The Quiet Ones (2014)

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Genre : Horror
Country : USA/UK
 
Cast :
Jared Harris : Joseph Coupland
Sam Claflin : Brian
Olivia Cooke : Jane Harper

Director :
John Pogue

Summary
A university professor and a team of students conduct an experiment on a young woman, uncovering terrifyingly dark, unexpected forces in the process.

My opinion 

“Cure one and you cure the world”

The name "Hammer Films" evokes memories of baroque horror movies from the 60s and 70s which had some influence on subsequent horrors. For a while they disappeared out of the spotlight and then reappear in 2012 with "The Woman in Black" with Daniel Radcliffe. This old-fashioned looking ghost story was a hit which brought a significant sum of $ 127 million worldwide. "The Quiet Ones" will not achieve the same goal, but despite the worn and outdated banal topic it´s reasonably successful in a number of areas.

Professor Coupland (Jared Harris) is trying to prove in an unorthodox way that a possession or a form of telekinesis is caused by negative energy. He forced to continue the experiments he performed on the girl Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke) on an independent basis, as the university is cuts the fundings due to the controversial nature of the experiment. He withdraws into a dilapidated mansion along with some hardcore supporters of his theory, Krissi (Erin Richards) and Harry (Rory Fleck-Byrne), and the timid young guy Brian (Sam Claflin) whose passion is handling a camera and is therefore incorporated as a cameraman to film the experiment.

The first thing that worried me was the fact that the principle of "found footage" was used. But in fact, one can say that it is rather just "footage" material. Direct images that are recorded during the experiment and mixed with ordinary film material. Another approach to the term "footage". Basically, the biggest advantage about this, is that there are no lengthy scenes with vacuous, waving images. Wouldn't I have a strong stomach, this might cause some problems after devouring a decent spaghetti Bolognaise. The whole film reflects the 70s. Slade and T-Rex blasting out of the sound system, the sophisticated equipment they use to do measurements looks dated, the clothes, the decor of the house, the camera that Brian uses and the fact that Coupland is smoking a cigarette every time he comes in the picture.

What about the horror content? Despite the fact that this film is given the title "The Quiet Ones", it is advised to keep the sound level low. The possibility of a hearing damage is considerable, as the shock effect in this film is for the most part based on momentary loud bang effects. I startled, even with the simple hand clap they used as a famous clapper-board that Brian clearly did not possess. The moment they move into the old house, it gets more and more a "The Conjuring" atmosphere. Yet it remains all a bit superficial and it is limited to some throbbing sounds, squeaky opening doors, suddenly not working lights and performing séances using strobe lights. Even the revelation at a given time and the terrifying quest in the attic in the end, can not prevent it to be a superficial ghost story in general.

Jared Harris plays in a convincing and successful way the eccentric professor who is unquestionably convinced of his theory and despite all the evidence continues to believe in it obstinately. The additional alleged amorous relationships he had, were in my eyes unnecessary and irrelevant. Sam Claflin, also known from "The Hunger Games" played the timid outsider who soon realizes that Jane's treatment is unacceptable and even starts to get feelings for Jane. A creditable role. It´s Olivia Cooke who delivers a magnificent performance. A tormented girl that first looks innocent and vulnerable, and then transforms into a scary strong and sneaky person. Beautifully acted.

Still, again I had some reservations about certain things. Like the warning Brian got about the patient. He should not look her in the eyes or converse with her, so he would not interfere with the experiment. He forgot that advice from the start, I guess. And they had a whole cartload of sophisticated equipment, but a dead simple flashlight they didn't have of course.

But despite that, it wasn't an unpleasant film, with an average story and a whole load of clichés. If you watch this film with the volume high enough, then you are assured of some momentary cardiac disorders. But if you're a seasoned horror buff, this is nothing new, and you can "quietly" let this one pass by. And the mandatory message "Inspired by true events" is not very original and has no effect on me. I start to snigger spontaneously after reading this ...

