Hope And Glory

It may seem sometimes that all hope is lost when we hear North Korea doing nuclear tests and Russia who have invaded Ukraine for several years now never seems to stop the invasion. I fear that if we let dictators control our nations we will fall, and the ones who will suffer mostly is ordinary civilians who have done nothing wrong. Beneath all that suffering and sadness we need to keep hope alive or we will have nothing more to fight for. I remember the first time back in the 80´s i did get a view of the future when i for the very first time witnessed a VHS film at our neighbors known as The Ostwalds when they had Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in their VHS shelf. Seeing legendary actor Mel Gibson on the front cover as the character Mad Max was the beginning of my big passion for apocalyptic action films. At that time i didn´t know there was 2 other films made before this one so i would eventually pick those films up as well. The whole world surrounding Mad Max seemed so bizarre but at the same time fascinating. Seeing legendary actor Mel Gibson taking on the character of Mad Max was a perfect match and in all of the three films he made in this franchise he brought something magical to each film. My personal favourite is without a doubt The Road Warrior and i can not tell you how many times i have watched this film from director George Miller. I do enjoy the first film as well but for personal reasons i find The Road Warrior much more entertaining than the original film. If you have not seen the three Mad Max films with Mel Gibson for some reason, please check them out on streaming or physical media. The 2015 post apocalyptic action film Mad Max: Fury Road turned out to be one of the best films of that year with actor Tom Hardy as Mad Max and actress Charlize Theron as the bad ass character Furiosa. This film is still today one of my favourite action films in the last 9 years and i am really excited to my cinema visit to see the new prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Prequel. Not that long ago i read online there was a new Mad Max fan film released on the YouTube channel Brightstone Pictures. The fan film title is Hope And Glory and i noticed some really positive reactions. Since i love watching fan films to classic franchises i just had to check this film out. Is this one of the best fan film i have seen in years or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Out in the wasteland there is nothing more than sand and suffering. Max Rockatansky ( Daniel Grave ) travel through the endless desert to find gasoline and supplies just to be able to survive. As he rescue a captured woman named Hope ( Inken Paland ) from savages, her family offers to supply him with gasoline if he accept to rescue Hope´s little girl Glory ( Lotti Eckle ).

I have seen plenty of fan films over the years and some of them have been surprisingly good, while some of them might have not impressed me that much. I do support fans of films to continue to make fan films because without the fans these franchises would not be able to survive. When it comes to the Mad Max fan film Hope And Glory i have to be honest and say this is the best fan film i have ever seen so far. Not only does this film manage to capture the world surrounding Mad Max but i also feel this film manage to capture the personality and the suffering that Max carry with him everyday. But that´s not all, they also manage to capture the apocalyptic world of Mad Max with so many wonderful details such as the car design, the costume design and in general the atmosphere of the Mad Max universe can be found here with some really nice violence. To be able to pull all of this off in a film less than 50 minutes shows that directors Adrian Martin and Erik van Schoor have done an incredible job on this film and have definetely made the most professional fan film i have seen so far. I also love cinematography from Ludwig Bachmann and Johannes Pfau who clearly worked hard to make this film look as good as it does. Let´s get into the performances and let us begin with actor Daniel Grave playing the character of Max. If you have seen the Mad Max films with Mel Gibson i feel that Daniel Grave tried to capture the same emotional damage that Max had with facial expressions, the anger growing inside of him and i am really impressed with Daniels acting in this fan film. I do enjoy the performance of  actor Alec Rosenthal as the character The Commander, he is the kind of character who Mad Max probably would punch in the face eventually for being so annoying. Hope And Glory is a true love letter to the legacy of Mad Max and there is so much to be pleased about this fan film. It may not reach the same quality level of the real Mad Max films but i am really surprised how good this is. Hope And Glory is must watch for anyone who appreciate apocalyptic films and the end of the world scenarios, that sounds exactly like my kind of paradise.

Rating: DDDD

If you want to see the full film on Brightstone Picture´s YouTube channel, just copy and paste the following link to watch the film:

