Halloween Ends

For anyone still interested in this trilogy, this is probably the weakest of the three. And whilst we can find a conclusion to this trilogy to put away any doubt of a possible sequel. Yet, there are still whispers that (although Blumhouse is done with the franchise) there could be another Halloween movie.

This third movie shows a really weak Michael Myers making his return (4 years after his last break out from the prison bus) to Haddonfield. Though, he never really left. Police have been investigating a series of murders, suicides and butchering that immediately get attributed to Michael Myers. Although Myers does not use a handgun. And the idea of hanging someone with their bedsheets is not something that would suit Myers' style.

We cut to a scene in 2019 where a babysitter is looking after this spoiled little eight(?) year old child whilst the parents are out at a Halloween party. Things take a turn for the worse when the child acts like he is getting attacked. The babysitter, Corey, is frantic in his search for the boy. Without giving too much away, the child suffers an accident.

Years later (assuming the year 2022), Corey is working with his father as a mechanic. An accident involving bullies at a service station leads Corey to meet up with Laurie Strode. Strode gives the wrong impression about how to deal with bullies, with Corey gets put on the harrassment list of these bullies for slashing a tyre. All this catches up with Corey after a Halloween party that Allyson (Laurie's granddaughter) invites Corey to. The bullies jump Corey. Corey gets put over a bridge railing. Corey lands unconscious near the underpass near a sewer system. Guess who drags him into the sewer system?

But for some reason, Corey is let go. And, for another reason, he seems to start to possess some kind of demonic disposition. The only hope for Corey is the love of Allyson. Allyson, for some reason, is infatuated with the guy that people have determined to be the killer of the boy he babysat. And, oh my goodness, do we have doubts about his innocence from that fateful night.

The movie devolves into a nonsense plot with unnecessary murders taking place all around the town of Haddonfield. Anyone who seems to have made a slight against Corey is found to be dead. And it takes the veteran abilities of Laurie to recognise the problem that she formulates a strategy to take down either Myers or Corey. Someone is responsible somehow.

I was probably more tired of watching this movie than the writers were writing this movie's storyline. Is this some sort of cash grab? And will it pay off. Only fans of this franchise will enjoy this movie. I, for one, am glad that they did not do any worse than what I saw. Stick to the original movies.

Rating: C+

Mrs Harris goes to Paris.

Sweet movie, part of the British Film Festival but will be released commercially as well. Lesley Manville is sweet, funny, beautiful, touching.  Authentic, high production values recreate Paris and London in the 50s. Great writing.
https://britishfilmfestival.com.au/

Agora, a movie about Hypatia of Alexandrina when the Great Library was sacked by the Christians.  Starring Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, she teaches at the Library when several students and a slave fall in love with her.  She frees the slave, who continues to love her from afar.  One of her ex-students become the Prefect of Roman and another a Bishop of the Church.  She works out that world travels around the sun in a elipse, rather than a circle.  Eventually, the local bishop decides that she represents the main obstacle to taking over the city and declares were a Witch.   The group who her ex-slave belongs to, who do the Bishop's dirty work for him, take her prisoner and decide to execute her but the ex-slave kills her first before they can stone her to death.   A well acted but ultimately tragic story.  Well worth seeing.

The violence in Terrifier 2 is so over the top it is almost comical.

Captain Nemo wrote on Nov 4^th, 2022 at 4:05pm:


I think the idea was to make it look comical so that people could suspend their disbelief. If I read the article right, Terrifier 2 had a budget of $250,000. Had someone made the movie with a big budget allowing for realistic violence and gore, people might be turned away from watching the movie, out of disgust.

The Force Awakens

The Last Jedi

The Rise of Skywalker

Binge-watching these movies over the weekend, the storylines have never actually had any impact to support the visual spectacle abundant throughout.

The first movie, The Force Awakens, features the protagonist, "Rey", moping about her missing parents. However, according to her tally board, she has been waiting for their return for a good 15 years. In the meantime, she keeps busy by finding parts from derelict spaceships and other discarded technology.
Meanwhile, FN2187 (later named "Finn") is a stormtrooper, for the antagonist First Order faction, who has an awakening from his brainwashed status. Teaming up with a recently captured rebel pilot, Poe, he journeys to regather a droid that contains a map to the location of former Jedi leader Luke Skywalker.
Of course, Han and Chewbacca make their return to the storyline. So, too Leia, C3PO, and R2D2 make their return. Unfortunately, with their combined knowledge about the galaxy, one piece of the map missing from the entire galaxy's map is not enough of a clue to tell which planet Luke might be staying. All this through a process of elimination. The remainder of the movie being a retelling of "A New Hope" with new (and old) characters carrying out a similar plan in this movie -- Destroy a planet-killing Death Star.

