Double Feature: Eloise (2017) & The 5th Wave (2016)

Time for the next double feature.

Continuing with the alphabets, we’re at E & F. I picked two movies that has been on my list for a little while but I kept passing over it for other things. The first is horror thriller Eloise set in an abandoned psychiatric hospital and well, the only reason that this movie is on my list is because Eliza Dushku is in it and I like her from Dollhouse. For the F selection, I picked The 5th Wave. We’re finally expanding alphabets to their numerical counterparts. Either way, I like Chloe Grace Moretz and I enjoyed the novel (review) well enough that I wanted to see how they’d execute it.

Eloise (2017)

Director: Robert Legato

Cast: Eliza Dushku, Chace Crawford, Brandon T. Jackson, P.J. Byrne, Robert Patrick, Nicole Forester

Four friends break into an abandoned insane asylum in search of a death certificate which will grant one of them a large inheritance. However, finding it soon becomes the least of their worries in a place haunted by dark memories. – IMDB

The best way to talk about Eloise might be to say that its a little more water down version of Session 9 (review) because there are a lot of similarities in how its executed but then the back story of what happened is different. While I don’t think that Eloise was as bad as I’d thought it would be, it actually has some pretty well-executed moments here and there and the characters are done well enough, of course with a relative dose of stupid decisions in the process. There’s one line that resounds as the central theme of the film throughout that when its said, it highlights the presence of the location itself and also, foreshadows the ending as well. Of course, if its a first viewing like myself, then I wouldn’t have really thought about it too much and thought only the ending as a possibility which makes the final act of the film have a nice twist to it.

Talking about the characters, they make sense pretty much although some parts are fairly obvious where its leading to. At the same time, it tries very hard to go on the psychological thriller path because it is set in a psychiatric hospital. The story actually isn’t too bad. There are a few things that are questionable. The final bit is a bit of a head scratcher even if the basis of it makes sense…kind of. The part that did actually make this not good was the pacing. The beginning to get to the psychiatric hospital takes too long and then there’s a lot of parts in the dark so a lot of scenes are pretty unclear and its probably to avoid too many torturous scenes or whatnot. Other than that, the setting and the context that is pretty overused. I’m half and half on this one.

The 5th Wave (2016)

Director: J. Blakeson

Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Alex Roe, Liev Schreiber, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe

Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. – IMDB

Based on the novel of the same name by Rick Yancy (I linked the book review above), The 5th Wave is another one of the YA novels adapted into a movie. The 5th Wave is a mesh of alien invasion story wrapped up in survival and romance. With YA adaptations, its always about the execution as long as the source material is decent, in this case, other than bad writing which shouldn’t affect the movie part, this one was all about how it was executed. The 5th Wave does a decent job and keeps the first person narrative of Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) who narrates the film and the beginning is done really well as she sets up the foundation of how it started and what happened to date and the things that they knew. Of course, as the story diverges apart from its characters, the story shifts between more locations. What works here is that the story follows one character in their location and keeps the characters fairly limited. The pacing here works and the alien invasion story works also. I think what really  helps here is that exceeding my expectation, the romance parts are actually lesser than the survival and alien invasion part which I like a lot because that just makes more sense (although there is a part where its a bit ridiculous). However, its hard to not notice some of the really badly executed effects as well as some of the movement choreography doesn’t flow really well.

Moving along, Chloe Grace Moretz is pretty good here. She’s always been a pretty solid actress even if she sometimes ends up in some lackluster movies. She plays opposite Alex Roe and Nick Robinson, two guys in her life that fulfill different parts of the story especially as Cassie and Alex Roe’s Evan looks at what has become of the world on the outside and then Nick Robinson’s Ben Parish and a rebellious girl Ringer, played by Maika Monroe looked at the military base setting from the other angle. Its a pretty nice set-up to be honest. On top of the that, the military base itself has Liev Schreiber as the lieutenant and Maria Bello as also one of the key figures at the base. Everyone does a decent job with what they have on hand.

Its no doubt that they expected The 5th Wave to be more of a hit so that they kept the ending open-ended so a second film could happen since the book is part of a series. In some ways, with the set up of how it was done and the premise, it would be nice to see where the story would go especially with the sci-fi alien invasion elements.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen either of these films? Thoughts?

Double Feature: A Monster Calls (2016) & Battleship (2012)

Call this a little Netflix alphabet marathon again but a more relaxed and random one with no specific theme but just to get through some of those films sitting in My List. I’m going to have random movies not in the alphabet happening but I’ll try to keep to it as much as possible. The first to kick off this second round in 2019 is 2016’s A Monster Calls paired oddly, almost like a Liam Neeson double feature with 2012’s Battleship. The first I don’t know much about and the second, I’ve been extremely skeptical to see so the expectations are low.

