Mama (2013)

Genre : Horror
Country : Spain

Cast :
Javier Botet : Mama
Jessica Chastain : Annabel
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau : Lucas / Jeffrey
Megan Carpentier : Victoria
Isabelle Nélisse : Lilly
Daniel Kash : Dr. Dreyfuss

Director :
Andrés Muschietti

Summary

The senior partner of an investment brokerage, Jeffrey Desange, has a breakdown due to a financial collapse and kills several co-workers and his estranged wife. He then kidnaps his two young daughters. He drives his car recklessly through a winding snow covered road. He loses control of his car and drives off an embankment. He finds an abandoned and isolated cabin where he plans to kill his daughters, but the children are saved by a dark ghostly image. After five years of searching and depleting his savings, Jeffrey's twin brother, Lucas, finds the children that were raised without social interaction and claim that they have been raised by 'Mama'.

My opinion

"Daddy,look! There's a woman outside the window.And she's not touching the floor."

"Mama" has all the elements to make it a great, creepy horror movie. It starts very strong with a somewhat hazy situation with a desperate father who killed his wife and abducts his children to an unknown destination. I suppose it's a family tragedy in the making caused by an economic crisis. However, the plan to kill the two sisters Victoria and Lilly goes awry after an accident in which they end up in a remote cabin in the woods. Here, the father ultimately can't carry out his act of desperation by the intervention of a blurred (as seen through the eyes of Victoria who is visually impaired) being who appears to be "Mama" afterwards. What follows is for me one of the most impressive forbearing scenes of this movie, namely when the two girls are found after 5 years. The image of the two swinging, smeared with mud, humming sisters on the refrigerator where they moved to with high speed in an arachnid way. Succeeded by the images in the psychiatric institution where the sisters are in observation and where it's shown how they have evolved into the skittish underdeveloped beings through their prolonged isolation. The moment when Victoria suddenly appears in the viewing window is an impetus for similar horror elements and it made ​​me think of Samara from "The Ring".

When Luke, the brother of the missing father who has custody of the two sisters, moves into a house, which is offered by the institution where the accompanying psychiatrist works, together with Annabel his girlfriend, it appears that something else has nested itself there too. Luke ends up in the hospital because of "Mama", so Annabel is all alone to take care of the two sisters and that's when the trouble starts.The story on its own has been told countless times in other haunted-house movies. Although it is not really a haunted-house movie in the purest sense of the word. A bundle of cliches from other horror movies pass in review including the soundtrack. Ok, it's cheap but I have to admit that most horror movies depend on it, and without it, it seems rather that you have seen a fairy tale instead of an unnerving horror/scary movie. In other words, it has to be like this.

The acting of the two girls was a top performance. Especially Lilly looked sometimes terrifying and demonic. Suddenly emerging from the darkness with the expressionless gaze and then disappearing lightning fast while giggling. She was also the only one of the pair who unconditionally accepted "Mama" as her natural mother and couldn't or wouldn't say goodbye to this entity. Victoria wasn't such a strong and convincing person, but that was more in line with the character. She quickly made ​​the transition to the more human world and accepted Lucas and Annabel as surrogate parents. That's why she rejected the request of Lilly to go outside and play with "Mama". Lucas quickly disappeared out of the picture, and therefore played a minor role. Annabel on the other other hand was also a strong interpretation. An alternative rock chick, with absolutely no maternal instinct (I thought she was pleased that the pregnancy test was negative in the beginning of the movie). She evolves into a mother figure after a while who really cares about the sisters.

But the strongest character turned out to be the creature "Mama". I read here and there about the bad CGI or irritating SFX, but I haven't noticed any of this.. I found it a compelling and terrifying spectacle. To my surprise I saw the name Javier Botet between the other actors on IMDB. The interpreter of "Mama" ... duhuh .... This person was told at the age of 5 that he's suffering from the symptoms of Marfan. A deviation that causes a person to grow to an unusual height with long, skinny arms,legs and fingers. He has this natural anomaly used to play personages like "Mama" and "Medeiros" in the [REC] movies. The CGI is subsequently projected on it. This gave the figure "Mama" a more realistic figure. The only laughable thing was the wig shuffling over the floor. They could have worked that out in a different way.
 

Eventually I thought it was a frightening movie with a very intense atmosphere and  properly placed scare moment (and I'm not easily scared). Again this shows that a good horror doesn't always require the necessary gore elements to make it oppressive. Personally I thought the end was a bit far-fetched with a baby corpse kept in an archive  and the in a huge swarm of moths bursting cocoon. Just like in "The Woman in Black" the found remedy doesn't eliminate the curse.
 

