20170323: Drama Review--Sicario

Name: Sicario (2015)
IMDb: link to Sicario page

Genres: Drama.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Benicio del Toro as Alejandro.  In a sense, there are no other actors in the film.  The movie is about Alejandro.

Emily Blunt as Kate Macer, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver, Victor Garber as Dave Jennings, Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing, Daniel Kaluuya as Reggie Wayne, Jon Bernthal as Ted.

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve.  Written by: Taylor Sheridan.

Emily Blunt

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
FBI agent Kate Macer and her team break kidnapping rings in the American Southwest.  After a fruitful discovery of dead kidnap victims, a booby trap kills two of her team.  The strength of the find and the horror of the bombing bring Kate to the attention of the CIA.  Her FBI boss Jennings and CIA straw boss Graver enable the transfer.

Delineation of conflicts:
Kate would like to operate within the laws of the United States.  Her ally Reggie wants her to stay alive and out of trouble.

Graver, the CIA, and various freelance special forces want to disrupt Mexican drug cartel operations regardless of the legality of their methods.

Alejandro and the CIA have a strong bond.  He supplies actionable intelligence; they let him operate on targets of his choice.  Kate considers this bovine nonsense, but is shouted down by several methods.

Resolution: Illegal operations by Mexico and by the US continue without meaningful opposition.

One line summary: Idealistic FBI agent joins covert operations.

del Toro

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 Some of the camera work inspired awe (as opposed to being awesome, which means nothing) because it was both beautiful and well thought out.  Other parts were well beneath ordinary, which is common in any film that includes a large percentage of night scenes and night-vision scenes.  Shaky cam was kept to a minimum.

Sound: 5/10 IMDb lists six tunes played in the background for this film  Meh; nothing added.

Acting: 7/10 Del Toro: excellent.  Brolin: so good.  Garber, Donovan, Kaluuya, Bernthal: just fine.  Blunt: who the hell is this?  How could she be worse?

Screenplay: 6/10 The story moves right along, except when it concentrates too much on Blunt's witless pawn character.  This ruins everything else.  Still, I liked the story, despite Blunt's taint on it.  The real story was about del Toro's character.  If this had been the steady focus, I would have rated the film's screenplay at least 9/10.

Final rating: 6/10

20170207: Thriller Review--The Accountant

Name: The Accountant (2016)
IMDb: link to The Accountant page

Genres: Thriller.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff, Anna Kendrick as Dana Cummings, J. K. Simmons as Ray King, Jon Bernthal as Braxton Wolff, Jeffrey Tambor as Francis Silverberg, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Marybeth Medina, Jean Smart as Rita Blackburn, John Lithgow as Lamar Blackburn.

Directed by: Gavin O'Connor.   Written by: Bill Dubuque.

Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. Christian is strongly autistic, needs to concentrate on single tasks, and finish them or else.  For instance, missing one puzzle piece spurs him to violent rage, not to finding the God-damned piece.  His childhood is troubled, to say the least.  On the other hand, his raw intelligence is immense, and his ability to concentrate (when not distracted) is staggering.  Clearly, he is bound for prison.

2. Christian has a huge stroke of luck.  His cellmate Francis is a genius who is well-versed in money flows among criminal organisations.  Christian learns sophisticated and highly detailed transactional rules.

3. Christian sets himself up as an accountant as his outward facing work.  He assassinates criminals for other criminals as his darkside employment.

4. Ray King wants to retire in seven months with the capture of Christian as his crowning achievement.  He blackmails the talented but flawed Marybeth Medina to ferret out Christian. (She does the capture, or she loses her career for a well-covered over childhood felony.)

5. Brax, Chris' brother, has similar talents and training, but not the autism.  He takes up the same line of work.

Delineation of conflicts:
Ray wants to go out a winner.  Christian wants to handle his stress and keep both jobs.  Marybeth wants to keep her good name and fine job.  All three of these cannot go on forever.  Just to add to the mix, Christian's younger brotherhood Braxton, who has similar skills, is an enforcer in the same game.  Will Brax and Chris cross paths again?

Resolution: Marybeth does her job; Ray looks for a successor.  Christian needs to finish, and Braxton is the consummate professional.

One line summary: Talented autistic assassin faces brother.

Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Good camera work throughout, save for a few intervals of pure shaky cam horseshit.

Sound: 8/10 I could hear the dialog, and the musical accompaniment was fine.

Acting: 6/10 Ben Affleck, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and veterans Jeffrey Tambor, Jean Smart, and John Lithgow were just fine.  I do not recall seeing Jon Bernthal (Braxton) before, but I thought his performance was excellent.

On the downside, Anna Kendrick is in the film.  Probably no director can get a good performance out of her.  All scenes that included her performances were compromised, rather like rotting fish in a green salad.  JK Simmons played his usual ho-hum asocial monster, to which I say, who cares?  Why is this man accorded sacred cow status?

Screenplay: 9/10 Surprisingly good.  Moves right along, and is engaging throughout.  Well, except when Anna Kendrick was permitted to speak.

Final rating: 8/10

20161115: Thriller Review--Executive Decision

Name: Executive Decision (1996)
IMDb: link to Executive Decision page

Genres: Thriller   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Kurt Russell as Dr David Grant, Steven Seagal as Lt Colonel Austin Travis, Halle Berry as Jean, John Leguizamo as Captain Rat,  Oliver Platt as Dennis Cahill, Joe Morton as Sgt 'Cappy' Metheny, BD Wong as Sgt Louie, Whip Hubley as Sgt Baker, Len Cariou as Sec Defense Charles White, JT Walsh as Senator Mavros, Marla Maples as Nancy, Richard Riehle as Air Marshall George Edwards.

David Suchet as Nagi Hassan, Andreas Katsulas as El Sayed Jaffa, Robert Apisa as Jean-Paul Demou.

Directed by: Stuart Baird.  Written by: Jim Thomas, John Thomas (screenplay).