My rating 5/10
Links : IMDB

A Belfast Story (2013)

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Genre : Crime/Drama
Country : Ireland
 
Cast :
Colm Meaney : Detective
Malcolm Sinclair : Chief Constable
Tommy O'Neill : Eerste Minister

Director :
Nathan Todd

Summary
In a city left torn by war, when a series of murders awaken dormant memories, many fear the worst. Colm Meaney and Malcolm Sinclair star in a film set between war and peace. Times are changing, car bombs are less common and terrorists find themselves out of work, but old habits die hard. And while most go quietly into the night, one man must find the few who won?t comply. A greying assassin has stopped walking his son to school. With motives buried deep in the Irish conflict, everyone is about to discover that the past matters to someone...

My opinion
Three more bodies. It's an epidemic.”

Apparently, the package the press received from Adnuco Production caused quite a stir. The presentation contained the DVD and was supplemented with material that could be handy for terrorists like a balaclava, a handful of nails and duct tape. I am convinced that seeing this content was more exciting than the content of this movie.

"A Belfast Story" is situated in Ireland (quite obviously) and has a real Irish atmosphere. The beautiful scenery with its wavy hills, the folk music that can be heard throughout the film in a non-interfering manner in the background, the local pubs, the known working class houses (although it could be in Liverpool district as well) and of course the succulent Irish accent that is spoken. Unmistakably a sign that genuine Irish actors and actresses were asked for this movie.

But Ireland is also inextricably linked to the IRA (Irish Republican Army), the paramilitary organization which fought for an independent Ireland with no ties to the United Kingdom and tried to achieve that by committing bloody bombings which also caused innocent civilian victims. In "A Belfast Story" former members of the IRA are systematically murdered. It seems, therefore, that there is now someone taking revenge on them. Or is it an attempt to stir up the unrest that ravaged Ireland.

Colm "Star Trek O'Brien" Meaney is the seasoned detective who investigates who the perpetrators are. He is a rather dusty and corny character. A detective who is about to retire and who knows the tricks of the trade when it's about the IRA. He's also someone who's emotionally scarred from this battle and that rises the question whether he wants to solve this matter or not? Chief Constable (Malcolm Sinclair) called him "Last of his kind".

I like to watch occasionally an old-fashioned "who-has-done-it" detective. The atmosphere is quite in the nature of a typical English detective serials such as "Frost". Ultimately it's just a boring movie. The first hour is a concatenation of the attacks on the former members of the IRA and an awful lot of people who are calling with their mobile phone. Meaney looks like an Irish Columbo who surly grumbles when he arrives at the crime scene and then he comes to the conclusion that there is a pattern :  former members of the IRA are being killed and it looks like some kind of vendetta. I am not a seasoned detective, but I figured that out myself after 15 minutes. The murders happen in an inventive way and are related to the acts the victims have done in the past. Only the poisoning of one of them, after he went for "Fish and Chips" in a local eatery, I found rather implausible. How they did that still remains a mystery to me.

It's just waiting for the denouement and discover who's the culprit and what's his motive. Until then you witness the clumsy investigative work by the police who, as always, are running behind the facts and have no clear indications that could solve this case. Moreover I hope that the real Irish police is more capable than those performing in this film. I don't think bugging devices are clogged in such a moronic and instantaneous way. And why didn't they search the adjacent barn after their thorough search (although it also looked like a joke) through the house ?

Ultimately the underlying message is a bit more complicated than it appears at first sight. The ex-members of the I.R.A. want to leave the past being (especially now that they have moved up to a prestigious position. Even as First Minister) and the law enforcement apparently have no problem with the liquidation of some retired IRA members. Whether all this is accurate and consistent with the current situation, is something unknown to me since my knowledge of the political situation is fairly limited. However, I fear that people will have wrong idea about Ireland after watching "A Belfast Story." It seems like everyone still has a few automatic rifles in the closet or between the cushions of the seat , so they can go to battle again at the right time. It wouldn't surprise me that inhabitants of Ireland and England, think this is a pretty shocking and uncompromising movie.

After a while I got the feeling that I was watching a third-rate television series, though it began strong and promising but eventually degenerated into a terribly annoying controversial product in which Meaney excelled in, despite his boring monologues he had while sitting alone in a room with the most hideous wallpaper patterns ever. The consternation about the package I've mentioned at the beginning, was indeed necessary to obtain some attention.

