Month: January 2020

Released: June 2019

Director: Lars Klevberg

Rated R

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Distributor: 20th Century Fox/Orion Studios

Genre: Horror

Cast:
Aubrey Plaza: Karen
Gabriel Bateman: Andy
David Lewis: Shane
Brian Tyree Henry: Mike
Carlease Burke: Doreen
Mark Hamill: Chucky(voice)

I’ve been watching horror movies for as long as I can remember.  These days, I tend to drift more towards the shock-driven style of horror like I Spit on Your Grave.  But, I also love supernatural horror like Warlock, as well as the tried-and-true slasher film like Friday the 13th.  Horror is one of the most expansive and inclusive genres within the film medium.  You can have horror movies that include comedy, drama, action, and science fiction.  When done right, those films can be some of the most compelling experiences that one can have at the movies.  Growing up, my mom was particularly wary about the kinds of movies I would watch.  When it came to stuff like Indiana Jones and Star Wars, she was more than happy to let me sit in front of the tube and enjoy myself.  When it came to the more R-rated and violent variety, she was a little bit more hesitant, but still didn’t keep me from watching those movies.  Of course, my dad was like, “go ahead.”  That brings me to Child’s Play.  The original Child’s Play from the 1980s was my very first real horror movie that I saw.  My mom was not happy about that at all, let me tell you.  The irony of the situation is that I really didn’t like the movie at all.  I didn’t like the idea of a movie about a doll that was possessed by a voodoo-wielding serial killer.  I saw it some years back, and my opinion of the film hasn’t changed:  I hated it.  I loved Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky, but he was the only really good part about the movie.  That brings me 2019’s remake of Child’s Play.

Instead of following a voodoo-wielding serial killer like in the original film, the new Child’s Play follows young Andy as he gets an early birthday present from his mom, Karen.  The present is a Buddi Doll named Chucky, an AI-enhanced toy designed to be child-friendly.  After opening the box and activating the doll, Andy and his mother notice that something about the doll isn’t quite right, but they decide to keep it anyway.  After a while, Andy begins bonding with Chucky, as Chucky starts learning about things in the home.  When stressful situations arise in Andy’s home, Chucky starts learning the wrong things, and when Andy takes Chucky to his new friends’ house to watch a movie, Chucky begins learning about violence.  Soon, bizarre things begin to happen and bodies start piling up.  Okay, the idea of a psychotic doll isn’t anything new these days, but what makes this one different from the original film, is that Chucky is driven by a form of artificial intelligence that begins to learn very quickly.  To me, that’s a little more unnerving and a bit more plausible than a doll possessed by the soul of serial killer.  The warnings and dangers of AI is pretty much spelled out for you over the course of the film.  In that regard, it’s more like a miniature Terminator.  The idea that a doll that has no safety restrictions being able to control other devices using Bluetooth technology and the Cloud is pretty unsettling.  It’s not the greatest plot in the universe, but it works for what it is.

Look at it.  LOOK AT IT.  LOOK.  AT.  IT.  Is this the kind of doll you want to be buying your kids?  On one hand, I really don’t like this design, because it really creeps you out from the beginning.  The original design from the original film at least looked like a real toy that parents would be willing to shell out money for.  This sucker?  Most people would be like, “How about no?”  On the other hand, when this thing goes full on murder-mode, it’s pretty scary-looking and very effective.  There are moments throughout the film where CGI is used, but I could barely tell.  Most of the time it’s an actual prop and puppet.  Making it more of a practical thing instead of being completely CG makes it feel like it’s real.  The actors can touch and react to it instead of staring at a green tennis ball where the doll should be.  It’s also a huge plus that the blood and gore effects are practical.  When somebody gets sprayed in the face with arterial blood, they’re actually getting sprayed.  It’s the same thing with the prosthetic effects.  The movie actually gets pretty creative with its kills.  Yet, despite their gruesomeness, the kills are actually kind of funny at the same time, because the idea of a murderous doll is incredibly ridiculous.  The film knows it and just goes for it.

