A Lighter Twist on Halloween Traditions

As Halloween approaches, the anticipation of our annual horror movie marathon grows. However, this year, I find myself pondering a different approach, one that acknowledges the harsh reality we face outside the world of movies and scares.
It's no secret that the world has become a rather unsettling place lately. For that reason, this year, I propose we simplify and tweak our tradition to lighten the mood a bit.
Instead of delving too deeply into darkness and terror, let's have a little laugh here and then, in a “scary” context. This doesn't mean we abandon our love for horror movies altogether, but rather, we can infuse an extra dose of light-heartedness into our movie choices.
So, if you’re like me this year and want to watch horror movies but at the same time, you also want to have a good laugh, here’s a little list of suggestions.

If, however, you want a good scare, here’s a list I made a few years back, that I still find relevant today.

• The Cornetto trilogy : I’ve discussed these films extensively before (you can read about it here), but they are a must. Especially Shaun of the dead, which, in my opinion, is the better of the 3 movies.

• The cabin in the woods : a group of friends spend their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest, but the cabin actually turns out to be an underground laboratory.

• Zombieland : 4 strangers travel across the US, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

• The final girls : a group of friends attend the screening of a cult B-horror movie and somehow become trapped in it.

• Extra ordinary : a shy driving instructor reluctantly uses her supernatural talents to help a widow save his daughter’s soul from a has-been rock star who practices black magic to regain fame.

• The babysitter : a young boy spies on his babysitter one night to see what she does in his house once he’s fallen asleep, only to realize that she’s part of a satanic cult. There is a sequel, and although it has some good moments, it really is nowhere as good as the first one.

• Attack the block : a group of teens protect their South London block from an alien invasion. By far some of the coolest looking aliens I’ve seen in a while!

• Vampires vs the Bronx : a group of kids must fight to save their neighborhood from gentrification and vampires.

• They cloned Tyrone : an unlikely trio investigates a series of weird events in their neighborhood and stumble on a sinister conspiracy.

• Ghosbusters - Afterlife : finally a sequel to the original movie we all deserve.
  

The Classics

Need I say more? You have a great night just there, with the original Ghostbusters (the second movie was average at best and let’s not even talk about Paul Feig’s all female remake. For the record, the movie was bad period. Not because it was all female, which I thought was a gimmick, but because there was no story and despite the talented cast, it was very poorly acted), Beetlejuice and Clue. Clue might be a lesser known movie but it is worth a watch! It’s a great who-donnit murder mystery set in a creepy mansion.

TV horror comedies

• Truth seekers : A group of part-time paranormal investigators investigate a series of supernatural events. Starring Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Malcolm McDowell among others, this series was kind of fun to watch. It definitely deserved a second season but was cancelled instead.

• Community : not all the seasons, of course, but this series made some of the most iconic Halloween episodes ever! Check out these episode :

  • Season 1, Episode 7, "Introduction To Statistics"

  • Season 2, Episode 6, "Epidemiology" (my personal favorite)

  • Season 3, Episode 5, "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps"

  • Season 4, Episode 2, “Paranormal Parentage”

• What we do in the shadows : this TV adaptation of the movie by the same title surpasses by a lot its source material. One of the major reason is the addition of energy vampire Colin Robinson. The series (and the movie) revolves around a group of vampires who live together in a house in Staten Island.

There are a lot of other titles, of course, but these are the ones I really enjoyed, liked and recommand. Hope you have a great Halloween!

Favorite TV shows and movies of 2020

When I need an escape, I usually turn to my TV for comfort, and 2020 was no better time to do so. There have been quite a few interesting finds, but because of COVID, there were also a lot of delayed releases and several highly anticipated shows and movies could not be finished properly, or saw their production halted. Hopefully, we’ll get to enjoy them in 2021! I’m especially really looking forward to finding out what happens in the third season of Succession.

I must admit, although I tried to look for new things to watch, this year has been more about making myself feel good and get a laugh. There’s been a lot of Golden Girls, Friends, Community, Archer playing on repeat. There were also a lot of highly talked about shows I chose not to watch, like Tiger King, because they did not resonate with me or intrigued me as much as they did everyone else.

But I digress. Here’s a list of my favorite shows and movies of 2020, in no particular order.

Television

Better Call Saul (season 5)

The fourth season was a disappointment and I even went as far a wondering if I’ll watch season 5. I’m thankful I did because they got right on track with what turned out to be the best season since season 2. The tense story line between Nacho and Lalo, who, by the way, turned out to be a formidable villain, kept me on the edge of my seat, and I’m glad something is finally happening with Kim.

Best episode of the season : Bagman (episode 8)

Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (season 1)

Mythic Quest was one of those shows that looked so silly in their trailer that I held off for a while. As huge a fan as I am of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I was pretty much disappointed in all the creators’ and actors’ side projects (The Cool Kids, A.P. Bio, The Mick, etc), which made me a bit reluctant to give Mythic Quest a chance. Silicon Valley had just ended and I felt like Rob McElhenney’s new project was a bit too similar a show. How wrong was I! Mythic Quest ended up being one of the highlights of the year.

Best episode : Quarantine (special episode filmed during, you guessed it, quarantine)

What We Do In The Shadows (season 2)

That show was a revelation. Season 1 aired in 2019 but I didn’t start watching it until this year, mid season 2. From that episode on, I was hooked. I saw the movie the series is based on a few years ago and it was OK. There were some very funny bits but as a whole, the film was just alright. So when they announced a TV adaptation, I was nonplussed. Turning movies into TV series usually dilutes the story, but I have to say, in this case, it’s false. The series was created and written by the same people as the movie, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, and it appears that they saved their best ideas for TV. Following a different set of vampires, the TV version is more diverse, wittier and way funnier! The idea of Colin Robinson, an energy vampire is pure genius!

Best episode : Colin’s Promotion (episode 5)

Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun (season 1)

This American-Australian sketch comedy show is silly, weird, chaotic, absurd and it’s exactly what we all need right now. Their comedy reminds me of Monty Python, and I dare you to watch their show without cracking a smile!

Best sketch : The Mr Gentlemen's Barber

Truth Seekers (season 1)

Every time Simon Pegg and Nick Frost team up, they hit comedy gold. This time they co-created a paranormal comedy TV series for Amazon about two engineers working for an Internet provider who, in their spare time (and during work hours) also investigate paranormal activities. The series is at times funny, spooky and endearing, and is, as a whole, pretty entertaining.

Best episode : The Haunting of Connelly’s Nook (episode 1)

Also noteworthy:

• The Queen’s Gambit : Loved the outfits, liked the story as a whole but hated the finale.

• C’est comme ça que je t’aime : there were some inconsistencies along the line but as a whole, I pretty much enjoyed this show about 2 bored couples getting into organized crimes and killing sprees.

• Schitt’s Creek and The Good Place : the final season was nowhere near as good as the first ones, but it’s the last season of one of the best and funniest feel good series we’ve had in a while, so they deserve a mention.

Stand up specials

Only four specials stood out, in my opinion, and were memorable enough to be mentioned below.