Cahill and wounded Cappy with bomb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Col Travis and his team lead a mission to recover a large quantity of DZ-5, a neural poison.  The mission fails.  Travis is nonplussed plus.

David Grant takes the flying lesson before his first solo flight.  He's hesitant, but his instructor talks him through it.

El Jaffa is kidnapped by agents friendly to the US.  Nagi Hassan and Jean Paul Menou execute a plot to force the West to release Jaffa.  With a half dozen or so other terrorists, they skyjack a 747 with Senator Mavros aboard.

Delineation of conflicts:
The terrorists announce their demands.  Intelligence analyst Dr Grant gets the call while at a black tie affair.  Soon he's in a situation room led by the Secretary of Defense.

The terrorists want Jaffa released.  SecDef and his experts devise a plan to use a stealth plane to insert commandos on the skyjacked 747.  Col Travis and his team volunteer as the commandos.  Dennis Cahill readies the stealth plane and the unique boarding tube.  Dr Grant gets dragooned into going with the commandos to identify Hassan.

Just to make things more interesting, the DZ-5 that Col Travis' team did not extricate is on the airliner attached to a sophisticated bomb.

Just when the plan looks like it will succeed with high likelihood, some unexpected harsh conditions break the boarding tube.  Col Travis and the stealth plane are lost.  With the smaller team, with Col Travis lost, with bomb expert Cappy severely injured, Captain Rat takes tactical command, and Dr. Grant drives the effort to learn what they need to learn to find the leader and accomplish the mission.

Flight attendant Jean is assigned by Nagi to keep the passengers as calm as possible.  The commandos made contact with her to get more information.  She manages to help the commandos and to keep the identity of the air marshall secret.

Senator Mavros thinks he can negotiate with the terrorists.  Will that work out?  The president springs El Jaffa, who asks Nagi to call off blowing up the nerve gas.  Does that go as planned?  Well, no.  The bomb with the nerve gas payload is more complicated than first expected.  Can Cappy get the bomb defused using Cahill's hands?

Resolution: Just about everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.  The decimated commando team, however, has more skill and luck than anyone might hope for.

One line summary: Well-crafted skyjacking thriller.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Nicely shot.

Sound: 8/10 The dialog was clear, and the incidental sound was fine.  Music was not a big plus.

Acting: 10/10 I liked the big cast that had quite a number of good performances.  David Suchet was chilling as the lead villain.  Steven Seagal was just right for his unexpectedly short role.  Kurt Russell gave one of his best performances as a man who was hesitant and scared, but also intelligent, expert, and inventive.

John Leguizamo and BD Wong were excellent as the commandos determined to finish the mission despite the adversity.

Oliver Platt was great as a man delivering beyond his usual skill set and level of courage.  Len Cariou, JT Walsh, Halle Berry, and Joe Morton were solid in smaller roles.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film was 133 minutes in runtime, but did not drag.  The plot moved right along, and had no moments where writing stupidity broke through suspension of disbelief.

Final Rating: 9/10

20161004: Action Review--Skinwalkers

Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page

Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.

Directed by: James Isaac.  Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.

Rhona Mitra

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana.  In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town.  Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.

The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy."  Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.

Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration.  The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born.  There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy.  On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.

That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.

Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings.  They want the boy dead.  The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.

Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side.  As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.

One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots.  The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre.  The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good.  Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.

Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts.  Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script.  Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.

In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending.  Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.

Final Rating: 7/10

20160831: Action Review--The Gunman

Name: The Gunman (2015)
IMDb: link to The Gunman page

Genres: Action, mystery, thriller, crime.   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Sean Penn as Jim Terrier, Idris Elba as Barnes, Jasmine Trinca as Annie, Javier Bardem as Felix, Ray Winstone as Stanley, Mark Rylance as Cox.

Directed by: Pierre Morel.  Written by: Jean-Patrick Manchette (novel), Don MacPherson (screenplay).

Image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Terrier worked in the Congo in 2006 during their civil war as a mercenary.   His speciality is assassination, and he kills the minister of mines.  Minister of mines is a key position, due to the Congo's mineral wealth.  Terrier's being tasked with this shows his level of trust with whomever is paying him.  Jim is having an affair with Annie, who is a doctor who does humanitarian work.  Felix is in love with Annie, which she does not reciprocate at the time.

Delineation of conflicts:
Eight years later, Jim is back in the Congo, again working in parallel with a humanitarian agency, but not as an assassin.  However, someone holds a grudge, and makes an attempt on his life.  Their agents are charged with providing proof of death.  Terrier intends to keep living.  In order to do that, he needs to know the motivations of whoever wants to kill him. His adversary has no intention of that happening, so the mystery/thriller action ensues.

Terrier leaves Congo for London to confer with his former colleague Cox.  He asks about the complete list of those who knew about the assassination.  This is the springboard for the rest of the film's plot: find the true players and ask them what's what.

Just to make things more interesting, Jim's past war injuries have had a cumulative effect.  He has memory loss and passes out now and them.  Can he keep it together long enough to sort this out?

Jim's first stop is Barcelona, the last known of Felix, his first real target.  However, Felix just might have his own agenda here.

Resolution: Jim finds out some of what he needs to know, but will he find out enough?

One line summary: Sean Penn as an action hero.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 Not all that good.

Sound: 8/10 Dialog is clear.  Music is subdued but appropriate.

Acting: 7/10 Mark Rylance was fine as I expected.  Ray Winstone was an asset. Sean Penn was in good form.  Javier Bardem disappointed as usual.  The overused Idris Elba was better than I expected in a small role.  Jasmine Trinca was OK for what the script gave her to work with.

Screenplay: 6/10 Violence and threat moves the plot along, so the 115 minutes runtime does not drag. The romantic angle was bleak and sad, but did resolve somewhat well.  I'm glad I saw the film, but would not watch it again.  Checking against Box Office Mojo and IMDb, it took in 11 million domestically, against 40 million production costs, so the chances for a sequel are slim.

