Ready or Not (2019)

As part of her initiation into the family, a new bride is unwittingly forced to participate in a ritualistic game of "hide and seek" in a bloody free-for-all brawl to the death at her in-law's palatial estate. There's not much more to it. It's a fun action-horror comedy; just a 'turn-your-brains-off' kind of venture.

3 dumbwaiters out of 5

YOGA HOSERS [2016]

After the disastrous box office results from Tusk, I don't know how Honorary Canadian director Kevin Smith miraculously made the second part of his True North horror trilogy.
Yoga Hosers follows teenage Canadian clerk BFFs, the Colleens, as they fend to save their convenience store from a horde of tiny Nazi Mounties made out of scrumptious sausage and sauerkraut.
While Tusk was disturbingly funny and disgusting, Yoga Hosers might be just as demented but it's really really dumb.  There might be some great chuckle-worthy Canadian in-jokes but everything is predictable, inane and quite frankly embarrassing.  Johnny Depp's Christophe Waltz-esque French-Canadian P.I.  and his ever-moving moles are the highlight of the film and that's not saying a whole lot anymore.  It's pretty awful but somehow I can't but help admiring Smith and his endless ambition to do whatever the hell he wants.

2 Pucky Charms out of 5

JENNIFER'S BODY [2009]

Director Karyn Kusama's black comedy, Jennifer's Body, is notorious for being a critically panned box-office flop.
On it's surface, it's about a flesh-eating cheerleader, while below it explores female empowerment, fragile friendships, the phoniness of society after tragedy and the dissection of the high school pyramid.
Even with all it's attitude and clever digs, the film is never scary or funny enough to make it worthy of everything it seems to think it is.  The conflict between the two friends would have been wonderful but in the end the dire situation is unearned and comes off as silly and ho-hummish.  The director's cut smooths out some of the bumps in the theatrical version but never enough to make it worthy of a glowing recommendation.

2 huge tragedy boners out of 5

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD [2012]

Writer/director Lorene Scafaria continues her fascination with developing an unexpected relationship with a stranger on a road trip in the mildly depressing and thoughtful comedic drama Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World.

The film starts off pretty bumpy, as it struggles to find an even tone but becomes incredibly engaging in the second act and then stumbles off a bit near the end.  With the help from some subtle yet emotional performances from Steve Carell and Keira Knightley and a huge cast of cameos, the film becomes much better than what was originally written. 

It's not a perfect film but it's one I'd like to revisit just to welcome the characters back into my home. 

3½ loneliest instruments in the world out of 5

SCRE4M [2011]

After getting over the initial disappointment of not living up to the first Scream, like the cast & crew interviews kept on promising it would, I found the fourth installment of the popular Wes Craven slasher flick franchise to be an entertaining ride upon a second viewing.
While not meeting it's full potential, it is light years better than the third one and just trailing in behind the first two films. It never makes full use of the killer using the updated technology to his advantage, like he would have in the original films or really acknowledging the huge change in horror cinema since the last one came out over 10 years ago. There are a few moments of using blogs, webcams, phone apps and poking fun at remakes, reboots and torture porn but not as much as it could have been and that was a little disappointing. The new cast was a hoot to watch, although some were painfully underused or killed off too early. With the hugest body count so far in the series, slasher flick fans and gorehounds won't be disappointed.
It's still fun and I hope the next two patch up the mistakes this one made.

3 Robert Rodriguez "cameos" out of 5