It Ends With Us was phenomenal. Blake Lively gave this character her all, you felt every little emotion she felt, her chemistry made the screen spark. I love her, I don’t think she’s ever done anything under exceptional. This role was no different, she owned it.

I did not know anything about it when I found out that I was doing this movie. I also did not know that it was a book. Coincidentally, before me and my granddaughter went to go see it, we did some shopping at the mall first. (where my theater is) We had walked past a bookstore and Savannah spotted the book. We were both surprised, who knew? We joked around about it and went to go see the movie. As the movie ended, my granddaughter looked at me and begged to go get the book, so we did and she’s happily reading it now. We also discovered that there is a follow-up book and will be going to pick that up this weekend. (thanks Rebecca)

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The story was so heartfelt and powerful. I hope the movie does well at the box office, I was a bit surprised when I walked into my theater, it was packed. Since I moved to Tennessee, I have yet to see more than ten people at the early show. I live in a small town, but the ladies were out yesterday. At the end of the movie it received massive applause. It tickles me when that happens.

I’m sure if you’ve read the book you plan on seeing it, I just want to let everyone else know, this is a must see movie. I’ll be reading the book this weekend and I’ll report back on how I felt they did then.

Grade: A

About The Peetimes: I’ve got 2 Peetimes in for you, I recommend the 2nd Peetime, but if you have an emergency the 1st Peetime is there for you too.

There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of It Ends with Us.

Plot
Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents’ rela…

At the beginning of 2019’s “Zombieland: Double Tap,” the film’s fourth-wall breaking narration strikes a tone that’s both wry and earnest: “You have a lot of choices when it comes to zombie entertainment,” it observes. It’s a comment that would seem positively bizarre just 20-odd years ago, before numerous artists in film, comics, television and more sought to resurrect their fond childhood memories of George A. Romero films, Italian horror rip-offs and gonzo splatter comedies, causing the zombie to become as much of a cultural mainstay as vampires, ghosts and werewolves.

Now that we’re well past the zombie revival phenomenon, we’ve entered a sort of post- post-modern phase when it comes to the living dead. It’s no longer novel to make a ribald zombie comedy, and the most predominant metaphors and allegories concerning the creature have been nearly done to death. Unless the zombie lays dormant for a while, there may not be much new to say about or with them.

Yet pushing the envelope in the arts and entertainment isn’t paramount; if it were, we wouldn’t have sequels and remakes and reboots and the like. What counts for a lot is sincerity, and that’s a quality that the film collective known as RKSS has in abundance. RKSS — Quebeckers individually known as François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell — first burst onto the scene with 2015’s “Turbo Kid,” a feature that showcased their geek culture bonafides as well as their penchant for combining the wholesome with the gruesome.

Their follow-up, “Summer of ’84,” took an impressive turn into genuinely dark territory, indicating that they may be adding some compelling maturity to their work going forward. Their first feature since then, “We Are Zombies,” pumps the brakes on that idea. But no matter; even though the film is, with its adult protagonists, ironically more juvenile than their first two films about children were, it’s still a charming zom-com romp. 

Based on the comic series “The Zombies That Ate the World” by Jerry Frissen, “We Are Zombies” sees RKSS (who have jumped back on writing duties here for the first time since “Turbo Kid”) employ their clever economy when it comes to world building, explaining with just a short opening credits montage the idea that the dead have started coming back to life, but instead of turning into ravenous flesh-eating ghouls, they simply wander (or sit) around, taking up space.

They are, in effect, a new minority population, and although they’re given basic rights (including being referred to as the “Living Impaired”), humans are becoming perturbed by their growing numbers. To try and address that, officially licensed groups offering “retirement services” offer to take rotting loved ones off people’s hands. Seeing as how living corpses can fetch a good price on the black market, some enterprising people choose to hack into official systems and pose as retirement servicemen, and this is exactly what Freddy (Derek Johns), Karl (Alexandre Nachi), and Karl’s half-sister Maggie (Megan Peta Hill) do. 

Unfortunately, this misfit trio finds their get-rich-quick grift beset on many sides, namely by the actual servicemen they’re stealing zombie pickups from: Stanley (Patrick Abellard) and Rocco (Marc-André Boulanger), who work for the Coleman corporation. Hannity (Benz Antoine), a former military man and current Coleman head honcho, refuses to pay Stanley and Rocco until they repay the company their debts, eventually leading the doofus duo to kidnap Karl and Maggie’s sweet old grandmother (Clare Coulter) as collateral until the black market trio can scrounge up some money.

In order to do that, Karl uses a connection to get a job from an avant-garde artist/musician (Stéphane Demers), who wants them to literally dig up a celebrity Living Impaired to have as his date. Meanwhile, Hannity is making waves at Coleman, insisting that the Living Impaired population is growing too large, and begins planning to unleash an experimental chemical which will turn the LI into ravenous zombies and lead to, he hopes, the elimination of all the undead.

The comic book origins of “We Are Zombies” are present in all of this world building, and it isn’t too hard to see how a series (be it comic, film, or TV) could be spun off from it. Yet RKSS aren’t so craven as to position the film as part one of several. Instead, the movie is firmly focused on being a Coen Brothers-esque caper, as our so-called heroes make as many mistakes as they have victories.

Unlike the work of the Coens, there isn’t a ton of satiric bite to be found here; the slacker-humor dialogue is only edgy if you’re still a teenager, and some of the script’s attempts to be politically incorrect feel more feeble than sharp. Still, the idea that zombies and humans are both highly foolish (with humans edging out zombies in stupidity) is potent enough to lend the film a nice undercurrent of misanthropy. 

