The Purge: Anarchy

The movie I originally wanted

This movie does not reference the previous movie at all except for the main premise (which I appreciate). We follow three different arcs. One group is a mother Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Cali (Zoe Soul) trying to stay at home with a sick grandfather, which doesn't go according to plan, forcing them out on the streets. The other is a young middle class couple, Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez), trying to get home before the night starts, which also doesn't go according to plan. The last is a lone man (Frank Grillo) set to right a wrong in his life and hunt down a man who has hurt him. The man happens upon the other four others and (against his better judgement) saves them, forcing him into the role of protector. The family has a well funded group hunting them down, and the couple has what appears to be street thugs hunting them down. They all try to stay together to make it through the night, while the clock ticks on the lone man's time for vengeance.

It is no mystery that I was let down by the first installment of this film. They had one of the most interesting concepts I have heard of in a while and used it as an excuse for a stupid home invasion style slasher film. So I had high hopes that this movie might pick up the slack where the last movie failed, and I wasn't disappointed. The characters in this aren't really anything to write home about. We have the lone gun men in a town armed to the teeth. The poor family being set upon by the upper-class and the couple going through marital issues while trying to make it out of an extraordinary situation. Pretty cut and dry as things go, but then again the premise of this movie was the only thing I was expecting to be original. If the characters just happened to follow that example it would have been a bonus. The real winning idea here was to make this movie more of an action and less of a horror. Sure there are still jump scares every once in a while, but nothing you don't see in your most basic action romp. It wasn't a great story line, but it was a massive improvement. It was littered with "political messages" in regards to things like second amendment rights and classicism, and they did drag the story down a little bit. The things I liked were the upper-class rounding up people to purge, making bids on the lot and going all "The World's Most Dangerous Game" on them. I liked the Black Panther style group of resistance that dedicated their mission to killing the upper percentile. Their were plenty of interesting points in this movie, and the only things that seemed to drag the movie down were getting too far up their own ass with messages and dumb characterization.

The thing I really loved about this movie was the pacing and setting. I wouldn't say I was on the edge of my seat for the greater portion of this movie; but, their were times you could cut the tension with a knife. One time particular was a scene where a family was saying all of these back handed insults to each other and getting into arguments. The entire time I was thinking 'What is to stop them from just killing everyone?" The fact that our would be anti-hero was on a clock for his revenge put me in a bit of an awkward situation. I wanted the purge to end so the people would be safe, but I also wanted it to last a little longer to see what he would do. The right parts of this movie were drawn out, and the other parts were sped up just enough to keep my interest. Very well done.  

The only actor I can really set above the rest of the crowd in this was Frank Grillo. I am a big fan of Frank Grillo and I have wanted to him have starring role for a while, to see what he can do with it. He didn't disappoint. He was just the right amount of leader, mixed with broken past, mixed with confused present that I needed from a character like this. The fact that his career has been marked by mainly background characters like "Agent One" or "Squadron Commanding Officer" is a shame, but at least I have movies like this and "Warrior" to bide my time until people see fit to give him more screen time or bigger roles. The rest of the cast was interchangeable. They did a really good job of acting afraid or sad all the time, but I can't really expect much from people who are playing such bland characters.

My final thoughts on this are really about the way they are going through the series. I know from the ending of this that there is most likely going to be a third movie. Right now it seems that they are progressing through the effects of the purge on different classes (the first movie was high class and this is low class). Maybe next movie they are going to have a full blown revolution episode, who knows. I just wish they would progress through it with different crimes. I know why they focus mainly on murder (because that sells, and message about inner demons, and what have you), but I would have liked to see a movie where a group of people go on a car jacking spree, or a drug run, or something else. Personally, if this was a real life scenario I wouldn't want to kill anyone. I would want to rob the rich neighborhoods blind. Get myself a new car and a lot of money. As I said I know why they focus on murder, but all I would see is the fact that the government declared everything free one day a year. Time to go shopping....with a gun.... and a blow torch.

Final Verdict: Rent it Since I would have given the original a "Don't do it" this movie is a vast improvement, but still lacks some things that would make it great. Maybe the next one will be even better, but I think this is probably going to be the series' highest peak.

