The JK Vision │ Geek, Film, Gaming & Foodie Blog: April 2020

5) - Us

I was a bit sceptical when I first went to see this film since it was written and directed by Jordan Peele, the same director from Get Out (2017) which, despite its fantastic reviews, I thought to be a bit of a bore with not much substance. To my pleasant surprise, Us was a fantastic film which had its own original story and fantastic twists here and there. I would thoroughly recommend this film if you're looking for a modern horror this Halloween.

4) - Halloween III: Season of the Witch

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The Halloween franchise is usually seen as one of the standards in Halloween films, and not just because they share a name. Many people consider the third Halloween film one of the most disappointing of the series since it doesn't feature the franchise's poster boy, Michael Myers. The thing is, Halloween was originally aiming to be an American Horror Story-esc anthology series of horror films. If you look past the absence of the title character you will see that Season of the Witch is a tense thrilling horror film filled with masks just as creepy s Myers'.

3) - Cube

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I came across Cube by chance on Netflix when I was looking for some kind of different horror film to watch. It follows a group of strangers who wake up inside a series of coloured and connected cubes which no idea how they got there. Some of the rooms contain Saw-like traps which a mathematician in the group can predict based on serial numbers on the gaps connecting the cubes. If you're looking for a weird cult horror film to watch have a go at Cube.

2) - The Collector

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A run of the rill Horror film. The Collector follows a family and robber who's house taken over by a masked serial killer 'the collector' who booby-traps the house with morbid, lethal contraptions in a bid to prevent the family from escaping. A sequel to the film was released which I have yet to watch but I'm looking forward to the sequel and the recently announced 3rd film.

1) - Jigsaw

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Jigsaw is the latest instalment in the Saw franchise and serves as a kind of rounding-off of the first 7 Saw films before the franchise is rebooted with Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson in 2020. Not that well received, I kind of mean my top spot to go to the entire Saw franchise as a whole. I used to think that Saw was nothing but a bloody-gory mess with not much substance but after paying attention to the story it involves I must admit I was wrong. Saw is a story of tragedy turning into murder. I don't think I need to push these films to anyone as I'm sure most people have seen one of the instalments themselves.

What's your favourite horror film?

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The reboot of Child’s Play from 1988 sees the role of chucky morphing from a serial killer-possessed child’s toy into a more modern problem. This iteration sees Kaslan, a company known for products ranging from drones to TVs connected together via The Cloud, come out with their new product, Buddi. Buddi is a toy designed for children to have a friend to learn, play with and take care of. A jilted Kaslan employee who works in the factory where Buddi is being made wipes all of the safety protections from a single Buddi toy before throwing himself off of the company building This faulty toy finds it’s way into the hands of kid Andy Barclay (Gabriel Bateman) where all hell breaks loose.

The film features a great performance from Aubrey Plaza, moving from miserable teenager in Parks and Recreation to the mother of Andy in the film. I must say though, it’s weird going from hearing Plaza call her husband in Parks and Rec Andy to seeing her as a motherly figure but this time her son gets the honour. I was sceptical of seeing Plaza in this role but she pulled it off fantastically.

Actor Performances

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Chucky is voiced by Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker. Hamill’s best known voice acting work is in the form of The Joker in a number of animated Batman features. Hamill gets the blend of creepiness and cuteness as the demon toy just right so that you find the doll creepy, funny and cute all at the same time. The film’s creators successfully get their audience to feel a bit sorry for Chucky at times, seeing that he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing wrong and he does at good intentions at the base of things.

Child’s Play plays on the fear of the technology we create in the world eventually turning on us and using all of it’s man-made features to it’s advantage. A good idea for a way to modernise a horror classic.

It’s an adequate watch with exceptional performances from Plaza and Hamill but the film is lacking a bit of what you would expect a horror film to have, horror. You have the very occasional jump scare or tense moment but I sat pretty comfortably on the back of my seat the whole way through the showing.

My verdict? You can probably wait this out until it’s on DVD or some streaming platform.

54/100

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Make sure you tweet me and let me know what you thought of the film.

Fancy a try? Get 50% OFF your first order of 8 cans. That's just £12!