While I’m not a fan of the original Child’s Play movies, I have to give credit where it’s due: Brad Dourif.  He made Chucky an iconic figure in horror movies.  Despite this remake, they seem to still be making sequels to the original film, which is unusual.  For this new film, they brought in legendary voice actor and Luke Skywalker himself to voice Chucky: Mark Hamill.  Mark Hamill is one of the most celebrated voice actors in the industry.  He’s played the Joker for longer than anyone and his performance in the Star Wars films is really good.  He’s one of my favorite people.  He gives Chucky an almost tragic kind quality when the doll starts malfunctioning, but goes full-on creeper mode towards the end of the film, and it’s an incredible performance.  Combine that with the doll’s design and you have one of the creepiest characters in modern horror.  Everyone else is pretty good, but the other standouts are Aubrey Plaza as Karen and Gabriel Bateman as Andy.  The dynamic between the two feels pretty natural as a mother-and-son duo.  She’s struggling to put food on the table while dealing with a teenager.  It feels genuine.  The other ones are Bryan Tyree Henry as Mike and Carlease Burke as his mother, Doreen.  While the characterizations are fairly weak, these were the strongest characters in the film, as they should be.  Everybody else seemed to be Chucky-fodder.  Special mention must be made of Bear McCreary’s music.  It’s a wild soundtrack.  It’s both whimsical at times, and really haunting at others.

Well, that one’s horrifying.  I have to be perfectly honest here:  I’m not a huge of the franchise.  I hated the original films, and never saw any of the ones past the third.  However, this remake knows how to have fun.  Yeah, it’s definitely violent, but there’s plenty of humor to be had here.  It works a lot better than I think it had any right to.  The design of the doll is just…well….look at it.  The acting is solid and Mark Hamill just steals the show as Chucky.  He’s fantastic.  Combine all that with some really solid practical effects and a musical score that’s just bonkers, and you have a pretty decent slasher here.  It’s not the greatest film ever made, but that wasn’t the film’s intention.  It wanted to be a fun little horror film and it succeeds at that.  I would honestly say that fans of the genre should give this one a shot.

My Final Recommendation: Chucky-fodder.  How the hell did I come up with that one? 8.5/10

When I reviewed a little film called Slave earlier this month, I made a statement saying that I would spend a decent amount of time talking about movies that deal with human trafficking.  I figured it would be the perfect month for it as it IS the Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month.  I had some time to really think about it and I made the decision to not actually spend the month talking about these movies.  It’s a rough subject to bring up and spending the month talking about it would’ve resulted in me writing myself into depression.  I’m no good to my readers like that and it certainly wouldn’t help me fight this thing in my own way, which is why I’m doing this.  I’m still going to cover this subject through movies as it is an important issue to discuss.  What I’m going to do instead is do maybe one or two movies a month that deal with trafficking.  That way, I can still keep the discussion alive while keeping while not ending up in a depressed state about the situation.  With that in mind, I’m going to use this post to cover the best and worst movies that deal with human trafficking.  I’m going to base my selections on how each film handles the subject and how it actually affects the narrative.  So, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at some movies that handle this atrocity.

Worst – Rambo: Last Blood

I’m not going to lie:  I love this movie.  It’s a Rambo movie.  I’ve been a fan of this series for years.  It’s one of the most iconic characters that Sylvester Stallone has played.  Last Blood follows John Rambo as he tries to find his adopted niece when she’s kidnapped and forced into prostitution by a ruthless Mexican cartel.  This story idea was in Stallone’s head since long before the fourth film was released.  Tackling human trafficking in an action film isn’t a bad idea.  Far from it.  When handled correctly, the audience is generally on the edge of their seat for the entire run time.  The problem is that the film doesn’t really seem to take the issue seriously as the whole trafficking aspect is glossed over in the span of about 15-20 minutes.  These films have always had their feet in the politics and social issues of the times that they’re released in and Last Blood is no different.  The problem here is the trafficking thing is used as an excuse for Rambo to go on a brutal and violent rampage.  I’m okay with that, if the film really had something new to say about the subject and it doesn’t.  The run time is too short and we don’t spend enough time with the characters to really connect with them when the shit hits the fan.  As a Rambo film, it’s pretty good.  As a statement on the issue of human trafficking, it sucks.

