King’s Halloween: The Shining (1997)

Tonight: The Shining (1997)

This mini-series came out when I was a kid. For some reason, I didn’t watch it, though in school, my teacher at the time used the popularity of this mini-series to discuss foreshadowing. I was confused when my teacher kept talking about a hose when I was familiar with blood coming out of an elevator (thanks to the Simpson’s parody of the movie).

This is the one remake this week that I have actually seen the original version. I watched the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining a couple years ago when I first started getting into King. I was really interested in seeing Jack Nicholson’s performance and I hadn’t put a hold on watching all Stephen King movies yet.

I also haven’t had a chance to read the book yet. I’m only about 3 short chapters in.

So in comparing the two films, this version generally makes more sense and builds over time. Unlike the Kubrick film which had to fit everything into an feature length run time, this series has four and half hours to build up the crippling psyche of Jack Torrence. In this movie, it makes sense that the Torrences are a family. In the original, Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall didn’t seem to have any business being a couple, let alone having a child.

Jack Nicholson going crazy and trying to kill his family seemed like the thing for him to do. Steven Webber on the other hand goes back and forth from being angry and frustrated to being a caring father. Hell, in the middle of yelling for Danny to come downstairs so he can beat him with a croquet mallet, as soon as he sees a bruised and traumatized Danny, he immediately breaks and becomes concerned.

I did a little research and so far as I can tell, this follows a lot closer to the book. I’m honestly surprised that Kubrick even bothered keeping the names of everything the same. Cause he seems to change everything else.

In Kubrick’s movie the Overlook has a hedge maze instead of a Rocque court. The haunted room is 237 instead of 217. Jack tries killing people with an Ax instead of a Rocque mallet. Jack dies from freezing to death instead of making the self sacrifice play by allowing the boiler to explode and taking all the ghosts with him.

Honestly, the biggest thing about this that makes me enjoy it over the original is the ending. I loved that Jack decided to take the hotel down with him. Then we see Jack’s ghost at Danny’s High School Graduation. It is a really touching scene.

Yes, the original movie is a classic and you can’t top Jack Nicholson’s manic ax wielding glee, but this movie feels closer to what the story should be.

The movie is the abridged version that was made by someone who didn’t quite understand the original story and just wanted to make things “scarier.” This version is unabridged made by someone trying to get the real story across.

I will concede that I would have liked to see this version except not made for TV. You can tell they had to dig in on “suspense” because they couldn’t go for gore.

Tomorrow: Speaking of TV remakes that can’t go for gore, we will end Remake Week with probably the worst offender. . .

King’s Halloween: ‘Salem’s Lot (2004)

Tonight: ‘Salem’s Lot (2004)

This TV miniseries inspired my first attempt at entering the realm of Stephen King. I saw trailers for an upcoming miniseries on TNT called “Salem’s Lot.” I knew absolutely nothing about it, but it looked neat and had a cool name. For some reason I never watched it. Just one of those things that came and went without me actually seeing it.

I was still intrigued by the title, so when I saw a book at my local grocery store that was a three in one hardcover of Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. Due to my need to do things in order, I decided to read Carrie first. I thought it was okay, and then I moved on to the reason I ACTUALLY bought the book.

I got about 30-40 pages in and BOOM find several pages missing. How crappy is that?!? Then, the final nail in the coffin was that I found out the book was about VAMPIRES! At this point, I was very much against vampires. I was actually not aware that Stephen King did normal monsters at the time. I later became equally surprised he did a werewolf story. But that is for another time.

So I put ‘Salem’s Lot out of my mind for almost a decade and a half. Then the Tower. . .

I ended up reading ‘Salem’s Lot last year in my effort to read the Dark Tower series. I absolutely loved it. Never judge a book by its cover, but I think a title might be well worth investigating. Probably why I am in no hurry to read Tommyknockers.

So on to the actual mini-series. The casting director’s budget had to be EXTERMELY lopsided. You have PHENOMENAL actors Like Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, and James Cromwell, and even some lower level, but still very enjoyable actors like Rob Lowe and Captain Holt. Then you have a bunch of actors there just to stand on the right spot and say the line.

