PAX West 2019 Recap

Don't Let Go review

DON’T LET GO:

DESPITE A UNIQUE PREMISE, IT’S BEST TO SEND THIS DISJOINTED THRILLER TO VOICEMAIL!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

BLUMHOUSE

David Oyelowo and Storm Reid in Don’t Let Go

            A man’s family is murdered, but gets a mysterious phone call from the dead who turns out to be from the future and tries to prevent the incident before it happens in Don’t Let Go, the new thriller produced by Jason Blum (Split/Glass, Get Out, Us) and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek, The Details, 7 Minutes). Despite hearing very little about this movie outside of a trailer shown before Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this looked like an interesting movie with a unique premise regarding time-travel, and no it isn’t another Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, or Blum’s own Happy Death Day, moving on.

            Almost like if Taken or last year’s Searching had a time-travel plot without it being shoved down our throats. While not high on my list, I was curious to see how the movie would play out and came out of it with rather mixed thoughts.

            I still stand by that this is a brilliant premise and the film has its moments of genuine thrills and suspense. Unfortunately, it all boils down to the execution which to me, was rather clumsy and awkwardly paced.

            The film follows Detective Jack Radcliff (David Oyelowo-Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Butler, Selma) who after picking up his niece Ashley (Storm Reid-12 Years a Slave, A Wrinkle in Time, Euphoria) from the movies, his family is suddenly murdered including Ashley. However, things get strange when he suddenly gets a phone call from the deceased (and I ain’t talking about a ghost or Jack going paranoid!) who turns out to be none other than Ashley from two weeks into the future. 

            Realizing he has a second chance to right the wrong, Jack works to prevent her death before it even happens. But time is ticking with only three days to track down the men responsible for Ashley’s death and stop them.

            The film also stars Byron Mann (The Expanse, Arrow, The Big Short) as Detective Roger Lee, Mykelti Williamson (Miami Vice, Forrest Gump, The Purge: Election Year) as Bobby, Alfred Molina (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Frida, Spider-Man 2) as Howard, and Brian Tyree Henry (Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Garret Radcliff.

            Overall, Don’t Let Go has its moments of thrills, but the film’s fascinating premise gets bogged down by clumsy directing and editing, lack of character development, and relying on many cheap horror/thriller movie tropes. Which is a shame because you can see a good movie trying to get out of this. 

As previously mentioned, I love the use of time-travel in this movie and there are times where the visual depictions of it are creatively done through one person sticking a wad of gum under a table and it suddenly appearing in a different time period where the other person sees it as well as both individuals sitting in a diner across from each other but cannot see each other and they communicate through their phones, for the most part these moments are done very well.

However, there are times where the logic doesn’t make sense particularly regarding Ashley, who is supposedly from two weeks into the future, but she was killed in the past, that’s kind of confusing. There’s also a time without giving much away where Jack gets shot and is severely wounded and is taken into an ambulance but when he dies, he is suddenly resurrected while driving his police car…yeah, not buying that movie, not buying that! How did he go from being on a hospital bed slowly dying to waking up in his car? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I have an easier time believing the logic behind Kenny from South Park’s deaths and resurrections, at least those make sense.

It also doesn’t help that the film’s characters aren’t that well developed and while David Oyelowo and Storm Reid do a solid job portraying the protagonists, there isn’t much time devoted to them so we can grow attached to the characters before the bad things happen. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of a young girl trying to outrun her future demise at every step of the corner is terrifying, but the film never really shows what Ashley is like as a person, who her friends are, hobbies, etc. these would have made her a more interesting character and all the more heartbreaking when she gets murdered.

            The mystery itself feels lazily executed either at the cutting room floor or by studio notes, the script feels very rushed and like it’s on autopilot as the film progresses and I swear the big reveal of the culprit is just out of the blue with very little development or build-up. Had the movie taken an approach similar to Get Out or even the 2013 film Prisoners and catch the audience off-guard by the end, this would have been a much better movie, here it just feels like mystery-thriller clichés awkwardly stitched around an interesting but botched premise.

            Don’t Let Go might offer enough suspense to satisfy fans of the genre and the concept itself is remarkable, but through its awkward pacing, lack of character development, and ideas never fully realized, it becomes an underwhelming and dull thriller and it’s probably best to send it straight to voicemail.  

Angel Has Fallen review

ANGEL HAS FALLEN:

YEP, ANOTHER ONE OF THESE AND SOMEHOW EVEN DUMBER AND LAZIER THAN ITS PREDECESSORS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * ½ out of 4

LIONSGATE

Gerard Butler in Angel Has Fallen

            Gerard Butler (Tomorrow Never Dies, 300, How to Train Your Dragon trilogy) is back as Secret Service agent Mike Banning in Angel Has Fallen, the third installment of the Fallen trilogy following 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen and 2016’s London Has Fallen. Before we dive into the latest chapter, let me take a moment to discuss my thoughts on its predecessors.

