Kraven The Hunter




PRAISE: I cant lie and say I didn't have some fun watching SONY turn one of Spider-Mans legendary adversaries into a Tarzan/Vigilante/Anti Hero.
As Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a. Kraven Aaron Taylor-Johnson displays some charisma at times and actually brings some good moments to the film when he's taking out bad guys and having fun with his powers. As the cold and uncaring crime lord Nikolai Kravinoff father to Kraven and Dimitri, Russell Crowe is fun to watch not only because of the roughness of the character but i just know Crowe is smiling because he knows he's collecting an easy paycheck. As Kravens half-brother, Dmitri ,Fred Hechinge also has some good moments. The ultra violence prominent in the multiple trailers for the movie is fortunately intact.

PROBLEMS: As Calypso Ezili, Ariana DeBose looks great in her black outfits but some of her line deliveries sounded like she was reading right off a cue card.I was shocked that J.C. Chandor the same director of the excellent movie A Most Violent Year also directed this. It's kind of funny that SONY threw so many Marvel villains into this movie as if they knew this movie was going to bomb so hey here's some villains we would have used later on.
The villains rank from slightly campy to absolutely obnoxious.To many moments are laughable head scratchers. The CGI only looks good in about 3 scenes, the rest of the time it looks awful as one of the prominent flaws are the techs trying to give animals expressions. The nods to anything associated with Spider-Man are extremely weak.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 4

The Six Triple Eight



I will give Tyler Perry praise for bringing an unknown chapter about black women in the military during World War II to the forefront.The standout performances and characters are Lena Derriecott King portrayed by Ebony Obsidian and Major Charity Adams portrayed by Kerry Washington. The racism the women faced and the task of trying to sort and deliver undelivered mail from families,wives and fiances are displayed in an involving way. Perry blends in some moving moments as the movie plays out.
The other characters from the Battalion are sidelined for the most part,their backgrounds are just touched on and they make exclamations about this or that. Knowing what Perry leans into in his movies there was a story thread that was predictable right at the first frames of the movie.There is a plainness that surrounds the film reminding me of documentaries that throw in some reenactments and then right back to real footage of the era the documentary is about. Still a nice tribute to 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion


Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½

I got 3 films to watch then I'm done with 2024 movies

I still say Joker 2 is a good film. I'm not sure why it got so much bad press because when I actually watched it, the musical scenes were not an issue to the point of making it a bad film. Combined with the first film and you have a pretty great commentary on American culture's obsession with fanatacism for things they don't understand to the point of creating extreme distortions of reality. This combined with capitalism being more important than mental health and you have recipe for creating people like Arthur Fleck and the necessary audience to influence their sickness into acts of outrage.

Nosferatu




PRAISE: With Nosferatu Director and writer Eggers solidifies himself as another effective talent that can take an over one hundred year genre and breathe new life into it. In this story an already haunted and off balance Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) has a strong connection to the mysterious Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgard) that will lead to all types of bloody madness. The cast including Nicholas Hoult Aaron Taylor-Johnson,Emma Corin, Ralph Ineson, and Willem Dafoe turn in great performances. They are called upon to not only have dramatic performances but also physical ones that are mesmerizing. From body movements to facial expressions of outright fear. Skarsgard along with the Direction of Eggers makes Nosferatu scary and then some. From the hissing and wheezing,his hands and voice and finally his physical form. Eggers wants to wrap the viewer into what's happening in a scene and over and over again he succeeds. Whether it's a scene of outright madness,a bloody kill,or a scene filled with shadows and darkness that he adds a quick flash of lightning to he really pulled me in. There are tons of disturbing images right to the end that some may find off putting ,especially those that are faint of heart. The film even got some nervous laughs out of me. The film brought back great memories of stories of vampires and Dracula i read as a teen. I think that helped me and likely others enjoy the film even more as the legend of vampires are brought out in the film in certain sinister situations and story paths. The music by Robin Carolan is also effective especially those final musical notes as the film closes.


PROBLEMS: Some moments felt a bit overdone.

