What Men Want

I could hardly remember seeing the previews for this movie, but when I saw it was released into theaters, I vaguely remembered that the previews were fairly funny.

This is one of the funniest movies I have seen

PLOT: This movie is all about Ali Davis, a hard-working, successful woman working in a sports publicity management agency, a male dominant field. She is hoping to get a promotion to “partner” at the agency, and will do whatever it takes. She wants to figure out what men think, because she is surrounded by men in her life and thinks that being able to know what they are thinking will give her the key to receiving the promotion. After a lot of drugs, getting bonked on the head, and some other crazy mishaps, Ali gets the ability to read men’s minds. But would you really want to hear every single man around you’s inner thoughts? I don’t think so. The rest of the movie is how Ali controls this so called power she has to read every thought every man has. And how her work life, romantic life, and her friend life (if that’s even a term) changes because of this power.

This movie is DEFINITELY Rated-R for language, sexual content, drugs and alcohol. But this is the funniest movie there is. I am all for R-Rated comedies, but they can definitely be a hit or miss. They either have too much vulgar language and drugs that cover the humor or the movie just isn’t funny at all. But this movie, it was DEFINITELY a hit. It was not so inappropriate to the point where it wasn’t funny, but it was just inappropriate enough to be the funniest movie of the year thus far

CAST: Now Taraji P Henson, Ali Davis, is hilarious, but when has she not been something any less than perfection? She is incredible. She is such an empowering woman (as anyone could tell from her performance in Hidden Figures) and she definitely shows that side of her in this film as well.

I was extremely please with Pete Davidson’s appearance as Danny. I have always been a Pete Davidson fan, so his surprise appearance was very pleasing. He had a fairly small supporting role, but he is his typical goofy self and I was not disappointed.

Austin Jon Moore  was definitely a show stopper as Will’s 5-year-old son Ben. He is absolutely precious and is also very comedic. 10/10 will fall in love with him during the movie.

Honorable Mentions: Aldis Hodge as Will is an absolute hunk and is precious, hubby goals. Tracy Morgan as Joe “Dolla” Barry is ridiculously funny as usual. And Wendi McLendon Covey as Olivia is also her incredibly hilarious self.

This whole cast was extremely strong with comedians, and they all meshed perfectly together. This movie is extremely successful in every aspect in which it tries to be. I definitely left the movie feeling extremely good about the ending and a belly-ache from laughing so hard.

MESSAGE: This movie has so many good messages in it, the first being that men are trash (unless you’re Will) just kidding! But honestly, it really spreads an incredible message about female empowerment. Being the only woman around in her line of work, Ali is always faced with gender biases and treated as lesser. But instead of letting that stop her and discourage her, she works harder to prove men wrong, and SMALL SPOILER, she comes out not as an equal to the men at her work, but above them. She truly shows how strong, courageous, and hardworking women can be and are.

I would advise you ladies not to go see this movie with your significant other, as they will definitely feel exposed. This movie is so accurate and that’s what makes it so hilarious. This is definitely a girl’s night kind of movie (not a family movie for sure!)

But I more than recommend this movie, I actually insist on you seeing it. It is incredible and hilarious. Oh wait, did I mention it was funny?

RATING: 93%

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Okay this movie was probably the most hyped movie following its release, and let me just say, there was definitely good reasoning for that. I have never gotten excited about a Marvel/DC or action movie, and a motion picture comic book? No thanks. Well I am incredibly glad I listened to the reviews and went to watch it.

It was INCREDIBLE.

The animation was BEAUTIFUL! the incredible thing about it was that there were three to four different types of animations in the movie! It of course was mainly the animation seen in the previews, but it also included anime, old time hand drawn animation, and comic book animation. It was beautiful all of the way around, perfectly drawn. It more than definitely deserved to Golden Globe for Best Animation.

