Unfriended

The internet is pretty damn

The story here is pretty simple, as far as horror movies go. We look at a computer screen from the perspective of Blaire. Her friends start a video conference, and they are soon haunted by the memory of their friend who committed suicide due to cyber bullying (and I guess some regular bullying too). Her friends start dying from forced suicide (or suicide from being possessed by a spirit), and they must play this spirit's game in order to survive.

I was pretty excited to see if this movie could accomplish being scary from a bold new way of film making. I put the actual budget for this movie at about $50,000 maximum, and in an age where hundreds of millions of dollars is par for the course to spend on a film, that is pretty impressive; however, only impressive if it works. Luckily, this movie works. Let's get this out of the way right now. This movie is in no way perfect. The characters are pretty weak, but since I never expect anything mind blowing from a horror movie's story I wasn't let down. The characters in this are basically copy and pasted from a book called "every horror movie character ever." I was hoping after "Cabin in the Woods" came out, horror movies would pay more attention to the characters, but sadly here I sit. We had the overweight, hacker, joker type. The main protagonist, the jock, the good boy, and the slut. Not all was lost for the characters, luckily they do kind of play around with the classic horror movie tropes, so the people that you expect to fit certain character designs are switched. There is something else I like about the character design, but it enters spoiler territory so I will just say: none of the main characters are really likable. Which is great, not exactly original, but still great.

The thing that surprised me the most about this film was the storyline. The story here was spot-on for today's generation. It wasn't perfect (the haunting from an angry spirit thing is starting to get really old), but there are certain parts of this movie that should appeal to today's generation. The moral of this story is the biggest home-run. This movie tackles cyber bullying above all else, and that is a growing issue for today, since anyone can be anonymous. Now there is a movie out there that says cyber-bullying has consequences, albeit you won't be possessed by a vengeful spirit, but still. If there were more movies out there like this, I feel like the message could come across to today's youth a little more than it is.

The biggest question here, as always, is: Was it scary? Actually, yeah, kind of. Look, it takes a lot for a movie to scare me these days, but this movie had some great scary elements. The way it was shot allowed for loading screens to serve as tension builders. Every part of this movie was made well enough to scare the layman horror movie watcher. The ending kind of annoyed me as far as horror endings go, but that is only because I saw it coming. The sound made the movie all the more tense, and the relatability to certain computer problems made the movie hit home. It made the movie feel more real that it was. If you are looking to be scared there might finally be a movie out there for you.

Normally, I go through the acting at the end, but how bad could teenagers mess up being teenagers. Seriously, if the acting in this turned out bad I would have no hope for the next generation of actors. So was it good. Sure. They acted like teenagers. No big deal.

Final Verdict: See it in Theaters Just a hair under flawless, for a horror movie. If it weren't for a few choices in the character and story department I would say that this movie was well worth buying. Still a pretty great piece of work. 

Furious 7

Bye Paul...

I'm going to do that thing I do sometimes in my reviews, and tell you that this movie needs no synopsis (because it really doesn't). Out of respect for the involved creative parties, I will say that it is about the brother of the antagonist from the last movie, seeking revenge for his brother being hospitalized by the gang we now know from six previous movies. This is not to say that the film was bad, just that the plot was basic, but we all know a movie can transcend the need for good storyline. This is one of those rare occurrences.

So, the story here is your basic bullshit revenge story, and I will not insult my readers by gauging the movie based on the merits of a lacking storyline. This series threw-out the need for good storyline after the first movie by becoming self aware around the fifth installment. This is not a series where you are going to find the best acting (for the most part), the best plot, or any awards attached, this is a series where you strap in and have fun. This is a series where Dwayne Johnson can flex his way out of an arm cast, rotate his shoulder (with provided cracking sound effects), moments later drive an ambulance of a bridge, walk away unscathed, and it seems perfectly normally. This is a series where if CPR fails to bring someone back from the dead, a touching story will do the trick. Lastly, this is differently a series where Vin Diesel and Jason Statham can have a sword fight with wrenches and car parts. This series holds very little basis in reality, but ever since they embraced and ramped-up the ridiculous action it has been extremely enjoyable. Every once in a while a movie like this is a nice break from either ultimately bad movies with nothing but shit surrounding them, and amazing movies that you have to pay attention to. If you want Ronda Rousey demonstrating MMA ,or The Rock giving Jason Statham The Rock Bottom, this is the movie for you.

While I love the mindless violence, and cheesy one-liners presented in this, I have to admit that the directing is a bit of a dice roll. Sometimes the glamour shots and slow motion bullshit are right one the money; other times, they make you want to hold the directors head under water screaming "COULD YOU PLEASE GET TO THE POINT!" James Wan has a fair amount of my respect for some of the movies he has graced us with in the past, but the direction in this was all over the map. Don't get me wrong, when the action is exploding he does a great job; but, for those really important moments, he likes doing the same trick numerous times and it gets to be a bit tiresome.

Now, for the acting. I ask that everyone please remember that this is said with the utmost respect for everyone involved. Almost everyone in this picture seemed to deliver their lines half halfheartedly, right up until the last part of the film (more on the ending later). Everything just seemed so stale coming out of people, and that struck me as a bit strange since all of the movies before this seemed to have a lot of excitement attached. I'm not saying all of the actors were horrible, just that there were moments where I could tell that certain actors didn't want to be there that day. Dwayne Johnson is about par for the course here, as is Michelle Rodriguez. Everyone else seemed to not care as much. I do think we have to crown Ronda Rousey as the absolute worst performance given in this. She had a total of two lines and couldn't seem to deliver.... TWO LINES!

Final Verdict: Rent it  It is hard to gauge a movie like "Furious 7," but in the end I have to go with how entertained I was by the movie. I was thoroughly entertained, and the ending might have you wiping your eyes.



*Spoiler Warning*
 Let's go ahead and talk about the ending real quick. We see "Brian O'Connor" (for all intents and purposes) playing with his family on the beach. Dom says some really touching shit, and goes off without saying good-bye. Cue the flashbacks to all of the other movies in the series. Brian catches up with Dom on the street says something about him not saying good-bye, and they both ride into the sunset together.

This is the perfect ending, and it got me a little chocked up. I honestly wasn't effected by Paul Walker's passing... I mean I was sad for his family and friends, but it didn't effect me much. For those who were effected by it, this was the perfect ending. It was handled gracefully, and the actors were noticeably effected in the film. Even for someone that wasn't directly effected by his passing, this got to me, and I appreciate the artist sharing it with the world.