My Review of The Haunting (1999)

 

Written by David Self

Directed by Jan de Bont

Nell: "Purgatory is over, you go to Hell!"

Several months ago, I watched The Haunting Of Hill House and last month, I watched the 1963 movie based on Shirley Jackson's classic book. It was only right that I watched the 1999 movie to complete my viewing.

Essentially this movie's not too dissimilar from the 1963 movie with a rather stellar casting for the main characters. You've got the likes of Liam Neeson, Owen Wilson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lili Taylor and they're cast in the very roles you'd expect them to be for this take.

Neeson took on the role of Dr David Marrow and it's him who assembled the likes of Eleanor Vance (Taylor), Theo (Zeta-Jones) and Luke Sanderson (Wilson) into the infamous house that used to be owned by Hugh Crain (Charles Gunning). Of course it's a decision that would have major consequences for all involved.

In particular with Eleanor aka Nell, who found herself the most affected and in tune with the house. Nell's determination to prove that the house was haunted led to her learning about Crain's mistreatment of children and like every adaptation of their book, Nell found herself permanently attached to the house. 

Then there's Theo, who at this point might be my favourite character in every adaptation. Catherine Zeta-Jones genuinely gave a delightful performance throughout the movie. Often the more sensible and fun member of the group, Theo certainly didn't disappoint here.

As for David Marrow and Luke Sanderson, I think both Liam Neeson and Owen Wilson were on good form but not quite as compelling as the others. Saying that, I did think Luke got a rather gruesome ending in one of the more gory moments in the movie. Crain also made for a decent third act antagonist.

- This movie was more explicit about Theo being bisexual compared to the 1963 version. She's even a bit flirty with Nell.

- Originally both Stephen King and Steven Spielberg has worked on the movie before it was taken over by David Self and Jan de Bont.

- Though there are similarities to the 1963 version, this isn't a remake of that version. They didn't have the remake rights for that.

- Chronology: 1999 in Massachusetts for the infamous house, though Nell had been in Boston beforehand.

Although it's weaker compared to other adaptations and generally disliked among horror fans, I have a soft spot for this version of The Haunting. The performances are good, especially from Lili Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones and there's some decent enough scares.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Parenting (2025)

 

Written by Kent Sublette

Directed by Craig Johnson

Josh: "The dick is fine, evil Frank."

Frank: "Well, I'm looking at the dad-dick right now, and if the son-dick is anything like the dad-dick, the dick is small."

Released last month on Max, there's a reason why some movies really should sit out theatres and just go straight to streaming. There's no way in hell anyone would've watched this one in theatres but on streaming, it might be caught out of curiosity or boredom.

Focusing on a middle class gay couple, Rohan (Nick Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn), this horror comedy had the pair staying in a house that was owned by the clearly kooky Brenda (Parker Posey). They have it for a weekend and it's one that they won't be forgetting any time soon.

Mainly because both sets of parents are also staying him with him. There's Rohan's slightly uptight parents, Frank (Brian Cox) and Sharon (Edie Falcon) and Josh's less upright parents, Cliff (Dean Norris) and Liddy (Lisa Kudrow). Needless to say, there's chaos with both sets and Josh making a poor impression on Sharon.

Add into the mix, Rohan and Josh's best friend, Sara (Vivian Bang), a couple of dogs and a wi-fi password if say out loud, causes spooky antics in the old house and you've got the weekend from hell for everyone involved. No, seriously, that wi-fi password was a menace throughout.

As various characters fought with each other, made up with each other and learned more each other, there was possession afoot. Yup, Frank got possessed and spouted a lot of things he wouldn't (sans clothing) before it was revealed that Brenda had made some sort of supernatural deal with a demon to set it free.

I guess the fun part came in the two families (and Sara) banding in order to confuse the demon and save themselves. It's a funny enough scene and there's a rather nice but expected proposal to cap things off for good measure.

- There's a mid credit scene where a certain character's anatomy is mentioned for laughs.

- Josh had quite a good paying job to pursue a music career. Brandon Flynn has a decent singing voice.

- Standout music: Kim Wilde's You Keep Me Hangin' On.

- Chronology: Present day for the majority of the movie though some flashbacks for Brenda's backstory with the demon.

The Parenting was a fun but not a wholly original horror film,not did it try to do anything too subversive with the genre and setting. I did like it for it was but I don't see it being something I'd revisit in a hurry.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

CinenaCon Reveal: Sam Mendes Beatles Quadrilogy Cast Revealed

In the world's worst kept casting secret, CinemaCon kicked off in Las Vegas on Monday with a casting reveal that's been stroking fires all day today online.

