Movie Review -- A Quiet Place

  There's enough horror movies out there that are loud and in-your-face with cheap jump scares, but every once in a while there's one that comes out that emphasizes its atmosphere by making the audience focus on every little sound and movement. A Quiet Place is one of those films.

  A Quiet Place follows a family of four as they survive in a world ravaged by mysterious blind monsters that hunt by sound, killing anyone who makes all but the faintest of noises. This is especially challenging when (1) the mother of the family, Evelyn, is pregnant and (2) the daughter, Regan, is deaf. So as you can imagine, there's not a whole lot of spoken dialogue in this film, perhaps two solid minutes' worth. The rest is all done in sign language. And yet the film still produces a decent amount of drama thanks to its fine writing and capable acting. In the moments when the film isn't leaving you on the edge of your seat the plot portrays what it means to be a responsible parent in difficult times.

  While the characters are nothing we haven't seen before, they are well portrayed. Interestingly, I don't recall ever learning their names so I had to look them up. Writer/director/star John Krasinski brings his everyman sensibility to the role of Lee, the dad trying to keep his family safe. The other character of note is Regan, the rebellious teenager who is actually played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds.

  Krasinski's direction makes A Quiet Place a film that's sleek, concise, and tense. During the stalking scenes you might find yourself keeping as silent as the characters onscreen.

  However, there are a few plotholes that may disrupt your experience. First and foremost, what are these monsters and where are they from? One could argue that since this is a film told from the perspective of one family that we're not supposed to know all the details of such overarching things. But that doesn't keep me from wondering who the elderly people in the woods were. Or why there was a nail sticking out of the top of the stairs. Or where the leaking water in the barn was coming from.

  Regardless, A Quiet Place manages to be an entertaining flick with a frighteningly original premise. It reminds me of last year's high-concept thriller, Split, though between the two of them I would recommend A Quiet Place for its more thrilling setup and more heartfelt story. Enjoy the silence.

Grade:

Movie Review Repost -- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Whoa. Research for my US presidential rankings article is taking way longer than I thought it would (I'm about 2/3 done). Sorry about that. In the meantime let's take a look at my original review of X-Men: Days of Future Past, a really good superhero film. In my opinion this was the best X-Men film of all until 2017's Logan hit the theatres. Plus it has Richard Nixon in it. Who doesn't love alternated history movies with Richard Nixon in them?

  Can't think of a proper introductory paragraph. Whatever, begin the review already!

  So X-Men: Days of Future Past begins in a dystopian future where Sentinels rule the Earth, enslaving/killing mutants and mutant sympathizers. Professor Xavier's surviving mutants send Wolverine's consciousness back to 1973 in an attempt to prevent the Sentinels from being created and thus save the world from devastation. So this movie actually has two plots/settings going on at once – resulting in simultaneous fight scenes – and it is presented splendidly. Everyone's favourite mutants can be found here as well as a few new ones like Warpath, Bishop, and Quicksilver. As always Hugh Jackman contributes an impeccable Wolverine portrayal. Both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart give excellent, emotionally-charged dual performances as Professor X, who pretty much owns the film. Mystique's character is also fleshed out a bit more just as it was in First Class. And to top it all off we even get Richard Nixon! The only thing that's missing is a Stan Lee cameo. Seriously, where is he?

  Both the action scenes and special effects are very well done, reminiscent of the style of First Class. The jokes are decent and the set pieces are impressive. Also, if you've ever wanted to see Wolverine's butt then this movie is for you.

  However there are some problems present. Like why is Magneto such a counterproductive dick? And since when has Kitty Pride – the girl who can phase through solid objects – had the ability to project peoples' consciousness back through time? In 1973 Beast has found a cure for paralysis but he never bothers to share it with the rest of the world. What a jerk! There's also an unnecessary, ridiculous subplot about one mutant's involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Every successive line relating to it is even dumber than the last.

