Thankfully, Netflix and Leigh Janiak’s “Fear Street” film series has mostly lived up to its promise, hype and potential, offering a trilogy of films that are entertaining, complex, and steeped heavily in classic horror and folklore. For horror buffs that love horror that revolves around mythology, legends and stories about the past, the “Fear Street” series has managed to deliver two fold with a legend that has managed to carry the films quite well.
Tag Archives: Adaptation
Black Widow (2021)
After waiting almost two years (with three delays) for “Black Widow,” there’s something poignant about its entire tone and the time of its release. With Scarlett Johansson leaving the MCU and the series moving on, “Black Widow” is a wonderful epilogue that fills in the holes about Natasha Romanoff once and for all. Natasha was always something of an enigma who we could never really make up our minds about, and the long overdue solo movie gives us the definitive look in to the life of a pretty noble heroine.
Richard Donner (1930-2021): My Top Five Films from the Director
Richard Donner was one of the great action directors, a man who could tackle almost any movie and add his own distinct flavor to it. Although mostly a film titan in the eighties, Donner continued a long and illustrious career directing genre films well in to his eighties and left behind a humongous legacy of iconic films, hit films, and films that will live on for many, many years in the hearts of movie buffs everywhere.
In remembrance of the cinematic titan, I thought I’d list my five favorite films from his humongous oeuvre.
What are your favorite Richard Donner films? Let us know in the comments!
Fear Street, Part 1: 1994 (2021)
One of the many aspects of “Fear Street” that always set them apart from the “Goosebumps” books is that RL Stine relied a lot on folklore. With the “Fear Street” series, it depended a lot on the folklore and urban legend aesthetic, exploring more universal themes usually found there. There were always ideas about revenge, and mystery killers, and inherent terrifying nature of Halloween, and yes, even vampires. Fear Street always had something new to offer readers, and the movie carries that tradition.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital HD]
Celebrating its 50th anniversary June 30th of 2021, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” is a movie that hasn’t aged since 1971 and shows no sign of aging any time soon. Even with the Tim Burton second adaptation and the upcoming prequel, Mel Stuart’s cinematic version of the Roald Dahl fantasy book still remains on the top of the heap. Even looking at it without nostalgia lens, the Gene Wilder fantasy is excellent in every sense of the word, while Wilder’s titular performance is unrivaled.
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never actually read Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “The Long Halloween” before, so I was very interested in seeing what the movie would bring fans. Even as a non-Batman fan, “The Long Halloween” is probably one of the best animated Batman movies I’ve seen in a long time. While most of the previous Batman animated movies have zeroed in on non stop action and little story, “The Long Halloween” is very much about Batman being a detective.
Lansky (2021)
Meyer Lanksy hires a writer to tell his story, but with conditions such as he cannot published until allowed. While he tells his life story, the Feds investigate him one last time in the hope of finding his stash of money.