I really didn’t understand why everyone was saying the story was so good before I saw it. In the first five minutes of the movie, I was growing disappointed, because it seemed to be like every other superhero movie ever. But around minute six, I was on the edge of my seat and never laid back. The whole movie was upbeat, captivating, and it honestly got me emotionally invested. There were just enough plot twists and turns and it wasn’t predictable at all. It was the perfect balance of love, action, and everything in between. But fair warning, water works may be existent in this movie

I typically hate the antagonists in every movie, especially superhero movies. And I’m not talking about the type of antagonists you love to hate, no. I genuinely get annoyed when the villains are introduced. The villains in this movie were not that bad though! They had good reason to be villains, and that is usually why I get annoyed, when movies have villains that have no motives. These villains were good villains! Of course not good good villains, but they were the type of villains that I loved to hate!

This is a perfect movie for the whole family, not just the kids. It does not have any older kid content or anything like that. It is genuinely a movie that the whole family will enjoy.

I did not at all think this movie would live up to my expectations or the reviews, but it definitely did and more! It is definitely a must see for this year! Bring your mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma, uncle, dog, and your pig. This movie is that good! It’s definitely a feel good movie– once you get past the water works BUT NO SPOILERS DON’T WORRY! But for sure. Go see it. Right now.

RATING: 94%

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Since Wreck it Ralph came out six years ago, it has been one of my favorite Disney movies ever created. So you can imagine how happy I was to see a sequel was being created! I’m extremely surprised that this movie wasn’t talked about more after its release date, I really loved it.

Sequels are usually a hit or miss, this one definitely was not a miss. Although I am still biased toward the first Wreck it Ralph, I would still call Ralph breaks the Internet a hit!

So of course, all of the characters were the same as before- Wreck it Ralph, Vanellope Von Schweets, Fix it Felix, and all of the other fun arcade characters! One of my favorite things about the movie was all of the new characters- mainly all of the Disney princesses. The princesses were DEFINITELY the highlight of the movie for me at least! I loved getting to see all of these princesses in the Vanellope Von Schweets kind of light! By that I mean that they were not the perfect princesses that Disney has always made them out to be! They are HUMAN! I think this is an AMAZING message to send young girls! The princesses weren’t in their perfect dresses with their perfect hair do’s for the whole movie! It showed them in t-shirts, drinking coffee, and acting like normal human beings! I love that girls can have THAT as their role models! I love that this helps little girls realize that they actually CAN be princesses like Vanellope! You can love racing, you can sing, you can sleep for a hundred years and STILL be a princess, because being a princess means being confident and staying true to yourself, not having a rich daddy or living in a castle!

Of course there were other messages in this movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet, but this one takes the cake. I love how real this movie is- of course not animation wise- but the messages they send! A lot of the movie’s message is about the friendship between Vanellope and Ralph. It’s not all daisies and roses! They fight, a lot! They have differences, a lot of them, but they work them out and stay friends- even when the distance gets hard! Why? Because that’s what friendship is all about! Making compromises! And no matter what life throws at you, loving your friend! I love that message!

I also love how they enter every aspect of the Internet into the movie! From social media to viral cat videos to cyber bullying to advertisements to viruses, it hits it all! It didn’t sugar coat anything on the internet! It told it how it truly is! This is a really good star to a conversation to a child that is curious about the internet!

Now Wreck it Ralph is better that Ralph Breaks the Internet (why it isn’t called Ralph Wrecks the Internet… I don’t know, but I’m a little disappointed), BUT I still believe this is a must see for children for the messages themselves! This is a must see movie in 2018/2019 and you won’t be disappointed. There are not that many family movies currently out or coming out soon, so this is perfect!

I don’t really know how to rate this one, due to comparison to the other movie. The animation was great, as always, the message was phenomenal, loved the story line, but I just loved the originality of Wreck it Ralph more! Also minus a couple percentage points due to the horrible name choice!

But I love this movie and your whole family will too!

