Genre: Comedy
Director: Dax Shepard
Cast: Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, Jessica McNamee, Adam Brody, Ryan Hansen, Justin Chatwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kristen Bell, Rosa Salazar, Maya Rudolph
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: M18 (Nudity and Sexual Scene)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: https://www.warnerbros.com/chips
Opening Day: 23 March 2017
Synopsis: Jon Baker (Shepard) and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Peña) have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles, but for very different reasons. Baker is a beaten-up pro motorbiker trying to put his life and marriage back together. Poncherello is a cocky undercover Federal agent investigating a multi-million-dollar heist that may be an inside job—inside the CHP. The inexperienced rookie and hardened pro are teamed together, but clash more than click, so kickstarting a partnership is easier said than done. But with Baker’s bike skills combined with Ponch’s street savvy, it might just work... if they don’t drive each other crazy along the way.
Movie Review:
If shows such as Starsky & Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco sounds alien to you, then there is a high chance you won’t know Chips either. Chips was a successful TV series about two highway patrol officers that aired from 1977 to 1983. Comedian Dax Shepard (Parenthood, Hit & Run) basically took the title and rewrote it as a modern-day buddy cop comedy for the big screen. Surprisingly given its run-of-the-mill theme, Shepard’s first major studio directorial piece actually works!
Shepard plays Jon Baker, a has-been motocross champion who is trying to get his life together and hopefully winning back his trophy wife (played by the real-life Mrs Shepard, Kristen Bell) by joining the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Ponch (Michael Pena) on the other hand is a hotshot undercover FBI agent who is assigned by his boss to infiltrate the CHP when a recent heist involving an armored van is suspected to be an inside job. When a hotshot agent is paired up with a rookie, sparks are bound to fly and with any buddy cop comedy goes, this pair of mismatched buddy is going to break the ice and save the day.
Liked his last movie, Hit & Run, Chips relies a lot on jokes about sexism and homopobia. The story on the whole is wafer-thin but who cares when Shepard is able to keep things interesting especially the terrific chemistry he has with co-star Michael Pena. Check out the scene where Ponch has to carry his naked, half-paralyzed buddy (Baker suffers from severe rheumatism when it rains) to the bathroom. It’s hilarious. It’s fortunate that Shepard’s writing is way tighter this time round, it makes the gags funnier and the tone goofier. Just don’t go in expecting anything smarter than a thesis.
Instead of relying on unnecessary gross gags and explicit nudity unless you count two naked breast shots as offensive, Pena’s Ponch is painted as a sex addict who constantly has to go to the bathroom to pleasure himself plus the fact that he can’t control himself when he sees women in tight spandex. This is a recurring funny gag that works perfectly fine despite the lack of anything visual. His partner on the other hand is a lousy shooter and suffers anything from food smell to cat but he knows the make of a motorbike just from the sound of it. The relationship between these two is so genuinely crafted that by the time the credits roll, you really root for this pair of fumbling cops.
Nowadays, anyone in Hollywood that needs a bad guy just need to call Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil, Jurassic World) or Michael Shannon. In Chips, it’s the former. The prolific movie and television actor portrays Lieutenant Vic Brown, the evil mastermind behind the heists. Not much is known about this character with the exception that he has a drug-addicted son played by Justin Chatwin, the young man from Wars of the World. Brown also workout in the gym in his spare time, he is tough and he wants to retire to some remote island with all the dirty money. He looks like an interesting menacing character though the fast pacing doesn’t allow him to do more.
Shepard continues to bring his love for anything on wheels to the big screen. This time he is not paying tribute to muscle cars; he is piling his love on Ducati motorbikes. With actual on-location shoot along the highway and roads of busy Los Angeles, the numerous grounded chase sequences actually deliver some crazy fun. Even if you walk out feeling vexed with Shepard’s silly comedy, you still need to seriously credit Shepard for not employing nonsensical quick cuts and green screen effects.
This reboot or remake or whatever you want to call it is way better than the trailer. The entire premise might be inconsequential and mainly an excuse to fill in before the next slapstick humour and nifty chase lands. Yet this is Shepard’s best enjoyable effort to date.
Movie Rating:
(Just chip in and have fun!)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Caradog W. James
Cast: Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Javier Botet, Nick Moran, Jordan Bolger, Pooneh Hajimohammadi, Ania Marson, David Broughton-Davies
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Rating: NC16 (Horror)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 6 April 2017
Synopsis: Knock once to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead… So goes a disturbing urban legend involving an abandoned house supposedly inhabited by a vengeful, child-stealing witch. When troubled teen Chloe (Lucy Boynton) raps at the door one night, she has no idea the horror she’s about to unleash. Fleeing to the country home of her estranged mother (Katee Sackhoff)—a recovering addict who’s turned her life around to become a famous artist—Chloe must learn to trust the woman who gave her up years ago in order to stop the bloodthirsty, shape-shifting demon stalking them. This wild supernatural shocker delivers a barrage of nonstop jolts and searing nightmare images.
Movie Review:
There are two plots that drive ‘Don’t Knock Twice’ in its first hour – one has a mother Jess (Katee Sackhoff) trying to win back custody of her now-teenage daughter Chloe (Lucy Boynton) after being forced to place her daughter in foster care nine years ago due to her alcoholism; the other has Chloe trying to flee the clutches of the ghost of a dead witch whom she and her boyfriend Danny (Jordan Bolger)imprudently summon using the heavy knocker still hanging on the door of the woman's crumbling, abandoned frame house in the course of tempting the veracity of an urban legend. Naturally at first, Jess doubts Chloe’s claims that she is being pursued by the late Mary Aminov – whom Chloe relates was suspected of the disappearance of a young boy named Michael Powers and committed suicide shortly after – and places further tension in their already strained mother-daughter relationship, especially after Jess finds her workshop in ruins and her sculptures smashed to bits.