https://youtu.be/ScyL5W8HZkM?si=YAeT--Y3WaMXWO--

Beware The Boogeyman

When i was 8 years old in early 1986 i remember having nightmares after i stayed up at my grandmother´s Maj home since she let me watch the sci fi horror TV series known as V ( yes the TV series with lizards taking over planet Earth with Marc Singer, Robert Englund and the gorgeous hot woman Jane Badler as the evil character Diana ). At that time i had never seen anything like this TV series i usually watched The Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferringo during that time. I would dream about being attacked by one of the lizard soldiers on board one of their space ships and even though this TV series did manage to make me scared ( at that time ) i would still keep watching. As i got a bit older i would eventually make sure to get TV series V on VHS since i was a huge fan and i also remembering getting my own V cap that were sold in certain VHS stores. I am pretty sure most of us have memories of a film that scared us a children or a TV series. For some small children they might have heard about the story of Boogeyman. For me the first time i heard about the Boogeyman was through the short story The Boogeyman from author Stephen King that´s in the collection of stories in a book called Night Shift. I read that story in late year of 2000 and i had no idea that they were going to make a horror film 5 years later simpy called Boogeyman from director Stephen Kay ( director of 15 episodes on the popular Kevin Costner TV series Yellowstone ). Boogeyman is a horror film that clearly tries to capture the idea of a evil creature inside a closet who comes out at night to attack chosen people. This is actually not bad horror film although i think i did enjoy the 2023 film version of The Boogeyman more. If you have not seen the 2023 film version check it out on Disney +. I know they made 2 sequels to the 2005 film Boogeyman but i only saw the first film, probably because the trailers of the sequels felt like they were just repeating the first film. Since we are talking about the Boogeyman earlier this year i saw a poster of a indepenent horror film calle Beware The Boogeyman. I found out later that this is an anthology horror film and i am definetely a fan of this genre so i decided to check this film out. Is this a horror film that should be seen by a larger audience or is Beware The Boogeyman a film that will most likely be forgotten among other similar low budget films?

For her first day of orientation, Dr. Tristan Mackenzie ( Elissa Dowling ) makes her way to the Silverdale Psychiatric Hospital for the criminally insane, where she learns of the strange series of cases from the smiliary strange Dr. Gabey Moon ( Airisa Durand )

Since i have seen several releases distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures over quite many years i can honestly say that Beware The Boogeyman is their best release so far. Not only is this film more professional made with everything from cinematography to interesting characters, i also feel that this film have surprisingly good stories for being an anthology horror film made on such a limited budget. If you are making an anthology horror film one of the most important details is to make sure you connect the stories somehow. If you don´t connect the stories, it means the anthology concept might loose it´s charm and loose it´s purpose of the film itself. Thankfully there is a connection with the stories of Beware The Boogeyman and i do enjoy the creature design of the Boogeyman. Without giving away too much details he kind of looks like a mutated version of the 1987 character Emil M. Anton in the film Robocop right after he get toxic waste covered all over him. I wouldn´t say that Boogeyman is really scary but the creature design definetely fits well with his entrance scenes, before he approach each chosen individual. When it comes to the characters i especially enjoy the performance by actress Nicolette Pullen as the character Olivia. She seems to be a wonderful woman but is clearly struggling with her past. The best acting performances comes from actors Khail Duggan as the character Tommy and James Luster as the character Ethan. They portrait two brothers who is on the run from the law, and towards the end of their story we see especially one of them loose their minds. The fact that some of characters that are patients in this Psychiatric Hospital is connected to their own stories with the Boogeyman is a pretty cool idea. Speaking of the Psychiatric Hospital i have to mention actors Elissa Dowling and Airisa Durand who both have an important connection to the patients. Beware The Boogeyman nicely combine a classic Boogeyman concept of dream sequences and combine it with what seems to be illusions. The simple but effective horror details regarding the Boogeyman find a way to fit well into the plot. Anything i feel could have been better with this film? Since i know this is a low budget film i feel they did a good job in general so i can´t really complain about anything. All 5 directors contribute interesting stories and make Beware The Boogeyman worth a watch if you appreciate anthology horror films just like me. Hard to find anything to watch on VOD? Give this film Beware The Boogeyman a chance and you might actually enjoy it.

Rating: DDD

Baby Reindeer

Over my 25 years working in health care i have met a lot of mentally ill patients. Just because someone is mentally ill doesn´t automatically mean they are dangerous, there are many different levels of mental illness where some people might be able to have an ordinary family life and have an ordinary job. I think some people should read more on this subject before they are judgemental, because i have seen this myself where people believe each mentally ill patient might be dangerous in society. Unless you know their medical condition or diagnoses you can not assume things without real facts. Each patient deserves to be treated respectfully and get the help they need to live a normal life. I have met really dangerous patients and it is very important to know exactly what you say, how to interract with the patient while being professional. I can not talk about any specific case but i think it is very fascinating to meet people with different diagnoses to learn how humans may behave, how they think and why they function the way they do. There are several movies and TV series that have brought up mental illness and one of my personal favourite films that really show a very disturbing personality is the 1990 psychological thriller Misery from director Rob Reiner. Based on the novel by legendary author Stephen King, this film tells the story of autor Paul Sheldon ( a strong performance by legendary actor James Caan ) who crashes his car in a blizzard on his way to New York City. A nurse named Annie Watts ( brilliant performance by actress Kathy Bates) finds him and bring him to her home so he is able to recover. Annie is a huge fan of Paul Sheldon´s famous Victorian romance novels of a character named Misery Chastain. What Paul doesn´t know is that Annie is more than an ordinary fan, she wants Paul to rewrite his latest novel where Misty dies, she can not accept this ending and it must be changed. Misery manage to cleverly tell a story of a very disturbed woman in a very powerful way, while actress Kathy Bates manage to capture so many details that fits with a very disturbed personality through facial expressions, emotional expressions and especially her loosing control of herself. If you have not seen Misery on streaming or physical media you simply have to. Speaking of mentally ill people you might have heard of a Netflix mini series called Baby Reindeer in social media or in newspapers. Where a woman seems to be struggling with her mental illness, a subject i am always interested in. I decided to give this mini series a chance since it´s been extremely popular. Is this a must watch on Netflix or is Baby Reindeer not worth all the hype and not that great after all?

