Slumberland is fine for what it is. You won’t hate it if you have to sit through it. If you are looking for a movie to watch for family night, give Slumberland a try.
Nemo is a young girl who loses her father and now has to live with the grief that comes with this loss. She is sent to live with her uncle, who by all accounts is a boring man living a boring life. Nemo is overcome with grief and seeks to escape her reality. She finds that she has the ability to travel through dreams. Now she and a scrappy outlaw named Flip set out on an adventure to find magic pearls that will allow her to see her dad again. Can they find these fabled pearls before the nightmare consumes them?
I didn’t hate this movie. It certainly has its moments, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it. I zoned out a bit as it is predictable and cheesy, but I am not the target audience. The acting is fine, the story is cute, and the special effects are good for a kids’ movie. I expect the dreams to be crazy surrealism, but they are fine here.
What I loved most about this movie is how it handles grief and depression. I like Nemo going through the stages of grief is set up like a fantastical adventure. It was nice to see her change throughout her adventure and slowly work through her loss. The ending was a bit cheesy and predictable, but I am also not the target audience.
Slumberland isn’t anything spectacular, but it doesn’t suck. I thought the characters outside of Nemo were bland, but I believe that is the point. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it, but it’ll do for family night. You can stream it on Netflix.
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Series Review: The Mosquito Coast (2021)
The Mosquito Cove is quite possibly the most boring and preachy thriller I have seen this year. The series has two seasons, but I couldn’t gather the strength to finish the second one. I try my hardest to finish everything I review, but this one proved too much for me.
The series focuses on a family of fugitives on the run from the US government. We don’t know what they did to become outlaws, but you will get clues throughout the series to figure it out. The family flees to Mexico where now they are also being hunted by one of the cartels. Trouble seems to be the only constant in their lives, and they seem to be running out of places to hide. This life puts a great strain on the family, and they keep finding it harder to want to keep going. Will they ever find a safe place to call home, or will their dark secrets catch up and destroy them?
There are some interesting concepts in this show that I wish were explored better. I like that there is a dark mystery that follows the family and causes friction between them. The parents did something bad in their past, but no one is saying what that is. The kids grow suspicious of the parents and each day become more defiant. You get the sense that the dad might be the bad guy, but this narrative takes too long to unravel, and I lost interest. I like the idea of having the protagonist be the bad guy so that we, the audience, can slowly learn to hate him along with the family. It would be interesting to be trapped like this family, knowing they should leave but have nowhere to go because of the situation. The series does attempt to touch on this idea, but it isn’t done well.
Eventually, you find out that the parents are wanted, environmental terrorists. This isn’t a spoiler; this series is pretentious about its environmentalism and anti-consumerism messaging. Every episode has at least two speeches about how humanity is destroying the planet or some anti-establishment criticism. It is tiresome. I don’t mind this type of messaging and believe them to be important, but not when it’s this abrasive. It is hard to have to constantly sit through a dull lecture when I was promised a thriller.
The pacing is a huge problem for this series. This story drags without ever getting to the point. As a result, there isn’t enough urgency or suspense for this series to work. I found myself mostly waiting around for anything interesting to happen. I kept hoping this family would get caught so I didn’t have to suffer through this series any longer, but the villains proved too incompetent.
The Mosquito Cove lacks the stakes needed to be considered a thriller. Anytime the family gets into trouble, whether they are being chased by the cartel or caught by the FBI, they easily escape through poorly written ex-Machina. This series likes to pretend to be technical and realistic but bends the rules of reality to allow the family a chance to escape. This isn’t even a family of highly trained spies. Instead, this is a normal family fumbling through the sloppiest of escapes.
I wish this series had the courage to kill off one of the characters. It would make for a better story to have the family deal with death on top of the danger. If one of the kids died, the dad would have to live with the guilt as he continues trying to hold his family together. The mother and the surviving sibling would want to leave but find themselves in a situation where escaping isn’t an option. It would create this crazy dynamic where they need each other to survive, but the grief has since split them apart. Honestly, anything would have been more interesting to watch than what this show actually is.
I couldn’t make it through the second season. It was clear this series wasn’t going to get better, and I have since run out of patience. You can stream this on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but I wouldn’t bother.
