Tag: 2020

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Movie Review

Castle Freak (2020) Movie Review

Castle Freak – Movie Review

Discover the terrifying world of Castle Freak - a chilling horror movie review exploring a haunted Albanian castle with bloodthirsty creatures.

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – C

Director: Tate Steinseik

Writer: Kathy Charles (Screenplay)

Writer: H.P. Lovecraft (Story)

Cast

  • Clair Catherine (Trust)
  • Jake Horowitz (Bones and All)
  • Kika Magalhaes (The Eyes of My Mother)
  • Chris Galust (The Seventh Day)
  • Emily Sweet (Eight Eyes)

Plot: An Albanian castle with bloodthirsty creatures is inherited by a young woman.

Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Castle Freak starts when Rebecca (Catherine) gets blinded in a car accident by her drunk boyfriend John (Horowitz). They remain together and learn about an Albania castle she has inherited. The couple heads to the castle with plans of selling it, but Rebecca wants to learn more about her mother.

However, it doesn’t take long before Rebecca starts hearing things around the castle. They invite a group of friends to join them and start diving into the history of the castle, including finding the Book of the Dead. However, the group find themselves targeted by residents still living in the castle.

Verdict on Castle Freak

Castle Freak is a horror reimagining of the H.P. Lovecraft story. It follows a group of young people who join a friend who inherits an Albanian castle. However, they learn about a much more sinister presence in the area, waiting for the new residents to arrive.

We get a remake of a cult favourite that decides to dump all the interesting concepts. Instead, we get the generic young people drinking and partying without a care in the world. Even the more complex incident that occurs seems to never get enough attention, that being the drink driving accident and somehow Rebecca sticking around him. This ends up being a dreadful remake, that is more interested in playing into taboos than bringing any horror to the table.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts –Castle Freak is a dreadful remake with no life in it.

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Movie Review

Finding the Way Back (2020) Movie Review

Finding The Way Back – Movie Review

Read this review of 'Finding The Way Back' and learn about the inspiring story of Jack Cunningham's comeback.

ABC Film Challenge – High School/College Movies – W (Way Back)

Director: Gavin O’Connor (Warrior)

Writer: Brad Ingelsby (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Jack Cunningham was a high school basketball phenom who walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he may get one last shot at redemption.

Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Finding The Way Back starts when former hot shot basketball star Jack (Affleck) gets offered a chance to help his former high school. He has his problems with drinking and his life hasn’t gone the way he imagined. However, he reluctantly accepts the job and starts taking on the coaching role.

As Jack gets to know his players, he starts learning about their troubled lives and working toward helping them. He identifies the best players and learns more about their personal lives, bringing out the best in the team.

Verdict on Finding The Way Back

Finding The Way Back is a sports drama following a grieving man with addiction who is offered a chance to coach his old high school basketball team. However, his personal problems start getting in the way despite him improving the team as they aim for their first championship.

This drama shows how people can inspire the best in people, even if they are fighting with their own grief. It also highlights how important it is to try and discuss grief if you are ever going to move on in life. While other movies might hit the more typical approach to recovery. This puts more focus on the challenges to get there in the first place. Ben Affleck is wonderful in the leading role and we get the importance of his character’s story.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts – Finding The Way Back is a brave take on dealing with grief.

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Movie Review

Violation (2020) Movie Review

Violation – Movie Review

Read our in-depth review of the movie Violation, a gripping tale of betrayal, revenge, and family dynamics.

Director: Dusty Mancienelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Writer: Dusty Mancienelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A troubled woman on the edge of divorce returns home to her younger sister after years apart. But when her sister and brother-in-law betray her trust, she embarks on a vicious crusade of revenge.

Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Violation starts when Miriam (Sims-Fewer) and Caleb (Abili) visit her sister Greta (Maguire). Greta and her partner Dylan (LaVercombe) are hosting the family get-together but this year is different. Miriam has noticed changes in Greta and feels like their relationship is spiralling out of control.

However, Miriam doesn’t like the approaches from Dylan which leads to her breaking. She ends up going on a crusade for revenge against the people who trusted the most.

Verdict on Violation

Violation is a horror thriller following a woman who gets taken advantage of by her sister’s husband. She wants to get revenge, which takes her down a dangerous path of violence. One she can’t stop once she gets the first taste of blood.

This movie shows the struggles with guilt when leaning into an affair and the consequences of going through with it. It turns into a revenge film without much happening and is painfully slow. This needed something much more to give it some form of focus. There are some sensitive subjects touched on, but in the end, it doesn’t seem to do enough to make an impact on the story it wants to tell.

Where to Watch

a
JustWatch

Final Thoughts – Violation is a slow movie that doesn’t seem to get much told.

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Movie Review

The Mad Hatter (2020) Movie Review

The Mad Hatter – Movie Review

The Mad Hatter follows four students whose weekend study in a haunted mansion leads to terrifying experiences linked to their past.

First Reaction – The Mad Hatter creates a disturbing figure.

Watch The Mad Hatter on Tubi.

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – M

Director: Cate Devaney

Writer: R.V. Romero, Cate Devaney (Screenplay)

Cast

  • Armando Gutierrez (Bezos)
  • Nick Miller (Sasha Lanes)
  • Samuel Caleb Walker
  • Michael Berryman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
  • Isadora Cruz

Plot: Henry and three of his classmates encounter mind-bending ghostly terror when they volunteer for a weekend study with their psychology professor in the haunted ‘Mad Hatter’ mansion.

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Mad Hatter starts when Professor David Hart (Gutierrez) takes four students to a haunted house. Henry (Walker), Ian (Miller), Chelsey (Cruz) and Val (Brunner) join David for his experiment. However, Henry quickly rediscovers a connection to the home from his childhood.

As the weekend rolls on the four start having unusual experiences connected to home’s history. However, what follows is more than they could ever expect, and they must fight to survive.

Verdict on The Mad Hatter

Recap

The movie follows four college students who attend a haunting house for a weekend of study. However, the longer they spend there, the stranger the events become. It leads them down a path where they don’t know what to believe anymore and haunting moments from their past take over.

Best Parts

When it comes to diving into the past for the haunting experiences, this creates a chilling journey. It shows how easily our past can prevent our future. The character design behind the figure stalking the students is disturbing and a new ghostly figure for the home.

Worst Parts

The jump between the four can be jarring as it never makes one feel like the main character. This is difficult because Henry is described as the main character and his journey is the most interesting too, but the extra time spent on the other three can hold things back at times.

Final Thoughts –The Mad Hatter has a chilling haunting figure.

Categories
Movie Review

Becoming (2020) Movie Review

Becoming – Movie Review

Becoming' starring Toby Kebbell, Penelope Mitchell, and Jeff Daniel Phillips. A woman discovers her fiance has become possessed.

ABC Film Challenge – Sci-Fi – B

Director: Omar Naim (The Final Cut)

Writer: Omar Naim (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A young woman learns her fiance has become possessed by an entity.

Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Becoming starts when Alex (Kebbell) and Lisa (Mitchell) go on a cross-country trip. Along the way, Lisa arranges to meet a distant relative of Alex’s. However, the meeting with Glen (Phillips) and Annie (Bolona) turns out a lot stranger than she had hoped.

After the meeting, Lisa believes something is wrong with Alex and she looks to find out what. It sees her meet Kevin Lee (Patric) who offers a few answers, but he wants to fix things in a much more extreme manner.

Verdict on Becoming

Becoming is a sci-fi horror following a couple who travel across the country. However, along the way, one of them gets possessed by an evil spirit with a controlling personality. Lisa must figure out how to free her boyfriend before it is too late.

This is a nice spin on the possession movie, by having the subject travelling rather than being in one location. Add in the fact that the possession doesn’t go through the twisted transformation, they just change in person. However, it would have been interesting to see more of a deep dive into what caused it. That side of things felt skimmed over. In the end, the movie looks to create a possessive partner controlling their loved one, instead of a more sinister presence. Because of this, it seems to step out of the supernatural elements the movie created.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts – Becoming is a great spin on the possession movie.

Categories
ABC Film Challenge

The Adventure of A.R.I.: My Robot Friend (2020) Movie Recommendation

The Adventure of A.R.I.: My Robot Friend – Movie Recommendation

Discover the thrilling adventure of A.R.I.: My Robot Friend. Join a teenager as they help save a friendly robot from a ruthless lab director.

ABC Film Challenge – Sci-Fi – A

Director: Stephen Shimek (Dragon Hunter)

Writer: Michael Baumgarten (Screenplay)

Writer: Jerome Reygner-Kalfon, Sebastian Semon (Story)

Cast

  • Jude Manley
  • Sophia Alongi
  • J.R. Brown
  • Greg Lutz (Eminence Hill)
  • Cait Brasel
  • Justin Phillip

Plot: A teenager summons the courage to help a friendly robot known as A.R.I. kidnapped by a ruthless lab director working for a powerful corporation seeking to turn him into a dangerous weapon in order to rule the world.

Runtime: 1 Hour 29 Minutes

Where to Watch

JustWatch
JustWatch
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Movie Review

The Rescue (2020) Movie Review

The Rescue – Movie Review

Get insights into the disaster movie 'The Rescue'. Join a Chinese Coast Guard unit on a dangerous rescue mission fueled by personal sacrifices.