  Additionally, there's a few problems that have been carried over from other X-Men films too. We're still never given an explanation as to why/how Magneto's powers returned after losing them in X-Men 3. There's also no explanation for Professor X being alive after he died in X-Men 3. (And for those of you who say that he transferred his consciousness into a comatose man I still have some questions: Why does his new body look just like his original one? Why can't he walk still?) Days of Future Past also suffers from the same problem that plagued First Class: it doesn't fit in with the rest of the X-Men timeline (though just those two movies fit together OK). For example, Origins: Wolverine establishes that during this time period, Wolverine was working for Colonel Stryker with Sabretooth.

  But on its own, X-Men: Days of Future Past is a pretty good film. It has good action, exceptional acting, and a thought-provoking story. Come to think of it, the time-travelling, history-altering ending of this film kind of makes all the past plot inconsistencies not matter any more. Things are different now; it's as if they've rebooted the series without really rebooting it. It's incredible, really. This screenplay is a stroke of unparalleled genius!

  (Ahem.) It's pretty good despite evidence of several rewrites (some staple characters make only momentary appearances and a couple subplots end up going nowhere). X-Men fans and action fans will like it. The time-travelling and retcons give it a more comic book feel to it than First Class, which I'm sure some people will prefer. Just don't bother seeing it in 3D (in this case it isn't all that great).

Rating: three and a half stars out of five.

Movie Review Repost -- Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

   The time has come for me to return to my sticky, smelly, overpriced seat at the movie theatres! This is my review of Air Force One Part 2... er, I mean Die Hard the Remake... I mean Olympus Has Fallen.

   So yeah, this isn't exactly the most original movie to come out in recent years. We've all seen hostage movies before, some involving the President of the United States. So what does this one have to offer to make it stand out? At least it's not racist, right? Here's the plot: North Korean terrorists take over the White House and hold the President hostage and it's up to Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) to rescue him before the joint chiefs give in to their demands and put South Korea's safety in jeopardy. It is a movie with lots of violence, gore, torture, and profanity: perfect for a date.

   Unfortunately for non-Americans like me, this movie sure does kiss the USA's butt a lot. Be prepared for a lot of gratuitous American flag shots and unnecessary news reports telling us things that we just saw happen. But for a movie that glorifies Americans, there sure are a lot of stupid people. There's dozens of Secret Service agents charging into the open where machine gun fire cuts them down. What is this, Call of Duty? There's also the idiot Army Chief of Staff who sends in helicopters to be ambushed by an experimental new weapon even after he's informed of it's defensive readiness. After Banning asks how they'll destroy it, the Chief just says “don't worry about it” and the attack goes about as well as expected.

   Anyways Olympus Has Fallen has lots of one-liners, but only about half of them are any good. Some of them are terrible, others are so bad that they're unintentionally funny. The movie does benefit from some spectacular special effects, but the fistfight scenes suffer from that extremely close and choppy editing that I don't much care for. The rest of the action is pretty good, thanks in no small part to the directing.

   Most of the acting is pretty standard. The villain is rather stock, nothing new. Nevertheless, Butler's performance is very good. You can tell that he's having fun with this role.

   Unfortunately, Olympus Has Fallen has almost as many plotholes as bullet holes. How did an unidentified plane ever manage to get so close to the White House? Is it really a big deal for US troops to withdraw from the Korean DMZ? They can still stay in South Korea, you know. Why did the analysts say that the bad guy has never been photographed even as they're looking at a photograph of him? Is it really a big deal for nuclear missiles to self-destruct while still in their silos? You do know that nuclear warheads need to be armed in order to be detonated, right?

   Oh well, if there's one thing I've learned from this movie it's that the USA needs even more security. I guess this is just one of those movies where you need to turn your brain off for a while in order to truly enjoy. And for the most part this film is rather fun to watch; you might even laugh at one of the inadvertently silly parts. It's basically an action film with good direction and SFX.

Final rating: two and a half stars out of five.