BigZ_7337

Infinity Chamber is an excellent Science-Fiction Thriller set in a futuristic dystopian world, yet all we see of it is a sparse automated prison cell and the simulation of quaint coffee shop in the main character's mind. The viewer is dropped into the story not knowing anything about the main character or the world, and the movie slowly doles out details piece meal. For most of the film all we really know is that Frank Lerner, played perfectly by Christopher Soren Kelly, is an intelligent man (perhaps a tech expert) that was kidnapped/arrested by an authoritarian regime. He may or may not be an innocent person arrested due to mistaken identity, a criminal, or an important member of the resistance. His only companion in the cell is the voice of Howard (Jesse D. Arrow) behind a camera, who's in charge of keeping Frank alive, and Gabby (played adequately by Cassandra Clarke) who is the owner of a cafe that exists in his mind.

Here is where the best and the worst parts of the movie come into play. On one side of the Infinity Chamber is a device that hypnotizes the prisoner, putting him into a simulation of the last day of his life before he was arrested, where the computer looks for something it thinks he is hiding. I really enjoyed the mind bending series of events that this device created, where throughout the film the viewer and the character begin to lose their grasp on reality. However, it's also where the film gets a little boring and repetitive, as Frank relives these moments over and over with only (for the most part) solitary prison scenes to break them up. There are many interesting moments within these scenes, but I can definitely see why some people might lose interest before the climax of the film. Still, I found myself absolutely enthralled with the movie, and I really enjoyed the crooked web the story weaved.

Now, I have one other thing I wanted to talk about before finishing this review, but I can't do that without spoiling the tricky ending. If you want to see my spoiler free video review, that's over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpgQ5dhLCg

------ SPOILERS ------

So obviously spoilers ahead, but here's how I took the ending of the film. I really liked the ending where he feels like he knows the girl in the cafe, but in reality he only knows her from all of the simulations, where part of his mind was portraying her. It's a cool ending, but then after he reveals the location of the flash drive with the virus behind the picture and throws it out, the camera pans out revealing what looks like the camera (Howard) from the cell on the ceiling of the cafe. I believe that the viewer is supposed to think from that is this was just another simulation, that he wasn't free, that this time he let his guard down and told the machine where he hid the virus. That's another interesting, although more depressing ending. However, that doesn't quite work because every other simulation only took place during one day, and the guy was always able to ascertain that it was a simulation. It's tough to tell, but it seems like it's at least been multiple days of completely new experiences that the Infinity Chamber and his mind would have had to create. Also, that might not be the same camera as the one in the chamber, it could just be a camera.

This is where the comparison to the movie Inception could come in, as the movie ends without showing the viewer whether the top keeps spinning or falls down, and in Infinity Chamber the viewer isn't shown whether the camera has a red light and is the same as the one in the cell or if it's completely dead. So I'm not 100% sure how we're supposed to take it, but I think that it was on purpose, and there's more than one way to view the end. Personally for my Mind Canon I'm going to say that it was just a random camera installed by the authoritarian regime, and that Frank really is free, but I think that the creator of the film probably intended the opposite. Still I really enjoyed Infinity Chamber and would recommend it.

I had high expectations for Wind River, and when it finally hit a theater near me, it exceeded those expectations. To be upfront, Wind River is not an easy watch, as it's dealing with heavy dark subject matter, and it's delivered in a brutal realistic way. There's a strong chance that you will leave the theater more depressed than you entered it. However, the film is absolutely worth the potential emotional drain, as it is a superbly crafted film. The movie opens with a young Native American woman running away from something in her bare feet in the snowy Wyoming wilderness. Then after introducing the main character Jeremy Renner, a hunter/wildlife official, he finds the dead woman in the snow while searching for mountain lions that killed some livestock. At this point the investigation begins, and Elizabeth Olsen as a fish out of water FBI agent comes to solve the murder with Renner's help.

For most of Wind River, it is a slow burn dramatic mystery thriller, but as the the investigation moves forward, there are moments of incredible tension that eventually burst into realistic violence. These moments are filmed very differently from action films, but they are very satisfying and brutal. The director uses a lot of interesting tactics to build the tension leading up to these moments, and it really gets your heart beating as the viewer. One of the most surprising and effective is in the middle of an already tense scene, where the film flashes back to show exactly what happened the night of the girl's death.

