I’m assuming that these side quests for characters from “Demonic Toys” and “Puppet Master” are leading to something big down the road, but I can’t be too sure. Truthfully the side quest/spin offs of the flagship Full Moon franchises have been really hit or miss, but “Jack-Attack” has so far been one of the best. It’s only an hour in length and is short on story, but it compensates in carnage and some cool kills.
Tag Archives: Sequel
Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)
Netflix’s 2018 surprise hit “Birdbox” was a pretty good movie that skated on thin ice from minute one since it was accused of aping the concept for “A Quiet Place.” But the efforts of a sequel have firmly placed it as a movie better off left as a one and done horror film. “Barcelona” is considered kind of a sequel and kind of a spin off, but in reality it’s kind of a glorified pilot. I don’t know if Netflix is planning more sequels down the road, or a TV series, but “Barcelona” feels like the first of many incoming spin offs. And it never once feels like a complete movie, but only a buffer and promise of things to come. And as a follow up to the original, it fails epically assuring I won’t be back to see how they further develop this premise.
Five Great Movie Fights Set on Trains
One of the best scenes of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is the big fight scene staged in and on top of a train, and it brought to mind some of the better train fights ever staged in film. There have been many as it’s been one of the more classic tropes in fiction, so I listed five of my all time favorites.
What are some of your favorite fights on trains or public transportation?
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
It’s exciting that after seven films, “Mission Impossible” still gives audiences the good old fashioned action movies that were prominent in movie theaters. Christopher McQuarrie’s treatment of the “Mission: Impossible” has never been over stylish which amplifies the old fashioned feeling of his take on Tom Cruise’s epic movie series, and I love it. There are spies, and mysteries, and chases through streets, car chases, femme fatales, a classic macguffin, and even a massive fight staged on, in, and on top of a moving train across Europe. It’s vintage adventure movie serial cinema amplified with a huge budget and some wonderful performances all around.
Insidious: the Red Door (2023)
It’s a real shame that the “Insidious” series would go back to its roots with “The Red Door” and end up being probably the worse entry in the franchise yet. Patrick Wilson is a fine enough director, but “The Red Door” is such a misfire that you can’t even really call it a cash grab. It feels a lot like the studios attempts to add some sense of closure to the Lambert family, but rather than this emotional journey through the Further, all they hand us is a half baked rip off of “The Babadook.” And that’s saying a lot since I’ve been such a fan of the “Insidious” series since it arrived in 2011. But these films have done so much better, even with “The Last Key.”
BAD MOVIE MONDAY: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
I’ve never liked reviewing a film right when it comes out. You get caught up in the hype whether you like it or not, swallowed into the propellers of either the always positive marketing machine or the always negative social media rage engine, both of which are revving at full speed. So your review suffers because you can’t stay impartial in that sort of environment. It’s like trying to judge the power of a hurricane while standing in the eye of the storm. I saw this movie a few years ago. I won’t say that I “watched” it because that wouldn’t be accurate.
I played it on a streaming service and then sort of half glanced at the screen. Now, in the interest of science, I’m going to watch it again because I feel it’s a good example of what I like to call “advertiser friendly corporate content.” This is the sort of movie that has an insultingly low opinion of its audience. It’s cynical, insincere, soulless, lazy, and ultimately empty. It’s to cinema what school cafeteria food is to cuisine.
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
“The Dial of Destiny” is significant not only in that it’s a movie primarily about time, but about wanting to go back in time and fix mistakes. The Indiana Jones we see here is not the Indiana Jones we saw in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or even “The Last Crusade.” He’s older, he’s war torn, and he’s grappling with so much regret that he’s lost his passion for adventuring. When we see Indiana Jones he’s a man who has lived two full lives and he’s thrust back in to what is arguably his final adventure and it’s bittersweet.