Planes: Fire and Rescue

Because Disney did so well with the last one

Our story begins shortly after the last movie, Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook...I know right?) is living his life as a racing champion. All seems to be going well for him until a catastrophic engine failure leads to him not being able to race anymore. During a fit of nonacceptance he goes off and tries to prove he can still race, it turns out he can't and starts a fire. The old fire truck Mayday (Hal Holbrook) they keep at the airfield just barely stops the blaze, but inadvertently triggers the safety inspectors to come in and take a look at the airfield. The safety inspector issues two orders, one is that the old fire truck needs to be brought up to the day's standards, and the second is that they need a second firefighter. So Dusty volunteers to go get certified and meets a brand new team dedicated to stopping fires. It is comprised of an old helicopter that used to be a big name (because the last movie didn't have enough of that) named Blade (Ed Harris), one of Dusty's crazed fan girls Lil' Dipper (Julie Brown), and Disney's newest racism complaint Windlifter (Wes Studi, at least they have a seemingly legit Native American this time). Dusty must try to get past his newest problem in order to save the farm...I mean "airfield."

Let me get one thing straight with you all. I have the utmost respect for firefighters, cops and genuine lifesavers all around, but when movies like this try to "pay respect" to them while also turning a profit in the most basic way I don't feel bad about trashing the film. This movie is a sequel to a failed spin off, of a horrible concept by Disney, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. This is just Disney's way of getting the bull out until we get actual interesting projects like 'The Incredibles 2" and  "Big Hero 6." Do I wish I didn't have to sit through Disney's profit schemes? Of course I do, but I had to see this anyway. So let us get started.

I found out after cars that I can absolutely not try to make since out of the biology of these characters, I will go insane. So taking away that bit of forgotten story line, I am going to talk about the rest of this "story." It is the same old tired story we are used to seeing from Disney movies. Character A has to do task B in order to stop problem C...while encountering problems D through Z in the process. The first story was bad, but a good effort, basically trying to send a moral that "you are more than your limits" or some non-sense. This moral is "getting back on the horse after you were kicked off" among others. It is a good moral, but delivered horrendously. Everything is predictable, and usually with a movie like this I am not expecting it to be the next big reveal type of movie, but the plot devices used here are so recycled by Disney I am surprised they haven't disintegrated from over use. The old helicopter with a tragic story is a great example since it is a character arc seen in "Cars" and "Planes" before. When you are pulling story line and character development from two movies in the same movie universe, you have officially run out of ideas for this series and need to let it die. The only saving grace I saw in this movie was from the psycho fangirl, Lil' Dipper. She could be a bit annoying, but she grew on me. I am pretty sure Disney might have been looking at a couple of it's own fans when creating the concept, which worked because she was great.

Let's go over the acting. I am glad to see that Dane Cook's career has come to acting in movies like this, it feels like the cosmic balance trying to right itself. He didn't add anything to the movie unsurprisingly, making the entire film suffer more. He was just so bland, like you could hear the hurt in his voice from wondering how his career came down to this. The rest of the cast seemed pretty lethargic as well. You could hear the disdain in Wes Studi's voice for playing yet another stereotypical Native American. Ed Harris sounded bored and Hal Holbrook did okay, but I doubt he knew where he was during the recording session. The saving grace among the voices was Julie Brown, she sounded like she genuinely had fun with her character and did her best to add life to the cast.

The thing that irritated me the most about this movie is that I can usually gauge a movie's target audience by the reaction of the audience in the theater. Needless to say I was surrounded by children with their parents for this movie, and none of them reacted to anything. Usually, during animated movies I can here at least a couple of exclamations from the kids, but this movie looked like it was putting them all to sleep. What is worse is that they all seemed irritated when they left the theater. This movie apparently appeals to no audience. When you are an animated movie that fails to capture children you have failed at the most basic part of animation. Congratulations. 

Final Verdict: Don't do it It seems I am giving a lot of these scores out lately, which is unfortunate but not unforeseen. The first movie was serviceable as a money grabbing spin off that at least made children happy, this just didn't try. 

Lucy

10% of nothing, turned into something

A young college party animal named Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is captured and used as a drug mule against her will, transporting a new drug that unlocks the potential of our brain's full capacity. The bag opens in her body and gives her superpowers. That is about all there is to this movie.

Okay, so to fully appreciate anything from this movie you have to forget anything you know about the small bit of pseudo-science this film is based on. The myth that humans only use 10% of their brain is starting to become an unsettling go to premise for movies. It got popular with "Phenomenon," then died, then came back with "Limitless" (which is basically what this movie is, but with more superpowers). People, I am going to ask you to do something for me, and it may be hard but please hear me out. Don't forget that the theory of humans only using 10 percent of their brain is made up and has no basis in actual science. At all. No matter what these movie's tell you it is false science. Now that we are past that, let's get on with this.

