Thinner (1996, USA) | Rating: 2/5
I think it's common knowledge among Stephen King fans and horror movie lovers that sometimes his movie adaptations can be a bit hit or miss. I'm not huge on King films, but there are some that I've been wanting to see and this is one of them. I believe Syfy was doing their usual Halloween marathon in October (obviously) and decided to do a different theme each week. I decided to put off my DVD binge watch from my workplace to finally catch it on air. Unlike It, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Before coming into this movie, I knew that our main character would be cursed with rapid weight loss and...that's about it. Watching it was unfortunately not as entertaining as I thought it would be. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters, which made it hard for me to care about any bad thing that happened to them. I guess I felt like our main character and his associates were kinda...jerks or something, I really don't know, but I hate feeling disappointment during and after a movie.
Emelie (2016, USA) | Rating: 3.5/5
I picked this movie up expecting it to be a cheap thrill or something, judging by the cover art. Surprisingly, this babysitter made my jaw drop and creeped me out a little. Sure, babysitter impostors aren't a new concept to the horror genre, but as I've said time and time again that execution of said concept is what makes it interesting and entertaining. This movie was a bit of a slow build, but definitely not a slow burn. It knew how to set up suspense very well, in other words. Emelie wasn't obviously a creepy babysitter. She definitely had a sweet demeanor and if you already knew something was off with her in the beginning, you still got that feeling with a hint of dark aura surrounding her. The thing I really enjoyed about this movie is that Emelie didn't physically torture these children, she went beyond that to their innocent mental state. These situations was where my jaw dropped. They were quite bold with these babysitting activities. Despite my enjoyment of this movie, it definitely had some imperfections, mostly at the final act of the movie to its conclusion. Something about movie resolutions seem like the most difficult thing. Nonetheless, I think people should give this movie a chance as I thought it was quite fun and had just the right amount of disturbing.
The Darkness (2016, USA) | Rating: 1.5/5
I admit I was planning on seeing this movie in theaters as I thought it looked kinda exciting and fun, but I didn't quite make it and just resolved to waiting for the DVD release. The good thing about that, and this seems to be a pattern with movies I've missed in the theaters, is that it wasn't very good. There was something sloppy about the plot and execution of the whole thing. The beginning was okay and the rest of it was just unremarkable or as I would usually say "meh". Pretty much someone picked up something they weren't supposed to, curse comes upon the family, and they stupidly try to deal with it or simply just believe in it. Oh, there's also an autistic kid in the mix as well to make things "interesting", but he just ends up being kinda useless in a lot of situations. Really I couldn't connect with this family, which is quite unfortunate. Even though the plot seemed mediocre, there's a tiny part of me that still thinks this movie could've been interesting in some way...but I can't think of how without majorly changing everything. If you skip out on this movie, you're not missing out on anything as there are way better horror movies that came out this year.
Swiss Army Man (2016, USA) | Rating: 4/5
Oh, Daniel Radcliffe, you're trying so hard to get away from your Harry Potter image. I don't think that'll ever happen as that's what made him the man he is today in Hollywood. For me, I think I have a small advantage coming into this post-Potter films and being able to separate that character from him...after a certain amount of time has past of course. Anyway, I had this movie in my queue to watch before I saw any previews or trailers, then it popped up in another movie I rented and I knew I made the right choice. I expected it to be weird and funny and that's exactly what I got. Yay! This movie was very weird and it has a lot of sexual humor, so I wouldn't suggest bringing the kids around to see this one. I can't see everyone enjoying it either, because of its weirdness and perhaps lewd humor, but there's something deeper beyond what's on the surface. One of my favorite theories on IMDb made think of the movie in a whole different light compared to what I've rationalized, which makes it a fun movie to discuss among friends and movie analysts. The chemistry between our two main characters and the various situations is what kept me thoroughly engaged. I guess if you want something different with weirdness, crass humor, and hidden meanings under the humor and dialogue, then I would check this one out. I think it's one of Radcliffe's better post-Potter films.
Into the Forest (2015, USA) | Rating: 4/5
Going through a list of releases, I came across the synopsis of this Ellen Page movie and lately I've been really loving what she's been doing this year. I was very pleased to see that my workplace was carrying this movie and I immediately jumped on the request list. Since post-apocalyptic worlds are still trending, this film's story is based in that world, but kinda not. No one knows what's going, except that the power has gone out in several places in the area our main characters live in. I can also tell by the way their cabin is designed that it's possibly in the future, considering the technology is more advance than what we have currently. But in a way, it could be set in present day or the near future, I'm honestly not gonna look that up and keep the mystery to myself. Nonetheless, people are becoming desperate and perhaps aggressive for survival and supplies as necessities are running low. We've seen humanity panic as a whole, but this movie focuses on one single family and how they deal with this unexpected outage. Everything seems to go smoothly, until one event throws off the balance and creates a domino effect of unfortunate events...and really that's an understatement. What's great about this film is that it focuses on the characters' reactions and developments to each obstacle thrown at them. It easily pulls you in and makes you feel something for these characters and you're just waiting for things to go back to normal; whether normal is having the power back on or that their relationships will be repaired. It doesn't feature a lot of action or flashy moments; it's very subdue and emotionally driven, which is a nice change of pace for the genre. The acting is very convincing and the chemistry is definitely real and engaging. I would definitely give this one a couple glances if you're looking for something new in the post-apocalyptic genre.
If there's something you want me to review (or want a more in depth review of the movies above or previous ones), check out this post on how you can submit requests.
No comments:
Post a Comment