Peter, a slave, flees a plantation in Louisiana after he was whipped within an inch of his life. He has to outwit cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey north.
I watched Emancipation a few days ago and to be quite honest I still have no idea how exactly I feel about it. This is definitely one of those cases where you can easily tell there is something here and the movie wants to say something, it’s just not doing it all that well. Will Smith and Ben Foster do a really great job and give some quite effective moments, Ben Foster is even downright horrifying at times and Will Smith gives this strong performance of wanting to see his family again. While the movie is well intentioned there are some serious flaws here that are a bit baffling, the movie is about slavery yet sort of plays out as a survival thriller movie. It attempts to try and combine the two but given the brutal violence that comes off more as shock value rather than trying to educate on how horrible slavery is, the problem is this movie is the very bare basics about slavery. Yes there are some very powerful moments from Will Smith about wanting to reunite with his family and really puts up a fight against his captors, however those moments are surrounded by stuff that has been done far better in other films.
The Roman Catholic Church combats a global rise in demonic possessions by reopening schools to train priests to perform exorcisms. Although nuns are forbidden to perform this ritual, a professor recognizes Sister Ann’s gifts and agrees to train her. Thrust onto the spiritual frontline, she soon finds herself in a battle for the soul of a young girl who’s possessed by the same demon that tormented her own mother years earlier.
2022 has been a fantastic year for horror films there’s so many titles that I can go on about (I’ll save that for the best horror films of the year list) but one movie that next to nobody talks about is Prey For The Devil and for very good reasons. Prey For The Devil is a by the numbers terrible exorcism movie is identical to a lot of those other exorcism movies that a lot of big studios were sending out like there’s no tomorrow in the late 2010s. And much like those ones this one is also really bad, the only major positives are Jacqueline Byers and a few scenes that are actually filmed decently well. Jacqueline Byers does the best she can with such an empty script that ultimately amounts to absolutely nothing, the writing is what seriously bogs this down. There’s absolutely no suspense and the atmosphere is just nonexistent which is mainly due to just how predictable the writing is, if you have seen a single exorcism movie in your life you have already seen Prey For The Devil. There’s also a scene where the movie is really trying to borrow a scene from The Conjuring, it doesn’t work here mainly due to atmosphere not being there at all and the other characters having no development. What else is there to say? It’s a terrible exorcism movie that is so forgettable that you will forget you watched it as soon as the credits roll.
Prey For The Devil is available on all VOD platforms.
Nick Daley hesitates becoming a museum nightwatchman and Kahmunrah returns to conquer the world.
I’m not going to pretend that the Night At The Museum movies were masterpieces, but the thing with those movies is they were genuinely a lot of fun and had so much charm to them. But I guess this series much like The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series is getting the soulless animated movie treatment, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is a sequel to the last movie (even though the series wrapped up actually pretty nicely but oh well) and any of the charm the live action movies had are completely absent here. What made Night at the Museum interesting in the first place was seeing the wax figures, animals, dinosaurs and others come to life in live action, trying to execute that in 2D animation completely takes that charm and excitement factor away. It’s worth noting that this is the first 2D animated film to be released under Disney since Winnie The Pooh. I love 2D animation and have nothing against it but the animation is just not good here, often times it comes off more like a rejected pilot from the early 2000s and less like something that was actually worked on and released. The voice cast just doesn’t have the magic that the cast from the other movies had, while nobody does a bad job here and they are definitely trying their hardest. There just isn’t anything memorable about the characters in this one. Combine that with a plot that’s another generic “evil villain wants to take over the world” plot and you have yourself a very forgettable movie that a lot of people will just say “oh hey that released” and then never talk about it again.
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again Is available on Disney+
Twenty years after the disappearance of her daughter, recovering alcoholic Darlene Hagen is preparing to host her family’s Christmas celebration with her best friend Gretchen. Late Christmas Eve, Darlene’s estranged ex-brother-in-law, Jack, arrives unannounced, bearing nostalgic gifts and a heavy secret.
