Insidious: The Last Key (2018) - Demon franchise lost in the shadows

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A creepy hand with keys for nails is the motif on this poster for Adam Robitel's Insidious: The Last Key

Demonic medium Elise gets called back to her haunted childhood home and must relive traumatic memories in order to understand the disturbance in the house.

 

Insidious: The Last Key is written by writer/co-producer/actor Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man (2020)) and directed by Adam Robitel (The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)). It is the 4th film in the Insidious franchise (2010; 2013; 2015).

Elise's bad memories never become truly lucid for us in this yawn-worthy entry in the horror series, which feels about ready to be put in its grave here. Lin Shaye (Darkness Falls (2020)) does her best, returning as Elise, but the material is preposterous and superficial. - And not terribly frightening.

 

Related posts:

Insidious franchise: Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) - Whannell debuts with solid creeper sequel

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - Whannell and Wan's deflated tormented family sequel

Insidious (2010) - Wan's thrilling, scary ghost horror

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 167.8 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 16.78 times its cost)

[Insidious: The Last Key was released 3 January (France) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place from August - September 2016 in California. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, to a 29.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 67.7 mil. $ (40.3 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Indonesia with 9 mil. $ (5.4 %) and Mexico with 8.5 mil. $ (5 %). The franchise returned with Insidious: The Red Door (2023). Robitel returned with Escape Room (2019). Shaye returned in Los Angeles Overnight (2018). Insidious: The Last Key is rotten at 28 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Insidious: The Last Key?

Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) - Whannell debuts with solid creeper sequel

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A girl frightened terribly, seated in her bed, makes up this effective poster for Leigh Whannell's Insidious: Chapter 3

A father and his teenage daughter and son are recovering from their loss of their wife and mother to cancer. But the girl's attempts at contacting their lost kin in the afterlife invites a demon close to them.

 

Insidious: Chapter 3 is written and directed by debuting Leigh Whannell (Wolf Man (2025)), who also co-stars in his returning role as one of the demon hunters. It is the 3rd film in the Insidious franchise (2010; 2013), a prequel to the two first films.

A meticulously told story with a good performance by Stefanie Scott (Beautiful Boy (2018)) as the main character girl once again succeeds in making an Insidious movie that carves out a place of creeping fright and scary moments. Lin Shaye (Waffle Hut (2021, TV movie)) as a psychic demon hunter is again a major asset for the series. 

Whannell makes a simple, well-made horror here.

 

Related posts:

Insidious franchise: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - Whannell and Wan's deflated tormented family sequel

Insidious (2010) - Wan's thrilling, scary ghost horror

Leigh Whannell: The Invisible Man (2020) - Whannell's cold and disheartening modern version (writer/director)

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - Whannell and Wan's deflated tormented family sequel (co-writer, actor)

Insidious (2010) - Wan's thrilling, scary ghost horror (writer, actor)

Saw III (2006) - Good performances in Bousman's grisly third trappings (writer)

Saw II (2005) - Bousman's effective reality show-like horror sequel (co-writer)

Saw (2004) - Wan and Whannell's landmark horror beast (writer, actor)

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 11 mil. $

Box office: 112.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 10.26 times its cost)

[Insidious: Chapter 3 was released 28 May (Denmark, Slovakia) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place from July - August 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Spy and holdover hit San Andreas, to a 22.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 4 (#4), grossing 52.2 mil. $ (46.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.1 mil. $ (5.4 %) and Russia with 5.8 mil. $ (5.1 %). The franchise returned with Insidious: The Last Key (2018). Whannell returned with Upgrade (2018). Dermot Mulroney (August: Osage County (2013)) returned in Extant (2015, TV-series)) and theatrically in Truth (2015); Scott in Hayley Kioko: Girls Like Girls (2015, music video) and theatrically in Jem and the Holograms (2015). Insidious: Chapter 3 is rotten at 56 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Insidious: Chapter 3?

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) - Whannell and Wan's deflated tormented family sequel

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A toddler interacting with something unseen in the pitch dark is a scary motif on this poster for James Wan's Insidious: Chapter 2

 

Josh, Renai and their two sons move again following the traumatic events of Insidious (2010). But Renai experiences that the ghosts move with them, while Josh vehemently rejects this...

 

Insidious: Chapter 2 is written by co-writer/actor Leigh Whannell (Dead Silence (2007)) with co-writer/director, great Malaysian-born American filmmaker James Wan (Stygian (1998)), contributing story elements. It is the 2nd film in the Whannell/Wan Insidious franchise.

