 The previous 'Sonic' film took me some time to really warm up to, but it has since become something I enjoy. I originally had my hang-ups about adapting a famous property into yet another "fish-out-of-water" story like, 'Smurfs,' or 'Masters of the Universe,' in which our hero's extraordinary home world is left behind to spend the majority of the film on Earth, trying to get back. 'Sonic' did this as well, but at the very least, things weren't as simple as that basic plotline idea. Plus, we had the resurrection of Jim Carrey.
However, there may be a bias here with me and the 'Sonic' franchise because these games were a significant part of my childhood. If these movies had been released in the early '90s, when Carrey and the Sonic franchise were both in their prime, and I was still young, I'd have loved them and probably made them favourites among titles that still sit close to my heart today, like 'Ghostbusters' and 'Ninja Turtles.' But alas, we weren't even at 'Toy Story' yet, as far as CG animation goes, so here we are. The nostalgia particularly pops for me with this sequel, as it introduces the likes of both Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), whom I remember fondly from a couple of my games, particularly, 'Sonic Triple Trouble,' which I was addicted to. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The sequel, here, picks up eight months after the first film's events. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) has been banished to a Mushroom Planet, and Sonic (Ben Schwartz) is living the good life with Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter). However, Sonic becomes easily bored and, with his super-speed powers, acts as a vigilante hero for the town of Green Hills, Montana. This leads to an "Uncle Ben" moment from Tom, who tells Sonic to be patient and responsible with his powers after Sonic pretty much tears up a city block. Eventually, Tom and Maddie depart for Maddie's sister's wedding in Hawaii, thanks to one of Sonic's incredibly handy Warp Rings (I gotta get some of those). Of course, Sonic goes hog-wild with the house to himself, but he has no idea what's coming. Sonic's "party" is soon disrupted by Doctor Robotnik and his new "friend," Knuckles, the Echidna, who has a hilarious "Drax"-like personality. Both are out for revenge; Robotnik's is obvious. Knuckles wants to honour his extinct Echidna tribe by finding the legendary Master Emerald, allowing whoever possesses it to bend reality to their will. Of course, once Robotnik gets hold of this information, he starts a scheme of his own, along with his old assistant, Stone (Lee Majdoub), to help Knuckles find the Emerald and steal it from him. Sonic's only real help is from a kid who idolizes him: a two-tailed fox named Miles "Tails" Prower. Miles Prower is a fun play on words here and even a part of the character's original history, showing that the writers here did at least a little homework. And that's what I do enjoy about these movies. Most of the time, if there's something out of place about the film as far as an adaptation goes, I do a little of my homework and usually realize the movie is pretty accurate. They're also not shy about the design of things. For example, here, we see Robotnik floating around in a big half-ball machine straight out of the games. While these films give me a certain sense of nostalgia, as so much about them is very '90s, I can't deny there was a thing or two that irked me here. The cliche of dancing to get out of a sticky situation at a rough and tumble bar is in here, for example, feeling a lot like filler. Also, like its predecessor, the jokes and gags are very "Dad." But I can't just sit here and point out everything I don't like about it. The film is meant for a younger audience; it's harmless, and again, I can't deny that the child within me sees the appeal. I'll say again: I'd have loved these as a kid. 3/5
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 Through and through, I consider myself a Mario Man. But there was something special I couldn't deny about those 'Sonic' games I had for my Sega Game Gear. I didn't even go for much else when equipping my Game Gear with fun because I always knew I'd have fun with 'Sonic' games and their "Blast Processing" (which gave Sonic his incredible speed). It sure beat putting around in the OG 'Mario Kart,' and to put a cherry on top of it all, those 'Sonic' games had some amazing, catchy soundtracks.
