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Until Dawn (Netflix) 2025

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Full admission: I have never played the game so I cannot comment on how true it is to the source material. What I can comment on was how much I enjoyed this movie despite hearing only negative things about it. Until Dawn tries to straddle that genre line between horror and comedy that was so masterfully done by Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.  We follow a group of friends, Clover, her ex-boyfriend Max, her pals Nina and Megan, and Nina's boyfriend, Abe. They are retracing the footsteps of Clover’s sister Melanie who had gone missing. They take shelter from a freak storm at a visitor centre in Glore Valley, an old mining town that fell victim to an earthquake in the past and is now a nature reserve.  While waiting out the storm, they find a notice board with the faces of various missing people and a guest book with their names, including Melanie. And that’s when strange things start to happen. The storm takes on a life of its own to prevent them from leaving, a giant beast ...
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The Last Voyage of The Demeter (Netflix) 2023

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The tale of Dracula has captivated horror fans for decades and 2023 gave us not one but two new spins of that tale: the drama comedy Renfield, and the suspense horror movie Last Voyage of the Demeter. This review is for the latter which takes a single chapter from the original Dracula novel, originally told as a series of Captain’s log entries, and develops it into a fearsome survival story against a powerful demonic foe.  Our story begins with a doctor, Clemens, joining the crew of the ship Demeter, heading from Bulgaria to England. The Captain, Eliot, has been contracted to transport multiple crates to London. With him are his young grandson Toby, quartermaster Wojchek, and a crew picked out from the port.  Their uneventful journey takes a turn for the worse when a mysterious stowaway, Anna, is discovered in one of the crates. She has strange bite marks on her and the crew sees her as a bad omen. Unrest turns to trouble when it becomes clear something else had emerged from a...
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Fantastic Four: First Steps (Theatrical) 2025

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Set in an alternate reality, steeped in 1960s retro futuristic aesthetic, FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS was easily the best on-screen interpretation of the titular quartet, not just among movies but I would be so bold as to say among cartoons as well.   It was a briskly paced plot but its focus on the Four never wavered, giving us some surprising depth as we accompany our main characters through life changing events.   A quick in-universe montage got us up to speed on the world of the Fantastic Four: Scientists Reed Richards and Susan Storm, her brother Johnny Storm and Reed’s ace pilot pal Ben Grimm are caught in cosmic rays during a space expedition and granted super powers. They quickly become the heroes of earth protecting the world from super criminals, sometimes with force as a last resort, but often times through diplomacy.  Fast forward 4 years later, the world is at peace, former villains are reformed (somewhat), and now Reed and Sue are expecting their first ...
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Superman (Theatrical) 2025

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With a monumental marketing campaign including light shows, banners on world landmarks, daily social media blasts, and even a publicity tour across the world, you would have to be a cave dweller to not know about SUPERMAN (2025). Its trailers promise a fun story, action packed, with a mix of comedy and tragedy. In that aspect, the movie mostly delivered.  The highlight of the movie for me are its actors and the characters they played. David Corenswet dons the cape as Clark Kent aka Superman. He’s simply a good person wanting to do the right thing with his gifts. His was a very earnest portrayal, human in every respect and down to earth despite his high flying powers . My favourites however were Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachael Brosnahan as fellow reporter and Superman’s love interest Lois Lane.  Hoult combines elements from past Luthor portrayals, balancing the calm calculated savvy businessman Luthor, made most popular by Clancy Brown’s portrayal in the 90s Superman...
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Fantastic Four (Disney+) 1994-1995

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“Don’t need to fear they’re here. Just call the Four! 🎶 Fantastic Four!” That’s from the lyrics of the opening theme to 1994’s Fantastic Four cartoon. It is upbeat, catchy, but really really corny. I would be lying if I said it did not evoke some heavy nostalgia in me for this was one of those childhood cartoons that I followed almost religiously.  Debuting in 1994 as part of the "Marvel Action Hour" along side "IRON MAN", FANTASTIC FOUR boasted two seasons of wildly varying quality to the point where they were almost like two wholly different shows. Other than the voices, everything from the music to the art and animation changed drastically between seasons and thankfully for the better.  Setting nostalgia aside and watching this as an adult, I found the first season of the 90s Fantastic Four animated series to be cheesy albeit charming in a cheap 80s toy commercial cartoon sort of way.  Weird poses, clunky character motion and a mediocre frame rate. The designs l...
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