Honestly, I like this series. . .until they made one crucial change, and I hated them for it. James Cromwell is an AMAZING choice for Father Callahan. For anyone who has read the Dark Tower series, you know that Father Callahan is a badass, yes in the book he has a fall from grace due to his alcoholism and loss of faith, but his road to redemption is full on vampire hunter.

Instead, they turn Father Callahan into an outright villain. Loss of faith is one thing, but he murders people. He works for Barlow. He leads the vampire horde after Barlow is killed. Then to top it off he gives a crappy “DAMN YOU TO HELL!” speech at the end. Before getting snuffed out with a pillow. Screw you movie. I will concede that Wolves of the Calla was released only about half a year before the mini series came out, but I really really don’t care for it.

The only change that I actually really enjoyed was the death of the Doctor. In the book, he goes down a set of weakened stairs and falls onto a bed of spikes. In this he falls onto a running buzzsaw. Which is just brutal and at the same time awesome!

The Vampires were okay in this movie. Really, all they did was give them pale makeup and ghostly white eyes. It works for the most part, but I have seen some clips of the original ‘Salem’s Lot and the effects there look more otherworldly.

I would say it isn’t bad, definitely worth a watch.

Tomorrow: Lets go from one mini series that came out when I was a kid to another, with The Shining.

King’s Halloween: Carrie (2013)

Tonight: Carrie (2013)

With the continuation of Remake Week, I once again am looking to defend Barney Stinson’s famous line. . .

I have the feeling I might be the only person in the world who is going to try to give this movie a fair shot. The first Carrie movie is SO well known and loved that EVERYONE compares it to the original. I haven’t seen the original, so no comparisons to make.

Carrie was the first Stephen King novel I ever read. I bought a three book collection when I was in High School that contained Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. I originally really wanted to read ‘Salem’s Lot, but I figured I could read the other two as well. Carrie ended up being the only one I ended up reading, for reasons I’ll get into with ‘Salem’s Lot.

I thought the book was good, but it certainly didn’t inspire me to get into the rest of Stephen King’s works. That was done by the Tower.

One thing I CONSTANTLY hear in relation to this movie is that the actress who plays Carrie is “too attractive to be believable as Carrie.” I’m sorry, that’s bulls***. You are never too attractive to be an outcast and shamed in High School. Especially if you have been stunted by a parent who is freaking insane.

Also I would like to point out in the novel, Carrie was overweight. They weren’t brave enough to cast an overweight girl in 1976, why are we crapping on them for making the same decision in 2013?

So, after watching this, without seeing the original, I think it’s fine. I would actually say I enjoyed it. I like most of the actors in it and among the Teenagers, I am happy with the revenge scene. They got what was coming.

This movie has a LOT of disturbing imagery. Carrie’s birth, Carrie’s Mother constant self harm, and Carrie’s “Aunt Erma” visit. When we get to the prom scene, it just gets cathartic when she freaking UNLEASHES. I liked it.

The actress who plays Carrie is naturally attractive, but she does a great job looking homely and like a girl who would be picked on in high school. I would say that Carrie works very well with the other teen actors and school officials, but I would say Carrie and her mother don’t quite pull it off. Which is problematic.

Carrie and her mother is one of the central story points of Carrie. If you can’t believe the stress and antagonism between Carrie and her Mother, it weakens it. That would be, in my opinion, the only weakness of this movie. Everything else works. Maybe when I see the original I will come back to this movie and call it garbage like everyone else, but for me right now, this is a good movie.

Tomorrow Night: The miniseries that actually inspired me to read Carrie was Rob Lowe’s ‘Salem’s Lot.

King’s Halloween: Pet Sematary (2019)

Tonight: Pet Sematary (2019)

So I figured I would start this whole shebang with the REMAKES of Stephen King movies, because like Barney Stinson always says. . .

Worked for IT, so it MUST work for the others too, right? RIGHT?!?

When I decided to do this, Pet Sematary and it’s remake were both ones I labeled AVOID AT ALL COSTS! I didn’t want to deal with dead cats or babies. Too much high octane nightmare fuel for me.

However, I decided that I should pull up my big boy diapers and watch them both. I also ended up reading the book.

My thoughts on the book: Louis Creed DOUBLES F***ING DOWN! When he brought the cat back, he had no idea what he was doing. When he brought his kid back, he had the warning of the cat, the warning of the OTHER guy brought back, and the spirits telling him not to do it. Then after he re-kills his murderous son, he then DOUBLES DOWN AGAIN and brings back his wife. Dumbass.

So I started watching the remake, and within a half hour, I was already mad. Instead of the cat dying while Ellie was away for Thanksgiving, it was killed during Halloween. And Judd, for no reason at all decides to bring it back to life. In the book he did it because Louis helped Judd’s wife when she was having a heart attack. On top of all that, Louis tells Rachel that the cat is dead, so instead of “the soil in a man’s heart is hard” everyone knows that cat SHOULD be dead.

Then it turns out ALL the animals that come back, come back mean. So, what the hell! This becomes less fluke and more just feeding a bad machine.

Also, Louis is an asshole. He drugs an old man and leaves him on the front lawn. At least have the decency to drag him into the house.

This movie wasted John Lithgow. He could have been an EXCELLENT Judd, but he gets very little screen time, and is given just a bad version of Judd. Judd in the book tried to do the right thing and do things for the right reasons. But in this he helps bring a cat back with noted evidence that it is a bad hand.

The big twist from the book and previous movie is that Gage gets saved, but Ellie gets hit by the truck. Well, the Truck veers and the trailer ends up grinding to a halt with JUST enough force to kill a 9 year old girl on her birthday. They even do it in slow motion which makes you think, “How does this have enough force to kill?” But whatever, I don’t know the amount of force needed to kill a 9 year old girl, so I leave it to the experts.

She is brought back and actually waits a night before going on her killing spree. That’s the difference between boys and girls, boys get straight to the killing, girls will give a nights sleep before going on the murder spree.

For some reason they decided to give Rachel a tortured psyche in this movie. In the book she is haunted by the death of her sister, but this is Shining level torture. She keeps seeing her dead sister pop up everywhere. Results in probably the highest jump in my heartrate when she opens the medicine cabinet, to find a dumbwaiter chute and looking around sees her sister falling to her death, jump scare style. Earned a swear from me.

So the climax of the movie has Dead Ellie kill her mother, drag her to the cursed graveyard and then decides to have the final showdown with Louis Creed. She gets a few good shots in, but Louis gets the upper hand and just before he is about to go Shovel Knight on Dead Ellie, Dead Rachel pulls the back stab for critical damage. Then they bury him and the Dead Family go get Gage who has died from being left in a hot car. The end.

Now, there IS an alternate ending. Instead of Dead Ellie burying Rachel, Louis catches up before she buries Rachel and the same fight goes down. But when Louis is about to decapitate Ellie, he changes his mind and goes against his wife’s last wish and buries her exactly where she didn’t want to be buried. Then Louis and Ellie go back home, get Gage and then wait for Dead Rachel to come home. She does and there is just a very unnerving scene of them standing together and the camera slowly pulls away.

I would say the alternate ending is MUCH better than what they went with in the theatrical release. Don’t think it fixes the movie, but definitely is better.

I would say if you want to like this movie, Don’t read the book. It will make you mad.

Tomorrow: Let’s keep the stream of creepy scary women going with Carrie (2013).

King’s Halloween

I am not a fan of horror. I generally go for comedies, action movies, and when possible, action comedies. I generally avoid horror movies because I don’t see the joy in getting scared and being bombarded by jump scares. Also they tend to have bleak endings that don’t necessarily end with good triumphing over evil. Usually the last survivor starts to ride into the sunset, only for the sunset to eat them.