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Series Review: The Devil’s Hour
The Devil’s Hour is a trippy thriller full of suspense, drama, and mystery. While the series does have a confusing start, it will all make sense the deeper you get into it. If you are looking for a decent thriller to binge for the holidays, you can stream it on Amazon Video.
Lucy is a single mother trying to give her son, Isaac the best life she can. Isaac is a troubled kid who is incapable of feeling emotions. Isaac is a troubled kid who sometimes sees things that aren’t there. As heartbreaking as it is for Lucy to watch, she is determined to help Isaac lead a normal life. The trouble is, Lucy sees things too. Each day it seems that her visions are getting more vivid, and she struggles to keep a hold of reality. Will she ever make sense of what is going on, or is she slowly losing her mind?
I enjoyed The Devil’s Hour quite a bit. The acting is fantastic, the story is interesting, and the mystery is well done. The pacing can be an issue at parts, but it never got bad enough to make me quit. One thing to note before starting this series is that it constantly jumps between narratives. It can be a bit disorienting at first, but the show does a great job of giving enough clues to keep the viewers grounded. As jumbled as this series may seem, it is a pretty straightforward narrative. You won’t need to be taking notes.
My only complaint with the series is that the ending is a bit disappointing. The story does a great job at building to something big, but then it just ends on an unsatisfying cliffhanger. I hope they don’t cancel this series before I get my closure.
This is a difficult series to review because I don’t want to spoil anything. I think this series is fine and you won’t hate if if you watch it. The Devils Hour is an interesting and unique thriller that you can stream on Amazon if you have a membership.
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Image by S. Hermann / F. Richter from Pixabay
Movie Review: Spirited (2022)
Spirited has released just in time to disappoint you for the holidays. If you are looking for a good holiday movie to add to the season’s list, look elsewhere. Spirited is a modern and mediocre adaptation of the holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. This movie proves that star power should never outweigh talent. For those of you wondering if there was an Elf reference, here you go:
Spirited focuses on the agency of ghosts responsible for the hauntings of terrible people in the hopes of making them better. Will Ferrell is the ghost of Christmas Present and is at the point of his career where he feels like something is missing in his life. Ferrell finds hope as he takes on his most hopeless soul yet, Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds is a spin doctor who makes a living by causing disorder and chaos without regard for his fellow man. Can Ferrell change Reynolds in time for Christmas, or is Reynolds truly irredeemable?
Spirited is a boring musical that I can’t recommend. For those of you interested in this movie, wait till someone with talent makes a better cover of the songs. While some of the songs are catchy, the singing and dancing by the leads are rough. The leads can barely hit their notes, and their choreography is stiff at best. If you are looking for your new favorite Christmas musical, Spirited isn’t it.
As far as comedies go, this one isn’t funny. Spirited has taken its collection of funny and charismatic actors and placed them in roles where they are anything but. The jokes are bad and outdated, and this movie tries way too hard to be funny. As much as they shoved their meta jokes down my throat, I did not appreciate any of them. All this movie managed to do was have me sit here and contemplate my boredom.
It should come as no surprise that this story has been adapted better elsewhere. I suggest you choose your favorite adaptation and watch or read that instead. The characters in this movie are just generic renditions of their actors. Ferrell and Reynolds play themselves but are restricted by the writing and their singing. Ferrell’s singing would be fine for an internet short, but it isn’t for a whole movie and Reynolds can barely sing. To make matters worse, Reynolds pays himself yet again. This character has lost his charm a long time ago, and I hope that he can find roles where he can play anything else. There is no real reason to have these two as the leads for this movie because they don’t add value to it except to maybe trick people into wasting their time on this movie.
My biggest problem with this Spirited is that it wastes the star power it didn’t need. This movie needs real singers who can dance. As disappointed as I am with this movie, I caught myself singing one of the songs. They aren’t all bad. I would have easily forgiven the boring plot and comedy if the singing was good. But it’s not, and I am left here with my growing disappointment.
You can stream this movie on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but I wouldn’t waste the data. I urge you to wait for better covers or to look up the songs on YouTube. There isn’t anything worth watching in between the singing, and I am sure there are better covers on their way if they aren’t already out.
