Search
Search results
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Man Down (2016) in Movies
Jul 12, 2019
This Dito Montiel (Fighting, The Son of No One) directed film is a look at mental health and how soldiers returning from war can be affected by the tragedy of war and life.
This film tries to put us inside the mind of a soldier and they lead up to his deployment to war, the trauma that can be suffered at war and the result of seeing things that can’t be unseen. It begins with U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf) searching for his son, Johnathan (Charlie Shotwell), and wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), in a post-apocalyptic America.
His only company is his best friend and fellow war veteran Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney). We then flash back to a counseling session between Gabriel and Counselor Peyton (Gary Oldman). They are recounting an incident that happened while Gabriel and Devin were in the field as well as talk about the relationship between the two brothers in arms. Peyton probes Gabriel for answers to what happened in the field and what his life at home will be like when he returns. The story takes us through Gabriel’s journey from boot camp to his search to be reunited with his wife and child.
The beginning of the film is so scattered with flash backs and flash forwards it is not the easiest story to follow. Montiel tries to tie the story all together at the end but it really done quickly and sloppily. There was no really good flow to the film.
The message at the end was really powerful but there execution to get there really didn’t work for me. The cast individual performances were good but I thought that as a whole there was not cohesion.
The relationships between all the characters seemed forced and it was hard to get emotionally invested in what should have been and emotionally compelling story. LaBeouf does commit and his performance I would say the bright spot. I think the intention was that the end of the movie should be a surprise or twist but the ending for me was never really in doubt.
There were points when the film seemed to have momentum but that was stopped by a flash back or forward that would take you out of the moment. All trying to set up a conclusion that seemed inevitable.
The idea of bringing awareness to a real issue in our country, of returning veterans suffering from PTSD, is a noble one and I applaud them for trying. I just wish the execution would have been better overall.
This film tries to put us inside the mind of a soldier and they lead up to his deployment to war, the trauma that can be suffered at war and the result of seeing things that can’t be unseen. It begins with U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf) searching for his son, Johnathan (Charlie Shotwell), and wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), in a post-apocalyptic America.
His only company is his best friend and fellow war veteran Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney). We then flash back to a counseling session between Gabriel and Counselor Peyton (Gary Oldman). They are recounting an incident that happened while Gabriel and Devin were in the field as well as talk about the relationship between the two brothers in arms. Peyton probes Gabriel for answers to what happened in the field and what his life at home will be like when he returns. The story takes us through Gabriel’s journey from boot camp to his search to be reunited with his wife and child.
The beginning of the film is so scattered with flash backs and flash forwards it is not the easiest story to follow. Montiel tries to tie the story all together at the end but it really done quickly and sloppily. There was no really good flow to the film.
The message at the end was really powerful but there execution to get there really didn’t work for me. The cast individual performances were good but I thought that as a whole there was not cohesion.
The relationships between all the characters seemed forced and it was hard to get emotionally invested in what should have been and emotionally compelling story. LaBeouf does commit and his performance I would say the bright spot. I think the intention was that the end of the movie should be a surprise or twist but the ending for me was never really in doubt.
There were points when the film seemed to have momentum but that was stopped by a flash back or forward that would take you out of the moment. All trying to set up a conclusion that seemed inevitable.
The idea of bringing awareness to a real issue in our country, of returning veterans suffering from PTSD, is a noble one and I applaud them for trying. I just wish the execution would have been better overall.
Studs Lonigan
Book
This Library of America volume contains one of the masterpieces of American naturalism and a major...
A Far Off Place
Book
The whole of A Far- Off Place is charged with the power and magic and beauty of Africa. Driven with...
Mother May I
9.3
Rate It
Book
The New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Never Have I Ever builds on her...
Domestic Suspense Suspense family
If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat
8.0
Rate It
Book
Based on John Ortbergs award-winning best-seller. Youre One Step Away from the Adventure of Your...
What Makes Sammy Run?
Book
Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symptoms of our times - from the little man...