As a result, I generally avoided the “Master of Horror” Stephen King. He already had scared the crap out me and most other children of the 90’s with Tim Curry’s IT, so I wasn’t willing to subject myself to much more.

By the time I turned 30, I had only read a few Stephen King Books, and seen a few Stephen King movies. I had read Carrie, the Green Mile, and The Regulators, and seen Stand By Me and Green Mile. At the time, I didn’t even realize either of the movies were Stephen King.

For the most part, I considered Stephen King the “default” answer that people gave when asked who is their favorite author. Kind of like the Beatles are with music. Just the mainstream common denominator.

However, 2 years ago we started getting trailers and information for the movie, “The Dark Tower.” I had previously heard of the Dark Tower series before, but knowing it was “Stephen King” I knew it would be scary and depressing and I wouldn’t like it. In fact, I was fairly convinced that the “Gunslinger” mentioned in the title of the first book would die in the first book and we would be following around the kid he encounters in the first book.

But the more I looked into The Dark Tower, the more I became enthralled with everything. I love interconnected universes. The idea that EVERYTHING in Stephen King’s novels is connected really intrigued me. In that first year I read more Stephen King Novels and watched more Stephen King movies than I had in the 30 years prior.

Last year I was in a bind to figure out what to do for a October marathon. On October 1st, I was brainstorming and I came up with 2 ideas. 1. Watch as many Bad Horror/Halloween movies as I could find, 2. Watch as many Stephen King movies as I can. Due to the release of The Legend of HallowHawaiian, I went with the bad movies. And for that I was damned.

But I figured this would give me time to read a bunch of the books so I could compare them to the movies and write better reviews.

I have not managed to read all that many books, and in fact the books I HAVE read, I’ve already seen the movies, so no help there.

So like the years before, I have some rules. These are all going to be movies I have NOT seen before. So unfortunately none of these movies make the list:
The Dark Tower
The Dead Zone
The Green Mile
ANY of the IT movies
The Running Man
The Shining (1980)
Stand By Me
The Stand

What pisses me off most is that IT: Chapter 2 came out last month and Doctor Sleep comes out next month. They would have been AWESOME to put on the list.

So tomorrow night we begin KING’S HALLOWEEN with Pet Semetary(2019)

Judy (2019)

This Week: Judy (2019)

So with Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman paving the way for musical biopics, I had high hopes for Judy. I went in expecting the story of Judy Garland’s life. And maybe some decent musical numbers along the way.

Well, you don’t really get that. You get the final performances of Judy Garland’s life. She ends up taking a 5 week gig in London and it shows the struggles she has with pills, sleep, and finding the will to perform.

It briefly flashes back to her life when she was 15, but only a spot here or there where you can see how she turned into what she was in the end.

We get a good rendition of Over the Rainbow at the end. Then it mentions her death 6 months later.

Although the acting by Renee Zellweger is phenomenal, and everything is very professionally done, it doesn’t seem much more than a Lifetime movie. Save for the singing.

I would have just liked more of Judy Garland’s life. Gotten a whole story instead of just the end.

Maybe with Judy Garland, there is just too much story to tell.

Next Week: Joker. And other things. . .

Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

This Week: Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

So in 2015 when Furious 7 came out, I ended up burning through all the Fast & Furious movies that I hadn’t seen. I saw The Fast and The Furious at one point during my first run at college. Then when I went back to school in 2009, I ended up buying a collection of Fast and Furious movies out at the time, which I think went up to Fast and Furious. I watched 2 Fast 2 Furious then avoided watching ANY of the other movies because I hated it.

So I burned through Tokyo Drift to Fast 6(or whatever) in about a week. I even posted mini reviews for the movies. I actually finished watching the very end of Fast 6 AS the opening credits for Furious 7 was starting.

I had planned on seeing F8 of the Furious in theaters, but just didn’t. Then I kept hearing all the behind the scenes drama and just put it off forever.

When I started hearing about Hobbs & Shaw, I initially thought it was a stupid idea. Then I saw the trailers and thought it looked pretty entertaining.

