Tag Archives: Thriller

Runaway Jury Review

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It’s time to look at a solid courtroom drama. You know how I always love those films and this one is no exception. There’s a lot of tension and drama going on here the whole time with a few twists for good measure. The idea of two people trying to fight over the jury makes for a really entertaining plot and it’s a satisfying watch all the way through.

The film starts off with a big shooting in a work office and a lot of people end up dead. The gun manufacturer ended up being sued for this so the court case becomes a big deal. After all it would set a huge precident if the company was on the hook for the murder that happened using one of its guns. As a result they hire a man named Rankin to take care of this. He’s a jury consultant meaning he helps make sure that the jurors who are selected are ones that will give a not guilty verdict. Technically only the two attorneys are allowed to be in the room when selecting the jurors so this guy patches in through a wiretap and some cameras. It’s a whole conspiracy but the gun company wants to make sure they are taking absolutely no chances here. They are going for the win one way or another but a hiccup occurs when it turns out that one of the jurors is planning to destroy the gun company from the inside. Can Rankin find out who this is and take the juror out or will he have to watch as the company goes under?

So this is really a high stakes cat and mouse game with both sides making a lot of moves. The poor jurors are basically completely unaware of what is going on but hey that keeps them impartial. The man at the helm trying to make sure the gun company is found guilty is a man named Nick. Nick and his girlfriend Marlee have a personal vendetta here and the film goes into this and some plot twists at the very end. They are very well prepared for this case, in a lot of ways you could say they’ve been waiting their whole lives for this moment. Not that they ever wanted a shooting to occur but if it were to happen, they would be ready.

One twist I’m glad didn’t happen is that they set up the shooting. For a minute there I thought it was a possibility, like they had to make a shooting happen so this lawsuit could happen and then they would bury the gun company. It would be a really poor case of “The end justifies the means” which 90% of the time isn’t just in any kind of way. So that doesn’t happen and you can rest assured that while these two are breaking all kinds of laws they didn’t start it. They’re just here to end it.

Both of them are also very solid characters here and have a lot of confidence. Nick is fine being sarcastic, wholesome, and switching personalities on the fly in order to get his objectives. At times it does mean that he will appear to be insincere and one of the jurors calls him out on it but generally he’s a nice guy. It’s just when someone is too nice and always has the perfect answer he will naturally appear to be a little suspicious.

Meanwhile Marlee also stays strong under pressure. Even when she is physically attacked she is able to gather her bearings and keep the blackmail game going. She gives Rankin a whole lot of trouble and is contributing pretty heavily to the plan the whole time. Nick and Marlee really have a very solid 50/50 partnership going and both are completely crucial to succeeding here.

While he is the big villain, I actually liked Rankin quite a lot. It would be fair to say that he is the best character here. He’s manipulating quite a few characters and has had a lot of success for many years. He very nearly could have won here but his helpers aren’t quite up to his level and they cost him at times. He handles his end of the phone calls well and fights to the end. Ultimately you can’t win every fight and this guy handles the situation rather gracefully. I’d be down with seeing him in more films although I imagine the average juror situation isn’t quite as entertaining. If there was no opponent then he would have won rather easily which is probably how most of the previous cases go. So it wouldn’t be enough to hold a movie without some kind of threat.

If there is any weakness in the film it’s that the actual case doesn’t get a ton of screentime as a result. Even when we are in the courtroom, you’re focused more on the tricks everyone is pulling on each other rather than what the prosecutor and defense are actually saying. The focus here is clearly on the tactics both sides are using to sway the jurors. I’d have also been interested to see more in depth the logic being used to attack the gun manufacturer over the crazy guy running in and shooting everyone.

Still, this is a courtroom film through and through. Whether the focus is on the stage or on the jurors, it does scratch that court drama itch I’ve got. The writing is solid throughout and the characters are really solid. One of the twists may hurt the romance a bit but I remember even while watching the film I couldn’t totally tell to what extent the twist happened. Basically if the main pairing is a rebound then that’s no good, if not and they just have a shared goal then this works well enough. I believe it was the latter although either way it’s not the kind of thing that would really impact the score.

Overall, This is a pretty fun film to watch. The intro really starts the film off fast because I was not expecting the scene to play out the way that it did. In hindsight I suppose it had to in order for the story to get started but I remember I was pretty startled. The film never loses its momentum all the way through. There is always a sense of danger even amidst the tension here and I love these mental battles between both sides. They have to keep their “official” and “unofficial” stories separate while debating each other since anything you say can and definitely will be used against you. A true thriller all the way through.

Overall 7/10

Jeopardy Review

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So this is one of those rare noir films that I really didn’t like. The plot was a little suspect from the jump and then the execution basically went the way that I was hoping it wouldn’t. By the end of the film you’re going to be pretty annoyed and not even the ending can help you feel satisfied here. Definitely a film you want to avoid at all costs!

The film starts off with Helen getting ready to enjoy a nice vacation with her husband Doug and their son Bobby. It was going to be a lot of fun but unfortunately her husband gets stuck under a bunch of wood and high tide is approaching. If he can’t get out in time then he will drown. There aren’t any supplied at the hut so Helen has to try and find some people to get a rope but they are in the middle of nowhere and time is ticking. She bumps into a guy named Lawson who offers to help but what she doesn’t realize is that he’s a wanted murderer and has no intentions of saving her husband. What can she do?

As you can guess Lawson is basically a grade A jerk who is just in it for himself. He’s a full antagonist here and basically spends the film blackmailing Helen into having an affair with him. So in order words he’s completely taking advantage of her and it’s some of the scummiest behavior you can do. Helen feels like she can’t say no to his advances or her husband will certainly be dead and this guy relishes the power that it gives him. The film would already be dead on arrival at this point because such a plot is just absolutely terrible.

