Reviews

Ryan Kiera Armstrong gets to flex her acting muscles playing Charlene Roberta McGhee aka Charlie in "Firestarter." She is a very strong young girl who knows her own mind and is struggling to control her very frightening firestarting abilities. Charlie doesn't want to kill anyone much like Drew Barrymore's Charlie in the 1984 movie. I do think Zac Efron and Sydney Lemmon as Andy and Vicky, Charlie's parents surpass David Keith and Heather Locklear in the 1984 movie, though. When Andy uses his push in this movie, the pain he goes through with bloody eyes seems more realistic than the head clutching David Keith did. Vicky actually uses her telekinesis against John Rainbird in this treatment. Heather Locklear did not seem to have any telekinetic powers at all.

I was unsure about Captain Hollister being a woman in this movie, but Gloria Reuben made an excellent villainess who wanted to harness Charlie's extraordinary powers. Kurtwood Smith as the evil Dr. Wanless who started Lot 6 proves he can play a villain even though everyone remembers him on "That 70s Show." I was glad Michael Greyeyes a real Native American play John Rainbird. Having the late George C. Scott play this character in redface seemed offensive and not real!

The special effects with fire were much better than the ones in the 1984 movie. I thought the bond Charlie had with her parents was strong like the bond Charlie had with them in the classic novel. I felt the struggles Andy and Vicky had in raising Charlie were better represented in this movie and the 1980 novel than in the 1984 movie!

I watched the tragic case of the lesbian Hart couple, Jennifer and Sarah Hart and their six adopted black children. Jen and Sarah were 2 white women who were married to each other. Instead of giving their adopted children a good home, these two women abused them horribly. One daughter climbed out of the window of the family home at 1:30 am and ran to the neighbor's house to tell them how horrible her mothers were. The female neighbor's father called the authorities a few days later and told them his fears for the Hart children. Nothing was investigated. A son snuck out of the house and asked the neighbors for food because the moms withheld food as punishment.

It was all a ruse on Jen and Sarah's part. They paraded the children around at protests and music festivals and the kids all had to smile and act happy. These children were very thin and small for their ages.

The complaints to CPS led the women to do the unthinkable. They drugged themselves and the kids with Benadryl and took off in the family SUV. Jennifer was drunk and she drove the vehicle off a cliff into the ocean. All occupants were killed.

Friends of the women defended these two abusers in the documentary. That is sick! They killed 6 children who were innocent!

Charles and Caroline are thrilled because Caroline is expecting baby number 4. Charles has his heart set on a boy and gets his wish granted. They name their only son Charles Frederick Ingalls and all are thrilled, but not Laura! She wanted a girl. I think the RL Laura loved her sisters very much and was probably thrilled he was a boy. She was a rough and tough girl who wanted a sibling who wasn't a girly girl like Mary was. Caroline on the show corrects Mary when the girl calls the baby Freddie because Mr. Edwards did. The girls call him Charles. This is so wrong! This baby who lived only 9 months was called by his middle name by his older sisters. Laura grieved his death and never wrote about what happened in her children's books because the pain of Freddie's loss was so great! She wrote about him in her other writings. She never ran away after he died or felt guilt over his death because she didn't pray for him. She felt great sorrow as they all did. There were no other boys after Freddie in the family. Laura lost her newborn son and her grandson. I think there was something in the genetic makeup of this family that made boys die very young and girls die as grownups.

I remember reading Charles Dickens in school and I don't think he dropped the f-bomb in anything he wrote. That being said, I wonder how the man and his living relatives would feel about the word being used casually by everyone in this movie. Ebenezer Scrooge, his equally greedy business partner, Jacob Marley and even Bob Cratchit's wife use the word. Two things about Mary Cratchit, she is black and has powers to summon the spirits who will visit Scrooge. The mission of the spirits is to get Scrooge into the Christmas spirit so he and Marley won't be stuck in purgatory wearing chains. Scrooge does say "Bah, humbug" along with the f-bombs. The profanity is not the worst part. The shocking violence and sexual perversions are. When he was a boy, Ebenezer had a drunken, abusive father who killed the boy's pet mouse and beat him. The mother was ill and Ebenezer's older sister, Lottie took him under her wing. Ebenezer was placed in boarding school and molested by his teacher. Instead of paying tuition fees, Ebenezer's father arranged to keep the boy with the perverted teacher every Christmas. Lottie rescued him and removed him from the school. When he grew up, Ebenezer became an unethical businessman who, along with Marley did not care about their employees and caused their deaths because safety wasn't top priority. One of the companies they owned burned down. Scrooge employed Bob Cratchit and was awful to him. Bob and Mary had a little boy named Tim who was ill. He needed surgery and Scrooge told Mary on Christmas Eve he would give her money for the surgery in exchange for sexual favors. Scrooge changed his mind and this enraged Mary. I think Guy Pearce as Scrooge did a good job, but this movie shows so much ugliness that when his moral transformation comes about, it feels a bit hollow. I mean, there wasn't a scene with Scrooge telling a young boy to buy the biggest bird for the Cratchit family. I just don't think profanity and shocking violence has a place in Christmas movies. I give this movie props for not washing how hard life was when Charles Dickens was alive but the violence should have been toned down.

Since 1991 I thought that Robert "Bob" Mays was a wonderful father to his non-biological daughter Kimberly. All that changed when Kim at age 41 admitted to the world her guardian Robert Mays beat her and called her names. At age 14 when she talked about divorcing her birth parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg to Barbara Walters she said he was great to her and never abused her. Back then she was a young girl who was scared of Bob Mays and now that she is grown and he is dead, she can tell the truth. I am sad this is what has been revealed about Bob Mays. I suppose this is proof that mean people can help create wonderful children like Arlena Twigg. This makes me wonder if Arlena approached her birth father in the Afterlife and asked why he hurt Kim?

