video review : Halloween : H20 [ 20 Years Later ]

video review : Halloween : H20 [ 20 Years Later ]

Taking a cue from her brother, Laurie from the original Halloween of 1978 is back. She faked her death, she says in a plot reveal made unnecessary since this seemingly final episode, number 7, seems to ignore every other one after 2. That means daughter Jamie apparently never existed. However, Laurie does have a son. He’s 17 and attends the California boarding school she works at.

How an infamous murderer who wears a mask and doesn’t speak travels from Illinois to California undetected is anyone’s guess, but these movies never make sense in regard to Michael Myers. It’s all about the thrill of the kill. That leads to an epic (nostalgic) showdown between he and Laurie. None of the Halloween movies are good, but this one, while bad, might be the best since the first two.

my rating : 2 of 5

1998

video review : The Dark Knight Rises

video review : The Dark Knight Rises

The title is a fancy way to say that Batman is back. Did the world need another Batman movie? No. But Wayne Enterprises; a multi-billion-dollar company owned by Bruce Wayne himself; is going bankrupt and popular superhero movies; this is the third in what is now a Christopher Nolan trilogy; make an insane amount of money. Two Face is dead and The Joker, a character who should’ve been mentioned if not given a cameo appearance, is in prison. Enter Bane, a strong vicious beast of a man with a gas mask stuck to his face. He wears it for a reason, but it muffles his voice sometimes to the point of being unintelligible.

Not that these characters, including Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, ever have anything poignant to say. Christopher Nolan is a lot better at directing fight scenes than composing dialogue. So the fast-cut plot, riddled with minor holes and unnecessary twists; Gotham City facing its demise in the form of a nuclear bomb is the gist; gets saved by its exciting and often violent action scenes. Most, if not all, of that action coincides with epic Hans Zimmer orchestral music, yes; and the new flying bat-toy is kind of cool; but this Dark Knight, while entertaining, is a sequel that doesn’t quite match the level of its predecessor.

my rating : 4 of 5

2012