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Monday, August 18, 2014

The Purge: Anarchy. A Foreshadowing?

The Purge – Anarchy Poster.jpg
THE PURGE: ANARCHY:  2014: --: HORROR:  After watching The Purge: Anarchy, it's eerily similar to Ferguson, Missouri. Based on the looting, theft, and overall anarchy, segments of the public have risen against the police department and created a nightly scene that resembles some parts of this movie.  I don't want to keep drawing parallels here, but I would be remiss if I didn't state this.

 
Eerily similar are the scenes from Anarchy and Ferguson, MI.

It does demonstrate how tenuous the strands of society are and how an event like the shooting of Michael Brown can cause huge rifts that lead to violence and borderline lack of societal control.  

  

Of course, in Anarchy, this violence is intentional and the premise of the movie is that once a year crime is allowed and is used to rid society of the weak and "undesirables".  If you have seen the first one, you get the gist.  

This movie had a challenge because once you got over the initial novelty the first movie introduced, it's hard to find something compelling about the same idea of having a night of pure crime and unadulterated violence. Some aspects were actually pretty annoying, including some of the villains.  


This was one of the more annoying villains. His head is always sideways.

However, I was surprised that this movie actually had some bite to it. After the first one, I assumed it was going to be more of the same, but this one included some new aspects such as killing squads, conspiracies and other elements that differentiated it from the first and took the evolving franchise a step further.


Anarchy adds to the first movie and takes it a step or two further.

This isn't to say that the movie was incredibly original but it did have some gruesome killings, colorful characters and interesting plot changes.  I won't call them twists because they were predictable but worthy of mention. 


Some of the murders were gruesome..

One of the slicker elements was the addition of Big Daddy, which reminded me of Bioshock, the video game, but just in name. Utilizing a minigun (there is nothing mini about it, that's just it's name), he rides behind a tractor trailer and assists in killing more of the undesirables.  These tractor trailers comprise a new component of the movie that lend to some uniqueness when compared to the original where there wasn't much logic behind the purging.


Big Daddy was pretty intimidating.

The movie took on a sort of "survival against a common enemy" as shown in some zombie movies because three totally different groups of people converge to assist each other against the purgers. The final act of the movie is similar to a few other horror movies and I won't give it away.  It did give the movie more depth regardless.


What's she so happy about?  Watch it and find out..

Did this movie revolutionize the action/ horror genre?  No, but it was entertaining enough and a pretty decent sequel.  Not to be redundant, but it gave me creeps the other day watching this after watching some of the scenes from Ferguson.  Do you disagree with this sentiment? 73%  

Noah: Where are all the other Races?

Noah2014Poster.jpg
NOAH: 2014: ++: DRAMA/ACTION:  I wanted to review this movie earlier but I didn't have the chance since I couldn't get to it at the time.  I rented it and had certain expectations because I heard so much acclaim and so many people recommended it.  I wasn't disappointed.  However, I felt some aspects made the movie uneven. There's also another big issue in the movie that I will bring up at the end of this review.  


"Uneven, what does that mean?"

Much of the action occurs in the first "third" of the movie and the action was very entertaining.  The Golems or "Watchers" were a different spin on the story and I enjoyed them, while others had serious questions about why the director/ writer Darren Aronofsky included them.  In some ways, it does "explain" how such as huge ark was created but at the same time this is a biblical adaptation so it doesn't need any "explanation".


I liked the inclusion of the "Watchers".

Noah's cast was right on the money and I liked the fact that Emma Watson complimented the cast of Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and Anthony Hopkins.  Russell Crowe's acting was almost a carbon copy of his performance in The Gladiator, but that's a good thing as he gave Noah a more demanding presence. Some interpret the Biblical Noah in this fashion so I assume that was intentional direction by Aronofsky.

  
Crowe in Gladiator and Noah, longer hair, same attitude...


Would Christian Bale have been a better Noah?  Hard to say but he was apparently offered this role as well.  I believe there would have been too much cross referencing to Batman and it would have hurt the overall impact and lasting impression of the movie.  

Emma Watson continues to impress in this movie and I feel she had a challenging role.  I won't give too much away because you should definitely watch this movie if you haven't already.  She nailed this role. Her range was really demonstrated here and it overshadows her performances in the Potter movies.  You can almost say she stole the show in this movie!  Along with Jennifer Lawrence, she is among the top female roles in Hollywood.


Emma Watson led the way with one of the better performances in this movie.

Although Anthony Hopkins' role was minimal in this movie, it's hard to ignore or discuss this movie without discussing him.  He plays a somewhat distant but approachable character but this time he isn't planning on biting your ear off.  His role in this movie is instrumental in allowing certain elements to evolve so he makes an impact. 


