Tag: Thriller

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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Total Recall review

Director:
Len Wiseman
Cast:
Colin Farrell
Kate Beckinsale
Jessica Biel
Bryan Cranston
Rated: PG-13

The only thing this “Total Recall” did was make me recall how much I enjoyed the original more.

“Total Recall” is a sci-fi remake of a 1990 film of the same name which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The remake is much like the original, following a man named Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who is having a recurring nightmare of him and a woman being chased by armed men. The added stress eventually has him go to a place where memories can be implanted called “Rekall.”

After going there, though, he begins finding out that he actually had his memory erased and replaced and turns out to be a different person all together. It turns out that our main character is actually a special agent named Hauser and is a in the mix of a huge civil war between two major factions on Earth. Once he realizes this he has to join forces with a woman named Melina (Biel) to fight off the people who are now after him and try to figure out who he really is.

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Prometheus review

Director:
Ridley Scott
Cast:
Noomi Rapace
Michael Fassbender
Charlize Theron
Idris Elba
Logan Marshall-Green
Rated: R

This is the second film Michael Fassbender is in with a character who’s last name is Shaw, maybe the X-Men universe and the Aliens universe is connected…. Probably not.

“Prometheus” is actually the title of the ship that the characters we follow are traveling aboard. The main protagonist is Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace), a member of an archaeologist crew searching for the creators of humanity which they call the “Engineers.” The expedition is financed by a huge company and to make sure everything goes smoothly a representative from the company named Meredith Vickers (Theron) is also on the ship.

Eventually the Prometheus finds and lands on a planet where it is believed that the engineers could be. The ship lands next to a large organic seeming structure and the crew goes into investigate. This turns out to be a poor decision though as they quickly find that the structure is filled with deadly aliens and that the engineers themselves could be hostile.

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Gone review

Director:
Heitor Dhalia
Cast:
Amanda Seyfried
Daniel Sunjuta
Emily Wickersham
Wes Bently
Rated: PG-13

Interesting name since it will be gone from theaters probably by next week.

“Gone,” a thriller is Amanda Seyfried’s latest film in which she plays a woman named Jill who is haunted by a past, traumatic experience. A few years before the start of the story, Jill was kidnapped and brought out into the middle of the woods by a serial killer but managed to escape. Since then she has lived in paranoia of when he will strike.

It just so happens that one night, he does strike again and this time he makes it personal when he kidnaps Jill’s sister Molly (Wickersham). This sets off Jill on a man hunt for the killer as she goes around picking up clues as to her sister’s captor. She has to be careful, though, as the police are after her as well, believing that she made the whole thing up.

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Haywire review

Director:
Steven Soderbergh
Cast:
Gina Carano
Channing Tatum
Michael Angarano
Michael Douglas
Antonio Banderas
Ewan McGregor
Rated: R

It was almost surprising not seeing Angelina Jolie in this.

“Haywire” is the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, it follows the character Mallory (Carano), a spy for hire who is on the run after being betrayed by the company she works for, in particular, her boss Kenneth (McGregor). Because of this she is forced to leave a small diner abruptly with a young man by the name of Scott (Angarano). During their get away she begins to go into flashbacks about how her life got turned upside down.

The first hour of the film is devoted to telling the flashbacks where the second half goes into how she will try to set the record straight. During this time she continues to be hunted and has to be careful and watch her step.

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Martha Marcy May Marlene review

Director:
Sean Durkin
Cast:
Elizabeth Olsen
Sarah Paulson
John Hawkes
Hugh Dancy
Rated: R

Wait a minute, you’re telling me that not only do the Olsen twins have a sister, but that she actually has acting talent?

Martha Marcy May Marlene follows a young woman who has just run away from what seemed to be her home. We immediately find out though that she was actually running away from a dangerous cult that she had been a part of for an extended period of time. Martha (Olsen), after getting away from the cult led by Patrick (Hawkes), calls her sister Lucy (Paulson) to pick her up and take her home.

After getting to Lucy’s house Martha starts trying to live a normal life again with her sister and her sister’s husband Ted (Dancy), however she finds it difficult to do so. Memories of what had gone on during her days being in the cult continue to cut deep into her head and leaves her in a paranoid state for the rest of the film as she continues to wonder if the cult will eventually find her.

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In Time review

Director:
Andrew Niccol
Cast:
Justin Timberlake
Manda Seyfried
Cillian Murphy
Vincent Kartheiser
Rated: PG-13

“In Time” is definitely not a film that’s so good you have to show up on time at the theater to see.

The movie is a bout a young man named Will Salas (Timberlake) who lives in a world where everyone is suppose to live until they are just 25. However, they can stay alive longer by working for more time, however the only problem is that time is also the currency, and if you run out of time, shown a person’s arm, then you die. The problem in this world is that the rich have all the time and the poor have next to nothing.

Will is in the position of the latter. He finds the world to be cruel and harsh, especially more so after his mother dies. A short time after this event, he meets a man with 100 years of time and after saving him the man gives Will all of it. After this, Will decides to shake up the system by going up against the ‘Time Keepers’ especially a very dedicated one named Raymond (Murphy), and a wealthy corporate man Phillipe, (Kartheiser). In doing so he also kidnaps and eventually teams up with Phillipe’s daughter Sylvia (Seyfried).

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The Ides of March Review

Director:
George Clooney
Cast:
Ryan Gosling
George Clooney
Philip Symour Hoffman
Paul Giamatti
Marisa Tomei
Evan Rachel Wood
Rated: R

The candidate that Clooney plays in this film is very similar to another one that ran a few years back.

The Ides of March follows a young man named Stephen Myers (Gosling), working on the campaign trail for presidential hopeful Governor Morris (Clooney). The campaign season is right in the middle of a heated Democratic primary with both candidates setting their sites on Ohio to deliver the knockout.

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Source Code review

Director:
Duncan Jones
Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal
Michelle Monaghan
Vera Farmiga
Jeffrey Wright
Rated: PG-13

It’s almost like Deja Vu, but the character goes back more than once.

Source Code begins immediately with a mystery as Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up in a body that’s not his on a train he is unfamiliar with. Before he is able to figure anything out, the train explodes. Stevens then wakes up in a type of advanced capsule and is in communication with military officials. Stevens finds out that the train was actually destroyed a long time ago and the military is using a program called the Source Code that allows him to enter the world of someone on the train for the last eight minutes of their lives.

After learning this, Stevens begins to wonder why he can’t leave the capsule and the film begins to balance two mystery plots, who blew up the train and what is really going on with the military not allowing Stevens to leave the capsule.

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