The Lodge

I watched this movie due to the fact I had many on social media talking about how this is the scariest thing they have seen recently. It stars Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh as two children who’s parents are separated and something happens to the mother, I’m gonna try not to go too far into spoiler territory as it is still relatively new and being discovered, their father is ready to get remarried to Riley Keough who is actually a survivor of a mass suicide in the vein of the real life Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. Well Riley feels it be good for the kids to spend sometime with her just before Christmas, where better to bond than a secluded mountain cabin aka lodge, to me it wasn’t big enough to be a lodge, whatever. Of course their father still has to work in the city leaving the three of them in a lodge in the middle of snow and ice season. Well strange things begin to happen, material possessions disappear, power goes out and medication goes missing for Riley’s character. Won’t spoil it, the movie leads you where this could go a couple different ways and makes a decent choice with good moral implications then in the end just goes off the rails, I get where they, the directors, were coming from doing it, I just think it could have used some finessing and clean up to the concept. The biggest problem with this movie is the pacing, nothing happens for a good hour and there’s some moments where the bond and tension could be developed between the kids like Jaeden and Riley after a shower, but, more time rather be spent with her wandering in the snow. For me this is right behind The Turning in the run for worst horror/thriller of the year, this is definitely more on the thriller side and unless you get scared of the long takes of a character with music building waiting for a jump scare that does not come, then most won’t be affected by this. As I mentioned the I don’t know if you could call it a twist with what actually happens is interesting concept that I feel could make for some interesting projects. Overall, I was bored most of this and unless your home alone wanting a little fright without the actual scares or any gore than this might push you to keep a light on while you wait for your other to get home or fall asleep after. D.

Code 8

This is if I am not mistaken a Netflix platform exclusive release that came out the end of 2019. I tend to gravitate more towards science-fiction movies released directly to streaming than other genres because I love sci-fi especially the production design of them. Code 8 is a little different as it is a crime movie being disguised as a science-fiction movie, first the best part of a sci-fi movie is setting up the world we are witnessing, in this case what appears as a not so distant future where superhuman powers have manifested themselves (okay, now get X-Men out of your head). In this movie they are referred to as powered individuals and are classified based on their ability and strength, Robbie Awell is an electric class 5, that means he’s quite electrifying. His mother has ice powers and is sick, being a powered you have to sit out waiting for work similar to a migrant worker, needing money to help his mother he takes a job which ends up being for some robbery work ultimately reporting to a drug kingpin that deal in Psyke. Psyke is a drug that they get from taking spinal fluid from powered people creating hallucinations as a form of getting high. Of course a super power human movie would not be one without some force out trying to stop them, here it is the police armed with drones that can deploy robotic humanoid officers called Guardians. I started off quite enjoying this movie the setup, the world building with the Guardian program, then the more we got into this whole crime story and drug dealing it pulled away from me. Movies about drug dealing and running are probably on the lowest part of the totem pole for me, I don’t know why the subject material just does not interest me, I have never done drugs and don’t care to try, then they always seems to work in cliches of double crossing one of the dealers or runners. Strip that away from the movie and its a decent B rated science-fiction flick, I don’t think the acting was noteworthy, but it also did not suck. I think its fine for a little sci-fi action middle of the day you have nothing else to do or if you need to kill sometime on a flight.C.