The sequel to the highly effective horror shocker seems like it was thrown together too quickly. Despite parts of it being technically impressive, it isn't very scary as such, and Rose Byrne's (Annie (2014)) Renai's experiences are so alike to the character's in the first film that it becomes somewhat involuntarily funny. Patrick Wilson (Aquaman (2018)) channels Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson's legendary performance of that character in The Shining (1980)) and does well, but the plot is too complex, crowded with dimensions, characters and time travels. Another issue is that the film's inexplicably evil transvestite ghost doesn't measure up to the nightmarish devil from the original film.

Related posts:

James Wan: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Aquaman (2018) - Wan delivers a majorly satisfying, gung ho action-adventure splash
The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Wan's sequel is a long horror treat with terrifying periods
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
The Conjuring (2013) - Best horror film in 7 years 

Top 10: Best ghost horror movies  
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Insidious (2010) - Wan's thrilling, scary ghost horror

Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies 
Saw III (2006) - Good performances in Bousman's grisly third trappings (story contributor)

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Saw (2004) - Wan and Whannell's landmark horror beast 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 161.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 32.38 times its cost)

[Insidious: Chapter 2 was released 13 September (North America, UK, Ireland) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in 25 days from January - March 2013 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 40.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#2), grossing 83.5 mil. $ (51.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (7.1 %) and Russia with 9.9 mil. $ (6.1 %). The franchise returned with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), written and directed by Whannell with new stars. Wan returned with Furious 7 (2015). Wilson returned in Jack Strong (2014); Byrne in Neighbors (2014). Insidious: Chapter 2 is rotten at 39 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Insidious: Chapter 2?

Midway (2019) - Emmerich's big WWII turkey

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year  

 

Glossy stars and huge explosions outline this good-looking poster for Roland Emmerich's Midway

The relationship with the increasingly hostile Japanese had gradually deteriorated ahead of the devastating Pearl Harbor attacks on the US Navy in Hawaii in December 1940. The Pacific Theater gets a decisive battle in Midway.

 

Midway is written by Wes Tooke (Jean-Claude Van Johnson (2017, TV-series)) and directed by Roland Emmerich (Franzmann (1979)).

Variegated and uninteresting, Emmerich here gives us his version of the famous Battle of Midway, which feels at least as phony and super-glossed as Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001). Filled with wide-angled effects shots, which impress, but their feeling subsides fast, and then it doesn't help Midway that most will have Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Dunkirk (2017) still in fresh memory.

The whole starry cast of Midway are wasted in respectful, historical parts: Foremost stands Ed Skrein (The Model (2016)) in an awful, scenery-chewing performance with a horrible New York accent as the film's hero, who is named Dick Best, (no kidding!) Credit titles ascertain that he was real enough, but it just, regrettably, doesn't seem like it during the elapsed movie.

 

Related posts:

Roland Emmerich: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

White House Down (2013) or, Duck, Mr. President!
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2012 (2009) or, Giant Mega-Stupid Movie!

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

10,000 BC (2008) - Emmerich's mammoth turkey 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 127.4 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.27 times its cost)

[Midway premiered 24 October (Germany) and runs 138 minutes. Emmerich had attempted to get the film green-lit by a major studio since the 1990s, without luck. His assembling the budget of 100 mil. $ makes it one of the costliest independent movies of all time. 15 companies and governmental support bodies were involved in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from September - December 2018 in Hawaii and in Montreal, Québec. It opened #1 to a 17.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another two weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5), grossing 56.8 mil. $ (44.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 42 mil. $ (33 %) and South Korea with 7.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). Lionsgate reportedly spent 40 mil. $ promoting the film. Emmerich returns with Moonfall (2022). Skrein returned in Naked Singularity (2021). Midway is rotten at 42 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Midway?

Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut

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Star Jessica Chastain in an extreme close-up in B/W and shades looks cool AF on the poster for Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game

 

Molly Bloom's career as an Olympic skier collapses with an accident, and a few years later she gets arrested by a small army of FBI agents, now as the leader the country's highest stakes illegal poker game.

Molly's Game is written and directed by debuting great New-Yorker filmmaker Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men (1992, writer)), adapting the same-titled 2014 memoir by the real-life Molly Bloom.

