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mtbrenneman
Reviews
Cold Blooded (2012)
Overall good crime/drama, but not for the faint hearted
This is a film that deals with a young woman, Frances, who is a rookie cop. Her duty is to guard a prisoner who robbed a jewelry and was knocked unconscious when he was arrested.
Frances is a smart, alert good cop and she is a nice foil to the prisoner called Cordero, who is equally sharp as her, but just on the other side of the law. The verbal parrying and banter between Cordero and Frances at the start of the film is good, and one starts off the film with rather high hopes for Frances.
However things take a turn for the serious when Cordero's crew mates come to pay him a visit. When Cordero is caught, he is with another accomplice who is, for some reason shot dead. Cordero learns that the official version of the events is that Cordero shot his accomplice, which Cordero swears up and down is false. The problem is that the main crew boss coming to get the diamonds from Cordero, is also going to come to kill Cordero b/c he thinks Cordero turned on the accomplice. The crew mates come and the battle between them and Frances ensues which is a very brutal and bloody one. There is an event that happens to Frances relatively early on in the film which was *very* difficult for me to watch even though I usually love gore and blood. Maybe it was the realistic way in which this scene was done, or maybe because Frances is a character you are rooting for, but whatever the case, it was hard to watch.
Having said that, the film carries on at a good level of tension, action, and a satisfying denouement with a cast that was pretty solid. Overall, a good action/crime film, just maybe not for the squeamish or those who cannot suspend disbelief.
Bounty Killer (2013)
Good clean fun (OK, leave out the clean part)
Good mindless action flick.
Plot is pretty good (about how corporations end up running everything and produce an apocalypse), lots of action (if you don't like the sight of blood this film is not for you), fight scenes are well done, plot twists are predictable, but not too contrived within the confines of the film, and in the end, there's a little more to the plot than expected. All the actors are pretty good (esp lead male and female, along with the gun caddy). Only down note was that Gary Busey was in it. But even he couldn't ruin this film!
All in all, an enjoyable 90 minute action flick with a good story, actors, and action!
Dark Touch (2013)
Atrocious
You've heard of "Insidious:, well this movie should have been called "Atrocious"
Spoiler alert*********
OTOH, I don't know how I could spoil the plot b/c there weren't any twists in the plot and the movie is already pretty much spoiled as it is.
PLOT Little girl called Neve goes around killing every family she is placed with. How you may ask? Because she "can make things move when she cries". And move things she does: knives into adopted parents necks, credenzas into their legs, etc : you name, she'll move it right into you. Now, we are never told the origin of this strange phenomena, nor do we know if it is voluntary or involuntary (the film is uneven in this respect: sometimes it seems like she wants to control it, while other times, it seems like she is willing it). When Neve is not busy killing her own adopted parents, she moonlights as a killer of her classmate's abusive parents. So at this point, Neve is kinda like an autistic version of maybe "Carrie" or the "Firestarter". But, then the film starts to get like "Children of the Corn" b/c now, she is able to somehow control all the children. She gets a group of girls all set to walk into a fire and then gets all of the children to go into the schoolhouse at night and then cause the school to collapse on them. Why? Who knows? Are you still with me here?? Well, your staying power is to be commended, but it is probably waning, so let's get to the grand finale, shall we? Neve renders her current adopted parents helpless (by pinning them under something, after which point they just seem to give up :maybe like myself, they just wanted the film to be done with). She then bathes the adopted parents in what appears to be blood (with the help of the kids whose parent she killed), sits them down at the dinner table and sets the table on fire. The parents go up in flames, although it is not clear if Neve and her orphan helpmates survive. Let's ... hope ... not.
What really ticked me off about this film is that it was actually suspenseful and interesting to a point and the actors themselves were all pretty good. There were so many avenues that the film *could* have gone down, but in the end, the film just keeps piling one non-sequitor on top of the next and so the film has zero meaning or depth. A good example was the origin of the girl's evil: was it b/c she was abused, possessed, psychic, or demonic? How did she go from being able to make things move, to being able to start fires, to being to control others? Throughout the film Neve has this odd whistle and her ears ring, causing her pain. What's that about? There was also a weird disconnect between the audience being made to believe she was a victim of abuse OTOH, while then making her out to just be willfully evil. (I know this may *sound* clever; trust me, it is not.)
Should you watch this movie? Well it depends. Do you like pounding nails into your arms, banging your head against a cement wall, or purposefully wasting 90 minutes of your life watching a film with absolutely no point, plot, or purpose? Well, if you do, have at this film (but please try to seek help too).