Author: Caillou Pettis

Dark Fate – Caillou’s Take. In Mexico City, a newly modified liquid Terminator — the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) model — arrives from the future to kill a young factory worker named Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Also sent back in time is Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a hybrid cyborg human who must protect Ramos from the seemingly indestructible robotic assassin. But the two women soon find some much-needed help from a pair of unexpected allies — seasoned warrior Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

It would not be a stretch to say that James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator is one of the most influential science fiction action films ever put on screen. It changed so much in the field and inspired a generation of filmmakers and also spawned a number of sequels in the now iconic Terminator film franchise.

In my opinion, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is quite simply one of the greatest action movies ever made. That film took what made the first installment so great and improved upon it in all the right ways. It made the initial villain the strangely fitting hero, fleshed out series protagonist Sarah Connor, and managed to sprinkle in some emotional moments here and there as well, mainly with the dynamic of John Connor (Edward Furlong) and Schwarzenegger’s T-800.

Ever since those two initial films, we have gotten a couple of follow-up films, but none of them have ever been able to capture the spirit and incredible fun that those original movies brought. Salvation had some potential but ultimately fell flat and Genisys was a jarring and supremely messy picture that did not have a lot to offer unfortunately.

Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate aims to fix this by ignoring every single film in the franchise besides the first two. This is something that David Gordon Green did with his 2018 film Halloween, as he only made the original 1978 John Carpenter directed film canon to that film’s story.

Miller, who previously directed the excellent and gut-bustingly hilarious Deadpool, offers some great direction here. This is the most competently helmed Terminator picture since Judgment Day, by far. Dark Fate does seem like it has a vision and it feels like Miller knows what he is doing, and he is absolutely not the problem here. The problem here is the story and the script.

Dark Fate feels so similar to The Terminator and its sequel that at times it gets extremely stale rather fast. In the first film, Sarah Connor was an innocent girl being hunted by a deadly machine known as the T-800. This time around, Dani Ramos is an innocent girl being hunted by a deadly machine known as the Rev-9. In fact, the movie itself seems to acknowledge this when Grace asks Sarah why she wants to help protect Dani, she responds “Because I was her.” It seems like the movie was trying to be self-aware but instead, it just felt like it admitted that its the same plot we have seen numerous times in the past, and better.

When it comes to the action set pieces in Dark Fate, they are extremely impressively put together, and all of the action in this film is by far the strongest aspect. There are plenty of close-combat fights as well as the Terminator vs. Terminator fights that we have grown attached to over the years. Machine-killing chaos has never been so fun, and the action present is the best in the franchise since Judgment Day. In all honesty, that is one of the biggest praises I can give this film – it is, for the most part, really well-paced. We almost always have something fun unfolding on-screen, which ensures that the viewer is kept entertained most of the time. There are some moments in the second act that do drag, but it usually tries to keep moving.

All of the performances are also quite strong here as well, particularly Linda Hamilton in the shoes of her iconic character Sarah Connor, as well as Mackenzie Davis as new character Grace. There really is no weak actor in this movie, although there are most certainly some that stand out more than others. More than likely, a lot of Terminator fans are greatly excited to see Schwarzengger back on the big screen as the T-800, and he is quite fun to watch in this film. The only unfortunate thing is that he barely has any screen time, and it seems like the movie did not have that good of an excuse to bring him back, except for fan service.

Terminator: Dark Fate offers thrilling action and terrific performances. What prevents it from being good, sadly, is its recycled plot and messy script.

When Auna Rue (Ema Horvath) transfers to a prestigious new acting school, she encounters a malevolent spirit after participating in a viral challenge.

Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff’s 2015 feature The Gallows was one that was met with a wave of negative reviews from the critics and audiences were not too keen on it either. I was among one of the many people that thought it was a cheap cash-grab with an extremely messy story, and riddled with jump scares.

However, I thought that the concept was genuinely amazing and I was so disappointed that they really did not do anything with it. The whole idea of the movie was brilliant, and with a much better script, The Gallows could have been a horrifying and disturbing motion picture that lingered with viewers long after their initial watch.

It is strange that this 2019 follow-up, The Gallows Act II, has practically no marketing campaign whatsoever. It is not like the original film did not make money, because it did. With a budget of $100,000, the movie managed to earn an incredibly impressive $43 million at the box office.

The marketing campaign this time around was practically nonexistent, with only one poster being released and the first official trailer was only released one month ago, which is surprising considering the fact this sequel is being released this Friday. It is interesting to note though that this film is being released in theatres as well as on demand on the same day.