Yes, it was revealed that Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson have been cast as the iconic group, The Beatles. I mean, we've known this for months but it's finally confirmed. A reminder of who's playing who.

Paul Mescal - Paul McCartney 

Harris Dickinson - John Lennon 

Joseph Quinn - George Harrison 

Barry Keoghan - Ringo Starr

I got to say, I love this casting and paired together on stage, I can see it as well. Now just wait until we get them in their first look as The Beatles.

Now my only trepidation is the format. Four movies, with each one focusing on a different member and all four movies being released the same month in theatres. I'll admit, that feels a bit too overambitious and it's really asking a lot for general audiences to commit to. I think it would be wiser to space these movies out over the course of the year and let them breathe. I also wouldn't be too shocked if that's something that's eventually considered as well.

Sam Mendes will direct all four of these movies but each one will have a different writer. Filming will commence soon, so expect a lot more casting news and first looks to trickle out over the next few months. 

Casting News: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8eplyxp3wjo

All four movies will release in proximity of each other from April 2028. Are you pleased with the casting choices?

DCU Blog - March 2025 Edition: CinenaCon Approaches, Lanterns Casting And More

March has certainly been a busy month for DC as more developments came to light with several upcoming projects.

Superman (2025) has allegedly had test screenings, a certain piece of casting may or may not be true and CinemaCon tomorrow will reveal a brand new trailer. July 11th 2025.

Both Nathan Fillion and Anthony Cardigan have talked about their respective roles in Superman (2025) and the overall tone of the movie.

Jason Momoa confirmed once again that his role as Lobo on Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow (June 26th 2026) is a small one with filming halfway done.

Production for Clayface (September 11th 2026) will start in the summer. Casting should be revealed very soon.

It seems that Colin Farrell may be playing Sgt. Rock after all for the upcoming movie, directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes.

The script for The Batman - Part II (October 1st 2027) still hasn't been handed in yet, though Robert Parkinson has stated filming should start by the end of the year.

Giancarlo Esposito has expressed interest in playing Mr Freeze in the DCU.

Action figures from Batman Returns will be released during the summer. They include Batman, Catwoman, the Penguin and Max Schreck.

Nicole Ari Parker and Sherman Augustus will play the current day versions of John Stewart's parents while Jasmine Cephas Jones and J. Alphonse Nicholson will play the younger versions in Lanterns. Jason Ritter will also play Billy Macon.

Superman Day will on April 18th this year. We might get something new for that particular day.

Darren Aronofsky has recently followed James Gunn on social media. There has been rumours of him doing a Plastic Man movie for the DCU.

Jason Bateman recently played Batman in a State Farm Ad that also featured the Joker, Riddler, Two Face and Poison Ivy.

The latest mobile game, DC Dark Legion was released this month. Available on Google Play.

The second season of Peacemaker has been confirmed for August 2025 on Max. Brey Noelle will be playing White Rabbit in the new season.

David Zaslav is looking to replace Mike Deluca and Pam Abdy for the film division at Warner Brothers.

The animated show that were announced last month, such as Starfire will all be Elseworlds shows.

A busy month for DC as the DCU continues to be filming upcoming projects while others are in pre-production.

My Review of Shock To The System (2006)

 

Written by Ron McGee And Richard Stevenson

Directed by Ron Oliver

Donald (to Timothy): "You ever wonder what your life would be like if you weren't gay?"

Last week I had watched Third Man Out, the debut movie in the Donald Strachey series. It was time for the sequel and once again, a murder mystery got turned on it's head.

Our leading man, Donald Strachey (Chad Allen) found himself meeting at night with Paul Hale (Jared Keeso) in an alley. The meeting got harshly interrupted and shortly, it appeared that Paul had seemingly died of an overdose. Of course, Strachey wasn't convinced of that.

It didn't help that Paul had a conservative mother named Phyllis (Morgan Fairchild) and that Paul himself had been attending a gay conversion called the Phoenix Foundation, which was led by Dr Trevor Cornwell (Michael Woods) and his wife, Lynn (Anne Marie DeLuise). This plot subverted some of my expectations.

For a moment, I genuinely believed that Trevor was going to be revealed to be a self loathing closet case and that he killed Paul as a crime of passion. Instead he was having an affair with fake lesbian, Katey (Rikki Gagne) and Paul uncovering the futility of the Foundation's work ended up being his downfall. Yet, it felt like Trevor kind of got away with things.