One August Night
Book
'Excellent as ever. Victoria Hislop at her best.' Reader review 'Within a few pages I was back in...
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Haunted Mansion (2003) in Movies
Jul 28, 2023
Welcome Foolish Mortals to the latest adaptation of the popular Disney attraction as Haunted Mansion has materialized for audiences to enjoy.
This time around the film follows a single mother named Gabbie (RosarioDawson), and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon).
The family has moved into an abandoned mansion near New Orleans as they look to start over but find that their new abode is haunted.
Despite their best efforts to flee, the ghosts force them to return to the
mansion and they seek help in the form of a Priest named Father Kent (Owen Wilson), and Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) who has been reduced to doing Ghost Tours following a personal tragedy that saw his lofty skills and career vanish in the aftermath.
When the help finds themselves able to leave the mansion without an
otherworldly escort, they bring in a Medium named Harriet (Tiffany
Haddish) and in time the mysterious Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis).
It is learned that a dangerous ghost is striking fear into the other 999
haunts that inhabit the locale and should he collect his 1000th soul, he
will unleash a new level of terror on the world.
Things become even more complicated with a local professor named Bruce (Danny DeVito) arrives and creates a new Wild Card to the situation.
The movie does a great job of capturing the look and tone of the
attraction as one of the great joys was seeing things ranging from the
pictures to stretching room and other factors big and small from the
attraction portrayed on the big screen.
The cast is great and works well with one another but the movie does take
some time getting ramped up and I did find it dragging in various places.
The audience laughed frequently but for me many of the jokes did not work which I attributed to the focus being on a a younger audience as I found them more amusing than funny.
The FX in the film are solid and Jared Leto’s character is so well done
you cannot recognize him as he has disappeared so deeply into the
character aided by some great visual work.
As a big fan of the attraction it was nice to see a much better take on
the source material than previous efforts.
In the end despite the flaws, there is enough happy nostalgia to keep fans
entertained and hopefully the audience will want to visit the mansion enough that a new franchise is on the way.
3 stars out of 5
This time around the film follows a single mother named Gabbie (RosarioDawson), and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon).
The family has moved into an abandoned mansion near New Orleans as they look to start over but find that their new abode is haunted.
Despite their best efforts to flee, the ghosts force them to return to the
mansion and they seek help in the form of a Priest named Father Kent (Owen Wilson), and Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) who has been reduced to doing Ghost Tours following a personal tragedy that saw his lofty skills and career vanish in the aftermath.
When the help finds themselves able to leave the mansion without an
otherworldly escort, they bring in a Medium named Harriet (Tiffany
Haddish) and in time the mysterious Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis).
It is learned that a dangerous ghost is striking fear into the other 999
haunts that inhabit the locale and should he collect his 1000th soul, he
will unleash a new level of terror on the world.
Things become even more complicated with a local professor named Bruce (Danny DeVito) arrives and creates a new Wild Card to the situation.
The movie does a great job of capturing the look and tone of the
attraction as one of the great joys was seeing things ranging from the
pictures to stretching room and other factors big and small from the
attraction portrayed on the big screen.
The cast is great and works well with one another but the movie does take
some time getting ramped up and I did find it dragging in various places.
The audience laughed frequently but for me many of the jokes did not work which I attributed to the focus being on a a younger audience as I found them more amusing than funny.
The FX in the film are solid and Jared Leto’s character is so well done
you cannot recognize him as he has disappeared so deeply into the
character aided by some great visual work.
As a big fan of the attraction it was nice to see a much better take on
the source material than previous efforts.
In the end despite the flaws, there is enough happy nostalgia to keep fans
entertained and hopefully the audience will want to visit the mansion enough that a new franchise is on the way.
