Tag: Thriller

Non-Stop review

Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast:
Liam Neeson
Julianne Moore
Michelle Dockery
Rated: PG-13
Trailer

If Liam Neeson keeps making movies like this he will have a bigger action library than anyone in “The Expendables.”

“Non-Stop” follows the story of Bill Marks (Neeson), a United States Air Marshall who has a drinking problem. As he boards a flight that will go over the Atlantic Ocean, everything seems like “another day at the office,” that is until he starts receiving mysterious text messages from someone making threats.

As the flight reaches higher altitudes, the texts continue, and the culprit threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes. From that point on it’s up to Bill to try and stop the threat, however, as time goes on the suspect makes it seem like Bill himself is trying to hijack the plane.

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The Counselor review

Director:
Ridley Scott
Cast:
Michael Fassbender
Penelope Cruz
Cameron Diaz
Javier Bardem
Brad Pitt
Rated: R

Some aspects of “The Counselor,” like its cinematography, are as glamorous as the lifestyles portrayed in the movie, however, as a whole it is still a mess for the most part.

The story follows a man with no name. Not literally mind you, but Michael Fassbender is referred to as the Counselor through the entire film by everyone in the cast. The counselor is a lawyer who has some friends that can be considered the wrong crowd to be around.

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Prisoners review

Director:
Denis Villeneuve
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Jake Gyllenhaal
Viola Davis
Terrence Howard
Paul Dano
Rated: R

Hugh Jackman didn’t need any claws to dish out some pain this time around.

“Prisoners” is a movie that takes the audience on a suspenseful and quite uncomfortable ride. Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, a midwestern, middle class father who has brought his family over to a friend’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.

During the festivities, Keller and his friend Franklin’s (Howard) daughters go outside to play before dinner. However, they end up not coming back.

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The Conjuring review

Director:
James Wan
Cast:
Vera Farmiga
Patrick Wison
Lili Taylor
Ron Livingston
Rated: R

Finally some smart characters in a haunted house movie.

“The Conjuring” follows the Perron family, that includes Carolyn (Taylor) and Roger (Livingston) and their daughters. The family moves into a house out in the country and as time goes on they begin experiencing some strange phenomenon. Things start moving on their own and it appears that there is a spirit of some kind that haunts their new home.

Enter Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine (Farmiga) Warren, two specialists in the super natural who the Perrons seek for help. These two, who are actual specialists in real life and which this movie is based around, come to the house and begin their investigation.

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World War Z review

Director:
Marc Forster
Cast:
Brad Pitt
Mireille Enos
Daniella Kertesz
Rated: PG-13

Let me take you back to 2008. ATMR was just getting started and one story I posted on the site was about the book “World War Z” being adapted into a movie.

Nearly five years of development hell later and the movie has finally arrived in theaters.

“World War Z” follows the character Gerry (Pitt), a retired United Nations Investigator, who now takes up the role as stay at home dad. Everything seems peaceful enough, however, a drive through the city with the family becomes a horrifying experience as a fast spreading zombie virus starts moving through. Gerry contacts his friends at the U.N. and manages to escape the city with his family.

The reason that the U.N. allows his family to stay aboard a fleet of battleships which makes up humanity’s most functional command center, though, is because they need his skills that he used in his old job to put an end to the virus. For the sake of his family’s survival, Gerry agrees to go on a mission to discover how to fight back against the virus and the investigation takes him over multiple countries around the world.

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The Purge review

Director:
James DeMonaco
Cast:
Ethan Hawke
Lena Headey
Max Burkholder
Adelaide Kane
Edwin Hodge
Rhys Wakefield
Rated: R

“The Purge,” aka the hardcore version of “Home Alone.”

“The Purge” takes place in the year 2022. The United States has become a utopia, the economy is booming, crime is at an all time low, unemployment is at 1 percent and dogs and cats get along. This is all because for one 12 hour period every year, the government suspends all emergency services and allows all crime. This lets people to purge all of their hatred and get it out of their system.

The film follows the Sandins, a wealthy family of four with the dad named James (Hawke) who sells home protection services. On the night of the purge, the Sandins lock down their entire home while chaos is going on outside. Everything seems to be running smoothly until a man (Wakefield) running down the street comes along yelling for help. It turns out that he is a target for a group purgers who is trying to escape. The son in the Sandins named Charlie (Burkholder) feels bad for the guy and decides to let him in to the house.

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Oblivion review

Director:
Joseph Kosinski
Cast:
Tom Cruise
Morgan Freeman
Olga Kurylenko
Andrea Riseborough
Rated: PG-13

Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster is about a simple guy named Jack. OK, there’s more too it.

Jack is a man working as part of a two person crew that is on Earth decades into the future.

The film informs that many years ago, the Earth came under attack and that while humanity ultimately prevailed, the population still had to leave the planet because of the war’s destruction. Jack works with his partner, Victoria (Riseborough), to repair drones and do mop up work as well as collect fuel for humanity’s new home.

One day, though, Jack finds a survivor named Julia (Kurylenko) from a space ship crash, this leads to questions of why a ship would crash land now. More mysteries rise when both Jack and Julia are captured by a group of other humans led by a man named Beech (Freeman) who informs Jack that the life he’s been living maybe something else entirely.

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Evil Dead review

“Evil Dead,” is the remake of the 1981 film “The Evil Dead,” that was originally directed by Sam Raimi. The film follows the characters Mia, played by Jane Levy, and David, played by Shiloh Fernandez, as well as three of their friends. The five go to a cabin in the middle of the woods to help Mia break a drug addiction. There, they discover an old book, which is the Book of the Dead from the original series, yet, is never referred to by its actual name here.

After one of the characters reads a few of the passages, an evil demon is released who possesses Mia, and the rest of the characters are put through a gruesome series of events.

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Paranormal Activity 4 review

Director:
Henry Joost
Ariel Schulman
Cast:
Katie Featherston
Kathryn Newton
Matt Shively
Rated: R

It’s funny to think that three short years ago, I actually loved the first film and now I really dislike this series.

“Paranormal Activity 4” picks up five years after the end of the first film. The movie follows a new family who appears to have no connection to the previous movies. However when the character Katie from the previous movies comes and moves in next door and hidden facts begin to be revealed. I won’t go much more into the plot just because of spoilers.

With the first “Paranormal Activity,” I really enjoyed it mainly for its simplicity in so many sections. The budget was small but they used it well and did many things that were crafty, the story was also very simple, there was no major back story or major mythology, it was just a simple haunting, I enjoyed that. I didn’t know much about what was going on, and that worked. This made the film such a lightning in a bottle project, and probably should have stayed just one movie.

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The House at the end of the Street review

Jennifer Lawrence decided not to save her best for last this year.

“House at the End of the Street” follows Elissa, played by “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, as a young high school student who has just moved into a new town. Upon arrival at her new house, she and her mother Sarah, played by Elisabeth Shue, are informed about the history of the neighboring house. Years ago, a murder occurred where a mother and a father were killed by their own daughter. The son, who was living out of town at the time, inherited the house and now lives there on his own and the daughter was reported as having gone missing and eventually died.

The son named Ryan, portrayed by Max Thieriot, has now for the most part become a shut-in, young man who doesn’t leave his house much, however, eventually he meets Elissa and the two start a relationship. Ryan is actually hiding a dark secret in the basement of his house.

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