Time Lapse (2014)

Three young folks head over to check on their neighbour, only to find his apartment empty and a large camera pointing towards their own living room. The walls are adorned with photos of their place, which is more than a little strange. What's even stranger is that they eventually realise that the photos, which are always taken at the same time, show the future. This could be a great thing. All they need to do, for example, is stand at their window with a paper showing the race results. They will then have that information on the morning of the races, allowing them to place bets and win lots of money. But, as is always the case with looking into the future, things start to get tricky when the photographs show something that they don't like the look of.

Starring Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary and George Finn, this is a passable enough slice of sci-fi horror, although it's never quite interesting enough for sci-fi fans and never quite intense/svcary enough for horror fans. Others have mentioned that it's quite reminiscent of "Say Cheese And Die", a Goosebumps tale, and they have a point. But this is a concept that has been used many times before, and it's full of potential that this film doesn't really tap into.

Bradley King directed, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Bp Cooper, so he would seem to be the man to blame. There are a number of small failings at every step, building up in a way that drags the whole movie down a few notches.

First point - the casting isn't great. I've warmed to Panabaker over the years, I guess, but still can't ever really see why she's picked for certain roles (attractiveness aside). O'Leary doesn't make an impression at all, and Finn is stuck with

Second point - some bad writing that never really gives us cause to root for the main characters. None of them seem like good people, and when they quickly allow the photos to start dictating their actions, leading to an interesting cause and effect conundrum never given due attention, it just becomes asier to dislike them. Which adds to the

Third point - lack of tension throughout. This is also caused by the use of the photos. If we have already seen what's going to happen then all we're waiting for is how it happens. This wouldn't have been a problem if there had been more time given to that aforementioned cause and effect conundrum, but there wasn't.

Yet the premise is enough to make this relatively enjoyable. It's the kind of situation that we can all dream about. We wonder what we would do in the same situation. And I suspect that many of those wonderings could end up better than this.

6/10

fff

You know how you can show your appreciation for bloggers? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Piranha 3DD (2012)

How do you follow up something as ridiculously over the top and entertaining as Piranha 3D, the loose remake of the cracking Joe Dante movie? Well, if you're director John Gulager then you try to take the basic idea and use it for something even MORE ridiculously over the top and entertaining. Sadly, he only manages to achieve the first part of his aim.

Danielle Panabaker is Maddy, a young woman disgusted by the plans of her stepfather (David Koechner) to make his new waterpark a resounding success by populating it with lots of large-breasted women who aren't averse to showing off their assets. Unfortunately, in an effort to cut costs, the waterpark is also draining water from somewhere it really shouldn't. Somewhere that might contain some large, deadly piranha. While a number of horrible things happen to individuals who go playing around in nearby water, viewers are one step ahead of the characters onscreen as things build up to a piranha-filled, bloody finale.

There's certainly some fun to be had with Piranha 3DD. As well as Panabaker and Koechner in their roles, the cast contains the lovely Katrina Bowden, Matt Bush being sweet, David Hasselhoff portraying himself as an egotistical asshole, and Ving Rhames returning after his encounter with the deadly fish in the first movie. It's good to see Christopher Lloyd back, too. There are also, of course, a number of beautiful women in almost every scene, all fed up of being constrained by those old-fashioned bra things.

The special effects are wildly varied, with some shockingly bad CGI appearing, but they're more than a match for the many outrageous gore gags scattered throughout the movie, the script by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton is pretty weak, and the direction from Gulager fails to balance things well enough for anyone wanting anything coming close to tension or thrills. The mix of gore and off-the-wall humour worked when the same team of writers and director gave audiences Feast, but it's mishandled here.

Don't get me wrong. This is an easy film to have some fun with, if you can watch it without rolling your eyes every few seconds. But it's not an easy film to like.

4/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Girls Against Boys (2012)

Unfortunately falling between two stools that may well leave both hardened horror fans wanting something stronger and unwary teens wondering just what the hell they're watching, Girls Against Boys is grim stuff given a glossy coating.

