Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

"A penguin...with a sunburn?  That's dumb." -Walt Lloyd The 14th episode of Lost follows Michael (Harold Perrineau) as he discovers his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelly), being taught how to throw a knife by Locke (Terry O'Quinn).  They have a heated confrontation and Michael warns Locke to stay away from him and Walt.  esperate to get Walt off of the island, decides to start building a raft and forces Walt to help.  Walt sneaks off to speak to Locke, who tries to respects Michal's wishes and tells Walt to go away, but Michael returns before Walt can leave and threatens to kill Locke.  Michael and Walt get into a heated confrontation that ends with Michael throwing Walt's comic book in the fire. Later, Walt sneaks off again and Michael hunts down Locke, but Walt is nowhere to be found.  The two men stack Walt and find him trapped in a banyan tree by a polar bear.  Locke and Michael work together to rescue Walt and drive off the bear. ...

"I'm the king around here." -Lance Alex Elliot (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is an ordinary kid who is bullied at school.  One day, he comes across a sword stuck in a stone, but manages to remove it.  Soon after, he is visited by the wizard, Merlin (Angus Imrie), who gives Alex a quest: he must act as the new king, assemble knights to form a new round table, and defeat the evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson) before she enslaves all of Britain. What Works: The Kid Who Would Be King is surprisingly funny for a kids' movie.  Sure, there is plenty of physical comedy, which works most of the time, but there is some genuinely funny character moments and dialogue as well.  I was expecting the humor in this to be fairly cringey, but that isn't the case. The film opens with an animated sequence that gives us the backstory of King Arthur.  It's actually a really cool sequence and I really liked the animation.  It also does a good job of explaining ...

"First name, Mister.  Last name: Glass." -Elijah Price With more and more of his personalities joining the ranks of The Horde, Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy)'s body has been taken over by The Beast and is kidnapping and killing innocent girls.  David Dunn (Bruce Willis) attempts to stop The Beast, which results in both of them being put in a mental institution, where Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) is also being held.  Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson tries to convince them they all have delusions of grandeur and none of them have any superpowers, but Elijah is plotting a grand scheme and he'll need both David and The Horde to pull it off. What Works: Once again, I have to give major props to James McAvoy.  We get to see even more of his personalities in this film and he does a phenomenal job.  He shifts from personality to personality with alarming frequency in Glass , but, once again, McAvoy manages to juggle them and make each personality f...

"I just ate a hot dog." -Hedwig Kevin (James McAvoy) has 23 distinct personalities.  Most of them are totally fine people, but three of them have sinister beliefs in the existence of a 24th personality known as "The Beast".  It's supposedly incredibly strong and bloodthirsty.  Kevin's extremist personalities, Dennis, Patricia, and Hedwig, take over and kidnap three teenage girls to sacrifice to The Beast.  Can the girls and Kevin's less violent personalities stop the madness before it's too late? What Works: You can't talk about Split without talking about James McAvoy.  The guy is simply incredible.  We don't get to see all of the personalities, but the ones we do see feel like extremely different characters.  McAvoy does a fantastic job in the role and his performance is what excites me most about seeing Glass. The story elements in Split are very interesting and made it easy for me to become engaged in the story.  ...

"You won't be the first pig I've gutted!" -Mercedes Several years after the Spanish Civil War, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), move to the headquarters of Carmen's new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi López), who is charge of hunting down rebels.  As violence and death rage around the headquarters, Ofelia finds herself drawn to an old labyrinth nearby, where she meets the Faun (Doug Jones), who tells her that she is the reincarnation of a princess of the underworld.  In order to return to what was once her kingdom, Ofelia will have to perform three dangerous tasks without drawing the attention of Vidal, but even if she can complete the tasks, can she trust the Faun? What Sucks: I'll be honest, I liked, but didn't love Pan's Labyrinth .  It was overhyped by people telling me to watch it.  I think it's overrated and was pretty disappointed by the film.  I was told that it was right up my alley...

"Waitress, more butter!" -Big Eater Park Plaza Mall has just installed a new security system consisting of three robots armed to the teeth with gadgets for stopping shoplifters.  A lightning storm causes the robots to malfunction and they begin a killing spree.  A group of teenagers are having an after-hours party in the mall and quickly find themselves trapped inside.  They have to find what weapons they can and fight back against the robots if they want to make it out of the mall alive. What Works: I really appreciate how efficient this film is.   Chopping Mall has very little fluff and a 76 minute runtime.  The setup is very straightforward and explains how the security system works, then we meet our characters, get to their party, and start the carnage in quick succession.  This film has excellent pacing and gets us to what we came for very quickly. Most of the characters in Chopping Mall are very competent.  They arm the...

"No shooting friends, Joseph." -Audrey Dunn Security guard, David Dunn (Bruce Willis), is the sole survivor of a horrible train wreck and comes away completely unscathed.  He is approached by comic book theorist, Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), who believes David may in fact be a real-life superhero.  As David comes to terms with what happened and tries to repair his relationships with his family, the truth becomes more and more clear and he decides to find out what he is capable of. What Works: Unbreakable is a film that has aged really well.  It was way ahead of its time coming out in 2000 and in this post Marvel Cinematic Universe world, the deconstruction of the superhero genre works really well.  It's a hyper-realistic superhero story and those aspects work very well. The family drama aspects are really fascinating and a lesser movie would   have just skimmed over this stuff.  When the movie begins, David and his wife, Audrey...

