tv and films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wanted to like this more than I did. I wasn’t bad, but — and here’s a big surprise for a sequel appearing thirty years on — it wasn’t nearly as good as the original, either.

The good: The story is fairly self-contained and is explained as it goes along, so you could, in theory, watch this one cold without knowing the original and not be totally lost (however, lots of settings, situations, and gags are callbacks, so it would be pretty obvious that you’d be missing jokes or setup). The use of lots of practical effects kept the look very much in line with the original. Each of the cast, individually, did perfectly acceptable work, and I do enjoy watching Keaton chew the scenery.

The bad: It’s jumbled and unfocused, with too many underdeveloped antagonists, none of whom really get terribly satisfying resolutions.

In the end, I was entertained enough in the moment, but would have gotten much more bang for my buck if I’d waited for video rather than seeing it in the theater, and likely won’t be adding this one to my physical media collection.

Murder Mystery 2

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Murder Mystery 2 (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ridiculous and amusing. Adam Sandler always makes my skin crawl, but Jennifer Aniston makes up for it. Ridiculous, over-the-top characters and situations, but kept me laughing, though sometimes it was with and sometimes it was at. Still, it joins a small, very select group of films that star Adam Sandler where I don’t feel like I need to take a shower after watching.

The Fall Guy

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The Fall Guy (2024): ⭐️⭐️

How is this getting at all decent reviews? The worst part is that you can see a fun movie in there, and there is one sequence in particular that stands out because it works, it’s clever, and it’s hilarious. But the rest of the time it drags, is confusing, and just doesn’t work as well as you think it should. At the very least, it needed to be tightened up a lot in the editing room. Mostly an uninteresting, occasionally slightly amusing mess, with one great split-screen scene.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

While it may not quite reach the mind-blowing heights of Fury Road, that’s mostly just because Fury Road would be so difficult to follow up, no matter the circumstances. The action is as over-the-top, Anya Taylor-Joy is intensely feral, and Chris Hemsworth is an absolute loon. Lots of fun, and at some point I need to find the time to do a back-to-back marathon of both films.

The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett

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57/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Set between TMP and TWoK, this adventure primarily ties together three threads: The Medusans as introduced in TOS, the Aenar as introduced in ENT, and the New Humans as introduced in Roddenberry’s novelization of TMP. Those three threads are woven together with elements, references, and in-jokes from throughout the Star Trek screen and literary universes, as Bennett so often does in his books. It’s also interesting when reading these more recently written books that are able to find ways to drop in references to the newer shows. All in all, another good adventure with some really neat approaches to tying together previously unrelated parts of Trek history in unexpected ways.

Me holding The Higher Frontier

Abigail

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Abigail (2024): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The “demon baby” genre is a particular favorite of ours, and this one is a lot of fun. A bit of Agatha Christie, a bit of The Ransom of Red Chief, and a lot of blood (it is a vampire movie, after all). The creepy kid is nicely creepy, the unfortunate criminal crew of misfits is appropriately dysfunctional, and everyone understands the assignment. Absolutely worth a watch.