#33. Unfriended: This film was released back in April with very little hoopla only to take in $15.9 million on opening weekend. Not too shabby considering the budget is estimated at just over $1 million. To date the film has taken in $32 million domestically and $64 million worldwide. Those are excellent numbers for a film that was shot entirely on the screen of a Macbook. Unfriended received a 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not great but not awful. Since the film is a pseudo found footage and it has such a low budget and took in a lot of money, a sequel is in the works (given) and we'll probably see a lot of knock-offs trying to cash in.
Anyway, the film takes place on the 1 year anniversary of he suicide of Laura Barns. A popular girl in her high school who committed suicide due to a viral video and some cyber-bullying. Laura's clique; Blaire, Mitch, Jess Adam, Val and Ken are video chatting on their laptops on a Friday night. When all 6 are on-line together, there's a 7th unknown person in their group that they can't seem to get rid of. After some on-line detective work, the unknown person is using Laura's social media accounts. Things go badly from there as the unknown hacker starts to split up the group by catching them in lies and playing the game, I Never Have. The hacker, billie227, manages to divide the group and slowly picks them off one by one when they're caught in a lie. The friends all get to see each other killed until only Blaire is left and its revealed that billie227 is really Laura Barns. Blaire meets an unhappy end.
The clique meets their doom in a similar way that the teens were killed off in the Final Destination series, Val appears to drink bleach, Adam appears to shoot himself and Jess dies by eating a hair iron. This was actually a good movie. There's a few minor jump scares but it's got a short run time and was fun to watch. It was a bit of a fresh twist on the found footage genre (though it's technically not found footage but it's kind of like found footage). This type of picture is a personal preference and may not be for everyone.
#35. The Visit: The latest picture from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan received a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, his highest rated film since Signs in 2002. I couldn't believe either. The plot is very simple,a single mother of 2 teenagers has been estranged from her parents for over 15 years since running away from home as a 19 year old. Out the blue, her parents reach out to her via social media and ask to meet their grandchildren. She agrees to send the kids to to rural Pennsylvania for a week while she goes on a cruise with her boyfriend.
The kids get picked up at the train station by the grandparents and they head to the farm (an isolated farm in rural PA, things are not going to go well). The kids being from Philadelphia are little weirded out by the bumpkin grandparents but things are ok despite a few minor incidents (grandma's weird behavior after lights out, grandma accidentally spills batter on Becca's computer camera, little things like that). As time goes by, things just get a little too weird, Becca and Tyler begin to suspect something just isn't right (Becca thinks it's more than just dementia). A doctor from the hospital they volunteer at comes by to check on them because they haven't been around but the grandparents just happen to be out. Becca and Tyler's live are in danger and in the the film's climax, a standard M. Knight reveal, we see the real villains. The kids are able to escape and are rescued by the authorities after a struggle.
I don't want to give the reveal away but let's just say this whole mess could've been avoided if Becca and Tyler had been shown a recent photo of their grandparents. Much like Unfriended, this was a surprisingly decent picture. I wouldn't go so far as to say that M. Knight has reversed his 13 year trend of dreck but he's slowed it down a lot. There's a lot of creepiness and a few good jump scares and the plot never gets to complex. M. Knight keeps it nice and simple. The film has a 94 minute run time so it never really drags anywhere. Again, this type of film and the director are a personal preference, so this is not for everyone. Maybe you can find it in your heart to give M. Knight another chance.
So this turned out to be a good double feature. I can't imagine we'll get lucky like this on a regular basis but it's fun to try.
No comments:
Post a Comment