"Your wife's hot." -Hurley The 13th episode of Lost follows Boone (Ian Somerhalder) who is jealous of the flirting going on between his step-sister, Shannon (Maggie Grace), and Sayid (Naveen Andrews).  Boone and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) go into the jungle to "hunt" as they tell everyone.  In actuality, they are examining the piece of metal they found while looking for Claire (Emilie de Ravin).  It's a metal hatch with no handle and a glass window that they can't break.  They try to find a way to open it, but are unsuccessful.  On the way back to camp, Boone tells Locke he is going to tell Shannon about the hatch, so Lock knocks him out. Boone awakens in a rope trap and Locke puts a knife in front of him.  He can reach it, but it will cause him severe pain.  Locke leaves him, after putting a strange substance on his head wound, and Boone is unable to get the knife.  Later, he hears Shannon screaming and the Monster approaching.  ...

"I hardly think a few birds are going to bring about the end of the world." -Mrs. Bundy Socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is the victim of a practical joke by defense attorney, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor).  Seeking revenge, and wanting to get to know him better, Melanie follows Mitch to his mother's house in Bodega Bay.  As the two start to fall for each other, the love story is interrupted by flocks of birds attacking any person in sight.  Now Melanie and Mitch have to protect his family and fight off the birds if they want to make it out of Bodega Bay alive. What Works: This was the first time I had ever watched the entirety of The Birds.   I had only see one part of it before and that is the scenes at the diner and the attack on the town immediately afterward.  These scenes are really terrific.  The dialogue in the diner is all fantastic and we get some really great characters, plus the town attack is wonderfully chaotic. ...

"My mom tells me there's no such thing as monsters.  But she's wrong." -Lizzy 10-year-old Lizzy (Ella Ballentine) is being driven to her father's house by her abusive, alcoholic mother, Kathy (Zoe Kazan).  On the way, they get into a car accident and are stranded on a rural road in the middle of a dark forest.  As they wait for help to arrive, they realize that there is something unnatural in the woods.  Something violent... What Works: The Monster has an extremely simple setup.  It's pretty much as bare-bones as it gets.  It's simply two characters in a car with a monster out in the woods.  Occasionally, other characters arrive, but that's pretty much it.  98% of the film takes place on the side of the road and I love it.  I really enjoy it when movies take place in basically one location.  It forces the filmmakers to get creative with their storytelling and ramping up the tension.   The Monster  is a si...

"If you pick the lock on a Halliburton, I'll put you on my back and fly us to L. A." -Michael Dawson In the 12th episode of Lost, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) discover a lagoon and a waterfall and decide to go swimming.  They find a part of their airplane in the bottom of the lagoon as well as some bodies and a briefcase that Kate says belongs to her.  Sawyer deduces she is lying and takes the case with no protest from Kate.  Sawyer tries and fails repeatedly to get the case opened while Kate tires to get the case away from him.  Sawyer eventually offers to give it to her if she will tell him what's inside, but she refuses. Kate goes to Jack (Matthew Fox) and tells him that the case belonged to the Marshal escorting her back to the U.S. and that there are four guns inside.  She also says the key is in the Marshal's wallet, which is buried with his corpse.  Jack presses Kate to find out what else is inside, but she denies...

"Are you against me, Diane!?" -Michael Sanford Michael Sanford (Brett Cullen) returns to his hometown, along with his wife, Diane (Tamlyn Tomita), to take over his family's vineyard.  Soon after, a serial killer starts butchering families in the region and Michael accidentally witnesses one of the crimes.  He ends up helping the police by going through hypnosis to reveal more about what he saw, but awakens memories and secrets hidden in his past.  As the killings continue, everyone, including Diane, becomes more and more suspicious that Michael is actually the one behind all of the murders... What Works: I found The Killing Jar on a collection of 25-horror movies that I had never heard of.  This was the 10th film in the collection that I watched, with none of the other 9 being any good.  I didn't have high-hopes for this once, but I was shocked to discover how much I enjoyed it.  Sure, it's a low-budget, independent thriller and it ha...

"Congratulations.  You found a boat.  In the middle of the ocean, of all places." -Maureen Epps A salvage team, led by Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), is approached by a weather service pilot, Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington), who spotted a large ship adrift in the Bering Sea.  They manage to track it down and discover it is the SS Antonia Graza , a famous luxury ocean liner that had been missing for 40 years.  As the team prepares to haul the ship in, they start noticing strange presences around the ship.  They realize something bad happened to the previous passengers and they're the next targets of the malevolent force onboard the ship. What Works: With no hyperbole, the opening sequence of Ghost Ship is one of the greatest opening sequences I've ever seen.  It's a truly brilliant and horrific way to kick off the film and got my expectations way too high for what was to come.  It starts off in very classic Hollywood fashion with...

"But under no circumstances are you allowed to take off your blindfold." -Malorie Bird Box follows Malorie (Sandra Bullock) and two children, Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair), as they embark on a dangerous journey down a river.  In this post-apocalyptic world, strange creatures roam.  If you see them, you go crazy and kill yourself.  Malorie and the kids have to wear blindfolds for the entire trip if they want to survive.  We also get plenty of flashbacks to the early days of the apocalypse.  What Works: I really like the premise behind Bird Box .  I was a big fan of A Quiet Place , which is a very similar movie where the characters can't make any noise.  In Bird Box they can't use their eyes.  It's a fun idea with tons of potential and we do get some interesting sequences out of it. Sandra Bullock and Trevante Rhodes both do a solid job with their roles.  Right off the bat, we are introduced to Malor...