The Sleepover (2020) - Movie Review

Sometimes, a follow-up to a given filmmaker’s previous work helps make sense of what came before. And with director Trish Sie’s last film, the glaringly disinterested Pitch Perfect 3, there was a prevailing feeling that Sie really wanted to step outside her comfort zone of music and dance choreography when it comes to feature films. Why else would a film about an a cappella group suddenly turn into a Spy-lite action flick? It’s with her latest that that switch-up feels like it was leading into something, and while this is still a bit rocky, I’d say it’s a switch-up worth taking.

Archenemy (2020) - Movie Review

After what happened last time I reviewed a film by writer/director Adam Egypt Mortimer with Daniel Isn’t Real last year… not gonna lie, I was slightly dreading his latest. Not because I was expecting it to be bad; I have enough faith in SpectreVision to not steer me wrong, and same goes for the filmmaker behind one of my favourites from 2019. Rather, it’s because of what writing about that film got out of me, and even for how TMI quite a few of my reviews can get, that one went further than most in describing my own history with mental health. I just got done with a pretty heavy review with If Anything Happens I Love You, and I don’t exactly have the energy for an encore at present. Which is why I’m rather thankful that Mortimer’s latest isn’t just a switch-up from what came before, but breaks new ground for SpectreVision’s genre spectrum as well.

Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) - Movie Review

I probably have the worst first impression of the Smurfs possible, as my first full-length encounter with them was through the 2011 film. Directed by the numbnuts that gave us the ever-popular comedic classic Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the live-action Smurfs film is easily one of the hardest films I’ve ever sat through. Thankfully, it didn’t fall into my purview for reviews, because I’m fairly certain it would’ve just been “fuck this movie” repeated 300-some times. I completely skipped the sequel, wanting to keep what little sanity I have left, and then the trailers for today’s film hit… and you cannot possibly imagine how much relief washed over me when I saw that this was not only a full CGI production but that it was a reboot of the series.

 

Going against what most would consider common sense, those two prospects combined with the phenomenally low bar the Raja Gosnell films set for the IP actually made me hopeful that this would be good. Given how this is the year that has audience expectations in a 24-hour shooting gallery, I can only hope that my optimism isn’t proven worthless.