Aspiring comedian Donny Dunn ( Richard Garr ) works as a bartender in a London pub. One day he notice a woman sitting in one of the bar seats looking depressed, a woman named Martha Scott ( Jessica Gunning ). Since she can´t afford anything to drink Donny feel sorry for her and offer a cup of tea for free. This made Martha´s day feel special and she fall in love with Donny instantly. Everyday she head into the same pub just to spend time with Donny, until he feel that she´s getting too personal and too close to him. It all becomes even worse when she even begin stalking him to the point where he doesn´t know how far she would go just to see him.

I know a lot of people are very divided if Baby Reindeer is actually based on true events or if everything is simply all made up regarding the real woman known as Fiona Harvey. I personally don´t know what is true about Richard Gadd either so i choose to view this mini series strictly for what is presented for us. One of the things that becomes very clear is that the character Martha is a woman who have no control at all regarding herself. She may say shes met all the famous people but the truth of the matter is all of this is just an illusion. When we see her home and the way she lives where she doesn´t seem to have cleaned for many years, that alone is a sign she doesn´t seem to understand what might happen if she doesn´t clean the dishes or removing old food. Another warning signal is when she visit Donny´s pub each day as if shes having a very busy day. She sits there for hours, never works anything or live an ordinary life. Her angry outbreaks is another sign shes mentally unstable. Actress Jessica Gunning give a fantastic performance as Martha and she have really worked hard to capture the personality of this mentally ill woman. I wonder if Jessica did a lot of research for this role because she seems to capture certain behavior patterns with facial expressions, anger outbreaks and completely shutting herself off from the ordinary world. Actor Richard Gadd also deliver a very strong performance as the comedian Donny Dunn, especially in the scenes where you can clearly see how affected he is by being raped by a man he trusted in the past. There is also a beautiful love story that´s not connected to Martha but Donny´s girlfriend Teri ( played by actress Nava Mau ) who clearly make Donny feel appreciated. Baby Reindeer bring up some very difficult issues that may affect you as a viewer, especially if you know someone who is stuggling with mental health or have been sexually molested. Directors Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch deliver a mini series that´s not only powerful but feels very disturbing and fascinating as well from a psychological perspective. Baby Reindeer show the audience that you really don´t know someone until you see their real personality. A must watch on Netflix, even if evrything may not be completely true.

Rating: DDDD

MR-9: Do Or Die

There is something magical about the film genre known as action. No matter if we are talking about action films with terrorists, ninja films, war movies, CIA agent films there are so many categories to choose between. As long as you had cool characters, lots of guns and funny dialogue you know it would be great entertainment. One of my earliest memories of action films in the past is being at the local VHS rental store in my hometown seeing VHS copies of The Delta Force with Chuck Norris on the rental shelves. At that time i must have been 10 years old in 1987, even though this film had it´s cinema release in 1986 i didn´t see this film until a year later. It was my faher who rented this film and i still remember how much i loved the VHS cover of The Delta Force with legendary action star Chuck Norris on the front cover. If you have not seen The Delta Force for any reason i will let you know what this film is all about. In 1985, a group of Palestenian terrorists hijack American Travelways Airlines Flight 282, a Boeing 707 flying from Cairo to New York. The terrorist group is known as New World Revolutionary Organization, who are led by two terrorists named Abdul Rafai ( Robert Forster ) and Mustafa ( David Menahem ). They force Captain Roger Campbell ( Bo Svensson ) and his crew to fly the 707 to Beirut, where they make demands to the United States government that, if they don´t do as they say, they will kill all passengers. United States have no other option but to call in Delta Force, an elite group trained to solve hostage situations and deal with all kinds of terrorists. The Delta Force is a really well made action film filled with fun action scenes, fun characters but also manage to send out some important political messages as well. If you have not seen this film check it out on streaming or on physical media. I try to look at action films every year when i see new releases since i am a big fan of this genre. One of the films i sat down to watch recently is called MR-9: Do Or Die and i noticed that this film comes from the director of The Curse Of The Clown Motel i reviewed recently. Is this an action film that´s more entertaining than i expected or is MR-9: Do Or Die just as predictable as Helena Bergström´s 2009 Swedish drama film Så Olika who no one seems to remember?

