To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I didn’t know that there was also a ‘Paramount Animation’ studio. Seriously, nowadays, every studio tries to deliver their own CGI features, as a result the market has become saturated with so much garbage. From time to time, I end up watching such rather lame animated features but it has been a while since I saw such a weak one (no wonder that it was released direct to streaming). Seriously, pretty much nothing worked here. First of all, the whole concept of some giant monsters engaging in some wrestling fights was so half-baked and, above all, so tedious (of course, this movie was produced by WWE Studios). The basic (and really generic) idea was that a son and daughter of some legendary coach and wrestler were teaming up and their secret weapon was… salsa dancing?!? Indeed, it did sound pretty lame and the end-result was actually even worse. For some reason, I always expected their famous fathers to make some surprise come-back but they eventually went in the different direction, basically, the most generic and predictable approach you could think of. The next issue was that they gave us some of the cheapest looking animation I have seen in a very long time. Eventually, the main reason why I actually ended up watching this movie was because, after watching ‘Drive-Away Dolls’, I became a huge fan of Geraldine Viswanathan but, eventually, I was constantly wondering if she was actually voicing the main character as I never recognized her voice at all (on the other hand, I have to admit that I haven’t seen so many of her movies after all). Anyway, her character was terribly flat and boring but I’m not sure if Viswanathan should be blamed for that. Basically, the damned thing was a waste of time and you should probably avoid it. 

After watching the more recent versions (from 2000 and 2019), I finally had the opportunity to watch the original thing after all these years. Well, this movie is considered as a classic in the Blaxploitation genre but, to be honest, I’m not really familiar with this genre at all (In fact, I would love to see some of the movies Pam Grier made at the time). Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the most famous movie in this genre but, to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed after all. I mean, I really liked the character, Shaft was so cool and charismatic and Richard Roundtree really nailed it. The mood was also neat with this legendary soundtrack by Isaac Hayes. It was basically a classic neo-noir movie with a private detective and the idea of making this private detective a cool black dude was really neat. Unfortunately, even though the concept did have some potential, I’m afraid the movie didn’t have much to offer after all though. Eventually, I get that it was probably made with a shoe-string budget (it certainly look like it, hell, even Shaft himself didn’t have his own car) but it was pretty obvious that it was a cheap movie and, to be honest, nothing much happened through the whole duration after all. Seriously, I think a third of the running time was just Shaft walking up and down the streets of New York looking for some random dudes. I thought it was also narratively rather clunky sometimes. For example, the way Bumpy Jonas approached Shaft to ask him to work for him was just too convoluted for no good reason. Eventually, the most interesting thing about this movie was not the movie itself but the historical impact it had when it was released. Indeed, it was the first time that a black man was portrayed this way and the fact that it was a big box-office success at the time displayed that there was clearly a demand/need for that. About 50 years later, there would be a similar phenomenon with ‘Black Panther’ which was the first black blockbuster and a massive box-office success. Both movies displayed how important representation is in the movies and that we still have a lot of work to do in this area. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie didn’t really blow me away, I still think it is worth a look, if only for its historical value. 

Well, I f*cked up here. Indeed, for some reason, I thought that ‘Pearl’ was the first movie in this franchise so I watched it first. On the other hand, since it was a prequel, it wasn’t a big deal after all. Anyway, it had been about 10 years since Ti West had delivered a horror flick but he definitely came up with something intriguing with this franchise, that’s for sure. In fact, recently, I had watched a whole bunch of ‘Friday the 13th’ movies and all these movies looked so cheap and displayed such weak performances. Here, it was a whole different kind of ball game and you could clearly see the progress such slasher flicks have made during the last 40 years. In this case, I loved the convincing vibe they delivered for this late 70’s period (it was also funny that it was all shot in New Zealand when it was actually taking place in Texas) and the whole thing was visually pretty neat. The cast was also really good here. The stand-out was obviously Mia Goth who actually finally had her breakthrough with this franchise. She was pretty good as Maxine but, above all, she was downright fascinating as Pearl (the fact that I first saw the prequel maybe paid off after all). It was also pretty neat to see Jenna Ortega at only 20 years old and she probably played the 2nd most interesting character. I wish they did spend more time explaining why this young girl became so fascinated by this whole porn thing though but it was obviously not the point of this movie. However, the biggest surprise was Brittany Snow. I think I have known this actress for about 20 years and I always thought she was cute but rather boring and uninteresting but she actually impressed me here. Indeed, it was just a daring choice for someone who had been in the industry for so long but I think she really disappeared in her character, even if she could have been more developed but that’s something that could be said about all the characters. Eventually, the weakest link from the bunch was Martin Henderson who was actually not bad but it felt that they didn’t manage to get Matthew McConaughey for this role so they got the cheap version instead. Eventually, did Ti West really exploit the potential of this concept? I’m not really sure. I think this trilogy might better work as a whole then by taking each movie separately. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a solid slasher flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, I have to admit that I actually didn’t remember much about it and, sure, it might not seem memorable if you would compare it to something coming out nowadays (after all, it was a very short movie which was done with a $150 budget only). However, the damned thing was actually seriously groundbreaking when it was released. Basically, it was pretty much the forefather of the Western genre, even if it was in fact not the very first Western. Eventually, even if the story was very basic, it is still considered as one of the very first movies with some kind of plot and, for such an early attempt, I thought the narration was actually pretty smooth, much more than I expected. Sure, they might have spent too much time on some specific actions like tidying up this clerk at the railway station but, for some guys with no experience and above all, nothing to refer to, I thought they did a really solid job. Above all, even though most of the movie was rather forgettable, the final image of this cowboy shooting at the camera was such a bold move, even for today, and this striking image was quite unforgettable. Seriously, it must have been priceless to be in the movie theatre when this cowboy started to shoot at the audience as many people went apesh*t since they didn’t expect it and had never experienced anything like this before. It was at the time a big commercial success. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might not seem mind-blowing, the historical value of this movie is huge and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in movie history.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this short but, since it was included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with Stan Brakhage’s work at all before watching this movie. He was apparently a renowned experimental filmmaker who delivered 100’s of movies over a period of 50 years, most of which were actually barely seen by the mainstream audience. Well, it was pretty cool to discover his work and this short was really interesting. It was actually completely silent which is something I really can’t handle for some reason so I ended up putting some techno-house music. Fortunately, this mix worked actually so well after all. In fact, Brakhage didn’t even use a camera to make this movie. Instead, he just glued legs, wings and other parts of butterflies directly on the filmstrip. Anyway, the end-result was actually pretty neat and, with my music selection, it had quite a mesmerizing effect. To be honest, I was glad it lasted only 3 mins which was actually the perfect length for such an experimental short (For example, most of David Lynch’s movies are also quite experimental and surreal and, sometimes, it’s so challenging to watch his weird stuff for 2 hrs or even more). Still, the damned thing was quite relentless, they kept showing non-stop all these insects parts at such a rapid-fire pace that they became barely distinguishable. I wish he did slow it down a bit so I could have a look on what was actually going on but it was obviously not the point here. Anyway, to conclude, I really liked the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you are into such experimental movies.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. I always knew that ‘You've Got Mail’ was a remake of this classic and it was rather funny that it took me almost 30 years to finally see the damned thing. Well, even though I did understand why it was considered as a vintage romantic-comedy classic, to be honest, it didn’t really blow me away though. First of all, even though it was intriguing that the action was taking place in Budapest, I didn’t really see the point since all the characters looked and sounded American. I understand that it was adapted from a Hungarian play but why not move the action to New York for example like in ‘You've Got Mail’, if you won’t actually use this European setting at all? Concerning the story, the best aspect was how they depicted the everyday life in this shop and the relationships between the various employees and also with their boss, Mr. Matuschek. That was actually very vivid and quite well done but, at the end of the day, it was never the focus of this movie. Indeed, the focus was the romantic relationship between Alfred Kralik and Klara Novak and, well, to be honest, this romance never really swept me away. Basically, it was based on the mistaken identity, a typical romantic-comedy gimmick which I always found rather tedious. In this case, I thought it was also a little bit weird that, when the movie started, their romantic correspondence was already going on for a while. In fact, you never really read or heard one of their letters but I guess it wasn’t the point. Even weirder was the fact that you actually never see their romance blossom. Indeed, I would have expected that, in spite this passionate romantic correspondence, the two colleagues would slowly grow closer to each other and, at some point, they would be torn apart between the feelings that they have for each other and the feelings they had for their mysterious correspondent without knowing that it was actually the very same person. Instead, they went for this other romantic gimmick which was ‘even though they hate each other, they are actually in love’ which must be the most toxic way to have a relationship (after 20 years with my ex-wife, I think I know what I’m talking about...). I also thought the ending was rather weird as, suddenly, they were in love when, 5 mins before that, there was actually barely any chemistry between them. Concerning the actors involved, I have to admit that James Stewart was so entertaining and pretty much pitch-perfect here though. Concerning Margaret Sullavan, she was not bad either and I have to admit that I was not familiar with her but it made sense since she preferred working on the stage and made only 16 films. Anyway, even if it didn’t really work for me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