If his screenwriters Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler had simply stuck to the aforementioned plots, Caradog James’ sophomore feature would have been a much more compelling film. But as it is, the third and final act takes the narrative in all sorts of unnecessary places. One of Jess’ patrons, Tira (Pooneh Hajimohammadi), suggests that Mary may have been wrongfully accused all those years ago and needs the truth to be set right in order to be set free. The detective (Nick Moran) looking into Danny’s disappearance and who is close to Chloe happens to have been involved in the investigation behind Michael Powers before and may be somehow linked to the mysterious happenings after all. And last but not least, the legend which Chloe Googled online regarding the demon Baba Yaga which uses the help of a ‘marked’ human slave to devour its prey may or may not be relevant in the first place. If that reads exhausting, it feels even more so watching it unfold too.
Oh yes, just when the narrative is supposed to come together, the whole premise expands in terribly unwieldy fashion with backstory upon backstory, almost threatening to come apart entirely. Such is a classic example of ‘less is more’, and why the first hour is much more effective as a supernatural chiller than its last half-hour. As familiar as it may be, the fractured relationship between parent and child lends the story real weight, especially as it speaks to the difficult choices we are forced to make and the inevitable consequences of them when battling our own inner demons. James portrays their emotional distance not just in words but perhaps more importantly in the silences and non-verbal cues between them, giving Sachoff and Boynton space and autonomy to define the prickly relationship between their characters, which both actresses reward with fierce and committed performances.
On his part, James orchestrates the genre’s tropes with elan: a row of fluorescent lights along the corridor that shut off one at a time, an indistinguishable figure moving quickly in front of the camera or in the background, a bloody tooth in a bowl of soup, or even a gangly, stick-like figure (played by Spanish actor Javier Botet) that emerges to claim the afflicted marked with the witch’s curse. There is no one sequence that is truly original, but the undoubtedly effective jump scares coupled with dim, foreboding visuals mostly of the underlit interiors of Jess’ rural country-house as well as eerie synths on the soundtrack will make your hair stand and even your skin crawl. Despite this being his first horror feature, James has a firm grasp on pace and rhythm, especially in building up dread within each scene before the dreaded creature makes her entrance proper.
Still, all that technique ultimately cannot rescue the runaway narrative towards the end, nor disguise the fact that there does not seem to be any logic in the way that the witch attacks and retreats from its victims (in particular, Chloe). If you’re willing to overlook these flaws, ‘Don’t Knock Twice’ does succeed as a reasonably accomplished genre exercise with a couple of genuinely scary sequences and a pair of strong lead female performances. This we can reassure you though – even through its most implausible over-the-top twists, it never does get boring. So if you’re in need of a good scare and you’re not expecting the next ‘Conjuring’ or ‘Lights Out’, then this low-budget Welsh horror story will do the trick.
Movie Rating:
(Too many over-the-top twists and backstories result in a weak third act that undermines what is an otherwise a reasonably accomplished genre exercise in dread and terror)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg
Cast: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario, Kevin R. McNally, Golshifteh Farahani, David Wenham, Stephen Graham and Geoffrey Rush
Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: The Walt Disney Company
Official Website:
Opening Day: 25 May 2017
Synopsis: Johnny Depp returns to the big screen as the iconic, swashbuckling anti-hero Jack Sparrow in the all-new “Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge.” The rip-roaring adventure finds down-on-his-luck Captain Jack feeling the winds of ill-fortune blowing strongly his way when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea—notably Jack. Jack's only hope of survival lies in the legendary Trident of Poseidon, but to find it he must forge an uneasy alliance with Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a brilliant and beautiful astronomer, and Henry (Brenton Thwaites), a headstrong young sailor in the Royal Navy. At the helm of the Dying Gull, his pitifully small and shabby ship, Captain Jack seeks not only to reverse his recent spate of ill fortune, but to save his very life from the most formidable and malicious foe he has ever faced.
Movie Review:
And why wouldn’t Disney make a fifth Pirates movie?
In 2003, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer came together to produce Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Based on the attraction at Disney theme parks, the movie was the first film released under Disney’s banner to be rated PG-13 (swashbuckling pirates and undead skeletons was uncharted territory for the House of Mouse). The movie was an unexpected success, garnering positive reviews from critics and grossing more than $654 million worldwide.
Mention Johnny Depp and the character Captain Jack Sparrow comes to mind. Did you also know that his portrayal of the flamboyant pirate earned him nominations for Best Actor at the Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe (Musical or Comedy)? He took home the the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. These achievements were pretty rare for a comedic character.
And so, here comes the fifth instalment of the franchise. Directred by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (incidentally, the Norwegian filmmakers made the Oscar nominated and critically acclaimed Kon Tiki, a 2012 historical film about an oceanic expedition), we follow Captain Jack as he finds himself coming face to face with a hoard of deadly ghost pirates led by the terrifying Captain Armando Salazar (played creepily by Javier Bardem). We also find out why Captain Salazar detests Captain Jack so much – the crafty pirate had caused quite a bit of upset with the Spaniard and he is going around petrifying people with his broken face, oozing black goo and anti gravity hair.
Coming along for the ride is Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt) as Henry Turner, Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner series) as Carina Smyth, a couple Disney is probably planning to milk on for future films. Kevin McNally (The Man Who Knew Infinity) and Geoffrey Rush (The Book Thief) also reprise their roles as Joshamee Gibbs and Hector Barbossa respectively, something which will please fans of the franchise.
The 129 minute movie offers nothing new: you are still bombarded with mega action sequences, heavy use of
Will you be emotionally engaged by the movie? Let’s just say as great as the cast is, there is a remote chance that you are stepping into the cinemas to watch a summer blockbuster to have your heartstrings tugged. Bardem’s Captain Salazar has all the looks but somewhat lacks the bite, but Rush’s Captain Barbossa manages to impress instead with his character development.
Fans will also be pleased to see the return of Orlando Bloom The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series) and Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. There is even a post credit scene which teases the return of another much loved character.
And why wouldn’t Disney make a sixth Pirates movie?
