The Babysitter: Killer Queen

I was very late to The Babysitter fan club. I wasn't particularly interested in watching it but I saw the craze for the sequel so I decided to watch them both in the same night. I really loved The Babysitter. It was fresh, had a great cast and was just a lot of fun and I was immediately excited for the sequel.

Starting off with the positives for this film, easily the first thing that comes to mind is the cast. The actors who return just look like their having the time of their lives with this film. Robbie Amell is once again the standout just playing this wacky over the top yet charismatic maniac, Judah Lewis, even though he's a little older, is still able to capture our hearts as this young misunderstood kid who is traumatised by what happened to him, Emily Alyn Lind is great in her extended role and Jenny Ortega is a very nice addition to the film. The rest of the cast is great but those four were the standouts for me.

Also like the first film, you just feel this films energy from the very start of it. You get the sense of fun and never does it feel like it's taking itself too seriously. Like a party, once it gets going, it doesn't stop until it's over and that helps you get really invested into the film.

Finally, the comedy is back and it still works. Now I will say it's not as strong as the first film but you do get a good few laughs and the cast have great comedic timing.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film and the first thing that you've got to talk about is Samara Weaving. Now a mild spoiler but she is in this film. She does appear but how she is used is quite underwhelming so for how much as I love her as an actress and her character in these films, I wish she was used more.

Also while I liked Jenny Ortega, I'm very mixed on her character. She's a good strong minded female who can hold her own but as the film goes on, it's very predictable on how she'll be used throughout the remainder of the film.

Onto the negatives and from what I've seen on social media, this is a very divisive film and I can understand why. Now I'm going to try my best not to reveal spoilers but this was a very very disappointing film for me for a number of reasons.

First of all, there is a mix of good and bad ideas that, for me personally, was executed all wrong. The good ideas involve disbelief, bringing back previous characters, redemption and besides the second one, they're not executed well at all. The bad ideas involve rehashed plot elements and the films main villain and that didn't work me at all. Particularly with the villain twist, the way the reveal played out and just how they styled the villain felt like they were used as a Samara Weaving replacement and it was that moment where I stopped enjoying the film.

With the rehashed plot elements, I really don't like it when sequels do this and though I understood why they did this, it's just so in your face with how they're executed.

There's also an issue with certain extended cues. The stylisation is severely overused in this film to the point where it feel director McG borrowed elements from a certain Edgar Wright film and a few minor characters have extended roles in this film and god are they really bad. They're annoying and so irrelevant to the plot to the point where if you edited their scenes out, it wouldn't affect the film at all.

Finally this is a bit of a nitpick but this film also has an overabundance of plot conveniences. What I loved about the first film were certain clever setups and foreshadowing but with this film, stuff happens with no explanation or without setup.

Overall this was a frustratingly disappointing film that really soured my mood for the rest of my night. There's one detail I want to elaborate on further involving Emily Alyn Linds character but at the same time, I don't want to spoil the film and any more than that will potentially spoil it for viewers.

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Honest Thief

Once I saw the trailer for this film, I really wanted to check it out. I love Liam Neeson and I love him in the action genre and this one was pretty decent.

Starting with the positives, what I liked most about this film is the cast. Liam Neeson is good enough in this film but I'll have more to say later on. Kate Walsh I haven't seen her in a lot stuff but she plays a very good character who makes smart decisions and is not pushed to the side as the damsel in distress love interest. Jai Courtney is good as the main villain and it's always nice to see Robert Patrick in this film as well. I also really liked Anthony Ramos character. He's not your cliched one dimensional villain who actually has some morals for what happens in the film.

The action is also very good as well. There's some good enough fight scenes when they happen, there's a good car chase scene and I really liked the final conclusion to the film. It requires the main protagonist using his set of skills (sorry I couldn't resist) to stop Jai Courtneys villain and it's a clever and humorous way to climax everything.

Finally, theres a really cute dog in this film and I just loved it when the dog made an appearance.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film and the big thing to talk about is Liam Neeson. Now I love him and I enjoyed him in this film but I think it's time he stopped doing action films. Its clear he's getting older now and it's getting hard to buy him as someone who can handle himself in a fight. There's scenes where you see he's running like he's trying to keep up and it strains credibility when you later see him falling from buildings and scaling fences. Its frustrating I've come to saying this and the action franchise helped reinvent his career but like Harrison Ford doing another Indiana Jones film, I don't think I want Liam Neeson doing another action film unless it's a really good one.

Onto the negatives now and it's really the script for this film. I just couldn't buy the main characters motivations for handing himself in to the cops and even the way he does it. He meets a woman, wants to spend the rest of his life with her and decides to hand himself in for a life of honesty. That, for me, felt like a really weak motive and just raises a lot of questions. I think it would be more interesting if his girlfriend was his partner in crime who died doing a job and filled with regret and despair, decided to hand himself in after deciding there's nothing left for him. Or something along those lines.

Also he decides to call up the police station and confess all his crimes then. At first that didn't bother me but then it's clear they're not taking him seriously. Why not go down and provide them with evidence to convince them. All this just felt like first draft script that wasn't thought through properly.

Also the tone is very inconsistent. Its an action film but there's odd humour placed in and there's some really drawn out melodramatic scenes that makes this film feel like a romcom as well. The dialogue is also just really hard to take seriously as well during these sort of scenes we listen to liam Neeson tell his girlfriend he doesn't like her health cookies and how much he loves her.

