The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 3 "Isolation" Review

WARNING: I GIVE SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE!

            Sorry for the tardiness of this review, but… there is no but. This will not happen again… hopefully.

            I will start with Rick. Now that he is back to the Rick he was before this season, at the beginning he gets in an unexpected fight with Tyreese. It was a very intense fight and you see that Rick is really not Farmer Rick anymore. Then, he talks to Tyreese about what is right and right is wrong. At least it seemed to be like that. Tyreese says that what Rick is doing is wrong. Though, Rick thinks that it is the other way around. That conversation is not incredibly important, but it does explain later acts of Tyreese. Later, he gets in that dilemma with Carol being outside that really illustrates that they cannot pretend that walkers do not exist anymore. Things are getting worse and they have to step up to be who they were. I really liked that theme of this episode. I will mention his run-in with Carol at the end of the episode in Carol’s section.

            I will get to Hershel and Carl now. First, I will talk about the situation Carl is in. Carl is somewhat above the other kids, but Rick makes him go in the room for safety purposes. I will say that Carl is somewhat right that he could be classified as a soldier, but I still agree with Rick. Anyway, later he has a run-in with Hershel while Hershel is trying to leave. I am glad that Carl says that he has to go with Hershel, because that shows the responsibility of Carl. Then, later, in the woods, Carl and Hershel find some walkers. They have some great lines between each other. Carl believes he needs to shot the walker, but Hershel says he does not need to. That line is both good and bad. They are getting away from the fact that walkers are dangerous. Though, it also illustrates that the people have become calmer, and, possibly safer. It also hints at the fact that walkers may be getting less dangerous. Then Hershel says that they are “just so peaceful”. That shows regression in his character, though. He may be seeing walkers as not being horrible anymore. When Carl says that they will not always be that shows that he disagrees with Hershel. That is a good thing for his character, because it is not good to believe what Hershel believes. Also, Hershel later gets in an argument with Maggie and Rick about why he should go into the cell block with the people with the virus. The lines he said about how they are no safe whatsoever really meant something. What he said is actually true and it makes me like his character more. Those were some great lines. I am very interested in the direction they are going in with these characters.

            Now I will get to Tyreese. For this whole entire episode, I thought that he was going to do something terrible. He was in a dark place during this episode. This side story was suspenseful and done well to that factor. Though, the conversation he had with Sasha illustrated how he really felt. He was desperate and hopeful. He was really also really worried about what might happen. That caused me to feel and understand for his character. He is “the character” of this episode. This is a “Tyreese episode”, and they executed this episode as the “Tyreese episode” very well. Later, when he, Daryl, Michonne, and that other guy are stuck in the car, when he hesitates to go out there, I thought “Uh-oh”. He was in deep thought and I wanted him to get out of that thought, and go out there. They also did that well. Then, he goes out of the car, and lets all of his anger out on the walkers. That is a great way to get him out of his dark place. I really liked the writing there. Though, I thought that he was dead, and, somehow, he got out of there. That is a fault with the episode, but I think it is my only true flaw with it. Anyway, I will say that that action sequence was very intense and very cool. And, of course, they heard a voice on the radio and there were a huge number of walkers on the road. That completely took me by surprise and I am excited to see what it is. I am also excited that they found another possible threat. There probably is another community, and now these people know to be cautious. I really like the direction they have took with adding this and I really like the direction they are going in with Tyreese.

            Now it is time to talk about Carol. Throughout this episode, she goes through many things. The little girl is looking to her as a mother, and she knows how bad that is, and she got stuck outside the prison with many walkers. She learned a lesson being outside with all of those walkers. I already mentioned that, though. In this section from now on, I am just talking about her last conversation with Rick. She is the one that killed Karen and that other guy. That actually really took me by surprise. Other people are saying they really saw that coming, so I guess I am stupid for not seeing it coming. Anyway, it was a shock and I really like that it turned out to be her. This event really added to that character’s story, and I like the direction that they are going in with the story of Carol.

            I will talk about the episode in general, now. I really enjoyed this episode as an enjoyment factor, and it had many really cool plot twists and add-ons, so that really adds to the episode. It had really good developments with characters, and it had not one truly dull moment. My only other flaw, other than the one that I have already mentioned is that it just was not excellent. It had several factors that had room for improvement. Still, this episode is great.

            On the grading rating system, I give this episode an A-.
            On the out-of-10 system, I give it an 8.7/10.

American Horror Story: Coven Episode 3 "The Replacements" Review

WARNING: I GIVE SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE!

