2023

Unscathed?

by

Maybe I’ll escape unscathed… The Dalek appears to be interested in something on the other side of the aisle.

I didn’t get a picture, but right after this, the Daleks talked to me, asking me why I didn’t have any crocheted Daleks. I said that it was because they were too complicated to do justice to in yarn craft. They seemed quite happy with that.

Totally Killer – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Totally Killer.

Story

A fascinating homage to both time travel and slasher movies. The story is well thought-out and avoids a lot of over explanation of time travel.

Score: 1

Characters

The characters are an interesting mish-mash of tropes. The 1987 group seem cartoony at first, but then remind me heavily of the way people behaved in my high school years (ten years later but still similar).

They managed to have a nice balance between the façade of the character and who they really are, using the quiet moments after the murders for character depth.

Score: 1

Dialogue

The dialogue is peppered with science fiction references and digs at the innocence of the eighties. The complete insensitivity of 1980s vs the much more progressive ideas of the 2020’s.

There’s also a few really funny lines.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The visuals were not as stylised as I feel they should have been, but the sets, costumes, and makeup were perfect.

I would have liked more music from the time period and the score was little bland.

Score: 0.5

Fun

The movie is a lot of fun and fits great with both time travel and slasher films. It’s not scary but I still wouldn’t watch it with the kids. It’s first and foremost a dark comedy and works great in that sense.

Score: 1

Overall

A dark comedy with time travel, generational humour, and lots of 80’s nostalgia. It’s fun, funny, and a great mash up of the two genres.

Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5

Monster High 2 – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Monster High 2.

Story

The tone of this one is much younger then the first. The story is simplistic; the twist is so obvious that I couldn’t believe it was the actual twist.

Score: 0

Characters

The characters were fairly consistent from the first one, but the movie didn’t give their cast much time to develop. The characters were there, but mostly ignored to make more time for forced drama.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue is delightfully silly. Filled with puns and fun tidbits of monster lore. I wish there were more deep character moments, but overall the dialogue is okay.

There’s a lot of forced borderline toddler-level talk about friendship that got tedious quick.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The visuel style is extra poignant with the contrast to the human world. They did a great job building a colourful, dynamic, and interesting world. Unfortunately a good half of the movie is set in our world and is the weaker for it.

The music is catchy but very similar to the first and again feels better than the plot of the movie.

Score: 0.5

Fun

I’ll be honest, I was bored by the halfway mark. It’s colourful with good music, but not particularly fun to watch. The kids loved it and it wasn’t bad, just meh.

Score: 0.5

Overall

A lackluster sequel which forgets what made the first entertaining and spends way too much time in the human world. The characters and music are great, but don’t make up for the pre-school dialogue and storyline.

Final Score: 2 Stars out of 5