I’ll tell you one thing The Apology isn’t your typical campy Christmas horror film that’s for sure, the movie starts out pretty tame with the overall setup but actually becomes a bit disturbing when the movie gets to the plot. What mainly keeps this movie moving is Anna Gunn’s performance, she does such a great job and actually gives a pretty raw performance. The movie is very bleak and that really reflects with the atmosphere, once the movie starts to tell you exactly what’s going on here it could actually be a bit disturbing mainly due to how it’s played out. It never shows any of the disturbing actions instead it tells it through the two main characters Darlene Hagen and Jack Kingsley, with that said the script does fall apart during the final act. It does get a bit too over the top which really doesn’t quite match with what the rest of the movie was going for, however that isn’t enough to completely stop it from being an overall decent watch.
The Apology is available on Shudder.
6/10 C+
It’s Christmas Eve and fiery record store owner Tori Tooms just wants to get drunk and party, until the robotic Santa Claus at a nearby toy store goes haywire and makes her night more than a little complicated. Santa embarks on a rampant killing spree through the neon-drenched snowscape, ultimately forcing Tori into a blood-splattered battle for survival.
Christmas Bloody Christmas is another killer Santa movie only that this time around it has this Terminator type feel to it, honestly there just isn’t a whole lot to comment on here. The gore combined with the kills are pretty neat, the killer Santa is pretty fun even if he has absolutely no personality to him other then being a killing machine. The characters are what’s mainly holding this movie back, they are very uninteresting and have no way of development. The acting is fine enough with the exception of Riley Dandy who does a pretty decent job with what she’s given, although the plot is very nonexistent the movie is still quite a lot of fun. It’s a very heavily flawed movie that wouldn’t be my first recommendation when I think “killer Santa” movies but if you are looking for a new one I guess check this one out.
Christmas Bloody Christmas is available on Shudder.
Many years after their first Binge, Hags, Andrew, Sarah, and Kimi face the realities of adulthood as the annual Binge Day is moved to Christmas Eve. Amidst the chaos, Hags plans a proposal to Sarah, and Andrew deals with his rocky relationships.
The Binge: It’s A Wonderful Binge is a sequel to The Binge which came out in 2020, it was a terrible comedy that really tried to be like a sex comedy from the early 2000s except with drugs and alcohol. It’s A Wonderful Binge is basically the same idea but it’s Christmas themed….and it’s somehow better. There’s definitely better jokes this time around and I do think that the whole Christmas theme opens the door for some entertaining shenanigans to take place, Danny Trejo is pretty funny and the rest of the cast this time around are actually a lot better than they were in the first movie. With that said the movie kind of falls in the same sort of problems that a lot of sequels do and that’s being more less the same thing as their predecessor. As I said before this is just basically The Binge but Christmas, which honestly makes it more like a Christmas special rather than an sequel. Which isn’t entirely a bad thing it’s just something worth pointing out, it still has a lot of jokes that fall flat and once again doesn’t really use it’s own premise to it’s full potential. But at the very least you can say this time around that there was an attempt.
It’s A Wonderful Binge is available on Hulu.
4/10 D+
A woman gets up-ended when an engagement ring that was for someone else leads her to the person she’s meant to be with.
Something From Tiffany’s is what happens when you make an actual decent and far more competent Hallmark Christmas movie, while it’s very flawed and shares a lot of the exact same problems a lot of Christmas movies do. It’s mainly the cast who are truly charming that gives the movie the extra push it needs, Zoey Deutch is pretty decent here and really works her magic well here. She easily connects with everyone else and it’s the many bonds she has that really makes the movie work, Kendrick Sampson and Leah Jeffries in particular are very fun and give some genuine performances. As far as everything else goes it’s nothing too crazy, the writing is about how you would expect and the movie does play out in a very predictable way. But at the very least it has the charm going for it and there was some genuine love put into this one, definitely not the perfect Christmas movie but at the very least a decent one.
Something From Tiffany’s is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Maren, a young woman, learns how to survive on the margins of society.