Where “We Are Zombies” really shines is in its display of RKSS’ mix of ribald humor, violence, and open-hearted charm. Many of the hallmarks of the directing trio’s work can be seen in the film: nerd culture being openly celebrated, a badass blonde girl (who’s verbally referred to as such), a penchant for set-ups and pay-offs, the slick cinematography of Jean-Philippe Bernier (as well as his synthwave music, along with Jean-Nicolas Leupi, under the name of Le Matos), and so on.

There aren’t any standout performances as with RKSS’ previous films, but the ensemble as a whole works really well together, especially when tasked with selling various romantic couplings that are a little half-baked (which the script comments on, to its credit). More than anything, the movie feels genuinely personal, an increasingly rare thing in a media landscape saturated with zombie entertainment: it’s no coincidence that Karl, Freddy and Maggie are essentially the three filmmakers’ alter egos. To paraphrase “Zombieland: Double Tap,” you have a lot of choices when it comes to new zombie movies, and if you choose “We Are Zombies,” you’re at least likely to have a good time.

Soundsphere Rating: Three and a Half Stars

Borderlands, 2024.

Directed by Eli Roth.
Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, Haley Bennett, Janina Gavankar, Cheyenne Jackson, Charles Babalola, Benjamin Byron Davis, Steven Boyer, Ryann Redmond, Bobby Lee, Olivier Richters, Justin Price, and Paula Andrea Placido.

SYNOPSIS:

Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.

An adaptation of the popular cooperative multiplayer open-world video game series, Borderlands doesn’t play to the strengths of exploration or the strengths of co-writer/director Eli Roth as a shock filmmaker. The ultraviolent horror guru seems like an inspired choice on paper, considering these are Mature-rated games that also derive energy and excitement from gore and juvenile humor (typically referencing pop culture or smartly deconstructing video game tropes), but he has bafflingly been given a PG-13 rating to work with. To be fair, one can also imagine this turning out just as lifeless and generic even if Eli Roth and co-writer Joe Crombie had been given the green light to do whatever they wanted because they seem to fundamentally not understand what anyone likes about these games and are packaging it into a cinematic interpretation devoid of any personality.

Simultaneously, not all of these shortcomings should necessarily be attributed to the filmmakers. Borderlands isn’t exactly the type of video game property with strong storytelling or beloved heroes that scream for an adaptation. However, given the game’s visual color and humorous dialogue, there is reason to believe this could work if it elicits laughter and delivers fun variations of the playable characters and sidekicks, possibly fleshing them out in the process. Here, the attempts at comedy are forced to the point of cringe, whereas the story is a generic tale about a teenage girl theorized to have special abilities capable of opening a hidden vault many have tried hunting for.

Everything here is lifeless to the point where it is also a struggle to find things to say, so here’s an anecdote about my opening-night screening (this film was not screened for press in Chicago.) 15 minutes into the film, a random man walks in and sits down, most likely sneaking in after having just finished watching something else. He left after five minutes, presumably because the snarky humor was bombing, the plotting was basic, the action was bland, and the visuals were dull and complemented by costumes that feel more like high-end cosplay. 

Cate Blanchett is the redhaired Lilith, a bounty hunter employed by Atlas (Edgar Ramirez) to rescue his daughter Tiny Tina (a fan-favorite played by Ariana Greenblatt) from one of his soldiers, Roland (a completely miscast Kevin Hart), aware that she is disposable to her father and locked away, only being used to one day open the vault when it is discovered. Meanwhile, one of the Mad Max-inspired masked psychos (Florian Munteanu) serves as a brute bodyguard for Tiny Tina. Three keys must be collected beforehand; this is based on a video game, after all. Unsurprisingly, everyone comes together and finds themselves on the same side, fighting against Atlas while searching for these keys.

As a game, there would be ample time to run off and cross paths with several kooky side characters offering up side missions that would give the consumer a sense of this world overrun by greedy corporations (a thematic thread the film does nothing with.) Or maybe it would be the right time to dig into the unique shooter mechanics that prioritized exploring and killing as much as possible to be rewarded with special weapon drops of varying damage levels and distinct traits (as far back as the first game, there were thousands of possibilities regarding these sometimes randomly generated firearms.)

Instead, Borderlands is rushing through this generic story (that smashes together multiple aspects and characters from all three games until it comes across as an overstuffed mess, similar to far too many other video game adaptations) like a player only concerned with speeding their way through the plot-centric quests, that’s not the right way to play Borderlands, and that for damn sure isn’t the correct way to adapt it.

Some other characters join the adventure, ranging from comedic robot sidekick Claptrap (for some reason voiced by Jack Black even though it sounds nothing like him and Lionsgate didn’t bother to market the movie, meaning it wouldn’t  have mattered just giving the role to voiceover performer David Eddings again) and Jamie Lee Curtis’ scientifically inclined Tannis (doing almost nothing in the movie but spouting exposition even though she tags along, making it feel like that fourth person in the party who doesn’t provide any real assistance and just racks up Achievements from everyone else’s hard work.)

No matter who they are, everyone feels halfway committed to their video game counterpart in screenplay construction. The bigger issue is that, in doing so, the filmmakers never figure out who these characters are or why anyone should care about them. Technically, you could say the film looks like Borderlands, but even that statement only goes so far since the adaptation is robbed of the aesthetically pleasing cel-shaded animation. The song choices for the action sequences are seemingly selected at random, with encounters against even giant monstrosities lasting about as long as they do in the trailer.

Everything here feels desperate to convince viewers that everyone involved gets and understands Borderlands, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. There is hesitation in calling the film awful since the actors are trying, and there is a base-level competence to the proceedings, but this is a bore with zero personality. 

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist