Oculus Review

"If you're looking for a movie that will emotionally destroy you in every way possible within 5 minutes...... yeah, go see this."

On Friday the 11th, the new horror film Oculus was released to theaters nationwide. Does the film have what it takes to join the ranks of acclaimed horror films before it have reached? Find out below.

Small Plot Synopsis (No Spoilers):

The film centers around an antique mirror that appears to wreak havoc upon all of its owners shortly after it is obtained. A brother and sister duo whose entire family was haunted by it in years past attempt to prove the mirror was responsible for deaths in their family blamed on others through a number of tests they conduct in the house the mirror had previously resided in with them during their childhood.

Review: 

The film is able to drift in between present time and past time throughout the movie, using the siblings' childhood house as a static setting through out both time periods shown in the film (the two living in the house as children, and them returning to the house years later to conduct the tests). The transitions are produced flawlessly, with the past and present versions of the two often passing each other through out the house to switch into a different time. The seamless transitions are an interesting element found often through out the movie, and add a level of originality to the film sometimes lost in the production of many modern horror movies.

The film, as do most horror movies, starts out slow, and continues to build upon itself through out its duration. However, this film starts out strong from the beginning, and caused me to jump a few time only 30 minutes into the story. Speaking of, the plot is very well executed, and while the ending of the movie left me with questions, there were no obvious plot holes or cop outs present through out its hour and forty-five minute run-time. The solid, quickly developed plot allows for the film to put the scares first throughout the later half of the movie, and the scares well... they flat out terrify.

The film features a wide array of horror movie scare tactics, including suspense build-up, pop ups, hard cuts, and straight up terrifying chase scenes. Through out the film I found myself in various situations that included: rolled up in feedle position sobbing, so close to my friend I was practically sitting on their lap, and just grabbing on to my friend's shirt out of pure terror. I may have ripped it in one or forty places. Anywho, all the different scare tactics were used in very diverse and different ways, spread through out the film very evenly, and were all delivered solidly, with none feeling phoned in or fake.

^ Same.

As with most horror films, the movie ended off with a huge bang of a climax, and the shocking ending still has my head reeling. I mean, with a face like that one up there, you can't exactly expect a fun ending.... but I mean... you can hope right? Anywho, the film ended off with a flawlessly executed bang that couldn't have been any more well produced.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this movie. The film featured solid production, incredibly well executed acting (one of the biggest highlights of the movie), a great story, and an incredible scare factor, and overall, was my favorite film of 2014 yet. Basically, if you're looking for a movie that will emotionally destroy you in every way possible within 5 minutes...... yeah, go see this.

Have you seen Oculus? What did you think of the film? Post your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll see you next time! 

Ride Along Review

On the 17th, the buddy-(kind of) cop comedy Ride Along, was released to theaters nationwide. Can the chemistry between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart win over audiences' hearts? Find out after the jump.

The film starts out strong, with an action sequence, slowly unraveling the plot. After the first scene ends, we immediately jump into the incredibly executed comedy, setting the bar high right from the beginning, all supplied by Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart uses this film to once again display his incredible versatility, proving himself in stand up, TV, and the big screen. Ice Cube outdoes himself once again (as he does with every role), with his decades of film experience behind him allowing him to act as an a great straight man to Hart, which he somehow executes without cracking up. It takes a lot of power to do that, and his veteran acting skills make him one of the few able to manage it..

The movie manages to consistently deliver with the same level of comedy it delivered in the beginning, with only a few patches of the film being laugh free. However, those spots become smaller and fewer as we progress through the movie, leaving us with almost no laugh free moments as we start to near the half way mark.

The film also features a... well an ok plot. While the plot is solid and believable, it's nothing we haven't seen before, and is honestly, pretty bland. However, the movie obviously isn't focused on its plot, and really only uses it as a platform for it's comedic incidents.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, and would recommend it to fans of both of these actors, or fans of comedies overall! I look forward to catching the sequel that's already been announced by the studio.as well. A bit early perhaps?

Have any of you already seen the film? What's your review? Tell me in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Review: No Spoilers

No Spoilers

On the third of 2014, the newest installment in the Paranormal Activity series, The Marked Ones, was released to theaters worldwide. After the critical panning of 2012's PA4, how does the newest movie stack up? Find out below.

PA: The Marked Ones is not Paranormal Activity 5, however, for reasons we'll get into later, it easily could've been. The movie takes place in Oxford, California, centered in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. As the earlier installments do, The Marked Ones started out very light, with the entire audience laughing for a good portion of the first 20 minutes, all while the movie was slowly setting up our plot-lines for later into the movie. Right after those 20 minutes of fun, everything goes downhill incredibly quickly.

From there, the scares come quickly and condensed, keeping you on guard, wondering when the next scare is coming. While there were a few moments through out where you could easily tell what was about to happen, those moments were very few, and for the most part, I was always always on guard, not being too sure if there were more frightening moments to come. 

While this movie was not PA5, it sure did seem like it at some points. The movie featured appearances from series regular Katie, Ali from PA2, and a few other familiar faces I can't mention without giving away details. While this movie wasn't exactly a necessity to the plot-lines of PA1-4, it definitely thickens the plot in a lot of places, bringing a lot of revelations I didn't expect.

