Shadowbuilder (1998)

Director: Jamie Dixon

Notable Cast: Michael Rooker, Leslie Hope, Andrew Jackson, Shawn Thompson, Kevin Zegers

I’m a bit of a sucker for late 90s horror. There’s something about the aesthetic of straight to home video or low to mid budget horror from the era that hits a nostalgic note for me, so when Bram Stoker’s Shadowbuilder (also known as Shadow Builder without the iconic author’s name attached) hit my review queue I was generally excited to dig into a film from this era that I had not experienced before. Needless to say, even though the film is hardly perfect by any definition of the word, it also hit all of the right marks for me. Shadowbuilder is an enjoyably off beat supernatural horror action flick with some fantastic casting. It’s a product of its time, particularly in its use of visual effects around its villain, but its combination of cult horror with supernatural slasher elements was charming and fun.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Director: James Gunn

Notable Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone

After the disappointing leap into the mystic and psychedelic realms of Marvel with last year’s uninspired (but still fun) run at Doctor Strange, it is a much needed boost for my moral for this shared cinematic universe to be returning to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Vol. 2. Initial reviews and reports seemed generally favorable, but with my sheer delight in the Ice Pirates-esque humor, heart, and spectacle of the film first film I was ready for whatever this film was going to throw at me. Truthfully, it throws A LOT at the audience too. Not only does this film attempt to rekindle the kind of action, drama, and silliness that made the first one a sleeper hit for Marvel, but it also goes by it in the classic blockbuster sequel approach: more is more. More jokes, more drama, more plots, and more characters. It even adds in more than that. It runs with the psychedelic nature that Doctor Strange used and gives it grounding, being bombastic in its designs and color schemes all the while delivering the fun movie that people want to see. The execution is not quite as efficient as the original Guardians was, but for a sequel that was attempting to find the same balance and figure out why the original one worked so well, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is still a major Marvel success and one that pushes the franchise within the franchise into new territory while still retaining its core.