Sadly, it is extremely easy to see why this film is going straight to demand on that day, becausethat is exactly what The Gallows Act II feels like – a straight to demand movie that you watch once with your friends and never want to watch again.

Just like the predecessor, this movie has jumpscares that happen way too much, and they are never scary. The concept of a jumpscare itself is not something scary, but rather startling. When you get startled, it is usually because of something happening sudden, in front of your face, or maybe you hear something really loud all of a sudden.

Getting genuinely scared is a completely different feeling. Truly scary horror movies earn their scares by building tension and all of the horrifying scenes we watch unfold are scary because, a lot of the time, they feel like they could actually happen. For example, in 2018’s Hereditary, we quite literally watch the entire family fall apart due to the film’s horrific events that happen around them, and it is terrifiying to watch.

This movie’s idea of scaring its audience is having a character suddenly appear in frame numerous times, and a whole plethora of “false” jumpscares. These jumpscares would not be as bad, if the jump scare was something that could actually threaten the protagonist. But they are never anything to be afraid of. Something falling off of a countertop or something along those lines is a really annoying false jumpscare.

In addition, The Gallows Act II‘s biggest issue is without a doubt its script. Not too much happens in this picture surprisingly, considering it is nearly an hour and forty minutes in length. A large portion of the movie is characters talking to one another, and this would be a good thing if the film was building up to its scares, but it never does. Its scares are few and far between and its storyline is extremely messy and jumbled, not to mention cliché. Whereas the first movie had a massively unique concept, this movie feels like something we have seen numerous times in the past, and better.

Plus, the ending of this movie is one that will most definitely anger many of its viewers, even the ones that did not enjoy the ride, like myself. Let me just say this – if you were a fan of the movie leading up to the last act, you will no longer be a fan of it come the final scene.

Gratefully, there is one thing to praise here, and it is Ema Horvath’s performance as the main protagonist Auna Rue. For the duration of the film, I actually did feel some sympathy for her character in some crucial sequences and she delivers a raw performance. In some moments, her acting is truly great and it makes you wonder how she has only ever acted in one feature film before this one. Horvath is a terrific actress but I just wish she was in a better movie.

The Gallows Act II is a disaster on almost all levels. Its script is jumbled and clichéd, has an abundance of jumpscares, and has a maddening ending that makes the rest of the film seem pointless.

The Lighthouse: The BRWC Review

Two lighthouse keepers named Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

Every once in a while, a film comes along that just gives you pure chills when watching it. While watching it, you know you are watching something that is going to go down as a favorite movie of yours for the next couple of years, or maybe even forever. Sometimes, a film can be so strange, mysterious, and downright bizarre, but you know whatever it is you just watched, was something that you enjoyed.

Robert Eggers’ 2015 feature film debut The Witch was most certainly one of those movies for me. Going into it, I did not have a clue as to what it was about or who was in it. I had just heard it was an excellent horror feature with a unique approach and chilling effect that leaves the viewer haunted long after the credits roll. Not only was The Witch one of the best horror films released that year, but it is one of the greatest of the decade.

You can probably imagine then how excited I was to watch Egger’s new follow-up The Lighthouse, which had garnered even more praise than his predecessor at various festivals such as Cannes. It was clear the moment the titlecard and the two lead actors appeared that I was in for a treat, and I definitely was, because The Lighthouse not only surpasses The Witch on virtually every level, but it is one of the best films of the entire year so far.

So many times you hear a certain actor is good in a particular movie, but when you get around to watching it finally, you sometimes feel like the hype behind them was a bit overblown. I have felt this way when watching some movies in the past, too. But when it comes to Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe here – believe the hype. These two actors are nothing short of mesmerizing in every single scene that they are in. They sell every scene, and it is not an easy task to act in this movie as so much is asked of them. There are some sequences later on in the picture that a wide variety of actors would not be able to pull off or make it seem convicing, but Pattinson and Dafoe do. They almost make it seem effortless.

Throughout the film, we learn bits and pieces about their characters Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, and their development throughout is extremely interesting. Every time of the men opens up to one another, it was an incredibly suspenseful, sometimes funny, but always intriguing moment. There are two sequences in particular in this movie in which Pattinson and Dafoe go on long rants and the acting in these scenes are utterly brilliant. If the two of them do not get nominated for Academy Awards come awards season, it would be the biggest travesty since Toni Collette not being nominated for her masterful work in Ari Aster’s Hereditary. The other big travesty would be if Florence Pugh gets snubbed for Midsommar. Here’s hoping the Academy finally starts to notice horror as a legitimate genre that has true talent working in it.

