Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Knives Out

 

Knives Out is a murder mystery from 2019. It was written and directed by Rian Johnson (his first movie post-Star Wars) and stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martelland, Toni Collette. It is what you would get if you cross an Agatha Christie novel with the game Clue and a little bit of Sherlock Holmes mixed in. The main plot is that the patriarch of a wealthy New England family, named Harlan Thormby (played by Christopher Plummer), who is a famous mystery writer, dies on the night of his birthday party, in what, all appearances, looks to be an open and shut suicide. The local police, as well as a renowned private investigator named Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig), who is hired under mysterious circumstances, are investigating the death, looking into everyone who was in contact with Harlan, including his eccentric (to put it mildly) family. All the characters seem to have a reason/motive for killing Harlan. 

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is wonderful. The cinematographic shots of New England look great in UHD. The UHD disc also includes bonus features, including an eight-part making-of-documentary, a question-and-answer session with cast members and Rian Johnson, fake promotional ads, and trailers. The film is a unique "whodunit" in that the audience knows most of what happened throughout most of the movie, but there are twists that make it clear not all is what it seems, all building up to a classic third-act reveal. While the entire cast does a great job, Craig and De Armas really shine in their roles and definitely deserved their Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress. Overall, it is a wonderful, well-written, and well-acted movie. It is really not something that you can easily just have on in the background, give your partial attention to, and still follow what is going on. But if you are looking for a way to kill a couple of hours with a great, fairly unique story, this is definitely worth checking out.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Halloween (2018)

 

This version of Halloween, released in 2018, starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, and Nick Castle. It was written by David Gordon Green, Jeff Fradley, and Danny McBride, mostly known for the comedy genre, directed by David Gordon Green. It also brought John Carpenter back into the fold as executive producer and co-composer. This sequel is a complete reboot of the series, acknowledging that only the original movie existed, and is almost a "what if" scenario, presenting the scenario of what if Michael had been caught at the end of the first movie and held in Smith's Grove for 40 years. Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode and is also an executive producer. Of course, her character was killed off in Halloween 8, hence the need for a total reboot. In this version, Laurie is a basket-case who is estranged from her daughter ( played by Judy Greer) and granddaughter (played by Andi Matichak). She has been readying herself for 40 years for Michael to return. She lives alone in the woods in what can only be described as a compound with lots of surveillance and guns. Curtis does a great job with this version of the character and does a believable portrayal of what she would be like if she never moved on from the events of that night. 

Any fan of the Halloween franchise knows that the various sequels have ranged from good to decent to absolute garbage. And, of course, there was the sequel that wasn't Halloween 3. I think everyone has slightly different ideas about which sequels fall into what categories, but for me, Halloween 6 and 8 fall into the absolute garbage category (although I think 6 had some potential as a story, it was just executed horribly and suffered massive rewrites and the death of Donald Pleasance), and Halloween 4 and H20 fall within the excellent category. Die-hard Halloween nerds will know that while Carpenter's name was included on many of the other sequels, he never had anything to do with them and was just getting royalty rights. He famously never wanted the movie to go any farther than the first one, and if there was going to be a franchise, he wanted it to be like Season of the Witch, without the Michael Myers character.
  
The 4k set is a two-disc set that includes a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The UHD has both the movie and the extras, so the regular Blu-Ray disc is extraneous. The extras include about 12 minutes of deleted scenes and several short behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes. The bonus content amounts to around a half hour to 45 minutes worth of material. One thing that was not included as an extra, which would have been nice, is a commentary track on the movie. I would have liked to hear the writers, director, Curtis, and Carpenter provide commentary on the movie. But what was included was very good.  While the movie does pretend that the other sequels and remakes never existed, it does have many easter eggs that pay homage to the original film and some things that were clearly inspired by the other sequels, including the movie's last shot. It could have worked as an end to the franchise, but as most are likely aware, it ended up spawning two additional movies. While I cannot say that everyone, including fans of the franchise, will like or love this version, it is better than most of the other sequels and is worth the time to watch.

