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Wind Chill with Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes: More Romance Than Horror

Posted on July 3, 2012 Written by ripitup

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Wind Chill Movie Poster- Emily Blunt
Wind Chill starring Emily Blunt & Ashton Holmes. Image via wildaboutmovies.com

 

  • I will refer to the characters with the actors’ names as the writer hasn’t given them names.

The Story

Emily Blunt is a college student who needs a ride to Delaware for Christmas. When she sees the notice of a follow student looking for a road buddy, she decides to drive with him (Ashton Holmes.)

However the trip turns out to be less than pleasant when they don’t exactly get along, and things turn out for the worst when Blunt finds out that he is not actually from Delaware, but he just  wanted to spend a couple of hours with her. However, when he takes a short cut despite her objections, things get even worse between them, as now she is pretty sure that he is some psycho stalker. It doesn’t help that they crash and get stuck at night, in the middle of nowhere.

But Holmes is actually just a boy with a crush, and she realizes that she’d be better off being afraid of the cold, as well as the mysterious and scary-looking passerbys who don’t seem to be interested in helping at all.

As they get hungrier and colder, she realizes tat he is more heavily injured than he let on. And as if the danger of dying from cold wasn’t scary enough, they realize that the passerbys aren’t men but ghosts – and an evil ghost (Martin Donovan) is just on his way to try to kill them.

The mutual danger and time spent together brings them closer, but will it be enough to survive the night?

*

Wind Chill – the actual genre: Romantic/Drama Thriller

The film is usually categorized as horror/thriller, but it is more drama/romance with some supernatural thriller elements. You can try turning off your lights and watching it by yourself during the night, but it still won’t get scary. Momentary surprises? Maybe. Scares? Unlikely.

There is some violence and blood, but nothing gory or disgusting.

I’m also calling it a romance, because the movie takes about half an hour till the crash happens, and even then, it is more about the relationship of Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes and their survival attempts – while connecting with  and liking each other more. You can at least picture a friendship, and/or a few dates after/if they survive (obviously I won’t tell what happens!)

Is it worth watching?

Yes, especially if you don’t mind the thrilling aspects starting later, the movie being less violent and bloody than your typical horror movie. There is no nudity or gore either. As I mentioned above, it is not scary. It is however engaging and interesting as a drama/romance – two strangers getting to form a connection/alliance/friendship to survive.

The scenery is good, the ghosts are just men with disappearing & violence abilities.  The snow adds more chill than the villain, and it is not that hard to imagine how scared you’d be, had you been in that situation.

Yeah, you wouldn’t run into ghosts but you could very well run into psychotic strangers. And even if you didn’t, the nature and the weather are enough of an enemy. Add it to their lack of heat, medical supplies and food, and well…you’d be scared.

Lessons from the movie: 

  • Check supplies, get first aid and extra blankets. Maybe a baseball bat/gun could come in handy- at least for inital protection. Oh and do yourself a favor, and don’t take the shortcut- no matter how short and easy it sounds.
  • Oh, and there is a chance that the driver/passenger you travel with may be the psycho/villain rather than a very cute boy with a harmless crush so prefer to ride with people you actually know. Just in case.
  • And better yet, take the bus or plane.

Rated at 5.9 on IMDB. My rating- as a horror/thriller movie: 5-6/10.

As a romance/drama thriller: 7-7.5/10

Interesting facts about the movie:

Producers: Two of the producers are George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich; Sex, Lies and Videotape.)

Characters without names: The lead characters don’t have names.

Similar to Wind Chill

Frozen starring Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore & Emma Bell

(nothing supernatural, people against nature, cold & the dark. Drama/thriller)

Reviews Other of Emily Blunt Movies

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen feat. Ewan McGregor & Emily Blunt

The Jane Austen Book Club with Emily Blunt, Kevin Zegers, Maria Bello & Hugh Dancy

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Ashton Holmes, buy wind chill dvd, Emily Blunt, emily blunt movies, emily blunt wind chill, George Clooney, Martin Donovan, Steven Soderbergh, Wind Chill, wind chill (2007)movie, wind chill cast, wind chill dvd, wind chill emily blunt, wind chill movie, wind chill movie review

The Divide Movie Review: Engaging but Far Too Depressing

Posted on March 28, 2012 Written by ripitup

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The-Divide-starring Lauren German, Ashton Holmes, Michael Eklund, Courtney B. Vance and Michael Biehn
The-Divide-starring Lauren German, Ashton Holmes, Michael Eklund and Michael Biehn. Image via beyondhollywood.com

 

The Divide just might be the most depressing movie that I have seen. I don’t like depressing movies, but some are engaging enough that you can’t resist holding on to the end. And when the depressing movie in question is labeled as a horror/sci-fi/thriller, you do expect an exciting twist here and there, and not just humans giving in to their primal urges, and starting to destroy each other-as if their situation wasn’t killing them fast enough.