Movie Rating:
(So much bombastic action, so much
Review by John Li
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Seth Gordon
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Priyanka Chopra, Jon Bass, Ilfenesh Hadera
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Rating: M18
Released By: UIP
Official Website: http://www.thebaywatchmovie.com
Opening Day: 1 June 2017
Synopsis: BAYWATCH follows devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Efron). Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.
Movie Review:
It was only a matter of time before Hollywood got to ‘Baywatch’ – seeing as how it has in recent years pillaged the vaults of its 70s, 80s and 90s TV shows to deliver big-screen remakes of ‘The A-Team’, ’21 Jump Street’ and ‘CHiPs’ – so here we are with the cinematic reboot of the series that was cancelled after one season on US TV but lived on to survive another 10 in syndication. And yet, even with the benefit of nostalgia, basing this feature update on the same cheesy sensibilities as its TV source material would likely mean narrowing its appeal to a very specific group of 40-something year-old men who grew up with its voyeuristic pleasures, which explains why director Seth Gordon and his screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have instead opted for a self-mocking meta-throwback that seemed to be the winning formula for the ’21 Jump Street’ big-screen remakes/ self-parodies.
‘Why does she always look like she’s running in slo-mo?’ wonders Alexandra Daddario’s lifeguard trainee Summer of Kelly Rohrbach’s blond bombshell C.J. Parker, whose role used to belong to the TV show’s most well-known star Pamela Anderson. Oh yes, there is plenty of self-referential awareness here: exaggerating pretty much everything that made the old show popular (including each and every one of the lifeguard rescues that Dwayne Johnson’s head lifeguard Mitch Buchanan makes in between the central plot of drugs, shady business dealings and corrupt politicians), and then having Zac Efron’s sceptical new addition Matt Brody question why his colleagues insist on doing police work or how it all sounds like a really entertaining but far-fetched TV show. Just so you can’t call it daft, this modernised ‘Baywatch’ makes sure that it riffs on its very quirks, treading a fine balance between flat-out silliness and winking slyness throughout its 117-minute runtime.
But that is hardly the most sacrilegious difference from its source material; oh no, that ignominious honour belongs to how it has decided to make the males the butt of its jokes. Aside from Mitch, who is part-sheriff, part-community leader, part-Emerald Bay ambassador and all-round sun-shiny goodness, the other two males are somehow portrayed as lesser than their female counterparts.
Whereas Summer is strong-willed and feisty, her would-be suitor Matt is selfish and self-centred, a washed-up two-time gold medallist turned national disgrace (think Ryan Lochte) whom the late night television circuits call the ‘Vomit Comet’ after a night of drunken debauchery left him barfing in the pool during the Olympic team match. One of the film’s running gags has Mitch boy-band name-calling Matt – ‘One Direction’, ‘New Kid on the Block’ and even ‘High School Musical’ – so much so that the latter asks aloud why the former is ‘lifeguard hazing’ him. Not that Matt’s presence is a bad thing – indeed, after spending the first two acts sobering up to the meaning of teamwork, Matt eventually settles into a buddy-comedy dynamic with Mitch that effectively channels the chemistry between Johnson and Efron for a couple of laugh-out-loud sequences, where they tag-team to do some undercover investigation work – but the movie’s tendency to disempower its male characters is disconcerting to say the very least.
In fact, we almost feel sorry for Jon Bass’ pudgy sympathy recruit Ronnie, who not only gets embarrassingly tongue-tied around his mega-crush C.J., but also has to endure several painful gags about his erections, including one where he gets his genitalia caught up in a lounge chair. It is equally telling that Bass is the only one who ends up naked in the whole movie, no matter how harmless his little bit of ignorance about being in a co-ed shower may seem. Contrast the humiliation that Ronnie has to go through with the self-assuredness of C.J. as well as that of Mitch’s female deputy Stephanie Holden (Ilfnesh Hadera), and you wonder if the filmmakers’ conscious and deliberate effort not to objectify the female sex and even compensate for how the TV series used to had actually gone overboard. But then you get Priyanka Chopra’s scheming businesswoman slinking around in skimpy evening dresses and occasional shots of Summer and C.J. in their shrink-wrapped red swimsuits, and you realise that it isn’t confident to let go of its predecessor’s simpler pleasures.
If all this sounds like we are over-analysing what was really intended as a fun, silly summer comedy, it is precisely because ‘Baywatch’ isn’t confident enough of just being that. It isn’t content to be just dumb; it wants to be smart-dumb, or in other words, dumb but self-aware. It wants to let you ogle at its female bodies in bathing suits, but its fear of being called sexist means that it’ll rather score dumb-hunk jokes than dumb-blonde jokes. And last but not least, it needs to be outrageous, but all it turns out is being too cautious and scattershot. Worse still, it tries to be a bad-boy-made-good story, a buddy cop comedy and a raunchy R-rated affair full of F-bombs and dick jokes at the same time.
In all honesty, we wish it just let go and simply focus on being fun, political correctness and wittiness be damned, especially given how great company Johnson, Efron and the rest of the game cast seem. It has its pleasures to be sure, but the sum of these sporadically amusing but wildly uneven parts is barely worth a trip to the beach, babes or otherwise.