            The first film Olympus Has Fallen objectively is not a good movie and has a lot of cheesy, over-the-top moments but makes for a flawed but fun action movie that even spawned its own rip-off the exact same year with Roland Emmerich’s White House Down. The sequel on the other hand London Has Fallen while I saw it in theaters and reviewed it a few years ago I hardly remember a thing about it aside from the exact same plot as Olympus but at a different location. 

            It’s a perfect example of a mediocre, mixed-bag franchise that you turn your brain off and enjoy some intense action sequences and corny dialogue for a couple hours. There’s clearly a fanbase as they were able to spawn an entire franchise out of this finally coming to a close with Angel. 

            When the third film was first announced I was less than thrilled after the bland, forgettable results of London Has Fallen. Even the title sounded awful, Angel Has Fallen, isn’t that clever? A more appropriate title would have been Franchise Has Fallen because nobody was asking for Olympus Has Fallen to become a franchise outside of the film performing well at the box-office.

            But I tried to keep an open mind and hoped that Angel would return the series back to its dumb, over-the-top roots that made the first film a recent guilty pleasure. And…being disappointed by the end result would be an understatement. 

            Angel Has Fallen is a complete mess and while Gerard Butler gives it his all, he’s not enough to save the film from its loud, thinly written script, lazy plot twists, and action sequences shot so dreadfully it puts Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich to shame. Not even the action in this movie is good, which was one of the highlights of the first film. 

            After the events of the previous film, U.S. Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler) undergoes training at a private military facility and is recommended by the President of the United States Alan Trumball (Morgan Freeman-Driving Miss Daisy, The Dark Knight trilogy, Wanted) for the position of Secret Services director. But when an assassination attempt occurs on the president and Mike is wrongfully accused for it, he goes from a hero protecting the president to a fugitive of the law. 

            On the run with no one to turn to, Mike makes it his mission to evade his own agency while also outsmarting the FBI to find the person responsible for the attack and uncover the truth behind the real threat to the president as well as the entire country. This eventually leads to a partnership with his long-lost father, Clay Banning (Nick Nolte-The Thin Red Line, Hulk, Tropic Thunder) who abandoned him at a young age, as Mike fights to clear his name and save the world. 

            The film also stars Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Looper) as Leah Banning, Tim Blake Nelson (O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, The Incredible Hulk, Lincoln) as Vice President Martin Kirby, Danny Huston (The Constant Gardener, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wonder Woman) as Wade Jennings, Michael Landes (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Final Destination 2, Love Soup) as Sam Wilcox, Jada Pinkett Smith (The Nutty Professor (1996), The Matrix 2 and 3, Gotham) FBI Agent Helen Thompson, Lance Reddick (The Wire, Fringe, John Wick trilogy) as Secret Service Director David Gentry, Mark Arnold (The Edge of Night, Trancers 4 and 5, Teen Wolf) as CIA Director James Haskell, Joseph Millson (Casino Royale, 24: Live Another Day, The Last Kingdom) as FBI Agent Ramirez, and Ori Pfeffer (Munich, Hacksaw Ridge, The Hitman’s Bodyguard) as Agent Murphy.

            Overall, Angel Has Fallen may satisfy fans of the franchise but casual moviegoers will just get a barrage of bland action sequences over characters and plot with little to no sense of thrills or suspense that will make you want to shout, “Make it stop!”. What should be on-the-edge-of-your-seat excitement has been downgraded to an overabundance of obnoxious shaky-cams, generic shoot-em-up action sequences and many of which are either shot in the dark or shot too close that it’s hard to even make out what’s happening on-screen, it is some of the most poorly-executed action sequences I’ve ever seen, I’m dead serious.

            It doesn’t help that the characters are barely developed which makes it difficult to get attached to them and care whenever an intense moment happens. The closest I can think of is maybe Freeman as the president because well, he’s the man who runs our country and at least takes his job more seriously than ours in reality (FORCED POLITICAL SATIRE!), but for better or for worse he’s stuck in a coma throughout most of this shitty movie and is barely in it. 

            Butler is just doing his usual shoot first, ask questions later attitude from the earlier films and by the climax, it gets stale after a while. Not to mention the sub-plot with his dad doesn’t really go anywhere and just serves as an excuse to drop some exposition behind Butler’s character. 

The plot is the infamous hero turned criminal cliché used whenever a desperate franchise is running low on steam (Superman III, The Fate of the Furious, and Transformers: The Last Knight anyone?) somehow made even worse with some of the laziest plot twists I’ve seen in a while. All throughout the movie I was able to tell which characters were going to be killed off and who the bad guys are, absolutely no surprises and nothing was gained, if anything it felt like a lot was taken away from me…like my wasted time. 