An elite Bangladeshi spy teams up with CIA operative to bring down an international criminal organization headed by a ruthless buisnessman.

If you miss the action days of The Cannon Group in the 80´s that legendary film producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus used to bring to the big screen, you could say that MR-9: Do Or Die bring back some of that feeling. This is a film that clearly knows it is far from being modern and just tries to bring back old school action just like we remember from the VHS stores in the 80´s. So if you are looking for a strong emotional story or fantastic acting, you will not find any of that with MR-9: Do Or Die. I think if you go into this film with the right mind set knowing this is a film that is made for fans of old school action films it will be easier to enjoy this film. So let´s get into the positive first and i will let you know some of my personal opinions that i feel could have made this film better. I feel that some of the martial arts action scenes are fun where the actors actually fight instead of using CGI fight scenes as they did in the latest Road House remake. Fans of martial arts want to see actors actually trying to fight, not only does it look better but it is also more entertaining to watch. There is a lot of shooting in this film and i really appreciate that. In some modern action films they seem to hold back on old school shooting scenes and in this film they really let the guns take over some of the dialogue scenes. I think that is a good thing since we don´t need a lot of dialogue if we are talking about action scenes, we just want to see lots of violence even if nothing makes any sense. Ok, so let´s talk especially one of the issues i have with this film. Even though i know acting is not always good in action films you can really feel some of the actors in this film have never read a lot of dialogue before. I am not talking about actors like Frank Grillo or Michael Jai White, but other unknown actors who try to deliver dialogue and it makes some of the characters look very weak. I am not saying you have to act good in a film like this, but look at Frank Grillo who doesn´t give a strong performance but is charming at least. If you find the right tone for your character you can still say bad dialogue and still be entertaining to the audience. Other than that i can´t really say much else negative since i know this film is filled with flaws but i can actually accept that. MR-9: Do Or Die is director Asif Akbar´s attempt to bring back the 80´s and will most likely be appreciated by fans of The Cannon Group or action films in general and that´s good enough for me.  If you just want a film where people kick ass and shoot down people, MR-9: Do Or Die should be exactly what you are looking for. 

Rating: DDD

Road House

Back in the 80´s you didn´t have to adjust everything to what was acceptable or not, all you needed was big muscles, cheesy dialogue and naked women and everything would turn out perfectly. Why do i bring this up? People seem so sensitive these days if a woman is nude on screen or show her feminine sides. Back in the 80´s they just threw their clothes off and everyone was cheering. Those were the good days of VHS violence and i am pretty sure that the only way we can keep these films alive in modern society is through independent horror and action films. The 80´s had so many films with really fun characters they didn´t care what was politically correct or not, these films just wanted to entertain the audience. I am so happy i was a teenager back in those days because i got to experience everything that would be forbidden today in ordinary super markets. You could get Playboy magazines, horror magazines that would show pictures of decapitated bodies, some of these super markets even sold ninja action VHS films if you were lucky. We could probably talk about the 80´s for several hours but let´s talk about a film that really have left a legacy among VHS video violence fans. And that is the 1989 action film Road House directed by Rowdy Herrington ( actually the same director who directed the Bruce Willis action film Striking Distance in 1993, worth checking out ). Road House is still considered today to be one of the true classics in legendary actor Patrick Swayze´s film career. Swayze plays the character James Dalton, a professional bouncer working security for a club in New York city. Although Dalton may seem stable and cool he is still struggling of the memories when he killed a man in self-defence by ripping out his throat. Businessman Frank Tilghman ( Kevin Tighe ), recruits Dalton to take over security at his club "Double Deuce" in Jasper, Missouri. What Frank doesn´t know is that Dalton can´t be bought for any money, he only does what is right and whatever it takes to make it work. Road House is that kind of classic action fighting film that fits really well into this time period. The dialogue is cheesy and the fights are of course the biggest highlights. If you have not seen this film you should watch it on streaming or on physical media. For several years i have heard rumours of a remake until i finally saw that actor Jake Gyllenhaal have ben chosen to play Dalton in the new Road House remake. Not only that but i also noticed that UFC fighter Conor McGregor would also be in this film. Since it´s been 35 years since the original film with Patrick Swayze came out, does this remake feel good enough to stand on it´s own or is this a remake that never should have seen the light of day?

Troubled former UFC middleweight fighter Elwood Dalton ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) scamming fighters on the underground circuit. He is approached by Frankie ( Jessica Williams ), the owner of an unroly roadhouse in the Florida community of Glass Key, who offers him a job as a head bouncer. Once everyone get to see how Dalton approach drunk customers and put them in place, the reputation of this bouncer is spreading across town. But not everyone is happy that Dalton is cleaning up the trash, especially well known criminals who have plans to build a luxuary resort.