Movie Rating:
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(Struggling between being winkingly sly and flat-out silly, between empowerment and objectification of the female sex, and between three different stories at the same time, 'Baywatch' is just barely amusing enough to justify a trip back to Emerald Bay)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: CG Animation
Director: Ash Brannon
Cast: Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, J.K. Simmons, Lewis Black, Kenan Thompson, Mae Whitman, Jorge Garcia, Matt Dillon, Sam Elliott
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: http://www.rockdogmovie.com
Opening Day: 9 March 2017
Synopsis: Bodi (Luke Wilson) is a wide-eyed mastiff without a dream. He spends his days training under his dad Khampa (J.K. Simmons) to take over guarding their village of lovable but idiotic sheep. But hard as Bodi tries, he's painfully aware that he cannot fill his father’s shoes. Everything changes the day Bodi discovers the radio (aka “magic singing box”) and becomes infatuated with a thing called “rock ’n roll.” He has found his dream. But his constant need to make music threatens Khampa's sanity, and the security of the village. After a heart-to-heart with the town sage Fleetwood (Sam Elliott), Khampa allows Bodi to leave the village and pursue his passion. Just as Bodi nears his goal of becoming a bona-fide musician, he realizes that his presence in the city has drawn the attention of his father’s old enemy, a wolf gang headed up by Linnux (Lewis Black). Captured by one of Linnux's henchmen, Riff (Kenan Thompson), Bodi agonizes as the wolves beat a path towards his village. In the end, as Bodi returns to his father’s side to defend his home, everyone comes to discover that music has more power than they ever imagined.
Movie Review:
‘Rock Dog’ is one of the oddest animated movies we have seen – and we do not mean that in a good way.
But first, it probably helps to understand the context behind this weird mishmash of subplots that just don’t fit well with one another. Though animated by American studio Reel FX (best known for 2014’s ‘The Book of Life’ and 2013’s ‘Free Birds’), this adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Chinese rock star Zheng Jun was fully financed by Chinese money, and at US$60 million, is reportedly the most expensive Chinese-financed animated production to date.
That background sort of explains why its lead protagonist Bodi (voiced by Luke Wilson) is a Himalayan mastiff who was born in the picturesque Snow Mountains to a literal watchdog Khampa (J.K. Simmons) of a hamlet of sheep. The cute hand-drawn opening prologue explains how Khampa had defended the woolly inhabitants from a pack of wolves led by the villainous wolf Linnux (Lewis Black) years ago with his signature ‘Iron Paw’ move, and expects Bodi to do the same if only he learns to ‘find the fire’ – or whatever that means.
Khampa responds with chagrin therefore when Bodi expresses only musical ambitions – first attempting to snuff them out by locking all the musical instruments in the town up; then plotting with some of the village sheep to dress up as wolves in order to scare Bodi. Only upon the advice of the village elder Fleetwood Yak (Sam Elliott, who also provides the occasional narration through his character) does Khampa relent and allow Bodi one shot at pursuing his dream of being a ‘rock n roll’ singer.
If all that sounds a little awkward, it truly is; not least because Bodi’s idol happens to be a British rock legend named Angus Scattergood (Eddie Izzard) who is struggling with songwriter’s block when the former visits him in his Beverly Hills-esque mansion. That mansion lies somewhere on the outskirts of a strange metropolis which seems to be modelled after parts of New York and Shanghai – there is a park where ‘rock n roll’ aficionados gather which is obviously ripped off from Central Park, and noodle bars with signs in Chinese characters (for that matter, the posters displayed in the Tibetan sheep village are only printed in Chinese). The East-West hodgepodge is disorienting in and of itself, and it doesn’t help that the story is ultimately utterly by-the-numbers.
Oh yes, somewhere along the way, Bodi will help Angus overcome his temporary creative impediment and in the process realize his own talent. You can also probably guess that Bodi will ‘find the fire’ and become the guardian that his father had always wanted him to be, just in time as Linnux shows up with his pack of clumsy, dull-minded goons to threaten the sheep village once again. If we’re leaving out Bodi’s fellow wannabe musicians Darma (Mae Whitman) and Germur (Jorge Garcia) or Linnux’s two right-hand minions Riff and Skozz, it’s because they serve no consequence other than to give the narrative a kick towards the finale. Considering that script credit goes to former Pixar executive Ash Brannon and Kurt Voelker, it is no wonder the narrative plays out so familiarly like countless other second-tier animations which have come before it.
But really, ‘Rock Dog’ is not even second-tier, despite having the co-director of ‘Toy Story 2’ and ‘Surf’s Up’ assuming directorial duties here. The CGI visuals are flat, dull and emotionless, and the lines are unwitty to the point of tedium. Aside from some 90s classics like Foo Fighters’ ‘Learn To Fly’ and Radiohead’s ‘No Surprises’, there is almost no rock-n-roll music per se – even the movie’s theme song, ‘Glorious’, is at best a generic pop song that is easy on the ear but largely forgettable. It is no wonder then that the voice actors seem hardly inspired, delivering their lines with only the most perfunctory bit of character.
Like we said at the start, the obvious nods to the melding of East and West cultures makes for an odd combination, demonstrating that whether in live-action or in animation, this thus0far theoretical concept of Sino-American collaborations with hoped-for international appeal demands much more finesse and skill than what we’ve seen so far. Even so, at its basics in terms of storytelling, character design and animation, ‘Rock Dog’ has no bark and no bite, and even for a less demanding under-10 audience, will likely come off tired and tiresome.
Movie Rating:
(An awkward mishmash of Eastern and Western cultures, 'Rock Dog' is an unwieldy Sino-American production neither rocks nor rolls and doesn't even need to try to 'play dead')
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Lakeith Stanfield, Catherine Keener
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Coarse Language and Violence)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: http://www.getoutfilm.com
Opening Day: 16 February 2017
Synopsis: In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift) and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation. Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, Sicario) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, Girls), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener, Captain Phillips) and Dean (Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods).At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Movie Review:
‘Get Out’ wants you to realize a simple but extremely timely and important fact: just because America has elected an African-American President twice doesn’t mean that it is any less racist; or even, just because someone may have voted for former President Barack Obama twice, and publicly declared that he or she would have voted for him a third time if he or she could, doesn’t mean that he or she is not or is no longer racist. In fact, such tendencies may become even more insidious with complacency, and therefore even more dangerous when eventually manifested. Given the rise in hate crimes immediately in the wake of Trump’s electoral win and the heightened rhetoric that still persists even to today, Jordan Peele’s (you’ll probably know him as one half of Comedy Central’s Key and Peele) directorial debut could not have been more prescient, especially because it is precisely these tendencies that a supposedly post-racial America is grappling with right now.
