So, just to start this review off on a confession, I have no idea what in the hell happened in this movie. It was too damned smart and big-worded for me that the whole time I felt like a 10-year-old kid being told how quantum physics works while describing complex mathematical equations. In other words, this made me feel like an idiot, but I'll see what I CAN derive from it and try to give it a fair review. We meet a team of scientists who are working on something complex and they accidentally discover what they believe to be time travel. One of them tests out the theory, going back six hours, and it turns into a paradoxical movie about the effects of time travel, but admittedly done in relatively original ways. The thing is, this is to time travel movies what something like 'Act of Valor' is to military movies. It feels incredibly realistic, but to a fault, where it becomes hard to follow. Joe Popcorn may not quite understand all of the terminology or necessarily even what's going on at certain points. 'Primer' is LOADED with dialogue that is jam packed with science terminology to such an extent that I couldn't tell if these dudes were real-life scientists, or they were just saying words because they sounded intelligent. It's all so incredibly confusing, and I mean, call me an idiot, but I couldn't follow it for shit. Hell, here's the Wiki write-up about it. It'll be able to either explain it better, or confuse you further, but this movie is so far over my head, it's up there with the next flight to Florida. I can't be incredibly harsh on it, however, as it's just an innocent independent film, clearly out there to be a smart time travel movie. The good news is that (for now) it can be found in it's entirety for free on YouTube, so access to it is easy. Just be prepared to pay close attention to it, because it totally lost me in certain areas just 'cause I looked out my window for two seconds or something. Where the film hurts itself is, again, in the complicated dialogue. It's doing a fine enough job at making time travel look like it could go down realistically. But the problem is, it's boring as hell. It's essentially all talking and trying to figure stuff out while the only thing I'm stuck trying to figure out is how in the hell these guys memorized their lines of dialogue. It's not something I'd just recommend to people, even as a unique time travel movie. But if you are curious to see something more cerebral in time travel and don't mind the watching-paint-dry dialogue, head on over to YouTube and look it up. It does boast a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I do end up in the minority here, but I just found it to be a solid hour and a half of my brain turning into a rock. 2/5
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For me, Frances McDormand is someone I've always seen great talent in, but I've seen her in so few things. Truth be told, given this film's cast, I was surprised that it fit in so well with the Under the Radar category. This one goes back to 2003, and comes from writer/director Lisa Cholodenko. She also directed the 2010 Best Film nominee 'The Kids Are All Right', but the rest of her resume isn't exactly huge. Top that off with the fact that this is a very different role for Frances McDormand, I kinda sorta had to check it out. The film centers mostly on a couple, Sam (Christian Bale) and Alex (Kate Beckinsale). Sam finds work in Lauren Canyon, LA, and arranges to stay at his mother, Jane's (McDormand) house until they can find a place of their own. Being a record producer, she was supposed to be elsewhere for a while, leaving them an empty house. However, due to a change of plans, Jane ends up staying home, and living her rock and roll lifestyle with absolutely no shame. While Sam ends up perpetually embarrassed by her, and wanting her to tone it down for Alex, Alex actually becomes relatively interested, which takes her away from finishing her dissertation on genomics. Much of the rest of the film explores the potentials, both positive and negative, of being thrown into such a lifestyle. However, I should mention, it doesn't get TOO harsh. For the most part, these aspects end up being mostly sexual as opposed to the common drug addiction scenario. This is a story that focuses on one particular family's dysfunctional issues, and there's not a whole lot more to it. But I will say that McDormand totally sticks out here as an overall likable character, BUT she's that character you second guess. You pretty much fall in love with her fun and out-there personality, but I can't deny there are moments that leave you wondering if in the end she's gonna end up being a villain of sorts or not. Whether she does, seems to be a question of the viewing audience's morals. So it's definitely something you'll have to see for yourself. I can't say Bale or Beckinsale particularly stick out here, but that's kinda fair considering neither name was quite a big deal yet. She was just about to be Selene from 'Underworld', and he wasn't gonna be Batman for another few years. But one character that does stick out as a villain you totally love to hate is Jane's young boyfriend, Ian McKnight (Alessandro Nivola), who has very obvious lusty eyes for Alex. You just wanna punch the guy in the nuts being as slimy as he is. Anyway, this kind of makes me think of the obscure adult family drama that might get it's Oscar nomination, but you're pretty damn sure it won't walk away with the award. I will recommend it to those, however, wishing to see McDormand flexing her acting muscle 'cause she does a damn good job here. Though moments can be a bit weird and awkward, I have to admit that it's a shame this title is so unknown. 