Oh baby! Welcome back guys to another episode of armchair views. Yes, this podcast lives, folks. Shit, it has been a minute, guys.
It is good to be back. Honestly, it is good to be back. It has been a full three months since I've recorded last. That was when I was in Quebec for work training.
Three months last episode, I think, was on John Wick 3. That's insane. That is insane. But I've settled down a little bit.
A lot of changes have happened recently. And I'm here to tell you about it. A little bit about it. A little fraction of it, I should say.
But a lot, I should say, has been happening with me. I have pretty much uprooted my entire life, guys. It's been a three month gap for a reason. While I was in training, the time that I had free to record diminished immensely.
It was crazy. My schedule got insane. And I just didn't have time to spend on putting up the extra effort to press record on this, which is unfortunate because I really miss this. This is one of my favorite things to do.
Even if it's, I love doing it with buddies. I don't mind doing it myself. Tonight will be a solo episode. But it's just the way things go sometimes.
Now, I actually finished my training back in July. And I actually moved. I moved. I relocated, guys.
The big move. So I was out in Quebec. I was living in Yellowknife, as some of you may know. But now, now, friends, I'm in Vancouver, British Columbia.
That's right. I drove after training was done. This is all for work, by the way. So I moved.
I drove all the way across Canada, yet again. And now I'm here in Vancouver. Work has been great. It's been crazy.
I've started this new career of mine, this new job. It's going well. I think it's going well. But that's why I've been all over the place.
I've really wanted to do this. I didn't have the chance. There's been so much happening, as I said earlier. Now I have time to kind of breathe, get settled.
I'm in a new apartment. I'm by myself here in a high rise. It's been great so far. Some things are definitely getting used to it.
But it's fine. It's all good, baby. It's all good in the hood. That being said, guys, I have a lot to catch up on.
I have a workload to catch up on. I have been watching things. I have been seeing things that I've wanted to talk about. And now I'm going to be able to talk about it now.
This episode, I'm going to be talking about mainly, ready or not, the new horror flick that's been released recently this week. But I have a few other items I want to cover first, albeit briefly, just to get my feet wet, get back into the whole groove of things. Because I'm going to be honest with you guys. Excuse me.
This episode might be all over the place. I haven't done this in three months. It should be like riding a bike. However, I'm probably going to fall off a couple of times.
That's just the nature of the business, probably. But first and foremost, I'll cover what I've watched in theaters or what I've seen that's come out or is coming out on DVD. And then I'll talk about Netflix stuff that I've recently watched. And then I'll get into ready or not.
It should be a shorter episode I'm thinking. But who knows? This can go on forever, especially if I get it on a tangent. You never know.
I wanted to get this out there as soon as I possibly could. So the research may not be there. You may be yelling at me through whatever device you're listening to this through. That's OK.
I'll take it. And you get back used to this, guys. You need to get used to me again. So let's start off.
First thing I want to talk about right now is Spider-Man Far From Home. As some of you know, Spider-Man is my favorite of all time. He is my man. And I was so excited to see this movie.
Really excited. I like the casting of Tom Holland. He did a great job in the first one. He's been doing great throughout the other Avengers movies and Homecoming.
And I was really excited to see Mysterio, the character, come to the big screen. And it was even better that Jake Gyllenhaal, handsome Jake, our boy, was able to play the character. So I want to talk about that really quick. I won't go too in depth.
This should have been in its own episode pretty much. I really like this movie. It was really fun. I enjoyed the interaction.
I like how they took it away from New York and it was on this field trip and stuff. Now again, I'm going off memory because it's been months since I've seen it. But I really like the dynamic that Spider-Man had with Mysterio initially. Now, obviously, you know the characters.
You know Mysterio's an asshole. He's going to fuck Peter Parker in the end of it. Not literally, but metaphorically. He's going to fuck him over.
But they had a good relationship. They had to go back and forth. Peter Parker, he's still dealing with the fallout and trying to live up to the expectations that Iron Man set with Endgame and his whole legacy. He's trying to live up to that, which is I can feel that.
I can feel that. I have my own issues with that. But I definitely, I really appreciated that throughout the entire movie. So he's trying to find someone that he can look up to.
He misplaces his trust in this piece of shit, Mysterio. And honestly, it was pretty fun to watch. Now, it wasn't great. There was a lot of errors in it that if I were to rewatch it, I'd be able to list them off to you.