Where the film sinks even lower is by not even portraying him as a full villain. Later on he starts to play the mind games of how Helen actually likes him and then she wavers and starts to feel like this too. Even by the end she is willing to run off with him as gratitude…..what? This guy was totally going to ditch Doug and the fact that he helped at the end doesn’t mean she should suddenly ditch her husband like that. The ending is awful but this whole plot was handled poorly. The film needed to condemn Lawson as being 100% in the wrong and a total psychopath. Not try to make him sympathetic and lonely by the end. I wasn’t buying it one bit.

Unfortunately that romance is a massive part of the film so there’s really no getting around it. To call it an uncomfortable romance would be an understatement and you’re rooting for the cops to show up and blow the guy away already. That would have been a super satisfying ending and I’d have been cheering. Instead the film takes a very cautious approach to how it all ends. My view is that he got taken out but I would have liked it to have been clearer.

The film ends up dragging a whole lot due to all of these scenes so this feels like a very long noir title. In part this is probably also due to how small the cast is so a lot of the scenes are filled with dialogue. That would work with likable characters but falls flat otherwise. We needed more action here to distract from the story like a few gun fights or something. Maybe even some long chase scenes.

So while Lawson is the worst character here, Helen also loses a lot of points. Obviously I’m not deducting points away from her when she was basically being forced to stick around or her husband would be destroyed. Where she falters massively is in how undecided she is and how she doesn’t condemn this guy for being so awful. Helen actually seems worried about him and feels bad for Lawson when there is no reason too. So yeah stockholm syndrome hit her real fast.

The best parts of the film are really centered around Doug and Bobby. Even while Doug is close to drowning and knows that he’s in a lot of danger, he keeps up a brave face for his son. He tries to prepare Bobby for what’s about to happen so he can stay safe as the tide comes up. It’s got to be tough not to start panicking when you’re approaching a slow death like this but Doug never loses his resolve.

He easily has the most fortitude out of all the characters and sees the big picture right from the start. He also tries a few plans to get out from under the rubble but ultimately there was just too much wait so it simply wasn’t possible. Bobby doesn’t do great here but he’s a little kid so it’s not like you can blame him much. He does try his best like making a coffee for Doug even if it doesn’t come out well. So at least the effort is there.

Overall, This is a pretty awful movie. It’s basically about stockholm syndrome but there are so many better ways that it could have been handled. I feel like the movie underestimated just how bad the scenes made Lawson look. He was completely irredeemable, not just some misunderstood soul who’s been out of luck. I think a remake could definitely execute on this premise a whole lot better but in the meantime definitely take a pass on this one. The Noir genre is chock full of much better films all around so pick one of those and you’re set. This one is better left forgotten.

Overall 2/10

The Thing Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time to look at one of the most iconic horror movies out there. It’s definitely really intense all the way through with a lot of tension and intrigue the whole time. Ultimately it does fall flat due to some unfortunate animal violence and a monster design that leaves a lot to be desired. The film has a core premise that could work if we could get a redo on this someday with a future remake.

The film starts off by introducing us to MacReady and a group of researchers in Antartica. It’s a rather isolated place but these guys are used to it. One day a nearby squad seemingly goes insane as they try to murder a dog and so the heroes take them out. Did the cold weather get to them? No, it appears that a monster is afoot and it can shapeshift as the person it is controlling. This means that any one of the heroes or even more than one are currently aliens in disguise. Is there any way to find out who the culprits are or will distrust doom the squad right off the bat?

There are a lot of suspects here as there are quite a few characters. Additionally just because someone isn’t being controlled in one scene doesn’t mean that he won’t be taken over later on. Any time a character leaves the screen for a prolonged amount of time you have to consider that he may have been compromised and that’s a very dangerous proposition for the other characters. The alien is definitely impressive as it allows the subject to perfectly keep his personality and reason so by all accounts you can’t really tell externally. Additionally the alien is still plotting your death all the while.

So it’s like a live action adaption of Among Us in some ways. I would even say the intrigue is stronger than Invasion of the Body Snatchers which has a similar premise. Having the characters be stuck in Antarctica is a good idea as well because it means there is really no escape. So either you end up taking out the aliens or you get consumed. There are no other options here and the movie keeps this tension up all throughout the movie. So why did it fumble in the end?

Well the main thing here that ends up hurting is of course the animal violence. The Thing starts by murdering most of the dogs and then absorbing the others. One of them ends up getting shot as well and of course they’re all trapped within the cage so when the Thing shows up they can’t even escape. The whole thing’s pretty depressing there and the film should have just had The Thing taking the humans over from the jump. That would have been a whole lot better and then you’d avoid this landmine entirely. The whole scene with the dogs is pretty explicit.

Then you have the creature design as well which isn’t as cool as it needed to be. It’s a slippery mess of tentacles running around and it almost looks like it’s in pain the whole time. It has a cool looking dinosaur mode near the very end but for the most part it just looks like a way less impressive version of Biollante. Give me a more solid monsters to get behind. His attacks were impressive but even then the effects make it look more gross than impressive. It should have looked a whole lot more impressive.

The characters tend to be on the better side though. MacReady is the lead and he knows when it’s time to get serious and stop playing games. He takes command towards the end by force and it makes sense since he actually has a plan while the others would just keep on fighting and not getting anywhere. Considering that the alien is around as well, there is no real time for democracy here. You either take the lead or you end up going down. Using dynamite as a hostage was a great idea since nobody could try and blow him up at that point.

