irishjenna Reviews

Run Rabbit Run (2023)

I guess I'm one of the few that likes this film...

[7/10 · 30 June 2023]

This was more of a thriller with a mother that had a psychotic break and killed her daughter and ex husband at the end. All of this stemming from her buried trauma of killing her sister as a child and telling her parents she had run away. Though some may see it as a supernatural movie, I beg to differ, hear me out...

So we have Sarah, who's a doctor dealing with the recent death of her father. Her daughter, Mia, is turning 7, the same age as her sister, Alice, when she "disappeared". And she also has to engage with her mother, whom she had been long estranged from. Her mother had stayed in the house hoping Alice would some day come home, while Sarah and her dad moved to the city. After her dad's death and her mom being in a nursing home she has to go to the old childhood house and pack everything. All of these factors are leading to her mental deterioration.

We start with the rabbit on the front porch that her daughter insists they keep. The rabbit doesn't appear until after Mia starts making ominous comments about missing her grandmother that she's never met. At this time Sarah also receives a birthday card for Mia from the grandmother, which she later burns. The rabbit is a symbol for Alice. Sarah, later in the movie, tells Mia that Alice and her were very different. Alice loved animals and was appalled that their father, who considered rabbits to be pests, would kill them. Sarah would go check the traps for their dad and Alice detested this.

Mia doesn't start to get super creepy until she witnesses her mom trying to chuck the rabbit she took in over the fence. At that point the rabbit bites Sarah and Mia starts to wear a pink rabbit mask. The bite festers throughout the movie, which could allude to unhealed wounds from the past that's infecting her.

I also feel Sarah started to abuse Mia. Mia's head wounds and nose bleeds were similar to the ones that Alice had after being hit in the head. Mia was becoming more scared of Sarah, shaking her head when Sarah asks her if she is being bullied by someone at school and withdrawing into herself. OR it could be that the head wounds and nose bleeds were a figment of Sarah's imagination and this freaked Mia out.

Mia was also not the one drawing the creepy pictures. Sarah was drawing the pictures in her deluded state, as we see at the end of the movie when she is lying on the floor scribbling a black rectangle.

This is what concluded for me that Sarah was crazy and there was no supernatural entity. She was seeing her sister Alice in Mia. She kept blurring their faces, she told Mia that she looked like her sister (dark hair and freckles). She was the one that smashed all the family photos in the hallway and trashed Alice's bedroom.

Now, why I do I believe she killed Mia and her ex husband at the end? Well, during one of her dream states she is walking to the edge of the cliff, her father calls her name and reaches for her asking where Alice is. She then looks down and she is holding hands with Mia by the cliff- the same cliff she pushed her sister off. Sarah looks at her ominously and then Mia starts screaming. She wakes up to Mia actually screaming and finds her in Alice's bed. How did she end up there when she was initially sleeping in Sarah's bed? Mia's head is bleeding once again and Sarah cuts her up with scissors trying to get a better look at the wound. Mia is very scared of her mom and recoils at her comfort.

So now it's morning and Sarah had Mia back in her bed. She hears banging out in the barn and this is where we get the full story on what she did to her sister as a child. She locked Alice in an old armoire in the barn while they played. When she unlocks it Alice attacks her, Sarah then grabs one of their dad's steel rabbit traps and hits Alice in the head with it. Alice runs and Sarah chases her yelling that she is sorry. When Alice turns around and they both see how bad Alice's head wound is (severe bleeding from the head and nose) this is the point of no return. Sarah doesn't want to get in trouble and Alice starts screaming. Sarah pushes her off the cliff. BUT, in current time she actually pushed Mia off the cliff. If you look closer, after she hit Alice in the head with the rabbit trap she looks up and it's Mia standing at the barn door. Mia starts to run and she chases her, just like she did with her sister.

We fade to black and Sarah wakes up scribbling a black rectangle on the floor while her ex husband is frantically banging on the front door. She suddenly comes to like she's been in some sort of trance and they can't find Mia. They run down the cliff side and she jumps into the water and sees a body. Though you can't make out the face I'm sure it is Mia. When her and her ex get back to shore they find Mia huddled under a bush. I think this was all in Sarah's head. Mia and her ex were already dead at this point. After they are all hugging the screen fades to black and then you see Sarah going to visit her mom, but she is still wearing the dirty, wet clothes she had on. Why would she travel all the way to the nursing home like that and not change?

Why? Because she wasn't in a clear frame of mind. She comes back home and her ex and Mia are sleeping in Alice's room. Back in that room, I see. She lays next to Mia, with her grungy gross clothes and talks to her like she is Alice, telling her she is sorry for what she did and that she lied to their parents. Mia's eyes are wide open, and still so in the morning when she, like a ghost, slides downward out of her mothers arms. Sarah wakes up and looks at her ex husband oddly, as he is laying in a strange position on the bed with a pillow over his head. She then walks into the other room and sees out the window that Alice and Mia are holding hands walking towards the cliff. They turn around to look at her, Mia is sporting that sore on her head and also has gashes all over her arms.