But I know when I left the theater, I was happy. It did remind me a lot of the animated Spider-Man series, where you saw Mysterio, fuck with Spider-Man quite a bit. And it was very, very comic accurate. I really like Mysterio's illusions and stuff.
It really played with your head. There were some other big reveals at the end of the movie. I'm not going to get into that really right now. But as a whole, I really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it. And I really liked how they teased the end of it, especially. It was a huge teaser. But this is where I'm getting at right now, because when it came out, the news that I'm going to talk about in a second hadn't come out.
Whole news with Sony and Disney. I liked where this was going and where it could have potential in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Sony and Disney keep having a fucking cock measuring contest with regards to the rights of Spider-Man. And now it came out a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago.
They're still pissing over it. And Disney lost the rights to Spider-Man, or at least their partnership with Sony fell through. So now Spider-Man and all the properties regarding that, Disney won't have anything involved with that. We'll just touch a fucking piss off, because they're on the verge of greatness here, folks.
Fuck. This is such a sore subject with me, because it's just businessmen shitting over everything. Figure it out, because as a fan, and I think for a lot of fans, too, they were going in the right place with this. And Sony, I don't know if it's Sony's fault.
I don't know if it's Sony's fault or it's Disney's fault. But something needs to get fixed here. It's really frustrating, because I finally had this character, this awesome, huge character. Like, he is, Spider-Man, is one of the main figureheads of not just like fandom.
But for the massive public as itself, they know Spider-Man. They know what he's about. We all know it's origin. And now Sony's pulled that away, and they're going to be doing their own thing.
That means anything that may have included Venom, for example, or Morbius the Living Vampire, that's coming out in the future, that has no chance of verging with Disney at the current state right now. They can't include that in the MCU, which is really unfortunate. I'm really pissed off about that, because having Tom Holland as Spider-Man interacted with all these other characters, I thought he was great. And now my fear is they're going to be recasting this character for the fourth time.
I don't need another origin story of Spider-Man. I liked how the MCU skipped that, and didn't even mention Uncle Ben. They kind of replaced Uncle Ben with Tony Stark, which it's hit or miss, really. I mean, in the comics, they have that relationship sort of, because Peter Parker really looks up to Tony Stark, in a way, in certain comic book streams.
But it's just so frustrating how it's the business side of this shit that interferes with, ultimately, good cinematic storytelling, and what you can use these characters for, and where they're going to head. And it really diffuses the whole cliffhanger that Spider-Man Far From Home had. You even had Jakey Simmons' shit as returning as this, who's that crazy motherfucker that's all about the conspiracy theories. He was playing a version of that.
Like, I'm going to pause this first thing, and I'm going to look it up, because I hate stumbling over my words, just a second. OK, Alex Jones. That's the guy. I just paused it for a minute there, because it's some technical difficulties as well.
But guess what? You didn't even notice. This is streamline service, all for the joys of amateur podcasting, and to figure out yourself, because you don't have a producer. I'm my producer.
Anyways, Jakey Simmons is Alex Jones. And because of that giant teaser at the end, and Sony and Disney's feud, you're never going to know what happens with this story. At least I don't think so, unless they go on to do their own stories. They may very well continue this whole storyline with the next Spider-Man and keep Tom Holland, keep the original crew and cast, but then not include that in the entire rest of the MCU, which is going to be disjointed.
Anyway, I'm done talking about it, because it'll get me. It's already got me riled up. I don't want to be riled up, but I want to get that out of the way. Spider-Man from far from home.
I enjoyed it. Cool. Next. Let me check my notes here real quick.
Next one I saw in the summer was the reboot of Aladdin, or not the reboot, I should say. It's the live action Aladdin. I saw it, and I really didn't want to see it per se, but I was kind of curious, and it was just so so. A lot of the controversy around it, if there was any sort of controversy, was Will Smith replacing Robin Williams.
That original Aladdin will always hold a special part of my heart, because it was just so good. It was just so good. It's so good. Remove the subliminal messages or any of that bullshit that you may have heard about Disney movies having, which they definitely did.
I've heard it. I actually put on that scene where you've heard the subliminal message when Aladdin meets Jasmine on the balcony or whatever. I'm not going to go into that. You can look at yourself, because it's a thing.
You may be hearing things, whatever, but I turned my TV up on blast with that. That's not here nor there. I thought it was fun. It was just serviceable enough that, yep, this is Aladdin.