But just putting aside allegory for now, the low-budget thriller that is already one of the bona fide box-office success stories of this year is also a gripping, edge-of-your-seat watch. In its gist, the plot revolves around a weekend visit which Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) pays to his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents – Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener) – at their beautiful suburban manse, who do not yet know that their daughter is dating an African-American. The less you know beforehand about what ensues the better, but suffice to say at this point that it doesn’t erupt in home invasion or anything as obvious as Blumhouse’s other title ‘The Purge’ – in fact, its ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ premise unfolds in a twisted way that bears resemblance to the classic 1975 similarly suburban-set horror ‘The Stepford Wives’, which writer-producer-director Peele has openly acknowledged as one of his sources of inspiration for this film.
Indeed, though Dean and Missy are conscientious liberals and warm and welcoming towards Chris, there is just something off about the household that unnerves him. It isn’t just about how their housekeepers Walter (Marcus Henderson) and Georgina (Betty Gabriel) are black, but more how they seem constantly suspended in a state of glazed docility and behave in an almost lobotomized manner. What is it too about Dean’s story of his father, i.e. Rose’s grandfather, getting ticked about losing the nomination for the 1936 Olympics to Jesse Owens? Or Missy offering him endless cups of tea while urging him to try out her hypnosis therapy to cure his smoking habit? Or Rose’s creepy dudebro sibling Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) who speaks of his ‘beast’-like physique and tells him how awesome he'd be at mixed martial arts if he’d bother to train? That unease culminates in Dean and Missy’s annual house party attended by a bunch of wealthy white folk, whose small talk with Chris focuses on his ‘genetic makeup’, his physical fitness and his designs on Rose.
Behind these signs of ‘white privilege’ is an even more sinister form of superiority, which is the mystery that Chris (and us watching) spend most of the time trying to decipher. Without spoiling anything that the trailers haven’t already revealed, Chris’ interactions with the other ‘white’ guests at the party where the only other black guest Andrew (Lakeith Stanfield) is dressed like a dandy and dating a white woman twice his age reeks of exploitation and entitlement. There is a lot more nuance at work here that will probably resonate more with a specifically more African-American race-conscious audience: the display of ‘white partner fragility’ when Chris tries to reassure Rose that she is not complicit in her family’s racism; the implicit reward that African-Americans who date ‘white’ people receive in white social circles; and last but not least, the ‘mandingoism’ fantasy in how Chris sees Andrew as a white woman’s hypersexualised lover. But even if these escape you, the allusions to slavery will not, especially given how it is taken here to fetishistic extremes.
Oh yes, Peele’s intention here is socially-conscious horror, and he has certainly learnt from the best. The opening scene that sees Andrew getting snatched while walking down the dimly lit sidewalk of a quiet suburban street into a white car gently playing the 1939 novelty song ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ balances discomfort with hilarity. Scenes of Chris’ hypnotism are reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick, while the expert interweaving of social satire amidst the jump scares owes its debt to the likes of George A. Romero (see ‘Night of the Living Dead’) and John Carpenter. Like these two horror masters at their gleeful best, Peele doesn’t hold back on the gore in the third act; though thankfully, the shift into splattery mode is satisfying without feeling exploitative, its sheer visceral thrills enhanced by LilRel Howery’s scene-stealing turn as Chris’ motor-mouthed best friend Rod with hyperactive but surprisingly clairvoyant paranoid instincts.
For African-American audiences, Rod is undoubtedly their surrogate, unafraid to call out racist bullshit as he sees it while looking through white liberal pieties and racial micro-aggressions. With ‘Get Out’, Peele offers a subversive, sometimes hilarious, and often unexpectedly nuanced commentary on the state of black-white relations in contemporary America (though not necessarily updated in the current era of Trump’s presidency). It is also every bit an excellent horror, spot-on in its executions of horror conventions – the basement apparently closed off due to black mold that ultimately holds its own secrets; sinister figures passing quickly and suddenly in the background; and cathartic displays of violence and gore – that earns its place among Blumhouse’s very best. Of course, because of its timely and sharp observations on race and culture, ‘Get Out’ is a horror of a very different mould, and precisely the reason why this is the must-see genre piece of the year.
Movie Rating:
(Scary not just in its expert execution of horror conventions but also in its sharp race-conscious observations, 'Get Out' is well-deserving of its critical and commercial acclaim)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Thriller
Director: Dean Devlin
Cast: Gerard Butler, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia, Abbie Cornish, Jim Sturgess, Daniel Wu, Adepero Oduye, Amr Waked, Robert Sheehan, Eugenio Derbez
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website:
Opening Day: 12 October 2017
Synopsis: After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong-the system built to protect the Earth is attacking it, and it's a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything...and everyone along with it.
Movie Review:
The worrying trend of climate change has provided fodder for big movies these last few years. From documentaries to epic disaster movies, the topic is a compelling one as we throw out many “what if” scenarios. Geostorm is the latest entry that places us in the future of a possible scenario, where we use tech to resolve the adverse changes.
Gerald Butler is Jake Lawson. The movie introduces him as the architect of a woven network of satellites, each aimed at a spot or city on earth to maintain the natural habitat. Built with the agreement of 17 major countries and helmed by super forces United States and China, the project is a huge success.
The thing is, there’s an agreement for the U.S. to hand the entire project over to the UN in three years, now that it has stabilised. This does not please a group of senators, who want to maintain control over the project and suggests measure which the hot-headed Jake rails against. Jake - you’re fired. By his brother Max (Jim Sturgess) no less.
Fast forward to the handover, malfunctions starts to come in in a timely manner. We see shocking scenes of frozen desert villages in Afghanistan and fiery eruptions in Hong Kong. Was it a coincidence or is something larger at play here?
You guessed it.
Leonard Dekkom (Ed Harris), the President’s aid, tasks Max to re-hire his brother to solve the issues, but the brotherly duo get increasingly convinced that someone has sabotaged the project. What the world could potentially face is a series of natural calamities that trigger off an irreversible destructive force around the planet - thus named Geostorm.
