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    Break Point (2014)

    Break Point (2014)

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    Movie

    Two estranged brothers reunite to make an improbable run at a grand slam tennis tournament.

Blood in the Mirror (The Haunted Collection #3)
Blood in the Mirror (The Haunted Collection #3)
Ron Ripley | 2017 | Horror, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
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Blood in the Mirror ( Haunted Collection book 3)
By Ron Ripley

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Stefan Korzh is at it again, and while Ivan's deadly ghost has thrown a wrench into his son's plans, the spiteful road to revenge continues. More haunted items from the family's notorious collection are appearing with new owners. Worst of all is a pen possessing an inviting glimmer that can destroy whoever spills its demonic ink.

Jeremy Rhinehart and Victor Daniels are in a desperate rush to stop the mayhem, and seem to be headed in the right direction...but somehow, the closer they get, the harder things become. And they are slowly finding that they're not the only ones who want Stefan dead.

As the histories of the possessed collectibles continue to reveal themselves, more objects emerge, and old family secrets are contained within the elegant ridges of the compact mirror. Everything hangs in the balance, and it's up to Victor to discard his tragic demons and stop Stefan before the streets are lined with more bodies.

But as Victor and Jeremy continue their quest against evil, they discover a terrifying force lurking in their midst. Nothing is ever as it seems....

This was my favourite so far! The walls are closing in on Stefan from all sides. This one was saw a Goblin gone crazy and oh no Anne is on the loose but where? We saw Jeremys demise (though I’m thinking not for long) leaving poor Victor with another death to avenge. Looking forward to book 4.
  
Green Room (2015)
Green Room (2015)
2015 | Horror, Thriller
After a fruitless tour, a punk group, The Ain’t Rights, find themselves out of money and stealing gas to get back home. When a recommendation from a fan looking for an interview leads them to play one more show out in the backwoods of Oregon to a crowd of white supremacists, they become witnesses to a murder and barricade themselves in the green room. With no clear escape, they enter into a deadly battle of wills with the owner of the club, and his band of skinheads, and quickly discover that they have no intention of letting them leave alive.

 

It’s to the point now where if the A24 logo is at the front of a flick, chances are I’m handing over my hard-earned cash. Enemy, Locke, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, Slow West – they’ve been distributing some of my favorite films from the last few years and are fast becoming a powerhouse for indie movies, not unlike Focus Features a little more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, this means I set my expectations a little too high on my way into Green Room, which was not hard to do when you combine A24’s track record with the emerging talent of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Blue Ruin, his second feature, was the surprise indie hit of 2013. Expertly crafted and deliberately paced, it harkened back to 70’s-style bleak and gritty filmmaking. Green Room also features some of the DNA that made Blue Ruin great, those quite moments of high-tension leading into heart-stopping explosions of extreme violence are present and accounted for, but a thinner plot and characters who are severely underdeveloped show that this story, to its detriment, was in much more of a rush to get where it was going than its predecessor was.

 

Green Room’s major selling point is of course, Patrick Stewart. Adding one part Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach’s character from American History X) to one part Walter White/Heisenberg, his performance will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest departures of our time. Having said that, and believe me when I say I’m loathe to fly in the face of what an exceptional casting choice this was, he is frustratingly underutilized. It does speak to what an unrivaled talent he is when he can build most of his menace from the other side of a locked door, but regardless of how solid the performance is, his presence is merely a set-piece. A role with this little screen time rivals Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (they both had what probably amounted to about 15 minutes of screen time, or less), but I’m certain Stewart’s won’t leave as lasting an impression. To be blunt, if you’re queuing up just for him, you may come away disappointed.

 

The flip side to this comes about through Imogen Poots as Amber, friend to the murder victim and unfortunate enough to get trapped backstage with the band. Much of the best dialogue, along with some incredible moments of jaw-dropping spontaneity, comes her way and it’s her deadpan delivery that steals the show. Though we are supposed to root for the band, it was her cynical “inside man” that drew me further into their nightmare situation and kept me hoping that she might be the one to survive and give the skinheads the brutal justice they deserved.

 

For now, I’m sticking to my guns and giving Green Room just half marks, but I look forward to a second viewing at home in a few months, where I’m certain my opinion of it will improve, due to my expectations being more aligned and the foreknowledge that this is simple and standard survival horror fare…that just happens to feature Picard as a neo-Nazi.