The Best – Apartment 407

This one is pretty good actually.  Apartment 407 follows a Pilates instructor as she’s invited to a studio to audition for being a model when she’s drugged and forced into prostitution.  Instead of focusing on the sex trade as a whole, this film focuses on one person’s experience.  It’s not an easy film to sit through and there are moments where you are questioning a character’s choices.  What really sets this film apart from a lot of others in the genre is that the character of Isabel is played by Swedish actress Frida Ferrell, who herself was a victim of sex trafficking when she was in London.  For her to take on a role that hits so close to home is an extraordinarily brave decision, and I wouldn’t have blamed her if she decided not to.  I don’t think anybody would have.  This whole film is loosely based on her experience, but it does shine a light on how a person can be taken advantage in certain situations.  Again, it’s not an sit-through, but it is a good movie and the fact that is told by a person that actually experienced something like that makes it all the more poignant.

The Best and Worst – Eden

Eden follows Eden, a young Asian girl who finds herself abducted by human traffickers.  In order to survive she plays their game and willingly starts working for them in order to escape.  On the surface, it’s a pretty intense story and it’s fairly well-crafted even if the script seems kind of…standard at times.  The film is bolstered by a great performance from Jamie Chung and the film does take the issue of sex trafficking seriously.  On that level, it’s worth watching.  There’s a problem, though.  Shortly after the film’s initial release and solid reception by critics and audiences, certain organizations decided to do some digging into the actual story that the film is based on.  It seems like the original story had issues with certain details and the author’s use of these organizations’ names to get her story out.  If what the author said happened actually happened, there should have been a massive investigation that would have hit the airwaves, and there wasn’t.  I’m not trying to accuse the author of lying, as I’m sure she experienced some what she said she went through, but there’s no direct evidence to suggest that this particular trafficking organization ever existed and some of the way the operation was portrayed in the film defies certain kinds of logic.  Again, it takes the issue of sex trafficking seriously, and I applaud it for that, but throwing “Based on a True Story” on the DVD cover isn’t necessarily being truthful.  This is why I tend to be wary of films that claim they are based on true events.  Half the time it’s not true and it does a major disservice to the actual victims.

The Best – Trade

Trade follows two people:  Ray and Jorge.  Jorge is trying to find his little sister who was kidnapped by traffickers when he runs into Ray.  Ray himself is trying to find his daughter who was kidnapped years ago, so they team up to try and find Jorge’s sister.  Sometimes the best thrillers are the ones that aren’t action-packed but also feel the most personal.  Trade is a solid film that really allows us to connect with the people involved.  Kevin Kline puts on a fantastic performance as Ray as it is one of his more serious roles.  At the time, Cesar Ramos was a newcomer to movies and he does a pretty good job here.  Everyone does a fantastic job.  To me, this is a good movie, because not only does it take the subject seriously, it does so in a fairly realistic way…..most of the time.  Human trafficking is an insidious crime, but it’s even more so when it targets children.  It’s a bit of a slow-burn, but the pay-off is worth it.  I definitely recommend this one.

The Best – Furie

I know I’ve brought up Furie on this site a lot in the past year, but it’s such a good movie that it’s worth mentioning.  Human trafficking isn’t just a thing that happens in United States or South America.  It happens all over the world, especially in Far East.  Furie follows Veronica Ngo’s Hai Phuong as she tracks down her daughter who has been abducted by organ traffickers.  A movie dealing with human trafficking doesn’t have to be realistic in order to be compelling.  It also should be entertaining on a certain level.  Furie is an action film through and through.  What makes this film work for me, at least, is not just Veronica’s performance, which is amazing, but also in how it approaches the situation.  It’s not realistic, but the moment Hai realizes that her little girl is going to be cut up for parts makes her that much more desperate and the film more intense.  This is an action film that knows how to keep it’s eye on the ball.

The Worst – Slave

I reviewed Slave a couple of weeks back and while I didn’t think it was a terrible film, it’s got enough issues to keep me from giving a full-blown recommendation.  If you’re looking for real good movie dealing with human trafficking, look at some of the films I mentioned above.  Slave follows a young couple as they head to Spain to celebrate….something.  At a club, the girl ends up disappearing and the guy is left trying to figure out what happened while nobody seems to have seen anything.  The problems with Slave are several.  For one:  The lead protagonist is complete and utter wimp who can’t even stand up to his own father.  Two: The focus of the film changes about half-way from the guy, to the girl who ends up a sex slave on a boat.  Movies like this work better when you don’t focus on the victim, ironically enough.  The ending has a bit of a twist, but you’re still left with a feeling that this film accomplished….nothing, and that is the film’s greatest sin.