The highlight of this conversion therapy plot was more to do with the insight into Donald's past. Yes, his undercover attempts were ruffled halfway through the movie but I liked how he revealed to Timothy (Sebastian Spence) about his military past and the relationship with Kyle that had soured during that time. It was a nice insight into the character.

As for the rest of the movie, some of the other "ex-gays" included not so clandestine couple Walter (Ryan Kennedy) and Levon (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) as well as struggling family man, Grey (Stephen Huszar) and film student, Larry (Shawn Roberts). They're a decent bunch of characters and I liked their interactions with Strachey throughout the movie.

Last but not least, there was some decent screen time dedicated to Donald and Tim, attending social engagements and sharing Martinis in a bubble bath. Oh and Kenny Kwon (Nelson Wong) returned just so Donald could get himself an office manager/secretary.

- Detective "Bub" Bailey (Darryl Shuttleworth) returned again to offer his own help with Donald's case.

- Donald made a point of telling two different characters that he only beats up people who deserve it. He had no problem knocking a gun toting Katey out for good measure. He's also been featured in The Advocate.

- Standout music: Peter Allen, Vincent Mai and Sibell Thrasher's I'm Over You. 

- Chronology: An unspecified amount of time since the first movie. It's an adaptation of the fifth book in the series.

Shock To The System had the whole gay conversion plot and I was a bit worried with how it would be handled. It's done pretty along with the twists and turns in the mystery itself. I liked getting more on Donald's past as well.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Mid-Century Modern - Season 1 (2025, Hulu Series)

 

Written by David Kohan And Max Mutchnick And Suzanne Martin And Adam Barr And Dan Bucantinsky And Tracy Poust And Alex Herschlag

Directed by James Burrows

Bunny (to Jerry/Arthur): "You'll both move in here. We'll be together while we still can, like a family."

Imagine if someone pitched a show that was basically The Golden Girls meets Will & Grace. Then imagine some executive for reasons unknown then decided to commission that show. Something that might have worked in 1985. Something that might have worked in 1998. Is it it something that works for a 2025 audience?

Before I even saw a trailer, I had a somewhat bad feeling about this show. As a premise, it felt very dated and rather niche and much as I love Matt Bomer as an actor, having him in a friends group with Nathan Lane and Nathan Lee Graham seemed an odd choice at best. It's still an odd choice but here we are.

The first opened with the death of fourth friend, George. At his funeral, you've got business owner, Bunny Schneiderman (Lane), who still lived with his mother, Sybil (Linda Lavin) in a lavish house. Then there's the rather caustic, Arthur Broussard (Graham) and ditzy flight attendant, Jerry Frank (Bomer). By the end of the first, both Arthur and Jerry found themselves living with Bunny and Sybil.

Getting back to the comparison of a certain show, each of these characters easily fit into certain roles, though not perfectly. That in itself isn't a bad thing as the show does try to give each of the characters an identity beyond the one show it was compared to. Over the course of ten episodes, I had to admit that I did find myself warming a bit to this series.

These episodes had the difficult task of handling the real life passing of Linda Lavin and to it's credit, the penultimate episode was a nice send off for both Lavin herself and Sybil as a character. Sybil in general had some good moments with the boys along with Bunny's sister, Mindy (Pamela Adlon). The latter character potentially could fill in the Sybil role if this show receives a second season.

Getting back to the show itself, there's a slew of different guests a week, all of whom worked well with the main characters. The likes of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Billie Lourd, Richard Kind, Zane Phillips and Rhea Pearlman get some nice moments. In particular, Kind's Carroll and Phillips's Mason had quite the impact on both Bunny and Jerry respectively as did Billie Lourd, who played Jerry's daughter.

As for the humour, don't let the occasional swear fool you. It's not a very risque show in that regard. A fair amount of the jokes managed to land but a fair chunk of them also failed to hit the mark. Matt Bomer in particular did falter a bit at first, compared to his co-stars but somewhat improved as the show went on. 

- The episodes are titled Bye George, Working Girls, Turbulence, Never Have I Ever, Hello Fisty's, Maid Serviced, Love Thy Neighbour, Sour Pickleball, Here's To You Mrs Schneiderman and The Show Must Go On.

- COVID factored into the fourth episode with the reveal that Jerry and Arthur once slept together.

- I did like the political plot of the seventh episode while the boys let a pretty but lazy houseboy (Adam Hagenbuch) play them off each other.