It's live action. Super duper. But yeah, the whole Will Smith Robin Williams thing. I thought Will Smith was actually pretty decent as the genie.
It's no Robin Williams, but it was definitely fine. I didn't have any issues with that. What I did have issues with it was at the end of the movie. The whole climax of it, it was not what the cartoon version of it was, and that was kind of disappointing.
There are certain things from that original that wasn't included in the live action, which kind of soured it a little bit for me, but not in a way that I'm going to hate on the movie. They're both there. You can appreciate both for what they are. It's essentially, I mean, it is the same shit, but whatever.
Again, I don't know if I really care about seeing these live action versions of these movies. I know the Lion King came out this summer. I didn't see it. I'm kind of interested in it, because that movie is also great, like the original I should say.
I keep saying I should say. And I've done this before. I keep calling myself on it. I hate saying things repetitively.
I'm sorry. But the original Lion King was so good. And I probably will, to this day, keep crying when fasamufasamufasa dies. It's heartbreaking.
That scene is heartbreaking to me. I want to see it, but again, I have no real interest in it. And sure, the theory would be cool. I'll probably wait until it goes on eventually.
It's going to go on now, Disney Plus. Netflix won't have those rights to those certain properties anymore, so it'll be on Disney Plus eventually. But whatever. I've already seen these movies.
I don't necessarily want to see them again. Certain remakes, I get it. I'll probably dabble in a little bit, because at least it'll stray or update it in a certain way. I don't necessarily need to see CGI characters of these animals or live-action versions of Aladdin, for example.
It's just whatever. So Aladdin, the reimagining, I guess you can say. And so, but it still left me wanting more. And it actually maybe want to watch the original again.
So I can appreciate that for what it was, and how good it was in the early 90s. Next one I want to talk about real quick, moving on from Aladdin. It is another one I saw in theaters once I actually got to BC. I was in a hotel for about a week.
Downtown Vancouver was a little flick called Midsummer. I think it, I want to say it kind of flew under the radar, but this is from the same director that put on hereditary. So I can't remember right now what the director's name is, but hereditary was absolutely insane. It's really weird.
It's a little bit of a slow burn, but it's intense when it gets intense. And it's creepy. It's eerie. The casting is phenomenal.
The trails of the characters, like it's all acted very well. It's very eerie. That was good. I really liked hereditary.
Midsummer, it takes that slow burn, and adds another probably nine inches of wax to make it an even slower burn. It's really slow, but again, really uncomfortable. And it plays up on that against a beautiful backdrop. The scenery is gorgeous.
I think it's set somewhere in the skin. Maybe I can't remember. I think it's Sweden. I'm probably wrong here again.
I'm going off the top of my head. This is three weeks ago or four weeks ago, whatever it is. But it's really eerie. And you can kind of see where it's going.
It's just an uncomfortable film to watch, but it's shot beautifully. Again, really long for my liking. Could have cut out quite a bit. But it's that extra time in these type of films that really make you squirm in your seat a little bit.
Because you have an idea of where it's going. It's just how it gets there. And again, you know how these directors that have kind of that sophomore slump? I wouldn't say that this movie is a sophomore slump.
It's definitely good for what it is. Not my usual cup of tea, I would say. Especially compared to hereditary. I really like hereditary a little bit better than this one.
But the main actress can't remember her name either, but she was really good. And she leads this film, start to finish, kudos to her. But in a theater, and I saw it by myself, but it's just like, OK, let's get on with it. I get it, let's get on with it.
But at the same time, I was like, ah, this is uncomfortable. Definitely recommend watching it. But just know what you're getting yourself into. It's not a high action, high octane thriller by any means, but just know what you're going to see.
OK? I don't want to leave anyone astray here with what it is. Check it out eventually. Don't run out and see it, but check it out eventually.
Because it will disturb you for the genre that it belongs to, right? Next one that I saw here real quick, that I saw actually recently, I have a little bit more memory with regards to this one. Scary stories to tell in the dark. I saw this, I think, just last week.
And I was really excited to see this one, because it's based on such an influential book that I think most of us may have read when you're younger. I think it's technically a children's book. But it is horrifying. It probably gave us all nightmares if we had read it.
