A lot of what makes Addams Family such a fun series is the darkly comic and sinister tone and great sense of Goth that comes with it. It’s not often I say this but watching the rare 1977 movie is kind of a chore to sit through, and you can sense it’s not a good movie at all once you gander at the grainy video and lack of production quality. This attempt at a series revival is a “feature length” television movie that is supposed to set off the new Addams Family. For some reason this is a reboot with the entire cast from the original series all over again, right down to an adult Wednesday and Pugsley. “Halloween with the Addams Family” isn’t just abysmal, but it’s boring, and painfully silly.
Tag Archives: Romance
Tragedy Girls (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]
Two teenage girls obsessed with death and horror movies are building their online reputation. To do so, they exploit local deaths and events in their small town.
Assholes (2017)
In the directorial debut of Peter Vack, Assholes opens up with a recently sober Adah (Betsy Brown) talking to her psychotherapist. She complains about having to compete with her brother for their parent’s affection and laments how horny she is. She soon falls off the wagon at her brother’s house and eventually runs into her brothers best friend Aaron (Jack Dunphy) at their psychotherapist’s office and begin tumbling down the rabbit hole of depravity, indulgence, and awkward comedy.
Nocturnally Yours (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]
After his untimely death on the night of his engagement, a man haunts his love until he finds a way to visit her in the “flesh”.
Nocturnally Yours is the sixth title on writer/director David Ferino’s IMDB resume. Here he creates a darkly funny story of love that transcends death, of a man who is not ready to move on and a woman who is not ready to let go finding a way to reconnect that turns absolutely hilarious. The story is wrong on quite a few levels, yet is so entertaining. The film takes this crazy idea, runs with it, and succeeds in making something that should make people with a dark or twisted sense of humor laugh out loud. The story is well told, the humor is on point, and the way it’s all delivered makes for a fun few minutes.
It (2017)
Andrés Muschietti’s “It” has proven in a year of really bad Stephen King adaptations, that it is very possible to put one of King’s most popular novels on screen and remind us once again why King is King. Muschietti, like Tommy Lee Wallace before him, has the daunting task of compressing an eleven hundred page novel in to what will end up being a five hour epic. Yet, “It” manages to come out mostly unscathed as a film that is both a spooky horror film and a stellar coming of age drama. Much like “Mama,” Muschietti’s work on “It” ends in a film that can be appreciated as a human drama and a pure horror movie packed with heart, scares, insight in to growing up in an unforgiving, cruel world.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
David Leitch’s adaptation of the graphic novel from Oni Press is something of an anomaly that I’ve had a difficult time wrapping my head around since I finished it. I’m not typically one who is easy on an action movie that’s so unnecessarily hard to follow, but “Atomic Blonde” kept me hooked, even when I was trying to keep up with it. Leitch’s direction, matched with the excellent editing, and just amazing martial arts scenes assured me I may just be watching “Atomic Blonde” again and again. The amalgam of a neo-noir and a gung ho martial arts spy thriller amounts to an occasionally awkward experience, but I embraced it in the end as this imperfect action film that sucked me in time and time again.
The Lion King (1994): Signature Collection [Blu-ray/DVD/Digital]
“The Lion King” is still one of the most entertaining movie going experiences of my life and one of the most moving animated films I’ve ever seen. With the anticipation of the live action remake growing, Disney has granted fans a new release with their Signature Edition. This new edition packs in the DVD, a Digital copy, and of course the new Blu-Ray with changes that are interesting and more geared toward meticulous hardcore fans of the film more than anything. It’s certainly worth a double or triple dip, especially if it’s your favorite of the Disney animated library (and on your top ten), as it is mine.