Jessica Chastain (The Color of Time (2012)) is out of this world in the complex, riveting part as the extremely driven and intelligent Bloom, SPOILER who eventually finds herself in over her head in pursuit of a goal that begins to fade in the horizon. She is radiant here as the tough survivor. Idris Elba (Thor (2011)) is good as the sexy attorney who takes her case despite its legally dubious elements.

Sorkin relates the story with dense dialog and a high pace. Molly's Game is grand in width, comparable to a down-played style-wise recent film in the Martin Scorsese tradition, though with a female protagonist, which Sorkin's great script and Chastain's flawless performance never makes a sensational point in and of itself.

There is fun (Chris O'Dowd! (The Program (2015))), dramatically satisfying moments, - Kevin Costner (Dragonfly (2002)) is good as Bloom's psychologist father, - excellent lighting, editing and more. Molly's Game is a splendid piece of work that is more than it may appear.

Related posts:

Aaron Sorkin: The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars

Oscars 2018: Predictions and Film Excess' favorites

Moneyball (2011) - Miller makes compelling baseball movie history (co-writer) 

The Social Network (2010) - Fincher's a-hole biopic leaves me cold (and more anti-Facebook than ever) (writer)

A Few Good Men (1992) or, You Can't Handle the Truth! (writer)

 Watch a trailer for the film here 

 

Cost: 30 mil.$

Box office: 59.2 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.97 times its cost)

[Molly's Game premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 141 minutes. Bloom approached Sorkin with her book on her own, as he was her favorite writer. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, and in New York from November 2016 - January 2017. The film opened #19 to a 1.1 mil. $ first weekend in 271 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,708 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 28.7 mil. $ (48.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.8 mil. $ (9.8 %) and France with 4.3 mil. $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and several other honors. Sorkin returned with The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020, VOD). Chastain returned in Woman Walks Ahead (2017); Elba in The Mountain Between Us (2017); Costner in The Highwaymen (2019). Molly's Game is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Molly's Game?

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) - Øvredal's ascent to big budget moviemaking gets by on weird horror sequences

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Harold the scarecrow looms ominously in the corn patch on this poster for André Øvredal's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

At Halloween in small town Mill Valley, Pennsylvania in 1968, a group of youths break into a supposedly haunted house, where a book belonging to its sinister past resident Sarah is stolen, - and all hell breaks loose!

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is written by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman 
(The Lego Movie (2014, story), both) and Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak (2015)), with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Feast (2005), both) contributing story elements, based on the 3-title 1981-91 Scary Stories novel series by Alvin Schwartz (Stories to Tell a Cat), and directed by great Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal (Trollhunter (2010)).
It is a 'fun' horror movie made especially for the younger crowd, which lives on its horror sequences, which are carried out with energy and a deft grip on suspense and special effects. SPOILER My favorite sequence is the early one involving a character turning into the scarecrow seen on the poster above, which culminates in some disturbing, powerful imagery. A later sequence that is memorable is weird in a similar, nightmarish way, as another character gets absorbed by a hugging, doughy creature with an unsettlingly broad smile in a hospital. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark gets its points for these weird, horrific scenes, which also include a limb-twisting and tearing 'Jangly Man' towards the end that recalls The Thing (1982).
The story otherwise is a Goosebumps and It-reminiscent meeting of teen characters that look and feel much like present day youngsters dropped in a 1968 environment. The actors are adequate at best, and none of them are likely to make break-outs out of their turns here. This inhibits the film, and especially protagonist Stella (Zoe Margaret Colletti (Wildlife (2018))) seems like just a staple character with boring guilt issues and an individual drive, which seems a bit forced onto her or perhaps more motivated by the filmmakers hope that she will lead a sequel. Her budding romance with fresh-faced Michael Garza (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)) never takes flight. Austin Zajur (Fist Fight (2017)) can make some very large intense eyes, and that technique is about it as far as his acting goes as the idiotic Chuck-character here.
The film is handsomely produced, and the plot has similarities with Øvredal's much better, far scarier preceding film, The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), in which an innocent woman was also wrongly accused of horrific things in the past, sparking grave consequences for people in the present. Here the creepy creature designs and horror sequences are what keep Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark afloat.

