Multiplex Madness
Oddity
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Director: Damian Mc Carthy
Starring: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Tadhg Murphy, Caroline Menton, Jonathan French, Steve Wall
A somewhat deceptively complex premise is setup as a woman hears a knock on her door from a strange panicked man telling her a man is in her house and she needs to open the door and let him in. She is later found dead and the man at the door is blamed, and in the aftermath, her blind, psychic twin sister acts to put the puzzle pieces together on what happened that night. Also: creepy wooden man. What's up with that? I will say straight off the bat that it's worth sticking with this movie, because it can come dangerously close to plodding at times and it's entirely possible to get impatient with it, especially as we dive deeper into characters who constantly seem resentful of each other. Oddity is a bit meandering and tonally off-center, almost in a mischievous way. It's probably because it knows what it has up its sleeve. And I'm actually not talking about the plot, which is trite and well-worn (hint: MSTies will recognize certain twists from a little movie called The Screaming Skull). It's not hard to guess where the movie is going, but the movie certainly knows how to construct suspense. Oddity is rich in mood and atmosphere, with a supernatural element that probably plays with the best haunted house spookums I've seen since the original wave of Ju-On films twenty years ago. I wish this movie maintained its inspired suspense throughout, because Oddity has the potential to be a movie for the ages when it wants to be. It drops the ball on characterization, jumping back and forth between macabre style and somber melodramatics, which tempers my enthusiasm. But when the movie is going hard for the horror, it is absolutely on fire.
Twisters
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Disaster, Adventure
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane
C'mon baby, let's do the twist! Belated sequel to the popular 90's disaster movie that was a collaboration between Speed director Jan de Bont and Jurassic Park novelist Michael Crichton, Twisters sees more people chasing tornadoes for fun. And science stuff, I guess. But mostly fun. But it stops being fun and games when Daisy Edgar-Jones's team dies in an accident, leaving her traumatized. She begrudgingly comes out of retirement years later in collecting tornado data for a real estate company, while Glen Powell jumps in with his YouTube crew and cowboy attitude and rattles the cage. Twisters is very much a case of being exactly what it should be and also not enough. It adheres pretty strictly to the tropes of 90's disaster blockbusters, to the point where it could probably be considered comfort food for late Gen X and early Millenials. If you've seen Twister, Twisters is just another one, for better or worse. I definitely fall in that range, but Twisters doesn't bring enough to the table for me to feel like I can justify a second blockbuster of tornado chasing. I'm not sure there are that many stories you can make out of this concept. In trying create another one, they created something that feels hashed together from an abandoned script to a direct to video sequel from twenty years ago, suffering from undercooked elements that rely on coincidence, introducing sudden "Twister fodder" characters, and plot contrivance. I was vibing with the film early on, but as it continued it just grew tired and repetitious, and I just got bored as it threw what felt like the same tornado scene at me over and over again. I'd probably describe it as being less exciting than it thinks it is, but suitably matinee entertaining for those looking for a popcorn-muncher. Lower expectations probably yields a greater experience, so be warned on that.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
The Bikeriders ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Fall Guy ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fly Me to the Moon ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Lion King ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
MaXXXine ⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
The Boy and the Heron ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Thelma ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Physical
Perfect Days ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
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