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The Amityville Horror 2005 ★
Seeing a certain logo already made me weary, and sure enough, it's as classy and subtle as you expect from Platinum Dunes. Bland jump scares, bland wife/girlfriend,... a snoozefest not interested in scaring the audience.
Heck, they even managed to make Ryan Reynolds look douchy. Ryan Reynolds. He could play Ted Bundy and part of you would still want to root for him.
The only positive thing I can say is that part of me wants to see Ryan Reynolds and Jason Lee in an odd couple style sitcom.
School of Rock 2003 ★★★
Why only three stars? Because that is as good as these archetype feel good movies get. The structure is way too predictable and by the numbers for me to be surprised and the big finale is too much nonsense for a fortysomething to still buy into. Also, his roommate is dating Sarah Silverman and somehow, Jack Black is the one who gets to bragg about a hot date. Oh, movies.
Does that mean that it's bad? Far from it.
It executed the idea well, hearing the classic songs sent the required shiver down my spine and it had a number of good jokes. It got a few laughs from me and did not overstay its welcome, which is all a comedy has to do.
Jack Black is tailor made for this role. He lives the character and you cannot help but see and hear mannerisms and the musical influences of Tenacious D in the songs he and the kids write and play together. Joan Cusack shows off her comedic chops as the headmaster. Would not mind seeing her in more comedies. Any suggestions?
Fall 2022 ★★★★½
Fall was a fun ride. Pity I missed the theatre screening, because you can trust me on this one: I'm sure this should be a theatre experience. Also, it would easily have been a contender for a top five spot.
The story mainly focusses on two ladies climbing a very high tv broadcast tower in the middle of nowhere. There is a bit of Jeffrey Dean Morgan in here, but by his standards, he is very restrained. No Neganing or smartallicky stuff. Just a sad father reaching out to his daughter. Frustrated whe she tells him to go away. The daughter in question, Becky, is still grieving over the death of her husband, nearly a year after he fell to his death during a tragic rock climbing accident.
So what pulls her out of this slump? Her vlogger friend Hunter dares her to go on another and after some cajoling, she is convinced. And that's where everything goes wrong.
Is it predictable? Kind of. You can see the disaster coming a mile away. But at that moment, it's not about the climax and more about the set up and that is done extremely well. You can fell the tension mounting. Same thing goes with the things they use later on.
Once they are up there, things start happening. Because there is not much to do as such on top of a tower with no way down. So the two friends start using their wits to find a way to escape, as well as the objects at their disposal: their phones (duh), the drone Hunter brought, the backpack, a flare,...The script makes good use of the props available, thus reminding me of this Thai movie called The Pool I saw a few years ago. For various reasons, the attempts fail at first. Too low battery levels on the drone or just people being, well... people.
Also, tensions from the past come up, creating tension between Hunter and Becky. Critics can argue that they gloss over that pretty easily, fans would argue that is a testament to the strength of their friendship. I can easily see both sides as well as my personal opinion piggybacking back and forth between the two depending on my mood at said moment.
That said, that is still nothing to the big reveal. Set up perfectly, this brings a genuine “whoa”-moment. I especially loved it because it's been a while since I have seen one of these. I guess it goes back to Seoul Station.
Another major quality is that the movie understands the principle of “show, don't tell”. The prime examples being the scene where Becky and Hunter retrieve the backpack, Becky's fight with the eagle or the catch they make in order to save the drone,...
For some reason, imdb puts this in the thriller category, but I am sure horror fans in particular as well as cinema fans in general will love this. Well recommended.
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