Diary of an Ardent Fan

Let me preface this by saying I have loved the movie Beetlejuice since it was almost new, when it was released in 1988.

And I have read rumors for years about a possible sequel, but it never quite happened.

But now it FINALLY has.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 A.D. was released on September 6 of 2024, and I think it was worth the wait.

Director Tim Burton returns with title star Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara reprising their roles in this new tale.

I’m going to give spoilers here, so don’t read on unless you have already seen it or don’t care:  Winona Ryder’s character, Lydia Deetz, at this point is a rich TV show host talking about ghosts and the paranormal/supernatural.

Her Dad from the first movie passes away so her, along with O’Hara’s character Delia, and Winona’s daughter in the movie Astrid (played by Jenna Ortega) go to the funeral at the old house from the first movie.

Beetlejuice, who has obsessed over Lydia since the first movie, ultimately gets her attention when Lydia’s daughter is taken into the otherworld and wants Beetlejuice to help her.

Also, Beetlejuice is now in fear of his soul being sucked away by a literal soul sucker named Delores (played by Monica Bellucci), who was also Beetlejuice’s wife from many years ago.

I’m spoiling everything here, but let’s just say that all you loved about the first movie is pretty much here.

Michael Keaton is still awesome as Beetlejuice, causing crazy things to happen.  But Keaton is always awesome in every part he plays, in my opinion.

Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara are very good in reprising their characters, and the rest of the cast are solid and all do a great job.

Most especially Willem Dafoe, who plays a fun actor/cop.

No, this movie is not 36 years old and so it hasn’t had decades to be adored.  So please take that out of the equation, and just have fun with it.

I think it is a lot of fun and I laughed and smiled a lot watching it.

Go see it.

Alien: Romulus was released to theaters August 16 of 2024.

Counting Prometheus and the two Alien Vs. Predator movies, this is the 9th movie of the Alien franchise.

Let me preface by saying that I love Alien and Aliens, which are the first two movies.

Alien 3 I think is OK.  

Alien: Resurrection is weird.

I like Alien Vs. Predator and I hate Alien Vs. Predator Requiem.

I like Prometheus, but I was more hyped about it before I saw it.

Alien Covenant is good, but not great.

Now to Alien: Romulus.

This movie is more in line with the first movie, in terms of story and look, but yet is still not a carbon copy.

I think it is good, however, there is one character in it that annoys me.  I say that because I can barely understand what he’s saying because he has a very thick accent and speaks fast.  No offence to the actor, but that just annoyed me.

Also, with help of technology, the likeness of one of the actors from the first Alien movie is in this, but yet, is a different character.  I think that was cool and well done, but it also took me out of the movie some too some because I was confused as to whether he was the same character or different.  But it was well done.

Aside from all of that, it is a very well made science fiction/horror/thriller.

It is set 20 years after the first Alien movie, and 37 years before the second movie Aliens.

The story consists of a group of people that want to leave their planet that has no sun to a planet that does have one.  

However, they ultimately land on a ship that has at least 36 Aliens on it, and if you know about any of these movies, you more or less know what happens next.

I don’t think this ranks up with the first two, but that is unfair to say.

It is well made, the cast is good (other than me not being able to understand one of the actors), and the effects look more practical and real than just all computer generated imagery, which I greatly appreciate.

I’ve read that this movie is making big money at the box office already, and I think that is a great thing.

If you are a fan of this franchise, especially the first movie, I recommend checking it out.  

The year 2024 marks 40 years since the release of the movie The Terminator.

There have since been 5 more Terminator movies, as well as one TV series, an anime show on Netflix coming soon as of this writing, and I’m sure more to come after that.

I love it all and I’ll watch all of the future ones, but again, it all started with the first movie in 1984.

For a one night only screening somewhat near where I live, The Terminator showed at a movie theater on Tuesday of August 13th.

Now, I’ve owned this movie for decades, on both VHS and DVD, but I could not resist going to see this movie on the big screen.

It was a great experience.  I truly felt like I was in that world.

For those of you who may not know, The Terminator is a about a cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) traveling back through time to kill a woman (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to her son, who in the future will help humanity conquer the machines who have mostly destroyed the world.

Another man (Michael Biehn) travels back through time to protect her.

I must say with full disclosure:  I first watched this movie after I had seen Terminator 2:  Judgement Day several times.  So T1 was a shocker to me.

Also, I was still pretty young then too, and T1 actually scared me.  In some respects, it still does, even though I’m quite a bit older now and think the movie is great, and actually better than T2 and the others, which I also love too.

I think that since this movie was a lower budget project, everyone had to really be even more creative with what they did, and ultimately did a lot with little.

Whereas the later movies had bigger budgets and they show it all on the screen.

And I love all of them too, but T1 really says and shows it all.

It has future war sequences.  It shows how Terminators work.  It really takes you into that scary world and gives you the whole scenario.

And it’s such a gritty movie too and it works brilliantly that way.

Michael Biehn (Kyle Reese) arguably plays his best character ever in this movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger does not have a lot of dialogue, or quite frankly many scenes, but wow does he make his presence felt.  Arnold is one of my biggest heroes and I’ve been lucky to briefly meet him and be around him a few times.  And I can say he is a very driven, but positive person.

But in T1, he really is scary.  He is brilliant in this part.  

Linda Hamilton really plays her part, Sarah Connor, very well.  And if you watch T1 and T2 back to back, wow do you really see her acting range, and in Terminator Dark Fate, too, which I think is highly underrated.

The supporting cast in T1 is quite good, especially the police characters (played by Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield).  I could have used more of them in the movie.  They bring just a tinge of  humor to what is mostly a very bleak, scary story.

Even the score, made by the amazing Brad Fiedel, is quite haunting and scary, but brilliant and perfect for this movie.

The effects may look dated to some people in 2024, but to me, they work brilliantly.  Stan Winston and his team and Gene Warren Jr. and his team really brought their A+++ game, as did everyone, to this movie.

This is Director/Co-Writer James Cameron’s arguably finest work, in my opinion.

He’s gone on to do bigger movies, but for me, none of them have the impact this one does, and I’m a fan of his work.

He and Producer/Co-Writer Gale Ann Hurd (who I have a ton of respect for and consider to be a pioneer in the movie and TV industry), along with everyone else who made this movie, really made magic here.

And to me it is a very powerful movie that has a story that I feel is more topical and current than it was then.

The story is very straight forward, but also has a lot of layers to it.

And even though this movie still scares me (I’ve had several dreams over the decades of a Terminator coming after me or of me just being in that world because of this movie.), I find it to be a great thrill ride that does not let go.

I love the whole franchise, but to me, T1 is the best.

It was great seeing it on the big screen for one night only.

And the special edition DVD I have of it is phenomenal.  It includes a few awesome documentaries and Easter eggs.

If you’ve never seen The Terminator, give it a watch.  And watch the others too.

One of my favorite movie franchises.

Thank you to everyone who made T1.