“Instant Family” was one of the biggest surprises of 2018 for me. It seemed like a goofy vehicle for Mark Wahlberg to soften his image at the time, but it surprisingly ends up being one of the best drama comedies of the year. It’s not only such a funny and sweet film, but it’s also a remarkable testament to how much society under values and under appreciates foster parents, and the good they can do for children. While imperfect at times, director Sean Anders approaches the tale of the foster family with immense respect, and delivers a film that really did have me laughing, crying, and ultimately satisfied.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
The Alice Howell Collection (2 DVD Set)
Undercrank Productions deserves a ton of credit as they are releasing films and silent cinema that no one else has even approached yet. While boutique studios are dabbling in eighties and seventies obscure gems, Undercrank and Ben Model are back in the early 1900’s restoring the short films of Alice Howell, a silent cinema comedic actress who was once compared to her contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, folks that want to bone up on the history of women in comedy cinema, this is a great place to continue your education on how much they’ve contributed, and the unsung voices of comedy.
Await Further Instructions (2016) [Blu-Ray]
When it originally premiered at Fantasia I was very anxious to check out Johnny Kevorkian’s science fiction horror film, and I’m glad I was finally able to view it. “Await Further Instructions” is one of those horror tales in the vein of “They Live” or “V” where it’s a tale about humanity, civilization, and way we can be led like sheep in the face of chaos. While “Await Further Instructions” is a very sharply written and vicious look at a dysfunctional family stuck together in a house, it packs in so many more relevant overtones that ring true in a day where everything on the internet is taken as gospel.
Millennium After the Millennium (2018)
I was one of the many people that tuned in to see “Millennium” when it premiered on FOX television back in 1996. When I was thirteen any horror show would catch my eye, but I eventually tuned out after a few episodes. Years late “Millennium” is a widely celebrated cult classic television series that never caught on as much as its sibling predecessor “X-Files.” While the former embraced science fiction and horror, “Millennium” delved mostly in to the occult and horror, and never quite sought out to inspire hope within its viewers.
2019 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation
With the 91st Oscars airing on February 24th, I’ll be going over the trio of short film topics and their nominees leading up to the premiere. With short films often getting overlooked (Live Action Shorts was cut from this year’s broadcast and then re-inserted after big protests) I was interested in checking out the Oscar caliber shorts making the list. It should be noted that most of the animated shorts are directed by women this year, which is refreshing. Here is the list and the short I hope wins.
Kim Possible (2019)
As a preamble I admit that I’ve never liked the “Kim Possible” animated series. I know as a Disney fan I’m supposed to love it, but I always found the series to be incredibly flat, bland, and boring. I didn’t really care for anything about it beyond Will Friedle who, at the time, was my favorite voice actor. That said, when “Kim Possible” was rebooted in to a TV movie series, I was surprised by how new and re-energized the reboot looked. Though “Kim Possible” is back, she’s returned for a whole new generation of fans that have embraced heroines fighting crime.
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
I was thoroughly surprised with 2017’s “Happy Death Day.” The more I’ve thought about it and re-watched it, I’ve come to like it more and more as a horror reworking of “Groundhog’s Day.” It’s a fun and creepy character piece about a despicable young woman who realizes that maybe the way to keep herself from dying and end the cycle of re-living the same day over and over, is to think about other people in her life. “Happy Death Day 2U” is that same concept, but a wholly different movie. It’s a sequel that brings us a new angle of the narrative, expands on the concept of the original film, while also continuing to explore the character of Tree Gelbman.