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A Dark Song (2016)
A Dark Song (2016)
2016 | Horror
Story: A Dark Song starts as Sophia Howard (Walker) rents a remote house in the countryside, she hires occultist Joseph Solomon (Oram) to perform a yearlong ritual so Sophia can communicate with her late son, one more time.

With the rules set, the ritual begins leaving the two to need to be prepared for anything good or evil that they would summon from the other side.

 

Thoughts on A Dark Song

 

Characters – Sophia is the lady that wants to communicate with dead child, she has turned to an occultist to help her, she will go through as many different rituals to achieve her desired outcome. Joseph Solomon is the occultist that reluctant agrees to help Sophia with her ritual, he has plenty of experience and even when he knows she is lying he will help her.

Performances – Steve Oram and Catherine Walker are the main two stars of this movie, their performances need to be strong for this movie to work. They both give us captivating performance where you are wondering where the characters will be going next.

Story – The story dives into the idea of how far would you go to communicate with a dead loved one, would you turn to the occult knowing it wouldn’t be the best idea because of what else you could summon, or would you let the police punish the people responsible, these are the main questions being asked in this movie. When we follow the ritual side of the film doesn’t give us a full scale of the time the two are performing them, but then again the story doesn’t focus on the rituals that much, rather focusing on what would be the correct decision made by the Sophia.

Horror – The horror involved in this movie is mostly about what could happen with rituals are performed, we only get a moment of actual horror late in the film.

Settings – The settings keep the two in one house for up to a year which gives the characters the much-needed isolation for the rituals to happen.

Special Effects – The effects used in the film are save the few moments that need them and seem to be great practical use of them too.


Scene of the Movie – Cross the line.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – While you are left waiting for something to happen, not much does happen.

Final Thoughts – This is a horror that focuses more in the drama of what could happen and following to people that need to focus on letting the past lay over trying to scare us.

 

Overall: A horror that lacks the scares.

https://moviesreview101.com/2018/10/18/a-dark-song-2016/gnree/
  
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JT (287 KP) rated Takers (2010) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
Takers (2010)
Takers (2010)
2010 | Action, Drama
6
5.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The bank heist, it’s been done to death in Hollywood over the years but it still seems to be a film favourite. You’d be hard pressed to find a really bad one out there and most of the ones that I have seen have been exceptional films.

Of course they all follow a very similar pattern. Group steals money, plan one last job which will inevitable go wrong where someone will get double crossed and not everyone walks off into the sunset with the money.Its a no brainer really and only an idiot could really mess up that style of plot.

Takers is no different from any other before it, the cast here seem to be a bit mismatched in places. There are real life rappers Chris Brown and T.I. aka Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., eye candy favourites Matt Dillon and Paul Walker with Brit Idris Elba making it the most unconventional mix of cops and robbers ever.

The film’s highlights are the well choreographed set pieces including a decent hotel gun fight, a hiest that goes wrong leading to more gun play, and an impressive chase through the city. Even the opening does well to set the story and character back grounds.

Where the film let’s itself down, through no fault of its own, is the way in which we are always one step ahead of the plot. This is just down to all the hiest films we have seen before and we’re pretty much going to make our own assumptions as to what is going to happen and who is going to get away with what at the climax.

There are a couple of wasted back stories which do little to the film such as Matt Dillon’s corrupt partner or Idris Elba’s crackhead sister. Zoe Saldana is a virtual unknown in this and pops up from time to time doing nothing but enlighten the screen with her clear beauty.

It’s never going to compete against the big boys such as Heat, Point Break or The Town, but it does well enough to hold the attention for 90 minutes or so.
  
7500 (2019)
7500 (2019)
2019 | Drama, Thriller
Greetings & Salutations Everyone!

On behalf of myself and my fellows at ‘Skewed & Reviewed’ I want to say I hope all of you and those nearest and dearest to you continue to be healthy and safe during these uncertain times.

We’ve made it to another summer and with that comes a multitude of new films for the summer of 2020 only they’ll assemble in the queues on your digital devices rather than the movie theaters. Trust me. That’s a good thing right about now. We’re going to take a turn off the beaten path this time. Instead of a comedy or an action film, we’re going to start things off with a thriller. With all the unpleasantness going about it seems like an odd move perhaps? Not really. A well-made thriller film will create such intensity that you’ll completely forget about everything else at least for the film’s running time anyways. Judging from my own experience, today’s movie for you consideration will accomplish just that.

 

The aviation transponder code indicating that a hijack is in progress. Essentially the worst case scenario for any flight crew and accompanying passengers. The basis for today’s film. ‘7500’ is a 2019 an Austrian/German/American dramatic thriller from Amazon Studios and the directorial debut of German filmmaker Patrick Vollrath. Written by Vollrath and Senad Halilbasic and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (in his first film since 2016), Omid Memar, Aylin Tezel, Carlo Kitzlinger, Aurélie Thépaut, Murathan Muslu, and Paul Wollin.
Evening. Berlin Tegal Airport. Passengers and crew board a passenger plane bound for Paris. A routine flight (from what I’ve personally been told by retired U.S. Air Force personnel and friends in France, an amazing experience for any traveler). While the passengers begin to board he plane, Co-pilot Tobias Ellis (Levitt) and his girlfriend Gökce (Tezel) one of the flight attendants trying to decide on which school they can send their child too. Captain Michael Lutzmann (Kitzlinger) makes his way into the cockpit while making jokes regarding the plane. Everyday life. Flight check complete, the plane proceeds to take off and for the first few moments a routine trip. That quickly changes when a group of men including a young man named Vedat, attempt to break into the plane’s flight deck and take control of plane. After a brief but violent struggle, Tobias and Captain Lutzman despite both being wounded, overpower one of the hijackers and force the cockpit door closed. Over the course of the next few moments, the situation will go from bad to worse as the fate of the passengers, the crew, and even the hijackers will be left in Tobias’s hands as he attempts to get the plane to safety while injured and thwart the plans of Vedat and his associates. One thing is clear. No matter what happens, no matter how much he might want to, he cannot under any circumstances open the door to the flight deck.

Right off the bat. 4 out of 5 stars. The film was brilliant. My eyes were glued to the computer monitor for the 92 minute runtime of the movie. Part of which was due to the fact that the film was based entirely upon the idea of something that could very well possibly happen and unfortunately has happened before. There is a focus on conviction for both sides. How far is an individual prepared to go? What are they willing to do to prevent the other from overpowering them regardless if your intentions are just or malevolent? What is one willing to sacrifice in order to carry out an objective or safeguard the lives of a group? Joseph Gordon-Levitt might have been out of the game for a while but he certainly hasn’t lost his edge and the cast and crew of the film he decided to team-up with for this outing did not disappoint either.

I wouldn’t recommend this one for the kids due to the dark nature of the story and the violence involved at points in the film. It does touch upon certain stereotypes which perhaps should be talked about among those who see the movie. The film takes place almost exclusively on the flight deck of the plane which reminded me of Joel Schumacher’s 2003 film ‘Phone Booth’ starring Colin Farrell or Mukunda Michael Dewil’s 2013 film Vehicle 19 starring the late Paul Walker. The focus of the confined space only adds to the intensity and so very few directors have managed to pull off films like these three. Definitely add this film to your queue and pick a Friday or Saturday late night to view it. I personally believe the ‘Master of Suspense’ Alfred Hitchcock himself would have.