RAYMOND & RAY Review: It's a family affair

We can all agree that there's something weird and mechanical about making funeral arrangements when you've just lost someone close to you. Most of the time you are still dealing with the grieving process and here you are paying bills to the mortician. Sometimes, you have to take this with a laugh. This is basically the premise of this new dramedy Raymond & Ray directed by Rodrigo García and starring Ethan Hawke & Ewan McGregor as two slighty different half-brothers. It's the acting from those 2 stars that made the movie work for me...

Synopsis: "Two half brothers reunite at the funeral of their father, with whom both had a bad relationship."

Raymond & Ray was actually pretty great, I didn't expect to laugh this much in a movie about grief and death. Ewan McGregor & Ethan Hawke are so endearing and they really fit as this odd couple of half-brothers that have to work together to handle their emotions. It's a darkly funny look at the process of losing a close one that makes you think without being too philosophical. The script might be a bit uneven but I appreciated the ride, because yeah, there's a few surprises.

They have a down to earth approach that makes this dark comedy relatable, it has a morbid sense of humor at times and they have to dig up a few skeletons in the closet that adds to the family drama. Great actors and good laughs in a pretty grim premise, so that definitely makes an odd end result. If I can add something I thought the music in the movie was also really good, it's composed by Jeff Beal. It's a jazzy/blues score that also fits in the narrative of the movie with Ethan Hawke's character having a musical background they did a good job incorporating that to the story.

Overall, it's the chemistry between Ewan McGregor & Ethan Hawke that keeps the movie on its feet. With all the seriousness that goes behind topics like death and betrayal, they're still able to make us laugh and care about those two half-brothers who have their own issues. I haven't seen a lot of buzz around this and it premiered at TIFF to mixed reviews. I would personally recommend it if you're in a mood for a black comedy with solid actors that showed up to work.

Initial Score: 7.5/10

Raymond & Ray will be streaming on Apple TV+ on October 21st

HALLOWEEN ENDS Review: A Risky Gamble That Misses The Mark

As a longtime fan of slasher movies like Friday The 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street and Halloween, the idea of having a new trilogy for Michael Myers was truly exciting. The 2018 reboot was a big success financially & critically, maybe not everyone's cup of tea but I'm proud to say I liked it a lot. I wasn't the biggest fan of last year's Halloween Kills even though the bloodbath is entertaining, there are some questionable decisions that left me cold. It was now time for the "final" installment in this trilogy, Halloween Ends...

Synopsis: "The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode comes to a spine-chilling climax in this final installment of this trilogy."

Halloween Ends takes a big swing and unfortunately it misses the mark for me, I appreciate the risk they were taking but the execution wasn't fully there. A killer score from John Carpenter and the iconic presence of Michael Myers can't save it from being an underwhelming conclusion. I have some positives & negatives, but I can't help but feel let down by this strange & unusual finale.

I was debating whether I was on board "that big creative swing" or not (let's call it this way for the sake of spoilers), but by the time I was making up my mind, the movie was over. Spending time in Haddonfield during spooky season is always special but that just wasn't enough this time around. As you would expect in a Michael Myers flick, they find creative ways to kill off some despicable characters on-screen but I honestly didn't find the movie scary at all.

The early feedback I was hearing is that it's a character piece instead of a slasher and that it might upset some people, it's not false but they just don't do the character piece as well as the slasher (which the 2 previous films nailed). They try to inject new life but don't fully commit so that's why it's hit and miss for me. The film actually got better in the third act when it gets into "slasher mode".

Once again in this trilogy, the real superstar of this film is the original Halloween director John Carpenter behind the keyboard doing his magic with the score. The new musical themes he crafted for The Shape are once again stealing the show and creating the atmosphere this movie needed.

I'm really happy that Michael Myers is still a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood and that Jamie Lee Curtis finally got a decent closure to her character of Laurie Strode. Once the credits rolled, I just felt slightly disappointed in this trilogy and I have a lot of mixed feelings because this creative team had a lot to offer but some of it felt rushed. Is it really the end of "Halloween"? You don't need to watch the movie to know they will need Michael Myers back sooner than later...

Initial Score: 5/10

Halloween Kills is now streaming on Peacock and playing in theaters.