And in the artistry in that book, the pictures that came along with the stories were even more terrifying than the actual content of the stories. But this one, I saw the trailer. I'm like, yes, it's produced or whatever, by Guillenuel D'Otorro. For me, the guy is hit or miss for what he produces.
Obviously, I talked about James and I actually talked about it. Shout out to James, my homie. What up, Naomi? We talked about the shape of water.
And we really didn't like that movie. And we don't understand how we got best picture of the Oscars. Obviously, it's bullshit. That point aside, I was really looking forward to this one, especially from the source material.
It's coming from. I was like, OK, cinematic version of this shit. I'm on board. The trailer got me on board.
Saw it. I want to burn this movie to the ground. It couldn't decide whether its audience was aiming for an audience that was for kids or teenagers or for adults. I couldn't get it.
And they were on the cusp of being really, really entertaining. Like, everything involved with that, really entertaining. But fuck, I could think right now of a better way to do this movie. I was going to talk to my friends about it.
You have this entire movie. OK, it's a haunted book. You write or you summon a spirit. It's a ghost story, essentially.
And this book starts writing stories, and the stories come to life. Right there, for me, if I had looked into this movie a little bit better, for me, I would have been like, oh, this should either be a Netflix TV series or an anthology series. Like an anthology movie, I should say. God damn it, I did again.
Come on, Chris, play your shit together. I should say, god damn it. I'm my biggest critic. Don't worry, I'm with you.
But as I was saying, if you had this story, because it's all little snippets, each story that's being written is specific to each character in the movie. And now most of the characters in it are basic archetypes. The lead actress, she was fine. I think the curly-headed, funny young actor was probably the standout in it, but he had the worst and of it all, pretty much.
I'll get to that in a second. But make this movie, in my humble armchair of you opinion. If you have an idea that places a different story with each character, have it in anthology where you have each episode in a series, for example, have an hour with that and expand upon that where this horror thing is coming from, where the characters are coming from. Because the story that's being written in the book is supposed to be aimed or targeted towards each character in the movie.
So if that's a case, have each episode be targeted to the character, however, dive deeper into the basic archetype of what you're trying to portray in that character. You'll have an hour for each character in each story to develop. And maybe you'll actually feel something towards these characters rather than just being like, OK, whatever, who gives a shit. I think that would be so much better and so much more of an enjoyable experience, especially with the source material, because it's so old, sure.
But a lot of people know where this comes from, and it's been around forever. There are some good parts of this movie, sure. But I feel like they were still too, they're shying away from what they really wanted to do. And I think that Page and Hold themselves to their full potential.
It could have been a great ghost story or whatever. But it just infuriated me. I was literally pissed by the time the movie ended, and I walked out of it because it just did not live up to what it could have been. And that always breaks my heart a little bit, especially for horror movies.
Horror movies are obviously a dime a dozen, but if you get a good one out of every 10, it's kind of worth it. This one pissed me off. But again, I don't want to get riled up. I'm getting riled up again.
It's bringing back my Spider-Man anxiousness for the future. But it's all safe for now. Avoid scary stories telling dark unless you're a 14-year-old, because you'll probably like it. But I'll just quickly go over the movies that I watched recently that came out recently for DVD or download or whatever.
There's three of them I saw, first one being Men in Black International. It's serviceable for Men in Black movie. I really like the combination of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Obviously, they had chemistry from Thor Ragenrock.
I like it. I like how they're going with it. It's very similar to the first one in the sense that this rookie coming in with an older veteran. I like their relationship.
Kind of can see where the story's going. Serviceable Men in Black revamp of the product. Definitely better than Men in Black, too, because that movie was a pile of shit. If you want to check it out, check it out if you're a fan of the Men in Black series.
Next up, Godzilla King of Monsters. Finally, see more Godzilla on the big screen. Thank fucking Christ. The first one in 2014 directed by Gareth Edwards, I think it was.
He knows how to shoot this stuff, but give us more of what you're selling. The main telecare team, the first one, barely saw Godzilla. When he did see him, it was an awesome giant monster, a ton of breath. Cool.
This one, they amp it up to the extreme. You have monsters all over the place, fighting, kicking the shit at each other. Godzilla gets a super power upgrade. Fantastic.
They're obviously building towards the Godzilla versus King Kong. I can't wait to see it, because it's going to be so ridiculous and outlandish, and that's what this movie was, I had a good time with it because I knew what I was getting myself into. It's supposed to be ridiculous. Enjoy it for its ridiculousness.