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Movie Review: R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned (2022)
I knew RIPD 2 was going to be a terrible movie going in, but I needed to know how bad. RIPD 2 is one of those direct-to-video sequels that no one talks about. I’d be surprised if anyone knew this was out. This film was a shameless attempt at cashing in on a franchise that wasn’t very good to begin with, don’t watch it. I will be using spoilers. Stop reading if you care about spoilers.
The movie follows an old-timey sheriff who dies on duty. His judgment is in, and while he is too good to be in hell, he isn’t good enough to be in heaven. To ascend, the sheriff must serve in the R.I.P.D and hunt down the souls who refuse to move on. Unfortunately, his first job is to hunt down hell’s second-strongest demon. Will he and his partner have what it takes to save the world from eternal damnation? Yes. With the help of terribly written ex-Machina, the two will save humanity.
It should come as no surprise that this movie sucks. While the actors may be trying their hardest in their roles, their efforts are in vain. RIPD 2 is a generic Spaghetti Western that attempts to be quirky with its ideas about the afterlife but isn’t competent enough to tell its story.
The biggest issue with this movie is its lack of villains and heroes. The villain has no real motives and only acts evil because the script asks him to. The heroes fumble through the plot without real urgency and lack the characteristics to make them memorable or heroic. The movie doesn’t even try to build up to the final confrontation. It just happens, and it is disappointing. If you are going to have a strong demon as the villain, make the fight harder. Have him be more present, constantly creating obstacles for the heroes. Make him do something that shows that he isn’t just evil; make him competent. Without any urgency, motive, or suspense, why should I care about this movie?
My personal issue with this movie is the ending. The main characters defeat the demon and save the world from an invasion. The sheriff celebrates his victory and grows excited that he will get to ascend, but his contract stipulates that he still has 100 years of service left before he can go to heaven. The sheriff and Joan of Arc save humanity but don’t even earn a sentence reduction. How is this fair? How bad was this sheriff in life that even saving humanity doesn’t earn him eternal salvation? This is extremely predatory for God. Some will argue that he should have read his contract before signing, but who would suspect God of this level of trickery? This all feels like a lazy setup for an upcoming series that I am sure will be canceled.
I hope I am wrong and this will put a rest on this mediocre franchise. Don’t watch this movie. You can stream it on Netflix, but I would skip it.
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Image by Rosy – The world is worth thousands of pictures from Pixabay
Series Review: The English (2022)
The English is an Amazon original that left me feeling disappointed and a little bit offended. At its core, this is a white savior narrative disguised as something empowering.
Cornelia Locke has made it to America in search of the man responsible for her son’s death. Now she, with the help of a Pawnee Indian she meets along the way, scours the western frontier seeking her revenge. Can she survive the unforgiving landscape of the new world and find the man she’s looking for, or will the unforgiving plains claim another victim?
The show is an average western at best and very preachy. The acting is great, but the story and its pacing aren’t. The series jumps between different stories ineffectively, making this a disorienting experience. While I appreciate the attempt at a more complicated narrative, there is a lot of filler. This is a series that takes too long to get to the point.
The biggest issue I have with this series is how it tries to whitewash history. I was a bit disgusted by the lengths to which this series goes to prove that not all white people during this period were terrible. I don’t believe all white people are bad, I just don’t like how hard they try to prove this.
There is clearly a white savior complex and some virtue signaling at play in this series. You can see this with Cornelia and how she carries herself. Every episode has a moment where she has to talk about how brown people aren’t bad and that we should respect them as people. She has a whole speech about how white people are stealing from the Native Americans. It gets a little much, and I had trouble caring.
I get that Cornelia has a reason to be so kind, but this series goes above and beyond to prove that she isn’t racist. Other white characters in this series suffer from this same complex. Lately, I have been noticing many examples of modern media capitalizing on white guilt and virtue signaling. We don’t need this kind of whitewashing and hand-holding, especially when we are dealing with the terrible aspects of our history. Tell the stories how they are. They are meant to make us uncomfortable because they were uncomfortable stories.
I did not appreciate how this series presents the atrocities of this time as reactions from the good white characters. There is a problematic scene in this series where an entire Native village of Native Americans is slaughtered. You hear the slaughter in the distance, but the focus is on an English man and his overly dramatic anger. I am not saying they should have shown the slaughter, but this type of commentary is insulting. It was as if the series was saying, “we know this was bad, but there were good white people trying to stop this from happening too.” This shifts the focus from a terrible event and puts it on a white man.
