annabeack Reviews

Maneater (2022)

A cinema MASTERPIECE

[2/10 · 25 March 2024]

There's so much to love about this movie! A giant sport killing tiger shark! A country singer with magically growing hair! That one guy from A Walk To Remember! Funny hijink music! Stupid adults that have no common sense! Did I mention a giant massive shark that is on screen bigger than Jaws but swims in 2 feet of water completely covered?!

Seriously, what in the world is this movie?

A girl is heartbroken by her fiancé and instead of going on her honeymoon alone, she and 5 of her friends take the trip. A week before the trip, a random teenage girl is torn apart by a massive man hunting tiger shark and now her father with magically growing hair is on the hunt for said shark. After a full day of traveling to a private island, blondie and friends take a raft trip across the ocean to a private island leaving the captain and his I guess wife to man the ship. After a brief back and forth of bringing supplies and people from boat to island, a doofus takes a butcher's knife to a can of beer and stabs his hand open. Instead of TAKING THE IDIOT TO A HOSPITAL, the captain wraps it up and tells him to just keep it dry and it will be ok. Cue suspense music. The party bunch are just hanging out around the fire and eventually pass out. The next morning, the captain is scrubbing the dude's blood off of his boat, and drops the rescue radio in the water. After some awkward banter, the captain is chomped by the shark and knocks the wife-ish into the water, snacking her up as well. Meanwhile, 2 of blondie's friends go halfway skinny dipping...for some reason. Cause these friends don't couple up or anything. It's GROSS. The titular maneater disposes of one leaving the moron with the stabbed hand to float up to the shore. After some craziness, some head trauma, and a dramatic WW2 style bloody beach crawl, country singer Trace Adkins finds the location of blondie. They stand awkwardly on the beach and have a very intense conversation with lots of pointing and even more happy hands club hand motions and make a plan to shoot the propeller eating megologon sized tiger shark. After some crazy circus tricks and 50,000 shot gun shells later, the surviving traumatized med student who took action to save her legless bleeding friend with the swiftness of a comatose sloth and the local hero Captain Haircuts Are Confusing decide that the only thing she needs to get through her witnessing 5 or 7 or something friends being eaten alive is pancakes. That's all that you'd need to solve the problem.

A few sometime later, Sam Elliot's cousin is approached by a teacher friend and a Hawaiian actor that is apparently from SE Asia to come murc another sport fishing danger fish that's eating everyone raw as well. Now they don't plagiarize even a little bit...but you're gonna need a bigger one. A boat that is. They don't really make that clear.

Grimsburg (2024– )

Why so serious?

[8/10 · 17 March 2024]

It's not Bob's Burgers or Futurama but if you're a fan of adult animation it's a good time! It's stupid funny and that's the purpose of adult animation. I promise if you need something mind numbing after a long day this will cure that. It has a woman raised by bears, an imaginary skeleton, treenises, and so much more!

Some characters are very try hard and the humor does fall flat so I can see why there are a lot of negative reviews but Jon Hamm and Alan Tudyk really make up for it. It has great potential so time will tell if the show will be a cult classic or a 2 season failure. Just give it a shot.

The Mill (2023)

Great movie...until the end

[4/10 · 10 October 2023]

Speaking of the end...was it really?

