Showing posts with label suspense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suspense. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Repo Man

one out of ten

What if organs cost money and if you took out a loan to get one implanted but didn't make the payments they came to repo it? What on earth? As if the premise isn't dumb enough- they manage somehow to make it even dumber as it goes along. I do not know what mechanisms are missing in the Hollywood industry that let a movie as horrible as this sneak through. Forrest Whitaker- I expected better from you.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Shutter Island

Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. I have to say this might be one of my favorite fun movies to watch. It left me thinking for days about perception. The story begins with a police officer sent to a mental institution situated on an island to investigate a missing person. As the cop investigates he learns that not everything is as it seems. I don't know how else to describe this movie without giving too much away. It looks like a scary movie but its not! It's suspenseful and engrossing every step of the way!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Memento

eight out of ten

This is an older movie that I just saw again and I don't remember feeling as confused on the first watch as I did years later, watching it for the second time. I enjoyed the fast paced story telling but I did have to do some google searching for perspectives on it to fully understand exactly what happened. It's an older movie but worth watching if you haven't caught it.

Moon

nine out of ten

This movie is the type that leaves you thinking for days. A man is alone on the moon working for a corporation that mines a resource on the moon which provides energy back home on earth. He has a three year contract ending in two weeks and is looking forward to seeing his wife and young daughter. As the days get closer to going home he gets sicker and sicker and that is when the true story really begins. . .

I don't want to give away too much but this movie really was awesome. It's science fiction but the sort that you can foresee happening someday. I thought the movie was well acted and enjoyed it very much.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Uninvited

six out of ten

The heroine of the movie is released from a mental ward after dealing with issues surrounding the death of her mother to a house fire. She comes home to find that her mother's nurse is now living with her father and seems to have a past that may be shadier than anyone suspects. I'm not usually one for scary movies but this one was interesting and I enjoyed the ending which I did not see coming.

District 9

six out of ten

This movie felt like a veiled analogy to the Is.rael/Pal.estine conflict. Aliens landed in South Africa two decades earlier and their spacecraft won't work. They are relegated to refugee camps and treated poorly. A task force set up to deal with them goes to work and a spill on one of the workers causes unexpected results. I thought the lead actor was okay, perhaps a different actor and the movie would have been better. The aliens were disgusting looking. They looked like large roaches, in the movie they were given the slur of "prawns" because they look like . . . prawns. It's an interesting suspenseful movie clearly set up for a sequel. I liked it, but it could have been much better.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Taken

seven out of ten

A divorced father looks to have a relationship with his teenager daughter by moving close by and pushing away his dangerous CIA-like past. His daughter decides, against his will, to go on a trip to Paris where she gets kidnapped and possibly sold off into slavery. This short action packed film is about the father getting his daughter back. Though I knew how the story would play out the acting and the fast paced editing kept me hooked. I would highly recommend this movie to you if you're looking for a fun thriller superficial but entertaining.

Obsessed

one out of ten

A movie with the lovely Ali Larter, Beyonce and Idris should have made for an interesting movie I thought but this was a shallow poorly acted and directed movie that was a complete waste of 100 minutes of my life that I will never get back. An executive at a law firm (I think) gets a temp girl who becomes obsessed with him and is determined to have him though he rebuffs her every attempt. She becomes crazier and crazier as the movie goes on but you can't help but yawn since you know how things will end. Fatal Attraction was at least fresh and new, this is the same old same old boring tripe.

The International

two out of ten

K finds the movie interesting but I thought it stunk to high heaven. This is a movie about an evil bank and two people determined to put them out of business. The bank deals in international arms weapons as a means to give out lots of debt so they can make loads of money and only a few people know the truth. They are determined to do anything to stop the bank. This movie is like a million movies before it, same old hack. It plays out like a made for TV movie. I'd give it one out of ten stars but for the fact that K liked it alright so I figured I should bump it up one to be polite.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Fracture

Anthony Hopkins rocked this movie, he plays an eerie character very well. In this movie he stands trial for attempted murder of his wife and plays cat and mouse with the prosecutor. Some things in the story are a bit implausible, however, all in all very interesting and well acted.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Vantage Point

six out of ten

This movie isn't bad, the problem with it is that it could have been way better, and I can't help but hold this fact against it. This is a movie about an assassination attempt on the life of the US President, told from several different vantage points. You have to figure out what's going on as the story pieces together from different points of view. Unfortunately I figured out the "twist" early on so the rest of it played in "color by numbers" format. Still, the acting wasn't bad, and it was an entertaining flick from start to finish.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Dark Knight

Well written. Well acted. Both beautiful and tragic in the same breath.

Things I loved: Christian Bale because he's just super awesome in so many many ways. Heath Ledger rocked it as the Joker, he left me terrified. The cinematography was amazing, the action sequences mesmerized me, and Michael Cain... how much does he rock?

Things I loved not so much: ***warning- spoilers**

They didn't do a good job showing Dent's transformation from DA to Two-Faced. I felt the transition was too quick as opposed to in the comic version where they allude to Dent feeling jealous of Batman and having evil tendencies in his heart of darkness.

