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Lessons Learned from the Film The Rich Man’s Wife feat. Halle Berry & Clive Owen

Posted on June 9, 2012 Written by ripitup

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The Rich Man's Wife movie poster
The Rich Man's Wife poster via screened.com.

I don’t generally care about movie ratings since there is a chance I’ll find the movie either underrated or overrated, but sometimes they can be spot on. But when I saw the 5.0 IMDB rating, I hoped I would disagree – it wasn’t good news, as I was already bored by a couple of Halle Berry thrillers before. Unfortunately, my best rating would be 5 – and this is from someone who likes the cast and the genre. I wasn’t expecting genius twists or very smart characters. But getting bored or asking “Seriously?” every couple of minutes is not a good sign. If only characters and events were tied better and the story was told a little faster…

But watching a non-thrilling thriller can return as an entertaining post. Inspired by movie fans who love to start “(insert number of choice) lessons learned from….” threads on boards, below is what you can take home from this movie. Of course some are obvious, but come on and join me. It’s fun.

Lessons learned (aka Common sense) from the film The Rich Man’s Wife

Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

1)      Clive Owen is a lot sexier with a little more age and weight. Try comparing his The Rich Man’s Wife (1996) version to Beyond Borders/Shoot ‘em Up/The International…Well, pretty much any Clive Owen movie after

2)      Don’t date a younger, thinner Clive Owen character. Chances are he is up to no good. 5 years before this film, one of his characters was dating his own sister!

3)      Peter Greene (The Mask villain) can switch between weird-looking slime ball to charming, uniquely good-looking guy in a matter of seconds.

4)      Halle Berry’s dramas and action films are often very enjoyable, as opposed to her thrillers.

5)      It is not a good idea to not to foreshadow your twists at all.

6)      Calling the cops suckers at the end of the movie is not a good idea, as there is no way they would have seen that one coming and since this is also the case for the audience (see item 5). Just don’t call your audience suckers. Period.

7)      It’s not very cool if you don’t have one single likable character in the movie.

8)      It is not very convincing (since you want to convince the woman to ally with you) if you switch from Prince Charming to smooth player to good listener to murder plotter to rapist in lightning speed. This would be Peter Greene’s character.

9)      Gold-digging, young, pretty women should not sign pre-nuptial agreements. Instead they should marry gullible rich men who trust them enough not to make them sign those. It’s easier than planning murders, getting rid of the other villains and all that. And what would they have done if the cops had half the obsession Holmes (or House) had for cases?

10)   It will be easier to convince a rich guy that you are not a gold-digger if you don’t say yes to their proposal after 2 minutes.

11)   It might be better if you marry a woman with a little money of her own if you are planning to make her sign pre-nuptials. She might be less likely to try to get rid of you.

12)   Or better yet, don’t get married- and/or make your will so that in the matter of your death, they don’t get a single dime –whether it is a suicide/murder/or call of nature and make it clear to them.

13)   Or be a less obnoxious husband, and make it harder for her to want to get rid of you.

14)   If you are getting married, and signing pre-nuptials, do a better background check on the woman.

15)   It isn’t a great idea to hire a cabin in the woods if you are a pretty woman with no special fighting skills.

16)   Very few normal people hang out near in-the-woods-cabins in the middle of nowhere.

17)   Women hardly ever want to stay alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. If they do, they can either fight like Sydney Bristow, haven’t seen any horror movies or they are up to no good.

These were all I could think of so far. Feel free to add yours in the comments.

What about the plot?

The plot you ask? Oh well: Halle Berry’s Josie is married to the richer, older Tony (Christopher McDonald) and the marriage is going down the drain. She has a lover, he has a lover. He’s abusing alcohol and she has signed a pre-nup. Claiming that she wants her marriage work, she dumps the lover (Clive Owen) and convinces her husband to take a trip together- where his regular business relationships and fondness of alcohol prevent them from making any progress. So he leaves, and she stays.  Then her car breaks down one night and she is “saved“ by a helpful stranger, who drives her home and gets her car fixed-all for dinner. And as she tells her story, he gets her to say that she wished he were dead. Then he offers to do the job for her. And then….well, let’s say that no one is exactly innocent in the movie, adulterer or not.

Made in 1996, written/directed by Amy Holden Jones.

 

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: christopher mcdonald, Clive Owen, Clive Owen movies, halle berry, halle berry movies, halle berry the rich man’s wife, movies, peter greene, the rich mans wife movie, thriller

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

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

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Bonnie Somerville, horror, kevin caraway, lawrence sara, Luke Goss, Matt Barr, Rebecca Da Costa, seven below, seven below 2011 movie, seven below movie, seven below movie review, The Ugly Truth, thriller, Val Kilmer, Ving Rhames

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

Posted on April 8, 2012 Written by ripitup

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Bloodwork starring Travis Van Winkle & John Bregar feat. Eric Roberts.
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.

*

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: blood work, blood work 2011 movie, bloodwork, bloodwork movie, eric roberts, horror, John Bregar, thriller, travis van winkle

The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall & Dominic West: Good Enough

Posted on March 14, 2012 Written by ripitup

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The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall & Dominic West.
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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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: dominic west, horror, nick murphy, Rebecca Hall, rebecca hall the awakening, stephen volk, the awakening, the awakening 2011 movie, the awakening movie, the awakening movie review, the awakening rebecca hall, thriller

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