At the end of the film, I felt that I should have been happier for the protagonist, but just could not be.  I felt this to be a major failing of the film.

Final Rating: 7/10 I liked it better than most people did, but I would be hard pressed to say, 'you must see this one.'

20160315: Thriller Review--The Traveler

Name: The Traveler (2010)
IMDb: link to The Traveler page

Genres: Thriller, Supernatural.   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast: Val Kilmer as Mr Nobody/Drifter, Dylan Neal as Detective Alexander Black, Paul McGillion as Deputy Jerry Pine, Camille Sullivan as Deputy Jane Hollows, Nels Lennarson as Deputy Toby Sherwood, John Cassini as Deputy Jack Hawkins, Chris Gauthier as Desk Sergeant Gulloy.

Directed by: Michael Oblowitz.  Written by: Joseph C. Muscat.

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
The film starts with a short depiction of the abduction of a young girl by an out-of-focus kidnapper.

We jump forward a year to the present day on a rainy Christmas Eve night.

Desk Sargeant Gulloy is a fussy man who is the omega male of the group at the Sheriff's station.  He  does not care for the loud, foul, disgusting speech of his coworkers at the station, or their generally inconsiderate actions, like leaving the door open for the cold and rain to flow in, cancelling the central heating.   His passive aggressive approach clashes with the classless alphas early and often.

The interactions of the four deputies are primitive and adolescent.  Evidently psych tests were not required to obtain their jobs.  Detective Black is the father of Mary, the girl abducted in the first scene.

To complete the initial scenery, Mr Nobody enters the station, and tells Gulloy that he would like to confess to murder.  The state cops come by to tell them that they are going to close down the off ramp from the Interstate due to a major accident.  The station will be more isolated than usual, and many things are not working due to the holiday.  That's where we are when the action of the story begins.

Delineation of conflicts:
The deputies and the desk sergeant despise each other.  The detective's wife is phasing into a breakup with him.  The detective is held in contempt by the deputies since he was promoted over them to detective.  The detective is in a depressed phase since he has not been able to solve his daughter's disappearance.

Mr Nobody is not especially compliant with the orders of the cops.  Clearly, he holds them in contempt, and the cops are not happy with his lack of obedience.

Have they already met Mr Nobody?  Will any of them get a bit of closure about their failed pursuit of Mary's murderer?

Resolution: The police think they have a confessed murderer.  Only late in the film do they realise that his confessions are to their detriment.

One line summary: Cops pay for guilty secret.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 6/10  The visuals were in the VHS range most of the time.  The reduced palette and the dominance of dark regions over light contributed to the overall tone of depression and hopelessness.  The lighting choices involved a great deal of fluorescent lamps, whose colour output contributed heavily to the grey-green of the interiors, where most of the film is shot.  The peeling paint, rusted metal, and flickering lighting contribute to the feeling of gloom and decay.

Sound: 5/10 I could hear the dialog.  The background music was alternately creepy and irrelevant.

Acting: 5/10 I recognise Val Kilmer from many works, of course.  Otherwise, I'm familiar only with Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis, 2004-2009).  The acting was OK, but not great.  Kilmer's performance was not one of his best, but he still outshone the others.

Screenplay: 3/10 The dialog was hardly sparkling, and the f-word was used to the point of numbness.  I would rate the script low on originality. The theme of supernatural retribution is hardly new, and elimination derbies are common in horror films.  The ending was a bit better than I expected.

Final rating: 4/10

Elimination order: spoiler alert

As Mr Nobody confesses, the deaths of the guilty cops happen.  Hawkins first, Gulloy second, Sherwood and Hollows third and fourth, then Pine.  The order related to the manner of violence the cops had visited on an unidentified drifter the year before while looking for Mary Black's killer.

20160211: Thriller Review--The Hunter 2011

Name: The Hunter (2011)
IMDb: link to The Hunter page

Genres: Drama   Country of origin: Australia.

Cast: Willem Dafoe as Martin David, Frances O'Connor as Lucy, Sam Neill as Jack Mindy, Marc Watson-Paul as Jarrah Armstrong, Finn Woodlock as Bike (Jamie), Morgana Davies as daughter Sass.

Directed by: Daniel Netheim  Written by: Alice Addison.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Martin contracts indirectly with Red Leaf, a biotech firm that is looking for some rare DNA.  Unfortunately, the only source of these items is the last remaining Tasmanian tiger. There is restricted intelligence (which will leak) that there have been two confirmed sightings of the rare and elusive beast.

The probable site for the hunt is in central Tasmania.  Martin has to deal with lack of electricity, decidedly unfriendly locals, children of the owner of the house he stays at, and foul tap water.  Jack Mindy gives him some guide services that he did not ask for.

Delineation of conflicts:
Martin wants to get paid and stay out of jail.  Red Leaf wants the organic samples so as to make lots of money.

The locals in Tasmania have logging as a main source of income.  Other locals (and outsiders) are involved in a campaign to save the trees.  The early take on Martin is that as an outsider, he's a tree hugger, a 'greenie', and should be dealt with harshly.

Jack Mindy has his own agenda which does not seem to be aligned with Martin's.  Martin is by no means alone when he is out hunting in the middle of nowhere.

To make matters worse, the tree huggers score a moratorium on logging so that the government can find the Tasmanian tiger.  That means no logging and no pay.

Resolution: It's a dark tale with a dark ending.  Several of the lies get exposed.  Will Red Leaf be patient if Martin takes too long?

One line summary: Capturing the last of a species.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Bright and sharp.  The Tasmanian countryside chosen for the film was impressive.

Sound: 7/10 The music is often foreboding, which is a nice touch for this sort of property.  I could have done without the Springsteen, but it was a part of the story.  The actors were well-miked.

Acting: 7/10 Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill were fine.  Morgana Davies was entertaining.  The actors playing Tasmanian anti-tree huggers locals were effective as thugs.

Screenplay: 8/10 The story hangs together well.  The exposition of motivations was good.  Some might find it a bit slow.  On the other hand, hunting is often slow.