This movie is based on an article a writer named Lloyd Vogel wrote about Fred Rogers. To be clear, Mr. Rogers was more than different colored cardigans, sneakers, and puppets. He taught children about important things like feelings, accepting themselves for who they are, divorce and death. Tom Hanks is flawless as Mr. Rogers. He has the voice and mannerisms down pat! In this movie, Mr. Rogers taught Lloyd to forgive his neglectful father before the man died. The always great Chris Cooper was the father. I do wish they had the fish tank and I looked for it. I also am curious if the miniature artist who worked on "Hereditary" provided his or her services to this movie for the miniatures? In a way, his movie has something in common with "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" with Elizabeth Mongomery as Lizzie. She and Lizzie were distant cousins and Tom Hanks and Fred Rogers were 6th cousins. I think Fred Rogers is watching Tom Hanks with approval from paradise because Tom's performance was that good!

My favorite story in this episode was the one about Bridget the smart fridge who came between Mitchell and Cam. It was priceless the way Mitchell said Bridget opened up new experiences to him (i.e., turkey sandwich with apples) and their karaoke of the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga duet from "A Star is Born" was excellent and funny! Bridget was like a therapist to Jay when he opened up to her about his dancing career his father didn't support. I did like the secondary story of Phil's obsession with "Snapped" and him thinking his real estate student Gloria was out to get the class pet killed. Gloria has proved to be ruthless in past episodes and Phil knew this. The story of Claire was a bit weaker but funny too!

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is absolutely great as a man society ignores and when people pay attention to him, they beat the living hell out of him! Arthur is a frustrated wanna be clown-comedian who has a neurological disorder that makes him laugh like crazy. I think the laughs cover the tears he cries. He is on 7 different meds and has to care for his bipolar mother, Penny (Frances Conway). I quote a little from "Cellophane Man" song from "Chicago"- people walk by Arthur and look right through him like he isn't there. In a way, I thought of John C. Reilly putting on white pancake in "Chicago" when Arthur was putting his pancake on. Amos Hart and Arthu Fleck are ignored and mistreated by people and you can see their pain. All of Arthur's frustrations come to a head when he and a woman are bullied by 3 drunk morons who work for Thomas Wayne, a wealthy man Penny worked for 30 years ago. These fools beat up Arthur on the subway and make fun of the clown costume he wears after he entertains sick kids at the hospital. Arthur shoots them with a gun he accidentally dropped at the hospital. Thomas Wayne is disturbed by the killings and wants to be mayor and clean up Gotham. Penny writes to him constantly about her and Arthur's living situation and writing about Arthur being Thomas's son. If so, the Joker and future Batman aka young Bruce Wayne are brothers. Unfortunately for Arthur, Thomas tells him he is not his father and Penny was mentally ill and adopted Arthur as a little boy. Her boyfriend abused little Arthur. Arthur smothers his hospitalized mother with a pillow and that is when Arthur dies and he becomes the Joker. In the middle of all this carnage, Arthur is invited to be on his idol Murray Franklin's (Robert Deniro) talk show only to be humiliated by the man. Murray shows his audience Arthur bombing out at a comedy show on a recording. Murray thinks the young man with the clown makeup will entertain everyone, but Arthur reveals what he did on the subway. He shoots Murray and takes off. There is anarchy on the streets of Gotham and the protesters in clown masks see the Joker as their leader. This exciting, rather gory movie is really about the Joker with the creation of Batman as an afterthought. Joaquin really stretched his acting ability to the limit and his performance overwhelmed me to the point I wanted to smoke a cigarette to calm down! I called down without smoking but it takes a great actor to overwhelm people with a oerformance!

When we last left the Losers Club, the six boys and one girl made a blood vow to come back to Derry, Maine to finally destroy the evil, shape-shifting clown, Pennywise. It was late summer 1989 when the vow was made and the children except lone black character Michael Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs as young Mike, Isaiah Mustafa as grown Mike) have left Derry. The club members are wildly successful except for poor Mike who has stayed in the cursed town and is waiting to see when and if the members will fulfill the oath they made as children. William aka Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Martell as young Bill, James McAvoy as grown Bill) is a very successful writer who is married to Audra (Jess Wexler). She is an actress who is staring in a movie based on one of Bill's books. Everyone agrees Bill is a good writer but they criticize his book endings. The lone girl, Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis as young Beverly, Jessica Chastain as grown Beverly) is a wonderful clothing designer married to Tom Rogan who abuses her horribly. Bill Hader is Richie Tozier the club comedian who doesn't write his own material. Finn Wolfhard plays young Richie. I think the adult actors really look like the children actors with James Ransone nailing Jack Dylan Grazer's Eddie Kaspbrak mannerisms to a T! Andy Bean has a short, memorable role of Stanley Uris and he channels Wyatt Oleff's mannerisms and hair quite well! I can also see Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom growing up to be quite a hunk like Jay Ryan! Last of all, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise is back to his own tricks and this Pennywise is truly terrifying and in a rage! The catalyst for Mike's contact of his old friends is the hate murder of a gay man named Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) in 2016 at the Derry Carnival. These hateful punks beat up Adrian and his boyfriend Don Haggerty. They throw Adrian in the canal and Pennywise, just waking up and starving after 27 years, takes a bite out of Adrian. As the movie goes on, the flesh of Adrian doesn't satisfy the clown for long. He feeds on a little girl named Victoria who has a birth mark on her face. Pennywise tricks her into thinking he can cure her mark but devours her instead. He also eats a young boy in the fun house in front of Bill. The Losers all come together in their old town with the exception of Stan who cuts his wrist in the bathtub after Mike's phone call. Pennywise is determined to make the Losers relive their childhood traumas. He even breaks Henry Bowers (Teach Grant) out of Juniper Hills institution to exact revenge. Henry killed his father Butch Bowers as a boy and was committed. The scares come on after another! The spider Pennywise with Stan's boy face is way more scary than the fake looking creature from the almost 30 year old TV movie! Well, to give the TV movie credit, TV has a more limited budget than movies and the producers and directors did their best with what they had. I never really liked Stephen King acting in the movies based on his books, but I thought he was great as the antique store owner who sells Bill the bike Bill had as a boy. Bill missed his beloved Silver and needed it back. The Losers stick together and finally defeat Pennywise. Eddie is killed by the spider and Richie is heartbroken because he had a crush on Eddie but never told anyone he was gay. This movie did follow the classic TVmovie in some scenes especially with the Chinese restaurant and the special fortune cookies. Pennywise says "Kiss me, fat boy" to young Ben like TV Pennywise (Tim Curry) said to TV Ben (the late John Ritter). A rain slicker clad Georgie also confronts young Bill and grown Bill and tells both that it's their fault he is dead. All in all, I was satisfied with this movie and the cast! Both Bills (Hader & Skarsgard) were awesome! It's safe to say that Bill Skarsgard and Tim Curry before him have ruined clowns for everyone! I recommend this movie as a satisfying swan song to this movie!

