GoodPointJoe's 2024 In Review - Games

Games are a little tougher to judge, because frankly I play a lot of games that I don't finish, but often I don't finish them like, at all. And not finishing a game is sometimes part of how you assess it, right? If the game didn't draw me in enough to get me to play it through, that says something about the game. Or it could, at least.

Anyways, I did put together a list of games that I think is pretty representative of the new gaming experiences I had this year. Obviously I also played a ton of tried and true games as well, Rocket League, Recettear, Raft... probably some games that don't start with the letter R as well. And I'm withholding judgment on a few games that I dabbled in, but don't have a full opinion on yet. So if you saw me playing Escape Academy for 12 minutes with Chip that one night, sit tight, we're not settled on that game yet.

This year's games list is right below, with a #1 I would've never guessed!

1. Resident Evil - I've given it a full review previously, but suffice it to say, the Resident Evil experience was a delightful one. Hopefully this year I actually follow through on my claims to want to play more of them.
2. Hades - A great recommendation by my brother, Hades was competitive for the top slot. I still haven't come close to finishing the game, but one of the great things about Hades is that you can play as much or as little as you want at a time. It's always there for you to dip in for 5 minutes or luxuriate for 5 hours.
3. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster - If it were the first time I went through the game, it'd probably be #1 on the list. But it's mostly just a freshened up version of the original, with updated graphics and some (admittedly crucial) quality-of-life upgrades. Another great time, and I'm glad to say that the top three games were all streaming experiences.
4. Helldivers 2 - I would've liked for Helldivers 2 to be even higher on the list, but at this stage in my gaming life (and regular life), I have a bit of trouble trying to rally a full squad to even purchase the game, let alone play it together. It's still an amazingly good time, it just didn't crest into that upper echelon.
5. Half-Life: Opposing Force - My favorite of the three Half-Life games I played this year. There were a lot of cool stretches in the game, like an underground monster-riddled labyrinth, a point-to-point tactical advancement through a storage facility, or the final boss battle, where I totally realized right away that those lasers were important, and not just decorative.
6. The Break-In - This is almost an incomplete rating, because I'm sort of hoping (against my better judgment) that the game will continue to get updates. Right now it's fun and quirky, kind of a mix between Payday and Phasmophobia, except less serious than either of those games. But it seems like it's got a lot of as-yet-undeveloped design space, and I'm hoping it's not another of those early access games that never actually gets fully completed.
7. Half-Life: Blue Shift - It's a quick final foray into the Half-Life realm, in an adventure that feels human and self-contained. I liked it a lot.
8. Papers Please - I only had one real sit-down session with this game, but after about two hours I do think I have a sense of what the game has to offer. It's a fun, interesting experience, but I'm not sure that it's something I'd be willing to put in the time it would take for my brain to pick up on all the necessary details to execute the game well enough to 'win.'
9. Football Manager 2024 - I was delighted to get the game for free, as Chip and I have been fiending for another "GM in the same sporting world" opportunity. We used to do the same in playing older versions of FIFA and NCAA College Football and Madden, and the hope was to rekindle some of that magic. It's fun, but it's incredibly complex. And for a guy who isn't exactly deeply-versed in soccer parlance (since, you know, I call it soccer), the game is pretty heavy. Still, I've enjoyed it, and will likely keep playing.
10. Half-Life - The premise of Half-Life is really cool, and the way it tells a story through active gameplay is really innovative. There are only a handful of moments where you lose control of your character. But, it still suffers from some old-school control difficulties, an issue exacerbated by some obnoxious jumping puzzles, especially in the alien world segments of the game. Plus the final boss was just a pill. It was good, and I'm glad I played it, but the expansions were better.
11. Secret of Mana (2018) - This game has been an interesting playthrough so far (I haven't quite beaten it yet). There are quirks about it that I had forgotten, like some of the slow travel nuisances in the mid-game, and the relative uselessness of magic unless you grind like crazy. But the story is still really fun, the music is great, and it's fun just how many bosses there are to fight. Now that I think about it, not a bad idea for some D&D inspiration.
12. Zen Chess: Mate In One - This is one of those games that just is what it says it is. After watching Queen's Gambit, I dove into my Steam library to see what sort of chess-related games I had, and this is a simple puzzle game where (predictably) you try to find a mate in one move. It's uncomplicated, but a good time.
13. N++ - The newest iteration of the classic "N" flash game, it's basically just another round of puzzles for your stick figure ninja to traverse. It's perfectly fine, but there's not a lot of space left to explore with this premise.
14. Train Valley 2 - A lighter version of the original, but still not the relaxing train-management experience I was hoping for. Still, as far as puzzle games go, it was alright.
15. Train Valley - The simpler and less forgiving original, but not a bad little puzzle game.
16. Barro - An utterly simplistic racing game. It's fine that it exists, but it seems more like a proof of concept than an actual completed product.

