In a universe where humans are near the bottom of the evolutionary ladder, a young destitute human woman is targeted for assassination by the Queen of the Universe because her very existence threatens to end the Queen's reign. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean and others
In order to restore their dying safe haven, the son of Poseidon and his friends embark on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece while trying to stop an ancient evil from rising. From: IMDb.com
In order to restore their dying safe haven, the son of Poseidon and his friends embark on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece while trying to stop an ancient evil from rising. From: IMDb.com
In order to restore their dying safe haven, the son of Poseidon and his friends embark on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece and to stop an ancient evil from rising. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Thor Freudenthal
Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Nathan Fillion and others
In order to restore their dying safe haven, the son of Poseidon and his friends embark on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece and to stop an ancient evil from rising. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Thor Freudenthal
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Logan Lerman, Nathan Fillion and others
The first "Silent Hill" movie already was a bit of a disappointment but
it's even more disappointing to see how they didn't improved much for
its sequel. As a matter of fact, it's worse and most definitely also
more lacking as an horror flick.
As it often comes down to, it's mostly its story that is making this
movie such an ineffective one. The movie has a really bad flow to it,
that feels like it's constantly building up to something that just
never comes. There is not a clear enough main plot line to begin with,
that gets you involved with anything. There is no real 'conflict' in
the story so to speak, or I should rather say that the movie doesn't
ever make apparent what the one and main conflict for the movie was
supposed to be. Multiple things get brought up, as if the movie itself
was trying out different things, to see what plot line worked and which
one didn't. Too bad they didn't elaborated or build any further on the
ones that did seem interesting and involving enough.
It just too often feels like random stuff is happening in the movie.
'Here is a monster! What, he's beaten? But wait! Here's another one!'
The movie throws so many random stuff and different types of monstrous
and evil looking characters, that you never know anything about, unless
you are familiar with the video games. It's just the one event after
the other, without having a clear enough purpose to its story or to
each other even.
And because the movie throws so many horror related stuff at you, it
also starts to become repetitive and therefore ineffective, after a
very short while already. It doesn't matter much that the movie has a
good and dark, horror, look and atmosphere to it. There is just no way
you'll get scared by this and there is no way an horror lover will be
capable of completely enjoying this movie all the way through. Sure, it
has its moments but it's not quite enough to save this movie from being
a below average one.
Another annoying aspect about it's storytelling is that it constantly
tries to explain everything. The movie really for most part consists
out of people talking and explaining their evil needs and plans. Every
time our main character enters a room there is a character explaining a
crucial plot point to her. She goes outside, there is another character
telling her something new, without ever letting it feel like our main
character is truly investigating and coming up with a plan herself. So
perhaps it's no wonder why you most likely won't ever feel involved
with the main character.
Probably also because of its script, the acting feels very lacking in
this one. Most of the actors give away some horrible performances,
which doesn't exactly helps to let things work out ever well or
convincing enough.
Also the special effects were a bit below par, every now and then,
which again was also a reason why I just couldn't ever get into this
movie. And it's a special effects heavy, so it often becomes a
distracting aspect.
Can't say it's the worst genre movie of recent years, that I have seen
but it's still a step down from the already disappointing first movie
and we can only hope that the third movie, which most likely shall get
made one day, learns from the mistakes this- and the first movie made.
Somehow I'm skeptic about it though.
When her father disappears, Heather Mason is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Michael J. Bassett
Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Sean Bean, Radha Mitchell and others
Seriously, this movie could had been a lot worse. At least its not
being one of those cheap looking B-action movie flicks. It actually is
a technically pretty well made movie, with of course also one truly
great cast in it.
Believe it or not but this movie actually stars Sean Bean, James
Cromwell, Ving Rhames, Christian Slater and Dominic Monaghan all in one
special soldiers of fortune team. A cast list every movie would and
also should be jealous of. No idea why they did this movie but I guess
they need a paycheck like this, every once and a while. it was also
great to see Colm Meaney as in the villain in this movie. It's funny
but I was wondering not too long ago what Colm Meaney was up to now
days, since I hadn't seen him in anything for years now. And then boom!
His face popped up in this movie, still looking the same as 20 years
ago.
Storywise, the movie was really dropping the ball toward its end, which
was a shame since I really was with the movie at first. It has a
ridicules concept but at least it got presented convincingly enough,
also thanks to its fine actors of course. After a while you'll start to
realize the movie isn't going anywhere anymore with its story. It's as
if half way through they threw away the script and decided to put in
some simple action sequences instead. I truly think that this movie and
its story had far more potential in it, so that's truly a big waste.