In 1983, Stephen King published "Pet Sematary" with great reluctance. The story even scared him to death! In 1989, it was made into a movie with him writing the screenplay and playing a minister. This story follows the Creed family of father Louis, mother Rachel, young daughter Ellie (Eileen in the novel, Ellen in 1989 and Eleanor in 2019) as they move into their new home in Ludlow, Maine. The Creeds want the relaxation of country life, but this being a Stephen King horror, that might be hard to get! Jason Clark is great as Louis and so is Amy Steimetz as Rachel. Gage is played by twins while the awesome Jete Laurence plays Eleanor aka Ellie. Ellie is just a normal, run-of-the mile 8 soon to be 9 year old who loves her cat, Winston Churchill aka Church. She loves ballet and her new home in the country. Ellie goes out to explore her new digs and finds the graveyard for pets with the sign of pet cemetery misspelled. There is also a deadfall to keep people out from the grounds beyond the cemetery. Ellie climbs it and is startled by her new neighbor, Judson Crandall (John Lithgow). He is a rather gruff sort but Ellie thaws him out. What follows is one tragedy after another. A young African-American student at the college Louis doctors at dies on Louis' watch. Victor Pascow, the student Louis tried to save visits him as a ghost in order to warn Louis not to go over the deadfall. Rachel keeps remembering her fatally ill sister, Zelda who died when they were children. Rachel blames herself for Delta's death in the dumbwaiter. Church is killed by a car on Halloween and Rachel tells Louis not to tell Ellie about the death. Jud wants to help Louis with Church and he takes him beyond the deadfall to the burial grounds of the Micmac tribe. Louis buries Church in the grounds and goes home. As in all 3 sources, Church comes back and is mean as hell! He scratches Ellie and the final straw is when he almost attacks Gage in the crib. Louis almost puts the cat to sleep but Church seems like his old self. Louis lets him go and tells Ellie her cat ran away. Jud tells Louis that the burial grounds is evil and anything buried there will turn bad as well. One wishes Louis took that advice to heart! The next one to die is Ellie who is killed by a truck on her 9th birthday. This is the gender switch because Ellie a girl dies instead of Gage a boy. Louis sends his wife and son to her parents in Boston. He drugs Jud's drink and digs up his daughter. He buries her in the cursed ground. Jete Laurence is absolutely wonderful as the good Ellie and the evil, undead zombie Ellie! In the end, all the Creeds become zombies and they are like the Cullen family of "Twilight" but are zombies not vampires. I do wish for a sequel, but maybe a prequel is better. In many ways, this movie is better than the 30-year-old treatment and I thought this gender reversal worked! I thought Ellie was more scarier than Gage!

Frank Anthony Vallelonga, Sr (Viggo Mortensen) is the husband of Dolores (Linda Cardelina) and the father of two sons, Nick and Frank, Jr. This man is a bouncer at nightclubs and goes under the nickname of Tony Lip because of his ability to BS. Tony lives in New York with his family in the early 1960s. He is Italian and talks like a sailor and also speaks Italian. The club Tony is a bouncer for closes down for repair and Tony needs a job. A human being with amazing gastric ability like Tony can only earn so much money from hot dog eating contests! Dr. Donald Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is the polar opposite of Tony. He is not a medical doctor and has doctorates in music and psychology instead. He is also a gifted African-American pianist from the age of 3 and beyond. Dr. Shirley is well-breed, polite and intelligent. Tony is offered a job from Dr. Shirley to act as the man's chauffeur and body guard. He has to drive him through the prejudiced south to gigs. They use the titular Green Book as a guide to motels both men can stay at. Two men who are poles apart become very good friends in this wonderful biopic! Tony introduces Don to the music of other black musicians like Little Richard and Aretha Franklin. He also shows him how good KFC is. On the other hand, Don teaches Tony how to write lovely letters to his wife and how to be well mannered. Tony's son wanted to tell everyone about this unlikely friendship and this is a loving portrayal of his late father who was born in 1930 and died in 2013. Dr. Shirley was three years older than Tony and by a strange coincidence, died in the same year. I recommend this movie highly!

