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The Monkey (2025)
Dark Comedy
I read the Stephen King short story forty years ago and still have the hardcover book contains it. The cover shows a monkey holding symbols. Evidently, Disney has the trademark and the film changes it to a drum.
Two brothers come upon the evil toy and every time a key is turned, the toy chimp causes the death of someone nearby.
The kill scenes are entertaining but the dialogue is only occasionally funny. Every possible implement is used, including a swarm of bees. My personal favorite involves a stunning young woman in a bikini and a motel swimming pool.
King adaptations are generally hit or miss and this one is somewhere in-between.
Chaos: The Manson Murders (2025)
Scattered
Like the complex book on which it based, Chaos is exactly that, a scattered story with so many angles, it defies a coherent telling.
Thomas O'Neill explains it better in the book which covers much more of the Bugliosi aspect of the case. Vincent told the author, off the record, of the discovery of a Roman Polanski video of his wife Sharon having sex with two men. The late prosecutor also threatened Mr. O'Neill with a lawsuit after being shown notes proving perjury and other misdeeds during the trial.
MKULTRA and COINTELPRO make up a small part of the film and the the two mind control experiments may have played a role in the infamous murders.
Read the book for a better overview. The film is a decent companion to it.
No Other Land (2024)
Unforgettable
Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham are the the protagonists of this documentary and the unlikely pairing of two remarkable men makes for an unforgettable viewing experience.
I no longer watch the main stream media and here in America it is a joke. The scenes of bulldozers destroying Palestinian homes somehow wind up on the cutting room floor.
It begins in 2017 and ends in 2023 at the start of the genocide, a word banned by the paper of record; the New York Times. They recently refused an advertisement by the Quakers using that appropriate word.
Yuval Abraham is a brave and honest journalist who reminds me of Max Blumenthal, the founder and editor of the Grayzone. Both men are modern day muckrakers.
The film is having great difficulty in finding a distributor but has been nominated for an Oscar. I pray that it will win.
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was... (2024)
Foxx is Back
Jamie Foxx suffered a stroke and spent twenty days in a coma. His recovery is miraculous and the story of how he learned to walk again is amazing. He mixes heartfelt emotion with humor and dead on impressions of Mike Tyson, Ray Charles, Denzel Washington, and of all people, Donald Trump. His mimicking style is as good as it gets.
He points out that a sense of humor is what kept him alive while bewildering the hospital staff with inappropriate comments during rehabilitation. His teenage daughter played guitar in his hospital room and he credits her with his recovery and she makes an appearance during the special.
Foxx is a major talent and concert is a good one.
Dexter: Original Sin (2024)
Bad Idea
I binge watched the original series in three to four hour sessions and I believe that the first two seasons were as well written as anything in recent times. The theme was dark with and Dexter was a man on a mission to right what was wrong.
I was disappointed with the final episode and the sequel was just terrible, with silly plot twists and the addition of a true crime podcaster who annoyed the hell out of me. It also had a ridiculous ending.
This time around, Hall is the narrator and we see more of his early formation as a serial killer. He is a brilliant premed student who does not fit in with his peers. His father guides him in the practical use of his inner demons.
The first half did not work for me but the second half more than made up for it. I will continue to watch with high expectations.
Here is my update after watching the final episode. Forget it. The storylines just got worse and worse and the Deb character is beyond annoying. This prequel is nowhere near as good as the original series.
Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints (2024)
Scorcese with Class
Martin Scorcese is the executive producer of this series and he introduces each episode with some historical context. He also narrates with more backgrounds of the characters. He later leads a panel of Catholics in a discussion after each episode. The Jesuit priest, James Martin is my favorite of the group.
Joan of Arc is the subject of the first episode and Liah O'Prey is the right choice for the role, although she is in her early twenties and Joan was between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. I knew of her plight as I attended Catholic school in my early years. Her treatment by the pompous inquisitors was disgusting and it ends, as expected, with fire and brimstone.