Joe's your average day worker in the rat race of life. He's employed by a massive corporation a la Amazon or Walmart, struggles to pay bills while working as much as possible to earn more, and is a first time father. Unfortunately, Joe wakes up in a room on the dirt floor with no memory of how he got there. Upon further inspection, he not only sees a massive stone wheel on a circular track but is greeted by his neighbor in the next cell over. The neighbor is short with details on what the purpose of this room is, but tells Joe he needs to rest before the next day. The Mallard Corporation greets Joe and explains that he is being punished for his team's lack of productivity and that he is required to complete 50 rotation of the wheel daily. Basic meals and water will be provided but he's not allowed to leave. Initially, Joe is happy to comply and eventually sets the bar higher to 100 rotations. His neighbors are bittersweet about this as now they have to meet the same goal or higher to not be terminated. Joe finds out the termination process is a middle of the night wake up call of screams of the terminated employee. Mallard sees how well he's done and rewards Joe for his excellent work with an engraved pen that he points out is utterly pointless. He surpasses his quota yet again to 350 and is met by anger from his neighbors and fellow jailed workers. The cycle continues without cease and eventually Joe fights back. Mallard recognizes his resentment and penalizes him with a 2-for-1 rotation schedule and a giant magnifying glass type object in the open air roof that expands the heat from the sun. Barely making his goal, Joe decides to plan escape and leaves via a dig out hole in the wall. His escape is only into the next room and he's caught and knocked out. Mallard is furious and not only forces Joe and the other workers to complete 1000 rotations but punishes his neighbor for concealing information on how to escape by breaking both legs. The neighbor is distraught realizing he can no longer stand and will be terminated that night. Joe attempts to comfort him and apologize but his neighbor tells him that he created the prison. He was charged with creating the algorithm on the prison and the algorithm expanded on its own causing the prison that has no escape. Joe realizes that it's a computer and figures that if the entire jail refuses to work, the system will be beaten. All join in on his plan and no one works until the days end where Mallard informs them that anyone that does not make 1 rotation will be killed. Despite his rousing speech, neighbors begin to complete the quota refusing to die for Joe's beliefs. Feeling defeated, Joe is encouraged by his neighbor to complete the task as he will continue to live to see his son unlike himself. That night he confides in Joe that his name is Alex and that he was the only known person to ever escape the prison but just like Joe, was caught and returned. He had faith that Joe wouldn't be as unlucky as he would and would actually find a way out but in the end surmised that there really is no official escape. Alex tells Joe that he has a child as well and that he had the chance to see him grow and that Joe shouldn't give up so that he can be given that same opportunity. During the night, Alex is terminated. Joe awakes to Mallard telling him they are there for him during his difficult time and shows Joe a video of a toddler and his wife leaving their house. Joe knows that it's a ploy and fights back against Mallard causing the system to immediately terminate him. 12 people enter his cell and surround him with glass clipboards and are introduced as HR. The guard arrives telling Joe he loves his job but that he really enjoys the terminations. He prepares an injection and tells Joe that there will soon be a spot opened up in higher management along with a new housing opportunity and he hope that this next review of his performance will give him that promotion. He also tells of a single mother and son who live at the house and hopes they stick around as well. This sends Joe into a frenzy and he attacks the guard nearly beating him to death. As HR watches on with smiles, Mallard informs Joe that if he completes the termination of the guard that he will be promoted and the termination for him will be revoked. Joe realizes he's only a pawn in the game and stops his assault. He tells Mallard that he won't be made into a monster and quits.

Joe now wakes up with his chin in a stand and electrodes on his head. He's now in a suit and has been taken out from the jail. The guard approaches him and tells Joe that he's in a simulation created by Mallard to promote working harder and in reality he's only been in the simulation for a 60 minute long lunch period. The guard introduces himself as his HR partner and congratulates him on his success not only as a leader in the simulation but for his promotion to level 8. He takes Joe to his new office all the while Joe flashes back to his time in the jail. He talks the promotion up as a large opportunity but only leads him to a tiny windowless room. He tells Joe they set his computer up with family pictures and they include a name placard but overall it seems to be the same day in and out as before. He tells Joe that he is to watch 10 videos of training for his daily quota and that he has all night. He then produces an NDA for the simulation forcing him to be quiet regarding the process. Although hesitant, Joe eventually signs. He is then left to his office alone to finish his daily work. Instead of starting, Joe calls his wife. He tears up hearing her voice and tells her that he's staying late but that it's different this time. After his goodbyes, he stares into the camera announcing he will burn the place down.

The end? Really? That's it? After all of that, he just goes back to his every day activities and says he's going to take the place down. Is this figuratively? Is it metaphorical? Who knows! The ending leaves you with the feeling that there will be another chapter to the story but that it's highly improbable that it will come about. We spend an hour and a half immersed in a dystopian world of torturous AI's and pointless jail sentence work all for the last 10 minutes to conclude nothing. Who was Alex? Was this just part of the simulation? Is his plan to keep climbing only to make upper management and destroy the company? Did he really sign the paperwork of the NDA making it null and void so that he can spread the word of the simulation? What exactly is the story here?

The Mill starts strong but fails so bad in the end that it's almost pointless to watch it. The acting, while decent, also comes across as fake at times. The only fight scene in the movie is very obvious that it's staged. It also seems very unlikely that we have been watching this entire thing for the equivalent of less than a week and yet he has no idea how long he's been there. I guess it could be because the AI made the simulation that way but it still seems a bit silly.

Overall, 4/10. What leads to a possible great ending only introduces a completely different movie.

All of Us Are Dead (2022– )

Korea does it again!

[9/10 · 3 February 2022]

This show is amazing. They bring a fresh take on the zombie genre with notes on innocent love, true friendships, and hardships that are honestly heartbreaking at times. It's well rounded and disappointing at times but it's so incredibly worth watching. I rated the show a 9/10 because I am so disappointed at who loses their lives. There's so many characters you fall in love with only to lose them. There could have been at least one off limits!

