Mar 1, 2023

Monthly Media Recap - February 2023

Not a lot of trailers this month as I watched a lot more recent, mainstream stuff. As usual, links in this post are affiliated with Amazon.


Streaming

Another glorious 5 hours spent discussing 80s horror flicks. With this being the third installment, there were a lot more movies I wasn't familiar with. It's also got some nice mini-segments featuring horror stars talking about their careers.

This was mostly pretty good. A couple of the song arrangements were so different from the originals that they lost the catchy bit which makes them easy to remember. Kermit & Fozzy drop in to Unpack their Adjectives and I am 100%  behind a Schoolhouse Rock/Muppets crossover! 



Red Rose (2022, Netflix)
Me on Friday: Hey, let's check out this BBC 8 episode teen horror looking thing. Me on Monday: Wow! That was not what I was expecting. I love all the young actors in this, they feel like a real group of friends and I was pleasantly surprised to see Isis Hainsworth from last year's Metal Lords on Netflix.

A cartoon based on a successful D&D podcast/campaign. While I will probably never listen to the podcast (it's been going for years) I was really surprised by the animated adaptation and greatly enjoyed it! It definitely has the feel of playing D&D. It may be animated but it ain't for young kids!
 
Obviously worth watching if you've seen the movie but man, who thought a making of documentary could get you teary eyed? There were a few spots in the movie where it looked like it was shot on a stage but seeing just how much they shot on stage where I didn't think that was is amazing.

Movies



From what I've seen online, this is a pretty divisive movie. You either connect with it or find it very boring. I am more in the second group. I get what they were going for and applaud them for trying something new but it's not for me. It works better as a short film. When the dialog is one of the few things that help make sense of the story and I have to put on CC to understand it, that doesn't help maintain the mood.

Rating: 3/10, as much as I didn't enjoy it, I recommend horror fans experience it

In the pantheon of horror icons, Myers is near the bottom for me so I don't have much invested in the Halloween franchise. I really enjoyed the 2018 one and they've just gone downhill since then. If I were a franchise fan, I would be pissed that this is the conclusion. This might be The Last Jedi of the series. Good on them for doing something different and if this was not the "final" movie in a series, it might have worked. I have questions but don't care enough to look for answers.

Rating: 4/10

I almost wish I hadn't seen It Follows before this because I wouldn't be thinking about it so much while watching. It's got some creepy parts for sure and the final showdown is definitely a horror moment I'll remember. Sosie Bacon does a wonderful job at losing her mind.

Rating: 7/10

Cutting back on dinos in a JP movie is a sin, but we did get some new ones, of course! This very much reminds me of a Fast & Furious sequel. Which one? Doesn't matter. There's action sequences, globe trotting, and too many characters to let anyone really shine. Not to mention rehashing moments that were good the first time around. All that said, it was kind of fun in a pulp action way. I would love to see DeWanda Wise get into Star Wars somewhere, maybe as Sana Starros?

Rating: 6.5/10



This is sort of a horror rom-com but is never leans hard into the horror or is laugh out loud funny for most of it. It's not terrible, and would probably not be a bad gateway flick to start someone on their horror journey.

Rating: 5/10
 
I'm not one of those M-She-U dudebros and I enjoyed Shuri in her previous appearances but I just wasn't feeling it from the actress this time around and part of that might be the character trying to find her place in the story. The themes of grief and dealing with loss were interesting. I really liked the way they handled Namor. If anyone needs a spinoff from here, it should go to Okoye.

Rating: 7/10

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
I wasn't expecting a comedic sci-fi action flick but I'm not complaining! Yes, some of it feels like Star Wars and for me, that's good. I've checked out some reviews and while I might agree with some of the issue they bring up, I was just along for the ride and had a lot of fun with this one. Someone said this should have been an FF movie and they're not wrong. I cannot wait to see what Kang will bring to the MCU.

Rating: 8/10

Having someone as charismatic as The Rock playing an anti-hero just didn't work for me. Throughout the movie, he's straight up murdering generic militant bad guys in a cartoonish manner but the character is rarely humorous. Deadpool he is not. I did thoroughly enjoy seeing Hawkman and Dr Fate in action. The whole "heroes trying to teach the anti-hero to be a good guy" thing got old after awhile.

Rating: 6/10

What a way to end the month. It couldn't be as bad as everyone said, right? Spoiler alert! It is. I was with it for a little while until Tyrese showed up in a serious role. After that it was like falling down a long staircase of questionable choices: Matt Smith's vampire look,  the weird superpower action effects, the least exciting superhero movie climax, and WTF was with those end credits scenes? Bro, do you guys even Marvel? I will say though, as bad as this is, before taking the "cure" Leto 100% looked like a vampire.

Rating: 4/10

Month Total
New: 9   Rewatch: 0

Year to Date Total
New: 20   Rewatch: 0

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