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From 2004 to 2010, the 'Saw' franchise kinda took things over for the Halloween season. In fact, it even became a part of their advertising campaign, suggesting "if it's Halloween, it must be 'Saw'". The franchise died with the release of 'Saw 3D - The Final Chapter', and like with most "Final Chapters" in horror, this was eventually resurrected. Before diving in here, let me make a couple of things perfectly clear. 1) I haven't actually seen any of the 'Saw' films after the third one. The main reason being, it made for a well-rounded trilogy as it stood. 2) and another reason I didn't continue, I just plain don't like "torture porn" as a horror element. It works for some, but I am more a fan of stuff that gets to your head and allows your imagination to fill in the blanks. To me, less is more. To me, "torture porn" is a cheap way to make the audience squirm. I can't deny it's kind of effective, but I guess it's just not for me. So why did I see it? Well... I kinda missed my shot with a good 'Friday the 13th' special this October. It would have been great for Halloween, and it sucks 'cause my next opportunity for that date in October isn't until 2023. So, I went another way on it and thought "Saw is synonymous with Halloween, so we'll keep it simple". Having said all that, I'll try to review this as best I can for the audience it was meant for. Well, in all honesty, what we have here is essentially what anyone would expect. There's a detective looking for what appears to be a Jigsaw copycat, and all the while a bunch of people get massacred, courtesy of jigsaw's brutal traps. Oh, and there's a big twist at the end, which is pretty cool, but that's all one can expect from a 'Saw' flick made seven years after it all ended. And that's sadly all I have to say about it. As usual, the traps are the real stars of the movie, and you don't necessarily sympathize with any of the characters. But really, are we here for that, or are we here to see people get ripped to shreds in unique and gruesome ways? As horrible as that may sound, I do think that 'Saw' is at the point (or probably past it a long time ago) where people are just looking for that special something about it. Jason was all about brutal and quick kills, Freddy was all about his one-liners and teasing his victims, Pinhead was all about torture (the original "torture porn"?), with any of these Hollywood killers, we wanna see what we wanna see. So, for that, 'Jigsaw' is no real exception. I think as long as you don't expect much more than... well... a 'Saw' movie, you won't be too bitterly disappointed. One can't set their life by 'Rotten Tomatoes', but it does show a good example here of how fans of the franchise heavily outweigh critics of the franchise, and there's just no stopping them. As it stands, critically, it has a meager 39%. The fans though, a whopping 95%! So in other words, this could probably start all over again and take over Halloween for a few more years... I kinda hope it doesn't, as Jigsaw has already made his mark, and made it well, but never say never - especially when it comes to money making horror franchises! 3/5
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Ah, 'The Snowman'. It has people talking about how incredibly terrible it is, how misleading the trailer is, and how much better the book is. But this isn't like comparing a 'Harry Potter' movie to it's book. It's more like comparing a trainwreck to a masterpiece. From what I understand, the book from writer Jo Nesbo IS actually pretty amazing. From what I also understand, director Tomas Alfredson has also been apologetic about the film itself, saying that 15 to 20 minutes of the film had to be cut. The film has therefore been left as a sort of messy throw-away that probably never should have seen the light of day. Our protagonist, a detective named *snicker* Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), investigates the disappearances of someone during the first snowfall of the winter. Aand there's a guy he calls "The Snowman Killer" who I guess he fears is at large again? Aand whenever the guy kills he makes snowmen out of his victims, utilizing various body parts - an idea that ALMOST could have been cool if it didn't look so damn ridiculous. Why snowmen? Well, when the killer was a kid, his father was abusive to his mother so he ran outside to build a snowman and I guess that has something to do with it. Truth be told, this was almost impossible to follow. If you managed, seriously, congratulations 'cause I was lost ALL the way through this. Yet somehow I was still able to guess who the killer was 'cause it was pretty obvious from the get-go. Just ask yourself "who has the biggest motive to piss off Harry?" and... damn, it's easy. So, clearly I wasn't exactly on board with this either, and it's no secret I think it's a pretty terrible film overall. You may be asking "what about the other big names I saw in this? What do they do?" I'm actually still asking myself that question, and I SAW the movie. It's furthermore drenched in thriller tropes, and it's all around just boring. Any time anything actually happens, it's just so bland and uninteresting. You can pretty much just see the kills from the trailer, and that's what you've got in the movie. I also just don't get why we're supposed to give a damn about Harry. He's apparently an alcoholic, so I guess we're supposed to feel bed for him, but you don't sympathize at all. He's really kinda just... there. I'm pretty sure the Replicants from 'Blade Runner' had more personality than the guy. By the end of the movie, you're left wondering what the hell you've just watched. But I will say this... It COULD fall into the realm of "it's so bad it's good". There were quite a few moments throughout this when I gave a subtle laugh just because something seemed so ridiculous or over the top. Hell, the snowman design itself is kinda laughable. It's certainly not intimidating. It also just lacks direction, is stiffly acted, and the music selection they have for their eerie atmosphere is 'The Popcorn Song' and *sigh* some other classic work I can't recall the name of, BUT it's seen in a lot of cartoons. It's not all terrible though. There are SOME redeeming qualities to this. The cinematography, for the most part, was pretty well done. Although I have to admit that there were times the editing kinda pissed me off 'cause I didn't know what was going on. But the landscape shots and a lot of other shots taking place on bridges and mountains are really quite beautiful. Other redeeming qualities include... well, I guess nothing much other than the fact that one might be able to see this as a "so bad it's good" film. Bottom line, don't bother with it unless A) it's free, and B) you go in knowing it's gonna suck. For a film that succeeded very well in what THIS was trying to do, may I recommend 'Se7en' instead. 1/5  Now Playing
If I'm honest, when I set this up to be a part of the Halloween Special, it was the title I had the lowest of expectations from. The trailer just made it look like a play on the typical American slasher film with the twist that it's essentially 'Groundhog Day' with a killer. I'm actually very happy to say that it turned out to be a pleasant surprise! It starts out with our lead, Tree (Jessica Rothe) waking up in some guy named Carter's (Israel Broussard) dorm room after a night of partying. She is your typical "mean girl" as she goes about her day. She treats Carter like crap afterwards, she throws her roommate's surprise birthday cupcake in the trash, she has an affair with one of her college professors, and all the while carries that "I'm better than everyone 'cause I'm pretty" attitude. She's generally just a shitty person. Later that night, she gets murdered by some random wearing a baby mask, and she starts the day over via 'Groundhog Day' fashion with a dash of 'Edge of Tomorrow'. This happens a bunch of times, and each time ends with her death. The best anyone can come up with is that she needs to figure out who her killer is in order to break the cycle. Of course, in doing this, she keeps getting caught and murdered or otherwise just dying in some other way - like once she gets nailed by a passing by car... not sure that the killer was driving, but it seemed totally accidental. This actually gives way to a rather funny montage where her death almost becomes a joke - something relatable with 'Edge of Tomorrow'. I think perhaps the best thing about this movie is that it's not as typical as one might think. Tree (I know, the name's ridiculous) finds herself looking inside herself for a lot of it, and eventually finds that she wants to become a better person. It's almost like she's going through a personal Hell and wants to repent. I both hated her and loved her character in this. It helps that I always enjoy a story involving someone terrible who ultimately learns to become a good person. The most classic example being 'Scrooge' and a more recent example being 'The Invisible'. I have to give the film credit for not only the development of this otherwise despicable character, but for establishing a few rules. She doesn't just come back and start over like Mario would, she comes back with injuries relating to her last death. Each time, it makes her weaker and weaker which in turn gives her situation an actual stopping point, but we never know when it will be. There was one particular death here I think they really needed to do a more with upon her return, and I can almost guarantee you'll be able to point out which one it is. But the idea of there being a limit as opposed to Bill Murray's almost God-like quality in 'Groundhog Day' is certainly clever. I think the only thing that threw me off here would involve spoiling the movie, so I won't go into too much detail, but I was kinda disappointed with the ending. I won't give anything away, but it's the kind of thing that probably should have ended at a certain point, yet carried on to deliver more twists. In turn, this made my prediction of who the killer was in the end accurate, but it did tease at the idea of me being way off, which MIGHT have been better. That said, if it DID end where I wanted it to, it could have been seen as a total cop out at the same time. So that's just something one will have to judge for themselves. Overall though, I enjoyed this. It delivered some good, dark laughs, and it was reminiscent of the teen horror of the 90s like 'Scream' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'. It was cool that they made the killer's mask the actual school mascot mask (The Babies? Okay, sure, why not?) giving way to the mystery of who the killer is. They sell the masks on campus, so it really could be anyone. I'm not sure that this will become any sort of a regular movie for me, but it was a pleasant surprise to say the least. Oh, and it's 100% self-aware that it's doing 'Groundhog Day', as it's straight up addressed within the movie itself, so bonus points for that. 4/5  Now Playing
Truth be told, this week hasn't been the easiest of "narrow-downs" for my Halloween Special. As far as "Now Playing" reviews went, I had a couple of options. I could A) go see 'Flatliners' (the original plan), which has been rated so low it's almost stunning, or B) hop on the controversy train and check out 'mother!' After all, it's highly advertised as a horror/thriller, so it comes close enough to fitting my "Halloween theme"... I guess. I'm gonna go ahead and just say that of the movies I'm reviewing this month, this is by far the strangest as far as category goes. Anyway, I always enjoy the opportunity to check something really that's so split down the middle as far as reviews go. It's an ample opportunity to offer my own opinion within a sea of opinions that differ from one another. The thing is, at this point in the game, 'mother!' is about ready to leave theaters, and there's not a whole lot I can say that hasn't been said yet. On the surface, we have a happy couple played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. These guys already provide their own controversy by being so far apart in age, ignoring the "half your age plus 7" rule (27 and 48 at this point, respectively) BUT there's a reason for that, which I'll get to later. Anyway, it's essentially these two trying to live their lives in a beautiful home in the country. However, the house gets overtaken by unwanted visitors who tend to ignore Jennifer's every rule of the house. They have come from far and wide to praise Bardem as "The Poet"; a great writer. Meanwhile, Jennifer's just struggling to pull his attention away from his worshipers to focus on her, their solitude and happiness - especially after she gets pregnant. The whole thing moves pretty fast, it's really damn strange, and full of symbolism. Generally speaking, if one doesn't understand the symbolism, the movie's one big hot mess of WTF. I will tell you right now that I fully understand why it's so split down the middle, review-wise. Now, I won't go into depth on everything here, but one almost NEEDS to go into this movie with the following word in mind "Bible". Do that, and you'll probably figure it all out as it unfolds, AND it will give you some idea as to the reason for their age gap I mentioned before. Each of them represents a certain something. From there, it's up to you to decide whether or not it was good or bad. You're reading this, however, to see what my opinion is on the film. Well, I actually went into this knowing what it was all an allegory for, having seen and read a few reviews for it already. I'll give Aronofsky this - it was clever! Going in, knowing what I knew, I was able to piece together quite a lot of it. However, this is just one of those movies that I managed to get, but not fully enjoy. It has a certain respect from me, but that doesn't mean I actually liked it. If I went into this not knowing what I knew, I'd have been incredibly lost. I'm not altogether sure that I would have picked up on the right symbolism for myself Plus there's just some imagery here that's truly disturbing. If that's what Aronofsky was trying to do, fine, but that doesn't mean it's for me. Mr. Aronofsky has always been a sort of enigma of a director for yours truly. 'Requiem for a Dream' is full of disturbing imagery too, but I actually love that movie. 'Black Swan' was really strange and out there, but I thought it's symbolism was strong and I enjoyed it. 'mother!', I hate to say, feels preachy more than anything. The symbolism here is certainly clever, but he's really throwing his own messages about man's relationship with God and the Earth at us through the whole movie. It also just gets frustrating at times. There's something about people who don't listen that just boils my skin. It was actually the main reason I wasn't a fan of the first 'Paranormal Activity'. Stubborn attitudes just plain piss me off, and this movie is LOADED with it! To some, this movie will be a masterful work of art that invokes conversation, both negative and positive. To others' it's gonna be the hot mess of WTF that I had mentioned before. For me, I just think if you like Aronofsky, there's better titles to choose from. I won't fully bring this one down, because when it's all said and done, the symbolism here IS still clever. BUT it comes off as sort of pretentious this time around. My faith remains, however, that he'll come up with something else still artsy, but more enjoyable. 2/5 |
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