3 stars out of 5
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Good Daughter in Books
Dec 24, 2017
spell-binding (2 more)
shocking
fascinating
Charlie and Sam grew up in Pikeville, Georgia, with anything but an idyllic childhood. When the girls were teens, they were part of a brutal assault at their family's farmhouse. The attack left their mother, "Gamma," dead and profoundly affected their father, a prominent local attorney. Years later, Charlie remains in Pikeville, a lawyer like her father, and trying to keep the past behind her. All that changes when the town witnesses violence yet again--and Charlie is right in the thick of it. Suddenly, she's forced to confront so many of the emotions she's buried for years and to fully deal with exactly what happened to her family so many years ago.
Slaughter's latest novel starts quickly out of the gate--with a brutal, graphic, and spell-binding description of the assault and attack on Charlie, Sam, and Gamma--and it never lets up from there. Seriously, this book never lets you take a breath or a break: it's just constant action and second guessing.
Told from the points of view of both Charlie and Sam, including their varying memories of the incident at the farmhouse, we are forced to see all the events and violence through the eyes of the two sisters alone. As I mentioned, this keeps you guessing--and reading. I completely put down the other novel I was reading at the time (FINAL GIRLS) to read this: I had to know how it ended.
All the characters in this book are entwined, and Slaughter does a great job of depicting the small town of Pikeville. It's a mystery at its core, sure, but it also goes deeper with commentary on race, class, and how modern society deals with mass tragedy. The characters are well-drawn: I immediately found myself intrigued by Sam, Charlie, their father (Rusty), the descriptions of Gamma, and by a slew of small-town folk, including Rusty's secretary Lenore, and Charlie's estranged husband, Ben. Slaughter is excellent with the details.
Indeed, she's great at doling out those "whoa" moments. The plot never lets down; in fact, it continues to pick up as the novel continues on. I truly gasped a couple of times and found myself going "wow"! That's not easy to do once, let alone consistently.
This is a beautiful book at times--the way the plot and characters weave together. It even makes you laugh at moments, despite some truly somber subject matter. I found myself a bit irked at times by Charlie and Sam's fighting (I've read a lot of books with sisters fighting as of late), but if that's my only nitpick, that's not bad at all.
Overall, a great mystery that keeps you guessing and surprised to the very end. Excellent, fascinating, and deep characters. Definitely worth a read.
Slaughter's latest novel starts quickly out of the gate--with a brutal, graphic, and spell-binding description of the assault and attack on Charlie, Sam, and Gamma--and it never lets up from there. Seriously, this book never lets you take a breath or a break: it's just constant action and second guessing.
Told from the points of view of both Charlie and Sam, including their varying memories of the incident at the farmhouse, we are forced to see all the events and violence through the eyes of the two sisters alone. As I mentioned, this keeps you guessing--and reading. I completely put down the other novel I was reading at the time (FINAL GIRLS) to read this: I had to know how it ended.
All the characters in this book are entwined, and Slaughter does a great job of depicting the small town of Pikeville. It's a mystery at its core, sure, but it also goes deeper with commentary on race, class, and how modern society deals with mass tragedy. The characters are well-drawn: I immediately found myself intrigued by Sam, Charlie, their father (Rusty), the descriptions of Gamma, and by a slew of small-town folk, including Rusty's secretary Lenore, and Charlie's estranged husband, Ben. Slaughter is excellent with the details.
Indeed, she's great at doling out those "whoa" moments. The plot never lets down; in fact, it continues to pick up as the novel continues on. I truly gasped a couple of times and found myself going "wow"! That's not easy to do once, let alone consistently.
This is a beautiful book at times--the way the plot and characters weave together. It even makes you laugh at moments, despite some truly somber subject matter. I found myself a bit irked at times by Charlie and Sam's fighting (I've read a lot of books with sisters fighting as of late), but if that's my only nitpick, that's not bad at all.
Overall, a great mystery that keeps you guessing and surprised to the very end. Excellent, fascinating, and deep characters. Definitely worth a read.
Connor Sheffield (293 KP) rated The Raven (2012) in Movies
Apr 27, 2017
A brilliant crime thriller (4 more)
Gory
Connections to the work of Edgar Allan Poe
Great Cast
Watchable over and over again
Would love to know what happens in the end (1 more)
Not as exhilirating after the first watch
Quote the Raven, Nevermore.