Jim Jefferies : Intolerant

I haven’t seen a Jim Jefferies special I haven’t enjoyed and his latest is no exception. This time, he tackles his newly diagnosed lactose intolerance and as someone who suffers from the same ailment and who chooses to ignore it, I feel seen! His own special spin to a very straight forward story is what makes him stand among the elite.

Jerry Seinfeld : 23 hours to kill

Speaking of elite, Jerry Seinfeld dropped his first special in 22 years, called 23 Hours to Kill. Was it predictable? Yes. Did he take any risks in his content? No. But the risk comes from his reemergence after such a long time and doing a special when the expectations are so high. What 23 Hours to Kill provided was classic Jerry Seinfeld wit, self-assurance and timeless humor. He doesn’t need to take any risks and we don’t expect him to. As Brian Tallerico, from rogerebert.com so well puts it, “If anything, “23 Hours to Kill” is like catching up with an old friend, something all of us wish we could do in person in 2020 more than we can.”

Bert Kreischer : Hey Big Boy

Bert Kreischer’s jolliness is infectious. His specials are usually about his life as a dad and husband, and so far, I’m not tired of hearing about it, because he’s one hell of a good storyteller.

Dave Chappelle : 8:46

This is not so much of a comedy show but an important one nonetheless, where he addresses all the violence and police brutality taking place in the US.

movies

Horse Girl

Co-written by and starring Alison Brie, Horse Girl is by far one of the weirdest films of the year. This psychological drama about a shy young woman slowly dripping into madness (or is she?) is superbly well acted.

Invisible Man

This is another remake of the story we all know too well, but with a surprisingly interesting twist, making the film worth a watch. Elizabeth Moss plays the traumatized and abused girlfriend of a deceased tech giant, who is convinced her boyfriend is not only still alive, but that he’s harassing her by being able to become invisible.

Save yourselves!

We were looking for new movies to watch on Halloween and stumbled on a few comedic horror, including Save Yourselves! This film about a couple deciding to reconnect with themselves by retreating to a cabin and unplugging their phones and computers, only to find out they’re in the midst of an alien invasion is original and pretty funny. They have no survival skills whatsoever and must fend for themselves against an army of murderous, furry pouf-like aliens.

Extra Ordinary

Save Yourselves! was good, but Extra Ordinary was better. This is a movie about a shy driving instructor who reluctantly uses her supernatural talents to help a widow save his daughter’s soul from a has-been rock star who practices black magic to regain fame. A bit of over acting from Will Forte, but the highlight of the film is Maeve Higgins as Rose Dooley, the psychic driving instructor, and the chemistry she has with Barry Ward, who plays the distraught father.

The King of Staten Island

Even though his movies are all about 30 minutes too long, I am a huge fan of Judd Apatow and his body of work. Starring Pete Davidson and loosely based on his life, The King of Staten Island is nowhere near Judd Apatow’s best film but an average Judd Apatow movie is still a pretty good one. The highlight of the film, though, are all the supporting cast, which includes Bill Burr and Marisa Tormei, as well as all the amazing actors portraying Scott Carlin’s (Pete Davidson) friends.

Palm Springs

Yes, it’s Groundhog Day but with 2 (actually 3) people instead of one, but we can forgive this little detail since the film is actually very well written and acted, as well as being very funny. I was actually reluctant to watch this film, the reason being what I mentioned in the previous sentence, and I never really liked any of Andy Samberg’s work (Digital Shorts being the exception). But I must say, he and Cristin Milioti are fabulous as the the two main characters stuck in a time loop, and though his role is small, J.K. Simmons is amazing, as usual. All things considered, Palm Springs may be the best comedy I’ve seen this year.

documentaries and docuseries

The Go-Go’s

I knew the songs but I knew nothing of the band behind them. This documentary revisits the meteoric rise (and eventual break up) of one of the most successful all female bands of all time. The testimonies from the band members are candid, heartfelt and at times, humorous, while the film makes us remember how good the Go-Go’s songs are.

Beastie Boys Story

Instead of a straight forward documentary with an off-camera narrator, the Beastie Boys Story, which was written, directed and produced by Spike Jonze, takes the form of a live stage performance by the surviving members of the band who, in front of an audience, tell the intimate story of their careers and friendship.

The Comedy Store

This is the series to watch for any fan of stand-up comedy. This docuseries recounts, through the testimony of countless comedians, the history of one of the most legendary comedy clubs in the US, The Comedy Store.

The Bee Gees : How to Mend a Broken Heart

I was never a fan of the Bee Gees but this documentary made me one. I had no idea they had such an incredible career and how talented they were!

David Foster : Off the Record

This is another documentary that made me discover the depths of an artist’s career. I vaguely knew who David Foster is and was superficially aware of his body of work, but this film allows its viewers to witness his work process and his evolution through time. Quite an interesting watch.

American Utopia

Not a documentary, but I’ll put it here nonetheless. This has got to be one of the best shows ever. Directed and produced by Spike Lee, from a screenplay by David Byrne, the film is a live recording of a Broadway performance of a modified version of the album American Utopia. An absolute must.

Also noteworthy

• I’ll be gone in the dark : the fascinating story behind writer Michelle McNamara’s obsession with figuring out who the Golden State Killer is. Her book was published a few years after her sudden death, but her indispensable work has allowed the police to finally catch the criminal. The docuseries’ topic is captivating, but it’s a few episodes too long, dwelling a bit too much on unnecessary details.

• Spaceship Earth : the topic alone makes the film worth a watch. The story is so unbelievable that it’s hard to believe such an experiment actually took place!

Alright, I think that’s it for 2020! Give these series and movies a try if you haven’t seen them already, and here’s to hoping for more new amazing things to watch in 2021!

Enjoy and have fun!

Movies and TV shows I thought were going to be bad but turned out to be pretty great

This is my mea culpa. I’m usually good at predicting whether a movie or TV show is going to be watch-worthy or not, but there has been a bunch of cases I have judged way too quickly, without having given them a chance and then I realized how great they were. Sometimes, these flash judgement we make can cause us miss out on some pretty good content, which is why I now watch any new TV show for at least 3 episodes before deciding if I’m going to continue giving it a chance or if I want to ditch it. For movies, I must say that the art of making good trailers has been lost. All movies look bad now if we only watch their trailers.

Anyhow, I’ve compiled a list of my top five movies and TV shows that I have misjudged the most. Here they are.

movies

John Wick

When I saw the trailer for John Wick’s first installment, I simply thought “not another mindless action movie where Man gets mad, man wants revenge, 60 minutes of unrealistic action scenes, man kisses woman”. But you know what? As soon as the bad guy killed that puppy, I just saw red and wanted bloody revenge. Kidding aside, though my projected summary is relatively accurate (he did want revenge, but he did not kiss a woman at the end), the cinematography is way better than any contemporary action movie, like say, The Fast&Furious. The action sequences are very well thought of and well choreographed, and did not overly rely on CGI. I waited some time before agreeing to watching this film and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised! I had a great time viewing it, so much so that I watched the second and third installments, and will probably watch the upcoming forth! John Wick 2 is not great. Far from it but John Wick 3 was a lot better.

