Steven Helmer Publications

My wife had a photoshoot with another photographer in West Bend today, so I served as her chauffer and while waiting for her to get done, checked out Ridge Run Park.  I'll need to go there again when it's a little earlier in the day, not as overcast and a bit less muddy. However, here are a few photos from today.

Synopsis: Believing a string of suicides are actually murders, Sherlock Holmes fakes his own death in an effort to draw the murderer out in the open. He eventually finds himself matching wits with a cunning female villain who is using poisonous spiders to collect on the life insurance policies of her victims. Who's in it?   The movie stars Basil Rathbone , Nigel Bruce , Gale Sondergaard , Dennis Hoey and Alec Craig . You can read my review here:  Movie Review: The Spider Woman (1943) (wizzley.com)

Synopsis: After traveling throughout Britain and assembling his Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur is given a quest by God to seek out the Holy Grail. He and his knights accept the challenge and encounter a series of obstacles including everything from a man-killing rabbit to a group of rude French knights guarding a castle. Who's in it?   The movie stars Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Eric Idle , Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones . You can read my review here:  Movie Review: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (wizzley.com)

Synopsis: Three years after punching a corrupt politician and being demoted to investigating domestic dispute claims in Staten Island, Det. Mike Logan is present when a murdered prostitute's body is found and he is eventually given an opportunity to help find her killer. The case ultimately takes him back to his old precinct, where he learns an unknown dirty cop might be involved. Who's in it?  The movie stars Chris Noth , Dann Florek , Dabney Coleman , Dana Eskelson and Ice-T . You can read my review here:  Movie Review: Exiled (1998) (wizzley.com)

Synopsis: Amateur mountaineer Aron Ralston goes hiking at Utah's Canyonlands National Park alone in 2003. After spending part of the day with a pair of hikers he meets, he begins climbing down a slot canyon by himself but becomes trapped when a boulder breaks loose, causing him to fall and trapping his arm against a wall. With nobody knowing where he is and a limited amount of food and water, Ralston spends the next few days trying to figure out how to free himself. The movie is based on a real story. Who's in it? The movie stars James Franco ,  Amber Tamblyn ,  Kate Mara ,  Treat Williams and  Sean Bott . Review: I let my wife pick out last night's movie and, after scrolling through several choices, she settled on this one. It was an intriguing story based on a real person's struggle, however, while we didn't hate the film, it also didn't make our list of favorites. As I said, the story was an interesting one. The film does a good job introducing Ralston an...

Synopsis: Two rival daredevils decide to compete in an early 20th Century across-the-world auto race from New York to Paris and are joined by an ambitious reporter who is determined to prove her gender isn’t a liability. Along the way, they encounter bad weather, a pie fight and a variety of other obstacles that threaten to keep them from crossing the finish line. Who's in it?  The movie stars Jack Lemmon , Tony Curtis , Natalie Wood , Peter Falk and Vivian Vance . You can read my review here:  Movie Review: The Great Race (1965) (wizzley.com)

Synopsis: When Carol Flynn's father doesn't return from a trip to buy her a birthday present, she convinces her boyfriend, Mike Simpson to help her search for him. They find her father's truck severely damaged on the side of the road and look for him in a nearby cave. That's when they discover a giant, man-eating spider. Who's in it? The movie stars June Kenney , Eugene Persson , Ed Kemmer , Gene Roth and June Jocelyn . Review: My wife and I decided not to go out last night and she surprised me by suggesting we watch a classic monster film (normally she isn't into that kind of thing). After some searching, we settled on this one and, overall, we enjoyed it. The movie, as you probably would expect, is somewhat limited as far as special effects are concerned but still manages to do a decent job infusing footage of a spider to make it look like a large killing machine. The film also throws in some entertaining twists that keep it from being too predictable. The...

Synopsis: After being raised in Kenya and homeschooled by her mother, high school junior Cady Heron is given the opportunity to attend classes at an American public school. As she tries to adjust, she is invited to join the Plastics, a girl clique headed up by the beautiful but vicious Regina George. Despite her friends, Janis and Damian, warning her about Regina and her fellow clique members, Karen and Gretchen, Cady tries to see the good in Regina. That changes when she falls in love with Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron, and sees just how cruel Regina can be. Her acts of revenge, however, result in Cady assuming many of Regina's less-than-desirable traits and ultimately becoming a pariah. All while breaking out into song and dance because this is a musical. Who's in it? The movie stars  Angourie Rice ,  Reneé Rapp ,  Bebe Wood ,  Tim Meadows and Tina Fey . Review: I've seen the original Mean Girls multiple times, first when it originally came out then again with ...