In 1973, an odd little movie titled "The Baby" was released to the public and no one knew what to make of it! This movie is about a bereft social worker named Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer) who recently lost her architect husband in an accident. She becomes interested in a strange little family consisting of mother, Mrs. Wandsworth, big-haired Germaine Wadsworth (Marianna Hill), Alba Wadsworth (Susanne Zenor who could pass for the much older sister of Dakota and Elle Fanning) and finally the titular baby (David Mooney). This baby is not the normal, run-of-the-mill infant, ages 0 to 24 months. He is a full grown 21-year-old who wears a diaper and babbles like an infant. Baby never had a normal name and is simply called Baby. The three women in his life treat him like an infant and he acts accordingly. Ann steps into this odd household and becomes determined to turn Baby into a grown, functional member of society. His mother and sisters fight like mad against Ann's influence on Baby. They punish Baby with a cattle prod and even beat a female babysitter who tried to breastfeed Baby. The women invite Ann to Baby's millionth 1st birthday. Ann gets hit on by a sleazy confessed "skin freak" named Dennis and the Wentworth women drug her. They will do anything to stop any interference in Baby's life! Baby helps Ann recover from the drugging and he runs off with her. Ann gives him a bath and dresses him in a suit. She also sends his family a letter telling them she took Baby. They go after her. Ann won't give up Baby without a fight! She and her mother-in-law kill Alba and Germaine and bury Mrs. Roman in the dug out pool with her daughters' bodies. The big reveal is this: Ann's husband is still alive but is brain damaged. He acts like a little kid. Baby becomes his companion and Ann becomes their mother. The pool is finished and Ann and her "sons" swim while her husband's mother watches. This is the strangest movie I have ever seen! All the characters played their scenes to the hilt and special mention is given to Ruth Roman for her chain-smoking, alcoholic portrayal of a deeply disturbed mother! Anjanette Comer is great as the compassionate social worker who is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The two daughters are also great! Another wonderful performance comes from the awesome David Mooney who played Baby with all the mannerisms and babbling of a real baby!

In Feb. 1999, the home of Robert Wood was burned and his 11-year-old son, Christopher was the only one home when the fire happened. His body was not found in the ashes, though. Christopher was not a bad boy but he did have an attraction to matches and his father Bob thought the boy accidentally set the fire with the mere playing of matches. About 50 miles or so from his home, the body of Christopher was found in a snow bank. His backpack was found a few miles away from him. He had been strangled and his shoes were on the wrong feet. Now the authorities have to look for a kid killer. Later on, it was determined that Bob killed his young son out of greed and favoritism. Bob worked in real estate and loved living large. He had expensive tastes and needed money very badly. He took out life insurance policies on Christopher but not on his daughter, Theresa whom he favored over his son. It was determined he strangled Christopher and the boy vomited up the last food he ate, cereal. Bob did the county a favor when he committed suicide because the residents wouldn't have to pay taxes to keep him housed in prison! This case in my opinion was one of the most tragic ones! The father Christopher thought would care for him killed him instead! This young boy is safe now with the other children who were killed by their parents and other relatives. The late Peter Thomas is an excellent choice for narrator of this series too!

When she was 9 years old, Kimberly Michelle Mays discovered the couple who raised her, Robert "Bob" Mays and the late Barbara Coker Mays were not her birth parents and her real name was Arlena Beatrice Twigg. Back in 1978, Kim and another baby girl named Arlena were switched at birth. Kim went home with Bob and Barbara Mays who were a childfree couple with a desire to have a baby. Arlena went home with Ernest and Regina Twigg and immediately became a member of a family with 7 brothers and sisters. Kim and Arlena were the only white girls born in the small, rural hospital, Hardee Memorial in Wauchula, Florida. The real trouble started for both families when Arlena, who was born with a heart problem, needed surgery and her blood type didn't match either Ernest or Regina's. Arlena's surgery in 1988 at age 9 seemed to be successful but all that changed when she died of complications. The Twigg family searched for their bio daughter and found Kimberly and her widowed-divorced father. I felt bad for both families because they were lied to and deceived unfairly! I don't believe Bob or Barbara switched the babies like Regina Twigg says. Kimberly didn't ask for this. I think if Arlena was still alive, she would say, "I'm Arlena, not Kimberly. Mom, why do you want me to be someone else?" A sequel of sorts happened with Kimberly. She was granted the divorce from Ernest and Regina because while they were her blood, they were strangers to her. She didn't want to be called Arlena and she wanted her life back with Bob and step mom, Darlena. Kimberly became very troubled, ran away from Bob and Darlena, and stayed with her birth family. She ended up married and had a son. She divorced her first husband. She also got married two more times and had 6 kids with different men. I found out Bob Mays died and I wonder how the Twigg family reacted to that! A baby switch is not funny and it should be prevented at all costs! If not, you end up with a confused kid and two families who want her!

