Act of Valor.

Act of Valor is a war film that comes onto the big screen during a time of a barrage of post 9/11, "War on Terror," movies and documentaries. Even so it is a film like no other before it due to the fact that it stars active duty U.S. Navy SEALs. Act of Valor is a mix of a big screen war flick, a documentary, a Navy SEALs recruitment video, and a daytime TV drama. Act of Valor contains heavy amounts of old school American nationalism, the kind that can cause some viewers to re-evaluate priorities in their lives and build a real appreciation for the armed forces of America. Due to the strong pro-America sentiment, Act of Valor is true American war film but at the same time it is put together in a way that also aims to positively resonate with non-American viewers. All that being said, Act of Valor serves more as an experience rather than a gritty and superbly scripted war film such as Saving Private Ryan. Since it is a movie the SEALs have to act, and to their credit they do their best but in the end the majority of the scenes in-between battles feel like you are watching a daytime soap opera where men deliver emotionless lines. The script has your usual and expected war movie clichés, but the storyline does have a realistic enough modern day terroristic believability factor which keeps viewers engaged from beginning to end. Act of Valor was just good enough to crack open the door to the possibility of future war movies in which real U.S. Military personnel are casted for roles where they respond to everyday war scenarios.

The good: Act of Valor will make you proud to be an American.  

The bad: When the SEALs have to deliver lines, with only one exception.  

Rating: 6.2 out of 10. 

 

Chronicle.

In 2008, Cloverfield proved that with state of the art special effects and decent acting, a, "found-footage," film could in fact be quite successful. 2012's Chronicle proved to be just that and more with both state of the art special effects and great acting. The acting in this film has to be the greatest surprise given the fact that it features a young no name cast. They are your typical 20 somethings playing High School students but that tends to slip the eye of the average audience member. The only unanswered questions Chronicle leaves surround how exactly did these students obtain their powers. A scene is shown in which they get their powers, but it can be described as hazy at best. Once their powers are gotten, they begin to uncover and push the limits of their super-human abilities. Given the plot set-up, each character including the main character, Andrew, uses their powers in a way that reflects their up-bringing and in Andrew's case, a tragically chaotic home life. Being someone who has seen many superhero shows and movies, an overlooked aspect that this film does a great job with is showing early on that these teens are not immune to pain or injury. This makes the film more legitimate because as powerful as these teenagers are, they still have an internal fear of death or harm; all be it much smaller than an average person. Even though teens with superpowers is the overwhelming story of this film, it does contain well scripted sub-plots that indiscriminately delve into child abuse, cancer, depression, teenage friendship, and the classic battle within that if you have superpowers, do you use them for good, evil, or neither. Chronicle far exceeded the expectations of many critics including myself, who personally thought it would just be a shallow film involving teens who could move large objects around with telekinetic abilities. 

The good: Given the set-up for each character, especially the main character Andrew, Chronicle is a completely believable account of what could happen if High School teenagers somehow obtained, "superman," like abilities. 

The bad: A few unanswered questions are left involving the acquisition of their powers, and I have a strong feeling that the C.I.A. and or F.B.I. would be knocking at their doors long before they reached the level of powers that they did. 

Rating: 8.9 out of 10. 

The Devil Inside.

The Devil Inside was highly billed as the first exorcism type horror film to combine the aspects of both, "science," and, "religion," to help solve the mysteries of demonic possession that supposedly lie between the two. The back story to the film is not so bad, a young mother kills three people (presumably clergy) during an exorcism and ends up later being transferred to a mental hospital located within the walls of the Vatican City. It seems a little odd that the U.S. would extradite a murderer to be placed in a mental hospital in a country of which the person has no origin in, but if you let that one pass you have a decent back story. Sadly for movie-goers, that is about all the film has going for it. The film tries too hard to combine science and religion, which is similar to trying to combine oil and water; no matter how vigorously you stir the two, they will eventually settle and separate. While this film was marketed to be extremely terrifying, it was not at all, in fact that scariest part of this film was the breaking out of the phrase, "multiple demonic possession," that is the only thing you will probably remember from The Devil Inside; which also decides to give away its only plot twist in the name of the movie! This movie is just another over-hyped horror film that tried to put a different spin on the overused horror sub-genre known as exorcism. 