Two animated series came out to add to the fun of the 'Sonic' games. They ran parallel, but one show was far better than the other. 'The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog' was far more cartoonish, kid-friendly, and had several uncomfortable PSAs. The other, 'Sonic the Hedgehog,' provided an overarching story featuring characters who didn't exist in the games and told an environmentally conscious story without rubbing it in our faces. It was great! A Sonic movie should always have come from that concept for my money. But we got this instead, which many people still love. We start on Sonic's (Ben Schwartz) home planet, where he was born with super speed powers, and the land's native echidnas are constantly chasing him down for said powers. In his childhood, he was protected by an Owl named Longclaw (Donna Jay Fulks), who, as far as I can tell, is brand new here. That might irk some, but the cartoon I loved did the same thing, so it wasn't a big deal for me. During one such chase, Longclaw uses a "Warp Ring" to send him through a portal to Earth so he can stay protected, sending a bag of rings with him. On Earth, Sonic grows up as a cryptid, often called the "Blue Devil." He suggests that he's living the good life, but this life of hiding has him lonely. As a result, Sonic throws a tantrum that causes a power outage throughout the quaint little town of Green Hills, Montana. Knowing he caused the blackout, Sonic tries hiding in Tom Wachowski's (James Marsden) garage, where he can get off Earth using one of his rings, away from the people who will now be looking for him. But when Tom busts in to discover Sonic, a mishap with the Warp Rings occurs, sending Sonic's rings through a Warp Hole to San Francisco. The loss of Sonic's rings sends him and Tom on a road trip to San Francisco to retrieve them. Why doesn't Sonic zoom over and grab them himself? He has no idea where San Francisco is or how to get there. In the meantime, the massive blackout Sonic caused has the government bring in Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey in what is arguably his resurrection), who eventually discovers Sonic is the source and could very well have the ability to supercharge his machines. Hence, their rivalry begins. The film all comes down to being a road trip chase movie, complete with Easter eggs for fans like me. The fact that it takes place in "Green Hills" is only the tip of the iceberg. There are relatively obscure references, too, like the "Mean Bean Machine," which is just a coffeemaker in the film. You even get to hear a bit of that classic Green Hills Zone music (if you know any music from the game, it's probably that theme). So, this is a pretty good choice for a movie that will appeal to the Genesis/Game Gear generation and kids who may be brand new to the 'Sonic' franchise. I wasn't as sure about the quality of this film the first time I saw it, but I have to admit that it has grown on me over time. With the help of Jim Carrey's comedic timing and showing us a lot of game familiarity, I credit the film for successfully executing the "fish-out-of-water" cliche. It's not just "Sonic on Earth". They do something with it, making him a cryptid and having him meet his arch-nemesis on Earth instead of someone just following through a portal. It's not quite the movie I wanted initially, but I'll be damned if I can't give this movie a bit of real kudos for doing a video game movie, perhaps not perfectly, but damn well. 4/5  Regarding the Disney Renaissance of animated features, one cannot deny the success of 'The Lion King.' It was always my favourite of the animated classics, and it is abundantly clear from the Box Office numbers this particular film provided that I'm not alone. It's the first of these Disney "live-action" (I mean, this is 99% CG, save, apparently, for the opening 'Circle of Life' sequence) remakes to reach the Top 10 box office opening weekends (domestically), and it still holds its spot at #10, at least for the time being.
Regarding plot, this is precisely the same story we know from the 1994 film. Simba (JD McCrary/Donald Glover), a lion cub and heir of his father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones), is excited about one day becoming King. However, his evil uncle Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) plans to usurp the throne with the help of a group of hyenas, Kamari (Keegan-Michael Key), Azizi (Eric André), and their leader, Shenzi (Florence Kasumba); Shezi being the only hyena whose character remained the same from the animated version. Simba becomes exiled from his home at Pride Rock, and shortly thereafter, he meets up with a meerkat named Timon (Billy Eichner) and a warthog named Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), who both teach him how to live his life with "no worries." Hence, he does, turning his back on Pride Rock and his kingdom, choosing to grow up with a simplified life of laziness and bug-eating. But when things get bad back home, Simba's childhood friend, Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph/Beyoncé), and a mandrill named Rafiki (John Kani) try to remind Simba about just who he is and where he's from to convince him to come back home. It's funny to think about how I criticized 'Beauty and the Beast' for its "copy + paste" technique when, even in that movie, they still tried a new thing or two. Even though I met 'The Lion King' with a lukewarm reception, as I got what I expected, I can say honestly that I'd get the same movie (save a character change or two) with the '94 animated version. Everything here is just a CG upgrade that works better on the big screen than the small one, and its look is unique. But that's all this has going for it. Where this movie dips for me is in the songs. The originals are better, both in sound and visuals, which may sound odd, considering a massive CG upgrade. For the best example, 'I Just Can't Wait to Be King' used to be bright, colourful, playful, and fun, but now it's just Simba and Nala running around with different animals. There's no "punch" to the sequence. 'Be Prepared' also comes across as half-assed, at least to me, a massive fan of the original song. The only real upgrade here is in Timon and Pumbaa's delivery of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.' Otherwise, all songs in the original are better. The way I see it, if the original had never existed and this came out as a whole new thing, I would see it as nothing short of excellence. But with the original being such a staple of my early life, helping me get through some of my worst days at school, it's kinda tricky to see this adaptation of the story and not miss some of what the original had to offer, particularly during musical sequences, and even character personalities, which is the problem with using realistic animals for a story like this. A lot of the time, these characters are physically expressionless. My opinions on this movie are biased, as the original film was essential to my life. I can still go back to the '94 version of this story and get goosebumps as it surrounds me in great music, comedy, and nostalgia, like a cozy blanket. This adaptation could never have the same effect on me. This film is still good for what it is and introduces the story to a new generation. But in my humble opinion, there's no substitute for that original, which I can still happily watch today with a "Hakuna Matata" mindset. 3/5  Perhaps it was my trip to Hawaii over New Years Eve, 2012-2013 that really did it, but as far as more modern Disney animation goes, I have to say that 'Moana' is a film that absolutely stays on top for me. It's a great story that delves into a bit of Polynesian culture, full of cool, original ideas, catchy music, beautiful visuals, and some solid comedy. There are a few titles out there that I can watch that will make me want to revisit those breathtaking Hawaiian islands, and 'Moana' is one of them.