RATING: 88%

You can’t remake a classic, right? Wrong! Although this was not my favorite movie of the year by any means,

This was the best version of The Grinch I have seen

So I’m guessing that we ALL know the classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” storyline. This movie is no different, the only thing it added (or only major addition) was adding the reindeer, Fred, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also enjoyed that the Grinch wasn’t quite as mean and horrid as he typically is written to be. Don’t get me wrong, he was definitely mean, but before he has a change of heart (sorry if that was a spoiler, haha) he shows moments of having a heart!

This movie is exactly what you would expect it to be. I as a millennial teenager, didn’t laugh too hard at this movie. I thought the entire movie was cute, sweet, and I maybe gave a few chuckles here and there, but nothing that made me laugh out loud. Now my friend that I went with was laughing her socks off, along with my mother who was still laughing about scenes in the movie the next day. So maybe it’s that I have a completely different sense of humor, but I did enjoy myself during the movie.

CHARACTERS: I already mentioned some of them already, but I’ll talk about them a little deeper.

The Grinch: I really enjoyed the character, not too mean (other than the grocery store scene, if you know, you know), but still was true to the character. The baby Grinch was absolutely adorable and the older grinch had the same sense of humor that you would expect. But I really enjoyed the minor changes they made to the Grinch’s personality.

Max: The Grinch’s side kick and best friends was as cute as always! I love Max in the animations much better than the live versions, because he is able to have better facial expressions and more of a personality, rather than just a side kick, typical dog. Max was cute, and I enjoyed that he stood his ground to the Grinch and didn’t take anything from him, but was still the sweet and loving best friend that would do anything for the Grinch.

Cindy-Lou Who: I really love how Cindy-Lou was portrayed in this version. Cindy-Lou wasn’t just the quite, petite, cute little girl. In this version, Cindy-Lou was a little more of a tomboy, or at least much less of a girly girl. She was extremely adventurous and wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty to get what she wanted, which was also precious in itself.

Fred: Fred was the newest addition to The Grinch story. Fred was the very large reindeer whom the Grinch found to hopefully guide his sleigh. Fred becomes close to both the Grinch and Max become very close to. Fred is silly and very sweet and very comedic, even though he can’t speak. I thought he was a perfect addition to this classic story.

The animation was as incredible as always for a Sony Production. I always look for the hair in animation to see how it moves when the characters move and how it moves in the wind. The Grinch is a hairy character and I was just absolutely infatuated with his fur throughout the entirety of the movie. The whole movie was nothing less than perfect speaking in terms of animation.

I very much enjoyed myself at this movie, and you and your whole family will too. This is a great movie for the holiday, considering the lack of them that will be coming out this holiday season, and it’s the perfect addition for the whole family in all of you holiday festivities. This was by no means the best movie of the year, but it is definitely one of the best family movies of the year.

RATING: 68%

Instant Family

I was a little torn while debating what genre this movie was prior to seeing it. I had no clue what to expect between a comedy or a sob story drama, but it wan’t quite either. I of course would lean it more toward a comedy, as apparently that is what it was intended to be.

Whatever genre this movie was, it’s a hit.

I’m going to start with the cast, because that is more than likely the sole reason I loved this movie so much, along with the perfect story-line, script, and the rest of the movie.

CAST:

Mark Wahlberg as Pete: Mark Wahlberg was already one of my favorite actors of all time, but this movie only made me fall in love with him more. He shows both his loving father side, as he does in every other movie he’s in, but also shows his absolute knee-slapping hilarious side. He makes this movie what it is, I wouldn’t doubt that this role was written specifically for him, he is absolutely incredible, but what’s new?

Rose Byrne as Ellie: Who else would play a mom in a comedy? Her character is the exact same as her role in the Neighbors movies, except a lot more appropriate. She shows her loving, nurturing mom side along with her comedic side along with Wahlberg. The two are the perfect comedy couple in every way and I absolutely loved Rose in this role of the over the top, slightly confused, comedic, and perfect mom.

Isabela Moner as Lizzy:  Lizzy’s character was written to be fairly unlikeable, only because of what all she and her siblings have been through in the system. Moner plays Lizzy with all of the right emotions at the right time. Although Lizzy definitely was not my favorite character, Moner was perfect casting.

Julianna Gamiz as Lita: Gamiz is an absolute STAR! Lita was definitely my favorite character in this movie. The role was definitely written for a cute and funny kid, and Gamiz is exactly that. Her comedic timing is impeccable and she is as cute as can be.

Honorable Mentions: Of course Octavia Spencer as Karen was hilarious as always. Gustavo Quiroz as Juan, the third child, was extremely funny and sweet.

PLOT:  If you hadn’t heard about this movie, it is about a couple that decides that they want to home and maybe adopt a foster child. They decide that they want to adopt a teenager, without knowing that she comes with two siblings. The rest of the movie is about the struggles they face while housing the foster children, getting to know them, debating whether or not they want to adopt, and all of the rest of the struggles they faced throughout the whole process. As I previously said, it is a comedy mixed with a little drama and it is done so well.

This movie was incredibly eye-opening to how hard it is to go through the foster adoption process. Also to how many children are in foster care and how many struggles they have to face daily. I’ve known some parents that have tried to adopt their foster children and I never realized how hard it must be! This is an incredible movie to go see with the family, especially during the holidays to really focus on how blessed and thankful we all are!

This movie is rated PG-13, but for language. So if your 10-12 year old is mature enough to handle the language, go see it with them. I loved this movie, I loved that it made me laugh, I loved that it made me cry, I love Mark Wahlberg, and I love what this movie stands for. This is definitely a must-see in theaters for the year!

RATING: 90%

Bohemian Rhapsody

I didn’t have very high hopes for this movie. I thought it would be just another band movie with Queen slapped on it. I was entirely wrong.

This was one of the best movies I saw in 2018.

First off. The cast. Absolutely incredible. The casting of this movie was spot on. Each member of queen in the movie looked exactly like the true members. They sounded just like them, and this movie was not like watching a “remake” of a band story. It was genuinely like watching the band in real time.

I have always been a Queen fan, but I never knew any specific facts about their story outside of their music or any specifics about Freddie Mercury. Even if you think you know everything about Freddie Mercury and Queen, I bet a lot of the movie will still come to a surprise to you.

I loved how much variety this movie had from a drama, to having a movie full of classic Queen songs, to even a lot of comedy. This movie is fantastic in all of these areas!

PLOT (only slight spoiler not really) : The movie starts with Freddie Mercury about to go to his last concert with Queen, then the rest of the movie is a flashback to how Queen was started and goes through the timeline all the way to catch up with the concert from the beginning of the movie. Freddie Mercury had been following a band for a long time in hopes of writing songs for them or maybe even joining their band. When he finally meets the band, their lead singer had just quit, so they reluctantly let Freddie join the band and become the lead singer. From then on the movie is about how Freddie becomes THE Freddie Mercury and how Queen becomes the legendary band they are today! From all of the ups and downs that their band went through in the music business and in their own personal lives.

I honestly had no clue how rough the lives of the Queen band members (especially Freddie Mercury). This movie jumps right to the point instead of giving unnecessary back story like many movies- especially documentary-like stories- do. I was never bored during this movie at all, it wasn’t even the slightest bit slow during any point! I was extremely interested the whole movie, and it was always fast paced with something going on every second

If you’re a Queen fan, you CANNOT miss this movie!! They play ALL of their top hits and give the backstory of how they were all created and it is absolutely incredible to watch!

VOCALS: I was baffled by how incredible the vocals were spot on to Queen as I have mentioned already. But I was saddened to see that the cast was lip-syncing to vocals created by other vocalists. Rami Malek, Freddie Mercury, came out in an interview and said all of his lip-syncing was to a “amalgamation of a few voices.” It was a mix between his own voice along with Mark Matel’s voice, and Matel has won multiple plautids for his Queen vocal impressions that he has posted on Youtube. So although I was disappointed when I read that it was not the cast’s voices, I guess that is what they had to do to have the perfect Queen vocals.