And that's our list! Thanks to everybody who hung out during streams, who helped direct my gaming experiences, and who partnered up for some quality multiplayer. I look forward to another year of collaborative gaming goodness. See you soon!

GoodPointJoe's 2024 In Review - Shows

Although my focus was primarily on movies, 2024 was a really solid year for shows as well. There were indubitably some real duds as well, but by the end of the year, Marvel and Star Wars seemed to be on better tracks.

Please note: I'm only considering shows whose seasons I finished in 2024. So while I've enjoyed Skeleton Crew so far, it won't get a culminating rating until I watch the finale, which means it'll be one of the first shows of 2025.

Now, without further pomp or circumstance, our 2024 shows, ranked!

1. Arcane (seasons 1 and 2) - Arcane was an absolute monster. I don't normally go for animated shows, and it's been like a decade since I played League of Legends with any kind of regularity, but this show managed to overcome those hurdles and completely rock my world. The first season is stronger, with some of the most devastating and engrossing emotional beats I've seen in any show. The seconds season seems a little rushed, but the quality is still top-notch. I'm looking forward to more shows by this team.
2. Twisted Metal - An amazing balance of action, humor, moderate gore, and the occasional mind-bender. I'll say this though: I would've liked to hear Samoa Joe's portrayal of Sweettooth. Will Arnett is a great actor with a great voice, but don't sleep on Samoa Joe (the physical actor in the show).
3. The Queen's Gambit - Incredibly entertaining from start to finish. There's a certain formula to making a 'rags to riches' story, and this show nails it.
4. Gen V - While The Boys gets less and less compelling, they managed to create an exceptional spin-off with more interesting characters. The helicopter assault scene is absolute prestige television. I can't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it.
5. The Penguin - There's a group of shows here that are all around the same quality in my mind, and breaking the tie was tough. The Penguin gets the nod for having the most rewarding finale, one that was both shocking and completely within the scope of the show. At the end, I was shaken, and eager for more of this world.
6. Harley Quinn (Seasons 1-4) - If I were only considering the first season, Harley Quinn would be right there with Arcane at the top of my list. It's got an awesome combination of familiar characters in new stories, and the dynamic between Harley and Poison Ivy is amazing. Buuuuut, the show seems to get kind of unsure of itself after a couple seasons, and at this point while I'll watch subsequent seasons, I'm not exactly jonesin' for 'em.
7. Bonding (season 2) - Not quite as good as the first season, but it's still a great show with some awesome humor, as well as confronting some more serious ideas. By the end of the show, I was totally out on Pete, but still very in on Tiff.
8. Fallout - Fallout was a show that had some incredible highs, some great moments with a couple of our national treasures... err, wait Ella Purnell is British. Whatever, her and Walton Goggins were tremendous, and the story is really interesting overall. I think the show moves a little too slowly sometimes, and I feel like there's a little too much unresolved going into next season. But, overall, very good.
9. Agatha All Along - While #9 might not seem very high, I really enjoyed Agatha as well. The finale seemed a liiiiiiittle slapdash, but other than that the characters were all expertly written and executed. And I'm very, very excited for the third part of this series, when we hopefully get Vision fully back in the MCU.
10. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (seasons 7-8) - A very good sitcom, a well done culmination. Rest in peace Andre Braugher, underappreciated in our time.
11. House of the Dragon (season 2) - In what's basically the opposite of The Penguin, House of the Dragon had a tremendous season leading up to the finale, but the finale was... just another episode? It was very much the deep breath before the plunge, and the last shots were really cool, with all the armies moving across Westeros. But I'm ready now, I don't want to wait!
