Kindred, Triggered and Mortal (2020)

Plagued by mysterious hallucinations, a pregnant woman suspects that the family of her deceased boyfriend has intentions for her unborn child.

Kindred is one of those movies where in concept it sounds very interesting but it ends not really doing much, I will praise the acting I thought all around it was pretty solid and everyone gave a decent performance. I also thought the filming was quite decent as well, it showed some beautiful shots that were captivating. What brings this movie down however is it really doesn’t do much until the end, it takes way too long for it to get going and by the time things start getting interesting the movie is almost over. I understand what Kindred was going for and I do think that it will work for some people, I just feel the writing wasn’t as strong as it could have been and really didn’t bring out this film’s full potential. I give it a pass because it is an overall well crafted movie that does have some great atmosphere and strong moments. It could have just been so much better.

6/10 C+

9 old high school “friends” have a 5 year reunion camping in a forest. They all have secrets. Their old science teacher straps a time-bomb to each of them. Killing another gives one their time. Last one lives.

Alastair Orr who previous directed Indigenous (which was terrible), House On Willow Street (which was fine enough) and a few other films is back. Triggered is basically a terrible version of Battle Royale mixed with some elements from Saw, in fact there was already a movie exactly like that which came out earlier this year…The Hunt. It does barely anything differently the only difference this time is the characters have a bomb strapped onto them, that’s the only major difference everything else plays out exactly how you would expect. Which really is a shame because there are ways they could have made this movie have the same premise but change up a few things. Yes the kills are pretty solid and is by far the best thing about Triggered but everything else is just the exact same, none of it is necessarily horrendous (except the script) it’s just flat out unimaginative and really has little to offer. It’s a fine movie to put on if you have nothing else to watch and only want good kills otherwise it’s not worth watching!

4/10 D+

Fantasy adventure origin story about a young man discovering he has God-like powers based on ancient Norwegian mythology.

I honestly could not believe this was actually directed by Andrè Øverdal, he previously directed Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe and Trollhunter which are all pretty strong movies, unfortunately Mortal is not. I appreciate Øverdal trying to expand into a different genre but it just did not work here at all, Nat Wolff is fine enough but really does not bring a whole lot to the film. When you really get down to it Mortal is a very below average superhero origin story movie, it has some decent visuals that look quite great. But everything else is just very basic and a lot of elements everyone has seen before, the writing isn’t there, the acting is very okay and the story is really not that interesting. I don’t recommend this one.

5/10 C

The Place Of No Words (2020)

A young boy battles the complexities of a grown-up world with his father.

This is a movie that has a lot of very interesting ideas and I do feel for the most part they worked! For starters given what the movie itself is about it was a clever idea that Mark Webber himself is in it (as well as directing the film) and his spouse Teresa Palmer and his son Bodhi Palmer. So the movie has this personal feeling too it which is quite beautiful, I do feel like this movie would have been a bit better if it were a short film however. At times it feels a little too long and certain scenes sort of felt unnecessary, as far as the acting and writing both are pretty strong. Nothing as amazing as the movie itself is hoping for but there are some genuinely beautiful scenes that really do standout. Some people are going to like this one, others are not going to find anything interesting about it. I do recommend giving this one a go!

7/10 B

The Witches (2020)

Based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 classic book ‘The Witches’, the story tells the scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven year old boy who has a run in with some real life witches!

The Witches did not need another remake, the first adaption was solid enough and got the job done…why do another one? This version of The Witches suffers from multiple problems, Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer do the best they can with a very poor script, some of the visuals and the makeup are kinda solid as well. But that’s seriously where it ends for me, acting wise everyone else felt way too wooden. Heck at times Octavia Spencer fell in wooden territory, the writing was just not engaging, a lot of it was typical family movie tropes that really fail to live up to the original adaption, the biggest problem this movie has is it’s too forgettable. It’s one of those movies where you watch it and then two hours later you forget 70% of what happened, outside of Anne Hathaway it really doesn’t do anything that’s going to make the viewer remember it. Chris Rock’s narration does not work at all, it feels way too out of place and does not fit the atmosphere of the actual story. A matter of fact the atmosphere of the movie is a big issue, it has no idea what it wants to be. Does it want to take itself seriously? Does it want to be some wacky family movie? It switches constantly back in forth between many different type of atmospheres, overall The Witches (2020) is completely unnecessary this is going to be one of those many cases where people are going to remember the original adaption and forget the new one as it does almost nothing to make itself standout.

4/10 D+

A Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting (2020)

A babysitter embarks on a mission to save a child who’s been abducted by monsters.

How was I not informed that this movie was directed by the same director who did Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare? All joking aside I’m actually surprised this didn’t turn out as bad as it could have been, A Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting is a movie that’s directly aimed for a younger audience and the movie really doesn’t hide that either. For what it is the movie is not terrible, Tamara Smart is actually pretty okay in the leading role it’s just she really does not have much to work with. It’s very simplistic main character role, the same can be said for Oona Laurence she’s fine enough in her role but she really does not have a whole lot to work with. There are moments where I actually thought the direction wasn’t too bad, Rachel Talalay actually builds an actual good chemistry between Kelly and Liz the two main characters. It also plays out exactly how you think it’s going to play out, it’s a very Disney channel feel type of movie that somehow became a Netflix Original. Outside of that there really is not much else to this movie, if you have kids and are looking for something new to watch this is definitely harmless enough. As for everyone else I don’t really recommend it. But I’ll give credit where credit is due Rachel Talalay has certainly gotten a lot better since Freddy is Dead The Final Nightmare.

5/10 C

Tag: Fantasy

Kindred, Triggered and Mortal (2020)

The Place Of No Words (2020)

The Witches (2020)

A Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting (2020)

Artemis Fowl (2020)