In Time

Director: Andrew Nicol
Writer: Andrew Nicol
Producer: Andrew Nicol, Marc Abraham, Amy Israel, Kristel Laiblin, Eric Newman.

Justin Timberlake as Will Salas
Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis
Cillian Murphy as TimeKeeper Raymond Leon
Vincent Kartheiser as Philippe Weis
Olivia Wilde as Rachel Salas








When I first saw the trailer for this film I had the most intense feeling of deja vu. It reminded me a lot of a short cartoon I watched a while ago, created by macabre animator David Firth (salad fingers anyone?). I urge you all to watch this cartoon, it's brilliant.   http://www.fat-pie.com/time.htm    <---- PLEASE WATCH READERS!!! I don't want to raise my voice at you!
Now, by making this comparison I am not at all implying or accusing In Time producers of plagiarism, This genre of film and particularly this story line is so unique but can be done in so many different ways.

Basically, In Time is set in the distant future where our "time", in the most literal sense of the word, is now the currency. Human genetics have been modified so we don't age more than 25 years. But that comes at a cost, after you arrive at 25 years of age, you have a year left. That year is used for everyday expenses. The poor die young and the rich live forever. When your clock times out...... so do you. Timberlake plays Will Salas, a ghetto inhabitant who, after the death of his mother, attempts to bring down the system by breaking into banks. He steals and distributes the time amongst the ghettos.

I really wish that this film could've been different. I really wish it was more dark, more morbid. It's such a sad and tragic storyline done in quite a plain.... almost apathetic way. Just think, if this was reality, there would be double the amount of murder and suicide. More crime and it's a society under strain. I do not believe the movie was actually true to the storyline. The plot and the atmosphere didn't match up. I really love "distorted future" films, like '1984' and 'I, Robot'. But this film was a slight disappointment. Please don't get me wrong, it was enjoyable... Maybe I'm just being picky. I felt the relationship between Timberlake and Seyfried's characters lacked depth and explanation. He abducted her and suddenly they're in love.... it's a little asinine. Vincent Kartheisers performance was brilliant... at first I thought it was very robotic but then I realised he's playing a man in this 80's.  I ADORE Timberlake I have to say. I despise his music but as an actor he is brilliant. I admire how he is never comfortable in a role, he feels the need to challenge himself with a plethora of diverse and difficult roles that even the most well trained actor would not take on.

Overall I enjoyed this film, but I do not believe it was made to it's full potential. This movie was good.... It could've been superb.

I'm giving it 3 stars.

The Mist

Director: Frank Darabont
Producers: Frank Darabont, Marin Shafer, Liz Glotzer
Writers: Frank Darabont

Based on the Novella written by the brilliant Stephen King.

Thomas Jane as David Drayton
Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries
Nathan Gamble as Billy Drayton
Toby Jones as Ollie Weeks
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody


I love Frank Darabont, I really do. He has got to be the best adapter of novel to screenplay I've ever seen. The Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile are both pieces of beautiful art. Not to mention his other-worldly directing abilities. This man is truly fantastic at what he does. He creates magic on the screen. It seems like Stephen King and Frank Darabont are a match made in movie heaven.

Which is one of the reasons why I was so excited to see this film. I have to admit though, I was a little worried that it would become another cheesy horror film with stupid monsters and a stupid plot line.(I read the novella after I watched the film).  I was pleasantly surprised and was definitely not disappointed. I found it extremely compelling and made me seriously question what I thought the human condition was.

It seems like a basic horror film at the start. This Mist rolls in and a few dozen people are trapped inside a supermarket, Our main character David Drayton and his son Billy are among those people, with no real knowledge about what the mist is and whats in it thats been causing mass panic. Until a few encounter it first hand, killing one of them. Those few are Drayton, Ollie Weeks, two mechanics and Norm the bag boy, the unfortunate victim. They come in contact with these barbed tentacles, they cannot see what it is attached too. At first no one believes them until they see it for themselves, which they do of course. During all of this madness, A catholic extremist Mrs Carmody is preaching that this is the end of days, and to be prepared to meet your maker. Her preachings become more and more violent as the film goes on, she speaks quite fondly of 'Expiation' (which basically means atonement or retribution). At this point in the film, it stops being a normal horror movie and becomes a insight into the human survival psyche. Carmody whips everyone up, gets everyone scared and they eventually follow her to violent means of survival and worship, and eventual sacrifice. A few strong willed individuals lead by Drayton, his son included, escape the supermarket to seek rescue. Which is where the brilliant ending come forth which I was not at all prepared for. I will not disclose the specifics, It's such a shock, such a blow, I was left speechless. You will not see it coming.