3/5 Well, the Oscars have come and gone, and the awards have been given out, and it's only a matter of time before Facebook and Twitter explode with what's unfair about what, but I'm choosing to take a bit more of a positive spin on things here. For the next four weeks, my 'Under the Radar' reviews will be based on movies that passed a lot of audiences by, featuring all four of the "Best Actors" who won this year, starting with Supporting Actor, Sam Rockwell. Here we have 'Moon', starring Rockwell and almost no one else. The film takes place in the near future where the moon has been discovered to be a cost-effective renewable source of energy. Sam Bell (Rockwell) spends three years on the moon, alone, with fairly moderate communication with Earth, taking care of the equipment that allows the moon's energy to flow to Earth. However, nearing the end of his three-year stint, he discovers an unsettling truth about both the operation and himself. For those who may not be into such things, fair warning that this is very much a bottle movie. Sam's accompanied by his faithful computer, GERTY (Kevin Spacey), but little else. Of course, this is what makes the movie so captivating. You totally get the sense of desperate loneliness this guy is facing. But nothing illustrates this more than Rockwell's incredible performance. I haven't seen the guy in a lot, but anything I have seen that he's in seems to make him deserving of some kind of award. 'Moon' was a particular performance of his that stood out among the rest to me, and that's even speaking of his roles in movies like 'The Green Mile' and 'Seven Psychopaths'. In all honesty, this was a 2009 performance I felt that was ignored too easily from the Academy and the Globes alike. But at least BAFTA paid attention and gave director Duncan Jones his. Aside from acting and directorial skills, however, this film does a great job at setting up atmosphere, and making the audience empathize with the lead character. GERTY is just as interesting, because one can very easily assume that he's a HAL waiting to happen. What the film does with it, however, is keep you guessing about it all the way through. There are moments you don't trust GERTY with anything, but there are moments you'd put your life in his hands. This is one of those rare cases of "Man vs Himself" that is done in such an interesting way, i can't help but give the film the credit it deserves. Albeit, a little slow at times, if you like a movie that makes you think, this is a pretty great title to check out. 4/5 If you were anywhere near the internet last year, chances are you saw something that had to do with this movie. Or maybe not, I dunno, that was just my experience. Anyway, here we had a dark comedy, starring Aubrey Plaza, so I was pretty much on board 'cause I do enjoy me some Plaza every now and then. Though, I never really did get what the movie was about, entirely. I took it as being a sort of road trip movie, but it ended up being something completely different that I dunno if I liked or disliked by the end. Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) has recently moved to LA with some inheritance money. As it turns out, she develops a sick social media obsession over a popular girl named Taylor, and does what she can to force her way into her life, starting with kidnapping and then "rescuing" her dog, giving her an easy in. As the movie unfolds, they become very close friends, but that may or may not make matters in Ingrid's mind worse than they already are. Ingrid also befriends her new landlord, Dan Pinto (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) who has a bit of an obsession with Batman, and is easily the most likable character in this movie. He likes her pretty well, but her obsession with Taylor seems to get very much in the way of something potentially good between the two. This film is making two social commentaries at once, and though they are loud and clear, it's ending leaves you wondering how you feel about Ingrid. This is about our general obsessions these days with social media on the surface, but it goes deeper to suggest various consequences it can have on those who aren't entirely mentally stable. The beautiful part of the movie is that it's NOT about "cyber bullying" at all, but more about the "Instagram creep" from the creep's perspective. And in the end, you really play with the idea in your head that yeah, she's an unsettling character, but there's a part of you that feels bad for her all the same and you hope she ends up finding what she needs. This is going to absolutely be one title where people are split right down the middle by the end. There's a part of it's final message that's extremely negative, and there's a part of you that might even hate Ingrid when it's all said and done. But again, there's just that little slice of conscience within you that might yet understand her character better than you did in the beginning. It could be seen as a character study on some more extreme mental health issues. It's a dark comedy, but sadly doesn't exactly boast as many laughs as one might imagine from something like this. The trade off is that it does give you moments involving these characters where you second guess how much you like or dislike them. Again though, Dan is pretty much an all-around likable dude, and in some ways you feel the worst for him in the end 'cause he's just trying to do his thing and keeps falling into shitty situations. He's probably who you route for the most here (if there's any routing necessary, anyway). There's a certain discomfort that comes from this movie, yes, but I believe that was mostly done on purpose in order for the viewer to examine both sides of the coin. Will you side with the psycho stalker girl, or will you side with the annoyingly over-popular Instagram girl? Can you side with either? Give it a shot and find out. You may be a little bit surprised with your feelings by the end. 3/5 Noticing this title along with it's cast, and checking out the trailer when posting last week's DVD and Blu-ray choices, I got to thinking a couple of different things. One, I really felt like this was a title I needed to check out, and two, to refer to my DVD/Blu-ray list more often for these Under the Radar reviews. I'm veering away from Oscar territory now, as the Oscar Special has started today. But I'm rambling, so let's just get on with the review, shall we? For starters I'd like to mention that this one is directed by Richard Linklater, who most know as the 'Dazed and Confused' guy, more recently the 'Boyhood' guy, or to some, like myself, the oh so deep 'Waking Life' guy. The final product here is his take on the middle-aged every-man adventure. In a similar vein to something like 'Wild Hogs' or last year's 'Going in Style'. Our main character, Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) walks into a bar owned by Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston), an old Vietnam war buddy. They spend all night catching up, where there's brief mention of Doc's bad-conduct discharge and incarceration, which becomes an unfolding side story as the film goes on, and we get to know the characters better. The pair head to a church in the morning where they find another old friend from Nam, Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) who has since become the church's pastor. Once they're all together, Doc informs them that his son was killed in action in Iraq, and that it would mean a lot for them to attend his funeral. However once they do, they discover what exactly happened, and the truth leads Doc to want to take his son home with him, and bury him in his graduation suit. Meanwhile the government believes very strongly that he should be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and sends the son's friend, Washington (J. Quinton Johnson) to retrieve the son's body for them. One can probably see this as a strong political anti-war statement against the American government. There's a lot of reflection on their experiences in Vietnam, and comparison to the war in Iraq as we actually see our three main characters doing a lot of male bonding with Washington tagging along for the ride. It doesn't get super deep and thought provoking, but it ends up being an interesting character study of a few main characters who have been affected by war. One of the very interesting things about this movie, I found, was that even though Doc is the main character, this ends up being a bit more of a Sal and Richard picture. Doc's whole mission is just the main part of the story. Otherwise, he's actually rather quiet through most of the movie. Meanwhile, Sal and Richard are essentially playing Doc's battling conscience. Sal always wants to be the ballsy one, not caring what anyone thinks, and essentially fearless, but Richard is much more of a thinker about situations they run into, and far more diplomatic, wanting to do what's right for everyone. Meanwhile, Doc seems to have a bit of trouble thinking for himself a lot of the time. The only thing he's 100% sure on in this is getting his son back home and out of the government's hands. The whole thing kinda builds to a nice little ending, and all in all, it's touching. But I can't deny that I found a few plot holes along the way. For example, nothing really seems to come from Washington