So, here we go. In order for me to fully appreciate this movie for what it was I had to get into a mind set that these superpowers weren't coming from Lucy unlocking the potential of her brain; but, in fact were the result of the weird drug used to give ordinary people superpowers in the comic "The Boys" (read that comic, it is fun). After that when they started marking her progression with different percentages I had to think of it as her unlocking the full power of the drug, and the percentage was marking a new power every time. After I did that and the movie was over I have to say I enjoyed that film. Without the basic premise having no basis in science this movie was actually very science friendly, taking us on a journey through the universe and time (time is big in this movie). I was surprised by how much this film actually seemed to like science and knowledge in spite of it's main arc. Was this an amazing movie? not really, but it was still good if we can think of the premise as something else. It wasn't really the story line that won me over as much as everything else.

Had to add this picture because I know what you want obviously 

In a recent review (very recent, "Hercules") I basically said that the director of the movie doesn't know how to direct action. Which is still true, but luckily this review is of a movie that is directed by someone that seems to be a master of action. Luc Beeson is the mind that gave us "La Femme Nikita" and "The Fifth Element." He is mainly a notable director for those movies, but more notable as a writer giving us many of the classic action cliche stories. So I can say with some clarity that the action in this was an absolute joy to watch. The car chases were fun and exciting, the telekinesis fights would make Jean Grey jealous, and (of course) Scarlett Johansson is made out to be the female/American version of Jet Li. It does well as one of the movies that give young women a strong role model (knowledge is power and girls can kick ass too) while also appealing to men (without having to have a hundred shots of Scarlett in her bra and panties, just the one).

Now let's go into something I found weird, but enjoyable. The pace and production. The pace was all sped up, kind of feeling like they were racing to get to the end of the movie; but, I guess since this all takes place in the span of a few days and time is big deal in this movie the pacing makes sense. The production felt so close to "French snuff film" I could practically taste the on-set baguettes. This isn't a bad thing, just a weird choice for an American blockbuster. The shots of our actors being interrupted with videos of nature and their voices narrating them (of course this was going to happen, Morgan Freeman) was interesting. The splicing takes a bit of getting used to but overall it enhanced the film. The audience in the theater had a big laugh at the National Geographic style animal sex and childbirth, but I liked it in spite of all the hooting from the monkeys in the theater.

The acting in this was also weird, but enjoyable for some of the actors (in fact that is my general opinion of the entire movie) , but par for the course with others. Morgan Freeman is still the intellectual, slow spoken, soothing man he has been type cast as in dozens of other movies. Scarlett Johansson does well at portraying the lack of emotions having unlimited knowledge would ultimately bring her. In fact, I am starting to think that Scarlett may be our next great actress with the way her characters are differing lately, especially in this. She starts off as an average party girl, but ends up an emotionless think tank. She is starting to become a chameleon and I just hope that directors can see that side of her, instead the obvious other appealing qualities. The rest of the cast are set pieces, but do well where they are able to do well. Min-Sik Choi is a good gangster and Amr Waked is a good cop.

The last appealing concept to me was the music (yes, I know I hate talking about the music in movies). At the risk of being redundant, it was weird, but enjoyable. Actually, let us scratch that statement. It was weird, but kind of awesome. Like an electronic dance floor brought to life, and it directly mirrored the cool graphics in the movie. You'll see a lot of blue in this movie, and that is what this music kind of made me think of. A blue light show in a Las Vegas or a blue dance floor.

The main thing that we have to take home from this movie is that a flawed premise does not always mean a flawed movie. I know I am going to have some people that disagree with me about the premise being flawed, but even more people that disagree with me about the movie not being flawed because of it. It was entertaining in a basic sense, appealing to my baser instincts. Gun shooting is cool, car chases are cool, superpowers are cool ("Me Dustin, like stupid action. Ugh. Ugh.") It is also progressive for having an awesome character base, and being a friend to knowledge ("knowledge is power", "The more you know"). I hope to see a better version of this without the crappy premise.

Final Verdict: Rent it It won't be winning any Oscar's, but it is worth a buck. If nothing more, you can get your mindless violence quota for the day from this. 

Hercules - The newest one

Even with The Rock we can't do this

Despite what we have all been lead to believe from the trailers this version of Hercules is from the man's perspective (not the myth), meant to be a more realistic interpretation. This is what I was told it would be from articles, but the trailer was a bit misleading. The story begins with Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) living the life of a mercenary after being cast out from his nation for a crime he can't remember the specifics of. When he was apart of this nation he was the leader of a great army, but now he surrounds himself with friends more loyal than any he has encountered while they perform certain jobs for high amounts of gold. His band of thugs is comprised of a "false" prophet Amphiaraus (Ian McShane), his old second in command Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), a man bred of war which made him a beast Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), an amazon Atalanta (Ingrid Berdel), and finally his nephew, the story teller, Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). The group's newest task is to help train an army so Lord Cotys (John Hurt) can rule Thrace without incident from an evil army set to dethrone him.  

This movie reeks of elements from "The Scorpion King," I mean every part of it was awful. No one's heart was in the movie (everyone seemed so bored), the story line had potential but fell to pieces, the production quality looks like it took cinema back ten years, the music was wonky and misplaced. It is like they tried to throw a movie together in ten hours and had to cast a big name so they didn't get thrown in the "straight to DVD" category (but seriously this movie should have gone straight to DVD). Before anyone jumps on me for "The Scorpion King" comment, let me just say I did enjoy it....when I was 12, take a look at the movie now and tell me it is LEGITIMATELY good. I defy you. Anyways, let me start this off how I usually do, with the story line.

So the whole "making this movie out to be realistic" thing was an interesting idea, and if "Troy" didn't beat them to this concept and do a hundred times better with that movie it might have been good in someone's eyes. Everything is predictable in this movie, right down to the ending. Main character is a mercenary because of something tragic that happened in his past, seen it a million times. One of the main group leaves and then miraculously reappears just in time, seen it a million times. The obligatory woman in a man's world misogyny comment. The weak character wants to fight alongside the strong. The king. The lord. Everything down to the last marble was bland and uninteresting. I honestly can't think of one good thing to say about the story line, since they tried to beat you over the head with the only interesting point in the movie (the fact that all of this was supposed to be realistic). Every single moment they have to say something about myths being made up for moral purposes in an army, and it turns into this annoying mantra. 

The only thing that stunk more than the story line in this movie was the ridiculous production quality. It seemed like all of the money spent on this movie went into the advertising campaign because I can't see this movie costing more than $100,000.00, and half of that was paid to Dwayne Johnson for showing up in this garbage. The fight scenes had a bit of fun to them but only when you are watching Johnson throw around his big club and the other main character's using their weapons. The army scenes shouldn't even have been attempted because they were enough to put me to sleep. The graphics were good at some points, but completely laughable at others. Everything had that dumb gritty texture to it, and it seriously reminded of every bad ancient times movie I have seen (specifically "Conan" and " The Scorpion King"). 

With all of this I was hoping the acting would have been enough to save at least a small part of this movie. Nope. Dwayne Johnson is just here to pick up a paycheck. Rufus Sewell doesn't seem to get how to play a good guy, because I kept waiting for him to betray everyone (which surprisingly is the one stereotypical thing missing from this movie). Ian McShane does the best he can as the old comic relief; but, missteps too many times for me to care enough about his character, and John Hurt played John Hurt...for the hundredth damn time. All the lesser names seemed like they actually cared; but, regardless of how good or not good they were fate sealed this movie into the "bad" category.

I'd like to say "why can't they seem to make a good Hercules movie?" The truth is THEY have nothing to do with this failure, Brett Ratner has everything to do with it because he just can't direct action. Period. He did good with movies like "Rush Hour," and "After the Sunset;" but, fails almost everywhere else. I was still sore from his absolute betrayal to the X-Men series when he made "X3: X-Men United" now he is throwing dirt in my wound by making Greek Mythology a joke. There are worse directors to be sure, but he needs to stick to what he knows and stay out of action forever. 

Final Verdict: Don't Do It! Congratulations! "Hercules" was the worst movie I have seen this year (so far). Take off your crown "Amazing Spider-Man 2" there is a new king. I wouldn't wipe my boots off on this movie for fear it would ruin them. Dwayne Johnson deserved better, I deserved better, and most important you all deserved better. 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Apes on horseback with machine guns. Nuff' said.

We start off with human kind being brought close to extinction by a virus brought on by the chemical that gave the apes intelligence in the last movie. The apes live in peace in a community they have built within the woods to escape any trace of humanity. Caesar (Andy Serkis) is still the leader of the ultra intelligent apes, and has kept them in a good standing despite everything that has gone on around them, he has even built himself a family. He has a young son that he is training to be a warrior and a newborn son, along with a wife. All seems to be going well for them since they haven't seen any humans for over 10 years; until, (chance would have it) a group of human survivors stumbles upon them while looking for a dam to supply power to their town. After an accident involving one of the humans shooting the son of Caesar's good friend the humans are sent off and told never to return. The human leader, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) instructs one of the people who found the apes, Malcolm (Jason Clarke) to go try reasoning with the apes in order for them to get power or the humans will attack them and take it.  This seems like as good a place as any to stop the synopsis without giving the farm away... and no I don't think any of this was "spoiler warning" worthy since you saw most of what I said in the previews. So there.

You know the great part of this entire movie? The character development. I found myself caught between caring for the apes and my care for the humans. Gary Oldman's character SEEMED like a prime candidate for "the bad guy of the film," but he really didn't fit the bill. Yes, he said if they won't let us in we will have to take it by force; but, I can't fault him for that since he had to provide for hundreds of people. Yes, there were some other questionable things in the movie that would make him seem like the bad guy (that will require a spoiler warning, so I won't say it), but he finds a way to make himself just seem like any other person put in his situation. There is even a scene (that is obviously an advertisement for Apple) that makes him seem like a good man under other circumstances. He isn't the only character that is given an ocean of depth in this movie, just the best example. Koba (Caesar's right hand ape) is another great character. In fact the two people that aren't really expounded upon are the main humans trying to win the ape's affection; but, even then you can tell there is so much beneath the surface with them that their lack of actual back story seems to bounce off the page. The last movie was great, but made us only care for the apes. The original movie was great, but only made us care for the humans (kind of). This movie is like some weird amazing hybrid between the two, and comes out looking (I dare say) even more amazing than both of them.

What can I really say about this movie's story line? This is the eighth film about apes taking over the world sporting "Planet of the Apes" in its title. You know by now what you are here for. Apes taking over the world while riding horses and carrying guns, cursing the existence of human beings in English. Is the story line good? Yes. Of course it is good. The title of this movie is "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" not "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" so I expected it to be a good story line. I like that a virus killed off the humans and violence towards one another finished off all but a hand full, and that the once scorned apes now have the advantage. I like that Caesar doesn't want war, but his story shows us that it isn't always what you want that is going to happen (again no spoiler warning, you know the apes go to war in the trailers). I like that it comments on us being able to see shades of good and evil everywhere, and it isn't people as a whole but the person who is at fault. There are tons of great messages in this movie, and I think that since this movie has very limited amounts of blood it would be a great film to take your kids to, so they can learn some valuable lessons.

With all of this good stuff I am writing about the movie, surely the acting must have been shit, right? Surely, this movie wasn't perfect, right? Well actually this movie came as close to perfect as I have seen from this franchise, and that is saying a lot. The voices provided to the apes were powerful and commanding, just like they should be given the species they are trying to represent. They are the greatest representation of the acting since most of the movie is spent following them. I didn't mind Jason Clarke in this, he seems to have put a lot of heart in becoming the replacement for James Franco and I give him all the respect in the world for givng us a great performance regardless of if he actually did better or not. My one gripe is that Gary Oldman didn't have a bigger part, his part was good, but I could have done with more of him (regardless of what he said in an interview, that doesn't matter to me). I am a Gary Oldman fanboy, from Dracula to Commissioner Gordon. From Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg to Sirius Black. I have loved all of his performances, even when he was in bad movies I loved his performance in them ("Tiptoes" and "Robocop" to name a couple) and if the only bad thing I can say about this movie is that I wanted to see more of one of my favorite actors, then I guess this movie did pretty great.

Now I am going to do something I try not to do in my reviews. Comment on the music. The moment the movie starts you see the globe being effected by the virus, and the news reels are rolling over everything, you get emotionally invested. It isn't because of a new version of the same opening for a "pandemic movie" we have seen a dozen times, it is the music. Every battle, every emotional sequence, every speech is accented brilliantly by the use of this great music. I went over Michael Giacchino's  accredited works after watching this movie and have to say that this is quite possibly his greatest achievement. The story was great, the character's were great, the actors were great; but I have a feeling that without this music backing them all up this movie wouldn't have been as good alone. My one regret for Micheal is that he seems to work closely with J.J. Abrams and I hope he can find it within his common sense to jump off that untalented ship.