12. X-Men '97 - I did not expect to like this show much at all really. I tried watching the original series, and just wasn't drawn in at all. But for whatever reason, this new series caught me after the second or third episode, and I had a good, Saturday morning cartoon time. Also, I'm not sure if the original series was like this, but this show had some dark ass themes. Freakin' X-Men.
13. Cowboy Bebop (Netflix live action) - It started with so much potential, but by the end of the show, I get why it wasn't renewed. The characters fall out in kind of a distasteful way, to where you don't really want them to get back together, and the "twists" at the end are just kind of... fine. But it was so fun at the beginning!
14. Blue-Eyed Samurai - I still don't like when a show downplays the importance of getting stabbed by having their protagonist survive it all the time. Am I supposed to believe that everyone our protagonist stabbed died from every stabbing, but that their enemies couldn't nick the right artery one time? Anyways, the show is decent lol.
15. The Acolyte - Unfortunately we won't get a second season of this show. While it wasn't perfect, there were a lot of compelling pieces to this show, and a couple of absolutely banger lightsaber fights. Maybe Manny Jacinto's character can work into some other show or movie or video game.
16. Battlestar Galactica (seasons 3-4) - Speaking of disappointing after a promising beginning. While there's still good content in here, the show feels artificially extended towards the end, with not enough fresh juice to keep things rolling. The characters are strong, and the premise is great, but the 3rd and 4th seasons kind of drag, and the end of the story is disappointingly mystical.
17. 3 Body Problem - This is a show that has some good acting and the beginnings of an interesting story, but god, it feels like we've gotten like 3% of the mystery revealed after an entire season. I can deal with some slow-developing stories, but there's a limit, dammit.
18. The Boys (season 4) - It seems like The Boys' writers are ready for the show to be over, which is convenient, because so am I. I'm hopeful that the last season will ramp back up the fun and excitement, and then they can focus on telling new stories with new characters, like Gen V.
19. What If (season 2) - One of the first shows I watched in 2024, thankfully it wasn't a sign of things to come. What If just doesn't have whatever it is that I like about mainstream Marvel content *or* the animated series towards the top of this list. I don't think there was a show that I fell asleep watching more often than What If.
20. Echo - I really did not get into Echo. It stays out of the bottom slot because of the return of a more brutal Kingpin, and an awesome cameo by Charlie Cox as Daredevil. By the way, the confrontation between Echo and Daredevil was good enough that I would be game to see more of that. But for me, the character of Echo didn't have the gravitas to carry a whole show.
21. Invincible (season 2, part 2) - Part of the reason this is at the bottom is because of a drastically ill-advised splitting of the season, stretching the emotional beats beyond their breaking points. And then on top of that, it was just... not that good television. The storylines felt only casually connected to each other, which isn't necessarily a disaster (see Game of Thrones), but none of them was good enough to keep me in on the show. It sounds like they've learned from the splitting mistake; we'll see if the show improves upon its actual content as well.

Last up: games of 2024!

GoodPointJoe's 2024 Year In Review - Movies

We're making progress!

I've got kind of a reputation for being way behind on movies and shows, a reputation well-earned. Even with this year's prolific performance, I still haven't seen Titanic or Avatar (despite having no personal beef with James Cameron). But I do like movies. A really good movie can stick in your mind for days and weeks, and as a sometimes D&D GM, I love taking a movie idea and using it as a premise for an adventure. I ran a game set in the cursed mansion of the characters from Beauty and the Beast a couple years ago, and I loved it.