I might be taking things a bit too personally, but this theme was too present to ignore. The English isn’t a good redemption story because it is sloppy and lazy. It isn’t a good romance because there isn’t any chemistry, and the romance wasn’t set up properly. It isn’t even a good western because of how cartoonish it becomes. They have great actors who are wasted on such a mediocre story. I am sure there is an audience for this, but it wasn’t for me. I would recommend you skip it, but you can stream it on Amazon Video if you have a Prime membership.
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Image by Philippe Verdier from Pixabay
Game Review: The Entropy Centre
I want to start by mentioning that I was sent this game as a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I will not let it sway my opinion. I will treat this game as If I bought it with my own money and provide you with an honest and fair review.
The Entropy Centre is a puzzle game similar to Portal that is available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox. This review will be on the Steam version of this game.
You wake up in a strange place without your memories. You find yourself in a deserted facility and the fate of the world in your hands. You and a quirky little AI must now traverse through humanity’s final stronghold, solving puzzles in order to save the world. Will you ever find the truth of why you’re here? Will you be able to save humanity? You will need to play to find out.
As a puzzle solver, you are issued a gun that lets you rewind the time of certain objects. Use this gun to get through the puzzle rooms and generate power for the world-saving machine. The story is pretty linear and easy to follow. You move from room to room, slowly unraveling more of the truth.
The game does promote exploration by hiding lore and achievements throughout the center. I had fun reading through the different emails and getting a fuller picture of the world. I loved the quirky lines of dialogue that would proc when I interacted with certain objects. I appreciate the attention to detail put into this game even if the story isn’t complex. Exploration in this game isn’t mandatory. If you do the puzzles without reading any emails, you will get just as good of an experience but won’t get many of the achievements.
The puzzles are all very manageable but offer enough of a challenge to keep the game interesting. I thought this game was a bit easier than Portal, but I would also like to think that I have gotten smarter since. With this game, I never felt stuck or the need to look up guides and hints. If you pay attention to the layout of the room, you can figure out what is needed to escape it. As a disclaimer, I am pretty good at puzzles, so your experience might vary. Either way, the developers do a fantastic job at giving you the tools you need to be a successful puzzle solver.
I loved this game and think it is very much worth the price. If you are a fan of the Portal games, this is one you should check out. If you are new to puzzle games or are trying to get into them, this is a great place to start. The Entropy Centre looks great, runs better, and it makes puzzles fun. Pick it up on Steam, Playstation, or Xbox.
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Movie Review: Falling for Christmas (2022)
You know what you are going to get with this movie. Falling for Christmas is as generic as its title. While it does nothing to differentiate itself from the clones released yearly, at least the acting is solid. If you like these cheesy Christmas movies, Falling for Christmas is a solid choice.
The movie is about a spoiled rich girl who has everything but finds herself lost and without purpose. This all changes when a freak accident causes her to fall down a mountain and forget who she is. Luckily, she falls into the hands of a struggling business owner with the kindest heart. Together they try to save the lodge, but they find something more meaningful than Sierra’s lost memories. They find love. This movie is as cheesy and predictable as you can imagine.
There isn’t much I can say about this movie because this movie comes out every year. This story doesn’t try to be original as it will hit every trope. You have the spoiled rich girl who can’t do anything for herself, a struggling kind man who is a dreamer trying to hold his family and his career together, dead moms, and a Christmas miracle.
There is an audience for this movie, but it isn’t me. I didn’t hate this movie, but it is not good. That said, Falling for Christmas is better than your average Hallmark. The acting is of a much higher caliber, but be mindful of the inconsistencies. Not everyone in this movie can act. It might not be the acting comeback for Lohan that we have been waiting for, but it is a nice taste of what hopefully is to come. The actors do their best with what they are given.
As far as love stories go, this one is very forced. The leads share little chemistry, but at least the acting is fine. Despite how lazy this movie might seem, it does try to tell a story. I liked that Sierra got her own arc, although it isn’t the most inventive.
Sierra starts out as someone who has everything handed to her. By the end of the story, she takes control of her own life. She makes her own choices and sets her own goals. I liked that she doesn’t accept the life she was given, or waits for a grand romantic gesture to realize who she wants to be. Her experience shows her who she wants to be and she starts working towards that. It is cheesy, but I appreciate the attempt.
