HALLOWEEN Review

As much time has now passed between the original 1978 Halloween and star, original Scream Queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis' return to the role of Laurie Strode (though she did reprise her role in the original 1981 sequel) in 1998's Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later as it now has between H2O and 2018's Halloween. That is a long way of saying it's been forty years since writer/director John Carpenter first introduced us to "The Shape" otherwise known as Michael Myers, but it is also to point out that while Curtis' twenty-year reunion with her most famous character saw Strode as a woman on the run from her past, changing her name, concealing her identity, and attempting to move on while having raised a child in as much of a captive environment as possible director David Gordon Green's (George Washington, Pineapple Express) new film sees Strode as someone who has lived with the trauma of that single night for forty years and who has been waiting for an opportunity to take back what was stolen from her. It's admittedly both a rarity and an oddity to be able to see two different, but fully fleshed out interpretations of a single character and the aftermath of dealing with such a traumatic event, but it is in considering the different ways in which Strode's life might have unraveled as a result of that Halloween night in 1978 that Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley find their "in" in terms of how they can make their iteration of a Halloween sequel both different enough and justified enough for it to exist in the first place. In reality, we're dealing with a viewer's pick of alternate timelines based on preference and 2018's Halloween throws its hat in the ring by offering up the idea that everything that occurred in each of the seven sequels, including 1981's Halloween II that famously disclosed Laurie Strode was Michael Myers' long-lost baby sister, ever happened. No longer is anything canon except for what went down in the only installment Carpenter himself directed. And so, with that, Michael Myers no longer has a familial connection to Strode and thus no reason to make her his mission. This opens up the possibility for 2018's Halloween to simply be about a cold-blooded serial killer who murders at random because he's a monster following his impulses whereas Curtis' Strode is now the one who has built-up this connection between herself and Myers and sees it as her destiny that the two of them might once again come face to face. That Strode is more attached to Myers than he is her is the "in" Green needed to bring a fresh perspective to this endlessly re-made and ret-conned horror franchise, but it is with this twist on the original, principle character that not only do we get fertile new territory to explore, but we get to genuinely and sometimes gruesomely see the process of Laurie Strode truly taking back what was taken from her all those years ago.

First Trailer for HALLOWEEN Starring Jamie Lee Curtis

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse have released the first trailer for the new sequel to John Carpenter's original 1978 slasher film, Halloween. This titled exactly-the-same, forty-year-later sequel is said to pick up in real time after the events of the first film, disregarding all subsequent films, and follows the residents of Haddonfield on another horrifying Halloween night as Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode faces her greatest fears when Michael Myers escapes the asylum where he’s been locked up since his first killing spree. Naturally, Strode has attempted to move on with her life and seemingly has as this movie will feature Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter, Karen, as well as Andi Matichak (Orange is the New Black) as her granddaughter. Where the narrative will go outside the "one final confrontation" remains to be seen as this teaser trailer more or less plays up the return of the series to its roots more than it does offer any insight into what the actual movie will contain-which is more than fine as it does this in an effective manner-but this is no doubt the point of most concern and curiosity. Curiosity due to the fact the screenplay was penned by new franchise director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Stronger) and one of his past collaborators in Danny McBride (yes, that Danny McBride). There is no doubt Green is a capable director who has the ability to ride any genre of film to success (see All the Real Girls, Snow Angels, Prince Avalanche, and Joe) and there is even less doubt that McBride is a capable writer with a twisted mind (see The Foot Fist Way, Eastbound and Down, and Vice Principles), but to see both of these guys go in on and come up with their interpretation of one of the original and greatest horror films in cinema history seems an experiment too good to actually have been funded. There will undoubtedly be a lot of influence from the original film at play here and I'm anxious to see how Green decided to balance that with his and McBride's interpretation, but mostly-and in part thanks to this teaser-I'm just really excited to see a fresh take on classic material considering the interesting and intelligent people they've recruited to accomplish that task. The film will also star Will Patton, Virginia Gardener, Dylan Arnold, Drew Scheid, Toby Huss, Miles Robbins, and will feature the return of the original Mike Myers, Nick Castle, in the iconic role with stuntman and actor James Jude Courtney helping to bring "The Shape" back to life. Halloween is set to open on October 19th, 2018.

EQUALS Review

Note: This is a reprint of my review for Equals, which originally ran on September 15, 2015 after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival. I am publishing it again today as it hits select theaters this weekend.

Man, that Nicholas Hoult really likes himself some Romeo & Juliet stories, doesn't he? If you recall, he made a little subversion of the zombie genre back in 2013 that also borrowed from Shakespeare's doomed story of young lovers. While Warm Bodies at least had the sense to have a sense of humor about itself Equals is not that kind of movie, but instead plays it completely straight allowing it to end up completely boring. From the outset of the film it all feels familiar. One can see where this thing is going from a mile away and I'm not even sure how anyone read Nathan Parker's (Moon) script and thought it was a good idea to make this movie again. Again you ask? Yeah, do you recall a little 2005 Michael Bay film by the name of The Island? Remember how that film was accused of ripping off another movie? Well, I'm sure the makers of the 1979 film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, found inspiration from another source (George Lucas?) and their source before that (George Orwell?). This happens all the time. I'm not saying Equals has done anything wrong as far as copyright infringement goes, but I am saying it feels like they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver and threw in a third act R & J twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting.

First Trailer for EQUALS Starring Kristen Stewart

The first trailer has arrived for director Drake Doremus' (Like Crazy) new science fiction film, Equals, starring Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult. A futuristic love story set in a world where emotions have been eradicated the film is indeed as rote as that description makes it sound with only the aesthetic standing to set it apart. We've seen this story countless times before and trust me when I say Dormeus' take unfortunately offers nothing new on the subject and resorts to a clichéd visual style to relay this age old cautionary tale. I saw the film in Toronto last year and while I like both lead performers the final product felt as if, "they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver, threw in a third act Romeo & Juliet twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting." Needless to say, I wasn't enthralled with the premise nor its execution, but the visual style is at least something genuinely attractive to distract us from the standard story. Reservations aside concerning the actual product, this trailer does an incredibly effective job of selling the love story and the style of it all with hardly any dialogue until the last possible moment. I only wish the actual film might have been been as, well, emotional. Equals also stars Guy Pearce, Bel Powley, Jacki Weaver, Kate Lyn Sheil, Toby Huss with distributor A24 scheduling it for a summer release. You can read my full review from TIFF here.

TIFF 2015: EQUALS Review

Man, that Nicholas Hoult really likes himself some Romeo & Juliet stories, doesn't he? If you recall, he made a little subversion of the zombie genre back in 2013 that also borrowed from Shakespeare's doomed story of young lovers. While Warm Bodies at least had the sense to have a sense of humor about itself Equals is not that kind of movie, but instead plays it completely straight allowing it to end up completely boring. From the outset of the film it all feels familiar. One can see where this thing is going from a mile away and I'm not even sure how anyone read Nathan Parker's (Moon) script and thought it was a good idea to make this movie again. Again you ask? Yeah, do you recall a little 2005 Michael Bay film by the name of The Island? Remember how that film was accused of ripping off another movie? Well, I'm sure the makers of the 1979 film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, found inspiration from another source (George Lucas?) and there source before that (George Orwell?). This happens all the time. I'm not saying Equals has done anything wrong as far as copyright infringement goes, but I am saying it feels like they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver and threw in a third act R & J twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting.