Monday, December 27, 2010

ORPHAN

 Orphan Movie Review

Kate (Vera Farmiga The Departed, The Manchurian Candidate) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard The Skeleton Key, Flightplan) adopt Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a well-mannered, intelligent 9-year-old girl with a dark side. Soon after her arrival, Esther shows her true, psychotic self while manipulating the entire family. This movie starts out pretty slow as they give a background of the family—a lot of this could have been cut, especially considering the movie is just over two hours long. Once Esther arrives, however, the pace picks up and really doesn’t slow much, all the way up to a thrilling ending. Farmiga seems a weird choice for the role—I can’t decide if it is her or the character that annoyed me so much. There is no debate on son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett), however—he's horrible. Aryana Engineer does a good job as Max the youngest child, and Sarsgaard is good as John, but Fuhrman really steals the show with her performance here. I generally do not find children scary in movies, but Fuhrman is absolutely creepy in this role, and her performance really deserved a lot more attention than it received.

Creepy

To say she carries this movie is an understatement. CCH Pounder (The Shield) also shows up and, of course, gives a good performance as well. Some of this film is just brutal, some will have you on the edge of your seat, and some is really bizarre. There is also a twist in the end that is pretty effective. If you can get past the two bad performances and the slow start, you will find a rather good movie that I enjoy a lot.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 8

Orphan Movie Trailer 

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

MIRRORS 2

Mirrors 2 Movie Review

Max (Nick Stahl Carnivale, Sin City) takes a job as a security guard at a department store and soon starts seeing strange things in mirrors there, including the deaths of other people working in the building. This essentially follows the same general idea of the first Mirrors film and even almost recreates a few of the scenes from the first one. This one does seem to have a bit more gore, some of which is effective and some of which looks pretty bad thanks to the poor CGI.

Here's a taste

The cast is actually pretty decent here, especially Stahl in the lead. The story itself is a pretty good one as well once it got it’s own legs and strayed enough away from the first film—not that I dislike the first film at all. I am actually quite a fan of it, but this movie, at times, and especially in the beginning, felt like a remake of the first film. The dialogue was mostly good with a few shaky spots here and there and a few too many clichés. The ending was done well and, other than some questionable CGI, was very pleasing. This straight to video movie is not a masterpiece, but it was a nice surprise as it was better than I was expecting.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Mirrors 2 Movie Trailer

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring Movie Review

Hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood (Sin City, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) must take a journey to the Cracks Of Doom to destroy a ring that has an evil past. He is joined on his quest by several friends and allies and they run into plenty of enemies along the way. This is the beginning of the epic Lord of The Rings trilogy and it starts off pretty well. The first thing you will likely notice about this movie is how visually stunning it is. Not only is the scenery outstanding, but the special effects and various creatures are also very well done. The story itself can be a somewhat confusing one with names that will take some time to get used to. The dialogue is interesting, even to somebody such as myself—a person who is not a big fan of fantasy films. The battle scenes go from good to simply outstanding. The picture does run a bit long, coming in at just under three hours, so there are moments here and there that I found myself drifting off, but there was always something that came soon after that pulled me right back in. The cast is a mix of the brilliant, especially Viggo Mortensen (Daylight, A History Of Violence) as Aragorn and Ian McKellen (X-Men series) as Gandalf, and awful, such as Wood and Sean Astin (Where The Day Takes You, The Goonies) as Sam. Unfortunately Wood is the main character, and his performance simply takes away a lot from this movie. Still, this is a really good movie. I was reluctant to watch it for so many years until somebody convinced me to see it—I’m glad she did and I look forward to the next two.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 8


The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring Movie Trailer 

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

DOLLS

 Dolls Movie Review

Two groups of people with car troubles end up in a mansion for the night and are soon being terrorized by dolls that have come to life. I remember seeing the cover of this 1987 film at video stores for years but never rented it. Having seen it, I sort of wish I had rented it back in the day, as I enjoyed it more than I expected. One part horror, one part fairytale, and one part comedy, this movie balances all three nicely. The setting is a very creepy one, and the dolls coming to life was actually fairly cool and well done.

Thieves get nowhere in life

The acting, for the most part, is dreadful, with the exception of Guy Rolfe, who, incidentally, went on to star in a few of the Puppet Master films, a series about killer puppets. The ending is an interesting one that appeared as though was going to lead to a sequel, but that was never done. Some of the stuff in this movie is laughable (especially the poor acting) but overall I enjoyed this one.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Dolls Movie Trailer

THE BLOB (1988)

The Blob 1988 Movie Review

A meteor hits the Earth and unleashes an organism that soon kills people—the more people it kills, the more it grows. This 1988 film is a remake of the 1958 B-movie classic and has become somewhat a classic itself. What I really like about this movie is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet is a true dedication to the original as well. Kevin Dillon (The Doors, Platoon) does a good job playing the rebel kid trying to do good, Shawnee Smith (The Saw Series, Becker) does an equally good job playing Meg, the popular cheerleader, and both play the characters with a subtle bit of humor. The special effects are pretty good for the most part, and wonderfully cheesy at times.

Awesome

The dialogue in this is pretty bad at times, most of the stuff that was meant to be obviously funny isn’t, and some of the shots are questionable, so this is far from a great movie, but I liked it for what it was and thought it was a lot of fun.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

The Blob Movie Trailer