Asterix : Mission Cléopâtre

The Asterix comics have been a staple in my childhood, as well as that of most francophiles in the world. The animated film versions became a must for all my Christmas holidays. I love the humor, the sarcasm, the stories and the characters so much that I’ve read the comics over and over again. When they announced they’ll be adapting them for the movies, in 1999, I was concerned and rightly so because Asterix et Obelix contre César was a horrendous film. I tried to watch it but had to stop. The costumes, the set, everything was horrible. In 2002, they decided to make another adaptation, this time written and directed by someone else, Alain Chabat. And behold, Asterix et Obelix : Mission Cléopâtre. Though I kept hearing good things about this film, I was reluctant to see it for fear of being disappointed again. I finally caved and went to watch it at the movies. It’s now by far one of my favorite comedies! I still quote some scenes every now and then for a laugh! Other adaptations have been made after this one but all failed to live up to it. This one and only Asterix cinematic adaptation is the only one worth a watch. Am I glad, now, that my sister literally forced me to go watch it with her! Though not all that faithful to the story line, the movie succeeded at encapsulating the mood, the in-your-face attitude of the characters, the humor of the comic series. And that’s what matters.

Jumanji : Welcome to the jungle

Every now and then, I plan a “Me” day. During such day, I just spoil myself by spending a whole day just by myself, doing what I want. It helps me disconnect a bit and not having to interact with anyone sometimes relaxes me. Over a year ago, during a particularly uneventful “Me” day downtown, I decided to go to the movies. The only film that hasn’t already begun was Jumanji : Welcome to the jungle. I really wasn’t a fan of the original film and hadn’t heard anything about that one, but, what the hell, I decided to go. It was mid-week so the room was empty (the best!). I really did not expect much from the experience and as it turned out, I had a lot of fun! This was a really imaginative way of rebooting the film, the jokes were very funny and the actors excellent! I came in expecting a boring movie for kids similar to the 1995 version but came out happy and satisfied because a lot of jokes are for people my age. It’s not great cinema but very good entertainment! The follow up film wasn’t as good, but that was kind of expected.

21 Jump Street

Really did not expect to like that film at all! I was not a fan of the original TV series, and I am not really a Channing Tatum fan. The only reason I went to see it was because we were bored and needed to pass some time before out dinner reservation. We didn’t want to watch anything dramatic or too serious and 21 Jump Street looked like the light comedy we needed at the time. To be perfectly honest, I expected some dumb teen movie with lots of slapstick and genitalia innuendos, but little did we know that we’d actually have a good time watching it! Some jokes and lines were actually hilarious! The follow up movie was good but not as much as that first one.

Spy

If there’s a movie that suffered from bad advertising and could use a much better trailer, it would be Spy. That film looked so stupid, judging from the trailer. I thought it’d be another lame spy comedy like Johnny English or Get Smart, filled with terrible slapstick jokes. I refused to give it any time a day for a while, till one night, it was playing on TV. There was nothing else to watch so I thought “sure, why not?”. As it turned out, I laughed so hard during Spy! Jason Statham’s character requesting the face-off machine still cracks me up! That movie, written and directed by Paul Feig really is hilarious. Check it out for a good laugh.

TV shows

Better call Saul

Breaking Bad was such a perfect series that I honestly thought that Vince Gilligan throwing himself into a spin-off so quickly (or at all, for that matter) would be a bad, bad mistake. And with Saul Goodman, of all the characters? He was the comic relief in Breaking Bad, but would an entire show revolving around him be watchable? Wouldn’t he get old and/or annoying after a while? The answer is no and no! Hence the genius of Vince Gilligan. He’s managed to create a whole new captivating show around a known character, brought back other characters from Breaking Bad, but it never felt like a Breaking Bad series. It’s something completely different, leading to the events of Breaking Bad. How amazing is that? I think Vince Gilligan succeeded where Fear the Walking Dead failed : a spin-off prequel that can stand on its own. We’re into the 5th season and I still can’t wait to see what happens!

Archer

I’ve never been a big fan of adult cartoons. Sure, there was a time when I watched The Simpsons and Family Guy, but that got old pretty quickly and I soon lost interest. I was told Archer was a perfect show for me but I was reluctant to give it a chance. I saw tidbits and thought it looked kind of vulgar, so I brushed it aside. One night, there was nothing to watch on TV and I stumbled on an Archer marathon while flipping through the channels. Since there was nothing else on, I decided to give one episode a chance. I ended up going to bed so late that night because I could not stop watching and laughing! Archer is rife with pop culture references and incredible humor. And it IS made for someone like me! I became obsessed with it. The good thing is that Archer had already been airing for a few seasons when I picked on, so I treated myself to an amazing marathon! Archer is the perfect mix between Arrested Development (Jessica Walter, who plays Lucille Bluth, actually lends her voice to play the mother in Archer as well!) and The Office.

Rick & Morty

I pretty much started watching Archer and Rick&Morty almost at the same time. I had heard of Rick&Morty before, hearing that it’s hilarious, super smart and funny, but like with Archer, I saw a clip and deemed it too vulgar as well. I mean, an old guy burping all the time as he speaks? Really? That’s supposed to be funny? And just like Archer, I started watching Rick&Morty when there was nothing else on TV! I actually gave it a chance because of how much I liked Archer and reconsidered my stance on animated shows for adults. And what a discovery that was! I could not stop watching and reveled at how smart that cartoon was! I was disappointed there was so very few episodes per season but loved them all nonetheless. This is a series that is filled with pop culture references, that sometimes deals with deep scientific facts in an incredibly humoristic context. I don’t know how they do it but I can’t get enough.

The Good Place

I was reluctant to give the Good Place a chance for two reasons : first, it comes from NBC, a regular network and not cable. It has been a long while since I’ve watched and enjoyed a show that comes from a network that isn’t cable or a streaming service. NBC and the likes are no longer what they once were, especially NBC. The times of Must-See-TV are long gone. The second reason I expected The Good Place to be bad is the super colorful, super bright visuals of the show. I thought it’d be too happy and obvious a show for me to enjoy. She’s a bad person who ended up by accident in the Good Place? Time for some ridiculous misunderstandings and over-the-top scenarios! Is what I thought the show would be. And how wrong was I to underestimate The Good Place! It has got to be one of the smartest TV shows there is. It teaches philosophy and morality in each and every episode, with great humor and originality. The Good Place is brilliant in how it teaches its viewers about complex concepts, how it renews its self every season and how hilarious it can be at the same time. The finale was a bit of a misstep but who cares when the rest is so great?

Schitt’s Creek

I have already talked about Schitt’s Creek in a previous post about the best TV shows of 2019, and I’m going to talk about it again, because I absolutely fell in love with this series. This is my biggest mea culpa. I used to roll my eyes whenever a commercial for Schitt’s Creek would play on TV or at the movies. The title sounded crass, it’s Canadian and quite frankly, a riches to rags story sounded unimaginative. Yes, I do have a bit of a prejudice when it comes to Canadian television, for many local shows I have watched haven’t demonstrated any level of originality or creativity. After a while, well, yes, I start assuming things. Anyhow, I don’t exactly remember how or why we decided to give the show a try, but I do know that we started watching 4 seasons in. I was hooked during the very first episode. Catherine O'Hara is amazing! Her weird accent, her wigs, her mannerism, are all priceless and her character will go down history as one of the greatest. The sitcom is now a few episodes short from its series finale and I cannot wait to see how it goes. I’ll be sad I won’t get to see all these colorful characters anymore, but I’ll be glad I caught on soon enough to live it with everyone!