The acting from everyone in Wind River is excellent, and the film is filled with small powerful moments between two characters. Jeremy Renner is the standout performance, where he's playing a character with a deeply ingrained tragic past. His moments with Elizabeth Olsen and especially with his good friend and father of the raped/murdered girl, Gil Birmingham, are packed with emotion. The dialogue in these scenes is outstanding and heart breaking. I really think that this film deserves multiple nominations when the award season comes along, particularly for Best Actor (Renner), Best Supporting Actor (Birmingham) and Best Director/Original Screenplay (Sheridan).

I'd highly recommend this film, it's one of my favorite movies of 2017, and definitely the most powerful film I've seen since Arrival. If you'd like to see the video version of my review, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbFmLl6Ix1E

Monster Project has an interesting concept, it's a found footage horror film about a group of annoying characters that want to interview people that think they're real monsters. However things get complicated when the three people they're interviewing are actual monsters. The middle of the film is definitely the best part, where they explore the haunted house where they're conducting the interviews, and then do the actual interviews. I enjoyed a lot of the things they did with the interviews, as they play around with the rules of the monsters. The problem parts of the film come before and after that, with the beginning being full of annoying and pointless character drama delivered by mediocre to bad actors. The worst being the camera man, which is one of the biggest sins a found footage film can have, as no one likes having an annoying guy talking off screen (and obviously in a sound booth) while everything's going on. The movie after the interviews is also deeply flawed, as a lot of monster rules set up during the interview are immediately broken. With the vampire going from a tattoo artist that licks her canvas's blood as part of her payment, to being a mindless beast. The skinwalker is also turned immediately into a generic werewolf, with the generic characteristics including a scratch turning the victim into a werewolf, even though the film went out of it's way to describe how someone becomes a skinwalker (murdering a family member). The CGI for the girl possessed by a demon is also really bad and distracting. I won't spoil the end, but I will say that it's also incredibly stupid, and there's a stupid Bagul scare at the very end.

Overall, I'd advise people to stay away from Monster Factory unless you're a huge Found Footage Horror fan. If you want to see the video version of my review, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6oSf_VoH3k

I went into this film not knowing much about it, and by the end I loved the non-stop ride 68 Kill delivered. It was really interesting how the movie reversed a lot of the thriller/horror tropes, where the main character, Matthew Gray Gubler as Chip, is abused and ordered around by all of the strong women in the film. The first woman, AnnaLynne McCord as Liza, is Chip's girlfriend and she has the bright idea to rob her boss/sugar-daddy. The heist seems to go off without a hitch, until Liza murders the husband and wife, much to the surprise of Chip. Here they also meet the second woman, Alisha Boe as Violet, as Liza shoves her into the trunk of their car to sell her to Liza's serial killer brother. Having finally crossed a line Chip couldn't accept, he escapes in the car and begins the journey that would lead to the third and final strong woman, Sheila Vand as Monica. All three of the women are crazy to varying degrees, and the story weaves all three of them in and out of the story with Chip as their target of love, anger, and violence.

To avoid any spoilers, I'll avoid talking too much more about the story, but I loved the pacing of it. Where it really only slows down for one section, and that slower part sets up the rest of the film which is balls to the wall crazy in the best way. The acting is all top notch, with the standout definitely being AnnaLynne McCord, her abusive crazy girlfriend character dominated every scene she was in, and I'd love to see her in more movies. Her eyes just looked so crazy, and I really believed her character. There were some things in the middle with the story that I didn't love, including an apparent roofie that's never shown or explained, and other characters impressive and unexplained following abilities. However, everything lead to such an awesome climax, that all of the other lesser parts of the film completely worth it. I also loved how 68 Kill made me laugh out loud uncontrollably multiple times throughout the film. It doesn't necessarily play for the laugh in an obvious way, and the comedy is definitely dark, but I found multiple scenes hilarious.

I would definitely recommend this film, as long as you don't mind some violence and gore with your dark comedy thriller. If you'd like to see the video version of my review, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=ZpKyf33SttM

This is a pretty short film, and being a thriller, you know the movie has failed when you're bored for most of it. This claims to be based on a true story, and I wonder if that aspect if a harm to the film. As I would have loved more conflict throughout the movie, but especially towards the end. The set-up for this film is that two sisters that have apparently been estranged, are meeting up at an indoor public pool right before they close early for a long holiday weekend. One sister is a recently engaged diabetic, and the other is a drug addict recently released from rehab. Both of these characters are completely unlikable, and for most of the film there's no sense of sisterhood between them as they bicker about being trapped under a fiberglass pool cover. Eventually another character is introduced, and unsurprisingly she's just as unlikable, if not more. Eventually I was just waiting for them to either die or get out, as long as the movie would end. Still, there are some enjoyable thrilling moments mixed in with the boredom, but not enough to enjoy or recommend 12 Feet Deep.

