We are rapidly approaching the end of 2024 and I will soon be able to start putting together my list of my favorite and least favorite films of the year! Before that, though, there is still plenty of time to talk about some of the films I’ve watched this month like Alien: Romulus
Let’s do one more Review Roundup before this year ends and look at a few more flicks worth mentioning and worth avoiding! Some spoilers will most likely be ahead, so proceed with caution. This will not be like my other movie review roundups as I usually frame it with two good and two bad films. This time we are going from bad to good and some stuff in between.
*Spoiler Warning*
Skip – Harold and The Purple Crayon
Friendly reminder: Zachary Levi used to be a reliable name for good quality entertainment and positivity. After what may be one of the most shocking celebrity declines in recent memory, I can confidently go into a Zachary Levi movie knowing I can fill the bottom portions of my year end lists. Harold and the Purple Crayon is Levi’s newest trash-terpiece.
If you are not familiar with Harold and his little purple crayon the concept is simple. Harold is a baby with a purple crayon and he draws everything to his wildest imagination. Ironically, imagination is nowhere to be found in this 90 minute slogfest. The film follows an adult version of Harold, for some reason. And also, for some reason, Harold decides to find the voice that narrates for him. There is no existential crisis, no greater need to search, nor any real reason why any of this movie needs to happen.
So, Harold wants to find the voice that narrates his life because he thinks about creating for ten seconds. Okay, whatever, but now Harold just makes a door that leads to The Real World and that brings us to live action Levi. If all of this was a ploy just to give Levi a safe movie to get back into good graces, then this is absolutely not helping.
You hate to see a movie about the incredible power of imagination have absolutely no imagination whatsoever. We used to be a proper country where believing in magic and fun meant something, man. Take me back to when Robert Pattinson was Batman or when concerts were traps for serial killers– those were the times. Anyway this movie sucked and I think you would be better off imagining a better movie. 1/10
Meh – The Watchers
Not only is this a great opportunity for me to once again plug my review for M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, but I get another chance to talk about a film by a different Shyamalan. That’s right, that’s right, it’s not Mr. Night, but his daughter this time around. Ishana Shyamalan makes her film debut right here this year with her supernatural thriller The Watchers.
So here is the thing with The Watchers– I do recommend giving this a watch. Our protagonist Mina is driving home from work when she finds herself lost in a seemingly never-ending forest. Mina is then chased by an unseen entity until she finds a shelter with a few other folks. Mina then learns about the creatures that the others call The Watchers.
These Watchers are Changelings- creatures popular in Irish folklore and mythology. In fact the film even ties that knowledge, research, and element into the finale. Despite all of that this film still falls sort of flat. I would not say this movie is boring, nonsensible, or lazy, but it does get stale and stalls until the final product is just okay. Now, mind you this is not the same kind of Shyamalan-esque direction we have seen.
While I have spent most of this time talking about the flatness of it all- I do have a few compliments. The performances were fine, the concept is interesting, and the world within this film is something I wouldn’t mind more exploration of. I am even a fan of the Watchers themselves. They moved in large groups and had a super creepy design. Good Stuff there.
All in all I did not totally dislike this movie but I also think there was much more to be desired. I still recommend it but I give it a 5/10.
Okay – Deadpool & Wolverine
There is a high chance that when I go to sleep tonight that I will feel the stares of everyone who violently disagrees with me on this. Going into Deadpool & Wolverine I already had a huge bias against the film’s director Shawn Levy, the increasing amounts of obnoxious meta humor, and the general direction of the Marvel Universe. I did have fun, I promise, but I want to try and end this on a positive note so I am going to power through the negative stuff quickly.
Oh my God, Shawn Levy is so annoying, dude. The amount of riffing on a sublime level is probably astronomical compared to what was written in the script and it is so annoying. In my Letterboxd review, I wrote, “Shut Up,” or “Stop talking,” several times due to the insane headache Ryan Reynolds was giving me. The dialogue was so dense and irritating that it deducted so much from my overall thoughts on it.
The brief moments where it was either just violence or minor character introductions are pretty much the only times without dialogue and I cherish those moments. Oh my god, please stop talking. I beg of you to please stop making references and breaking the fourth wall for thirty seconds.
The last negative thing I will say about this movie is how much pandering there is. There is no movie here. This movie is just an excuse. Okay, I’m done now.
I will say that of all things DP3 I was shocked with how much I enjoyed the fight sequences. I thought the big fights were okay, y’know, just sort of fun violent segments.
The two intimate fights between Wade and Logan were brutal, funny, cool, bloody, and exactly what I wanted from this movie. My god, the amount of blood and blades flying everywhere was rad and turned the cynical old me into a believer.
I thought this movie was annoying, but not without its moments of genuine enjoyment. 6/10
Pretty Good – Rebel Ridge
Aaron Pierre put himself on my radar after his memorable debut in a film by a director I have mentioned too much in an article not about one of his movies. 2021’s Old had its problems, but one of the positives I walked away with was knowing that Aaron Pierre can act his ass off.
Rebel Ridge follows Terry Richmond (Pierre) on a thwarted mission to post his cousin’s bail in a small town of mass corruption. Ridge is a tense flick with solid performances from Pierre, Don Johnson, and AnnaSophia Robb. The film is written and directed by Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier, and although this was my first watch of his films, I enjoyed this and want to check Green Room out.
I quite enjoyed this movie and had a good time with it. Overall I would say this was a consistently entertaining and thrilling movie, but admittedly I did have a few small gripes. For example, one of the cops that ran Terry over in the opening scene decided in the final scene to have a change of ethics. Brother, you want to talk about being an ethical officer of the law NOW?
There wasn’t much I disliked in Rebel Ridge, but aside from that character change I thought the middle dipped a bit and the pacing lost me for a few minutes.
Overall, Rebel Ridge is not a bad movie. It is worth your time. Check it out on Netflix now! 7/10.
Great – Alien: Romulus
Hey look at that – I finally got around to Alien: Romulus! I will just get right to the point- this movie was awesome! Last month I ranked the Alien movies and that gave me a chance to see the rest of the films in preparation for this one. I missed it in theaters, but that still gave me some context and appreciation for what Romulus did.
My big draw to the original film was how it was not supposed to happen. A mistake of happenstance and people in the wrong place at the wrong time is always a great plot set up.
In Romulus, we follow a group of young scavengers investigating a mysterious ship hovering above their dead-end mining planet. Once they arrive on the ship, it doesn’t take long for the hellish nightmare of an Alien movie to kick back in. Forget alien C-Sections- we are jumping right to giving birth to Xenomorph/ Human freakazoids. Take your sensitive ass back to Prometheus.
The Newborn- as referred to is practical effect perfection and further adds to the bizarre ideas this franchise can get away with. The ideas, characters, horror, word-building, and story are all here, and I can not wait to see more of what Fede Alvarez has up his sleeve in the sequel.
My only issue with Romulus was the references. Yeah, a bunch of them did not fly for me. All in all- Alien: Romulus was creepy and cool and I think it is worth checking out. 8/10. Oh, and Romulus now ranks #4 right under Prometheus and above Alien: Covenant.
What did you think of these movies? Which have you seen and which have you not seen yet? How bad did I miss with these or how right am I? Let me know below and stick around to Respect My Region for more movie reviews and lists!