Well, that’s it! If you haven’t watched any of the movies or TV shows yet, for the same reasons I did, may I suggest that you take the time to give them a chance. We may not have the same tastes, but you might discover something new! You never know.

Until next time, enjoy!

Great romantic comedies that are not (all that) corny

Anyone who’s close to me knows I’ve never been a big fan of romantic comedies. I tend to find most of them tacky, unrealistic and just plain ridiculous. Pretty Woman, When Harry met Sally, You’ve got mail, Sweet Home Alabama, and the likes never really resonated with me. That being said, it doesn’t mean that I hate the genre all together. Since today is Valentines Day, my Internet feed is filled with rom-com recommendations, and since I disagree with most of these lists, I decided to make my own.

Here are a few romantic comedies I really enjoyed and found not all that corny!

The big Sick

Written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, and loosely based on their romantic life, The Big Sick is a beautiful and hilarious film about cultural differences and interracial relationships. Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, the film follows Kumail, a struggling comedian of Pakistani descent who is split between pleasing his very traditional parents and his desire to live a more western lifestyle, and Emily, a white student he falls for. Their relationship started off great until Emily realizes that Kumail hid their relationship from his family, who are still trying to fix him up with other Pakistani women. As Emily suddenly fell ill and slipped in a coma, Kumail contacts her parents and stays by her side despite their break up and the palpable tension between him and the parents. The story is touching, authentic, funny, and puts forth something that is rarely in the movies, and that is the perspective and struggles of an individual from a very different culture than Americans. The movie showcases how difficult it can be for people from very traditional cultures who grew up in a Western environment to juggle the two worlds.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Several different story lines intertwine in this very funny film starring an all-star cast that includes Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, and Kevin Bacon. This film deals with many different aspects of relationships, from the perspectives of both men and women, and of different generations. A marriage falling apart and the former couple trying to go their separated ways to start new lives, two people falling in love and not knowing how to behave, teenagers trying to attract the attention of their crush, etc, are all themes that get a smart and brilliant treatment in Crazy, Stupid, Love. I also liked that in this movie, it is the guy that gets the makeover. He’s the one who has to take a long hard look at himself and he’s the one who reevaluates some of his decisions. I am, however, willing to overlook the fact that everyone in this film is so damn attractive and rich, but only because the writing and the acting is that good.

Bridesmaids

I think Bridesmaids is one of my favorite comedies ever. It’s hilarious, raunchy, real and a truly original all-female movie (don’t get me started on these lame all-female reboots of already existing movies). As if her life couldn’t get any worse, Annie, an out of work pastry chef, learns that Lillian, her best and probably only friend in the world, is getting married. Even worse, not only will she lose Lillian to the new groom, but she might also lose her to Helen, the rich, beautiful, and elite wife of the groom's boss, with whom Lillian has grown very close. Jealous of each other, Helen and Annie embark on a fierce competition to put the odd girl out of their friendship with Lillian. Annie’s life spirals out of control as nothing seems to work her way, and she alienates everyone around her, including a potential love interest. Directed by Paul Feig, written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, and produced by Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, and Clayton Townsend, Bridesmaids, no matter how many times I’ve watched it, never ceases to be entertaining.

Stranger than fiction

This is one wonderfully strange movie. Emma Thompson plays Karen, an author struck with writer’s block, and Will Ferrell is Harold, an IRS agent who woke up one morning, hearing a female voice narrating his every movements. Little did he know that he is a character in Karen’s latest book. Harold soon fall for Ana, a woman he’s auditing but he also faces a conundrum as the omniscient voice that only he can hear, predicted his looming death. In fact, Karen faces writer’s block as she cannot find a proper way to kill off Harold. Stranger than fiction is funny, endearing, original, weird in a good way, and brilliantly played by its actors. If you’re looking for something different form the regular rom-coms, go for this film!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Written by and starring Jason Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is loosely based on one of his heartbreaks. Musician Peter Bretter is devasted and blindsided when his girlfriend, TV star Sarah Marshal, leaves him. He tries to get over the breakup by booking a trip to Hawaii only to end up at the same resort as his ex-girlfriend and her new lover. Filled with hilarious side characters, this movie is highly entertaining as there is never a moment when you won’t laugh. The Dracula puppet show alone, is a good reason to watch this film!

500 days of summer

This film kinda has a corny ending but I’m willing to let it go because it’s actually pretty great. 500 Days of Summer is about two very different persons who, despite their contrasting personalities, try to make it work. Tom, a writer for a greetings card company, recollects the past year or so that he spent with Summer, his boss’ assistant, and the events that led to their breakup. Their story is real, sad, funny, endearing, clumsy and it’s hard to look away from such a tremendous film.

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain is, in my opinion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s best film. Set in Paris, this whimsical, colorful movie is about a very shy young waitress, Amélie, who, despite her isolation, decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while also trying to elucidate a photo booth mystery. When it was released, the motion picture became an instant international hit, winning a whole lot of awards and was then parodied and/or plagiarized so many times that we became saturated. There was a time when I could not bare to listen or see anything that resembled Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain because there was too much of it! Nonetheless, it shows what a powerful movie it was and despite people’s eye rolls now, we should not forget the film’s influence and we must admit that it is indeed, a very good and beautiful movie.

Enough said

Most romantic comedies are about young beautiful people falling in love. Enough Said is refreshing in that it’s about a romance between two middle aged adults : a divorced woman, played by Julie Louis-Dreyfus, starts a relationship with a man, portrayed by James Gandolfini, she really likes while at the same time becoming friends with his ex-wife. Both actors are charming and authentic, making the film a delight to watch.

Up In the Air

Written and directed by Jason Reitman and based on the novel by the same title, Up In The Air is about Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer who is constantly on the road, conducting layoffs on behalf of employers. As he’s on the road showing the ropes to a new coworker, he meets another frequent flyer and they begin a relationship. A man whose life is spent in the air, who strives in a form of isolation, suddenly faces drastic changes both professionally and in his personal life.

Scott Pilgrim vs the world

Based on the graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim, and co-written, produced and directed by Edgar Wright, the film is about Scott Pilgrim, a musician who must win a competition to get a record deal while at the same time battle the seven evil exes of his newest girlfriend Ramona Flowers. Mixing video game visuals into the cinematography made this fast-paced, hyperactive movie a whole lot of fun to watch. Though a commercial failure, Scott Pilgrim vs The World later gained a well deserved cult following. Highly entertaining, original and totally meta. What’s not to like?

The classics

Of course, there are these timeless classics (and no, I’m still not talking about Sleepless in Seattle or whatever) that never disappoint and to which we can always go back :

• Annie Hall

• Love Actually

• Four weddings and a funeral

• As good as it gets

The runner ups

And there are also other great rom-coms that are great to watch but somehow not good enough make the cut:

• Man up

• Cuban fury

• Knocked up

• Run fatboy run

• The 40 year old virgin

Well, that’s it! Not bad, after all, for someone who doesn’t like romantic comedies!