John the Baptist is next, and it is a beautifully filmed segment with a spectacular marble bath with King Herod bathing in splendor as he consults with his wife and Salome. John has made a few disparaging comments on the two women and later on after a sultry dance by Salome, Herod vows to carry out any of her requests. Meanwhile, John has baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and continues the practice with others. The king is indifferent but he fulfills his stepdaughter's wish and she receives John's head on a silver platter.
Saint Sebastian is next and I was not familiar with this man. Joan and John are well known but the saint from the fourth century did not have their PR agents. Sebastian was a high ranking officer of the Roman king and he participated in the torture and murders of Christians while secretly joining the flock. His sainthood was assured after he suffered and died for the One True Church.
Maximillian Kolbe was a Polish-German Franciscan priest who was at Auschwitz in 1941 when a prisoner escaped. The camp commander gave the order to starve ten prisoners to death as punishment. Kolbe took the place of a man who begged to be spared as he had a wife and children. After ten days, the future saint was near death when he was injected with carbolic acid and died like a dog. An unforgettable episode.
St. Francis is one of the most beloved of saints and those of us with an RC upbringing can recall seeing statues of the man surrounded by animals. He may have been the original bird whisperer. He was the son of a wealthy merchant who lived the life a a spoiled child until he had a vision from above requesting that he repair an abandoned church. Using stolen funds from his father, he rebuilt the church. His father disowned him and his friars are still a vital part of the modern day church.
Moses the Black was new to me, as it was to Scorcese. The Ethiopian man was the leader of a vicious criminal gang who pillaged and murdered in fourth century Egypt. While wandering in the desert he came upon a group of monks who owned nothing and prayed constantly. In time, Moses became the leader of the monks and he is the patron saint of nonviolence.
Mary Magdalene has been frequently portrayed as a prostitute but, as explained by Father James Martin, SJ. In the post episode discussion, this was a story spread by an early pope and is not true. She was a woman possessed by seven demons and she joined the twelve apostles and was the first to see the resurrected Christ. She went on to spread the the word of her Savior.
Bandit Queen (1994)
Riveting
Seema Biswas portrays Phoolan Devi, a Robin Hood-like heroine who was sold by her parents at the age of eleven to a much older man who raped her. Devi escaped and hit the road, eventually joining a band of lower caste bandits who robbed the upper class and distributed their booty to the lower classes.
Along the way, Phoolan is captured and is gang raped on more than one occasion. She was rescued by a man of her caste but they did not live happily ever after. This is not a Disney feature.
Devi became a symbol of the oppressed of India and after surviving in the wilderness became a political leader. Apparently, she was not happy with the film and I might read her autobiography. Bandit Queen is beautifully filmed with a riveting performance by Seema Biswas.
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Bloody Good Fun
I recently watched the first film of the series, forgetting that I had seen it eight years ago in 2016. I skipped the second movie and moved on to the third of the horror franchise.
Leone adds some wicked bloody humor this time around and it is a blast. A bar scene involving liquid nitrogen is hilarious as Art the Clown expands his use of tools of torture.
The clown is back to settle things with a previous survivor as she has just been released from a nut house to live with family members as Christmas day approaches. Leone uses a good amount of yuletide music accompanied by cheery holiday sets in the midst of all the mayhem. A portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe, my Patron Saint, was a nice touch.
I was highly entertained by the latest flick from the warped mind of Staten Island's Damien Leone.
Longlegs (2024)
Mixed Bag
Maika Monroe is on screen for most of the film and she is able to carry the heavy workload. She plays a rookie FBI agent whose first case is a serial killer named Longlegs. The killer is well played by Nicolas Cage in some very bizarre, clown-like makeup. The two leads are very good but they are only together for the final portion of the movie.
The story is told with repeated flashbacks which are not very convincing. Maika is somehow able to decode the murdered cryptic, Zodiac type messages. Being a true crime reader, I am familiar with that still unsolved case.