Another Life (2019–2021)

It's ok but entertaining

[6/10 · 31 January 2022]

I'm only a couple of episodes into S2 so my review is solely based on S1.

Another Life is another sci-fi show about aliens. Pure and simple. A captain is chosen based on past decisions that have her questioned by others and it leads to her killing off another member of the crew. While the murder is justified, it's never actually justified. People are mad and some are understanding and the resident AI is confused. What I want to know is if the AI can rewind video footage of other circumstances...why can't he replay the situation that led to the murder? The guy attacks her with a knife but there's no mention that he did so. It's just one of many many plot holes. Another situation that I keep replaying over and over in my head is one that is just beyond absurd. A 3 way happens between 2 guys and a girl and even after HIGH levels of unfiltered radiation is blasted onto the ship days before, she miraculously becomes pregnant. That is honestly not the problem. The problem is 1. It's literally 2-3 days AFTER said 3 way that she finds out. That is impossible. You don't get pregnancy related symptoms for weeks after. 2-3 days is how long implantation can take so this is highly and ridiculously improbable. 2. All 3 die anyways. What was the point of the plot line? It's in the show for a whopping 20 minutes at most? It's a one episode line that dies off. What purpose does that serve? Why bother even including it? It doesn't effect any other characters and serves no plot background. It's a plot hole that just waste space and time. Literal garbage.

All through the series, you'll find situations like I mentioned. The show takes place in the future but it's never actually said so all this space and sci-fi junk is just thrown at you out of nowhere. Sci-fi is full of improbabilities and insanely imagined stories but this sometimes becomes a bit campy. It's a Netflix show but it honest has a Syfy feel to it. It's a bit corny at times, a bit over the top (in a bad way), and has the consistency of Swiss cheese. If you're an avid SF lover, you'll enjoy the ideas but don't expect it to win any awards. If you're able to look past the issues, the show will certainly scratch an itch.

Playing with Fire (I) (2019)

It's a Nickelodeon movie, not the WWE

[10/10 · 1 May 2020]

This movie was actually pretty good. If you keep in mind that some of the jokes and hijinks are made for children, you certainly can enjoy the movie. John Cena is fantastic as the big bad fire jumper who refuses to show his soft side but slowly warms up to not only 3 orphaned children but to a goofy yet loving scientist AND his inner child. The supporting adult cast Is hilarious and 100% willing to act as ridiculous as possible. This movie brings back slapstick comedy and good natured narratives for a very entertaining family movie.

*If you rent the movie, make sure you check out the extras! They're full of laughter and during this quarantine...we need it!

Underwater (2020)

Alien meets Predator meets Deep Blue Sea

[5/10 · 29 April 2020]

Rented the Blu-ray version and it was potato quality. You could hardly see anything that was in the underwater scenes. The "creatures" are hardly scary because of this and really only the jump scares give it some sort of a horror feel. What you could see was wisp, something floating in the dark corners, and monster things in holes. I think.

The storyline was full of information that lacked details and the characters weren't relatable. TJ Miller was a great distraction from some of the more disappointing parts but he was taken way too soon. Overall, it was a subpar film. I thoroughly enjoy underwater creature features and this cured an afternoon of quarantine.

Sweetheart (I) (2019)

An interesting concept to an underwater creature

[8/10 · 15 April 2020]

First off, I will gladly acknowledge that some of the acting is completely ridiculous and over the top. The cast consist of 4 1/2 people and a large underwater hole dwelling creature that seeks to kill and eat anything it can find.

The movie opens up on a young woman, Jenn, coughing up sea water indicating a ship wreck. Jenn finds another of her crew washed ashore but unfortunately for him, he has a large hunk of coral sticking out of his side. Jenn attempts to save him but does not prevail. After some searching she finds that the island she has landed on is small and unassuming and doesn't have high hopes for rescue. During the night, a mysterious creature appears in the light of a flare she has set off at an overhead plane. Jenn takes heed and hides unsure of what's coming. For 3 days, Jenn sets up traps and tries to gather as much information as possible while also searching for anywhere to hide. On day 4, Jenn sees a raft on the horizon and swims out to recover it. Jenn is surprised to find 2 others, her forgettable boyfriend who gives the worse performance of his life and an Aussie friend who seems...suspicious. She tries to warn them of the creature to no avail and realizes that she has to escape on her own if she is ever going to escape the island. Aussie catches her pushing their raft into the ocean and a fight breaks out causing Jenn to receive a paddle to the head rendering her unconscious. Upon awakening, Jenn finds herself tied to a tree. Aussie tells the friend that they don't believe her because of her past with lying and that they will figure out a plan later when they have tried to rest. Boyfriend shows up out of the woods announcing that he no sees nothing in the woods and then proceeds to rant about his girlfriend's lifestyle and how he pays for it all. Nothing comes of the rant and only gives Aussie the chance to walk by the beach to her death. Hearing screams, boyfriend runs to aid Aussie but ultimately fails and finally sees that he, too, must escape or become an hors d'oeuvre. The next day, the twosome pack and head out but find that the creature is more interested in them than they originally assumed. The creature attacks and manages to grab Jenn under but thanks to the pocket knife she borrowed from boyfriend, she escapes. Boyfriend, however, jumps in and does not manage to escape leaving Jenn to return to the island. Jenn is obviously peeved and so she sets up this elaborate plan of spikes made with bones from others who previously found themselves stranded and a ring of dry bush to attempt to capture and kill the creature. Her plan goes according to...plan...and Jenn is able to stab the creature enough to kill it. To double check, she cuts the head off. Something she couldn't do to a fish days before. And thus ends Sweetheart.