Underrated sci-fi movies everyone should watch

I want to talk about science-fiction movies today. There are some incredible and epic sci-fi movies, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner, The Matrix, and so much more, that will be remembered for generations, but I feel like there’s a whole lot of amazing science-fiction films out there that are not taken into consideration because they don’t have mind-blowing special effects or because they were not huge blockbusters. These little gems flew under most people’s radar and that’s a great shame. Five of such movies will be discussed bellow. Smart, innovative, prophetic sometimes, they deserve to be watched.

Primer

Released in 2004, this low-budget movie is probably one of the smartest, most complex, mind-boggling time-travel films that have been made. Intended to be seen, then seen again to be thoroughly understood, Primer is about 2 friends, both engineers, who have managed to create a machine that can freeze objects from the effects of gravity. They soon realize that the objects were frozen from the effects of time as well. Using this construct, they built themselves time travel machines to get richer with stock exchanges. Of course, things get freaky when unexpected interference messes up their timelines. This brilliant film was shot over a span of 5 weeks, with a budget of 7 000$, and a crew of 5 people. Shane Carruth, who plays one of the main characters, is the film’s writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor and music composer. Primer went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance film festival. Despite that, most people have never heard of it.

Ex-Machina

This beautifully made film about artificial intelligence by Alex Garland is both fascinating and frightening. A programmer wins a contest for a one-week visit to the isolated home of his billionaire boss and creator of the world’s most powerful search engine. As it turns out, this stay is to test his boss’ new project, humanoids equipped with artificial intelligence. The young programmer is to spend time with Ava to determine whether she is genuinely capable of thought and consciousness despite knowing she is artificial. As the days go by, he grows more uncomfortable at the isolated location, not knowing his strange boss’ intentions and who to trust or what to believe.

Safety not guaranteed

A journalist and his 2 interns investigate a weird classified ad that reads: “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before”. The person behind the ad is Kenneth Calloway, a paranoid man who wants to go back to the year 2001 to prevent his then girlfriend from being killed. Darius, one of the journalist’s interns, gains his trust and becomes a candidate to follow him in his mission. Though not perfect, this 2012 sci-fi romantic comedy is funny, quirky, original, endearing and films like that are not made anymore.

Colossal

This film starring Anne Hathaway and Andy Sudeikis was not what I expected it to be, and it was awesome. Gloria, an unemployed young writer returns to her hometown after her fed up boyfriend breaks up with her and kicks her out of his apartment. Upon her return, she reconnects with her childhood friend Oscar who now owns a bar. After a while, she discovers that she is inexplicably linked to a giant monster who is wreaking havoc halfway across the world. The film makes us believe it will go towards some romantic comedy clichés before leading us in a whole other path. The ending is a bit disappointing but the film as a whole is refreshingly different and very entertaining.

Idiocracy

Far from being a perfect movie, Idiocracy should be seen as a brilliant sketch scifi comedy rather than a film as a whole. Though tanked by its own studio, the film, thanks to DVD viewership, became a cult classic. I want to mention it here because still a lot of people haven’t heard of it yet and it is a great shame. Funny then and prophetic now, Idiocracy is a time travel comedy about an average man who participated in a secret government experiment on hibernation and accidentally wakes up 500 years in the future. Society in the dystopian universe he wakes up in has degraded to a point where he, a man of average, if not below-average intelligence in the 2oth century, became the smartest man in the world. Hyper-commercialism, illiteracy, anti-intellectualism and just plain apathy has become the norm, and as a result, the world is falling apart. Idiocracy contains some brilliant flashes of comedic genius, and its actors are plain and simply incredible. Terry Crews as the president of the United States is hilarious. Though a laugh-out-loud comedy then, the movie has foreseen so many things back then that, sadly, it’s practically become a documentary. This is one of my favorite comedies of all time, despite all its flaws. A must for everyone. I included one of my favorite scenes from the movie, below.

If you haven’t seen any of the 5 mentioned above, please do and you will not be disappointed!

Horror films for a great Halloween movie night

Updated on October 30, 2021.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Not because I enjoy dressing up in costumes (I don’t), trick or treating (my parents never cared for it so we never participated in such activity) or putting up “scary” decorations around the house (such a hassle!). No. I like Halloween because I get to purchase then eat huge bags of mini candy bars and horror movies play non stop on TV. I love, love, love horror movies! There is nothing better than the thrill of getting scared. So, every October, we binge watch a whole lot of scary movies ranging from the all-time classics to the B-level types, to the laughably ridiculous. That’s the great thing about these films, even the poorly made ones are good!

If you’re planning a Halloween movie night, you could, of course, go for a marathon of the Halloween, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. That’s always a winner. Personally, I feel like I’ve seen them too often now and grew a bit tired of them. I’m giving myself a break from them for a couple of years. If you feel the same way and are looking for something else to watch on Halloween night, here’s a small list of recommendations.

Horror comedies

Let’s start light. Horror movies can scare you as well as make you laugh! Who ever said it should one or the other? There’s a whole bunch of great horror comedies out there. Click on the link to see a clip:

• Bettlejuice : a classic!

• What we do in the shadows : a film crew follows four vampire roommates who share a house in New Zealand and documents their daily life and struggles.

• The cabin in the woods : a group of friends spend their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest, but the cabin actually turns out to be an underground laboratory.

• Zombieland : 4 strangers travel across the US, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

• The final girls : a group of friends attend the screening of a cult B-horror movie and somehow become trapped in it.

• Happy death day : a college student relives her birthday (and her murder) again and again until she figures out who’s trying to kill her.

• Extra ordinary : a shy driving instructor reluctantly uses her supernatural talents to help a widow save his daughter’s soul from a has-been rock star who practices black magic to regain fame.

• The babysitter : a young boy spies on his babysitter one night to see what she does in his house once he’s fallen asleep, only to realize that she’s part of a satanic sect.

• Save yourselves! : a couple decides to go on a technology-free retreat only to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no survival skills, in the midst of an invasion by a strange pouf-like alien species.

But my personal favorite will always be Shaun of the Dead! I’ve written a post about the Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the dead being the first installment) some time last year, so you can read about the film here.

Found footage

This is probably the category I like the least (along with slashers), because the moving camera makes me dizzy and nauseous all the time! That being said, I included it anyways because some films are worthwhile:

• Rec (the original Spanish version) : The military decided to seal off an apartment building after an elderly woman, afflicted with a strange disease, attacked and bit the neck of a policemen. Residents, firemen and a camera crew following the firemen, are all stuck inside.

• Unfriended : this is not technically a found footage horror but it’s more like an adaptation of one. Live screen shots are used as a group of friends skype while being taunted online by what appears the ghost of a friend who committed suicide after a humiliating video goes viral.

• The Visit : a brother and sister spend a week with their maternal grandparents, whom they’ve never met before, while their mother is on vacation with her boyfriend. This is another adaptation of the found footage genre, where the sister films everything as part of a documentary she wants to make. The grandparents are beyond creepy.

These films are fine and have their moments, but none of them are as effective and memorable as Paranormal Activity (the first film). I am not easily scared by horror movies but this one stuck with me. This film understands that you do not have to show the monster for an effective scare, quite the contrary! Leave everything to the viewer’s imagination! The Blair Witch Project is not in my list. Despite the fact that it started the whole found footage movement, I never liked that film.

