Well done movie overall - a few things don't make sense though

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2019)

September 7, 2017
Mick:We are going to review, "IT" (heavy echo on "IT").
Kurt: It scares me when you do that.
M: Yeah, As well should.
K: About a group of kids who refer to themselves as the losers.
M: No, Losers?
K: Yeah, they are being bullied. They form this bond because they're a bunch of kids that are being picked on by bullies. In the meantime, kids disappearing because this entity or the spirit, how to really put it, this monster is after them.
M: We don't know what's after them, could be a disease. It could be a re-education program... free college.
K: This a Stephen King book. For those who don't know or haven't really been paying attention.
M: Did you really have to bring it up, Stephen King? What isn't?
K: Also. In 1990, they did a version of this. That was on TV.
M: Tim Curry, yeah.
K: Tim Curry was awesome. He was very he was very woman like and funny, I think, in the movie.
M: Here is a question for you. What was this voice like?
K: It was like the joker, the more modern Joker.
M: TV? Oh, not TV
K: More like Heath Ledger
M: I can go with that.
K: Tim Curry was more, Rocky Horror Picture Show.
M: Of course. I was more theatrical.
M: This one was a little bit heeheehee (mick does funny joker laugh).
K: Also, they didn't show anybody dying in the first one. They didn't show any blood. They didn't show anything. It was very clean.
M: They didn't show any blood in this one either. None. I couldn't believe it. How did they get away with that?
K: Still worked.
M: Yeah, it's still worked. That's it. I was terrified. It was like a haunted house. It was Nightmare on Elm Street 3. There was a huge homage all the way along. I mean, I must say that I did appreciate that. I had an homage to ME, one of my favorite sets that I built actually did show up again in this one. So, you know..
K: I was a little concerned that you were going to storm out of the movie at one point,
M: I'm like that. You know what? I was like Oh My God, you ripped me off
K: Why am I thinking about Nightmare on Elm Street 3, oh right, because it looks like it.
M: Oh, that looks exactly like that. That's right. And the story is going that way.
K: Even the tunnels look like uh
M: yeah and we're in tunnels that are hallways.
K: They're running through a house. Yeah.
M: They were running... Did we need the house and the tunnels is the question?
K: No,.
M: No, I didn't think so. I you know, I really thought to myself that the House didn't need to be there?
K: Well, that's interesting you say that..
M: Ancillary..
K: In the 1990 version, the clean version, the less scary,.
M: The less Scary version.
K: The reason I say that is because it's the tone was just very light. This one was a little more dark, which matches the look.
M: It was incredibly dark. There was maybe a lot of blood used here.
K: You mentioned the house, though. I want to go back to that real quick. They should have just been in the sewer the whole time. They're already playing by the river, why didn't they go into the sewer?
M: Well you see, and the thing that kind of bothered me is that the house was THE overdone, a haunted house, it was waaaay overdone. You were you were actually expecting Scooby Doo to come out. You know, it was like.
K: Zoiks!
M: Zoiks! Exactly. You're expecting to see a dog in the front yard try and run five different ways only stuck together by its tail. I thought that a lot of the rest of the we were trying to make the 80s look like the 60s.
K: Because it was originally in the 60s.
M: Possibly. It was an homage to the 60s. You don't homage a decade. You just don't do that.
K: They showed a certain object that has wheels on it was in the book and it was also a the 1990 version.
M: Oh, it was?
K: SFX "High Ho Silver"
M: Oh, geez. Why was why was that there three times? Here's the thing, when we saw third time I expected it to burst into flames. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Let's go back to just in encapsulating the feel that this film got. I I definitely had this Stranger Things vibe going on, Stand by me, smashed together with Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Very little humor.
K: It basically had everything we'd seen before.
M: Exactly! They threw it all in.
K: There weren't a lot of surprises, but the tone was awesome it was a very dark tone
M: the tone was dark in the very beginning, the way that we were being hit. You know, every five minutes, boom, boom, boom, we were hit with a scare. It was building up to a bigger story in the end. In that way, reminded me of the Nightmare on Elm Streets, just because we had this big problem to solve. I'm not going to say what problem was. But we had this big problem. There is going to be this huge culminating place. I was asking myself, what is the place that we're going to see this all come together, you know? Where is Freddy's hell?