Maybe it is the Hollywood-loving clichéd side of me, but I do like to find a little hope in a movie. This movie offered none. There were 2 characters that acted reasonably enough, and one that could have made a difference, had he the balls to do so.

Before I start a rant, let me take you over the plot a bit – let there be (some) spoilers!

Eva (Lauren German) and Sam (Iván González) can barely make it to the basement of their building with several other neighbors when several nuclear explosions occur. The basement was designed by the superintendent Mickey (Michael Biehn) to keep him alive and well for as long as possible until the explosions stop, and the after effects are minimized.

Unfortunately he has to let the neighbors – Sam and Eva, half brothers Josh and Adrien, Josh’s friend the wacky Bobby, Delvin and Marilyn with her young daughter- in.

Mickey wants to be in control, and he is annoyed by the unreasonable requests and demands of “guests”. At first he is somewhat successful as he explains why they can’t go out and how they can survive by optimizing their resources.

But the group, especially Bobby (Michael Eklund), Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and Delvin (Courtney B. Vance) are irritated by Mickey’s controlling attitude, and they hate the fact that he has given himself more privileges.

However things really start going south when men in bio-hazard suits invade and attack. They fight them off, and manage to kill a couple. But the men take the daughter, and Adrien (Aston Holmes) gets shot.

After her daughter is gone, Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) starts losing it. Josh decides to put on one of the man’s suits and explore-but he ends up making things worse for everyone-also declaring that the daughter is dead.

Moreover the men weld them in, so they can’t go out even if they don’t want to.

From then on chaos, primal urges and egos take over. Eva starts forming a connection with Adrien, who seems to be the calmest and the most easy-going of them all. After Mickey kills a threatening Delvin, Josh and Bobby take Mickey hostage, and take over his food. Unfortunately they turn out to be much worse “leaders” than Mickey. And as their health deteriorates, so does their humanity.

At this rate, no one will remain alive unless someone does something drastic, and Eva takes some desperate measures.

*

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Let’s get the unpleasant stuff over with first.

The Bad and the Ugly

For a movie that is labeled as horror, sci-fi and thriller, I’d have to say it really fails in the horror and sci-fi departments. I’d say it is a psychological thriller/drama, with the depressing and annoying situations far outdoing any other elements.

There are so many things I’d have liked to know:

– Why were there nuclear blasts?

– Who attacked who and why?

– Why were the suited men doing their experiments and killing there?

– How come Mickey was the only one rightfully paranoid and prepared as Jerry Fletcher of Conspiracy Theory was?

– How come Mickey didn’t skip town or country? Was the whole world under attack?

I have more. And if they are answered at some point in the movie or hinted at, it is possible that I missed it as I was crossing my fingers to be the final parts to be over with.

Yes, the human psychology is fragile at best, and PTSD, along with constant anxiety and being deprived of Maslow’s lowest level of the needs pyramid. But are we that bad?

It is so depressing that the movie makes you think that the people who died instantly with the blast had the best ending.

There are unanswered questions, unlikeable characters, people being ready to bite each others’ heads off.

So you are dying and the best solution is to have sex? Or force yourself on women and try raping them? Really? What good is that going to do? You’ll be %0.5 less miserable? You are going to die a horrible death, and your hair is falling out and instead of trying to escape, you are acting like you should hang out with the killer from Seven.

It has some good moments, but it goes the typical humans-are-just animals-in-disguise route (aka anyone is capable of anything if they are pushed enough): there is a death toll, rape toll, psycho toll….and in the end, there is a chance you will say “Dude, I wish this was a short film and they all died in the blast.”

It is not that bad as a whole, but  it could have been so much more, had they used more sci-fi than just chilling human nature.

It makes me want to avoid the post apocalyptic stuff for a long while.

The Good

The acting: The acting is really good, and the actors have gone to extra lengths to look the part. In fact I don’t think I want to see Michael Eklund for some time. He was that repulsive real.

The basic idea: I fell in love with the trailer, but I’d have loved a little more screen time for what happened before the explosions began.

Engagement level: It has a weird engaging quality. Even when you want to stop watching, you can’t. You might want to press fast-forward, but you don’t want to stop watching.

 

*

Directed by Xavier Gens (the director of Hitman and Frontiers).

*

Recommended for movie fans not afraid of or annoyed/depressed by the darker side of human nature and don’t mind many unanswered questions.

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Ashton Holmes, Courney B. Vance, Iván González, lauren german, Michael Biehn, Michael Eklund, Milo Ventimiglia, rosanna arquette, the divide, the divide 2011 movie, the divide cast, the divide dvd, the divide movie, the divide movie review, xavier gens

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