FILM REVIEW: Evil Dead (2013)

It had been a while since a horror film made me heave, and Evil Dead (2013) reset the counter. A remake of the 1980s film of the same name, Evil Dead was directed by Fede Alvarez, and produced by Sam Raimi, who wrote and directed the original.

Five friends – David, Eric, Mia, Olivia, Natalie – go to stay in a cabin in the woods to help Mia detox off drugs. They stumble across the ‘Book of the Dead’ which, when read, unleashes a demon. Said book gets read and a demon is unleashed. A battle to stay alive and kill the demon ensues.

The opening shot of the film was disorienting – birds eye view of trees and road, but was upside down – which sets the tone for the film. There was a lack of cohesive vision for the music: the difference between the scary bits and non-scary bits were very drastic without any common elements.

This film was gory, graphic and gross just for the sake of it, and literally made my toes curl at one point. The last film to make me heave was Drag Me To Hell, another one of Raimi’s babies. Yet there was hilarity within the gore, especially when Eric slips on a piece of Olivia’s face that she’d hacked off, and immobilises himself ready to be attacked.

There were some consistency issues, for example: it rained so hard that the only road out of the forest was flooded, yet subsequent outside shots were dry with no evidence that it had even rained. Another example would be when Mia got buried alive but, after being resurrected, she was all clean and wound-free.

I expected this film to be another typical jump-scare kind of horror, where a bunch of people do stupid stuff – for example: finding a book in a cellar that is covered in plastic, wrapped in barbed wire, and surrounded by dead cats hung from the ceiling, you leave! You don’t open it, let alone read it. You’re just asking for trouble.

Underneath all the layers of traditional horror and gore tropes, I found the film was a metaphor for overcoming drug addiction: being controlled by something against your will, which makes you destroy those around you.

Evil Dead is definitely not suitable for the faint-hearted and gives the fans of jump-scare and excessive gore films a new franchise to build upon and completely destroy.

FILM REVIEW: Oblivion

*This review contains some spoilers*

Oblivion is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth: all the humans now live in space after the Earth’s surface was destroyed by Scavengers (Scavs).  The only two humans left on Earth, Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), are there to oversee energy harvesting for the other humans, and to make sure the Scavs don’t interfere with this.

The pacing for the first third of the film was poor: the first 30 minutes or so was pretty much The Tom Cruise Show: Tom Cruise finds things, Tom Cruise goes flying, Tom Cruise rides a bike, Tom Cruise runs around… you get the picture.  Whilst it was necessary to demonstrate that they were alone on Earth, they didn’t establish any of the other characters, especially the main Scavs.  Morgan Freeman had a fleeting role which should have been investigated better.

What intrigued me was that Jack and Victoria had been alone together on Earth for 1600+ days (with the exception of communication with one other lady via computer) – how did they not kill each other?!  Also, they only seemed to work during the day.  There was one scene where the Scavs blew up one of the energy collecting devices during the night, and Jack and Victoria saw this happen and they freaked out.  It then turns to daytime and they’re sorting the mess out.  Surely a job like theirs is a 24/7 kind of job, not a 9-5 one?!

Some might argue that the acting was wooden and without feeling.  I reckon this was thematically justified as Jack and Victoria turned out to be clones, and the “good” acting from Morgan Freeman was because he was actually a human and not a clone.

It was clear from the outset that Joseph Kosinski had a large influence throughout the production of the film.  In addition to directing the action on screen, he appears to have had a hand in the production of the soundtrack and the design of the visual effects.  Both of which have more than an incidental resemblance to Tron: Legacy, a film Kosinski also directed.  The look of the film, including some of the shots, was very stylised; again similar to Tron: Legacy, which could be attributed to sharing the same cinematographer Claudia Miranda.  One of my favourite shots, as well as one that sticks in my mind vividly, was the close-up of Morgan Freeman wearing tinted glasses, with Tom Cruise clearly reflected in the lenses.  I could not be sure, however, whether this was achieved practically, in camera, or with visual effects.

I really didn’t want to see this film as end-of-the-Earth, death of humanity, space war films really do not appeal to me at all, but I was really glad I did.  Even though it was predictable, slow in places and lacked character development, I still liked this film.  It wasn’t a great film but it was enjoyable.

