After reading a few reviews I had a preconception, expecting to see a combination of the best ingredients of highly rated thriller defining films such as Se7en, Usual Suspects, Fight Club and Saw. A lot of the reviews here seem to suggest that this film is an allusion to the above.
However, after watching it, there's too much seasoning and mix and matching - which is a shame because it had the potential to really be great. Of the films listed above I'd say its worse than all of them save for saw, where we have a tie (then again when Saw was released it had a certain novelty).
The pros:
Great central theme
Great cinematography and style -
Fast paced
Unpredictable
Something New
Borrows/Improves on Ideas from other great films
Neutral: -Its not a horror movie, but pushes some pretty unpleasant pscho-sociopathic ideas forward that I would assume would make the majority of viewers squirm at least a little.
-Really would've loved a Mullholland Drive twist (and it would fit too :) ).
From 8 stars to 6 immediately: Too many distractions from the main story that claim to be relevant to the main story - this disgruntled me immensely. The point of poker night is that older cops get together and help rookies learn from the mistakes of their older experienced peers. As I would prefer this review to be spoiler free, I'll leave it at: in my humble opinion many of these stories do nothing to help our protagonist.
Other Cons:
-Script is a bit lackluster at times
-These are movie cops, so they act a bit like teenagers in horror films. I.E. Whats that noise? let me check it out nude without any weapons or backup, the worst that could happen is free pizza.
Conclusively, there are so many good twists and moments where I had to double take (perhaps it doesn't help that I'm not particularly clever). I loved the ending and that's what brought it back to low 7 out of 10. I think if you interpret the ending in your own way and for you it makes sense that's all that matters. The ending here is executed to perfection. There are multiple interpretations and I like that. There is nothing worse than a thriller with a typical "it was all a dream cliché" or equivalent. With higher production value, some script revision this would've been something different and special pushing it up past 7.5. Give it a go :).
However, after watching it, there's too much seasoning and mix and matching - which is a shame because it had the potential to really be great. Of the films listed above I'd say its worse than all of them save for saw, where we have a tie (then again when Saw was released it had a certain novelty).
The pros:
Great central theme
Great cinematography and style -
Fast paced
Unpredictable
Something New
Borrows/Improves on Ideas from other great films
Neutral: -Its not a horror movie, but pushes some pretty unpleasant pscho-sociopathic ideas forward that I would assume would make the majority of viewers squirm at least a little.
-Really would've loved a Mullholland Drive twist (and it would fit too :) ).
From 8 stars to 6 immediately: Too many distractions from the main story that claim to be relevant to the main story - this disgruntled me immensely. The point of poker night is that older cops get together and help rookies learn from the mistakes of their older experienced peers. As I would prefer this review to be spoiler free, I'll leave it at: in my humble opinion many of these stories do nothing to help our protagonist.
Other Cons:
-Script is a bit lackluster at times
-These are movie cops, so they act a bit like teenagers in horror films. I.E. Whats that noise? let me check it out nude without any weapons or backup, the worst that could happen is free pizza.
Conclusively, there are so many good twists and moments where I had to double take (perhaps it doesn't help that I'm not particularly clever). I loved the ending and that's what brought it back to low 7 out of 10. I think if you interpret the ending in your own way and for you it makes sense that's all that matters. The ending here is executed to perfection. There are multiple interpretations and I like that. There is nothing worse than a thriller with a typical "it was all a dream cliché" or equivalent. With higher production value, some script revision this would've been something different and special pushing it up past 7.5. Give it a go :).