NETFLIX'S "LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND" SHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND THE DUMPSTER!...

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND [2023] - PG13 - Nextflix - Directed by Sam Esmail. Based on a book by Rumaan Alam. Produced by Julia Roberts, Sam Esmail, Barrack Hussien Obama, Michelle Obama, Lisa Gillian, Chad Hamilton. Stars Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans, Myha'la, and Kevin Bacon.

A little girl [Mackenzie] is on a family vacation to Long Island where the sudden loss of the internet, GPS, and cell service systems leaves the little girl in a proverbial lurch from watching the last episode of Friends. The world about her gets strange, as animals start acting weird, her brother [Evans] has the "instant hots" for a foul mouthed black teen [Myha'la], her flirtatiously drunk mother [Roberts] takes a nibble of making moves on a black man [Ali] who she initially hates meeting at first, and finds out just how useless her father [Hawke] truly is in life altering situations. As the days pass, strange alliances begin to form and even though there are signs that the world has fallen into silence and that [apparently] boats and planes can't function without GPS technology, the little girl struggles to find out what happens at the end of the Friends Television series, even distancing herself from her family, to finally watch the last episode by herself. - Honestly, that's the whole movie! -

THE GOOD - Epic cinematography. Good sound. Good visual effects. Lighting was fine, editing okay.

THE BAD - Lots and lots of dialog between actors. Bad screenplay. Useless character development. Lack of story. Complete misuse of a strong cast. Bad story telling. Bad ending. Lack of story arc. Lack of story details. 

POST MORTEM - COMPLETE DOGSHIT!!! - Definitely the shittiest movie I've ever seen. This film was given some credence because it garnered some attention from the Obama family who decided to help with the story and production, but they were obviously helping two Muslim filmmakers start a career in movie making - sorry to be so political. Lots of white shaming going on in this train wreck...well, more like slow drowning in shallow water. Roberts almost kisses a black man, and Myha'la made it clear in the film [with passion] that she was not going to fuck a white man whose son had the hots for her; totally uncalled for and not professional at all in film story telling. There's nothing cute or smart about this film. There's never any information shared about what is transpiring or why. The gaps in the "secretive nature" of Esmail's character is just dumb and ill prepared in being dramatic. Don't believe the attempt to scare you about how something scary could happen in today's technological world, and seriously don't waste your time on this crap. NONE of what transpires in this film will EVER happen in real life....and don't EVEN get me started on the bad ending!

💩💩💩💩💩 [5 of 5 Poops]

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]

APPLE TV HAS A DEFINITE HIT WITH "WOLFS"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - WOLFS [2024] - [R] - Apple+ - Directed & written by Jon Watts. Produced by Apple Studios, Plan B Entertainment, & Smokehouse Pictures. Stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, & Poorna Jagannathan. Budget $85 Million.

After a married woman [Ryan] witnesses her "side-lover" fall to his death crashing into a glass serving table in her luxurious hotel room, she calls a special cleaner [Clooney] to "clean up" the mess and get her out of the trouble she may be in. All is going according to plan until a second cleaner [Pitt] arrives, being hired by the hotel manager to observe the first cleaners job. During a time of cleaning, the duo share notes on how to clean a scene, when one of them finds a backpack full of unprocessed drugs.  They both summarize that the drugs belong to a local cartel who could start up lots of trouble, so they both use all of their known contacts to help them track down the possible real owners of the drugs. This is where a real adventure begins as the cleaners have to find the owners of the heroine and erase any existence of their work, and more especially, their identities.

THE GOOD - A large part of this film was filmed using the new Apple iPhone 18 Max; which was a good call with the slow motion and close up shots. Clooney and Pitt have outstanding chemistry, both developing parts of the same type of character; dressing the same, carrying the same weapons, being prepared for the same type of upcoming scenario, knowing the same contacts, etc. The visual effects are outstanding and the location spotting was perfect. Filmed entirely in New York, the director flawlessly showcased the underbelly of New York with some impressive cinematography. The editing was top notch, making the movie flow seamlessly from one scene to another, presenting a realistic feel of the consequences should the duo fail to complete their jobs.