ABC Film Challenge – Disaster Movies – Y (Yanlin Wang)

Director: Dante Lam

Writer: Maria Wong, Tan Yuli, Yaqing Zhi (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A rescue unit within the Chinese Coast Guard are forced to overcome their personal differences to resolve a crisis.

Runtime: 2 Hours 19 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Rescue starts as we follow a daring rescue attempt led by Gao Qian (Peng). However, the mission has consequences, members of his team quit due to extreme measures. Captain Zhao Cheng (Wang) joins the team and questions his methods and why he risks his team on the missions.

As the team complete a range of daring rescues, saving countless lives, they must deal with the consequences of this lifestyle. Gao Qian must make a big decision about his future, knowing he is a single father, but he knows how many people he can save.

Verdict on The Rescue

The Rescue is an action-adventure movie following the Chinese Coast Guard going through different daring rescues. It follows the hotshot lead rescuer and a new captain demanding a safety improvement. However, they must put their differences to complete their jobs and save lives.

This movie is a big look at the rescue teams dealing with a host of different disastrous events. It shows their unity to save lives and how much they must risk achieving this. Away from the incidents, we follow their personal lives and what happens to their loved ones left behind on the missions. There is a string of massive disasters, each one offers different threats for the team to overcome. They are the highlights of the movie, as they show us how quickly things spiral out of control. The movie does an excellent job balancing the big action and emotional impact on the team.

Where to Watch

a
JustWatch

Final Thoughts –The Rescue is a big disaster movie with a massive emotional impact.

Categories
Movie Review

Monster Run (2020) Movie Review

Monster Run – Movie Review

"Monster Run is an engaging fantasy action film featuring Ji Mo, a monster-seeing girl, who teams up with a hunter to face threats."

First Reaction – Monster Run is an enjoyable fantasy action movie.

Watch Monster Run on Netflix now.

ABC Film Challenge – World Cinema – M

Director: Henri Wong

Writer: Wenwen Fan, Yahe Wang, Henri Wong, Alex Zhang, Disa Zhang (Screenplay)

Writer: A Lee Martinez (Novel)

Cast

Plot: Ji Mo is regarded as an outlier because she can see monsters. One day, she sees a monster in the supermarket and meets a monster hunter, Meng. She discovers that there really are monsters in the world, and she is involved in a new storm.

Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Monster Run starts when Ji Mo (Li) gets released from a psychiatric hospital. She has been treated for years because she claimed to see monsters. However, her gift is real and a new monster threatens the world before monster hunter Meng (Yue) arrives. Ji must work with Meng to fight a new monster storm.

Elsewhere, Lotus (Wai) wants Ji’s power and sends hunters to capture her. Meng and Ji must work together to escape her capture and save the world, as well as understand how to keep the monsters safe in our world.

Verdict on Monster Run

Recap

The movie follows a young woman who sees monsters teaming up with a monster hunter. They must work together to face a new threat but learn what the monsters can offer in return to help humanity.

Best Parts

The world of monsters and the designs behind them are beautiful. It makes the world feel lived in and leaves you wondering what the next design will appear. The performances are good throughout, and the different battles create great sequences. It feels like a world we could return to for another series of battles too.

Final Thoughts –Monster Run is a great world-building fantasy film.

Categories
Movie Review

Earth and Blood (2020) Movie Review

Earth and Blood – Movie Review

"Earth and Blood is a fast-paced thriller about a sawmill owner facing danger after discovering hidden cocaine, jeopardizing his family's future."

First Reaction – Earth and Blood is an easy to watch thriller.

Watch Earth and Blood on Netflix.

ABC Film Challenge – World Cinema – E

Director: Julien Leclercq

Writer: Julien Leclercq, Jeremie Guez (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Saïd owns a sawmill deep in the woods, which he decides to sell. Little does he know that one of his apprentices was cornered by his brother and forced to hide a large amount of cocaine inside the factory.

Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Earth and Blood starts when Said (Bouajila) faces an uncertain future and decides to sell his sawmill. He has a buyer and plans to leave his family something to have their future. However, one of his apprentices has been hiding cocaine in the factory.

When the drug lord Adama (Ebouaney) arrives to collect his product, Said must fight back and protect his loved ones, his sawmill and his daughter’s future.

Verdict on Earth and Blood

Recap

The movie follows a sawmill owner whose plans to sell turn into a nightmare. One of his employees has been hiding drugs on the mill and now the dealer has arrived to get back his product.

Best Parts

The tight runtime keeps the story contained and keeps the action fast-paced. It fills the gap of doing anything to protect one’s property and doing anything protecting loved ones. If you want a late-night thriller, this fits the market perfectly.

Worst Parts

While the runtime gives the movie a fast flow, it comes at the expensive of making the characters getting enough to make them standout.

Final Thoughts –Earth and Blood is a nice fast-paced thriller.