"Where's Clarice?"

Standout scenes are when the animals arrive, the battle against the unruly humans before the flood and when Crowe fights the leader Tabal Cane at the end.    I also enjoyed the sections where other parts of the Bible were mentioned, especially the Adam & Eve creation story, which is often referenced.  Also, the snakes, snakes, snakes were cool!


Here come the snakes, hey they're creatures too!


A snake within a snake, very original!  The root of all evil!

The special effects were also excellent in this movie and made the animals, the flooding, the action, and the ark very realistic.  


This important scene was done extremely well!

This was an ambitious effort and Aronofsky delivers a great movie. I just thought it could have been a bit more balanced because I felt like I saw some of the best parts after the first third.  

Also, where are the different races?  It seems very racially homogeneous. I deducted major points over this.  This is a glaring problem with the movie and I don't understand how you can leave out other racial classes.  Especially now with the shooting of Michael Brown, I was floored by the absence of other races.  Was this an agenda or symptomatic of Hollywood? Or worse, was Darren's Aronofsky's treatment of the Noah story a reason why?72%


"A 72%, what is he thinking?"

Nonstop

A man falling back along an airplane, firing a gun.
NONSTOP: 2014: +-: ACT:  Nonstop was an entertaining movie with a twist that makes it worth watching.  Are you going to have to re-watch it to understand its nuances?  No, but that wasn't the point of the movie.  It was supposed to be a fast paced energy ride to keep you guessing.

Liam Neeson, incidentally someone I saw jogging in NYC once, Julianne Moore, and Scoot McNairy (Halt and Catch Fire) performed well and made the movie easy to watch and become engaged.  


The casting was great in this movie and the actors didn't disappoint.

Movies involving airplanes inevitably make me think of Snakes on a Plane, but that's my issue.  This movie didn't always resemble that movie, (there are no snakes on the plane lol), but at times ancillary elements of it did.  I enjoyed how Nonstop kept you guessing and made you keep trying to understand what was going on and who the culprit was.  


The arm rest is mine, dammit!


Are you sure he's the one that's got the bomb?

There were some characters that took on the cliche roles that they are supposed to portray, like the hip hop guy, the cop, the nerd, and the lawyer, but it wasn't overall too cheesy.  This made me think of Snakes on a Plane.  At times I did roll my eyes at their lines and some of the dialogue was pedestrian.


Wow, did you actually just say that cheesy line?

The plot twist and turns and momentum keep the movie from being another "hi-jacked airplane movie" so that was a plus.  I couldn't really predict the ending in this movie so that was another plus.


Not another hijacked airplane movie..

This wasn't really a huge leap for Liam Neeson and he is getting type cast in my opinion as the "former military/ police officer who saves the day". However, he does play this role well, so it's not a derogatory element of the movie...


"Am I getting type cast?"

Highlights in the movie are the fight in the bathroom due to the constrained space, the time where he tries to track down the bomber by using a hacked smart phone, and the ending.  I also enjoyed when Liam defended himself against the passengers that were convinced he was hijacker.  


Don't mess with Liam, especially when he is sober.

The movie is definitely watchable and I recommend it as an action movie. Jaume Collete did a decent job directing the movie, although I did cringe a bit at some of the lines.  The ending was hard to believe and far fetched, if not completely unbelievable but by that time, you have already enjoyed a decent movie.  If this movie didn't have Liam, it would be a flop in my opinion:  72%


Liam notes why he starred in this movie..

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Blood Widow: At Least the Ending was Good


BLOOD WIDOW: 2013:--:HRR:  I don't even think that Blood Widow made it to theaters, and I will admit I got it from a Redbox machine because most of the other horror movies were gone and the cover looked promising.  I know, never judge a book by its cover etc.

I was extremely disappointed with this movie and I learned my lesson by renting a movie based on the cover.  Obviously I know better than this, but the cover did include the best part of the movie. The villain in this movie isn't exactly original, but I did seem to enjoy the way she methodically slashed the hapless victims in the movie.  


Blood Widow is a decent villain and the best part of the movie.

The cast of this movie didn't have any notable actors and seemed like they were students in a sub par film school.  They almost made you want to have them get killed.  


Who is the worst actor in the movie?  It's hard to tell but they are all bad.

The scene where they were dancing, partying, drinking and overall having a good time really degraded the movie to a border line home movie.  It was terrible.  I popped it out of the DVD player twice because I couldn't take it anymore, but then I forced myself to watch it since I paid 2.99 for it.