The good: "Multiple demonic possession," you might find yourself using that phrase to describe people you think are crazy after seeing this film. 

The bad: The movie fails at basically every premise that it is marketed on, and it is too short. 

Rating: 1.4 out of 10

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Paranormal Activity 3.

Paranormal Activity 3 serves as the end to the trilogy that changed horror. The film continues the paranormal theme of real time horror scenes with no music. Since the first two films focused on the adult sisters Katie and Kristie respectively, the third film provides us with their childhood background which fills the audience in on how/why they ended up dealing with paranormal events as adults. To do so the third film takes place in 1988. The plot of the movie does a decent job of maneuvering around the technological lacks of that time when it comes to videotaping, as the mother of Katie and Kristi just happens to be with a man (Dennis) who makes wedding videos as a job. This makes him a camera expert if you will, and that seemingly drives his desire to catch the paranormal events taking place in their house on camera. Paranormal Activity 3 did not seem to have as many scary moments as the first two movies, it instead focused more on having a stronger plot. This movie will definitely make you think twice if you ever encounter a young child that has an imaginary friend. The ending plot twist is what really solidifies this film as a solid horror movie; it is a twist that you just do not see coming. 

The good: The real time horror that Paranormal Activity 3 contains, while somewhat expected, is still almost guaranteed to scare even the toughest horror movie enthusiast. The ending plot twist is just magnificent. 

The bad: It is hard to understand how Katie and Kristi, who are children in this film, seemingly forget these life changing events. 

Rating: 7.1 out of 10

Drive.

Drive is a film that you have to pay real close attention to. It contains a large amount of subtle emotion that is hard to understand due to its intentional lack of dialogue. Drive is a slow moving film in both its action and non action sequences. It ends up working out well because it is easy to figure out that both the slow moving action and dialogue reduction was intended by its director. In the age of giant explosions and lots of yelling, Drive is a complete success on its story alone. Even though the nameless driver seems to lack basic social skills, this actually ends up helping because it puts lots of words aside so that only his feelings are showing. The feelings that do show are that he is seemingly quick to fall in love with his neighbor, a single mother whose husband is in jail, and her young son. This quick attachment is made possible because of the lonely live that the driver has carved out for himself as both a movie stunt driver and a wheelman for heists. While Drive is slow to get started, it surely provides a breath of fresh air into the action movie genre.  

The good: The focus of Drive is delivering a strong storyline while setting aside constant action and dialogue; luckily Drive does exceptionaly well. 

The bad: Ryan Gosling's lack of lines can be quite annoying to some. 

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Movie Hopes #3: The Hills Have Eyes 3?

This post was written on September 15th, and I have yet to see any information about a 3rd instillation of the modern hills have eyes movies. I understand that this is probably not the most popular of movies that people would like to see a sequel to. This is most likely due to how bad the second film was. The dialogue in The Hills Have Eyes 2 was so terrible that I felt that the, "jokes," were written by a high school freshman boy. None the less the premise for the modern hills have eyes movies are undoubtedly scary. Being stranded out in the middle of the desert with scores cannibalistic mutants and no way of communicating with anyone is a near perfect setting for a gory scary movie. As terrible as the second film was it left a cliffhanger from which a third film can built upon. It is not everyday that an entire national guard unit goes missing while on a training exercise in America. If a third film is to be made I hope an elite unit is sent into the mines to both kill as many mutants as possible and to obtain, "samples," for the government. With a stronger plot and less gore porn a third hills have eyes film would be decent, I would certainly go see it, would you? 

Contagion.

Previews for Contagion looked very attractive due to its subject matter and a veteran cast anchored by Laurence Fishburne and Matt Damon. The movie itself was quite solid with exceptional acting and an undoubtably believable script. The film focuses on many different angles of how peoples lives are changed as a deadly pandemic spreads worldwide. While these angles can be somewhat confusing at times, the stories that they tell are intriguing. The film delivered well on showing the emotions and decision making of human beings when they are put into survival mode. All in all this was a strong film that focuses on strong dialogue and character development rather than explosions and gore. 

The good: This film is solid all around and it gives a completely believable account of the types of occurrences that would happen if a pandemic were to break out in our modern world. 

The bad: The movie, although believable, is overly predictable and lacks any sort of twist. It is as straight forward of a film as you will ever see. 

Rating: 7.1 out of 10