Taking a Break

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be taking a break from the blog until the beginning of August...I'm going to L.A. tomorrow, so I'll be too busy to work on the blog until I get back. : )

Movie Spotlight: Ghostbusters (2016)

I've been looking forward to the new Ghostbusters movie for a long time and have been really annoyed by all the negative people who have been claiming it would be terrible. I saw the movie today, and I'm happy to report that all of those people have been proven wrong...I knew I'd like the movie, but I loved it even more than I thought I would! Paul Feig was definitely the right person to direct this movie, and the script (by Feig and Katie Dippold) was great...I loved the plot, and I laughed just as much as I did at the original Ghostbusters.

Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are awesome and badass as the new Ghostbusters, and Chris Hemsworth is hilarious as their not-too-bright receptionist. The special effects are incredible, and some of the ghosts really creeped me out (the haunted mannequin just might give me nightmares). If you go see it, make sure to stay through the end credits, or you'll miss some good stuff. I feel bad for the people who refuse to see this because they think a movie can somehow retroactively ruin their childhoods (which is pretty much the dumbest thing I've ever heard)...they're missing out on such a terrific movie. Watching Ghostbusters was the most fun I've had at a movie theater in a long time, and I really hope there's a sequel. Though I grew up with (and still love) the original Ghostbusters, Gilbert, Yates, Holtzmann, and Tolan are the Ghostbusters I want to be.

My rating: 10/10

Ghostbusters Comes Out Today!

There's really only one movie I have to see in the theater this summer, and of course that movie is Ghostbusters. I know there's been a ton of negative talk from sexist drama queens who think a remake of a movie can ruin a childhood that already happened, but I think it's going to be awesome! I'm going to do my best to see it opening weekend and get my review up before I leave for L.A., and for now I'll leave you with Screenrant's article about reasons to be excited for the movie. : )

http://screenrant.com/reasons-to-look-forward-to-ghostbusters-reboot/

Book Review: My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

I read Grady Hendrix's Satan Loves You a few years ago (and since I write plays about Satan, of course I loved it), so I was really excited to read his new book, which is called My Best Friend's Exorcism and takes place in Charleston, SC, which happens to be my hometown. Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since the age of 10, but sophomore year of high school, things begin to change between them...because 1988 is the year Gretchen gets possessed by the devil.

My Best Friend's Exorcism is funny, gross (and the gross parts are described so well that they're really easy to envision), and chilling, and Hendrix writes teenage girls really well (he also writes possessed teenage girls really well). The exorcism scene was one of the best exorcism scenes I've ever read, and I hope someone makes a movie version of this book because I'd love to see that scene on the big screen. Also, I'm pretty obsessed with the '80s, so I loved all of the '80s references in the book. My Best Friend's Exorcism was everything I hoped it would be, and I definitely recommend it. : )

My rating: 10/10

Movie Spotlight: The Boy

The Boy is a 2016 movie starring Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Jett Klyne, James Russell, and Lily Pater. Greta (Lauren Cohan) agrees to be a nanny for a family in England and learns that the 8-year-old boy she is supposed to take care of is actually a life-sized doll (easiest job ever!). After she breaks a few of the family's rules, odd things start happening, and Greta wonders if "The Boy" is more than just a doll.

If the people I worked for introduced me to their "son," and he was obviously a doll that they wanted me to treat like a real person, that would be my cue to leave, but that would be a really short movie, so of course that's not what happened in The Boy. Despite the fact that the way the characters treat the doll is pretty ridiculous, I enjoyed the movie and thought that Lauren Cohan and Rupert Evans gave great performances. I wouldn't say the movie was scary, but it was creepy, and if there's a sequel, I'll definitely watch it. : )

My rating: 7.5/10

The Real Lady Ghostbusters

Since the new Ghostbusters movie is coming out soon, and I'm not a whiny idiot who thinks a remake with female Ghostbusters can somehow ruin a childhood that already happened, I thought it would be a good time to share this article I came across called "The Real Lady Ghostbusters: Meet the Most Influential Female Paranormal Investigators in the Field Today." Some of the women included in the article are Amy Bruni (formerly of Ghost Hunters), Amy Allan from The Dead Files, and Lorraine Warren, who is probably the world's most well-known female paranormal investigator (thanks in part to The Conjuring). : )

http://weekinweird.com/2016/06/18/the-real-lady-ghostbusters-meet-the-most-influential-female-paranormal-investigators-in-the-field-today/