AMAZON PRIME HAS A SURPRISE WINNER WITH "X"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - X [2022] - R - Amazon Prime - Directed by Ti West, also writer and producer. Associate producers include Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss. Stars Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, and Scott Mescudi. Budget $1 Million.

In 1979, a group of mischievous Houston, Texas filmmakers set out to produce an adult film on the outskirts of the city. Even though their intentions of making a profitable adult film are honorable, the farm where the producer selected to shoot the film has some not so cozy owners who turn out to be serial killers. One by one, the film teams cast and crew are killed off until the reasoning behind the murders is revealed.

***Special Note - This film is the firs part in a set of three films which are currently in production. The prequel to this film is called "Pearl."

THE GOOD - This film is filled with well thought out practical effects! The location spotting for this film truly gave this feature a good texturing feel of the late 1970's and the music selection was also perfect for the time. The road trip aspect of the film was delicately shot with an ominous preview of the calm before the storm. The creepy factor in the film truly captured the duty, old feel to the living conditions of the time on an old farm. The tempo of the dramatic acting in the latter part of the film was delivered perfectly and the death of one actor was totally unexpected. On a special note, the introduction to the alligator was a nice touch in the film to bring it down together towards the end of the film.

THE BAD - There are some scenes in the feature that are shot just way too dark; it was possibly purposely done to hide the obvious details of the masks and makeup used on two of the actors. The beginning of the film is very slow and it takes a little time for the story to start developing; I had the temptation to shut off the movie and see something else, but once I got passed the slow stuff, the better part of the film began to churn out nicely.

POST MORTEM - I am honestly not a big fan of slasher films, but there was something flashy, sexy, and grotesque about this film that I liked a lot. There were some standout actor deliveries, one being Henderson whose work mimicked a younger "Matthew McConaughey" in his performance. This is a fun film with an Urban Legend type feel to it and it does deserve a sequel to it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5  Stars]

TIM BURTON FINDS NEW WINGS DIRECTING "WEDNESDAY"

🎥🎞️Series Review🎞️🎥 - WEDNESDAY - Netflix - This is a fabulously produced 8 part series created and written by Charles Addams, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Kayla Alpert, April Blair, and Matt Lambert. The series stars Jenna Ortega, Riki Lindhome, Gwendoline Christie, and guest stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman and Christina Ricci. Tim Burton directed several of the episodes, actually opening the director duties in the first few episodes to put his staple on the lead character, played by Ortega. There is some blood and gore in this series, but not enough to spark concern.

This is a dark comedy concerning Wednesday Addams, who after almost killing several high school kids at another school, is transferred to a small town where a little dark mystery is entangled within a private school that was erected in the nearby woods, oh-so-many years ago. Wednesday is forced to adjust her dark, Gothic lifestyle with her new roommate, played brilliantly by Lindhome. The school is filled with a variety of "gifted" students - think of the Harry Potter variety - and the schools once separated inner-school clubs must begin to work together to solve who is killing both the locals and their own classmates, plus save the school from being shut down. This series has it all for the young audiences; romance, drama, comedy, and of course, Gothic tones of dread.

THE GOOD - The casting gives this series a ton of strength; I was particularly shocked to see Christie playing a proverbial rich and powerful principal and doing her job brilliantly with her English accent. The part of "The Thing" - the hand that runs loosely throughout the series as both a confidante and a spy, was wonderfully choreographed to life in a style all its own.  Zeta-Jones played her part brilliantly, the camera loving the closeups of her, but it felt like she didn't go past what was only desired of her performance. Ortega was the prime example of what to expect from today's youthful actor. It is said that she had to learn fencing, boxing and even learning how to play the cello to make her character breath into life. I expect to see more from her in other film and series project. But my heart reached out to Lindhome, who presented her characters emotions through some memorable facial expressions. The two young actors carried this series to the next level, making the show fun, dark, and very mysterious at every turn.

THE BAD - I'm not a huge Tim Burton fan, but with all of the details of costumes and set locations, I wasn't impressed with the CGI in the series. The creature effects seemed a little too animated with an exaggerated "cartoon-like" look and feel to them. Perhaps this was done to keep the younger teens and children involved in trying to solve the mystery with the cast of the series? Either way, the CGI seemed to hurt the production more than help it.

POST MORTEM - Burton should be very proud that this is the BEST series production he's been part of in a long time. I've truly never been impressed with the endings to many of his past films, but this series developed well and delivered an ending that demands some serious attention. There was some fine acting by the young-lings and the veteran actors in the film stepped back and filled in only when needed. I expected a second season, for sure, but I also expect that many of the upstart actors have just kicked the doors open to their new careers as leading actors! 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [5 of 5 Stars]