Then I started hearing more behind the scenes nonsense about negotiations for screen time and time looking “bad ass.” I am really getting tired of all this behind the scenes crap.

However, I decided that I was going to see Hobbs & Shaw, so I needed to go ahead and see F8 of the Furious.

F8 of the Furious Review: It was okay. Ultimately I am tapped out on Vin Diesel. I have never cared much for him in the movies, and his whole talk of “Family” is annoying as hell. I felt it was kind of weak writing to kill off Vin Diesel’s son’s mother just to make it easier on Vin and his wife that forgot she was married to him last movie. It was neat to see Vin VS the Team, but it was kind of meh over all.

Now on to Hobbs and Shaw.

I gotta say, this was more fun for me than the other films. Mainly because the impulse to bring in as many cars as possible was taken out. Yes there were a few car chase scenes, but they felt organic. They were based on escape, not “let’s over complicate this mission by doing EVERYTHING from the seat of your car. I think the action was great and RYAN F***ING REYNOLDS! Stabs a guy with an effing BRICK!

I will say that despite the behind the scenes nonsense, I did not feel it impact the film. Unlike in F8 of the Furious where the behind the scenes drama clearly impacted the film and made scenes awkward.

I don’t think I have THAT much more to say, it’s a Fast and Furious movie. It is action, and we get a decent villain in Idris Elba, because he is generally always good. He’s Black Superman!

It’s fun, check it out. Stay for after credits scenes.

Next Week: Judy. Yeah, I managed to sneak one more in.

IT: Chapter 2 (2019)

This Week: IT: Chapter 2 (2019)

So. . .between seeing IT (2017) and seeing this movie, I ended up reading the book. I had considered reading the book a few times, but the length always cleared me off and when I considered listening to the audiobook, I nixed that idea immediately because I was worried they would monkey with the audio. However, after reading Stephen King’s The Stand, IT became fairly light reading by comparison. So I knew a lot more going into this movie than I did the last one.

So well before I could be amazed by the story and the effects, now I was stuck comparing the movie to the book. Brilliant plan, TK!

I actually really enjoyed this movie. The first movie just had the most amazing cast as far as the kids went, and then having to recast them as adults is just an impossible task. But amazingly, they all work out very well. I would say the absolute BEST of the casting was Eddie. Others you can sort of see the younger version sort of looking like the older version, but Eddie is carbon copy. I had to double check that they WEREN’T father and son. Richie may have been my favorite of the last movie, but Eddie was my favorite this time.

Another casting decision I need to bring up is the adult version of Ben. All the other actors seemed like great casting choices because they looked a lot like the younger actors or they were James McAvoy. However, for Ben’s actor, it seemed they went out and got a male model. I kind of expected all the other actors to be talking about how terrified they were of Pennywise and then it gets to Ben and he’s like the Rock in Jumanji.

But honestly, he does a great job. The older and younger actor even have similar eyes.

Before we get much further, probably a good idea to throw up a spoiler warning, for both the movie AND the book.

So as I mentioned, I now had the burden of knowledge going into IT: Chapter 2. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. There was some major differences between the book and the movie (besides the time periods). One of the big factors is outside of briefly appearing in the beginning of the movie, Bill and Beverly’s spouses do not show up again. In the book, they both end up coming to Derry and end up taken by Pennywise. In the movie, they chastise their respective spouse and that’s it.

And for the most part, I’m okay with that. Except for one little, tiny detail that they change. And it drives me crazy for the entire run of the movie.

In the book, Beverly’s husband is an abusive controlling asshole. He hates the fact that Beth smokes and beats her every time she lights up around him. In fact, when Beth gets the call to return to Derry, she is so wrapped up, that she lights up right in front of him and he decides he is going to whip her with his belt. She then remembers she had the strength to take down motherf***ing Pennywise and ended beating this asshat all over the house with his own damn belt.

In the movie, Beverly’s husband plays up that he is a good and caring guy before he then grabs her and accuses her of cheating on him with this “Mike” guy who called. She then hits him with a vase and runs off and he screams after her.

That’s it.

