Plot: After being institutionalized in a mental hospital, Su-mi reunites with her sister, Su-yeon, and they return to live at their country home. But strange events plague the house, leading to surprising revelations and a shocking conclusion.
Runtime: 1 Hour 54 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: A Tale of Two Sisters starts when Soo-Mi (Soo-jung) and Soo-yeon (Geun-young) leave a mental health hospital. They return home with their father Moo-hyeon (Kap-su) and new stepmother Eun-joo (Jung-ah). However, their recovery doesn’t seem to be going as smoothly as planned.
The two sisters are extremely close and find it hard to do anything without the other around. However, there is a secret that Soo-mi holds, one that could tear the family apart and test her father’s patience.
Verdict on A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters is a horror mystery following two sisters who return home from a hospital. They have been through something traumatic and still face a road to recovery. However, in the home, there is a bigger secret holding them back.
This movie jumps into the era of surprisingly scary Asian horrors by doing something different. It does have some of the similar scares as others, but it does enough to stand out on its own. There is a surprise in the story even though you would be expecting it and that helps keep us wanting to know the truth. The music works to make the movie flow nicely, playing into the tension we witness throughout. It is an excellent addition to the series of horrors that came out of Asia in the early 2000s.
Capturing the Friedmans – ABC Film Challenge – Oscar Nominations – C – Capturing the Friedmans – Movie Review
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Plot: Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict on Capturing the Friedmans
Capturing the Friedmans is a documentary following the Friedman family. It looks like they are a normal friendly family until evidence points at the father collecting child pornography. Upon further investigation, a much more disturbing truth is uncovered in the family home.
However, despite the evidence looking clear, it follows the family members telling their stories of their connection with the disgraced family members. All while using video recordings looking to prove their innocence despite public opinion.
This is a documentary which exposes how a criminal case can get blown out of control when the wrong people start dealing with it. However, it doesn’t do anything to prove the truth, from the outside looking in, it seems like a clean-cut case. Even though the documentary is trying to prove their innocence throughout the case.
In the end, this focuses too much on Friedman’s point of view, rather than the authority’s investigation. The legal side of everything would have been a lot more interesting to see.
Plot: A group of college students travels to a mysterious island to attend a rave, which is soon taken over by bloodthirsty zombies.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: House of the Dead starts when a group of college students looking to party find themselves paying a rogue sailor to get them to the island. Once they get there, the group find the rave abandoned and start going in search of answers.
After they explore, they start discovering the secret of the island. Meanwhile, officer Casper (Cornell) is hunting down the rogue sailor. However, everyone must come together to fight back against the zombies overrunning the island.
Verdict on House of the Dead
House of the Dead is an action horror following a group of college students trying to get to the years biggest rave. However, once they arrive at the island it is meant to take place on, they find themselves needing to fight against zombies. It becomes a battle to survive against the undead hordes.
This is a notoriously unpopular movie that people love to bash. While it is far from being great, it does seem to understand the chaos of what the arcade style games offered. This ends up being a movie you can have a silly amount of fun with just how bonkers it is. You could easily watch this as a late-night horror movie.
Final Thoughts – House of the Dead is a bonkers late-night horror movie.
Plot: In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Runtime: 2 Hours 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Cold Mountain starts as we meet Inman (Law) a soldier in the American Civil War. We flashback to his time before the war where he meets his sweetheart Ada (Kidman) and ended up leaving her to go to war before they got married.
Once the war hits, Inman gets injured and after going through the horrors of the war he wants out. Meanwhile, Ada is going through her own problems and finds herself living with Ruby (Zellweger). Inman decides to travel back home, although the journey isn’t going to be easy.
Verdict on Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain is a wartime drama following two lives during the conflict. We follow the soldier who went to war that finds himself trying to get home. Meanwhile, his love deals with her own problems back home during the harsh reality of the people left behind.
This is a powerful story that showed both sides of the war. While we start with one of the more horrific battle sequences. It ends up following the trauma left behind. We get to go into the detail of suffering people left behind and people left in the path of destruction must suffer through. There is a host of quality performances from the whole cast in a compelling story unfolding.
Final Thoughts –Cold Mountain is a powerful wartime drama.