Gemini Man

Gemini Man aka the movie you know from the trailer that showed Will Smith fighting Will Smith. Some of you saw this in theaters, many saw it in 3D and then many saw it also in 120 frames per second. I however did not see this movie in theaters, why? I honestly do not recall what I did besides seeing this movie, I do remember that I had grown tired of seeing the trailer for it. Usually when I see a trailer played that many times its over compensating for the quality of the movie. Now lets talk about director Ang Lee's most recent technology experiment, I say that because to me each of his movies is like a little kid who got into a film expo saw something he felt was cutting edge and said I want to make a movie around that technology, here it is de-aging. By now we have seen de-aging effects being used quite often Samuel Jackson in Captain Marvel and several actors in The Irishman to name a couple. You know from the trailers that your going to see Will Smith fight a younger Will Smith, we know from the context in the trailer, Will Smith knows nothing of this other him that means its not a son, but a clone. Ang Lee could of went the way of The 6th Day where Arnold Schwarzenegger fights a clone of him self that is the same age, however he chose to go with Will fighting a younger version of himself, this of course adds a little more to the humanistic side of the story which is cloning a person and then raising that clone in the shadow of the real person. Before we get into what I thought of the de-aging, lets talk about the actual movie, Will Smith plays an exceptionally skilled sharpshooter that has over 70 kills under his belt, which is starting to weigh on him and decides it is time to retire. There are those that are not happy he's leaving and then there are some that consider him a loose string that needs to be plucked away from their ulterior motive. Enter Clive Owen the head of an elite group of a black ops paramilitary group named Gemini, there you go now you get the title, because you guessed it Will Smith 2.0 works for them. After a couple associates of Smith's are off'd he puts the puzzle together quickly, gathers up Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong, then quickly escapes with unknowingly a clone in tow. This is where I feel Ang Lee likes his toys, because the plot it's not intricate and you have some interesting characters though we never get to spend time with them because Ang Lee is making a Bourne lite movie he's not used to making. There are a couple decent action scenes notable the motorcycle chase and a fight in some catacombs, though I felt like I'm watching a scene designed to be Smith v Smith. Will say, look its a different use of a will, acting wise to me everyone did well especially Benedict Wong, loved his character. [Spoiler Alert] There is not just one clone and the first one looks better than the second one, though many of the close up of the clone there was just something off and I felt it was de-aging via CG because there is just something missing in the eyes and around the cheeks his face took on a putty like look to me. The issues I had with it though, I do acknowledge that Ang Lee is taking chances and giving us something new not in the form of story telling but deliverance of the material with the high frame rate that was a very big thing he wanted it shown in theaters with, I did not see his one with the frame rate though I have seen others and it just looks too real not cinematic for my tastes almost like I'm watching a 4K video on YouTube its almost like too clean if that makes sense. I wasn't challenged intellectually with this movie, but that is not to say I was bored, I think this movie got a little more negativity than it deserves largely due to technical choices. It entertained me throughout, which is all we can ask for a movie truly to do and that was what they started as a way to entertain which this does, good example of always watch a movie to make your opinion. I had very negative outlook for this movie, largely due to watching reviews, I am a sucker for clone movies whether good or bad, I enjoy the ethical debate they instill into the movies. C.

Swallow

Unless you were able to attend one of the festivals that played this or live by a drive-in theater showing it, you are going to have to rent this on a streaming platform, because movie theaters are still closed due to COVID-19...end rant. Haley Bennett has recently just married Austin Stowell, who’s family is well to do and has bought them a nice big shiny contemporary house to live in and now thanks to her husband she does not have to work and can work on pursuing her passion of art. Except when she becomes pregnant she starts to learn that not working and being under this family umbrella she doesn’t necessarily get to make all the decisions she wants and being treated how she would like to be treated. It leads to her developing a disorder called Pica, if you are unfamiliar what this is I’ll give you the definition, an eating disorder where a person eats things (usually in animate objects) that a not considered food. Before this movie I was vaguely aware of this disorder, I have heard about it, but, not to the extent that this movie takes it. We are talking a marble, battery and dirt just to name a couple, it was uncomfortable watching this movie, but, in a good way. I had to take a break half way and just recollect myself, you see her putting these in her mouth and then fishing them out of the toilet when they come out the other end and she has kind of a trophy gallery on her stand of the things she has swallowed. When I said it was in a good way being uncomfortable, its due to the fact that when this first starts happening, I was like what the serious F*’@ is she doing, very quickly she is ushered by the family to see a therapist, where as she starts discussing her upbringing you can begin to see what it has done to her mentally and partly why she is doing this. Haley Bennett is the whole movie, her very relaxed, calm demeanor about everything and when she goes into her swallowing objects its such effortless mentality she is displaying doing this. Then while this is going on with her you have the family giving ultimatums to the extent of go to rehab or divorce, Elizabeth Marvel plays the mother in-law with a beat where you aren’t quite sure is she on her side or her son’s side. So, you get this great debate that different viewers may get from this movie over is the family being controlling of her because of this or is it that they are protecting the child she is carrying. It’s gonna be difficult for many to stomach this movie, though it is such a different subject matter, at least I have never seen represented in a movie and as put off as I was at the imagery of her ingesting these things, the film as a whole is very well lit and has wonderful color palette with nice up close shots of her object, I was transfixed and had to watch to see what was going to happen to her. B. Of course after watching this I had to go and see what basis in reality this movie is and I found sites that said one-fourth of pregnant women may develop a form of Pica due to anemia or iron deficiency resulting from the pregnancy.

Freaks

Right away we are put into a dilapidated house with Emile Hirsch and his daughter, Lexy Kolker, where it has a vibe similar to a movie like Room where you feel she is being held captive by Emile. They are father and daughter though and he is protecting her from the outside world where he says people want to kill them if they go outside and you here him telling her to try and act normal. Slowly as reveals start to happen, Lexy Kolker is not an ordinary child, she has some kind of power that we are not quite sure what it is. Bruce Dern comes into the picture as a man driving an ice cream truck trying to lure her outside and I do not know about you, my mind instantly goes to creepy old man trying to kidnap little girl, wrong, its her grandfather. Venturing with her grandfather into the world it appears its not as bad as her father makes it out to be, or is it. You see she is what is referred to in this movie as a “freak” a human with superpowers, think X-Men sort of with some Brightburn and you get the gist of what’s going down, Emile Hirsch has created a time bubble to keep his daughter safe as long as he can stay awake, oh yeah, forgot to mention her mother is being held inside a mountain where they take “freaks” and she is about to be put down, except her daughter has the ability to control other people and visit other people’s environments. I understand this sounds all over the place, to talk about this movie without giving any spoilers is kind of hard, already gave a way a couple, oops my bad. Somehow though it all manages to work out and with some nifty visual effects along the way. What I liked about this was it constantly keeps unraveling itself and opening up more and more defying some predictions I had as to what was happening. If you have the time to give the movie and actually actively watch, I think you’ll be entertained. B.