            I will get immediately into my review of the episode starting with Violet 2.0, whom I recently found out the name of: Zoe. She is now speaking to Tate 3.0’s mother and waiting for Misty Day to get done taking care of him, so she can do the right thing and give him back to his mother. Her character is starting to get annoying to me, which is a bummer because she is the character you are supposed to care about and go for. Anyway, she goes over to Misty Day’s place, does not treat her well, and then just takes Tate 3.0 away from her, when he is obviously not yet ready. I want to see more from Misty Day because that character is interesting to me and I feel sorry for her because Zoe is just using her to fix up Tate 3.0. Later we find out Tate 3.0’s mom has been abusing him in a very uncomfortable way, which is disgusting and really unneeded. I have said that this show goes too far, but this is way too far. Anyway, Tate 3.0 ends up killing his mom, which was incredibly predictable, and the last thing we see from Zoe is that she finds what happened, and then Tate 3.0 is right in front of her. With these aspects of the show, I do not like where it is going.

            Next I will get to Kathy Bates’ character and Queenie. Now Kathy Bates’ character is dealing with the new world around her, and is now Queenie’s slave as we find out that Queenie just thinks that some people like her need love. As all of this is happening, the beast Kathy Bates made of one of her slaves attacks them and Queenie steps up to deal with it while Kathy Bates hides. That scene did have intensity, but it somewhat ruins it by going too far again. I did like that Queenie did connect with the half-man-half-bull, but the show had to express it in a disgusting way. It is good that we are getting more depth with the character of Queenie, but this show needs to hold back.

            Now I will get to Constance 3.0’s daughter. After her spell she tries to get pregnant fails, she seeks help of her mom’s number one enemy, Marie Laveau, to attempt to get pregnant again. I like that we do not need a huge, in-depth explanation for why the spell failed to get her pregnant. All we need is a simple “It just did not work.” That brings more realism to the show. The dialogue with Constance 3.0’s daughter and Marie was good, but it was not great. There is no central reason for that. I just do not feel that it is great. And how Marie just laughs and acts like the possibility of her helping her enemy’s daughter is ridiculous was funny. I like the direction they are going in with this character a bit more now, but I think she needs to do something great for me to like her more.

            It is now time to get to my favorite part of this episode, the story with Constance 3.0 and Emma Roberts’ character. We learn from the prolog that when a new supreme rises, the old one starts getting weaker and weaker, and that Constance 3.0 killed the old supreme when she was young. Then, she starts noticing that Emma Roberts starts getting stronger as she gets weaker and weaker. Then, we see some great chemistry between them as Constance 3.0 shows Emma Roberts new things to do. But at the end of the episode, Constance completely flips out, begs Emma Roberts to kill, then accidently kills Emma Roberts in a very shocking and intense scene. It was not a huge moment for me, but it was definitely a big “WOW!” and I really did not see that coming. With this great mythology they have started to bring to this season, it makes you think about this Coven. It makes you think “Wait… if Emma Roberts is supposed to be the new supreme, then… the Coven will end.” That is what I thought. For a show to make you think like this, props to them. The story with those characters sets up many good story elements in the rest of the season.

            I will now talk about the episode over. First I will mention the good things, then the bad things. First off, it had some silly dialogue and some lines did not fit in with the rest of the lines, but those elements of the script were mostly directed for the first ten or so minutes of the episode. Second off, this episode did have some laughs, but there was not a large amount of humor. This series has claimed itself to be a fun series, so we have to have humor. Third off, mostly towards the beginning, we had some dull scenes and some unrealistic aspects to a scene that made it dull. The good things I liked about are that there are no other dull moments are the moments near the beginning of the episode, and as the episode progressed, the dialogue got better. As the episode progressed, it continuous improved upon itself, up to the climax. I really enjoyed this episode, and this is actually my favorite episode of this season so far.

            I gave the season premiere an 8.1/10. I give this episode an 8.2/10.
            I give this episode, on the grading rating system, a B+. It got really close to an A-, but down to the core of the episode, it needed more humor.

"About Time" Movie Review

            Now that we had romance movies with vampires from 2008-2012, a romance movie with witches in February of this year, a romance movie with zombies also in February of this year, a romance movie with aliens in March of this year, and a mix of all of these movies in August of this year, we now must have a romance movie with time travel in November.

            About Time is a new rom-com dramedy from writer and director Richard Curtis about a young weak man who learns that he has the ability of time travel and the tale of this life and how he uses it to help him, but also the people around him, and how he deals with it throughout his life while making many mistakes using it.

 

            This film stars Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams, who both do very well in their roles. It is also has a supporting cast of Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson, and Lindsay Duncan. All three of them did well, but they were not phenomenal. All of those supporting parts could have been played by anyone. I really do think the primary actors owned their roles. The acting was still good.