The atmosphere is spooky and overall Long legs is worth a watch.
McMillions (2020)
Greed is Not Good
Yesterday I read the book of the same title and it is a well written synopsis on the fraud case involving the Monopoly prize game run at McDonald's. I was more of a Burger King or Wendy's fan at the time and I had never peeled one of the stickers as many of my fellow Americans had done.
Any good story needs a hero and a villain and here we are given Jerry Jacobson and
Doug Mathews. In addition, Robin Colombo, the wife of the second Jerry, a mob connected man is given ample screen time and she straight out of Hollywood casting. The rotund woman of advancing age is mostly dressed in an Ill advised short dress.
FBI agent Mathews is the unexpected star, as the usually straight laced G-men are usually drab and humorless, Doug is downright hilarious. His curiosity over a post-it note started the whole ball rolling.
Unfortunately, Jacobson was never interviewed and it is massive hole in an otherwise well made but overlong series. At almost six hours, it needed to be edited down to three. I highly recommend the book which was just released in August of 2024.
MaXXXine (2024)
Almost a winner
Mia Goth is Maxxine in this third of a slasher film series by Ti West. I saw X, but I have not seen Pearl, the prequel. Maxxine is an adult film star in the 1980s video cassette era before the advent of the internet and Pornhub.
Goth is the best thing going here, along with Kevin Bacon as a sleazy private eye with a New Orleans drawl. The pair make the movie worth watching.
The storyline is all over the place with the real life Night Stalker used as part of the plot. A clip of Richard Ramirez is used and a Satanic theme accompanies his serial killing spree in Los Angeles. A copycat killer is on the loose and Maxxine plays super sleuth. The finale is rather silly and takes my rating down to a five.
Fellwechselzeit (2020)
Ponderous
If you need help in falling asleep tonight, just put this ponderous and meaningless drama on at bedtime and it will surely be the cure.
A home movie might have more of a plot than this atrocity from Gemany. No wonder they lost the war. Stephanie appears to be about ten when we first meet her and her nutty mother lounges around in a mess of a hoarder's paradise. In one scene which seems endless, her father peels potatoes while the young girl struggles with a math problem. She later opens a trunk which contain a meat cleaver and a pig killing gun of sorts. Mom's dad was a butcher and explains this to her offspring.
We are abruptly taken to the Addam's family and their strange world ten years later. They sing Silent Night around a sickly looking Christmas tree and the ending makes no sense whatsoever.
Avoid this garbage at all costs.
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Excellent Adaptation
I had the good fortune of meeting Frank McCourt at a book signing , as well as his brother, Malachy. I also heard them many times on NY radio before the publication of the book in 1996.
The film captures the essence of the Pulitzer Prize winning book with a magnificent cast and script which closely follows the written word. Emily Watson is Angela and she owns it. The brood of brothers are played at various ages and they are all up to their demanding roles as is the wayward father, Malachy, Sr.(Robert Carlyle).
The grinding poverty and class prejudice are shown without blinders and even at almost two and a half hours, I was never aware of the passage of time.
As a cradle Catholic, the imagery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are quite familiar to me. The First Holy Communion scene brought back memories of my childhood at a church in Ossining, NY.
Although Malachy died as a self-proclaimed atheist recently at a hospital in New York City, a priest performed Last Rites at his bedside. Do not miss this great movie.
Nefarious (2023)
Good Vs Evil
I took a shot at this film after seeing a recommendation by a Catholic priest who also performs exorcisms. Although I am a member of the faith, I question many of the tenets.
Sean Patrick Flanery is a serial killer about to be executed for his crimes. Mr. Flanery is as good as Luke Kirby was portraying Ted Bundy in No Man of God. In that movie, the main focus was on a TV preacher named Dobson who placed the blame on pornography for Teddy's shortcomings. This time around, the devil made me do it is the theme. I do not believe that a dude with horns and a pitchfork is present and tempting us to do bad things. We all have good and evil within us.
