Moviecritic1990's Movie Commentary

Back when I was a kid, I was slowly getting into the horror genre and it wasn't just movies, it was video games. Resident Evil was my introduction to horror gaming then Silent Hill & Dino Crisis which eventually with the exception of Dino Crisis became a movie and we all know what happens when you make a movie based on a video game, they deviate from the source material and make up it's story.... Yes, the Resident Evil film series is guilty of that, but there are some that stick to the material, Silent Hill. My wife & I are big fans of the Until Dawn game and when I heard rumblings that a movie was coming, I had my doubts but I was wrong. Until Dawn is really good, fun gory and bizarre. This is one of those films that I'll make an exception to on turning away from it's source material and adding something new. The video game is technically a movie but a choose your own adventure type of game. The movie makes changes to the game which I think works in it's fa...

As far as I can remember, I've been a action movie fan for years. I've seen my fair share of good & bad whether it's from Hollyweird or the direct to video market. The difference in my opinion on action flicks that are from Hollywood or direct to video is with Hollywood, they set up all the cliches to dumb it's audience down where direct to video, they don't hit you over the head with it's politics. In the case of Black Thunder, it wasn't very good at all. It took a little too long to get to the point and there wasn't a lot of action in the beginning. That's a huge red flag for me as yes, I like the action, but would like a little more story if that makes sense. I think Michael Dudikoff is good at what he does. It's just the scripts given to him in the 90's weren't up to par. Overall, Black Thunder just crashes on impact. 1/5  

At this point, I think I'm becoming a fan of Christopher Lambert and his work. Mind you, I've only seen a few of his movies and as of this writing, I have not yet seen the Highlander films,  but I will at a later date. Lambert is no Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme, he doesn't sprout out cheesy one liners and does aikido or flying kicks. He's just good at what he does. A film of his I really like is Fortress but I'll review that down the road. Gunmen is a decent action flick where you have Denis Leary who in the same year Gunmen came out, played the villain again in Judgement Night and like the previous film he does a great job of chewing up the scenery.  I'll end the review by saying, what kind of accent was Patrick Stewart using? 3/5

Warning Sign is in my opinion an 80's version of Quarantine (2008). While I found Warning Sign to be a little more scarier than Quarantine, I personally think it's a better film than Quarantine in terms of the scares. Quarantine relied more on the gore which added the scare factor whereas Warning Sign is more of a scary film because of the situation the people are involved in. Warning Sign is cheesy, but it's a lot of fun. 3/5  

Director Ryan Coogler has said that there are comparisons to From Dusk Till Dawn & Salem's Lot in his new movie "Sinners". I agree with him to an extent where Dusk Till Dawn plays out as a action film in the first half and then a full on horror flick in the second half. Sinners plays out as a drama set in it's first half and about an hour in, it turns into a horror flick. I couldn't see any Salem's Lot vibes or nods in this, but I could see the From Dusk Till Dawn vibe upon watching. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, the film moves at a snails pace with nothing but dialogue, more dialogue and even more dialogue. I thought the 1930's background location looked really amazing, but the pacing is really bad. I guess I had From Dusk till Dawn on the brain when watching, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed of the film. I can appreciate a drama every now and then but I don't believe it was right for this film and at this point, no one get top From Dusk...

When it comes to the films of Wes Craven, there are people who think of A Nightmare on Elm Street & the Scream franchise. Then there people like myself who think of The Last House on the Left, The Serpent and the Rainbow and The People under the Stairs which I find the latter two to be lesser known. When it comes to Red Eye, it was a fun fast paced thriller. It's not a horror film as the poster makes it out to be, but an engaging thriller from start to finish.  A fun afternoon flick. 3/5

 Sin City was a movie that I recall seeing bits of back in my teenage years and I remember enjoying what I saw. Most recently, I managed to check out the film in full and couldn't believe how good it was. The movie is dark... very dark and it has a Pulp Fiction type of vibe. The first 10 minutes of the film felt like I was watching some sort of detective noir type film with Bruce Willis and it got me thinking that Bruce should have done a film of that caliber years ago. Mickey Rourke was completely unrecognizable in his make up that half the time, I felt it was someone else in the role. A great movie. Now to check out the sequel. 4/5

 Blumhouse films are hit or miss. Some are good, some are bad and others have just lazy scripts that it seems like the actors don't care and are only there for the paycheck. In the case of Drop, I found it to be one of Blumhouse's good films. It's original, fun and keeps you on your toes throughout. I'm one of those people that like whodunit type films as it keeps you guessing and the outcome in my case is never what I expect. People complain about the lack of originality in Hollywood and while I believe studios support that, they are afraid to admit the support because of the box office revenue and that's why we're seeing more remakes & sequels. I welcome studios like Blumhouse to take more chances and produce more original content like this. We don't always need a remake or sequel. It's no drop in the bucket. 3/5

People claim that Willy's Wonderland is a copycat of Five Nights at Freddy's but that isn't the case. Willy's Wonderland came out in 2021 while Five Nights came out in 2023 so, Five Nights is a copy cat of Willy. I've compared the two films and Willy is more action oriented than Freddy which is a blatant copycat from Blumhouse. Nicolas Cage speaks no dialogue whatsoever in the film which adds to the mystery of his character. The movie itself is fun and pretty hilarious watching Cage battle animatronic robots as he's cleaning a Chucky Cheese type place. I mentioned in my Gunslingers review that Cage's DTV films are hit or miss because of the script or could be because of acting or pacing. Willy's Wonderland is cheesy but combine that with the antics of Cage and this one turns out to be one of the good ones. 3/5   