This year, I watched several highly-recommended movies (as well as several that were appropriately not recommended, but I had to know!). And I've started to learn more about my personal movie tastes as well. Historically I haven't been much of a horror film fan, this year's #1 film and a handful of other enjoyable experiences drew from that genre. I'm still not big on jump scares, but I've discovered that I can enjoy a psychological thriller or a slasher as much as anybody.

So, as is my wish, all the time, I've put together a list of every movie I saw for the first time in 2024. I've included blurbs as well, especially for movies that didn't end up getting an individual blog post.

Away we go!

1. Get Out - Five stars. Tremendous.
2. The Fall Guy - Action, romance, comedy, I found myself delighted in all three spheres. Such a fun watch, and such a Joe movie.
3. Dune: Part Two - I thought this movie really hummed, even better than the original. Though, I haven't started watching Dune: Prophecy yet, so maybe when I say I want to spend more time in the world, I'm all talk.
4. Knives Out - Clue, but less cheesy.
5. Clue - Clue.
6. Renfield - Not exactly a horror film, but I mean, Dracula is Dracula. The action/comedy was on point here, I had an amazing time watching this movie.
7. Interstellar - Really cool movie, like if 2001: A Space Odyssey wanted to not be a piece of trash, it would be this movie.
8. Dredd - Is there anything Karl Urban can't do? No, I mean, obviously there's lots of stuff he can't do. But damn does he kill it (and everybody) in this movie.
9. Deadpool & Wolverine - The plot is kind of a mess, but the movie is so fun that you forget about that...mostly.
10. Safe House - I watched a bunch of Denzel movies this year. This was the cream of the crop for my money, where Denzel was at his most Denzelness. Goddamn that man is an actor.
11. Free Guy - Three straight Ryan Reynolds movies? Jeez Joe, get a room. But seriously, kind of a more cheesy version of The Fall Guy, focusing more on the laughs than the romance. Basically the swapping of Ryans has the effect you would expect.
12. Conclave - This was a movie that, if I told you what it was about (picking a new pope), it probably wouldn't seem particularly interesting. But it was riveting. I feel like that's how you know a movie was well-acted.
13. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - After more than a decade of hearing people talk down about this movie, I finally sat down and watched it. And I gotta tell you, it's just an Indiana Jones movie. The ending is a little wonky, but it's good, it's fun.
14. A Nightmare on Elm Street - I'm only just scratching the surface of the 'classic slasher' list, but so far, so good.
15. Captain Phillips - I've finally seen where the meme comes from. The dramatic tension of this movie was really good, Tom Hanks is and has always been one of the great American actors.
16. Annihilation - This was a really interesting watch. I don't normally get up for the more dramatic, intense, dare I say artsy type films. But this one felt like a sci fi mystery, and I really enjoyed it.
17. Network - One of those classic movies that I finally got around to watching. It's interesting to compare dialogue back then (which felt very stagey but was performed well) to dialogue now (usually more natural language, but rigid and scripted). Most importantly, I now know firsthand where the beginning of the Unleash the Fury video comes from.
18. Everything Everywhere All at Once - I can understand why other people like this movie so much; it's good. There's quirky, high-octane action and there are emotional beats. But I'll always have trouble finding empathy for villains, no matter how relatable their struggles are. Took me like ten years to give Loki a chance.
19. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) - I think I liked the idea of this movie more than the movie itself. It was still solid, just wasn't the riveting mystery masterpiece that I was hoping for. The original is in my queue!
20. Mad Max: Fury Road - The action was great, but I had a hard time getting into the story. You'd think any sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland would be plenty for me, but apparently I'm more picky than that.
21. The Big Short - Another Ryan Gosling film, though it's an ensemble cast here. It's a decent film, but I kept kind of waiting for it to hit another gear, and it just didn't.
22. Sleepy Hollow - Johnny Depp is always eminently watchable, and he did a good job in this role. I was sort of hoping that the story would end up not being supernatural, but it was still pretty fun.
23. Philadelphia - And here we are with another Denzel Washington movie. He was great, and I enjoyed the courtroom scenes. My only qualm really is that it felt like it was a movie that really really wanted to win awards, instead of having a story it wanted to tell.
24. 300 - I finally watched the infamous Zack Snyder film. It was entertaining, but I had a hard time empathizing with the Spartans. The whole, "raise child soldiers and throw them in the wild and hope they survive" thing just isn't a Joey vibe.
25. The Flash - This movie had some of the worst CGI I've ever seen. The fact that it's here in the middle of this list is a testament to some pretty solid story-telling and entertaining acting. But holy god, the CGI, terrible.