The script is well done but a bit too preachy for my taste but the Sean Patrick Flanery makes the journey a worthy one.
Farha (2021)
An unknown massacre
Karam Taher is a teenager living in Palestine in 1948 at the time of the Nakba(catastrophe). Her father is the mayor of a small rural village when they are removed. The daughter is hidden away in a bunker by her father as he leaves to defend his land.
The atmosphere is claustrophobic as Farha's must remain quiet in her cave-like circumstances. She can see through small openings and witnesses the execution of a family, including the children.
The script is taken from the real life Faria who managed to survive and tell her story.
With the current w events as so write this in May of 2024, we are yet reminded again that history is written by the victors.
Tantura (2022)
Heart Wrenching
As I write this review in May of 2024, my American government is funding the genocide of the people of Gaza. So far, about 40,000 have been massacred by the IDF with an assortment of armaments from our stores, including two thousand pound "dumb bombs."
Teddy Katz is a true hero for having the courage for speaking out against his country by writing a paper with full proof with interviews, of some of the atrocities committed during the Nakba(catastrophe) of 1948. One interview subject, in particular, spoke with glee of a teenage Palestinian girl being sexually assaulted. The man belongs in a jail cell.
Katz received death threats for this and every member of congress should be locked in a room and forced to watch this documentary. It will never happen.
Civil War (2024)
Mixed feelings
Kirsten Dunst plays the lead as a photojournalist who covers war zones around the world. She has aged enough to now be cast as a character actress. America has devolved into a civil war with Texas and California leaving the State of Union. The leader of the free world is shown at the start giving the usual patriotic speech that we have heard ad infinitum.
The film then turns into a road picture with Dunst and an actress(Cailee Spaeny) playing an aspiring photojournalist. The problem here is the the young lady looks to be about fifteen although she is actually twenty-three.
In midst of all the ensuing chaos, the women, accompanied by two men, are able to fill up their SUV on a long out-of-the-way excursion to the White House in order to visit the White House for an unscheduled interview with the pres. Plot holes abound and the only saving grace are the well filmed action sequences.
The idea is a fine one but the story is not well thought out. Seek out V for Vendetta to see a perfect script in the genre.
Prey (1977)
Retro Alien
Prey is an old school alien story with a twist. The main characters are a lesbian couple with relationship issues. Jessica is the submissive partner and a stranger appears at her house with some extremely peculiar behavior. The dude has assumed the body of a human who he has dispatched in order study our earthling ways.
The man has a rock and roll hairstyle and the couple allow him to stay in their home without any reasonable explanation.
We get one tame sex scene and plenty of very bad music along the way. The cast is competent but the storyline makes no sense.
I would recommend the Twiilight Zone episode "The Monsters are due on Maple Street" as an alternative to Prey.
The Black Mass (2023)
Ted is Back
Ted Bundy seems to live on forever as an inspiration for both books and movies. I recently finished my twenty-fourth book on the serial killer. Kathy Kleiner-Rubin survived a brutal attack at FSU in January of 1978 and filled in the past forty-five years of her life after surviving the assault.
We see Ted shaving in a mirror at the start while mumbling incoherently. He then heads off in his car of choice, the VW Beetle, to a spot near a house where high school girls are having a cheerleading practice on a front lawn.
Mr. Bundy is later seen at a sorority house peeking through the windows while the girls discuss their various problems. At a bathroom window, the peeping Tom watches one of the girls undressing and we get a fantasy sequence with Teddy bloodying up the young lady.
In the early morning hours, the script is fairly accurate in the portrayal of the Chi Omega murders. The film ends abruptly with a description of his final murder. The names are changed and real life footage is used with clips which have been seen many times by anyone interested in the story.
Instead of this movie, I recommend No Man of God, the best of all the Bundy features.