 When it comes to Nicolas Cage and his DTV (direct to video) films, they are hit and miss. Gunslingers is a misfire from Cage. Where to start? The pacing is terrible, it got boring right in the middle of the film that I zoned out and treated it as background noise and that voice? Cage's raspy voice was enough to give me a headache. I've enjoyed Nicolas Cage's movies over the years whether it's his 90's theatrical work or his direct to video projects, but he needs to choose his scripts very carefully.  1/5

 The Godfather: Part 2 (1974), Goodfellas (1990) & Casino (1995) are some of Robert De Niro's classic mobster films. He's made other films that are classics like Deer Hunter (1978), Taxi Driver (1976), etc. But lately his filmography is to be desired as I've found that some of his film choices are lackluster at best. In the case of The Alto Knights. I think this is one of De Niro's best mob films. I'm not going to hold it up on a pedestal with his other mob films but I feel that Alto Knights is a return to grace. Now, you look at the poster and think it's another stereotypical violent mobster film. While there are some violent moments in the film, it's more of a drama. The pacing of the film was very fast that at one point I was near of the end of the film and I couldn't believe it. Is The Alto Knights a cult classic? No, but it's nice to see De Niro back doing this type of role again. 3/5

 Anytime a new movie whether it's action, horror, or sci-fi is released, you can always expect a knock-off movie to show up. The Asylum has always been one of my favorite companies to make knock-offs of big budget Hollywood films for years. Sure they're crap most of the time but that's what makes them fun. The Jolly Monkey is not so jolly here unfortunately. The movie is a knock-off of The Monkey which came out back in February of this year and as of this writing, I have not seen yet. The Jolly Monkey is nothing more than a typical slasher flick with terrible acting and a nonsense plot which for some reason they shoehorned a supernatural sequence towards the end that didn't make sense to me. The Asylum will continue to make these type of films and I'll continue to watch them good or bad. 2/5

I was in need of a Japanese action flick to watch and someone had mentioned to check out The Prosecutor which I did. The Prosecutor is 50% legal thriller and 50% action which I was surprised about given the multiple posters I've seen of the movie online which display it as a action film. Even this poster above, you would think it's a typical action flick from overseas, but it's half action and half thriller. The action sequences that are in this movie are crazy but what was even more crazy was how bad the judicial system is in Japan. I'm not going to turn this into a political debate but, I believe the justice system is broken not just in Canada or Japan but all over and I think it needs a complete overhaul. I may have to check out more of Donnie Yen's movies as this one was quite good. 3/5   

You look at this poster and you think to yourself, another Stephen King adaptation of his book or short stories. If you read the Lawnmower Man, you'll find that it's completely different then the film itself. It turns out that Stephen King sued the film company because his short story had nothing to do with the film. Even though King won the lawsuit, New Line still went ahead and released the film as a Stephen King adaptation. The Lawnmower Man is an interesting film, weird but interesting. It's great acting by everyone but Pierce Brosnan as the scientist it was kind of humorous to me as I don't expect to him do a role like this. When one thinks of Pierce Brosnan, they aren't thinking, oh, he was in Lawnmower Man, he's 90's James Bond. The Lawnmower Man is forgotten by movie buffs today, but it should be seen and remember, it's not a Stephen King film despite what New Line says. 3/5  

I keep saying that there's a phase happening where filmmakers are taking classic children's cartoon characters and turning them into slasher villains. Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey is the start of all this and at the time of this writing, I have not seen Blood & Honey fully, but I plan to see that along with the rest of  the Twisted Childhood universe at a later time. But there is 2 other Popeye slasher films that have been released. I have seen Popeye's Revenge back in February and thought it was a cheesy bad flick with some humorous moments. I haven't seen Popeye The Slayer Man yet, but I will soon. We're here to talk about the latest new Popeye slasher flick. Shiver Me Timbers.... Where to start.... Well, it's bad I mean very bad. The acting is horrible, the special effects are hideous and the story is kind of dumb. The only thing that was remotely funny were the kills done by this iteration of Popeye. Shiver Me Timbers is a horror comedy. Where'...

 The Unnamable 2: The Statement of Randolph Carter is a decent sequel, not perfect but decent. How the first one ended in my opinion is perfect for what it was and there was no need for a sequel. However, it's a fun flick, doesn't take itself too seriously and is just as entertaining as the first film. Now, would I want a part 3.... No. As I've said, the sequel wasn't needed but it's entertaining for what it was. 2/5

 The Unnamable is a movie that I can remember watching multiple times off of my dad's vhs and despite the hokey acting and laughable special effects, it's a fun b monster movie. I became a horror fan discovering my dad's vhs tapes and I used to watch tons & tons of them and The Unnamable was one of them along with it's sequel. I say the acting is hokey but I could tell the actors were doing their best with what they were given. For the longest time, it was difficult to find on DVD as it was only released in the UK as a double feature with the sequel at the time. For people getting into horror movies or if they like bad cheesy b movies, then look no further with The Unnamable. 2/5