K: I watched the TV series from 1990 two days before we watched this one. Probably not a good idea.
M: I'm an "IT" Virgin.
K: I was disappointed, it was flat, but also that there wasn't a lot of character development. This one had a lot of good dialogue with the kids. It was natural.
M: It was Stand by Me.
K: Which was based on a Stephen King book by the way, called "The Body".
M: You don't have to throw that at me. There's no reason I need to know that.
K: It was a story, wasn't really book... In this one... I feel like they're using a lot of old tricks, like blood for example.
M: There was a strong practicality all to all the effects. I love that that we're playing with gravity we're playing with blood A lot, you know, blood is running up, blood is running sideways.
K: Reminded me of some series that I've seen before. What was that? Where I saw a lot of blood dripping up?..oh Nightmare on Elm Street!
M: I see a theme running through all this. Blood was doing everything. It was messing with gravity. It was going out to the stores picking up some milk. See, you didn't think I could bring that one back around, did you?
K: Wow!, you just blew my mind. What did you think of Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd?
M: He did poorly. I was put off by his voice at the beginning. And I and I still by the time I was done. I kept thinking to myself that he was huffing on helium around the corner.
K: Well, he was a clown.
M: Well, Yeah.
K: Tim Burton had even more affect on his voice.
M: Yeah.
K: Not Tim Burton, what did I just say?
M: Tim. Tim Burton. You mean Tim Curry.
M: Tim Curry had quite an affect on his voice.
K: If Tim Burton played Pennywise, that would be really interesting.
M: That would be.
K: Actually, that might work.
M: Yeah. You have to understand that we're both looking each other. We both looked at each other and said that might have worked.
K: One problem with the movie that drove me crazy a little bit. There's a character in this one where, he's not really there for the whole movie. More than half of the way in he becomes part of the group. He's the African-American kid. I'm thinking in a Trump society, why did they push the black man out? Because in the 1990 version, he was in there from the very beginning. He was always the one that was into the history of the town and help drive the story.
M: This is this is the trouble with trying to make a story. Trying to film a very complicated book. You can't, it goes many different ways. You have a very limited amount time to tell that story. The problem is, is it they tend to leave little tendrils in that you start cutting off, you know, and you can't get rid of all of it. So you rearrange it the best you can and then you film it.
K: Of course, my solution in my head was like, well, if they're going to cut him out for the first half of the part of the movie, they can just get him out, the whole movie. But then obviously, being the only African-American kid.
M: Yeah.
K: That could be troublesome.
M: I'm agreeing with you.
K: I do love the character development. I think we very talked about how the dialogue was great.
M: The dialogue was great. The action was amazing. The practical effects were amazing. I think that they actually had that mindset where they were using practical effects, before they were using any other effects.
M: Let's sum this sucker up. We both loved the film. I had a feeling that the movement, as you move into it in the very beginning, is like scare, scare, scare. Then we get together and we tell a hell of a story. That's the way I like my movies.
K: The scare, scare, scare was a little bit drawn out a little bit more because you had a tone that made you a little uncomfortable. The whole movie, I thought.
M: There was a lot of tension there built up that the acting was incredible all the way through. The film looked great. Other than the Haunted House.
K: It was like the other character that shouldn't have been there was the haunted house.
M: The fact that they did copy me for the scene where we had the big final. What can I say? Thumbs up all the way around.
K: Andy Muschietti
M: Directing was great.
K: Photography?
M: DP? Absolutely flawless. He got a very he got together, a very stylish look that moved into the horror look seamlessly. We didn't have daylight scenes weren't so bright and that they would blow you away and stuff and I really appreciate the cohesive look of everything.
K: For a Stephen King movie, it's one of my top 3s. I might even maybe well it could even be top 2 it was really good. I was surprised.
M: I'm going to say the same.
K: Overall, I think it's worth seeing for everybody even. Well, even people who are normally in to horror movies might appreciate it.
M: That is one thing for sure. I think that this should have a very broad of a broad appeal.
K: If you like Stand By Me. This is a Stand By Me with quite a twist.
M: Yeah, there you go
K: Again, I'm Kurt Thomas, along with Mick Strawn.