If you feel the scenes, build-up and cast is eerily familiar, you’re on to something. Director and co-writer Dean Devlin was producer for the Independance Day series and Geostorm is pretty much that but with a climate change spin to things.
You’ve got the anti-hero, the love-hate family ties, the child who symbolises hope for mankind, the betrayals from your most trusted, and yes - millions of dollars worth of effects. From tornados to electrical storms to tsunamis, the formula is transplanted, except in this case, we can afford to place these natural disasters in unexpected cities. A spectacle? Yes. Enough to justify the movie? Eh.
A strange thing is happening with the audience these days. We’re treated to so much CGI, that we’re switching off to them. Film makers keep scaling them up - taller waves, more powerful explosions - but even as faceless people get swept up by the destruction, we know that the ones we can see - cue small boy with his dog - will not perish. We never get worried, because the producers need us to see their looks of relief when they get saved. Yay humanity!
Geostorm suffers from a lack of originality, which could have been strengthened by a better script or cast. But sadly, it goes run-of-the-mill and doesn’t excite as much as it thought it would.
Movie Rating:
(Grand scale effects loses the plot and the cast fail to support the action thriller. This. Is. Spartan.)
Review by Morgan Awyong
Genre: Drama
Director: Niki Caro
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Daniel Bruhl, Johan Heldenbergh, Efrat Dor, Iddo Goldberg, Shira Haas, Michael McElhatton
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Nudity)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website:
Opening Day: 30 March 2017
Synopsis: Based on the New York Times best seller, The Zookeeper's Wife is the moving, true story of a husband and wife's compassion and incredible will to save hundreds of Jews during WWII . After the brutal Nazi invasion of Poland levels Warsaw and ravages the city zoo, zookeeper Jan Zabinski and his wife Antonina are left to salvage what's left of the grounds and the few surviving animals. As the Nazis begin to tear apart the Warsaw ghetto and deport its Jews to certain annihilation, Jan and Antonina risk everything and smuggle as many victims as possible into their zoo. In the face of utter hopelessness, Antonina finds the strength to keep spirits high through music, conversation and even laughter when they dare to let their guard down. Ever on the edge of being discovered and against all odds, Antonina and the sheltered Jews manage to restore each other's faith in humanity and together plot a harrowing escape to freedom.
Movie Review:
Based on the non-fiction book of the same name, ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ recounts the true story of the husband-and-wife couple, Jan and Antonina Żabiński, who secretly sheltered Jews during the German invasion of Poland from 1939 to 1945 on their premises of the Warsaw Zoo, thus enabling these Polish Jews to escape from the infamous Warsaw Ghetto and the eventual extermination of the place as well as its inhabitants within. Why the title honours Antonina and not Jan is not quite clear, given how both have been equally recognized as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ at Yad Vashem (Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust) and indeed are portrayed playing complementary roles in the years-long operation – while Antonina would remain at the zoo to safeguard them (i.e. to find them room and food, keep their spirits up, and most of all to hide them from the Nazis), Jan would be the one smuggling the Jews out of the ghetto under the guise of collecting unused scraps to feed the pigs they had turned to rearing in order to ensure that the zoo remains of functional value to the Germans.
At its heart, this is a celebration of ordinary heroes – that is, of ordinary men and women who have displayed extraordinary heroism during extraordinary times. Such tales are often told with sycophantic adulation, which runs counter to the nature of their character/s and ultimately leaves one feeling patronized. Thankfully, its director Niki Caro knows her way around such celebrations of heroism (as evinced by her previous works like ‘Whale Rider’, ‘North Country’ and ‘McFarland, USA’), placing emphasis on the difficult circumstances of the war in order to demonstrate the Żabińskis’ bravery rather than on exalting the characters per se. Scenes of life pre- and post-invasion, of life behind the ghettos and of the nail-biting process of sneaking the Jews out of the ghettos are played out with attention to detail and realism, just so the context under which the Żabińskis were living under as well as the danger they were putting themselves and their only son Ryszard under are felt keenly and profoundly – hence illuminating the spirit of valour and self-sacrifice their deeds exemplified.
Those who have read Diane Ackerman’s source novel will probably know that her narration is as much about Jan and Antonina Żabiński as it is about Lutz Heck, the duplicitous head of the Berlin Zoo whom the Żabińskis first meet before the war and who eventually turns out to be one of the prominent figures of the German war office in Poland. Like in the book, Lutz aimed to recreate pureblood versions of certain extinct species; and for dramatic impact, instead of transporting some of the cattle from the Warsaw Zoo to run his animal eugenics programme back in Berlin, Lutz (as played by Daniel Bruhl) does so right on the grounds of the former. That deviation allows screenwriter Angela Workman to fashion a rather unnecessary subplot between Antonina and Lutz, which sees Lutz develop a personal liking for Antonina and concomitantly engendering marital tension between Jan and Antonina. As distracting as that may be, it is consoling that neither Lutz nor the Germans in particular are demonized; in fact, the former’s onscreen representation shows an unexpectedly benevolent side at the end that may in fact be kinder than his real-life person.
In turn, the horrors of the Holocaust are depicted through a fictional character which Caro has said was her idea. Played by Israeli actress Shira Haas, Urszula is a barely teenage girl whom Jan encounters on his maiden trip into the ghetto bleeding and shaken after being raped by two German male soldiers. Against better judgment, Jan conceals her right under the driver’s seat of his truck (under his son’s feet, no less) in order to help her escape from any further misery. Though manipulative, Urszula’s addition is arguably an effective device through which Caro conveys the magnitude of the Żabińskis’ rescue efforts – not only is she intended to be emblematic of the suffering and subsequent trauma that the Jewish children no doubt endured during the German invasion, she is the face of the persecuted Jewish, personifying the ‘human’ in humanity. Her recovery is also representative of the hope that the Żabińskis’ act of wartime courage gave to the 300 Jews that they saved in the six years of the German occupation.
