Decent Popcorn Flick - But Unrelated to Poe
585486
Let me first make something clear: "Tell Tale" actually has nothing to do with "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.  In Poe's short story, a murderer is haunted by the sounds of his victim's beating heart.  In the film, the recipient of a heart transplant shares a supernatural connection with his deceased donor, and seeks to unravel the mystery of his murder.  The film only emphasizes the heartbeat when single father Terry sees someone that the victim did.

The film is directed by Michael Cuesta, who previously directed episodes of Dexter and Six Feet Under.  It's produced by Tony and Ridley Scott, and even though they aren't listed as directors, I found it interesting that the film borrows direction techniques from Man on Fire (A Tony Scott film).

I've enjoyed work by Josh Lucas in the past (Glory Road, Sweet Home Alabama), but he simply doesn't stand out in this role.  On the other hand, Brian Cox (Bourne Identity, Braveheart) absolutely steals the show as Van Doren, the detective following every move Josh's character makes.  Michael K. Williams (Omar Little from The Wire) seemed a promising inclusion in the film, but has virtually no screen time.

The downside to the film is that it's not incredibly original.  Return to Me was a 2000 movie that deals with the bond between a heart transplant recipient, and the man who loved the deceased donor.  1995's Jeff Goldblum film Hideaway also explored supernatural connections between accident victims.  Beyond the concept issues, the twist that occurs during the film serves only to point out a major plothole (the most I can say without spoiling it).

This movie is worth renting, though I wouldn't consider buying it until after you've watched it once.  Light on originality, but with some solid acting by Brian Cox, this makes for a decent weekend rental.
1146023
I saw this movie for free, as a friend of mine (for reasons I cannot fathom) bought it and loaned it to me, knowing that I am a huge fan of the Indiana Jones movies.  I can understand someone thinking that a similar film might appeal to me, but when that film is absolute crud ... well.  I knew that both this film and the one which preceded it (which I have mercifully not yet seen) were both based on video games, but this was not necessarily a bad thing: after all, "The Pirates of the Carribean" was based on an amusement park ride, and yet the movie was still very enjoyable (of course, that movie had some truly talented artists working behind it, such as Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp).  But perhaps that particular movie was an exception to the rule ... it's very possible that movies based on video games/rides/other sorts of not-exactly-literate entertainment generally aren't that great (but it would be nice if they were). But what exactly were my problems with this movie?  I've got a list of them, and here they are in no particular order:
The first complaint that comes to mind for this has to do with the music.  Though it wouldn't be so bad if we heard it just a time or two, the "theme music" for this movie, a sort of "Lawrence of Arabia"-style sweeping orchestra piece, gets pretty danged irritating the fortieth or so time we hear it.
Second, there's Lara Croft's outfits.  They aren't practical adventuring gear ... they're obviously costumes.  That's the vibe I got right away, when first we saw her jetskiing in that skin-tight silver thing.  She's an archaeologist, not a model, for crying out loud!  Not only that, but Angelina Jolie, in spite of how well she pulled off the British accent, seemed totally phony and unbelievable in the role.  She was more an archetype than a real person ... a glamorous British adventurer simply going through the moves.  The character did nothing for me.
Third, the action and flow of the film struck me as nothing more than a series of incidents or set-pieces ... one cool action moment after another, repeated ad nauseum, from a hardly thrilling skydive to a motercyle ride on top of the Great Wall of China to a dozen more ... It's not exciting in the least, and only inspired for me eye-rolling tedium.  It made me wonder "what's next" as each scene went by, and not in a good way.
While the action was up to that point meant to be realistic, the whole climax of the film involving the tree creatures guarding the treasure of Pandora's Box, along with the Escher-style caves the box is kept in really came out of nowhere, inspiring the question "what the heck is that all about" rather then, "wow, cool!".  One thing I like now, I realize, about "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (which is quite possibly my all-time favorite movie, I should now mention) is that it gave us hints of the supernatural throughout the film, without actually throwing us into a situation where the supernatural was undeniably at work until the very end.  This movie, unfortunately, keeps us (tenuously, I admit) in the real world until the bit toward the end, and the change is quite jarring and feels totally artificial.
I really didn't care for "Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life", and so I really cannot recommend it.  If anyone out there can enjoy this, more power to them, I say, but I honestly believe that a healthy dose of Indiana Jones administered through a viewing of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" will immediately cure anyone of their desire to see this film again.  It saddens me to know that while another Indy film seems next to impossible to get off the ground, films like this are in the meantime somehow being released and making people like me always more aware of what the movie-viewing public is really missing out on.
Carry on Carry on,
MN
4914326
I won't spoil this film for you by feeding you the plot ... What Lies Beneath contains some nice surprises and you're better off enjoying them as such. Alas, if you have watched the trailer or read the wrong reviews here at Amazon, you probably have a fairly decent summary of WLB in your head.
To tell the truth, I was enjoying all the scares for the largest part of this film. Still, the 'finale' came across as the usual Hollywood stuff, and it all ended too nicely, too convenient (my opinion). And it moved along at a somewhat slow pace (no big gripe), and there are scenes that could have used some polishing. I even thought there was the odd ??? (huh effect) here and there, where only the soundtrack goes 'scary' while on the screen nothing creepy occurs.
But casting all these complaints aside, there's still plenty of reasons why to invest your time in this. Ford and Pfeiffer are quite good as, respectively, husband and wife (Pfeiffer was the better of the two, IMO). Supporting cast is fine too. The real kicker is the bathtub, though. And also the mysterious neighbors. And the seance ... and the etc. etc.
Conclusion: I haven't wasted time. Good but not a classic.
372182
The only reason I picked this movie up [as a rental] was because of Morgan Freeman, an actor I've always respected and admired. The fact that Antonio Banderas plays opposite him also intrigued me, and then there's the beautiful Radha Mitchell. So, the idea of these three together in a movie kind of made it an appealing choice, though I have to say I was disappointed with the results.