My plan was to watch a whole bunch of movies from this franchise and this movie was the final one in this cycle. Well, after watching 8 movies, to be honest, I’m glad I’m finally done with this franchise for now. Indeed, except for the very first ‘Friday the 13th’ movie which has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, I really struggled to care for anything that came afterwards and the quality of these movies was not improving with time, that’s for sure. Indeed, eventually, after this film's disappointing results at the box-office, Paramount would then sell the rights to New Line Cinema. Anyway, at least, even though it took them forever, they finally managed to get Jason out of Crystal Lake which, at least, did sound promising. Unfortunately, since these movies were pretty cheap to make, they didn’t have enough money to actually shoot in New York (In fact, they spent only 2 days shooting on Times Square). So, in spite of its title, the movie was actually more about Jason on a cruise ship killing a bunch of high-school graduates which was as lame and as ridiculous as it might sound. From all the characters involved (I think there were more kills than usual), none of them was memorable whatsoever, some did get a few pathetic scenes to be barely introduced and a whole bunch didn’t have any dialogue at all. The only standout was a very young Kelly Hu in her first feature film and, at least, she was very cute back then. There were the usual gratuitous sex scenes which didn’t bother me, except this scene when one of the students tried to seduce one of her teachers and went to bed almost naked with him. Seriously, this scene was so cringe and completely unnecessary. For some reasons, they also replaced dope smoking, another staple in this franchise, with hard drugs and, while it was always rather harmless to see a bunch of kids smoking some weed, it was definitely a different vibe to have them snorting cocaine. In general, New York was depicted as a filthy and dangerous place which was not a bad idea but, since they spent so very little time actually there, the concept was never properly exploited and even ruined after all. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think this so-called New York instalment is actually worth a look.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since the topic was quite interesting, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, influencers have become quite huge nowadays (I even used to watch the most famous Dutch YouTuber with my daughter every day for a couple of years) and the idea of focusing on one of them was pretty cool. Eventually, I was rather surprised by how they handled this material, actually in a positive way, but, to be honest, only half of the movie really did work though. First of all, Magdalena Kolesnik was so charismatic, she was pretty much pitch-perfect here and I wonder if the movie would have worked at all without her. However, even if there was absolutely nothing wrong with her performance, to be honest, she was physically not really convincing as a fitness guru though. Indeed, I go to the gym 3 times a week myself and I had 2 female acquaintances who were fanatic and going 5 times a week and, well, the bottom line was that, if she was indeed a fitness professional, she should have had much more muscle tone than she displayed. I mean, sure, she did look fit, no doubt about it, but in my opinion, she didn’t really look the part. However, it wasn’t a big deal and the way they developed her character was actually quite fascinating. Indeed, I thought they would display her as being self-obsessed and doing whatever she could to get some extra followers but it wasn’t the case at all after all. Basically, she was very professional and she didn’t treat other people like garbage, in fact, it was even the contrary. Seriously, I was just floored when she drove her own stalker to the hospital so he could be taken care of. I was also intrigued that they didn’t display this line of work in such a negative light after all. Indeed, I liked that they removed all the glamor and glitter and displayed that, like any other job, it’s actually a lot of boring routine tasks. Sure, to me, it did look terribly vapid and boring but my job, which I do like, would probably look vapid and boring to most people as well. In her case, she did become really lonely (but aren’t we all, at the end of the day?) and the message from the movie was that the pressure of being constantly happy and cheerful was maybe too much for her but, to be honest, I didn’t buy it. Indeed, even if she did a lot of posting, it didn’t seem to be constant and I think she had enough space and time to build a private space for herself. The best question which remained unanswered was actually asked by one of the TV guys at the end and it was ‘What was her motivation?’ but she avoided it completely. I mean, like the rest of us, if she was fine with her work, then, nothing was really wrong, she should just try to make some friends outside her work. If she didn’t like what she was doing anymore, well, she should just look for something else then. Concerning the rest of the movie, most of it didn’t really work in my opinion. There was this creepy colleague who looked like a bargain version of a Village People member and again this creepy stalker but there was not just enough runtime to properly develop these subplots. The bit showing her mother’s birthday was on the other hand super sharp and also quite fascinating to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if not everything did work, it was still intriguing and I think it is worth a look.