Something interesting about The Lighthouse is that the entire film is presented in black and white and is in the 1.19 : 1 aspect ratio. We really do not see movies presented in these formats these days, and it is such a welcomed addition here. To be completely honest, I think if the picture was shot in full color and with the standard aspect ratio, it would not have been as effective.

Speaking of the technical aspects, the cinematography present is some of the best of the entire year. It is shot by Jarin Blaschke, who previously served as director of photography on Egger’s aforementioned The Witch. Every frame of the film is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and everything is framed perfectly. That mixed with Mark Korven’s haunting score, and the smooth, effective editing by Louise Ford make this film dazzling.

Finally, one of my favorite aspects of the film is that it is most definitely going to stir up numerous theories online about what the entire story meant and I am sure people are going to dig extremely deep into everything, because this film is surely scattered with interesting tidbits that are easy to miss on the initial viewing. The ending is one that will stick with me for a long time, much like some of my favorite horror movies of all time.

Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) travels to a grand old castle to celebrate young Aurora’s (Elle Fanning) upcoming wedding to Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson). While there, she meets Aurora’s future mother-in-law — a conniving queen who hatches a devious plot to destroy the land’s fairies. Hoping to stop her, Maleficent joins forces with a seasoned warrior and a group of outcasts to battle the queen and her powerful army.

The first Maleficent film was one that I was honestly not too sure what I would end up thinking of it. I only watched it for the first time this year and it was originally released back in 2014 and since its release, I had not heard too many people discussing the film to this day.

But I ended up giving it a chance and I ended up thinking that it was actually a good movie. It boasted an amazing performance from Angelina Jolie as the titular character, had some exciting action sequences and the story was one that captivated my interest for the most part. After my initial viewing of that movie, my anticipation for the upcoming sequel grew.

When it comes to that original picture, one of the things that I enjoyed about it a lot was Elle Fanning’s performance as Aurora, which many others thought was weak and non-interesting. In Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, there are times where Aurora feels like the main character, despite the title having Maleficent’s name in it.

A large portion of this story focuses on Aurora and Prince Phillips’ wedding and the dangers and threats that come with their eventual wedding date. Tensions begin to rise among certain people which culminates in a heavily interesting and thrilling story, and one that I was unsure of how it would go down.

Fanning is asked to do a lot with just her facial expressions this time around, and she blew me away. Her acting is truly amazing here, and I think others will agree this time around. There is one sequence in the third act where she cries, and it looked one hundred percent real and convincing. It did not sound like Aurora was crying, it sounded like Fanning was crying.

Naturally, Jolie is terrific in her titular role once more in this follow-up. Since the events of the predecessor, her life has changed and she is a different, and most importantly, better person since the death of King Stefan and since she has continued to raise Aurora as her daughter. During the second act of Mistress of Evil, Maleficent is faced with a new, mysterious group of people, and this entire subplot was one that was eerie and thought-provoking. Just like Fanning, certain scenes ask her to do a lot with her facial expressions and she pulls it off and makes it look so easy. Sometimes, Jolie will say one line but it carries so much meaning. If any other actress was playing the character of Maleficent, it would not work as well. Jolie is perfect for this role.

A ton of people are going to drive out to their local theatres to see this movie in hopes of some high adrenaline, family-friendly action, and if you are looking for this, you are in luck. When it comes to PG rated action, this is some of the best you can watch. Mistress of Evil contains some of the best action sequences ever put in a live-action Disney film, with a lot of the action being legitimately impressive. Something that surprised me about it was that some of it was character centered. Certain characters are involved in the action and have to find their way to avoid death and there was many scenes that were full of tension.

One of the biggest problems that I had with the original Maleficent was the computer-generated imagery. It was a big mixed bag for me. Some of it, like the ending dragon scene, was quite impressive and nice to look at. However, on the other hand, there was some CGI that looked awful, most notably, three little fairy characters that looked extaordinarily jarring and off-putting.

Gratefully, this time around, almost all of the computer-generated imagery is gorgeous to look at, and there are barely any scenes where the CGI looks bad. The three little fairy characters do return unfortunately, and the CGI on them still looks jarring, but luckily, they are barely in the movie. The visual effects in this movie overall greatly impressed me.

This movie is not perfect, however. In fact, if you really wanted to, you could honestly pick apart a lot of this film and find little gripes and nitpicks along the way. One of the biggest issues with Mistress of Evil is the script at times. A lot of the time, the script can get messy and a bit all over the place. The first act is actually kind of a drag to get through upon first viewing. The reason why is it’s a setup act. It exists to create conflict between certain characters, introduce the real plot of the movie, and set up motives. After that first act though, the other two that follow are exceptionally exciting and are filled with fun moments along the way that will satisfy many viewers, especially fans of the first film.

