Cinema Spotlight VIII- Leigh Whannell (Part 2): "Upgrade"

Insidious Chapter 3 gave a small dosage of body horror during the film's climax as the evil ghost became flesh by taking possession of a living human body. Adding to the creep factor is that despite the body's serious injury of two broken legs, the ghoul is able to walk with no problem. Whannell makes this the center piece for in his next film as it stems away from the paranormal and into the technological...

Cinema Spotlight VIII - Leigh Whannell (Part 1): "Insidious: Chapter 3"

Stefanie Scott (known for her Queen Bee role on Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm) 
as Quinn Brenner in Insidious Chapter 3.

Before he was trapped by Jigsaw with Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell dreamed of being a story-teller whether as an actor or a writer. He got his chance while attending college in his home county of Australia where he met best friend and future collaborator James Wan. During the years that lead to the creation of Saw, Whannell served as a film critic on a television program called Recovery (think of it as Australia's version of nineties MTV). Fun Fact: Angus Sampson was among the cast and a writer of the show who would work with Whannell again in the Insidious movies as the ghost-tracking duo Specs and Tucker.

Sonic the Hedgehog: A Serviceable Sega Story.

If you recall in my Angry Birds 2 review, video game movies don't have a good track record. The late 2000's through the 2010's opted a more serious approach but fell short with the likes Max Payne, Silent Hill, War Craft and Assassin's Creed. Tomb Raider and Rampage came close but were still a little far-off. It wasn't until last year that Detective Pikachu and Angry Birds 2 seemingly broke the curse as the first video game films to get positive feedback. Could Sonic the Hedgehog do the same or should Illumination cancel the Mario film while they still can?

Top 10 Best Films of 2019

Now that the worst is out of the way, it's time to look at the best of 2019. While there were plenty of good films there weren't many great ones. Some on repeated viewings didn't hold up well, while others surprisingly got better that I regret the rating I gave it. Looking at the number of films I saw in 2019, it's less than what I saw in 2018. I watched about seventy movies that year, but for last year, I saw about sixty. Even then, there were many still I missed; my sincerest apologies to John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Richard Jewell, Deep Waters, Just Mercy, Honey Boy, Dolomite is My Name, Waves and The Last Black Man in San Francisco to name few.

Top 10 Worst Movies of 2019

New year, new decade, but bad movies are forever. Just like last year, I prefer to get the worst out of the way before getting to the best. Admittedly, I skipped on a lot of bad movies from The Curse of La Llorona, Playing with Fire, The Hustle, Countdown, Replicas, and Charlie's Angels. The trailers were enough to convince me to stay away, and their negative reception confirmed my suspicion. The ones that made my list, I went in thinking I'd seeing something above average, and man was I wrong.