Movie Review - Girl House

Girl House

2014

Brookstreet Pictures : Lightning Entertainment / Signature Entertainment / eOne Films

6.75 / 10

This is the slasher picture of modern times.  In the era where webcams are becoming more popular, especially in the sex industry, this asks the question, do you know who's watching you?

Instead of cam'ing on their own, this brings a group of beautiful girls together at the Girl House owned and run my an internet entrepreneur.  This gives paying viewers a chance to watch the girls at sleep, rest, and play.  Unfortunately for the girls, one of their viewers is Loverboy, a mentally unstable character with a violent and abusive past.

Even though the characters are very stereotypical of this type of film the cast breath new life into them, especially Slaine who plays the troubled Loverboy.

It also helps that the directors Jon Knautz and Trevor Matthews have the skill to create tension and to be able to build up the pace and excitement when needed.  This, in turn, makes it an entertaining film.

One of the main things I loved about the film was the shallow character of Devon, played well by Alyson Bath.  Though it wasn't all down to her portrayal it was her character and how it changed once Loverboy attacked.  It's an original ending to the character, though totally believable and sad... and one of the reasons I liked the movie.  It just elevates it above a normal slasher flick.

There are a couple of issues that niggled me, I know that Loverboy needs to be a computer hacker to be able to find the Girl House, though his character doesn't come across as that type of person.  The other was the stereotypical killers mask... why did he even need to wear one, again it seemed out of character - it'd be nice if a stalker for once, didn't go, Myers, Voorhees or Leatherface, on us.

This is a decent film and at least worth watching once, even more so, if you like the genre.

Movie Review - The Equalizer

The Equalizer

(2014)

Columbia Pictures / LStar Capital / Village Roadshow Pictures / Escape Artists : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

7.75 / 10

This is not the Robert McCall I grew up watching and that isn't a bad thing.  I like the idea that writer Richard Wenk and director Antoine Fuqua reenvisioned the 1980's character for the modern era.  As always Denzel Washington is superb and brings a new dimension to the character of The Equalizer.

Robert McCall is a warehouse worker in a D I Y retail store who at work helps his fellow employees, though out of work he's a solitary character with a habitual routine that verges on obsessive compulsive disorder.  Each night he goes to the same diner and sits at the same table and orders a cup of water, into which he drops a teabag.  While there he reads a book, he's on number 97 of the top 100 books to read before you die.  He has a conversational relationship with one of the prostitutes that use the diner as a way station.  This relationship becomes stronger and when she comes in battered and bruised McCall takes it upon himself to help her out...

From here on in you begin to learn of McCall's secret past as the action and violence amps up.  McCall is a dark man who keeps his feelings in check though you never get to find out what makes him such a cold and logical executioner.  This may be because there are more works in the pipeline, I hope so as this was an enjoyable movie.

The only irksome element of the story and movie is the relationship between McCall and the prostitute Teri, played by Chloe Grace Moretz.  As I previously stated, their relationship takes on an extra vitality.  However, when she's hospitalised, he goes to the hospital though never makes contact and this is the last we see of her until the end; and this appears to have been an afterthought to give McCall a more humanistic presence.  I think if the characters had more scenes together throughout the movie this could have help to detract from McCall's cold robotic personality.  Maybe this wasn't the director's vision.

There's nothing in this film that hasn't been covered in other movies but that doesn't stop this from being an entertaining 132 minutes; It kept my attention so well that it really doesn't seem that long a film.

If you enjoyed the series, or like action films, or love Denzel Washington (or all three), then this film will be right up your street.

Movie Review - #popfan

#PopFan

2014

The Cast

*** Slight Spoilers ***

This is "Misery" for the hashtag generation.  That said, a lot of ideas and scenes were taken from the aforementioned movie.  The major one is the car crash which puts our heroine, Ava Maclain (Chelsea Kane), into the care and arms of our deluded villain, Xavier (Nolan Gerard Funk).  The other scene is the mistaken identity at the close of the movie, where Ava sees Xavier once again, though we know this cannot be true.  This is a pretty much-unneeded scene that doesn't add anything to the film.

The unoriginal story is the only drawback to this movie.  The acting of the two main leads, Kane and Funk, are pretty good and their portrayal of the characters is both strong and believable.  The other actors are above average Danny Wattley (Damon) really stood out as being as strong an actor as Kane and Funk, who did a good job as the Manager come Bodyguard. The script, on the whole, isn't too bad, though as I did say before, very Misery'ish...  No blizzard, but a nor'easter storm.  Even being set in Maine is a doff-of-the-cap to Mr King.  Though, I'm not sure if the writer, Dean Orion, was paying homage, or trying to cover his back... after all, twenty-four years have passed since Misery was filmed (Damn I feel old!)  There are, as always, strange decisions made by the heroine.  Though, to be honest, the film would've only lasted about twenty minutes is she hadn't made the strange "wrong" decisions. 

But remember this was written for television and not for the big screen or even DVD release so there are limitations the writer has to face. Director Vanessa Parise does a very good job of telling the story and interweaving the actor's portrayal's of the characters into their correct places making the film stronger than the story. Even though the story isn't great the acting and the direction lift the overall finished product. If you have a free Sunday afternoon, with not much to watch, then this is a good film to chill out too.  Not much brain power is required as you know the villain pretty much from the start, and the climax is very guessable as there are no real twists in this story.

I enjoyed the film and didn't feel disappointed after viewing so I give this a kidnapped 6.5 out of 10.