The last thing I can say about this movie is that the cinematography was on par with some of the greatest movies I have seen. Following Caesar''s son threw a battle with the humans was intense and makes you feel like you were there. Watching the birth of an ape was beautiful and emotional. Seeing every emotion cross a characters face with the perfect amount of close ups or seeing battles brought to life with expertly timed long shots was like seeing a true artist at work. I hadn't seen too much from director Matt Reeves before, but if this is what I can expect as a sign of things to come I know he has a bright future ahead of him. For now, I just can't wait to see what he does next.

Final Verdict: Buy it  One of the few movie's I have given my highest recommendation, and I can't stand behind this enough. Not only should you go see it in theaters right now, but you should but it on Blu-ray to enjoy over and over. If you don't have a Blu-ray player go out and get one so you can enjoy this movie in the highest form of home entertainment available then buy this movie. You will not regret it. 

Deliver Us From Evil

Still no scary movies for 2014

Our story begins with New York Police Officer Sergeant Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), and his partner Butler (Joel McHale) being called on what seem like normal police calls; but only get stranger as their day goes on. It goes from a simple domestic disturbance, to a woman throwing her child into a lion's den at a zoo. All of these events start becoming linked with one extremely evident cause. Demonic Presence. With this information Sarchie teams up with a priest named Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) to put an end to it all. Unfortunately, he might not be able to stop it before it reaches his wife (Olivia Munn) and their daughter at home.

So the story line here likes to take on the guise of "inspired by actual events/accounts" meaning that the people in this movie saw an exorcism done at a police station and chose to embellish for profit. I refuse to believe in things of this nature, and when people make a movie about something that may or may not have happened to them once upon a time ago I am in my full rights to call bullshit on them. I know there are a lot of people out there that believe in garbage like this and if you choose to believe it that is your prerogative I am not calling it wrong. What I am calling wrong are these people exploding a window during an exorcism at a police station, having a man controlling lions with words, and having this sergeant go through all of these paranormal events as a "real" accounting of the story. That is the main problem I have with the story, the embellishing. I honestly just wish that they would give me the events as they actually happened, but I guess all we would have then are people throwing children into a lion's den and an exorcism, instead of all of this boring "intrigue." Most of the time horror movies that are "based on actual events/accounts" can make me forget about this by being scary or entertaining; but this one kind of fell on the other end of that spectrum. 

Away from my main problem with the story being "based on actual events/accounts bullshit," I guess I should talk about the story line on the basis of what I think it was. Fiction. It really is the same old song and dance of horror movies here. Possession, exorcism, animals acting weirdly, inanimate objects moving on their own, more crosses in one movie than there are in the enitire Vatican. Same stuff, all except for our movie's protagonist being a cop. He is your average horror movie protagonist skeptical (a.k.a. sane), brash, dark history; but he is also a bit more compelling than your average Josh and Renai Lambert ("Insidious" reference because I hate that series). Him being a cop makes him SUPER skeptical at things like this, since he has seen a lot of people doing horrible things. He is distant from his family because of the job he works and the things he has seen in his time. He himself has done some horrible things and has a problem with rage. Even his partner as an adrenaline junkie wearing a Boston Redsox hat in New York to get a thrill is intriguing. His partner gets into knife fights with the people they are arresting and if there is any truth to that at all (unlikely as it is, since this entire movie was probably made up) that man was a badass and a half. 

The real problem here was with the acting (as per the norm in horror movies) the only person giving a good performance in this movie was Eric Bana. That is unfortunate since he seemed so bored while you were watching him on screen. Joel McHale tried stepping away from his typecast for a bit, and after seeing what he looks like trying to "act" he needs to step back into his typecast. There is this funny scene (yes, I was the only person laughing in the theater) where Eric Bana calls Joel McHale a "bad actor" because of something to do with the story line, and it looks like it hit Joel hard in a real way. Olivia Munn does the most mediocre performance of her career, Edgar Ramirez joins her mediocrity.

The main question here (as always) is: was it scary? There are some genuinely frightening moments in the movie, but overall it was way too slow paced to be considered scary. It was definitely leaps and bounds more frightening than the travesty that was "Oculus," but still not something I would put in the scary category. Movies about possession and demonic presence tend not to scare me that often unless they are a bit more over the top (see "The Exorcist" and "The Conjuring"), so I guess this didn't have a very good chance of scaring me from the get go. It could be scary to people that actually care about things like this, and if you are one of those people you should go see it. 

Final Verdict: Netflix It It is frightening enough for you to look at when you have nothing better to do, but that is about it. The bad part of all of this is that it might be considered a black mark on a great actor's (Eric Bana's) career.