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Reviews
Honeymoon (2014)
Do not fall for it ...
As praised in many of the other reviews the acting was indeed quite good and largely believable if not a bit too effusive in some of the overwritten newlywed dialog interactions. And while the acting, scene direction and tension did rise to an intriguing and potentially stimulating crescendo of sorts halfway through, the expectation of climax or anticipated thematic bridge from drama/romance to horror failed to carry with it any sense of suspense.
That the film failed to generate horror of any kind is my sole problem with it. Themes such as a person you love suddenly becoming someone else can evoke psychological terror and qualify for the genre, however, here the pending horror reveal is disguised as romantic suspense until a moment too late for the viewer to reap thrills and chills.
Science fiction horror is a favorite genre of mine, but 'Honeymoon' skips science of any kind and trades horror for a moment of gooey biological shock left open to far too many interpretations.
Lack of foreshadowing also contributes to my rating. "Rest your womb," says one character to another. Newlyweds not ready to discuss having children, Killing frogs, an old boyfriend acting strangely to his wife who appears a victim of domestic abuse, fear of deep water, hiding messages inside a hollow effigy--all possible clues in deciphering the plot, or so this viewer had presumed.
But none of the above sensibly related to the reveal. In a seemingly innocent but presumably deceptively clever line of dialog one character asks another if he has ever killed anything with his bare hands. Foreshadowing? Apparently, no.
Much like the often discussed but never caught fish in the lake, the writer failed to stock this plot with sensible clues to the reveal.
The Expendables 2 (2012)
You might not get it unless you grew up in the 70's or 80's
The Expendables 2 is a mindless, kill a minute ride that begins with death, goes on with more deaths, continues on with killings, and ends pretty much with yet more additions to the body count. But hey, the film is a mindless kill a minute tribute to a forgotten or more precisely, abandoned genre. Just like movie junkies of the fifties and sixties like to say 'They just don't make'em like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.' So can action movie lovers of the seventies and eighties mourn the death of the Schwarzenegger/Seagal/Van Damm/Russel/Lungdren/Norris/Daniels/Lee/Hauser(Wings, not Cole)/Grunner/etc. era of sometimes cheesy, always over the top, always awesome, action movies. I suppose Sly's goal here, and with the first film, was to celebrate that bygone age of action flick by assembling some of his eighties competition stars, and supplementing them with a few contemporary shoot'em up guys. Personally, I loved the movie, but I don't get the casting of Crews, Couture and Hemsworth. No dice, Sly--those guys haven't earned spots beside the likes of yourself and the others we all know and love. And you forgot to include some of the best and brightest of that golden age of blood and guts. Where was Olivier Grunner? How about Rutger Hauer for goodness sake? Kurt Russel? Steven-I am God-Seagal? A travesty, Sly. A travesty. Anyway, the movie was good, was worth the ticket price, and after all is said and done, was really just a spoof, an excuse to get all these guys together on screen at once. Gets an 8/10 for leaving out some of the best eighties action stars, while including wannabe modern actors without a clue of which way to point their barrels. Go see it--if you're a child of said era of action flicks.
The Factory (2012)
Not worth the emotional or time involvement
This movie is a very poorly written copy of many similar, better films in the police drama genre. The script heavily borrows from other movies, and the sole purpose of about ninety minutes of the film seems to be a by the numbers hollow shell just there to prop up the "twist" everyone has mentioned. This twist becomes apparent about ten to fifteen minutes before it's implementation and drastically reduces the enjoyment of the movie overall. Cusack is Cusack, which is a good thing for long time fans. But if anything, 'The Factory' stands as proof that a well known A list actor cannot carry a sub par B grade movie, even with acting that has carried him through more than a dozen high budget flicks. I absolutely do not recommend 'The Factory'. If your a fan of sedate John's, I'd advise you to rent one of his earlier films--something other than 'The Raven'.
Killer Elite (2011)
Deplorable, Dishonorable, Disrespectful Theme
The film is based around the premise of an English man--also a professional killer of some kind--hired to MURDER three British Special Air Service veterans in order to save his best, perhaps only friend from an evil oil sheik who will kill the friend unless the assassin carries out a job which his friend and fellow killer refused on moral grounds.
I was appalled by the central theme...the murder of three decorated soldiers, whom the plot poorly tries to bill as war criminals I suppose in order to lessen the dishonor of their killings by the main star.
So we are left with a murderous main "hero" who only due to the fact that he's the star, is able to single handedly, repeatedly defeat men trained to serve in the most elite unit in the world. But the idiocy does not stop there. Somehow the downright villainous Statham is written as morally superior despite his cowardly ambush and slaughter of British soldiers. Clive Owen, former SAS himself (in the film) just can't seem to get the upper hand on Statham, I guess because, in this picture, pathetic villainy is the new "hero" material.
This movie does a great disservice to all soldiers serving and who have served. In fact, the film is not worth another word.
GP506 (2008)
An effectively chilling entry into a growing genre
Ever since "Aliens" debuted in the eighties, I've been a rabid fan of the once subgenre: Military Horror. A once thoroughly unexplored branch of the general horror genre, films such as "Dog Soldiers" "R-Point" and "The Bunker"--to name a few, have excitedly fleshed out the intersection of military service and funereal goings on.
A veteran myself, I can only laude the writer who understands the suitability of military life as border to the unexplainable and its fertility for forays into the unknown. That said, "The Guard Post" is a two hour tour de force foray into the realms of psychological and brutal corporeal terror.
Presentation is amazing--a grey, iron hard military outpost manned by a handful of heavily armed soldiers daily humping live ammo just a few hundred meters from their enemy counterparts across a no man's land of concertina and landmines. The setting is great: the soldiers of GP 506 were living under immense tension long before their lives diverged into the unknown. Add to that brutal South Korean military taditions, accidental fire on enemy postions, and the stage is set for even a unit of elite paratroopers to come unglued at the drop of a spent shell casing.
Some of the imagery alone is brutal enough to get you out of your seat, while psychological tension is ratcheted without mercy, building inevitably toward the next "incident". If you love a story that begins with an armed unit in solid control of a ghastly situation, with well armed men sweeping dark corridors where evidence presents of goulish goings on, and continues on toward the at first slow loss of control over said situation, you will thoroughly love this film. Additionally, the subtitles, and foreign sentence structures of an unknown (to most) culture serve to add further tension and alienation during the experience.
While long for a horror film, I was continually watching the play time bar, willing it to slow down. This one is a great find, a gem among scores of so so to downright unwatchable films of the genre, and after viewing this one, I want more!