Paranormal Activity 2 brings serious scares

If you want a good scare this Halloween weekend, Paranormal Activity 2 is the movie to see.

For those that missed the original, the Paranormal Activity series are psychological horror movies shot in the Cinema Verite style, meaning they use hand-held cameras, security cameras, and other non-traditional film equipment to achieve a realistic, faux-documentary feel.  It’s been in style ever since The Blair Witch Project, and has been recently used in just about every genre to mixed results.

In Paranormal Activity 1 & 2, the Verite style has found its true home in horror.  As any movie-goer could tell you, with rare exception the quality of horror movies has been plummeting, and has recently devolved into what some call “torture porn”.  Evident in movies like Saw and Hostel, the filmmakers basically show all the gore, pain, and torture they can to get shock scares from the audience, usually at the expense of real fear and suspense.

With the Verite style, the creators of the Paranormals have brought subtlety, suspense, and true visceral terror back to film.  The mood builds slowly – a bump in the night here, a door closing by itself there - until it’s obvious an evil force is in the house with some pretty bad intentions.  The beauty of the film is how you have to frantically scan over the seemingly calm and innocuous security footage to find the next freaky occurrence before it scares you out of your seat.

For those who have seen the first, you’ll see some familiar faces as story bridges are created to connect the two films.  In essence, Paranormal Activity 2 ends up being both a prequel and sequel to the first, giving some context as to what happened outside the frame of the first story.

Also, fans of the first installment should remember how important theater atmosphere is to the effectiveness of the movie.  If you’re in Hilliard, I’d recommend the Starplex Cinema on Hilliard-Rome over the otherwise amazing Movie Tavern at Mill Run.  The food and beer are great, but the eating, talking, and waiters will detract a bit from the cold, steel grip this movie can have on your psyche.

Enjoy, and remember what it was like as a child to be terrified of the dark.  B-

Feast for the Eyes: Xbox Live's LIMBO

For those if us who mainly use their Xbox360 for streaming Netflix movies nowadays, some might not realize that they can indeed still be used to play games.  In addition, assuming you've got it connected to Xbox Live (and since you're streaming Netflix I'm going to call that a safe assumption), you can download them straight to your console without leaving the ass groove on your couch.  These range in fair from old classics to new releases, and even include some small-budget indy games that occasionally put the big boys to shame.  Those who were lucky or in-the-know enough to have experienced BRAID know what potential these games can have.  Called "ingenious", "startlingly creative", and "a risky experiment climaxing in glorious success", it is by far the best game I've ever downloaded and a must-own for anyone with a 360.

Last night, I found its successor.

It's called LIMBO.  I downloaded the free demo and was instantly haunted by the atmosphere, on top of being almost immediately stymied by its puzzles.  I decided that if it was still as strikingly vivid in my mind Wednesday morning, I would have to tell others.  It is, and I think I'm going to pay for the full game tonight because I really just want to see it again.  The fact that it looks like it's going to be spooky as hell and really hard, not to mention top quality, is just gravy.  I'll be back to let you know if it holds up.  I think I may still be talking to myself, but check out the trailer and leave me a comment with what you think.

Epic For Our Generation: The Social Network

As a film buff, rarely does the opportunity present itself to watch movie history being made.  It seems we're always looking back at how the great artists of the medium transformed larger-than life characters, fictional and historic, into generational icons.  In the early forties Orson Welles gave us the epic Citizen Kane, the dramatized story of how William Randolph Hurst changed the world with his media empire.  In the seventies, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola brought us The Godfather, the fictional tale of a mafia family that changed our culture and film forever.

In 2010, I'm comfortable saying we're witnessing a film of equally Shakespearian epic influence.  Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher have just given us The Social Network, the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the invention of Facebook, and all the glory, betrayal, and world-changing implications that went with it.

The film begins with the most crackling and engagingly tone-setting opening scene since Inglourious Basterds, an exchange between Zuckerberg and his girlfriend in a Harvard bar where we get our first look at the disconnect between his intellectual genius and emotional ineptitude.  Jesse Eisenberg's take on the social media magnate is both amazing and surprising.  For those who saw him in Adventureland and Zombieland, this is not the same awkward, fumbling Eisenberg.  Here we have a performance of  conviction and nuance, and one that should take him to the Oscar stage in early 2011.  Don't be surprised if he's sharing the spotlight with Sorkin (for a brilliantly barbed script that reads like a verbal knife-fight), Fincher (for directing this visual tour-de-force) and especially Justin Timberlake for his always-surprisingly-awesome contribution as Sean Parker, the Napster pioneer and catalyst for the biggest swings and betrayals of the story.

The nonlinear timeline may be a bit tough to follow by those not as familiar with the method or story, but basically the movie follows the origin legend of Facebook simultaneously with the two lawsuits that were filed after its inception.  Legal conversations in stuffy boardrooms have never been more enthralling than with Zuckerberg interjecting his brand of vitriolic sarcasm and emotionless contempt.

With the Halloween season underway and so many great movies already in theaters, I must insist that you put them aside if you haven't yet seen this instant classic, if for no other reason than to be able to tell your grandkids you were there to see it in theaters.  A+

I'm in need of a good scare....

Nicole and I are really really jonesing for a scary movie.  Let Me In wasn't exactly what she expected and My Soul To Take just looks awful, so we thought we might be out of luck this October.  However, while flipping through my Flixter Movies app on my new DroidX, I came across a little British sci-fi flick simply called Monsters.  I read the synopsis, watched the trailer, and now I'm psyched.  Call it the next District 9.

The movie takes place six years after a NASA probe returned to Earth with samples of alien life.  It crashed over Central America and new life forms began to sprout up over half of Mexico, causing it to be quarantined.  It sounds like the story takes place through the eyes of a journalist who agrees to locate and escort to the safety of the US border the daughter of his boss, a shaken American tourist.  I'm sure they're in for some terrifying encounters as they try to get out of the war between the monsters and the American and Mexican military.  Here is a link to the official site.  Watch the trailer and let me know what you guys think.

Something else I'm extremely excited about is the premiere of AMC's new show The Walking Dead.  As anyone who watches TV should know, AMC makes some damn good original television.  Their first was Mad Men, a show many consider to be the best show on TV.  Then there was Breaking Bad, a show I consider to be one of the best on TV.  After that came Rubicon, one I haven't yet had a chance to watch, but one that my brother seems to think is pretty good (though the trailers seem to be saying otherwise).  So even regardless of the latter, AMC has a damn good track record with enough Emmy's to make Tony Soprano have another panic attack.

When I heard AMC was coming out with another drama, and about zombies no less, needless to say I was extremely excited.  When I heard it would be created by one of the best writer/directors in Hollywood (Frank Darabont, the man behind Shawshank and The Mist) I just about had a panic attack myself.  The story seems pretty zombie-standard, post apocalypse, struggle for survival, doing unimaginable things to stay alive, etc, but with such a rock solid foundation I don't think it can lose.  Make sure to check out the 90-minute (!) premiere on AMC on Halloween at 10pm.

-Dan

Summer Movie Rewind: Iron Man 2, and my Summer Movie Extravaganza

Our office is officially closed, I'm fully on the work-at-home model now, and I FINALLY got my Summer reviews from my work computer (as well as the rest of the computer) and I'll post them here for your viewing pleasure.  Reviews coming soon: The Social Network & Let Me In

Iron Man 2

Like any modern movie franchise, the success of a first installment necessitates a sequel. As a general Hollywood trend, this is purely a financial exercise meant to exploit the popularity of the first movie and inevitably sacrifice quality on the altar of the almighty dollar. However, in recent years that inevitability thankfully hasn't applied to summer's new favorite genre, the Superhero movie. Dating back to Brian Singer's X-Men, whose sequel X2 outclassed and outperformed the first, and including Spider-Man 2 and the Dark Knight, super hero movies seem to do what no other film genre can and actually improve the second time around (it's worth noting this improvement almost never applies to a third installment). Now, does this rule apply to Iron Man 2? It does and it doesn't.

First things first: I've never laughed harder during a superhero movie. For those of you who have seen the original Iron Man, or any other movie with Robert Downey Jr., it's easy to give all that credit to Tony Stark. Downey plays this narcissistic, over-entitled, megalomaniac with the same reluctant heart and sharp wit that he brings to pretty much every character he plays. At this point, I'm not sure if I can call what he does “acting” as he plays almost identical characters in just about every movie he's in (Tropic Thunder being the obvious, Oscar-nominated exception), but whatever it's called, his presence alone made movies like “Sherlock Holmes” and “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” watchable. Unlike other actors whose performances are defined by the characters they play, Downey Jr's characters are defined by him, and Tony Stark is the best example. I've never seen an actor more perfectly suited for a character (or vice-versa) and in my opinion, he's worth the price of admission all by himself.