THE BAD - Some of the bad guys in this film are never shown, only mentioned in passing or with mysterious phone calls; leaving all kinds of questions lingering. There is some dialog between the two main characters that seem to goo too long at times.

POST MORTEM - This is a great action/dark comedy, with some well thought-out twists and turns that tie the whole thing together with a surprise ending that had me as surprised as the main characters. This could be an interesting first part to a two-part film. Kudos to Apple+ for producing this little gem which is sure to beg for a follow up sequel!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [4.5 of 5 Stars]

THE OCTOBER 2024 EDITION OF THE QSE.357 E-MAG IS RELEASED!

QSE.357 ISSUE 37 of 10/1/2024

42 Pages

ON THE COVER - Ramiro Avendano Mireless

MAIN ARTICLES

A Legend By Others - Five years ago, Ramiro [Ro] Avendano-Mireless had a strong following of supporters in Las Vegas, NV; five years before that, he had a cult follow him in San Antonio, TX. Today he's escaped the indie film grind, wasted $200K of investors money, while the people who religiously followed his footsteps remain punished by things he promised, planned, & stripped away. [28] pages of investigative reporting couldn't cover this whole story, but this time we have the names who followed, supported, and also turned him in.

Indie Film Rabbit Hole - Many film scams waste your time driving wedges between known indie actors in film communities.

Are There Streaming Platforms
Looking For Good Projects? -
The answer is "No" - But read why.

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HBO'S "CIVIL WAR" WILL LEAVE YOU ASKING TOO MANY QUESTIONS...

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - CIVIL WAR [2024] - R - HBOMAX - Directed and written by Alex Garland. Produced by Andrew MacDonald, Allon Reich, & Gregory Goodman. Starring Cailee Spaeny, Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. Budget $50 Million.

During the latter half of a civil war between the United States and two states that have seceded from the rest of the union, four journalists [Dunst, Spaeset, Moura, Henderson] out to interview the President of the United States by taking a long route to stay clear from larger clusters of battles occurring outside of Delaware and Virginia. During their travels, they see the ugly, the peaceful, and the devastation caused by war. Each journalist begins to question the cost of their quest as the entire country begins to fall into complete chaos.

THE GOOD - Decent presentation of a war torn America and CGI effects with military battles.

THE BAD - Bad plot, bad story, cliche directing, the cinematography was nothing to brag about, and the dramatic acting was a bit too much at times. There's no character development and you are forced to accept certain main characters because they share memories of something that happened long ago.

POST MORTEM - After all the hype, and with today's political atmosphere, this film was boosted to the level of being a movie that could change a persons choice in November 2024's Presidential race. But in reality, this movie has nothing to offer. The story was too long and there were gaps of nothing but worthless imagery. Don't waste your time with this garbage.

⭐️⭐️💫 [2.5 of 5 Stars]

NETFLIX HAS A SOLID HOROR FILM WITH "THE DELIVERANCE"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - THE DELIVERANCE [2024] - R - NetFlix - Directed by Lee Daniels. Written by David Coggeshall & Ellijah Bynum. Edited by Stan Salfas. Stars Andra Day, Glenn Close, Caleb McLaughlin, Demi Singleton, Omar Epps, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Mo'Nique.

Based on true events, an alcoholic mother [Day], whose husband has taken a job overseas, has just relocated her small family and her grouchy older [and passed abusive] mother [Close] to a new home. This place is in a busy neighborhood and her children are having a hard time trying to fit in with the local kids and the school. As time passes, things start to get really weird with a paranormal entity that is sucking the joy out of the entire family. Things get very intense after a "sooth-Sayer" and/or local Reverend [Ellis-Tayor] introduces herself and warns the alcoholic mother that strange things have occurred in the same house before. The mother learns that a dark, very abusive demon lives in the home and a previous family was slaughtered there. Now the mother has to try and save her family before the demon takes the lives of her children.

