PEACOCKS "M3GAN" STUNS AND THRILLS!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - M3GAN [The Directors Cut] - Peacock [2022] - PG13 - Directed by Gerard Johnstone and Edited by Jeff McEvoy. Written and created by Akela Cooper and James Wan, this movie has a little punch in its deliver of chills and thrills. Not to be considered another "Chucky-type" horror movie, M3GAN is a story of how a child's toy in this day and age of new technology, might go too far in protecting it's owner.

Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, and Amie Donald.  The story and plot involves a young girl named Cady, performed by a talented and emotional McGraw, who loses both her parents in a horrific highway accident. She is then raised by her aunt, Gemma [Williams], who is single and also a robotic's engineer. Through her aunt, Cady is eventually introduced to Megan, an automaton that is programmed through sophisticated Artificial Intelligence [AI] to be more than a child's friend, but to also be a beneficial guide in building trust through a physiological series of daily events that parents seem to ignore in a young persons life. Megan follows Cady and reminds her of what's the right thing to do, the right way to feel, and that at times, it's okay to share memories and feel strength through solid companionship.

THE GOOD - The cinematography seems perfect, especially when a scene requires to show how short the children [and Megan] are against the parents. In the film sequences "size really does matter" as the actual size of Megan hides the actual inner strength of the android when it's fully engaged to protect Cady. The special effects, along with the practical effects are delivered nicely, with very little CGI that has to be abundant during certain action scenes. The director does a great job enforcing some much needed character development to set the mood and get the viewer to trust the android in the earlier parts in the film. There are some surprising effects in presenting the android using 'less human" antiquated movements that seemed a little eerie to watch.

THE BAD - Due to this being a "Directors Cut" review, there are some bad editing skips that occur in the film; even thought they don't ruin the mood of the film, they are noticeable and I cant shake off bad mistakes in films that have gotten such great reviews. Some of the darker scenes that require torn skin or burning flesh were cut too short, but that's what you can expect from a PG13 movie. This movie should have been Rated R and the blood factor should have been pumped up to maximum; it certainly has very little to offer entertainment to children and is certainly falls under an adult horror film.

POST MORTEM - M3GAN is a definite "like" in my opinion. The film could have easily gone into deep gore and horror if the director and the films producers wanted to push the envelope. There's only so much a film can deliver to fans in the genre of a PG 13 film, but there are some scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫[3.5 of 5 Stars]

QUANTUM STORM WIKI ON “GRAVITRON” [2010]

GRAVITRON is a dramatic, SciFi short film created and produced by David Quintana-Lujan in 2010, under the team moniker of DAMAR Editions Ltd. This was the 17 short film created by the director-producer under the studio name, Quantum Storm Productions., and the fourth short film he created during his move back to Texas. The story is simple; a lone traveler [Larry Carrell] visits a distraught mother [Amy Mitchell] who lost her daughter [Briannah Korin] ten years ago in a horrific car accident. The lone traveler gives the still grieving mother a gift to go back in time and correct a wrong and live her life in another more positive reality. This short film was planned as part one to a mini-series of five short films.

Directed by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Screenplay by D. R. Quintana-Lujan & Larry Carrell

Story by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Starring Amy Mitchell, Larry Carrell, Briannah Korin

Cinematography by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Edited by D. R. Quintana-Lujan

Music by Zeca Mahoney

Production Company Quantum Storm Productions

Running Time 8 minutes

Countries  United States

Language English

Budget  $2,500

 

 

GRAVITRON is an ultra-low independent short film directed and produced by David Quintana-Lujan during the fall of 2010. The script for the short film was fallout from a cancelled episode of "The Secret of Angelika5" [TSOA5] where a supporting character, Brianna Fuller [performed by Jessica Yanker] learns that she has the ability to travel back in time and change certain events that helps her save the life of her own father from a tragic accident. The director removed the episode and re-wrote the script after sharing the idea with Larry Carrell after the TSOA5 break for season two.

PRE-PRODUCTION

The director first met Amy Mitchell on the set of a local film project, at the time a pitch film for "Divorce Texas Style" of 2010. He wasn't only captivated by Mitchell's natural beauty, but taken by her 'untapped' talent as an actress. He pitched Mitchell the script and immediately the two began to collaborate to make the short film a dramatic masterpiece by delivering a performance outside of her current training. During the production, Mitchell was well prepared and delivered her part in the film brilliantly.

Larry Carrell had just finished up working on his first season on TSOA, taking the role of Arthur "Art" McAdams. He volunteered to work on GRAVITRON as he was shifting a career in indie films from working as a director towards performing parts as a leading actor.

