Get Out

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An African-American who is engaged to a white girl goes to visit her parents for the weekend and things just get damn wierd and creepy.

Let me start by saying that I am not African-American, just so you know where I’m coming from here. Mr. Otter and I watched this, having heard a lot of buzz about it when it came out, and I rented it from my local library with a few other movies I had missed recently.

I knew that it was a horror-ish movie from the African-American perspective; I was envisioning an abattoir in the parents’ basement…but this was both way more interesting and waaay creepier than that.

I don’t want to give anything away, but this was not only a well-written and edge-of-your-seat horror movie, but it also had a lot to say about race relations. And being able to combine both in one movie is amazing. The characterization is good, the writing is good, the storyline just goes places I did not foresee.

If you can stand suspense and some blood, watch this, it was great!

A Quiet Place

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A family lives alone on a farm, trying to keep themselves safe from predators.

I missed three movies this summer while I was traveling, and recently checked them all out of my local library to watch. I gave Mr. Otter first choice, and he picked this one.

And we were both really pleased with it, and because it was so well made and suspenseful, I’m just going to say that it was well made and suspenseful. The writing was spare and excellent, the actors were really really good, and the situation was believeable without being overexplained.

This was great, you should see it. But not alone, it might scare you too much.

Venom

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An alien comes to earth and takes over Tom Hardy.

This was actually pretty good; I read some buzz on the interwebs ahead of time, and it was awful…and then I found out that Lady Gaga’s fans were badmouthing this movie before it even came out because A Star Is Born came out the same day, and they didn’t want the competition…sigh.

But yes, this was good. Venom is in the Spider-man universe, although there are lots of crossovers, and since Venom is a symbiote, the possibilities are endless.

I really like Tom Hardy, Revenant and Inception notwithstanding–oh god, and he was Bane too, wasn’t he?–and he was perfect for this role…not so superhero-y, but fun to watch, and a good mix of jerk and nice guy. The repartee between him and Venom was good too, and well done.

I liked this enough to be looking forward to the next entry in the series!

Warning: there is one teaser trailer in the middle of the credits. Don’t bother waiting til the end, that is not a teaser, it’s a trailer for the Spider-man multi-universe animated movie coming out in December…which they ALREADY showed a trailer for before this movie. Not cool, Marvel. Not cool at all. This otter does not like being beaten over the head with promotional propaganda.