Tag: 2020

Categories
Movie Review

By Day’s End (2020) Movie Review

Director: Michael Souder

Writer: Justin Calen-Chenn, Michael Souder (Screenplay)

Starring: Lyndsey Lantz, Andrea Nelson, Joshua keller Katz, Bill Oberst Jr, Maria Olsen, Devlin Wilder

Plot: Love is never an easy road. No one knows that better than Carly and Rina, whose relationship takes a turn for the worse after Carly decides to drop out of med school and Rina loses her job as an attorney. This forces them to move into a motel, a situation neither of them are happy with. To makes matters worse, Rina’s battles with depression have returned and Carly has decided to use what money she has left to buy a camera so she can pursue videography as a profession. Despite the cracks that are starting to show in their relationship, Carly and Rina pledge to repair what has been broken, no matter the circumstances, no matter the odds. But are they both as adamant as they say they are? Unfortunately, time is not on their side. When a pandemic disease ravaging the world appears in their city and starts turning people into crazed flesh eating machines, Carly and Rina decide to keep documenting the occurrence with their camera. Doing so, they are forced to band together like never before

Runtime: 1 Hour 12 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Plays Out Like An Opening Level of Video Game

Story: By Day’s End starts as Carly (Lantz) fresh after dropping out of medical school purchases her first camera to become a videographer while looking to get her feet back on the ground with her girlfriend Rina (Nelson) who has recently lost her job, leaving them living in the motel.

After Rina suffers another job rejection the day takes another turn for the worst when it turns out a pandemic has spread, one that brings the dead back to life, leaving the women trapped in their room, watching the world fall apart outside their door.

Thoughts on By Day’s End

Characters – Carly wants to become a videographer after spending years studying a med school, she is waiting for her chance to proposal to Rina, mostly hoping everything in life will work out, offering medical treatment where she sees fit, filming the day. Rina is trying to get back into job market after losing her job, she does wish Carly would get back to a more serious way of looking at life, while battling with her own demons. Wyatt is one of the residents that has a plan once the outbreak starts, he has been preparing for an incident for a while now, proving to be an excellent ally in surviving.

Performances – Lyndsey Lantz does have the most work to do, mostly because despite this being a found footage film and it is her character’s camera, she isn’t always behind it and more focused on the doing the right thing, showing us just how a dreamer can be living their life. Andrea Nelson does have one of the bleakest scenes early on, showing the best performance part of the film with it.

Story – The story here follows a couple that have been going through hard times, that find themselves in the middle of a zombie outbreak, being trapped in the motel complex they are calling home. When it comes to zombie films it is hard to bring anything truly new to the genre, while this story on the zombie side of the film does feel like something we saw in both chapters of ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘Left 4 Dead’ franchise of games, with a group of survivors needing to get out of a motel alive, while never being as intense as them, trying to show the slow outbreak. The relationship side of the film does show us how we just arrive in one day of their lives, instead of a big set up to place us there, which is nice to see, making this whole story feel like it could have happened within the day of the lives of the characters.

Horror/Romance – The horror in this film comes from the idea that a zombie outbreak is happening, with the location being more secure than the open, only being shot in a mix of handheld found footage and security camera footage.

Settings – The film is set in a motel area, be it the room, car park and corridors, it does offer up plenty of tight locations that facing a zombie would be difficult, which does keep the film even though set in the middle of a city, we don’t get a large number of zombies thrown into the mix.

Special Effects – The effects are kept off camera with cuts to different angles to hide gore moments, relying on the blood splatter involved in the film.


Scene of the Movie – The plan to escape.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – We have seen the basics of the surviving side before.

Final Thoughts – This is a zombie outbreak movie that we have seen before, while keeping everything feeling more contained than normal.

Overall: Zombie Survival 101

Categories
Movie Review

Birds of Prey (2020) Movie Review

Director: Cathy Yan

Writer: Christina Hodson (Screenplay)

Starring: Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Bojana Novakovic, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong

Plot: After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord.


Tagline – Prey for Gotham! 

Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Wonderful Blast

Story: Birds of Prey starts as Harley Quinn (Robbie) finally leaving Mr J or Joker to most people, people don’t believe she will stay away for long because her relationship means she can get away with anything, only after she blows up his compound, her immunity is gone and everybody is after her, with Roman Sionis (McGregor) looking to cash in on the position left behind.

After teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Basco) steals a diamond, she finds a bounty on her head, with the only person that will help her is Harley, who learns she has people willing to help from other people detective Renee Montoya (Perez), mysterious assassin Huntress (Winstead) and singer Dinah (Smollett-Bell), as they face the numbers in Gotham.

Thoughts on Birds of Prey

Characters – Harley Quinn is having a life crisis after her break up from the Joker, she wants to remain the wild character, only she needs to learn who to trust after learning everybody wants her dead, she gets a chance to save a teenager that Roman Sionis is hunting. Harley is pure enjoyment to watch, she makes everything fun in her life, always looking at the bright side no matter what comes her way. Renee Montoya is a detective that has never gotten the recognition she deserves, she is trying to track down Harley and has always been working with an inside source in Roman Sionis, she is always considered an 80’s cop. The Huntress is the mysterious assassin that has appeared and started killing gang members, this is the character that does feel like the weakest, mostly because she is fully mysterious, until she isn’t which makes her feel flatter than the rest of the characters. Dinah Lance is the singer in Roman’s club whose voice can shatter glasses, she has always kept to herself, but will look at for people in life. Roman Sionis is the club owner gangster who lets people take the faces off his victims and after seeing what happens to the Joker’s compound, he believes it will be his rise to power.

Performances – Margot Robbie is truly incredible in the leading role, she well and truly takes the movie and is a true delight to watch. Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell are excellent too, working with Robbie perfectly. Ewan McGregor works well as the villain, showing the eccentric side to his character with ease.

Story – The story here follows Harley Quinn as she finds herself alone, out of the Joker’s shadow, needing to fight for herself, where she must help a teenager that is facing the hunt from the new gangster looking to take over Gotham, finding she has unlikely allies waiting in the shadows. This story can be cut down to a simple, protection based story, which is always an nice concept, we get the extras from the flamboyant nature of Harley and how she tells the story, which is the saving grace for the entertainment value. The story is carried by the strength of Harley and just how purely entertaining to she is to watch and see stand up for herself.

Action/Crime – The action gives us some unique and original fight scenes, with the funfair one being a true stand out and potentially being one of the best of the year already, all while being in the Gotham crime world.

Settings – The film still uses Gotham as the backdrop, which is fine, it all works, where the settings stand out more though are with the fight scenes, taking us to the unique locations we haven’t seen before.


Scene of the Movie – Funfair fight.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The drunk opening sequence.

Final Thoughts – This is Margot Robbie proving herself to be above and beyond with her talent, bringing to life Harley in a way that is filled with the entertainment we love to see in a comic book movie.

Overall: Entertaining Treat.

Categories
Movie Review

The Turning (2020) Movie Review

Director: Floria Sigismondi

Writer: Carey W Hayes, Chad Hayes (Screenplay) Henry James (Novel)

Starring: Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, Barbara Marten, Joely Richardson, Niall Greig Fulton, Denna Thomsen

Plot: A young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after their parents’ deaths. A modern take on Henry James’ novella “The Turn of the Screw.”


Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Basic Horror

Story: The Turning starts when tutor Kate Mandell (Davis) gets a job away from the classroom, to teach Flora (Prince) an orphaned little girl who has been living with her housekeeper Mrs Grose (Marten) in the mansion. While Kate it happy with this new opportunity, this job doesn’t seem as easy once Flora’s older brother Miles (Wolfhard) is expelled from boarding school.

After Kate starts experiencing strange events, nightmares and visions around the house, she starts trying to learn more about the past of the house and with Miles not making her time here easy, she must figure out the truth before it is too late.