Childs is someone who gives MacReady a tough time for most of the film. Mainly because he also knows they can’t trust anyone and he got some really strong circumstantial evidence that made him really distrust MacReady. I couldn’t really blame him there because the evidence did look pretty bad. Childs is quick on his feet and does pretty well otherwise. Blair is the character I didn’t like because he completely cracks at one point and only makes things worse for everyone. He’s extremely annoying as a result. I do wonder if maybe it’s just that he was being controlled from the jump but I don’t feel like the movie was really implying that. It would have been interesting but that’s more of a baseless theory.

The film is able to juggle a fairly big cast pretty well by giving each character their own full personality and keeping them memorable. So even as the bodies begin to pile up there are enough characters around to keep everyone scrambling. It also makes the place look even more empty and remote as more and more characters keep falling. If you’re claustrophobic then this movie will be extra intense for you and certainly you won’t be thrilled to go to Antarctica after that.

The ending is definitely pretty excellent. Naturally I do suspect one of the two characters in particular based on some events that happened near the end but keeping it open ended is part of what makes this an effective way to close out the movie. I can’t help but think that a full on sequel would really be a lot of fun though. Have the creature get loose in a major city or something with everyone scrambling to stop him. That would just be so much fun right? It would be more of an action than a thriller at that point but it would work.

Overall, The Thing is a movie where I can definitely see how it’s really well liked. There are some things to enjoy here like the tension I keep talking about and the mystery angle. Not being able to trust anyone is definitely a good way to keep you engaged the whole time. Ultimately the film just went too far in trying to be disturbing as well with the design and the dog scenes which prevented this from being a smash hit. My advice would unfortunately be to give this film a skip, they should have just had the alien jump in as a human from the jump and that could have really gone a long way.

Overall 2/10

April Fool’s Day Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

April Fool’s Day is definitely an interesting film. Because of the nature of being a film about the trickiest day of the year there are a ton of different fake outs and craziness going on. At the same time, the film is still quite violent and doesn’t hold back with those moments so the question is if the context can sort of help out here or is it still the same thing in the end? I will say the absurd nature of it does give the film a little extra punch but ultimately it’s still not one I would be very likely to recommend.

The film starts off with a bunch of students getting invited to a big April Fool’s party at the fancy mansion of Muffy. The teens are always messing with each other a whole lot with all kinds of pranks but things start to go a bit far when someone is murdered. Is this all really a prank or is someone taking this chance to bump off each and every student? One thing’s for sure, these guys are going to need to try and stay one step ahead of the pranks or they are doomed!

You’re supposed to be kept off balance from the jump because of how much these guys love pranking each other. Put it this way, we have a fake death very early on in the film with the two guys faking an accident by the boat. From there on you know that no prank is out of bounds and even if the characters start to physically fight each other it may be part of the act. So you can’t trust any of the characters or their actions for the duration of the film because you really don’t know what is fake and what is real. I’d say that’s the most effective part of the film because it almost borderlines on being parody but it’s still played very seriously.

It does mean that none of the characters are all that likable though. You just feel like they all go too far with it and so hanging around any of them during the April Fool’s week would be completely unbearable. Even the nicer characters like Muffy are constantly pranking everyone! I would quickly come up with some kind of excuse every year about how I have to go abroad or something. Anything to stay away from the absolute madness!

All of the romances in the film are very weak since they all just seem to be quick affairs over the summer without a whole lot to them. None of these guys and girls actually seem all that loyal or faithful and would cheat in a heartbeat. They’re basically joking about that throughout as it is. You could say in a lot of ways the teenagers in this film are the stereotypical figures you would expect from a horror title like this. None of them would make for great friends but hey they all get along at least.

Of course this is another thing limiting the film. If you don’t really care for the characters then all of the fake jump scares and pranks aren’t going to work quite as well. The film can be on the violent side as well at times with the deaths. Obviously not on the same level as any of the real big slashers though.

Now this is a film with some twists and turns in it. Some of those twists will really change your outlook on the film as a whole so it’s important to factor that in. I will say that it is effective and I can’t even say that I saw the twists coming. Not all of them anyway. Some are a bit hard to believe in hindsight though like we’re talking big stretches of disbelief on how you could have pulled some of the pranks off. I suppose I can accept the disbelief though only because I can maybe picture how it would work. I don’t think it’s likely for these teens to pull them off though.

There is also a lot of convenience in terms of characters being in the right place at the right time to get pranked or notice a deal that the culprit wants them to find but I can buy this one a little more. My excuse would be that there are tons of extra pranks and backup traps so if one doesn’t work then you have a backup at the ready. Mayyyyybe a stretch but not as much of one.

Overall, I’d say how much you enjoy this film will all depend on how much you enjoy all the fakeouts. Either you will get burned out after a while and think the film overdoes it or you’ll enjoy how much it doubles down. The film is completely relentless on this right up through to the end so it never gets sidetracked. The ending is really solid to be honest and actually does win the film back a star or two. So ultimately I liked the idea behind the whole movie. The execution just needs to be so much better and it’s rough because I don’t think these are twists you should pull off too often or it’ll get old fast. So you can already say that one of the opportunities has been wasted now. Next time just make the characters a lot more likable, improve the writing and we’d really be in business. Until then this one will have to be a pass.

Overall 4/10

Trog Review

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Trog is one of those films that only lasts so long because all of the characters are annoying and don’t have to fight. This creature isn’t super powerful or anything and yet he always seems to find himself on top. What that tells me is that the characters didn’t plan things out very well. A film about a villainous caveman doesn’t have a ton of potential right out of the gate and I can confirm that this one isn’t doing anything all that special. It’s at best a serviceable creature feature title.

