So, I will be honest…I really like Power Rangers. I know it’s a bit cheesy, but I grew up watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with my sister. We’d always argue over who got to be the pink ranger. And although I haven’t watched every episode and every series of Power Rangers, I do enjoy dipping in and out…especially when I get the opportunity to watch it with my nephew Freddie.

I liked the fact that the movie started out with the action straight away. It wasn’t immediately clear how Rita Repulsa had returned (since the last time she’d appeared, she was turned good by Zordon’s wave of energy), but a flashback cleared up a lot of that confusion…and Billy’s intentions to try and bring Zordon back made a lot of sense to me. After all, Zordon was pretty much a father figure; not just to the original group of Power Rangers, but many others as well.

It wasn’t exactly clear why or how the original Power Rangers still had their morphing ability, as my understanding was that most of them had given up their power, since other rangers had taken their place. Plus, I’d thought that the original dinosaur morphing abilities had been taken from them early on. Then again, as I said, I’ve been dipping in and out of the series, so maybe I missed them regaining those morphing abilities? And come to think of it, Jason appeared in Forever Red and used his original morpher.

I really liked the fact that this movie came across as very much a tribute to Trini. I remember it was pretty shocking to me to find out that the actress had passed away; and while Trini was killed by Rita at the very start of the movie, her presence was very much felt throughout.

I liked the addition of Minh, Trini’s daughter, and I really liked her relationship with Zack. He was honestly a great guardian to her, especially when she was trying to use the morpher for purely selfish purposes. And the conflict between Minh and Billy was honestly truly great to see.

I really loved being able to see Kat and Rocky; not just because they were also early generation rangers, but because it was really good to see them living their own lives, with their own responsibilities…but still rangers (as the title says) and ready to fight alongside their former teammates. Honestly, I would have liked to see more of their lives outside being power rangers for Billy and Zack, since it seemed like they weren’t really doing anything else.

All in all, I did enjoy this movie. There were some nice nods to the original series and it was good to see some of the original actors return, even though it was a little sad that there wasn’t a full reunion. I think that if you were a fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers in general, you’d probably enjoy this movie.

I think I’ve only watched one or two movies in the Evil Dead franchise, though it was quite a long time ago now, so I only really remember a few bits and pieces…more the iconic scenes…from the movies I have watched.

The opening scene of the movie is pretty typical, starting with a creepy, obviously possessed woman who attacks her cousin and boyfriend. One of the creepiest parts of the opening scene is when the possessed woman (the deadite) starts quoting from the book that her cousin is reading.

I didn’t think there was anything really that special or different about this movie. It was better than a lot of horror movies I’ve seen, as it took a bit more time to actually develop the main characters after the initial opening scene. I did feel like the relationship between the siblings, Bridget, Danny and Kassie, was the strongest part of the movie. I thought it was really good when Bridget and Danny automatically protected their younger sister when the earthquake occurred…and despite the fact that they were both still children (or teenagers), they were actually able to make some fairly good survival choices. And while Danny did go against one of the number one rules in horror movies (don’t go down into the creepy basement), I can’t really fault him for what happened.

Having said that, I do think that some of the decisions taken by Beth weren’t all that intelligent. For instance, she closes herself off in one of the other rooms to listen to recordings, using headphones…even while knowing her possessed, dangerous sister is still out in the hallway and has already killed multiple people. Personally, I wouldn’t have left the children alone in another room.

There were some good elements of foreshadowing in this movie, which worked really well. And the movie definitely didn’t shy away from any gore. There were some really gross, disgusting scenes in the film, but also some clear nods to the original Evil Dead movie. For instance, there’s a scene towards the end with a bloodied Beth holding onto a chainsaw.

I was on the edge of my seat a couple of times through the movie, although that was more because I was waiting for the inevitable carnage than because I was expecting the characters to have a chance at survival.

If you enjoy horror movies with plenty of gore and lots of death, you’ll probably enjoy this one…especially as a new addition to the Evil Dead franchise. Having said that, although there are nods to the original movies, I don’t think you need to be familiar with the franchise to understand what’s going on here.

