Ed's Review Dot Com

Boies / Schiller Film Group, Wrigley Pictures,

Elizabeth Lail, Jordan Calloway, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Peter Facinelli, Dillon Lane, Tichina Arnold, Tom Segura, Lana McKissack, Anne Winters, Matt Letscher, P.J. Byrne, Valente Rodriguez, Louisa Abernathy, Charlie McDermott, Jonny Berryman

A Nurse, Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail}, downloads a popular new app that tells you exactly when you are going to die. The other nurses are having fun looking at the 70 years or so they have left, while Quinn’s shows she only has a few days. Thinking it’s just a harmless joke app, she suddenly starts seeing mysterious hidden figures following her, and she quickly learns that the clock is ticking and as she finds other folks with time running out, she realizes that she has to figure out how to beat this thing before the clock runs out.

This is a rather unique concept for a horror film, and it is mildly horrific and suspenseful, but it’s not all that overly scary, and isn’t all that original. Just the same, it is a decent horror film and it has it’s moments. Elizabeth Lail does a really good job in the lead role, and does a decent job carrying the film. The movie obviously owes a great debt of gratitude to the Final Destination series, as they truly stole a great deal of the format and ideas from that source! Final Destination was a ground-breaking film with the format of unusual deaths and the formula for breaking the chain and trying to beat the system, but quite a few original ideas have been added to make it more interesting in Countdown. All in all it was an enjoyable film, decently suspenseful, and fun to watch, but hardly worth your hard earned bucks on the big screen. I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to see this in the theaters, but if you have the chance to watch this sometime on video, give it a shot. It was an enjoyable time, and isn’t bad.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Annapurna Pictures,

Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pratt, Matt Letscher, Portia Doubleday

Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely writer and a divorced man who still is hung up on his ex. An upgrade to his OS on the computer brings him a companion to talk to in Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), the voice of his new OS. Samantha is the first self aware artificial intelligence, and she offers a lot to Theodore who is really lonely and has a hard time adapting to being alone. But as he finds himself falling in love with this voice in his ear, he finds there are limitations to a cyber girlfriend and problems that he never thought existed.

Let’s face it, this is not intended to be a literal factual story. This is certainly an allegory, looking at the cyber world and those who get so attached to it, that they lose their life and merge with the machine. Some of this film is really silly. An odd attempt for Samantha to move from computer sex to real world actual sex is really stupid. That should have been cut, but I guess they needed something juicy for the previews or something. Theodore is really a nerd, and he’s not going to gain much sympathy. He’s dysfunctional, and delusional. In fact, Theodore isn’t that much different from the losers who sit in the strip bars every night burning hundreds and thousands of dollars buying attention to make themselves that the pretty girls really love them, and are not just after the money. Theodore thinks his OS loves him, and when he finds out the truth, I don’t think he ever comes to realize how pathetic he is.

I was definitely not blown away with Her. I was interested in the story after seeing the previews over and over again, but when I finally got to see it on DVD, I wasn’t overly impressed. Not that it’s bad, or horrible, or anything like that. I’m really glad that I watched it, as it was an interesting story, and thought provoking. But the whole thing Joaquin did with the “quitting show business and becoming a rap star” thing was so stupid and annoying, including the bizarre interview on the Jay Leno show. This was classless promotion of a stupid film, and Joaquin Phoenix stock in my eyes fell a lot over that series of unfortunate events. He became a quirky little strange man and perhaps a bit off his rocker. I think that spoiled him in other roles (Has he had any since then?). Then he does this quirky strange little man character again and again he looks a bit off his rocker. I guess that was part of the reason I was somewhat put off by this film. I found myself despising Theodore and wishing he would wise up. So that kind of spoiled my enjoyment of the movie. Furthermore, using Scarlett Johansson as the voice of Samantha was really off putting as well. There is no question who it is, and her voice is so very recognizable. Therefore instead of sexy disembodied voice, I thought of Samantha as Scarlett all through the film. I can see the attempt to make parallels to other situations and know I should not take it literally, but it just wasn’t that great of a story to begin with. So I wasn’t highly impressed with this film, and I don’t recommend it very highly. Of course, that just my opinion.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog