Blue Beetle

It’s been quite awhile my friends, and what to I return with? Of course, another trash outing courtesy of DC with the Latino superhero Blue Beetle. This shit is exactly why I’m tired of bothering to watch almost anything these days. In this superhero story, an alien technology in the form of a scarab that bonds with its host on their spinal column to form a symbiotic relationship battles Capitalism. Yup, you read that right. The hero fights against a corporation that wants to use this technology to create an army to sell to the highest bidder.

The family of the titular character was supposed to come off as charming, and funny, but instead they come off as annoying as fuck. Pardon my French. They humiliate him, mock him, and are responsible (yes the scarab chooses but they pulled it out of the box) for him becoming the beetle. And in a later scene, opt to go on a rescue mission whereby they kill numerous random henchmen. Which is truly astounding because in a previous scene, our hero was a coward and a pussy that refused to kill said henchmen and opted to knock them out instead. Spoiler alert, he got his dad killed because of his said cowardice. I don’t know where this pussification of heroes arose from, but it doesn’t make you evil to kill. In fact, I’d argue that’s precisely what makes you the hero. The will to do what is necessary to overcome adversity. Even if it means to kill. The corporations have no qualms with killing, hell if it made them money they’d gladly do so. And they do that all the time in the real world. Lovely bit of psyops going on.

The movie has plenty of references to other movies DC has made, with a Gotham law sweater, and direct mentions of the Flash and Superman. There’s a bit of worldbuilding going on with the city that this takes place in, and with mentions of the original blue beetle (a non super powered hero who also happens to be an eccentric billionaire). The fights themselves are subpar for the genre and a bit flat. This action belongs in 2008 with Iron Man, which speaking of! This movie blatantly borrows or copies off of which is lazy writing. The scene with Jaime Reyes (our hero) as he first uses the technology is pretty much copying Iron Man’s “gotta learn to fly before you walk” scene. Sorry, not pretty much copying, it is a copy. To do so is not to being in reference to, or to draw parallels, it is simply bad writing. The villain played by Susan Sarandon is Obadiah Stane, sorry wrong movie, is Victoria Kord. Couldn’t quite tell that she’s her own character.

So, to reiterate, our hero is a pussy that refuses to kill, while his family apparently loves to kill especially his nana with her minigun. Towards the end, hearing the voice of the scarab go “we are not killers” honest to god had me guffawing. Whoever wrote this movie, never hire them again. Please. The writer’s strike is a good thing but if you are going to produce shit, your pay should be on par with the shit you wrote. Write a good product, get paid well.

There was nothing redeeming about this movie. It was a complete waste of time, and cemented my belief that DC has become a steaming pile of idiocracy that can only produce three letter agency psyops’ products. They even hired James Gunn so this idiocracy is truly gonna be something special. I didn’t mention any actors because it’s not their fault that they’re in this trash. They did the best they could with what they were given. I do not recommend watching this.

Knock at the Cabin

Sorry for the lack of reviews, not much good entertainment available these days. It’s like everyone has decided collectively to mass produce utter trash. I don’t even have much to say about this one.

Honestly, given the director, this review is spoiler filled because you can’t not talk about ‘twists’ when it comes to him. Even saying there’s a twist is a spoiler. Thus knowing him, knowing there will be a twist, you can guess the entire plot quickly.

I would normally say that this was a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan with excellent direction and cinematography, and well enough performances by all the actors/actresses involved but I called it 5 minutes in. Probably because I’m currently watching a 2013 TV show on Disney plus called Sleepy Hollow.

Movie is based on a book of a similar name by a writer called Paul Tremblay, with notable differences mainly the ending. The movie gives hope, the book does not. Said book was written in 2018, which leads me to assume the writer watched the TV show and thought “Hey, I can probably adapt the book of revelations better than this campy TV show did.” I don’t understand why you had to make it torture porn essentially though, with a dash of the story of Isaac. I’m sure some religious folks enjoyed this, but this wasn’t my cup of tea so to speak. The entire time I was thinking “y’all are the four horsemen and this family is the witnesses, can we get to the end where you show an actual twist.” And it never came. I honestly enjoyed Old (2021) more than this. At least that movie had a proper twist.

Yea… That was a waste of time.