So. This movie was a lot of fun to watch. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this movie – I just had some spare time after work and figured I’d watch it.

I liked the fact that this movie didn’t take itself too seriously. Renfield worked really well as a narrator. The fact he had to eat bugs to trigger his abilities was extremely disgusting, but was a really interesting way of having the abilities of the main character triggered.

It was good that the character of Dracula didn’t really appear that much in the movie, as I felt that it allowed the focus to be more on the character of Renfield and the struggles he was facing. Plus, it was much harder to take Nicholas Cage as a seriously dangerous villain even when he was attacking people. Yes, this movie didn’t take itself seriously and was clearly meant to be dark comedy, but many of the other characters had depth to them despite the genre. Not so much the character of Dracula. However, I did really like the fact this movie made use of the general mythos of vampires: sunlight being deadly, unable to enter somewhere unless invited in, etc. (Which made little sense that Renfield then put a welcome mat in front of his apartment door, since surely he would have known it would issue an open invitation to Dracula?)

I really liked Rebecca as a character in this movie and I felt she was one of the strongest parts of this movie. I enjoyed her interactions with Renfield, especially with his awkward attempts to form a relationship with her…but I also really liked that it was saving her that triggered the change in Renfield and him trying to be a better person, a hero, and no longer Dracula’s thrall.

There were quite a few good comedy moments in this movie, some of which I found myself laughing out loud at. Along with the humour, of course, there was also a lot of gore and disgusting moments…it is a dark comedy, after all. Also, a lot of the secondary characters are really only there to be cannon fodder. The main characters are easy to care about and have a lot of depth to them, but for instance, the rest of the police officers don’t come across as individual characters at all, but more as a hive mind. However, I did feel bad for Carol, who kept getting interrupted every time she was trying to get support from the rest of the group.

All in all, this was a good movie to watch. It was entertaining and funny to watch. I don’t think I’d rush out to purchase the movie on DVD, but I wouldn’t mind watching it again in the future.

So, I have to be honest…I was pretty disappointed in this movie. I’ve seen various different versions of the Three Musketeers (The Man in the Iron Mask, cartoon dog versions, BBC’s The Three Musketeers….), so I was pretty excited to watch this one and…it juat wasn’t as good as I thought it could be.

D’Artagnan was definitely the most well-rounded character of this movie, but his first interactions with Athos, Porthos and Aramis showed a more arrogant, reckless side to him that really didn’t come to fruition during the rest of the movie. Why did he goad each of them into wanting to duel? What was his end goal? To win them over so that he could get them to vouch for him to join the musketeers in the end? Honestly, it seemed like this was just thrown into the movie for no reason other than to get D’Artagnan in front of the musketeers.

Unfortunately, this pretty much fit the theme of the movie. There was a lot of potential here, but it all fell rather flat. There was too much telling by the other characters and not enough showing. What were Athos’ demons? Why was he so willing to accept death and thought it was possible he’d actually killed a woman? And where was Aramis’ conflicts that Porthos references? If those had been shown, it would have made for a much more interesting movie.

I did think that the strongest part of this movie was the political intrigue and the relationship between the King and the Queen, as most of the true conflicts of the conflicts in the movie came from the Queen’s obvious feelings towards another man and her having to navigate the suspicions of her husband. It would have been good to see more detail about that, instead of the forced romance between D’Artagnan and Constance. Honestly, the film would have been much better without the romance shoehorned in and more development in the characterisation of the musketeers.

The sword fights in the movie were visually appealing and Eva Green’s version of Milady was a really intriguing one. While I didn’t particularly enjoy this version of the story, I’d be interested in watching the second movie in order to see more of Milady and learn about her history in this version. But I don’t have any interest in rewatching this movie…and I would hope that the sequel actually spends more time showing instead of telling.

I thought I’d reviewed this movie after watching and reviewing the other two in this trilogy, but apparently not…so I will rectify that now, after having rewatched the Fear Street trilogy.

