Daily Archives: October 4, 2017

Oct 4 2017

Movie Reviews 101 Midnight Halloween Horror – The Faith of Anna Waters (2016)

Director: Kelvin Tong

Writer: Kelvin Tong (Screenplay)

Starring: Elizabeth Rice, Colin Borgonon, Adina Herz, Sam Harris, Adrian Pang, Matthew Settle

 

Plot: When young and successful reporter Jamie finds out that her sister has died in mysterious circumstances, she travels to Singapore to uncover the truth. There, she discovers multiple deaths linked to her sister’s and must join forces with her sister’s husband in order to defeat a demonic entity that is using new technology to complete an ancient mission.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Not Good Enough

 

Story: The Faith of Anna Waters starts when Jamie’s (Rice) sister is killed in what looks like a suicide to escape her Huntington’s disease she finds herself spending time with Anna’s husband Sam (Settle) and daughter Katie (Herz) as they all grieve together.

When Jamie a reporter starts looking into the case she gets a warning with the name as well as getting visit from ghostly figures that look just like her sister as does Katie. Good job she is a reporter and can go all investigation mode on us as she tries to get to the bottom of the haunting finding out that not everything is as simple as it seems.

 

Thoughts on The Faith of Anna Waters

 

Characters/Performance – Jamie is a reporter, which is very important for this movie because how else could we solve this, she also has the generics to be suffering from disease which runs through the family. Sam is the husband of the recently deceased woman and that is about all there is to his character. Katie is the daughter of the sister who believes her mother will return from beyond the grave. There is also a priest that wants redemption.

Performance wise, there wasn’t any impressive performances here, most are painful to watch as it just seems like actors reading their lines not acting them out.

Story – The story seems to mix elements from the Ring, Exorcist and most investigation movies without settling down on anything. I do like a good investigation but the truth is the story just is filled with simple attempts at jump scares, while unwrapping the mystery. I do think the story had ideas it just needed more focus on the idea of the core factor involved.

Horror/Mystery – Horror is very basic with simple attempts jump scares that feel lazy and predictable while the mystery doesn’t get enough focus.

Settings – The film is meant to be set in Singapore but we don’t get any location that could make it iconic enough for this to make it important.

Special Effects – We have effects you would expect form low budget that are good for what they are meant to be.

Final Thoughts – I liked the idea but I do feel the idea doesn’t reach the levels it could for what could be a very interesting horror film.

 

Overall: Good idea, bad execution.

Rating

 

 

Oct 4 2017

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

nosDirector: Werner Herzog

Writer: Werner Herzog (Screenplay)

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor, Walter Ladengast

 

Plot: Jonathan and Lucy live in Wismar and the Count wants a house there. Varna is a port on the Black Sea, close to Dracula’s castle.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Dark Dracula

 

Story: Nosferatu the Vampyre starts when Jonathan (Ganz) must travel to Transylvania to meet the reclusive Count Dracula (Kinski) who wants to buy a home in Jonathan’s village of Wismar.  When Dracula gets drawn to Lucy (Adjani) Jonathan’s wife he heads to Wismar leaving Jonathan battling his own health but also wanting to save Lucy from the evil country Dracula.

With Dracula in Wismar we see how the people of the town start coming down with the plague like symptoms as it is up to Dr Helsing (Ladengast) to try and stop Dracula taking Lucy away.

 

Thoughts on Nosferatu the Vampyre

 

Story – We all know the Dracula story right, well this is the same only that they travel back to Wismar rather than London, it is a classic tale but I found myself disappointed because I watch the wrong version of this film.

Horror – We get a lot of horror like images thrown towards us through this film which is fine but you never find the Dracula character as scary as he could have been in this world.

Characters/Performance – The characters are all known from the books with the main focal point being on Count Dracula who is obviously the most famous part of the film. The performances are all good making you believe in the peril throughout the film.

Settings – WE have excellently created settings used throughout the fil which put us in the time in question as well as seeing the different worlds Dracula is from to where he ends up.

Final Thoughts – This is a very good version of Dracula with some very dark imagery throughout but in the end it is just another version of the story that has been told way too many times.

 

Overall: The darkest and most twisted version of Dracula that I have seen.

Rating75

 

 

Oct 4 2017

Blade Runner (1982)

Director: Ridley Scott

Writer: Hampton Fancher, David Webb Peoples (Screenplay) Philip K Dick (Novel)

Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hanna, William Sanderson

 

Plot: A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.


Tagline – A chilling, bold, mesmerizing, futuristic detective thriller.

Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: True Iconic Classic

 

Story: Blade Runner starts in the 21st century where humans have created replicants to work off world in hazardous condition, but when a mutiny makes them free they become illegal on Earth where Blade Runners hunt them down killing them on sight in a process known as retirement not execution.

When four replicants Roy Batty (Hauer), Pris (Hannah), Leon (James) and Zhora (Cassidy) return to Earth Bryant (Walsh) brings Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Ford) into track them down. With newer models being developed like Rachael (Young) tracking down the replicants is becoming harder for Deckard but with him being the best in the business he must use all his experience to stop them causing anymore problems in the world.

 

Thoughts on Blade Runner

 

Characters – Rick Deckard is the Blade Runner, well one of them, the best of them, he keeps to himself for the most part but when a job becomes too serious, Deckard is the man to clean up by hunting down the replicants. He does have a moral compass when it comes to dealing with the upgraded Rachael who doesn’t seem to be a threat but when dealing with the others it will be his hardest test. Roy Batty is the leader of the escaped replicants, he only wants to find a way for his replicants to extended their lives and is filled with philosophical ideas. Racheal is the upgraded replicant that is being kept secret until she goes on the run with on Deckard to protect her from retirement. We also have the other replicants looking for freedom in their own way as well as the people who want Deckard to hunt them down.

Performances – Harrison Ford gives us a performance that does against everything we were expecting from his Han Solo and Indiana Jones days where he plays the serious character in the bleak look at the future. Rutger Hauer gives us one of the best villainous performance of any film, he is haunting with his lines and deadly with his fights. Sean Young is good in the film too as the learning replicant. There isn’t a single weak performance in this movie which is always good to see.

Story – The story shows how the androids created known as replicants only want to survive and be treated equal in a world that will not accept them. We watch the one man try to hunt down the escaped replicants before they hurt anymore innocent people. This is a noir thriller that keeps us guessing the in bleak sci-fi world that has a story without many twists which keeps the story flowing in the one direction needed.

Sci-Fi – When this was released sci-fi was all aliens and space travel but this showed us a future, a bleak future reliant on technology for the people, it showed us how the world could look in the future.

Settings – This is a visual treat for the settings, it takes us into the future where we see the world we could one day be living in.

Special Effects – The effects still stand the test of time because of the visual look at the world we are finding out characters in with the technology designed for the film.


Scene of the Movie – I always like the final showdown.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Deciding which cut to watch.

Chances of Sequel: We have one now.

Budget: $28 Million

Final Thoughts –This is a sci-fi film that inspired a generation of film makers, it broke boundaries and became one of the all-time classics in cinema.

 

Overall: Classic we can never get bored off.

Rating