Thoughts on The Turning

Characters – Kate is a teacher who is given a chance for this tutor role, a role which would mean only dealing with one kid instead of a classroom, she sees her own life in helping, with her father walking out on her and her mother dealing with her own mental health problems and tries to approach this role as something fresh. She does connect with Flora, but become friends with Miles proves to be more difficult and with her not sleeping she is torn between trying to help him or just leaving. Miles has been expelled from boarding school for assaulting another student, he has become friends with one of the housekeepers who died too, he doesn’t want to become friends with Kate and is happy to play games against her. Flora is the youngest member of the family, she witnessed her parent’s death, which has struck fear into leaving the home, she is just like any child of that age who wants to have fun, only she doesn’t have any friends in her life. Mrs Grose is the housekeeper and has been for generations with planning the daily meals and keeping the place clean.

Performances – Mackenzie Davis in the leading role does well dealing with the horror effects in the film, while the two young stars, Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince don’t put a foot wrong in their roles.

Story – The story here follows a tutor that gets a new job in a mansion and while here she learns the house might well be haunted and wants to get to the bottom of this before it is too late. The story is one of the biggest talking points in this film, while it does start off routine, it ends up trying to become smarter than it needs to, only contradicting itself by the end. It is a shame because the basic haunting ideas all work very well, in fact I thought I was watching any of ‘The Haunting’, ‘Awakening’ and films along that line, which slowly builds, has a ghost investigation side to it, only for it is have a spanner in the final works which will leave you scratching your head, but is far from the ‘Non-ending’ people have spoken about.

Horror/Mystery – The horror in the film comes from the haunted house, every scene does give us a proper jump scare, rather than just a false one, though you would be left wondering why she didn’t just leave straight away. The mystery is what did happen, which is more disappointing than anything else, because we only learn things that we get told, rather than Kate learning about anything herself.

Settings – The mansion setting is beautiful, it shows how you would have creepy noises around, the long dark corridors and massive gardens, which for some reason sees the time of day change when running through it.

Special Effects – The effects in the film are an interesting choice, with the ghostly figures fading in and out so eerily it does add something to the film.


Scene of the Movie – The first reaction.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – We get some interesting camera angles, which seem to be here for no apparent reason.

Final Thoughts – This is a horror that does the basic horror moments well, even if certain moments might come off overly complicated with how it ends.

Overall: Simple Horror, Complicated Ending.

Categories
Movie Review

The Grudge (2020) Movie Review

Director: Nicolas Pesce

Writer: Nicolas Pesce (Screenplay) Takashi Shimizu (Original Screenplay)

Starring: John Cho, Andrea Riseborough, Zoe Fish, Lin Shaye, Tara Westwood, Demian Bichir

Plot: A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death.


Tagline – It’ll never let you go

Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Typical Jump Scare Horror

Story: The Grudge starts as a nurse Fiona Landers (Westwood) returns home from Tokyo after spending time in the haunted house to her family in America, only for something to have happened in that house, two years later recently widowed Detective Muldoon (Riseborough) starts a new role with partner Goodman (Bichir) which starts by investigating a dead body.

Muldoon starts to invest, learning Goodman won’t touch the case, which sees the story split into seeing how four different people interact with the cursed ghost which has been continues it hunt for more souls.

Thoughts on The Grudge

Characters – Detective Muldoon is putting her life back together when she stumbles into a dead body case, which does have a connection to a murder in one house a couple of years ago, once she starts seeing things in her life, she needs to start get to the bottom by mostly reading, leading to the film cutting to what happened, or being haunted. Goodman is the partner Muldoon who has been reluctant to visit the house even when investigating the murders, he can sense bad omens, though he isn’t much help when it comes to Muldoon’s investigation. Peter Spencer is a real-estate agent with his wife, while planning for their first child, he is trying to sell the house, when he gets caught up in the curse, he isn’t more than just a side character that doesn’t seem to go anywhere or interact with any of the other characters in the film. Faith Matheson is along with her husband moved into the house to be closer to her treatment, one of the people that Muldoon finds still in the house.

Performances – Andrea Riseborough is the closest to a good performance you will get in this film, her character is left with bad decisions, which leaves you scratching your head at what happens in the film. Lin Shaye being a horror icon does get strong moments in the film, while the rest always just look out of place for the most part, because of the weak storytelling style.

