene in this movie that best shows this with how it starts off all funny but quickly turns more serious. Which is exactly what Justin Long did with this role. He knew exactly when to be comedic and when to be scared for his life. It's funny to watch him act beside Georgina Campbell and see the two different ways people would act in that situation with their performances. There aren't really any side characters in this movie to talk about their performances but without fully giving away too much I will mention Richard Brake's performance in this movie as it was really chilling to watch.

For me personally, the best part of this movie is the cinematography. The cinematography for this movie helps create tension in this movie and helps the audience members feel like they're in this situation along with the characters. The lighting in this movie is all-natural which really is effective in a movie like this. The opening scene of this movie best shows how lighting can be used to manipulate viewers' expectations and question what exactly they see by showing one shot in complete darkness and the next in bright lighting. The all-natural lighting best comes into play for this movie when the characters are down in the sub-basement part of the house which is in cased in complete darkness. The audience can't see what's in front or to the side of the halls creating that feeling of uneasiness of not knowing. It's due to the darkness that a couple of good scares happen in this movie. Now, will these scares have you jumping out of your seat? No, they most likely won't unless you're easily scared but, and take this from someone who isn't easily scared by movies, the scares in this movie most likely will have your heart skip a beat. Another reason the scares work for this movie is due to the directing in this movie done by Zach Cregger. I looked him up and noticed that most of the projects he's worked on have been comedies but based on this movie I couldn't tell. His directing for this movie fits perfectly with this kind of movie with both the comedic parts and the horror parts to it. He knows how to make the audience feel like they're stuck in this situation and have them hoping the characters in this movie make it out alive. The last thing I'll mention for this movie is the score in this movie done by Anna Drubich which was spectacular. The score wasn't used for every scene in the movie and was only used when it was really needed and it really helped build that tension for those scenes it was included in. In the end, Barbarian is definitely not going to be for everybody but for those who think they can handle what happens in this movie definitely give this one a watch.

One of the biggest faults of this movie, funny enough, isn't anything to do with the movie itself but the promotions for it. If you have seen the trailer for this movie then you've pretty much seen the entire movie, including the big twist reveal, which sucks as the story has so much potential. In the right capable hands, a story of someone trying to find their long-lost family and then ending up in a horror situation can be pretty good but here, it falls flat. The story takes forever to get going and once it does start to pick up the pace the movie was almost over. I know that horror movies need time to set up the setting and dynamics but this movie just did WAY too much of that. I've heard a lot of people say this and honestly, I agree with them that this story would be better as a RomCom. The two leads, more on them later, have chemistry between the two of them that just gets wasted because of the story of this movie. If it had been a RomCom movie it might've been one I actually enjoyed as it would've been a unique movie. I quickly touched on this earlier but my biggest issue with this movie wasn't the story for this movie, I already figured the trailer spoiled the whole movie, but the pacing of the movie. This movie is a horror thriller movie and the pacing for this movie didn't match that one bit. It had slower pacing to it which can be effective in the right kind of horror movie but definitely not here. I guess the slow pacing of this movie was supposed to help keep the suspense of wondering what's really happening in the manor but like I said the trailer already ruined that mystery so it wasn't effective. Also due to the slow pacing of the movie the ending for this movie gets severely rushed.

The ending for this movie just isn't satisfactory and just leaves the audience scratching their heads wondering what just happened. The ending also leaves on kind of a cliffhanger that doesn't need to be a cliffhanger and I wish it had ended earlier. While watching this movie I was preparing myself to say other than the acting in this movie the cinematography for this movie was great and then the more I thought about it the less I enjoyed it. The part I enjoyed of the cinematography was the set design for the manor. The manor itself was gorgeous and had this unease about it right from the get-go. I feel like I would rewatch this movie just to try and pick up the subtle details in the design work for this manor as I feel like I missed a bunch. Another element that works but only to a certain extent is the lighting for this movie. The lighting for this movie creates a great atmosphere and adds to the gothic nature of the manor but it also has a downside as I said that's because this is a horror movie and horror movies are supposed to have scares in them and due to the darkened lighting it's hard to see them. You can kind of tell based on the shadows if something scary is going to happen but for the most part, you can't see them and it just seems like something in the background. Now, these kinds of scares can work but they need to be directed properly and unfortunately for this movie that didn't happen. Now, I know that Jessica M. Thompson did her best with this movie especially with this being her first feature film but unfortunately there were some questionable directing choices. As I said most of them just surround the scares in this movie but also with death scenes in this movie. I won't fully go into detail about the death scenes for this movie but all I'll say is they don't match the 14A rating at all. I already mentioned this but really the only fully good element of this movie is the acting in it. The acting for this movie both worked for whichever story you decide to watch this movie as. If you decide to watch this story like it's a Vampire romance or a horror movie it is the acting works for both versions.