The Last Jedi features a scene with the Rebellion, having just destroyed Starkiller Base, attempting to flee the planet. The First Order shows up sooner than expected. Whilst the First Order has the drop on the rebels, the generals decide to get distracted with Resistance pilot "Poe" who goes about shooting down cannons in order to allow the most cumbersome bomber spaceships to slowly make their way over a dreadnought to drop numerous bombs as if gravity had any bearing on their deployment. You can imagine that the counterattack is one big foul-up, and it is only by sheer luck that one dreadnought gets destroyed and the rebels are able to flee.
Meanwhile, on Luke's island, Rey has tracked down Luke. Rey bothers Luke about coming back to join the resistance. However, Luke has become a hermit and a grumpy old man, not concerned about fighting with family. Even with knowledge of Han's death, Luke still stays put, but offers Rey some training in the Jedi arts.
Finn decides to flee the escaping ships when it is learned that the First Order has the capability to track them through hyperspace. Imagine the irritation an audience has when Finn teams up with a maintenance worker, Rose, who happens to be more of an idealist than a fighter. The two go to a planet with gambling facilities to find a code-breaker who could bring down the tracking device on the main ship.
More irritation comes in the fact that the rebel spaceships get fuel reserves so low that they have to crawl to an outpost, whilst the First Order takes shots at them for however long. One by one the rebel ships are destroyed when they run out of fuel. And the alternate code-breaker, that Finn and Rose finds, turns out to be a troublemaker not worth the effort in a side quest that turned out to be pointless. The remainder of the movie echoes the battle scene of The Empire Strikes Back. And although the sacrifices made by Vice Admiral Holdo and Luke Skywalker are effective, they seem to be sacrificed too late at great loss of life.

The Rise of Skywalker had its problems early. Given that Carrie Fisher, who played the part of Leia, died after the filming of The Last Jedi, JJ Abrahms had to use archived footage of Carrie from earlier movies to get her scenes done. And whilst the production crew did their best, it was awkward having scenes filmed with Leia's interaction with live cast members -- mainly Rey.
This movie is one side quest after another. The rebels first get word that a spy is in the First Order. The rebels have the mission of going to a planet to find a Jedi hunter's equipment that would help them find another piece of the puzzle -- a wayfinder. The wayfinder is the only way to get to a place called Exegol, where the risen Palpatine hides. But to find the wayfinder, C3PO has to tell them the location that was scribed on a dagger of the Jedi hunter. Given the protocol of C3PO not to translate Sith languages (for whatever reason), the rebels have to find a droidsmith to reset C3PO's memory and allow him to reveal the wayfinder's location. Rey makes it her mission to board Kylo Ren's ship and find a recently captured Chewbacca along with the items they need to get to where they are going. And once there, the wayfinder is on the destroyed remains of the second Death Star. All this just so that Kylo Ren can destroy the wayfinder and demand that Rey joins him in a quest to kill Palpatine. After a lightsabre battle, Rey flees to the island world where Luke was hiding, sulking about not wanting to become a Sith Empress. But Luke's force ghost gets Rey to change her mind. Rey confronts Palpatine, with Palpatine giving Rey the news that she could either die or get possessed by Palpatine.

These three movies are good for fans of the Star Wars franchise. But, they will not win over any new fans. Nothing short of a re-write could save this trilogy, even though the special effects are fantastic.

The Man Who Invented Christmas - a tale about how Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol".  Starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Justin Edwards, Morfydd Clark, Donald Sumpter, Miles Jupp, Simon Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Ian McNeice, Bill Paterson, Anna Murphy, Ger Ryan, Annette Badland, Cosimo Fusco, with characters from the tale coming life and interacting with Dickens.  Dickens starts out in America on a book selling tour after three flops - non-sellers and not pleasing his critics.  Inspired by Christmas and events surrounding him he conjures up a tale which pleases all who read it.  Well worth a watch. 

All I Want for Christmas - starring Ella Testa Kusk, Martin Buch, Mia Lyhne, Peter Sejer Winther, Mette Horn, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Ulf Pilgaard, Kristian Halken.  A Danish movie about Lucia's quest to become a Santa.  She lives in far northern Greenland and attends the Santa school.  As a girl is forbidden to attend the Santa classes, they are reserved for boys alone.  At the annual Christmas Dinner, she wins the Christmas lottery - a wish.  She wishes to attend the Santa classes.  The council of elders decides to allow her to try the entrance test but craftily sets an impossible task, she must cure Albert's dad's illness in the mortal world.  Off she goes with her father overseeing the test and has various adventures during her quest.  Amusing and interesting Christmas fare.