no_imagination4815162342 Reviews

The Houses October Built (2014)

An interesting premise which descends into cliché.

[5/10 · 28 June 2015]

I am not a fan of the 'found footage' genre generally so I approached this film with a certain amount of trepidation. However, I thought the premise here was more interesting than usual so was curious to see it. The story is a group of friends go on a tour of haunted houses in the Southern US seeking out so-called 'extreme haunts' and the film is a pseudo-documentary of their exploits in the usual found-footage format.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that roughly the first half of the film was actually quite enjoyable (in a horror way) and intriguing. The whole concept of haunted houses, extreme haunts and all that stuff was completely new to me and so being in that world was interesting, weird and quite unsettling at times. Much as I dislike found footage as a film-making style, I actually thought the film-makers did a reasonably good job here. To give credit where it is due, there were a couple of sequences in the haunted houses early on which I found effectively unsettling. I was glad that this unsettling feeling was the tone the film opted for rather than relying too much on the 'jump scare' which has become the fall-back scare tactic of most horror films. For added realism, the story was inter-cut with interviews with (what I presume were) real employees of haunted houses which also gave a curious glimpse into their world.

But as it went on the film started to lose my interest. And it lost me when I realised that it was no longer about haunted houses and had (like so many other horror films) just degenerated into a sub-par "Deliverance" but this time with added masks. This was actually just a retread of the old "city-dwellers go into the woods and get menaced by locals" story which has been done so many times before and better (eg. the aforementioned "Deliverance" but also "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn" etc). I thought they could have found a more interesting way to tackle the issues surrounding these extreme haunts without resorting to this particular (slightly overdone) cliché. Moreover, I found the ending disappointing and unsatisfactory and less scary than the earlier scenes and so the whole thing felt a bit anti-climactic in the end.

Altogether not terrible, but it is a shame the writers couldn't find a more interesting story within their subject matter.

Kill the Messenger (2014)

A very good, well acted, well paced conspiracy thriller.

[9/10 · 16 March 2015]

"Kill the Messenger" tells the story of the reporter Gary Webb who wrote a series of articles in the mid nineties exposing the links between the CIA, drug smuggling and Nicaraguan contras. It is a very good, well acted, well paced conspiracy thriller.

There are two reasons I think this film is worth seeing: the first is that it tells an interesting story very well and the second is for the lead performance by Jeremy Renner.

I didn't know much of the story going into the film. As such, I really liked the way that the story was told. We follow Gary Webb chasing leads and tracking down sources and see the impact the story has on his life both personal and professional. This was all done in what I felt was a fairly straightforward narrative style and I thought this approach really worked here. I was interested enough in the story that I was glad the film opted for a fairly simple style to keep the plot moving and to get the story across. If the point of this film was to tell Gary Webb's story (and to me that was the point) then it succeeds admirably.

And this is very much Gary Webb's story. There are very few scenes in which he does not appear so the story is told almost completely from his point of view. Again this is an aspect that I thought really worked. It gives a really good sense of growing paranoia where we don't really know how much of the perceived threat is real. This leads to a couple of very tense scenes which were some of the best in the movie and I thought were expertly handled by the director.

Because this is a film so focused on its central character, then it is important to find the right actor to play him. Fortunately, here we have Jeremy Renner who, I think, was the perfect choice for this role. He is one of my favourite actors and I always find his characters compelling and sympathetic. He is completely believable in the role of an unrelenting, determined reporter and importantly, makes you instantly like his Gary Webb meaning that what later occurs has all the more impact. I thought it was a very heartfelt performance on Renner's part and it is one which really holds the whole film together.

Overall, this is a must see for fans of Renner and/or conspiracy thrillers but I would honestly recommend it to anyone because it is an interesting story worth knowing about.

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Gladiator Episode I: The Pharoanic Menace

[7/10 · 26 December 2014]

If I were judging this movie on historical accuracy, it would probably get 0/10. However, my enjoyment of it increased when I realised that so, indeed, would Gladiator and that is a brilliant movie. I therefore checked my inner pedant at the door and approached this film the same way as Gladiator - a fictional story set in the ancient world in which some characters have a historical basis. With this approach, all the controversy and fuss melts away and you are left with an enjoyable well-made epic that entertains even if it never quite reaches the epic heights of Gladiator.

The main strengths of the movie rested with three people: Ridley Scott, Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton; and ten plagues.

I have always been a big fan of Ridley Scott's style. I have seen many interviews where he says he enjoys "creating worlds" and those skills are on full display again here with Ancient Egypt. Everything looks sumptuously epic from the battles to the palaces, the costumes and sets. (I am sure there are many people who deserve a lot of credit for these things but I don't want to start listing them like an Oscar acceptance speech.) I always believe in Ridley Scott's worlds whether or not they are historically accurate and once immersed in the world, I am ready for the story to unfold.

The other main strengths of the film are the two central performances from Christian Bale as Moses and Joel Edgerton as Pharoah Ramses. Bale is reliably good as usual but I am prepared to give slightly more praise to Edgerton for making Pharoah an interesting and sympathetic character - to the extent that I think it would be unfair to call him a villain. The best scenes of the film are those between Ramses and Moses and I fully believed in their relationship.

The plagues were excellently executed!

Now for the problems. This is no Gladiator. Not even close. Unfortunately, some of the plot points and themes of these two films are so similar (especially at the beginning), it is hard not to be mentally comparing the two while watching Exodus and Exodus comes up desperately short in comparison.

One problem is that, aside from Ramses and Moses, the other characters made very little impression on me at all. The truth is, no one else was given much to do. Periodically, quite famous people would turn up and explain some of the plot but they weren't really given any character of their own.

An even bigger problem is a somewhat sluggish second act. There is a section which I felt could have been shortened or cut entirely. In the interest of keeping this spoiler free, I won't say which one but if you find yourself wriggling around in your seat, looking at your watch and wondering when the plagues are coming then you have found it. This is a long film and I won't deny that I felt the length at times. Fortunately the first and third acts are action-packed enough that this can almost be forgiven.

Overall, an enjoyable but imperfect film and well worth seeing on a big screen at the cinema.

The Guest (I) (2014)

Oh Cousin Matthew...

[7/10 · 13 September 2014]

So a guy who claims to know your dead son turns up at your house one day. He seems nice and looks like that bloke off of Downton so you let him stay for a while... That is pretty much all I knew about this film before I went to see it. What follows is an enjoyable thriller with laughs aplenty and an excellent central performance from Dan Stevens (more on that later).

The plot, at the end of the day, is fairly nonsensical and there are some troubling loose ends that I found a little unsatisfactory. I can't say that any of the story is particularly surprising or original but what does that matter when everyone making it and everyone in the audience seems to be having so much fun? The cinema I was in was probably around half full and while there was nobody in full-on hysterical laughter, there was a satisfactory amount of appreciative chuckling (me included).

I feel that the majority of my enjoyment of this film should really be credited to Dan Stevens in the main role. His character is charming, pleasant and helpful and yet strangely sinister and unsettling from the outset and he plays it absolutely perfectly. You can't help but like him even though you're not sure that you should. Apart from a smallish role in "The Fifth Estate", I am only familiar with Stevens from Downton Abbey and his role in this couldn't have been more different from both of these. I look forward to seeing how his career progresses but this was an excellent example of his versatility as an actor.

Overall a good Saturday night out at the cinema but I can't imagine it is the kind of classic film I would watch again and again.