The movie kicks off with introducing us to Dr. Brockton who is a scientist that is very eager to uncover truths about humanity at large. Her wish is granted when there is a sighting of a mysterious monster that could be the missing link between man and apes. His name is Trog and he looks…well like a cross between a man and an ape. He was in suspended animation for a while there but now he has returned and may enact a lot of carnage. The heroes manage to subdue him with a tranq dart and Brockton keeps him in her lab. This move is opposed by some people in the town, mainly a man named Sam who is absolutely convinced that this creature will destroy them all. Can Brockton convince everyone that Trog is safe or is it all over?

Now Brockton is supposed to be the reasonable character but you can’t help but think that Sam has a real point here. The creature is clearly very powerful and eventually it’s just going to attack. You’d also have to consider the ethics of keeping this creature contained for so long and it’s likely that experiments would crop up in the future. You want to learn things so it’s always a tough balance but Brockton just doesn’t feel very prepared. Ultimately Sam doesn’t let us find out what would have happened naturally as he breaks Trog out and promptly gets murdered. The guy wasn’t very smart even if he was my favorite character in the film. I just loved how openly antagonistic he was the entire time.

Yeah Brockton could be a little overly optimistic at times while he was over the top paranoid but at the end of the day she wasn’t actually committing any crimes while he went as far as to commit some breaking and entering. So you can’t really put them on the same field. The instant Sam went that far he basically voided his arguments since it became more of a matter or pride than him actually believing in what he was doing. He should have stuck to doing this the right thing.

As for Trog, well like I said he’s hardly the most interesting villain. He’s not even all that strong and only lasts a while because the cops are trying not to hurt him. We get the early fight where Trog does fight off a bunch of cops but they had the kid gloves on. If they all grabbed the heavy artillery and started blasting then he would have really been doomed here. The film also starts to rip off King Kong towards the end so it didn’t go in a very creative direction that time.

Still, while Sam made his mistakes I did not like Brockton. It felt like she was okay with any number of sacrifices as long as she got to study Trog and keep advancing science. There is a point where you have to choose to protect lives first and she never really got around to that. Even by the end she’s just really sad about the whole thing but people nearly died. I just didn’t think she was reasonable enough about the situation in the end.

Now for some positives in the film, I did think the writing was fairly good. (Even if it doesn’t seem very smart to jump into cold water in uncharted territory even if it’s in the name of science) It has that retro feel to it and I would say the film feels even older than it actually is. So the script gets to shine and I much preferred the human stuff to the Trog moments. Trog himself does get a reasonable amount of screen time so it doesn’t feel like the film was just hiding him the whole time. There was a real budget here and they used the special effects well. Also in the climax I’m glad that the cops just went in and took care of business. When the body count is rising you really owe it to the people of your town to take down the threat. Obviously you always want to strive for a non lethal solution but there are times where your options are limited. The film was pretty realistic in a way with the main heroine yelling to stop because there will always be someone wanting to get in the way.

Character A can murder 20 people and you’ll still have someone yelling that they need a trial or maybe there’s a reason for what happened. Sure that can happen and if there’s any doubt then you need a trial but if you have a serial murderer running around and piling up the bodies, then you need to take out the threat as soon as possible. Even then the cops only acted in the end as a last resort and didn’t drag things out. They handled it well.

Overall, Trog’s not really my kind of film which limited just how good it could be. I was never a fan of the caveman era in the first place so having one wake up in the present isn’t my idea of a thrilling time. The fight scene with the cops was surprisingly good so I will give the film some credit there. We actually got the fight without any interruption and it was fairly long. The movie delivers on the action here which keeps the film from getting boring. Additionally while I may not love the characters, the dialogue is strong enough to keep things from getting boring. The film is never boring and so that’s why I wouldn’t say that it’s negative. On the flip side, there aren’t any strengths that would allow me to recommend this to someone. If you watch it then that’s great but otherwise there’s no real incentive.

Overall 5/10

Final Destination 2 Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

I’ll admit that the poster for this film really goes hard. That said, there’s still not really a lot to this series and in many ways it’s just retreading ground from the first title. The heroes have made Death mad and now he is going to systematically take them out one at a time. What can some humans do against a being who transcends dimensions? Well they will need some teamwork if they want to at least try and delay the inevitable.

The film starts off with Kimberly heading off with her friends on a big trip. They’re all delinquents who have no respect for the law and seem like terrible influences. They’re ready to do drugs and as much bad stuff as they can but the group perishes in a tragic pile up involving tree logs and a lot of explosions. Kimberly then wakes up in the car right before this happens. She attempts to stop the car early so she won’t be in the pileup and succeeds however her friends still blow up. Instead she managed to save a few strangers and now they are all being targeted by death. Can they possibly survive this malevolent force or are they all doomed?

Well of course we know the answer should be the latter based on the prior film but we do seemingly have a weakness for death now. You can actually end a death cycle by creating new life. Of course it would take a long while to quickly create a baby so they have to find someone who is close to giving birth. The plan is highly risky though because this is just their guess based on vague wording from a guy at the morgue so there is a massive chance that this is all cope from the heroes. Still it gives them something to try for and we get other retroactive rules in place here to shake things up.

The film is at least trying to make this a deeper dynamic which I can respect but it really doesn’t change a whole lot. Death is still going to mess everyone over in different ways as always and that happens right on queue here. Interestingly Clear returns for this film as she survived the first one but I’m not buying it. Basically she is in a padded room so there is in theory nothing that Death could use to destroy her. That is her logic but remember Death can do anything. So when she’s eating her safe yogurt he could still make that get stuck in her chest and she dies. He could have the air vents stop working so she suffocates in there, etc. I choose to believe that the only reason she survived so long is because Death was just toying with her as he does with the rest. He wanted her to feel good just so he could flip that later on.

Perhaps he respected her determination. A lot of explanations work here but yeah nothing is going to stop Death so easily. I would say that on average the murders are a bit more violent here but I’m sure it’s probably debatable. The scene of a guy getting torn apart by flying objects was definitely intense while the explosion deaths aren’t as violent since it’s all fire. I would say the characters are a little better here than in the first one. They may take a while to believe the main heroine but that’s all for valid reasons. You don’t have any of them randomly getting upset at having their lives spared.

It’s probably why taking the old friends out of the equation was such a good move here. They only appeared briefly but were super annoying the whole way through. Even with that, the problem with this film once again is that it feels like there’s just not much point to it. No matter what the heroes do, death will come for them eventually. There isn’t anywhere you can go where you can hope to avoid it. That’s just not happening and so you can choose to hide in a cell and just survive like that as long as you can, or go about your business as normal and eventually die. Either way, your options are fairly limited.

While the body count is higher than in film 1, we got to have more survivors for a longer period as it’s the climax that really started to speed things up. Interestingly the very last scene of the film is played a bit more as a comedic moment rather than a dark twist even though what is happening on screen is pretty sinister. Perhaps that wasn’t the intent but with the crazy music playing it certainly felt like that. A “here we go againnnn” Magic School Bus kind of moment all around.

After a while the real question is, how do you fix this film/series? As it stands it is really just a compilation of people getting murdered in crazy ways as you try to wonder who will be next. The plot itself barely matters as it’s really just a back drop for this. So I think again you make this part comedy but if you really want to make this more of a horror, lets tone down the shock value deaths a bit and give some tangible goals here. Like if you survive for one week then death will let you go and you can await a normal demise. That would give some incentive to the characters for them to survive. It wouldn’t be quite so hopeless at that point.

Overall, Final Destination 2 is mainly concerned with being bigger and more explosive than the first. It certainly succeeds on that but when you get past the fluff there still isn’t a whole lot here. The ending is a bit bizarre but at least it’s a little funny so I get that. I actually think this franchise would be significantly better if it didn’t take itself so seriously. Imagine this film as a dark comedy, I actually think it would work extremely well even if that’s not likely to ever happen. Ah well, lets see how the next film goes. Also I missed having the cops get a really big role in the film. Sure we had the one cop who was helping the heroine out but the first film had the FBI, CIA, and more conspiracy stuff like that. That’s what I want to see, lets just embrace the craziness.

Overall 2/10

Final Destination Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version could be more negative

Final Destination is a film that I dare say is a bit iconic. Just about everyone has heard of this film at some point or another. It’s got many sequels and the concept is unique. You basically have to try and watch out because anything can turn into a cause of death and that’s the basic plot of the franchise. Beyond that it’s not going to go down as a great film or anything but it’s an interesting one.

The film starts off with Alex being a little paranoid as he gets on a plane for a school trip. He’s looking around a whole lot because everything looks real suspicious but then this comes to a head when he dies in the plane along with the rest of the school. He wakes up back in the plane a few minutes before the explosion and realizes that this was all a big vision. So he makes a scene and gets thrown off the plane with a few other students while everyone else dies in the explosion. Death isn’t a fun of this though and decides to go take the survivors down for the count. Can they overcome death?

Now the main problem you may guess right off the bat here is that of course there is no real way to beat death. In the end all of the heroes will die at some point so the question is really if they can get death to leave them alone for a while. The short answer to that is….no. Death is a very petty and very determined figure. He intends to stay on their tails until he has taken them all down and will bend all of the rules to make this possible. That means manipulating liquids and objects to place them in positions to choke or murder the characters straight up. Death isn’t interesting in playing fair or doing anything like that. No, it’s just here to cause unimaginable damage.

The heroes discover some rules here like Death has to try and murder them in order. If an attempt fails then it moves onto the next person before eventually repeating the cycle. The cycle never ends though so it’s only a matter of time before it’s your turn again. So the general plan Alex has is to try and delay the murders as long as possible but in the end that’s all he can do, just delay them. Ultimately they will catch up to him and then it’s curtains.

As a main character Alex is fairly decent though. His natural paranoia mixed in with the fact that he now has visions of the future makes for an interesting character. Naturally the other characters don’t tend to believe him until it’s too late but at least Alex keeps on trying. He’s a very determined guy who is really just trying to do his best.

Most of the other characters aren’t quite as reasonable. The one who takes the cake in that regard is Carter though. The film makes him as over the top as possible. Alex literally saved his life and yet this guy has 0 gratitude and wants to fight Alex for no real reason. He listens to crazy music as he drives by and is basically a cartoon villain. By the end he actually gets a character arc which I was noy expecting. I figured he would just die early on as the typical jerk character. Even so, he was a little too far gone so I still didn’t care for him by the end.

The main heroine Clear took a while to really support Alex but at least she still handled it all very logically. She heard Alex out and even when she didn’t agree with him, she wasn’t going out of her way to be mean about it. So Clear gets some credit there at least and ends up lasting a while because she was really vigilant the whole time. The rest of the characters went off to do their own things and it doesn’t go well. Again you can’t really blame the others though and to an extent even if they agreed with Alex, there wasn’t much of a plan at the beginning. They would have still died in some way or another with death watching them.