Angel Has Fallen is one of the laziest, uninspired action movie sequels I’ve seen in a long time that ranges from dumb action movie fare to flat-out audience-insulting ridiculous and dull. Even with the talents of Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, it’s a loud, thinly plotted mess that just makes you want to throw up your arms and say, “The action is intense I guess but so what?”. 

If you’re a fan of its predecessors and want to see how the franchise ends, you might find something to enjoy. Everyone else should just stick to John Wick: Chapter 3 and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw for your over-the-top action movie needs for the remainder of the summer. 

By the way, the new Roland Emmerich movie, Midway looks like crap too! 

Ready or Not review

READY OR NOT:

THIS GAME OF HIDE-AND-SEEK IS DARK, TWISTED, FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Samara Weaving in Ready or Not

            After getting married to her new husband, a young bride joins him and her rich in-laws in a game of hide and seek that goes to dark, horrific places in Ready or Not, the new black-comedy thriller from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S, Devil’s Due, Southbound). I was hyped for this movie the moment I saw the trailer, the premise alone sounded so bizarre and wild that I had to know what the end result was going to be, kind of like an old murder-mystery plot mixed with Saw but with a more comedic edge to it. 

            Granted horror movies with a humorous tone is nothing new, films like the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, and recently Get Out all blended terror and comedy in a seamless fashion and were all huge hits. Granted I’m not familiar with any of Olpin and Gillett’s other work, I haven’t seen V/H/S and I skipped Devil’s Due when it was released, so I’m coming into Ready or Not with zero knowledge of these filmmakers and…I had an absolute blast.

            I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard at a scary movie while still being on the edge of my seat at least since the release of Get Out, but there you go. Ready or Notgave me what I wanted, a well-made, completely bonkers homage to the murder-mystery genre with a dark sense of humor and top-notch performances by its cast.

             The film follows Grace (Samara Weaving-Out of the Blue, SMILF, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) who has just been married to a young man named Alex (Mark O’Brien-Republic of Doyle, Halt and Catch Fire, Arrival) coming from a rich, eccentric family. As a family tradition, Grace joins her husband and in-laws in a game of hide and seek where they attempt to find her before dawn. However, things go horribly wrong when Grace realizes that her in-laws intend to hunt and kill her for a satanic ritual and must find a way to escape this crazy, CRAZY family with only her wits and Alex going against his family as her only chance of survival.

            The film also stars Adam Brody (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Thank You for Smoking, Shazam!) as Daniel, Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible, Clear and Present Danger, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) as Tony, Andie MacDowell (Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Groundhog Day, Michael) as Becky, Kristian Bruun (Murdoch Mysteries, Regression, Orphan Black) as Fitch Bradley, Melanie Scrofano (Saw VI, Nurse 3D, Wynonna Earp) as Emilie, Elyse Levesque (Normal, Stargate: Universe, The Originals) as Charity, Nicky Guadagni (Street Legal, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Lars and the Real Girl) as Helene, John Ralston (Flash Gordon (2007), Degrassi: The Next Generation, On the Basis of Sex) as Stevens, and Nat Faxon (Club Dread, Hamlet 2, The Way, Way Back) as Justin.

            Overall, Ready or Not is some of the most fun I’ve ever had watching a scary movie and Pennywise could be facing some rough competition for the craziest horror movie of the year, we’ll have to wait and see when It: Chapter Two comes out in a few weeks. I was laughing and on the edge of my seat all throughout the movie fully invested in the plot and main characters. 

            The film fully embraces its bizarre narrative and gives a unique twist to the murder-mystery formula with a darkly comedic edge while still having a chilling mystery at its core. I’m so relieved that the trailers didn’t spoil the actual film and most of the time you’re not sure where the movie is going and whenever you think you’ve figured everything out it throws you for a curveball. 

            As a matter of fact, there was almost a twist in the movie during the climax that I wasn’t a fan of but was quickly redeemed before the credits roll. I dare not ruin it here, it is absolutely hilarious once you get to that point.

            With all the slaughtering and madness happening, the film doesn’t shy away from having a horror movie protagonist worth following all the way through thanks to Samara Weaving’s performance as Grace. She’s far from being the stereotypical dumb-blonde you would normally see in a Platinum Dunes horror remake (Aye-Yo!) and instead goes from a defenseless woman stuck in a creepy old mansion with her in-laws trying to kill her to a tough badass that you want to root for as she fights for survival even if it means having an excessive body-count and a lot of one-liners. 

            Ready or Not delivers the right amount of crazy to your murder-mystery movie watching thanks to its dark sense of humor, over-the-top deaths, twists and turns, and a strong performance by Samara Weaving at the heart of it. If you’re looking for something different than the usual horror/suspense movie fare then this is a game of hide and seek definitely worth playing, gory deaths, sadistic in-laws, and all.