Mia was dead before the ex showed up. The ex never went down to the water with her, I'm sure she killed him when he went into Alice's bedroom looking for Mia. Everything after that was Sarah's delusion.

Fall (I) (2022)

Even the height wasn't that terrifying...

[3/10 · 23 March 2023]

When I first saw the previews to this at a theater the climbing and hanging on the edge had me freaked out. Once I actually watched it, not so much. I found it to be a bit boring, not well acted, and the drama and dialog were on the weak side.

To be honest, I felt like it was a rip off of The Decent. You have a woman who loses her husband in the very beginning of the film and goes on a year long nose dive into depression. Her friend tries to snap her out of it by taking her climbing, only to find out half way through that her friend and husband were having an affair and fell in love.

The Decent was so much better of a film, had excellent acting, realistic dialog, and the way the affair is revealed and played out after was gripping. Fall fell short of this in all aspects.

So, we have 2 young women, the friend is for sure on the hyper immature side. She has not spoken to the main character for almost a year since the husband's death. She pops back in her life suddenly with a "hey, let's do a super dangerous climb on an abandoned tower with very little gear and no plan B so you can spread your husband's ashes". Okie dokie.

The friend is also filming this for her social media followers, so of course she says she has to wear a bare minimum top to show her cleavage for "likes". So she's vapid and dim. Got it. We have some odd scene of a baby donkey being eaten while still alive by vultures. The friend thinks it's funny to take pictures of the dying baby to post. So we've now established she is a pretty horrible person and we are hoping she falls.

They start the climb, the friend knows the main protagonist is scared and out of her element but does stupid things like shaking the ladder to scare her. Who does that?? Of course, with the old rusty ladder, screws start popping off and neither of them have a clue. They only have one backpack between the two of them with barely any safety supplies. Only a short thin rope, no gloves, no extra clothes, only one small bottle of water, and zero food like granola or nuts...zippo, nada. I'm not a climber or at all a daredevil and I would think that you'd have the basic safety supplies and both of you should have your own backpack with said supplies. These girls were scaling mountains before this, the ones husband died in a fall, safety should be top priority.

Anyway, they get to the top to hang out on a super tiny platform with no barrier. They both do idiot things like hang one handed from the ledge and hold the others hand while the other dangles. No way would they have been able to hold each others body weight. Not to mention the main girl had a year of alcoholism and depression and would have been completely out of shape. But here they were, dangling with no equipment 2000 feet in the air with high winds, all for social media likes.

Ok, so as we the viewers can already see coming a mile away, the ladder breaks. And it doesn't break part way, the whole thing falls to the ground. How do they react? They laugh hysterically and are like, well gee whiz, how do we get down now? There was very little tension in their demeanor, so why would I as the viewer be concerned either?

The rest of the film is spent with them doing more stupid stuff to try and get help. Then we have the drama of finding out about the affair. It was delivered poorly and doesn't really make you feel for either character, other than making the friend look like a worse human than she already appeared.

At the end the main character was hallucinating her friend still being alive, when she had actually fallen and died a day or two before. This was the best part of the film. I was hoping at this point the main girl would do an 'Open Water' ending and realize that her loneliness and will to survive was futile and she would swan dive off the ledge. No such luck. She still had enough strength to kill a vulture and eat it raw so she could repel down to her friends body, stuff her phone in her friends stomach and push her off the tower so that she could get a phone signal. Oh lawrty.

She's rescued and we get some dialog, which her friend had said earlier in the film, about life being too short to not do what you love. Um, her husband is dead, her friend is dead, and now she has a lifetime of PTSD. Their lives were certainly short and ended violently. But hey, do what you love with little regard cause tomorrow you might fall from a tower. Cheers!

Behind Her Eyes (2021)

I almost rated this lower but after the rewatch...

[7/10 · 3 February 2023]

Sooo, after the shock ending I actually rewatched the show knowing that Rob had switched bodies with Adele and seeing if from a different perspective. It made me appreciate it so much more, cause honestly I found it rather boring the first time around until we got into the meat of what had happened after all. I actually enjoyed the astral projection twist, rather than the same old 'jealous lover snaps and starts killing people' trope.

Now, in saying I found it boring the first time around, I do still believe they could have made this a bit shorter of a series or maybe even a 2 hour movie. There was a lot of unnecessary filler.

From what I have read in negative reviews, those who didn't pay attention or didn't notice little hints then let me add in my 2 cents...

Adele (flashbacks)-

Adele is actually a sweet and giving person. She tells Rob that it's ok to trust others. Her trust of him was her downfall.

