20s Movie Review - Thanksgiving

Director: Eli Roth
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 106 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Jalen Thomas Books, Gabriel Davenport, Milo Manheim, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon

Description: After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the infamous holiday.

Review: “Grindhouse” consisted of two B-movies, but Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. It had a fake trailer for a movie called “Thanksgiving”, a slasher film with 1980s appeal made by Eli Roth. And now, the movie is real.

A department store decides to start their Black Friday as early as midnight and promises free products for the first hundred customers. The result is bloody mayhem. A year later, a group of survivors are tagged in a bizarre message on social media. One by one, they begin to die.

Director Eli Roth turns a fake trailer into a real movie. And I got exactly what I was hoping for. I love slasher films, they are fun. A bunch of awful people being brutally murdered and we are trying to find out who the killer is. That’s what this is. Roth doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. What Roth does do is making this film bloody as hell. And it’s not even his goriest film. Roth manages to pull off some real original kills. And it has some good humor as well.

Even though I did predict the eventual killer, “Thanksgiving” is an entertaining slasher. What you except from it, you get.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Review - Disenchanted

Director: Adam Shankman
Genre: Science Fiction/ Action/ Adventure
Runtime: 119 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Amy Adam, Patrick Dempsey, Maya Rudolph, Idina Menzel, James Marsden, Gabriella Baldacchino, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jayma Mays, Osar Nuñez, Alan Tudyk
 
I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 47: A DISNEY LIVE-ACTION MOVIE
 
Description: Fifteen years after her happily ever after, Giselle (Amy Adams) questions her happiness, inadvertently turning the lives of those in the real world and Andalasia upside down in the process.

Review: It has been fifteen years since Amy Adams showed us how fairy-tale New York can e in “Enchanted”. Time for a new chapter of this popular musical. A sequel, showing us what happens after ‘happily ever after’.

In order to give it a fresh touch, there is a change of locations, where Giselle, her now husband Robert, now teenage daughter Morgan and a new daughter Sofia, move to the suburbs of Morganville. Giselle misses the fairytale life she had in Andalasia, wishing for it back.

Amy Adams is enchanting, just like in the first film. She is accompanied by Maya Rudolph this time. And these two have more chemistry than Adams has with Patrick Dempsey. The duet the two have is the absolute highlight of the film.

“Disenchanted” is a fun time for the whole family, true Disney magic coming to life. But it never lives up to “Enchanted”.

Rating: 3/ 5

00s Movie Review - Scream 3

Director: Wes Craven
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 116 minutes
Year: 2000
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Liev Schreiber, Patrick Dempsey, Kelly Rutherford, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Parker Posey, Patrick Warburton

Description: While Sidney (Neve Campbell) and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another Ghostface killer rises to terrorize them.

Review: After the success of “Scream” and the sequel “Scream 2” Kevin Williamson was one of the most requested scriptwriters. He was so busy, he couldn’t be there for the third installment and Ehren Kruger replaced him.
The third movie is set in Hollywood, where they are shooting “Stab 3”, based on the Woodsboro murders. Sidney, the woman that lived this nightmare, leads a quiet life in the middle of nowhere. That life is brutally disturbed when people are murdered on the set of the movie in making. At the scene of every crime, a picture of Sidney’s mother is left behind.
“Scream 3” isn’t different from the first two films, but it’s less entertaining. I think the tricks don’t work that well anymore. The script isn’t inventive or surprising and the new characters add nothing extra. Even Neve Campbell doesn’t sparkle like she did before.
Even though the movie cannot live up to the first, “Scream 3” does have some good moments. The self-mockery is present again and there are some fun cameos.
“Scream 3” was clearly made to earn some more money, without giving the audience a good quality horror flick. And the climax is so far-fetched, that even the most creative minds wouldn’t come up with it.
“Scream 3” is entertaining, but it can never live up to “Scream” or “Scream 2”.

Rating: 2/ 5

10s Movie Review - Bridget Jones's Baby

Director: Sharon Maguire
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 123 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Emma Thompson

Description: Bridget's (Renée Zellweger) focus on single life and her career is interrupted when she finds herself pregnant, but with one hitch ... she can only be fifty percent sure of the identity of her baby's father.

Review: After an absence of twelve years, the clumsy and most awkward single woman of all-time is back: Bridget Jones. The previous two films, “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”, were based on the books by author Helen Fielding. For this movie, the inspiration came from columns Fielding wrote for ‘The Independent’. The third book, where Bridget is a 50-year old widow, remains untouched. The result: a somewhat happier story that takes place ten years before that.
When we first meet Bridget in this film, she is celebrating her 43rd birthday. Alone. On the couch. In her pajamas. Singing to 90s music. At the end of “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”, she claims to have found true love and happiness with Mark Darcy. But she is once again single and Bridget doesn’t really mind that.
Her lonely, happy and seemingly uncomplicated life comes to an end when it appears she is pregnant. Who the father is, she is not sure of. In a short period a time, she had ‘relations’ (her words) with two men: Handsome American Jack Qwant and her old flame Mark Darcy.
Jack appears to be a billionaire, who earned a fortune by working out algorithms that calculate if you’re right for your partner or not. But can love be based on that?
“Bridget Jones’s Baby” is definitely not new and original and it has some really predictable moments. But like the first two, the main element is fun. They are such a joy to watch, as is this third film. Renée Zellweger still does a great job portraying Bridget and the moments between Jack and Mark are really funny. My favorite part was actually Emma Thompson, with only a small but very memorable role. All her scenes are gold.
Bridget’s new boss is a downside of the film. She is an annoying character and doesn’t really add anything to the story. And the fake twist. Didn’t like that either. We all knew how it was going to end and they led us to believe something else first and then make the ‘big reveal’. That’s thinking the audience is dumb.
Overall, I really enjoyed this comedy and the return or Bridget Jones. There are hints to a possible sequel, but I think they should leave it here.

Rating: 3/ 5