reviews

Movie review - Dracula (1931)

less than 1 minute read

An entertaining but extremely abridged Dracula adaptation, which to be fair is required for such a short movie. The cast are generally great, with Bela Lugo...

Movie review - The Vampire Bat (1933)

less than 1 minute read

It's got a bit of spooky to it, and I do love an early 30s movie, a short runtime (just over an hour), and a bunch of weird characters (complimentary)....

Movie review - The Rezort (2015)

less than 1 minute read

Some of the big ideas here were good, and the technical aspects as well for the budget. It started dragging for me just when the action picked up halfway th...

Movie review - M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

less than 1 minute read

The good: M3gan and Cady, the soundtrackThe bad: all the adult characters, the plot The ugly: the tech is even more fully disconnected from our reality, esp...

Movie review - Godzilla Minus One (2023)

less than 1 minute read

Really enjoyed this, very well made and gave me at least some feeling of postwar Japanese personal and national trauma before running it up against the lite...

Movie review - Attack the Block (2011)

less than 1 minute read

Did this movie popularize the blackest black the year before vantablack was created? Much to ponder. Either way, I liked it a lot. Rating: 4.0 out of 5.

Movie review - Violent Night (2022)

less than 1 minute read

Watched because the trailer for the sequel looked amusing. Good mindless violent fun, will add this to the Christmas rotation. Rating: 3.0 out of 5.

Movie review - Afterlight (2025)

less than 1 minute read

Some interesting ideas in these shorts, but quality is not great after the first. Particularly the CG is generally quite bad (some maybe AI?), even basic co...

Movie review - Being Eddie (2025)

less than 1 minute read

I guess it's interesting to know that Eddie is just a generic super rich guy these days, with literally all the trappings. Had to sit through a lot of ...

Movie review - Supergirl (2026)

less than 1 minute read

I'm fully biased coming into this movie. I really liked the "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" comic this was based on. Lobo is one of my favouri...

Movie review - Silent Night (2023)

less than 1 minute read

Boring. The "not speaking" conceit was an interesting idea, but it doesn't go anywhere interesting -- there are no situations where it's...

Movie review - Possessor (2020)

less than 1 minute read

I was interested in the world and where the plot was going in this film, but the characters didn't build in a way I connected with, and it was slow. Th...

Movie review - Ready or Not (2019)

less than 1 minute read

Another late first watch. I'd already gathered the broad strokes of the plot, and particularly knowing a bit about the sequel defused some tension, but...

Movie review - Companion (2025)

less than 1 minute read

I enjoyed this one. It had more fun energy (at appropriate times) than recent similar films, moved at a good pace, and the duration was perfect. High points...

Movie review - Donnie Darko (2001)

less than 1 minute read

Finally watched, glad I waited, if I'd seen this when it came out I'd have been insufferable about it for years and then had nostalgia glasses eve...

Movie review - Murder! (1930)

less than 1 minute read

Interesting only to see Hitchcock's filmmaking technique at the time, the acting and plot are telegraphed and dull. Rating: 2.0 out of 5.

Movie review - Clairtone (2025)

less than 1 minute read

An interesting but not overly nuanced history of a Canadian luxury audio brand I had only heard of in passing. Shout out to "Farewell to Nova Scotia&qu...

Movie review - The Crimes That Bind (2018)

less than 1 minute read

Convoluted but grounded Japanese police story where everything is way too personal for the main detective Kaga who just wants a snack (played by Hiroshi Abe...

Movie review - Wicked: For Good (2025)

less than 1 minute read

As expected, generally good but not particularly exciting. I kept wishing less famous actors had been cast. Also nobody is sexy in this movie including Jona...

Movie review - The Walking Dead (1936)

less than 1 minute read

The poster and tagline are both misleading, and I didn't know that I would call this horror. It's an interesting little gangster revenge noire wit...