She shares a secret with Rob, something she's never shared with anyone and teaches him how to astral project. This is the beginning of the end for her.

She had nothing to do with her parents' deaths and was astral projecting when the house caught fire.

She genuinely loves Rob as her best friend but she is completely in love with David, her bf turned fiancé.

She is not an addict.

Her astral soul is pink.

Rob (flashbacks)-

Yes, he's gay, as he says as much right from the first episode.

He's a magnificent cook. He said he learned how to cook in the psych ward, as that was his job there.

Rob has a personality disorder that you can start to see due to the things he says and journals about. He hates his life, himself, and others, and that nobody is to be trusted (not even him, as he states just like everyone else he is only out for himself).

He seemingly loves and idolizes his best friend Adele. But it's not the true love of a friend. More so, similar to Single White Female, he envies everything about her and wants her life. She is everything that he is not, in his own words "she's beautiful and rich". He states over and over how he doesn't want to leave, he wants to stay with her forever. In a nutshell, he's obsessed with her and what he views as a perfect life.

He seems to be protective of her and is wary of her love for David. He is not actually protective, but rather wants her all to himself. He wants her to see David as a bad boyfriend so she doesn't leave the friendship. He said himself that he didn't understand what it was like to love or to be loved and asks her how it feels. He thinks he will be kicked out of her life when she marries David.

Once he meets David and realizes that he is a good person that saved Adele's life and is completely in love with her, he wants this for himself. He is projecting the obsession he had for Adele as a friend onto David as a new love interest. He's never had these feelings before and will do anything to keep it going, as his life has been nothing but empty. He wants to feel something, this is why he is also a heroin addict.

He picked who he wanted to be nice to, who to manipulate, and who to be nasty to.

His astral soul is blue.

Adele/Rob merger-

I think it's unfair to say that Adele didn't have Rob's mannerisms after the merger. Rob had 10 years of life with David to develop his Adele personality. He knew he couldn't act like himself, but rather had to try and take on Adele's persona. But instead of coming across as a sweet and caring Adele, he showed what he really was...a deceptive, selfish, non empathetic manipulator.

You can see this when he takes over Louise's body. He tries to emulate her in every way.

The reason he doesn't give Adam to his father after taking over Louise? He doesn't seem to like Adam, but he stated before that he wanted a family. He is also all about facade and he knows that Louise lived for her son. If he suddenly changes his attitude, this wouldn't sit well with David.

Rob doesn't love David. Again, he is incapable of giving or receiving love. If he ever tired of David, it would be the end of David. Just like it was the end for Adele.

You see him cooking elaborate feasts for David, just as he had before he switched with Adele.

He's still addicted to heroin, Adele was not an addict. He injects himself between the toes to hide track marks from David.

He manipulates David into staying with him by saying if he doesn't he will tell everyone he killed 'Rob'.

He tells Louise that he wanted her to choose him (as Adele) over David, that he wanted her love.

He was molding Louise from the beginning to be like him as Adele, like having her jogging, being a gym rat, and telling her what to eat. He had plans from early on to take over her body.

How could he possibly predict that Louise would come to his rescue at the end? He didn't. But, he had stated before that he knows people. He watched her during his astral projections and the fact that she came to his rescue once, breaking into his house to help, while he was astral projecting. So he assumed her human nature would do it again. But if not, he would die in the fire rather than live his life without the object of his obsession.

As Adele his astral soul is still blue.

David-

No, David had nothing to do with Adele's parents dying. He was a good guy who loved and adored the real Adele.

No, he is not aware that Rob is Adele. The reason he is not nice to her is because the whole relationship (after the merger) was built on blackmail. He was told if he didn't stay he would be blamed for 'Rob's' death. The real Adele had also stated that David would never understand astral projection because he was too analytical. So there is no way David would suspect this.

He had told Louise he didn't know what happened to the girl he had saved from the fire. He says this because there was an obvious switch of personality with the real Adele that he fell in love with to the after merger Adele.

He also told Louise that he had a hard time living with Rob's death on his conscience but that Adele had no issues moving on, even though Rob was her best friend. This really bothered him and also led to his loathing and distrust of her.

Yes, David was nasty to Louise. For one, to throw the viewer off to who's the bad guy. But for two, he felt extremely betrayed by what Louise did (behind his back, befriending his wife who was really Rob). Again, that distrust was there and he had every reason to be angry after all he'd been through.

No, he doesn't see the switch in personality with Louise after the merger because there is no traumatic betrayal leading up to the marriage. With Adele it was obvious to him that something was wrong with her throwing her friend's body into a well and saying she'd blame him if he called the police, then moving on like nothing happened. With Louise he had the relief of Adele writing the note taking blame for everything and then dying. Adele was out of his life, the burden was lifted and he could be free. He sees Louise as his source of happiness.

