Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday January 13, 2015
Screen Gems, Will Packer Productions,
Taraji P. Henson, Idris Elba, Leslie Bibb, Kate del Castillo, Henry Simmons
Colin (Idris Elba) is a violent prisoner, denied parole one more time, but when he breaks out of prison, he heads first to his wife’s home, but when he knocks on Terri’s (Taraji P Henson) door claiming that he had an accident in the pouring rain and asking to use the phone, Terri decides to let him in where she’s alone with her two children. Terri’s husband is away, and inviting this kind, gentle, and very handsome fellow in to wait for the tow truck while she flirts a little and gets some much needed attention may be the biggest mistake in her life. He terrorizes everyone as Terri tries to figure out why he’s gotta be so mean.
This is a fairly decent home invasion robbery with a bit of a twist in the end that I didn’t see coming. Looking back, I probably should have. The suspense and terror is there, but it’s not exactly a new concept. There have certainly been a lot of home invasion stories in the last few years, and this is one of them. Though not extremely original, it still is pretty well done. The main difference in 2014 is that women aren’t the helpless victims anymore. They have to be tough and ready to fight to protect their home and family, without a man around to help, and pull a superhero effort. Pity the poor woman who isn’t ready to fight like Liam Neeson these days. Taraji is surely the tough superwoman here and she’s not going to go down whining. Lots of superb suspense and terror are built up here, and the ending wasn’t half bad either. Naturally anyone in a uniform is going to be fat, dumb, stupid, or clueless, and they fall like flies, while this woman and her kids are invincible. If I sound bitter, I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and I am used to my women a little bit softer in my movies, but hey, it’s a new world these days. This is a bit of a run of the mill home invasion thriller, but it’s so well done, that you’ll probably enjoy it. If you like the edge of your seat experience, you can do much worse than this film, so give it a shot.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Snoot Entertainment,
Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, Lance Reddick
The Peterson Family is having some problems, but they’re trying to get by. The recently lost their soldier son in the Middle East and everyone is still trying to get over the loss. Suddenly the doorbell rings and a gentle man is at the door claiming to be a close friend of their son. He claims to have been with him when he died, and has a message of love for the whole family. But daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) is not convinced and tries to do some checking on him. But the family really likes David (Dan Stevens) and he really seems to be a talented guy striving to help each member of the family.
I was rather surprised at how much fun this movie was. I didn’t expect much when I started into it, but I was pleasantly surprised. This was like a classic suspense thriller from back in the day, but updated with modern topics. It turned away from where it was headed and caught me by surprise. It’s obvious this guy is more than he seems to be, but where it went was a surprise to me. Dan Stevens did a really great job and he was really a badass for sure. There are lots of fight scenes, everything from car crashes to bar fights. The soundtrack was fresh and added a lot. The action was really brutal at times, and the chase and suspense scenes were really realistic. The family dynamics were really well played, so I would have to say the actors did a really good job. It’s lots of rough and tumble action, loads of suspense, and a fast moving story. This is a really decent action story, and I recommend this movie to action fans who aren’t afraid of a little blood along the way.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Red Granite Pictures, Mandalay Pictures,
Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Kelli Garner, Heather Graham, David Morse, Kathleen Quinlan, James Remar
Ig Parrish (Daniel Radcliffe) has been in love with Merrin Williams (Juno Temple) since they were children. Noww Ig is prepared to ask her to marry him, but suddenly she turns up brutally murdered, and everyone in town seems to think he is the killer. To make matters worse “horns” begin growing on his forehead and everyone seems more than willing to confess their deepest and darkest sins ever since. It appears Ig is doomed unless he can somehow use this bizarre situation to determine who really killed Merrin, or if he did actually do it an can’t remember, before it’s too late.
People seem to have a love/hate relationship with this film. Either it’s extremely loved or wildly hated. I think perhaps the haters just don’t get it or don’t get the point of the story. This story is definitely not intended to be taken literally, nor can it be watched as a mystery/thriller with the expectation that normal things are going to happen. This is more of an allegory, or a way to look at issues that haunt or torture us. In normal thrillers, people do not grow horns that only certain people can see. If you try to take this film literally, you’ll go nuts. But this story is presented, like most fairy tales, as if it were real, so you have to suspend the disbelief at the premise, but simply accept that this happened, and enjoy the ride. Daniel Radcliffe did an excellent job with this role, and went through many metamorphoses along the way, not only in physical appearance, but emotionally.
The look of this movie is excellent, it’s very creepy. The suspense level is very high, and there’s quite a bit of blood and pain. The two main actors, Daniel and Juno are excellent, and the dialog is pretty good. It’s one of those films that you have to sit back and think about. I must admit, I really enjoyed it quite a bit, and I’m glad I passed on my instinct that this would be silly, and gave it a try.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
LD Entertainment,
Jennifer Carpenter, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Rufus Sewell, Thomas McDonell, Adelaide Kane, Leah Pipes, Colm Meaney, Stacey Edwards, Ric Reitz, Katie Garfield
Eighteen years ago in this small New England town, six girls were all born on the same day. The leaders of the fanatical religious cult believe it to be the sign of the devil coming to their town. Now on the 18th birthday, all of the girls disappear. Is the curse real, or is it just religion run amok?
There are different tiers within the horror genre. There are a number of shelves on which you can place a particular film. Different people have different preferences. This goes into the religious cult with the psycho leader gone crazy for power of his followers lives. I must admit, this is one of the horror categories that doesn’t typically impress me. So it was with this film. This is a pretty fair story. I have seen many other films of this kind that were much worse. Suspense-wise, this movie is pretty up there, and the acting isn’t too bad for a B horror film. I just really didn’t get into the story, and I found my mind wandering from time to time as it wasn’t intense enough to keep me enthralled. So basically it was a pretty decent little low budget horror film, but not enough for me to give a glowing recommendation. If you like horror, especially ones about mad cult leaders, go for it, but there’s a lot better horror films out there.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
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