Dream House is an interesting idea, not a horror film, and has no idea what to do with itself; crumbling under a ridiculous exposition heavy third act twist that is almost laughable. Poor and misleading marketing will make reactions to this film far worse then It deserves though as there could have been something here. [Read more...]
Film Review: Dream House
10/01/2011 by 5 Comments
Review: Let Me In
10/02/2010 by Leave a Comment
Let Me In is one of the most successful foreign film adaptations ever and it does that by pulling from both the source novel and the film to give itself enough of its own identity to forget about the original film, Let the Right One In, if you have seen it.
Reviewing Matt Reeves’ film is a tough endeavor for me as I love the original film by Tomas Alfredson, and you should check it out if you haven’t as it is streaming on Netflix, and I can’t help but compare the two films here. I hopefully will convey a stand alone opinion of Let Me In by the end of this review. Reeves’ film is intense, atmospheric, and doesn’t stray too far away from the original film. Having not read the book I don’t know if the differences in the films are taken from their or not but when Reeves breaks off the film still work wonderfully.
Review: Shutter Island
02/19/2010 by Leave a Comment
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Shutter Island is a successful mystery thriller with a great lead turn by Leonardo DiCaprio and a plot that brings some originality to a potentially tired idea.
DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates at a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. He is paired up with a new partner, Chuck, fresh off a transfer from Seattle and the two figure out in a hurry that things aren’t quite right in the facility. The lead psychiatrists aren’t helpful or cooperative, the patient in questions escaped undetected, from a locked room, and did this all barefoot in a rough terrain grounds to escape too. Added to this, a hell of a storm sweeps in over the island and strands Chuck and Teddy there and Teddy decides to dig deeper into the islands secrets that he believes are being hid within the facilities walls.
Now, go into this film as much of a virgin as possible to the material if you can. Talking anymore about the picture would be a disservice to the twists and turns it takes and while it isn’t a wholly original idea there are enough surprises and nuance to the story the make itself its own. [Read more...]
Review: The Fourth Kind
11/06/2009 by Leave a Comment
When it comes to aliens, extra-terrestrials, life out there, or whatever you want to call it, I am a firm believer and for anyone that likes that kind of stuff The Fourth Kind is right up your alley.
Now, I am not a cultist or of the belief that aliens are inherently violent or want to destroy us all, I am just convinced that there has to be life out there. As the saying goes, if there is nothing out there, it sure seems like an awful waste of space. But the mystery in question here is of the violent nature and causing problems for the city of Nome, Alaska. The film opens by breaking the fourth wall with actress Mila Jovovich who stars as the proposed real life psychologist Abigail Tyler. Tyler apparently uncovered some disturbing secrets in the minds of some of her patients who have all been suffering from sleep disorders and have an identical recollection of an owl in the wee hours of the morning that they identify with their loss of sleep. The study is a continuation of the work Abigail’s husband was doing who was murdered in his sleep a few months earlier while in the middle of the same study. After putting one of her patients under hypnosis, Tyler, begins to discover something darker to these peoples sleeping issues and suppressed memories that she can’t really explain. [Read more...]
Review: Zodiac: Directors Cut
01/18/2008 by Leave a Comment
David Fincher’s latest is a crime masterpiece and leads us on a history lesson through the obsessive lives these crimes forced these men into.
Zodiac was sold as a creepy serial killer film filled with horror murders to the public, and while it does contain all of those aspects, there isn’t a murder after the first 45 minutes of the film. Some people were left scratching there head and had no idea what they were getting into, a procedural drama carrying us through the painstaking search for the killer by a number of individuals. [Read more...]
