Tag: Amy Madigan

video review : Weapons

video review : Weapons

The best thing about this story is the initial premise. A class of elementary school kids go missing after running away from home at “2:17 in the morning”. Once that mystery is solved and its supernatural origins are revealed, you’re left wishing you were watching something more serious than a horror flick with comedic undertones.

That’s not to say it isn’t interesting enough to keep watching, but some of it “doesn’t make any sense at all”. The plot; sliced into nonlinear chapters based on each main character; never really comes together in the end. The whole point of Gladys’ Weapons, in fact, let alone the significance of “2:17”, is basically left to your imagination.

my rating : 3 of 5

2025

video review : The Hunt

video review : The Hunt

The climax reminds me of the fight sequence at Vernita’s house in Kill Bill, but lack of innovative isn’t the problem here. It’s the silliness of the plot. The Hunt, which has a handful of people engaged in a sort of political civil war, goes for comedy; my least favorite movie genre; instead of taking itself seriously.

There’s plenty of violence and gore, and those are the most entertaining parts, but it’s mostly cartoonish; an eyeball stuck on the heel of a shoe. Neither is there anything particularly clever about the overarching satire, which, for what it’s worth, aims at both (conservative) “deplorables” and (liberal) “cucks”.

my rating : 3 of 5

2020

video review : Antlers

video review : Antlers

This is a horror flick based not on killer deer but the wendigo; a mythological creature that “devours mankind”. It’s a decent concept, but the plot, which reminds me of Stephen King’s Gray Matter, is riddled with cinematic clichés and implausibilities. It seems even the most horrendous villains have a weakness for protagonists.

The boy the man turned wendigo fathers is fine. It’s his nosey school teacher; the wendigo is less creepy; I was hoping he’d use as beast feed. Instead, while her cop brother, attacked and injured, lies conveniently out of commission, she ends up playing a heroine of sorts. The movie is about as silly as the folklore it encompasses.

my rating : 2 of 5

2021