Paranormal Activity 2
Richard's Review: 3 1/2 stars
Last year's "Paranormal Activity," a down-and-dirty little horror film about a suburban home, a couple and the evil spirit that shared the place with them, was the first and only time I have ever heard anyone actually scream in a theatre. I don't mean a quiet whimper followed by an embarrassed laugh or a frightened little squeal. No, I mean a full-on, open throated howl of terror. The movie was leave-the-lights-on scary, and like other left-field horror hits "The Blair Witch Project" and "Night of the Living Dead" it was cheap to make and really profitable, so of course there had to be a sequel (or, in this case, a prequel). The question is, will the prequel be as good as "Dawn of the Dead," (that's "Night of the Living Dead's" astonishingly nasty follow-up) or will it mirror the ill-fated "Blair Witch" model and tarnish the movie's good name?
Director Tod Williams (replacing series originator Oren Peli) doesn't stray too far from the kind of thrills and chills that turned the first film into a box office juggernaut. Call it Three Demons and a Baby if you like, but the main differences are the addition of a baby and a dog who scraps with a demon. Here's the rundown. After experiencing what looks like a home invasion -- a family's house is torn apart while they are out -- the sister of the woman from Part 1 comes to the conclusion that perhaps a demon is terrorizing her home. Instead of calling Father Karras or Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer, she decides to ignore the problem and hope it goes away. It doesn't.
Sound familiar? Sure does, it echoes the first film so closely you may experience déjà vu as you watch "Paranormal Activity 2." Like the first one the story is told through "found footage," in this case a combo of home movies made by the family and surveillance footage. Imagine a mix of "America's Funniest Home Videos" and a CNN crime report and you get the idea.
The look of the movie goes a long way in creating the tension that propels the scares. The setting is so ordinary -- it takes place inside a regular looking suburban house -- and we're so used to watching this kind of camerawork that the mix of the supernatural and the ordinary makes for some very tense moments. And there are more tense moments than anything else.
The movie is all build-up. It's an old-fashioned scare-fest where the tension comes from the expectation that at any moment all hell (literally) could break loose. Nothing much happens for the first half-an-hour and the movie is literally at the hour mark before anything of note occurs.
Mostly it is low-fi thrills -- a loud bang here, a slamming door there -- and one of the first signs of demonic possession, a frisky pool cleaner, is almost played for laughs. It is creepy, however. The absence of music lends an eerie feel to the film which makes up for some of the epic silliness of the plot like the mumbo jumbo about a malevolent spirit that haunted the movie's female characters when they were young. Also this family spends more time behind the camera than Haskell Wexler and it is never explained why they feel they have to record every moment of their lives.
"Paranormal Activity 2" isn't as scream-your-guts-out scary as the first one. It couldn't be, we know what to expect the second time around, but it is good sorta-spine-chilling Halloween fun
Hereafter
Richard's Review: 3 stars
"Hereafter," the new drama from one-man-movie-making-machine Clint Eastwood -- this is his eight film in just seven years -- begins with a tour-de-force sequence before settling in to a deliberate but slow pace.
In its opening minutes Eastwood stages a tsunami scene that shows a tropical beach town torn apart by a giant wave. Caught in the wild water is a French television anchor (Cecile de France) who later becomes obsessed with thoughts and visions of the hereafter following her near death experience. That's the first of three stories Eastwood weaves together "Crash"-style to explore the metaphysical side of death. In other, unrelated plot shards Matt Damon plays an American psychic with the ability to speak to the dead -- "It's not a gift," he says, "it's a curse." -- and an English boy who longs to communicate with his dead twin brother.
Eastwood, working from a script by two-time Oscar nominee Peter Morgan has made a film that is by times engaging, by times plodding. On their own the three stories each have their merits but the film's final third, where they are brought together, feels clumsy despite a touching climax between Damon and the little boy. It's a nice moment, but it seems to take an eternity to get there. Ditto Damon's interaction with the French journalist. Here Eastwood and Morgan have a chance to provide some insight into the woman's story in the form of a letter Damon‘s character writes to her, but fail to do so. It's a frustrating end to a movie that appears to have something to say.
On the plus side Eastwood creates nice moments of tension early on as he establishes the various story threads, and Damon once again proves that he is a versatile, interesting actor, but unfortunately the movie, so ambitious in scope -- shot in three countries with a large talented cast -- is let down by a self indulgent script.
Score: A Hockey Musical
Richard's Review: 2 stars
Does a country that already has a Hockey Hall of Fame, an omnipresent coffee chain named after a defenseman and Wayne Gretzky Riesling really need an all-dancing, all-singing tribute to the sport? Director Michael McGowan thought so and the result is "Score: A Hockey Musical," a parody of hockey violence set to a soundtrack that rhymes baloney with zamboni. All that's missing is Don Cherry.
Farley (Noah Reid) is a mild-mannered, peace-loving, home-schooled hockey prodigy who loses himself in the violent world of semi-pro hockey and the fame which accompanies his fancy stick handling. Songs are sung, ice dancing occurs and soon Farley realizes that the cute girl next door (Allie McDoanald) is more than just his best friend and that if he isn't true to himself he can never be true to the game.
"Score: A Hockey Musical" has its heart in the right place, but what could have been a surreal Glee-like experience unfortunately ends up as a clumsily choreographed exercise in Canadiana that seems unlikely to appeal to sports fans or musical theatre hounds.
To mix sports metaphors "Score: A Hockey Musical" doesn't hit a home run.