If you'd like to see the video version of my review, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tIuxILYjiY

This is a pretty bad film that can be enjoyed at times. It's incredibly one note, with almost the whole movie being Halle Berry chasing after white trash kidnappers in her mini-van. Having a mom chase after people that kidnapped her kid is an interesting idea, but I just needed more from the movie. It was also very sloppily filmed and edited, even when the car chases or fight scenes were starting to be enjoyable. Kidnap is not a good film, but at the same time it's not bad enough to be enjoyable in that way. Perhaps it's a side effect of being in limbo for so long when the studio that made it collapsed, but it feels like the movie could have been better.

I definitely wouldn't recommend it, but if you see it randomly some time on TV in the future, you could have a little bit of fun with it. If you want to see my full video review you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYQlLhnzpM0

So I came into this as a fan of Jessica Williams from the Daily Show, and hoping I would enjoy the film. It starts out a little rough, as I found Jessica's acting to be a little wooden, but as the movie went on, I felt like her acting really improved, especially with all of her scenes with her students. The beginning of the film is definitely the weakest part, as the character isn't likable, and the dialogue especially with her friend felt very forced. However, similar to her acting, as the movie progressed it greatly improved.

At its core, this movie is a retread of just about every Romantic Comedy cliché, but surrounding this core is the meat of the film examining a modern day artistic black woman that came from a broken family. The movie examines a lot of Jessica's backstory through her teaching of the children in her class, where she's trying to pass on her love of creative writing and acting and helping them realize they can do whatever they want in their lives. One student especially mirrors Jessica, as she's a young intelligent black girl whose parents have recently divorced. The movie examines a lot of interesting aspects here, as Jessica turns very vindictive and mean when the student wants to go to six flags for her father's weekend with her instead of a writing retreat. I really enjoyed how the film resolved this conflict, and all of these scenes were probably my favorite parts of the film.

For the romantic comedy part of this film, it's again an interesting take on common tropes. She has a blind date with Chris O'Dowd, and both of them are still in love with their exes, but in spite of their disinterest in a new relationship it starts to form on its own. I enjoyed that the guy wasn't just some guy for her to date, he also has a lot of problems, and their growing relationship feels real as they have pretty good chemistry. There are some odd dream sequences though, where Jessica meets up with her ex, and the scenes read as they're actually happening, but then something crazy happens and it's revealed to have been a dream all along. I understand the dreams purpose, as they're Jessica working through her relationship in her mind, but I just wish it was more apparent they were dream sequences.

There are some really funny moments intermixed with the relationship stuff, along with some really funny scenes when she goes to visit her family. Unfortunately, the scenes with her family were a little too black and white, unlike the rest of the film. Perhaps it was because the writer/director strongly dislikes his family, and it comes out in the movie. It seems like all they do is judge Jessica, and they don't have any redeeming factors.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film despite its flaws, and I would recommend it if you have Netflix. If you'd like to see my video version of this review, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGoBeIuKTyk

I'm a huge fan of Science Fiction, and even though I had no familiarity with the source material of Valerian, I was really looking forward to seeing it. The movie starts off with two beautiful scenes, one in which we're introduced to a beautiful Alien Species witnessing the end of their world, and the other we're shown through a montage Humanity meeting multiple alien species and building a space base where they can all live together in something approaching harmony. Then the viewer is introduced to the two main characters of the film: Valerian played by Dane DeHaan and Laureline played by Cara Delevingne. So does the director, Luc Besson, introduce them in a middle of a mission or on some cool world where they interact with interesting aliens? No, instead we witness them bickering with each other about nothing while they play-fight on the holodeck of their ship. Even if Dane and Cara were better actors, with them reading the horrible dialogue written by the director, the film was doomed to be a piece of crap. It doesn't matter if you spend 200 million dollars creating a beautiful visual spectacle if the two main characters have no chemistry and are incredibly unlikable.