Next, let's see. Annabel comes home. I missed it in theaters. I want to see it there, but I didn't.
Got my hands on a copy of it. I really like the James Wan universe for Annabelle and the whole Warren universe, I guess you can say. Except for the none, that movie can fuck off right now. Obviously, I've explained it in a previous episode.
That movie sucks. Brutal didn't like a cash grab. This one, kind of along the same string of things, had a lot of potential. I brought a couple of callbacks to the old movies, like the Conjuring movies.
I guess it is the Conjuring universe. But again, didn't live up to any potential, namely aimed at teenagers. Not really all that scary. Again, a couple jump scares, a couple of few frights here and there, but it just wasn't as good as the others, especially the first one.
The first one is kind of dark, but for the third one, do better. All right, let's break here real quick. Now onto the TV shows. First one I want to get into quick before going to the next two.
This one's kind of just when I saw Netflix that came out recently. I'm like, I'll turn it on because whatever 10 episodes, woo assassin, woo assassins, woo assassin. A singular plural I can't remember. A lot of sweet action.
I don't want to get into the story quite a bit, because it's ridiculous. You have this one chosen warrior to defeat elementals, essentially, that you get a spirit rock that goes into you, and you have control over earth, wood, water, fire, metal. You have this assassin that's trying to, it's supposed to kill them all. But a lot of sweet fucking ass kicker going on in this.
You even have the one guy from John Wick III, who was John Wick's main adversary throughout it and his best fan, essentially. But a lot of sweet action, a lot of kung fu karate, judo chopping. It's pretty entertaining once you get over the corniness of it, because it is corny. You have what's her name?
Catherine something. She's from Viking. She's in it as well. She's pretty good at it as a sporting character.
But it's definitely entertaining. You don't necessarily need to watch it attentively. You're just there to watch the fights. And the fights are awesome.
It's well choreographed. It's kind of cut all right. But it's definitely entertaining. I would say it's entertaining.
At least to check it out. Again, it can be super cheesy at times, because you kind of know where it's going. I'm kind of sick of this whole, like, oh, you're the one to lead us into safety and save everything. The whole destiny bullshit.
It's been done before. It's been done better. Whatever. I enjoyed it because it was ridiculous.
And pretty fun when I was paying attention to it. But I watch it all. Next one really quick. This one, I could, again, do another entire episode on it.
From Amazon Prime, I put it off for a while, but it's out there now. The boys. I can't recommend this series enough. Again, it's superheroes.
You know, I love my superheroes. But they take the genre and flip it upside down. It's based on an actual comic, not Marvel, not DC. But it's so effing good.
I was not familiar with this franchise or this comic beforehand. But I started looking into it when I started watching it. And it is fan fucking tastic. It is violent.
They swear. The storytelling is great. The characters are deep, even though they seem very shallow, especially the superheroes. Essentially, it is a Justice League type of superhero group.
And they're called, I think, the seven or whatever. And it's if the Justice League were to sell out and become a giant commodity that had their own PR team. They were run by an independent company that oversaw everything that they did. And these superheroes are just giant fucking dickheads.
But in the public, they're seen as these awesome heroes. And you get this ragtag group of people that have had their own personal experiences with these type of people. And they're like, fuck this. We're fighting back.
It's all say about that for now. It is so good. It is so good. It's raw.
It's gritty. It's not what you're used to or expect from this type of genre. I can't recommend it. I think it's eight episodes.
You will be entranced from the first episode. And you want to find out more. Even as I said, even though some of the superheroes may be seen shallow and shitty, which they absolutely are, there are layers if you look into it deep enough and you can peel them back. Because they're all traumatized in some sense.
But definitely watch the boys. Finally, for a TV series that I just finished last week, because it just came out last week or the week before, been waiting for this one for a long time since the end of the first season happened. But Mind Hunter season two. My Atlanta.
So good. So good. I can't emphasize that enough. If you haven't watched the first season of Mind Hunter, and you're all about true crime and dramatization of true crime, watch the first season before you get into season two obviously.
Season two is so good. They include a few more real life serial killers. The big one being, obviously, the Atlanta Child Murders case, that's the main storyline. And of course, Charles Manson and his buddy Tex, who of course, the Manson Family Murders.