Final rating: 7/10 

20160208: Horror Review--Oculus 2013

Name: Oculus (2013)
IMDb: link to Oculus page

Genres: Drama   Country of origin: USA.

Cast: Karen Gillan as Kaylie Russell, Brenton Thwaites as Tim Russell, Katee Sackhoff as Marie Russell, Rory Cochrane as Alan Russell, Annalise Basso as young Kaylie, Garrett Ryan as young Tim, James Lafferty as Michael Dumont.

Directed by: Mike Flanagan.  Written by: Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Tim is on a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.  He discovers a method for convincing his overseer that he has embraced reality and accepted responsibility for events of the past.  So they let him go from managed care to a well-organised external support group including his sister Kaylie.

Kaylie reminds Tim to keep in mind what really happened, and that they have a task that they have agreed to complete.  The dreams and hallucinations start early on.  Kaylie has spent the years growing her experience and reputation in auctions and properties.  She retrieves what she thinks will be needed to settle the issue.  Kaylie thinks that she is sufficiently prepared.  Tim is willing to help her record any weirdness that might occur.

We flashback to the time when Tim and Kaylie lived as children with Marie and Alan, their dear parents.  The flashbacks detail Kaylie and Tim dealing with their parents descending into madness and death.

Delineation of conflicts:
Much of the action centers about an old mirror (the Lasser Glass) that Kaylie retrieves in the present, and their parents owned in the past, notably near the time when they died.  Kaylie traced its history back to 1754, and documents deaths associated with it over the centuries.

The Lasser Glass does what it will, which is to kill its owners, often by dehydration or starvation.  Kaylie intends to record its actions and figure out what really happened to Alan and Marie.  Kaylie has that in mind.  Tim has accepted deeply the more rational explanations given by his psychiatrists.

Resolution:  Which model is correct? The rational one, or the supernatural?  Kaylie's detailed plans should show something definite, unless someone interferes, of course.

One line summary: Brother and sister challenge the supernatural.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Bright and sharp.  Most of the shots are of interiors, but quite well-done.

Sound: 8/10 The music is often foreboding, which is a nice touch for this sort of property.  The actors were well-miked.

Acting: 9/10 Sackhoff, Cochrane, Gillan, and Thwaites all did excellent jobs.

Screenplay: 9/10 During the first half of the film, the screenplay is just brilliant.  All events, past and present, are interpreted in both the rational and the supernatural models.  Neither Tim nor Kaylie can convince the other of their argument.  Both have had years to analyse and interpret the facts of the case.   During the second half, it becomes unclear whether Kaylie's rational methods to prove the supernatural will convince anyone else than herself and Tim.  It's quite a nice piece of writing.

Final rating: 9/10 

20160113: Horror Review--Awaken

Name: Awaken (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Horror    Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: Darryl Hannah as Mao, Vinnie Jones as Sarge, Jason London as Rich, Michael Paré as Xander, Natalie Burn as Billie Kope, Robert Davi as Quentin, Edward Furlong as Berto, Wayne Kao as MJ, Christa Campbell as Kat, David Keith as Walsh, Augie Duke as Chloe, Michael Copan as Nick, Philip Tan as Todd, Katrin Assi as Erin, Christa Campbell as Kat.

Directed by: Mark Atkins.  Written by: Mark Atkins, Natalie Burn, Scott Martin.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Billie wakes up on a beach, battered and covered with sand.  Her short term memory is shot, but she remembers to find her dog tags before proceeding inland.  She soon joins a chase where one side is armed, and she is among the chased.  Erin is separated and killed by Sarge, the leader of the armed uniformed men.  Billie escapes with Berto, Chloe, Nick, and Todd, who lead her to Quentin, the de facto leader of the prisoners.  Billie swaps kidnapping stories with the others.

Rich seems to be the straw boss of the island.  He's disappointed with Sarge that Erin is dead.  Mao is coming the next day.

Delineation of conflicts: The gang of kidnappers/murderers would like to keep the human traffic flowing, since there is a lot of money in organ harvesting.  The prisoners would like to escape with their lives.  If possible, hurting the efforts of the traffickers would be nice.  The gang has weapons, transportation, radios, money, and contacts.  The prisoners have their good health, for a while, at least.  Billie tries to figure out the connections among them.

Resolution:  Do the prisoners find a weakness?

One line summary: Cliche vanity film.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 1/10 The extensive shaky cam scenes did not help.  Whoever did framing and transitions could have done a lot better.  Gratuitous zooming is something I have not seen for years.

  b. Sound: 5/10 OK, but nothing special.

  c. Acting: 2/10 Robert Davi, Michael Paré, David Keith, Vinnie Jones, and Edward Furlong have all been in much better films than this one.  However, the script is so poor that even good actors sound unconvincing.  The protagonist (and her single expression) was bad enough to sink the whole effort by herself, but she has plenty of help from the bit players.  Darryl Hannah has also been in some fine films, but her performance here was terrible.

  d. Screenplay: 1/10 Did not make a lick of sense.  I lost the count of instances of 'how could that possibly happen?'  The scenes written for Darryl Hannah were especially bad.  Pitting three civilians against two groups of well-armed mercenaries, for instance, was just ridiculous.  The action scenes were uniformly unconvincing.  These failures were so bad that efforts at exposition and motivation were badly blunted.

Final rating: 2/10

20160113: Thriller Review--Scar Tissue

Name: Scar Tissue (2013)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Thriller    Country of Origin: UK.

Cast: Danny Horn as Luke, Charity Wakefield as Sam, Mark Cameron as DI Hackman, Imogen Bain as Mo McQueen.

Written and directed by: Scott Michell.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Luke celebrates his 21st birthday by getting drunk with his friends and perhaps laid.  He's not used to being drunk, and takes no measures to protect himself.  He wakes up from being passed out because someone phones him.  He discovers his friend dead and hacked up in his bathroom.  He gets another call that hooks him up with Sam, a suspended, unstable police sergeant.  The police soon are swarming over his flat.  Sam knows the presiding detective, Hackman; they have a prickly history.