Since lockdown in the UK began I have been passing the time by getting into my craft beers. I'd gotten the odd box from Beer52 before but this time I decided to keep my subscription up and running over the months and try out some new beer types and breweries. I've never been a fan of the darker beers like stout so my subscription solely centres around lighter beers like lagers and IPAs. Here are my thoughts on the subscription and a couple of my favourite beers from the box this month.

What do you get?

Each month you get a copy of Ferment Magazine, which is a magazine written and published by the guys over at Beer52 which has all kinds of articles related to the craft industry. I like to read the interviews with the breweries that are featured in the boxes each month. This helps to give you an idea of the ethos of the brewery you're drinking from and helps you to feel more involved in the process.

You also get a little snack to have with your beers each month. This month I got some sweet chilli chickpeas which went down a treat with my favourite beer on the list which we'll talk about in a minute.

Finally, the most important part, you get a selection of beers. You have a couple of choices to make when you set up your subscription. Firstly, do you like dark beers as well as light beers? If you do, you can choose a mixed box including everything from IPAs to stouts. Or you can choose to just have the light beers, like me. Secondly, how many beers do you want? The standard subscription includes 8 Beers for £24. You can then upgrade to 10-packs or 12-packs if desired. But you can get your first box of 8 for HALF PRICE by clicking here. All beers you received are listed in the ferment magazine are rated on all kinds of qualities as well as ideal drinking temperatures.

Top 3 Beers

3) Alone Together DDH Amarillo - O Brother

Alone Together was a much different beer to the others in the box. This was quite distinctively sour and dry. It made a change from the rest of the beers in the box which tended to be quite sweet. At 4% ABV this beer was mild but woke up with the high 'fizziness' of it. Would recommend.

2) Howling Gale Pale - Eight Degrees

Howling Gale was very sharp on the throat which offered a crisp and refreshing taste. It was perfect for the hot weather we've been having lately. Brewed by one of my favourite microbreweries, Eight Degrees, it is definitely one I would have again if given the chance.

1) Happy Days Pale Ale - Rascals

This was the stand-out beer from this month's box. This pale ale was relentlessly smooth with a wonderful tropical aroma. This had it all. It was refreshing, smooth and fruity. The best of the bunch, I will actively seek out this beer whenever I can. It's going to be hard but I'm certain it will be worth it.

Have you ever tried Beer52? What did you think?
Fancy a try? Get 50% OFF your first order of 8 cans. That's just £12!

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I've been aware of the Hitchhiker series from a young age, from both snippets of the TV Series and discussing the show in my middle school English lessons. I'd never had any interest above that in either the series or the book (or the film as I have just discovered) until I saw this Reddit post. It gave me a little chuckle so I thought "Hey, I'm in my summer holidays from work, might as well do something useful" so I got myself a copy of 'The Complete Trilogy of 5' and started on the first book in the series.

The first thing I noticed was how little the book has aged. It doesn't seem dated and its ideas of what futuristic space travel may look like are the same ideas that you would expect from a modern-day space-opera. You don't find yourself laughing at what the author, Douglas Adams, thought the future of the universe may look like as it's very modernly written even though the novel was published in 1979.

“Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This is the first book I have read that gave me a good few chuckles here and there. Douglas Adams portrays typical British humour through the novel in the form of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox. A third of whom are human with the other 2 being alien life-forms. Dent is whisked away from Earth by his close friend, Ford Prefect, who is aware of a plan to destroy Earth in favour of an inter-galactic bypass. The book follows the pair's hitchhiking through space upon escaping the ashes of where the planet earth once was, using Prefect's trusty copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

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I found myself reading this book for a chapter a night due to time constraints but it was the sort of novel that you could easily pick back up and know what was going on, in spite of a few unfavourable lengthy words here and there. It's a cheery take on an over-done plot in film; the destruction of Earth by alien life.

The ending of the book seemed a bit too abrupt for my liking but since the second novel was published the following year I'm not too fussed as it's sequel 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' was published the year after the original novel so I'm sure it was meant to be immediately followed upon in the next instalment. I for one cannot wait to get onto the next book and bring you my thoughts yet again.

There are another four books in the series by Adams for me to read, plus a sixth published posthumously in 2006, so there's plenty more for me to get my teeth into now that I've finished the novel. I plan to slowly but surely work my way through the huge universe that Adams created, which all began from a 1978 BBC Radio 4 comedy show

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to venturing further into the series, perhaps having a go at watching the series, film and maybe even the original radio show.