            The screenplay, by Richard Curtis, attempted at many things. It tried to be very funny, enjoyable, have good dialogue, be clever, and have heart. It accomplished all of those things. It was a funny movie. It only really had one gut-buster, but I laughed at most of the jokes. Some laughs were just chuckles, but some of them I actually legitimately laughed at. Also, surprisingly, most of the laughs were not cheesy. Some of the ones I actually laughed at were cheesy, and there were cheesy lines that I did not laugh at. There were also jokes that went too far or ones that were too repetitive that eventually made fools out of themselves. It was enjoyable, but I will get more into that later. What I mean by it had good dialogue is that there were times when someone would say something that I thought was realistic, or someone would do something that I thought was realistic. For most of the movie it did seem like this was written in a script, but almost all movies are like that so that cannot really be a negative. It did have unrealistic parts, but I let some of them slide because this genre has claimed what it is through all of these movies. The way it was clever is that the formula for time traveling and the limitations there are to time traveling really added depth, and surprisingly, realism to the movie and was one way that it was clever. Another way is that after a while it actually did not explain everything to the audience. There are some things that they give hints at and the audience has to figure out for themselves. It is very rare that movies do that, and it was pulled off very well. That is another way that the movie is clever. It succeeded at having heart because you actually like the lead characters in this movie, so you care about them. Sometimes when it tried to get to audience it did fail, but those were only a few times. Sadly, I also have another negative for the writing. In the way that the story is told, it does not pace itself incredibly well. For the most of the film it stays on a constant story line, but at one point it starts skipping ahead by years. The script was not paced incredibly well, so it was a little messy. But I still say that the screenplay is very, very good.

            I will reserve a paragraph for the directing here. The directing is also done by writer of the movie, Richard Curtis. I do not really think he should have directed this. I think that he is a better writer and director. I think by the time production had started of the film he wanted to change his vision. I think a different director would have taken the screenplay and captured the vision of the screenplay, if it was a good director. I will say that the film did not look bad. Sometimes it did have some pretty bad green screen, though. For the most part, the shots were not bad. But there was one scene in which people had a conversation that would have been intense if it was handled nearly any other way, because it switched between them so dramatically that it immediately became laughable. The shots were both shots of their heads really close up. The way it was executed was not very god. It seemed like a 10-year-old shot that scene. There was also one scene where the camera guy was walking backwards while someone was walking down the sidewalk, but the camera was shaking really bad. Overall the directing was alright.

            The story of the movie, yet similar to recent movies, was actually fairly original. It was well thought-out and executed. Even though some elements did not fit in quite right, it all worked together. It was interesting and it was handled well. That is why the story of this film was really good. The events in this film, while mostly unpredictable, never had true “WOW!” moments. They did conjure some much unexpected twists, but nothing big. The events were very good overall.

            This movie has to be enjoyable for everything to work. And I will say that I did enjoy this movie. Though, the execution of the film also had pacing issues along with the script. Because for the first hour or so, it paced itself well. But after the first two acts of the film ended, it started to go up and down and up and down. It kept on repeating its pattern, so the “up” moments were not as enjoyable and they should have been, and the “down” moments got boring. So this movie did have several dull moments. Another issue with the film is that it seemed to have four or five acts. It changed its direction many times to the point where it seemed messy. And, the film itself is a big messy. It is a bit all over the place. Still, though, with these few twists it is enjoyable. The story itself is interesting, and the main character himself is interesting. His life is interesting. That is why the film is enjoyable. It is not quite very enjoyable. It is very close to being really enjoyable, though.

            About Time has good acting, very, very good writing, a really good story, very good events, was enjoyable, and had alright directing, but it did have some bad lines and some unrealistic lines, several faults with the directing, and had pacing issues and seemed messy. This movie is overall a really good movie.

            I rate the movie on my rating system “A good movie”. Because of the pacing issues, it is not quite worth seeing at the theater, but it is a really good rental.
            On the grading rating system, I give it a B+. It barely got over a B.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give About Time a 7.6/10.

Top 10 Worst Horror Movies of All Time

            Now that it is the fourth week of October, it is time to make another blog/video of something related to Halloween. On the second week of October, I did a list of my top ten favorite horror movies of all time. Because of that, I thought that it would be appropriate to have a list of my top ten worst movies of all time for this week.

Number 10: The Possession

            The Possession tries to be smart with its scares, but it is not aware that having a girl stand outside with wind blowing at her is not creepy. It is not aware that tension is not built up with the absence of everything but the score and they do not realize you need more than five scares to make a solid, and good, horror movie. This film is not scary and lacks the essence most films have that causes people to enjoy the film.

Number 9: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

            Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark thinks horror films are at their scariest when they show what the monster or monster-like-creatures-or-such are shown within the first ten minutes of the movie. Because of that, for the rest of the movie, we have no good scares and a lack of enjoyment due to the fact that we have nothing to be anxious about and that it would have be scary to be enjoyable.