My rating 3/10
Links : IMDB

Freezer (2014)

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Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : US
 
Cast :
Dylan McDermott : Robert
Peter Facinelli : Sam Gurov
Yuliya Snigir : Alisa

Director :
Mikael Salomon

Summary
Robert is an ordinary man who is faced with extraordinary circumstances. He is locked in a meat freezer by Russian thugs who believe that he owes them 8 million dollars. Robert, who is in every frame of the film soon discovers that he is not alone in the freezer. Sam, a stranger, is also locked in with him, and it becomes a struggle to survive the cold and the forces that are against them.

My opinion

"Happy fuckin' birthday"

"Freezer" is like a refrigerator at someones home who suffers from bulimia. Empty and cold. Don't expect panoramic images, because the whole film is set in an enclosed area of a few square meters. You only get a few glimpses of other locations in the beginning of the film and in the end. For the rest it's a desolate view of the inside of a cooling room with some hunks of meat hanging from the ceiling and also a whole range of iron shelves with boxes. And strangely enough, in between an infiltrator comes crawling out of a shelf where he was tucked away for some time. But that's the last thing I will tell you, otherwise there's nothing left from this unlikely, farfetched thin story.

When a complete movie takes place in one specific area, then it can only be successful by using a surprising twist in a clever put together story that takes you by surprise. A movie like "Devil", which is almost exclusively set in an elevator, was equipped with such an original story. "Freezer" is a total failure in this part and the denouement is really exaggerated and farfetched. Well it didn't warm me up. How appropriate!

Robert (Dylan McDermott) is the unfortunate mechanic who awakes in a cooling room, with a plastic bag over his head and his hands and feet tied with straps. He has no idea where he is, but soon realizes it's terribly cold in there. After a while two sturdy guys come in who start beating him up. Robert realizes that something is not quite all right and that he's in an awkward and difficult position. Usually you'll come to that conclusion after you get a hard punch in your stomach and you find your lunch spread all over the floor. The Russian tough guys know only one English word: "Money." Apparently they are seeking for 8 million dollars they've lost. And they claim that Robert has pinched this considerable sum of money.

What follows is a fairly monotonous routine in which the two Russian mobsters disappear and reappear. Soon after they are also accompanied by a Russian tough lady called Alisa (Yuliya Snigir), who seemed to be quite superior at first, but afterwards appeared to be just another third-rate accomplice. Between these interludes Robert tries to save himself out of this situation and starts to search for a possible escape route. If I were him, I would have emptied the fire extinguisher unceremoniously in the face of the gangsters at the time they walked into the freezer and subsequently crush the empty fire extinguisher on their Russian heads. I guess the cold hindered the ability to think.

The story itself is already wafer-thin. So what about the performances? About the gangsters we can be short and concise. Ultimately they are just mindless hulks and that's how they perform. Plain stupid. Snigir was very convincing in the beginning but then the overacting arose and it soon changed into a sad spectacle. The only one who could get my approval was McDermott. Allthough his situation looked desperate, he tried to pervade it with subtle and humorous conversations. But that didn't save the movie. He did save his face though. An admirable performance in a meaningless movie. I think he really looks like David Schwimmer (Ross from the sitcom "Friends"). It reminded me of that episode where Chandler got stuck in an ATM vestibule. But that's aside.

There were also some rarities in this movie that left some questionmarks. Apparently this cold room was already used before. Wouldn't it be appropriate to remove some dangerous items such as meat hooks and a fire extinguisher ? And apparently it wasn't that cold in there because there were no freezing phenomena. Not even a little cloud in the air as they were speaking. And after removing his shoes, Robert had difficulties to stand on his feet because of the so called freezing cold. Seems that plastic brings salvation ? And afterwards, although the temperature was even lower, it didn't look like it bothered him. And how you can make a glowing stove with only two electrical wires and an iron rack, remains a mystery to me.

If I ever want to watch a movie again with frost in it, I'll look for the umpteenth time "Frozen" again together with my two kids. There's more story, tension and content in this wonderful Walt Disney movie than in this would-be thriller ...

My rating 2/10
Links : IMDB

The Sacred (2012)

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Genre : Horror
Country : US
 
Cast :
Heather Roop : Jessie
Brighid Fleming : Leah
Jeff Fahey : George

Director :
Bret Donowho

Summary
A young girl bravely travels up to her dead Aunts cabin for creative inspiration. Marie gets more than she bargained for, when she soon realizes she is not alone. Confronted by evil spirits, she is forced to fight for her life.

