Thursday, September 14, 2017

Be Kind, Please Rewind

He’s a Bee’s Wax Museum. He’s the…

Vidiot

Week of September 15, 2017

Gift shops would be more successful without museums. First up…

The Mummy

Instead of wasting money on gauze, why don’t Mummies just wear full-body casts? 

Luckily, this action-horror movie reminds us that the undead aren’t that smart.

An ancient Egyptian princess (Sofia Boutella) renowned for murdering her family is resurrected in modern day England and tasked with finding a human host for the jackal headed god Set to possess. 

She selects a soldier (Tom Cruise) to become her master’s vessel. However, a clandestine monster-hunting society headed by Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe) has other plans for the princess and her god of destruction.

The latest reboot of the desert monarch that serves as the cornerstone for Universal’s shared Dark Universe, this muddled revival of the 1932 monster flirts with a few interesting ideas but ultimately unravels under the weight of its own exposition, franchise staging and bad CGI.

Incidentally, being possessed by a god means you can never call into work sick ever.  Red Light

It Comes at Night  

The scariest thing about an infectious outbreak is being quarantined with your family.

Fortunately, the isolated brood in this psychological-horror has just received some unrelated visitors.

Held up in the backwoods since a contagion wiped out the cities, Paul (Joel Edgerton) has successfully protected his wife (Carmen Ejogo) and teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) from infection. He lets his guard down, however, when a young couple (Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough) with a child and livestock comes knocking on their door.

But when Paul starts to suspect that one of their guests may be infected both families turn on each other.

Using close quartered confinement to drive home the paranoia, this atmospheric indy does the classic horror setting an injustice by not delivering the goods. The threat is weak, the tension is tepid, and the scares non-existent.

Moreover, if you don’t want houseguests during an outbreak just say you have bedbugs.  Red Light

 
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

A super-hero who only wears underpants must be amazing at taking final exams.

Surprisingly, the semi-nude saviour in this animated-comedy isn’t part of a recurring nightmare.

Created by George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) to save the citizens of their homemade comic book while only wearing a cape and his underwear, Captain Underpants finds his secret identity in the boys’ real-life principal Krupp (Ed Helms).

Hypnotized by the fourth-graders to believe that he is their prized protector, Krupp wavers between being the heroic captain and a maniacal administrator hell-bent on separating the best friends.

While it gets points for its various animation techniques, stellar voice-work and for embodying the silly spirit of the long-running children’s book series that it’s based on, unfortunately that same juvenile essence becomes childish very quickly, while the endless pop song montages simply nauseate.

Also, if Captain Underpants doesn’t wipe properly he can easily become Captain Skidmarks.  Yellow Light

***The Last Men, Woman and Child on Earth***

 

Five

The upside to atomic war is finding out if your homemade Hazmat suit works.

The folks in this post-apocalyptic drama, however, think it best to avoid ground zone.

Wandering the radioactive hillsides looking for her husband in the wake of an atomic bomb that wiped out humanity, the pregnant Roseanne (Susan Douglas Rubes) stumbles upon Michael (William Phipps).

Other survivors eventually join the couple on the outskirts: an elderly banker (Earl Lee), his African-American aid (Charles Lampkin) and a racist (James Anderson).

As tensions mount between the males, Roseanne sneaks away to the city to continue searching for her newborn’s father.

A somber yet realistic take on atomic fallout and the struggle that follows, writer, director, producer Arch Oboler brings his radio drama sensibilities to the silver screen resulting in this effective meditation on the human condition.

Incidentally, in a post-apocalyptic world store mannequins are your best hope for reproduction. 

He’s Pre-Apocalyptic. He’s the…

Vidiot










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