THE GOOD - Well developed story. There was a realistic feel to the entire production and things just didn't feel "over the top" in many of the actor performances. I was truly impressed with Andra Days performance and her ability to channel deep emotions when needed. Glenn Close also had a strong well and produced some deep emotions with her character. The cinematography was very pleasing and the pacing to the film was on-spot with most paranormal film genres of this kind. Unlike other paranormal-horror films, this feature was centered around a strong presentation of religion, and a certain strength that can be projected if one takes trust in the Lord; it was very pleasing to see this being openly entered into the film.

THE BAD - This is a female heavy film, making special note that director, Lee Daniels likes working with women actors. Making the movie female heavy, sets a strong distance with the strength of men and "what a man would do" in the situation presented. Leaving out the father through the entire film leaves the old message left on the table that "if something has to be done, a woman has to do it alone." There are two several overacted parts by Mo'Nique and she should have been directed to settle down in her performance.

POST MORTEM - This is honestly a great movie. It's not too scary and not too cerebral. Truly cinematic with the right special and visual effects presented to set the films plot to deliver the right effect. Unlike other paranormal films like THE CONJURING, this film plays a better part of drama to make the overall feel to the film seem believable and relatable.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [3.5 of 5 Stars]

HAS THE TERMINATOR SAGA FALLEN INTO THE WRONG HANDS?

🎥🎞️Series Review🎞️🎥 - TERMINATOR ZERO [2024] - PG13 - Netflix - Directed by Masashi Kudo. Written and Developed by Mattson Tomlin. Produced by Rui Kuroki, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger. 8 episodes.

In a far dark future, a resistance fighter [Malcolm Lee] discovers that SKYNET software can be reprogrammed, but against the orders from the residence leaders, the young “rebellious” resistance fighter secures the conscience of a new AI interface [Kokoro] by traveling back into time to “adjust” the earths future. A terminator is sent back to prevent the adjustment and must fight its way through several hostile and friendly force to try and prevent a rewrite by the new AI which could spell certain doom for SKYNET and the human resistance that apparently joined forces to prevent a change to their now co-existing timeline. But the catch is, which master is better to serve under, a master that already exists where you know your fate, or a master that holds unimaginable power and which truly has yet to reveal its true intentions with you? - Let fate decide.

THE GOOD - With any Japanese animation film, the visuals are stunning at times with dark imagery. There is some use of CGI that is incorporated into the series. There's plenty of violence and some intense scenes from the far future that awaits mankind. The voice acting is okay.

THE BAD - The story arc is slow at times. Character development is offset with a projection of overdone voice acting of emotion that just seems a little boring and useless to convey. The series attempt at horror just lacks impactful presentation and some of the robot designs are plane and truly a dire attempt at presenting a feel of today's inept technology concept development.

POST MORTEN - It' hard to present a horror/SciFi series that sets a tone for a dark future when three kids are involved. Where the concept of the first Terminator film provided a glimpse of leaving the fate of the world in the hand of grownups, this series falls into the plight of leaving our future up to our kids. I think that message was used up in TERMINATOR 2, but used more as an inside joke created by James Cameron to commercialize the franchise. Keeping the series serious and focusing on the darker side of dealing with unstoppable machinery should have been the real focus of this series. This was hard to watch and I had to go back and watch the first two real films to get back to the more believable world of Cameron's dark future.

⭐️⭐️💫 [2.5 of 5 Stars]

THE STUDIO RELEASES THE SEPTEMBER EDITION OF THE QUANTUM STORM .357 E-MAGAZINE!!!

QSE.357 ISSUE 36 of 9/1/2024

32 Pages

ON THE COVER - Moon Eclipses
Photo by D. R. Quintana

MAIN ARTICLES

By The Pale Moon Light - The studios newest film presents a dark and scary story line and plot that wasn't expected by many of the studios followers. Meet the talented cast.