DVD/Movie Review: Halloween II

 

Halloween II is the 1981 sequel to the then cult-classic, now fairly iconic 1978 horror movie Halloween. It was written and produced by John Carpenter and Deborah Hill (who also wrote and produced the original movie), and Rick Rosenthal directed (taking over the directing job from Carpenter who directed the first movie). The movie brings back Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance in their leading roles, reprises the roles of Nancy Stephens and Charles Cyphers, and brings in Lance Guest as a new character.  The events of the movie are set immediately after the end of the first movie with Loomis discovering that Michael survived being shot and falling off the balcony and begins hunting through the town to find him. Laurie is transported to the Haddonfield Hospital where, of course, Michael tracks her down and continues trying to kill her. 

The DVD does include a handful of extras, including the theatrical trailer, production notes, and some interviews with the cast and crew. They are not extensive, and not nearly as much as was included in the later blu-ray releases, but they are there if you like going through the bonus content.

I loved the first Halloween movie. It is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Generally, as you get into sequels the quality goes down (as was certainly the case with this franchise). This movie which was originally intended to be the only sequel is definitely the best of the bunch. The one thing I really liked about the movie is that although they showed Michel much more than in the first film, they still kept him hidden enough that it kept a similar sense of suspense as the original film. Also, while the movie was definitely gorier than the first one (which was done at Carpenter's insistence in post-production), it did not go overboard on the gore. The filmakers used suspense to keep the movie scary rather than just turning it into a straight slasher film (even though some did criticize the amount of gore in this movie compared to the first one). I also liked the way they paralleled the stories of Michael stalking Laurie at the hospital and Loomis trying to hunt him down. Jamie Lee Curtis did not have as large a role in this movie as she did in the first one until the end when she was trying to get away from Michael. Donald Pleasence's role was expanded in this movie and he did a great job playing Loomis as obsessed with getting Michael to the extent that Loomis comes off as being crazy too. He nailed that role and the one good thing that the multiple sequels did was allow him to reprise it.

While this is not an all-out hack-and-slash gore fest that is popular among today's horror movies, it still stands the test of time as one of the most suspenseful and scary horror films. They definitely make Michael less human and more indestructible in this movie, which the series would continue to overdo with each subsequent movie. It was the intent of John Carpenter that Michael actually die at the end of this movie, and that no additional sequels featuring Michael be made. In fact, if you pay attention to the scenes in the school they foreshadow Micahel's death at the very end. Of course, that only lasted for one movie after Halloween III bombed, but Carpenter would never be involved in any of the other sequels until he agreed to be a producer and composer on the 2018, 2020, and 2021 Halloween sequel reboots. In fact, Carpenter has gone on record saying he did not really want to make a sequel to the original Halloween, but had to agree to a sequel to get the first movie made (if the first one made money, which of course, it did). Ultimately, if you are a fan of the horror genre, this one definitely deserves a place in your collection even though it is not as good as the original movie.

DVD/Movie Review: Halloween H20

 

Halloween H20 was released twenty years after the original movie and saw the first of what has become multiple returns to the franchise for Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode. It is revealed that she faked her death (really the only tie-in to Halloween 4-6, otherwise it ignored the prior sequels aside from Halloween II) and is now working as the headmistress at an elite private school. She has a son played by Josh Hartnett who chafes under her strict rules meant to keep him safe from the ever-present threat of Michael Myers finding them and finishing what he started. Of course, Michael manages to track her down and the usual terror ensues.

The movie is good overall but does have some silly points (pretty much everything with LL Cool J). I like that they changed the character of Laurie from being the scared weakling to being willing to stand up to Michael. This time, when she drops a weapon she picks up another one and does not assume he is dead. It sports a very recognizable cast (especially back in 1998) including Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Joseph Gordon Levitt. It also had a pretty nice nod to the late Donald Pleasance and had a cameo by Nancy Stephens reprising her role as Marion Chambers, the nurse from the first two movies. There was also a fun cameo by Janet Leigh, who was of course Jamie Lee Curtis' mother and the original scream queen from the movie Psycho.

For those who get the original DVD version, the extras a pretty minimal. There is a short behind-the-scenes feature, a music video, and a trivia game. The extras released with the complete Blu-Ray set are much better and more extensive.

Of course, there have been other sequels after this one, including basically resetting the franchise with Curtis returning as a slightly different version of Laurie. Had this actually been the end of the Halloween franchise, as I think a lot of people would have liked, it would have been the perfect conclusion to the story. But, now, you really just have to look at it as one of the sequels and enjoy it (or not) for the story it tells. I think the original movie is one of the best, if not the best, horror movies ever, and while this is not as good as that, it is still very good and one of the best sequels that have been made. Definitely worth watching.