Story – The story here follows the curse from the ghost house coming to America and seeing how it spreads like a virus, curse multiple people through years and how one detective is going to try and get to the bottom of the cases, which all seem to be connected. Where this story does lose a lot of steam is by having four stories going on at once, we see how the curse first gets bought over, the real estate agent who is trying to sell the house, the couple looking for assistant suicide for a sick member of the house and the detective trying to put everything together, each time we learn more about one, we seem to get another branch, which adds more characters, with the whole point of the original curse to be focused on a horrific crime committed in the house, while this is more just, they turned evil and did something horrific, losing all the mystic behind the story. The time jumps don’t give us enough time to digest what we are seeing, with each story waiting for the big moment in the final act to show us what happens to the characters, as most of the stories get revealed when the detective learns more about the case. This just ends up feeling messy for the most part, even if it does the formulaic jump scares.

Horror/Mystery – The horror is a lot of just typical jump scare material, usually sucking the sound out of the scene, before hitting us with a loud noise and image of somebody doing the creepy Grudge sound, sadly no signs of the original creepy figure, which has all the fear about it. The mystery is more about the detective reading about previous cases, never looking to solve like we are used to seeing.

Settings – The film tries to create the horrors in a new American, house it doesn’t work to the same levels as the original house, not using the environment to create enough of the horror.

Special Effects – The effects in the film are weak too because we are left to see just a heavy make up effects, which might look good, but they don’t have the same effect the original once did.


Scene of the Movie – The opening leaving.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Too many stories going on a t once, which don’t get enough time to be strong enough to stand alone.

Final Thoughts – This is a weak addition to the Grudge franchise and as somebody has seen a lot of the side and extended films, it needs the money shot to get a reprieve, which is what the original remakes had.

Overall: Disappointing Horror.

Categories
Movie Review

Bad Boys for Life (2020) Movie Review

Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah

Writer: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, Joe Carnahan (Screenplay)

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Alexander Ludwig, Vanessa Hudgens, Joe Pantoliano, Kate Del Castillo, Jacob Scipio

Plot: The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.


Tagline – Ride Together. Die Together.

Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Absolute Blast

Story: Bad Boys for Life starts as we hit a new personal landmark for Marcus Burnett (Lawrence), he has become a grandfather, considering retirement once again, Mike Lowrey (Smith) doesn’t want him to retire and after he is shot in a drive by, by a vengeful Armando (Scipio) life flies by.

Mike wanting to hunt his attempted killer, must reluctantly work with a new department known as AMMO run by his ex-girlfriend Rita (Nunez) to learn who is behind this and why has he become targeted.

Thoughts on Bad Boys for Life

Characters – Mike Lowrey is still the playboy we know from the first two films, he actually even runs from the new baby showing he fear of commitment once again, he gets shot, only just surviving and comes back with hate in his blood, wanting to break every rule in the book, he must look into his own past to learn who his want to be assassin is. Marcus Burnett has become a Grandfather, now he wants to retire for good and after Mike’s shooting he follows through, only he is bored with his retirement and reluctantly helps Mike look into the case, getting all of the laughs along the way. Isabel is the escaped convict who has targeting Mike with her son doing her dirty work, she is known for believing in the dead, with her son willing to do anything for her. Armando is the son of Isabel who will do everything his mother askes him to, to get revenge for his father’s death, becoming the deadliest enemy that the bad boys have come up against

Performances – Will Smith does take more of the centre stage this time around, but he does an excellent job, giving one of his best performances in years, if not decades. Martin Lawrence does steal the show here, he gets the laughs in every single scene, as the pair just have the chemistry producers pray to have on screen. Kate del Catillo makes for a great villain, being different to what we have seen before, while Jacob Scipio is wonderful as the deadly fighter, who will do anything for his mother.