THE SHOW STOPPER: Like I said, this cast is insanely perfect. If someone cloned Queen, the cast of Bohemian Rhapsody would have been it, mixed-voices and all.

Starting with the show stopper, Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury: He was absolutely unstoppable. His over the top, diva personality was spot on. After the movie I even did some research to see some of the real facts about Freddie Mercury and his personality. From what I read and my prior knowledge, Rami could have been the re-incarnated Freddie Mercury, he was that incredible. Although it was not his vocals, he was still nothing less than incredible

Honorable Mention to honestly the rest of the cast, but the whole band of Queen: Ben Hardy as the drummer Rodger, Gwilym Lee as the lead guitarist Brian, and Joseph Mazzello as the bass player John Deacon were all incredible completely believable and lovable. The whole cast was absolutely unreal as I have said multiple times!

I was so incredibly impressed with this movie, sorry for my repetitive nature, it was just THAT GOOD. This was honestly one of my favorite movies of the year, it makes you want to laugh, cry, sing along, and everything in between! It is very appropriate for any movie goer over 13 as it is PG-13. I highly reccomend it for any music fan, especially any rock or Queen fan.

But even if you aren’t a hug fan of Queen or rock, or even music for that matter, still go see it. It’s just that good.

RATING: 96%

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

This is a fun, last-minute Halloween movie for the whole family.

Goosebumps 2 was very enjoyable and a fun movie to watch. This movie is obviously geared toward the younger audience, but the whole family would enjoy their time watching this movie together.

The special effects in this movie was definitely the most entertaining part and the movie’s best quality. The inanimate objects kept coming to life in this movie, and the transformation was incredible to watch. For a kid’s movie, the special effects really surprised me!

This movie would definitely be a fun, sorta-scary movie to go take the kids, or anyone that isn’t a fan of horror films, but still wants a little Halloween scare! Along with it’s  scary storyline, the plot of this movie also includes a cute side story about the family.

PLOT: Goosebumps 2 is just another Goosebumps story, specifically Haunted Halloween. It’s about a family- a son, Sonny (played by Jeremy Ray Taylor), his friend, Sam (played by Caleel Harris), and an older sister, Sarah (played by Madison Iseman). Sam and Sonny work a “job” where they go clean-up unwanted junk from houses. They get a job to clean up a house that happens to be R.L. Stein’s house.

SLIGHT SPOILER (NOT REALLY): They find a ventriloquist dummy named Slappy and use a spell to accidentally bring him to life. Slappy has the power to bring anything to life that he wants to and has a lot of special powers. He just wants to be part of the family and to be Sonny and Sarah’s brother. But that’s kind of weird right, so after some freaky stuff Slappy pulls in attempts to please Sarah and Sonny, they try to get rid of him.

ACTUAL SPOILER: So, obviously, you can’t get rid of Slappy, so he turns against the family and turns evil instead. He decides to bring all of the Halloween costumes and Halloween toys in a store to life. Thus creating the storyline of the book “Goosebumps: A Haunted Halloween,” a book that R.L. Stein wrote, but didn’t finish. The rest of the movie is about the kids trying to make their own ending to the book and them trying to stop all of the Halloween chaos. SPOILER OVER

ALL-STAR CAST: The three kids: Sonny, Sarah, and Sam were all really cute and did well. But Sony Pictures had to but some big-wig names in the movie to let the older crowd be prompted to see this with the family.

WENDI McLENDON-COVEY as Kathy, the mother: It was almost hard to recognize her without the classic Goldberg mom hair. She had a pretty big role in this movie, being the typical, clueless mom that doesn’t believe her kids when they say there’s a doll that’s alive. She’s funny as always, well as much as the part allowed her to be, but she seems to be the highest-paid cast member, so Goosebumps was definitely looking for a big name.