As the movie goes on, the dialogue never gets better, and it's delivered blank faced by Cara, and in a ridiculous hoarse mutter by Dane. It's made even weirder when the two leads are playing two of the best soldiers in the galaxy, yet they look like nothing of the sort. Dane DeHaan especially looks out of place even in his armor, as he's literally skin and bones, and doesn't look like any kind of soldier. It's so odd that they would pick these two as their leads for an expensive movie that they were hoping to make into a franchise. I can only assume that they thought the two actors would both turn out to be the next big thing, but they were definitely mistaken.

The story is also very weak, as there's some unknown threat in the center of the immense station (the reveal later doesn't make any sense for how it's explained earlier) and the two main characters have to fix it somehow. To get the film to a movie length, there are multiple side quests where one character had to jump through a bunch of hoops to save the other character. It's weird because these side stories are completely pointless and could literally be skipped with hardly any change in the film (other than 30-40 minutes being cut out), but they're also some of the best parts of the film. There are honestly some amazing fun and beautiful moments in this film, and I just wish that there had been someone in power to reel Luc Besson in and hire someone with more talent to write the dialogue and create a story that viewers could actually care about.

There's enough interesting things in this film that it could potentially become a cult hit if it finds an audience, but I think all of the problems will prevent it from ever achieving that status. Ultimately Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a beautiful failure, that can still be an enjoyable viewing experience at times, but isn't one that I would recommend.

If you would like to see my full in depth movie review for Valerian where I talk about how I would have changed the film to improve it, the video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3WeVjxTbzI

I really wanted to like this movie, especially as it has a great trailer and a really interesting concept for a horror film. However, it completely failed in the delivery, as the whole film is essentially just two incredibly annoying people yelling at each other while they walk around a slightly creepy house. I even hesitate to call this movie a horror or a thriller, it's really just a drama film with a couple creepy moments and a supernatural theme.

The basic set up for this film is that a woman wants to conduct a ritual to summon angels and demons to ask them a favor. To facilitate this ritual, she hires a sexist douche bag occultist to boss her around for a couple of weeks while they're alone in a house they can't leave. Almost immediately the film is incredibly hard to enjoy as the occultist is a giant douche, and the woman is a total bitch. The director doesn't even make an attempt to have these two people be likable in any way. It wouldn't be too big of a problem, except that the two of them are in almost every single scene together for the whole movie.

I also hated how the movie took a relatively long time setting up the rules for the rituals they're about to follow, and then it doesn't really seem to follow them. The rules keep changing, and it gets even goofier when the woman keeps changing what she wants out of the ritual, lying repeatedly to the occultist. Also, there's multiple scenes that seem completely out of order, as there are scenes where the ritual is obviously working, but in the scenes afterwards the woman complains about it not working. Specifically, there's this beautiful scene where she's sitting in a circle with all of these golden flakes appearing out of midair and raining down on her. Then in the very next scene she attacks the occultist because the ritual hasn't started working yet. It just doesn't make any sense.

My other biggest problem with the film is that it's no where near as creative as it could have been, as the ritual was removing the house from the real world, and bringing it into the world of angels and demons. However, all we ever hear are thumps along with some demon pretending to be her dead kid, and all we ever see are goofy humans in weird dirty outfits. There also aren't really any scary moments, which could have easily been achieved with the setup of the film.

Overall, A Dark Song just isn't a very good movie, and I definitely wouldn't recommend it. If you'd like to see a video version of my review, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osV6mZvWqW8

I was anxiously awaiting this film's release because I loved the director's previous film, The Loved Ones, and this movie had a really cool trailer. So I watched it last night and absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed how it played with a lot of the common horror tropes, as a result creating something very original and different. The set-up of the movie has been done hundreds of times, where a family moves into a new house after the previous occupants died. At first you think it's going to be something like Amityville, but The Devil's Candy switches things up by having the murderer of the previous occupants still being alive. There are also some very interesting things where it seems like the father, who is an artist, might also be hearing voices, and maybe the house is haunted, or perhaps he's just catching a glimpse into the mind of the crazed killer and/or his victims. Whatever it is, it's inspiring him and his art in a way nothing else has. So there's a temptation to embrace whatever's happening or fight against it.

All of the acting in the film is very well done, and I loved how every character was unique. The father and daughter have a really interesting relationship, and they're both metal heads. The mom has a little less characterization, but she's still definitely not generic. The killer (that kind of looks like an evil Santa Claus) was great too; he was definitely a creepy demented person. My only problem with the film is that it is a pretty short movie at around 1 hour and 17 minutes. I would have liked a couple of more scenes with the family just existing before everything gets weird, or even more of a buildup of the evil presence or whatever it was before the end of the movie.

