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Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2025 film Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires.

Story

A twist on Romeo and Juliet that makes both main characters into leaders on opposites on a racial feud. The romantic leads are charismatic and do a great job. The original cast shines as mentors. It’s nice to seem them happy, working together, and without any interpersonal drama. There was plenty of that with the romantic leads and the two clans.

Score: 1

Characters

The original cast are consistent with the previous movies and managed to understand the importance of being with the people you love. They romantic leads have identical stories about proving they are good enough. It’s nice to see, if less and less believable, that the authorities changed their ways when presented with overwhelming evidence.

The whole cast is charismatic and owns each scene and song.

Score: 1

Dialogue

The dialogue is a little young but there are some great quips and the message of tolerance and being stronger together is, unfortunately, very timely.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The night shots were much too dark. It was frustrating to not see the dances and character movements. When there was a lot of light it was a wonderful mix of the candy coloured and monochrome.

The sounds are catchy and had some great callbacks to the previous movies.

Score: 0.5

Fun

This was a perfect cap on the series and a great beginning for future ones without the original cast. Everyone loved it.

Score: 1

Overall

Another fun and colourful movie in the franchise that pushes hope. It’s only really hurt by the literal darkness of a lot of the scenes.

Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5

Dear Pegasus – Welcome to Level 6

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Dear Pegaus,

This has been a big year for you. I’m both proud and amazed at everything you’ve accomplished.

This year you’ve:

  • Gone to in-person school
  • Learned to speak and understand French
  • Developed a love for drawing
  • Made lots of friends
  • Continued to read voraciously

Your fifth year started with a nice calm summer and a big trip to Disneyland. We went with Grannie, Grand-dad, and Aunt Lindsay. We stayed in a house we rented that had a pac man arcade game, a massive pool, and enough room for everyone to be comfortable for a couple weeks. You loved the Spider-Man ride and Soarin’.

You started out the school year hating everything about it. Slowly you grew to love your teacher and some of the other kids. You even had an “arch-nemesis” who would run up to you and push you. You treated it like a nuisance and not bullying and you promised to tell the teacher.

There were a few incidents of you bringing toys home when you weren’t supposed to. We think you didn’t realize that the teacher paid for the toys. Once we explained it, you just kept bringing home things you found in the sandbox. (Like a GPS tracker… What?)

You also had a spat of not washing your hands because you wanted to stay home sick. You felt pretty bad when you realized that it got the rest of the family sick too. I wasn’t impressed but I understood the logic.

The biggest thing you seem to not like about school is that you say you’re bored. Your reading is advanced in both languages, as is your math, and your logic. I understand. Hopefully you’ll feel more challenged in grade one.

I love watching your mind work. You’re brilliant and I have a lot of trouble following how you’re thinking. Hopefully, I’ll get better at it and you’ll get better at explaining.

I can almost see the person you’re going to become and I’m proud of him. Don’t hurry too fast, I’m still loving the snuggly, loving, and stubborn kid you are right now.

Six is a big year. You’ll do great. Hopefully we can help you thrive and guide you to good decisions.

I love you, little Pegasus!

Your Papa

The Mask of Zorro – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.

Story

The story and myth of Zorro is based on the “Fox” archetype. (Robin Hood, Reynard the Fox, or The Scarlet Pimpernel) I like the addition of the apprentice and especially the nod to Joaquin Murrieta. It’s an extremely good example of how to adapt a story.

Score: 1

Characters

Each character was perfectly written. The only part I had issue believing was Antonio Banderas needing help on how to be charming. The villains were nuanced enough to be realistic but evil enough to deserve their fate. The parallel stories and character development between the older and younger characters was excellent.

Catherine Zeta-Jones manages to balance damsel and kick-ass in an extremely believable way.

Score: 1

Dialogue

I’d give full points for, “So the devil will know who sent you.” alone. The rest of the dialogue balanced heroics, humour, drama, and romance in a perfectly believable way.

Score: !

Visuals and Music

This film, thankfully, came out before shaky-cam. The fights are wonderfully choreographed and the practical effects have aged fantastically.

The music is equal to any modern superhero and really amps up the emotion.

Score: 1

Fun

Swashbuckling, explosions, witty one liners, and at its core a big heart. I’m sounding old but this kind of movie isn’t made anymore and that makes me sad. The whole family loved it.

Score: 1

Overall

One of the best adventure / swashbuckling movies. The emotion and character drama anchor the action and heroics, making everything feel so much more. Modern superhero movies could learn a lot from this movie.

Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*

*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.

Dear Pegasus and Dragon – Imagination

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Dear Pegasus and Dragon,

One of my favourite parts of being your father is watching your minds develop. You have such different and amazing ideas. It’s also fascinating to see the difference.

Dragon, you’re now old enough that you’re starting to put structure to your thoughts. When we wrote Assassins, you randomly said, “The bad guy should be called The Beast.” It was random and we made it work. Yesterday, I was talking about a story I wrote involving a snowman and you gave me story ideas, a coherent concept, and it was something I’ve never seen or thought of. I’m being vague because I’m going to use it in a future TTRPG session. It’s impressive to see your mind work.

Pegasus, you’re still in the phase of being completely random. I’m sure you’re tired of me asking for explanations but I want to understand. I want to know your process because it’s both fascinating and impressive. You have a mind that grasps a concept, takes it in, and then moves on so fast that I can’t always follow. I can’t wait until I can follow you or you know how to explain.