After spending two movies with the setup of Sarah Fier as the main villain of the piece, as the witch who’d cursed the entire town of Shadyside, setting up this movie to show Sarah’s history and the path she took towards the feared witch of the present day was a really interesting idea. I thought it was a clever idea to reuse the actors who had appeared in the later movies to portray their 1666 counterparts, since there was already an emotional connection to many of them.

In the town of Union, back in 1666, Sarah isn’t a witch. She isn’t an outcast. She’s a girl only the same age as Deena from the modern day, who finds herself in Sarah’s body back in the past. And Deena, in Sarah’s body, finds herself embroiled in a witch hunt that ultimately ends in tragedy…a tragedy that hits home all the more because it’s not what the previous movies have set you up to expect.

One thing this movie does especially well is showing the effects of a witch hunt. Sarah puts it incredibly well when she tells Hannah, the girl she loves, that she doesn’t fear the devil; that what she fears are the neighbours who would accuse her, or the mother who would allow her daughter to hang for no other reason than because the people need a scapegoat…someone to blame when things go wrong.

Deena’s return to the present day comes with the knowledge of the true history of Union…and the real person who is responsible for what those in Shadyside have been going through over the last three centuries. And breaking the curse isn’t as simple as reuniting Sarah’s hand with the rest of her body, because, of course, Sarah wasn’t the one who cursed Shadyside in the first place.

I really liked the way this movie drew everything together from the previous two movies. The characters were intelligent and worked well together. I liked the plan that Deena and the others came up with at the end, to save their town from the evil that’s been plaguing it. And I loved the relationship between Deena and Sam. (I’m not the only one getting Supernatural vibes from Fear Street, am I?)

When I originally started watching the Fear Street trilogy, I assumed it was just going to be a normal slasher horror movie with very little plot or originality. But by the time I reached this one, I found there was a lot more going on under the surface. If you enjoy horror with characters you actually care about, I recommend this trilogy as one to watch.

So. This isn’t the first horror movie I’ve seen based on exorcisms in the Catholic church. Thinking back, The Rite is one particular movie that stands out in my mind.

I haven’t read any of the writings by the real Gabriele Amorth, so I can’t really speak to how accurately this movie kept to those. Considering it’s a horror movie, though, I strongly suspect that a lot of liberties were taken with the original source material.

The opening scene of this movie was fairly stereotypical, with Gabriele carrying out what seemed to be a normal exorcism…if a little theatrical. Those theatrics made sense later on, as Gabriele was forced to explain himself in front of his peers. After all, as he put it, some people needed psychiatric help, some people needed theatrics…and a very few actually need to have an exorcism performed. And, of course, this movie is primarily about one of those cases.

The movie is a fairly stereotypical horror movie. All of the jump scares were expected and didn’t really have an effect on me. Probably the strongest part of this movie was the character of Gabriele, who was about as far from a stereotypical priest as it’s possible to get. He was sarcastic and made jokes and came up with any excuse to have a drink of whiskey. Honestly, I thought Russell Crowe did a really good job in this role. It was also really good to see the hints of Gabriele’s past…the guilt that he carried that the demon could use to get at him.

I was intrigued by the links in to the Spanish Inquisition and the history of the church, as well as the reveal of what the demon’s true motivations were…what it really wanted from Gabriele. I didn’t find Julia or Amy to be particularly strong characters and I think a trick was missed in how the demon could have played on them individually. The psychological aspects could have been done a lot better and made the movie a lot creepier.

I did enjoy the interactions between Gabriele and Esquibel. It was nice to see the friendship that formed between them through the course of the movie and that it played a part in how things ended.

On the whole, this movie was entertaining, but I felt like it was something I’d seen done before. Nothing new was really added to the genre and while the characters were interesting, I did find myself just waiting for the inevitable. I would like to see a movie that relies less on the jump scares and gore for the sake of gore, and more on the psychological aspects of horror.