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Geostorm (2017)
Geostorm (2017)
2017 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
I'm not going to go all out description on this, because honestly you should just see it.

The world now has a net of satellites that control the weather on Earth. Something goes wrong and there's a battle against the clock to find the person behind it and to stop the oncoming Geostorm.

I saw this one in 3D as it coincided with getting out of work. Yet another film that makes me think I don't need to see 3D films, and I certainly wouldn't if I was paying full price for them.

I love natural disaster films... what's not to love? Catastrophic volcano/tornado/earthquake/snow storm/tsunami... any combination of those... add some sharks... bingo! Are any of them going to win best movie? No. Do I care? Also, no. They're good fun, they're action filled, they like to take the piss out of themselves a little bit. I will be buying this when the DVD comes out, and I will love it all over again.
  
Dark Tide (2012)
Dark Tide (2012)
2012 | Horror, Mystery
4
3.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I always wonder what makes me not watch shark films, Dark Tide has Halle Berry, I like Halle Berry... so why have I never seen it?

Kate Mathieson has sworn off sharks ever since a dive went wrong and cost the life of one of her closest friends. Sharks were her life, and only doing tame tourist trips out on her boat means she's about to lose her business. Out of the blue, Kate's ex arrives with a man who's looking for more thrill than any regular dive can offer and he's convinced him that Kate is the only one who can do it. He's willing to pay big, but is the money worth reliving that memory?

Firstly, it was good to see a film with actual shark footage. I watch so many with terrible CGI that I sometimes forget that sharks aren't horribly pixelated and snarly. That is probably where the good comments end.

For a film with action in it I knew something was off almost instantly, there was no real hook into the film. It started out extremely calm and even the initial burst of energy didn't do anything to help and then almost as quickly we switch to present day and it's all calm again. Some might say that the up and down nature of the film reflects how quickly things can change at sea, I personally feel like saying they made a bad judgement call by giving it the pace of a terrible romance film.

Not helping the situation were the characters. Halle Berry always seems to have slightly brusk roles and although Kate doesn't start that way she certainly veers off when her ex shows up and the change in character is so sharp that it loses anything believable. Both Jeff (the ex) and Brady (the businessman) are unlikeable, one devious and the other arrogant, had they ditched some of the storyline between Kate and Jeff there might have been less tension and we'd have had something a little easier to watch. The few additional characters beyond these three were definitely light enough to lift parts of the film but they weren't in nearly enough to have a major effect.

The film was long, painfully long. It's not often I realise so early on that I'm struggling with a film, but for the entire length it felt like a slog. For some reason IMDb is listing 1 hour 34 (that would have been much better) but I checked the copy I watched and it says 1 hour 54. Perhaps 1,34 is how long we all wish it was. There was easily 20 minutes to shed from the runtime, but I don't know if it would have helped much without changes elsewhere too.

One last major change I would have like to have seen was to the whole ending. When things come to their climax it is almost impossible to tell what's going on, it doesn't make it anymore thrilling or intriguing, it's merely frustrating. A successful thriller can show me an almost pitch black scene and I'll be edging forward, eyes wide, waiting for whatever is going to make me jump out of my seat, but Dark Tide successfully bypasses that feeling in favour of leaving the viewer squinting at blackness.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/08/dark-tide-movie-review.html
  
The Collector (2009)
The Collector (2009)
2009 | Horror, Mystery
8
7.4 (16 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Awesome effects (2 more)
Good jump scares
Wickedly bad killer
Smart Slasher... you get a gold star
Now, my wonderful Hackers. I bring to you a review of a film that has stuck with me for almost 10 years. Filled with some of the most devious, treacherous and disturbing psychopathic behaviour I have ever bore witness too...
The Collector tells the story of down on his luck burglar Arkin. Played by Josh Stewart perfectly, as he makes you feel empathy for his every action.
Without giving too much away. Arkin breaks into his employers house and finds a house of horrors behind every locked and unlocked door he finds.
There are two reasons he's doing what he's doing..
 One is to rescue his daughters mother from some loan sharks... reason two..
 The little girl hiding from the Collector in the house.
This movie both disturbed and disgusted me. Two things I look forward to in a good horror movie...
So, all my Horror Hackers, don't miss out on this piece of horror brilliance. It's to be paid tribute to in the highest regard.
The sequel.... Not so much....
  
The Death of Mrs Westaway
The Death of Mrs Westaway
Ruth Ware | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
9
7.0 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
You'll be on the edge of your seat!
Suspenseful. This is my first Ruth Ware novel, and it was definitely suspenseful. It reminded me a lot of the Agatha Christie films - a family shut away in a big old house with a mystery to solve. But this has a very modern edge to it. The house is still spooky though: I expected it to go full on James Herbert (it didn't)!
Hal gets a letter to tell her that she has come in to some money, after the death of a rich grandmother she has never known about. Up to this point, she has been living hand to mouth with loan sharks after her. She reads tarot cards on Brighton pier (not the good one). She goes to her grandmothers funeral and decides that she is going to try and 'blag' the money out of the will. She can't possibly be related to these people! This is where it gets very interesting and all twisty-turny.
Great characters and a great story. I didn't see the end coming at all!
Thanks to The Pigeonhole and the author for my copy of this book.