Some of the acting will make you cry.

Then some of the killing took place and it started becoming more interesting.  There was no rhyme or reason to the murder, only that the killer had some sort of past issues in her family and hated her father.  That was it.  A picture of the father with his face scratched out consisted of the back drop.  Minimalist I guess.


Why does she kill?  Who knows and who really cares?

Horror movies occasionally make you cheer for the killer and this was certainly one of them.  She was emotionless, callous, and sneaky so it gave her a certain aura.  She would always pop up when least expected and had different ways of killing.  


Sneaky isn't she?

One of her favorite weapons was a whip with hooks on the end and she uses it against the main heroine, the only character that actually puts up a fight.  Incidentally, the blood widow takes off the female lead's pants to whip her legs, giving the movie the obligatory, "girl in her underwear running from a killer" element.  The ending was the only really redeeming part because the blood widow has a hard time killing the main star of the movie.  


The deadly whip slashes up its victims.


It's a cat fight at the end and she puts up a pretty good fight.

What's the best part of the movie?  The blood widow wins.  That's how bad the casting, acting and overall movie was.  As soon as she killed the final actress, I popped the movie out of the DVD player so fast that I almost forgot to put it in it's case.  I would definitely pass on this movie, unless you are completely bored and want to make a drinking game out of the times that the each cast member gets killed: 51%


So each time we die, the viewers should chug a shot?


Yes, each time one of you die, chug a shot.  This makes the movie watchable.


Lizzie Borden Took an Axe

Film Poster for Lizzie Borden Took an Ax.jpg
LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE: 2014: +-: HRR:  One of the things that drew me to this movie was the fact that Christina Ricci is in it because I have been somewhat of a fan of hers.  Starring in Monster, Buffalo 78, and Black Snake Moan, she is capable of putting on great performances.  

Initially an Indie film director's sweetheart, she began becoming more mainstream after Monster, which also starred Charlize Theron and won awards.


Ricci and Theron in Monster.


Lizzie Borden Took an Axe has an Indie movie feel because of the cast.  Starring Clea DuVall, from The Faculty, and Billy Cambell, the rest of the cast was composed of mainly unknown actors. The way in which some of the camera shots and scene transitions take place seemed a bit amateurish but weren't egregious. I'll put portions of the music in that category because it was schizophrenic and inconsistent at times.

 
Christina and Clea worked well together.


Clea in The Faculty

Since this movie is based on a true story, it gives it some more mystique.  The mood was supposed to be eerie and overall it was, but at times, especially when Lizzie was arrested, the music changed to some sort of southern rock hybrid that totally jolted me out of the mood and was utterly ridiculous.  In all the other parts of the movie, the music was as it was supposed to be for a horror movie, dark and moody.  Then the shift was almost laughable.  

 
When Lizzie was arrested or at court, the music was horrible.

I have no idea what Tree Adams was thinking with this, maybe he was appeasing a friend or something by letting his music be in the movie but it really detracted from the movie and actually makes me deduct major points in the rating.

The plot evolves in a novel way and keeps you in the dark although historically the ending is known.  The point is that it leads you along a dark path and only opens certain doors at certain times to let the viewer in closer and closer to the truth.  Did Lizzie do it or not?  


Plenty of side glances and odd looks makes Lizzie seem guilty.

The trial was pretty entertaining and the ending didn't involve a twist, but the director, Nick Gomez, makes it somewhat original.

 
An Axe to the face is not the best way to die.


Pssst, can you keep a secret?

The costumes, sets, and other little touches certainly placed you in the time frame of the movie so that was a plus.  The movie didn't lag because it kept moving and had different phases.  


Costumes, sets, and other touches were effective in setting the time period.

Ricci looked good in the movie but I have noticed that she lost a lot of weight in the last movies.  Personally, I liked her better when she wasn't so thin, but she still has the ability to star in odd, somewhat disturbing movies because of her unique look.  A friend of mine commented that she has a large forehead, but I think she is attractive.  Her mother was actually a model.


Ricci has an unique look.


Ricci a few years earlier before all the weight loss.  I preferred this look, especially for horror movies.

Back to the movie, I would recommend it but I do have some reservations.  The music as I indicated was hit or miss.  The overall execution had some high points, but a few moments where it was a little cliche.  It's a decent movie and I watched it because Ricci was in it, but if it hadn't been for her, I probably would have passed:  76%---note after further review, I raised the raiting from 71%


"Watch this movie because I'm in it dammit", Ricci


"Good thing you raised the rating on this movie!"--Lizzie Borden