FILM REVIEW: Welcome To The Punch

Welcome To The Punch is a British police action adventure film which really wasn’t my cup of tea.

Detective Max Lewinsky (played by McAvoy) has long-standing beef with Jacob Sternwood (played by Mark Strong), and a failed arrest leaves McAvoy with a bullet-mangled leg, and Strong hiding away in Iceland.  Fast forward to the present day and Strong’s son is injured in a heist gone wrong, which forces Strong out of hiding and back onto McAvoy’s radar.  Gunfights ensue.

I found that I was not emotionally invested in any of the characters, and that it was quite confusing: he’s the bad guy.  No, he’s the bad guy.  Wait, they’re ALL bad guys!  I had no idea what was going on for the entire film, and quite frankly, I didn’t care.  You just knew it would all work out for the best.  And it did.

There were so many scenes of unnecessarily long gunfights where there were police and bad guys running around all over the place shooting badly aimed automatic weapons.

Despite the juddery camera movement, and the blue hue to everything that made the film feel cold, it was visually pleasing.  The transition from the opening credits to the first scene was really well done, and there were nice interspersing shots of London throughout the film.  Also, the music fit the tone of the film really well.

McAvoy had a convincing Cockney accent considering he is so broadly Scottish, even if it did slip a couple of times.

I really didn’t enjoy this film: I was disoriented with the storyline and quickly lost interest.  The best bit of the entire film has to be within the first five minutes where McAvoy shouts the “See You Next Tuesday” word – brilliant.  Either way it was a generic corrupt cop film, and once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.

FILM REVIEW: Side Effects

You would think that, considering this film had some big names in it, it would be better than it was.  It was an okay film.

The film is about the struggle of a woman with apparent depression and the drugs used to treat it in the wake of her husband being released from prison, as well as the life of her psychiatrist attempting to treat her.

The first third/half of the film seemed disjointed: it felt that the establishing storylines were too separate from each other (husband being released from prison, woman’s struggle with depression, and the psychiatrist’s personal life) and there was a lot of information to get across.

The dialogue was sloppy and unrealistic in places, there were odd shots that didn’t seem to have any purpose or add anything artistically, and the contrast between the light and the dark constantly made me think I had dirty glasses or had developed cataracts during the film.

I felt that this film didn’t particularly draw me in: it kept me wondering but I’d still be able to sleep at night not knowing the ending.  However, I didn’t think it was predictable and found it easy to watch.

All in all it was an okay film.  I reckon I will forget about this film in about a week; it won’t stick in my mind.  I don’t think I would watch it again but I’d perhaps have it on in the background whilst I did something else.

I would recommend this film to anyone that likes Jude Law, and those that want an easy to watch thriller, but suggest they wait for it to be readily available rather than be disappointed seeing it at the cinema.

FILM REVIEW: Wreck-it Ralph

From watching the trailer I knew what to expect from this film, and it pretty much matched those expectations: a Disney creation aimed at families. Ralph is the bad guy in an arcade video game who decides he would like to be a good guy and to be liked by others, so leaves his game. He wreaks havoc in other games which he needs to fix along the way in his pursuit to become a hero.

This was a typical Disney film: main character wants something, on their pursuit for this things go horribly wrong, then a turn of events mean everything works out for the best. It was entertaining for both adults and children with some clever references for the adults to pick out. Like all children’s films it was easy to watch and didn’t require a very high level of concentration. You could easily watch this film from any point and get the gist of what is going on.

The graphics were excellent and were appropriate for different sections: different games and flashbacks had an alternative look to the main style of the film. It took me by surprise when the ultimate bad guy, Turbo, was revealed because it was so very dark – not only visually, but emotionally very dark – the character is like something from a nightmare.

I felt the film lacked appropriate pacing in the middle, and there was an unnecessary romance side story, which could have been removed completely without affecting the storyline. Even so, I still liked this film. It was easy to watch and the content would appeal to most people. Most of the characters are likeable and the story was easy to follow. I would recommend this film to those who have children, who love Disney or who love computer games.

Let’s review some films!

Well,  one of my tasks for this semester at uni is to write reviews of some films and put them out there for some feedback.  Can you handle this task?!  First one to come in a few days.