My opinion

Are you someone who has never seen a horror in his life and just decided to take the big step and it should remain fairly soft, then you definitely should watch "The Sacred". But if you want to start up allready with something more heavy in this genre, then you better forget about this movie. I don't want to feel guilty about the fact that new horror fans would drop out because they came to the conclusion that the horror genre isn't that special anyway after watching this film. Because relating "The Sacred" to the horror genre is as ridiculous as claiming that the little snow man in "Frozen" is a real living snowman they have recruited in Lapland. Sheer nonsense!

Indeed there is an evil spirit and you can see a ritual of an exorcism in the opening scene. But like one swallow does not make a summer, those elements won't make this film a horror. I'm sure the creators watched a lot of horror movies about cabins in the woods and possessed people, with their notebooks ready. Because virtually every conceivable cliché has been used. One follows after the other in such a pace that it looks like "Am laufenden Band" with Rudi Carell. But instead of a conveyor belt with prices, it's one with overused horror elements.

Jessie (Heather Roop) is a writer who suddenly faces the well-known phenomenon of a writer's block. Not to worry. Jessie has a cabin inherited from her aunt, who obviously deceased under mysterious circumstances, and uses this opportunity to stay over there and confront herself with her past and so regain some inspiration. So she moves to this secluded cabin in the woods. Soon strange things start to happen and blablablablabla .....
First there is the ridiculous oversupply of used horror elements: self-opening doors, a clock that's always showing the wrong time, a falling vase, sudden appearances, a radio getting smashed, shadows in the mirror, a doll that appears somewhere all the time, the staring villagers, scary sounds and creaking floors, banging on the door, friends appear and eventually become victims ... You can even hear a priest doing an exorcism. The technique of filming in a way as if it appears that someone is spying on you from behind a bush or from the upper floor, has also been used infinite times. And something that starts getting on my nerves over and over again, is the fact that everyone knows nothing or they don't want to talk about it, and then suddenly they come up with some story about something that happened in the past.And of course Jessie responds to these phenomena as if nothing is going on and it's just kind of weird. Naive girl!

About the performances we can brief : that was for me the greatest horror element. Totally unbelievable and amateurish. When Jessie started crying, I also almost started crying spontaneously myself. Not because it was so touching, but because it looked so miserably. Besides, it was also laughable how Jessie was portrayed. In the beginning, she looked like a frigid old aunt, and afterwards when she starts cleaning in that cabin, she looked like a sexy pop artist with an ultra-short cut-off jeans and a translucent t-shirt swinging around with her ​​mop. My conclusion after seeing all these scenes (because she is shown regularly bra-less while wearing a see-through t-shirt) is that it was really cold in that forest. It looked like some Darts Tournament in London. "One Hundred and Eighty" times I've looked at those erect antennas

Anyway, it's also a bad omen when they throw in some lesbian sex scenes and some explicit images of Jessie taking a shower. Usually this is done to embellish things and to hide the fact that this is a terrible movie. The denouement is so incredibly far-fetched using terrible looking special effects. If this was a movie from the 70's, then I would understand. And you don't need to be clever to guess the open end. Is there anything good to say about this movie? Yes, the performance of Brighid Fleming as Leah, is admirable. But that couldn't save this disaster.

  

My rating 1/10
Links : IMDB

The Railway Man (2013)

English Here ...

Genre : Biography/Drama/War
Country : Australia/UK
 
Cast :
Colin Firth : Eric Lomax
Jeremy Irvine : Eric Lomax
Nicole Kidman : Patti

Director :
Jonathan Teplitzky

Summary
Eric Lomax was one of thousands of Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WW2. His experiences, after the secret radio he built to bring news and hope to his colleagues was discovered, left him traumatised and shut off from the world. Years later, he met Patti, a beautiful woman, on a train and fell in love. Patti was determined to rid Eric of his demons. Discovering that the young Japanese officer who haunted her husband was still alive, she faced a terrible decision. Should Eric be given a chance to confront his tormentor ?

My opinion

"You are a soldier, Lomax. You never surrendered."