First of all let me say this;
I am a poet and a writer, and my biggest inspiration as a writer has always been Edgar Allan Poe. I love the gothic horror, the tragedy, the macabre, and everything that makes Edgar Allan Poe the legend he is today.
With that said, let me tell you why I love this movie. It involves connections to some of Poe's greatest work, and not his poetry necessarily, it's actually more about his stories. Telltale Heart, Pit and the Pendulum and others that are all combined into the twisted mind of our antagonist who uses these stories to commit his crimes and leave evidence behind that only Poe himself would be able to figure out.
It's a brilliant crime thriller that delves into the mind of someone who is essentially Poe's biggest fan, but in a very dark and twisted way that gives us a fictional story about what happened during Poe's last days before he was found dead on a park bench. It's a known fact that Poe's last days remain a mystery and so this film had the opportunity to really play with some great ideas and they were executed brilliantly.
Speaking of execution this film is very grim and gory. One scene involving the story of The Pit and the Pendulum has us watch as a Pendulum drops lower and lower before slicing through a man's stomach like a warm knife through butter. It doesn't leave a lot to the imagination which gives this film some charm and makes it stand out from the rest of the Poe Film adaptations.
John Cusack plays the lengend himself, Edgar Allan Poe and brings a very interesting performance, that seems to suggest Poe thought himself as a higher intelligence to those around him, and he isn't shy to announce it.
Sharing the screen with Cusack, includes names such as Luke Evans who portrays Detective Fields, the detective I mentioned earlier that seeks Poe's assistance in the murder case. Brendan Gleeson portrays a very protective father named Charles Hamilton, who despises Poe being anywhere near his daughter Emily Hamilton, portrayed by Alice Eve. However there differences are put aside as the hunt for the missing Emily continues.
The story transitions well from scene to scene and story to story as each clue leads to the next, and eventually we discover the culprit who I shall not name here because I wish to leave the tension and suspense for you as you watch this film.
I am a poet and a writer, and my biggest inspiration as a writer has always been Edgar Allan Poe. I love the gothic horror, the tragedy, the macabre, and everything that makes Edgar Allan Poe the legend he is today.
With that said, let me tell you why I love this movie. It involves connections to some of Poe's greatest work, and not his poetry necessarily, it's actually more about his stories. Telltale Heart, Pit and the Pendulum and others that are all combined into the twisted mind of our antagonist who uses these stories to commit his crimes and leave evidence behind that only Poe himself would be able to figure out.
It's a brilliant crime thriller that delves into the mind of someone who is essentially Poe's biggest fan, but in a very dark and twisted way that gives us a fictional story about what happened during Poe's last days before he was found dead on a park bench. It's a known fact that Poe's last days remain a mystery and so this film had the opportunity to really play with some great ideas and they were executed brilliantly.
Speaking of execution this film is very grim and gory. One scene involving the story of The Pit and the Pendulum has us watch as a Pendulum drops lower and lower before slicing through a man's stomach like a warm knife through butter. It doesn't leave a lot to the imagination which gives this film some charm and makes it stand out from the rest of the Poe Film adaptations.
John Cusack plays the lengend himself, Edgar Allan Poe and brings a very interesting performance, that seems to suggest Poe thought himself as a higher intelligence to those around him, and he isn't shy to announce it.
Sharing the screen with Cusack, includes names such as Luke Evans who portrays Detective Fields, the detective I mentioned earlier that seeks Poe's assistance in the murder case. Brendan Gleeson portrays a very protective father named Charles Hamilton, who despises Poe being anywhere near his daughter Emily Hamilton, portrayed by Alice Eve. However there differences are put aside as the hunt for the missing Emily continues.
The story transitions well from scene to scene and story to story as each clue leads to the next, and eventually we discover the culprit who I shall not name here because I wish to leave the tension and suspense for you as you watch this film.