being ordered to bring this kid's body back. Unless of course I missed it. Sometimes you just have to blink. The real way to enjoy this movie, though, is to watch the whole bonding process with these guys. You can tell that they were great, close friends, even with Richard and Sal's constant arguing. They seem to have a bit of a love/hate thing going with each other. Despite a few problems here and there, it still manages to be a very warm movie, and you do end up liking these characters in the end despite how you may feel about them in the beginning. It's just a nice little indie film from Amazon you can throw on, on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing spectacular, but certainly very enjoyable all the same. 3/5 So, yeah. There was 'The Illusionist' live action film from 2006 that most people's minds seem to jump to when I bring up this title, but many forget about the French animated film from 2010 that was nominated for an Oscar. However it was up against the likes of 'Toy Story 3' AND 'How to Train Your Dragon' that year, who were far too stiff a competition for this quaint little film. This is one of those overall silent films with next to no talking, and most of the communication is done with body language. It follows a magician who is part of a dying breed of entertainer, and it shows when even his minimal audience doesn't seem altogether impressed with his act. He now has to compete with rock and roll music and other forms of popular entertainment, like film. He packs it in, and heads towards a small Scottish community who's entertained by his work, and there, he meets a young girl named Alice who takes an interest and genuine belief in his magic. Believing that he's truly gifted, Alice heads with him to Edinburgh where he puts on a modest performance for a small theater. All the while the pair stay in a semi run-down hotel room, him on the couch and her on the bed, that favors older entertainers such as a clown, a couple of acrobats, and a ventriloquist. The rest of the movie plays out a lot like 'The Artist' in a way, where the end message seems to be that change must happen, even if it hurts. This movie does, indeed, have quite a bit of charm to it. There's something to be said about a movie that can tell a story, and tell it well, with next to no dialogue. 'Shaun the Sheep' was probably the most recent thorough accomplishment of this technique. It's rare, but it's proof that simplicity can work. However, the true star of this movie is most definitely in the animator's touch. Not only is it a nice stray away from the modern CG craze, but at times it looks so artistically beautiful that some of these landscapes look like professional paintings, and the animation of the camera doing a lot of wide landscape shots is as smooth as silk. It really is a sort of breathtaking film to watch and experience. It's like a trip to Europe in the comfort of your own home. Part of what makes this movie good, however, is also what people might not like about it. To be perfectly blunt, this is a very depressing movie by the end of it all. However the sadness comes from the whole idea of change and moving on, and in such a nostalgic day and age where we're repeating the 80's like a record stuck on a loop, perhaps a lot of us (myself included) can learn from it. Change can be a scary thing, but it's necessary. So I could see it really bumming some viewers out. But at the same time, if you want something genuine and heart-felt, it's a good title to check out. 4/5 Here's a title from the 2011 Oscars; admittedly an interesting year with no Disney and/or Pixar films in the category, and between this and another one called 'Chico & Rita', it was actually relatively diverse as well. 'A Cat in Paris' tells the story of a... cat in Paris who lives a bit of a double life. By day, he hangs out with his loving owner and friend, a young girl named Zoe (Lauren Weintraub). By night, he heads over to a cat burglar named Nico's (Steve Blum) house to assist him with his thievery. This all makes it sound like a fun children's adventure, but make no mistake with this one. It's a great film, but it gets rough, and one can see what got it nominated. They tackle the very serious issue here of a little girl straight up dealing with her father's murder. Zoe has become a mute due to this, and seemingly her only friend is this cat. The murder is carried out by a mobster named Victor Costa (JB Blanc), and Zoe's mother, Jeanne (Marcia Gay Harden) is actually a cop who worked with the father on the force, and is chasing down Costa in an effort to put him away for good. So, in other words, it's kind of a movie where all of this intense stuff is going on, but it's through the eyes of the cat... and Zoe, really. Although the animation might have a tendency to look a little, how shall I say it.. "art-housey"? The story here is pretty engaging, considering how dark it all actually gets. The villains tend to be a little more on the bumbling, cartoonish side of things, so there's