The Final Girls is a delightfully meta-horror comedy with an emotional heart thanks to the performances of Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman. Farmiga is Max Cartwright, the daughter of Alexandra (Akerman) who has always wanted to be a movie star, but keeps getting recalled for her one big role, in an 80s cult classic slasher…
Tag: daughter
Star Trek: Picard (2020) – Nepenthe, and Broken Pieces
Nepenthe, written by Sam Humphrey and Micheal Chabon, is arguably the best episode of the inaugural season of Star Trek: Picard. It first debuted on 5 March, 2020. While Elnor (Evan Evagora) struggles to survive on the Borg Cube, hunted by Rizzo (Peyton List), and costing Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) his life and triggering a…
A Haunting in Venice (2023) – Kenneth Branagh
Branagh delivers a third Agatha Christie adaption, and like the previous films, Branagh brings in a great cast and delivers a lush-looking production with some gorgeous production design and location work. Branagh directs and stars, again, as Hercule Poirot the great detective who has now retired to Venice. He is approached by an old friend,…
Halloween 4: The Return of Micheal Myers (1988) – Dwight H. Little
Apparently both Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) and Micheal Myers (George P. Wilbur – who doesn’t have the same sense of menace) survived the explosive events of Halloween II, and Halloween, despite the way both films ended, both characters seem to keep coming back. Following the franchise stumble of Halloween III, though it has gone on…
Judgment Night (1993) – Stephen Hopkins
Stephen Hopkins turns out perfectly enjoyable films and 1993’s Judgment Night is one of them. Featuring a bombastic score (which sometimes feels out of place) by Alan Silvestri, this action thriller was in need of a rewatch – I hadn’t seen this one since it was released on VHS! The film stars Emilio Estevez, Denis…
Cocaine Bear (2023) – Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks settles into the director’s chair again and delivers a mostly entertaining comedy thriller, which is loosely based on a true story, Cocaine Bear. Featuring an all-star cast led by Keri Russell, the film swings from working brilliantly to just falling a little flat. But damn if Banks doesn’t swing for the fences. There…
Rush Hour (1998) – Brett Ratner
I wasn’t a big fan of Rush Hour when it first came out. I didn’t see it in theatres or take it home on video (despite the countless free rentals we got working in a video store) and I was a little bothered to hear that Chris Tucker got paid more than Jackie Chan did…
The Equalizer (1988) – The Mystery of Manon: Part 2, and No Place Like Home
McCall (Edward Woodward) deals with the now-public reveal that Yvette (Melissa Sue Anderson) is his daughter and that whoever abducted and abused Manon (Anne Heywood) is going to use her to destroy McCall, his son Scott (William Zabka) and Control (Robert Lansing). The second part of The Mystery of Manon was written by Coleman Luck…
The Unbearable Weight of Immense Talent (2022) – Tom Gormican
Nicholas Cage plays a hyper version of himself, Nick Cage, in Tom Gormican’s hugely entertaining and laugh-filed action-comedy, The Unbearable Weight of Immense Talent. Nick Cage is haunted by a version of himself that pushes him to be a movie star, not a constantly working actor. His daughter, Addy (Lily Mo Sheen), wants to be…
The Equalizer (1987) – Memories of Manon: Part 1, and Part 2
We’re almost a full two seasons in, and The Equalizer gives us our first two-parter, Memories of Manon. It has a story that once again ties in with something from Robert McCall’s (Edward Woodward) past and gets him pulled back into working for Control (Robert Lansing) when his former boss comes to him for aid,…
The Mind Reels 