Fontaine's Film Wipe

As Halloween nears, I can't think of a better movie to review than "Doctor Sleep." It's the 2019 sequel to "The Shining" (1980), and it accomplishes something I didn't think was possible. However, there are two versions of this movie that differ from each other a bit, namely in how much screen time the cool Kubrick stuff gets at the end, so if you're a cinephile like me and want your money's worth, go for the Director's Cut. It's about a half hour longer, and it's a bit better than the theatrical release because it further fleshes out the story's main themes, and does them in a very specific (and special) setting. The Theatrical Cut is good though, still pretty long (152 minutes), and I think it flows well. I found it to be a worthy edit, and it reminded me that Kubrick's story also had two edits, one long and one short. In "Doctor Sleep," Ewan McGregor plays an adult Danny Torrance, a man haunted by the Overlook Hot

I wanted to like "The Northman," I really did. An epic period action movie with the protagonist vying against all odds for vengeance against the evil uncle who killed his father - what's not to like? This tale of Vikings, full of the rich imagery of their archeologically unearthed culture and mythological beliefs, should've been a slam-dunk. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that bad writing (and mediocre acting) had struck again.  Alexander Skarsgård plays Amleth, a Viking warrior prince, and Oscar Novak plays Amleth as a young boy. Both actors try their best to imbue their character with the kind of grit and machismo that would align him with larger-then-life heroes like Mel Gibson's William Wallace and Liam Neeson's Rob Roy MacGregor. But where those films employ great actors to play dimensional people, director Robert Eggers settled for a less-accomplished actor to play a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out of a man.  It's been a while since I sa

Looking at the latest "Halloween" trilogy, which began in 2018, I've never been more certain that Hollywood needs to stop making sequels. They really messed up the "Star Wars" franchise. "Indiana Jones and the (Fill in the Blank)" is well past its sell-by date. And Malek Akkad, son of Moustapha, might've given his father's legacy a better send off than "Halloween Ends."  The problem with this movie is that it sucks. It isn't scary. It isn't interesting. It is boring from the first minute to the last. And worst of all, it has no clue that it sucks. It thinks it's a good movie. It thinks it's the best film in the latest sequel series, because it intends to show us how Michael Myers finally meets his fate. But it's self-contradictory. It has been established in all the previous films that Michael is un-killable. "Halloween Kills" drove that home harder than any of them. The whole town tried its damnedest to