Poltergeist (1982) - Movie Review

POLTERGEIST (1982)

INTRODUCTION

Poltergeist is a horror film that was released in 1982, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg.  It tells the story of a family who discovers their house is haunted.  As they discover the haunting, they don't realise the spirits are hostile until they take their daughter into another dimension and they hire paranormal investigators to help get her back.  Poltergeist received massive critical acclaim, and was a major box office success, earning $121.7 million on a budget of $10.7 million, making it the 8th highest grossing film of 1982.  The film was also nominated for 3 Academy Awards at the 55th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in 1983 for Best Original Score, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects.  So let's take a trip back to 1982 to review this true horror classic.

THE GOOD

Poltergeist is a wonderful example of great storytelling both through dialogue and visuals.  The visuals are great!  It's no wonder why this movie got an Oscar nomination for visuals, they enhance the horror, they are insanely creative and you can tell so much time and effort was put into them.  The movie's tone and atmosphere is very unique, it combines a very Spielbergian tone similiar to something like E.T. or Gremlins and a strong dark horror tone, the sense of terror is always present when it needs to be.  The performances are fantastic, every actor (even the child actors) sell every emotion they have to show, especially fear, especially the boy and the mom.  Seriously, when you nearly get eaten by a tree or fall in a pool and see a bunch of caskets with skeletons randomly coming out of the ground, I am pretty sure you would be freaked the fuck out too.  For a PG movie this movie is pretty intense too!  There is some intense imagery, like the scene where this guy hallucinates peeling off his face, and it's super bloody and gory and you see most of his skull, and the skeletons coming out of the pool, and the whole final act in fact is pretty intense for a PG movie.  Apparently this was originally rated R but somehow Spielberg and Hooper managed to convince the MPAA to change it to a PG.  This movie's musical score is phenomenal, it's peaceful and whimsical when it needs to be and it's intense and extremely haunting when it needs to be. Lastly, the cinematography!  This movie has some of the best cinematography I have ever seen in a horror film.  

THE BAD

I don't have any problems with this movie whatsoever.  Maybe if you're like 12-13 years old, you might think this movie looks cheesy.

CONCLUSION

Poltergeist to me is the greatest haunted house movie of all time.  It hits all the notes a horror movie like this should hit perfectly!  The special effects are fantastic for a movie from 1982, the tone has perfect balance and it has great performances.  This is yet another essential film for any horror lover or people wanting to get into horror films.

Stay tuned for my upcoming reviews for Friday the 13th Part 2 and Fatal Attraction.

10/10  -  MASTERPIECE

Pros:

- Perfect balance of tone and atmosphere

- Special effects

- Great intensity for a PG movie

- Jerry Goldsmith's musical score

- Performances

- Cinematography 

Cons:

- None

FILM DETAILS

MPAA rating:  PG (Reason N/A)

Release date:  June 4th, 1982

Run time:  114 min

Studio:  Warner Bros. Entertainment (Current distributor), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

SOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist_(1982_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55th_Academy_Awards

Friday the 13th (1980) - Movie Review

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

Friday the 13th is a slasher flick that was released in the summer of 1980 with a similar premise to the iconic 1978 classic, Halloween.  A group of counselors at an abandoned summer camp called "Camp Crystal Lake" are picked off one by one by a mysterious, brutal serial killer. The film was met with largely negative critical reception at the time of release but was a giant box office success. It earned $59.8 million on a budget of $550,000. This is a very important film to me, it may not be my favorite installment in the franchise but it did start my all time favorite horror franchise.  I started a new sort of look for my reviews so they can at least look better.