Number 8: Poltergeist II: The Other Side

            Poltergeist II: The Other Side goes way farther than the first one, showing us a realm that we really did not need to see an redacts the demonic threat the first film had out of this one, because this is a “suspenseful and intense adventure and mystery movie”. The filmmakers have no idea what the movie really is so as it goes on it has more ridiculous scares and continues to get dumber.

Number 7: Child’s Play

            Child’s Play is still loved by some people and referred to as a classic. I refer to this film as the one when a toy doll thing with a small toy hammer hits a grown woman with the hammer, then she flies probably over twenty feet across the room, onto a huge dining table while sliding across it and not getting stopped with the friction, hits a window that breaks so that she can fall out of it and fall two stories to hit a car.

Number 6: The Last Exorcism

            The Last Exorcism really does not know that people are smart enough to know when lines are clearly audio-dubbed. It thinks it can add a twist to a “found footage” movie to make people think that it is real. It thinks it can use incredibly horrible CGI without anyone thinking that it is anything but real. This film has not one good exorcism and not one scary scene. It continuously yells to the screen that the audience is stupid while being incredibly boring.

Number 5: The Apparition

          The Apparition would be a bit higher on several other peoples’ lists, but believe me, I have seen worse. This film features horrible acting, an incredibly dumb story, a poster with false marketing all over it, not one scary scene, and not one good scene. This film is a fail at horror and should not exist. It truly does not know what scares audiences and what a good script is.

Number 4: Amityville II: The Possession

            Amityville II: The Possession should definitely be viewed as a comedy. As it believes it is being much cleverer than it truly is, it tries to be better than The Exorcist. But really, all it is doing is ripping off The Exorcist. It has truly atrocious acting and sets a completely horrible example for a horror movie sequel. This film came out just to make money, as it seems to be older than the first. That makes this movie even sadder than it already was.

Number 3: Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies

            Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies is a film that you probably have never heard of, because it really should not exist. It has the dumbest premise ever, then it goes off of that premise to create one of the worst stories I have every scene in a movie. It has horrible acting and brings no thrills to the screen as it is technically a horror/thriller film. It is incredibly boring from start to finish. What a true work of art this movie really is.

Number 2: Poltergeist III

            Poltergeist III was definitely the film that showed the makers of Poltergeist II: The Other Side that even a second installment was way too much. This film does have a good performance by the little girl, but that is possibly the only good aspect of the film. It uses nothing but jump scares from start to finish and fails at all but one of them. The concept is stupid and the execution is even worse. It is incredibly boring and fails at almost everything it sets out to do. This film should be forgotten forever.

Number 1: Paranormal Entity

          Paranormal Entity, another film that copies off of Paranormal Activity, is stale and bland from shot one until the end of the movie. They try so hard to make us think it is real, but it has absolutely horrible acting, and the story of the film is generic and gets increasingly more clichéd as the film goes on. Of course it tries at almost nothing but jump scares and not one of them works. Of course it was incredibly hard to enjoy. Though, this film had not one even entertaining moment. It is a true work of something that should not have happened and should be completely disintegrated. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

            That is my list of my least favorite horror movies of all time. You might think some films are not in this list, but they should be. Take into account that I have not seen every horror movie known to man, and if I did see a horror movie you think should be on this list, I might have enjoyed it more. Also, you might think some movies should not be on this list and I was too hard on them. Again, might have just thought different of them than you. This is my list, and a top ten list of movies is very biased and to the maker of the list’s opinion.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 2 "Infected" Review

WARNING: I GIVE SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE!

            No prologue paragraph, I am getting strait to the characters. I will start with Rick. The prison gets attacked and he freaks out. I think it somewhat scares him. Later in the episode, he has dialogue with Daryl in whom Daryl tells him that they need Rick, the real zombie-killing leader Rick, to step up and help them. Then, the amazing scene with the pigs happens. He has to feed to the pigs to the Walkers so they will not knock down the gates, and because the pigs are starting to get infected and spread the infection. Great acting in that scene by Andrew Lincoln as you can see Rick is struggling in doing this. Later, in what can be argued the most important scene in the episode, Rick burns down his little pig farm, gives Carl his gun, and puts his gun on himself. I like that Rick is back to being the Rick I know now, but that was hard for his character. It was like the character was reborn and redeveloped. That was a spectacular scene and I hope for more like it. The writing behind that scene is perfect. Not that it does everything right for what it was, but we really needed that for this storyline. I love the direction they are going with Rick’s character.

            Next, I will be talking about Carl. He is now asking for his gun back, because he needs his gun. The stocking thing about that is, though, that when his dad basically said that that is ridiculous, Carl actually treats his dad with respect. Then, when Michonne gets in some trouble, he has to save her by using another gun. That seems to freak him out, which is realistic and understandable for the fact that he probably has not used a gun in months. Then, when his dad gives him his gun back, he is shocked, but still likes it. Carl understands that he needs to be able to use a gun, but not on everything he sees now. I really like the direction they are going in with his character.