Overall, as a long time fan of the series, I enjoyed The Marked Ones. While PA4 was a lot more story-oriented and held back on the scares, Paranormal Activity: Marked Ones was able to deliver a solid story and plenty of scares, making it way better than 4, and just a little under 3's quality, I'd recommend this to anyone who's a fan of horror movies.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review

Hey everyone! Today I'm here to review the new Hunger Games: Catching Fire movie, the follow up to the successful 2012 movie, based off the popular book series. Check it out after the jump.

My biggest worry with the original Hunger Games movie was how faithful they could be toward the book, and I was pleasantly surprised to see just how accurate they were, and it was no different with this movie. Besides a few details that had to be cut for time constraints (I mean, the movie was 2 1/2 hours long, something had to give) the plot isn't in anyway distorted, and follows the book almost exactly. The change of directors was another worry for me, but proved to be a change for the best, as overall the direction of this film was a lot smoother than its predecessor. The editing sharper, effects more vivid,  everything about the film as a whole, overall ran better.

Another plus to the movie was the acting. While I had no complaints with the wonderful acting in the 1st installment, once again, the sequel triumphed over its predecessor. With all the actors portraying their book counterparts flawlessly, while Lawrence constantly keeps your eyes drawn towards her. New additions to the cast such as Sam Claflin and Jena Malone also excelled, and really added to the already great cast.

Overall, I really loved this movie, and thought it was a huge improvement over its predecessor (which was also a great movie), and I can't wait for the sequels. Tell me what you think in the comments below, and I'll see you guys soon!

Gravity Review

"If you're looking to have six heart attacks in the course of an hour and a half, this is the movie for you."

I just saw Gravity. My brain still hurts. That's pretty much my entire review. In all honesty, this is one of the best movies of 2013 in my opinion. About 5 minutes into the movie we already have parts of the high action trailer occurring, and it doesn't stop there. If you're looking to have six heart attacks in the course of an hour and a half, this is the movie for you. The entire movie is incredibly high action, at some points exceeding the intense trailer's action. In short, this movie is pretty much Sandra Bullock flying around space screaming.

This movie pulls every emotion I've ever had out of me. At one point I was close to tears, at another I was in my friend's lap screaming, and in another I was laughing. This film is layered with a wide array of emotion jerker moments, along with a sense of suspense, stressfulness, and helplessness through out the entire movie. Honestly, watching this movie were the most stressful moments of my entire life ever.

Honestly though, this is a wonderful, strikingly beautiful, tear-jerking, suspenseful, and overall great movie. The only downfall to this movie is the 3D. Throughout almost the entire movie 3D would work incredibly well, but most of the time the feature falls short, adding nothing to the movie. The only points where the 3D stands out is when you can't concentrate on the movie because in layman's terms, you're trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. The 3D aspect is showcased the best in the opening IMAX screen before the movie. But other than that, this is a wonderful movie that I recommend you definitely go see.

The Conjuring Review

On Friday one of the most hyped horror movies of the year, The Conjuring was released to audiences worldwide.  Was the months worth of the hype really worth it? Find out here.

The Conjuring is a low budget horror film that doesn't rely on digital effects seen in most horror movies today, similar to the Paranormal Activity series. However, in the PA series, where every installment's formula is the same, start out slow, start throwing in minor scares, build up to the final night where everything is a huge clusterf**k of everything happening, The Conjuring immediately starts out with a bang and only continues to build from there. As I said before, The Conjuring doesn't rely on digital effects to garner its scares, nor does it rely too heavily on gore. The film holds multitudes of old school psychological scares, rather than phoned in cheap scares found in many horror movies today.


         
Overall, most horror films today don't hold a candle to The Conjuring. This film doesn't rely heavily on any gimmicks, can mentally scar you forever in ways many horror movies can't, and honestly, is an incredible movie. While this movie isn't incredibly innovative in the plot lines of horror movies department (it's honestly the same plot as every horror movie) it delivers a huge amount of genuine scares, and I definitely recommend you go see this movie.

Now You See Me Review

The first time I saw the Now You See Me trailers I thought it looked well... incredibly stupid. And I thought that up until today, when my friend finally got me to go see it. And actually, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. However, this may have been because of the low expectations I had for it walking in. This movie has many positives, however, those positives are coupled with many negatives. Let's jump right into the review.

The movie is able to benefit the most off of well, the theme of the movie, the magic. The magic tricks (along with the robbery, intrigue, and everything else that goes along with it), besides a few odd tricks that would have been impossible to do in real life (illusions or not) weave flawlessly into the plot, which makes for a very suspenseful thriller that had me guessing what would happen next at every turn. 

The trailers for this movie didn't begin to show what an engaging plot this movie actually had. Now You See Me has a very immersive plot that continues to grow and develop until the movie's end. However, this is also a drawback. As the movie starts to come to a close there is a large amount of unnecessary plot twists that just make the movie harder (than it already impossibly was) to follow. This leads to many of the movie's key plot points being left unanswered, and while this could have just been to leave room for a possible sequel, from my perspective and from what I heard as I was leaving the theater, it just made for a very frustrated audience.

Another bonus of this movie is the cast. The star studded cast is able to deliver the humor, drama, and intensity that is all packed into the overall great dialogue. While it's incredibly obvious that the movie highlights Jesse Eisenberg as the main star, each star has a chance to shine, and they all capture it perfectly.

Overall, while I was expecting very little out of this movie, I actually found myself really enjoying it, and besides from a few weak plot points, this is an enjoyable summer flick that I recommend fans of suspenseful movies to go check it out!
                   
                                                                                                               -Colby