KEN JEONG as Mr.Chu, the next-door neighbor: Jeong plays the geeky, over-the-top next-door neighbor from the main family. He’s a Halloween fanatic, which causes some problems, but he is ultimately the one who prompts the kids the end the story. He’s funny as always and this role was more than likely specifically written for Jeong.

JACK BLACK as R.L. Stein: Surprisingly, Jack Black is not even credited if you look up the movie on IMDB. I would have thought that the movie would have advertised the presence of Jack Black in the movie more in the previews, considering he is an extremely well known actor for all generations. He played the author of the story, obviously, and had a fairly large role, especially toward the end of the movie. It wasn’t a funny role for him, more on the serious side, but Jack Black still put his own twist on this well-known author.

If you enjoy the Goosebumps book series, you will love this movie. It’s a cute last-minute Halloween film to go watch with the family in the days before of after Halloween night. I was eagerly waiting for “goosebumps” by Travis Scott to play in this seemingly modern-day movie, which never came, but oh well. I enjoyed myself at this movie and I think any movie-goer would as well.

RATING: 68%

Night School

This was a classic, feel-good comedy for the whole family to enjoy. I was extremely excited about seeing this movie for quite some time. After it’s release, I have heard some incredibly mixed reviews. Some think it’s the funniest movie they have ever seen, and some think it was an absolute bust for Kevin Hart. Well I’m somewhere in between.

This movie has some incredibly funny moments and Kevin Hart is undoubtedly hilarious, as always. This story was cute, but it didn’t leave me wow’d by any means. With the hilarious previews, I was hoping this movie would be much more consistently funny and a better plot line than it was, but it did not live up to those expectations.

I think this movie is much better suited for younger teens and the less mature crowd. A lot of the comedy is toward that crowd– which of course, some will stick and make the older crowd die laughing, but even my 12 year-old sisters thought it was the best and funniest movie they have ever seen. I think this movie will definitely have better reviews from a younger crowd, even though it is rated PG-13.

PLOT Teddy, Kevin Hart, is a high-school drop out, but has an incredible job that allows him to make himself, seemingly, as an upper-class man. He has an extremely pretty high-class girlfriend, Lisa, played by Megalyn Echikunwoke. Teddy loses his job and needs to seem like he still has a lot of money, but he cannot get a new job without his GED. This whole story is about Teddy’s journey in going to night school at his old high school while trying to keep his lower-class, high school dropout self a secret from his long-term girlfriend, Lisa.

CAST If this movie didn’t have an outstanding cast, like it did, it would have been a bigger bust than it has been said that it was.

Kevin Hart as Teddy Walker Come on now, can any Kevin Hart movie really be a bust? This movie is, of course, all about Kevin Hart.  He has his classic comedy and this movie was obviously written for him. If you are a Kevin Hart fan, you will definitely enjoy this movie more than the average movie-goer.

Tiffany Haddish as Carrie- I don’t know if any of you are Tiffany Haddish fans, but I have been a fan of Tiffany since her appearance in That’s So Raven as Charolette. Tiffany is the strict, kind, and hilarious night school teacher that helps whip Teddy into shape. Her back-and-fourth banter between herself and Kevin Hart is what brings the most hilarity to the movie. Everyone in this movie is scared of her, but in the funniest way. We get to see a lot of sides to the character, Carrie, and Tiffany Haddish fits the gig for every layer of her.

Taran Killam as Stewart- Another star that I have been a fan of for a long time, since he was on The Amanda Show. I love Taran Killam, especially his name. In this movie he plays a much different role, rather than his typical comedy, SNL type character. He plays the principal that seems to have a stick up his rear.  He has some very funny moments, but not in the same way as the other characters. I think Killam played this role very well considering how much it differed from his other famous roles.

