Boys From County Hell is a refreshing vampire film. The Irish tale with Bram Stoker's Dracula lore has a unique take on vampires draining their victims. The cast has great chemistry, and it is full of humor, not slapstick but a more grounded and macabre.
Honeydew is probably the weirdest film of 2021 thus far. A claustrophobic, paranoid, surreal hallucination of Hansel and Gretel. It plays with reality, you don't know what is real and what isn't. Time feels like an illusion and as soon as everything is figured out and you're coming off your trip is when shit hits the fan. Reality sets in and the uncomfortable feeling you felt for over an hour hits you in the face. I dug it at first, found it tedious for a while but it felt like the point, the climax i feel will let down some but it fit perfectly with the narrative here.
Tombs of the Blind Dead is a film i hunted for as a teen, upon seeing it i loved it, same with the sequels. Years later i revisited them and it definitely was more akin to Zombi, where you watch for the effects and not the plot. With a new sequel i dove into the first one more time and enjoyed it for it's atmosphere.....the sequel lacks atmosphere, it also lacks decent effects, storytelling, acting, and pretty much everything else. This film was abysmal, a waste of time and feels like it should be a Full Moon picture, and i like Full Moon. This is a screener heavy turd.
Mortal Kombat, round 2021...fight! So the relaunch of Mortal Kombat isn't as corny as the first but it still contains some corny lines and contrived plot points, but that is not why we are here. If you are going into MK anticipating high art then you didn't know what to expect. If you went in expecting fights, badass characters and bloodshed, then congrats you got what you paid for. This was exactly what i expected, and if you go in just wanting to see the game, you get it. It is fast paced, has some one liners and plenty of bloody fight scenes, exactly what Mortal Kombat represents. Continue? Fucking right i'm for this franchise continuing.
Falcon & The Winter Soldier isn't just the best MCU series thus far but it might be the best MCU property since Endgame. Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson really came into his own here, and Sebastian Stan brings alot of layers to Bucky in this outing. The antagonists all have depth here in this series too, Wyatt Russel is a perfect douche that is torn, The Flag Smashers fight for a great cause, but Daniel Bruhl as Barron Zemo steals the show in every scene. Unlike alot of MCU the humor doesn't slap you in the face, and it feels perfectly aligned with Winter Soldier and Civil War. 6 episodes is the perfect season count, not much padding, well developed characters and plenty of action and political subtext.
Willy's Wonderland is the neon lit, satanic love child of Child's Play, The Banana Splits, and Mandy. In fact as far as the past decade of Cagesploitation flicks, this might be my favorite. It's fast paced, funny, and bloody, with a love of soda and pinball. This is exactly the flick i wanted it to be, and with the proposed sequel i say fuck yes....or like Cage, nothing at all!
The Banishing is atmospheric, and it is unique. I love the idea of mirror universes, and by that i mean a universe within a mirror....only here they missed the target. It feels like The Haunting of Bly Manor mixed with Us only not as great....or good.....or passable. It is a weaker Shudder film for sure but i wasn't bored by it, it kept me intrigued but the payoff felt unworthy and the journey to the destination wasn't thoughtful enough.
Bad Trip is one of the funniest films in a long time, start to finish hilarity. Much like Borat or Bad Grampa it is a hidden camera film with plot. it's a bromance twist on romantic comedies. This is Eric Andre at his best but Tiffany Haddish steals the show. Her destroying shit is pure fucking gold. It works as both a comedic film and a Jackass esque movie. It's a shame it didn't get to play in theatres(it was picked up by Netflix after Covid canned the theatrical run) cause seeing flicks like this with a crowd is the best, but regardless of how you watch it, it brings non stop laughs.
The second season of Solar Opposites was even funnier, bloodier and more absurd that the first. Way more science fiction is jammed in to this season, the jokes give zero fucks this year and the ant farm yet again carries the series and actually has a continuity.
Resident Alien isn't just one of the best shows of the year it is also one of the funniest and one of the most heart felt. In fact it is one of the funniest shows in some time and also one of the most heart felt in some time, there is a perfect balance, so much that the humor doesn't distract you from the drama it just feels oddly real. Also as the title suggests, it is a science fiction show, and one of the best for that genre as well. The cast is amazing, and even though an alien is the main character, the show becomes about the town and its people, these are lovable and super well developed characters. It is a coming of age story with issues and it turns a hilarious sci fi series into something very human!