Still, I'd highly recommend this film, especially if you're a fan of original horror movies. If you want to see my video review for the film, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO9-dBTeClU

The movie was better than it had any right to be, but it didn't try to do anything new. I actually enjoyed the mystery aspect of the film, but it kind of failed as a scary movie, as it wasn't scary at all and was filled with cheap fake jump scares. The acting from the two main people isn't bad, but you can tell they got the parts just because they were pretty. This movie seems much more of a sequel to the original movie The Ring, forgetting most of the nonsense from The Ring 2. Rings also seems to take more inspiration from the original Japanese films, where a lot more is learned about Samara's birth parents.

From the trailers, I thought that this movie might have a lot more stuff with social media, but other than a few things, this movie could have taken place a decade ago. The only thing to show that the film's in the present is that they copy & paste video files, and they use smart phones as flashlights. Overall, the film isn't horrible, but it also isn't very good, I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

If you want to see my full review in video form you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JstAEbfzXwI

It's amazing how well the trio slips right back into top form in the first episode of the Grand Tour. I loved the first episode, and I wish I could watch the rest of the season right now. This show is funnier than most of the comedies on TV, and it has to be one of the most gorgeous shows on TV, as they really spared no expense on the production values. They even have some excellent CGI showing how each hybrid engine works.

The only things missing from Top Gear are the Stig, and the celebrity interviews. While this eliminates some of the excellent Stig jokes, they've replaced him with a named racer to perform time trials on their crazy new track. For the celebrities, they had a funny series of jokes about it, but honestly there's not much to miss.

So overall, I'd recommend this show to everyone, but especially fans of humor, cars, and travel. I think I might have a new favorite TV show with The Grand Tour, and I can't wait to see the rest of the season.

From all of the excellent reviews and the enthralling trailers, I had incredibly high expectations for the movie Arrival as I was walking into my local theater. I left the theater almost on the verge of a panic attack with my expectations obliterated after the movie ended. Arrival was the most breathtaking and powerful films that I have ever seen, and I can honestly say that I have never had so strong of a reaction to a movie in my entire life. From the heartfelt cold open, to the appearance of "Arrival" signaling the ending of the movie, I believe that it was as close as a film can come to being perfect. The emotional perfection of the movie's climax was almost too much for me to handle, and it brought out a reaction in myself that I've only experienced when reading books (mainly from Robin Hobb and Patrick Rothfuss).

It was a joy to see a true Hard Science-Fiction story on the big screen, and Denis Villeneuve has proved once again to be a masterful director. Every frame of this film is incredibly gorgeous, and I honestly don't know how some of it was filmed, as things that have to be CGI look so real. There is so much I could say about the movie, but I want to avoid any chance of spoilers. However, I will say that the design of the aliens and their language was incredibly interesting, original, and beautiful. I loved how the creators of the movie embraced the fact that if we do ever meet any alien species, they are not going to look anything like us or immediately be able to communicate with Humanity. It's very interesting how the movie handles deciphering the Heptapod's language and teaching them our language, and while some could find these moments boring, for me they were engrossing. I wouldn't have minded even more scientific examination of linguistics and translating the language that bears no resemblance to anything created on Earth.

This movie may not be for everyone, but depending on how it holds up after multiple viewings, I might have a new movie in my personal Top 10 Films of All Time. I highly recommend it, and if you want to see a video of my full review where I go into spoilers for the second half, it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ofAsrVZ6g

This was honestly one of the worst movies that I've ever seen. I don't know how this piece of crap was made, and how they actually released it. They should have just kept the film on the shelf, but instead they spent 0 dollars on advertising the film in the hopes that gullible film goers will see the movie before the bad reviews can be published to scare people away. Don't watch this film.

One of the weirdest things about it, is that even from the very beginning, what's the point of featuring the Disappointments Room Ghosts if it doesn't mirror something in her own life. I mean even if they wanted to have the kid be Autistic or something, he didn't have to have a huge head tumor like the ghost girl. None of the movie made sense, and I was amazed at how it just ended out of the blue, and they like a happy family despite what had just happened. It was an absolute piece of crap.

You can see my full review over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4n2m89Ghts