I was blown away by this film. The acting is fantastic from all angles, all characters. It really portrays the tense and claustrophobic feel of them being trapped. Thomas Jane is a really underrated actor, his roles before this one didn't give him the chance to shine. He was shining brightly in The Mist. I've never seen Toby Jones take a wrong step. He was fantastic in 'Amazing Grace', he was fantastic in 'The Painted Veil" and he is fantastic in the Mist. But the real wonder was Marcia Gay Harden, who portrayed Mrs Carmody. She was so believable it was scary, I thought halfway through "did they just get a crazy zealot to come in and ramble?". She deserves Academy recognition for that performance.

I loved this movie, a truly unique horror film. So refreshing.

Im giving it 4 1/2 stars.

Wrong Turn 4: The Bloody Beginnings

I really liked the first film in the Wrong Turn series. So when I saw this on iTunes, I immediately rented it, hoping it would be as good as the first. Now, I do admit it was wrong of me to see these films out of sequence, But come on. They're horror films! I doubt that the 4 films would have much in common in the way of a continuing story line.

Director: Declan O'Brian
Producers: Erik Feig, Robert Kulzer
Writer: Kharen Salonga

Sean Skene, Scott Johnson and Daniel Skene as the Mutant Cannibals
Jenny Pudavick as Kenia
Tenika Davis as Sara
Kaitlyn Wong as Bridget
Terra Vnesa as Jenna
Victor Zinck Jr as Kyle
Dean Armstrong as Daniel
Samantha Kendrick as Claire
Ali Tataryn as Lauren.


Let me just start by saying that the mark of a great horror film is the writing. It is so easy to make a bad horror film, and so unbelievably difficult to make a good one. The thing that let me down with this film was the poorly written script, which was made worse by the B-grade acting. There where a lot of "captain obvious" lines and completely unrealistic reactions to the events.

A prequel to the first 3 Wrong Turn films, A group of friends on a holiday in the snow mountains become lost on their way to their cabin as a fierce snow storm looms. They are forced to take shelter in an abandoned mental hospital until the storm subsides(go figure). In typical 'dead teenager' movie fashion, the cannibal mutants that have been living there begin to kill off the group one by one in gruesome ways, which seem to all included barbed wire.  The asylum became the mutants home when, in their younger days as inmates of the hospital, they caused a riot and violently killed the employees.

There are some satisfying gore scenes including a horrid cannibal scene. Other than that, I found myself bored with this film. The writing seemed to get worse as the movie went on. Unbelievable plot lines, when you're life is in danger I doubt that many people, especially teenagers, would be willing to play hero. I also don't believe that, knowing there are man-eating killers on the loose, you would stay in the same building as said killers! Am I wrong? And walk around freely as well. I would seal myself and the other survivors into a room until the storm calms down, then make a run for it. I definitely would not walk around the institute like an idiot just waiting to become a human casserole. I also found it difficult to distinguish which character was which and who was dating whom. They all looked the same. This seems to be due to a severe lack of character development. I didn't want them to die, I didn't want them to live. I didn't really care what happened to them because I didn't know who any of them where! Thats said, I do believe that this movie isn't completely unfortunate. The ending was satisfyingly unexpected.

In conclusion, this movie was disappointing. Considering how good the first Wrong Turn was, it's pretty safe to say that I was expecting a little more from this film.

I'm giving it 2 stars

The Devil Inside

Director: William Brent Bell
Producers: Matthew Peterman, Morris Paulson, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Stephen Scheider
Writers: William Brent Bell, Matthew Peterman

Fernanda Andrade as Isabella Rossi
Simon Quarterman as Benji
Evan Helmuth as David
Suzan Crowley as Maria Rossi
Ionut Grama as Mike




This poster promo isn't the one that we had in Australia. At least, I never saw this one around. But I picked it for my blog because it's f***ing creepy as hell.
As is this movie. I wouldn't call this movie a 'shock horror', although there are couple of great jump scares in there. This movie gets into your skin and makes it crawl. It makes you truly question if what you are seeing is real, or imagination.

