Tag Archives: Thriller

The Rainmaker Review

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It’s time for another court thriller. This time we have a lead who is fairly new to the game and gets thrown into a really difficult case right off the bat. This movie’s pretty solid with some nice humor but mainly a ton of focus on the court system. You’ll really learn the ins and outs here and how every technicality is super important or you could end up losing the case.

The movie starts with Rudy finally passing the law school and ready to get his license. He just needs to pass the BAR exam now but in the meantime he needs some experience. He ends up working for a guy known as the Bruiser and the office looks nice but it becomes clear that these guys don’t mind taking some shortcuts. They get wins but at any cost and ultimately this is starting to catch up to the firm. Rudy doesn’t want to get into trouble but this is the only gig he has. Can he pull this off and also do good in winning cases for his client?

I think the toughest part about being an attorney is that you won’t always be on the right side. For example you have to give it your all whether you’re defending the person you think is just or not. Fortunately Rudy manages to stay on the just side here but it’s a tough balancing act. Also even if you’re a good person, if you work for a crook then that gets a bit dicey. Seeing Bruiser get swarmed by the cops was pretty intense, I wasn’t expecting that and as a result he plays the interesting role of foreign fugitive. Obviously Bruiser’s not a good guy but I can at least respect that he takes care of his allies. Even when he’s half a world away, he shows up when it counts to help Rudy out of a jam.

Meanwhile Rudy’s partner Deck seems rather incompetent at first. He’s failed the BAR exam almost 10 times and doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. That said as the film goes on you get to see how creative he is. Deck has the good idea of creating his own law firm with Rudy and also comes in clutch when Rudy is late to one of the hearings. So definitely a good example of not judging a book by its cover. Deck may not be book smart but he’s street smart and has picked up a whole lot over all the years that he has been in the sector.

Meanwhile Rudy is pretty good at staying focused on the cases and blocking out the noise. The main case he is handling here is on behalf of a kid named Donny who is dying of leukemia. What Rudy has to argue is that this death was preventable had the insurance company allowed him to have a bone marrow transplant operation. The defense is alleging that this would not have worked anyway and was very experimental so it wouldn’t be covered. That’s the crux of the main case here and it plays out during the duration of the film.

As with a real case there are lots of breaks and it spans many days which is how you can have the rest of the film playing out. One thing that is distracting Rudy a bit from the case is he bumped into a lady named Kelly who is being abused by her husband. Rudy tries to convince her to leave the relationship but she’s scared of the repercussions and so he has to try and figure out a way to get her out of this jam as well. It’s just difficult because there is only so much you can do from an outside perspective especially if she doesn’t want to go through with it. After all if you make the wrong move then she is the one who is going to pay the price there.

It’s a fairly dark plot and definitely the most serious part of the film. The rest of the film is still fairly serious of course but more in a somber way like with the Donny plot. This plot also nearly takes Rudy out for the count since he didn’t time things too well for when the husband would get there. In general this is a plot I’d remove from the film and keep the focus on the main case.

Meanwhile the case has a lot of developments going on for a while. For example the previous judge dies so we get a new one, Tyrone. This works out really well for Rudy because Tyrone is a whole lot more reasonable. He’s eager to see some justice done although he still has to act within the confines of the law so he gets annoyed when Rudy starts making some rookie mistakes. Either way it makes a world of difference to have a judge who is sympathetic to your cause though.

I enjoyed all of the court room stuff quite a bit. You can tell that the movie was taking the legal aspects very seriously here. It’s all done by the books and I could definitely watch that for ages. It is the film’s strength without a doubt. The writing is solid and so the pacing is pretty good there. The film tends to weaken a bit when we’re outside of the court room though. I like the legal stuff like working around the office and finding things out but the subplots outside of that aren’t quite as interesting. Rudy getting used to the area and the Kelly subplot end up distracting from the film’s main focus and the latter just felt unnecessary with how it really darkens the tone. The main case was already dark in its own way with how shady the company was so that was enough.

Overall, The Rainmaker is a good film. I’d say it’s just slightly not strong enough for me to call it a pretty good film but it hits enough of the right notes. The ending is definitely not very satisfying at all though. It feels like Rudy just started to give up and in the end that doesn’t just hurt him but all of the people who need a good lawyer out there. I didn’t buy his arguments for why it was time to leave. Still if you’re looking for a solid court movie this is a good one to check out.

Overall 6/10

Black Sabbath Review

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It’s time for another horror anthology film. You know what that usually means, lots of sadness as the anthology format ends up limiting everything. Well this time I can at least say that the anthology is pretty reasonable. It’s still nothing great but the format is used well enough. For example the first special is fairly solid but if it had been dragged out you get the feeling that it would not have been nearly as good. None of the shorts are super bad either although the second one is certainly the weakest by far. This one’s actually not in English so I got to really experience the subtitled experience here. I’ve seen my share of subbed films of course but it’s always an interesting change of pace.

The first story starts off with a lady named Rosy receiving a distressing phone call. A guy named Frank is showing up. This guy should be in prison but he recently escaped and Rosy’s testimony is what sealed the deal. Now he’s saying that he is going to destroy her and the worst part is that he can seemingly see her at every turn. How can he when she isn’t even by the windows? Her only hope is to call in her ex-friend Mary. The two have not been on speaking terms for some time now but Rosy can’t win this on her own. Will her old friend prove to be dependable?