Story – The story here continues the adventures of the bad boy detectives in Miami, with one facing life of death and the other looking to his future away from the force. This might well be the most personal of the stories, the pair have been through. The continuing life growing situations Marcus goes through works wonderfully for the comedy side of the film, while Mike has a more intense storyline, which feels like it could be more for a vendetta based movie, even though he shows how the balance the law with the work. The story keeps us wanting to see the motivation behind why Mike is being targeted, while showing us just how the two senior detectives will need to embrace a younger approach to fighting crime.

Action/Comedy/Crime – The action in this film is a nice mix of car chases, fight scenes and a big spectacle ending which continues to build up the stakes as the shoot out goes on. The crime side of the film doesn’t focus on the drug world this time, it is a criminal’s revenge mission against people they believed wronged them, which is different and nice to see. The comedy is the best in the franchise here with Martin Lawrence getting most of the laughs, while we do get a couple of generational laughs along the way too.

Settings – Keeping the film set mostly in Miami is good for the series, it is where the cops operate in, we do see them travel for the final battle, which is no different than the last one.


Scene of the Movie – Hotel fight.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does feel like a better story than one of Will Smith’s recent films.

Final Thoughts – This is a blast, so much fun with Smith and Lawrence hitting out the park with their performances.

Overall: Most Fun at the Cinema This Year.

Categories
Movie Review

Assassin’s Target (2020) Movie Review

Director: Gilles Gambino

Writer: Gilles Gambino (Screenplay)

Starring: Jimena Gala, Ben Vinnicombe, James Giblin, Nicholas Stojanovic, Maarten Swann, Alika Del Sol, Gilles Gambino

Plot: Rosa, a master assassin with a knack for poisons sets out on a search and destroy mission against a spiritual leader, but conflicts within her own organization may spell disaster for her long before she ever closes in on her target.

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Slow Mystery

Story: Assassin’s Target starts as we see the master assassin Rosa (Gala) complete her latest poison based kill, wanting to walk away from this world, her employees need her to get a new threat complete, after a television broadcast was interrupted by a mysterious man.

Rosa travels to Barcelona for this latest job, where she works with Will Gray (Vinnicombe) as her guide around town, being watched over by Gregor (Stojanovic), as she learns more about her boss Henry Crowford (Giblin).

Thoughts on Assassin’s Target

Characters – Rosa is the master assassin that uses poison as her weapon of choice, she has been doing this for years and looking to get out of the business, until one more job gets thrown her way. She must look for a mysterious hacker, which sees her needing to look into who this will be, mostly looking just to escape, she knows how to stay ahead of the game. Henry Crowford is the man that assigns the jobs, he listens to somebody above him and like any boss in the business, he will do what he needs to keep the business secret. Will Gray is the connection in Barcelona, he will fill in blanks and show Rosa around, while having his own agenda. Gregor is the former partner of Rosa, that is sent to follow her around on the mission, while having his own plan.

Performances – The film does struggle to get the best performances from the actors, as we are never convinced about how deadly Jimena Gala, makes her assassin character, though we do feel the pain her character has been through, when it comes to the male performances, they don’t breakout to give them enough identity.

Story – The story here follows an assassin on their final job, which involved investigating a mysterious hacker that is seen to have terrorised Spanish television, only not everything is adding up the way she though it would. This story does manage to put a spin on the last job idea, with us focusing more of Rosa, wanting to make sure she can get a clean getaway over, the job which is slightly harder than normal trait we are used to seeing. The problem comes with the story not feeling like a job that an assassin would be involved with, rather one that a private investigator would be looking into, which doesn’t give us enough of a feel of peril, despite the fact she doesn’t know who to trust. The story does wrap up nicely which will hold everything together, but never gets out of the building something bigger up idea.

Mystery – The mystery in this film comes from us wonder just who the mysterious man on the television and why he is considered such a threat to the people involved.

Settings – The film is set in Barcelona which will give us a beautiful backdrop for the movie, though most of the scenes feel like we are in luxury apartments over anything else.


Scene of the Movie – My name is Rosa.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not enough suspense.

Final Thoughts – This is an interesting mystery thriller, that doesn’t seem to get out of first gear, it does the basics right and does spin the last job for an assassin well, only to not have enough suspense for what is meant to be going on.

Overall: Suspenseless Thriller.