My rating 7/10
Link : IMDB

The heat (2013)

Genre : Comedy/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Sandra Bullock : Sarah Ashburn
Melissa McCarthy : Shannon Mullins
Kaitlin Olson : Tatiana

Director :
Paul Feig

Summary
Sarah Ashburn, an FBI agent, is extremely ambitious and has her eye on a promotion, but she doesn't get along with her co-workers. She is sent to Boston to uncover the identity of an elusive drug lord, Mr. Larkin, by tracking down his proxy, Rojas, and is told that she'll have a good shot at the promotion if she finds Larkin. When she arrives in Boston, she learns that Larkin has been eliminating his competition and taking over their operations. She learns that Rojas is in Boston PD custody and goes to see him to ask him what he knows about Larkin, but is warned that the cop who arrested Rojas, Shannon Mullins, is very territorial, and she is not exactly sociable. When the two meet they don't get along.

My opinion

Female 48 Hours

First we have the clumsy FBI agent Sarah Ashburn. I was wondering how the hell she achieved to get in the FBI in the first place.She's a human walking encyclopedia who isn't capable of speaking one obscene word, but in a glance at a crime scene she magically reveals illegal weapons hidden behind a panel and some drugs under the table. David Copperfield is a loser compared to her.
And then we have the street-cop Shannon Mullins who rumbles around foaming with rage and swearing like a heretic while swinging around ferociously. The only positive thing you can say about her is her practical knowledge of the street.

These two opposites are (of course) forced to work together. And after the known obstacles and mistakes, the hate and antipathy disappear by itself as the film progresses. Eventually they form the unsurpassed and formidable team called "The Heat".

The profound content of this movie is hereby succinctly summarized. In terms of humor this movie is a complete miss. The scene in the bar where they both get drunk is the only hilarious part (The polonaise with seniors was exquisite), but the rest is woeful corny slap-stick comedy. It actually started to annoy me at outset. The clumsy hassle of Bullock with her miraculous solutions, and the constant swearing McCarthy. There will be a wide audience for this kind of humor, but for me it was a complete waste of time.

My rating 2/10 
Links : IMDB

The Divide (2011)

Genre : SF/Thriller
Country : USA/Germany

Cast :
Lauren German : Eva
Michael Biehn : Mickey
Rosanna Arquette : Marilyn
Milo Ventimiglia : Josh

Director :
Xavier Gens

Summary
After a nuclear attack, seven dwellers of an apartment building seek refugee in a bunker in the basement of the building where the super, Mickey, lives. He rations water and supplies among the group formed by Eva and her boyfriend Sam; the gays Bobby and Josh and his brother Adrien; Marilyn and her daughter Wendi; and Delvin. When five invaders break into their shelter wearing protective clothing and breathing apparatuses, they abduct Wendi but the survivors succeed in killing two of the men. Josh wears the only clothing that was not damaged and discovers a strange research center where he finds Wendi contained in some kind of stasis device along with other children apparently collected by the unknown men in suits. He is discovered and ends up shoots at three men and returns to the shelter. Soon the group learns that the invaders have welded their access door from outside and they are trapped inside the bunker.

My opinion

"The Day After" in a sealed bunker.

I thought this was an excellent psychological thriller. It was scary at times, but not as scary as a top horror movie. The way people react in a hopeless situation was scary. A survival of the fittest. The dominant individuals taking the reins. The weaker individuals crawling in a submissive position so that they see a chance to survive. Arquette played this behavior properly in this film. Beyond that, her contribution is simply nil. Formerly her joining a movie was a guarantee for some functionally nice nudity. In this movie she was usually strategically covered and so there remains, besides a few hysterical mood-swings, in terms of performances not much left.

It wasn't exactly a SF either. Although the so-called North Koreans with futuristic bio-suits gave it a SF touch. The only implausible fact I could find was the speed in which the arrogant, sadistic and degrading behavior evolved in some characters. The movie doesn't give any indication of the time frame that it evolved. Are they only a few days, some weeks or months locked up? The 2nd part is a claustrophobic spiral of senseless violence and a model of how individuals can grow into an over-dominant and dictatorial role within a closed community. The scenes are sometimes brutal and aggressive, but nothing is explicitly portrayed f.e. chopping the bodies into pieces. The two dominant bald heads really are a creepy display of two totally freaky guys.

However, the way Sam responded was beyond my comprehension. Would I witness how those two are terrorizing the whole group, use torture techniques in order to get a combination and abuse a woman until she drops dead, I surely would ensure that their brains were splashed against a wall if I could lay my hand on a weapon. Merciless.

My conclusion : an impressive and oppressive futuristic look at a chaotic struggle for survival.