Related posts:

André Øvredal: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - Unusual, surprising, gory, horrifying indie horror  
Trollhunter/Trolljegeren/Troll Hunter/The Troll Hunter (2010) - Øvredal's hilarious found footage kaiju horror comedy

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 28 mil. $
Box office: Unknown - releasing now
[Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was released 7 August (Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan) and runs 108 minutes. CBS Films acquired the rights to the books in 2013. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, from August - November 2018. The film is predicted to lead a packed group of new releases this weekend to come in #3 with a 15-19 mil. $ opening weekend. It will need to gross more than 70 mil. $ to become successful, and likely more than 100 mil. $ before sequel plans may begin to come together. Øvredal is in post production on his next effort, adventure action fantasy movie Mortal (2020) starring Nat Wolff. Colletti returned in City on a Hill (2019, TV-series) and theatrically in A Boy Called Christmas (2020); Garza does not have an announced next gig yet. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is fresh at 80 % with a 6.21/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?

Stan & Ollie (2018) - Brilliant work in simple, hilarious homage masterpiece

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Dramedy of the Year + English Movie of the Year + Best Homage of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Nina Arianda

A hat in mid-air and the two stars in full character getup feature on this simple poster for Jon S. Baird's Stan & Ollie

Laurel and Hardy reach the top as cinema's most beloved comedy double act in the 1930s but never achieve the great financial wealth or creative ownership of some of their peers. In 1953 the two are back together after many years apart in order to revive their joint career with an English tour; but reigniting stardom while staying friends proves no easy feat.

Stan & Ollie is written by Jeff Pope (Philomena (2013)), inspired by A.J. Marriot's book Laurel & Hardy - The British Tours (1993), and directed by Scottish master filmmaker Jon S. Baird (Filth (2013)), whose 3rd feature it is.
This is a simple and sincere, unseeming masterpiece; an honest, exceedingly good film, which simply doesn't have a flaw to it that's worth mentioning. Stan & Ollie is a film about friendship and professional companionship; about comedy and performing, and about life, getting something worthwhile out of it, and about reaching its inevitable end.
The film brims with enthusiasm and affection for its duo of subjects and their comedy, which is recreated with rare bravura by the master performances of acting greats Steve Coogan (The Other Guys (2010)) and John C. Reilly (Sing (2016)), who even give a great song performance with Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Coogan's empathized and impressively detailed invocation of Stan Laurel is awesome, and Reilly's inhabiting of the quite different Oliver Hardy is just as good. Their comedic acts highlight Laurel & Hardy's simpler, good-for-all brand of universal comedy, which seems to have all but disappeared now; but boy what a joy it is to see it back for a good show here in Stan & Ollie, - and boy, did the two of them make me laugh!
The film also has good supporting performances: Rufus Jones (Camping (2016, miniseries)) is spot-on as the dubious British booking agent, Shirley Henderson (Yes (2004)) is just right as Ollie's adoring shrew wife, but it is Nina Arianda (Hannibal (2015, TV-series)) who steals scenes and gets more than a few laughs of her own as Stan's imperiously proud, brief and lingually challenged Russian émigré wife. Fondly remembered from her turn in the comparable period showbiz dramedy Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Arianda has a meatier part here and stands out.
Stan & Ollie has good production values, and it never sentimentalizes its time period by glossing it up. The photography is simple and to the point; SPOILER only in the final performance we linger profoundly at the duo's shadows on the stage, as Ollie's declining health forces them to the precipice of their collaboration.
The film opens with a delightful, long Steadicam shot through a major Hollywood studio in full swing, and the script tells the story with perfect command, never rushing, but getting its points down nonetheless, SPOILER reaching a (for some audiences personally) familiar culmination, where hard words are uttered between the two pals, which hurt like stab wounds.
Stan & Ollie is a wonderful film. - Don't miss seeing it on a big screen!

Related posts:

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 21.7 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say, - but presently a flop
[Stan & Ollie premiered 21 October (BFI London Film Festival, UK) and runs 97 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, in the spring of 2017. Reilly reportedly spent 4 hours daily in the makeup chair. The film opened #32 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 754 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 5.4 mil. $ (24.9 % of the total gross) North America was the film's 2nd biggest market; the UK were by far the biggest with a 13.6 mil. $ (62.7 %). Italy looks to be the 3rd biggest now, with 946k $ (4.4 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, 3 BAFTAs and 7 British Independent Film awards, winning none. It has yet to open in at least two more markets: Israel (6 June) and Turkey (28 June). Baird does not have an announced follow-up yet. Coogan returned in Hot Air (2018), Reilly in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) with a voice performance and physically in Holmes & Watson (2018). Stan & Ollie is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.48/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Stan & Ollie?