Louise-

There was a reason Louise becomes so attached to Adele. She said herself that her ex husband cheated and left her for someone else. Not only did she feel extreme guilt now that she was the other woman, but she also said she saw herself in Adele. That she used to be that broken woman being cheated on by her husband.

Why would Louise risk her life to save Adele after everything she had done, especially when she has a child at home? Technically she doesn't risk her "body" per se, but she astral projects to see where Adele is at in the house while she waits for emergency trucks. At that point she had no idea that Adele had OD'd. She goes into her body, maybe hoping to get her up and out of the house. But why? Because even though she called her a "nutter" she still cares for her, she's not a sociopath like Adele/Rob is.

Her astral soul is green.

The Black Phone (2021)

Average at best...

[5/10 · 6 July 2022]

I limit going to the theater unless I think a movie is going to be really good. After reading rave reviews from everyone about this film I decided to go for it. My son and I are big horror fans, he liked it better than I did.

I didn't feel much as far as either terror or suspense. Sorry, Ethan Hawke just wasn't scary to me.

The kids, the brother and sister protagonists, well there wasn't really much as far as great acting involved. The brother was ok, but he didn't seem that frightened even though he was answering a phone with a cut cord and talking to ghosts of other children. He also didn't show a lot of fear around "The Grabber". And the sister was annoying, I mean being foul mouthed doesn't make you funny. The abusive alcoholic father and dead mother, who also had psychic dreams, were a waste of storyline.

There was minimal background to this story. I don't mind some movies that leave it up to your imagination, but for this I just felt...empty. Why was there an old black phone in an unfinished basement? Why was "The Grabber" left down there as a child and was able to hear ghosts on the other end and why were they contacting him?" Why was he wearing those ridiculous masks and when it was pulled off he acted like his eyes were burning? How is it that his unemployed, cocaine fueled, brother was in this super small ranch home with him and didn't know he was killing all these boys? Literally, he was sitting at the top of the basement steps in the kitchen with his silly mask on waiting for the boy to come up so he could beat and torture the hell out of him...but his brother, who was studying the crimes in detail, saw and heard nothing?? Come on now.

And this little, skinny boy kills "The Grabber" super quickly at the end. It was almost comical.

I could go on, but I won't. It wasn't a bad watch but certainly not up to my expectations. I'll go back and watch Sinister though.

Law & Order (1990– )

Season 21 is so bad!

[8/10 · 29 April 2022]

I'm rating the series overall but dropped some points because the latest season is atrocious.

The cast in this newest season overact to the point of being caricatures. Most of the unknown guest actors are more believable than the main cast. And as most other reviewers have stated, the pounding down your throat of woke culture is so annoying.

I ended up falling asleep while watching this, woke up during the 6th episode. I laughed through the episode, and it's not supposed to be funny. I really like Anthony Anderson in comedies, but as a serious actor he is not good. At one point a man him and his partner were interrogating called them "boys", Anderson's character retorts "Boys? We are men!" I laughed so hard, it's like Anderson tries to be serious but just can't pull it off.

Obsession: Dark Desires (2013– )

Terrible formatting

[5/10 · 6 February 2022]

I've been binging true crime lately and just started watching this. I see there are 5 seasons. I'm 7 episodes into season 1 so I'm unsure if the formatting changes as the seasons go on, but I will agree with some of the other reviewers that it can be a chore to get through just one episode. There is a bunch of unnecessary filler to stretch it into an hour show.

But what makes this show a little different is that they have the victims narrate the entire episode. Now, it can be hit or miss depending upon the person. Some of the victims are good at telling their stories, others can be annoyingly grating.

What I think would be beneficial is if they broke up the monotony of the victim retelling their story and the reenacting segments with professional staff that could add to the reason for stalking behavior and mental illness. Delve into the mind of the perpetrator. Either that or have 2 stories in an hour episode.

Alien: Covenant (2017)

Let this film series die already...

[3/10 · 28 May 2020]

Alien and Aliens, two of the greatest films ever made, hands down. The fact that these two movies from the 70s/80s still stand the test of time with not only the acting and storytelling, but the visuals, really tells you something.

I honestly didn't know this film existed until I was perusing for movies to watch during the quarantine and was like, they made another Alien film? I thought, ok, well it can't be any worse than Prometheus, so I'll bite.

Ridley Scott, who directed the first of the franchise, directed the mess that was Prometheus and now Covenant. I can't believe with the huge budget allotted that instead of going back to the tried and true puppets that were used for the original string of films, we have these god awful CGI effects for not only the aliens, but the blood spatter. Sorry, but that's not scary, not at all. This is what you get with a 100 million budget?? FML!

Let's be honest though, this series has produced flop after flop after the second movie. Alien 3 was only ok (maybe even less than ok) and Resurrection was abysmal.