Overall, this is a decent enough film that delivers what you're looking for but it's heavily flawed with bad script issues and tone inconsistencies.

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Hubie Halloween

We have a new Adam Sandler film!!! Yeah I'm not sure if it's worth being happy about but I can say this; this film is just enough to help forget about this year as a whole.

Let's start off with the positives of this film and the best thing about Hubie Halloween is its a really entertaining film. It's never boring and it's what you're looking for if you're in need for some Halloween fun and surprisingly, Adam Sandler seems like he's putting some effort in.

Also I like the concept of a really nice guy trying to save his town from spooky going ons. It's right up my street and though I will elaborate on it later on, I enjoyed what I got from this film.

I also loved the call backs to his early (and best) films. It brings back a lot of nostalgia and I do wish he'd go back to those sort of films. He also reunites with a cast member who was part of my personal favourite film of his.

Onto the mixed aspect and the only thing that comes to mind are the jokes. Now they're are some genuine laughs in this film (Yes I said that right) and I found myself laughing a lot but there's also the usual Adam Sandlerisms in this film as well. Gross out humour and really cringeworthy and drawn out moments so when you watch this, don't expect to see anything new but also expect a couple of laughs.

Onto the negatives now and this biggest problem with this film is it lacks creativity. When you have a Halloween film with Adam Sandler, I was hoping for supernatural elements and inventive stuff but it's basically a slasher film turned into a comedy. No creativity at all, instead it gets more predictable as it goes on and although the film touches on a couple aspects of horror elements, it fails to fully commit to it and passes it off as a joke.

It also has the usual of annoying and bland characters who don't add anything at all to the film except eye rolling and cringeworthy moments. I also hated Adam Sandlers accent which got more annoying as it went on.

Overall whilst this is a fine serviceable Sandler film and is far from his worst film, it's certainly doesn't add anything new.

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Saint Maud

I have a feeling this film will be very divisive amongst audiences because there is a clear difference between quality and entertainment. What I will say about this film though is I think this is the most unique film of 2020.

Starting with the positives, the best thing about this film is the acting from Mofydd Clarke. I have never heard of this actress before but I want to see her in more stuff because she has the capability to play lead roles and carry a film and leaving the audience intrigued. The other actors do a good job but Mofydd Clarke outshines them all.

Also the cinematography is just outstanding. How these scenes are shot, lit and framed at times is just incredible. This is a very well made film and the editing is also fantastic as it helps gives a hint of the lead characters backstory.

What I also liked about the film is its very unpredictable. I had no idea what direction it was going, I had no idea where it was going to end, I just could not predict it at any point at all.

Finally I appreciate the religious themes it tackles as it's heavily centred to the main plot and again, what I saw kept leaving me intrigued. I was never bored and everything that happened stuck in my mind.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film and it's pretty much based on how I started this review off. This film is not for everyone. It goes so far with the religious aspects of it and there's a lot of unsettling scenes. People will see this as an artistic film where others will be soured by the lack of entertainment.

That brings me to my negatives and personally for me, I didn't enjoy this film at all. I was fascinated by it for its quality but on the side of enjoyment, it wasn't there for me. I wasn't the target audience for it.

And whilst I think Mofydd Clarke did a great job, I didn't like her character at all. She's the most annoyingly boring character in film history for me and there's scene where she tries to not to be so boring and for me, that just came across as odd.

This is also a film that was overhyped as the scariest film in years because I didn't find it scary at all. Unsettling, yes. Disturbing, yes. Scary, not at all.

Finally I wasn't a fan of the character Lily Frazer played. Her character felt like she stumbled into the wrong film by accident.

Overall whilst I was definitely intrigued by this film and it has many filmmaking qualities, I can't see myself watching this again.

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Project Power

Netflix has been a great help to watch films but recent ones I watched weren't so good and I didn't want to do a load of reviews for bad films but luckily that changed with project power.

I think what I liked most about this film is the overall story and concept; A pill that gives you superpowers for a limited amount of time which could be anything. It leads to an interesting look at what could happen to the real world if this pill actually existed.

And speaking of the real world, the world building is just interesting to watch. How people adapt, become addicted, deal the pills and the overall reactions to the pills, how different sides respond to them.

And all that helps when you have a strong cast. All the performances are great to watch. It's nice to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a film again and I love seeing Jamie Foxx in pretty much anything. They both play well developed and interesting characters and I really liked Jamie Foxx's characters main story. I was also really impressed Dominique Fishback. I don't remember her in much before and her character is just fun and interesting to watch.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film and the only thing that comes to mind is the action. Now there are times the action is very well staged and looks really good but there's also times where it looks overedited and it looks like people are just flipping over.

Onto the bad now and while I don't have any big problems with the film, I did notice a few misteps. First of all, the tone is inconsistent at times. It can go from sad and serious to this odd comedic moments that feels very out of place.

And the final issue I had was some aspects of the CGI. There's one scene in particular where somebody takes a pill and turns into a giant muscular monster type person and the CGI just looks bad and very cartoonish.

But besides those two negatives, I really enjoyed this film and I would definitely recommend it. It's a fun, enjoyable and interesting film with some good ideas.

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