Synopsis: After inheriting a farm in Norway, American Bill Nordheim relocates with his reluctant family, with plans to remodel the barn and rent it out as an exotic lodging spot. Bill's son, Lucas, soon discovers the barn is occupied by a barn elf, a creature with a reputation of being friendly to those who take care of him but unfriendly to those who disrespect him. Unfortunately for the Nordheim family, nobody believes Billy and soon the elf is angry enough to call in his friends to violently remove them from their new home. Who's in it? The movie stars Martin Starr ,  Amrita Acharia ,  Kiran Shah , Townes Bunner and  Zoe Winther-Hansen. Review: My wife and I attempted to watch two other movies yesterday evening. The first was too dark and we just couldn't see it, even after closing the curtains. The second was just plain awful and we turned it off after about thirty minutes. Finally, after much searching, we settled on this film, despite having some doubts, be...

Synopsis: In the near future, Earth receives all its energy from tri-fission reactors, which both produce nuclear energy and draw additional energy from cleaning up the nuclear waste. On Christmas Day, the first of those reactors loses communication and a technician, Abby, travels to Australia's Gibson Desert to diagnose and fix the problem. When she arrives, she finds the reactor is run down and the only occupant is the caretaker, Robinson. The other occupant, Dr. Zek, has reportedly gone mad and fled the station. When Abby discovers the reactor has been sabotaged and a rescued Zek tells a different story, she doesn't know who to trust. Who's in it? The movie stars Sarah Habel , Tom Sizemore , Dominic Monaghan and Phil Austin . Review: I wanted to watch a movie last night and wound up picking out the first one that looked halfway interesting, this film. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, other than I knew it would be low budget since it was ...

The rain we had yesterday left the park fairly flooded, and I ended up cutting my walk short to avoid getting soaked feet. I did, however, manage to get a few photos, mostly of geese. Here they are.

Synopsis: In a spontaneous moment, Amanda Sanford decides to rent a luxurious home near the ocean beach outside of New York City and have an impromptu weekend getaway with her husband, Clay and her two kids, Rose and Archie. Shortly after arriving, a series of strange occurrences begin to happen, ranging from an oil tanker grounding itself on the beach to their cell service no longer working. When the home's owner, G. H. shows up in the middle of the night with his daughter, Ruth, talking about a major power outage in the city, it's clear something massive is happening, though they have no way of learning exactly what that is or even if they can trust each other. Who's in it? The movie stars Julia Roberts , Ethan Hawke ,  Mahershala Ali ,  Myha'la and Kevin Bacon . Review: The first time I heard about this movie was last night, when I came across it on Netflix. To be honest, the description and the limited information from the Netflix trailers left a lot to be desir...

I took advantage of the warm weather today and got a walk in without even needing a jacket. It looks like the turtles are starting to emerge, though I suspect they will go back into hiding when the temperatures drop again in a day or so. Anyway, here are some photos:

It was still a bit cool and breezy when I went for my walk, though it did warm up quite a bit later in the day. Here are some of the photos I was able to get. 

Synopsis: A harsh 1870s Montana winter forces young Abigale (Abby) Archer and her family from the mountains and make camp in the valley below. While out hunting for food, her father and brother discover another camp that has been attacked and has one lone survivor, a woman, Cassidy, who is pinned by two arrows through her hands. They rescue Cassidy only to learn she is part of a gang of thieves who slaughter Abby's family during the night and take her hostage, determined to force her to be part of the gang. Abby resists and escapes but with the help of a rancher, soon returns to rescue her horse, the only family she has left. Who's in it? The movie stars Zoé De Grand Maison ,  Olivia Grace Applegate ,  Sam Trammell ,  Nicholas Logan and  Clé Bennett .  Review: This was one of the first movies I came across after re-adding Paramount Plus as one of my movie sources. It looked intriguing so I added it to my list and watched it last night. I have to say, it was ...

 A little cool out yet but sunny so I got a walk in at lunch today. Here are some of the photos I took.

Synopsis: The merchant ship Demeter takes on cargo in Bulgaria and sets sail for London. At first, things seem to be going smoothly but a half-dead female stowaway is soon discovered in one of the crates and not long after that, crewmembers are brutally killed one-by-one whenever the sun goes down. The deaths are eventually blamed on a terrible evil known to many by the name Dracula. Who's in it? The movie stars Corey Hawkins ,  Aisling Franciosi ,  Liam Cunningham ,  David Dastmalchian and  Javier Botet . Review: My wife wanted to see this movie when it was out at theaters, but I had a lot of doubts about it. My biggest concern was, since it is a movie based off a chapter in the book Dracula,  and Demeter 's fate is fairly common knowledge, I thought it would end up being too predictable to be entertaining. We finally got around to watching the movie last night on Paramount Plus and it turns out I was wrong. The movie was much worse than I was expecting it t...

Synopsis: After a Halloween prank ends in an accidental arson, friends Dean, Wes and JT leave a piece of evidence behind tying the crime to the fictional Ricky Stanicky and get away with it. Years later, the now-adult trio still keeps up the illusion of Stanicky being a real person, even going as far as updating Ricky's social media account, as a way of skipping out of things with their significant others. However, when their latest deception results in JT missing the birth of his son, the pressure is on to provide proof of Ricky's existence. The three desperate friends end up hiring an actor they met while in Atlantic City and soon discover their accomplice is a little too good at his job. Who's in it? The movie stars Zac Efron , John Cena , William H. Macy , Andrew Santino and Jermaine Fowler. Review: I had never heard of this movie until coming across it on Amazon Prime yesterday morning. It looked interesting and my wife and I both have enjoyed other John Cena films...

Synopsis: An arctic expedition uncovers a 19th century ship purposely sunk by its crew. While excavating the wreckage, the team accidentally releases an alien attracted to any source of heat and able to freeze people to death with one touch. The movie is also sometimes referred to as Arctic Predator .  Who's in it? The movie stars Dean Cain , Steven Waddington , Lucy Brown , Louisa Clein and Mike Straub. Review: I came across this movie on SyFy a couple days ago and my first thought was the description made it sound like a rip-off of the movie The Thing. However, we gave it a try and discovered it was nothing like that horror film. I don't mean that in a good way. I think my biggest problem with this movie was it was hard to take it seriously. I know it was a made-for-television film with a lower budget, but those special effects were so bad, they were humorous. Most of the movie seemed like the actors were just standing in front of a green screen and everything else was fi...

Synopsis: After being placed under house arrest for protecting her deaf sister, Sofia begins to suspect recent child abductions might be related to her new next-door neighbor. However, she soon realizes the abductions are instead being orchestrated by Cucuy, a Mexican legend known for punishing wicked children. Things go from bad to worse when her sister is snatched by the demon. Who's in it? The movie stars  Jearnest Corchado , Bella Stine , Brian Krause , Marisol Nichols and Morgana Ignis . Review: My wife and I were able to settle down on the couch early enough to watch a movie last night and, since it has been a while since I've checked out some of the films on SyFy, I went through that list. This one seemed interesting, so we gave it a try. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. I think the thing I liked best about this movie was the mystery surrounding the Cucuy (Ignis). In particular, there was a mystery about who summoned the creature (and it tur...

We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, so I made sure to get out while it was still sunny. Here are some of the photos I took.

A photo from my walk at lunch today. I inadvertently started a chain reaction. These birds were startled by me at one pond, and they scared a much larger flock of birds in a different part of the park, causing them to fly off as well.

I was able to get out for a walk at lunch today. While there were quite a few things I could have gotten photos of, most of them weren't overly cooperative, especially the muskrat and garter snake. However, I was able to get some photos of the Canadian geese on their way back from heading south for the winter.

Synopsis: While on a flight to Amsterdam, a drug-related misunderstanding results in friends Harold and Kumar being arrested as terrorists and sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. They manage to escape after only an hour and find a ride back to the United States. However, now fugitives from the law, their only hope is traveling from Florida to Texas to get help from the influential Colton, the man who is about to marry Kumar's ex-girlfriend, Vanessa. Who's in it? The movie stars Kal Penn , John Cho , Rob Corddry , Danneel Ackles , Missi Pyle and Beverly D'Angelo . Review: My wife decided to run some errands yesterday evening, while waiting for our daughter to get done with work. While she was gone, I ended up watching the last few minutes of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and, since this movie came on right after that one, wound up watching it as well.  My wife insists we've seen this movie before, and I have no reason to doubt her. However, I could...

Synopsis : A group of young friends travel to a remote cabin, hiking part of the trip after a near miss with a pedestrian causes them to damage their van. They explore an abandoned mine until some strange occurrences cause them to get scared. Soon after, they experience some strange occurrences, including finding their own bodies inside the mine, an indication something bad is about to happen.  Who's in it? The movie stars  Joseph Cross ,  Briana Evigan ,  Rafi Gavron ,  Julianna Guill and  Rebecca Da Costa. Review: I let my wife pick out Friday night's movie and, after scrolling through a few options on Amazon Prime, she picked this one out. Overall, it ended up being a better choice than expected. There honestly isn't anything overly special about the plot of the movie, it's very similar to other films we've seen before. A lot of the movie also tends to be somewhat predictable, including the main twist, which I figured out only a few minutes into the f...

It was a nice, albeit a bit windy, day today so we took a trip out to Horicon Marsh for a short while. Here are some of my photos.