Hostage

Three stars out of four. Bruce Willis is always a good choice for an action/suspense movie. This movie will definitely keep your blood pumping. It also features an excellent bad-guy character, Mars. At least, that's my friend Brian's opinion. He absolutely loves him. I think he's good, very sadistic, very easy to hate, and he even goes out with a bit of honor, really. But that's not the point. Aside from the graphic nature of this film (I sound like the announcer on Discovery Channel, don't I...or maybe he's on TLC...), it is definitely worth renting, and maybe even buying, if your a big action film fan. Basic synopsis: 3 lowlife guys break into this mansion, originally going to steal the Escalade in the garage, but go inside to find the keys, and run into the occupants: a man, his daughter and his son. One of them triggers the silent alarm, and a cop comes out to check it out. Mars, one of the lowlifes, kills the cop. The other guys accidentally trigger the lockdown mode on the house, and that's how the hostage situation begins. To top it off, there's a secretive, dangerous third party that wants in the mansion, and they're blackmailing the sherriff to achieve their objectives....

Hostage

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Four stars out of four. I saw the 1971 version many times when I was a kid in daycare. I remember the vast majority of it. As good as that one was, this one is far better. Johnny Depp is almost as good here as he was in "Pirates of the Carribean", and that's saying something. This is one of the best movies this year, and if it doesn't win some Oscars, I will be extremely disappointed, and probably scream and curse at the Academy for it's lack of taste.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Dark Water

Two stars, out of four. It's by the same guy that wrote "The Ring", so I was expecting a strange movie, and that's what I got. Actually, the movie does have similar plot elements...a psychotic female lead role, a creepy dead girl. I did enjoy the movie, actually, I think it was well directed and filmed. It's just that they didn't have much to work with in the first place, because the plot is kind of weak and fairly predictable for the most part. A brief synopsis: A woman and her young daughter move into a rundown apartment building on Roosevelt Island near Manhattan. The woman is having a custody battle with her ex-husband. Dark-colored water (hence the title) begins to leak into her apartment through the ceiling, but the room above is uninhabited. Also, her daughter begins to have an imaginary friend that's rather creepy: the ghost of a little girl that used to live in the building.
One thing I didn't like is that it left a few questions unanswered. Such as, was the dead girl behind the backpack appearing in random places, and making the dark water leak everywhere or was it those boys who may or may not have been payed by the woman's ex to drive her to insane behavior so that he can get custody of the daughter? And if it was the girl, then what were they doing with the husband in the bar next door after harassing his ex-wife?
Two, the ending was a bit too clean and sappy. In "The Ring", the ending was just plain stupid (make a copy of the tape and pass it on, please...). This one wasn't as bad, but still could have been improved upon. Ideally, in this sort of movie, a bittersweet ending is best. It could have ended with the scene of the little girl crying and then closing the door (you'll know what I'm talking about if you see it). It was so perfect that I was expecting it to end right there. But no, they had to add the sappy part.
Anyways, this is an attempt at a new blog. I'll post more reviews when I see more movies, though, I will post some for some I've seen recently, i.e. Star Wars Episode III, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Dark Water