Falling for Christmas isn’t great, but it is better than some of its competition. I had a lot of fun laughing at how cringy it got, but never felt the need to quit it. It isn’t something I would go out of my way to watch, but it is there for when I need it. If you are a fan of the genre and love these cheesy Christmas movies, go stream them on Netflix. If not, then don’t bother.
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Series Review: Inside Man (2022)
Inside Man has become my new obsession. If you don’t fall in love with this quirky murder thriller, we did not watch the same show. Stop reading and go watch this show now.
The series is like a quirky version of The Silence of the Lambs. Stanley Tucci plays a brilliant man on death row who can solve any mystery. The series focuses on his latest job where he must help a reporter find her missing friend. Janice has been locked in a basement, and her time is running out. Will they be able to find her before her time runs out?
I loved this show. The acting is fantastic, the story is fun, and it was the perfect length for a series. The series is structured as a mystery that only Stanley Tucci can solve. The show will constantly cut between the crime and Stanley Tucci trying to solve it. My only complaint is that Stanley Tucci’s character is a bit too omnipotent as he can solve the mystery with the smallest amount of clues, but it is fun to watch him work through it. It is fair to say that every character in this series is a bit exaggerated for satire, but it is done brilliantly. The cast give a fantastic performance and I urge you to watch this show based on this fact alone. I dare you to hate any of these characters, morality aside of course. I’m afraid I can’t do a deeper dive because I am afraid that I will ruin the experience.
The story is a bit ridiculous as it constantly escalates toward its finale, but it is a good story nonetheless. I believe it is meant to act as a metaphor for the lengths that people will go to under the crippling pleasures of desperation. It isn’t meant to be a dive into human pathology, but rather to satirize the genre.
This series is a small commitment and one that you can knock out in a sitting. You don’t need to know extensive lore, and there isn’t much filler to pad the time. This series proves that you can tell a good story in a little bit of time. I hate watching series that are stretched out because big streaming wants you to sit on your couch longer. Not every show needs to be 10 episodes with multiple seasons. Tell your story in as long as it takes, and leave.
This is the fun series that you need in your life. Go stream it on Netflix.
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Movie Review: The Policeman (2022)
The Policeman is a terrible movie. Do not watch it because it isn’t worth your time.
The Policeman is the story of a homosexual couple who must hide their love from the oppressive homophobic climate of Britain’s 1950s. At first, Tom and Patrick have a private affair, keeping their love a secret. Tom grows ambitious and realizes that the only way to get ahead in life is to have a wife. He marries Marion, but this façade quickly crumbles when Marion finds out the truth about Tom’s relationship with Patrick. Tom breaks up with Patrick and lives the rest of his life pretending to be heterosexual. The movie is about characters reflecting on their youth.
I had a lot of trouble writing up the synopsis for this movie because I lost interest several times. I had to rewind a lot because I kept getting lost, not because the plot was complicated, but because I was zoning out. This movie is boring, and nothing in this world can save it.
The acting in this movie is uninspired, and the characters lack the chemistry needed to make this love story work. They might be doing their best, but the script isn’t doing them any favors. It is no secret that Harry Styles isn’t an actor in any sense of the word, but he is not at fault for the quality of the narrative. None of the actors are. Harry Styles is merely the tool used to trick people into watching a movie they otherwise wouldn’t bother with.
The pacing is possibly the worst part of this movie. The plot moves slowly, and I suspect it is because there isn’t enough story for a full movie. As a result, we get a lot of filler in the form of slow takes, shameless fan service, and pointless shots of characters looking longingly out windows. If you cut out the sex scenes and condense the meaningful plot, this is maybe thirty minutes of content.
The Policeman is a poor representation of the struggles of the LGBTQ community. A lot of the hardships are glossed over quickly. The scenes of hardship and oppression seem to have been added almost as an afterthought. They don’t add anything of value to the plot except to briefly say how hard it was back then. It never feels like the characters are under any real pressure to keep their secret except for the fabricated kind designed to force the plot forward. And because the acting is so bad, none of the emotional moments hold the power needed to work.
You can stream this movie on Amazon Prime with your membership, but I wouldn’t bother. I am tempted to cancel my subscription because of this experience.
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