Why in these prequels do we have the absolute dumbest scientists known to mankind...are these guys supposed to be the tops in their field for these space missions? And everyone in both movies either are hooking up or married, but why? Alien and Aliens made great movies without the use of T&A and couple drama. Aliens did it great with the subtle sexual tension between Hicks and Ripley, it was about the connection and wasn't in your face or gratuitous. Prometheus was really bad about this, but we get it in Covenant as well with the shower scene at the end between two characters that nobody cares about. Oh the alien poky tail in the vag, cause I didn't see that one coming. Come on man, sex scene killings are in slasher flicks, is this what we get Ridley, really? Please! Jason did it better, Freddy did it better, Evil Dead did it better. I was waiting for someone in Covenant to yell, "hello is anyone there?", after hearing a creepy noise cause I felt like I might as well be watching Jason X. You know, the one where Jason is in space. That's how dumb these characters are.

After all the stupid moves before and after landing on a strange planet, the one thing you are not going to do is question the field of charred remains of human like entities you are following unknown android man through to get to his dark and scary castle like domain? An android that you don't know that just happens to be the only survivor for 10 years on an aggressive alien planet. An android that you will blindly follow into a back room after seeing him connect with an aggressive alien and finding the head of one of your comrades floating in water. Then you are going to stick your head into an alien pod cause said android asks you to check it out. Oh, and then at the end, one of the last survivors doesn't think to ask her android friend until he locks her in her cryopod a personal question, suddenly realizing what the audience already figured out...it's not him, it's evil android. No kidding?

They all deserved to die, the end.

A Dog's Journey (2019)

Is this the end?

[7/10 · 11 May 2020]

I really enjoyed this movie, just a little less than the first one. What I felt was genius about this film was how they tied the ending in with Ethan dying and the dog saying that Ethan was with him when he died and now he is there for Ethan as he passes. Bailey ages with his new family and as he finally passes away, again, he changes back through all the dogs he has been until he reaches his first form as the original Bailey. But this time he doesn't get reincarnated, he crosses over the rainbow bridge and meets back with Ethan in a field where they run together.

This was an absolutely beautiful ending and wraps up the story line of the 2 films perfectly. It brings tears to my eyes just writing about it.

Though I did not read the books, I'm unsure if this is how the second book ends as there is a third book with Bailey called A Dogs Promise. I would hope there wouldn't be a third movie as I stated, this was a perfect ending to the film series.

Dance of the Dead (2008)

Who is writing these good reviews??

[1/10 · 11 April 2020]

12 years after this film was made I watched it, had never heard of it prior to this and I'm a huge horror and zombie movie fan. I read an article about the greatest zombie movies you've never seen. Of course I'd seen every single one of them on the list, except for this one. And boy oh boy, I was not missing anything! I don't think I got even half way through this dud before I shut it off.

I'm actually offended that many people are not only comparing this to George Romero, but also John Hughes...2 film makers that have created some of my fave movies of all time. And others compared it to Shaun of the Dead. Oh please, are you kidding me right now?? If anything this film ripped off many elements of all those classic films and did it poorly.

This was like watching a few high school kids put a film project together cause the cinematography sucked, the acting blew, the music was awful. It doesn't even make for a good, solid B movie. Someone in a recent post said if you like Deathgasm, you'll like this. Well they were wrong, I really liked Deathgasm and literally hated this piece of crap.

If you want good zombie horror comedy then go back to the classics like some of my all time faves, Return of the Living Dead 1 and 2, Dead Alive, Night of the Creeps, Night of the Comet or some newer comedy gems such as Fido, Cooties, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, and Little Monsters. There are many other greats, too many to list here. There are even not so greats that are still way better than this garbage!

Sweetheart (I) (2019)

Sweetheart?

[5/10 · 8 April 2020]

First things first, after I watched this I had to look up info about this movie to see why in the heck they would call a horror film Sweetheart. In a Q & A the lead actress states this movie apparently has an underlying meaning: the monster signifies evil white men in power (Donald Trump). And when her white friend and white boyfriend wash up on the island, they undercover the never talked about reality that black women are never believed. Um, what??

I wouldn't have gotten any of that subtle message while watching this and I'm not sure anyone else would either. As a matter of fact, once her 2 companions reach the island all I see is extremely awkward dialog amongst them. Of course, neither of them believe her when she says there's a monster. This is typical in most horror movies, so I'm not sure how I was supposed to surmise that the film makers meant this as a whole "black women are never believed" scenario.

Then we have the jerk boyfriend, who calls her sweetheart while barking at her that they are not leaving the island right now. So now we come to the title, which is what the film makers are throwing in your face as a degradation to females. The term, the actress states in the Q & A, that females have a "violent" reaction to. Hmmm. The one and only reason I had any reaction at all to the term is because it's the stupid title of the movie. I didn't think much of a boyfriend referring to his girlfriend as sweetheart, other than the fact he was yelling at her at the time. But his anger wasn't unwarranted as he has just been adrift at sea on a small inflatable raft for an untold period of time and didn't want to go back out there right away. Being a female myself, I really wasn't seeing the significance of the word. They did a poor job at relaying their message to the world.

