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Kim Pook (101 KP) rated Case 39 (2010) in Movies

Dec 13, 2020

Case 39 (2010)

2010 | Horror, Mystery

7.0

(7 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Emily - a social worker - is assigned to a young girl called lily due to suspected neglect. She goes to the family's House who appear to be very strange, the girl doesn't speak and the father refuses to speak directly to Emily and instead glares at her which she finds very unsettling. She reports this back to her boss who just brushes it off.
The next day Emily is able to speak to lily alone, who tells her that she overheard her parents talking about sending her to hell. Emily makes it her mission to try and save lily from her parents, and gives her her phone number telling her to call if ever she gets scared. Sure enough Lily calls her that evening asking for help before passing out. Emily racess to her house only to find lily's parents doing the most unspeakable thing to her (I won't say what it was but it definitely shocked me to the core). Thankfully lily's parents are arrested and lily is put into Foster care, eventually Emily decides to take lily into her own care until they can find her a permanent Foster family.
Things seem to be going well, until a 10 year old boy kills his parents after receiving a mysterious phone call from Emily's House with a man's voice.......... It isn't long before we discover that something is off with lily and it isn't good. This child is in fact pure evil!
Before this movie I wasn't sure if I could imagine Renee zellwegger in a more serious role than Bridget Jones but I was wrong, she played this role brilliantly and the role of lily was spot on as well, that girl was proper creepy. For a 2009 movie, some scenes did look rather dated. For example the scene at the beach didn't look very believable. The movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested though, right to the end.

Kudos

Andy K (10823 KP) rated Buster's Mal Heart (2016) in Movies

Sep 2, 2019

Someone tell me what I just watched?!?

On the recommendation from a friend, I checked this film out on Netflix (I think it is available on Netflix UK also).

Before he recently won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek starred in this very unusual film about a guy who is either stranded out at sea on a one-person raft, running from the law after breaking in and stealing wealthy mansions for his own use or a married man working at a hotel with a wife and daughter. Or maybe all 3?

The character meets a paranoid man talking all about the "inversion" and Y2K (remember that?) which sends the man down a weird slope of cerebral? encounters throughout his various levels of existence.

The screenplay is so interesting that I want to sit in a room with writer/director Sarah Adina Smith to pick her brain just to make sure I either understand what I watched or if I am meant to. I have no issue with cerebral films like Donnie Darko, The Fountain, Under the Skin or Mulholland Drive. Since some of the film takes place in a hotel, I could see comparisons to shades of The Shining also.

It may take another viewing to let everything soak in or maybe I will pick up new things the next time around.

The look of the film is breathtaking with both beautiful outdoor landscapes, gorgeous mansions, and stuffy hotel lobbies.

I am ashamed to say I have not seen Bohemian Rhapsody yet, but based on this film alone Malek appears to be not only up and coming, but here to stay for a while and he deserves it. He was emotional and moving in this film so I am eager to see more of his work.

Please someone else watch this so we can discuss. I would love to hear your opinion!

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2538 KP) rated A Legacy of Murder in Books

Oct 9, 2019

Kate Finds a Christmastime Murder

Kate Hamilton has traveled to the small village of Long Barston in England. Her daughter, Christine, is spending her semester break working at Finchley Hall as one of several college aged interns who work on the premises, and Kate can visit Christine and her new friend Tom Mallory, a policeman she met in Scotland and is falling for, before heading back home to Ohio to spend Christmas with her mother. On her first day, Kate is taking a tour of Finchley Hall. The guide is talking about the murders that have taken place on the estate when a scream interrupts her. Kate and several others run to find one of the interns dead. The police are quick to label it murder. With Tom on the case, it is cutting into the time Kate thought they would have together. But she can’t help but worry. Is Christine in danger since she is an intern?

I’ve just teased the first couple of chapters, so things obviously get off to a fast start. However, the pace is uneven, especially early on in the story. I know part of that is me since Kate loves England much more than I do, and her wonder at spending time there didn’t translate to me. However, there is a good mystery here, with some decent twists and surprises. The climax is page turning and perfect logical. The characters are absolutely wonderful. We have a rather large cast, but I never had any issue keeping everyone and their relationship to the events unfolding around Kate straight. While the book is set in December, there is so much going on we don’t get lots of scenes directly related to Christmas, although I certainly enjoyed the references to the season we did see. This book isn’t quite as strong as the first one, but I’m glad I read it. This is a series that anyone who loves the British Isles needs to pick up today.