- Hulu released all ten episodes at once and although he's a producer, Ryan Murphy didn't write or direct a single episode for the show.

- Standout music: The main characters dancing to What A Man was rather funny, I'll admit. There's a bit of dancing in the show.

- Chronology: 2025 Palm Springs for the majority of the show though the fifth episode is set in Fire Island.

Some misgivings to one side, I think I liked Mid-Century Modern a bit more than I thought I would. It's far from perfect, a lot of the jokes don't land and Matt Bomer does feel odd within this group setting but there's potential there. Now whether it not it'll land for everyone else, I'm not so sure.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Doctor Odyssey: "Sophisticated Ladies"

 

Written by Jon Robin Baitz And Joe Baken

Directed by Crystle Roberson Dorsey

Max: "Cougars week or as we now refer to it-"

Tristan: "Sophisticated Ladies week."

Yup, it was an episode dedicated to older women with our main four getting an older woman but one was shared with both Robert and Avery. Not only that, but a returning character too.

Remember Shania Twain popping up in the second episode of the show? Well, she's back and her character, supposedly called Heather didn't waste time in quickly reuniting with Robert. Then because apparently one major pregnancy storyline isn't enough for the show, it was quickly revealed that Heather's pregnant and Robert's the father.

Now while Robert might have been surprised that Heather could get pregnant as was Avery, he's also delighted with the prospect of being a father again. For a moment, it did look like Heather was going to lose the baby but she didn't. I can't help thinking this could be a potential exit storyline for Robert. 

As for Avery, she's gotta wait a bit longer before finding out whether Max or Tristan is the father. I did like the scenes she had with Heather and it's another in a series of moments where Avery's talked about motherhood with a woman too. 

As for Max, his older woman was the COVID infected Olivia (Donna Mills) and she didn't appreciate being quarantined, until she had to do it with Max (who also got COVID again). There's some continuity on Max's earlier backstory and nice context provided into his thoughts of imminent fatherhood as well as Olivia's own past explored. It's a strong secondary plot for this episode.

Last but not least, Tristan had to contend with Delia (Jaclyn Smith) and her toy boy lover. Delia had cancer and wanted to spend the time she had left not being a burden. I feel Tristan wasn't as immersed in this story as the others were with Heather and Olivia but it's a solid enough subplot.

- The poker scenes were back and Max was annoyed that no one wanted to get vaccinated again.

- Now that Robert's about to be a father again, are we going to meet his children and grandchildren first?

- Avery was swatting up on her paperwork and Tristan ended up doing his in a bid to prove he can step up as a potential father. Tristan's mommy issues got mentioned again.

- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

Sophisticated Ladies had it's moments with the guest characters utilised well throughout. The Heather and Olivia stories were the strongest but Delia one also was effecting.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

Avengers: Doomsday - Casting Announced

Yesterday saw Marvel Studios giving one of the biggest announcements. Yup, the casting for Avengers: Doomsday. With the movie currently in production, over twenty cast members were revealed.

The following cast members were revealed in this order ....

Chris Hemsworth (Thor)

Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman)

Anthony Mackie (Captain America)

Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)

Letitia Wright (Black Panther)

Paul Rudd (Ant-Man)

Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent)

Tenoch Huerta-Mejia (Namor)

Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing)

Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)

Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)

Kelsey Grammer (Beast)

Lewis Pullman (Sentry)

Danny Ramirez (Falcon)

Joseph Quinn (Human Torch)

David Harbour (Red Guardian)

Winston Duke (M'Baku)

Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost)

Tom Hiddleston (Loki)

Patrick Stewart (Professor X)

Ian McKellen (Magneto)

Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler)

Rebecca Romijn (Mystique)

James Marsden (Cyclops)

Channing Tatum (Gambit)

Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic)

Robert Downey Jr. (Doctor Doom)

This was done over a five hour live feed with a row of chairs revealing each cast member, before Robert Downey Jr. popped up at the end. Needless to say, the method was a bit divisive but it certainly generated the maximum amount of attention expected with many theories flying around as to what the main plot for this movie will be.

As for the cast members revealed, it's an impressive bunch but in news that won't shock anyone, there's more to be revealed over the next few months. Honestly any actor who's ever appeared in a Marvel production will likely appear in this movie and it's sequel. 

Avengers: Doomsday will be released in theatres from May 1st 2026 with Avengers: Secret Wars heading to theatres from May 7th 2027.