I know that the latest Road House remake have diveded a lot of people if they enjoy this film or not for taking a different approach than the 1989 film. I personally don´t mind that this remake does some things differently since you can´t do a remake the same way as the 80´s classic and make it look exactly the same. That would have been silly honestly so i think they did a good choice going for a more modern update, and still showing respect for the original film as well. I do have some smaller negative opinions on this remake but let´s get to the positive first. First of all i think Jake Gyllenhall did a really good job on his physical performance in this film. He looks like he is in fantastic physical shape and his fights works really well ( perhaps not every single scene but most of them ). The fighting scenes in general deliver some fun scenes and since i am a fan of old school fighting action films this is a film that´s definetely made for fans such as myself. UFC fighter Conor McGregor may not be the greatest actor of all time but i actually enjoy his over the top performance in Road House. He must have been aware of that people would not see him as an Oscar winning actor so he went into his role in this film and seems to enjoy himself. The music scenes actually feels like a tribute to the 80´s film with mostly rock blues music being played. One of the most negative details i feel they could have fixed in this film is not using CGI fights. I understand that physical fight scenes takes a lot of hard work and practise to get a scene right, but fans of fighting films will see the difference between a physical fight scene or a CGI fight scene. And i promise most fans will definetely prefer physical fight scenes over any CGI effects, you can pretty much ask anyone and they will agree with me. The plot is very thin and if you have a problem with that this might not be a film for you. I actually don´t have a problem with that since a film like Road House doesn´t need a complicated plot since the original film didn´t really have a strong plot either. Overall i will say this is a fun fighting action film that actually embrace some of the 80´s vibe and make a more modern approach instead. Director Doug Liman ( who also directed the Tom Cruise highlight known as Edge Of Tomorrow, a must see ) clearly knew he had a lot of things to consider making this film, knowing how many people worldwide love the 1989 film. I think he did a good job with this remake and show that you can make an updated version of a classic. If you don´t take this film seriously at all and know it´s meant to be silly, i would say Road House is worth a watch on Amazon Prime if you love the original film or fighting films in general. Excuse me for a moment, i need to head down to Road House for a whiskey night. Something tells me that chairs will be flying when Swedish singer Hans Martin enter the stage ( no one fights harder than Hans Martin fans when they hear hit single Pärleporten, trust me from personal experiences ).

Rating: DDD

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

I still remember when i was 7 years old during Christmas in 1984 i was walking on the shopping street of my hometown with my mother. We were shopping Christmas gifts for the family and i remember she walked into a bookstore to get her sister a book that she really wanted to read. Being 7 years old in a bookstore of course i started looking for children´s books and i did find the right section. As we walked out and she did get the book she was looking for, we walked further up the shopping street. It was when we passed the local cinema i suddenly stopped as my mom saw i was looking at a big movie poster of a film called Ghostbusters. The big white ghost covering the whole poster looked so cool and my mom saw how curious i was about this film. I did not see the original Ghostbusters film until early 1986 in our neighbors The Ostwalds home. Their father Frank Ostwald had bought the film on VHS so he let some of the neighbor kids watch it in his living room. I still remember how much we all loved out first view of Ghostbusters and after the film ended we would still sing the theme song singed by Ray Parker Jr. I borrowed the VHS tape from Frank and rewatched Ghostbusters whenever i could, since i had to do some homework as well for school. It was in 1989 i actually got to experience my first Ghostbusters film in cinema when me and my father went to see Ghostbusters 2 in our local cinema. I enjoyed the film but i could tell something was missing from the original film. My dad actually got me the official Ghostbusters 2 skateboard at that time and i believe it should be somewhere in my mothers basement. After the sequel it would take many years until we would see a direct sequel ( not talking about the 2016 version ) and that turned out to be Ghostbusters: Afterlife. A film i actually enjoy and felt like a great way to pay respect for the fans of the original film. They managed to capture some of the charm and ghostly vibes that we all love about this franchise. So here we are in 2024 with the latest sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the latest sequel of the worlds favourite ghost hunters. Is it possible that this is the best sequel so far since the original film or is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire a desperate attempt to cash in on ticket sales?

Three years after the events in Summerville, Oklahoma, Callie Spengler ( Carrie Coon ), her boyfriend Gary Grooberson ( Paul Rudd ), her children Trevor Spengler ( Finn Wolfhard ) and Phoebe Spengler ( Mckenna Grace ), with their close friends Lucky Domingo ( Celeste O´Connor ) and Podcast ( Logan Kim ), relocate to New York to aid Winston Zeddermore ( Ernie Hudson ) and Dr. Raymond Stantz ( Dan Akroyd ) in reestablishing the Ghostbusters. After a mission capturing a ghost in Hell´s Kitchen doesn´t go as safely as planned, Walter Peck ( William Atherton ), the Ghostbusters long-time opponent threaten to close them down for good. When Nadeem Razmaadi ( Kumail Nanjiani ) sell Dr. Raymond a strange brass orb with strange ritual markings on, they have no idea what powers lies hidden inside this object. A demonic god Barakka was trapped inside a very long time ago will unfortunately be set free, causing complete chaos all over the city of New York.