Delineation of conflicts: The police want to question Luke; Luke wants to keep his freedom.  Sam wants to solve this case, since it involves indirectly her murdered sister Lucy.  Hackman wants Sam to get lost.  The murderer likes playing with them as well as killing people.  He kidnaps people, then forces them to do his bidding.

Resolution: The principals need to identify the kidnapper/murderer.

One line summary: Old experiment ends badly.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 3/10 Washed out appearance.  The dark passages are especially bad since the cameras were not sufficient for the low light levels.

  b. Sound: 4/10 It's a quiet sort of film, most of the time.  What music there is seemed to be electronic from cheap instruments.  The music did not help, nor did the leveling problems between voice and background.

  c. Acting: 1/10 Oh, so very bad.

  d. Screenplay: 0/10 The film was next to opaque at the beginning.  The actions of the characters were not well motivated.  The philosophising toward the end came out of nowhere.  As the philosophy changed to particulars, the film started to make a bit more sense.  The marching to the wretched conclusion was perhaps the worst part of the film.  None of the characters were worth caring about.

Final rating: 1/10

20151119: Horror Review--Last Shift

Name: Last Shift (2014)  
IMDb: link to IMDb

Officer Loren

Genres: Horror, thriller    Country of Origin: USA.
Written and directed by:  Anthony DiBlasi.

Cast: Juliana Harkavy as Officer Jessica Loren, Joshua Mikel as John Michael Paymon, J. LaRose as Patrick Black, Natalie Victoria as Marigold, Sarah Sculco as Kitty Paymon, Kathryn Kilger as Dorothea Paymon, Mary Langford Polley as Birdie, Jeremy S. Brock as Police Interrogator, Amanda Defrance as Crime Scene Girl, Matt Doman as Officer Ryan Price, Hank Stone as Sergeant Cohen.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Officer Jessica Loren starts the night shift at a Sanford police station that is just about to be decommissioned.  The Sergeant Cohen gives her a short pep talk, then leaves her.  The 'bump in the night' phenomena show up almost immediately.  Even though the telephone number for the station has been rerouted, she gets calls from a little girl, Monica.  Doors open.  A homeless man sneaks in somehow.  The men's room is plastered with excrement.  The reports the calls from Monica to her superiors, and calls a waste cleanup service to clean the facilities.  The poltergeist action continues.  When she calls for backup against breaking and entering, her radio connection fails.

Delineation of conflicts: Officer Loren would like the nonsense to stop.  Whatever happened to trigger the supernatural activity, seems to want something, but what?  The prostitute Marigold drops by, and Officer Loren sets about to roust her from police property.  Marigold is very chatty, and relates to Loren the story of a want-to-be Manson family, the Paymons.  It just happens that Jessica's father was part of the police team that took out the Paymons.  The story Jessica heard about the Paymons while growing up was not the story that Marigold experienced in a cell near the Paymons before they died.

Resolution: The usual cliches for this generic situation seem to be in force.  What does Officer Loren have to do to end the disturbance of those causing the supernatural activity?  That is, end the psycho, beyond-the-grave actions of the dead Paymons, and the suffering of their dead victims.

One line summary: What she does not know may hurt her.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 8/10 Focus, framing, and depth were fine, but I could have done without the overexposure that was present in many scenes.

  b. Sound: 7/10 No problems, and the jump scares were not overdone. On the other hand, the background music did not contribute too much in the way of creepiness.

  c. Acting: 7/10 Juliana Harkavy is in about 95% of the scenes.  She was much better than I expected, and I can think of many actresses who would not have done as well.

  d. Screenplay: 8/10 I rather liked the story, which keeps the viewer guessing until the end.

Final rating: 8/10

20151107: Horror Review--Compound Fracture

Name: Compound Fracture (2013)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Horror, Thriller    Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: Muse Watson as Gary Wolffsen, Tyler Mane as Michael Wolffsen, Alex Saxon as Brandon, Renae Geerlings as Juliette, Susan Angelo as Chloe, Leslie Easterbrook as Annabelle, Derek Mears as William, Jelly Howie as Christine.

Directed by:  Anthony J. Rickert-Epstein.  Written by: Renae Geerlings and Tyler Mane.

Tyler Mane, Muse Watson

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:  The movie starts with a homecoming.  Michael Wolfssen and his fiancee Juliette drive to his wealthy father's (Gary Wolfssen) house.  Michael left home in his late teens, and never came back until now, just after his sister Chloe's death. Michael and Juliette bring his nephew Brandon with them. Brandon is not hostile to Michael, but he is not open or talkative in the least, partly because he is having visions.  The family estate looks different to Michael.  Now there are walls, cameras, and all sorts of talismans on display.  Gary lapses into dementia now and then, featuring paranoia and secretiveness.

Delineation of conflicts:  Gary beat Michael's mother, who then left him.  Despite Gary's wealth, he contributed no dollars to treating her subsequent cancer. Michael is not happy on those scores, nor on the fact that Gary beats his new wife, Annabelle.  The paranoia is bearing down on everyone. Also weighing everyone down are the consequences of the manner of Chloe's death.  The reason for the paranoia is not revealed early on, but once it is, the whole remaining family has to work better together to fight it.

Resolution: Not everyone survives but the evil is largely broken.  So it's a bleak film, but not jet black.

One line summary: A broken family fights the curse it put upon itself.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 5/10 There are too many issues with focus, framing, camera movement, and insufficient light.

  b. Sound: 7/10 Better than the lighting.

  c. Acting: 7/10 Muse Watson (NCIS, I Saw What You Did Last Summer), Tyler Mane (X-Men, Halloween reboot), Derek Mears (Friday the 13th reboot, True Blood), and Leslie Easterbrook (Police Academy series) all were familiar and competent.  The bit players read their lines, but were not much better than that.

  d. Screenplay: 4/10 Short on motivation, long on 'where is that coming from?'