Plot: The Dark Knight must contend with a mysterious female vigilante who emulates him, but to a more ruthless degree.
Runtime: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman starts when a mysterious Batwoman starts helping with crimes in Gotham City. Her actions have turned heads, as Batman must lead the investigation into what she is doing. However, the two-start working to deal with the latest threats.
The Penguin continues to run his criminal organisation and brings in Bane to deal with the Batwoman problem. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne looks to end the threat and protect the vengeful Batwoman.
Verdict onBatman: Mystery of the Batwoman
Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman is an animated movie following Batman dealing with a new threat. The Penguin continues to take control of the city, but a new threat comes after him causing problems for Batman. Leading to him searching for the true identity behind who Batwoman truly is.
This is a movie that shows the vigilantes that can grow from different worlds. It shows how like Bruce, their hate toward the villains of the city continues to grow and cause bigger problems. The story is solid and continues to bring the adventures to life for Bruce Wayne. We get a new set of characters with a lot more to deal with making things interesting. However, nothing feels like too much of a threat for Batman to deal with.
Final Thoughts – Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman is a fun adventure for the caped crusader.
Plot: A group of medical students discover the body of the infamous count. Soon, they find themselves in the middle of a bizarre and dangerous conflict when a shadowy figure offers them $30 million for the body so that he may harvest his blood.
Runtime: 1 Houe 25 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Dracula II: Ascension starts when a group of medical students Elizabeth (Neal), Luke (London), Kenny (Payton) and Tanya (Roderick) discover an unusual body in the morgue. They believe they have found a vampire and take the body to help their friend Lowell (Sheffer). Along with a mysterious benefactor, the students get involved in an experiment designed to help Lowell’s illness.
However, when things go wrong Father Uffizi (Lee) arrives in the fight. Uffizi must team up with the students to fight back against the vampire infection that is spreading through the ranks before it is too late.
Verdict onDracula II: Ascension
Dracula II: Ascension is an action horror movie that brings a group of medical students together to explore the chance of taking Dracula’s blood. It sees things going wrong, as Dracula’s power starts to take over and the students lose control, leaving one priest to fight back.
This is an interesting twist on the Dracula story, being in the modern era has worked before. However, having medical students use blood to explore a cure for a disease is interesting. Even though, the end product is the students needing to fight to survive.
This is a solid enough vampire movie, but it does fall short with the cliff-hanger ending wanting you to return for a sequel.
Final Thoughts – Dracula II: Ascension is a solid addition to the vampire lure.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara – ABC Film Challenge – Oscar Nominations – W (War) – The Fog of War – Movie Review
Director: Errol Morris
Plot: The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict on The Fog of War
The Fog of War is a documentary that sees an interview with former Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara. In this interview, we get to see the different situations he faced in his role working under John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson. It shows how he came from a business background and his only conflict experience was in World War II.
This dives into his history before his role before getting involved in the major incidents within the role he took. It shows how he was more against the Vietnam war and his interactions with both Presidents created different results. This is nice to see how somebody who was in a major position of power felt surrounding a major conflict in America’s history.
When this was made, it feels like this would have been the maximum McNamara would have been allowed to say. However, not it could have been blown open even further, giving away even more secrets from the conflict’s point of view.
Final Thoughts – The Fog of War is an interesting documentary.
On the 24th of January 2003, Darkness Falls was released in the United States. For some reason outside of Canada, the rest of the world didn’t get this movie till later in the year, with my own UK having to wait till the 9th of May. Darkness Falls was released by Sony Pictures, with Lionsgate Home Entertainment bringing it to audiences at home.
Cast
The cast included a relatively unknown in the leading role. Cheney Kley had only previously appeared in Legally Blonde and a couple of guest appearances on TV before Darkness Falls. The biggest credit post Darkness Falls was a recurring role in The Shield before his tragic death in 2007.
Emma Caulfield is the biggest draw for the movie when it was released. Like many of her fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast mates, they started turning up in movies. This was Emma’s first attempt to make a big impact. She has continued to act since despite never finding a role as big as Anya in Buffy and being a guest star in many popular television shows through the years.
Among the most notable members of the cast, we have an early role for Wolf Creek’s Kestie Morassi. Emily Browning also gets one of her first roles as a younger version of Caitlin, she has clearly been the star who went onto achieve the most.
Director
Jonathan Liebesman is the director of Darkness Falls, this was his feature film debut. This opened the door to Jonathan getting the chance to direct The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, one of the very movies that performed better in terms of profit than Darkness Falls.
Following that was his biggest disappointment in The Killing Room. However, this led to his last three movies all with bigger production budgets. Battle: Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). The three movies all did well at the box office, proving that Jonathan Liebesman could direct movies towards a profit.
Jonathan has since dropped back into the TV world, first with a couple of episodes of The Shannara Chronicles. More recently Jonathan directed four episodes of the video game TV show Halo for Paramount+.
Story
Darkness Falls follows a legend about the small town of Darkness Fall. Matilda Dixon a widow from 1836, became close with the children of the town, giving them gifts when they lost their teeth. This gave her the nickname ‘Tooth Fairy’, however, when she gets burnt in a house fire, she must wear a mask. When local children went missing, the town blamed Matilda, exposing her face and hanging her for witchcraft. After her death, the children were found but the town became cursed with stories of missing children.
The story goes, when a child loses their last baby tooth, Matilda will come for them. if they laid eyes on her, she would take them and murder them.
Years later, Kyle Walsh loses his remaining baby tooth, placing it under his pillow like his previous teeth. As the night unfolds, he hears noises around his room before laying eyes on Matilda. Screaming out of his room, he hides in the bathroom, while his mother investigates. Only for her to be taken by Matilda and Kyle blamed for her death. This leads to him getting a reputation in the town, forcing him to move away into foster homes.
Years after Kyle leaves Darkness Falls, his schoolgirl crush Caitlin calls him out of the blue asking for advice with her own child Michael. She is surprised to discover that Kyle is still scared of the dark as he warns her that Michael has become the latest target of Matilda. Kyle must face his past to save Michael and put an end to Matilda’s reign of terror over the town.
Box Office
Darkness Falls was produced with a budget of $7 Million, which is slightly higher than you would expect from a horror movie nowadays. It made a great return on investment, with figures around $47 Million in Worldwide Box Office sells.
Darkness Falls was behind other horror movies with much bigger budgets that included: Dreamcatcher, Jeepers Creepers 2, Final Destination 2, Underworld, Identity, 28 Days Later, Gothika, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the biggest box office horror movie of the year Freddy vs Jason ($82 Million).
This made Darkness Falls the third most profitable horror in 2003, behind Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 28 Days Later. Both of these were made with a similar budget, which seems to prove a changing point for horror movies.
Critic Response
Darkness Fall wasn’t received very well by the critics, on Rotton Tomatoes, the movie has a score of 9%. Even the positive reviews call the movie a mixture of silly and disposable. While the negative ones aren’t shy at holding back the fact, they didn’t find it scary, the characters being dull and lacklustre to mention a few words. On Metacritic, Darkness Falls fails to get a single positive rating, has 8 mixed and the remaining 19 being negative.
Writer: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, William Davies (Screenplay)
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Tasha de Vasconcelos, Ben Miller, Greg Wise
Plot: After a sudden attack on MI5, Johnny English, Britain’s most confident, yet unintelligent spy, becomes Britain’s only spy.
Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Johnny English starts when Britain loses its best spies, forcing them to turn to the one man willing to step up, Johnny English (Atkinson) a hapless unintelligent man who is filled with passion.
Johnny’s first case is to track down Pascal Sauvage (Malkovich) after he steals the crown jewels and looks to use his place in history to take over the throne that was taken from his family in the past.
Thoughts on Johnny English
Thoughts – Johnny English is an action comedy looking to poke some fun at the super spy movies that were taking over the industry, with James Bond, Mission Impossible and the start of the Bourne franchise. This will fall into the Rowan Atkinson slapstick style, which isn’t going to be for everyone, with a lot of the humour not getting many if any laughs at all, leaving us feeling flat, because it is more like a series of sketches looking to see how silly certain spy situations might well be. The story does feel paper thin too, with John Malkovich enjoying playing the crazed villain once again. Johnny English will not offer much if you are a big spy fan, leave you disappointed with how everything unfolds and most of all, not getting enough laugh.
Final Thoughts – Johnny English struggles to get the laughs it wants to.
