Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
The School for Good and Evil: Directed by Paul Feig. With Kit Young, Sophia Anne Caruso, Cate Blanchett, Liam Woon. Best friends Sophie and Agatha find themselves on opposing sides of an epic battle when they’re swept away into an enchanted school where aspiring heroes and villains are trained to protect the balance between Good and Evil. I’m not sure how I missed it, but this isn’t a fairy tale story, it’s a story about fairy tale stories, and the titular school is to train the future fairy tales of the world. As a Netflix film, it’s done well enough...
Clerks III: Directed by Kevin Smith. With Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Vincent Pereira, Mike Zapcic. Dante, Elias, and Jay and Silent Bob are enlisted by Randal after a heart attack to make a movie about the convenience store that started it all. I’m a fan of Kevin Smith’s work and how he can captivate an audience with some of the most entertainingly weird stories during his Q&As sessions. Clerks 3 is much less of a work of a creative mind than it is the work of a man that nearly died from a massive heart attack and had to change...
Vesper: Directed by Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper. With Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake. Struggling to survive with her father after the collapse of Earth’s ecosystem, 13-year-old Vesper must use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the future. A perfectly weird film with a weird plot and weird scene. The culmination of all that weirdness is a movie that works for me, if only just barely. Buy On Amazon!
Jake Cardigan’s quest to piece together his fractured life is interrupted when it’s discovered that a new, deadlier strain of Tek called ‘grease’ is infecting r This is a much different adaptation than the Marvel Comics version that came out a long while before this one. This has more violence, more sexual content, and more post apocalyptic feel to it than the more hopeful and sanitized Marvel version. It’s not necessarily done for the better, as the plot gets buried under the weight of trying to be edgy, but it works for the most part. I picked up all but...
Doom: Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. With Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei. Space Marines are sent to investigate strange events at a research facility on Mars but find themselves at the mercy of genetically enhanced killing machines. I received this as a reward for spending money with Universal and I was blessed with the “unrated” version. I can’t tell what’s different about it from the regular version and I’m definitely not going to watch the other version and try to compare them. It’s still a goofy movie that takes itself slightly too seriously and the first person shooter...
Signs: Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. With Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin. A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come. I was reminded that I own this on HD-DVD when I found it in a box in my closet during a clean out day and I fondly remember being freaked out by it, so when I saw it on itunes for just $5, I snagged a copy. It’s still a great film about family and choices and...
Captain America II: Death Too Soon: Directed by Ivan Nagy. With Reb Brown, Connie Sellecca, Len Birman, Christopher Lee. The star spangled hero must battle a villain’s plan to poison America with a chemical that horrifically accelerates the aging process. The second of two films, there’s a bit of re-used stuff at the beginning that had me worried for a moment, but after that first section, it’s all uniquely shot material. You’ll be happy to hear that the van that was destroyed in evil’s attempt to kill Captain America in the first film has been fully restored and Steve is...
Captain America: Directed by Rod Holcomb. With Reb Brown, Len Birman, Heather Menzies-Urich, Robin Mattson. A recipient of an experimental body enhancement chemical retaliates against his would be killers as a star spangled superhero. I bought this two movie dvd on a whim, it was only $6 and came from Shout Factory, so why not? The two movies were Captain American (1979) and Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1980), both of which were made for tv movies with the same solid feel that the Hulk show had during that same time period. This first movie sets up Cap as...
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Directed by Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert. With Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong. An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, in which she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led. I’ve heard good things about the film, most of them are true, so I can highly recommend the film. Maybe one day I’ll write a 1,000 word essay on a good film, but today’s not that day. Seems like I only write that long when someone’s rustled my...
Secret Headquarters: Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. With Owen Wilson, Michael Peña, Walker Scobell, Jesse Williams. While hanging out after school, Charlie and his friends discover the headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home. When villains attack, they must team up to defend the headquarters and save the world. I feel like this is Michael Pena’s highlight reel for his acceptance as the next MCU superhero, he does a great job here as the less than heroic adversary to The Guard, as played by the goofy as always Owen Wilson. The cast of kids in...
