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Seven Below starring Matt Barr, Luke Goss, Ving Rhames & Val Kilmer: From Interesting to “Are You Kidding Me?”

Posted on April 25, 2012 Written by ripitup

Seven Below starring Matt Barr, Luke Goss, Ving Rhames & Val Kilmer.

In 1911, a brutal murder spree takes place in a household-the young son murders his mother, grandmother, cheating & abusive father and his two young sisters.

In 2011, a group of holidaymakers is driving to their resort. The group has the unhappily married couple McCormick (Val Kilmer) and Brooklyn (Bonnie Somerville), med student Adam (Matt Barr) and his older brother Isaac (Luke Goss) and a doctor named Lipski. On the way, they stop for drinks and meet the attractive shop girl Courtney (Rebecca Da Costa), who doesn’t seem interested in either Adam or the wandering McCormick.

When they have an accident shortly after and lose the driver, their only option seems to be going with the helpful stranger Jack (Ving Rhames). McCormick’s head injury is making him even more obnoxious, and the others just leave him lying down in one of the rooms. McCormick starts hearing noises and getting really freaked out, but no one really pays attention.

But after McCormick is murdered, the group starts freaking out. But there’s a really bad storm outsite, and it really seems safer inside.

After Adam returns home from a trip to the gas station with Courtney, things get even creepier as everyone starts to see the ghosts of the family from 1911. When they finally decide to leave, the car has been disabled. As the body count goes up, they start wondering why the hell Jack is so intent on keeping them there…

An ordinary concept with a cool edge gone wrong

We’re no stranger to haunted houses, psychotic strangers, stranded houses or a group of strangers finding themselves in the midst of a murder spree. But the movie successfully combines the elements up until we are revealed the motivation for Jack, and who the murderer is/murderers are. Then it goes downhill so badly and so fast that it makes you wonder what the hell the writer/director Kevin Carraway and co-writer Lawrence Sara were thinking.

I am not going to claim I could do better. I find that a solid horror/thriller is one of the most difficult genres to write, and so far I couldn’t come up with a good idea myself (yes, I do try-I also write fiction.) But what I can claim is that had I come up with this story, and found these actors, I sure as hell wouldn’t have the same last act of the film.

The ending, and the several events leading to the end, are just beyond ridiculous. You might just want to stop and write your own ending after we learn who Jack is.

Fun cast note:

You can watch Bonnie Somerville as Mona-Ross’ love interest on Friends in season 8. She also plays Gerard Butler’s sister in the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth.

Bloodwork starring Travis Van Winkle: Testing your level of disgust tolerance

Posted on April 8, 2012 Written by ripitup

Bloodwork starring Travis Van Winkle & John Bregar feat. Eric Roberts. Image via theshiznit.co.uk

Bloodwork Plot

University students/best buds Greg (Travis Van Winkle) and Rob (John Bregar) agree to be the test subjects of an experiment that pays enough to have a good vacation. Even though Rob is reluctant, Greg persuades him and they go the facility to start the trial of what they know as an allergy drug. But as they get their doses, they notice more and more anomalies at the place, as well as the weird attitude of some of the patience. Interestingly the more sensible Rob becomes more and more adjusted to the system as Greg grows uncharacteristically uncomfortable. Greg realizes that he might be the only one who is holding on to his sanity but saving himself or Rob will prove to be very difficult as he increasingly becomes more loyal to the program. And even though Greg knows they are being lied to, he is still unaware of the terrifying truth…

Bloodwork: Interesting, but Not At All Refreshing.

(*Some spoilers)

I am not a gore fan. I don’t even like seeing blood that much, and apart from the vampire feeding moments in the highly entertaining but not scary or disgusting The Vampire Diaries (or Angel or Queen of the Damned, etc.), I am not a fan.

I don’t like bugs (for an example on why it is a bad idea, see Colin Firth’s Trauma) or zombies.

That being said, I love a good thriller-especially where the thrills come from human psychology getting all screwed up. The more normal the guy was in the beginning, the bigger the effect of the transformation becomes.

If done well, humans being experimented upon and then all hell getting loose is a great idea. For decent examples, see The Killing Room or Das Experiment.

Bloodwork is decent up to the point where every single element that I don’t like comes together in a row: bugs, worms, dead animals, people turning zombies…And they are pretty bad at foreshadowing. Never mind the fact that you already predict many of the things that will happen (you are just on the lookout for the when/who and why), it doesn’t help that they either spell something out after it has happened, or they talk about how disgust works so that we stay human (as opposed to cannibalism and then the zombie thing happens.

Then there is the lack of security of the premises, the naiveté of everyone involved, underusing of the only better-known actor (Eric Roberts) in the film…..

I’d rate the movie 6 for the first half, 3 for the second. The acting is OK, but what good does that do while the story disappoints the hell out of you? 4/10 from me.

The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall & Dominic West: Good Enough

Posted on March 14, 2012 Written by ripitup

The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall & Dominic West. A 2011 movie.

Horror-thrillers are more inclined to be torn apart by the critics and movie-goers than any other genre.