THE GOOD

Friday the 13th has a better concept for a slasher film than Halloween in my personal opinion.  It's more like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the sense that instead of the terror coming to the victims, the victims go to the terror, which is scarier when you think about it. The tone and atmosphere is absolutely wonderful, it always feels like something bad may happen even when there's nothing happening at all. The performances are surprisingly good for a movie with a cast of first time actors and an actress who didn't give a shit about the project whatsoever (Betsy Palmer). Betsy Palmer acts her ass off when her character is finally introduced. (this movie is 40 years old now so I am going to reveal it, I don't give a fuck about spoilers) For those who don't know and somehow never came across this franchise, she plays Pamela Voorhees (the killer in the film), who vows revenge in counselors who caused the death of her son, Jason one day back in 1957. She is a wonderful villain, and Palmer's performance absolutely sells it!  She is creepy as fuck, the way she talks in Jason's child voice is unsettling. The technical aspects are very impressive for a movie with a budget of only $550,000.  The cinematography is beautiful!  The POV shots, still shots, wide shots for example all work wonderfully!  The musical score is nothing short of iconic, and of course it features the iconic staple of the franchise, the sound, ch, ch, ch, ha, ha, ha!  Now this is a slasher film, so the most important aspect are the kills!  For the most part they are great!  Tom Savini's phenomenal practical effects make them special, like the axe to the one girl's face, the arrow through Kevin Bacon's throat (the best kill in the movie), and of course the classic decapitation of Pamela Voorhees!

THE BAD

As I said in my intro, this isn't my favorite entry, I do have quite a few problems. My first problem is some of the kills. In the section "THE GOOD", the key word leading to that was "for the most part".  Why is that?  That is because of two things, several kills were cut short to avoid the X rating at the time, and there are several offscreen kills.  One offscreen kill does work, but the rest of them didn't, creating an inconsistency in quality of the kills.  This movie could have also used some more editing.  I am all for slow paced movies, especially horror!  Films like The Shining, the first 3 Paranormal Activity films, The Thing (1982) and Wes Craven's New Nightmare are terrific examples of slow paced horror done right!  However; there are scenes in this movie that really drag on for too long.  There is a scene that I am sure everyone who has seen this movie would know what I am talking about, where the final girl makes coffee in a cabin, and they show the ENTIRE process!  They never cut to anything else that could be going on, you literally witness the entire process of the making of coffee. The last criticism I have is the twist when they reveal the killer.  It's not Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning levels of bad (that's for another time), but I did have a problem with it.  The twist was super predictable, because of the fact that she was obviously being deceptive when she introduces herself, and when you see her pull up to the cabin, she was driving the EXACT SAME JEEP that was shown when the mysterious killer was driving in the first act!

CONCLUSION

Friday the 13th is one of the most important films in the history of horror movies.  It helped shape the slasher genre as we know it today, and it gave birth to one of the most iconic and profitable franchises of all time. I don't love this film but I do enjoy it for what it is and what it started.  This is a good film overall and I highly recommend it for people who love this franchise and want to get into horror films.  In my eyes, this is essential viewing.

6.8/10   -   OKAY

Pros:

- Musical score

- Cinematography 

- Practical effects

- Acting

- Great villain

- Great mood/atmosphere

Cons:

- Pacing is too slow

- Some kills are cut too short or left offscreen

- Predictable twist

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you all enjoyed it and enjoyed my new way of writing them.  I will be reviewing the remaining 11 films in the franchise in the near future!  Stay tuned for my next review, for the 1982 horror classic, Poltergeist!

Film details

MPAA rating:  R (reason N/A)

Release date:  May 9th, 1980

Run time:  95 min

Studio:  Paramount Pictures

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_(1980_film)

Rocketman - Movie Review

Rocketman is a musical biopic about rock music icon, Elton John.  It was released last year in May, so I am reviewing this really close to its 1 year anniversary.  I am going to get right into this, this movie is wonderful!  This movie has energy, great cinematography, absolutely wonderful performances, and some of the best musical numbers I have seen in a musical movie that didn't come out in the 70s and 80s.  Taron Egerton is perfect as Elton John!  His commitment and passion for this role really shines!  He sings the songs himself, he really shines in the dramatic elements, it really felt like I was watching Elton John on screen!  The other actors are fantastic too, especially Bryce Dallas Howard as Elton's mother, she was cold hearted bitch, but she did have charisma, and that's because of a great performance. The musical numbers are also magical!  They are energetic, the singing is amazing, the staging is absolutely phenomenal!  The standout numbers for sure are Saturday Night's (Alright for Fighting), Crocodile Rock and I'm Still Standing.  The musical numbers really add to the very unique feel of this movie, it never felt like your traditional biopic, even though technically it is.  Rocketman is a movie I highly recommend, especially if you love Elton John!  It's so much fun, it's a very briskly paced film with tons of energy and amazing musical numbers, and a truly oscar worthy performance from Taron Egerton.