Danielle Panabaker plays Shae, a young girl having a bit of a rough weekend. Instead of completely separating from his wife and moving forward with their relationship, her married lover (Andrew Howard) has decided that he needs to make a go of his marriage. Shae ends up working her bar shift, getting more and more annoyed with everyone around her and then being befriended by Lulu (Nicole LaLiberte). Lulu and Shae head out, get very drunk, meet some lads and get more drunk, flirt and then head home. Well, that's the plan. It's not long until some bad things happen and Lulu is leading Shae on a quest for revenge. Lulu seems to have an agenda, but that suits Shae just fine while her judgment is clouded by pain and anger.

From the title itself to the early scenes of the movie, this feels very much like it's going to be a standard teen drama. Okay, there's actually some darkness shown in the very first moments as Lulu starts to send a restrained male into a minor panic, but that's put on the back burner as viewers are introduced to Shae and accompany her through some all-too-familiar moments. Let's face it, the movie could turn into Dirty Dancing at any time during the first 15 minutes or so. And with a title like Girls And Boys you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be about a battle of the sexes in which the girls prove just how much better they are than the men in their lives.

Funnily enough, the film IS about that. But it also takes a serious tangent to move into a decent revenge flick, before then using the third act to wrap things up with an entertainingly twisted bit of "psycho teen" activity. Writer-director Austin Chick keeps everything moving just fine, but he's held back slightly by the demographic that the movie is being aimed at. The core elements of the movie are harsh and nasty, but putting those in place in a movie for teens ensures that nothing onscreen ever pushes things TOO far.

Danielle Panabaker isn't an actress I've ever been a big fan of, but she's better here than she has been in a number of other movies, believably passive for a lot of the earlier scenes before developing a bit of backbone as things move towards the finale. Nicole LaLiberte is the better presence, however, as she manipulates the events around her to make her behaviour morally defensible, in her own mind. Andrew Howard, Michael Stahl-David and Matthew Rauch are testicle-owning bastards, and act accordingly, while Carmine DiBenedetto and Will Brill are slightly nicer young men, and Liam Aiken is the nicest of the lot.

Girls Against Boys won't make much of an impression on anyone looking for the next The Last House On The Left or I Spit On Your Grave, but it does well for being a "light" (or is that "lite"?) version of those kinds of movies.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Against-Boys-Panabaker/dp/B00AFEYI3G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1379675477&sr=8-3&keywords=girls+against+boys

Sky High (2005)

I really like Sky High. It's a Disney movie aimed at teens. Part of me suspects that I shouldn't like it as much as I do, but I do. It's fun, it's funny, it has a great cast and it features an eclectic selection of superheroes. What's not to like?

The plot revolves around young Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano). Will is about to start his superhero education at the titular Sky High, but his powers haven't shown themselves yet. That would be bad enough with one superhero for a parent, but Will has two - The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston) AKA Mr. & Mrs. Stronghold. All that pressure doesn't make life any easier for a boy who is expected to do great things. Thankfully, he has some great friends, even if it looks like they may all end up being sidekicks as opposed to actual heroes. The kids may all have different powers and plans to wear some snazzy costumes, but high school is the same mix of cliques, bullies and teenage awkwardness.

Written by Paul Hernandez, Robert Schooley and Mark McCorkle, and directed by Mike Mitchell, Sky High is lively and amusing. Oh, it could certainly be sharper, and there's nothing here too complicated or subtle, but this isn't trying to be The Dark Knight (it was released 3 years beforehand anyway, in the same year as Batman Begins) and that suits me just fine. Not that I dislike The Dark Knight, it's just that not every superhero movie needs to be dark and thought-provoking. Especially superhero movies for the entire family.