The Worst – Acts of Violence

If you’re going center an action film around human trafficking, you might actually want to give a rat’s ass about what’s going on.  Acts of Violence is a by-the-numbers kidnap thriller that’s painfully predictable.  It follows a small family of two brothers and their wives when one of the girls gets kidnapped.  A third brother shows up and helps them look for her.  This is about as generic a thriller can get without actually having Generic Thriller in the title.  For the most part, the performances are decent enough, but Bruce Willis clearly doesn’t give a shit anymore about acting.  When I said this film was predictable, I meant it.  It goes exactly where you think it will go and ends the way you think it does.  Again, this is a film that really has nothing to say about human trafficking other than to say it exists and essentially to make a mockery of it.

These are some of the best and worst movies that deal with human trafficking.  The worst ones really aren’t awful, but they just don’t have a meaningful statement on the situation.  They’re just kind of there to exploit the trade in a certain way.  I will be looking at more movies that deal with this topic over the course of the year as they come out and some older ones.  There are a lot of websites and organizations out there and on the internet that deal with human trafficking.  I’m only going to list a few here, just to get you started.  Otherwise, you can just google the term “human trafficking” and you’ll come up with a lot of different results.

Free The Slaves

STOP THE TRAFFIK

Polaris

National Human Trafficking Hotline

Human Trafficking Search

These are just a few of the organizations out there dedicated to fighting human trafficking and modern-day slavery.  Just take a few minutes out of your day to check these websites out and learn more about what human trafficking is, how it effects people, and what you can do to fight it.

Released: September 2018

Director: Vincent Soberano

Run Time: 100 Minutes

Not Rated

Distributor: SP Releasing, LLC.

Genre: Action/Thriller

Cast:
Ian Ignacio: Jacob Casa
Rhian Ramos: Annie Casa
Sarah Chang: Mei Li
Monsour Del Rosario: Mike Vasquez
Vincent Soberano: Tony Pascual
Gus Liem: Henry Tan

Enter The Dragon, starring Bruce Lee, set the standard for martial arts action movies back in 1973.  It was the first movie of its kind to feature a collaboration between a major Hollywood studio and a Hong Kong studio.  Effectively, it was East Meets West.  While it was the last fully complete film that Bruce Lee starred in, the effects and the influence of the film have been felt for decades.  It inspired not just a new generation of martial arts films, but it also inspired people to take up the martial arts themselves.  Bruce Lee and Enter The Dragon made martial arts awesome.  You can see the influence that the movie has had on movies like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, and the Undisputed sequels.  It wasn’t just movies that felt that kind of impact.  Video games got in on the action as well with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.  To this day, Enter The Dragon remains the undisputed king of martial arts movies, at least from my perspective.  So, whenever I see a movie that features a martial arts tournament of sorts, it brings a smile to my face, if it’s done well.  If it’s not….well….you know what happens next.  That brings me to today’s review: Fight For Justice: The Trigonal.

The Trigonal follows Jacob Casa as he attempts to retire from being a world-famous MMA fighter when he learns that his wife, Annie, is pregnant.  At their dojo, they’re visited by a couple of goons who offer him an invitation to a martial arts tournament called The Trigonal, which is fronted by Henry Tan, a drug-lord experimenting with new types of drugs to give his fighters an edge.  When Jacob refuses, the goons murder his best friend and brutally assault his wife, putting her in the hospital.  Swearing revenge on Henry Tan and his goons, Jacob teams up with the police to put an end to Tan’s plans.  Welcome to cliche plot #565:  Man refusing to participate in a tournament is forced to participate when his family is attacked.  How many times have we seen this story play out over the last 40 or so years?  I’ve lost count.  To be honest, it’s not the worst kind of story-line in the world.  The problem is that it is incredibly by-the-numbers without attempting something new.  It plays out exactly the way you think it does, which leaves little to no tension in the proceedings.  It’s really hard to get invested in a story when you can predict exactly what happens next.  I’m not saying a movie like this needs to be original to be good, I’m just saying you have to do more than just rely on an old formula.  Throw a few more things in there to spice it up, at least.

Let’s talk about the acting here.  For the most part, the acting here is incredibly underwhelming.  Villains first.  Oh, god.  If they’re over-reaching, they’re reading from cards, I swear.  Now, I understand that this film employs a decent number of martial artists.  There are exceptions, but martial artists generally don’t make good actors unless they’re doing something really physical.  Aside from that, line delivery is flat and uninteresting with dialogue that’s high-school level.  The guy who plays Henry Tan, the main villain, has the flattest line delivery of anybody I’ve seen in years.  His character doesn’t come across as threatening at all.  He’s just a one-note greedy villain.  Even the worst James Bond villain has more personality.  All the other bad guys are just cartoons of the worst variety.  The good guys fare a little better.  Ian Ignacio plays Jacob, and he’s not awful, it’s just that there’s not a whole lot of charisma there, but I think that’s a problem with the writing and directing.  Rhian Ramos plays his wife, and she’s not half-bad, although her character is just set up to be a victim.  The real standout of the film here is Sarah Chang as Mei Li.  She’s clearly having fun with this, and whenever she’s on screen, the movie comes to life.  She’s incredibly charming and has this wonderfully goofy personality that’s infectious.  I love it.  So, the performances are mostly just…meh.

One of the most important aspects of a martial arts film is the staging and choreography of the fights.  Sarah Chang, who plays Mei Li, is also a very gifted martial artist herself.  The Trigonal was her first film as an action choreographer.  There are moments in the film that you can definitely see that she has some talent in staging fights.  There are some fights that are pretty decent.  One of the other things that’s important for a movie like this, is being able to see what’s going on.  As gifted as Ms. Chang could be as a fight director, she’s let down by some seriously bad cinematography and camera-work.  When you have actors that are martial artists, you want the audience to be able to see what they can do.  The camera-work is far too close for comfort, and because of that we don’t really get to see the full extent of Sarah’s work.  The fights are far too chaotic, and the amount of slow-motion employed borders on irritating.  Ian Ignacio handles himself pretty well as does Sarah Chang and everyone else, but it’s just incredibly baffling why the director would want fight scenes filmed this way.  I don’t like it and it does everybody involved a major disservice.  Not only that, some of the fight scenes feel….insincere.  Now, I understand that you don’t to injure your fellow actors, but the fights in this movie have this feeling like their punches are being pulled when they don’t need to be.  You don’t really feel the impact of these fights like you should.  The best fight scenes have the audience kind of cringing and wincing at how hard the characters are getting hit.  That’s real delivery and sometimes the actors do get hit.  It’s the nature of the beast.  The Trigonal feels far too safe to be taken seriously as a fight movie, I’m sorry.

I don’t like coming down hard on movies.  I really don’t.  There’s enough negativity in the world, but I have to call it how I see it.  Fight For Justice: The Trigonal is not a good movie.  In fact, it might be one of the worst fight movies I’ve seen in the last 5 years.  I’m not trying to insult the actors and the other people involved in this film, but for me, The Trigonal is a failure on nearly every level with the exception of folks like Ian Ignacio and Sarah Chang.  I want to see more from these two, and I know they are capable of doing much better than this.  When I saw Buybust a couple years back, it showed me what the folks in the Philippines can do with an action movie, but so far I haven’t seen anything since then that’s remotely close to that level.

My Final Recommendation: 4/10.  Skip it.

Whenever a film comes out, few people would expect it to become a franchise with sequels, spin-offs, video-games, or what have you.  It usually happens when the initial film makes a ton of money and is popular with the general audiences.  Star Wars, Star Trek, X-men, any of the Marvel or DC movies, Friday the 13th, and what have you.  These franchises make money because people go to see and enjoy these films.  I know I do.  But what about franchises that absolutely refuse to die, despite the fact that nobody really goes to see these movies anymore?  How are these films still getting made?  I would imagine they still have an audience, albeit a rather small one, but it’s not enough people to really warrant putting forth millions of dollars.  That’s why you see some of these franchises go direct-to-video.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing as certain franchises like the Undisputed sequels have been really good.  So, for this list, I’m going to talk about the franchises that have mysteriously continued to exist against all odds.  Stuff like Star Wars and the Fast and Furious franchises will be kept off this list because those films have a massive audience.  So, let’s have a bit of fun with this one, shall we?