            Now we have Carol, the one that we do not remember. Her character is now much more tough and hardcore than she has ever been. She is now like the go-to-girl to get your kids to be afraid of walkers, but in that way that they really want to kill the walkers. The very sad scene when the girl’s dad is dying shows them what the world is really like with an amazingly well written scene. Carol really took a lot in when she dad to kill the father. When the older of the girls decides to do it, I almost yelled “Yes!” at my television because that needs to happen. Though, I did not like when she chickened out. Though, she made up for it when she took Carol’s knife later. I then really started to like the direction they are going in with those girls. Those girls are not the greatest actresses in the world now, but I am pretty sure throughout the season they will improve. I also almost love the direction they are going in with Carol. She is now a very strong female character.

            Now I will get to the short time we have with Tyreese. I will mostly talk about the scene at the end when Karen died. Though, earlier when she showed symptoms of being infected with the virus, I did not think what they should do with her. But someone took it into their own hands… Or so we think. It was very shocking and very unpredictable that she died, and how she died. It did, of course, obviously look like someone when into her cell, grabbed her, and they might have had some trouble so they had to knock her out, then gotten her outside to burn her. Though, she could have turned into a walker and attacked someone, so that is just the way they killed her. The scene where we see that she died was more shocking than sad to me. It really did not have enough time to be sad, because we get two half-a-second shots of her dead body, and one of Tyreese somewhat freaking out. I do like that the next episode could be a who-done-it episode, and I liked how unpredictable that event was.

            It is now time to talk about this episode in general. If you have not already noticed, I thought that this episode was great. It had some action and some great character development. I have already talked about the character development, so now it is time to get to the action. The first sequence when the prison is under attack, while intense, was not riveting or incredibly thrilling. It did have some good walker kills, but nothing terribly special. Of course it was very enjoyable, but I believe it definitely could have been better. Though, the sequence with the falling fence was unexpected to me, and was very intense. I am not going to say that it is thrilling, because it does not try to be. It did what it set out to do and I that is basically all I can say about it. I will mention some flaws I had with the episode, though. When the shower walker walked into the block, he walked past some of the cells and picked one in particular. Then, after walking around when everyone is asleep, making noise, with no one hearing him. He walks into a cell, and starts eating that guy, being even louder, and still not being heard. Then, him and the new walker walk outside the cell to go to another one without anyone hearing them. Other than that, all I have to say is that the action sequences had a somewhat large area for improvement and the episode was not spectacular.

            On the grading rating scale, I give this episode an A-.
            On the out-of-10 scale, I give the episode a 9.0/10.

"Carrie" Movie Review

            Now that I have reviews up for everything else I was doing, I can finally review a film in theaters right now, Carrie.

            The acting for this film is what carries the whole thing. The lead roles – Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore – did a fantastic job. Moretz embodies Carrie and brings so much depth to Carrie so that you feel for her. Moore was even better and was menacing and crazy as Carrie’s mother. She seemed so real. Though, supporting actors and actresses had some alright or bad acting. The lead supporting actress, Gabriella Wilde, was not bad. Most of the others were not very good. I will say that the over acting was still very good.

            For most of this movie, there are silly, stupid, cheesy, unrealistic, and illogical actions and dialogue from the characters throughout almost the entire film. Though, there was much more of this in the first half of the film, rather than the second half. They did not take away and incredible amount from the writing, but the writing does not need these elements inside it. And yes, I will say whether this is a frame-by-frame duplicate of the original or not. There are several scenes that had the same dialogue and the same characters’ actions, but there are also some things that were very different from the original. Some of them were for the better, and some of them were not. Some were cheesy add-ons that should not have been there and created laughs for the audience. Some, though, added to the movie. Overall, the writing was mediocre.

            Due to the fact that this is a reboot, I cannot really critique the story of this movie, or the plot events of it. I will use this section to mention miscellaneous aspects of the film. First off, I will get to the intensity. The sad thing about this film was that it had several moments that were trying to be intense that were not intense. Since this movie is only 100 minutes, there is not an incredible amount of character development for the characters. You do feel for Carrie, but that was one of the only things the script accomplished while attempting to develop the characters. It did have some intense moments, mostly near the end of the film, though. Next, I will get to the largest element they improved over the original, the revenge scene. For the most part, it was awesome. It was intense and had some great effects while showing some really cool deaths. This moment was definitely the height of the film. I sad “for the most part” for a reason, though. After a while, when Carrie was doing something in the revenge scene, something clicked in my brain. I know everyone has been saying this, but the deaths seemed to start getting influenced by the Final Destination franchise. They seemed to get more and more “creative”, and more and more Final Destination-ish.