Sure, romantic comedies are doomed to be put-down because they follow a formula, but nobody really expects a twist at the end. And even the haters know that the best thing a romcom can do is to provide some good jokes, better-than-average acting and some non-cheesy romantic moments.

And please don’t give me the “but 500 Days of Summer (I do like that movie by the way- just not as a romcom) was a different, unique romcom” reply. First of all, it is not a romcom, it is a romantic/comedy/drama. And yes, even that gave a happy ending-just not with the real girl.

Sorry if I gave you spoilers, but I am sure you knew something was different with that movie since it was rated at 7.9 on IMDB and it had Joseph Gordon Levitt in it as opposed to Matthew McConaughey in it.

Romantic comedies don’t typically feature drama and unhappy endings so that’s why even the ones that guys loved hardly ever see a rating close to 7.

But horror-thrillers are an entirely different story. Not only we want to be frightened, but we want it in a subtler, creepier way. We don’t want the director to think he can get us with big stars and stupid sound effects (aka What Lies Beneath- to this day I still don’t know what Harrison Ford or Michelle Pfeiffer ever saw in that script!)

It is very rare for a horror/thriller to pull off a twist to fool even the most-movie-going folks won’t see coming. But even those good-twist movies run the risk of being all about the twist and nothing else. I’m sorry, but The Sixth Sense was a bore until we found out about what happened to Bruce Willis.

I’ll be impressed, however, when you shoot a haunting type of movie where you are creepy without being gory, where you count on the story and the acting than sound effects to scare me. It is great if you can engage me throughout the whole movie using some clichés (but not too many), care for the characters, sit curious till the end and give me a twist that is not all The Sixth Sense or The Others.

And The Awakening is all that. Not that it doesn’t have its issues and some boy-we-have-seen-that-coming moments. But it also manages to be unique in its own way. Rebecca Hall and Dominic West were a joy to watch and the ending can be interpreted in different ways.

It has the atmosphere, good ideas, intelligent protagonists and solid acting. And in this day and age where all the stories were pretty much written, this story is done pretty well against the odds

P.S. I really simplified the story to avoid giving spoilers-so don’t think it is that plain.

The Awakening: Story

Post WW1, Florence (Rebecca Hall) is a Cambridge graduate published author who exposes ghost scams whenever she can.

Her next mission is to expose the imposters at a boarding school. And at first she does find a prankster and unravel a mystery. Unfortunately, there seems to be other pranksters around. But the longer she stays, the more she begins to question her own sanity, will to live and her ability to connect with others. Could it be that there are real ghosts haunting the school? And if there are, what the hell do they want from her?

Dominic West plays one of the teachers/love interest/wounded ex-soldier with quite a few mysteries on his own.

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Soon: Scream 4 starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette. Feat. Adam Brody, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, Kristen Bell& Anna Paquin

Posted on February 23, 2011 Written by ripitup

Scream 4 starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette. Feat. Adam Brody, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin. Image via moviepostershop.com

Seriously? Another one? Coming to the theaters in April, we are faced with the 4^th and hopefully the last installment of Wes Craven’s Scream saga.

The first Scream was fun. It was entertaining, a little refreshing and well, thrilling enough. It was 1996 and director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson had created a nice teen-slasher that had a pretty cool cast too: Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard.

Well, with the exception of Skeet and Matthew, Courteney’s news reporter Gale, David’s Deputy Dewey and then student Sydney made it to Scream 2. Then 3 and finally, to Scream 4.

While I don’t hold a grudge against all sequels as a habit, horror/thrillers usually have a lesser chance of making the audiences happier as opposed to action or comedy flicks. Notice how Scream 1 started with 7.2 on IMDB and Scream 3 is currently at 5.3. I don’t necessarily always agree with the user ratings there, but this sounds fair- if not a little too generous.

But of course when you make a 4^th film, ,it is only a good marketing plan to add more famous people to the cast like Adam Brody, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin – and I didn’t notice half of them in the trailer.

It wasn’t just Scream that failed with the sequels, by the way. Horror-films mockery

Scary Movie was, despite being a little too crude at times, was hilarious. I barely remember Scary Movie 2 and 3 and I didn’t bother to see 4th.

So back to Scream 4. We’ve another mask-wearing psycho (or maybe more than one) with, a ridiculous motive, hunting after the cast. We will see if Neve Campell will survive. But I hope not because it just might indicate a 5^th film.

I am really not excited about Scream 4. Are you?

Fun notes:

* Courteney Cox and David Arquette met in 1996, during the making of the first Scream movie. They got married in 1999 and separated in 2010. So yep, the Scream saga outlasted their relationship.

* Courteney Cox isn’t the only Friends cast member Neve Campbell co-starred in a movie with. She also has a movie with Matthew Perry.

* Kevin Williamson is one of the developers & writers of the popular series The Vampire Diaries.

Also on Courteney Cox:

Courteney Cox Trivia

Cougar Town starring Courteney Cox, Josh Hopkins, Dan Byrd, Busy Phillips & Josh Hopkins

Hollywood Stars in Friends