I am fully aware that some people might disagree with me but i personally feel that you have to be a fan of this franchise to appreciate Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. This film is full of nostalgic details from the past and adds new fun details as well to the new team of Ghostbusters cleaning up New York City. The last film Ghostbusters: Afterlife knew it had to please the fans of the original film and i have to say they did a pretty good job. I feel that they managed to please us again with this sequel and even let us see a lot more scenes especially of Dan Akroyd´s legendary character Dr. Raymond Stanz compared to Afterlife. We see the other old school Ghostbusters as well which is of course Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson as well as their iconic secretary Janine Melnitz played by actress Annie Potts. The new team that we saw for the first time in Ghostbusters: Afterlife is back and i think they all do a good job on ther characters. My personal favourite is actress McKenna Grace ( wonderful performance in TV series The Handmaid´s Tale ) as the very intelligent Phoebe Spengler. I feel that Phoebe is one of the strongest characters that they thankfully added to this franchise because she really do feel like she is related to the character Egon Spengler ( Harold Ramis ). They have similar odd personalities, they love math and science and i love the fact that Phoebe doesn´t try to fit in anywhere she is just herself. The special effects for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is good for the most part and i appreciate the scenes where the strange brass turn the city of New York into ice. I also like the design of the demonic god Garraka when we finally get to see it. The ghost scenes is also a detail i feel they managed to pull of well in this film. I actually don´t want to say anything negative regarding this film because i simply had fun with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. It may not be a perfect film but who cares? Fans will definetely have a good time with this sequel and director Gil Kenan manage to balance this film with nostalgia and add modern details without being disrespectful to the fans. If you love Ghostbusters then be prepared for a fun ride with this sequel. 

Rating: DDD

Creepypasta

The internet can be a wonderful escape from reality, no matter if you are talking to people online or if you comment on events that happened worldwide. The internet can give you a break from the ordinary day stressed life most of us experience every single week. Like if you go inside a chat room regarding sports, music, movies, no matter what the subjet is you can set your mind into something different. I remember back in the late 90´s i used to go to Aftonbladet chat room, a Swedish chat room for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet and talk to people all across Sweden. It was basically a way to just kill some time on a boring Sunday, while i would discover if there were other swedes who had similar taste in movies such as myself. I remember that there was one woman i talked to there called Anna and she was about the same age as myself that year. She happened to love James Bond films so we talked about our favourite films in this franchise. I do remember she mentioned Goldfinger with Sean Connery was her favourite while she really loved The Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore. We never met in real life or anything it was just a long conversation about movies. I did go back some other weekends and sometimes she would be online as well. So i will always remember Anna from the 90´s as my chat room friend who also loved movies. With technology that have improved so much through the internet since the 90´s it seems that everything seems to becoming much more simple these days. You can connect easily worldwide, you don´t even have to use the mobile phone to make calls anymore you can just Skype instead or use other apps. But what if you made a call on your computer with friends online that suddenly becomes a nightmare? That´s one of the details in the internet inspired horror films known as Unfriended from director Levan Gabriadze. What made Unfriended a bit unique from other horror films around the time this film came out in 2014, was the fact that Unfriended used social media as a platform for the horror scenes. The result was actually surprisingly good and effective. Not a horror film for everyone but if you want to experience something different in the horror genre i would say director Levan Gabriadze´s film is worth checking out. Speaking of the internet i heard about an anthology horror film called Creepypasta where different stories were taken from online and made things happen in real life. The concept sounded interesting since Unfriended i mentioned earlier used the internet as well as ground material for a horror story. Is this anthology horror film definetely worth a watch or is Creepypasta doomed to be forgotten just like John Lydon´s extremely horrible 1997 pop solo album Psycho´s Path?

Trapped in an abandoned house, a nameless man desperately searches for clues how he got there. The answer his hidden within a series of disturbing viral videos - each of which begins to infect his mind

Before i watched Creepypasta i had only seen a poster of this film, i didn´t even watch the trailer or read much about the plot just to come into this film with an open mind. This is the kind of anthology horror film that does not only have a few short stories but more stories than usual. In fact, i am surprised of how many different evil characters we have in each short story and it is quite a big variation of creature designs. You don´t see a lot of that in some anthology horror films, usually it might only be creature designs in 2 stories out of 5 stories. Nothing wrong with that as long as the film is good, but i do appreciate when i feel they made an effort to really make the stories more fun for a true fan of horror films. When it comes to the short stories themselves they vary a lot when it comes to which ones that are good and if some of them are not that good. In general i would say each short story have something to bring to the table, but some of them are not as effective from a horror perspective. My favourite short horror story in Creepypasta is the old lady carrying a oxygene tube to be able to breath as she sees an evil child with black baloons. This child have completey black eyes so i really think they did a good job on this specific story, capturing the creepy atmosphere regarding this child with black eyes. On the negative side i would probably say that i feel there is not really any plot in any of the short stories, at least not enough to make the stories makes much sense. So what helps Creepypasta work is the evil characters and especially the fact that they made a good job on the design of these creatures. Since there are so many characters i think the acting in general is ok, if you can accept some generic performances. Of the 8 directors who worked on this film i would say at least 5 of their stories were good, while 3 of them turned out to be a bit weaker. Still, i enjoy Creepypasta as an athology horror film and if you are a fan of similar films like this i have a feeling you might enjoy this one. Creepypasta proves that you can actually make fun short stories on a limited budget.