It's my understanding that the film doesn't exactly nail it when it comes to Polynesian culture and folklore, but as a "tourist," I can say that 'Moana' certainly conveys the overall spirit of what I experienced in Hawaii. Some of the folklore consists of demi-gods like Maui (Dwayne Johnson), some of it is derived from stories about islands being living beings, and some of the Polynesian langauge and style is evident in the songs that are sung, namely one called "We Know the Way," presenting us with voyagers, searching for new lands. With all of that said, one should probably know that all locations within the film are fictional, starting with the island of Motunui, where a young Moana sneaks off to have a look at the ocean. While there, she adorably helps a baby sea turtle make it to the water, while birds are trying to get at it. With this, the ocean presents itself to Moana as a sort of living being, and chooses her to one day return the Heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place, and restore nature to the way its meant to be. The backstory to Te Fiti; a living island, and goddess of nature, was that the shape-shifting demigod, the aforementioned Maui, stole the Heart (a pounamu stone) as a means to gift humanity with the power of creation. As a result of this, Te Fiti disintegrates, and a volcanic monster named Te Kā attacks Maui. As they clash, Maui loses his fish hook, which empowers him, and the Heart sinks to the depths of the ocean. Maui is also banished to a deserted island, where he spends the next thousand years or so. Back to Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), she eventually grows up, and is meant to become the next Chief of Motunui. This means a lot of the relatively typical coddling from her parents, Tui (Temuera Morrison) and Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), who try to keep Moana away from the ocean, and never to cross the reef, where the ocean is apparently incredibly unforgiving. But one day, when blight strikes the island, Moana's Gramma Tala (Rachel House) reminds her that the Ocean chose her to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. So, Moana sets out on her adventure, despite her overbearing parents (father, mainly). As Moana sets off on her journey, a local chicken named Hei-Hei (Alan Tudyk) stows away, and provides a lot of the film's visual comedy, as this bird isn't quite right in the head. Of course, she also eventually meets Maui, whom she needs all the help she can get from. However, as a demigod, he's a bit reluctant to help, and all he really wants is off his island so he can go find his fish hook. Little does he realize that through helping Moana, he has to earn it - and the ocean is sure to remind him at every turn. As the rest of the film unfolds, one of the best credits I can give it is the absolutely beautiful animation, which has a range of variety to it, as seen in the song 'You're Welcome,' on Maui's tattoos, and the film's opening. On top of that, I'd say most of the songs are catchy, the characters are likeable, and I truly appreciate the imagination that went into the storytelling here. It may not be what I see as perfection, but its imperfections are few and far between enough that this is something I can sit back and truly enjoy when the mood strikes me. 4/5  A bit of a confession to the masses that a few people know about me is that when it comes to classically epic movies - you know, the kind that are often considered some of the greats, I don't end up watching them that often. I'll view them once or twice just to say I've seen them, but the collection of amazing movies out there I've only seen a handful of times, or even once, is pretty outstanding, and would shock people. 'Gladiator' is one such title, which I saw twice in theatres, twice on DVD, and I've left it alone for over two decades until now.