It's not a particularly spectacular or involving genre movie to watch
but it at least isn't boring or offensively bad, in any way or form.
It's definitely being a better movie than just the average B-genre
movie attempt and I hope that director Maxim Korostyshevsky continues
making movies and who knows, maybe one day he'll have his big
breakthrough, which seriously isn't anything unlikely, since you can
definitely tell the right skills and talent are there. All he needs now
is a more decent script and a bigger budget to work with.
Not a great genre movie but a good guilty pleasure.
(Review originally written at 26 October 2008) The horror genre and ghost story movies in particular have become popular again recently over the years, with as a result that we are getting bombarded by dozens of genre movies every year. Some of them are good, most of them are mediocre and then there are also some that are plain awful. This one goes in the last category in my opinion. It's a movie in which often a lot is being implied but in the end it just never pays off, also due to the fact that the last minutes of the movie and the ending in particular is very confusing to watch. It's a movie that tries to be like every other genre movie by putting in all of the usual ingredients and good suiting settings. Maybe the original concept in general did have some potential but is just doesn't ever really work out in the movie and instead the movie makes some bad choices, which makes this a very unlikely movie to watch as well. Normally I'm not the type of guy who during a supernatural horror movie is complaining about the logic or anything in that trend but this movie its logic did disturbed me. I mean the whole way the two parents are behaving after their child went missing and mostly died really doesn't seem realistic to me. Instead of grieving and comforting each other they are looking for silly pointless clues in their house and take in a deceased girl in their home as if their are taking it for granted this girl suddenly showed up. It's a movie that annoyed me in parts, also not in the least because the movie obviously thinks that its being clever with its twists and story but instead it's bad and confusing since the movie often just isn't making any sense. In the first halve of the movie a lot is being implied but very little is actually happening horror-wise. You know, it's the type of horror movie with a lot of false-scares in it. This might work two or three times within in a movie but when it's just constantly happening it becomes very ineffective and annoying as well after a short while. Poor Sean Bean and Maria Bello. They probably thought they were starring in a big successful genre movie and they are being very serious with their acting within this movie but the storytelling and script in general instead makes it more laughable to watch at times that they are acting so totally serious the whole time when these odd and unlikely events are occurring. Not really their fault I would say and they just did basically everything they could to make something good out of this movie. A totally pointless, bad and confusing, redundant genre movie to watch. 4/10 Watch trailer
(Review originally written at 12 January 2007) Of course this movie is a simple version of "The Da Vinci Code" but at least it's more entertaining to watch. It has just as many vague and unlikely clues at some unlikely historical places and on historical items, that lead to even more clues about the location of a large treasure. The whole concept of treasure hunting is of course one that really speaks to the imagination and this movie greatly takes advantage of this, by putting in the movie every formulaic element you would expect from a movie like this one. It's not that the movie is bad but it just isn't anything fresh or renewing either. It's an Indiana Jones and "The Da Vinci Code" wannabe that doesn't add enough on its own to the genre. Nothing wrong with a little bit 'borrowing' from other movies, as long as it works good for the movie and its story. "National Treasure" is a movie that entertains but that's basically all there really can be said about the movie. The story is fun and adventurous and the movie features some good actors that are being played by some surprising big names. The movie has some good moments and action sequences, that aren't too big (the movie most certainly does not look like an $100,000,000 movie) but are entertaining nevertheless. The movie is good looking with a good visual style and a nice suiting action score from specialist Trevor Rabin. It's a bit of a shame that the movie is just so formulaic. Nothing in the movie comes as a surprise and it features all of the typical elements you would expect from a movie like this one. At times the movie could had really used some more originality to make it more entertaining-, or at least less predictable to watch. Like I said before, the movie is still good and fun enough to watch but it could had really been so much better with a tiny bit more of originality of its own. The characters are also quite formulaic, though it fits the genre well I guess; a friend turns villain, a love interest and a comical sidekick. Why do movies always think they should have comical sidekicks? It's starting to get really annoying, especially if the characters aren't even funny, like in this movie is the case. It sort of helps though that all of the characters are being played by some well known names. I like Nicolas Cage and he shows that he can also play a convincing main 'heroic' character. Sean Bean plays the villain and like expected he does this in a great way, like only he can play a villain. The movie further more also features Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel and Christopher Plummer in some smaller roles. All good fun, as long as you don't expect something original- or to be blown away by it all. 6/10 Watch trailer