Another issue is in relation to the main antagonist of the film. As far as I am aware, the main villain of the film is not known to the public, so I will not mention who portrays the villain here, just in case you do not know. All I will say is that the villain at times has a motive that you think you understand, but then at other times, it seems like they have absolutely no motive, and it feels like they are clichéd. This character was just not that compelling to be honest.

Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning shine in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, a sequel that surpasses its predecessor with exciting action, an interesting story, and good visuals.

Zombieland: Double Tap – The BRWC Review. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

It may be hard to believe it, but Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland was released ten whole years ago. That initial film impressed critics and audiences all across the world with its whip-smart humor, gory zombie fun, surprisingly heartfelt moments, and an excellent cast with terrific chemistry between them.

Everything about that original film was considered to be a massive win, and upon the release of the film, many were expecting a sequel to follow suit relatively quickly. However, as you can probably tell, we only have a sequel now, and it has been an entire decade.

I vividly remember after watching Zombieland for the first time ever when I was nine years of age, I thought that it was incredible, and it was one of my favorite movies at the time. Due to the ending of the film, and the world that it set up, I expected to see a sequel within the next few years hopefully. I never would have thought it would have taken so long. Its sequel was in development hell and for the longest time, it appeared as if the follow-up would never come out.

Finally, though, its sequel Zombieland: Double Tap has been officially released with the same writer, director, and cast attached. To say that I was excited for this film would be a colossal understatement, and I was hoping that it would at least live up to most of my expectations. Gratefully, I can report that Double Tap is an extremely worthy follow-up.

One of the reasons why is because of the incredible cast returning. Eisenberg, Harrelson, Breslin, and Stone are all back and better than ever, and their characters, while still hilarious and a ton of fun to watch interact with one another on screen, have gone through a ton of things throughout their lives. Wichita and Columbus are still dating and are happy with one another, which makes Columbus wonder what his next move should be in their relationship.

Tallahassee is still the gun-toting macho man that we all know and love, and he unsurprisingly, delivers a large portion of the movie’s humor. Little Rock is now all grown up, but she still feels like she is missing something. She desparately wants to find herself a boyfriend, but it is not so easy considering that the world is infected with a highly dangerous zombie plague.

Seeing these four band together once more was such a delight to see and put the biggest smile on my face. Their chemistry is still top of the line and every scene that they are in together is a blast to watch.

Among the brand new characters introduced in Double Tap are Berkeley (Avan Jogia), a hitchhiker hippie that Little Rock picks up when driving one day, Albuquerque (Luke Wilson), who is similar to Tallahassee, Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), who is similar to Columbus, and last but not least – Madison (Zoey Deutch), who is one of the film’s goofier characters.

Almost all of those new characters provide a ton of great laughs and exceptionally exciting moments of zombie killing goodness which is loads of fun to watch. But, when it comes to Madison; I hated her character. In my opinion, she is the biggest issue with Double Tap. There are some sequences that could be genuinely funny if the character of Madison had just been removed from the whole picture. Instead of being comical, she just comes off as plain annoying. Every time she appeared on screen, it was boring to watch.

Also, this movie does have quite a lot of continuity errors that I could not help but notice along the way. Some things happen that just do not make any sense and make some things from earlier on in the story way too confusing.

In addition, Double Tap does suffer from some pacing issues unfortunately. The running time clocks in at ninety three minutes which is surprising, considering that it is a mere five minutes longer than its predecessor, yet feels considerably longer. This is because some scenes, while definitely funny and entertaining, did not necessarily need to be there and took away from the overall story for a few minutes.

This next thing is just a minor nitpick and it is nothing major whatsoever, but I wish we had seen more of Little Rock in this movie. She is on the poster, shown in every trailer, behind the scenes stills and more. Abigail Breslin was even credited before Emma Stone on the official poster for the film. Sadly, she is barely in the film, which was a bit upsetting. Gratefully, the scenes that she is present in, are extremely entertaining and funny.

But at the end of the day, this is an incredibly satisfying follow up to a beloved horror zombie comedy. The zombie kills are more brutal than ever which was exciting to see. There are even brand new types of zombies present in this film which makes the group have to question what they can do to bring them down and survive.

While it does have its fair share of issues, Zombieland: Double Tap is still a worthy sequel with tons of bloody zombie fun, incredible humor, and boasts an excellent cast with great chemistry.