            Now I will get to the enjoyableness of the film. While it does have many negative elements, it really does not have many dull moments. It is fast-paced, so that people will not get bored, but I did not get bored. There are some moments that are entertaining, but cannot be enjoyable because of the absurdity of the script. And there are some slightly boring moments when you are ready for the revenge scene to happen. Many times of this movie were enjoyable, and almost all of it was at least entertaining.

            Carrie had very good acting, some moments of intensity, had an awesome revenge scene for the most part, was mostly enjoyable, and almost all it was entertaining, but it had mediocre writing, some bad parts in the acting, not a large number of time moments, deaths that get more and more Finale Destination-ish, and some dull moments. Despite all of these flaws, I enjoyed Carrie and thought it was a good film.

            On my rating system, I rate this film “A Good Movie”. I do not think you need to go see it in the theater, but it is not a bad film.
            On the grading rating system, I give the movie a B. The thing that kept me from giving it a B- was the two lead performances.
            On the out-of-10 rating system, I give Carrie a 7.0/10.

"Signs" Blu-Ray Collection Movie Review

            Along with my first week of the month “most anticipated movies of the month” video and my second and fourth week of the month “something that has to do with the month moves” video, on the third week of the month I will do a review a movie in my Blu-Ray collection. Here we go with M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs.

            The acting for this film was very good. Mel Gibson, of course, does great as Graham Hess. Joaquin Phoenix does very well as Merrill Hess. Rory Culkin does very well as Morgan Hess. Abigail Breslin does very well as Bo Hess. These performances really masked the tone of the film. That is what made the acting really good overall.

            The writing in film, by Mr. Shyamalan himself, did have his signature incredibly overdramatic lines method, but it was still great. This is an original story, which has many unpredictable elements that make this film as good as it is. This film did not have many twists and turns, but when it did, it brought a huge “WOW” to all of the viewers. It was great at being a mystery movie. It had all of the elements in this department of the film that all of Shyamalan’s good films have. It had that great tone of mystery and suspense throughout. Certain scenes in this film would be absurd if they were not written so well into the story of the film. Those scenes fit in perfectly with this script. It had incredibly well-written events. The script for this movie is basically what carries it. That is why the script for this movie is great. I cannot quite say that it is excellent.

            The story of this film could come off clichéd, but with the point of view and direction Signs went, it became original, like I had said. The way it follows the farmers’ story of their points of view on this tragedy, it becomes a brilliant movie. There are not many things I can say about the story that are not positives, because I cannot really think of any. It is not flawless and it is not perfect. It just follows itself amazingly and incredibly. The events are also amazing. They are so well done, so well written, and so unpredictable. That is basically all I can say about the events. The story and events are excellent.

            By the way my review is going; you probably think I am a fanatic of this movie. Well, the enjoyableness of the film weighs it down. I did enjoy it, but it has many dull moments and many boring moments. Though, it had a small number of moments of intensity and there are scenes of it being enjoyable. It was slow, but that was story buildup. I will say that I did enjoy this movie, though.

            Some things that I did not already say were that the special effects and score were great in this film. The way the special effects and the makeup worked are phenomenal and incredible. The score really matched the film and added so much to it. The mood and even the tone in the film were highly affected by the way the score was in the film and of the score in general.

            Signs had very good acting, great writing, an excellent story, excellent events, was mostly enjoyable, had great special effects, and a great score, but had many dull moments and many boring moments. This is a very, very good movie.

            On my rating scale, I rate this film “I’ll Probably Buy This”.
            On the grading rating scale, I give it an A-.
            On the out-of-10 scale, I give Signs an 8.3/10.

            Sorry about the length of this review. I tried to get this video up as soon as I could at the end of this week because I had so many reviews to upload this week.

American Horror Story: Coven Episode 2 "Body Parts" Review

WARNING: I GIVE SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE!

            I just got the review for the premiere up a few days ago, and this one is tardy, too. As American Horror Story: Coven continues on, we get closer to the characters, see what they are capable of, and see who they really are… kind of.

            I will of course start with Violet 2.0. She is obsessed with Tate 3.0 and wishes he did not die, so when the lawyer people come in and push her over the edge, she acts like a complete idiot and tells them everything. I somewhat understand why she did it, but it really irritated me, and I took points off of the episode for it, because I see it as a fault for the writing. Anyway, as I mentioned a few sentences earlier, she wants Tate 3.0 back to life (kind of) so guess what Emma Roberts does? She brings him back to life. I admit, I thought that scene of the episode was good. It was cool how it showed the spell they were using on Tate 3.0 and what it was doing. It was also cool how when Tate 3.0 comes back to life, he kills that guy and is moving around like Frankenstein because the idiot teenagers sewed different guys’ body parts on him. At the end, she makes an encounter from Nora 3.0, who is a completely different character now, to save them. Her story in this episode, yet interesting, felt a bit forced and I think they could have gone in a much better direction with it, but it was still enjoyable.