Annie Graham (Toni Collette) is a wife and mother with a stable, much older husband, Steve (Gabriel Bryne) a pot smoking son in his mid teens named Peter (Alex Wolff) and a 13 year old withdrawn, unusual daughter named Charlie (Milly Shapiro). Annie and Charlie are both artists. Annie creates miniatures as a living and she even creates mini worlds of events in her life. Charlie, who barely talks and vocalizes like a chicken, makes little figurines out of discarded materials such as old bottles and even a dead bird's head. With the exception of a black dress to her maternal grandmother's funeral, Charlie wears a large orange hoodie and jeans. The family trauma comes to a head when Annie's mother, Leigh dies. Annie had an unhappy home life as a child. Her father starved himself to death when she was a baby. Her brother, Charles whom Charlie was named after, hung himself in their mother's room when he was nephew Peter's age. His suicide note mentioned his mother trying to put people inside of him. His niece, Charlie was very close to her grandmother and is devastated by the loss. She clucks like a chicken, draws strange pictures in her notebook, and eats chocolate bars with a blank look on her face. Her parents have to make sure the chocolate has no nuts because of her nut allergy. Even though Annie loves Charlie and tries to help her emotionally after the funeral, Charlie wants the grandmother whom she had the unhealthy relationship with (i.e, Leigh breast fed Charlie and wanted her to be a boy). More tragedy follows this poor family when Peter and Charlie go to a party. Charlie doesn't want to be there. Peter wants to smoke his really good weed and suggests Charlie have a piece of chocolate cake that is being offered. Unbeknownst to Peter and Charlie, there is an abhorrent amount of chopped nuts in the cake. Charlie eats the cake and has an immediate allergic reaction. Peter drives her like a bat out of hell to the emergency room. On the way, he swerved out of the way of a dead deer and hits a pole. Charlie dies when her head hits the pole and she is decapitated. The family is paralyzed over Charlie's unnatural death. Annie is in a rage at Peter and Steve the stable one just wants things to go back to normal. That can't happen, though. Pre and post Charlie's death, Annie discovers her mom was involved in a cult that worshipped Paiman, a demon from hell who is interested in the arts and knowledge. Leigh was also artistic like her daughter and granddaughter. She embroidered welcome mats with the demon symbol on them. These mats also have the names of Annie and Charles on them and are beautiful! Into all of this comes a kindly woman Annie met at a grief support meeting named Joan (Ann Dowd). Joan lost her son and little grandson in a drowning. She and Annie perform a seance and they communicate with Joan's grandson. Annie tries to communicate that way with Charlie but things don't go well! The fact the seance fails is an understatement! Joan is not what she seems to be! She was friends with Leigh and in the cult. The cult wants a male blood relative of Leigh's to house Paiman. Charlie's body was used to house the demon, but he didn't want a female body. They tried with Charles but he killed himself and Steve was out because he wasn't a blood relative. In the end, the cult burns Steve up. They haul Leigh's headless body to the tree house Charlie spends time in and Annie cuts off her own head. Charlie's head is retrieved from the highway and placed on a wooden figure in the tree house. Peter throws himself out of window and is possessed by Paiman like his own mother was. He goes to the tree house and the naked cult members along with Joan crown him as Paiman. This movie was quite a powerhouse! All the performers were excellent! Toni, Ann and Gabriel were all great and I thought the younger performers were awesome too! Milly Shapiro is so unlike the withdrawn Charlie in RL, it's unbelievable! Alex Wolff was also wonderful as Peter and I felt bad for him when he cried the way a little kid would! I recommend this movie highly! One thing I wasn't expecting was Judy Collins' lovely song "Both Sides Now" at the end!

Alaia and Ashlyn Wischmeyer look like blond angelic twins, but looks can be deceiving! At age four, they torment and bully their well-behaved, intelligent nine year old half-brother Jared and are rather abusive to their mother Melora (i.e., Alaia hits and pulls her mom's hair). They don't say please or thank you to their father John and are impossible to tuck into bed! There is no denying these girls are spoiled probably because of their angelic looks and the fact they are twins. Jo comes to help the family and implements bed time, discipline and the naughty corner when the girls act up. This doesn't bode well for either twin because they aren't used to discipline! Jo suggests to Jared he keep a thought box for his feelings and thoughts on how unfair his situation is. When the twins get him in trouble with Melora, he writes in his child script about how he gets consequences and his sisters don't. Melora brushes off his thought with the fact the girls are four and don't need consequences for bed behavior! That's bunk! Jo called Melora on that! Melora did try to discipline and correct the girls because I think she didn't want to face the fact her little darlings would be tossed out of nursery school, playgroups and other public places if she didn't do her parenting duties!

Nine year old Jared Wischmeyer is the bullied brother of four year old twin girls, Ashlyn and Alaia who torment him and this poor boy is yelled at by overworked mother Melora when the twins cause trouble! These little blond girls look like angels but are really little devil's. The bullying extends to their mother and father, John too! I think these girls are spoiled rotten by the mere fact they are twins. People get excited by multiple births because such births are rare and I think these girls were spoiled from birth on. Jo gets a video from John and Melora who are begging for help. They really don't know how to discipline Ashlyn and Alaia and have the hardest time getting the girls to bed and getting them to do other things. Jared is a well behaved boy who is not treated well by his mother and is ignored by stepfather John. Jo has rules for the family to follow just in regards to twin bedtime and the naughty corner for the girls. She even has Jared make a thought box for his feelings and thoughts on the unfairness of his situation. Melora won't stop the under discipline of the twins and the over discipline of her son, though! Jared writes a thought about him getting consequences when his sisters misbehave and them not getting consequences. Melora reads the thought and uses the excuse of her daughters being 4 years old as to why they don't get consequences. That is stupid on Melora's part! If she and John don't start teaching the twins how to behave, those girls will be tossed out of so many schools! Jo pointed that out and Melora and John took to heart what she was saying. I am glad they did! Poor Jared was going through so much with his mean little sisters, an indifferent mother and a stepfather who was tired of the situation.