The movie is a standard heist film - Antonio Banderas plays Gabriel aka Gaby, an armed bandit who encounters Morgan Freeman's character, Ripley whilst pulling off a robbery on a subway train. Ripley sees potential in the relatively younger Gaby and persuades him to join him in a heist at the famous Romanov's Jewelers. The objects of desire are two prized Faberge eggs whose existence have never been officially acknowledged but which Ripley assures Gaby are very much in existence and priceless [well, about 40 million]. Anyway, as Gaby agrees to be Ripley's sidekick, he finds himself falling for Ripley's Russian goddaughter [played by Radha Mitchell]. Things get more complicated when a detective resentful of not being able to convict Ripley for his past heists starts putting the heat on the pair, despite being warned off by the Feds [who are investigating the Russian jewelers]. When Radha Mitchell's character gets kidnapped, Ripley and Gaby are forced to race against time to pull off the heist of a lifetime with some interesting plot twists along the way.

What worked for me - the acting was credible on the whole, despite the unimaginative and at times, implausible plot. There is no genuine chemistry between Freeman and Banderas, and the pairing seems awkward. The story itself is uninspired - there have been so many other heist movies that were much better than this, and so I felt let down by the writing and the direction.

What does work is the chemistry between Banderas and Mitchell. Radha Mitchell is a very attractive actress and she pulls off her role convincingly, playing a rather enigmatic character who seems to know more than she is letting on. The pair sizzle on-screen which helps the romance part of the movie,which happens to be another focus in this film. The heist part of the movie is rather weak, though the action picks up when Ripley and Gaby finally break into the jewelers, though once again, there is nothing new here.

On the whole, I'd recommend this as a rental at best - like I mentioned earlier, there are much better heist movies out there and "The Code" does not bring anything new to the table.
92154
3.5 stars.  I didn't love it.  But I liked it.  It held my attention despite Alba's horrible acting, a few awkward scene transitions and even bad dialogue.  There was absolutely no chemistry between Gruffudd and Alba.  Chiklis was passable but it was the CGI and Evans who saved this one for me since there was no real master plot from Dr. Doom and I didn't quite wrap my brain around what they were hoping to gather in space and how it was to benefit mankind.  Definitely a paint by numbers script that suprisingly works for these cheesy super heroes.  I'll probably check out the second movie when it's released...on DVD.  Overall, a descent popcorn flick.
1929168
This movie is not that good, but if you're a fan of sci-fi then you will eventually have to see it like I did.  Although I like the genre, fair is fair, and many other movies are better.  The less you get your hopes up, the greater your chance to enjoy the movie.  My fiancee, who never saw a sci-fi movie before asked me to turn this off after five minutes.  We did go on to watch Aliens vs. Predator (AVP), which she loved, to give a comparison.  However this, with all that being said, doesn't mean the movie won't be fun to watch.

As a trivia note, I inadvertently watched this movie back to back with AVP, and the similarities in the beginning at least were extraordinary.  I presume this is due to both John Bruno on the set of both, and that both storylines were based on Dark Horse comic books.

This is a fun popcorn movie.  The effects are gory on occasion and schlockey.  There are the occasional presence of von Neumann machines, but are not as nearly threatening as the Replicators in the Stargate series.  The movie title `Virus' works on a few levels.
3800700
"Solstice" (2008) was made by the creator of "<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Blair-Witch-Project/dp/B000KDZSA4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Blair Witch Project</a>", Daniel Myrick, and is a more conventional horror flick. Like "Blair", "Solstice" takes the subtle route with the creep factor and the typical trappings of slasher or quasi-slasher flicks; so stay away if you need serious gore, sex and nudity with your horror.

The film runs 90 minutes and the first hour plays out like myriad other monster/ghost movies -- a group of youths venture to some secluded area to party and tensions increase as the creep factor increases. What separates "Solstice" from, say, most of the Friday the 13th flicks, besides lack of gore, is the serious and realistic vibe of the proceedings. While this is welcomed by me, it also makes for a less entertaining viewing -- for the first hour, that is.

The last half hour is where everything comes together and there's almost a Wow factor as you realize what's really going on and what happened, etc.

While the cast are all no-names, except Amanda Seyfried (who wasn't that well-known at the time), they're effective enough. They could've done better with the women, but the main protagonist is decent, Elisabeth Harnois.

The film was shot in Louisiana.

GRADE: B
111813
The Green Inferno revolves around Justine, a college student who joins a group of activists who plan on helping a forest in the Amazon from being destroyed. However, their plane crashes and the activists are eventually kidnapped by a cannibalistic tribe and must do everything they can do to get rescued before they are eaten. The movie is directed by Eli Roth, who has directed a few good horror movies like Cabin Fever and Hostel, and his wife Lorenza Izzo plays Justine in this movie. The movie wasn't as good as I was hoping it would but it wasn't terrible either. The movie has it's fair share of suspense and some unrelentingly gruesome deaths that most definitely adds to the horror tone of the movie. One of the biggest flaws with the movie is some of the characters being a little bland and boring to a certain extent. In the end, The Green Inferno is not one of Eli Roth's best movies but it does show that he can work well with the horror genre. If you like some of Eli Roth's movies, you'll probably enjoy this movie.
2528296
I enjoyed the action,special effects and Gretel was a Bad Bitch..no ofense meant..Hansel was pretty good as well..Good popcorn popping flick!
255178
PRODUCT NOTE:  I bought the DVD/BluRay combo and the English dubbing was not very good, smacking of the wooden English voiceovers of Anime.

This movie was pretty "neat" but ultimately lacked the impressive storytelling (of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale), character development (of Let The Right One In) or creature-based intrigue (of Troll Hunter) of other genre-fan-acclaimed Scandinavian favorites.  If you like any of these other movies then you'll probably find Thale's allure to be irresistible.  Just set your expectations appropriately for more of a good idea presented as a single-serving; almost an extended one-act augmented by flavorful flashbacks.

Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) and Elvis (Erlend Nervold) run "No Shit Cleaning Service."  They are basically a dead body clean-up crew and Leo is much more strong-stomached than his queasy partner.  On one of their jobs disposing of a dead man they come across an underground dwelling that looks like a mix of a science lab and a bomb shelter complete with weird recordings as if made by a researcher on his stenograph.  While exploring this "lab" they find a strange, mute, naked woman (Silje Reinmo; Bak lukkede drer).

