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Beauty and the Beast (2017)
A Well Put Together Tribute
Of course we know that the original 90's cartoon is supreme in every way, but that is not to say that this live action remake does not bring justice to our childhood.
The effects of this movie are absolutely stunning, the music (both original and new) are excellent, and the changes that have been made are not obnoxious enough to ruin the film. In fact they even bring in elements of the original story!
Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite movies from my childhood and this was a pleasant remake. I enjoyed the many shot for shot scene's as well as the backstories given to characters we had never seen before and ones we had grown to love.
This retelling is wonderful and if I had to complain about anything it would have to be Emma Watson's auto tuned voice, but other than that she did a fantastic job. No one else could have brought life to Belle the way she did.
Do not sleep on this movie. You will regret it.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016)
An Inconclusive Conclusion
We've all waited a long time for this. The idea of returning to Stars Hollow warmed our hearts from the moment it was announced. Seeing all of our favorite characters and how they've progressed over the years, hearing the lively music that would 'la la la' it's way into our hearts every time, this was set up to be incredible. Unfortunately, there were promises that were made and broken in the 6 and a half hours of 'A Year in the Life'.
The first episode of this show was amazing. Seeing how everything was different and yet the exact same warmed my heart. The death of Richard (though we all knew it was coming) was a tough pill to swallow. He may not have always been our favorite character, but a world without him was very upsetting. After the first episode concludes and we've seen most of our old friends we hoped to see the same amount of excitement and story progression in the second episode. Believing this show would have continuity was a mistake.
Episode 2 seems to drag on and on with little to nothing happening. We watch Rory Gilmore struggle with her job, weirdly defend sleeping with Logan even though he's engaged, and then play victim whenever the fiancé is brought up. It's very 'classic Rory', but I had hoped that at age 32 she would have gotten the point that sleeping with men with prior engagements is usually a bad idea.
the nightmare that is episode 3 contains a very unsettling musical. I don't know what else really to say except that there's a really terrible musical that never seemed to end. Just when you think it's over there's one last 'hooray' and we hear a new song that was actually serious, but had little to no melody in it. This very broken song somehow speaks to Lorelei and she goes and does 'Wild' (the book not the movie, evidently there's a drastic difference). Also in this episode we get to see Jess for the first time. Really, this is the only thing you can take away from this episode.
And at last we have arrived at the finale. Let's be honest, all we really wanted was to see Luke and Lorelei get married and that's what we got. A beautiful wedding, the lively music, and everything was perfect. As the episode is coming to a close you start to realize just how many problems this show started and then abandoned leaving so many questions. I found myself watching the clock to see how time was left for some of these questions to be answered, but with two minutes left we were given yet another problem. The last 4 words letting us know that Rory was pregnant were not necessarily a shock, but the fact that it ends without telling us who the father is was just a low blow.
There has been no announcement for a part 2 for this, and while these episodes dragged on forever and lacked in almost every possible way, I'm sure we'd all love to know who the father is.
There's so many other unsolved questions, but if you're a Gilmore Girls fan you should still watch this. It's not necessarily a bad show, it just had no real conclusion.
Krampus (2015)
Merry Christmas From Hell
This movie obviously was intriguing from the moment we all viewed the trailer. A Christmas horror/comedy with a solid cast, this movie had potential disaster written all over it. Christmas and horror have tried to combine their holiday spirits multiple times in the past 30 years with movies like Black Christmas, Jack Frost, and Santa Slay only to come up slightly short. Krampus is the answer to our holiday prayers.
From the moment the movie starts, it's hilarious. Excellent cinematography and it only gets better. With classic Christmas movies and music on in the background for a majority of it, it somehow gives you this quaint nostalgic feeling. The constant bickering from two very different families reminds me of Christmas's back home and the relentless arguments at the table about the most pointless nonsense really brought the true spirit of a family Christmas to life.
Once Krampus shows up on screen the movie really kicks it into high gear. The special effects are solid and the helpers in the movie are truly ghoulish and yet comedic. I found myself laughing and feeling unsettled during some of the scenes with Krampus's toy minions. I felt like I was watching Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Christmas Special and I loved every second of it.
As far as bad things about the movie goes, I would say that sometimes the movie would slow down for no real reason or the conversations back and forth did not make much sense and seemed there just to fill in the gaps, but that 's not really much to complain about. All in all this is an excellent movie for the holiday season and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good comedy and/or horror.
The Visit (2015)
Unfathomably Terrible
Walking into the over crowded theater to see yet another over hyped M. Night Shyamalan movie, I already missed the money I had spent on the 90 minute torture. Let's face it, Shymalan has not made a fantastic movie in over a decade and this movie does not show any signs of him getting any better.
We all know as soon as we turn on a Shymalan movie that there is going to be a plot twist that is so obscure that we would never have thought of it, but the Visit fails to deliver this mind blowing twist. The idea that the 'grandparents' were mental patients who had escaped seemed pretty self explanatory from the start. Not only is the twist a complete failure but the movie delivers no real scare. There are a few cheap jump scares throughout, but no suspense or build up.
The children in the movie are seldom frightened by the bizarre behavior of their 'grandparents', but they do make a lot of jokes about them and are very sarcastic about everything that happens. This strongly takes away from the horror factor. Think about it. You're stuck in a place with 2 elderly people you have never met who are very strange and at one point you even record one of them knocking on your door with a knife. Witty banter is the last thing on your mind.
Finally the very last issue with this movie comes from one of the last scenes in which the 'grandfather' shoves dirty diaper in the young boys face and in retaliation, the boy kills the old man all the while yelling like the hype man at an 8 mile rap battle. No not like he's yelling because he's a minor killing someone who just shoved crap in his face, but literally like Eminem's on stage hype guy. As if that wasn't enough to defeat the end of this movie, after a touching scene with their mother, the movie cuts to the young boy in his sisters room rapping about his visit. If a kid had crap shoved in his mouth he wouldn't be writing a rap about it. If a kid had to kill someone to go home he wouldn't be rapping about it. He would be talking to a therapist and not acting as if nothing had ever happened.
In conclusion, this movie was unrealistic, the emotions of the kids were very unnatural, the plot twist was barely a twist, and I would never see this movie again if I was paid to.