            Now we get to that girl from Asylum how I cannot remember the correct name of who was a reporter that got hurt there 2.0. Her side story about her not being able to have her baby, which was the only role she played in this episode, was a side story that I did not care for. It was much unneeded and was just there so we could see her and get another dash of dark magic to keep the audience entertained. That spell she used to have a baby was interesting and cool, but that was the only element of that side story that stood out. It was entertaining, but it felt a big hard to enjoy.

            Now, I get to Constance 3.0, my favorite character of this show. Though, I had problems with some scenes with her character and some of her dialogue. First off, in the scene when she barges into the room with Violet 3.0 and Emma Roberts, then flings those across the room had a small flaw. Some lines of dialogue tried to be more dramatic than it had covered with the writing. Also, that scene and the scene before had silly lines of dialogue and some unrealistic things that happen. Though, as the episode went on, that silly and stupid things happened less. Another flaw I had with her story is that in a later scene, the one when she was getting her hair cut and that witch lady comes out, the dialogue was supposed to be compelling and intense, but it turned out to be almost hilariously bad. Luckily, that is the only scene of this section of the episode that had dialogue that bad, because the next conversation with her and the lady that tortured the slaves actually had good dialogue. With this setting out to be a “fun” season, that is very surprising. That is not the only good event that happened with her story. Of course, almost the whole thing was enjoyable and it was intense when she had the lady who tortured the slaves tied up. I really like her character. I would just like the scenes she is in to be better.

            Lastly, I will talk about Nora 3.0. I have one word to say about her character: wow. That first scene, when she made the alligator come back life was awesome. I loved how later when Violet 3.0 and Emma Roberts try to use her power, it calls her toward them. I really like the mythology this season is creating with these witches. The words that came out of Nora 3.0’s mouth sounded real and felt real for her character. It was because the writing and acting was great there. I really, really like the direction they are going in with this character.

            Now it is time to talk about the episode in general. The episode ran into one or two dull moments, but I enjoyed a lot of it and was entertained by most of it. This episode had much more humor than the premiere, reflecting on the fact that this is a fun story of this season. The writing for this episode had some elements were better than the premiere, but sadly, the writing for this episode was mostly worse than the writing in the premiere. This episode had more stupidity and silly lines of dialogue in the writing than the premiere and had worse events than the ones in the premiere. This episode was still good, though, despite my small gripes with it.

            It is now time to rate the episode.
            On the grading rating scale, I give it a B.
            On the out-of-10 rating scale, I give it a 7.9/10.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Premiere "30 Days Without an Accident" Review

Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers for the Episode!

            Now that The Walking Dead is finally back, I can finally get my review up for the episode that aired on Sunday. Sorry for the tardiness. I hope it will not happen again. By the way if you could not read the gigantic sign above this paragraph, I will state spoilers of the episode inside my review, so if you have not seen the episode, then exit this review.

            We are now back with the prison crew as this season change has been the only season change in all of the season changes of this show where the primary group has actually become more like a society and improved their version of a society between the seasons, because the prison is now significantly better and more safe. Though, this episode feels the need to spend the first half of it focused on how all of their lives are now, making it enjoyable, but somewhat dull during this time of the episode. I will get to the characters now.

            Rick is now not even a warrior anymore. He does not go on runs with the crew and does not do any walker killing. He just provides food for the group using the farm they now have, and every now and then goes outside the prison gates to see what their animal traps caught. I do like that he is not crazy anymore. I do think that he is possibly doing this to get away from what he was in the last season. But I really do not like the direction his character is going in. He was my favorite character through the first three seasons, so I want him to be awesome like he was then. Though, I do think he possibly will because of his interaction with that incredibly creepy woman. The interaction between the two of them felt unneeded and went too far, but I think that will possibly affect something in a future episode or even the rest of the season. The act of the episode when Rick was following that woman around, yet suspenseful was sadly predictable. The character of that woman is sketchy; therefore she will do something bad. There is still hope for the character of Rick, thankfully.

            Now I will get to Hershel. We do not see much of him in this episode, but we do see is that he now has this thing he can use to actually walk on two legs now and that is cool. I really am glad that he has still survived, because he really knows how to farm, and he is helping Rick with that. That is all we know about him now though. The direction his character is going in is good, but there are not really any more possibilities.