Let’s check it out!

A Monster Calls (2016)

Director: J.A. Bayona

Cast: Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Kebbell, Liam Neeson (voice)

A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mother’s terminal illness. – IMDB

A Monster Calls is a stylistic fantasy drama. It works for the most part but has some bits that get a little annoying. The boy Connor, played by Lewis MacDougall is pretty decent. He matches his character quite a bit. On the surface story, A Monster Calls has a pretty generic and dramatic story when dealing with Connor and his mother and how his relationship with his grandmother, played by Sigourney Weaver. A lot of it has to do with how he deals with the situation. When the tree monster, voiced by Liam Neeson appears and decides to tell him three stories before he can help him or something (I’m a bit fuzzy on the details since its been a month or so), the stories itself and the animations used to portray them is the true heart of the movie. Its these moments between Connor and the Monster that give it depth because each story wraps up a few lessons on morals. What is right from wrong and the gray area that most kids grow up to learn about and how Connor is thrust into the situation because of his problems at home. Its also these stories which are structured with more

I’m okay with everything about A Monster Calls. It actually had more depth than I had expected it. What didn’t work so well was the pacing. It had style and some decent performances. As expected when seeing Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones as part of the cast. They were able to show the different relationships that Connor had with each of them. Because of that, the story gave a lot of depth to Connor and everyone else became more of backdrop and felt less fleshed out. The best part of the film does go to how they chose to end it and giving it a little twist that somehow brings together the tree monster and the stories in a clever way.

Battleship (2012)

Director: Peter Berg

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Alexander Skarsgard, Tadanobu Asano, Hamish Linklater, Liam Neeson

A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals. – IMDB

The idea of making a classic game into a movie is a pretty good idea. Battleship did have a pretty open canvas to work with seeing as the game itself doesn’t have a backstory or anything but just to set it in some kind of battle. The idea of bringing aliens in doesn’t seem like a bad thing because it can give a lot of fantasy and science fiction creative elements as well. However, its hard to pinpoint where Battleship falls apart. Everything had its issues: the story, the characters, the action, the logic behind it all. Probably its because I recently looked at Pacific Rim that the whole electromagnetic and analog thing stood out to me more than usual when I watch these films and how probably things don’t quite work that way even if on the surface, you could accept that it does (especially since I don’t know a whole lot about that anyways). Fact is, Battleship is long and repetitive. It adds too much drama and the action is very predictable. The fun element is not quite there either.

In terms of character, they were really what I was skeptical about going in. Taylor Kitsch is an actor thats been really rocky (to me). There hasn’t been one role that stood out and Battleship is the same. Its nothing special and his character is a bit irritating and shallow and the fact that he’s the main character and gets the most character development says a whole lot about that. Not that a movie like this needs a ton of character depth to be honest. On top of that, some characters that were less annoying had too short of role. The surprise of this was that Rihanna’s character was actually quite decent. I’m starting to feel like I need to re-evaluate her roles a little more. Battleship had more cons than pros and it was a predictable and forgettable movie. But hey, I didn’t have high expectations to start so it felt like it was everything I expected.

That’s it for this double feature!
A&B selection was a little good and a little bad so it kind of balanced itself out!
Have you seen A Monster Calls and/or Battleship? Thoughts?

Ultimate 70s Blogathon Kick-Off: Alien (1979)

Ultimate 70s Blogathon officially kicks off today.

To get things started, my lovely cohost Drew from Drew’s Movie Reviews and I will be starting things off at both of our blogs today. To kick off the blogathon, I am reviewing Alien, a movie released nearly 40 years ago and started off a franchise that has been getting a revivial in the last few years. For that, it deserves its spot in this blogathon! For myself, this movie holds a significant spot as one of the first 70s film that I ever saw.

Lets check it out!

Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto

After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as a distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun. – IMDB

Alien is a 1979 sci fi horror thriller directed by Ridley Scott. Everyone knows that but I honestly had no idea how to start off this review about such a popular movie. As much as it kicks off a franchise, the debate of whether this film or its sequel Aliens is better is almost inevitable. However, while both are very good in their own respects, Alien is one that has always got my heart. It really is quite iconic from both the perspective of its story, the atmosphere, the iconic female protagonist and its impeccably brutal alien Xenomorph, it hits a lot of elements perfectly.  Alien can sometimes feel slightly slower in its pacing but this also is where its tense thriller and horror-esque atmosphere is built so well.The darker environment and the mysterious mists here and there along with the foreign space they investigate create some rather creepy imagery right down to the epic face hugger scene and can only send chills down your spine.