Honorable Mentions: Rob Riggle as Mackenzie was a standout with his character’s dumb personality and goofiness. Romany Malco as Julian played a man paranoid about the illuminati and everyone around him, who was possibly the funniest character in this movie. Mary Lynn Rajskub as Theresa played a seemingly conservative mom that hated her life, but had an extremely edgy side to her. These three only  made the movie just THAT more funny than it already was with three strong, well-known leads.

I enjoyed myself at this movie, by no means was I bored or wishing the movie was over. I think this is a great film for the whole family to go enjoy together this fall. Don’t believe all of the reviews saying how horrible this movie was. It will make you laugh and it will make you have a good feeling when you leave the theatre. I mean, really, can you go wrong with a Kevin Hart movie night? I don’t think so.

RATING: 64%

Halloween

The previews were not wrong when they said “This isn’t just a good horror movie, it’s a good movie.” I was pleasantly surprised with the balance between the story plot and horror.

A lot of horror movies are all horror all the time, and that get in the way of the story. It has become fairly difficult for an extremely scary movie to actually be considered a “good film” because the plot has become blurred in between the reckless horror scenes. This film really tells a story while still being undoubtedly scary.

WARNING: This movie is Rated-R for nudity, gore, and language, although the woman in front of me obviously did not seem to care as she brought her two 4-year-old children. This movie is NOT for children!!

This movie is a sequel to the first Halloween movie that was released in 1978. In the previous Halloween movie -40 years ago in real life and in the plot- Michael Myers is a deranged  serial killer, who started killing by stabbing his older sister to death when he was only 6 years-old. A little later in his life, Michael goes on to kill anyone he sees-or it seems that way, and of course– in that creepy mask. He kills many of Laurie Strode’s, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in both movies, friends and peers, but Michael fails in killing her before getting detained to a mental institution.

In this movie, it starts out with Michael being locked up by a chain and detained in about a couple square foot worth of space. He has not spoken a word since he has been detained. Two investigators, Aaron and Dana, go to speak with Michael at the institution, but he did not speak to them.

We get to see the aftermath of Laurie’s life after the trauma Michael put her through. She has tons of guns at her house, she has five locks on her door, security cameras in every room, a self-made shooting range in her back yard, and has created a secret underground basement. When she had a daughter, Karen-played by Judy Greer, Karen was taken away by CPS because Laurie had forced her to become prepared for a Michael situation by shooting guns, locking her in rooms, etc. Laurie’s life-time goal is to kill Michael Myers.

We are getting a side story this whole time about Allyson, Laurie’s granddaughter played by Andi Matichak, and her life in high school with her friends. Laurie’s whole family thinks she is crazy after being traumatized after 40 years.

SPOILER (kind of not really) On Halloween of 2018, Michael Myers takes control of one of the mental institution busses and escapes. He goes on the hunt for the investigators and to take his mask back. He kills basically everyone he encounters. Before he gets his mask, he’s already killed a total of 6 people in gory, gross ways. He then goes out into the night for Halloween– and just looks like he is normal and in a costume for Halloween with his mask.

He kills everyone, literally almost everyone in this movie. He kills all of Allyson’s friends, her dad, 2 officers, and at least 8 people we don’t know who they are. Just for funsies.

It ends with Laurie, Allyson, and Karen trapping Michael in the underground basement which is actually just a death trap. Laurie pulls a lever and the whole house starts to slowly burst into flames. They get out of the house and Michael dies a slow death as he is burned… just kidding after the credits we hear him breathing, so let’s get ready for a Halloween 3. But this isn’t the first time in the movie Michael seems to be invincible. He got shot 3 times in the movie, stabbed at least 5 times, and hit by a car, yet every time, he gets up and acts like nothing happened.

SPOILER OVER

This is a classic horror movie where all of the characters seem to have less than no brain. The classic- there’s an empty running car that they could steal, yet they run into the woods instead- and you hear a simultaneous groan from the entire audience. But that just makes the movie all that more enjoyable by adding a comedy factor to the movie.