Luca Guadagnino is one of the best and most interesting directors working today, A Bigger Splash and I Am Love were really great, Call Me By Your Name was incredibly raw and Suspiria (2018) was an example of how incredible a modern remake can really be plus it was my favorite film of the 2010s. Bones And All is a very different film that Guadagnino’s previous films, it’s a cannibal love story that takes a lot of horror, romance and drama elements, blends them all together and creates something completely unique. First off right from the beginning the film has this very old low budget atmosphere to it that makes the film much more haunting but beautiful at the same time. There’s a huge sense of beauty within the filmmaking, it’s sort of similar to the atmosphere Suspiria had only that Bones And All goes for a more realistic approach. Taylor Russell gives one of the best performances of the year hands down, there’s so much passion, emotion and realism to her performance that truly gives the viewer goosebumps. There’s so much to her performance that adds to her character Maren, her interactions with the other characters is really striking, how she slowly finds out about her family is really investing and her mannerisms are just absolutely perfect. Timothée Chalamet gives his most interesting performance yet, it’s far different than anything he’s done before and I’ll even go far as to say this is one of his best. He’s fantastic here and his chemistry with Taylor Russell is incredibly natural and quite beautiful as well. Lastly there’s Mark Rylance as Sully and he’s quite possibly one of the most creepiest characters I’ve seen In a film this year, every single time the guy appears on screen he makes the viewer’s skin crawl. He’s very intimidating but also quite fantastic as well there’s truly a “low budget horror film villain” type feel to his character but that honestly matches the film quite well. The music is incredibly well done and really compliments the film’s themes and settings flawlessly, despite the film taking place in many different areas there’s this sense of abandonment. Sure there might be a lot of people around but the atmosphere still captures the feeling that you are alone with the film and Maren, the many shots in the film that show a lot of natural dirt roads, hills, forests, lakes ect are truly beautiful and only add to the film’s beauty. Overall Bones And All is one of the best films of the year, it’s a beautifully haunting film that will definitely stick with you especially with Taylor Russell’s unforgettable performance.
Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his own films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother.
Inspiring and genuine are just some of the best words to describe Steven Spielberg’s newest film The Fabelmans, the film is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on Spielberg’s adolescence and first years as a filmmaker. When somebody says film or movie one of the first directors you are more than likely to think of is Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans really does a fantastic job of telling and showing why that is the case. The cast is truly fantastic here and blends so incredibly well together from Michelle Williams to Paul Dano to Gabriel LaBelle and even Seth Rogen there’s such a huge level of genuine human feel to the performances and each one offers something very different to the film. There’s tons of quiet moments with the score silently playing in the background that completely make so many memorable scenes, the direction from Spielberg is inspiring and very genuine, we have all had that one film we saw as a kid that completely blew our minds so much that we got into film. Whether that is wanting to be an actor, actress, director, writer, film critic, cinematographer ect it all feels connected and how we are all connected, that’s a huge part to The Fabelmans it shows how Sammy (LaBelle) was inspired to want to work with film and shows how he progresses with his films while showing his interactions with his family. It’s a beautifully put together film that has many of those signature Spielberg moments where there’s just so much inspiration and a huge wave of goosebumps, the filming is absolutely wonderful it’s personal but at the same time it’s inviting the viewer to come closer as it tells you the story of Spielberg, which leaves you with so much excitement. What’s the strongest part about The Fabelmans is it’s done in a way where anybody can connect to it, while yes it is based on Spielberg’s adolescence that doesn’t mean nobody can connect to it as the film itself is very inspiring and as I said before the filming really invites the viewer to come along for the ride. Overall The Fabelmans is yet another masterpiece from Steven Spielberg, this is truly one of his most beautiful films and by the end of the film the viewer feels quite honored that Spielberg shared his inspiring story.
Tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friends for a getaway on his private Greek island. When someone turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc is put on the case.
