‘Arts’ Archives
Movie corner: ”˜It”™ returns with roller-coaster ride that thrills
By HOWARD McQUITTER II Howard McQuitter oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com “It Chapter Two” ***1/2 of 5  New Line Cinema Andy Muschietti directed the well-crafted horror film “It” (2017), the highest grossing horror film a $ 700,381,748 worldwide. He has his sequel “It Chapter Two” when “The Losers,” now adults, are called back to their hometown Derry, Maine, to confront the menacing clown, Pennywise (Bill Skargard). While many sequels are or seemingly redundant, Muschietti”™s sequel is a legitimate one. However, the running time of two hours and 50 minutes, I think, cannot be altogether justified. Twenty-seven years later, Mike Hanion (Isaiah Mustafa), a librarian at the town library, is the only one of the seven-group,”The Losers,” who stayed in Derry. Events of missing children begin to recur in Derry bringing back nightmarish flashes to Mike. Mike [...]
Movie corner: I had a good time watching ”˜Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”™
By HOWARD McQUITTER II Howard McQuitter oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com Drama/Comedy The year is 1969. Vietnam, hippies, Black Panthers, marijuana, campus demonstrations, Stonewall riots, robust middle-class, man landing on the moon, white flight anywhere but where the blacks, soul music and Afros. Republican President Richard Nixon”™s first term telling the American people to stay clear of the leftists on American campuses. Pope Paul VI declares an ersatz new liturgy (mostly in vernacular languages) for the Catholic Church. A historical music event called Woodstock drawing thousands of youth to upper state New York to hear the best of rock- country- soul music. Director Quentin Tarantino brings authenticity to the year 1969, in his ninth installment “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” It”™s summer in Tarantino”™s Hollywood starting with an aging television and film star Rick Dalton (Leonardo Di [...]
Movie corner: ”˜Godzilla”™ muddles along
By HOWARD McQUITTER II oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com howardmcquitter68@gmail.com “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019) ** of 5 Warner Bros. San Francisco, a city that”™s become one of exorbitancy in recent years, where homelessness is all too common and billionaire corporations line the skyline like ducks in a row, five years ago had to rebuild the city costing billions of dollars and several thousand lives because of one humongous lizard called Godzilla. He roamed through the city doing as much damage as an earhquake or a tsunami. With all the military might against the beast he left the city on his own terms. Godzilla years earlier would attack Japan leaving so much havoc the scientists there spent every ounce of their brain power to come up with a way to kill Godzilla. Thanks to director Ishiro Hondo, who created the Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese) in 1954, in black and white ”“ though, not to be outdone, other Japanese [...]