Rating: DDD

Lights Out

I love discovering actors no matter what genre they are in. Actors i have never heard of before or for some reason i didn´t notice if they had a smaller role to begin with. Not all actors start off in a big full feature film, in fact most actors usually have to work their way through the film industry to finally get to bigger productions. Just look at George Clooney for example and i remember seeing him for the first time in the 1988 horror comedy Return Of The Killer Tomatoes. Who would have known back then he would become a huge Hollywood star in the 90´s. I can honestly say this is a terrible film but at least you can have fun with it, if you are in the right mood. How many of you did see Cyborg 2 the 1993 sci fi action film with actress Angelina Jolie ( the sequel to the 1989 Van Damme classic Cyborg ) ? I remember seeing the film on VHS back in the day but i had no idea Angelina would become a Hollywood box office star in the 2001 action film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. At some occations we do discover actors in Hollywood films that actually are really good and we just don´t recognize the actor from any other films. That happened to me when i saw the 2011 action sports drama film Warrior directed by Gavin O´Connor. Warrior is a really powerful sports drama with really good acting from Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte and Joel Edgerton. It was in this film i disovered actor Frank Grillo for the first time, and it would turn out that he would do a lot more films. It was in 2014 i really feel he got recognized worldwide in the sequel The Purge: Anarchy ( my personal favourite in this franchise ). I really enjoyed him in the 2017 sci fi action sequel Beyond Skyline and he have done several good films i can easily recommend since then. One thing i knew i wanted to see ever since i heard about it was a film called Lights Out, simply because it looked like an old school street fighting film from the 80´s or 90´s. Is this a film that should be seen by a larger audience or is Lights Out not as fun as i was hoping it would be?

Duffy ( Frank Grillo ) is a drifter and a war veteran struggling with PTSD. His life at this point is living in motels, taking one day at a time just to survive. He gets into a bar fight after a poker game and manage to get out with cash. One bar visitor named Max ( Mekhi Phifer ) is impressed by Duffy´s fighting skills and see an oppurtunity to introduce him to a undergound fight club. Duffy wins his first fight without any problems and Max continue to promote Duffy to make sure he gets booked on more fights. Max owns crime boss Sage Parker ( Dermot Mulroney ) a lot of money and make a deal with Sage. Duffy doesn´t know all the details and just accept the fights, but his PTSD is causing some problems along the way while Duffy gets more pressure as each fighter becomes more difficult.

If you are a big fan of the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic 1990 film Lionheart ( directed by Sheldon Lettich ) then you are going to be thrilled over Lights Out. This is actually a similar film with a different plot, but you can recognize the style of Lights Out and feel that this film is clearly inspired by the Van Damme classic with military action added to spice things up. In the 1990 film Lionheart the main character Lyon Gaultier is a French Foreign Legion and in Lights Out the main character Duffy played by Frank Grillo is veteran soldier, so already there you can see the pattern matches pretty well. In Lionheart you saw street fights going on and we actually see something similar in Lights Out. What i appreciate about this is that this film tries to bring back similar styles as Lionheart into modern cinema. Even the friendshhip between Duffy and his match fixer Max Bomer almost feels similar to the frienship between Lyon and his match fixer Joshua. One thing this film also does is bring back war memories in some scenes as Duffy is clearly suffering with PTSD. You might think that a fighting film such as this only have terrible acting but i have to say especially Frank Grillo bring on his acting skills in several scenes. I especially enjoy the performance from actor Dermot Mulroney ( who i especially remember from the 2013 psychological thriller Stoker ) as the character Sage. We even see martial arts actor Scott Adkins in this film for a couple of scenes. Ok so we might as well get into something i feel could have been better, and honestly some fighting scenes feel a bit too weak. While some scenes hit in the right spot there are a couple of fighting scenes that doesn´t leave a bigger impact. Considering this is a film you would want to include powerful fights i feel they could have done the punches even stronger in certain scenes. With that said i still feel Lights Out manage to become a fighting action drama that´s exactly what we need to see more of in the future. Director Christian Sesma have made a film that knows what audience it was made for and i appreciate the effort, it is a good looking film and feels like a throwback tribute to the 90´s. If you love the classic Lionheart you simply have to check out Lights Out, no matter if you watch it on streaming or on a physical copy. Lights Out proves there is still hope for films of this specific genre.