As far as creature features go, I'd say I wasn't particularly on the edge of my seat throughout but there were a couple scenes that jarred me- mostly when the creature is not seen fully. Once we see the creature in all its glory it's not as fantastic. Creature features can be hit or miss if you don't get the monster just right.

Overall, Blumhouse films can also be hit or miss. The lead actress was pretty good and the setting was nice, but the creature was basic and the underlying storytelling was lost in translation.

Girl on the Third Floor (2019)

You must be joking!

[1/10 · 26 February 2020]

79% on Rotten Tomatoes and 3.4/4 Roger Ebert...am I in the Twilight Zone? This is B rated horror, and not one of those so bad it's good kind, it's just bad! Mediocre acting by some mixed martial arts/actor guy that I've never heard of playing an extremely unlikeable character. The movie drags in the beginning with poorly edited scenes of the protagonist doing shoddy remodeling work on a historic home, jogging and ogling women, and having unnecessary banter with townsfolk and his dog. All of this which leads to some badly played out haunted house story with prostitutes, a kidnapped child, the evil sadistic masked man, and marbles. Ooooh so interesting. There are many, many haunted house movies and I'd say at least 80% of them are better than this one. Move along, there's nothing to see here.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Subtly disturbing

[7/10 · 23 January 2020]

Just watched this flick, not sure how I've missed it all these years. This is definitely an art house type film shown in a non linear fashion, so it won't be up everyone's alley but I like how it was told.

Now I have to correct some of these other reviews I've seen. As someone who works in the psych field and deals with patients from toddlers to seniors, I'm putting it out there right now that Kevin is not a sociopath but straight up a psychopath...and yes, they are different. Officially he can't be diagnosed under 18 with antisocial personality, so he'd be under some conduct or oppositional defiance disorder until he's 18.

Psychopaths are usually born this way as oppose to sociopaths that are created through childhood trauma. Sociopaths have little empathy but psychopaths have zero empathy and cannot form true bonds with others. Their bonds are strictly superficial and self serving. They are highly cunning, calm, collected, and manipulative which can lead them to be very charming (think Bundy). Sociopaths are more impulsive, erratic, and have angry outbursts. Being a psychopath is how Kevin was able to manipulate everyone into thinking he was a good kid, all the while messing with his mom's head cause he enjoyed watching her squirm.

I've also seen other posters blame Tilda as the mom, saying she never bonded with him. Well, that may make him dislike her, but that won't turn him into a killer. He's a born psychopath, period.

AJ and the Queen (2020)

I wasn't going to watch this but I have to say...

[8/10 · 20 January 2020]

I binged this and loved the heck out of it! After watching the first episode I wasn't so sure I was interested in watching anymore. I only remember RuPaul from his early 90s breakthrough but haven't been a follower of his over the years at all, so I'm not a diehard fan like some of the other posters on here.

Ru had so much Botox in his face and fillers around his mouth I found his acting to be a little wooden and his crying scenes to be devoid of emotion, so I questioned him as a lead character carrying this series. But each episode grew on me a little more, I found myself laughing aloud and really feeling for the characters. I enjoyed RuPaul's performance when all was said and done. His blind friend is a riot, and even the annoying little kid began to tug at my heartstrings...and that's saying a lot cause I generally shut down completely when there are annoying little child actors.

This show is definitely not for everyone and will be one of those series people either love or they hate. I, myself, am ready for a season 2!

A Fall from Grace (2020)

Ignore the 10 star ratings...

[1/10 · 19 January 2020]

This movie is so bad! Crystal Fox used to star on In the Heat of the Night. Take the worst episode of that show extended into 2 hours and it would still be Oscar worthy compared to this. Bad acting, terrible lighting (why is everything dark blue?), horrible background music, awful directing.

The courtroom scenes were a joke and so childishly done it was like watching a film made by high schoolers. Fox's narration over the flashbacks was annoying. The bad guy was such a caricature I couldn't even take him seriously and the cop husband was just straight stupid. What was up with all the men with hair that looked like late 80s Bobby Brown after he left New Edition or Will Smith during his Fresh Prince days?

And my god, who was the writer cause they should never write another movie again! At one point the lawyer lady tells Tyler Perry she wants a blood splatter expert. It's blood spatter, not splatter. In another scene Fox says her marriage was a WORLD wind instead of a whirlwind. It's no wonder normal folks have such bad grammar these days when people portraying white collar workers can't even speak appropriately. They can do better than that for black actors, can't they?