You both have such amazing and unfettered imaginations. I hope that’s something you’ll continue to nurture. I’ll do what I can to help you as long as I can.

Thank you for the privilege of watching you learn, grow, and imagine. The world is all kinds of sad right now and you give me hope.

I love you my little Pegasus and Dragon!

Your Papa

Dear Pegasus – School Starting

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Dear Pegasus,

It’s been a big summer. We went on a trip to California and did all kinds of fun things.

Now summer is ending and you start school this week. It’ll be your first year of in-person after a year of Pegasus Flight School. I’m excited for you to get out there, make some friends, and learn more.

Not that you’ve been slacking; your reading is great (especially since you mostly taught yourself), your math is great, and if you were going into English school, I’d expect you to be bored. With you going into French school, I think you’ll have lots to learn between the language and socializing with kids your own age.

For the latter, I hope the pandemic and our keeping you home won’t have caused any socialization issues. I wouldn’t have changed anything, but I worry.

You are headstrong and and really clever; a combination that could be great or make your life harder.

Lately you have been really enjoying saying no. Hopefully that won’t transfer to school.

You’re so much like me but you also keep a lot inside. I hope you have a wonderful year, and selfishly, that you still want to snuggle.

I love you little Pegasus,

Papa

Speculating Canada interviewed Éric

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Hello Friends, Fans, and Family,

Speculating Canada is an award winning podcast and interview series that interviews fantastic Canadian and genre personalities.

You may remember a few months ago that Jen was interviewed by the wonderful Derek Newman-Stille. You can see her interview on their website.

Well I (Éric) was interviewed last week. It was a lot of fun, and Derek is a fantastic interviewer, steering my hectic mind in a semi-coherent direction.

Go watch the interview on their website.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

2023 JenEric Movie Reviews

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Hello Movie Lovers,

This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 48 films. Not bad considering I was too sick to watch movies for most of December. Below is a list of them in descending star order. Within each catergory, they are in alphabetical order.

5 out of 5 Stars

4.5 out of 5 Stars

4 out of 5 Stars

3.5 out of 5 Stars

3 out of 5 Stars

2.5 out of 5 Stars

2 out of 5 Stars

1.5 out of 5 Stars

2024 Reviews will start next Saturday.

Speculating Canada interviewed Jen

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Hello Friends, Fans, and Family,

Speculating Canada is an award winning podcast and interview series that interviews fantastic Canadian and genre personalities.

Jen was interviewed by the wonderful Derek Newman-Stille. You can see the interview on their website.

It’s a great interview and gives you a great insight into how she works and does so many fantastic things.

Jen says:

I was interviewed for Speculating Canada yesterday!! It was so much fun.

We discuss Queer writing, the interrelationship between craft-making and writing, writing with a community, and writing with a partner (specifically my husband).

It’s a long interview, about 50 minutes, so get comfy!

It certainly made me blush from all the compliments.

Go listen to it.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Dear Pegasus – Welcome to level 4 (and 3)

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Dear Pegasus,

I’m sorry I forgot to write you a birthday letter last year. It was a hard time for me but that’s not an excuse.

You’ve had quite an exciting few years. You’ve grown so much in every way.

  • You’re starting to know your letters really well. You love sitting on someone’s lap and telling them what the letters on their shirts are.
  • You know your alphabet and can sing it in a very heavy metal style… you do this a lot.
  • You’re excellent at climbing.
  • You have a great ear for music.
  • You still give the best hugs and snuggles.

You’ve made the past few years infinitely better. Your kindness, empathy, and joy are always welcomed.

Don’t get me wrong, you’re still stubborn and have a hard time listening when you don’t want to. Our biggest hurdle right now is potty training. You really don’t want to do that… sigh.

This year you’ll be doing home schooling with mum. I think you’ll love that, but the schedule might be hard on you after so many years of doing whatever you want. I won’t miss you screaming, “I want to say hi!” while I’m in a meeting, but I will miss watching you play.

I love you little Pegasus. I hope this is a great year for you.

Papa

Alas, Fourteen Years is Far too Short a Time…

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Dear family, friends, and fans;

Roughly seventeen and a half years ago I met a geeky girl online ,and after chatting for a few weeks we decided to go on a date. It was awkward. I was late and talking about a girl I liked in my classes. She disappeared in the bookstore we started in. I asked her to help me pick a grad photo. She talked about her exes and how she wasn’t sure it was over.

Despite all that, we talked about everything and anything. We shared banana cake and I walked her home. We kissed in the cold outside her house for way longer than was appropriate and a few weeks later we decided to be exclusive.

It wasn’t an easy start and I’m surprised we survived that first year. I’m very insecure (I have RSD) and it felt like we came from two very different worlds. The only thing that really saved us was that we talked about everything.

We’ve been married now fourteen years and we’ve both been through a lot, both good and bad. I really think it’s our quantity of communication that has saved our relationship. We might not have always been talking about the things we should have, but we were still talking. Sometimes until way too late at night

Jen is my wife, my best friend, and the best business/writing partner I could ask for.

To paraphrase Bilbo Baggins, (in words not spirit) “Alas, fourteen years is far too short a time to live among such an excellent and admirable wife.”

I know that if we keep talking, we’ll be able to enjoy each other for a long time to come. Even if we don’t get much sleep.

I love you Jen!