B-Horror movies

Now these movies are the most fun to watch because most of them (but not all of them!) are so bad they’re good. Bad acting, illogical plot, pointless nudity, cheap special effects… what’s not to like?

• Chopping mall : a group of friends spend the night partying in the shopping mall where they work. Unfortunately for them, the mall’s new high-tech security system is turning on them. Shopping, chopping… get it?

• They live : the ruling class is actually made of aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and live in subservience with subliminal messages in mass media. The only way to see things as they really are is by looking through special sunglasses.

• Patrick (1978 Australian version) : Patrick, a murderer in a comatose state, terrorizes a hospital staff with his telekinesis abilities. The guy’s pretty creepy.

• The Stuff : a former FBI agent is hired to investigate a highly popular but mysterious yogurt-like and addictive product called The Stuff. He soon discovers that the substance is actually a living, parasitic, and possibly sentient organism that gradually takes over the brain. The film started out great but kind off fell through at the end. Nonetheless, a very entertaining film!

• Zero boys : this film makes no sense what so ever! But at the same time, it’s one of the most entertaining movie I’ve seen in a while! It’s basically about a group of paintball champions who make a trip into the forest with their girlfriends. They heard a woman scream and followed the noise to an empty cabin where a killer (or killers) is waiting for them.

All the above mentioned films are extremely entertaining and guarantee a great night. But my personal favorite is The Re-Animator. Cannot get more B-Horror than this! It has everything: a brilliant mad scientist, fluorescent green liquids, zombie killers, over acting, gore, and of course, nudity!

The classics

These are the timeless masterpieces that are, for the most of them, considered among the best movies ever, all genres considered, not just horror. You can see the movie’s trailer by clicking on the link but I didn’t feel that summaries are needed here, as they are quintessential works of art that are probably already known by everyone.

• The Shining

• Psycho

• Poltergeist

• Suspiria (original version)

• The Thing

The one classic that has a special place for me is The exorcist. It’s by far one of my favorite movies of all time and it triggered my lifelong fascination with possessions and the paranormal.

More scary movies

So I tried to bundle my movie recommendations by genres but some movies don’t exactly fit just one category and then I got tired of trying to figure out how to organize them. So here are a few more horror films that are worth a watch. Though they all do have flaws, they also provide some very efficient scares.

• Insidious : a couple originally thought their house was haunted until they realize that it’s their son. The movie has some seriously scary scenes but it kind of fell flat towards the end. The sequels are really not worth a watch.

• The Ring : a journalist investigates a cursed videotape that seemingly kills the viewer seven days after watching it. The movie did not exactly age well but I still remember the first time I saw it at the movies. It seriously creeped me out!

• The Exorcism of Emily Rose : a young woman died in her parents’ home after a failed exorcism. The priest who performed the exorcism was arrested and the film is about his trial. We see two very different interpretations of the same event : was Emily Rose really possessed by demons or was she an epileptic who was the victim of an extreme case of negligent homicide?

• Jacob’s ladder : I only saw Jacob’s ladder once, several years ago, when I was still little, but the film has a long lasting effect on me. For a long time, it gave me nightmares. The film is about a Vietnam veteran who’s afflicted with strange and nightmarish visions and hallucinations.

• The 6th Sense : a child psychologist tries to help a young boy who sees dead people. The film was great but the down side is that once we know the twist at the end, it’s hard to watch it again.

• The lodge : after their mother’s suicide, two children have to spend the holidays with their soon-to-be step-mother, in the family’s remote cabin.

• The Invisible Man : a remake of the classic where a woman is convinced that the abusive tech tycoon boyfriend she ran away from is stalking her, even though everybody thinks he died of suicide.

• Fear street : This trilogy is not perfect but it was still a thrill to watch. The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of a witch’s curse on a small town and its inhabitants.

Finally, my favorite recent horror film has to be It Follows. It is a slow paced, creepy and original movie about a young woman who is pursued by a mysterious supernatural entity that was passed on to her after a sexual encounter. This is the sort of psychological thrillers we don’t get much of nowadays.

TV shows

While we’re at it, why not add a few TV shows worth your while?

• The Haunting of Hill House : The story takes place in two timelines, depicting the characters’ childhood in Hill House and then the effects their experiences in that house had on their adult selves. The ending was pretty terrible but the first episodes had some terrific moments and awesome effects that make the series watch-worthy.

• Castle Rock : The story takes place in Castle Rock, Maine, and borrows multiple characters, storylines, and concepts from the vast works of Stephen King.

• Stranger Things : With the much anticipated 4th season coming up in 2022, Stranger Things was an instant classic. They almost lost me with a very weak second season, but the follow-up was very strong and exiting to watch. Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

• What we do in the shadows : there’s nothing scary here but this sitcom about a bunch of vampires living together is probably one of the best comedies I’ve seen in the past few years. This is the TV adaptation of the movie by the same title, mentioned above, in the comedy horror section.

• Evil : this show is not very good but it’s a guilty pleasure of mine!

• And of course, let’s not forget some of the classics : The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Unsolved Mysteries.

Well, I think that’s it! You must have noticed that a whole lot of films were left out. I purposely did not mention slashers and gore movies because they really are not my cup of tea. Torture porn is not what I consider good horror.

Having said that, hope you'll have a terrifying yet entertaining Halloween night!

Five books that deserved much better movie adaptations

There is no better feeling than getting lost in a great book, and there is nothing more infuriating than watching a botched movie adaptation of one of your favorite novels. So frustrating. I used to be exited to learn that a book I enjoyed reading is about to be adapted for the big screen, but with time, I’ve become more weary and cynical.

I understand that because of their visual aspects, films could never fully respect the book’s story line and that some details must be left out or modified. I am fine with that. The Lord of the Ring trilogy omitted a lot of the books’ elements but it did not really matter because in essence, the overall story was left untarnished. What bothers me is shameless rewriting, over-reliance on special effects over story or plain simply, bad directorial work. This is my issue with the five films bellow. They ruined the book. A good movie adaptation must allow the reader to relive the book he or she enjoyed reading so much, and it must also give the viewer who’s never read the book the urge to go and do so.

Annihilation

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is the first volume of the Southern Reach trilogy. The books are suspenseful page turners about a secret agency, the Southern Reach, that observes and studies the anomalies surrounding Area X, an undisclosed region that was suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by a mysterious invisible and growing border. Eleven expeditions were sent through that border and all the surviving members that came back had no recollection of the events that occurred on the other side and eventually died of cancer or by suicide. Annihilation follows the 12th expedition, comprised four women: a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist and a surveyor. All four members of the expedition remain nameless throughout the whole book. The main character is a biologist whose husband was part of the 11th expedition and she is there to investigate what happened to him. As the women wander into the eerie Area X and its strange ecosystem, fear, paranoia and distrust set in. The book masterfully creates an atmosphere of discomfort and malaise while at the same time titillating the reader’s imagination and sense of wonder. Volumes 2 and 3 of the series focus on the members of the Southern Reach because they too are affected by Area X.