It's so good. I'm overwhelmed right now because this is something, it's not like what I was talking about with Woos Alex. You need to pay full attention to the series while you're watching it. There's so many little intricacies of it, whether you're watching the characters or the plot or whatever.
Just take your time, watch it. No Netflix and chill here, guys. If you do that, restart the episode. I'm telling you right now, you've missed so much.
The first season was mainly focused on our main character played by Jonathan Groff. This time, it focuses on his partners, Bill Tench. I can't remember who plays that. But his whole family side of things, and the other psychologists there, I can't remember her character or her actor's name right now.
But it goes into their separate lives. And you learn a little bit more about their personal lives and what's going on with them and how it influences their work, as well as their home lives. So, so good. And just do yourself a favor.
This is quality television. I can't say it enough. Watch Mine Hunter. Please watch Mine Hunter.
I want season three out. Immediately, check it out. I don't want to spoil anything more. Check it out, please.
All right, quick break. I'll be right back. And we'll start into our feature for this episode. What's all about?
I thought it was hilarious. Oh, the movie I chose to finally restart the podcast with was Ready or Not, because I'm certainly not ready to do this again. Feels good, though. But yeah, ready or not.
Here we come. Let's do it. So I recently saw the trailer for this movie. And because I didn't hear a whole lot about it before it came out.
But I saw the trailer just before I had seen scary stories that tell me dark. But I was kind of half-paint tended to it. But then I saw the trailer for it in scary stories. And I'm like, oh shit.
This kind of looks like it's going to be really fun. And it had really high expectations for it. Because I really like the blending of types of movies. I want to say genre again.
Because this is definitely going to be like a I thought it was going to be definitely dark comedy and horror mixed together mixed with thriller, which it definitely is. I'm not going to take that away from this movie. But that trailer, like, oh shit. It's intense.
A lot of things happen in that trailer. And I'm like, oh shit. This is going to be fun. I really want to see this movie.
I think it was getting some high praise from whoever that matters, like critics or the film festival that I was out at. But it intrigued me so much so that I'm like, yep, you know what? There are bigger movies currently right now. Obviously you have fucking Hobbes and Shaw for Christ's sake.
The Fast and Furious, whatever. I have no interest in that because I know how that movie is going to play out. You have two badasses. They're both fucking jacked and bald.
And they're going to beat up another guy that's jacked and close to being bald. Really short hair, whatever. It's going to be absolutely insane. And you know what?
That probably will be fun. But I'll check it out later. Again, that's the big movie that's out right now. But you know what?
I want to see this one. Maybe it'll restore my faith in horror movies compared to scary stories. So that trailer was really the hook for me. But I said this before, and I'll say it fucking again.
A trailer got me to see it. However, however, the trailer gave everything away. It gave everything away. Whoever's making these things, you need to find that balance between getting people enticed by the premise of the flick and also not giving everything away.
Oh my goodness gracious. Because that trailer, I mean, it's a sick trailer. But when you go to see the movie, you're like, oh, I've seen this thing. I've seen this thing.
I've seen this thing. And it really does give away the best, like, kind of funniest darkest parts of the flick, essentially. So when I was seeing it, I was watching the actual movie. I'm like, oh fuck.
I've seen this already. I've seen this already. There are no surprises. There are maybe a few.
But if you've seen anything, anything before, you know what's going to happen for the most part. For the most part. But that's what I'll say about that for now. Again, guys, I know I didn't talk too much too many spoilers before with what I was giving you a quick recap of of what I've recently seen.
I usually do it at the end of episode, but whatever. But now this is full spoilers here, OK? Before we get into that, let's talk about what this whole movie is about. I thought I'd run up with the trailers when we get back to that.
Maybe I will. I don't know. So, bride to be, or newly bride, newly married couple, Alex and Grace, they're going to be married. They're getting married at the family estate of Alex.
His family hosts it at this fucking castle, essentially. It's a giant mansion. Alex's family is well off. They're loaded.
They're like Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley type, what houses say Dominion. They're this giant family. They're loaded. They're absolutely loaded.
They made their money on board games and games and game cards or whatever in the past. And Grace is joining this family. And the tradition is for the family, once they're married, cool. That's secondary to what happens at midnight.
For Grace to really join the family, she has to play a game. And that game will decide whether she's included or not. But there's one little catch. There's one playing card.
It's all chosen by random out of this little box. I want to say like a divic box, essentially, because it holds like an evil spirit or whatever. But the box decides what's printed on this blank card. And that's what game you play.