The movie is overall a fun and interesting creature feature and is you love everything sci fi/fantasy, you'll enjoy the film as just something to pass the time. There's, obviously, some major plot holes that don't add up or don't pan out and only leaves you scratching your head at the end. Such as, who is Zack? Why is there blood crusted on the pocket knife and the floor of the raft? How can a creature pop his hand and head through the floor of the raft and yank a girl through it but still leave the raft floating? Why is Zack only half of a body? Why is boyfriend such a terrible boyfriend? Why is Aussie silently screaming "cannibal"?

Overall, it's an 8. I would have liked to see some more action between the creature and Jenn' scar and mouse game instead of boyfriend and Aussie. I think Jenn should have questioned some issues before allowing boyfriend on the raft. It left the movie too open and left unfinished.

The Platform (2019)

Oh brother

[1/10 · 29 March 2020]

A beautiful story of cannibalism, imaginary fan service, and snails. I'll come out and say it, it's great everyone has a different point of view and a different idea of what this story is but the movie is absolute garbage. You don't need a high IQ to understand that the message is completely lost in the details and the various meaningless sub stories. It's a movie that leaves you at the end scratching your head and yelling at the tv in private but gives "movie buffs" and "critics" a chance to discuss over coffee the deeper meanings and imagery. It's quite possibly the ultimate hidden message movie. It contains political statements on racism, rape, ignoring child abuse, gluttony, how man can become the hunter and hunted, the class system, self torture, and government/politician ignorance. At the end, you're left with an empty plate of invisible lessons that no one will actually learn from and that no one will actually remember.

Border (2018)

Fantastic

[9/10 · 15 February 2020]

I don't honestly know how to even explain this movie. I love foreign films and I especially love the sci-fi and fantasy genres. This film included both parts and I found it so hard to look away.

The Osiris Child (2016)

Odd man out it seems

[8/10 · 15 February 2020]

*I* personally enjoyed this movie A LOT. It's a movie that requires you to pay attention because you'll miss a detail or miss a time hop without knowing. It has some great twist and the ending is quite unexpected. I wish there was more detail as to what happened between 2 of the characters during a year's time, though. I also wish there had been more of the plot including others. Overall, I give it a generous 8 out of 10.

Z Nation (2014–2018)

GREAT campy fun!

[8/10 · 30 July 2019]

First things first, this is a SyFy show. If you are a true connoisseur of their movies, you already know what they produce. Cheesy acting and plots, gratuitous gore, over the top action, and uncomfortable relationships between really awkward people. That being said, it's classic. This is the Sharknado of the zombie genre; it's NOT The Walking Dead type of zombie show. If you can go into it knowing that, then you're going to have a fun time! The characters are pretty likable and the story line is an adventure.

Wetlands (2013)

Shockingly a beautiful film...even if it makes you squeamish

[9/10 · 3 September 2017]

Wetlands was an impressive movie. I don't usually fall for foreign films, but this one takes the cake!

Helen is an angsty girl who has absolutely disgusting habits she flaunts very openly. Centered around a shaving accident, the film takes place in a hospital while visiting the near past and the far past of childhood. Helen is such a complex character. She's probably suffering from PTSD after a traumatic fins as a child and just doesn't let herself visit why. She is very eccentric and bold with her sexual adventures which makes for a wild ride in itself.

I don't want to give away TOO many spoilers but this movie is not for those affected by male and female nudity or bodily functions. While it sounds and reads like a Divine movie, it's truly not as bad as it seems. The ending is rewarding and you find yourself rooting for Helen and her future happiness. Don't skip on the credits! There's a small "update" montage that gives more cheer to her life.