Again that goes back to the futility of the whole thing. As much a the film seems to want you to think that you can evade Death for a while, I take it more as Death just toying with them. He likes to mainly use liquids to set off the traps but other times he can lock windows and such. It’s clear that he can use any ability as needed and warp reality so at that point it’s still a losing battle. It’s an issue I have with this film like I did with the Grudge. When there is absolutely no hope of winning then it takes away a lot from the movie because you just can’t get as invested. It simply isn’t possible to get involved because the heroes just don’t have a ghost of a chance.

Naturally the film can get fairly violent with some of the deaths. Others aren’t so much violent as they are disturbing like the one friend who gets hanged in the bathroom. The idea is that these are all ways you could theoretically die in real life if you just have bad luck or are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Death is just speeding things up a bit. So the film as a whole ends up being rather depressing as there is no time for any happy moments. Outside of the opening scene getting ready to board the plane…yeah there is no time for positive moments. The heroes are just running from one danger to the next. Each death attempt they dodge only brings them closer to the next one which is just depressing.

Overall, This is one of those movies where you might be tempted to watch it for the novelty but overall I’d say to give it a skip. It’s really just about trying to get as many creative deaths in as possible and that’s not enough to support a whole movie. The film can be rather violent with a bunch of annoying characters running around. There is no hope to escape their destiny so in the end it’s all a futile endeavor. I at least did enjoy the brief appearance from the guy at the morgue. I like the idea of someone at least knowing what’s going on and just going through life knowing that nobody else has this knowledge.

Overall 2/10

The Unholy Review

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It’s time for a movie where the heroes have to deal with demonic forces. It’s tough enough dealing with immortal grudges and indestructible rings but what to you do when your opponent is powered by intangible prayers? This time the world’s only chances lie in the hands of a lying reporter which is not the best spot to be in. Things are about to get tricky.

The movie starts with a witch getting burned alive in brutal fashion and then we jump to the present. Gerry is a disgraced reporter as he was caught fabricating photos and making up lies to get ahead in life. It was definitely not a smart move on his part and he continues to lie to this day. One day he finds a doll and smashes it. Later on he nearly crashes his car when he passes by a girl who’s in a trance. She is deaf and mute but after he drives her home, this girl named Alice makes a full recovery. She is apparently being blessed by the virgin Mary and will start performing miracles for everyone. This is Gerry’s chance to get rich and he doesn’t want to lose it! Is there a downside to healing everyone though?

Being able to heal others would definitely be an amazing thing and so it’s clear why this is a huge deal. It’s just something that doesn’t really happen nowadays and Alice is healing people who have been sick their entire lives. She quickly starts to become a celebrity and while she remains rather quiet and does her own thing, she isn’t obviously sinister. The film has some restraint here so you can see why many would take this whole thing at face value. She doesn’t have an evil laugh, isn’t cackling at night, etc. At face value it all does seem rather nice.

It’s why the climax may be a bit hard to believe. Picture this, you’ve been missing an arm your whole life and a girl shows up, grabs your chest and suddenly your arm grows out. 2 weeks later you’re sitting at the park when she shows up and explains that it was all a prank. Would you believe her or would you look at your arm, give it a little flex and just assume someone is threatening her? I’d assume everyone would believe the latter. Yes the effects of the cure go away after there is enough doubt and all of the belief goes away but I find it very hard to believe that this would happen considering just how many miracles were performed and in such a small community.

The idea of the climax and trying to spread doubt is pretty interesting and in most situations would be very easy. It’s why they say it takes years to build trust but seconds to lose it. This is just a very unique scenario so I had my share of reservations on it. Still, the film will keep you guessing on what the heroes should do the whole time. You’ve got a good amount of conspiracy going and so there is a lot of plot here even outside of all the jump scares.

As a villain the evil Mary is relatively solid. At times she maybe takes a little too long to act so we can assume she underestimates the humans a great deal. Most of these demonic/cosmic villains tend to do that in these movies. One missed opportunity for the film is that Mary doesn’t have much of a physical form until the final minutes. For the most part she’s an intangible spirit that makes statues cry blood but doesn’t do much else. So it doesn’t make her the most imposing villain out there.

Meanwhile as the main heroine I can’t say that Alice was all that good as she lets Mary call the shots right from the jump. Yeah it’s pretty tough to have a voice in your head constantly talking to you but you have to recognize the signs of the voice being suspicious with all of its secrets and such. Alice ultimately makes the right calls even if it takes a while but it would have been nice if she could have kept her kind personality all the way through rather than getting meaner as the film went on. I think it would have been a better dynamic.

Meanwhile Delgarde actually looks fairly decent as a member of the church sent to see if the miracles were legit. I was expecting him to get defeated immediately when he appeared but he actually fights well at first and does some damage. Ultimately he is only able to delay the inevitable but hey we’ll take it. He has a more impressive showing than just about anyone else in the film because he actually has the means to fight instead of just getting trampled.

Gerry is an okay main character but the fact that he’s someone who will take any shortcut to success and hadn’t learned his lesson by the time the film starts is not a good look for him. Yes it’s part of his character arc by the end but I just never liked the guy. I don’t blame everyone for being upset with him all the time. Put it this way, he’s the kind of character who is entertaining to watch on screen but you’d never be able to get along with him in real life. You wouldn’t be able to trust him at all either which is a huge blow to his character.