The great thing about being such a fan of film, yet having that approach to things, is that it allows movies to be "brand new" to me again, and I can enjoy them on that level I enjoyed them once in the past. Sometimes things like early CG can get in the way, but not in the case of something like 'Gladiator,' which overthrows anything bad about it (and there's not much) with a great story, bringing together bits of fact and fiction to create something truly epic, and arguably, one of the greatest films of all time. The whole thing opens up in the year 180 AD, where Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) leads Emperor Marcus Aurelius' Roman army to victory against Germanic tribes. As this puts Maximus in Marcus' favour, Marcus tells him of his crooked son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), whom he deems unfit to take things over. Instead, Marcus tells Maximus how he'd like him to take succession as regent, believing he would be a great leader who will be able to restore the Roman Republic. Upon finding this information out, Commodus gets understandably PO'ed, murders his father in secret, and proclaims himself the new Emperor of Rome. When he requests Maximus' loyalty, however, Maximus refuses, remembering what Marcus told him. That's when things go off the rails. As Maximus fails to pledge his loyalty, in turn, he eventually discovers the murdered bodies of his wife and family, and is eventually sold to gladiator trainer Proximo (Oliver Reed). The thing is, Maximus is not just some guy off the streets of Rome - he's a trained, professional war General, and has some skills. As Maximus keeps fighting through battles, mostly at Rome's Colosseum, his popularity rises, earning him the nickname "The Spaniard." But when Commodus organizes 150 days of gladiatorial games to commemorate his father, Proximo convinces Maximus that if he wants his freedom, he's gonna have to win over the crowd. His popularity may very well be the only thing that keeps him from getting killed, despite Commodus' dislike for him, as Commodus wants the respect of the Roman people. This is a film that still totally holds up, and I'd highly recommend checking it out again if you haven't seen it in a while. It's a friendly reminder that epic movies of the early 2000s could still be pulled off without needing a whole lot of CG, which, at the time, 'Lord of the Rings' was pulling off really well, but 'Star Wars' exemplified CG that hasn't aged very well. It was a mixed bag. But luckily, here, for cool scenes like the tiger brawl, they used real tigers and a teeny-tiny bit of CG and stuffed tigers for their deaths, and it still looks great. I remember this one getting all the accolades of the time, too. Twelve Oscar nominations, for example, winning five, including Best Picture. And if you go to IMDb right now, it is ranked as #34 in the Top 250 Movies of All Time. Any way you slice it, really, this is just one of those legendary titles that has gone down in cinematic history as something truly epic in every sense of the word. So go ahead and check it out if you've never seen it, and after you're done, ask yourself the big question; "are you not entertained?" 5/5  As the Sony-verse continued to unfold with its whole "Not-Sinister-Six" plan, I left 'Carnage' here with the same thoughts I had about its predecessor. The characters may not have been developed perfectly, but they looked great, were well-cast, and it's an easy movie to have fun with. Also, just like 'Venom,' while this didn't necessarily do well critically, the fans make it clear that it's not so bad, as long as you can let go of reality a bit. And you should for a character like Venom.
This one branches nicely off of 'Venom' and its stinger scene, in which we see Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) head into San Quentin State Prison to interview one Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). And if you've ever been any sort of fan of Venom, you know exactly who that is. While the MCU is the "King of Stingers," I can at least say there wasn't any confusion about what this was meant to lead to. Kasady simply leaves us with the promise of "Carnage" whenever he manages to get out, and a lot of us looked forward to the next chapter. We open here back in 1996, where we meet a young Kasady (Jack Bandeira), communicating back and forth through holding cells with his love interest, Frances Barrison, AKA "Shriek" (Naomie Harris), who is more or less revealed to be a mutant, in so many words, to keep it nice and legal. She is taken from St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children, where she fell in love with Cletus, and forced to be separated and taken to the Ravencroft Institute, where she and her mutant abilities will be more secure. This leaves Cletus stewing for several years. In the present, Det. Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) contacts Brock (who's still bonded with Venom, but keeping it on the down-low), telling him that Kasady wants an interview. Hesitantly, Brock agrees, and during their one-on-one, a little piece of Venom is taken from Brock, eventually bonds with Kasady, and Carnage is created. Their bond is almost perfect, and their motivation goes from prison-break and break-out Shriek, to much more sinister things, and it's up to Venom to put a stop to it. Meanwhile, there's a secondary plot involving Eddie's ex-fiancée, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) and her engagement to Dr. Dan Lewis (Reid Scott). This is where I find the film kinda tries on the 'Spider-Man 2' concept on for size; his love interest likes someone else, lacks feelings for him, and it all boils down to his superhero life interfering