Grade:  A+

Run time:  121 min

MPAA:  R (for language throughout, some drug use and sexual content)

Studio:  Paramount Pictures 

SCOOB! - Movie Review

SCOOB! is the first theatrically released Scooby-Doo film since 2004's Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and the very first theatrically released animated one.  Scooby and the gang face their most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world. As they race to stop this dogpocalypse, the gang discovers that Scooby has an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined. I was skeptical of this movie, because there hasn't really been a good film or TV show about Scooby-Doo in about 15 years or so. I had very little confidence in this film. What good things can I say about this movie? Well, the animation looks confident I guess. Yeah that's it. This film is absolute fucking garbage. This film feels way too modern, none of the classic charm of Scooby-Doo is present whatsoever. Every character uses modern day buzzwords, basically it fucking panders to today's youth. Ironically this movie throws shade at pandering. It's not even a mystery, it's a fucking superhero movie with Scooby-Doo characters. Never once did I laugh, this movie is painfully unfunny. Mark Wahlberg is wasted here, which is one of the biggest crimes here. Going back to this movie's pandering, his character, Blue Falcon, fucking dabs within 30 seconds of being introduced.  There are also tinder jokes. You read that right, tinder jokes. Here is something that the great film critic, Chris Stuckmann pointed out that I noticed too, there seems to be a time paradox! So in the first 12 minutes, which is the best part of the movie, seemingly takes place in the 90s. You see people walking around with boomboxes, you hear Tupac and Backstreet Boys, you know, giving off that 90s vibe. However, it really can't have been in the 90s though because at some point, Shaggy pulls out a fucking smart phone! Last time I checked, there was no such thing as smartphones in the 90s. By far the worst thing about this movie though, is the chemistry between the gang itself. It kind of starts promising when the characters are kids, but once they are grown up, their friendship is suddenly ruined immediately and they are split up for damn near the rest of the movie. I hated this movie! There are virtually no redeeming qualities in this thing! Don't waste the $25 to rent or buy this thing, it's not worth it! Sonic the Hedgehog comes out on Blu-ray this week, go to Walmart and buy that instead. Also, especially don't buy this piece of shit due to the fact that the studio did Matthew Lillard dirty with this movie.

Grade:  F

Run time:  94 min

MPAA:  PG (for some action, language, and rude/suggestive humor)

Studio:  Warner Bros. Pictures 

Birds of Prey - Movie Review

Birds of Prey is the newest film in the DCEU and the follow up to 2016's Suicide Squad.  It was released on February 7th, 2020, and I saw the film on opening night, but didn't review it then.  Now that I bought the blu-ray recently, I can review the film while it's fresh in my mind. The film tells the story of Harley Quinn, as we join her through a journey as she breaks up with the Joker, has tons of violent criminals after her because she no longer has Joker's protection, and she must protect a kid from the bad guy, Black Mask, who is after the kid because she stole a precious diamond.  This film was polorizing, although overall much better received than Suicide Squad. What do I think of this film?  This film is both a solid action movie and a solid comedy. This film has some of the best action sequences I have seen in the DC films so far! The police station raid and the final act are beautiful pieces of action filmmaking and I loved every minute of them. There are tons of great moments of comedy. Margot Robbie commits to the role of Harley Quinn, she lives and breathes the character! Ewan McGregor as Black Mask is also fucking amazing! He is so wonderfully over the top and funny, he was so much fun to watch! Another standout is Mary Elizabeth-Winstead as Huntress, she was badass, funny and incredibly sexy too.  Honestly a threeway with Margot Robbie and Mary Elizabeth-Winstead would be the time of my life! The film was also extremely fast paced, there was never a single dull moment here, and there were also a couple of moments of some pretty sweet R-rated violence! I do have a couple of issues though. If you want a full on Birds of Prey movie, you'll be very disappointed, because the titular team don't team up until the final act, this is very much a Harley Quinn movie. Also I couldn't help but notice that this movie REALLY felt like Deadpool in terms of storytelling. The first half of the movie jumps back and forth between past and present just like Deadpool did, that's more of a nitpick, but I just couldn't help but notice it. Overall, Birds of Prey is a terrific action comedy that fans of DC and comic book movies should check out! It's immensely fun, hilarious, action packed, the acting is great, it's just a great time!

Grade:  A-

Run time:  109 min

MPAA:  R (for strong violence and language throughout, and some sexual and drug material)

Studio:  Warner Bros. Pictures