an_irish_scotsman

If you've seen your fair share of horror movies this film has nothing new to offer you.

The premise is intriguing enough - a man finds a portrait with his doppelganger in his new creepy home/town and things unfold exactly the way you would expect them to.

The townsfolk are overly welcoming and overly familiar with him, more paintings show up, some townsfolk try to cryptically help him only to go missing or meet their demise.

Our protagonist takes medication that leads us to believe perhaps he is an unreliable narrator, however this is never expanded on in a meaningful way. The cinematography is average, the colour palette is muted, and the twists unsurprising and mundane.

There is no happy ending here, which is a shame because it's the one semi original plot point the film could've offered.

A good movie to watch if you're trying to go to sleep or scare a child. There is no gore, there are no scares, and the acting is... adequate. An exceedingly average film.

As a fan of found footage films I've seen the best and worst of the genre. Missing is a sequel of sorts to Searching and successfully continues the subgenre of found footage "screen recording" horror/thrillers that have emerged in recent years (Unfriended being another example).

June's mother goes on a trip with her new boyfriend and doesn't return when expected - prompting June to investigate largely online and over the phone from home. That's the initial premise at least - it quickly develops into a rabbit hole of secrets and lies.

Missing fully utilises the tools of its presentation to keep the audience engaged and immersed in the investigative flow of the film. We're bombarded with information and have it visually on hand when pertinent to plot developments - and many things shown early in the film prove themselves to be relevant later in the film. Even the very presentation - we are watching June's screen becomes relevant, as we're not the only ones watching her this way.

The film can be confusing if you don't pay attention. There are endless twists and turns - and while in the context of the film they make sense - for some I could see it being tiring and overwrought. Missing is also nearly 2 hours in length with few lulls in the plot developments - long for the genre.

If you enjoy found footage, tense thrillers, and crime documentaries - this movie is most certainly for you. You won't be disappointed - as long as you're paying attention.

There are character driven thrillers that succeed wonderfully with pacing and character exploration and development.

This film is not one of them. The ideas are almost there - we as a society are distrustful of strangers and overly reliant of technology and helpless without it - but the ideas fail to go anywhere but the most rudimentary places.

An unlikable family goes on a secluded vacation - which is interrupted by the owner of the house and his daughter and a series of strange, baffling events. Every now and then we get a breadcrumb thrown at us to further the story, in between scenes filled with dialogue no person would actually say and that do little to deepen the characters beyond - this character nice, this character not.

There are scenes when viewed out of context function as comedy - Julia Roberts "dancing" to rap, Julia Roberts and Myha'la screaming at a herd of deer - and even when viewed in context they make little sense and ultimately amount to nothing.

The film is intriguing - the ominous shots and music coupled with the mysterious events pique curiosity and make the viewer want to know what will happen next, what answers will the film give to the questions it raises? Very few, unfortunately.

What happens when society collapses? We stop watching streaming services and go back to DVDs. Netflix's worst nightmare certainly.

The movie starts out with an interesting enough premise - what if someone could activate a hypnotic trigger with a phone call and a certain phrase? What if a psychologist uses you for his own means without your conscious knowledge?

However it proceeds to go about exploring this premise in the most predictable and often ridiculous way. Our protagonist repeatedly confronts a man she KNOWS has hypnotic control over her - and falls into helplessness at every opportunity. This movie also treats hypnotherapy as an almost supernatural tool able to control the mind absolutely - whereas it would've been more interesting to see a therapist engage in manipulative tactics rather than ~magical~ ones.

If you need a background movie while you do something better - this is the movie for you. If you need an engaging psychological thriller that keeps you guessing and draws you in - find something else.

There's a great movie in here somewhere - the movie as is, with a runtime of three and a half hours - is about an hour too long and needs serious trimming. There are many scenes that feel unnecessary, providing nothing more than slight character depth and another death in the film.

The de-aging effects are jarring - and they don't solve the issue of how these elderly men now talk and move in their "younger body" scenes. The movie would've been better served casting younger look-alike actors for those scenes and trusted the audience.

As it is, it's difficult to follow and uninteresting. I'm a big fan of Scorcese and his work - the structure of this film shows his expert touch, but it's far too indulgent a film. It milks the most it can out of the setting, the leading actors, and the genre - without adding anything unique or interesting of its own.

The film and the people within it seem like what you'll be at the conclusion of this film - tired.

Despite having a stellar cast and an interesting true story attached, Bombshell left me wanting. The stylised third wall break of the narrators throughout (Theron and Kidman) felt inconsistent and ineffectual. Additionally since these characters are real life figures it felt like there wasn't a lot of effort to actually show their characters and get us to root for them personally. Even Robbie's fictional character with whom the most liberty could be taken is inconsistent and poorly characterised.

The actors did fine work - particularly Lithgow as Ailes, and the sets and wardrobes were perfectly adequate - as well as the portrayal of the culture at Fox News. Despite having all the key components of a riveting journalistic drama Bombshell failed to captivate me.

Watch it because it's an important story to be told, not because it's a particularly great film.

Don't Worry Darling is a well-acted thriller with gorgeous cinematography and visuals. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine play their roles to perfection, with the first three quarters of the film unfolding nicely, building tension, unease and intrigue. The twist that follows is... somewhat unsatisfying, leaving too many questions unanswered.

The film is visually beautiful - the sets, wardrobes, soundtrack and scene compositions are perfectly stylised for the setting. Florence Pugh gives a captivating performance that the film would be nothing without - with Chris Pine expertly filling the role of charismatic villain. However - some of the visuals are TOO indulgent and don't further the story, and some of the performances are a little hammy and not grounded enough - feeling more at home in an out-and-out horror movie than a dramatic thriller of this calibre.

With some small changes to the plot in the last quarter, and more character work of the neighbourhood - this film could be great. Unfortunately in the last quarter it spirals into madness, focussing entirely on Pugh and Styles (her beau) and culminating in a lengthy car chase that feels entirely out of place in this sort of film.

If you took Stepford Wives and put it through a Black Mirror filter - this is the film you'd get. More than worth a watch, but frustratingly close to greatness.

The Lost Daughter should be, by all measures, a great film - it has a stellar cast, good cinematography and scoring, and a creeping and intriguing narrative that keeps the viewer invested and guessing as to where the plot will go.

So why does it miss the mark so badly and have the viewer saying, "That's it?" Upon its abrupt cut to credits.

The film is billed as a pyschological thriller, and is acted and paced as one. Olivia Colman gives a wonderful performance as can be expected, giving her character layers of depth and emotion that the film neglects to show us much of - and ultimately the film is about her character - how her past informs her present and what her present stirs up in her past. There are threads of thriller strewn throughout - the missing daughter, the lost doll, the local boys and the threatening crime family - and yet nothing ever comes of these threads. This is a character study - not a thriller, and not a particularly satisfying character study as well.

The aspects of competent directing, acting, and composition all keep the viewer fooled into thinking the film is better than it is, until it's unsatisfying conclusion.

What happens in this over two hour film? A woman goes on holiday, steals a doll, and calls her daughters. That's essentially it. Disappointing.

It's amazing to me that this was allowed on DVD at all. It's just that bad. The plot, that there is a reality TV game-show thing with models who have to go into haunted rooms and such does admittedly have potential. Unfortunately, that potential was not carried out. To be honest, my favorite part was the credits, and that's simply because they at least looked halfway professional, unlike the rest of the movie. The actors prove that you can't just pull someone off the street and expect them to be good, although the actors aren't entirely to blame, as there is no one who could pull off the hackneyed clichés of the characters.

The music was just annoying, the gore looked more like spaghetti and that stuff in tapes (the black stuff) than someone's insides, and frankly, I find it hard to believe that this was made by someone who wasn't above the age of 18. The only good feature this 'film' (and I use the term very very loosely) has is that it did indeed leave me feeling sick, but for all the wrong reasons.

On the surface, Lost In Translation is an excellent movie. After the first view however, it gets more complex.

The plot is this; Bob Harris, a middle-aged actor whose star is fading, takes a trip to Japan to do a whiskey advertisement. His wife chooses not to come presumably she must take 'care' of the children. Charlotte is a newly-wed whose workaholic husband neglects but doesn't have enough courage to admit he doesn't want her there. Charlotte and Bob are both lonely people, unable to find company or solace in their work/partners. They meet by chance in a hotel bar (they are staying at the same hotel) and strike up an unusual friendship.

Sofia Coppola has perfected these characters, and gotten inside them completely, so that when watching, one can actually FEEL what the actors are feeling. The immediate attraction between Charlotte and Bob is obvious, and what they have is more than a friendship, its a total acceptance of each other, and who they are.

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson have great chemistry on screen chemistry together and perhaps this, and the excellent script, is what makes the friendship so plausible. While i watched the movie, I felt like I was there beside them each step of the way, and, I'm not ashamed to admit, my eyes did well up at the end. Truly a masterpiece.

10/10