Rating: DDD

Godzilla Minus One

Monster movies have been around since the early 1900´s and one of the most iconic motion pictures is without a doubt the 1922 German horror film Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror inspired by Bram Stoker´s novel Dracula. Of course America saw the potential in Nosferatu and decided to do their own version of the novel simply calling the film Dracula. Released in 1931 the horror film Dracula would definetely bring the vampire genre to a completely different level before in cinema where legendary actor Bela Lugosi brought a magical performance as Count Dracula. I have seen this 1931 film several times and even though i am usually not a big fan of too old movies ( especially from 1920´s and 1930´s for different reasons ), i do appreciate Dracula as a horror classic. A lot of sequels were made after the first American film version was released and since then we had both remakes and sequels based on Bram Stoker´s iconic book. Speaking of monster films of the past there were a lot of monster movies made after Dracula came out. You have classics such a the 1932 horror film The Mummy and of course the 1935 horror film Werewolf Of London, both worth checking out. But there are so many other titles released especially in the 1950´s you should experience. There is one film i feel doesn´t get talked about a lot and that is the 1959 film Attack Of The Giant Leeches directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. This is really B movie territory so if you appreciate monster B movies this is one of those films you might enjoy. Just the idea of big leeches attacking humans is absolutely brilliant and a fun idea. Even if America have made most monster movies in the past we even had Japan bringing a true classic to cinema history by releasing the 1954 horror film Godzilla directed by Ishiro Honda. I have seen the original film and it is quite charming. Since the original film we have a lot of sequels as well as American updated versions of Godzilla ( where especially the 1998 American version failed ) and i especially appreciated the 2014 American version. The other films in the Godzilla sequels have been enjoyable as well for different reasons but i have been very curious to see the Oscar winner Godzilla Minus One. As the film was released digital i decided to sit down and give this film a chance. Is this Japanese film a big highlight for monster fans worldwide or is this not as fun as i was hoping it would be?

In 1945, near the end of world war II. kamikaze pilot Kóichi Shikishima ( Ryunosuke Kamiki ) lands his Mitsubishi A6M Zero at a Japanese base on Odo Island. That night the base is attacked by a large dinosaur-like creature known as Godzilla and this is the very first time Kóichi see the beast with his own eyes. Kóichi returns to his home to find his parents were killed in the bombing of Tokyo. Plagued by survivor´s guilt, he begins supporting a woman, Noriko Óishi ( Minami Hamabe ), whos parents also died in the bombing. She is taking care of an orphaned baby named Akiko. As they begin to build a life together Kóichi have no other option than get money to survive by working as at minesweeper. While trying to destroy mines Godzilla shows up in the ocean and they are not able to stop the beast from entering Tokyo city. Godzilla destroy big parts of the city and Noriko is tragically killed among the many other victims of civilians. Kóichi agree to gather with a big group of people to try and stop Godzilla with the help of former naval engineer Kenji Noda ( Hidetaka Yoshioka ).

To compare this Godzilla film to others in the franchise would probably not be a good idea, at least if we are talking about the American versions. Godzilla Minus One does something completely different than the American versions and that is take the ground material much more serious and actually tries to go on a much more deeper dramatic level than before. That doesn´t mean this is a film that is supposed to be made like a drama, they just try to make the story much more emotional and serious than we are used to see. The connection with the end of World War II definetely helps this film bring out the more serious tone, and you actually feel the impact this war have done to the Japanese people. You might wonder do they manage to portrait Godzilla in a different way than before? Not completely, but i will say this i really think Godzilla looks incredible in this film when it comes to the CGI effects. They have done a really good job on the design of Godzilla and the attack scenes looks really well made. In fact i would even say that some of the action scenes in Godzilla Minus One have some of the best looking monster scenes i have seen in any of the Godzilla films so far in this franchise. When it comes to the acting i have to say the whole cast does a really good job with each character, even though i am not familiar with any of the actors except for actress Sakura Andó ( who i especially remember from the very powerful drama film Shoplifters, a film i really enjoyed in cinema ) i am actually feeling that i need to see these actors in other films as well after their powerful performances in Godzilla Minus One. Lead actor Ryunosuke Kamiki playing the character Koichi manage to portrait a soldier struggling with PTSD in a realistic way. With really powerful CGI effects, brilliant sound effects and really strong acting performances i have a feeling this may be the best Godzilla film yet so far. Godzilla Minus One delivers more than i expected and director Takashi Yamakazi ( director of the sci fi action classic Returner ) clearly knew what this franchise needed to get back on it´s feet. If you are a fan of monster movies i guarantee you are going to enjoy this delightful film. Godzilla Minus One hit all the right spots for me and i can´t do anything else than highly recommend this film.

Rating: DDDD