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Stephen King's A Good Marriage (2014)
Stephen King's A Good Marriage (2014)
2014 | Mystery
2
4.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: A Good Marriage starts with the anniversary party of Darcy (Allen) and Bob Anderson (LaPaglia) with their grown up children Petra (Connolly) and Donnie (Stockman). Everything on the outside looks like it is going great for the couple and what could possibly be shocking about them? The couple seem to have a follower in Holt Ramsey (Lang) but why?

Darcy’s life takes a sudden change when searching for batteries she finds a hidden box with the drivers licences of woman who are found dead. As Darcy struggles to deal with the realisation that she is married to a serial killer we watch how Bob is tracking down him latest victim while away on business. We have to watch how Bob and Darcy try to work through the problems because spilling the secret could ruin the family.

A Good Marriage really does end up coming off very dull, the concept sounds very interesting. I feel this story should have been a hell of a lot tenser because of the action of the husband especially with the idea that the wife doesn’t want to destroy her children’s lives with the secret. I can honestly say I was expecting a look into the husband’s killing and an actual confrontation rather than just a calm talking about his actions. Overall the story doesn’t come off very well at all and I can honestly say this will disappoint any and all the Stephen King Fans out there. (2/10)

 

Actor Review

 

Joan Allen: Darcy Anderson is the loving mother and wife who discovers her husband’s secret. Darcy has to try and figure out what to do because talking will destroy the family but she also knows the next victim will now be here fault. Joan does a solid job but doesn’t reach the levels you would expect to make you feel like her character is scared or keeping a brave face. (5/10)

 

Anthony LaPaglia: Bob Anderson is the account husband of Darcy who has been living a different life behind his family’s back as a serial killer. When his wife discovers his secret he has to convince her not to go to the cops and ruin the life the children think they have had. Anthony is an actor I would expect to be able to play this role really well but he doesn’t seem to get into the role enough to make us believe he is a killer. (3/10)

 

Support Cast: A Good Marriage has a supporting cast that are mostly people Darcy is trying to protect from the truth, but it also has a man trying to find out the truth about the killer.

 

Director Review: Peter Askin – Peter doesn’t give us enough tension in a film that should be filled to the rim with tension because of the subject matter. (3/10)

 

Thriller: A Good Marriage is a film that should be filled with tension but this manages to let it all go without capitalising on the idea. (2/10)

Settings: A Good Marriage keeps the settings great because the idea would be that the killer is in plain sight living a normal life. (9/10)

Suggestion: A Good Marriage has to go down as one to avoid because it really does disappoint trying to tell an easy story. (Avoid)

 

Best Part: Hard to find anything.

Worst Part: No Tension.

Improve Ideas: High tension level.

 

Believability: The idea does come from a real serial killer but the outcome on film doesn’t really work. (3/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: No

Post Credits Scene: No

 

Oscar Chances: No

Runtime: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

Trivia: This is Stephen King’s first self-adapted screenplay since “Pet Sematary,” which was released 25 years earlier. The last feature film script he wrote was “Sleepwalkers,” released in 1992. Since then he has written TV movies, mini-series and shows, such as “The Stand,” “The Shining” and “Kingdom Hospital.”

 

Overall: Very disappointing thriller with no actual tension.

https://moviesreview101.com/2015/06/04/a-good-marriage-2014/
  
Stephen King's A Good Marriage (2014)
Stephen King's A Good Marriage (2014)
2014 | Mystery
6
4.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A Stephen King Lifetime movie...
391. A Good Marriage. A Lifetime Entertainment movie written by Stephen King? That is what it feels like. Besides a couple of F bombs, its pretty tame. Stars Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia, two great actors, playing perfect married couple Darcy and Bob Anderson. Perfect house, perfect jobs, perfect kids. And then one night Darcy has to go out to the garage to get batteries for the TV remote, because who doesn't keep their back up battery supply in the non-attached garage? As she's reaching for the batteries, something falls and exposes a secret compartment containing a cute little box, their daughter had made Bob when she was a kid, awww, and that box contains the ID's of women murdered by notorious serial killer, Beadie, ohhhh. Once the realization of this sets in, and unknowing just what to do, guess who calls? Anyone? Anyone? Bob hears the panic in her voice tho she tries to say she was just startled, he's like coolio, see ya in a few days, cause he's on a road trip and all. So while Darcy is panicking in the house, guess who comes home early? Anyone? Anyone? And he knows she's been snooping, and as she freaks the hell out, he calmly tells her who he really is, and tells her how things are gonna be... Besides the after school special feel of it, still a decent story, well acted. Inspired by the BTK killings and his imagined family life in the mind of Stephen King, heard BTK's daughter didn't like its implications to much... Filmbufftim on FB
  
Scream 4 (2011)
Scream 4 (2011)
2011 | Horror, Mystery
11 years after Scream 3 "graced" cinema screens, Wes Craven returned to his meta horror series in an era where the genre had gone into full remake mode.

I'm not convinced that Scream 4 needs to exist, especially after the underwhelming way the third film closed out the original trilogy, but this entry is definitely a step up.
The Meta side of things is again a little over the top, but it's good to see Ghostface in a more modern setting. This Ghostface is brutal as well, and Scream 4 is arguably the goriest of the franchise, making it's iconic masked antagonist more intimidating than ever.

The returning cast are back again - Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette - and have somehow survived all of the Scream movies - as per usual, it feels like a homecoming with them in tow. It's not often in horror you have one person make it this far, let alone three. It gives the series a uniqueness that I can appreciate.
The new characters are all written like typical cannon fodder slasher victims but they all serve there purpose well. Hayden Panittiere is a welcome addition, and it's nice to see Anthony Anderson in a pre Black-ish role.

The plot is so so. It's all ground that has been relentlessly trodden by this point, but it still works. Sidney is back in town. People start getting stabbed. Everyone is a suspect. Rinse and repeat.
The killer reveal in this one isn't too shoddy either, and makes more sense that the reveals in Scream 2 and 3, and there's a lot of direct homage to the first movie in how it's all executed (coming round full circle to the remake commentary)

All in all, Scream 4 is a bucket load of fun, even if it doesn't quite hit the heights if the original. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming sequel will turn out following Craven's death, but I have the feeling it won't quite be the same. Long live Wes Craven!