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Darren (1599 KP) rated Body (2015) in Movies

Jul 25, 2019  
Body (2015)
Body (2015)
2015 |
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: Body starts as three friends Holly (Rogers), Cali (Turshen) and Mel (Molina) who are on a girls night including drinks, drugs and partying on Christmas, the night ends up taking them to Cali’s Uncle’s mansion.

When it turns out the house isn’t belonging to who Cali claimed they get a visitor searching for the intruder but the accident finds him falling down the stairs and the girls needing to figure out a way of covering up the accident.

 

Thoughts on Body

 

Characters/Performance – Holly is the quiet girl with the most promising future of the three, Cali is the popular friend that always gets the other two in trouble who believes she is every boys dream. Mel is the friend from the respected family that finds herself in the middle of all the decisions the two need to make. It would be fair to say these are not the best people in the first place which struggles to make us care about them.

Performance wise, the three girls all do a solid job through the film but we are left still not caring about the characters they are playing.

Story – The story follows three friends who start with one illegal action which spiral out of control as we get to see the true actions of these people. This is a good character study in places but it does just end up falling into the problem as we don’t care about characters involved.

Crime/Thriller – The crime side of the story shows us what the characters would be getting up if they were in a situation the girls find themselves in.

Settings – The film takes part inside one house which works for the story as we are left to see what the characters do to overcome the problem.

Final Thoughts – This is a good character study but doesn’t make you care about the characters involved in the story.

 

Overall: Clever attempt at a character study.
  
Crown and Anchor (2019)
Crown and Anchor (2019)
2019 |
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Story: Body starts as three friends Holly (Rogers), Cali (Turshen) and Mel (Molina) who are on a girls night including drinks, drugs and partying on Christmas, the night ends up taking them to Cali’s Uncle’s mansion.

When it turns out the house isn’t belonging to who Cali claimed they get a visitor searching for the intruder but the accident finds him falling down the stairs and the girls needing to figure out a way of covering up the accident.

 

Thoughts on Body

 

Characters/Performance – Holly is the quiet girl with the most promising future of the three, Cali is the popular friend that always gets the other two in trouble who believes she is every boys dream. Mel is the friend from the respected family that finds herself in the middle of all the decisions the two need to make. It would be fair to say these are not the best people in the first place which struggles to make us care about them.

Performance wise, the three girls all do a solid job through the film but we are left still not caring about the characters they are playing.

Story – The story follows three friends who start with one illegal action which spiral out of control as we get to see the true actions of these people. This is a good character study in places but it does just end up falling into the problem as we don’t care about characters involved.

Crime/Thriller – The crime side of the story shows us what the characters would be getting up if they were in a situation the girls find themselves in.

Settings – The film takes part inside one house which works for the story as we are left to see what the characters do to overcome the problem.

Final Thoughts – This is a good character study but doesn’t make you care about the characters involved in the story.

 

Overall: Clever attempt at a character study.
  
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Jennifer's Body (2009)
2009 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
6
6.4 (17 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Devil's Kettle is a small town where everyone knows everybody. The story revolves around the relationship between Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and Jennifer (Megan Fox) and other than having similar interests, the two are polar opposites. Needy is more of the quiet, girl next door type that is a bit of a bookworm with a heart of gold whereas Jennifer is more spontaneous, mean spirited, and the stuck-up, hot cheerleader type that every high school boy seems to dream about being with. One night, Jennifer drags Needy to Melody Lane, the one bar in town, to see a new flavor of the week indie band called Low Shoulder. When the bar catches on fire and most of the people inside are crushed or burned in the destruction, Needy thinks that's where this horrible night gone wrong would end. That is until Jennifer decides to go off with the band in their van and Needy has to make her way back home alone. After that night, a demon is transferred into Jennifer's body with an unquenchable hunger for high school guys. As Needy begins to accept what's happened to her BFF, she realizes that she's the only one that has a chance of stopping Jennifer once and for all.

Other than Megan Fox, the other factor that was pushed really hard in the advertising campaign for Jennifer's Body was the fact that Diablo Cody, the screenwriter for Juno, was attached to this film. To be honest, I think Cody's contributions are what I enjoyed most. The dialogue and humor of the film are both witty and laugh out loud funny at times. The writing, in general, made what otherwise would have been your average horror film worth watching and fairly entertaining in the long run.

This is probably the best we've seen acting-wise when it comes to Megan Fox. She isn't much other than eye candy in the Transformers films and was just an egotistical tramp that just so happened to be a rising star in How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. Other than the demonic possession part, her role in Jennifer's Body isn't too different from her role in How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. I'd give most of the credit to Cody's great writing, but Fox is actually able to display a bit more of her acting range this time around. While it probably isn't much compared to, you know, actresses with talent and she sounds like she has a cold most of the time, it's more than what we've seen from the actress in the past and everyone has to start somewhere.

The storyline doesn't offer much fresh material when it comes to horror films, but it gets the job done. The ending offers a bit of a different take on what would otherwise be an ending that would leave room for a sequel. With the conclusion to Jennifer's Body, however, it's more open ended. They could stop here and it would be a fine stand alone film, but it leaves enough questions unanswered that a sequel could see the light of day. Since the movie only made around $18 million worldwide, a sequel seeing theatrical distribution seems unlikely. A direct to DVD sequel with B-actors is definitely a possibility though. Aren't they always with horror films?

Jennifer's Body is superbly written on one hand, but feels like a run of the mill horror film on the other. The high point is definitely the screenplay by Diablo Cody, who manages to make Megan Fox's acting abilities look better than they ever have. But it seems the films enjoyment will rest solely on the shoulders of how much you enjoy horror films that don't shy away from blood. If you're not a fan of horror, I'd recommend staying away from this one. But if you're a fan of great writing, quite a bit of blood, horror, or Megan Fox's sex appeal then you should definitely give this one a go.
  
Project Almanac (2015)
Project Almanac (2015)
2015 | Mystery, Sci-Fi
A modern but sadly unnecessary take on time travel
The problem with time travel films is that there's quite a few out there and they're all fairly similar. Project Almanac really suffers as it is sadly inferior to most of these other films, some of which it even references here.

Its a stylish and modern take on time travel and this is one of the good things about this film. It also paints the act of travelling in time as a little harsher on the body than most. The problem is the plot is fairly predictable, some of it is just silly and doesn't make sense, and the ending is just plain old stupid. There's potential here, it's just a shame they haven't done anything with it.
  
Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks, #1)
Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks, #1)
Miranda James | 2010 | Mystery
10
7.8 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
When Charlie's high school rival, successful novelist Godfrey Priest, comes to down, Charlie isn't too thrilled. Godfrey was always an ego driven jerk, and time and success hasn't changed any of that. But when Godfrey is killed and Charlie finds the body, he starts poking around trying to figure out who did it.

This series debut had lots of twists to the plot, even in the first 100 pages. The characters were real and fresh right out of the gate as well. I truly felt for them. I can't wait to visit them with the next book in the series.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-review-murder-past-due-by-miranda.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.