Final rating: 6/10 I'm glad I saw it, but I would not give it a strong recommendation.  If this group does another film, I hope they spend more time on the script.

20151028: Action Review--Iron Man 3

Name: Iron Man 3 (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb page

Genres: Action, Thriller   Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin (Trevor Slattery), Miguel Ferrer as Vice President Rodriguez, William Sadler as President Ellis, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen, Stephanie Szostak as Ellen Brandt, Ty Simpkins as Harley Keener, Paul Bettany as JARVIS (voice).

Directed by:  Shane Black. Written by:  Shane Black, Drew Pearce.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau:  We open over a decade ago in Switzerland.  Tony Stark participates wildly in end-of-the-year celebration parties.  He meets Maya Hansen and Aldrich Killian, who try valiantly to convince him to be interested in technology developed by the think tank, AIM.  Tony hardly listens, partly from buzz, partly from arrogance.  He writes out a few equations which forward the effort considerably, gives them to Killian, and promises to meet Killian on the roof to develop the ideas further.  But Tony breaks his promise.

In the present, after Tony participates in The Avengers action in New York City, there are multiple attacks by 'The Mandarin.'  Tony is not all that involved until his friend Happy Hogan is nearly killed by one of the attacks.  Tony declares war.  The Mandarin is backed by individuals who have the Extremis treatments developed by AIM.  They can melt Tony's suits from the heat of their bodies, regenerate severed limbs, and many other things.  Tony has his work cut out for him.

Delineation of conflicts:  'The Mandarin' strikes first, destroying Tony's palatial estate on the California coast.  Tony loses his armour, his labs, his base of operation, and soon enough, JARVIS and his suit. Or so it would seem. Tony has to figure out who the Mandarin really is, what AIM does, and how to counter the effects of Extremis, initially without his armour.  Worst of all, the Extremis-enhanced folk capture Pepper, and start making her one of them.  They kidnap War Machine (renamed Iron Patriot) and the President, whom they intend to replace using their own candidate.  To make things even worse, Tony has recurrent PTSD from the action in New York.

Resolution:  Will the Extremis transformation applied to Pepper be reversible?  Will the President be recovered alive?  Will Colonel Rhodes get free to fight alongside Tony?

One line summary: Tony's past comes back to haunt the USA.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 9/10 The SFX were not perfect, but on the whole, this was a smooth visual mix that I enjoyed.

  b. Sound: 10/10 No problems, and some good music.

  c. Acting: 8/10 Guy Pearce's performance was the centre of the dark side of the film, and I liked it quite well.  Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert Downey Jr were lots of fun to watch in this one.  Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS was again a delight.  Ty Simpkins was better than I expected.

  d. Screenplay: 9/10
Pros: The story had me guessing on a couple of points to within minutes of the conclusion of the film, which is different than most live action comic book films.  This was a nice follow on film after watching John Wick the day before: massive public violence after massive private violence.  As one might hope from an action-thriller, the plot moved forward without any long pauses, and the hero's team had truly formidable obstacles to overcome.  Even to the last few minutes and the final fight, the feeling of jeopardy was present, since Tony had little hope of defeating Killian one-on-one.

Cons: The comic history of the Mandarin is trashed, utterly and completely. Without some revisionism, the Mandarin will not be able to be used in future Marvel endeavors.  This has many people up in arms.  I quite understand this; it is how I feel about Fox's vile treatment of the Fantastic Four.  This might be a problem for Marvel downstream.  The film's portrayal of the Iron Man suit was also inconsistent with its portrayal in The Avengers, where the suit could withstand attacks from Thor's hammer.

Summary: I never cared for the Mandarin, so I do not care about the portrayal of the Mandarin in IM3.  I despised the character in the comics, and later hated the character in the animated series to the point that I gave up following Iron Man for a time. Only the Tony Stark films with RDJ in the cockpit got me interested again. What made Iron Man 1 great was the portrayal of Tony Stark coming back, against all odds, to defeat enemies of his own country, and enemies of his individual person. Iron Man 3 was a return to form after the wretched Iron Man 2. The third film was about Tony Stark, about his friends, about his fans who helped him when he was down, about the power of enduring love, which is what saved Stark in the end.

Final rating: 9/10

20151027: Action Review--John Wick

Name: John Wick (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb page

Genres: Action, Thriller  Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Keanu Reeves as John Wick, Michael Nyqvist as Viggo Tarasov, Alfie Allen as Iosef Tarasov, Willem Dafoe as Marcus, Dean Winters as Avi, Adrianne Palicki as Ms Perkins, Omer Barnea as Gregori, Toby Leonard Moore as Victor, Bridget Moynahan as Helen, John Leguiziamo as Aurelio, Ian McShane as Winston, Bridget Regan as Addy, Lance Reddick as Hotel Manager (Charon).

Directed by:  Chad Stahelski and David Leitch.  Written by: Derek Kolstad.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau:  In modern day greater New York/New Jersey, John Wick's wife Helen suddenly dies of a long lingering illness.  His old acquaintance Marcus gives his condolences after the burial.  He grieves for an interval.  In the days after the wake, a puppy, Daisy, is delivered with a note from Helen.  John and Daisy get to like each other.  While out with Daisy getting gasoline, two Russian mobsters stop for gas at the same time. Iosef admires John's Mustang, and offers to buy either the car or the dog or both.  John declines, and an older associate calls Iosef off.  Iosef and two friends break into John's house, beat him up, ruin beautiful things, shoot Daisy, steal the Mustang, badly damage his newer car, and steal the bracelet of Helen's that John kept near him.

Delineation of conflicts: Daisy was John's last living link with Helen.  The necklace had similar importance.  John wants vengeance on Iosef and on Viggo.  Aurelio informs Viggo of Iosef's actions.  Viggo understands the problem that Iosef has created.  "That fuckin' nobody is John Wick." he informs Iosef the idiot.  He advises Iosef to get out of his sight.  He asks his associate, Avi, to task all his available men to take on John.  When that fails, he sets a bounty of 2 million USD on John's head, and also asks Marcus to do the job as soon as possible.  Will Viggo live through this?