Have you read this novel? What did you think?

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It's that time again, Warner Bros. latest attempt at adding a semi-decent instalment to their 'The Conjuring' Universe. I managed to see a pre-showing of this movie so I went into the film completely blind to critic reviews.

Now, you'd be forgiven for not even noticing this film was part of The Conjuring Universe. The only relation I saw that it had to the universe was a shared character and a reference to Annabelle. The film didn't seem to add anything to the already expanding collection of films but that isn't to say that the film itself wasn't exceptional.

The Curse of La Llorona is director Michael Chaves' take on on the Mexican folklore legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. The original tale states that La Llorona was a young woman named Maria of gave birth to 2 sons to a travelling nobleman. The man eventually disappeared for long periods and time and returned only to pay attention to his two sons. In a fit of blind rage, Maria drowned her two sons in a nearby river. Upon realising what she had done she searched for the boys but couldn't find them. Days later, she was found dead by the same river. Her ghost now haunts Mexico searching for her children.

The legend described in the film is almost identical albeit with a few changes. I appreciate how the director kept the legend as close to true as he could. La Llorona herself was perhaps one of the Conjuring Universe's creepiest villains, more so than the Nun, whose 2018 film is my favourite instalment so far.

The acting in the film was reasonably good for a horror movie, particularly Breaking Bad's Raymond Cruz as ex-priest Rafael Olvera. Although sparse, the writer's attempt at bits of humour in the film fell mostly flat.

La Llorona was an adequate horror film in itself but added very little to an already mixed-quality universe. In my opinion the film should have been kept a standalone movie so that the writers can focus solely on making a great standalone movie.

All-in-all, this film was indeed jumpy at times, reasonably acted but didn't add much to the universe it was trying to be a part of.

46/100

What did you think of the film? Do you think it added anything to the universe?

Let me know in the comments and I'll reply to them all!

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The latest (and maybe final) instalment of Pixar's flagship film franchise, Toy Story, has just hit theatres and I wanted to put my thoughts on the film from mind to screen. The original Toy Story was released in November 1995, back when Pixar was an independent company, meaning that were are nearly 24 years between this sequel and the original feature film.

Toy Story 4 follows shortly after the events of Toy Story 3 with Bonnie, the new owner to Woody, Buss and the gang, having her first trial day at kindergarten. During the day their she creates a new toy from a spork, Forky, who becomes alive and self-aware. Without spoiling the events, the film follows Woody trying to make sure that Forky, Bonnie's new favourite toy, is there for his kid during one of the toughest times in her life.

Does the film live up to expectations?

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Yeah? I mean, it was certainly no where near a bad film. IT was feel-good, funny and tense at times but it didn't stand out from the previous 3 instalments. I think it was a good, nice way to (hopefully) end the franchise on a bitter-sweet ending. I felt that Toy Story 3 was a nice end to the series with the end of Woody's relationship with Andy after he went off to college; this further sequel actually didn't taint that tidy ending but didn't add too much more onto Woody and Buzz' story.

How did the new characters fair?

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Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele's Ducky and Bunny duo was by far my favourite aspect of the film. They offered a new style of adult-y comedy that we haven't seen in previous instalments. It seemed like the perfect coupling of both voice and personality. We had Christina Hendricks as Gabby Gabby the teatime doll and Keanu Reeves as Canadian stuntman Duke Caboom, a contribution that I didn't notice until I was reading through the cast list on the way home. As with a lot of sequels *cough* Porgs *cough* there can be a risk of the introduction of characters that have no need in being present and are just they to sell a few toys but I can't really put my finger on a specific character from Toy Story 4 that fits that description, which is great from Pixar.

All-in-all Toy Story 4 was an, although unneeded, good addition and conclusion to the series of now 4 films. The new character made a positive impact onto the already large number of characters at Pixar's disposal. If you're in the market for an easy-watching feel-good film then Toy Story 4 would not disappoint you.

5) - Us

4) - Halloween III: Season of the Witch

3) - Cube

2) - The Collector

1) - Jigsaw

What's your favourite horror film?

Actor Performances

54/100