A Big Change In Projects for 2025 - Two big studio projects were pushed back in production due to a recent hurricane. Some scenes demanded a reschedule in locations. Read about those projects affected by the relocation.

BIANCA 2029 Continues To Drive Forward  - Premiering at ComicCons and Cosplay events, the movies trailer is still getting a lot of worldwide attention!

The Quest For Success! - What would your production team do to create the best indie film within your community? - Read about a few local indie teams that crossed the line, damaging a lot of local
reputations and delivering nothing but
heartache to their team and their families.

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"THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE" IS THE ACTION MOVIE OF 2024!!!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE [2024] - R - Amazon Prime - Directed by Guy Ritchie. Screenplay by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Arash Amel, Guy Ritche. Based on a book by Damien Lewis. Starring Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza Gonzalez, Til Schweiger, Henry Golding, Babs Olusanmok, and Gary Elwes. Budget $60 Million.

Based on true events and just before the official start of War War II [WWII], the German submarine fleet was being supplied for extended operations of sinking much needed supply ships headed to England. English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is under pressure and authorizes the use of a secret, covert team [later labled "Special Forces"] who act independently from the English military law, to destroy the German's ability to resupply their submarines. With the aid of English Brigadier General Gubbins "M" [Elwes] and Admiral Iam Flemming [Freddie Fox] - the man who would eventually create the James Bond character, they enlist a group of well known mercenary misfits, led by Cavill, to plan an attack and keep the English government from being involved in their mission, which if the German's found out, could force an earlier entry into a new World War.

THE GOOD - This is a bloody, action packed film with lots of fantastic pre-WWII details in production like weapons, ships, and wardrobe. The storyline was well prepared and the dialog was perfect for the time. The cinematography is crisp and smart at times, the editing pristine, and the actors perfectly perform their parts with brilliant scripting and screenplay. I was really impressed with Guy Ritchie's directing style, which was perfect for the dark humor used in this films production with impressive pacing that keeps he movie moving along the plot at a good tempo. More extraordinarily, I was taken aback by Cavill's performance and British accent; the actor is multi-talented!

THE BAD - There's not much to complain about this movie, except that I feel that Eiza Gonzalez was miscast for this film. I think her character should have had more of a "robust figure" to fit in the time and Gonzalez was way too thin for the role.

POST MORTEM - This is the perfect "man film" and I really felt comfortable looking through the history being presented. This operation was only unclassified until recently and the writers really put a lot of heart into the production, selecting the perfect cast to make it a lovable action film. It was also great to see Ritchson playing such a solid role outside of the REACHER series. This is an outstanding action film to watch!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [4.5 of 5 Stars]

REVISITING BRANDON LEE IN 1994's "THE CROW"...

In 1993, the world was introduced to a dark comicbook character based on the writings of James O'Barr, a young artist who lost his beloved fiance to a drunk driver. He brought a lot of pain with him when he produced "The Crow" as a graphic novel and the book began to gain speed in distribution, being loved by fans and everyone accepting it's dark message of revenge from beyond the grave. 

During this time, O'Barr truly had no intentions of taking the graphic novel, selling the rights to a film studio and making a full feature movie. He use his book to heal all of the inner demons that he carried with him, trying to move on from the event that surely would have killed any chance of a real, happy life.

In 1994, things would quickly fall out of control for the emotional, recovering artist. He was able to work with two writers and create a screenplay for a film of his work. This was all by accident and a true testimonial to a good story that was developed well beyond it's time. There were only a few successful superhero films that sold out theaters in the 90s. Batman was one from 1989 and then Batman Returns from 1992 are the most memorable, but surely, O'Barr's Crow movie wouldn't be going up against them, would it?

During this time, Brandon Lee had only been in a small handful of action films. When the news broke that Lee would head the cast of the new CROW film, people thought that this production was just going to be another "chop-sockey" film and have Lee tossing around people using Kung-Fu. But to everyone's surprise, Lee backed out of using any Kung-Fu or karate in the production. He made fast friends with O'Barr and the production was gain top speed to produce something very dark, something paranormal with a touch of true grit.