with his normal one. It works out here, but in some ways, does feel like a copy. That said, I still mean it when I say I think this one is slightly more fun than its predecessor. For as much as I love the casting of Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, I think it's safe to say that Woody Harrelson really steals the show here as Cletus Kasady. The man does "psycho" very well, and there's a real intimidation to his look at times. You can tell he's having a ton of fun with the role, and I love how much his character embraces the chaos that is Carnage, constantly letting his Symbiote take the wheel. On the flipside, they brought out the more fun aspects of Venom, which may have been a risk, but I remember "fun" Venom from the original Playstation game, so I embraced it pretty easily. When it comes to the Sony-verse movies, it's clear that 'Venom' is their bread and butter, while 'Morbius' and 'Madam Web' failed miserably. The 'Venom' movies may not have been perfect, but at least one could find some fun in them. The Symbiotes here, at least look good and don't need to peel back their face to show their inner celebrity every five seconds (Topher!), making them feel more familiar. For me, the 'Venom' movies are just a friendly reminder that sometimes the superhero genre just doesn't need to be taken seriously, as long as a good time is had. 3/5  The Sony-verse (as far as Spider-Man-related movies go) is a very hit-or-miss situation altogether. While the animated 'Spider-Verse' movies are entertaining, artistic, clever takes on stories about Miles Morales, giving Sony its own Spider-Man after Disney/Marvel took Peter Parker away. That's a whole situation I wish the hell I knew why Sony wasn't capitalizing on, but they decided to go a different route instead; the frankly overall disappointing route of trying to make some kind of a fake-ass Sinister Six for themselves.
For my money, the only half decent live-action movies that exist in the Sony-verse are the Venom films, starting with this new, but not bad take on the character. By the time this came out, a lot of us went with the idea that it couldn't possibly be worse than 'Spider-Man 3's take on the character. In the end, it pretty much completely divided audiences. Critically, these didn't do so hot, but fans (and myself) were at least able to cut it a little slack, because, hell, the character was just done really well. When a space mission that includes the quick name-drop of "Jameson" (Chris O'Hara) goes wrong, and their ship crash-lands on Earth, three of four "Symbiotes" (an alien organism that attempts to bond with a host) are quickly collected by Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who understands that successfully bonding with these things could be a next step towards our human evolution, allowing us to explore space, and potentially finds more planets to inhabit. However, a fourth Symbiote (Venom) manages to escape the wreckage. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) enters the scene to report on Drake, and give him a hard time with some top secret files. As a result, Brock loses everything, including His job, and his fiance, Anne (Michelle Williams), who happened to work for Drake's company. However, Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), who works for Drake and realizes what he's doing with these Symbiotes, secretly invites Brock back to the lab to expose Drake's experiments. This is where the Venom Symbiote finds and bonds with Brock. It's revealed that the Symbiotes' general purpose (at least for this movie) is to invade planets, possess and devour their inhabitants, and move on. If Eddie helps Venom with this, he may just be spared. However, the pair soon find themselves in over their heads when the aforementioned fourth, escaped Symbiote (Riot) finds his host, ready to continue their alien goals, while Venom ends up finding a bit more of a human/righteous side to himself while bonded with Brock, and helps Eddie become the film's hero. The whole Venom storyline has more or less fallen by the wayside as far as trying to get a live-action version of it to be everything we want it to be. 'Spider-Man 3' screwed it up, and this storyline is just very different, with its own ideas and concepts. I was never too mad at it though, considering what was done with 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' being an MCU original take on a much more popular character, and enjoying that just fine. Why should this have been any different for me? In the end, I can fully admit that I find this movie to be a lot of fun, and although the story isn't "correct," the character (I find) is done well. This is definitely not everyone's Venom, and I think it's safe to say that aside from the original comic book take on things, one should definitely refer to the 1994 animated series for the original story. That said, if you're new to the character, I don't think this is a bad place to start. While these films remain the best part of the Sony-verse, however, they're far from perfect, or even that wonderful. But if you're looking for a bit of a roller coaster ride, and are open to a few changes here and there, this is just fine for what it is. 3/5  When it comes to the horror genre, nothing does a better job at giving me the heebie-jeebies quite like the psychological category. If you truly wanna get a scare out of me, you've gotta make me ask "WTF?" I have such admiration for a film that can do something like that other than just show me a bunch of gore, or a bunch of ghosts or demons. I love horror movies as a whole, but psychological horror is a whole other level. I think 'Smile' is one of the best examples of such a movie I've seen in a long time.