Abigail (2024)
Decent Horror
Abigail is a twelve-year-old girl played perfectly by Irish born Alisha Weir. A gang of misfits is recruited for what at first seems like the kidnapping of the kid for a huge ransom.
Borrowing from reservoir Dogs, the strangers are told by their recruiter not to reveal their real names. At least no one is Mister Pink in this Tarantino inspired script.
The violence ramps up as the culprits quickly realize that what looked like a quick cash making scheme soon turns out to be a big mistake.
The supporting cast is fine with Alisha Weir stealing the show as the victim of the story. The film could have been edited from the almost two hours running time but it is a worthy entry into the horror field.
La mesita del comedor (2022)
A Hidden Gem
Jesus and Mary begin, not in a manger, but in a furniture store where an overbearing salesman works tirelessly to sell them a coffee table. The hideous piece features "fake gold" nude women figures and what the man describes as "unbreakable" glass.
The new mother is a bit long in the tooth for childbearing and the pair seem to be going through a difficult time in their marriage. The first ten minutes or so can be described as a comedy but by the halfway point, things take a dark turn.
Jesus needs to assemble the coffee table and an accident causes his world to shatter and the final act is as well done as anything I have ever seen.
A ten day shoot is a miracle these days and the script is concise and smart. Do not miss The Coffee Table. A solid 9/10. Do not miss this gem.
Mon père, le diable (2021)
Redemption??
The IMDB summary pretty much gives away the storyline and is close to a spoiler. Marie, played by the superb actress, Babetida Sadjo, works in a Catholic nursing home where a priest arrives, causing her to remember some nasty events from childhood. Father Patrick gives uplifting sermons to the residents of the home.
Marie then recalls a past involving warlords who destroyed a village and killed most of the adults, including her mother and father. The holy man might have some explaining to do regarding what he was up to before joining the flock.
What follows is a serious look at the meaning of forgiveness and redemption, a major tenet of the Catholic church. I have not been to Confession for a long, long time but being raised in the faith gave me a greater appreciation for this film.
Gojira -1.0 (2023)
Godzilla Rules
I remember the original Godzilla with Raymond Burr from my youth and the newest entry into the franchise is by far the best ever.
It begins in 1945 with a kamikaze pilot who has deserted his final mission only to be a survivor on an outpost where the creature first attacks.
In the following two years, the pilot has met a woman with a baby that he has taken in as he moves on with his life with employment as a mine sweeper on a wooden boat.
Of course, Godzilla makes a comeback and destroys a decent chunk of Japan and our hero is called into service defending the nation from the monster.
The story is excellent with very good CGI to make this one of the best films of 2023.
Jig (2011)
Magnificent
I cannot believe that this incredible film has a score if 6.6 on IMDB. I am a jaded and cynical American and by the end of Jig I was standing and cheering.
The cameras tour the world from Ireland, England, America and Russia, following dancers at various schools of Irish dance, including one in NY City where a girl of Irish and Asian heritage is one of the star students.
A ten-year-old counterpart in Derry, Ireland will become close with the girl from the U. S. and the pair will compete at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
I was riveted to the screen for the entire movie and I am astounded that the film did not win an Oscar.
Immaculate (2024)
Mixed Bag
Sydney Sweeney stars as as Sister Cecilia, a young woman who believes that God saved her from drowning in her childhood. She somehow winds up at a convent in Italy while carrying a book for translations. It makes no sense that an English speaking American would not find a place in the U. S. to enter a nunnery.
The imagery is of the usual Catholic chapel filled stained glass and statues. I am a cradle RC and I am familiar with such surroundings. It opens with a nun reciting the Rosary in Italian with English subtitles for those viewers not of the faith.
The worst aspect is a technical one as the actors often mumble their lines and all is lost as far as the storyline goes. Sweeney is often blood soaked and her ear piercing screams are over the top. Rosemary's Baby is similarly themed and a far superior film, as is The Omen.