I initially wrote it off that they didn’t want to show smoking in the movie due to the strict regulations surrounding use of tobacco in movies and television. But then you see Beverly light up half a dozen times in the movie. Each time she did it, I grumbled in my seat about belts.

I honestly would have happily made the movie another 10-20 minutes longer just to get a satisfying asswhooping of Bev’s husband with a belt. It would have made me so happy.

There is some debate between which of these movies is scarier. My vote is this one, but there are some factors that make this one scarier for me than it necessarily would be for others. I have a deep seated fear of dead/ghostly women. The classic Lady in White ghosts and specters are my high octane nightmare fuel. It’s one of the reasons you don’t see a review of The Curse of La Llarona on this site.

So when Beverly goes to her old apartment and encounters
, I end up freaking out in my seat.

Also young Beverly with her hair on fire chasing young Ben also sent my heart rate into danger zones.

One of the big things everyone is talking about is the ending. Hell, in the very beginning they lampshade that the book ending sucks and that they want to change it for the movie by having everyone, even Stephen King, telling Bill that he can’t write a good ending.

There are three major changes to the ending. Two of them I am okay with, one of them I am disappointed by.

The ritual of chud doesn’t work, and they have to insult Pennywise to death. I’m kind of fine with this because the book is weird on this front. I just don’t believe this can work in a movie. Because in the book it seems like Bill and Richie kind of Astral Project to the edge of the macroverse and kind of out will IT as Ben goes egg smashing. It is a very abstract thing that would be difficult to put into a movie.
Everyone remembers everything. In the book, after Pennywise is defeated, people go back to not remembering what happened in Derry. Bev and Ben hook up and forget. Nobody can remember Stanley or Eddie’s names. Life moves on. Now, they state that the reason they forgot the first time was due to IT making them forget. Now they remember everything and get to keep it. Ultimately, I’m fine with this because it kind of negates a tragedy in the book of the dead characters being forgotten completely.
Derry is not destroyed following the death of IT. In the book, part of what was holding Derry together was IT’s presence. After IT is destroyed, an earthquake rocks Derry and ends up destroying about a third of it and killing hundreds of people. In the movie, just the house on Neibolt street is destroyed. I would have liked the massive destruction at the end, but nobody asked for my input. Also I think it would have taken away the last shot of the Loser’s club all together.

Ultimately I think it is a great movie and although it makes some significant changes, I think it captures the spirit of the novel very well.

Next Week: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Ampersands at FULL POWER!

Blinded by the Light (2019)

This Week: Blinded by the Light (2019)

So I have been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I keep referring to it as “The Bruce Springsteen Movie.” To preface, I know next to nothing about Bruce Springsteen. I did not even know his nickname was “The Boss” until I saw the trailer of the Customs Agent calling Bruce Springsteen’s hometown, “The Home of the Boss!” I am aware of him, of course. I love “Born in the USA” just like everybody else. I even have my favorite Bruce Springsteen song, “Lucky Town.” But that is about the extent of my Bruce Springsteen knowledge. Fortunately, this movie is willing to expose people to “The Boss” through one of his most obsessive fans.

I absolutely love this movie. It perfectly captures someone becoming completely obsessed with something and incorporating it into his worldview and everything he does. I can also say if I was friends with the main character, I would HATE Bruce Springsteen. Seriously, almost every other sentence out of this kid is “Bruce Says” or is speak-singing a line from one of Bruce Springsteen’s songs. Which speaking as someone who tends to get obsessed with stuff, is not too far off. When I was in high school, I discovered the joys of football and no one was spared the constant football metaphors.

And if you thought the US had a monopoly on Racism and hatred of immigrants, we learned it from watching our parent country. Some of the Pakistani families have to have plastic over their interior door mat because apparently it is a regular occurrence for children to pee through their mail slot. This is how people had to live! Also a wedding parade gets ruined due to a white supremacy parade occurring right outside the Mosque it was going to be held in.