There is so much more stupidity but I can't even go on cause this movie already wasted too much of my time, don't let it waste yours.

Marriage Story (2019)

Watch this movie if you need something to help you sleep

[1/10 · 9 January 2020]

At a run time of over 2 hours I was expecting to be entertained. I read the reviews on how this movie is brilliant and the best of the year, a must see! I can't believe I actually sat all the way through this mess. I didn't cry at all, so those saying they cried multiple times during this movie I just don't get. The dialogue was long, drawn out, and boring. If you like hearing people you don't care about talk about nothing, this is the movie for you. Both Scarlett and Adam have singing bits at the end that drug this movie out even longer than need be, I had to fast forward. And don't get me started on their kid, who seemed to be on the spectrum, and was annoying AF. Bottom line, absolutely nothing happens in this movie. If you have insomnia maybe it will help lull you to sleep.

A Christmas Carol (2019)

Just got through this...

[5/10 · 27 December 2019]

Pros: the set and costume design are terrific, the acting is impeccable. Love Guy Pearce.

Cons: drug out too long, especially with the first episode I kept falling asleep. Unnecessary cursing, child molestation, animal cruelty. Mary Cratchit getting ready to prostitute herself to Scrooge. The ending wasn't at all feel good and Scrooge was still not accepted.

Look, I knew this was going to be darker and grittier from the previews. I'm all about Christmas horror tales and thought it'd be a bit on the scary side, but it went way overboard for shock value. Not scary at all, just depressing.

This is certainly not a movie I'd watch over and over again every holiday. I'll go back to watching Krampus or something.

Insatiable (2018–2019)

Glad I didn't listen to the bad reviews...

[10/10 · 21 December 2019]

I just finished binging the first 2 seasons and boy oh boy, I'm hoping for a season 3!! I had been seeing the previews for this for awhile now and never watched it cause it has such a low rating on most of the internet sites, I gotta stop listening to these reviews and judge for myself!

First of all, the reviews and articles I've seen regarding fat shaming and bisexual shaming is just pure tosh...this is a black comedy filled with dark humor and murder twists, period.

Don't try to make it seem like it needs to be something it is not because this ain't no after school special. Think Desperate Housewives meets Heathers.

End of Watch (2012)

How did this get great reviews?

[2/10 · 3 December 2019]

I was expecting another great film like Training Day, but no such luck. The banter between the 2 leads got old and I didn't care to see shots of them with their gfs and then dancing at weddings and junk. Silly crap happens and Gyllenhaal films it all for his college class. For real, they are doing illegal stuff and he films it and laughs about it on camera...what? Makes no sense, especially for a guy that wants to make detective. He has tiny cameras they clip on their uniforms about the size of a pen, yet he also walks around carrying a handheld camcorder like it's 1999. Not only that, he does so in dangerous situations like walking into crime scenes where they don't know if they'll be ambushed.

There's a scene where 2 officers get violently attacked by a gang banger and Gyllenhaal laughs about the one officer having a knife in his eye and the female officers put down the rookie that had her face repeatedly bashed in. Just completely unlikeable characters. Why should I care about any of them?

At the end, after Gyllenhaal and Pena are attacked and Pena dies, they cut to an earlier scene before they are attacked where Pena tells a dumb story about his wife's parents having sex. Then the movie ends. Unbelievably stupid! Can't fathom how the same person involved in Training Day was involved with this mess!

The Irishman (2019)

Is this a joke?

[1/10 · 28 November 2019]

So I'm to suspend disbelief that with CGI Deniro is supposed to be a 30 year old man, Pesci refers to him as "kid" in one scene. Huh? Though the CGI was good enough to make him look like he was maybe in his mid 50s in the face, his body movements were definitely that of a geriatric. And what, Pesci and Pacino were supposed to be in their 40s? Cause this was the age of the real life people these actors were portraying in the 1950s. Hogwash! They couldn't just get younger actors, could they?

Look, I'm not a die hard Deniro or Pacino fan. I'm not even a gangster movie fan, I love Scarface and The Departed and that's pretty much it. Both of those movies had long run times, though not nearly as long as this one, but they were entertaining and easy to sit through. Not quite an hour into this film and I was checking the time. Maybe that affects my rating as well, since this isn't my genre, though the CGI takes this movie way down in notches regardless of the types of films you like.

Not to say this is necessarily a 1 Star film, but I needed to curb all the 10 star ratings that go on about how this is the best movie ever. Not even close!

Steel Trap (2007)

So bad it's funny

[3/10 · 7 August 2019]

I honestly don't think this was supposed to be a comedy, but we were laughing so hard at the ridiculous dialog and acting in the beginning we were in tears. The writing is so bad. And the actors, I looked some of them up and can't believe that they had regular acting gigs after this. They are all British and some have been in fave British shows of mine. I'm thinking they must have been background characters with no lines, it's the only way!