still some humor to it as they play off the otherwise very nasty Costa. By the way, in case you've made it this far and you're wondering what's up with this cat burglar I mentioned, well, he plays the role of a subplot in which a lot of jewelry goes missing, and Jeanne is working that case as well. I won't spoil anything much, but he does serve a bit more of a purpose than I make it sound. All this said, I probably wouldn't recommend it so highly to the young-young crowd. There are various parts here that could be kinda scary, and there's even a bit of language being used. But if you're good with all that, check it out for yourself. It's actually quite good, and it has a short running time of just over an hour. Perhaps not the family-friendly animated film the Academy might have been looking for that year, but time well spent altogether. 4/5 Considering the whole Oscar Season thing, I thought I'd take the time to go back and revisit something that's only sorta-kinda "under the radar", being the lesser-known Oscar nominated, animated features. I'll start with one from last year - the one with the confusing-as-hell title. No, really. When I first saw the title, I didn't know what to think. It's a French film, so I figured maybe it was a French thing I just didn't understand. Turns out, the meaning behind the title is much deeper. Icare (Gaspard Schlatter) is a 9-year-old boy who lives with his mother who gave him the nickname, zucchini. There's never really a reason behind it, it's just kinda there. However, it doesn't fully need an explanation, when looking at how the story unfolds. You see, shit gets dark. The father has walked out on them, and the mother straight up dies in the beginning. Zucchini is then taken to an orphanage where, being the new kid, he gets picked on by this brat named Simon (Paulin Jaccoud). Soon, however, Zucchini learns that all these kids are here for various, very real situations including such things as drug-addicted parents to touchy-feely parents to parents who have murdered other parents and... I mean, damn! I found this on Netflix under "feel-good movies". But does all this make it a bad movie? Hell no! For starters, going back to the claim of it being a "feel-good" movie, it works on the same level as something like '50/50', where it gets ballsy enough to illustrate rather serious issues with a sense of humor. In both cases, they're movies that show the potential of a "light at the end of the tunnel" when it comes to certain struggles. And they're there to tell us "hey, if you're going through this, know that you're not alone". It's what makes these kinds of films so strong, and eligible for not only a Golden Globe, but an Oscar. Now, the big question with animation tends to be along the lines of "can I show this to my kids?" Well, it also covers things like sex and how a kid gets confused by certain things, so expect some sexual humor on top of everything I've already told you about. I'm gonna have to say that this isn't for kids, necessarily, but it will speak to a certain age group of children who may be orphans, themselves. It may just be one of those important movies for kids in that situation to, as I mentioned before, let them know that they sure as hell are not alone. In several ways, this does end up being a bit of a feel-good movie. However, in several ways, it's also very depressing. But, it's really this near-perfect blend from both sides. So, check it out and judge however weird, creepy, happy, or powerful this movie really is for yourself. To me, it stands very strong, manages to be quite thought-provoking, and I think it's well worth the watch. If nothing else sways you, it's only about an hour and six minutes, so it's easy to get through. 5/5 Being that this has been one of the most talked about films that has floated under the radar (at least as far as some sites I visit go), I had to give it a chance. I watched the trailer, and it looked like it could be a fun, gritty time. On top of that, it looked like Mr. Sparkle, himself, Robert Pattinson, is taking on a rather serious acting role here. Thankfully, he's pulling a Leo DiCaprio, also known as a Ryan Gosling, and breaking free of that teen-girl-crush stereotype. The movie follows two brothers, Connie (short for Constantine, and the guy Pattinson plays) and Nick, Connie's mentally challenged brother (portrayed by one of the directors here, Benny Safdie). In the opening of the film, the two try to pull of a bank robbery. It goes over well until they are confronted by cops and a panicked Nick runs for it. Nick gets arrested, but Connie manages to escape. He then tries using the robbery money to try to secure a bail bond for his brother. Unfortunately, it's not enough, and the rest of the movie is a stylish and tense portrayal of Connie's search for the rest of the money. So, it doesn't sound like a lot, and fairly unexciting, but the basic plot isn't what ends up making the movie enjoyable. First of all, let's talk about Pattinson. Truth be told, he's pretty