Let’s see what is new and what is on the way at the movies
Pet Sematary
Pet Semetary is out, and is the most recent rendition of the Stephen King classic book, and this is quite good.
PS, is not ridiculously compelling, and this is not going to change cinematic history, but it is fun to see new life put back into great King classics. This stars Jasen Clark, John Lithgow, and Amy Seimetz. This is what you would think, scary at times, with a hint of cheese and camp tossed in. Visually this is quite good, and there is nice use of classic scare tactics, that are predictable, but work all at the same time. This also has a nice thread that runs through it, that makes you examine your own thoughts on death, and what comes later.
Seimetz is really great as the terrified mother of two, who is trying to make sense of the supernatural death setting she finds her and her family in. She is the star of this movie. t
If you have never seen this in any form before, this is going to be very intense at times. If you’re a veteran of the book and various versions that came before, I feel you may agree, this is the best rendition yet, and by far.
Dumbo
Sometimes the magic of incredible animation makes movies better. That is absolutley true about Dumbo. Disneys attempt to make tons of their animated classics “live action” movies is in full bloom. Too bad this is a blossom that won’t open. This has been reworked, redone, and we are not the better for it.
Dumbo is not too long, problem is, it’s not enough of anything to make it good. There’s a lot going on here, in fact too much. And even though most of us know how Dumbo plays out, there is no real payoff. I’ll say it. Dumbo is a movie that needs the magic of the incredible 1941 animation to really work. And although some who go see this will enjoy it, this lacks the magic, the zing, the sense of wonder it had some 70 years ago.
A big cast, big budget, and director, (Tim Burton), doens’t make it better. Just newer. Stream the original, it is more of everything.
Us
Tons of hype about Jordan Peele’s new flick, Us. Maybe too much. This is not a bad movie, but this lacks the guts and originality of his mega surprise hit, Get Out, a year or two ago. Granted, this is a different movie, year and premise, but if you’re gonna lean on the reputation of Get Out as heavily as they have here, you’ve opened yourself up to the comparisons.
This is a bloodfest, with the premise being a new “generation” of people come up from a bunch of tunnels under the country, they are called “Shadows.” And for some reason they want to kill all of us up here, and oh yeah they look like those they are killing. This is really not scary, or really compelling, and there are some entertaining moments, but not enough to carry the day.
In the end, this is just another movie. End of story
