Halloween (2018)

Forty years goes by fast.  But to think of the changes since this first movie came out:  Back then I was only 13 and could not see this R-rated movie in a theater.  There was no cable TV, no VCR, no Netflix.  Over the years, I saw most of it, and the lore went down in history.

Now we have the Baby Boomer Grandmother back in the person of Jamie Lee Curtis.  She is  loaded for bear, ready to face down Michael Meyers.  And guess what?  He's looking for her too.

Interestingly, co-written by Danny McBride, he of all things nostalgic for the 70s.  So this becomes a bit of a parody, which is probably the right tack to take.  There's really no surprise as to what will happen on this  Halloween night, which makes this perhaps the perfect scary but-not-too-scary movie.

A healthy R-rating again with the blood and gore, the impaling, singing blade noises, slasher thumps,  and the up-close-and-personal-face-to-face stabbings.  The gunshots are just for show.   All washed down with the pot- smoking, flask-drinking, dry-humping American teenagers that the original movie made famous.

God Bless Haddonfield, IL.

* * * * of 5

A Star is Born

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga stars as Jack and Ally in this remake version 4.0 of a tried and true Hollywood story.  Crumbling older star finds a young, ambitious and upcoming young woman and shapes and molds her talent, only to see her star eclipse his.  His sun goes down, hers comes up.

Directed also by Cooper, its an intentionally spare look to the movie.  The real star is the original music, produced mainly by Lukas Nelson, son of Willie, who knows a lot about an aging star.  Gaga does great of course, but Coop does a servicable job as his version of Gregg Allman.  Gaga seems to play a Taylor Swift version, starting out young and country and progressing to pop, dancing.

At time it's a bit cartoonish, with the hat of Cooper signaling his return to craziness, like a version of Jim Carrey in The Mask.    He's either completely smashed or bright-eyed lucid.  Gaga plays it more straight. I expect we'll see more of both.

Overall, excellent music and look.  Reminded me a bit of La La Land, surprisingly, with music filling the role of the dancing.

* * * * *  (highest)

Vice * release date is December 25

Looks like a funny one from Adam McKay in the spirit of The Interview and the Big Short

Can you believe Christian Bale is Dick Cheney?

Mean Girls (2004)

Starring a pre-meltdown Lindsay Lohan as well as teenaged Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried we have a high school boner comedy from the female perspective.  Cady/Caddy is a new student trying to fit in her new high school.  She befriends a group of popular pretty girls nicknamed the Plastics, but really she doesn't fit in there either and ends up trying to sabotage their friendships from the inside.

Screenplay by and starring Tina Fey, its a Saturday Night Live movie produced by Lorne Michaels and featuring a number of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.  Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury has a large role.  The humor is has light but sharp touch.

While it rides completely on stereotypes of high school (nerdy Asians, blond cheerleaders, dumb jocks, token blacks) 15 years later it doesn't age well.  For some of its timeless  DNA, see Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Chicago high school), Election (teacher/student relations) and Napoleon Dynamite (talent show).

*** of 5

Fahrenheit 11/9

A continuation if you will of Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, the most famous/notorious documentarian in America now.

What is billed as Anti-Trump is really more an exposure of the system that created the opportunity for someone like him.    It starts with an interesting bit of recent history, and then moves into the better parts, the Flint MI water crisis, the West Virginia teacher's strike and the Stoneman Douglas H.S. shooting in Parkland FL.  Which is a continuation, sadly, of perhaps his best work Bowling for Columbine.

Another indictment that the system stays the same. If you like Michael Moore, or don't like him, this will confirm your opinion, as usual.

* * * * of 5