Universal to relaunch Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis

[Andrew NDB]

Saw the new "Halloween" (201. I'm probably the last person that should be giving an opinion on it, as I largely disliked all of the originals (H1, H2, especially H4, H5, and H6... eugh!). I found 1 and 2 boring, with 4, 5, and 6 being largely nonsensical, moreso with each new one. I actually *really liked* H20, and found "Resurrection" hysterically awesome (Busta Rhymes drop kicking Myers to the tune of "trick or treat, mutha****a!" still resonates). Apparently no one else did. I think I know the problem, though.

I never watched any of the old movies as a kid. I DO remember watching 3: Season of the Witch on HBO or something as a kid, and it creeping me out. I had no idea it had nothing to do with the other movies. I also remember being dragged to the movies to see part 5 in the theater as a kid (not by my parents, but by the cool older kids who were minding me that particular day -- not that I was ever forbidden to watch R-rated movies by my parents), but even as an 8, 9 year-old kid, finding it laughably terrible. Point is, I think had I seen Carpenter's original Halloween if not when it came out, then at least around that time, I would have probably appreciated it more. Watching it for the first time ever as a late 20-something year-old, it seems lame. After a lifetime of Freddy and Jason movies and all that, it's like watching "Diet Jason" only with far less going on and far less deaths and a less interesting antagonist. So hopefully you can forgive that.

So I got prepared for the new movie. I re-watched the original Halloween (197 -- which is the only one that matters now, as the new one ignores all other Halloween movies, even part 2. I liked it more this time around. I appreciated the nuance. The tons of bits of Michael hiding in plain sight. The careful deliberations, quiet. Then the big payoff at the end. And then...

I saw the movie (the new one). Wow! Completely awesome! Super, super slickly written. I loved H20 but this is like H20 x10 to me. The editing is perfect, the characters -- even the little ones we spend very little time with -- are super likable and funny. The little black kid in particular that the nanny is watching is about the funniest character I've seen in years, and the whole theater was howling at his lines. So many examples of setup and payoff, over and over again in this. I would watch it again, no doubt. Jamie Lee Curtis is a beast in this. This is what Terminator 2 was to Terminator 1, if it took them 40 years to get around to it. It's so good.

Though... wow. What a mess this series is, right? It's like... of historic proportions, and I don't think I'm exaggerating. We had movies 1 and 2, yeah? Then a part 3 that ignored them, and went into the Twilight Zone. Then a parts 4, 5, and 6 that sort of built off of 1 and 2 yet went into batshit crazy territory and kind of buried things. H20 comes out and parts 4, 5, and 6 (and 3, by default) get thrown out the window to get this new Laurie Strode 20 years later thing. And 8, which is like an unnecessary (but I'm so glad it came out... sue me, but I think it's probably the best Halloween movie ever in terms of sheer entertainment value) coda to H20. Then of course comes the Rob Zombie Halloween movies. I finally saw the first one this year (have not seen the second yet), which at the time I generally liked better than the original, even if it felt like every other Rob Zombie movie ever. But anyway, Zombie's Halloween hits, which reboots the whole series, for the first time from scratch this time. Then it gets a sequel. Now we get a movie that... acknowledges only the first 1978 movie and nothing else, even part 2 which everyone apparently loved. It's just odd. Odd and ballsy. And just interesting to me as a choice. This is basically H40, yeah? It's like Jamie Lee Curtis went to both her 20th and 40th high school reunions, yet in exactly the same fashion and pretending the last one never happened.

If I had to grind any axe with this movie, it'd just be that in watching the original 1978 movie right before this one (which we did), Michael's surviving 6 or 7 gunshots and disappearing from the ground below the house he was flung from isn't really addressed. Or maybe it was in dialogue and it didn't soak in. I remember some offhand comment from the cop who claimed to be there that day that, "I stopped Loomis from killing him!" or something. They probably should have had a quick intro or something in the movie to show Michael getting swiftly apprehended after that or something to better ease us into the new movie.

But yeah! Great movie. Super fun with super well written characters. I'd say I hope there's no sequel but it's already doing gangbusters so there will, which means the ending I just watched will be "explained out of" soon enough. Whatever. When they do another one, though, I hope they actually go off the beaten path and do something new with the idea of "The Shape." They make no bones that this is basically a 70 year-old Michael Meyers in this one, and they also tease at least one new direction near the end. I hope they are ballsy enough to commit to the new vs. the old.

Oh, also. Saw "First Man" last week. Fantastic. Humbling. I knew something of this, but I guess I didn't realize the space program was quite the killing field that it obviously was at the time. Very harrowing, and I dug the getting into Armstrong's head.