There have been innumerable movies about the 2nd World War, in which the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust were highlighted. Almost all major battles and facts from this dark period have been used. Films about the living conditions of prisoners of war (POW's) in Japan and the daily torture and inhumane treatment they underwent in the Japanese-occupied territories, are rare. There were more than 140.000 inmates in this period in Japan. One out of three died from hunger, the hard labour, floggings and diseases. The worst conditions were for those who worked on the railroad that was built between Burma and Thailand. The so-called Death Railway which was 258 miles long and was built across inhospitable land. Japanese engineers calculated that it would take 5 years to make it. But with the use of military POW's and civilians, the job was done in 16 months. An average of 200 workers died on a daily base. 15.000 POW's, including 7.000 British, were killed. Also about 100.000 Thai and Indonesian citizens died while constructing this railroad.

"The railway man" is an emotional and beautifully portrayed story of Eric Lomax, a Scottish officer who was taken prisoner in Singapore and worked as an engineer on the construction of this railway. Given the circumstances, his living conditions weren't so bad, until the Japanese discovered that the small group of engineers had constructed a radio, so they could follow the developments at the front. However, the Japanese thought they used it to send messages. Eric takes a courageous decision and says he's responsible, after which a long period of successive torture and humiliation starts. Until the liberation.

It's an adaptation of the impressive story written down by Eric Lomax himself. A story of a scarred man suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). A man who is obsessed by railways and tries to come to terms with his past. It's during a train ride that he meets Patricia Wallace, a recently divorced and well-read woman. During their marriage, Patricia soon discovers that he still suffers from his traumatic past and is still haunted by his Japanese torturers.

A gripping story, subtly and respectfully filmed. There's no use of a lot of action-packed scenes or terrible horrifying images of tortures. It's rather the lack of it that causes an oppressive feeling and that gives you an idea of ​​the terrible conditions in which these POW's were living. The nightmares Eric had sometimes and his comatose state of mind was performed in an impressive way. The story jumps back and forth between the past and the present, and delivers sometimes real postcard-images: like the loving couple on the beach with an umbrella flying away or the images at the end of the movie with the finished railway in Burma.

These beautiful images are in stark contrast with the sordid and degrading images of the shown Japanese camps. The hopeless situation, the emaciated bodies of the dead tired workers who succumb during heavy forced labor, inhuman conditions and the constant torture and punishments they faced. A tarnished image of the Japanese: cruel, callous, ruthless, extraordinarily hard and sadistic. A black page in their history they seemingly got away with easily. It is as if they torn that page, burned it and tried to forget about it as soon as possible.

Both Jeremy "War Horse" Irvine as Colin "Love Actually" Firth convincingly play the role of Eric Lomax. Irvine undergoes the physical terror and torture by the Kempeitai (a kind of Japanese Gestapo) as a young officer. There are some horrible images to see and to hear. The regularity with which he is beaten with a hardwood stick. The moment a bone breaks after administering harsh strokes gave me shivers down my spine. The wailing and screaming. The frightened look as he is transported back to an isolated room to get a special treatment. Firth is still undergoing the psychological torture of his traumatic experience. He looses contact with the outside world, he doesn't speak a word and has even downright aggressive reactions. He regularly attends a meeting with fellow sufferers to study tacitly a timetable for trains. For once I found that Nicole Kidman played a decent role. She's not exactly my favorite actress, and maybe she was overly cool and reserved in this movie, but it fitted perfectly and occasionally you saw this figurative glacier thawing. I also found the young Takeshi Nagase (Tanroh Ishida) masterfully played. His facial expression ranged from a calm sadist to sincere sympathy. A good example of acting talent.

Eventually there will be someone complaining about the predictability (if you've read the book, this is obviously quite normal) and the faint ending. But finally I thought this was an appropriate and dignified way. An ending that was grander in its simplicity than any other conceivable way. And although the film progresses at a leisurely pace, the 116 minutes were gone before I knew it. It's not a film like "The bridge on the River Kwai" but in my eyes it's a memorable film that made ​​quite an impression on me.