But the production to the film would crash to a stop, when Lee was fatally injured on the set, being shot in a scene that demanded three re-shoots and close up. Lee too had a fiance at the time and she would witness his death, sharing something with O'Barr, and then the real catastrophe was ignited. After Lee's passing, the executives decided to go ahead and finish the film, since so much of the film had already been completed. "It's what Brandon would have wanted us to do," said so many people from the production.

Watching the film back then in the theater, seeing a man come back to life, literally, and then seeing him die again was a little disturbing. A fact that I carry with me is, that this was some of Lee's best work ever on film. He broke away from the Kung-Fu stereotype and did something totally original, something way ahead of it's time, brokering a production that would set a standard for all action films based on graphic comicbook characters.

I saw The CROW again recently and I was truly impressed by all of the performances by the A-list actors in the film. The action scenes were definitely well choreographed and there was a lot of heart that was put into this film. Could this film have changed the career path for Lee, I'm pretty sure. But it's a shame that The CROW was the highest part of Lee's career and was completely torn away by a simple "one set" production mistake. He is now a legend, who falls under the list of actors like James Dean, River Phoenix, and Heath Ledger, who all died shortly after their biggest performances on screen.

1994's The CROW holds up strongly against most actions being produced today. It's unfortunate that the first film spawned some sequels and even a short series on television, each of which sunk fast in ticket sales and most are all but forgotten. The original movie is a film I can watch over and over, feeling quite content with the storyline and the exceptional work that was done to complete the film with look-alikes and a few CGI tricks. And yeah, I think Brandon Lee would be very proud of the film if he was still alive today. The first film is a classic and there will never be another hit Crow film in today's Hollywood world of bad writing. Long live THE CROW with Lee as the lead actor!

"FLY ME TO THE MOON" DAZZLES WITH A ROBUST CAST!!!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - FLY ME TO THE MOON [2024] - PG13 - Apple+ - Directed by Greg Berianti. Story by Bill Kirstein and Kennan Flynn. Screenplay by Rose Gilroy. Produced by Keenan Flynn, Sarah Schechter, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia. Stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, and Jim Rash. Budget $100 Million.

Not based on actual facts or historical events, this is a story about Kelly Jones [Johansson] who has worked most of her life as an advertising manager [of sorts], who has scammed her way through some high profile companies and made a name for herself. She is approached by a high Government official named "Moe" [Harrelson], who enlists her services to help save the American space program [NASA] by building enthusiasm in the America through some unique advertising ploys. Jones becomes smidgen with NASA Launch Director, Cole Davis [Tatum], and together they not only fall in love, but they work together to save the NASA space program from the clutches of Moe who plans to fake the entire landing on the moon.

THE GOOD - Fantastic location spotting. Transforming area scenes to the 1960's with some awesome classic cars. Some brilliant performances between Johansson and Tatum. Ray Romano plays a strong part in the film, doing very little, but some of his most impressive, dramatic works that I've ever seen from him. Harrelson brings a quirky, dark character to life and it's good to see him doing dark comedy again. Some very well produced CGI and practical effects which would help explain how a moon landing was faked and better yet, why. The story is perfect with the time and I liked how the "theory" behind needing to fake a moon landing was explained.

THE BAD - Even though there were some good selections in the sound track for this film, none of the tracks used in this film were memorable after watching the film. A time piece like this film should have a memorable sound track.

POST MORTEM - This was a pleasing film and had all of the elements that a good film should have. IMO the advertising for this film was poorly produced and damaged any chance of this film gaining strength in the box office. This film won't win any nominations as there were no sex scenes, no lesbians kissing or gays working together, no violence, no explosions or super heroes to save the day. Writing films like this has unfortunately gone the way of the Dodo bird. A film to watch when there's nothing else to watch on TV.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]