26. Pitch Perfect 2 - Look, the movie doesn't break any new ground. But it's entertaining in most of the same ways that the original was, and, hey, I'm a red-blooded man. Throwing a bunch of pretty girls on screen isn't the worst way to grab my attention.
27. The Iron Claw - I would love for there to be more wrestling-focused movies. I think there are a ton of interesting stories about wrestlers, promoters, events, etc., with all sorts of angles. This particular one is tragic... no, that doesn't capture it. This is like the saddest movie I've ever seen. It's pain and tragedy all the way down. It's good, but holy shit it's a tough watch.
28. Barbie - It was kind of all over the place, and I still don't really get why everybody was so head-over-heels for Gosling in this movie. But Margot Robbie looked amazing, and there were enough effective jokes that I enjoyed myself.
29. Oppenheimer - Kind of like Philadelphia, it felt like a movie that was supposed to be big, and executed that well. But I didn't feel much in watching it. And the fact that Robert Downey Jr. got an Oscar for sitting in a room and chatting with an assistant is mind-boggling.
30. The Equalizer - More Denzel! This one was good too, though for some reason this Taken clone didn't resonate for me. Spoiler alert for 2025 though: I've watched The Equalizer 2, and it was even better.
31. Escape from New York - Totally cheesy 80s action movie, but it was fun. One of the all-time scenes when Snake first arrives and finds the homeless guy saying, "I'm the president!"
32. Ready Player One - I wanted to like this movie more than I did. Anything gaming-related I try to be open to, because that's sort of "my realm," and like wrestling, I'd like for more movies delving into that world. It was fun enough, but the protagonist sort of fell flat for me.
33. Civil War - I was expecting something more like Jericho, a story about a town or a group in a war-torn United States. This was okay, the whole photojournalism angle, but left me wanting for an emotional connection.
34. Glengarry Glen Ross - A movie you could tell was adapted from a stage play, both from the limited settings and the style of dialogue. It was fine, Al Pacino was great in it though. Earned a whole extra half-star all on his own, as a secondary character.
35. Invictus - I don't know enough about rugby to appreciate the nuances of whether or not the rugby is done well in this movie. And the Mandela side of things, while well-acted, seems insufficiently fleshed out.
36. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - While Johnny Depp is very watchable, I found this movie kind of wanting. I don't normally seek out musicals, and this one did nothing to make me reconsider that point of view.
37. The Shining - A 'classic' horror movie, but one about which I still have questions. Allegedly this sequel Doctor Sleep will shed some light on things, so that's in my 2025 queue.
38. Looper - I'm not normally wild about time travel as a movie premise. After watching this movie... I remain not wild about time travel as a movie premise.
39. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore - I enjoy the Harry Potter world, and I liked the original series of movies (and especially books) quite a bit. The first Fantastic Beasts movie was good, but these other two, phew, kind of a mess. This one at least had some cool big monsters.
40. Death on the Nile (2022) - Another Hercule Poirot remake with Kenneth Branagh, this one really just never got moving for me. It seems like in these movies the second-biggest actor is the murder victim, which is fine, except you're losing some starpower and screen presence for the second half of the film.
41. John Wick 2 - I liked the original John Wick well enough. It was a sort of mindless action movie, lots of guns and fights and what not. John Wick 2 was just mindless.
42. Darkman - Liam Neeson doing a quasi-superhero movie with a unique premise? My interest was piqued. But the execution is really shaky, particularly the dialogue. I can abide outdated set pieces, but without riveting conversation, a movie is just a photograph.
43. Unbreakable - It was a cool idea, and when it actually moved, there was some compelling content in there. But it was so slow, and so flat. Bruce Willis looked like he got told that his character doesn't care about anything, and to play that up.
44. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald - There were some interesting scenes, but overall this movie was the worst of the Fantastic Beasts series, which is already not that great a series. I think I rate it lower because I was starkly disappointed.
45. Public Enemies - The story was surprisingly dull to me; I loved Goodfellas, but this was a gangster movie without any sort of heart or soul. Also, I really grated against some of the video choices they made, specifically the egregious use of sepia filters. What is this, every photograph I've ever taken?
46. Gremlins - You can see some of the glimmers of movie-making talent in the film, but for the most part it's not compelling or interesting, the effects are really low-end, and the dialogue is abysmal. Apparently Gremlins 2 is much better, but I'm in no rush to find out.
47. Anaconda - All time, epically bad. The only redeeming factor about this movie was that Kari Wuhrer was in it, and she's dreamy.