In no way is "Manos: The Hands of Fate" a good movie, but it is one where you leave your brain at the door and enjoy it! I admit to liking things other people hate like the movie "Wild, Wild West" and old episodes of "Full House.". I discovered "Manos" when Jackey Neyman (Debbie) wrote about her experience of doing this film with her father, the late Tom Neyman (the Master). She was only 6 or 7-years-old at the time.

This movie was the brainchild of fertilizer salesman, Harold P. Warren. It's a tragedy when someone is on their deathbed and they regret one or more dreams they didn't make true! The dreams can be anything from writing a book, traveling through Europe or making a movie despite having zero experience in the art of movie making. I guess Mr. Warren wanted to be known for more than fertilizer and the movie was on his bucket list.

Our heroes of this piece are Harold P. Warren who also wrote and directed as Michael. Diane Adelson as his wife, Margaret and Jackey as little Debbie. They also have their little dog named Peppy with them. They are traveling by car and wind up at the home of the Master amidst cops on duty and two teens making out in their car. Michael, Margaret and Debbie end up at the Master's house. They are greeted by Torgo (the late John Reynolds) who committed suicide after the filming. He is quite memorable as this creature who is part man/part satyr. He also was heavy in the drug scene and his twitchy and jerky performance is the result of LSD.The budget for the movie was so low he wore metallic rigging under his pants to give the impression of satyr legs.

The family is invited into the house by Torgo and they see a picture of the Master on the wall. The Master is sinister-looking and wears a black robe with red hands painted on the front in giant proportions. He is shown with his evil-looking dog. Jackey says this dog was the family pet and not evil at all! The Master has brides dressed in white gowns. All of the brides are asleep in one room and are standing up in that state. The Master is sleeping lying down. The brides wake up and argue about the family. Torgo wants Margaret as his bride but the Master won't allow it! He has his brides massage Torgo to death. Another death happens to Peppy by the Master's dog.

The family escape into the desert on foot because their car doesn't work. People in scary movies act like morons! The family could escape and find the cops or the face- sucking teens to help them, but they don't! They go back to the house and are captured. Now Michael is the guard of the house and Margaret and Debbie are the new brides. This movie is terrible in every conceivable way! The acting is awful from all except for the Master and Torgo! The scenery goes on forever and I was scratching my head at the necking teens because they had no place in the movie. This movie is a guilty pleasure and you feel bad if you like it. On "Modern Family" Phil and Clare said one of their guilty pleasures was going to the theatre and watching bad movies. I like good movies but I also like bad movies if I can find something good in them. The lates Tom Neyman and John Reynolds were both great in their roles as villains and they made this movie so bad it's good!

The Cinema Snob is quite humorous as he vents his spleen of how horrible "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas" is! The cracks about how Kirk drinks from empty cups of cocoa and how burned out St. Nicholas aka Santa Claus looks are comedy gold! I love how he trashes DeAndre the male black stereotype and the way he questions Kirk's crazy ideas! The Cinema Snob points out how shallow and materialistic Kirk truly is in a very funny way!

In 2005, Ashley Howes a blond, bespectacled 13-year old girl was accused of killing one-year-old Freya Garden by shaking her to death. I watched this case at least thrice and came to the conclusion that Ashley had nothing to do with it! She thought it would be a fun weekend with Freya and Freya's 5-year-old sister Madeline. That did not happen! The mom of both girls, Morningstar Garden and her boyfriend stayed in the next room doing drugs since drugs were found in that room. Ashley, Madeline and Freya were left in the other room with hardly any furniture, very little food and the DVD player and TV for company. Freya was left alone for 2 hours with two druggies while Ashley and Madeline went to the movies. The police should have come down on these 2 adults who were doing drugs and neglecting Freya! Morningstar had CPS called on her many times and she had lost a baby boy due to strange circumstances. Her boyfriend also had a record for harassment and drug selling! Ashley was a normal girl who loved kids and the cops treated this girl with no previous record as a criminal!

The setting is Derry, Maine in Oct. 1988 to Sept. 1989 instead of Oct. 1957-1958 and I think it suits the production! George Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott)is a normal, run-the-mill 6-year-old boy with a older stuttering brother whom he idolizes named Bill (Jaeden Lieberher). Bill makes Georgie a boat out of a piece of paper and he sealed it with wax for George. Bill can't go out in the rain because he's ill. Georgie gives him a hug for the boat and runs out in the rain. The boat ends up sailing into the sewer and Georgie meets a creature one doesn't expect to see in a sewer. The creature is a clown who has Georgie's boat in his hands. Bill Skarsgard plays the clown Pennywise who introduces himself to Georgie and they have small talk. When the boy reaches for his boat, the clown turns monstrous and rips the poor kid's arm off! He drags Georgie down into the sewer while an old lady watches from her house along with her cat.

After Georgie's disappearance, the Denbrough family is basically destroyed. Bill and Georgie's parents ignore their remaining son and the grief gets too much for them! Bill isn't the only one with problems in his life. He and six other kids have to deal with less than stellar parents and horrible school bullies in their lives. The group really can't be called a band which is what a group of boys is called because of the lone girl of the group named Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis). Beverly is tormented by a group of snobby girls led by Gretta (Megan Charpentier). They all think Beverly is a slut and is trash. Everyone thinks poor Beverly is those things, too! They throw water on her and torment her.

The five other boys are overweight, bookish, Derry history buff Ben Hanscom (Jeremey Ray Taylor), aspiring comedian Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) an orphaned home-schooled African-American boy who lost his parents in a fire. He is the only black boy in town and is a target of racism. Eddie Kasprak (Jack Dylan Grazer) is a frail boy with psychosomatic asthma and other health problems his smothering mother aka smother has made worse in her only child. Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff) is the only non-Christian of the group who is studying like mad for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah but it's not good enough for his rabbi father!