Tremors

Here’s one that I don’t think anybody expected a sequel to, let alone an entire film and television series.  The original Tremors is considered to be a cult classic by many, myself included.  It’s a perfect homage to the monster movies of the 50s spiced up with its own brand of humor.  Starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, Tremors sees a small desert town being attacked by giant man-eating worms.  It’s a premise that’s as ridiculous as it sounds, but it works.  It’s funny, exciting and scary at the same time.  The first sequel, Aftershocks was released in 1995 with Back to Perfection in 1999.  A prequel was released in 2004 and was set in the Wild West.  Between those two films, a television series debuted on the Sci-Fi channel, but only lasted 13 episodes.  A 5th and 6th film were released in 2015 and 2017 respectively.  A seventh film, Island Fury is currently in production and is set to be released within a year or two.  You know what’s really funny?  I don’t think there’s a bad film here.  Yeah, they’re not great, but the sequels were really not meant for the wider audience.  These films were designed for a specific audience which includes yours truly.  They’re all fun in their own way.  The television series?  Not so much.  There was supposed to be another series starring Kevin Bacon, but it was canned before the first episode aired, so I’m not happy about that.  I’m not entirely surprised this one’s still going.  The next one, though….

Dragonheart

I’m not entirely sure HOW this one got a sequel, given how the movie ended.  I thought it was a one and done kind of film.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved the hell out of it.  It was a ton of fun, but it wasn’t exactly a film that screamed “FRANCHISE ME!”  I was legitimately shocked when I saw the VHS tape for Dragonheart: A New Beginning in my local Blockbuster store when they were still around.  Oof, that was NOT a good movie.  Even as a direct-to-video film back in 2000, the movie was legitimately awful.  The special effects were lame and the dragon was total weak-sauce.  Not to mention the acting was terrible.  15 years later, we get a third film: The Sorcerer’s Curse, which was actually a prequel to the original film.  You know what?  It wasn’t bad.  The CGI in the film was actually pretty good and the battle sequences were not awful.  It wasn’t a classic film, by any stretch and the acting was questionable, except for Ben Kingsley’s voice as the dragon, but it was moderately entertaining with some decent set-pieces.  Who knew?  We ended up getting a FOURTH film, Battle for the Heartfire, which I wasn’t particularly fond of, despite Patrick Stewart voicing the dragon instead of Mr. Kingsley.  Next month, we are getting a FIFTH film in the Dragonheart franchise: Vengeance.  I honestly wasn’t aware that there was a particularly large audience for the original film, let alone any of the sequels.  The only thing I can really think of, is that these films are being made as essentially tax write-offs.  A lot of these films were filmed in other countries like Bulgaria possibly because of the tax incentives and tax breaks that the studios can get by making movies over there.

The Scorpion King

The first Scorpion King film was itself a spin-off of the Mummy films, specifically, The Mummy Returns which saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson star as the titular ancient bad-ass, The Scorpion King.  I have to admit, The Scorpion King is a guilty pleasure for me.  It’s not a great movie that borrows too many elements from superior films like Conan: The Barbarian.  This was the first leading role for Dwayne Johnson and he did a pretty damn good job with what he had.  It was a really fun little sword-and-sandals film.  This was definitely a film that I could see having some sequels.  There’s a bit of a problem, though.  The first sequel, which was actually a prequel, was genuinely god-awful.  It was one of the worst films I had seen at that point.  The third and fourth films were lame, but they weren’t Scorpion King 2 lame.  The fifth film: Book of Souls was actually not that bad and was a “proper” sequel to The Scorpion King.  While I haven’t seen or heard anything about a 6th film, I would not be surprised if one was to be released within a year or two.  Again, like Dragonheart, The Scorpion King didn’t strike me as the kind of film that garnered a huge audience.  It did well enough at the box office, but it wasn’t enough to sustain a franchise.  Shows what I know.