Resolution:  The many conflicts were resolved in what I thought were reasonable ways.  I recommend this film to anyone who likes the genre.

One line summary: Excellent action/revenge film.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 6/10 This would be one of the weaker parts of this film.  I do not like filters, and there were too many minutes of that.

  b. Sound: 9/10 There are some great music tracks in this film, and the incidental music was well-chosen.  The actors were well miked, and I had no problems picking up dialog.

  c. Acting: 8/10 I liked Dafoe as always.  This was a great role for Keanu Reeves.  I have only liked him in The Matrix before this film, and was glad to see another film that suited him so very well.  Michael Nyqvist was superb as Viggo.  Ian McShane, John Leguiziamo, and Lance Reddick were all very good.

  d. Screenplay: 10/10 For a revenge movie, this was a fine script.  The direction and the plotlines certainly raised my hopes that John would succeed in everything that he tried.  Plus, the end of Iosef is something I looked forward to from very early on.  I seldom get that engaged with revenge films.  I loved the humour between old pairs of friends while there were lulls in the action.

Final rating: 8/10

20151011: Horror Review--Wolfman

Name: The Wolfman (2010)
IMDb: The Wolfman

Genres: Horror, drama, thriller  Country of origin: USA

Cast: Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, Anthony Hopkins as Sir John Talbot, Hugo Weaving as Inspector Francis Abberline, Emily Blunt as Gwen Conliffe, Art Malik as Singh, Antony Sher as Dr Hoenneger.

Directed by: Joe Johnston.  Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self (screenplay).

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau: Lawrence's mother dies during his childhood in the village of Blackmoor.  This traumatizes him; his wealthy father sends him to an asylum, then exiles him to New York.  Years later, Gwen (Lawrence's brother's fiancee), finds him in New York and begs him to return to Blackmoor to aid in locating his missing brother.  Back in England, Lawrence learns that his brother is dead from mauling by an animal.  In this sad setting, Lawrence tries to renew his relationship with his estranged father, Sir John.  This works to some degree, but Lawrence himself is bitten.  He survives, which is unfortunate, as it turns out.

Delineation of conflicts: Inspector Abberline wants to confine Lawrence as a threat to society.   Reverend Fisk would like the unholy acts of the werewolf stopped. Dr Hoenneger wants to expose Lawrence to his professional colleagues as an insane man whose obsessions make him commit heinous acts, not some supernatural creature.  Lawrence wants to stop the effects the full moon has on him.  Gwen would like to help Lawrence, but it is not clear on just how to do that.  Sir John has his own issues with Lawrence.

Resolution:  Well, watch the film.  It's beautiful to behold, and horrible at the same time.  The ending has considerable strength.

One line summary: Even better than the superb The Wolf Man (1941).

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent filming and SFX for atmosphere and human reaction shots.

  b. Sound: 9/10 The dialog is clear, and the background music is fine for the situations.

  c. Acting: 9/10 Hopkins, del Toro, Malik, Weaving, and Sher were just great in their roles.

  d. Screenplay: 9/10 Wonderful.  The exposition of motivations was rather direct and clear.  The direction and the performances by the actors made the script come alive.

Final rating: 9/10

20150908: Action Review--Alien Outpost

Name: Alien Outpost
IMDb: Alien Outpost main page

Genres: Action, SciFi, Thriller  Origins: UK, South Africa.   Release: 2014.

Cast: Joe Reegan as Omohundro, Adrian Paul as General Dane, Brandon Auret as Savino, Reily McClendon as Andros,  Douglas Tate as The Heavy, Rick Ravanello as Spears, Matthew Holmes as North, Sven Ruygrok as Frankie.

Directed by: Jabbar Raisani.  Written by: Blake Clifton, Jabbar Raisani.

The Three Acts: 

Initial Tableau: Earth has been invaded, somewhat successfully.  The United Space Defense Force (USDF, not much to do with the once United States) was formed to respond after most human governments were rendered useless. Strong counter-attacks by the USDF sent most of the aliens packing, but bastions of aliens remain.   USDF funding dropped after the departure of most of the aliens, and the further fall of the world economy.  However, a reduced number of aliens are still about and are still dangerous.  The USDF does what it can on a shoestring budget.  The main action of the film is set in territory once part of an Islamic nation, probably Pakistan or Afghanistan since the locals speak Pashto.  The year is 2033.

Delineation of Conflicts:  The USDF personnel have to fight the aliens in a high-tech (aliens) versus low-tech (USDF) setting.  The USDF has to deal with the often unfriendly locals in a low-tech versus no-tech setting.  The particular outpost where the action occurs has to deal with shortages of munitions, trained (or any) replacement troops, food, and weapons.  The support of the outpost from distant, better funded bases seems spotty at best.  Are the outposts and the bases even on the same team?

Who will 'win' the wars of attrition? Will it be the desert, the locals, the USDF, or the aliens?  Or will the USDF and the aliens lose to the patient desert?  Will there be any changes in alliances?

Resolution: Well, watch the film.

One line summary: Earth military vs stranded aliens.

Statistics: 

Cinematography: 5/10 This varies widely through the progress of the film.  Some of the CGI is well done; some is not.  The shaky cam footage is counter-productive as always.  The segments of traditional filming were reasonably well done.

Sound: 8/10 Usually good.

Acting: 7/10 Most of the players I have not seen perform before, but most of them did rather well.

Screenplay: 5/10 The elements of the film are not all that well put together.  This includes: CGI intervals, ex post facto troop interviews that were expertly shot, intertitles with expository text held onscreen for long periods, discussions among troops during ordinary times (cleaning guns, washing dishes, sleeping, and so on), and shaky cam action sequences.