As with such historical dramatisations, the strength of the performances determines whether the film itself ends up being compelling – and sure enough, that ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ is fascinating to watch from start to finish is testament to the strong cast. However cynical you may be of Jessica Chastain’s casting as Antonina which therefore requires the Hollywood actress to put on a Polish accent, she is undeniably captivating as the eponymous lead, channeling grit and vulnerability in equal measure as she fleshes out her character’s fears, anxieties and convictions. Her stripped-down performance complements that of Belgian actor Johan Heldenbergh, who may not have matinee-idol looks but certainly the gravitas to play a resolute volunteer for the underground Polish resistance. Among the supporting actors, Bruhl and Haas are the standouts, the former exercising admirable restraint in what could have been a traditionally villainous act while the latter surprisingly nuanced in her portrayal of the most visible victim of Nazi sadism.
Many a story has been told of ordinary men and women who have displayed extraordinary heroism during the Holocaust, and ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ stands out among one of the better ones by simply telling its story well without embellishment or worse exaggeration. Even better, it underscores the emotional devastation of war without violence or gore; rather, with emphasis on authenticity, the film lays bare the communities torn apart when the Germans invaded, the sheer hopelessness of those who were oppressed, and the sacrifices that one must sometimes make in order to achieve a loftier, nobler purpose during such challenging times. Especially when some world leaders seem to have forgotten the importance of world peace, this is as apt a reminder as any that the cost of war is immeasurable, immutable and perhaps even irreversible.
Movie Rating:
(Told with grace, empathy and conviction, this celebration of ordinary heroism is elevated by strong performances by Jessica Chastain and her Belgian co-lead Johan Heldenbergh)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Drama
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, Octavia Spencer
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Rating: PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Official Website:
Opening Day: 20 April 2017
Synopsis: Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is a single man raising a child prodigy—his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace)—in a coastal town in Florida. Frank's plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the seven-year-old’s mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank’s formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary. Octavia Spencer plays Roberta, Frank and Mary’s landlady and best friend. Jenny Slate is Mary’s teacher, Bonnie, a young woman whose concern for her student develops into a connection with her uncle as well.
Movie Review:
What does Chris Evans do in between ‘Captain America’ and ‘The Avengers’? He teams up with former Marvel alum Marc Webb for a very human story of a grade-school math prodigy caught up in a messy custody dispute. There are no superheroes here, no galactic villains, or for that matter any computer-generated gimmicks; instead ‘Gifted’ is a simple, earnest but thoroughly absorbing drama that asks one thought-provoking question – ‘what is in a child’s best interests?’
That is the crux of the debate surrounding the charmingly precocious seven-year-old Mary Adler (Mckenna Grace), who already has a handle on advanced calculus on her first day of school. Orphaned after her father abandoned her before she was born and her mother Diane committed suicide six years ago, Mary has been raised and home-schooled by her uncle and guardian Frank (Evans) and supported in no small measure by their affectionately bossy neighbour Roberta (Octavia Spencer). But despite Roberta’s warnings, Uncle Frank thinks it’s time that she’s tried “being a kid” – and that means going to regular school and hanging out with other regular (read: non-gifted) children.
True enough, Mary’s intelligence quickly draws attention at school – first her Math teacher Miss Stevenson (Jenny Slate) and then the principal (Elizabeth Marvel), the latter of whom suggests that Frank send her to a private school for gifted children. It is also the principal who subsequently contacts Mary’s maternal grandmother – in other words Frank’s mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) – when Frank turns down even the offer of a scholarship to send Mary there. Evelyn is quite the complete opposite of Uncle Frank; not only is she authoritarian and condescending, she is also an intellectually elitist, who was more concerned whether her daughter Diane would finally crack the Naiver-Stokes problem (one of the unsolved Millennium Prize problems) than perhaps even her daughter’s mental wellbeing.
Evelyn insists that Mary go live with her in Boston where Mary would attend a school of higher learning and eventually finish what her mother never completed. When Frank refuses, Evelyn takes her case to court to assert custody over Mary. The witness stand is where writer Tom Flynn draws out two sides of the argument compellingly. Should a child of Mary’s faculty be better served in a prep school, where she could develop, hone and expand her god-given abilities to possibly achieve the extraordinary in time to come? Or should she simply deny the gift, and continue living her life as a regular child would, so that she would come to have her childhood, have friends, join the Girl Scouts and someday go to the prom?
As much as these two sides are embodied in a different parent figure (and there is probably no question in any viewer’s mind who is more preferable), each side is given its dues here. Indeed, Webb balances both perspectives nicely, never siding with one or the other but drawing out the pros and cons of each in order to let us ponder on its implications and possible consequences. Webb does take a stand though against Evelyn’s strict regimental parenting, which was the cause of Diane’s depression when she was a teenager and could inadvertently have led to her suicide years later – Evelyn’s cross-examination on the witness stand is absolutely telling of her suffocating presence on the lives of her children Diane and Frank, and we must say an absolutely riveting watch.
Oh yes, that is also a testament to Duncan’s virtuoso acting, conveying keenly her character’s superciliousness, convictions and subsequent heartbreak when confronted with the impact of her parenting on Diane. Duncan’s is but one of the excellent performances here – Grace (whom ‘Designated Survivor’ fans may recognise as President Kirkman’s young daughter) is not only surprisingly not obnoxious as a child genius, but turns out exceedingly appealing especially when she switches from playing the father/daughter dynamic to a brother/sister one with Evans. There is terrific screen chemistry between Evans and Grace, and there is no emotional manipulation just why you’ll end up rooting for them. It must also be said that it is nice to see Evans exude his usual charisma in a more down-to-earth role, as well as let a more vulnerable side show along the way when his character is confronted with the full weight of his responsibilities as Mary’s guardian.