(Review originally written at 26 November 2006) Not that the movie is very bad but it's just that the movie, with its atmosphere and premise, had so much more potential than the eventual end result. The movie suffers from numerous things. One is the build up and story flow. In all honesty this movie has an incredible bad build, which ruins the tension and mystery of the movie. Things happen in the movie too fast, without a proper build up. This way we never really get involved- and feel with any of the characters. It's a distant movie with distant characters and because of that neither the tension or mystery of the movie works out to the maximum. Non of the characters seems to be truly scared or surprised will all the unusual and scary things going on in the movie. It also sort of makes the movie ridicules to watch at moments. This movie had all the potential in it to become a tense atmosphere horror movie. After all, The Silent Hill games are probably the most atmospheric, tense, mysterious and scary games around at the moment. But as a die hard horror fan I can assure you; this movie is not an horror. The movie really doesn't have any scares in it and although there is some gore, there is very little else to enjoy for the horror. So perhaps it's possible that a non-horror fan will like this picture more than I in the end did. The only thing horror about this movie is its atmosphere. Yes, the movie is great looking and because of that has a great visual look and atmosphere over it but the not so great story, characters, dialog and acting make sure that this movie never becomes tense or scary despite its fantastic atmosphere. But yes, the movie is definitely still watchable, mainly because of the reason I just mentioned; the visual look. The movie uses some great camera positions (copied directly from the game I presume), good looking sets, make-up and visual effects. The movie also has some great highly imaginative sequences, that perhaps can also be described as art. You could say that this movie is a case of style over substance. The story begins simple but as the plot thickens the movie becomes more and more difficult to follow. We're introduced to a totally new world and environment but the movie doesn't give us the time to adapt and get used to this strange 'alternative' world. The story also tends to make the movie unnecessary hard and difficult to follow, especially toward the ending, that even comes over as strange and not in every way completely understandable. No wonder, since the story is written by Roger Avary. The man behind the early Quentin Tarantino movies "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction". He always tends to write stories with several layers, multiple story lines and other complex writing techniques but in this case it's not for the best of it. The movie suffers from its 'over-done-written' script. A simple understandable for everyone script would had sufficed for a genre movie like this one. Sorry to say but Radha Mitchell will not grow into becoming a big movie star. This goes for about all of the actors in the movie. Sean Bean also somehow got involved in this movie but to be frank, I don't know why he ever agreed to appear in this movie. He feels out of place and on top of that he also gets very little interesting to do. The only interesting actress in this movie seems to be Alice Krige but her character is unfortunately introduced too late in to the story. Non of the characters are really handled well in the movie and the dialog also isn't always the best, or most realistic thinkable, so that also isn't exactly helping them. The movie is still good enough to consider it a watchable one but considering the potential this movie in its core had; a disappointing movie, especially from the viewpoint of an horror-genre fan. 6/10 Watch trailer
This thriller certainly is a good enough one to watch and it also is a very professionally made one but it however offers very little new or refreshing enough material. It makes "Don't Say a Word" nothing more than a standard thriller, with some good actors in it.
The cast is really the saving grace of the movie. It still provides the movie with some good moments and characters and also give the movie an extra sense of professionalism involved. Sean Bean is a great as the main villain and delivers an absolute fine performance. Michael Douglas is also great as the leading man, mainly because he doesn't play him as an 'hero' but an ordinary everyday person instead. Douglas is always fine in these sort of roles. Some other excellent actors play some smaller parts in the movie. Actors such as; Brittany Murphy, Oliver Platt, Victor Argo and last but not least Famke Janssen. They all help to make the movie look better and more interesting than it in fact really is. Most of the characters are however pretty flat. Why does Famke Janssen even play the wife? It's a role basically every actress could had played. This movie just didn't seem like a very challenging or original project to get involved with. And I also have the feeling that the movie would had been better of without the Jennifer Esposito. Just think about it, was she really necessary for the movie and its story? Her character is not engaging enough, since it's not she we need to care about or cheer for but the Michael Douglas character instead, who is the main lead of the movie. Her character is distracting from the movie its main story.
The movie is certainly style-full and it does have its moments. But in the end it just really falls flat as a really good or original thriller. All of the moments in the movie are just too predictable and the movie doesn't offer any real surprises. Therefor this movie just isn't anymore than a well made but standard formulaic thriller.
It's a movie that does serve its purpose and the movie certainly is watchable as a simple standard thriller. Fans of the genre will probably still be the most entertained by it but even they have to conclude that this movie is far from being one of the best thrillers released in recent years. It's the sort of movie that is only quite good enough to watch it just maybe once. Don't expect too much of this and you might end up liking it good enough.
Nothing too remarkable, just a well made, simple thriller, with some great actors in it.