Hellraiser

I’ve been a massive fan of the Hellraiser films since I first saw the original film when I was a kid.  It was dark, Gothic, and gruesome.  It also gave us one of the greatest movie monsters of all time: Pinhead.  The first two films in the franchise are beyond reproach as far as I’m concerned.  They are absolute classics, with Hellbound being one of the best sequels ever made.  After that, they started going downhill.  Hellraiser III and Bloodline were the last two films to be released theatrically.  The following sequels would end up going direct-to-video.  Inferno would be the best of the initial four DTV films.  Out of the 10 Hellraiser films, only 4 are maybe worth watching:  The original, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Inferno, and Judgment, the latest one.  There’s been a lot of talk about doing a reboot of the franchise, but I would like to see a sequel to Judgment before they start over, but I haven’t really seen any movement for the last three years.  I would imagine that there’s still talks and possible scripts that are floating around out there, but there’s nothing that’s set in stone, at least not yet.

Terminator

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  I have a confession to make:  I love the Terminator movies, all six of them.  That being said, this was a franchise that never should have made it past the second film, especially without James Cameron in the lead.  The original two films are some of the greatest science fiction films of all time with the original being more of a slasher movie than your typical sci-fi adventure.  These were smart films that had awesome characters, visual effects and compelling story-lines.  It all ended perfectly with the way Terminator 2 ended.  The second film’s ending was ambiguous for a reason, it left open the possibility that they succeeded in destroying Skynet before it was born, but there was also the possibility that they didn’t.  Terminator 3 undid all that with a fairly entertaining, albeit generic action film with a ballsy ending.  I’ll give it credit for that.  Salvation was set in 2018(two years ago, where does the time go?), about ten years after the bombs fell and Skynet took over.  It was an interesting idea that was surprisingly fun, but it still ended up feeling like a generic post-apocalyptic film.  Genisys was an attempt to reinvigorate and reboot the franchise.  When that didn’t work, James Cameron came back to co-write and produce Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth film, which was a third attempt to start a new trilogy.  I enjoyed it, but honestly it felt like a rehash of the first two movies.  Make no mistake, it was awesome to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton on screen together again, and they were awesome.  Mackenzie Davis was pretty good too.  Diego Luna played the new evil Terminator.  It’s not a bad action film, but as a Terminator film, it was awful.  It pissed on everything that made the first two films so great.  Considering the box-office performance of Dark Fate, I think I can safely assume that Terminator is going to be put on hold for the foreseeable future.  They just need to stop.

Pirates of the Caribbean

I’ve been a huge fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean films since the original came out back in 2003.  Pirate movies were not necessarily popular during the 90s, so it was a surprise that The Curse of the Black Pearl ended up being a huge sensation.  Filled to the brim with awesome adventure, visual effects and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, it was everything that we wanted from a pirate movie.  It was a simple and straight-forward adventure on the high seas.  It did so well, that a sequel was inevitable. Dead Man’s Chest introduced the mythical Davy Jones as the main villain and he was pretty creepy.  Problems with the franchise began to creep up with the third picture: At World’s End.  The movie was nearly three hours long and over-stuffed with convoluted plots and betrayals.  Nothing made any sort of sense and throwing in a heathen sea goddess was a bit too much for some people.  The final battle was epic, though.  On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales were the worst of the bunch.  People were getting real tired of Johnny Depp’s shtick as Jack Sparrow.  To be fair, his gimmick was getting old by the time Dead Man’s Chest came to an end.  Depp’s personal and legal issues impacted the fifth film’s performance to the point that Disney wants to reboot the series.  I’m curious to see how they’ll do it without Depp, but I honestly wish they would leave it alone.

Well, those are some of the franchises that I felt went on for far too long.  To be honest, some of those franchises, like Tremors, I have no issues with as long as they’re done fairly well for DTV films, but the others?  Please stop, movie studios.  You’re not doing them or us any favors trying to get water from a stone that has long since dried up and turned to dust.  What do you folks think?  Are there any franchises that you think are getting too long in the tooth, or would you rather they went on until the end of time?  Let me know down below.