Brianna Korin had answered a casting call for "The Immortal Legion" which was also being produced by the director. Korin had little acting experience, so she was asked to join the production for a small part and give her some exposure to working on a film set.

LOCATION SPOTTING

The director had worked with Rick Cloutier on two "Razor" short films for TSOA5 and had also held a TOSA5 actors "mega-photo shoot" at Cloutier's home in Montgomery, TX. The same home was used in GRAVITRON and was supposed to show what the parents had done with the insurance money gained from their daughters loss. That part of the script was scrapped after a second home, which was supposed to be a mobile home in a rural area, could not be confirmed on the day of filming.

The director used three filters on the camera lens to show the variation from a cold atmosphere in the beginning sequences of the production, to warmer colors at the end of the film. The change in filters did not require extensive lighting.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Filming began early in the morning on November 13, 2010 and the camera rolled for over five hours to capture the scenes required for the eight minute film. Due to the large windows in the main scene in the film, natural lighting was used to capture all of the scenes in the project. Cloutier provided some of the wardrobe that Mitchell wore and also provided food for the cast and crew.

Immediately after filming, the director took the footage home, downloaded it to this computer and began editing the film. Special care was taken to give the best production as possible and Carrell assisted with the sound and color variances in the film.

The film was submitted to a film festival in Houston, Texas where the leading actress won "Best Actress" in a dramatic short film and the music coordinator, Zeca Mahoney won "Best Music Arrangement." Carrell would later direct and star in the classic Houston horror film JACOB and Mitchell would also work with Carrell and have a small part in that film.

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HALLMARK PRESENTS A WINNER WITH "THE WAY HOME"

 🎥🎞️Series Review🎞️🎥 - THE WAY HOME [2023] - Hallmark/Peacock - PG - Created by the talented writing skills of Heather Conkie, Alexandria Clarke, and Marly Reed, this little jewel of a series is remarkably well produced and delivers an emotional zeal to a simple plot about a small family that has to heal itself from past events to move on with life. The series stars Chyler Leigh, Evan Williams, Sadie LaFlamme-Snow, and Andie McDowell. The series has been scheduled for 10 episodes and as of the release of this blog, only four episodes have launched exclusively on the world reknown Hallmark Channel. 

THE WAY HOME [TWH] is a family friendly series with some believable, emotional performances by Leigh, Andie, and Sadie; with some standard emo daughter issues due to a daughter being exposed to a failed marriage. The story may sound redundant, however, the series flows flawlessly from one plot and storyline to another as the daughter finds a portal through time which gives her the ability to  expose herself to a few moments of the families past and help her find a way to mend the family through a harrowing event that crippled the family during the summer of 1999. There are no outstanding CGI effects or explosions in this series, but the drama and mystery are superbly presented in all of their glory.

THE GOOD - The cinematography is just outstanding. Shot in epic cinematic quality and each scene was directed with a natural screenplay that gives the actors plenty of room to maneuver through their scenes with tremendous strength. The lighting quality, shifting from bright day to heavy shaded areas was carefully examined and planned prior to shooting, carefully controlling the color variances from bright colors to cool shades with tremendous forethought. The editing is impeccable and definitely shows that an experienced team worked together to ensure that there are no skips in the shows presentation.  The story arc is progressive, leading the viewer to absorb the character development and to hope that things come together by the end of each new episode. The casting seems perfect and no actor tried to out-do the other. Each leading actor in this series has an extensive list of films under their belts to carry this series to the next level, and there is some really tough emotional scenes that are masterly delivered in each new episode.

THE BAD -  The Hallmark Channel has received some pretty harsh criticisms  for apparently altering their recent movie and series productions more towards a "woke" atmosphere that makes a lot of people uncomfortable with being exposed to the changing "hormonal climate" of today's youth, and even though there's very little of that being presented in this series, those sharp edged criticisms may endanger the real success of this series.

POST MORTEM -  This is a series that exposes it's characters to time traveling. I find it funny that the time travel jumps from 2023 to 1999, which in my run of history isn't really all that far, but for production costs and, of course, location spotting, the story covers enough events in that time frame to spin a nice little mystery that needs explaining and closer. The atmosphere of the series s very casual and warm, perfect for letting you watch on a quiet evening or a Sunday afternoon when there's nothing else to do or watch on TV. Each episode is only 49 minutes long, but a lot of information and emotion is pump through that time frame to give you plenty of soft details to consider in each passing episode. This is certainly a fun and entertaining series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]

QUANTUM STORM .357 ISSUE 17 IS RELEASED FOR FEBRUARY 2023

QSE .357 ISSUE 17 dtd 2/1/2023

42 Pages

ON THE COVER - Cynthia Torres
MAKEUP BY - Lana P.
PHOTO BY D. R. Quintana

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