The story is basically about exorcism, and comes into a genre of "found footage" film, which seems to be coming a lot more popular these days. The story is set in Vatican city, Rome. Where a woman, Maria Rossi, is being treated in a mental health facility after she murders two nuns and a priest during an exorcism being performed on her. Twenty years later, her daughter, Isabella Rossi, travels to Rome in the hope of re-opening her mothers case, she believes her mother is possessed by a demon.  With the help of two exorcist priests, David and Benji, they proceed to evaluate and exorcise  Maria with devastating consequences for all present. These events are also being filmed by Documentary film maker Mike, who originally teamed up with Isabella to help her with her mothers case.

I throughly enjoyed this film. I've seen plot lines like this before, it's really nothing special. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad film. I did however find it a little difficult to watch,  as the film was shot to look like it was filmed on a hand-held camera. It was very jumpy and made me a little queasy. The acting was fantastic, which is needed for a film of this kind. The audience needs to believe that this is really happening to these people. Which sounds silly, but horror films are quite hard to get right. The ending was too abrupt, I don't feel like I was fulfilled. I was left stunned, and not in a good way. I kept saying "Is this it?" Other patrons around me where saying the same thing.

I do recommend this film, But do not expect anything unique. It's the same as what we've seen before. If you enjoyed "The Last Exorcism", "Cloverfield" or "Paranormal Activity" there's no doubt you'll enjoy this.

I'm giving it 4 stars.

Contagion

Director: Stephen Soderberg
Producer: Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Gregory Jacobs
Writer: Scott. Z. Burns

Matt Damon as Mitch Emhoff
Kate Winslet as Dr. Erin Mears
Jude Law as Alan Krumwiede
Marion Cotillard as Dr. Leonora Orantes
Laurence Fishbourne as Dr. Ellis Cheever
Gwyneth Paltrow as Beth Emhoff

Contagion is a Medical/Distaster thriller dealing with one of mankind's biggest fears: Disease.  Beth Emhoff arrives home from a trip to Hong Kong. Two days later, she is dead in the emergency room. Her husband, Mitch Emhoff, rushes home once he learns his step-son has contracted the same symptoms. When he arrives home, he is dead. This starts off a chain reaction of infection. Everyone who comes into contact with the unknown disease is afflicted and dies within a day. The disease spreads fast and it doesn't take long before thoughts of conspiracy come forth. Krumwiede is the centre of these thoughts, telling the public that the disease is curable, but the CDC (centre for disease control) and the government are making money off of this epidemic.

The film follows the lives of quite a few individuals in the same time space as one another, there is no antagonist or protagonist.  I love that this film was done much in the play of a theatre production, it had the feel of an ensemble cast. Every character had the same amount of screen time. The actors did a great job in portraying characters that are in an extremely tense and frightening environment. Jude Laws accent was a little strange, it almost sounded like he was trying to sound Australian, but he kept going in and out of accent. I haven't watched many movies with Law in them, so maybe thats just how he speaks, I'll watch another movie of his and see. Winslet, I felt, was the true stand out in this film. Her character was strong, yet scared and unsure. Which, I would imagine, would be a tough thing to portray. The audience feel safe with her, We trust her. All to have the trust taken from us, which was quite a shock for me... In a way that I will not say, you'll have to find out for yourselves. The character the general audience would connect with would be Damon's sad widower character. Having his family ripped away from him in such an awful way. And yet, I wish I could have seen more hurt, more despair in Damon's portrayl. I felt it too robotic, which could work for some, but it didn't work on Damon.

I did find this film to lack action. I do realise that this was done on purpose to make the film more dangerous and real. I wish I had more of a sense of nervousness, if you follow me. The feeling you get in your gut when you're not sure how this is going to end. I kind of guessed from the start how it would end.
Contagion is a throughly entertaining film, great for a quite night in. But I would not call this ground-breaking cinema. The plot is unoriginal, but is still compelling and interesting. The acting is mediocre from most, but still believable enough. Im giving it 3 stars

Book to Film; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Author: Patrick Suskind

Director: Tom Tykwer
Producer: Bernd Eichinger
Writer(s):  Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger and Tom Tykwer

Ben Whishaw as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Dustin Hoffman as Guiseppe Baldini
Alan Rickman as Richis
Rachel Hurd-Wood as Laura Richis
Karoline Herfurth as The Girl with the Plums


Perfume: The story of a Murderer was published  in 1985, written by German writer Patrick Suskind. The story, quite obviously, revolves around the stalking and killing of young girls. The thing that set this apart from crime and murder mystery novels was the motive for murder. It was not their looks, youth or virginity the murderer was after, it was their scent.