This fully steams to the main two actors Nathalie Emmanuel and Thomas Doherty, who plays Walter. The two of them surprisingly had decent chemistry together and made this movie slightly enjoyable. I really enjoyed Nathalie Emmanuel's performance as Evie that even without the romance element she would've stood out the most. She plays Evie in such a modern final girl way and even though she might not be the best final girl out there she still proved how smart she is even with the story does have her making some dumb decisions. But for me personally, the standout performance of the movie is Thomas Doherty. He plays Walter in such a manipulative and conniving way that if you were in this situation you would trust him. When you first meet Walter you can easily tell there's something off about him and if you didn't watch the trailer you're wondering what's fully up with him. Even the side actors were really good in this movie even if you don't get to see them as much. In the end, The Invitation had the potential to be a really good movie but because of the trailer it just falls short. If you go see this movie just play the fun game of switching the genre depending on what's happening in the scene.

After reading that plot description you can easily see where the similarities between Royalteen and Young Royals cross over. Both follow a crown prince falling in love with a commoner but where Young Royals is a series and can expand on this more, Royalteen doesn't have that luxury. As I mentioned in the beginning this movie is based on a book that's the first of a series and it probably could've worked better as a series. The story for this movie just doesn't get as fleshed out as it could've. This movie's story didn't really know what to focus on when it came to the relationship between Lena and Kalle and the drama for this movie. I feel like their relationship should've been expanded upon or just better written as their already non-realistic relationship felt even more unrealistic. This isn't a spoiler but something that should've been changed is Lena's reaction to dating the crown prince in this movie; she just acts like it's a normal thing and doesn't question it. Sure this could be here just seeing him as a normal guy but I still feel like she would have some kind of reaction. This movie's story didn't have a balance between the drama and romance in this movie and would just try to find places to shove whichever element was missing into it. I will give the story this other than the secret being easy to guess from the very beginning the rest of this story isn't too badly predictable as I suspected it would be. But that being said, this movie is still pretty clunky when it comes to the way the story was executed. The way this story is told is pretty confusing due to the editing in this movie along with the pacing.

The pacing of this movie started off pretty good with everything lining up and making sense and then after half an hour into the movie it does a full 180. The pacing of this movie started to feel slow despite what was happening on screen. The story for this movie moved really fast which I think definitely didn't help with the pacing and you can tell it tried to keep up with everything going on but couldn't. For example, Lena and Kalle's relationship moves so fast during this movie and it's hard to figure out how much time has passed since it started. This comes in how I mentioned the editing for this movie in how this movie just feels like scenes thrown together to try and make a movie. Another thing with the pacing of this movie is the ending of this movie just moves at lightning speed. The last 20 minutes of this movie just goes by so fast and makes very little sense. You can tell they were hoping for a sequel to get greenlit so they could expand on things which just makes this movie feel unfinished. This is where making this story a tv series could've helped it out a bit more as more episodes mean more time to flesh everything out and have everything make sense. For example, You get one scene where Lena meets Kalle and in the next, he's flirting with her with zero context that he's into her. What definitely doesn't help with this situation is the acting in this movie. Now, I never want to hate on the actors as I know they're just following the director's direction but here I just couldn't get hooked into it. You can tell the two main leads are trying their best but in the end, it just falls flat. They don't really have much chemistry with each other, again given more time they could've had chemistry, which doesn't help anything at all. I would love to say the side characters were better but none of them were really given any time to shine. The side characters were just that side people who served zero purposes to the plot. What doesn't help the actors out is the fact that all of the characters in this movie are flat. They are all cliche characters that have zero character growth and nothing that makes them stand out. The only actors in this I really enjoyed were Veslemøy Mørkrid and Petter Width Kristiansen who play Lena's parents. They were the only likeable part of this movie and helped make it tolerable. In the end, Royalteen might not be a full-on cliche drama romance movie but it's still not the best one out there. If you're looking for something like this, I recommend checking out Young Royals as it does this story way better.