The recordings reveal that she is "Thale", that she has been down there for decades without food, and that there are others like her and that they want her--or something from her.  Thale possesses preternatural strength and the gift of ESP/Telepathy, which she uses to communicate to Elvis why she was being kept down in that bunker.

As Leo and Elvis try to figure out exactly who (or even what) Thale is, their stay in the bunker becomes a fight for survival against "something or someone."  Meanwhile, we gradually learn more about Thale, her origin and those who seek her.

Much to my surprise, Silje Reinmo spends a lot of this movie at least partially naked, portraying the serious and challenging role of a creature that doesn't speak but is filled with fear and curiosity.  She communicates a powerful range of emotions with her physical demeanor, facial expressions, and especially her eyes.  She does a fantastic job with her almost alien expressions and movements that resemble a feral, animalistic early adolescence.  This role reminds me of Jenny Spain's starring role in Deadgirl (2008), during which Spain faced even more challenging and limiting restrictions.

Another shock was decent creature effects.  It was all CGI, but done well (except for the action, when the quality degenerated).  This struck me as a lower mid-budget film, so I forgave that.

This movie was pretty "neat" but ultimately lacked the impressive storytelling (of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale), character development (of Let The Right One In) or creature-based intrigue (of Troll Hunter) of other genre fan-acclaimed Scandinavian favorites.  If you like any of these other movies then you'll probably find Thale's allure to be irresistible.  Just set your expectations appropriately for more of a good idea presented as a single-serving; almost an extended one-act augmented by flavorful flashbacks.
4553494
A decent popcorn movie.  A unique concept...But very predictable once you grasp what's going on.  I wouldn't pay to watch it again.
2806926
It's a good movie but, it's not the Lego movie.
2310849
This movie can be best described as roller coaster action - meaning, the movie goes from one action sequence to the next, with a very shallow story in between that serves mostly as a way for the movie to move from action piece to action piece.

With that said, I liked the movie.  It was mindless fun that kept me entertained.  I'm not the biggest fan of Brendan Fraser (sp?), but he does a decent enough job here - he is at his usual slap-stick comedy routine, but that helps lighten the mood of the movie.  Even the kid actor did a good job (I remember him from Bridge to Terebitia (sp?), so I was hoping he would do just as well in this movie).

As to the BD itself - the movie has a pretty clean transfer, which helps make the 3D version of the movie look even better.  I must admit, even though I felt a bit silly sitting there with those 3d glasses, the 3d wasn't bad at all; too bad it causes the colors to be crap, but otherwise, it was well done.
1561848
As other reviewers have stated the southern accents sported by these little known actors are rather distracting from the film.  Also, I think that an adaptation of the prequel Comic book (also written by Hans Rodionoff) would have been better.  This movie has more of an independent 'Darkness Falls' type feel rather than your typical B-movie straight to video.  All in all its not a bad film and is completely watchable.  Some of the special effects and makeup effects are pretty impressive actually.  Give it a rent and see what you think.  As I mentioned, there is a graphic novel/comic book which is a prequel to this story and is quite good.  Its called 'Man-Thing: Whatever Knows Fear' and its available in TPB form here on amazon.
4064736
In November man, a former CIA operative (Brosnan) is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high level CIA officials and the future Russian president.

In a movie that reminds me of a Bond movie or the Bourne movie series and although it lacks a bit of originality in storyline, it does have a pretty decent story and plenty of action.

I found the movie entertaining and watchable.  I cant say though I liked it better than the Bourne movies or one of the latest Bond movies but an entertaining popcorn watch.

3 and a half stars
44120
LXG is a good popcorn movie. Most modern audience members who don't remember, or care for, the imaginative cinema and literature of the past may be clueless of it's charms, but it's a quaint throwback to the days of Irwin Allen and George Pal with modern visuals. Pretty enjoyable.
311914
I felt this was a decent action movie, which was all I was looking for when I rented it.  The plot is interesting and fairly unique, but the ending was kind of predictable.  There were some holes in the plot, but part of watching a movie is suspending your beliefs and just enjoying the show.

The acting was good and I felt it was well cast.  I would recommend this movie to action/thriller movie lovers who are looking to be casually entertained - not those looking to be blown away or amazed by "genre defining film."