Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Buried (2010) R - 3½ Stars

Being semi claustrophobic, I wouldn't last 5 minutes under these conditions. Perhaps that's why this movie made me totally uncomfortable, leaving a knot in my neck. It's pretty hard to make a good movie with just one on screen actor but if you crave edge of your seat thrillers, you'll love this one.

You'll find there are many things you think he should be doing in this situation and at least for me, I found myself yelling at the screen. Also, there are way too many calls and videos sent from just one bar of phone charge left. Perhaps the bag should have shown a spare cell phone battery inside and when he finds the cell phone number, why does he only leave a message for his wife? So don't spent too much energy over analysing what he should or should not be doing, instead sit back and enjoy this intense and horrifying thriller.

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a truck driver in Iraq and he's just awakened to find himself bound and buried alive in a coffin. Reaching around in the dark, he finds a lighter to scope out his dyer situation. A sudden ring finds he's also been left with a cell phone. An Iraqi voice on the other end tells him 5 million dollars will get him out. With 90 minutes of time, a limited supply of oxygen, and trying not to panic, Paul must blindly call numbers to find someone to locate and free him.

Awards:
2010 - National Board of Review - Best Original Screenplay
2010 - National Board of Review - Best Independent Film


Projectes Mevi, The Safran Company, Versus Entertainment, Dark Trick Films, Lionsgate
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Writer: Chris Sparling
Producers: Peter Safran, Adrian Guerra

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Frozen (2010) R - 4 Stars

I really don't remember hearing about this movie coming out but I have to say, I LOVED IT. The movie made me completely eerily uncomfortable with chills and the feeling of coldness. For that alone, I have to give it 4 stars for evoking that "edge of your seat" feeling throughout most of the movie. Frozen is a simple yet believable story line of 3 teens getting stuck on a chair lift as the mountain closes down for the weekend and everyone goes home not realizing they are still aboard the lift. Though the movie is sometimes slow it manages to raise your blood pressure significantly at times. I really loved the concept of the story line and you will think twice about being one of the last to get on a ski lift.

Parker O'Neil, (Emma Bell), her boyfriend Dan Walker, (Kevin Zegers), and his best friend Joe Lynch, (Shawn Ashmore), are all looking forward to a full day of snowboarding on Mount Holliston. Unfortunately they don't have enough money to all afford the lift tickets so they talk Parker into sweet talking the lift operator Jason, (Ed Ackerman), to let them ride for a flat cheaper rate. Jason agrees to pocket the extra money and look the other way. Parker is just learning how to snowboard so much of their day is spent with her practicing rather than racing downhill. Right at dusk, the three decide to take one last ride up the lift and give it everything they have coming down. Jason again lets them on the lift one last time but is called away after they depart and his replacement is told to look for three last kids coming down the mountain. As he sees three youths make their way down the slope he turns off the lift unaware these are not the three just sent up. Mount Holliston is in a small town and only open on weekends and now they are closing down until next weekend leaving Parker, Dan and Joe dangling in mid air. With a snow storm approaching, their cries going unnoticed and the trio must find a way off the lift before frostbite and hypothermia set in. That won't be an easy task as other unknown obstacles are in their way.


A Bigger Boat, ArieScope Pictures
Director: Adam Green
Writer: Adam Green
Producers: Peter Block, Cory Neal

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Treeless Mountain (2008) NR - 3½ Stars

These tiny girls are great little actors! In Korean subtitles, this is the touching story of two little girls, who's mother's financial difficulty and can no longer afford taking care of them. She brings them to their father's sister's urban house and begs her to take the children in until she can get on her feet, reconciling with their father and then can return for them. She gives the children a piggy bank and tells them everyday the aunt will give them a coin to fill the bank. Once the bank is full, she will return. What starts out as an okay living arrangement turns badly when the aunt grows tired of minding the "bratty" children and finds passing out drunk a comfort rather then feeding the girls. The girls feel loss and abandonment and are oblivious to the dangers of the outside world, but quickly become survivors as they discover the trick of BBQing grasshoppers to peddle the streets, making extra coins to fill their bank. They discover that smaller change fills the bank faster so their larger coins are exchanged for 1 cent pieces. This subtle change fills their bank to capacity. But as they wait each day at the bus stop for their mothers return, they sense she is not coming back.

A letter arrives from their mother saying no changes in her life have been made and the girls are forced to be uprooted again to the farmland of her parents. The grandfather denounces their arrival but they make friends with their grandmother who teaches them great lessons of contentment and respect as they await the return of their mother.

Six year old Jin (Hee Yeon Kim) and her three year old younger sister Bin (Song Hee Kim) , live with their mother (Soo-ah Lee), in a tiny one bedroom apartment. Jin loves attending school while her younger sister wait at home for her arrival. One day when Jin arrives home from school, her mother is packing their belongings as they take a long bus ride into the urban ghettos to be dumped off at their Big Aunt's (Mi-Hyang Kim), home to live. The children are left feeling abandoned as they try to make due with the Aunt as they await the return of their mother. But their loss is great and Big Aunt has never had children around and in her drunken stoop, neglects the children to fend for them selves. Jin and Bin must decide what their next move is to hurry up the process of their mother returning. They roam the dangerous streets, peddling grasshoppers they have cooked, in order to gain more coins for their bank. They are certain if they fill their piggy up, mom will come back for them sooner.

The days pass and their mother never shows only sending a letter of their once again movement to their grandparents farm. As the girls feel no one wants them, their kind hearted grandmother (Park Boon Tak), takes a quick liking to them and shows teaches them the virtue of patience.


Oscillscope Laboratories, Parts and Labor, SoandBrad
Director: So Yong Kim
Writer: So Yong Kim
Producers: Bradley Rust Gray, Lars Knudsen, So Yong Kim

Monday, May 1, 2017

American Me (1992) R - 2½ Stars

Santana Montoya (Edward James Olmos) is a gangster from East L.A. in the 50's. A big player in the Mexican Mafia, he spends 18 years of his life running the drugs scene from behind bars at Folsom Prison. When he finally gets out, he chooses to lead a clean life but his old buddies drag him back into bad habits which finds him up back in jail, eventually being killed.

Universal Pictures
Director: Edward James Olmos
Writers: Desmond Nakano, Floyd Mutrux
Producers:Irwin W. Young, Robert M. Young, Floyd Mutrux
I viewed 9/17

Sunday, April 30, 2017

The Reaping (2007) R - 3 Stars

Katherine Winter's (Hilary Swank), whole life was with the ministary. But after her husband and daughter are killed in Sudan through a sacraficial event, she stops believing in God. Now, a university professor and theology scholar, she believes more in studying facts rather than beliefs. She has traveled the world investigating all sorts of phenonomin like bleeding palms and weeping statues.

After the town of Haven, Louisiana has been swarmed on by locust and seen their rivers turn blood red, they believe a revisiting of the Biblical ten plagues has been thrust upon them. They also believe that a child Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb) is the work of the devil and most want to destroy the girl in order to bring peace back to the town. However Katherine's tries to save the young "choosen" girl as she can be the one to defeat Satan's work.

Warner Bros Pictures
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Writers: Jacob Aaron Estes, Carey Hayes, Christopher Markus
Producers: Robert Zemeckis, Herbert W. Gains, Susan Levin
I viewed 11/17