New Film Review: A Quiet Place Part 2

A QUIET PLACE PT 2

Directed By John Krasinski

Screenplay By John Krasinski and Scott Beck

In Part 2, the Abbott family is now on the move, but now they have to face not only the creatures but also what society has become!!

SPOILER FREE!!

First I want to note I saw this screening before Fridays opening. Sitting in the theater I started to realize...shit I am going to be the only one in this screening. If you are a frequent follower to my wonderful, anti-critic, poorly written blog (You should be), I am not a horror film fan. I rarely review them. However, with this film, I liked A Quiet Place (the first one) a lot, so here I am alone in a theater. It creeps you out being alone in a dark theater watching this. I jumped often. I said out loud HOLY SHIT a couple times. Thankfully it came in just over 90 minutes. The good news is I was able to eat crunchy popcorn during this quiet film without feeling guilty.

Now is it as good as the first Quiet Place? No. It is better!!! It is close to a perfect film!!!!

Performances!!!

I mean you have Emily Blunt back!! 

You have the wonderful young actor Noah Jupe. 

Djimon Hounsou good as always in a small part. 

The great Cillian Murphy is in this film...I had no idea he was going to be in this..and as always he is freaking fantastic as Emmett the loner!!!

But the real star in this film is Millicent Simmons!! Playing the hearing impaired Reagan Abbott again, please remember she is hearing impaired in real life, she is the lead here. She is taking over and is on the road. She is the thinker and the brave one in this film. Krasinski often just shuts down all sound so we can hear (Or not hear) what Reagan is going through. Just brilliant. This leads to Millicent acting with just body movement and facial expressions. I remember that after I watched the first film I noted Emily Blunt deserves an Oscar Nomination. Of course she did not, the snotty Oscar voters will not give love to this type of film.So I say this now....Millicent Simmons deserves an Oscar nomination for this film.

The script!!

Krasinski and Beck start the story out by going back in time. We see how cute this small town was. How everyone knew each other. We see the chaos when the creatures arrived.

Then we move to present time, where the first film felt mostly claustrophobic, this film is more open. The characters are mobile. Out there trying to find either help or solutions. Yet it is just as frightening because we do not know what is hiding around the corners.

Any negatives?

Yes two small ones:

Again if you follow my blog...again you should...you know I am not a fan of middle movies..going in I did not know they were planning a trilogy here. I always say...people pay money they deserve a clear beginning, middle, and end. This film did not have a clear end...too wide open for my taste....AGAIN NO SPOILERS.

 The other issue I have is small. You have a great actor like Hounsou, and you barely use him. USE HIM!!

I give A Quiet Place Pt 2 ...4 1/2 stars out of 5. Wow just edge of your seat, tension. It delivers exactly what you expect.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Cruella

CRUELLA

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Screenplay by Craig Gillespie and Aline Brosh

This film follows the young life of Cruella De Vil

SPOILER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This film is very odd. It is like nightmare version of The Devil Wears Prada. With a touch of Maleficent. With a big dose of Harly Quinn.

Let me get to the Positives first:

Emma Stone is great as Cruella, but then again...she is always great. She plays Cruella with a bit of sadness yes; but also a bit of a wacky violent comic book flair of Harley Quinn.

Emma Thompson, plays successful fashion designer The Baroness. She is Miranda Priestly but even colder and throw in some violence. This may be Thompson's best part and performance in years. Oscar Nom?

There are some really good costarring performances in this film also:

Joel Fry; Paul Walter Houser; and  John McCrea are wonderfully comical and bumbling as Cruella's partners in crime.

Mark Strong, great as always, as The Baroness's security and kind of assistant.

The film has a wonderful soundtrack including...no spoilers..but a modern remake of a song we know during the end credits.

The Negatives:

The story!!! It runs too long 2 hours and 15 minutes. 

The story!!!  I mentioned a Maleficent comparison earlier. What Cruella does not have however is an Aurora. This film is missing a good person. We see Cruella's rough upbringing..so I think we are suppose to cheer her on now as an adult. Well...she kills dogs lets not forget. So we have two bad people battling it out. You hope for Cruella, however you feel kind of guilty about it. Which is sort of the Harley Quinn vibe and look and feel. I left the theater feeling empty. You want to even feel more empty? Stay for the mid-credits scene. Ugh...I mean she kills dogs. She is bat shit crazy

.

The Story!!! To lighten the dark mood Harly gave us humor. Here in Cruella there is not much humor, and the humor they try to add, most of the time falls flat.

The Story!!! Who is it for? DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS!! Adults for nostalgia? Do we miss a dalmatian killer?

Well no spoilers here but 2 1/2 stars out of 5 for Cruella. Great performances with a long, sad, flat story line. By the way, what is really funny is ..during the credits there is a message to adopt animals. Really?

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Last Call

LAST CALL

Directed by Paolo Pilladi

Screenplay by Paolo Pilladi; Greg Lingo; and Michael LBaughan

Mick(Jeremy Piven) ,who works as a real estate developer in Philadelphia, has to go back to his suburban roots to talk people in his old neighborhood to sell their properties to make room for a new casino.

This will be quick; it is not a very good film.

Positives:

-For me, on a personal level, I wanted to see this because I grew up in Delaware County. It is definitely "Deep Delco", so they got that right. The behavior of the residents in the neighborhood is pretty much spot on.

-I thought it was really good performances by Pivens and Taryn Manning who plays Ali, Micks maybe...maybe not love interest.

Negatives:

-I did not care. I did not care about the story and kinda did not care about the people. I mean, when you watch a movie, you need to be vested. I never felt vested in any of the characters. I mean Mick I felt for him, but in reality he was just a sleazy salesman, whom near the end grew a heart. I wanted to grasp on to Ali but Director/Writer Pilladi would not give us much about her. 

-The story has too much going on. There is a death of mom. There is Piven and Ali. There is a battle of brothers. There is a bar going under. There is a boating trip. There is a crooked real estate company. There is just too much and it all gets muddled down. 

1 1/2 stars out of 5 for Last Call. I think it had some good performances, hey there is Bruce Dern, hey Jamie Kennedy where have you been...lol. The portrayal of that area is true to form. Other than that....it is not good.

From The Shadows as always thanks for your time.