MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN [2016]

Without the aid of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter or Danny Elfman, director Tim Burton steps out of his comfort zone for the best with his adaptation of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
When his storytelling grandfather dies, young Jake travels to England where he discovers the tales are true, after he time travels into the 1940's to a hidden orphanage that houses a group of bizarre super-powered children.
Like the black & white photos that litter the novel itself, Burton's film can get immensely creepy and oddly disturbing, so don't take the wee ones to this one.  It's filled with beautifully frightening imagery and fantastical music, so naturally it's going to please fans of the director's earlier works.  The characters are a little thin and things are a bit rushed in moments but overall it's the perfect answer to the over-exposure of dystopian future YA stories.

3½ delightfully tasty eyeballs out of 5

GONE GIRL [2014]

With Gone Girl, director David Fincher once again proves he is at his absolute best with moody mystery/thrillers that finds comfort simmering sucker-punch plot twists in the shadows.
Adapted by Gillian Flynch from her own novel, Ben Affleck plays the husband of a missing wife, who may or may not be innocent, amidst the media mayhem that surrounds the case.  It's the type of paranoid Hitchcock-esque film that constantly questions you just how much do you actually know the one you love, which makes for an awkward walk home with your date.  Wonderfully shot, written, tensely paced and flawlessly acted all makes for a crowd-pleaser that will please even the most dedicated fans of it's source material.

4 sociopaths? out of 5