I gotta mention this character that stole the show. Jibrail Nantambu plays the young boy Julian that Allyson’s friend is babysitting. This kid is HILARIOUS!!! He saw Michael staring at his room from his hallway and somehow escapes, but the other two people in the house gets killed. We never find out what happens to Julian, but he sure was a comic relief in this movie.

If you typically enjoy Blumhouse Productions and other classic horror movies, you’ll love this movie. If you’re a horror movie fanatic, you will be incredibly pleased with the production of this movie. I highly recommend it, even if you do get easily scared, you can handle it. It’s a good storyline filled with a perfect amount of horror. It’s the perfect movie for the 2018 Halloween season.

RATING: 82%

Small Foot

This was such a cute and fun movie, and was incredibly better than what was expected from the previews. It’s a fun movie with a great message for the whole family.

This movie reminded me of a mix between Frozen and The Lorax, which are both incredible films. I had no clue from the previews that this movie would fit in the musical theatre movie genre. I was fairly impressed with the soundtrack and the songs are pretty catchy, just like the Lorax.

STANDOUTS: First off, this movie is FILLED with an incredibly well-know cast, so this movie was already set up for success. With leading voices of:

  • Channing Tatum as Migo: As the main yeti in this movie, Tatum genuinely surprised me. I have never noticed Channing Tatum to be a successful voice actor, but he has done his small share of voice acting recently with The Book of Life, The Lego Movies, and the Simpsons. Who knew that Channing Tatum could sing? I don’t know if this was a known fact, but Channing Tatum is definitely a triple (counting voice actor, quadruple) threat with his acting, dancing, and now public talent of singing.
  • James Corden as Percy: As the main human in this movie, I don’t think there could have been a better actor to voice this part. We all knew Corden could sing, but he adds nothing but perfection to the creation of this movie.
  • Zendaya as Meechee: Zendaya has been the talk of the town for a couple years now, and I don’t doubt her presence in this movie gained a lot of attention from teens that would probably not have seen it otherwise. Her voice has always been so pure and fit the script in the perfect ways it should.

This movie also included stars such as: Common, Lebron James, Danny DeVito, my personal favorite, Gina Rodriguez, Ely Henry, and Yara Shahidi.

I don’t think this movie would have done as well in the box office without this cast to draw in the crowd, but this celebrity heavy cast did make for an extremely successful movie.

MESSAGE: This movie was full of really good messages for today’s time, with messages regarding greed and segregation. It was incredible how this film used yetis vs. humans to truly describe how humans treat each other based on how they look. That’s a really important message for today. SPOILER at the end of the movie the yetis and humans finally learn to live together in peace instead of being afraid of one another and I thought the movie could have, most definitely, ended before that and been well off, but it truly made my heart happy seeing them come together. SPOILER ENDED

I thought the idea of this movie was very clever, as the movie would have still worked if it were about humans featuring yetis, as other movies would have. But the thought and ideas behind this movie is what sets it apart from other animations. I loved the idea, I thought the movie was hilarious, and so did my mom. I’m not one to laugh at kid’s jokes or just anything thrown my way, it takes a lot to make me laugh, but this movie did, indeed make me laugh.

My absolute favorite parts about this film was the intricacy of the animation. As we have noticed in other movies and behind the scenes of movies such as Monster’s Inc, it is very difficult to animate hair to sway and move like it would in real life. This entire movie is about hairy yetis and this movie NAILS it! From standing still to running the hair on the yetis moves in the wind in such methodically thought out ways and it looks so aesthetically pleasing and PERFECT for this movie.

I loved the entire  movie from the cast to the music to the storyline to the ending, I loved it and if this movie was created by Disney, I feel like this movie would have been just as big of a hit as movies like Coco and Zootopia. I could definitely see the plush dolls and toys made. But since it is not a Disney film, I will just have to be content with how much I enjoyed the film and everyone in it. I highly recommend this movie for all ages, from the little ones to grown adults. It is definitely a family movie that the WHOLE FAMILY truly needs to see!

RATING: 80%