            I will mention Glen and Maggie in the same paragraph, due to the fact that you never see Maggie without Glen in the scene. Glen is now going on runs and he is fighting walkers. His character is basically the same as it was last season. Maggie actually thinks they can have a baby, while having a pregnancy scare. I do agree that it would help rebuild a society, but I still think that this is no time to have a baby. I do not know about the direction they are going with her character, because I do not know much about what they are doing with her character yet. Glenn’s character is still the same. He is likable and says basically all the same lines of dialogue.

            I will talk about Carl now. I actually learned to like what he turned into in season three, but now he is not fighting at all anymore. He is now like a normal kid. I really do not like that, because he was really cool when he was good at killing walkers, and now he is somewhat a waste. That “naming the pig Violet” stunt that he pulled was really annoying and also really clichéd. Those kids “naming that walker and Carl telling them they’re dangerous” really irritated me and, like the other one, was really clichéd. I definitely do not like the direction they are going with Carl’s character.

            This is the paragraph where I mention the little time we had with Beth. At the beginning, we see that one of the people going on the run happens to be her boyfriend. Then, when they come back at the end of the episode we find out that Daryl took it harder than Beth. Last season she would have definitely cried over that, but not now. That shows that this series illustrates the realistic way of how this apocalypse affects people and I really like the direction this season is going in with her character.

            Lastly, I will get to Michonne. It was like season three was a beta test for her character. In season four, they have fixed all of the flaws she had in season three because her character is awesome. She now talks to everyone and makes jokes, which are funny, while still being as awesome as fighting and killing walkers as she was in season three. I love the direction they are going in with her character.

            Now I will talk about the episode in general. The first half does have some dull moments and nothing really happens, but the second half is awesome. The scene in the grocery store, while somewhat absurd, was so thrilling and so fun to watch that I was nearly riveted by its awesomeness. It got thrilling in the second half and really picked up. At the end of the episode, everyone comes back and the thing with Beth happens and there is just dialogue, but the ending of the episode was great. Even though the season premiere itself had room for improvement, the way it ended could only have improved a few things. It was a great setup for episode two.

            Now is the time to rate the episode.
            On the grading rating scale, I give the episode a B+.
            And on the out-of-ten scale, I give it an 8.4/10.

American Horror Story: Coven Season Premiere "Bitchcraft" Review

            I do watch FX’s American Horror Story. But, even though it has the word Horror in its title, as it has gone from American Horror Story to American Horror Story: Asylum to American Horror Story: Coven, it has become less like a horror story, and more like a true story bent up and taken completely farther than it needs to, because aspects of this season are based on true events, but turned into something much different.

            Now we have a new story with new characters, but mostly the same actors and actresses, except for this season introduces Emma Roberts and Kathy Bates. The main character is played by Taissa Farmiga in this season. She is very good as her character. Sarah Paulson is very good as her character, too. And, of course, Jessica Lange is great as her character. Emma Roberts is very good as her character and Kathy Bates is very good as her character. Lastly, Jamie Brewer is good as playing her character. This episode had very good acting.

            Like the first two seasons, this show has absurd lines, illogical actions, and events that would not really happen that way. But these elements of the writing are written into the show so well that they work to add onto the show’s quality. I am glad that this story of the show is written to be fun and not a series horror show that is not scary. It has some humor, it is really enjoyable, and it is somewhat fast passed but somewhat not fast paced in a way that we still have character development but it does not move slowly. Anyway, with that element to the script it does not really have one dull moment. However, I have flaws with it. Certain scenes really seemed out of place or did not need to happen at all. And, I know this show always goes a bit too far, but this episode goes way too far in some moments. Though, even though those are somewhat major flaws, those are the only flaws I had in this section with this episode. That is why the screenplay for the show is very good.

            I like that they are doing the story of the tortured slaves in the 1800’s and I like the twist they added onto it. It was cool to add that true story into this season about witches. Also, the end of the episode was very surprising and a great setup to what looks like could be a great season. The main characters are funny, so they are likeable, and they, for the most part, have decent back stories behind them. This season’s plot may be my favorite of all of the first three stories. The plot is, of course, over-the-top, like the other seasons, but I think that is the only flaw I have with the story, because the story for this season of American Horror Story is great.

            I had already said that I really enjoyed this episode, because I did. The way they paced the episode, it only has about three scenes of character development for the main character, but it develops her character in almost the exact way they needed for this type of story, like they did with the rest of the characters. That way, you do not feel like you barely know the characters, but the episode has almost no dull moments. That makes is fast-paced, but also not fast-paced. This episode is really enjoyable.

            American Horror Story: Coven season premiere “Bitchcraft” has very good acting, very good writing, a great story, and is really enjoyable, but also has elements of the episode that went way too far, some over-the-top elements, and some scenes that felt like they were out of place or just did not need to be there in the first place. This is a very good season premiere.

            On the grading rating system, I give the episode a B+.
            On the out-of-ten rating system, I give the season premiere an 8.1/10.