So it’s a pretty tense story from the jump and it really does make a world of difference to have even just one more ally with you at such a time. Mary ends up stealing the show here as an interesting character. She loves her dark humor and while Rosy doesn’t really appreciate that side of her, at least Mary isn’t scared. Mary even has a large knife at the ready and is generally very sure of herself. We never find out exactly what the issue was that came up between them but hey Mary showed up. Ultimately I would have liked her to have done a little better during the short but that’s how it goes. Naturally there are some twists that show up during this short. One of them I have a little bit of a hard time buying into though. The film drops us a half hearted explanation that resorts to incredibly accurate guessing…but that’s not really satisfying. I’m not sure what you could have done without making this supernatural though.

The opening short does have some random fanservice so I wouldn’t call it super high brow entertainment though. There’s a lot to like here so I could still recommend it but the ending is a bit weak compared to the rest of the setup. I can say though that it is considerably better than most films about a scary phone call though so it does have that going for it. Check this film out even if just to see how this plot should really be handled rather than those over the top slasher films.

Then we have the second story where Vladimir stops by a house real quick after seeing a dead body. Basically it turns out that there are zombie type creatures running around known as Wurdulaks and they are incredibly dangerous. They can still move, run, and talk like normal humans but they can no longer eat and are driven by only one desire, to murder the one they love the most. It’s really a rough curse when you think about it because it’s actually using your own friendship against you. Vladimir doesn’t know how to end this curse but he ends up falling in love with one of the women there so he offers to at least take her with him and get out of there. Unfortunately she feels like she needs to stay with the rest of the family. They’re all worried that the father has been turned into one of these monsters because he’s been gone for a few days. Well he returns one day and seems a bit shady….should they destroy him or wait to see what happens?

Part of what hurts this short is how everyone makes the worst decisions possible. So it’s painfully obvious that the father has already been turned into a monster so just take him out! Now if there’s any doubt that’s fine, do some tests. Have him try to eat some food or at least put him in restraints. Instead they all just kind of stand there. The father goes to pick up the baby and they whine about it but let him take the kid. They all then go to bed as if everything was fine…..sure they have one guy as a night watchman but what were they thinking? Obviously these creatures have super strength so you’re not going to be doing much with just one guard. The whole story is really annoying because you just don’t see how this could have possibly happened. It really makes no sense the whole time. So inevitably when the body count starts rising you just know that all of the characters are to blame.

They open the door when monsters show up, constantly panic and split up, etc. Even Vladimir doesn’t look very good as he tries to leave initially but splits up of course. Then when he goes back to save the girl he doesn’t suspect that she might be turned and goes for the full body hug? Noooooo, this guy was asking for trouble. Horror characters are famous for making the wrong calls at every turn but this really has to be up there in the running for one of the worst films in that regard. The sheer frequency of all these bad decisions is completely mind boggling. Trust me you’re going to be shaking your head left and right. Throw in that the story is a bit darker as well with a dog getting shot and a kid being murdered…well this isn’t going to be winning any awards I can tell you that much.

Finally we have the last story which is a classic cautionary tale against greed. Basically it starts with an older lady named Helen being called in because an even older lady has died and so they have to get everything sorted out for the burial. Helen notices that the old lady has a really nice looking ring though and decides to take it for herself. Finders keepers and all that right? Well she puts it on and all seems fine for about 2 seconds but then she starts to hear some water tapping on the surface. No matter how many faucets she turns off it keeps up. This can be annoying but perhaps not a dealbreaker right? Well that changes once the dead lady starts appearing to reclaim her ring. If Helen isn’t careful then it will be all over for her. Can she relinquish the ring and make things all right or will she continue to double down over and over for as long as it takes?

So Helen definitely dug her own grave here. Sometimes it’s really as simple as just not stealing something. Whenever there is a film where the villain is attacking because the hero did something bad then it’s harder to have sympathy. Helen stealing from a dead person is just completely uncalled for and makes her look so bad. You simply can’t do that at any point. No amount of money is worth doing the wrong thing like that. The short definitely has a lot of fun playing with the colors here and it’s definitely a reminder that those old houses with lots of shadows are a bad matchup against a vengeful ghost trying to sneak up on you. You’re just giving it way too many hiding spots to try and get you at that point. The ending of the film is pretty satisfying with how the cycle keeps on going. Also the cops finally get involved there so you if we got a sequel it would be interesting to see how much they could deduce here. In a supernatural case it can be hard to really get any clues since they don’t really know enough from the jump but it would still be a fun premise.

Overall, This was a pretty decent horror special. Certainly wayyy better than the average horror anthology at least. There’s a good amount of intrigue here and some fun stories. The middle story definitely holds this combo back the most though and it isn’t quite up to the level of the other two. I can’t really picture re watching this one at any point but still it wasn’t bad. I would put it right in the middle. If you’re looking for some horror titles to watch then this could definitely work. At the same time, it’s not going to be the top horror title to check out or anything like that.

Overall 5/10

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