MORE RONDO AWARD NOMINEES

HALLOWEEN ENDS… Every time I’ve seen one of this series with Jamie Lee in it—since H2O, that is— I’ve come away with a strong urge to watch the original. Back when they got it right. Think I’ll do that now.

This is an okay horror movie, no more than that. Jamie Lee is good, it’s nice that Laurie and Michael get a final showdown…again. 

If this truly is the way HALLOWEEN “ends”…well, certainly could be worse. Definitely could be better.

The scriptwriting formula here seems to be two-fold. 1. Supply a whole lot of lousy characters to make bad things happen, and, 2. lean heavy on the motif of innocent people blamed for bad things.

This one might be a little better than HALLOWEEN KILLS, but it’s definitely less exciting. Neither should win any prizes, including Rondos.

NOPE … Jordan Peele is the real deal. I thought that US, while terrifically interesting and well-made, didn’t quite crest the hill. Still good though. But GET OUT was truly terrific and this one just might be even better than that. Again, terrific performances (I adore Keke Palmer), along with great effects and great pictorial images. Nice characters, strong story… I’m not totally sold on the big finish, but there’s no denying that it looks good. 

This is just a wonderful movie. Full marks right down the line.

ORPHAN FIRST KILL … I didn’t like the first movie, mostly because it fell into a category of story which I never enjoy, that being a story in which one person knows the truth but no one else believes.  The best things about the original were the performance of Vera Farmiga and the passing of Isabelle Fuhrman as a child. I bought it utterly.

This one doesn’t have Farmiga, her lesser substitute is Julia Stiles — and when did she become old enough to play the mother of a 20-year-old guy? Time, I hate ye. Stiles is not a bad actress, but she’s not an especially good one either. And here she’s really floundering. Bad role, bad performance. 

Even worse, this movie, made 13 years after the original, fails utterly in passing the returning Fuhrman as a kid. Matter of fact, she couldn’t even pass as a teenager. She looks like a woman in her mid-twenties at best. And the substitution of a real child in full body shots is painfully, painfully obvious. Worse yet, this is actually supposed to be a prequel to the original. Not a chance.

As for other elements… well, it’s professional enough but there’s nothing scary, nothing believable, nothing really interesting. Fail.