The cast is the biggest asset that the movie has, with everyone doing their bit to add to the fun with their performance. Angarano is fine in the main role, Danielle Panabaker is also fine as his close friend who may or may not want something more to develop and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the cute girl at the high school about to complicate the whole situation. Steven Strait scowls and throws fireballs competently, in a role that feels almost like a warm up for his role in The Covenant, while Nicholas Braun, Kelly Vitz, Dee Jay Daniels, Jake Sandvig, Will Harris, Malika and Khadijah all provide decent support as the ragtag group of students training to be heroes or sidekicks. But it's the adult stars who get a lot of the best moments, in my opinion. Russell and Preston are both very good as the parents who are also superheroes, with the former particularly enjoyable every time that he's onscreen as The Commander. Kevin Heffernan is very enjoyable as Ron Wilson, bus driver, and Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald (two former members of The Kids In The Hall) are both very funny in their respective roles. Bruce Campbell is great as a coach who takes no nonsense, Cloris Leachman pops up for one scene as the school nurse and Lynda Carter has an extended cameo as Principal Powers.

Sky High doesn't pretend to be anything other than it is. It's an enjoyable superhero movie that takes the genre trappings and weaves them through a standard Disney high school movie. When the end result is this much fun, I can't say that I mind. No, I don't mind at all.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sky-High-DVD-Kurt-Russell/dp/B000BY99YS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367953641&sr=8-1&keywords=sky+high

The Ward (2010)

AKA an excuse to post lots of pictures of Amber Heard. I strive to provide good reviews and interesting writing here on my blog but I'm as weak as most men when it comes to the lovely Miss Heard.

Of course, The Ward isn't just about Amber Heard, although she takes the lead role and is the focus of almost every scene. More importantly for horror fans, this film was a return to movieland from director John Carpenter. A return to directing features after quite a long hiatus and, to some, a return to form. Personally, I'm one of those who suspect that the positive reception given to the movie by the fans is based more upon a sense of relief that the thing wasn't awful as opposed to the movie being all that great. Because it's not. 

Don't get me wrong, the movie is enjoyable enough from start to finish. It's got some great atmosphere, decent performances and most of the scares are well executed but the whole thing is actually quite a fumbled piece of sleight of hand. Watch it once and you'll enjoy it as a bit of fun but repeat viewings show up a number of glaring flaws and massive plot holes. That doesn't stop the movie from being a decent horror (if we horror fans were to pick apart every flaw and plot hole then we'd be left with only one or two movies to watch, surely) but it does stop it from being up there with the past glories that Carpenter has given audiences.

The story is all about Kristen (Amber Heard), a young woman who is found by the police as she watches a house burning down. To be more precise, she watches the house burn down that she set fire to. Why? Who is this young woman and what has she been through? Hopefully, she will find answers while under the care of Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris). That's if she can keep her temper under control and play nice with the other inhabitants of the ward. Oh, avoiding the dangerous spirit trying to kill people would also be a good thing.

There are good performances from all involved here (Amber Heard is particularly good but Jared Harris is also excellent). The main girls in the ward are played by Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh and Lyndsy Fonseca and they all do fine, even if I can't bring myself to actually enjoy any performance from Panabaker - who, to my mind, seems to be one of those starlets thrust upon us just because someone has deemed it her time to be classed as a "star", god forbid that people reach such a position by having actual talent and personality.

The script is okay when it comes to individual snippets of dialogue but the plotting and overall construction of the movie are where the big flaws appear. Thankfully, it does enough to keep viewers interested and involved throughout and it's just a shame that everything couldn't have been tightened up slightly.

A haunting score accompanies the visuals and the direction from Carpenter is promising, we can only hope that he comes back soon with material worthy of his talent. The scares, whether they are simple jump scares or moments that build up a feeling of dread, are expertly crafted and these reassuring moments elevate the movie to just above average.

If you were waiting for something like a return to form from John Carpenter after his past few movies (the poorly received Vampires and Ghosts Of Mars, in particular) then this may well be something that you like more than I did. It's certainly better than those other movies in terms of acting quality and the translation of the material but it just doesn't do enough to make up for the fact that the plot elements are tired and have been used in a number of superior films.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share