You People

I still got 30 minutes left in this total cesspool of a movie, and I can barely bring myself to continue watching. You’re telling me Jonah Hill co-wrote this stinking pile of manure? If that’s the case, don’t ever write another movie again. I think one or two jokes landed, and the rest were pure physical cringe. I don’t think I’ve ever revolted this bad from a movie before. Almost all of the jokes are filled with bad taste, disrespect, and an abysmal attempt at social commentary. Given that Jonah co-wrote, means the other half of the blame lies with the director who also co-wrote. Kenya Barris is the name, and he is an embarrassment for writing this shit. It is not empowering towards the Black community, nor towards the Jewish community. It is racist. Plain and simple. No sugar coating. Being Black or Jewish doesn’t give you a pass to be a racist. You can’t dress it up in the guise of “oh, but they’re just jokes”.

You know the US government is arresting everyone involved with the ‘storming the capitol’, and both of you thought it would be a good idea to make a character say he was there. That’s not even remotely funny. It’s simply bad taste as stated before. This probably could have been a good movie if either of you shared more than a brain cell floating in the empty space between your ears. Is this a romance movie? Not even close. A comedy? Again, not even close. It is an idiot’s attempt at social commentary definitely. You know what is a good movie about racial relations between a mixed-race couple? Guess Who, or Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The latter being much better than the former. Both movies had respect for the audience, and had actual funny scenes. You know, comedy. I can see why Netflix decided to pick up this trash, they love to launder.

I can’t fault the actors involved, they clearly needed the paycheck. Why else would you agree to star in this? The fault as usual lies on the writers and director. I’ve already said my piece on those two trolls. I resumed those last 30 minutes, and it’s like the lines are written to be as stupid, racist, and harmful as possible but brushed away because “it’s okay, the character in question is an idiot or a moron”. The truly amusing part is towards the end, both the White character and the Black character spout some lines about each other’s parents that sum up the entirety of the movie. How tone deaf do you gotta be as a writer to say “you treat me like a token Black character and that’s offensive and ignorant” while simultaneously being throughout the whole movie offensive and ignorant? Trick question, you’re not. You did it on purpose because you truly do not give an actual shit about any of the so-called issues you raised within the movie.

The attempt at social engineering is blatant, and thank you Jonah Hill for finally showing the world your true colors. I will never watch anything you write because there is not an intelligent bone in your body. Same with Kenya Barris. Two ignorant peas in a pod.

Do not watch this trash. Let it drop in the charts and inform Netflix once again if they enjoy just throwing away their money, why not toss it our way? I’ll gladly take your money and run like these two did.

“But at the end of the day, when it comes to Black and White people, I don’t think love is enough. There’s too many other outside factors… We really live in two worlds, there’s no escaping it.” Yep, keep perpetuating hatred. Oh sure, your characters realize they were being self-centered racists but it all worked out in the end! Forget all the racist, ignorant, offensive, downright mean, and stupid things we wrote earlier in the movie. Happy ending, right? But Bogdan, you’re missing the point. All of that shit was to show character growth for the ending! Yea… Doesn’t work that way. You still wrote all of that hatred and ignorance and threw it out into the world. Maybe if it was actually funny, and written smartly, there’d be a better impact.

Pet Sematary (2019)

I actually enjoyed this one! HEAVY SPOILERS THROUGHOUT but I was surprised that they had the cojones to follow through with the ending. Sometimes the story ain’t about the protagonists overcoming the odds. Sometimes, the story is a cautionary tale of meddling with forces greater than man. Of failing to move on after a tragedy, of not processing one’s grief and coming to terms with it. A story that still made me go “ugh, not zombies again!?” Failure on my part for not reading the book written by a think-tank. What can ya do?

Jason Clarke as the lead character, Dr. Louis Creed, was excellent. A little rough to start, but he grew on me as the plot went on. Although I had different motivations as to how I treated the characters than most audiences… I was rooting for his dumbass to pay the consequences. Not out of malice for the character, but out of hoping for once they have a dark story. They delivered it. Though reading of the alternate ending, I would have preferred that one. That one is a more delicious emotional turmoil of character. I mean if we’re going for horror, may as well go all out. What’s more grim than living with malevolent spirits posing in the flesh of your wife, daughter, cat, and potentially son? Top notch horror.

Amy Seimetz as Rachel Creed, the good doctor’s wife, had a whole subplot of horror all on her own. Traumatized by the death of her sickly sister, that she had inadvertently caused through her laziness and fear, her character was forced to relive that moment through haunting visions while living in their new home. Mostly caused by the idea of speaking about death to their young daughter which reminded her of herself. Plenty of psychological horror with that one, especially when she meets her grisly demise at the hands of her undead daughter. But not before being made to confess to being glad her sister died and that she secretly prayed for it when she was younger. More delicious emotional turmoil for horror aficionados.