And that's it for 2024! My goal for 2025 is 50+ movies, which shouldn't be too hard, that's one movie per week. And there are three or four Marvel movies coming out in 2025, so we should be well on our way.

If you'd like to keep up with my movie-watching on a more regular basis, I use Letterboxd to track my watchlist, rate movies, write little reviews, etc. You can see my profile here.

Stay tuned for my 2024 in shows and games!

One Good Point (Movie) - The Shining, and "What is a horror movie?"

The Shining is another of those "classic" movies that I had never seen, but we finally got around to it this year. I watched it while I was in Halloween mode, further tilting the door open for me when it comes to scary movies. But in talking about this movie with some friends, I encountered people who said The Shining wasn't a true horror movie, but was more of a "thriller." And we spent a bit of time investigating what the actual difference was.

Thrillers are defined by "thrilling," unsurprisingly haha, with lots of twists and turns, and often an antagonist's elaborate scheme or intricate network of danger. Spy movies are a good example of conventional thriller movies.

Horrors, meanwhile, are intended to frighten or disgust, with shocking imagery, and often with a supernatural antagonistic presence: a monster, a ghost, a possessed doll, etc. The Bourne Identity is not a horror movie, but is a thriller. And, by these definitions, The Shining is definitely a horror.

So how was it? It was alright. It was good to finally see the context of some of those classic scenes: the hedge maze, the elevators, the creepy hallway girls, and Jack Nicholson peeking through the door and shouting, "Here's Johnny!" And it was stark but probably frustratingly realistic to watch a man's wife put up with a lot of bullshit from him. I spend a lot of time on /r/AmIOverreacting, and it's wild to see some of these stories.

Overall it was not the most compelling horror I've seen, but it was rewarding to watch. And my cousin says Dr. Sleep answers a lot of the questions you have coming out of this film, so, add it to the list!

Looking to kick it old school and watch The Shining? Click here to find out where you can stream it today on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Show) - Agatha All Along

Agatha All Along was a show I really didn't think I needed. I liked Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision, but didn't necessarily feel like her character needed her own standalone story. And the preview trailers looked fine, but I don't usually pursue a lot of witchy content. But I watch pretty much all Marvel content, so I was always gonna give it a shot.

The first episode was fantastic. It set the tone right away as a mystery, urging you to look for clues right away, a prompt that pays off in absolute spades by the end of the season. By the end of the second episode, you've got an eclectic coven of witches starting on a supernatural path, each with their own secrets, their own questions to answer, their own mysteries to unravel. And the main characters, Agatha and "Teen," have even more to reveal.