Of course, it ends up being hide and seek. I'm pretty sure they would have named this movie hide and seek. If it weren't for 2005 movie hide and seek with Robert Nero and Dakota Fanning. But, ready or not, good enough.
So of course, this is the one game that happens where hide and seek shit hits the fan. Little does Grace know. She thinks she's in this fun kid game. Oh no, by the way, the family is now hunting you to kill you and use you as a sacrificial piece of meat to keep that family alive or keep that family fortune going.
You get a little bit of back story with regards to that when they finally, before they pull the card out, whatever. This is all from the trailer, so it doesn't give anything away. It kind of feels like it has a mix between the purge and also Captain of the Woods, because it's a home hide and seek game, which essentially the purge is. And then you have the Captain of the Woods that has that horror mixed with the comedy.
So I like that blending, has a good premise. But again, everything that's violent, whatever that happens in it, you know what's going to happen kind of, because you see the big things that happen in the trailers. But that's the basic premise. Grace has no idea what she's getting into.
She's played by Samara Weaving. She was also in a Netflix movie called, let me see, The Babysitter, another kind of fun, kind of comedic horror slasher movie. But you know what actually intrigued me with this movie is like, when I first saw the trailer, I'm like, oh shit. Is that Margot Robbie?
I would love to see her in this kind of thing. It's not. It's Samara Weaving, who by the way, is also Australian and who is also like, it's funny when I looked up IMDB for Samara Weaving, the fun trivia facts that post for his like, oh, has been compared to compared, compared to Margot Robbie. Yeah, no fucking shit.
She looks identical to her. Jesus Christ, she is a twin of Margot Robbie. Like, it is absurd how similar these two look. And they're both Australian.
Both gorgeous, blonde, blue eyed. Just, why is that trivia, first of all IMDB? Of course, they're fucking looking similar. I thought that was pretty funny, but that was initially what caught me high, because I am a big fan of Margot Robbie.
First of all, she's a great actress. Second of all, I don't know if you know this, but she is gorgeous, and I may have a little bit of a crush on her. See that? How my voice went up, like a couple octaves there?
Yeah. So same feeling for Samara Weaving, who also leads this movie spectacularly. She is such a good, I want to say final girl, because that's the terminology of these type of horror movies have for these characters, but she's the only girl. Basically, but she's so good.
She goes through so much shit in there. So much shit in this movie. And just her personality, the character that they make or portray, I kind of want to be that character's friend. She's so relatable, because she's swearing at all the right moments in the movie.
Just any time she says she takes a deep breath and just says, fuck. That's exactly what you would say in that situation. The sporting cast is great as well. I mean, the boy from that boy from actually, I was going to say again, I caught myself off.
The husband to be played by Marco Bryan, you can kind of see where his character's going. He's kind of a bit of a milk toast. He's a sweetheart. But again, you can obviously tell there's a dark side to him, which comes at the end of the movie.
You have Adam Brody, our boy from the OC. I feel like he's typecast these days with that kind of fun-loving, kind of an asshole type character. He plays that really well. And you get a glimpse of how his character is developed over the years, because you get this intro, one of the first times you've ever seen hide and seek played.
It has an effect on that kid, because he's at five or six, seven. However early he is, he's trying to protect his brother. His character's name is Daniel. The husband to be his name, Alex.
Trying to protect his little brother, Alex. He hides him in a closet or whatever. But he sees everything. And that kind of explains why he's a debaucherous alcoholic, because he's traumatized.
You have the patriarch and the matriarch played by Andy McDowell and Henry Cerny, I believe. They're great as their characters as well. I think Henry Cerny, I want to say his name, is you recognize him when you see him. Oh, he's always playing this type of figure, who's always the domineering patriarch who's a masterful.
But everyone's supporting character like the sister, Emily, she's pretty funny, because she's just so fucking useless and actually causes the death, the poor deaths. Of the waiting staff. She's very familiar. I was like, why have I seen her from?
Wherever I see her from? She's in a couple series, Winona, Earth, I believe. She's like a vampire or whatever. They have our hunter, I should say.
But she's also in fucking letter Kenny. I was like, oh my god, that's Mrs McMurry. Holy shit, of course that's her. And she plays that like frantic co-head drug addict very well, because she's obviously traumatized.
