Director: Ian Clark

Writer: Ian Clark (Screenplay)

Starring: Aneurin Bardnard, Alex Reid, Chris Larkin, Amit Shah, Jack Doolan, Steve Evets

Plot: Seven volunteers find themselves fighting for their lives when a drug trial goes horribly wrong.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Missed Opportunity Here

Story: The Facility starts as seven volunteers Adam (Barnard), Joni (Reid), Arif (Shah), Morty (Evets) Carmen (Lourie), Katie (Roberts) and Jeb (Coleman) where they get a drug known as Pro9 with Dr Mansell (Larkin) conducting the experiment.

When something goes wrong, the subjects must now wait to see how they will be effected by the drug as each person gets different effects and who has been given the real drug or a placebo.

Thoughts on The Facility

Characters/Performance – Adam is the post-grad student looking for a quick fix on cash, we follow his journey to the facility but otherwise learn little about him, this is going to be the case for all the characters. Joni is a young woman that has been going through different experiments so she knows the protocol, much like Morty, we also have a journalist, a student, a jock and Arif who could have been used better. The characters are easy to place in this film but not many get enough or any back story.

Performance wise, we have average at best performance through the film, nobody stands out or gets enough time to develop which is a shame but just not enough going on here.

Story – Here is the pitch, let’s lock seven people in a building, giving them a drug and see what happens as they start to go crazy, this sounds interesting it really does for a horror film, but in the end it just turns into a film that is desperate to find new ways to try and kill the victims without us needing or wanting to care about any of the subjects involved.

Horror – The horror is there in idea but not in execution because everything just turns out to be flat when it comes to scares.

Settings – The film is set inside one building but there is an easy escape which only disappoints because you don’t feel this is the experiment that can be contained.

Special Effects – The effects are about how badly this film wants to have the extra gore kills but only fail while doing them.

Final Thoughts – This is a bland horror that missed the marks, it has awful editing which just jumps around all over the place not making any sense to certain sequences either, the acting isn’t that good either and in the end you will forget this horror.

Overall: Poor horror that missed a chance to be great.

Rating

Director: Mike Barker

Writer: William Morrissey (Screenplay)

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler, Emma Karwandy, Claudette Mink

Plot: A perfect family’s dynamic is ruined by a kidnapper’s brutally efficient plot.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Solid Thriller

Story: Butterfly on a Wheel starts as we meet successful business man Neil Randall (Butler) and his wife Abby (Bello) live their perfect little life where everything is comfortable for them, with Neil on the verge of a promotion to partner, the two head off the weekend.

The weekend takes a turn for the worse when Tom Ryan (Brosnan) holds the couple hostage with one of his partners keeping their daughter as a bargaining tool. Tom makes the two follow tasks around the city as we learn the motives of Tom’s ideas.

Thoughts on Butterfly on a Wheel

Characters/Performance – Neil is an advertising man, family man but distant husband, he is about to get a promotion for all his hard work but once he is forced into playing the games we see his true nature unfold. Abby is the wife of Neil who has given up her career but with a new chance to start she finds herself being forced into playing the games. Tom is the man behind the games, he is forcing the couple to do everything he wants but the question remains why? This air of mystery makes him a very interesting character.

Performance wise, Brosnan is great as the cold-hearted man behind what is going on, Maria Bello is good too through the film showing she can be part of the leading lady in the film and Butler is strong throughout.

Story – This story does follow the trends of the how far would you go to save your daughter routine, this does leave us with a good mystery about what we are expecting and happy to throw a twist or two our way. I feel the final twist is the saving grace of the film because we must rethink everything we have seen which is always a nice feeling with a film.

Crime/Thriller – The crime side of this is kidnapping and abducting which work perfectly for the story and we are kept on edge through the film wondering just what are the motives.

Settings – Each setting unfolds to tell us the truth about what has been happening which works as we learn pieces of the puzzle.

Final Thoughts – This is a thriller that went under the radar, it is a good watch and one well worth watching if you are a thriller fan.

Overall: Enjoyable thriller with plenty of twists.

Rating

2017 Award

Hidden Gems

January is here and that means award season and for the whole of January I will be looking at a range of best and worst subjects, these are the films that could easily have been over looked this year and I highly recommend.

NOMINATIONS

Ghosts of Darkness

The Discovery

Gremlin

Wakefield

Sleight

Moon Dogs

Anti Matter

The Warrior’s Gate

Skybound

Winner

Anti Matter

Reason – This is a sci-fi film that could easily have been the sci-fi film of the year on any other year, this low budget film makes us think as we watch the story unfold. This film is one of the thinking person’s sci-fi movies which is always a pleasure to watch, making this my pick for the best hidden gem of the year.