The Ritual: Chills, Cults & Creeps

Sometimes it pays to pick a random movie and just watch it. No trailers, no synopsis, nothing. The Ritual popped up sometime in February 2018 on Netflix and I didn’t even know that it was horror. Who am I kidding right? Yes, of course, the name screamed ‘horror’ but then again these it could’ve turned out to be drama or thriller these days. Its been long since we’ve had a decent British Horror movie and the recent ones kept walking that not so fine line between horror and the black comedy. What was the last good one, The Descent? 28 Days Later? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

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Hellboy: B Movie Goodness

Hellboy is one of those rare few comic books which sucks you into its world from the get-go and makes a fan out of you. It just isn’t by the numbers. Mike Mignola created a rich mythology-induced world for his characters to thrive in. The characters in the comic books don’t run on the usual comic book tropes. Most of the stories are intertwined with folk tales and mythologies and that’s exactly what makes it tick, what makes it stand out from other comic book worlds. Despite the rich world Mignola had created with Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. its never been an easy recommendation to people and I am not sure why. Maybe it’s the grim undertones or the way it was published or maybe its the droll of a title. I would still urge anybody with the slightest interest to pick up Seeds of Destruction and have a go. I bet it’ll be worth it. While we are exhaustingly bombarded with the BIG TWO’s superhero movies, a well-adapted Hellboy movie could make a huge difference.

The Incredibles 2: The Name Still Says It All

14 Years. Highly Anticipated Sequel…yada yada…. You know the drill.
For me, Incredibles was by far the best movie Pixar ever made. I am sorry Toy Story & Ratatouille, Incredibles definitely takes the throne here. Every movie Pixar made after Incredibles I kept asking “Wait….where’s Incredibles 2? Who asked for Cars 2? Didn’t we get enough closure with Toy Story 2? And lastly who in the right mind wanted Cars 3?” Almost a decade and a half later we finally get a sequel and does it live up to a decade worth anticipation?

Unsane: A Soderberghian Thriller

Say what you will but Steven Soderbergh is a phenomenal director and like any director, he’s had his fair share of hits and misses. After a short break, Soderbergh follows up his comedy-drama, Logan Lucky, with a psychological thriller: Unsane. Unsane is the story of Sawyer Valentini, a victim of a bad case of stalking, who inadvertently signs herself into a mental institution and amidst her helplessness and her greatest fears coming true, what follows is a question that lingers throughout the movie: Is she really insane?

A Quiet Place: A Genuinely Disquieting Experience

A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski, is one of the most effective horror movies in recent times. It’s a breath of fresh air amidst a genre populated by a slew of disappointments like Insidious The Last Key and the overrated Veronica. A Quiet Place is not exactly what you might expect from an ex-The Office actor and it surprises the bejesus outta you and how. I guess comedy actors turned good horror movie directors are all the jazz these days.

Ready Player One: pwnd

Ready Player One directed by Steven Spielberg is based on Ernest Cline’s ‘Holy Grail of Pop Culture’ of the same name and it rather borrows a large chunk of the concept from the book than adapt it word by word to the big screen. Having read the book it feels taboo to compare the book with the movie. My only regret is, like most book-to-movie adaptation, the movie had to be watered down to be contained into 120 minutes thereby diluting a lot of plot. Spielberg clearly has taken the creative liberty in adapting the book to a more contemporary audience. Of course, he generously pays homage to major pop culture references from the book, but he has added a lot too. Read on to find out if its worth your time, virtual or not.

Wonder Woman Review: “Let’s Trash DC”

“I know it’s a misleading title but hold your horses if you’re a DC fanboy and want to rain down upon me a slew of abuses. Hear me out first.”

Oh DCEU, you keep churning out mediocre movies and boast of box office returns as a reason to shove down more mediocrity down our throats. Although I loved Man Of Steel (coz I am sucker for Supes) we need to digest the fact that mediocrity in movies and encouraging and supporting them has only made DCEU to not push any envelope. Its no news that Marvel, despite their kiddy-friendly, formulaic movies, is at the top of their game and catching up to them is a feat for DC. If they really want to do that they would have to invest time in fleshing out characters in solo movies than dump a ton in one movie trying to get ahead of the race.