The film adaptation by Alex Garland rewrote the story in ways that tarnished the book. First of all, the characters had names for some reason and there was also an extra character. The fact that the characters were nameless in the book, with virtually no back stories, somehow added to the eeriness. Giving them names and pre-excursion dialogues tames the whole mood. Then, they felt the need to explain where and how the area came to be (an asteroid… How original!) whereas no explanation would be so much more effective! But that’s not it! The movie changed the name of the area (the Shimmer instead of Area X), the setting of the area itself (absolutely no mention of the spiral pit and its Crawler in the movie), created new monsters and changed the ending. As a result the film is nothing like the book it is supposedly adapting.

Though critically acclaimed for its visual prowess and the actresses’ performances, I still consider the film an affront to Vandermeer’s books. And I was not at all that impressed with the visuals the director went with either.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

By far one of the smartest, funniest, most original and best sci-fi books ever! But also very difficult to adapt. The book, as well as the movie, is about Arthur Dent, an Earth man who suddenly lost his home planet because an alien race, the Vogons, needed to pave the way for an intergalactic highway. He is saved at the last minute by his friend Ford Prefect who, as it turned out, is not an out-of-work actor but an alien researcher for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, an extensive guide on all the planets in the universe. Together, they embark on a wild series of adventures in space, with Zaphod Bettlebrox the president of the galaxy and Trillian, a human woman Arthur once met at a party.

Rife with incredible humor and prophetic imagination, the book is a joy to read. When the movie came out, I was so excited but that excitement quickly waned as I watched the film. So many talented actors were cast and yet, the whole thing just fell short. Sure, some elements of the books were present but the director just could not piece them together to recreate the mood and personality of the books. The whole movie felt and looked incredibly cheap. It’s a shame. A great shame.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite books growing up, and I loved Disney’s 1951 animated adaptation. That book triggered my love for the fantastic and the anomalous. It made me dream of a different world, a more exciting one from this monotonous reality we’re all living in. Disney’s animation transformed the book into images and it was absolutely magical. Fast forward to 2010 and we get Tim Burton’s version. It was so bad I didn’t even finish the film. Tim Burton did not bother to take the time to tell a story or to communicate any emotion what so ever. He overly relied on special effects (poorly executed at that), extravagant make up and costumes, as well as on his two favorite actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. The over acting was painful to watch. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are merely the shadow of the brilliant artists they once were, and that saddens me terribly. What happened to the Tim Burton who made timeless classics such as Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Mars Attacks? What’s more, even though the film is called Alice in Wonderland, Burton’s version seems to be a sequel to the book, as Alice is back in Wonderland but doesn’t remember anyone, and goes through everything we went through the first time she was in Wonderland… What’s the whole point of the movie, you ask? There’s none.

By the way, if you want to see a fantastic and really interesting film adaption of Alice in Wonderland, check out Alice by Jan Svankmajer. I included a brief excerpt bellow. It’s a live action film mixed with stop motion featuring stuffed animals. Dark yet beautiful, the film embodies the sense of wonder and disorientation of the book.

World War Z

World War Z, the novel by Max Brooks is one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. It’s terrifying, suspenseful, cold, scientific and most of all, so realistic that we could forget it’s fiction. The only thing the film has in common with the book is the title. I’m not saying the film starring Brad Pitt is bad, though. I’m stating that the film should not be called World War Z as it had absolutely no similarity with the book it was supposed to be adapting. There is no main character in the book. The story, spanning across several years, is pretty much a compilation of testimonials from around the world that allows the reader to piece together the series of events that lead humanity to the brink of extinction. The book focuses a lot on the living, its humanity or lack thereof, and how they deal with impending doom, rather than on the zombies. The film, on the other hand, not only puts the spotlight right on the living dead, turns them into an unstoppable wall of fast-moving, terrifying colony, but also relies on a single main character, Gerry Lane, to investigate the epidemic in order to find out where it came from and how to cure it. As for the “cure”, the book’s solution to ending the zombie outbrake is extremely complex, beyond macabre and bone chilling. The solution is so terrifying because of how realistic it is: there is no easy, clear solution, like a magical vaccine. Nations disagree as to what to do: attack with what’s left of the survivors and resources or wait and see if we can outlast the zombies? Is it humane to use living humans as bait in order to lure and destroy the zombies? The movie went with ** spoiler ** ** spoiler ** the vaccine…

Watchmen

Contrary to the four previous cases, I saw Watchmen the movie before I read the comic. There was much hype and controversy around the cinematic adaptation and I did not know why so many people were so exited for the film to be produced. The hype, the incessant TV interviews or news articles about it, the stellar cast, the trailer made the adaptation seem interesting so I went and watched it. I could not believe my eyes how bad the experience was. What the hell was that? Then came all the fan outrage. They, like me, were not happy with the movie. But then, the whole situation piqued my curiosity. I had never heard of Watchmen and yet, there seems to be whole lot of people who are obsessed with it. How did such a big part of pop culture elude me all this time? That’s when I decided to check the comic out at the library and that’s when I became a member of the comic’s fan club. That book is epic and there is no wonder why it found itself on Time’s top 100 greatest novels of all time, in 2005. Damon Lindelof decided to adapt the comic for television, and the series will premiere some time in 2019, on HBO. I saw the trailers and was not that impressed. I will give the series a try, of course, but chances are that I will probably not continue to watch beyond episode 2. Or, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised! We never know.

If you’ve seen the films above and did not have a good time, do give the book a try. These adaptations do not, in any way, represent their literary counterpart!

Top 5 best alien invasion movies

Alien invasion movies, along with ghost stories, are my guilty pleasures. I love them because they are highly entertaining but also because a part of me really wants to believe in their existence. When we think about alien invasion movies, the first titles that come to mind usually are Independence Day or Men in Black, both great and enjoyable blockbusters, but there are other movies, better ones, out there for us to enjoy.

I’ve decided to compile a list of my top 5 favorite alien invasion movies for you guys to enjoy this summer.

Edge of Tomorrow

Not only did Edge of Tomorrow manage to pull off the “Groundhog day” gimmick but it is also a complex and highly entertaining movie. Starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, the film takes place somewhere in the future, where an alien race has invaded a good part of Europe, and the weary humans are quickly losing the battle against these seemingly undefeatable extraterrestrials. A PR officer is forced into battle and despite having been killed in combat, he wakes up to find himself reliving the events of the previous morning, leading up to his death. Stuck in a time loop, he must find a way to improve his fighting skills and kill the invading aliens.

Signs

Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but the man knows how to build up a suspense. Signs is the second movie he released after The Sixth Sense, probably his last hit before a long drought, and although The Sixth Sense is his most popular film, I tend to prefer Signs because the whole story almost entirely takes place inside the house or on the property, which is quite a feat. The tension and the build up, intertwined with brief moments of humor, as well as the family dynamic brilliantly portrayed by Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, make this film pretty complete. The story is pretty simple: a widow wakes up one morning to realize that crop circles appeared on his corn field over night. Believing it to be a prank by the neighbors’ kids, he quickly brushed the anomaly aside. It did not take long, though, for him to face the hard truth that there are other-worldly visitors on Earth, and that he, his brother and his children, might be at risk.