The predatory abilities of the Xenomorph is an unknown and as we follow the different characters and their different encounters, we learn a little more. Xenomorph is one of the outstanding parts of this film. Its a speciman to gain knowledge about and as it develops and transforms throughout the film, making a speechless villain have an incredible amount of presence both psychologically and physically.

A great villain needs to be met with someone worthy to fight them off amd here we have the femme fatale Ellen Ripley who really is the standout character in the movie. Everyone else just fills a spot but Sigourney Weaver’s role portrayal of Ellen Ripley is done so well. She’s tough and smart. The encounters are tense but she also knows how to feel quite real. You can almost say that she breaks the mold of the leading men and their badass role but taking on this tough lady role who fights for survival against this monster alien. As much as Ellen Ripley is a great character and the other supporting roles here as the other six crew members feel dispensable, there are still some decent performances delivered. Ellen Ripley played a voice of reason and the consequences of not listening to her eventually was what caused the disaster on the spaceship.

Revisiting older movies are tough to review. On one hand, its inevitable that some will not carry well over time especially sci-fi films because technology has changed so much over the years. Somehow, as much as technology changed and the tech here seems out of date along with some of the effects, Alien still carries itself really well. The horror moments with the face hugger and the Xenomorph are still creepy and believable. The ship feels real enough to be immersed in the events happening on the spaceship. Overall, Alien as a rewatch delivers itself really well and is still an immersive and thrilling watch and shows how before its times it was when it was released in 1979 with a bunch of unique elements that fit so well together.

Head over to Drew’s Movie Reviews to check out his review to kick off the Ultimate 70s Blogathon some time today!
For the rest of the blogathon, posts will be showing up alternate days between our blogs.
Remember to follow us to not miss out on any of the fantastic entries!

Double Feature: Arrival (2016) & The Burrowers (2008)

After some pondering, I’ve decided that I’d like to go back to double features. The only exceptions, which are quite a few, will be theatre viewings, festival screenings, screeners, Disney and Hong Kong film reviews.

The first double feature to kick off the year are back to somewhat of a alphabetical order formula. Hopefully this time, I’ll get through the alphabet a second round although I can already see it being double featured somewhat scattered as there is at least one Disney title in between. I’ve been meaning to watch Arrival forever and it finally landed on Netflix and then as I try to get through a lot of the titles I’d like to watch on Shudder, my husband chose The Burrowers.

Let’s check it out!

Arrival (2016)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O’Brien, Tzi Ma

When twelve mysterious spacecrafts appear around the world, linguistics professor Louise Banks is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors. – IMDB

I always end up slapping myself everything I finish up a Denis Villeneuve as to why it took me so long to catch up with his film. Although, I’ve seen more of his films before he broke out in Hollywood which are also titles that I always suggest everyone to watch. Arrival is a breathtaking experience, both in its story telling execution and its character development as well as the cinematography and the setting (in the beautiful province of Quebec more rural areas).

Let’s start with the cast. The main players is Amy Adams who plays Louise Banks. She is fantastic as she is not only smart but also incredibly sensitive as a character that always gets questioned for her risky approach and dedication and fascination of deciphering this alien language and her defense of the situation. There is a level of obsession as she is constantly surrounded by the symbols that she is given as she dives into learning the language. Playing opposite here is Jeremy Renner who is more of the scientist of the operation who is fascinated not only by the situation but seemingly more so by Amy Adams character here and rightfully so. He defends and supports a lot of her decisions. Playing the Colonel, who pretty much runs the operation here is Forest Whitaker who is amazing as always. To be fair, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are all actors that I absolutely enjoy watching so Arrival already had the winning cast for myself.

With Denis Villeneuve at the helm of this, there is always a darker atmosphere here. The urgency of the situation and the threatened environment of the world is definitely a selling point here as it feels quite authentic if the world were to have 12 alien spaceships land in 12 difference places how everyone would react. However, as the story unfolds and Louise Banks figures out the linguistics of it all, we also get brought into the world of what this all is about and to avoid any spoiler territory, it is a thought – provoking and meaningful sort of ending. Arrival is a definitely a must-watch!

The Burrowers (2008)

Director (and writer) J.T. Petty

Cast: Clancy Brown, David Busse, William Mapother, Jocelin Donahue, Karl Geary, Doug Hutchison, Laura Leighton

In the Wild West a rescue party sets out to find a family of settlers that has vanished from their home under mysterious circumstances. – IMDB

We’re huge fans of monster movies. Tremors is a hit at our house and The Burrowers honestly reminded us a bit of that when we were just looking at the poster. However, The Burrowers is a rather Western style horror film as it is centers itself around a feud between the Americans and their prejudice thoughts on the Amerindians being involved all the deaths and disappearances happening. For that reason, it does sometimes feel like the movie forgets what its trying to do. It does do a good job at the hatred between certain characters towards the Native Americans  and while the story wants to use that as well to drop the little clues here and there to show what The Burrowers are actually and their goal, at point, it goes so slow that it seems to lose its momentum and heads directly into the boring spot more frequent than I’d like.

To be fair, I’m not one to pick at slower paced films. However, The Burrowers seems to be just a lackluster experience. Somehow, I ended up being more affected by the brutality and the depth of the hatred and the actions of a certain character towards Amerindians than actually the threat of The Burrowers themselves. The idea of The Burrowers was a good villain when the whole story pieced together however, the execution of the story itself just didn’t work for me.

That Moment In Podcast: Reviews The Thing (1982)

That Moment In Podcast crew is all back from vacation now!

This week’s episode is a chat about The Thing (1982). As usual, Mel and David kick off the show with their summaries. We take a look at the characters and the actors portraying the role and then jump into the 5 by 5 questions. After that, it is David’s time to share the moment of The Thing and our discussion on what makes it a turning point. Before we end the show, we talk about other moments that we liked also. Before we end, David challenges me to finding the moment for the next film!

We are in both Soundcloud and YouTube now!

Hope you enjoyed it! Remember to subscribe or follow us to not miss out on future episodes! 🙂

Unboxing: Horror Block [September 2015]

We are kicking off Halloween “month” in style now.  I promise you 80% of the material going up will try to be Halloween related.  I’m working hard on getting that to happen if its not exactly mainstream Halloween frights and that sort of thing. Its also one of the reasons I wanted to subscribe to the Horror Block starting in September instead of an October start.  I’m testing it out for 3 months first and maybe we’ll extend it.  I’ll figure it out based on how I find the gear we get.

Let’s take a look, shall we? I’m pretty excited!

Horror Block
[September 2015]

1) Night of the Living Dead Magnet Set (Exclusive)

Remember I got that set for Monty Python before? Well, I gave those away to one of my girl friends. I hope she’s making good use of them.  Now this one is so cool! I’ve been meaning to watching Night of the Living Dead since I’ve been hearing more about it but I haven’t yet.  I have a ton of older horrors that I haven’t seen.  The worse part is that its now just sitting on our shelves and I just never pick it up and give it a go. Not sure if we having Night of the Living Dead though.  I think we do. Anyways, this is awesome! They are going on the fridge to make some funky sentences 😉

2) Horror Face Coaster Set (Exclusive)

Our house isn’t quite ready yet.  Still lots of furnishing and decor to work on so we haven’t quite hosted any parties or even gotten that housewarming party set.  Well, we kind of did with family this summer but this is fun stuff.  We’re collecting up some coasters from these boxes. It will be perfect for Halloween parties…or taking scary selfies as they suggest 😉

3) Rue Morgue Magazine

Whenever we get these magazines in the boxes, for Arcade Block its the Retro Magazine.  Its super good quality stuff.  I’m still reading through that one.  Now this one is like double the size of that magazine and just look at the content.  Let me direct your eyes to the bottom left next to the bar code.  You see that? My next most anticipated movie and if it means walking to a farther theatre to see it, you bet that I will. Rue Morgue is fantastic  and I think we get it every month.  Not sure though…we’ll see next month 😉

4) Alien Twin-Pack Vinyl Figures

The Alien franchise is iconic so this is fabulous.  Except yesterday, I went to organize my little IKEA glass cabinet and I might have exhausted all the space.  Maybe its time for some new furniture…but where to put that? Haha!

5) Night of the Living Dead DVD (Exclusive)

First we get vinyl twin pack, then there’s an amazing magazine AND to top it off we get a DVD of Night of the Living Dead.  I think Horror Block just 1up-ed itself and this is just my first block. Oh, lets not forget that this DVD also includes an exclusive documentary called Chronicles of the Living Dead.  Sounds pretty fantastic 🙂

6) Silence of the Lambs T-Shirt (Exclusive)

Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite thrillers. So we recognized this right away.  So symbolic, so great.  Which reminds me, its been a while I haven’t gone back to watch the movie.  Hmm, definitely need to schedule that in some time soon.

The first Horror Block is honestly pretty incredible.  We got some stuff that I knew like Silence of the Lambs and Alien and some that I want to know more about like Night of the Living Dead.  There was some perhaps useless but fun gear that I could do something with like the coasters and the magnets. And I always love magazines since they usually are great reading material.  Its a great box.  I’m impressed.

Thoughts on the Horror Block? Any gear you fancy?