Movie review - Dark City (1998)

less than 1 minute read

Truly astonishing I hadn't seen this before, it would've been exactly my thing in the 90s. Interesting ideas, good visuals, solid acting. I'v...

Movie review - Maigret (2022)

less than 1 minute read

I like the Maigret stories, they're very different from contemporary early 20th century British mystery stories. This film does an uninspired job of te...

Movie review - Antiviral (2012)

less than 1 minute read

Brandon continues the most important parts of the Cronenberg tradition - being super horny about unexpected fetishes, employing great Canadian character act...

Movie review - FREYA (2020)

less than 1 minute read

Ok listen, I found this because the link was in the director's profile on a dating app. Incredible targeted marketing campaign. But also this is really...

Movie review - No Ordinary Man (2020)

less than 1 minute read

Takes the story of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton as a starting point for a moving exploration of trans mascness. In many cases I complain films are too l...

Movie review - Wicked (2024)

less than 1 minute read

Pretty much what I expected, visually strong (though practical effects sometimes meh), musically strong (but Ariana did not consistently act her singing), a...

Movie review - Queens of the Dead (2025)

less than 1 minute read

A snappy queer found-family romp in a zombie apocalypse frame. It's not perfect, but if it was perfect I would not love it as much. Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Movie review - Parasite (2019)

less than 1 minute read

Finally watched. This is a good movie, the characters feel real and the plot was interesting. But it didn't transcend for me, the hype seems hyperbolic...

Movie review - I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

less than 1 minute read

This is a great doc. It does what it sets out to do, framing the history of Black civil rights in the US in James Baldwin's words and tying all of that...

Movie review - Crank (2006)

less than 1 minute read

"It's actively violent against everyone except white men, but...". Yeah, I'm not going to give that a pass. Rating: 0.5 out of 5.

Movie review - The Addiction (1995)

less than 1 minute read

A lot more lingering war crimes imagery than I was expecting. Aside from that I liked the look and feel, and the story was pretty good but went off the rail...

Movie review - Predator: Badlands (2025)

less than 1 minute read

I'm liking all the new Predator movies, but this is the weakest of the three. The plot and two protagonists work, but the constant action is a too repe...

Movie review - Nobody (2021)

less than 1 minute read

A better than average action movie, just don't think about the backstory. And a tight 91 min is priceless. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Movie review - The Shadow’s Edge (2025)

less than 1 minute read

Solid action flick. Jackie Chan won't stop doing his own stunts, and Tony Leung Ka-fai is legitimately scary. And remember kids, cryptocurrency is untr...

Movie review - Strange Days (1995)

less than 1 minute read

There's good and bad stuff in this movie, but for me it's all overshadowed by the most vile fridging concept I've ever seen. Rating: 1.5 out ...

Movie review - Becoming Cary Grant (2017)

less than 1 minute read

Not knowing much about Cary Grant's personal life this was an interesting watch, it seemed an empathetic take on a complex man. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Movie review - Monkey Man (2024)

less than 1 minute read

Action with a soul and cultural context, both current and historical. I liked it a lot. Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Movie review - Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)

less than 1 minute read

There were some interesting ideas here, but the execution was terrible across the board. An action comedy about Section 31? Someone should be sent to the ag...

Movie review - Fountain of Youth (2025)

less than 1 minute read

Incredible choice to hard smash into Oasis' Live Forever for the credits. Completely broke the dull fugue state the mediocrity of the rest of the movie...

Movie review - The Shrouds (2024)

less than 1 minute read

This was pretty incoherent, particularly near the end. Maybe a lot of scenes were cut? But great to see Jennifer Dale and Sandrine Holt, and all the Toronto...

Movie sites update

less than 1 minute read

I’ve recently decided to switch over my movie ratings from IMDB to The Movie Database. This is primarily driven by not wanting to feed yet more data or link ...

Movie Reviews - April 2021

4 minute read

Wow, it’s been a whole year since I wrote any movie reviews. You’d think that staying home in a pandemic would give me lots of time to do blog entries, but a...