John Lithgow was the only light in the movie, but even his character was tainted because he wittingly invited this evil upon his new neighbors. I liked that message, if something turns out to be an evil spirit, don’t trust it that this time it won’t be an evil spirit. Also the whole “don’t meddle with ancient forces that you know nothing about especially when they involve ancient Native American legends. See, I ain’t even gonna write it out. Some words shouldn’t be said.” That whole deal.

From a horror standpoint, it was excellent. From a logical standpoint, all of this could have been avoided if you built a fence next to the road with the speeding trucks. Add a large gate. Secondly, if an old white dude ushers you to follow him deep into the woods, after climbing over a clearly foreboding tree wall, and you’ve been seeing hallucinations of a recently dead man warning you against it, just maybe think “hey, this is weird, I’m going back to my initial hole.” Unfortunately, horror requires our sacrificial victims to be dumbasses. And when that happens, my mind switches from being scared for our protagonists to “I wonder how just badly you’ll be suffering the consequences, you monumental imbeciles.”

I digress, it was good movie. I liked how when the camera focused on a certain part in a scene, and it being horror, so you just know that at any moment something is gonna happen. Especially if the camera gaze lingers for a second, that’s when BAM, I close my eyes! I ain’t seeing that gory shit. I can hear the sound effects just fine. Despite that, I still liked the movie and I’d recommend it for horror in this spooky month.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Last night, I decided to revisit one of my childhood’s memories of a movie. This one being The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, available on Disney plus. When a chunk of the budget goes towards Sir Sean Connery, and you realize they had to use that remaining amount to hire other actors, stunts, editing, and all that other jazz that goes into making a movie… It’s actually not that bad for what it is. Especially considering these days when having shit writing is okay as long as everything else looks pretty. If only 20th Century Fox had the level of bots, and ownership of media companies, as some people these days. Maybe then we could look past the over-the-top silly narrative. But then we look over at Marvel Studios, and can’t help but notice that some movies and characters look very uh, similar…

The characters in the movie are different than the actual characters they’re based upon, from both the original author’s works and the source comic material. One might daresay it tried to come up with an original twist on it all. Allan Quatermain is a hunter with the impeccable ability to never miss his shots (unless he wants to). Hello, Hawkeye. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a scientist that takes an elixir that changes him into a hulking brute with its own personality and consciousness. Hello, Hulk. An invisible thief that provides comedic charm to it. Mina Harker as a vampire badass that despises the evil inside her. Hello, almost Blade. Tom Sawyer as the American gunman that sprays all his shots merely hoping to hit the target. Hello, you know what institution. My favorite, Captain Nemo with his giant ship/submarine, and his army of Indian soldiers/pirates. Yea, I can see why this might be a hard sell. Dorian Gray as an immortal, wealthy douchebag. Hello, investors.

These fellas, and lady, all team up to stop a rich merchant of death from profiting from even more war. In a totally alternative world where only this kind of stuff exists there, this villain blows up various structures, kills innocents and places evidence framing a foreign nation in order to try and create a world war. Oh man, the profits that villain would stand to gain. Back to the movie, it had some great action scenes that were just simply ridiculous yet funny to watch. You could see had they only hired a more competent writer, or even director, this movie could have got a sequel. There are glimpses of awesomeness in it. Sir Sean Connery is always fun to watch. Shane West doing his job as the American heartthrob to draw in American audiences and help them be interested in the story. Peta Wilson as the Vampire dressed in leather (beating out Underworld by 2 months). Tony Curran was enjoyable as a smarmy, loveable bastard. Stuart Townsend as the cunt, and I could visually see why they’d wanna initially hire him as Aragorn way back when. Jason Flemyng was clearly having a delight playing the troubled doctor having concerns about trusting the monster inside of him. Especially during the transformation scenes. Those look like it took hours to apply him his make-up and costume. Naseeruddin Shah was fantastic as the martial art badass sending bad guys flying with mere kicks. His commanding presence was a joy amongst the silliness.

Honestly it all comes down to the writing and story direction as it being a failure. Yet, it had diversity for once with a brown action hero. Clearly that should have excused it from any wrongdoings, and audiences should have flocked to watch it otherwise they’re racists or intolerant. This movie deserves a sequel, or a remake. In a time of super-powered characters gracing the screen, these characters would fit right in.