Halloween Is Both A Derivative Slasher Movie And A Fascinating Psychological Drama

Call Michael Myers the Backstreet Boys, because he's back (ALRIGHT!). Yes, the slasher movie icon who served as the centerpiece of one of the numerous revolutionary horror films back in the 1970's is back in Halloween after nearly a decade of absence from movie theater screens. All the other sequels and the two Rob Zombie reboots have been disregarded to create a David Gordon Green directed follow-up solely to the original John Carpenter directed movie, one that picks up forty years after that fateful night that he came home that left Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) permanently psychologically scarred to the point that she now resides in an isolated house that's fortified to the brim to keep anyone, especially Michael Myers, out.

The Angry Birds Movie Is A Dream Come True For Marketers And Tedious For Everyone Else

One day, we'll get a good video game movie. Hell, we've gotten multiple high-quality movies using video game iconography like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Wreck-It Ralph. But as for direct film adaptations of video games? We're still not there yet. The Angry Birds Movie does nothing to reverse this trend, though its flaws aren't so much related to the failings of other video game movies as they are about this movie clearly trying to imitate conventional tropes of major American computer-animated family movies without understanding how to make these storytelling staples work in a remotely successful manner.

YAHOOO! The First Trailer For The Angry Birds Movie Has Flung Onto The Web!

As weird as this may sound, I kind of get why an Angry Birds movie exists. I'm not saying it's guaranteed to be a masterpiece destined to be hailed as a cinematic masterpiece on par with the works of Jean-Luc Godard, but the franchise has already invaded the realm of animated shorts, so is a feature length film really all that implausible on a conceptual level? Plus, at least this one is aiming to be a family comedy, and not trying to be a dark gritty take on the mobile game fowl. If you're curious how an Angry Birds movie would look, well, the first trailer for it has dropped, and you can watch it below.

Fan-Casting The Sinister Six

One aspect of the Spider-Man movies that surprises me is how, even though we've had five films centered around the web-crawler, there's so many parts of the characters mythology we have yet to see in cinematic form. Black Cat, Sinister Six, Kraven The Hunter, Vulture, Mysterio....so many creations from the comics have yet to see the light of a film projector. Part of the blame for these characters staying on the wayside can be attributed  how The Amazing Spider-Man retread an enormous amount of storytelling ground from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, meaning time that could have been spent setting up new characters like The Chameleon and Silver Sable was spent going over the whole Uncle Ben fiasco again.

Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone Go To Hawaii In Trailer For Aloha

There's few actors I like more than Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone. I'd add Bill Murray, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride and John Krasinski to that list too. So why does a film, called Aloha, that unites all these actors together look so....cookie-cutter? No really, this trailer plays more like a parody of the conventions of these kind of dramedy features instead of an actual concrete tease of a film. Check it out for yourself below.

So, I Was On Netflix: Hot Rod Review

Motorcycle Mayhem Centerpiece of Great Comedy

You know I have a hormone disorder!

Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who form up the comedic band The Lonely Island, are probably among the bigger comedic voices running my generation. All of their SNL skits from "Dick In A Box" to "Motherlover" were instant viral hits, and even their non musical bits became quotable bits that were universally beloved in my age group. I myself loved these guys and their inventive comedic sensibilities that more than a whiff of Monty Python in it, but one big blind spot for me was the trios only major feature film; Hot Rod.