Extraction

I have grown to be skeptical of direct to Netflix movies, they always tend to be more hit or miss for me. But, I have been watching a lot of dramatic ones lately and wanted some just turn off the mind action, blow s*!# up type of movie. This one did not let me down, Chris Hemsworth plays a for higher mercenary who takes a contract to rescue the son of a drug dealer that has been taken hostage in India. What he does not realize is that this kid is wanted by many more individuals and he has gotten himself into a bigger situation than anyone thought going into the mission. John Wick showed us what action movies could do under the direction of a former stunt coordinator and now it is happening once again, this time helmed by Sam Hargrave a stunt coordinator that worked on many of the Marvel films has now stepped behind the lens and brings the level of action from the John Wick films into a more real world environment with mercenaries instead of assassins. This is a movie that does not let up it is hard hitting action for a good majority of it, because to be honest the plot is not that great and the main character is not quite as developed as John Wick himself, it makes up for with action though. From breach and clearing residences to one of the best car chases that I have seen in years. The pairing of Hargrave and Hemsworth is perfect as they have worked together before with Marvel, the director knows what Hemsworth is capable of performing and then gets that ability without the comedy elements that Thor usually exhibits. This is one that I wish we would have had the ability to see in theaters because I feel especially in like a Dolby format that the action would be that much fuller with a screen encompassing my field of vision and the shots, punches and engines in full surround. It’s not an intricate storyline and the characters could use some more defining, but, if your looking for some popcorn munching action, the way this movie is shot and put together on a technical level is another helping to redefine what action movies can be, highly recommend for someone wanting a dose of some adrenaline action. C.

See You Yesterday [Review]

This is a movie that came out last year and was nominated for best first feature and won best first screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards this year, it is available on Netflix to watch, I remember seeing it on Netflix browsing through titles and never gave much thought to watching it. However, being a member of Film Independent I have the opportunity to attend what they call Coffee Talks which is where a member of Film Independent moderates a discussion of the film with the filmmakers and then does a little audience Q&A at the end. Living in Florida on the complete opposite coast of all the action in Hollywood, I was never able to attend many of these events until recently due to COVID-19 they are all taking place on the Zoom platform, at least that good came out of the situation we are in, giving myself the opportunity to attend events such as this where it was a discussion with the director and write (Stefon Bristol) and the other writer (Fredrica Bailey). Signing up for this Q&A I realized pretty quickly that I should actually watch the film that I am going to have them talking about. What if teenagers figured out time travel? How would they direct that ability? That is the underlying story of this film, yes I said underlying, first and foremost it is about police brutality. The movie revolves around two teenage students who are both extremely gifted when it comes to technology and science, Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow, who have figured out time travel and put it into a wearable backpack device. Their focus is using it to when a science fair until Astro who plays Eden Duncan-Smith's brother is fatally shot by a police officer over mistaken identity for a robbery suspect. To save her brother the two are able to jump back twenty-four hours and try to stop the shooting from taking place, thus saving her brothers life, until their interference in time creates ripples that have far worsening effects, resulting in them having to do several jumps to try and set the timeline back. Taking place in Brooklyn this movie doesn't try to explain it rules of time travel or go deeply into how their technology functions, instead it asks audience to just go with it as the main focus is to draw attention to police brutality and prejudices occurring in areas such as Brooklyn, doing this with a science-fiction film as the driving factor is actually quite brilliant as it delivers a subject that has been represented by several movies recently, but, using a different genre to engage a whole other audience. This is the first feature film to be be directed by Stefon Bristol and for both writers himself and Fredrica Bailey, which is apparent during the film as there are some continuity errors and some scene setups that don't quite line up because of the time paradoxes created, though even for advanced filmmakers anytime your playing with time travel this becomes a factor. Its not a shiny polished film, as I said though the idea is to draw light to a societal problem occurring in our world and the characters surrounding that main idea are strong and the time travel aspect just makes it feel fresh. Resulting in you can either watch this movie from a science-fiction stand point or from a culturally conscious dramatic point of view. Its under an hour and half which works well it doesn't add any unnecessary fluff, its a good watch especially if you want to introduce pre-teens to the subject of what is police brutality and overreach without using a long tense dramatic alternative. C.