06 | April | 2021 | Movie Reviews 101

Final Days – Simple Survivor Story

Director: Johnny Martin

Writer: Matt Naylor (Screenplay)

Starring: Tyler Posey, Summer Spiro, Donald Sutherland, Robert Ri’chard, John Posey

Plot: When an outbreak hits, Aidan barricades himself inside his apartment and starts rationing food. His complex is overrun by infected Screamers, and with the world falling apart into chaos, he is left completely alone fighting for his life.

Tagline – Anyone that survives this will have to be forgiven for unforgivable things

Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Final Days starts when Aidan (Posey) wakes up only to learn that the outside world of his apartment, has been taken over by infected humans known as Screamers. He is left alone in his apartment, waiting for rescue, saving his food supply and water hoping for a change.

After 43 days Aidan considers ending everything until he sees a young woman Eva (Spiro) across the street from him, giving him hope of not being alone, trying to find freedom.

Thoughts on Final Days

Characters & Performances – Aidan is a heavy partier that wakes up alone in his apartment, trying to keep himself occupied, before looking to end it after nearly six weeks. He ends up discovering a woman across the street, who gives him hope as she starts to venture out in search for supplies. He does try to do the right thing once he finds someone around him. Tyler Posey does a solid enough job in this role, part of the weakness in this performance comes from the lack of much for him to do for the first half of the film, he doesn’t become engaging enough. Eva is the woman across the street, she does give Aidan hope to carry on, we don’t learn much about what she has been up to during the time, mostly becoming just woman Aidan wants to save. Summer Spiro does everything she can in this role, which doesn’t leave her much to do. We don’t get to meet many other characters, with any that we do meet are the typical infection based movie roles.

Story – The story here follows a young man that wakes up to learn that the world outside has become overrun by infected people known as Screamers, leaving to figure out how to survive in a world where he believes he is alone. This is a film that also had the same script as last years #Alive, so if you saw that you will know where this film will go. The story is simple to follow, even if it glosses over the early stages of the outbreak, as it is very strange that Aidan doesn’t see the girl across the street in the first seven weeks of the events starting. Once things get going and supplies dry up, it does have a few more tense scenes, but by the end of the story, you will feel like we need more.

Themes – Final Days is a horror movie that will give us a version of zombies, which is a mix of the traditional ones and the faster moving, climbing ones which does make for a couple of funny sequences. The film is kept in one main location with the apartment complexes being show close together and how the tight apartments can offer new dangers.

Signature Entertainment presents Final Days on DVD and Digital Platforms 12th April. iTunes Here and Amazon Here

Final Days is easy to watch horror that never hits the intensity it wants to.

Director: George Tillman Jr
Writer: Tony Gayton, Joe Gayton (Screenplay)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace, Carla Gugino, Mike Epps, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jennifer Carpenter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Moon Bloodgood

Plot: An ex-con gets on a series of apparently unrelated killings. He gets tracked by a veteran cop with secrets of his own and an egocentric hit man.

Tagline – Slow Justice is No Justice

Runtime:1 Hour 38 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Faster starts when a man known only as Driver (Johnson) is released from prison, running straight to his prized car, driving straight to a location to execute a man in the middle of an office, drawing the attention of detective Cicero (Gugino) and Cop (Thornton).

As Driver continues the rampage against the people that killed his brother and left him for dead, he will find himself being tracked down on an assassin Killer (Jackson-Cohen) who is suffering from an identity crisis, leading to a battle of wits, with bodies left laying everywhere Driver passes through.

Thoughts on Faster

Characters & Performances – Driver has been in prison for years, waiting for his chance to get free and get revenge on the people that betrayed and murdered his brother and left him for dead. He has one thing on his mind, bloodshed, he will not stop going after the people, he doesn’t care who sees him commit the crimes, his relentless nature if the driving force for him, only targeting the people that took his family. This is the first film that Dwayne Johnson did after the family friendly roles, he gets to show the new levels of intensity that help make him a true action star. Cop is the drug addict that is nearing retirement, his addictions are only causing more problems in his life and seeing Driver on his rampage gives him a case he doesn’t want to be involved in. he seems to still be in his role because of the reputation, rather than his current abilities. Billy Bob Thornton does make this character very interesting, as we never know how this character is going to act next. Killer is an assassin hired to kill Driver he has been going through his own identity crisis wanting to find a purpose from his actions, not feeling challenged anymore, he wants to settle down, which is girlfriend wants him to do, but he gets fascinated with trying to capture Driver. Oliver Jackson-Cohen does give us one of the most interesting performances in any assassins, showing us the one that is skilled enough, but not interested enough in completing jobs. This movie does have a big set of characters that will look to either investigate or be in the way of Driver, each one makes sense to the world, with each performance working very well in the film.

Story – The story here follows a man released from prison that goes on a rampage to track down the people that left his brother dead and him for dead, not stopping until he gets everyone. This is a simple enough story, with the revenge theme in the story working well, we know this is going to become a clean revenge action story, that is going to give us a few twists along the way, which seem to get reflected in the assassin hunting him down, not quite sure what to make of the situation anymore. This is an easy to watch film and will leave us wanting to see more from this world created.

Themes – Faster is an action movie that doesn’t hold back on the shooting, we don’t get into more than one hand to hand combat fight, it is a pure shot and kill to get the message across. We have the fast cars used to show the urgency of the time between the kills, with the different cities and open roads, showing how far Driver must travel to get his revenge.