The stories main character is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphaned perfume apprentice in 18th century france. Jean is born with an amazing and unmatched sense of smell, from yards away he could smell the scent of wood or water. What's very interesting is that Grenouille himself does not have a scent.

Grenouille becomes obsessed with trying to obtain the scent of people, girls in particular. He kills girls that have just reached sexual maturity and extracts the scent from them, He murders a number of girls (24 in the book, 13 in the movie) in order to complete a perfume, one girls scent is one 'note' in the
perfume.

I really enjoyed this conversion from text to film, I believe all the changes that were made were necessary. Ben Whishaw played Grenouille exactly how I imagined him. With a sort of strange other-worldy quality to him, and I don't believe that he thought he was really doing right by those killings. A lot of great books haven't translated well to the big screen. But I believe that Perfume: the story of a Murderer was done superbly. Was changed just enough to suit movie-goers and yet stayed true to the original text.

The girl with the plums scene was particularly well done, the music was magic. Although I do believe the change in the girls age was a shame, Karoline Herfurth is a beautiful actress and a beautiful woman. But that's what I believe is wrong with this scene, she is a woman and not a girl. In the books, all the girls, not just the plum girl, are described as being budding young girls, just reaching their womanhood, Thats what made the story so creepy and woeful. It was an unnecessary change, in my opinion.

I give the book 5 stars;

The film 4 stars;;

And the translation between the two 4 stars;

The Artist

I love silent films. The love the look, the music, the acting, everything about them is magical. My all time favourite would have to be Flesh and the Devil starring the one and only Greta Garbo, in my opinion her best performance. I will do a review of that film in due time.

So, naturally, when I first heard about the silent phenomenon that is the Artist, I became extremely excited and couldn't wait for it to come out in cinemas.

Director:Michael Hazanavicius
Producer: Thomas Langmann
Writer: Michael Hazanavicius

Jean Dujardin as George Valentin
Berenice Bejo as Peppy Miller
John Goodman as Al Zimmer
James Cromwell as Clifton

The first thing that I loved about this film was when I was sitting in the theatre I forgot it was 2012... And began to imagine myself in 1929... Ugh It was bliss! Im so in love with the eras what were in the 20th century, particularly the 20's through 50's. That atmosphere is such a hard thing so come by these days.

The film portrays the beginning of the end for silent films, and the introduction of talkies, which put a lot of silent film actors out of work. George Valentin is one of those actors, follows the demise of his once flourishing career. On the opposite, Peppy Millers rise to fame is quick and lucrative, which is mostly owed to Valentine. Dujardin  and Bejo have a chemistry that grasps you the very second you see them in screen together. They recreate the acting techniques and looks of that era perfectly. I also loved the cameo appearance of Malcolm McDowell, one of my favourite actors. The little dog was freakin adorable!! I'm not going to say to much on this, dear readers, I believe you should see that cuteness for yourself.  At 100 minutes in length, some people might be a little sceptical as to the "draw and hold" effect, (A film that draws you in and holds you there until the end credits) considering most people are not accustomed  to silent films, do not worry people, this film is a beautiful story that will keep your eyes glued to the screen the entire time, there is no time to be bored, you will be mesmerised!

Another thing that I was a little worried about was.. I was a little scared that the acting would seem that of a parody, its so easy to make fun of the acting in that time, There was no sense of over-the-top mimicry here. The acting, while affective, was still subtle enough not to look ridiculous.

The lovely climax of the movie showed Dujardin and Bejo's undeniable talent, a  beautiful and lively charleston-esque dance scene, Brilliant!! I'm so glad the film won the oscars it did, Dujardin is brilliant at his craft, it's lovely to that acknowledged. Please readers, I beg you, SEE THIS FILM!!!

I'm giving this film the 5 stars it deserves.