Just a couple of things this week, up first is Nickelodeon’s reboot of the classic Are You Afraid of the Dark? I dug the 1990s version of the show and this is a re-imagined version for a new generation. The Midnight Society in this not only tell the stories, but are part of it. In this DVD set is 3 episodes with the same story of the Carnival of Doom throughout. A new girl moves to town and she likes horror movies and gets initiated into the Society. She tells a story that has been a recurring dream of hers and then it becomes real as a local teen goes missing when the Carnival arrives. Over 3 episodes you learn her backstory and get to know the new members of the Midnight Society. As a grown man I can admit there are a couple of good horror scenes in it. The water ride scene when the people come up from the water is cool and you can never go wrong with scary clowns. This DVD set also includes 3 episodes of the original cult show. If you were a fan and have kids, this new reboot works as a great introduction for them. I’ve always supported things like Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark because it introduces one of my favorite genres (horror) to a new audience. Solid reboot!
Second we have Valley Of The Gods which was a total headscratcher. Josh Hartnett stars as a writer whose wife leaves him and he moves into the mansion of an eccentric trillionaire (John Malkovich). Malkovich wants to mine sacred Navajo lands for uranium and the Native community is against that. Now I get that concept. What I didn’t get is how it was supposed to all connect and make sense. There’s a woman who’s hired to live at the mansion and looks like Malkovich’s dead wife. The Natives think the land can’t be touched and somehow interact with Hartnett about it. There’s a weird party scene with a catapult and people being held in cages. Whatever the whole thing was a metaphor for went completely over my head. I didn’t get it.
Sticking with movies I didn’t quite get, A White, White Day is another film with an easy concept, but what it all means I don’t know. A man is renovating a farmhouse after his wife dies. He finds out she was having an affair and he figures out who it was with. He’s a cop and his granddaughter is around him all the time. I get all that. That’s easy enough, but what was the point of it all besides that? The lead actor is fantastic and the film is beautifully shot with some breathtaking backdrops, but is there more to it? Am I putting too much thought into it or is it simply a revenge thriller? I guess I was expecting something in the line of In Order of Disappearance. It’s not bad, far from it, I guess I was expecting more of a twist or something.
Last we have NCIS: New Orleans The Sixth Season. This is a show my parents watch weekly, but I only watch to review. It’s my mom’s least favorite of the NCIS shows with the original and Los Angeles she considers better. Season 6 starts out with Pride cutting his vacation short. Follow up episodes deal with a potential UFO sighting, a drug ring in Alabama, a movie theater explosion, an international female assassin, a JAG captain is murdered and the daughter is a suspect, a white NOPD cops shoots a black Navy officer, they investigate a swamp body and Pride’s ex-wife comes back. It’s not my favorite of the series either, but if you are a fan, pick up Season 6 now.
The Nerds Templar 