My rating 6/10
Links : IMDB

Shutter Island (2010)

Genre : Mystery/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Leonardo DiCaprio : Teddy Daniels
Mark Ruffalo : Chuck Aule
Ben Kingsley : Dr. Cawley

Director :
Martin Scorsese

Summary
It's 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

My opnion

A cuckoo's nest on an island

A brilliant psychological thriller where nothing seems like it should be. You'll be mislead the whole movie. The denouement is extremely surprising and plausible, but then turns right back to an open end which raises the same question : Is Ted still living in his unreal delusional world or is he really aware of his ultimate identity and thus voluntarily commits suicide to get rid of the agonizing trauma that chases him for years? Indeed, a true "mind fuck " in this movie.

Scorsese placed the whole story on a remote island. Superbly portrayed as an isolated, desolate, rough rock where escaping is impossible. Using the ferry is a possibility but it's in the hands of the institute. The movie begins as the ferry arrives on the island with Ted (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) on board . I'm not a huge fan of Leonardo, but I must admit that I could appreciate his performances in "Django" and "Inception" and I don't look at him as the youthful Jack from "Titanic", but more like a chameleon-like actor who has gradually found its place among the other big boys.

The other actors are not the least. Mark Ruffalo plays a decent role as partner annex personal psychiatrist Ted. Personally I thought he's more convincing in this role then as Bruce Banner in "The Avengers" and recently as Dylan Rhodes in "Now you see it".
Ben Kingsley is a class act who plays the head psychiatrist with bravado and suppleness . The has a unique view on the treatment of psychiatric "patients". It's masterfully to see how his deadpan expression can change from compassionate to chiding. Max von Sydow is a well established value with a finicky small contribution. In that split second, he shows how psychiatrists feel superior over other human beings.

What begins as an apparently simple detective story with a search for an escaped patient, turns into a whirlwind of claustrophobic proportions. The threat and insane atmosphere accumulates systematically. The interior of Block C was soaring and fits well with the idea that the most dangerous individuals are imprisoned there. Far off from the outside world. The lighthouse is a gloomy edifice that stands out against the dark ocean and could indeed turn out to be a place to perform true inhuman experiments.

Gradually the question arises whether Ted is indeed insane or that he's involved in a grand conspiracy to cover it all up. His flashbacks of Dachau and dreams about the alleged dramatic death of his wife, the delusions of rats on the rocks, the trembling of his hands and sometimes psychotic manners, point out to the first. The story of the hiding female psychologist Rachel, surely makes you doubt again. The story of the mark that you get after internment is credible. Whatever you do to prove the opposite, it will always be reduced to the fact that you're insane.
Fifty years from now, people will look back and say, "Here, at this place, is where it all began The Nazis used the Jews, Soviets used prisoners in Their Own Gulags And we -.., We tested patients on Shutter Island."

The final revelation was also a surprise for me and explained everything that preceded. The turnaround to total awareness and to admit that he lived all those years in a delusional world, proved the successful outcome of the whole set-up. I only doubt that you can apply this technique in reality.

The final sentence then puts everything in an entirely different context : "Which would be worse - to live as a monster or to die as a good man?" Is Ted still that monster or is he the cured repented patient who deliberately commits euthanasia by using lobotomy ?

Excellent movie !!!

My rating 9/10

Links : IMDB

The Frozen Ground (2013)

Genre : Crime/Biography
Country : USA

Cast :
Nicolas Cage : Jack Halcombe
Vanessa Hudgens : Cindy Paulson
John Cusack : Robert Hansen

Director :
Scott Walker

Summary
Alaska Trooper Jack Holcombe believes Robert Hansen is a serial killer who abducts young girls, tortures and sexually assaults them, then kills them. But Holcombe doesn't have enough evidence to get a search warrant for Hansen's premises. Holcombe knows that one victim, Cyndy Paulsen, somehow survived, so he decides to seek her help, but he finds that she's now a junkie with trust issues. Holcombe has to earn her trust; meanwhile, Hansen is still hunting and killing girls.

My opinion

Hannibal Lector on Ice

A film based on a true story (Gives you extra chills if you keep this in mind) with the cooperation of a number of famous names as cast.

Nicolas Cage as the dutiful State Trooper Jack Halcombe (a fictional character based on detective Glenn Flothe in reality), who's been assigned his last mission before he retires. Yet another detective who gets his last "case" and in no time realizes that this is going to be a hard nut to crack. Same as Robert Duvall in "Falling Down" or Morgan Freeman in "Se7en ". Cage guarantees always the same way of lethargic acting. Whether he is an alcoholic in "Leaving Las Vegas" or a chemical weapons specialist in "The Rock", his acting routine is basically the same. Personally I think he deviates in this routine in "Matchstick Men" in which he performs in an excellent way. Recently he  played in lesser films like "Stolen" and "Ghost Rider". But he always gets from me the benefit of the doubt .