much acting his ass off here, and his performance has actually allowed me to look at him in a brand new light. I never hated the guy or anything, but I had yet to see the performance that would sell me on him being a great actor. This happened to be that performance - albeit, at times, this is a very sleazy and uncomfortable character. You develop a love/hate thing with him. You love him for trying to get his brother out of jail, but you hate him when... well, I'm just gonna say it 'cause it's very uncomfortable... he takes advantage of a 16-year-old girl of color... which, yeah... it was overall unnecessary to any sort of plot, and was seemingly just thrown in to mess with us and make us feel terribly uncomfortable. So you could say that this wasn't 100% enjoyable to yours truly, and it's made even worse by what's happening in Hollywood right now. I would assume that our discomfort was the point, but like torture porn, it's not something I particularly like to sit through. At the end of it all, it's a pretty dynamite performance though. Onto other things, I had to give the movie credit for having the characters feel very real, and it does a good job at setting a very intensely suspenseful atmosphere with things like lighting and the score. Now, the score DID get on my nerves after a while, but I can't deny that there was an odd effectiveness to it. It's very much just dark, synthesized tones that get more intense as the suspense picks up. So, though it managed to get under my skin, personally, I can still understand why people are seeing it as one of the movie's better qualities. The only things I have generally negative to say about it are that it's just too simple of an idea, and none of the characters themselves were particularly likable. For the most part, you end up just getting a kick out of them making stupid decisions that lead to things getting worse for them. So, I really didn't love this like so many people did because I just didn't get what was INCREDIBLY appealing about it. But for the things about it I did manage to enjoy, I enjoyed a lot. It's a very small, independent film though, and it just is what it is. You'll love it, you'll hate it, or you'll be like me and meet somewhere in the middle. 3/5 This isn't part of my Halloween special, but once again, I've found an interesting Halloween title through Netflix. However, I'll forewarn the non-artsy crowd right now that there is some pretty deep symbolism going on here with some pretty confusing scenes. I usually meet "artsy' somewhere in the middle. Basically, if it speaks to me, I like it. And this one... well, it spoke to me in a pretty big way. The film's main focus is a young man named Corey (Toby Wallace). On Halloween, he and his skateboarding buddies head to the skate park for some fun, but have a run-in with a boy named Jonah (Gulliver McGrath). While the rest of the group, lead by a punk named Jango (Justin Holborow), give Jonah a hard time (an understatement, really), Corey holds back, but is eventually told by Jango that if he didn't give Jonah any shit, he wasn't a "wolf". In other words "be mean to this kid or you won't be popular and can't hang out with us" - typical bully standpoint. Later that night, after terrorizing the neighborhood, Corey finds himself walking away from the crowd only to run into Jonah again. Jonah tells Corey that he should walk him home so as to make up for being such an asshole for so long. We make the connection that these two were once happy go lucky friends when they were kids and have drifted in a bad way. This is mostly done by Jonah pushing a Halloween game called "Cocytus" on him, in which they dare each other to do various scary things while telling scary stories. During this, they also reminisce about their pasts and discover that they're not so different from each other. This does lead to a LOT of strange imagery that the average viewer may not be able to wrap their heads around. I'm still trying to interpret a lot of it, myself, but I do think that I get it for the most part. It likes to lead you down a confusing path, but by the end, you can start to fill in the blanks with your imagination - something I always enjoy if it's done well. Story aside, this movie has all the beautifully dark atmosphere of Halloween night throughout it. It gets a bit eerie and mysterious at points as it plays throughout the whole night, and they head into spooky places as they play their game. I particularly enjoy a story Jonah tells about a girl who wanders into a tunnel never to be seen again. They stand outside of this tunnel, looking in, and all you see is the pitch black depths of it. The dare is to wander in and light a match or a lighter, and when you do, you'll see the girl in front of you screaming a scream that you'll never forget. Some of the other stories are told as life fears, particularly the fear of growing up. Using the right mind-set, one can look deeply into this story and figure it all out, no matter how bizarre it gets at times. But I guarantee that some people will leave this movie thinking it was a bit too much of a mind-f&%k. I will say that I actually watched it through twice, and I would recommend doing the same - unless of course you just hated it the first time through. So, if you're the artsy type, looking for a good Halloween story that involves a bit of nostalgia, I say give this a try. It's not a Halloween movie for everyone, but for those who appreciate a good art film as well as the holiday in general. If you prefer being spoon fed (which isn't always a bad thing, don't worry) then I would probably avoid it because there's a lot of viewer interpretation going on here. On a personal level, I found that Jonah was a character that I could relate to, the overall atmosphere was great, and it's a good coming of age story altogether as it manages to dig pretty deep into your emotions. I think with more viewings, my rating could climb, but for now there's still some stuff my brain needs to sort out. 4/5 This was always a title I was a bit curious about, just looking at the movie poster for it. I mean, there's Harry Potter with a couple of horns on his head, and he's just looking kinda casual. Thankfully, it can now be found on Netflix, so I finally decided to see what it was all about. Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) is the prime suspect in his girlfriend, Merrin Williams' (Juno Temple) murder. He goes into hiding, but manages to sneak into the candle-lit vigil that Merrin's father has for her, hiding in a tree house. After everyone leaves the ceremony, Ig proceeds to go full-drunken-rage on things with the inclusion of urinating on and breaking a statue of the virgin Mary... certainly one of the more "evil" things I've seen on screen, and I watch 'Game of Thrones'! After the incident, Ig wakes up the next morning with horns protruding from his head; most likely from his act of desecration. But here's where it starts to get a bit confusing. As he goes to the doctor to try to figure out what the horns are all about, and if they can be removed, he has encounters with people who fully illustrate their evil-most thoughts to him. For example, the girl he wakes up next to that morning seems to be fully aware of the horns, and proceeds to pig out on a box of donuts in a very animalistic way, illustrating her gluttony, and that she probably has a horrible eating disorder which includes vanity. Then at the doctors office, a woman talks about her screaming kid in a very murderous and hateful way; wrath, you get the picture. But once he's in the doctor's office, the doctor seems perfectly fine with the fact that he's got horns, and offers to remove them. Ig wakes up in the middle of things only to find his doctor having sex next to him while he's under, which I guess shows lust, but does that mean that he's not only hearing sinner thoughts but seeing their acts of what they want to do as well? Trust me, if you're confused now, you feel exactly like I did by this point. He goes on to find one guy, his friend Lee, who can't see the horns, so for most of the movie you're just asking "okay, how do these horns work, exactly?" In the end, you get a bit of an answer, but it's still a bit foggy as to HOW it all works. Anyway, the movie is generally about him getting the truth out of people and using this to track down Merrin's real killer. Along the way, we get several flashbacks to the characters' childhoods just to give us some kind of emotion, and try to get us to feel what Ig is feeling. But even then, I can't say it all paid off. Merrin's character is kind of unfortunately dull. Your care for her doesn't lie in her character so much as the sorry feeling that she was murdered terribly. It's not "OH NO! NOT MERRIN!" so much as "Aw, that's a damn shame." This one reminded me quite a bit of 'The Butterfly Effect' in so many ways. Mostly just the delving into the past and watching all these dark moments unfold throughout the movie. However, unlike 'The Butterfly Effect', the ending here is SUCH a bummer! Not in the sense that it's a down-ending, but in the sense of it just straight up copping out. That said, I do not know how I would have ended something like this, myself. But I can say I'd put more focus on his ability to see and hear people's sins. That's an idea that they could have had a bit more fun with, I think. One thing I will give this movie quite solidly, however, was Daniel Radcliffe's acting... But sadly, that's about it. I haven't seen the guy in much else than the 'Harry Potter' series and 'The Woman in Black' which was basically 'Harry Potter and the Woman in Black' as it was. This was one role of his where I was finally able to say "okay, this dude's got great potential". He was also good in 'Swiss Army Man', which was interesting, but REALLY messed up and strange. Come to think of it, I wonder, between 'Horns' and 'Swiss Army Man' what was the more messed up movie?... 'Horns'... It's gotta be 'Horns' if only because at least 'Swiss Army Man' had some heart. 2/5 |