District 9

District 9 is a masterful metaphor for the segregation, xenophobia and apartheid taking place in South Africa. Presented in a found footage format, the film is about the tension between the people of Johannesburg and the millions of stranded aliens whose ship broke down in this area of the Earth. The aliens, derogatively called Prawns by the locals, were placed in a camp called District 9 but, over the years, the zone becomes a slum and the people of Johannesburg are increasingly less tolerant of this alien species they consider pests. For that reason, the government decided to relocate the Prawns to a new camp, further outside of the city. Wikus, the main character, works for the company hired for the task, and, after an altercation resulting in an injury in one of the alien’s shack, he slowly starts to mutate into a Prawn. Taking refuge in District 9, he finally understands what it’s like to be segregated, mistreated, disrespected.

The World’s End

The World’s End is the third and final installment of the Cornetto trilogy, and also the weirdest film of the three. Unlike the previous movies I mentioned, this one if a full blown comedy, directed by Edgar Wright, written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring, among others, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman and Rosamund Pike. A lonely, depressive and suicidal man convinces his four estranged childhood friends to return to their home village to complete “the golden mile”, a beer binge throughout 12 pubs, ending with The World’s End. Upon their return, they realize that all the villagers had been replaced by blue-blooded robot-like creatures. The film may not be as good as Shaun of the Dead but it does guaranty a good time.

Attack the Block

Now this is my new favorite alien invasion movie! I kept the best for last with Attack the Block. Starring, among others, John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker in their debut film, the story is basically about a group of teenagers protecting their South London neighborhood from a brutal alien invasion. It may not sound like much but the dialogues are witty and harsh, the alien monsters are impressively made and the whole film is everything it should be: entertaining, enthralling and exciting.

The Classics

The five movies mentioned above can be considered my top 5 favorite “new” alien invasion movies, but there are, of course, the classics, the ones that never go out of styles, the ones we can always go back to.

• The Thing

• Invasion of the body snatchers (1978)

• Alien (though not technically an alien invasion movie since it takes place in space…)

• They live (just for the incredible one-liner!)

The runner-ups

There are a few movies I did enjoy but not exactly made the cut, either because of the terrible ending or plot holes or whatnot. They nonetheless deserve a mention here:

• Arrival (kudos for the originality of the aliens and their language)

• 10 Cloverfield lane (should have stayed with the “is there or is there not an alien invasion” plot line)

• War of the worlds

So this should cover a summer’s worth of alien movies, and of course, you should top it all off with Men in Black and Independence Day (just the first movies of their franchise!). They are, after all, really good summer blockbusters!

The Cornetto trilogy (aka Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, aka Blood and Ice Cream trilogy)

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are, in my opinion, the best modern-day comedy duo that we have. They have worked on a total of 8 movies together and the incredible chemistry they share with each other probably stems from the fact that they are long time best friends in real life. Add Edgar Wright to the duo and you get comedy gold like the Cornetto trilogy. The movies were co-written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, directed by Wright and co-stared by Pegg and Frost.

While none of the films are about ice cream, the frozen treat is a running gag in all 3 movies, hence the Cornetto trilogy. It's also, according to Edgar Wright, the best hang over remedy there is. Three movies, three flavors: strawberry for Shaun of the dead (red for zombies),  the original blue wrapper Cornetto for Hot fuzz (blue for the police reference) and mint for The World's end (green for aliens). The Cornetto is also among the few elements binding the three movies together because there are no recurring characters despite the fact that Pegg and Frost star in all three films. In each feature they play different characters, with different names and different personalities, living different lives. And yet, you could watch them all in one sitting and find nothing wrong with it. Why? Because the movies are hilarious, extremely well-written and produced, and the strong bond between Frost and Pegg make their characters exceptionally endearing.

Shaun of the dead

Shaun of the dead is a romantic zombie comedy about Shaun, an unfocused salesman who is trying to win his girlfriend's love back in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Along the way, he also has to drag around his deadbeat friend, his girlfriend's annoying roommates and save his mother from zombie attacks. 

The idea for the film originated during the production of episode of Spaced, a British TV show Wright, Pegg and Frost worked on. During that particular episode, Pegg's character spent the whole night playing video games and started hallucinating that he was fighting zombies for real. It was at that moment that Wright thought of doing a whole feature about zombies. It was a brilliant idea because the film became an instant hit and cult-favorite. Though a comedy, Shaun of the dead is one of the best homages to the classic post-apocalyptic zombie movies like Night of the living dead. The film itself became, in my opinion, a classic.

Hot fuzz

After the hit that was Shaun of the dead, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg teamed up again to write Hot Fuzz. 

Hot fuzz is a buddy cop comedy about Nicholas Angel, a Metropolitan police officer who is so good at everything that he makes his colleagues look bad. To remedy the situation, his superiors decided to "promote" him to the position of sergeant and transfer him to a small village, Sandford, in Gloucester. Sandford is statistically known as the safest village in the country. They hadn't had a murder in over 20 years and their biggest problems seem to revolve around a swan that's escaped. Angel had trouble adapting to his new slow-paced environment when he noticed something extremely odd about his new home: while the murder rate is very low, the accidents, on the other hand, are suspiciously frequent. No one wants to believe his conspiracy theories, except for his action-movie-obsessed partner. Together, they investigate the recent strings of fatal "accidents" that seem to befall on some residents.

Although I consider this film the weakest of the three, I must admit that it does possess a few comedy gems and is still worth a watch. 

The World's end

The World's End is the final installment of the Cornetto trilogy and by far the most "meta" of the 3 films!

The World'd End is a science-fiction comedy about Gary King, a depressed middle-aged man who is trying to reconnect with his estranged friends by revisiting the glory days of their childhood. To do so, he convinced them to return to their hometown in order to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl of 12 pubs. One pint of beer in each pub. 

Upon their return, they couldn't help but feel like strangers in their own childhood village. At first, they thought that it was because they hadn't been there in a while, but they soon realized that it's because the village's inhabitants were all taken over by blue-blooded robot-like aliens. Despite this traumatizing discovery, they are still trying to complete the Golden Mile. While they're there, why the hell not?

While Shaun of the dead is an homage to the post-apocalyptic zombie movie, and Hot fuzz to the buddy-cop movie, The World's end pays reverence to body-snatcher films. It is also the movie that demanded a much bigger dramatic performance from its actors. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost delivered effortlessly. 

Reccuring themes

The Cornetto ice creams, obviously. In Shaun of the dead, Nick Frost's character groggily requested a Cornetto at the beginning of the film and Simon Pegg went out to purchase one at the convenience store without even once realizing that there are zombies around him. In Hot Fuzz, the 2 cops would often snack on these cones. And in The World's end, a Cornetto wrapper briefly flies in front of the characters towards the end of the film.

Fence jumping, for some reason. Poorly executed fence jumping, to be exact. The characters often try to jump over a fence as a short cut and fall over or break the fence.

Edgar Wright often explained that his 3 movie are about the dangers of perpetual adolescence. The theme is portrayed by Pegg in Shaun of the dead and The World's End, but it was Nick Frost's character that embodied the theme in Hot Fuzz. 

And finally, gore. The murder scenes and fight scenes are all extremely bloody. But when it's well done and fits the context, I'm fine with it.

All three movies are exceptional and deserve to be seen, remembered and appreciated.