Final Rating: 6/10

20150801: Thriller Review--American Psycho 2

American Psycho 2: All American Girl

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: American Psycho 2: All American Girl
2. IMDb: Users rated this 3.9/10 (11,673 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   Tomatometer: 11% based on 9 reviews
   18% of viewers liked it, based on 25,215ratings
   Critics Consensus:No consensus yet.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2002-04-22
6. Production Companies: Lions Gate Films
7. Tagline: Angrier. Deadlier. Sexier.


8. Budget:  10,000,000 USD
9. Revenue: Revenue figures not available at review time.
10. Runtime: 88 minutes.
11. Genres: Horror, Thriller


12. Directed by: Morgan J. Freeman.  Written by: Alex Sanger, Karen Craig


13. Starring: Mila Kunis as Rachael, William Shatner as Starkman, Geraint Wyn Davies as Daniels, Robin Dunne as Brian, Lindy Booth as Cassandra, Charles Officer as Keith Lawson, Jenna Perry as Young Rachael, Michael Kremko as Patrick Bateman, Kim Poirier as Barbara, Boyd Banks as Jim


14. TMDb overview: Rachel is a criminology student hoping to land a position as a teacher's assistant for professor Robert Starkman. She's sure this position will pave the way to an FBI career, and she's willing to do anything to obtain it -- including killing her classmates. The school psychiatrist, Dr. Daniels, becomes aware that Rachel is insane, but Rachel is skilled at her dangerous game of death and identity theft.


2. Setup and Plot


1. There is a lot of voiceover toward the front end of the film, and voiceover later on.  This is usually a sign of not enough attention being paid to developing the screenplay.


2. Rachel has, for good reasons, more than a bit of a fixation on Patrick Bateman from the first American Psycho film.  When she reaches university, she wants to be the assistant of Robert Starkman, a former FBI profiler renowned for catching serial killers.  She wants to know everything he can possibly teach her.  The assistant position would also likely mean she would get a choice entry into training at Quantico.


3. She has some competition for the position, though.  What is the movie about?  It's about whether or not anyone catches up to the extraordinary methods that she used to eliminate the competition.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Essentially a non-sequel despite the name.


2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 The visual quality of the version that Netflix screened was not all that good.  The usage of camera was all rather pedestrian as well.


2. Sound: 6/10 I could hear the dialog.  The sound mixing strongly favoured the background music over the spoken voices, however.  The choice of background music was not the film's strong point.


3. Acting: 6/10 American Psycho II, filmed just outside Toronto, made me appreciate the cast in American Psycho I just a bit more.  I like Canadian actors William Shatner (Star Trek), Robin Dunne (Sanctuary), Geraint Wyn Davies (Forever Knight), and Lindy Booth (The Librarians, Dawn of the Dead [2004]).  However, I like them in sci-fi television for the most part.  Their performances in a psychological thriller were a bit unexpected.  Davies and Shatner were fine, but the scenes with only Dunne and Kunis were not the best.  On the other hand, the scenes with only Davies and Kunis were engaging.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The large percentage of voiceover was not a plus. The badly written dialog featuring Kunis or Dunne was quite off-putting.  Still, the film had a beginning, a middle, and an end, with reasonable connections from scene to scene.

20150527: Thriller Review--P2

P2

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: P2
2. IMDb: Users rated this 5.9/10 (24,482 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   35% of critics liked it of 69 critical reviews posted
   36% of viewers liked it from 67,662 ratings
   Critics Consensus: P2 is full of gore, but low on suspense, featuring a cat-and-mouse plot; has been done many times before.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2007-11-09
6. Production Companies: Summit Entertainment
7. Tagline: No tagline found.


8. Budget:  8,000,000 USD
9. Revenue: 7,766,240 USD (Box Office Mojo, world-wide figure)
10. Runtime: 98 minutes.
11. Genres: Horror, Thriller


12. Directed by: Franck Khalfoun. Written by: Franck Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur.


13. Starring: Wes Bentley as Thomas, Rachel Nichols as Angela Bridges, Simon Reynolds as Bob Harper, Philip Akin as Karl, Stephanie Moore as Jody, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as man in elevator, Grace Lynn Kung as woman in elevator, Bathsheba Garnett as homeless woman, Philip Williams as Cop #1, Arnold Pinnock as Cop #2


14. TMDb overview: Angela, a corporate climber, gets stuck working late on Christmas Eve and finds herself the target of an unhinged security guard. With no help in sight, the woman must overcome physical and psychological challenges to survive.


2. Setup and Plot


1. Angela is an executive in NYNY trying to finish up her high-priority tasks before leaving to go to her sister's house in New Jersey.  A co-worker apologises repeatedly and profusely for inappropriate behaviour while drunk at the office party.  Such things extend her stay at the office to the point where she walks out with one of the main security guards, Karl, as he closes off elevator access as they descend.  


2. She watches the last car, other than her own, depart the car park, carrying the Asian couple who rode the elevator with her and Karl.   Then her own car will not start.


3. There is (almost) no one in the structure except her and the security guard Thomas. Unfortunately for Angela, he has extensive plans for her.


4. The rest of the film is the dialectic between the executive and the security guard in this mostly empty and strongly bounded environment.  Who will come out better?


3. Conclusions


1. Boring, nonsensical, male-bashing, lukewarm non-thriller.


2. One line summary: Lukewarm thriller with more than a touch of gore.


3. Two stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 OK, though nothing special.


2. Sound: 6/10 OK, though nothing special.


3. Acting: 4/10 Not all that engaging.  If we had Anthony Perkins instead of Wes Bentley, this was have been an entirely different matter.  As much as I appreciated Rachel Nichols' visual appeal, her acting did not engage me.  She was the principal reason I lost interest in the SciFi series Continuum, even though its underlying structure was one I would normally enjoy.


4. Screenplay: 3/10 The plot has its complications, and it hangs together somewhat.  However, its execution did not generate much suspense or many thrilling moments.  Also, the successful parts are neither new nor memorable.  The ending was ridiculous beyond measure.