The story here centres cleverly on a therapist named Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) who, one day, meets with an extremely distressed girl named Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey). Laura claims that some sort of evil entity has been haunting her ever since she witnessed one of her professors commit suicide in front of her. This entity shows itself as various different people who present her with a ghastly smile, haunting her, and foretelling her death. After a traumatic experience at the hospital, Rose soon finds herself caught up in what seems like it could be a similar situation. Beginning with one of Rose's patients, Carl (Jack Sochet) presenting her with his own ghastly smile and foretelling of her death, Rose slowly starts to lose her grip on reality. After the aforementioned traumatic experience with this smiling Carl fellow on top of it, her supervisor, Dr. Morgan Desai (Kal Penn) orders her to take a week off for a breather, concerned she may be overworking and not getting enough sleep. She does, after all, have to take care of mentally unhealthy people, so needs a good head on her shoulders for it. However, during her time off, Rose's hallucinations continue, and even sometimes come through to reality in some pretty nasty ways, causing Rose to question her own reality. Like a responsible therapist, she seeks some help from her own therapist, Dr. Madeline Northcott (Robin Weigert) who chalks it up to the tragic death of her mother (Dora Kiss) and the guilt she may be feeling because of it. But there's something about this entity that's haunting and terrorizing her that's a bit more real than that. This entity is a nightmare fuel concept that follows Rose around, presenting itself as people she knows and trusts, and constantly telling her how her "time is almost up." What makes this all the more terrifying is the idea of Rose's role as a therapist, which really turns the genre on its head, asking basically "what if the helper becomes helpless?" The more it pops into reality, the more it does things to frame Rose; a woman who knows about mental health and how to treat it. This thing alienates her from loved ones who simply think she's gone off her nut. I will admit that there's this common theme within horror about things being symbolic of grief, loss, regret and the like, and this isn't much of an exception. But what I truly did appreciate about this was putting a medical professional in that role in which no one believes her, and everyone seems to think she's gone crazy. Somehow it makes things scarier. But on top of that, there are moments in this movie, especially towards one hell of a climax, where things go way outside of the box, completely catching me off guard, but in a really good way. The ideas and concepts behind this movie are pretty terrifying, and for me, are solidified with that concept of "what if your therapist needed therapy?" but digs even deeper with the idea that she knows this is some kind of curse. It harkens back to old horror movies in which authority figures just plain won't listen to you. I really loved how this was executed, being mostly a psychological horror that got into my head, and morphing in about its last half hour or so into something that will totally catch you off-guard. It's one of the best all-around horror movies I've seen in quite some time. 4/5  When this first came out, I can remember there being quite a bit of controversy behind it. On one had, you had the "geek" argument that some other guy who wasn't their favourite was playing The Joker, as these things usually go. However, the film touches on some petty sensitive themes, such as mental health, and it almost looked like it was advertising that those with mental health problems will ultimately become violent. To those people, I really must say, it's straight up ignorant to come to such conclusions.