The movie isn’t too violent for the most part. The intro scene of the mask being nailed on is probably the most intense although we have a few big deaths during the film. It’s enough to be mentioned but isn’t like Halloween or something like that. The film maintains a fairly grim tone throughout the movie but without the classic levels of suspense. The movie doesn’t really grab your attention. I would never call it outright boring but it’s a slow burn and without great characters to sustain it, that huts the film a lot by the end.

Overall, The Unholy is not one of the better supernatural titles. Its main issue is really that Mary doesn’t get to have much of an intimidating design and the character cast is very weak. While the movie has some really good visuals, they aren’t enough to carry the story. While I liked the conspiracy angle involving the Church, it does make them look really bad even outside of the corruption because they had no plan for what was going to happen. It’s like preparing for a giant fire to occur and know that it’s going to happen but still not bringing a bucket of water to help you out. You’re setting yourself up for failure. I’d say to skip this one, it’s far from being one of the lower horror titles that I’ve seen but there isn’t really a lot of appeal here.

Overall 3/10

The Boogeyman Review

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Everyone remembers stories of the Boogeyman from when they were a kid but the scare factor behind him hasn’t really stood the test of time in the same way as stories of vampires or werewolves. They’re just at completely different levels the whole time. This movie does a fun job of updating the mythos but honestly it feels a lot more like a mini Cloverfield monster as opposed to the Boogeyman you’d be thinking of. Honestly if you played your cards right with this film it would be a thriller instead of a horror as you could see a lot of big fight scenes taking place.

Okay so the movie starts with Will doing his best to raise his two daughters Sadie and Sawyer after their mother died in a tragic accident. He is a professional psychiatrist but while he is able to help others, Will hasn’t been able to come to terms with his own situation. As a result he refuses to bring the topic up with his daughters as well which hasn’t been good for their mental health. Sawyer is already afraid of the dark as it is and that’s before the Boogeyman shows up. Well one day a crazy guy runs into the house and starts to talk about monsters. Will decides that he knows how to handle this and leaves the guy alone in his living room while he runs to the kitchen to call the cops. By the time Will returns, the guy seemingly destroyed himself and unfortunately his eldest daughter Sawyer watched this. The traumas are growing now but what if the guy wasn’t crazy. What if a monster is around targeting kids all around the world?

This is one of those movies where we know there is a supernatural monster right out of the gate so of course we’re waiting for the heroes to realize this. While I talked about the opening with the main characters, there was a scene even sooner where a child is murdered by the Boogeyman so we know that he’s around right out of the gate. The Boogeyman only targets kids for some reason but absolutely does not mind collateral damage. If you get in his way then you will very quickly end up dead.

I will say that Will tends to be a very annoying character here. Obviously death can be very hard for some and the effects will vary from person to person. However, as the father Will does need to get it together to at least have a brave face for his kids. Refusing to talk about the subject and not helping during counseling is just being selfish by that point. Yeah the events of the film wouldn’t be all that different if he did talk since the Boogeyman doesn’t care about such things but their bond would have at least been a whole lot stronger.

Sadie is a solid character throughout who is trying to find answers and protect the family. She only weakens midway through when it comes to her “friends”. I haven’t seen a faker group of friends in a minute though. Really there is only one who has been a close friend for a while but now that girl has made other friends who don’t actually like Sadie. Sadie makes the mistake of trying to be close to them anyway and ultimately this doesn’t work out too well. Sadie even gets involved with drugs and really starts to fall down the dark path real quick.

She’s also not very smart in being tricked by a crazy lady and tied up in an abandoned house though. Stranger danger may be a meme at some points when characters take it too far but scenarios like this are why the constant warnings are always appropriate. I could not believe that Sadie just fell for it like this. Cmon you can’t let that happen. There’s just no way. Her little sister Sawyer isn’t particularly helpful but she’s a much younger kid so I’ll cut her a bit of slack.

Also the guy that broke into the study in the first scene didn’t have much of a plan. One of the most annoying things in a film like this is when the traumatized guy tries to talk about monsters and demons while somehow expecting everyone to believe him. You gotta think a little here. Nobody is going to believe a story like that so you have to either lie and make up a believable story while getting the person you’re talking too to do what you want them to do or you just don’t mention it and try something else. Even if Will had believed him…what could he do about it? It’s not like you can just call the cops and have them find the Boogeyman. At least the lady later on had a concrete plan so there are ways to trap it but again you’d need someone to absolutely believe you and that’s not going to happen. And you clearly know that it hides in doorways so why would you walk towards one? I can’t even….

Now when it comes to the Boogeyman, he seems a bit weaker than you’d expect. In most of these horror films they tend to skew too far into the other direction where the monster is completely unstoppable so I’m not entirely opposed to this but the Boogeyman seems like he could be defeated by a single well equipped soldier. He’s not immune to fire or explosions and even bullets seem like they would be enough to put him down if you have solid rounds. Now you could make the case for a lot of vague powers for this guy since he does seem to move with incredible speed. Maybe slight teleportation or sheer invisibility but when we see him the monster seems more like a Xenomorph. Relying on physical abilities to get the job done.

Again the design is cool (When we actually see it which is very rare in the film) but it doesn’t really feel like the Boogeyman. It also seems a bit ineffectual because of how it has a hard time actually defeating its opponents. It wasn’t able to finish off Sawyer in one on one combat and had a lot of trouble with the lady in the house. Even the guy who broke into Will’s house lasted a little while when you’d think that the fight would be over in an instant. No wonder the Boogeyman only goes after kids, it would be completely doomed against full adults after a while!