I thought she was pretty funny. And guess what? IMDb tells me she's born in Ottawa. Hala, what up?
Represent Ottawa by girl. It's around from, dog. So she's pretty funny. Again, the husband wife of the other siblings, they're pretty good too, because they're equally as shallow and shitty as the actual family.
But once a movie kicks off, and kicks off pretty quick, it's a fun little roller coaster ride. Again, you can kind of see where it's going. I thought it was fun. For the most part, I thought it was fun.
Even when it gets to the more ridiculous aspects of it, because it's all based around the car game, you can kind of see, oh, the previous great great grandfather sold his soul to this Mr. LaBale. And that was, I think, obviously, a demon or Satan himself for Christ's sake. And that's how this family got their fortune for their game dynasty.
And again, the setting is pretty funny, because it's very reminiscent of clue itself, especially with some of the way the characters die, and what they're killed with. Like for example, a little pistol that Emily has. It's very reminiscent of clue. You have all the candlesticks around.
You have the butler. That's a bit of a dick. It's really funny with those kind of connections. So once it kicks off, it just gets going.
And you see grace be put through shit. It's obviously, she's trying to be used for this demonic ritual. I think the movie in the UK was actually called like family ritual or something like that. But every time something bad happens, there's always a comedic break with it.
And someone has a one-liner to say to it. And it kind of makes it a little bit more funny, even though it's like a grotesque violence in it. Someone's skull being blown off or a crossbow going through the mouth and someone being decapitated. You actually see the decapitation of God, but it's just like, I don't know exactly how I feel about it because it's so absurd because it starts off like, oh, yeah, I can see like a rich family being crazy and absolutely full of shit.
But then again, it goes into that supernatural element. And again, it plays on that, is this, they're scared for a reason? Or is this whole ritual bullshit? And the climax, they definitely play on that quite right at the end.
But eventually it ends up being real. But like they don't even know, they're unsure. And even though these people are terrible, they're doing this just out of the fear of if it may be real. They don't actually know, which is hilarious.
So they're fumbling around for this entire hunt. This hide and go seek game for grace. And you see grace develop, but they don't know. They don't know.
They're just going to do it just in case it is. I want to talk about Grace's character for a second. Sameer weaving. She goes from this frightful, terrified baby lamb, essentially with her giant dough eyes.
Beautiful, by the way. And she just goes on this mission. Eventually she has this little bit of a montage. She rips off.
She's wearing a converse shoe. She rips off the bottom of her dress. She puts on this bandolier. Gets this old, tiny shotgun.
And by the way, the bullets, or the other bullets, but the rounds that he puts in there are just fucking elephant shotgun rounds for Christ's sake. They don't end up working. But she puts on the bandolier. She has a shocker.
She looks at the mirror. She's like, oh shit. Of course, it looks ridiculous. She even knows that it's ridiculous.
That self-awareness makes it a little bit more funny. But you see her develop through most of these final girls. And I liked how at the end of it, she's interwetting dressed through the entire movie. But it starts off white.
At the end of it, obviously she's covered in blood. It's kind of looking black a little bit. So the dress is almost a personification of how she's developed from this innocent girl trying to join a family to, oh, she's a hardened vet. That's been through the shit.
Literally. Again, you don't really know if the supernatural elements are real, it goes on. Like family has this fucking barn. And all they have in it are goats, are fucking goats, which is a clear sign of the devil.
Which it's a little bit on the nose, but it's hilarious. They have this well that they dump all the bodies of the sacrificial goats. And even the bodies of the previous victim of the last hide and seek game 30 years ago, whatever. Oh, that reminds me.
The one character that was so fucking cartoonish in their appearance. And I just need to say this right now before I forget. Fuck, I'm going to IMDB this while I have this thought in my mind. And Helene, or Helene, I mean, played by Nikki Gudani.
Probably not saying that right, but she looks like a goddamn Disney character. That's the villain. Like her spiked hair, she looks absolutely ridiculous. And obviously always pissed off.
And she looks like she could be like Corella Deville's sister. She looks so absurd. But it's obviously done on purpose to make her look like a fucking witch. It's done well, but it's kind of distracting because it's so comedic.
It's so funny in the way that they make her dress. Fuck. And she's obviously just insane. She's absolutely insane.
What else can I talk about this movie that I need to say about? Because I didn't hate it. I walked away from it. This isn't like scary stories.