Maggie Gyllenhaal might be better than Katie Holmes as Rachel but still, neither character really felt like they should've been the love object for two of the most eligible bachelors in town. Plus, I just felt the acting wasn't *that* great. I also feel that when she died, Batman's reaction was a little iffy.

The ending wasn't really one. Sure Joker is caught, but he's still there.... you know he'll escape. I wanted more closure.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Premonition

three out of ten

This movie was a result of no other movies available in the dollar movie rental. This is a film about a couple who are growing apart but at the same time the wife wakes up each morning with premonition regarding her husband's death. At times she is in the future dealing with his death and at times she is in the present knowing that he will soon die and unsure what to do about it. This movie could have been interesting but it was simply an odd movie with a very "made for TV" feel. Sandra Bullock seemed truly bored and the guy who played her husband was also completely monotone. Very dull movie.

A mighty heart

eight out of ten

This is a film based on the true life story of Daniel Pearl and his wife's search for him in Pakistan after his disappearance. Jolie does an amazing job in this film showing a range of emotions and acting abilities I did not know she was capable of. The one thing I was curious about was the long periods of scenes where only Urdu was spoken. Sure, I understood it, but most people would not and I felt that some of those Urdu scenes were necessary to understand what was happening. But still, it was a good movie and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

We Own The Night

five out of ten

This is a film about a family of two brothers and a father, one brother and the father are high up in the NYPD [but are not corrupt] and the other brother helps a Russian mafia run their nightclub while he dates his girlfriend. The story unfolds when the police are seeking to trap some of the members of the Russian mafia which results in "bad brother" deciding to do the "right thing" and thus face the consequences that follow.

I thought the film was unrealistic and pointless. There was no twist, no clincher, it just went on and on and then it ended. Eva Mendez is gorgeous I will not deny you that, but I could not understand her point in the film. At one point I thought she might have a secret twist role at the end but she didn't, she was just his girlfriend who got a lot of screen time for apparently no reason besides she's beautiful....

If its on TV watch it... maybe...

Gone Baby Gone

six out of ten

This is a film about a girl who gets kidnapped and the search to find out what happened to her. The film provides a very interesting concept and the twist at the end really does leave you thinking. I felt this movie could have been better had Casey Affleck not been the big star of the flick. I know many people rave about his acting abilities but personally I find his acting obvious taking me out of the film.

Basically, its a good plot told fairly well, but Casey Affleck's acting left much to be desired.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Black Dahlia

three out of ten

With such a great cast you would think this movie would rock! Well if rock means how it sinks, then yes this movie was a rock. Its a fictionalized account of the 1940's sensationalized murder of a fledgling starlet whose murder remains unsolved. There were about ten different plots running through the movie. A corrupt cop, A love triangle, A murder, A crazy family and their issues, etc etc.... and they did not handle it well. It could have been good maybe, but I have a hard time figuring out how.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Blood Diamond

seven out of ten

This movie is about responsibility. About thinking about how you might contribute to the violence and bloodshed overseas. I went to Whole Foods a few weeks ago with Huda and she pointed out a cocoa product that was sold via fair trade. I didn't even know what that meant. It meant that it was a product that was made in such a way that the people who made it earned enough to live on. So that means, that the ones without this label are not sold in the fair trade market. That means they can't live off the work they do. Soy farming in Brazil causes murder and devastation and we unknowingly sip our soy lattes unknowingly contributing to the death toll. I say this to say that we contribute a lot to the harm in the world without ever knowing it.

If you watch blood diamond and then research the facts you will likely never buy another diamond ever again. The movie explores two characters, one a South African diamond smuggler and the other a resident of Sierra Leon whose world is shattered when his village is destroyed, his son is taken as a child soldier and his wife and daughters are shuttled off to refugee camps from which they cannot escape. The movie follows the villagers attempt to get his family back, and the smugglers attempt to get one of the most priceless diamonds ever discovered. Both are in their separate goals together to the end. Its one of those important movies like Hotel Rwanda that grabs us by the back of hair and yanks us to see the reality that our counterparts exist in and that though we may think we don't contribute to the devastation overseas, we unknowingly do.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

3:10 to Yuma

nine out of ten

This movie gave me a newfound respect for Russel Crowe who deserves an Oscar for his acting in this film. The movie is about a farmer who is struggling to make ends meet offering to help escort a convicted much sought after felon to 3:10 train to Yuma for his court date. There are some genres I do not like, and Westerns are one of those genres. Yet, somehow, Crowe made the movie sharp and fresh and funny. He is the reason this movie rocks. I would recommend it 100%.

Bourne Ultimatum

Ten out of Ten

I never saw Bourne Supremacy or Bourne Identity but I LOVED Bourne Ultimatum. I don't normally like these sorts of action flicks where you trail a man on a mission as he does impossible and nearly impossible stunts but I LOVED Bourne Ultimatum. I think its partly because even though everything put together as a whole is probably impossible, each scene could happen and so you keep watching and you get hooked, particularly since it might be the last of the Bourne series so he really might die this time. Damon did a fantastic job and the editor was sharp and deserves a garland of roses for his/her incredible editing. Its a movie I would definitely watch again because seriously, I LOVED Bourne Ultimatum.