After awhile, the comedy wore off as the characters continued to be obnoxious and you couldn't wait for all of them to die. Unfortunately, the death scenes weren't great. If you are going to have a poorly acted script, have some good deaths. No such luck as most of the death scenes are quick to cut, and what you do see is D rated fake! The twist ending wouldn't have been too bad if the rest of the movie didn't suck.

Btw, the cover of the movie is completely inaccurate. First off, whoever is on that cover is not even in the movie. Secondly, the cover makes you think it will be a Saw-ish type movie where the characters have to escape elaborate death traps in rooms. Not at all true, and I felt hoodwinked!

This Is Us (2016–2022)

After 3 seasons I think I'm done

[5/10 · 27 March 2019]

Honestly, I find The Big Three to be not all that likeable. The constant bickering season after season wears me out more than entertains me. This last season I was thoroughly invested in Jack's Vietnam storyline, as I always find myself way more interested in the flashbacks than I am in their current lives. After the Vietnam storyline wrapped up my interest started to wane.

You have Kevin hitting the bottle again and conflicts in his new relationship. You have Kate, who of course can't give birth to a healthy baby cause there has to be drama there. You have Randall and Beth who are at each other's throats over stupid stuff because the both of them are over the top about everything. They fight about not working and staying home with the kids, but yet they both do want they want and neglect the kids even more than they did when they were working high salary jobs-complaints about how the other is selfish when really they both are. And tell me how in the heck they can still afford that big ole house and 3 kids when they are earning a fraction of what they earned at their former jobs, not to mention both being unemployed for awhile. Please!

Jack's story seems pretty well wrapped up to me. I've watched his romance throughout the years with Rebecca, his abusive childhood scenes, seen his infamous death, watched him and his brother's relationship fall apart in Vietnam. That sums it up, now I'm over this show.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019)

Meh, no "A"?

[1/10 · 21 March 2019]

Update: lowering my rating, couldn't continue with this show. Didn't care about any of the characters, couldn't get into and just didn't care about the story line. Therefore, I stopped watching.

The fun of the original show was the mysterious antagonist "A". So when I heard about Perfectionists, I was intrigued but skeptical. My skepticism was not without merit as the pilot episode doesn't bring much to the table for me for the exception of a gnarly death scene at the end. The only thing that is similar to PLL is 2 of the original cast. You have a group of pretentious college kids, none of whom seem all that likeable. They pretty much all get a s#x scene in the first episode. They are scared about something, but we are not sure what. I'll watch a couple more episodes and see if it draws me in a little more, if not I'll have to pull the plug early. Right now I'll keep my middle of the road rating.

Cuckoo (II) (2012– )

Ended up loving it!

[8/10 · 26 February 2019]

I started to watch Cuckoo when it was recommended on Netfl!x after watching Sick Note. I really enjoyed Sick Note, so I thought why not?

I was also drawn to watch it after seeing Taylor Lautner on the thumbnail. No I'm not a young fan of Twilight and I know his leading man action movies were a huge failure, but after seeing him in The Ridiculous Six movie and the Scream Queen series I became a fan of his comedy chops.

So when watching the first series with Andy I was wondering where the heck Taylor was at. It took me several episodes to get into the series but when I did I really enjoyed it. I was happy during season 2 to see Taylor and literally LOL'd throughout the next 3 seasons. Not just Taylor's character, but Ken and his crazy and totally creepy doctor neighbor have me rolling!

I was disappointed to see that Taylor has exited for good in season 5 and is replaced by yet another character, Ken's long lost sister played by Andie MacDowell. I'm not sure how well that's playing out but once it reaches a platform I can watch it on I will get it a try.

The Last Laugh (I) (2019)

Boring

[1/10 · 16 January 2019]

Coming from someone who grew up with the movies of these 2 actors I was highly disappointed. I found this film to be extremely boring, not funny, and emotionless. Just a bunch of one liner grandpa jokes. There is no way he would have been a popular comedian in the end. He is on tv in front of a large audience and says "You may recognize me from America's got dentures". Uh, what? He rambles on about how there needs to be funny people everywhere, at the grocery store, the dentist office...then thanks Ed Sullivan, or whatever, and says he will see him soon. He gets a standing ovation and everyone in the audience is in tears because they are laughing so hard. Laughing at what? I will never know!

24 Hours to Die (I) (2016)

Just, NO!

[1/10 · 14 September 2017]

We've seen this one before, a group of strangers in a locked room with no idea how they got there, why they are there, or how they are connected. Bad acting, bad lighting and awful camera work. They are being infected with a virus and a voice that sounds like an annoying British Stephen Hawking toys with them. I got halfway through and could no longer stand the agony. Do yourself a favor and watch similar but better films like Saw, Cube, Exam, Circle (2015) or really ANYTHING else but this!