From my perspective, I saw this more as a sort of cautionary tale than anything else. When I say cautionary tale, however, my example comes not from the mental health perspective, but from this idea of Gotham pulling funding from Arthur Fleck's (Joaquin Phoenix/Joker) therapy sessions. This gives way to a very real concept in society, in that there are still places in the world where mental health has that "sweep-under-the-rug" stigma, shrugging it off. It's important to recognize that if you suffer from the wrong set of mental health problems, and you can't get the help you need, shit can happen. It's to be taken seriously! It's my opinion that this was a daring way to get it all out into the open, using the character of the Joker for familiarity, and to show the dark side of the problem. We ALL know who he is, and we're fully aware that he's gonna end up the most disastrous villain of Gotham City. With all of that in play, it seems easy to empathize with Arthur's character, and to some degree, you want to support him. But once he has your support, you see him start doing terrible things, and the film does a good job of holding up that mirror asking "still supporting him?" Try to imagine this as a film idea paralleling something more like Rob Zombie's 'Halloween', in that we're watching the slow development of a well-known fictional serial killer. Was it necessary? Not particularly. But one's curiosity does kinda make one wanna peek behind the curtain to see how the monster was created. To be honest, I wasn't really into this upon the first trailer, but curiosity on my all-time favourite villain's possible origin did eventually get the best of me, and I'm not sorry that it did. It was surprising how much I got from it. The highlight here, as one probably expects, is Phoenix's performance. Heath Ledger still hasn't been dethroned for me, but stiff competition is seen here. Phoenix's Joker is very "Ledgeresque", but he plays the much creepier side of things here, making it an unnerving thriller. Ledger still made you laugh over violent moments (the pencil trick is still awesome), but Phoenix plays things more like some sort of twisted performer, and by the end, he even gives Pennywise from 'It' a run for his money. Despite some controversy surrounding this upon its release, it has since gone on to be a bit of a cult hit, and I'm often hearing people now suggesting that character-wise, Phoenix is their favourite Joker. And for as much as one can't pry me away from Ledger and Nicholson as the ultimate portrayals of the character, I will give this guy full credit for perhaps being the deepest rendition of him, as opposed to the incredibly half-assed Jared Leto performance. Phoenix provides a fascinating Joker to watch. For myself, I think this carries a strong message with it about mental health and the steps necessary to take care of it. It's definitely an interesting take on a favourite character's origin, and for yours truly, it works extremely well. For something as dark and creepy as this gets, I do feel like to some degree this is also a bit of an important watch for the more ignorant-minded who seem to think things like anxiety, depression or the like can simply be solved by "smiling." 5/5  What can be said about my relationship with the original 'Beetlejuice'? The film came out when I was just five years old, and oddly enough, my only memory of it being in theatres was walking by the movie poster for it and pointing out the girl with the crazy hair (Lydia). In the meantime, over the next few years, I would tune into the animated series, which I kinda ate up at the time. It could be said that I was very much into the strange and unusual, because I, myself, am strange and unusual. Shows like this helped fuel my imagination, and I loved it!
It wasn't until I was maybe about 7 or 8 that I finally got to see the movie at a friend's house, and it ended up being a fun comedy with elements of horror that allowed me to dip my toes into the horror genre ever-so-slightly. Other movies provided this for me like 'Gremlins' or, my all-time fave, 'Ghostbusters', but I never did reach the point of being able to enjoy all-out horror like my peers could because a lot of imagery just stuck with me, and I could scare pretty easily. But not only were movies like this fine for me, they helped shape me! I can actually credit 'Beetlejuice' here in many of the same ways I can credit 'Ghostbusters'. It helped ease me into scary stuff by making it more fun, it was something I could watch again and again, and keep finding new things to appreciate about it, and even helped with my love of Halloween - I even dressed up as Beetlejuice in fourth grade. And for those wondering about my greater love of 'Ghostbusters', I was Egon when I was 5, so it was covered. But, getting back to the point, this was always a title I've held close to my heart. Just for a quick plot summary, the film involves married couple, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) Maitland who find themselves the victims of a nasty car wreck. Upon returning to their beautiful, big, country home, the couple realize they've died, but haven't passed to the other side. Meanwhile, the Deetz family; Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his second wife, Delia (Catherine O'Hara) and Charles' daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder) move into the now abandoned home, much to the Maitlands' dismay. The game soon becomes one of trying to scare the family enough to leave, but as nothing they do seems to be working, they ask for help from a freelance "bio-exorcist" named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton - the title name comes from a game of charades within the movie). It's not long before things get completely out of hand once the "juice is loose," and the Maitlands start to have a change of heart once realizing how twisted Betelgeuse can be, and after befriending Lydia, who can actually see them, unlike everyone else. I would strongly consider this to be a movie of acquired tastes, though, and can't recommend it to just anyone. I have a soft spot for it due to it being very influential to my tastes growing up; I like when movies think outside the box, my love of horror comedy and giving a film a certain style. I'd even go so far as to say this might be THE best example of a Tim Burton original that shows you what he's all about, because there's a little bit of everything you'd expect from him here. But if you're not really a Burton fan, it might not work out. To this day, I still have a certain admiration for this film, although it doesn't hit quite as much as it used to. Regardless of how one may feel about it, though, one has to admit that there's something to be said about the overall originality of this movie, and I might even argue its contribution to goth style (thanks to Lydia) before goth really became a thing, circa the late 90s. It may not be for everyone, but for me, despite a dip in how entertained I am by it today, it still means a lot to me in a certain nostalgic way. 4/5 |
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