Dir - Mickey Keating
Overall: MEH
Deliberately constructed as a homage to the ultra-violent Westerns of Sam Peckinpah, Mickey Keating's Carnage Park more accurately presents itself as both one of countless second-rate Quintin Tarantino knock-offs as well as an American version of Greg McLean's wretchedly miserable Wolf Creek. Thankfully, it is not as annoyingly gruesome as the aforementioned Ozzie torture porn romp, but it is still ripe with unoriginal ideas and a forgettable, one-note villain who is a psychotic douchebag just because the movie needed one of those. Mac Fisken's rustic desert cinematography is intimately imposing and Ashley Bell continues her typecasting as a traumatized woman who cannot get a goddamn break to save her life, though shes had enough practice at this point to nail the assignment. Opening with the "shot guy, covered in blood, screaming after a bank robbery gone awry" scene, bouncing back in forth in a non-linear fashion, quirky/retro pop songs on the soundtrack, the villain quoting bible verses, character's names flashed on the screen in bad-ass fashion, and plenty of F-bombs, the Tarantino adherence is embarrassingly on-the-nose. In addition, Keating still has an insatiable jump scare itch to scratch and even manages to find room for one of those stock moments where instead of the killer, the heroine accidentally murders the person who has come to save her.
Dir - Hideaki Anno/Shinji Higuchi
Overall: MEH
Two years after Legendary Pictures' Americanized reboot, Toho resurrected Godzilla themselves for the first time since 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars, the last of the franchise's "Millennium" era. Dubbed Shin Godzilla, (Shin Gojira), with directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi brought on board, (both of whom had collaborated on a handful of Evangelion entries), this kicked off the "Reiwa" era as yet another straight-ahead remake of the original 1954 film, so an air of redundancy is unavoidable from the get go. Having long abandoned the suitmation which both baby boomers and gen-xers had grown up with, the entirely CGI creation here is visually in-line with that aforementioned look, sans some fiery-red lava pulsating underneath the impenetrable hide. Acceptable for the most part, a handful of cartoony effects shots creep their way in, but they steer just shy enough of being distracting. This Godzilla was meant to be a more threatening presence than some of the sillier ones previously seen. Decimating Tokyo with radiation blasts from its mouth, tail, and scaly back, the monster does make a formidable presence for the few moments that it is on screen. Which brings us to the detrimental flaw of virtually every kaiju movie in that this is a giant monster film second and a bureaucratic board room meeting drama first and way foremost. Though Anno keeps the pacing up with tight editing and everyone delivering mountains of boring dialog as quickly as possible, boring it unfortunately still is, rendering this as just one more nightmare of exposition that is all too sporadically interrupted by Godzilla destroying shit.
Dir - Chris Peckover
Overall: WOOF
A Christmas variation of Funny Games except with a twelve-year old brat antagonist, co-writer/director Chris Peckover's Better Watch Out is a tonally disastrous, borderline unwatchable mess. Simultaneously going for dark comedy high jinks and vile disturbingness while hinging on the deranged exploits of easily one of the worst characters in any movie, it asks too much of the viewer while bombarding them with an insulting series of events. As the spoiled, clever kid who assumes that he can get away with everything, (including reckless murder), Levi Miller exhibits an odious, cutesy charm minus the charm part because his actions are so deplorable that he simply makes for a miserable villain instead of an interesting one. Equally as egregious is the sloppy plotting, which attempts to escalate things until they get out of control while audience members may find themselves screaming at the screen due to the illogical behavior of both the perpetrator and the victims who play a role in letting things get out of such control. If the movie stuck to its comedy angle exclusively, the same tale could have been told in a more ridiculous manner that would warrant its indented chuckles. Instead, Peckover tries to make two different movies at once and drops the ball in his attempts.
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