Cusack fits perfectly in here. He's also someone who always plays his roles in the same manner. A non-emotional face in both "2012" and in "The Raven." To be honest he didn't really evolve much since he played in the trashy teen-movie "Serendipity". The two main characters already met before in the movie "Con Air". I really need to have a look at that one somewhere in the future. The advantage Cusack has in this movie is that that non-emotional attitude suits perfectly with the person Robert Hansen, a crazy psychotic stuttering serial killer from Alaska.

For me Vanessa Hudgens was the big surprise in this film. Given that the majority of films in which she appeared include the terms "teen" and "high school", she plays nevertheless in a convincing way a tormented prostitute, who experienced a youth full of abuse and then ended up in the raunchy world of prostitution full of violence, sex and domination. She can escape out of the hands of Hansen after being tortured, raped and humiliated. That's also the start of the movie.

Due to the fact that it's based on a true story, there is little room for self-interpretation and the freedom to differ. Although I think the part where Hansen hires a guy to eliminate Cindy and this attempt almost is a success but Cindy can get away assisted by her former pimp (I think) played by 50Cent (with a wig that will scare the living shit out of you but with a perfectly palatable rendition) and saved at the last moment by the State Troopers, feels like an adaption to raise the tension a bit. Also the nail-biting house search is a romanticized version compared to what really happened as you can read on Wikipedia.

Eventually it's a movie from which the audience expects more than enumerating historical facts. Ultimately, the film gives a good portrait of Hansen, the doggedness of Jack Halcombe to stop the killings and Cindy as a near-victim who tries to survive in the inhuman, harsh world of prostitution and also tries to stay out of the hands of Hansen. The images of Alaska with its vast, icy and godforsaken plains (a perfect place for disposing human remains), together with the credits at the end as a tribute to all the victims and the realization that a person is really capable to commit such horrible facts , left me with an oppressive and uncomfortable feeling.

My rating 6/10
Links : IMDB

Now You See Me (2013)

Genre : Crime/Mystery
Country : USA/France

Cast :
Mark Ruffalo : Dylan Rhodes
Woody Harrelson : Merritt McKinney
Isla Fisher : Henley Reeves
Mélanie Laurent : Alma Dray
Jesse Eisenberg : J. Daniel Atlas

Director :
Louis Leterrier

Summary

Four magicians each answer a mysterious summons to an obscure address with secrets inside. A year later, they are the Four Horsemen, big time stage illusionists who climax their sold out Las Vegas show with a bank apparently robbed for real. This puts agents Dylan Rhodes of the FBI and Alma Dray of Interpol on the case to find out how they did it. However, this mystery proves difficult to solve even with the insights of the professional illusion exposer, Thaddeus Bradley. What follows is a bizarre investigation where nothing is what it seems with illusions, dark secrets and hidden agendas galore as all involved are reminded of a great truth in this puzzle: the closer you look, the less you see.

My opinion

This movie was for me one big magic trick.

Like many, I thought the beginning of this film was great. The presentation of the "Four Horsemen" was well done. Especially Woody was brilliant as the mentalist. His humor is natural and doesn't feel like forced or exaggerated. I find him irresistible in this role as a shrewd and highly intellectual lettered psychic illusionist.

Eisenberg has that natural arrogance of which I sometimes doubt whether this is played or it's his personality in real life. Fisher and Franco ensure the beauty portion of the film. The interplay of the four characters and the interactions between them was quite entertaining and frequently enormously funny.

Merritt McKinney: The first time I saw you, I thought you were... a dick.
Henley Reeves: And?
Merritt McKinney: That's it.
J. Daniel Atlas: I'm touched.
Merritt McKinney: Yeah, just from the bottom of my heart.
J. Daniel Atlas: Well, I didn't say where I was touched.

Dylan and Alma, respectively FBI and Interpol, the Scully and Mulder of this film, played a very fine part. Caine, the wealthy guardian of the foursome plays a limited role. And Freeman was again the mysterious ex-magician whose lifework is to unmask the 4 magicians. These are the main characters what the story is about. The performances were magnificent. My favorite scene is the one where they all were arrested after the first performance. The conversations, the ascendancy that they showed, the arrogance and the magic they used. Admirable beautiful.

The illusions were of course totally exaggerated and improbable, but were a magnificent spectacle that was masterfully visualized. The sparse action scenes were worked out to the last detail and at times convincingly realistic. And sometimes these action scenes are ridiculously exaggerated. But yes, it's still a movie about illusionists. Right ?

Where did it go wrong then ? The denouement ! It's truly a total surprise, but at the same time so far fetched that it was implausible. Anyone who had seen it coming, better start a hobby in making bedspreads because all the other movies will be extremely predictable for you, I guess. For me this was a total letdown. A great movie with a magnificent run, a loving captivated middle, and then such a weak denouement.

My rating 6/10
Links : IMDB