Cinema Basement

 Some might have noticed not much came out for Brendan Fraser month beyond The Mummy. Four different articles had technical issues for some reason. So for October we'll pause the month, no director just horror for October, try again in November. Hopefully this goes up. 

A review by Brooks Rich A young man named Francis is summoned to the house of an old friend, the mysterious JP. The two haven't seen each other in ten years and it's clear there's something from their past haunting them. Something is wrong and Francis' request to see JP's sister Vivian is rebuked.  I don't know where to start. I am going back and forth with this one. There's a lot I like. Indie films like this need to be celebrated and not picked apart. If this was a big budget Hollywood film I would probably be a little harsher. But I don't want to be. I really admire what works here. The strength is the acting from actors Liam Aiken and Joe Adler, playing Francis and JP respectively. The film lives or dies with their performances and, for the most part, I think they deliver. They've got an awkward chemistry with each other that fits the story.  The script is very interesting. It's an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of ...

  A review by Forrest Humphrey   Much like “Halloween” back in 2018, the new “Candyman” is a sequel/reboot that scraps the old sequels and only uses the original film for backstory, while also sharing the same name as the original. Why this has become a trend, I'm not sure. Regardless, much also like “Halloween” before it, “Candyman” 2021 is a worthy sequel to the original film. For the most part.  I will of course refrain from spoilers given this is a new film still in theaters, so consider this my early endorsement to go see it. The core cast, especially Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Teyonah Parris, all put in great work, though the side characters are more lacking. Director Nia DaCosta has an eye for beauty as well, the film is loaded with gorgeous cinematography and stunning visuals, especially considering the film's budget. Of special note are some sequences using shadow puppets that are an absolute visual treat. The score by Robert A. A. Lowe is also fantastic, and ...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Fraser plays Rick 'o' Connell, an adventurer who along with his traveling companions Evie and Jonathan, Rachel Weisz and John Hanna respectively, resurrect the high priest Imhotep, the awesome Arnold Vosloo, who thanks to a curse brings with him the power of immortality and the ten plagues of Egypt. Now Rick and his friends have to dodge mummies, brain washed people, scarabs, and giant clouds of sand to return Imhotep to the grave and save the world. Let's go! My God I love this movie. Kicking off Brendan Fraser month with what I think is his best movie, the 1999 adventure film, The Mummy. They don't make movies like this anymore. The adventure movie has been replaced by superhero movies and explosion fests like the Fast & the Furious franchise. We need more swashbuckling films like this in the vein of Indiana Jones. And not just the sequel, The Mummy Returns, which is fun enough, or the third one, which is abomination of cinema.  A b...

 For the month of September we are celebrating an actor who has recently begun to have a resurgence. Brendan Fraser seemingly dropped out of the business around the late 2000s and it came out that it was due to some personal issues. He had a bad injury and faced abuse from a male celebrity. But with the release of Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move and Fraser's casting in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, we are taking the chance to explore Fraser's career. So let's dig up his filmography and enjoy a blast from the past celebration.