My rating 9/10
Links : IMDB

The Citizen (2013)

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Genre : Drama
Country : US
 
Cast :
Khaled Nabawy : Ibrahim
Agnes Bruckner : Diane
Rizwan Manji : Mo

Director :
Sam Kadi

Summary
Yearning to leave behind his life of misfortune in the Middle East, Ibrahim Jarrah wins the U.S Green Card Lottery for a chance to become an American citizen. Ibrahim lands in New York City the day before 9/11... and the events of the September terrorist attacks forever shape the struggles he faces on his journey to capture the American dream. Inspired by true events, filmmaker Sam Kadi's feature debut is a gripping tale of courage, love, and perseverance, the qualities of a true citizen.

My opinion

“Terrorists don’t get lawyers.”

"The Citizen" is the story of a Syrian immigrant Ibrahim Jarrah, born in Lebanon, who had to move in the Middle East a few times due to the Lebanese civil war and the invasion of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. He was fortunate to win a "Green Card" in the U.S. Greencard lottery and thus find happiness in the U.S. and pursue the American dream. He arrives on 10 September 2010, one day before disaster strikes. Ibrahim claims he's not born for happiness. He's amazed about the fact that he has won a "Green Card". However, he doesn't realize what's hanging over his head.

It's not exactly a happy movie and you will be discouraged in Ibrahim's place. That a man sometimes experiences some setbacks in his life is perfectly normal. But in this film it's just an accumulation of problems and it becomes such a misery that you surely would start doing something wrong. If I was him, I would have turned my back to the U.S. immediately. Ibrahim is an example of perseverance and conviction. If the saying "It's dogged that does it" doesn't exist in Syria, then they could include it in a book about proverbs with a reference to him. His persistence to succeed as a businessman in the U.S. and eventually acquire the status of an American citizen is admirable.
 

Khaled Nabawy, an Egyptian actor, plays the role of Ibrahim in a brilliant way. A naive young man who is friendly, has charisma and a charming personality. A good Samaritan from the Middle East who always sees the positive side in everyday things and accepts the way things happen to him. A man who wants to fulfill his dream by planting a good deed every day, as he says. "Everything happens for a reason-I just do not know the reason yet." His personality and appearance immediately wipes all prejudices about Muslims from the table.

And that's the biggest obstacle that he encounters on his way to citizenship. The impact of the terrorist attack on the "Twin Towers". Automatically he's looked at with suspicion, and he's the victim of prejudice and discrimination. All the evidence pleads against him: his cousin doesn't show up at his arrival and he tells a lie about where he's staying that night, subsequently it seems that his nephew had contacts with those who are responsible for these attacks, his last name is the same as one of the terrorists and he was filmed during an anti-Bush demonstration where he participated in chanting slogans. The heroic act he performed by defending a Jewish young man who was beaten up by a group of skinheads, doesn't change the fact that he's still seen as a threat to the country, after which he institutes legal procedures against his mandatory deportation. That's how the movie started anyway.

Despite the excellent acting performance of Khalid and Agnes Bruckner, the cute girl named Diane who Ibrahim helped in the beginning and who became his refuge and guardian, it's still a dull film with a bunch of cliches. Eventually it just feels like a weekend movie of which a lot have been created already in the past. Such a weekend movie with a moral and social message about how someone gets back on top despite all the trouble he went through and succeeds in his preconceived plan. The end was a fairytale monstrosity. Spontaneously I started to roll my eyes until they looked in the direction of Mecca. A kind of Cinderella but then interpreted by a Muslim with his sweets transformed into a beauty of a car in front of a respectable house, with his lovely wife (You really can't guess who that'll be) and a cute little son.

Then there were also some small things I found rather bizarre. Ibrahim totally didn't know how his cousin ended up in the U.S.. Yet this cousin had to pick him up. I would have obtained some information about him before I arrived there. And not even once during his entire stay he tried to figure out where this cousin lives and what the reason was for not showing up. I find that rather odd. And the fact that he was talking to a classmate during a coffee and popped the big question after five minutes, I found laughable. And finally I thought it was fairly simplistic how he could put that lawyer in his place while he was still following an English course for God's sake.

It seems it's based on testimonies of people from the Middle East about their experiences after the attacks of 9/11. The way it affected their daily lives and how suddenly the American citizens had another view of them. Ibrahim was also seen as an invader and a threat after the events. "The citizen" is a contemporary drama about immigration with a rather banal and simplistic storyline.

My rating 5/10
Links : IMDB