But enough about him. Everybody knows superhero sequels are all about cool new villains, and this is where my gripes start. To avoid confusion, it wasn't the casting or performances that I didn't like. Mickey Rourke is as fierce and enthralling as ever playing Ivan Vanko, whose father was a colleague of Tony's father. There's a lot of bad family blood there, and Ivan becomes the villain “Whiplash” to exact his revenge. Also, an old childhood nemesis of Tony's, Justin Hammer, challenges Tony with the backing of his own multinational arms conglomerate and an army of Vanko-designed war drones. Perfectly cast in the role is Sam Rockwell, whose sniveling pomposity is the villainous weasel to Rourke's grizzly bear.

The problem I have with the villains may be a systemic one. I'm not a comic book reader, and I know nothing about the back story here, but it seems any serious villain in these movies must wear a large fancy suit of armor. I was a little disappointed when Iron Man and his buddy in the silver War Machine suit head off to the climactic battle to vanquish Vanko, only to find him in a giant metal suit that looked exactly like the one Jeff Bridges piloted at the end of the first Iron Man. I'm pretty sure there are villains in this series that DON'T wear giant metal suits, and I know this because a large portion of Iron Man 2 has no other purpose than to set up a pretty silly amount of sequels covering God-only-knows how many comic franchises. And when I say a large portion, I mean entire superfluous sub-plots and multiple characters.

These problems aside, Iron Man 2 is a funny, rockin' superhero movie whose best quality is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It isn't a grandiose tour-de-force like the Dark Knight, and it would be a stretch to say it's an improvement over the first Iron Man, but it's a quality sequel nonetheless. I give it a B-.

Summer Movie Extravaganza!

Hello Readers! It seems like forever since I've been able to bring you some news and opinion in the world of film, so I thought I'd give you a great big helping this time around. This summer has been chock-full of family movies, and I wanted to give you a quick rundown on a few I've seen in the last couple months before a short review of the most anticipated movie of the summer, Christopher Nolan's mind-bending, dream-diving blockbuster Inception.

Toy Story 3 – Hands down the best installment of this storied series and boasting a ridiculous 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Toy Story 3 closes out the trilogy with style and heart. Our favorite animate objects find themselves in a decidedly darker sort of adventure after being donated to a day care center where there's more going on than meets the eye. Like any good family movie must do these days, it appeals to both the young and old with its combination of clever laughs and tear-jerking drama. After so much time learning to love these toys, some very young children might have a bit of trouble with the amped-up peril in this sequel, but then again, so did I. Bring a tissue. A

The Last Airbender – The newest attempt by M. Night Shyamalan to recreate the magic of his earlier films is unfortunately just another flop by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Following the travesties of The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening, it appeared Shyamalan wanted to take a stab at directing someone else's story, and landed on the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Crazy special effects and some pretty cool fight scenes are the only things that save this movie from its terrible direction, confusing story, and questionable casting choices. Unless you're a huge fan of the source material, avoid at all costs. D+

Despicable Me – Featuring the voices of Steve Carrell and Jason Segel, Despicable Me is an animated family comedy about an over the hill super villain, his army of minions, and his goal of stealing the moon. The story isn't particularly deep or original, and the film never reaches the atmospheric heights owned by Pixar, but in his quest for the moon, Gru (Carrell) reaches just high enough to steal our hearts and the top box-office spot, if only for a couple weeks. Plus, it has some of the best use of 3D I've seen so far this summer, and I'm a huge sucker for great 3D. Bring the kids! B-

And now for the main event....

Inception – Ever since Star Wars Ep.1 stomped all over my expectations (not to mention years of dedication), I haven't allowed myself to have such high hopes for a movie. Even after the first two glorious Lord of the Rings movies, I wouldn't let myself get too excited for The Return of the King because it seemed too recent since George Lucas broke my heart. With Inception, however, the anticipation sucked me up like a tornado, and more importantly, surpassed my expectations. And how could it not? With the best director in the business and the most talented ensemble I've seen in a long time, the incredible special effects are just icing on the cake. But to use the term “incredible” is to deny them the full praise they deserve. The visuals in this movie are so hugely different, so mind-blowingly unique that they give you the experience in a theater you thought you'd never have again: watching something you've never seen before.

I'm going to take a cue from the trailers and keep most of the incredibly convoluted plot under wraps. All you have to know is that this movie is absolutely unmissable, and I'll leave you with a bit of advice the concession kid gave me before I went in: put your thinking caps on. A+