The film definitely starts off with a rather brutal moment but after that it’s fairly tame. It’s definitely not as violent as the average horror title and avoids a good amount of pitfalls. We even get a climax with a surprising amount of action. Although again I’m a little skeptical here, the creature couldn’t have just finished off the 2 characters before Sadie showed up? You have to suspend a lot of disbelief for the whole climax because as cool as it looked, the power levels didn’t really add up.

Overall, I actually thought this film was fairly solid. It’s not the scariest title out there since it feels like a thriller for the most part but the characters are solid. All of the scenes at school tend to be annoying and the friends are all bad but this felt like a well crafted horror title. The ending is a bit weak since I was expecting a strong twist/cliffhanger moment to end things with a bang but I’ll take what I can get. I’d recommend checking this one out if you’re interested in seeing a modern take on the Boogeyman. Just be warned that it’s not much of a man in this one and just feels more like a classic creature.

Overall 6/10

Insidious: The Last Key Review

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The main insidious thing about this film is the sharp drop in writing quality. One thing the series was always good for was some pretty solid writing and lines as the heroes dealt with the crazy villains everywhere. This one almost felt like a B movie with the writing and not in a good/funny way. Just in an annoying eye roll way and ultimately it misses the boat really quickly. It’s telling that the spookiest scene is at the very end which ties into the first film.

The movie starts off by giving us a look into Elise’s childhood. She grew up in an abusive home where she was especially picked on by her father for being able to see supernatural creatures. Unfortunately Elise could not help herself in continuing to mention them and getting beaten as a result. Eventually she ran out but did not take her brother Christian with her so he still resents her to this day. In the “present” (Still before film 1) she gets a call from someone who lives in the house she grew up in. He’s being haunted and needs some supernatural help. Elise calls in her teammates Specs and Tucker since it’s always safest to move as a group Elise decides not to call in her teammates Specs and Tucker because she needs to handle this on her own since it’s so personal. They ignore her so the 3 head in to the house. Can Elise solve this spirit case or will the fact that she has no offensive abilities at the ready come back to haunt her?

Elise is confident and talks a good game at times but the extent of her plan seems to just be to try and talk the ghosts down. She doesn’t do much else and so honestly you get the feeling that she got lucky a whole lot of times. She may as well be a rookie instead for all the good she does here. Her memories of childhood keep spooking her throughout the movie so it’s not like the villain has to do much. When Keyface (At least that’s what he is called on Wikipedia) shows up he’s able to beat her with extreme ease. She may as well have just been some random person.

So I can’t say I liked Elise very much in this film. She just felt completely out of her depth and wasn’t making logical moves the whole time. Then her partners Specs and Tucker are the worst. Pretty much every scene with them is just poor attempts to flirt with two teenagers who are just trying to mind their own business. It gets worse when a traumatic event happens to one of them and they continue to flirt with the other. They have no tact and no class. The humor is incredibly off putting and really poorly handled. I haven’t seen a comic relief character this bad since possibly Transformers 2 which has to really take the cake there. I’m probably forgetting some films but the point is…they were brutal. And unfortunately they appear a lot.

I guess maybe the writers thought the film was too scary so you needed the comedic duo to lighten things up every few minutes? The problem being that this film isn’t even all that scary. Again, the first and even second Insidious films are way scarier than this one. This one also has too many other fighters running around the playing field. For example we actually get a real life villain where the film temporarily becomes more of a thriller as the heroes have to take him out. Then we go back to the supernatural stuff.

When we finally go into the other side where the spirits reign then things start to get back into their normal place. That’s really a lot more like it but it’s pretty late in the game by then. It’s also not like that’s going to suddenly fix the writing. Spending more time on the scares and showing off the villain would have been a really good idea since the non supernatural stuff drag the film down.

Lets look at the non supernatural stuff for a minute here. We have a guy who was murdering a bunch of women and stuffing them in an abandoned tunnel. Very grim dark for no real reason. Elise’s abusive father also turned out to be a murderer on the side and did something similar with a poor lady who was in there. You can question why she didn’t make a run for it when the door was unlocked and the kids were around but the point is really that the film was desperate to make things as dark as possible here. Adding all of these women who were getting murdered in the past doesn’t add anything to the film as we already knew the other characters were pretty bad. It’s more shock value than anything else.

We always see these evil ghosts running around and haunting someone so it’d be nice as a change of pace to see some of these victims show up and start claiming their revenge. They certainly should have regrets so why wouldn’t they become powerful spirits too right? Why do only the evil ones get to have a lot of power in the afterlife? It should be a little more balanced by that point. Ultimately Keyface ends up being a little underwhelming as a result because he gets so little screen time. It just feels like he barley gets to appear. His ability to turn off your voice is a little scary I’ll admit but it comes at the expense of his effectiveness.

Because he has to turn your voice off first, it takes forever to actually murder anyone. He easily should have destroyed Elise and then the other girl who he caught since he had plenty of time before being interrupted. Yet he wasn’t able to finish the job. This lets us have some emotional moments at the end of course but it really comes at the expense of this villain’s credability.

Overall, This was definitely a very weak Insidious film. The visuals are still fun and there are maybe a small handful of spooky moments but ultimately it really lost the point of this series early on. Insidious is about dealing with demonic threats from the other side and learning how to subdue them. Having a whole long tangent about abusive fathers and actual serial murders is completely jarring and out of touch with the supernatural. It’s like making a Paranormal Activity film where the heroes are spooked at night but during the day are taking on Jack the Ripper. Stick to the supernatural stuff and you could really have an intense movie. You can add some of that stuff for a quick origin but it should never be such a major part of the movie. Also you need to drop the comedy duo, their scenes were just completely cringe and not even remotely entertaining. They realllllly hurt the movie every time they appear.

Overall 2/10