The show kind of reminds me of Loki, with a lot of really strong dialogue and meaningful character progression, characters who are absolutely on an arc. And it's got enough of a tie to compelling previous content that you care about what happens in it. 

And I cannot stress enough how well-crafted the payoffs are. There are like four different big reveals over the course of the season, with the earliest one happening in episode 5, and each of them is very rewarding. I'm doing my best not to spoil any of them, because they're really, really good.

One tiny ding is that the show does very occasionally suffer from "modern TV syndrome," where characters say explicitly what's in their minds, or they offer a somewhat unnatural line of dialogue to work some exposition or narrative information into the show. And they go a little slow-mo heavy in episode 8, which isn't the end of the world, but it just made me antsy for the show to get to the next beat.

Altogether though, the show was a rousing return to form for me. I'm eagerly anticipating the continuation (culmination?) of this story, and between this and Deadpool & Wolverine, I think Marvel is headed in the right direction. There's a TON of content dropping next year that has my interest piqued, like Daredevil: Born Again, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four. If it picks up with the same strength that Agatha All Along sported, we just might be back in business, folks.

Feeling witchy? Click here to visit JustWatch and find out where you can feed that urge and watch Agatha All Along today!

One Good Point (Movie) - A Nightmare on Elm Street

Finally!

For something like thirty years I've been interested in watching this movie, despite my general resistance to horror films. The first time my interest was piqued was way back when I saw the associated Nintendo game mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power. But that pre-dated my ventures into R-rated movies, and vastly pre-dated my ventures into horror movies. Now that I've finally opened myself up to the occasional fright night, it was well past time to check out A Nightmare on Elm Street.

And I liked it!

The premise is fairly cheesy, but that didn't bother me really. I think actually when it comes to horror movies, a cheesy premise is a bit of a comfort. The more realistic a horror film is, the more worried I get that it could possibly happen for real. Saw, for example, was a really discomforting experience.

But I also liked that the movie wasn't solely in the "scary realm" so to speak. I find that when an entire movie is portrayed as dangerous, it dampens the impact of the experience for me. It becomes just an anxiety-inducing movie, and not an interesting journey. This movie spent enough time in the daytime, at school, and interacting with people "outside" the danger to create a compelling balance for me.

The ending... well I'm not entirely sure what happened at the end. But I'm kind of okay with that. It's a horror movie with six million sequels; maybe there are more answers in future films. For now, I'm calling this a rousing success.

Feeling like a classic fright night yourself? Click here to go to JustWatch and find out where you can stream this nightmare today!

One Good Point (Movie) - Get Out

IT'S HORROR WEEK!

Historically I haven't been much of a horror movie kind of guy. It's a little bit of an oddity, because Jurassic Park and Jaws definitely draw on horror elements, and they're two of my all-time favorite movies. But then I watched The Ring at some point, and I was like, why on earth would someone choose to do this to themselves?

For a while it was just monster movies, like Cloverfield (good) or Deep Blue Sea (decent). And then earlier this year I gave a shot to Anaconda (so, so bad). But Get Out has been a movie that seemed to cross into the mainstream to such an extent that it demanded being watched. Granted, some might say the same about the movie IT, but I'm in no rush to see that film. "Underground ghost clown" isn't the basis for anything fun I want to see.

My cousin Nick has been recommending it for years, and I finally caved in and watched it. And it's just fantastic. The main character feels so incredibly realistic, especially his relationship with his friend, fleshed out almost exclusively via phone calls. And look, I'm by no means an expert on the topic. But this feels genuinely like a movie written by Black writers, with Black characters in mind. So often you find Black characters in movies or shows that feel aggressively neutral, or painted as downright caricatures. By contrast, this movie felt so purely human and realistic.

The reveal is great, the characters are great, and the culmination is great. There's one cheesy line towards the end, which I won't spoil, in case you haven't seen the movie. But the rest of it is just an absolute treasure, and has got me ready to watch more Jordan Peele films ASAP.

If you haven't watched Get Out, you've got to click here ASAP and find out where you can stream it, and watch it. Now.