When Knives Out came out in 2019 it was a huge hit, Rian Johnson took the whodunnit genre and did something completely new with, plus the cast just really made a lot of the film. Since then people immediately wanted a sequel and well here we are, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in a lot of ways is better than the first film. For starters it’s definitely bigger in scale and you immediately get that impression when the film starts, the cast in this film much like the first film is really strong here and blends completely well together. Everyone does a fantastic job here but the standouts include Daniel Craig who once again is fantastic as Benoit Blanc, heck he’s better here than he was in the first film. He delivers even more clever lines, some really great jokes and brings this old fashion whodunnit type of feel to his character. Janelle Monáe is truly great here and blends pretty well with Daniel Craig especially the scenes dedicated to the two of them, Kate Hudson is just having a blast as well as Madelyn Cline who are two very fun characters. Finally there’s Edward Norton who’s character is very well written and the satire element really shines through. The filming is quite well done and really compliments the whole film’s atmosphere, much like I said about Craig’s performance Glass Onion has a very old fashion whodunnit film type of feel to it. Rian Johnson really does a masterful job of balancing the familiar type of elements while adding an incredible amount of new elements that make the film much more interesting, the writing is very clever and slowly but surely builds the whole mystery of the film. Heck the mystery itself is on a bigger scale than the first one, which leads me to how Glass Onion can be best described “bigger scale” something often that a lot of sequels forget to do is how they can make things bigger granted bigger doesn’t always mean better. In certain films it shouldn’t matter much if the sequel stays about the same, but with Knives Out it was interesting to see whether they were going to keep things about the same as the first movie or were they going to make things even bigger and make a lot of character moments, plot development and even the writing more grand? They chose the latter and completely nailed it there’s so much creativity here that really shines through the film and even opens up to more potential in the future with more installments. If you liked Knives Out you are absolutely going to love Glass Onion, it’s everything a sequel should be and should do.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery releases December 23rd on Netflix.
Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: he has burnt through eight of his nine lives. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives.
A Puss In Boots sequel was always in talks heck it started being planned out all the way back in 2012, one year after the first film came out which was a pretty solid movie. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish could have easily been a cheap cash grab but luckily that is certainly not the case here, first off the cast is incredibly strong here. Antonio Banderas still knocks it out of the park when voicing Puss In Boots and quite honestly this might be the best the character has ever been, we get some more development on the character some surprisingly emotional bits and the personality we all know and love. Florence Pugh and Olivia Colman are incredibly fun here as well, Florence Pugh plays Goldilocks while Olivia Colman plays Mama Bear. Their voices really push the characters into the entertainment territory where you can’t help but smile at the bond they share, Wagner Moura plays Big Bad Wolf or Death and he’s actually quite intimidating, sure he shows up every now and then but when he does he truly means business. The animation is actually quite different this time around, much like The Bad Guys which came out earlier this year, a lot of the inspiration of the film’s animation style came from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. What they wanted to do here is make the film look more like a storybook and a fairytale land which I definitely think they completely nailed. There’s a lot of style to the film that really is very appealing to the eye particularly the action scenes that are quite some of the most beautifully done action scenes of the year, there’s so much detail to the characters and what’s going on in the background it’s truly fantastic. The humor is actually pretty hilarious too, while not every single joke lands a lot of it is genuinely hilarious, the emotional and character moment bits are by far the most surprising. They really pour a lot of attention to some of the characters and really make them lovable, the film really has that spirit of one of those films you saw as a kid and you would discuss with your friends or parents who your favorite characters were. That’s something I think some films have been missing in the last few years so it’s truly special to see that type of feeling back again. Overall Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is very well crafted and has so much heart in it, I absolutely recommend checking this one out when it releases in a couple weeks.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish releases December 21st in theaters.
After struggling to start a family, Julie Rivers becomes pregnant and moves into a new home with her husband. She’s ordered to mandatory bed rest, and begins seeing ghostly happenings throughout the house.
This is another case of this movie’s release being far more interesting than the movie itself. Bed Rest was originally going to be released in July of this year, no new information came out about it so it was delayed to next year also in July. Then for whatever reason that I can’t seem to find they decided to just let Tubi release it this year which it came out on Wednesday. So the movie itself? Well it’s just another Rosemary’s Baby type of movie and not a very good one, every possible cliche you can think of is here and the movie never really bothers to try something different or interesting. The acting is truly dull, Melissa Barrera is really trying her best but the script is incredibly lacking when it comes to trying to connect the audience with her character. At times there’s a few emotional bits that work fine enough but they aren’t something you haven’t seen before, by the time the movie reaches it’s third act you probably already have a good idea where this is going. If you have seen Rosemary’s Baby you have already seen Bed Rest, outside of a few scenes and Barrera trying her best there is very little to offer here.
Jerome Reviews... 