Although it is kind of built up as a “Springsteen Movie” it is really a story about growing up in England as a second generation Pakistani immigrant and finding a way to cope with your feelings through music. One of the most visceral scenes in the movie is where Javed, the main character, begins listening to Bruce Springsteen for the first time.

If you haven’t just lost yourself in music that seems to perfectly echo your feelings, then this will be entirely lost on you. But as someone who was a teenager with DEEP emotions and lots of bands willing to get rich off of pandering to these DEEP DEEP emotions of being an ugly lonely kid, I definitely felt this scene. With my DEEP emotions.

One thing I didn’t really understand is why this movie was called Blinded By the Light. Blinded by the Light only gets partially played once. Yes, the speech at the VERY end of the movie references the song and explains why it was titled that, but I think “The Promised Land” would have been a MUCH better title. It is the song that gets played SEVERAL times during the movie and is the song that has the deep emotional connection with Javed. It also ties in a lot better with an immigrant family moving to England in order to get a better life and that life getting pulled out from under them by racism.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie and I recommend most people need to see it, just for the historical perspective alone. Especially how it seems to be echoing along today.

So two more movies left. One with a Hint of things to come. . .

Next Week: It: Chapter 2.

Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood (2019)

This Week: Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood

So Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors that my first impulse is to not want to watch the movie. Or at least that is how it was for me when I was younger. I’m not sure how much younger, but as a note, this is my FIRST Quentin Tarantino film to see in theaters. For movies like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Kill Bill, this makes sense, because I wasn’t old enough to see those movies in theaters. However I was a man grown when Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight came out. Each of those I waited until they were streaming before watching. Hateful Eight, I still haven’t seen, even though that was the first one I wanted to see from the get go.

I am not a fan of gore for gore’s sake. I avoid movies like Saw, Hostel, or Human Centipede. I am not a fan of torture. Quentin Tarantino is very well known for violence, blood, and torture scenes. No matter how many movies I watch of Quentin Tarantino, I am always worried that THIS will be the one that I can’t tolerate due to the violence and gore crossing a line.

But once I actually WATCH the films, I love them. Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained are my favorites. The gore and violence are just fun and not the trauma I am expecting to bill my therapist for. Maybe I should FINALLY give From Dusk till Dawn a try.

Maybe later.

Now to Once Upon a Time in. . . Hollywood. I’m going to admit, while I was watching the movie, I was kind of bored and wondering when the movie was going to start. In fact, one of the more interesting bits was a cockroach that was walking across the bannister in front of me. The couple next to me actually took a picture of it. Then they decided they didn’t want to watch this movie with the cockroach and walked out.

I’m just glad my wife wasn’t there with me or else I would not know how this movie ended.

Honestly it is a bunch of fun scenes that are pieced together, but no real narrative comes together. The narrator basically tells us how Rick and Cliff are experiencing their respective careers, but there really isn’t a story until the very end. Even then it is just something that is dropped in Rick and Cliff’s laps and they barely know what is going on due to being high and drunk.

Although I was initially kind of bored and wondered when the movie would start coming together, by the end I wanted to know what happened next in the lives of Cliff and Rick. And like most Quentin Tarantino movies, the most fun is thinking about all the awesome dialogue and scenes afterwards.

Time for a Spoiler warning. . .

You know between this movie and Inglorious Basterds, I’m beginning to wonder how many of the historic tragedies have been averted or set right in the Tarantino-verse. Was 9/11 averted? Columbine? The trailers and story sort of hint at Sharon Tate being a more central role in the movie, but she is sort of just a side story of little consequence. In fact, due to her murderers getting yelled at in the street, her significance is practically cut completely out by her, you know, not getting murdered.

Hey I said Spoilers.

Anywho, once you realize there isn’t a tight cohesive narrative and series of events leading up to a thrilling climax, and realize it is just a couple of weekends in the life of a has been actor and his stunt double, it is a fun movie. I recommend it.

Next Week: Blinded by the Light, but first DISNEY WORLD!(While, after I saw Once Upon a Time in. . .Hollywood, I then went to Disneyworld, but that was back in August. But still)