Paranormal Activity

Starring:  Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Rated R (2007)

A young couple moves in together and so does a ghost.  Katie has been plagued over the years by a supernatural presence and after she moves in with her boyfriend this paranormal activity starts up again.  Her boyfriend sets up a video camera to document what happens and tries to find a solution that will make it go away.

• This movie starts out pretty slow.  We see the happy joking couple waking up, going about their day to day activity and sleeping in their room.
• As it goes on and the paranormal activity becomes increasingly more pronounced and frightening the couple becomes extremely agitated and night after night it builds to a very shocking conclusion.
• The format of this film is documentary style and set up to appear as if it is based on a true story.
• This movie is worth watching just for the ending alone.  I can't wait to see the next one!

4 Stars

Legion

Starring:  Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki
Mystery, Suspense, 2010 (Rated R)

A group of people at a remote desert diner find themselves in a fight for their lives as they battle those sent from up above intent on destroying human kind.

• This movie was just OK for me and not nearly as good as I was anticipating. 
• This whole thing about the fate of the world and human kind resting on an unborn child is so unoriginal which is fine, however I don't feel they brought enough of anything new to the table to make it fresh.
• Definitely entertaining but did not blow me away at all.

3 STARS

Shutter Island

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams
Director: Martin Scorsese
Suspense/Thriller, Rated R (2010)

Two US Marshall's travel to Shutter Island in stormy weather to investigate the disappearance of one of it's criminally insane patients. Upon arrival the pair find that the facility harbors many secrets and appears to be making every attempt to lie and thwart their investigation. As he digs deeper into the investigation Teddy (DiCaprio) is troubled by haunting memories of his late wife and his stint as a soldier in World War II freeing Nazi concentration camps. His question. What is really going on at Shutter Island? Is it a truly compassionate care facility for the worst of the worst mentally ill or is it a breeding ground for evil experiments.
The opening images of the stormy island, chained prisoners, and dark buildings really set the tone for the movie.

• I started to get just a little annoyed at all of the bizarre flashbacks of his wife and his war days that didn't seem to make too much sense. I kept wondering what the point was.
• The movie definitely got better as it went along. The last 45 minutes or so got more interesting as the plot began to unfold and the connection between the two sets of flashbacks is revealed.
• DiCaprio is an amazing actor. You could feel his pain and confusion coming through the screen.
• It wasn't as freaky as I was hoping and expecting but it was a good suspense filled movie and I liked it.
• This movie does have a twist. Even when the twist was revealed for some reason I still didn't believe it.

5 STARS

Gamer

Starring: Gerard Butler, Amber Valletta, Kyra Sedgwick, Alison Lohman
Sci Fi, Fantasy, Myster/Suspense (Rated R)

In this futuristic film the prison system is funded by a game that blurs the lines between reality and video games in which death row inmates can opt to allow themselves to be controlled by players in an actual video game where the blood and guts are real. If they manage to survive 30 games they earn their stay of execution. Butler plays Kable. A video game character/person who has managed to come closer to surviving 30 games then anyone. The world watches as he fights for his life and his freedom. There is a sect of people however, who believe that the creator of this so called game is bent on taking over the world and use Kable as a way to try to stop him.

• Very interesting movie concept. I liked it.
• I cannot even imagine a world where average people can pay to control or be controlled in such a way.
• We get to watch Amber Valletta run around in underwear for the last half of the movie
• It was totally unrealistic but it wasn't meant to be.
• Butler once again delivers a great gritty performance with his muscles on full display.
• I was a bit surprised to see Allison Lohman in this (Drag Me To Hell, White Oleander). It was kind of like seeing Dakota Fanning in Push. She has such a great reputation as an actress that it hardly matters but it was kind of a small role and didn't allow her to show of her acting chops so much.

3 STARS

The Stepfather

Starring: Penn Badgley, Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Amber Heard
Suspense/Thriller, 2009 (Rated PG 13)

A teenage boy (Badgley) comes home from military school to find that his mother is about to marry a man she has known for six months. The guy is likeable enough. The scariest thing about him is that he is almost too perfect but strange bits of information and behaviors keep popping up that make Micheal suspicious. When Michael catches him in a lie he is determined to find out exactly what his soon to be stepfather is hiding.

• This movie was full of suspense and had me jumping and holding my breath on more then one occasion which I like.
• It was a typical kind of story line about a crazy person who sets out to fool everyone and hide his mental illness.
• Michael's girlfriend Kelly (Heard) is obviously the eye candy in this movie and there were several convenient shots of her in her undies. Her primary wardrobe was a bikini and midriff baring shirts. She has a hot bod and they certainly wanted everyone to see it.

4 Stars

Pandorum

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster
Suspense Thriller, 2009 (Rated R)

Two astronauts awaken after an extended slumber on a space ship to a nightmare of killer mutated creatures and more questions then answers as they try to recover their memories and piece together what happened to derail their journey to a newly discovered planet called Tana. They encounter other survivors and attempt to keep the ship from shutting down so that they can continue onto their destination.

• I remained interested as the movie went on and more and more questions were answered about who they were and why they were there.
• Overall decent movie but it didn't knock my socks off in any way.

3 STARS

Duplicity

Drama/Suspense, 2008 (Rated PG 13)

Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson

Two government counterintelligence agents have a one night stand that leads to love. They make a plan to go into the private sector as counterintelligence agents in the world of corporate sales to scheme there way into a big score that will make then lots of money and ultimately enable them to retire in someplace like Rome.

• It was almost comical because the world of marketing and corporate sales had a full intelligence branch complete with private jets and surveillance teams. Is it really like that, but I just don't know it?
• I kept expecting an action scene or guns to be pulled out but then I had to realize that this is the world that creates cosmetic products not hostages.
• It was way too long.
• I didn't like it as much as I thought I would but it was OK.

3 Stars

Sin Nombre

Drama/Suspense, 2008 (Rated R)

Starring: Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores

A young girl sets out on a journey with a father she is just now meeting and her Uncle to cross the border into the United States all the way from Honduras. This is expected to be a 3 week journey!! Along the way she crosses paths and finds an unexpected friend in a recent ex gang member who is on the run from the violent gang after crossing the leader of the entire gang.

• I find myself rooting for this gang member to cross to the US and maybe have a fresh start even though I know that as a gang member he's done terrible things.
• Gaitan is an amazing actress. I saw her in another really good movie called Trade.
• This is all in Spanish subtitled in English. Be aware that the subtitles are kind of small.
• It's amazing the lengths that people resort to in order to get to the US.
• Really great and moving story. Well executed.

4 Stars

Push

Mystery/Suspense, 2009 (PG13)

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Chris Evans

• Way too much going on in this movie for it to be any good.
• Watchers, pushers, it went on and on but not in a good way.
• Fanning is a great little actress though. Even in this bizarre almost senseless movie she managed to deliver a great performance. I was surprised to see her in this. She's way better then this movie.

2 STARS