Nosferatu joins my list of one of the best of 2024

Scale of 1 to 10 a 10+

2024 Movies that I have watched this year (lil update)

The Marvels- 6/10
White Men can’t Jump (2023) - 6/10
Year One - 6/10
Astro Boy - 7/10
High School High - 6/10
Grandmas Boy - 7/10
Black Knight - 7/10
Paint - 7/10
Vacation Friends 2 - 6/10
Batman: The Doom that came to Gotham - 7/10
Justice League: Warworld - 6/10
Godzilla x King Kong - 7/10
Poor Things - 6/10
Bad Boys Ride or Die - 8/10
Are We There Yet - 7/10
Are We Done Yet - 7/10
Justice League crisis on Infinite Earth 1 & 2 - 6/10
Major League - 7/10
Robots - 6/10
Iron Claw - 7/10
Good Burger 2 - 7/10
Dune part two - 7/10
Love lies Bleeding - 6/10
Zola - 7/10
The Crow - 7/10
Bob Marley - 7/10
Deadpool & Wolverine 10/10
Kingdom of the Planet of The Apes - 6/10
Boy kills world - 8/10
Hollywood shuffle - 7/10
South Park: Joining the Panderverse - 7/10
south park end of obesity - 7/10
The quiet Place: Day one - 6/10
The strange thing about the Johnsons - 6/10
If - 8/10
Faceoff - 9/10
Marcel the shell with shoes on - 8/10
Civil War - 8/10
The Boy and the Heron - 8/10
Bodies bodies bodies - 5/10
The Onion Movie - 7/10
The Last Black Man in San Francisco - 7/10
The king of comedy - 9/10
Mad Max 1 - 5 - 8/10
Midsommar - 8/10 (really bizarre)
Fighting Temptations - 8/10
Dream girls - 8/10
Cadillac Records - 7/10
Obsessed - 6/10
La Bamba - 8/10
Maxxxine - 6/10
Queen of the Damned - 5/10
VHS 1 & 2 - 5/10
Hellraiser 6/10
Trap - 6/10
Justice League infinite earth 3 - 7/10
Monkey Man - 6/10
Terrifier 3 - 7/10
Jackpot - 7/10
Ricky Stanicky - 5/10
Winnie The Pooh Blood & Honey 2 - 6/10
In A Violent Nature - 6/10
Transformers One - 8/10
Alien Romulus - 8/10
Silent Night - 7/10
The strangers part 1 2024 6/10
American Fiction - 8/10
Fall Guys - 9/10
Road House - 8/10
Bill and Ted movies (find part 3) 6/10
The Beekeeper - 7/10
Oppenheimer - 8/10
Joker 2 - 5/10
The Substance - 9/10
Beetle juice - 7/10
Thanksgiving - 5/10
Welcome Home Franklin - 7/10
Ghostbuster Frozen Empire - 8/10
Godzilla Minus One - 8/10 (just finished)

The Order





PRAISE: Based on the 1989 non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt this story of white supremacists who rob banks and also use other means to fun their cause are pursued intensely by the FBI.
The movie is riveting and then some and propelled by the intense and fully immersive performances from Jude Law as FBI Agent Terry Husk, and Nicholas Hoult as Bob Matthews leader of a branch of whites supremacists. Husk has his own set of personal problems but never loses his focus. Matthews is a my way or the highway type when it comes to his cause,women or butting heads with other white supremacist leaders. As officer Jamie Bowen Tye Sheridan, is equally excellent as he teams up with Husk to take down the supremacists. Also Jurnee Smollett as fellow FBI agent Joanne Carney does quite well with moments of edgy disgust and intensity. The film is intense and then some with all the right amounts of grit. So many scenes are wonderfully filmed and put together by Director Justin Kurzel. Some are quiet and some are full of gunfire filled with so much tension and suspense. Some moments are so shocking i had to ask myself did i just see that? The movie stirred my soul for so many different reasons and it manages to do so right to the closing captions played on screen at the end.

PROBLEMS: I couldn't get on board with a couple of things that happen during the films climax. There are a couple of predictable paths the screenplay goes down.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8½

Interesting. Had you guessing on whether it was going to be supernatural or not