Chucky

 Chucky is the Cobra Kai of horror. Both series are way better than they should be, have a great mix of humor and have an excellent cast of teens. There is more plot on this season than basically all the Child's Play films combined. I love that franchise but this series is as great as a slasher about a killer doll can be. There is alot to love for fans of the saga with plenty of characters returning and various call backs to the lore of not just the overall canon but the history of Charles Lee Ray. We even get iconic characters meeting for the first time. Throughout all of the chaos it is quite heartwarming at times too. This season wraps things up tightly all while setting up season 2 perfectly. 

Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City

 The Resident Evil games i have played in passing but was never a mark for. I always hated the controls but i loved the imagery. The original film i do enjoy but the sequels definitely kept going further down in quality. Welcome to Racoon City is far from a perfect film but tonally it feels so different than the Paul WS AndersonVerse. It feels more like survival horror, it feels lower key, and it feels more horror driven than action driven of the OG canon. Some of the dialogue feels like cut scene dialogue and i am sure i missed alot of game easter eggs but as a zombie film fan there was alot to love even if the games are not your thing. The music plays a big part in this as well, but it is not in your face with the 90sness. A stinger sets up a sequel and i am all for more set in this universe. 

The Card Counter

 Paul Schrader has always been more of a writer than a director. He directs solid films but his scripts for Martin Scorsese are masterpieces. The Card Counter however might be his best directing. What felt like a dull premise actually has quite the intriguing story with daring imagery and compelling characters accompanied by some fine acting. Scorsese produced this but honestly it feels like a project he would have done in the 70s or 80s. 

8 Bit Christmas

 I love Goon so i became a Michael Dowse fan, most of his post Goon films have been spotty though. I love 80s nostalgia but alot of them feel forced. Video game centric movies are a mixed bag. This here is a mixed bag of a movie that truly feels forced and adds to the spottiness of Dowse. The acting is not bad neither is the plot but it feels like a 90s kids movie but without insulting the intelligence by making it over kiddie, no instead here they insult us with cheap jokes and unrealistic situations. I wish it had been a bit more grounded and featured a bit more realistic 80sness. It has heart so that carries the film but it needed a soul. 

The Strings

You know the story about the writer that goes to the isolated spot to get the creative juices flowing during winter and then encounters ghosts? Well if so then go watch the Shining. If you want a boring, self indulgent, repetitive and ultimately meaningless and pointless film then watch the Strings. Shudder is usually a mixed bag but now they are doing a film that if it starred Greta Gerwig it would have been the hipster event of 2021. 

F is For Family Season 5

 F is For Family is one of the best animated series there is. After five seasons the show has wrapped up and the final episode had alot of coming of age tones. This is a series where almost every joke lands and it pulls no punches, i'm surprised no one tried to cancel this show! 

Cowboy Bebop

 I am not a big anime fan, i have seen a few here and there, some are awesome like Akira, others i have seen and enjoyed like Vampire Hunter D but i never really latched on to. Cowboy Bebop falls in to that category, i recently rewatched the pilot to give me a taste of what to expect for the Netflix version. It was enjoyable but just a random anime for me. The live action version is quite flawed, the plot, dialogue and action are all rather weak but the characters make it, especially John Cho and Daniella Pineda. I feel had i not had my booster shot and just wanted to lounge out that i would have turned it off after the pilot but luckily the characters kept me coming back. Each episode has something to enjoy until the go home episode, it is a prequel and tries to set up the main plot after 8 episodes, but then we get to the finale which was all over the place and tonally felt unlike the rest, not only that but it was just a bad episode, especially as a finale. It did nothing to make me want to watch the anime or to continue the series into a second season.