This movie has a simple title and a simple premise so it must not be that interesting right? Well, that depends on who you are and what you're into. For those like me who aren't the biggest fans of survival movies then you'll still have some enjoyment with this movie but for those who love a good survival movie, this one is perfect for you. Even though the story of this movie doesn't have much to offer it still keeps you on the edge of your seat. It keeps you wondering how they're going to get down from there and how they're going to survive. The story does a good job of setting things up that is later on brought back in some kind of way. I will say in regards to the story there is one element of the story that just didn't need to be included as it's mentioned and then never really brought back up again. I read this online and it definitely best describes how to approach the story for this movie which is to maintain your level of disbelief. Despite the two characters both making smart choices in this movie they still make some dumb ones as well and certain things like their phones being charged enough to use them is hard to believe. Now, with this movie only really focusing on the two girls the two actresses have to be good enough to carry the whole movie and well they do. I love how both actresses played their characters in such drastically different ways that you can easily tell them apart. I will say that both Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner had stand-out performances in this movie. They played these characters to be as semi-realistic as they could, having the audience fully believe that what they're doing in that situation is what others would do as well.

Thankfully the performances of the actresses were good in this movie to distract from the odd pacing of this movie. I say it's odd due to the fact that I thought it was moving slowly but when I checked the time the movie had half an hour left. I don't know if it was because of the downtime moments in this movie or what exactly made me think it was moving slower than usual but due to the odd pacing, the ending for this movie felt super rushed. Now, the most crucial element for any movie like this is the visual effects used as obviously you can't actually trap two people at the top of a radio tower. The visual effects could make or break this kind of movie as it's what the audience is relying on for them to fully believe what's happening on screen. Now, the visual effects for this movie definitely aren't the best but aren't the worst. For some of the scenes like the ones where the girls are just on top of the radio tower, the visuals are pretty good. It's just when the shots go wider or look up or down that it starts to look not as clean. The visual effects are still good enough that anybody with a fear of heights would start freaking out seeing them but for those like me without a fear of heights, it doesn't hit as hard. In the end, Fall is a mediocre movie that if you're going to go see it wear a heart rate monitor and see if it spikes or not.

With a story like that, the movie this movie must be a really good murder mystery whodunit and for the most part, it is but it still has some issues for me. For the most part, this movie's concept can be a good horror mystery slasher movie like Scream where the audience is left wondering who the killer is but for me personally, that's where this movie falls short. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a horror movie and after a while, I started to view it in a different light as a mystery movie and that's when I started to have more fun with it. Now, the way this movie executes the horror elements isn't bad, just felt off and kind of like an afterthought. I'll get into this a bit more later on but let me finish talking about the story. The story for this movie does keep the audience hooked and I will give it props for its uniqueness, twists and how it handles certain topics. I do wish though that some of the topics brought up in this movie were handled a bit better and not taken to be played as a joke but whatever. This brings me to another issue I had with this movie which is the writing for it. The writing for this movie for a good chunk of this movie was really well done and seemed believable. What the characters would say were things that people in that situation would say and think but where the writing lost me is the other chunk of this movie. Now, I get that this movie is supposed to be picking at Gen Z and the way they act but at times it was just WAY too cringy. What makes this even worse is the humour in this movie is my kind of humour which is the dark kind but I didn't find myself laughing at any of the jokes.

But the more I think about it, maybe it wasn't fully the writing for this movie but the actor's performances in it. Now, don't get me wrong, when it comes to the main five girls in this movie they were all pretty good but there were still some performances in this movie that I felt like they were a bit over the top. The real standout for me in this movie probably was Amandla Stenberg, who plays Sophie. There is no real main character in this movie as the movie follows all of the characters equally and gives them about the same amount of screentime but to me, Sophie was the most interesting to me because of Amandla's performance. She plays Sophie in such a raw way that out of all of the characters she seems the most realistic and one of the only ones you're rooting for to survive. A close second performance that I enjoyed was Maria Bakalova, who plays Bee, all because you could never fully tell what she was thinking and if she really was fully trustworthy. Now, earlier I mentioned how this movie might feel and look like a horror movie but for me personally, it isn't and well that's all thanks to the cinematography. This movie uses natural lighting and mainly takes place in the dark so the audience feels like they're there with these characters not being able to see what's anywhere near them. It makes for a tension-filled movie and really is the best part of this movie and for me personally is the only part of this movie that felt like an actual horror movie. Although don't think too hard about how none of the girls ever charge their phones and their phones survive the whole night without one of them dying. In the end, Bodies Bodies Bodies is more of a murder mystery movie than it is a horror movie and if you go in knowing this then you'll have a great time but if not there are still aspects of this movie to enjoy.