Just as it is for Evans, Webb’s return to intimate small-scale features is also ultimately delightful. Like his ‘500 Days of Summer’, ‘Gifted’ speaks to his knack for relationship themes and shows in how the bond between the various characters is so beautifully drawn – particularly inspired is how Webb avoids amplifying the antagonism between Frank and Evelyn, such that both mother and son can share perfectly normal conversations with each other while feuding in court. His empathy for the characters, lead and supporting, is clearly evident – one utterly charming scene sees Mary using Chris as her makeshift jungle gyms, both of them silhouetted against the sunset; another has Mary and Roberta singing their hearts out during home karaoke to the Cher-Tina Turner duet ‘Shame, Shame, Shame’ – and it is also in these details that the film finds its irrepressible, infectious and inimitable sense of warmth.
To conclude by saying that ‘Gifted’ is heart-warming is probably a cliché by now, but really, this is one film that truly warms your heart without ever getting cloying or worse maudlin. Rightly so, Webb places his characters at the centre of the film, letting us appreciate them for who they are without resorting to stock types like hero or villain. There are neither here, but people driven by different beliefs and therefore at odds with each other. In turn, you’ll embrace them, their good and bad, and come to feel their dilemma of choosing what is best for someone they love. Certainly, movies like these make us wish Evans had more down days from donning that Star-Spangled costume.
Movie Rating:
( Warm, funny, poignant and thoroughly engaging, ‘Gifted’ gives you characters you care about, a compelling premise any parent can identify with, and a trio of great performances – especially a most human one from Captain America himself)
Review by Gabriel Chong
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Alastair Orr
Cast: Sharni Vinson, Carlyn Burchell, Zino Ventura, Steven John Ward
Runtime: 1 hr 27 mins
Rating: NC-16
Released By: Shaw
Official Website:
Opening Day: 30 March 2017
Synopsis: From A House On Willow Street is a frightening new horror film. Sharni Vinson (Step Up 3d, You’re Next) stars as Hazel, a roguish kidnapper, who, along with 3 accomplices, abducts a young heiress. When they have her locked up in their inescapable lair, they discover she is possessed by a terrifying demon, which plunges them into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror.
Movie Review:
Like last year’s sleeper hit ‘Don’t Breathe’, ‘House on Willow Street’ traps a bunch of criminals in the throes of their target. Here, the foolhardy bunch are four kidnappers led by Hazel (Sharni Vinson), whose mark Katherine (Carlyn Burchell) is the daughter of a wealthy diamond baron. In order that Hazel can run away with her parolee boyfriend Ade (Steven John Ward), the duo inform their co-conspirators – Ade’s cousin James (Gustav Gerdener) and his partner Mark (Zino Ventura) – that they only have six weeks to pull off the kidnapping. As it turns out, that is only the least of their concerns, given how there’s no one else to be seen in the house, the front door is already unlocked and the security system disarmed. In fact, Katherine has already been awaiting their arrival, seeing as how she intends to use them to resurrect an ancient demonic force which is in possession of her soul.
How it plays out is hardly surprising, as director and co-writer Alastair Orr lets Katherine torment each one of her so-called ‘captors’ by playing on their worst nightmares, exploiting their respective vulnerabilities so that the demon named Tranguul can claim enough souls and finally manifest itself in human form: Hazel gets visions of her severely burnt mother, whom she failed to save from a fire; Ade sees a former partner whom he had left for dead after their car crashed; and last but not least Mark is haunted by his dead six-year-old daughter. As you may expect too, each one of these encounters is yet another ‘jump scare’ opportunity, and let’s just say that Orr has no qualms using the tried-and-tested cliché of sudden loud noises and quick cuts, somewhat ignorant that his lack of restraint ends up being less terrifying than frustrating.
It should be said that this isn’t the sort of elegant horror James Wan makes that is composed of stylish well-choreographed sequences which pay as much attention to buildup as it does to payoff. Oh no, Orr tends more to the shock-and-awe tactics of grindhouse horror, which means plenty of gore, violence and even hideousness. The deaths are grisly, the possession via icky tentacles like long tongues with spikes that come out of the possessed mouths into that of its victim, and the possessed have bloodshot eyes, engorged veins and look almost like zombies. This is designed for the shlocky crowd, so those who do not like their horror graphic should simply stay away; on the other hand, those who long for the vulgarity of 70s and 80s macabre-ness will have something to cheer about.
Yet there is no denying that it simply does not have enough to hold its audience’s interest even over a standard one-and-a-half hours. Once it reveals at the midway point just what happened to Katherine’s parents and the two Catholic priests whose bodies Ade and James find back at the house, the rest of the movie becomes one chase sequence after another, the only complication being how Katherine attempts to play her victims against each other. While it was probably budgetary considerations that constrained the movie largely to the abandoned warehouse where Katherine is held (aside from the couple of scenes in the eponymous house), it is puzzling why the filmmakers never fully exploit the claustrophobia of their setting, resorting instead to clichés like a room of creepy mannequins, another with hanging chains and even a tight crawlspace without explaining how and why these came about in the first place.
As much as it aims to switch gears in the way ‘Don’t Breathe’ did, ‘House on Willow Street’ never quite makes for a satisfying hostage thriller or a demonic horror – the former does not pack enough suspense, and the latter too simplistic. In fact, that could be said of the movie as a whole, which is too straightforward for its own good, never quite developing any of the characters’ back stories sufficiently for us to buy into their torment or even Hazel’s own personal connection to the house that she hides from the rest of her team at the start. This is ultimately meat-and-potatoes B-grade fare, despite an intriguing setup, more-than-decent creature effects and some gonzy demon action at the end. If you’re in the mood for some grindhouse horror, then step right in; otherwise, you’re better off just continuing your walk down the street.
Movie Rating:
![](\"http://www.moviexclusive.com/image/half%20mx%20star.gif\")
(Despite an intriguing setup that turns its kidnapping premise into demonic possession, this low-budget South African flick is ultimately too straightforward and too reliant on jump scares to be anything better than grindhouse horror)
Review by Gabriel Chong
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