HBOMAX CLAIMS THE WORST FILM OF 2024 WITH "SALEM'S LOT"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - SALEM'S LOT [2024] - [R] - HBOMax - Directed & written by Gary Dauberman. Produced by James Wan, Michael Clear, Roy Lee, Mark Wolper. Stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Pilou Asbaek, Spencer Treat Clark, William Sadler, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, and Jordan Preston.

Inspired from the now famous Stephen King book, a writer [Pullman] returns home for inspirational purposes. After a short while, local nieghbors, old friends, and a few kids start disappearing and he beings to understand that something strange is occurring and endangering all of the local townsfolk. Before he can actually grasp the type of danger he is in, he learns that a vampire is turning all of the towns people into vampires who are quickly spreading their demon-like life around like a deadly virus. 

THE GOOD - The cinematography is impressive. There's some notable editing and the movie flows seamlessly from one scene to another. The lighting is on par with a good production shooting scenes clearly at night. There's no over acting. Great use of location spotting. The sound is above what I expected.

THE BAD - There's nothing creepy about this film. There's a lot of under-acting by several extras. The story arc, even though it may resemble Stephen King's book, is an off shoot with the director/writer taking a lot of liberties that don't work. Tons of 80's horror effects and bad acting concerning the convergence of people turning into vampires. Silly use of cut-aways; where some vampires just suddenly disappear into the dark. There's bad gore, bad delivery of jump-scares.

POST MORTEM - This is a bad movie. Almost "slasher-like" and it was boring. I ad to stop watching the movie and restart it on the next day. There's no flair, no substance to developing the good guys. I honestly didn't give a shit about any of the characters who were trying to fight to survive. There's a part in the film where a doctor [Woodard] outsmarts a vampire bite, treating it like an infection without any real chemical analysis. I'd say don't bother watching this film. It almost fell into my infamous "DOGSHIT" rating, but I'll leave that to local amateur indie films.

⭐️💫 [1.5 of 5 Stars]

STALLONE TURNS UP THE HEAT IN "THE SAMARITAN"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - THE SAMARITAN [2022] - PG13 - Amazon Prime - Directed by Julius Avery, based on creative works by Bragi Schut, Marc Olivent, and Renzo Podesta. Stars Sylvester Stallone, Javon Walton, Pilou Asbaek, and Dascha Polanco. This is a dark story about two brothers with incredible powers who are at odds with one another; one fallen to evil [called Nemesis], the other follows the life of law and order [called The Samaritan], who wind up in a battle for control that costs one their life. Many years later, living in a city torn with the admiration of the populace living in the Urban Legend of the two brothers, always wondering who won the final battle, who lost, and where they vanished to, a young boy [Walton] meets a mysterious old man [Stallone] and begins to believe that he has stumbled onto one of the survivors of the final battle.

The movie has a slow start, but in small spurts the visual effects fall to the mainstream high action and super hero filled special effects that usually follow in every super hero movie that's been produced in the last ten years. So, there's no surprise at what abilities are presented when the quiet super hero attitude of Stallone's character "Joe Smith" suddenly sparks to life and emotion, and the truth surfaces. Walton seems a little out of his league performing as a surprised teen, finding out that his childhood Urban Legend hero is actually alive and kicking. But he does his part consistently and he grows quickly as a young actor during the entire run of the movie.

THE GOOD - Stallone is playing a usually quiet and dark character, a stigma of his decision to choose roles recently. He looks old and tired in this film, which fits him perfectly for the role. He turns up the intensity as the film progresses and there's just something that he does to bring the house down in style, and I mean that literally. The CGI at the end of the film is pretty impressive for building up the final battle and there are moments where the viewer can honestly believe that their standing in the middle of a fiery inferno. The director chose to shoot this film in a wide-angle format, giving the film an epic feel from beginning to end, which gives the film a larger preview of the background locations and big city feel. The back story is the real mystery and the totally of the cost of life is brought to the forefront, giving a good plot a really good chance to show its true colors.

THE BAD - The start of the film, after the brief history opening, just seems to slow down to a crawl. Plus there are few moments of grand standing by other actors. Walton was obviously picking up some bad habits from the other senior actors around him, as he begins to show some over-acting in some scenes. It's noticeable, but does not alter the films energy. Pilou Asbaek plays the perfect villain for the film, but I can't shake off the fact that his "tremendous presence" makes his performance seem a little over-the-top. I know I sound like I'm being a little bit picky, but these are the only weaknesses to the film that I noticed.

POST MORTEM - This is a solid film where the director seems to have had a eye-opening idea to keep things simple, punch out the better scenes with up close action, and deliver the type of action sequences that seem to look like the production used practical effects instead of making the whole movie look like a CGI video game. Stallone was a perfect cast for the role as Joe Smith and I honestly like that the film didn't go over board and show more than just a localized area of mayhem; keeping the universe of the main story to only a small section of a big city and not the entire world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[4 out of 5 Stars]