The six boys and one girl have to deal with Pennywise the Dancing Clown who uses their fears against them and a group of bullies led by the son of the police chief. Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) is the mean, evil bully who torments the group he calls the Losers Club with Belch Huggins (Jake Sim), Patrick Hockstetter (Owen Teague) and Victor Criss (Logan Thompson) as his lackeys.

Pennywise is on the loose though and the clown goes after the Losers and the Bowers' Gang as well. Patrick is eaten by the dead, floating kids. Pennywise knows what kids fear and he uses these phobias against them! Bill is tormented by Georgie, a diseased leper comes after Eddie, Beverly is scared of her leach of a father, Stan is terrified of a picture of an ugly woman in his dad's office, Mike is scared of the fire that killed his parents, and Richie hates clowns.

Bill Skarsgard makes this Pennywise his own and the results are terrifying! Tim Curry in the 1990 TV movie "IT" also scared the hell out of viewers and both actors are artists in their own right! All the kids are awesome and you emphasize with the Losers and hate the bullies! I do hope Chapter 2 lives up to Chapter 1 and the grown-up versions of the Losers are great too! I think Sophia Lillis is right about Jessica Chastain playing older Beverly because they do look like each other. I do have hopes for Bill Hader as older Richie because Richie grows up to be a comedian and they look like each other! Maybe Tim Curry can make an appearance in Chapter 2 or the actors who were in the 90's version can have cameos too! Sad to say Jonathan Brandis who was young Bill in the TV version and John Ritter who was older Ben won't be in Chapter 2 because both have died.

Last of all: I recommend this version of IT highly and hopefully Chapter 2 lives up to my recommendation as well! I am glad Bill Skarsgard is coming back as Pennywise! I did see pictures of the Skarsgard clan and all are very attractive. I think if the remade "Clueless," Cher would say a guy is a Skarsgard if he's very good- looking instead of a Baldwin. I do hope Bill wins an Academy Award next year and I wait with baited breath for Chapter 2!

"Captain Fantastic" should be treated like a parody of living life off the grid. I didn't enjoy it and I can't relate to these characters except for their love of books. Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) is the titular Captain Fantastic with three sons and three daughters. The kids range in ages of 6 to 18 years or so. All of these kids have weird names many celebrities would love! Bodevan aka Bo (George MacKay) is the oldest brother. The teenage girl twins are Kielyr (Samantha Isler) and Vespyr (Annalise Basso). The preteen brother is Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton). Charlie Shotwell is little brother Nai and Shree Crooks is the youngest girl named Zaja. The Cash family lives in the woods in a big tent like structure with no electricity and other modern day trappings. When we first meet the Cash clan they are hunting a deer with knives. Ben cuts out an organ from the deer and Bo eats it. Now he is a man, according to his father!

The Cash kids have a very regimented life. They do hard exercises, hand-to-hand combat, kill their own game to eat, and have to listen to Ben talk trash about America, doctors, and anything else their old man doesn't agree with! The kids and Ben read communist and socialist writings around the campfire at night. Then it's music time courtesy of Bo and Ben. These family members know many languages, how to navigate by the stars, and they know how to make their own clothes. Little Zaja is an aspiring taxidermist who has a shrine built to honor Pol Pot and other atrocities. Little Nai is a nudist who is told by Ben to put clothes on when the family eats dinner.

A tragedy happens in the insular life the family leads. Ben's wife and the mother of the children is bipolar Leslie (Trin Miller) who has been in the hospital for 3 months. She kills herself and Ben receives the news from his sister Harper (Kathryn Hahn) on the phone. Ben also is told by Leslie's father Jack (Frank Langella) not to come to the funeral. Ben says Leslie was a Buddhist and she wouldn't want to be buried in a Christian ceremony because the family makes fun of Christians. Leslie wants cremation and then a celebration of her life. Jack is upset with Ben and hangs up. The children are all upset about their mom and Rellian stabs the wall with a knife.

The kids want to attend their mom's funeral and their father relents and takes them to New Mexico on their old bus, Steve. Along the way, the kids get their dad out of a ticket for a missing light by singing religious hymns to the cop. He lets them go. The twins speak Esperanto and refuse to kill a sheep to feed the family. Ben takes them to a restaurant and then leaves with them because in his mind, the menu has no food on it. He fakes a heart attack in the store while the kids take food. Then instead of Christmas, it's Noam Chompsky Day! The kids get knives from Ben. Rellian wants to have Christmas and Ben refuses. Ben doesn't want his family celebrating a magic elf. Everyone in the family swears a blue streak when they aren't reading. They also talk about rape openly when the subject is about the book "Lolita.". Ben also finds time to walk around nude in front of his kids. In the meantime, Bo gets acceptance letters from Ivy League colleges his mother helped him apply to and he proposes marriage to a girl he just met. All hell breaks loose when Ben finds out the letters because he has no idea what a college can teach a person who can speak 6 languages and all like Bo can!

Harper and husband Dave (Steve Zahn) have a different life than Ben with 2 grumpy teen boys who have trouble with the Bill of Rights when Ben asks them about it. Zaja can name all the amendments, though! The funeral is a disaster with Ben taking over and being a sight in his ugly red suit! Jack has him escorted out. The children are thrilled to see their grandparents and Rellian forms a bond with Jack. He wants to live with his grandparents Jack and Abigail (Ann Dowd). The grandparents want custody of their daughter's children. The family goes on a mission to rescue Rellian and Vespyr breaks her leg while trying to break her brother out of Jack and Abigail's house. She is taken to the hospital and put in a cast.

What happens is kind of gross and ridiculous! This family steals Leslie's body from her grave and the body looks more like a mannequin than a human being! They take her to the woods and burn her on a funeral pyre. The only thing I liked about the scene was Vespyr singing "Sweet Child O' Mine" while the family plays their instruments in time and dance around. They take her ashes to a public place and flush them down the toilet as per her instructions.

In the end, Ben doesn't get in trouble for being a menace and Jack gives the family a farm house to live in. The kids attend normal school and Bo goes to Africa. The acting was very good from all involved and I thought they looked like a real family! I hate how isolated and intolerant this family is, though! It won't be pretty when the kids meet Christians or Cambodians who lost their families in the Killing Fields. As a parody this movie works but only as that and certainly not as a comedy or a drama!

I need to explain what I mean by my title: Laura was looking at the pretty dolls and toys in the Oleson's Merchantile window and dreaming about owning these dolls and hoping she would get these toys or a new dress for her upcoming birthday. She also had her eye on a music box in the window too. Mary refused to tell her what Laura was going to get on her birthday. Anna, the kind, stuttering Swedish friend of Laura hoped Laura would get pretty things for her birthday. Nellie being the evil witch with a B that she is made fun of Anna's stutter and said Anna couldn't join her club.

Laura's birthday came up and she opened the heavy rectangular box in the hopes it would be a doll or a new dress. Surprise! No such thing! Pa bought her a new dictionary with the new words in it and pictures of the universe. I have no idea what Pa was thinking! Don't get me wrong, a dictionary is a good present for a child to have on his or her first day of school but not on their birthday or Xmas when opening up presents is exciting and receiving something you really want is exciting as well! Laura had to be polite and accept the present. Pa later on told Ma she should have bought Laura the gift but Ma said the dictionary was a valuable thing for Laura to have. The only one who seemed excited about the book was Pa and maybe it should have been a gift for himself!

Laura was desperate for Nellie's pretty music box and stole it when Nellie's back was turned. Basically when Nellie found out about it, Laura became Nellie's slave. This ended when Nellie made fun of Anna in a particularly nasty way and Laura stood up to her. Anna, Laura and Pa came to the Merchantile and told Mr. Oleson what happened and Nellie got whipped. This thievery on Laura's part could have been avoided if she got what she really wanted instead of pretending to like Pa's gift! The dictionary was what Pa wanted for himself anyway! It annoys me when the receiver of a gift gets something the presenter secretly wants and the receiver is stuck with a gift he or she didn't want!

Olive Pendergast (Emma Stone) is a precocious, ordinary high school girl who wants to be popular and unintentionally tells her friend Rhiannon she had sex with a college guy named George. It's not true. Olive doesn't want to spend time with Rhiannon and her off- the-wall nudist parents and she invented a college boyfriend and with pressure from Rhi admits she lost her V-card to George. This throws the school in an uproar! The other students believe Olive is putting out but her favorite English teacher (Thomas Hadden Church) doesn't believe it. During the classroom study of the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic "The Scarlet Letter" Nina a judgmental girl insults Hester Prynne and Olive. Olive calls her a sexual name and gets send to the principal (Malcolm McDowell). She sees Brandon a gay friend who receives detention with Olive and they have to clean the school up as punishment. Brandon hit another student who gave him grief over his sexual preference. He and Olive talk about it. The next day, Brandon visits Olive and suggests they pretend to have sex at popular girl Melanie Bostick's house. Olive agrees to it and she and Brandon yell, scream, jump on the bed, and make other noises to make the crowd gathered outside the door think they have sex.

Pretty soon Olive is open for business as the school tramp and only pretending to do sex acts with unpopular boys. She comes on the radar of Nina's Jesus freak friend Marianne (Amanda Bynes) and Marianne wants to throw Olive out of the school for sex acts that are only pretend. Emma Stone is absolutely great as Olive and her eccentric parents played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are wonderfully understanding and supportive of their daughter. Lisa Kudrow is also great as the school guidance counselor married to Olive's teacher. The actor who was the evil James in "Twilight" is also very funny as Marianne's dumb as a bag of hammers boyfriend who is secretly seeing the guidance counselor and should be out of high school at the age of 22! This movie is highly recommended for a good laugh and I think Emma Stone's singing voice is very good!

I thought this episode of "Little House" was rather silly! Nellie is pregnant by husband Percival aka Isaac Cohen and her 2 annoying in-laws come over for a visit. I could handle Percival's mother because she seemed like a very nice lady. His father, Benjamin, wow! What a loud-mouth who bullied Nellie and Percival into raising their unborn child as Jewish which is Percival's religion. Nellie is Christian and in a rather delicate state. The arguing between Nellie's mother Harriet and Benjamin really got on the nerves of this young married couple! I think the child should be exposed to both Jewish and Christian traditions and decide which one her or she likes the best. Nells who is Nellie's father suggests if the baby is a boy to raise him as Jewish while a girl will be Christian. Nellie ends up having twins named Benjamin and Jennifer. Benjamin will be Jewish while his twin sister is Christian. I don't think the adults thought this situation through! Jennifer will have Christmas and Easter to celebrate while her brother won't be able to join in the celebrations! He might grow to resent her! He will also be the favorite of grandfather Benjamin. They all had to remind the older Benjamin he had a granddaughter as well! I think another solution would be to raise the child in the Unitarian faith or have the child decide what they want to believe and how they want to or don't want to worship God.