The Good Neighbor

Watched this because James Caan was in it. Reviews suggested it would have a Don't Breathe/Paranormal Activity vibe about it and I'd agree.

Two kids surveil and "haunt" Caan as a an alleged social experiment and document it all in a found footage style.

Caan plays the miserable old guy perfectly and still has great presence, pretty good for a "150 year old"!

It moves at a steady pace and rewards you at the end with a solid twist.

After a fairly lacklustre start, The Good Neighbour turns into an imaginative, tense and gripping film. A genre let's face it that has been done to death in recent years, I can think of so many similar films, but this one actually does a great job. The scenario is a little different, you get to see two sides of the story, it's more in the psychological drama genre, it's tense and suspenseful. It is very well acted, everyone plays their part well, it would have been easy to overact. The final showdown was good, but I wish they'd have made it a little more suspenseful, it was a little underdone.

Overall I thought this was a very good film, very watchable. 7/10

Some teenagers decide to run an experiment on their grumpy, creepy old neighbour. They decide to see if they can make him believe in ghosts by rigging his house with cameras and tricks.

Now on paper this does not have a lot going for it. It is fairly cheap, has a found footage element and sounds like a rip-off of the Burbs or Disturbia. Well it isn't - this is much more.

For once it makes sense that everything is filmed and the added element of a court case adds a degree of mystery to the film.

The characters and performances are great. The scope of the film is tiny, only a few rooms, so the tight budget is not a problem and everything looks professional.

There is no mass of action or intensity here but I found this movie gripping, intriguing, and some of the back story even a little moving.

I may be in the minority but pound for pound this is one of the best movies I have seen all year.

After having seen the trailer for this flick, I think many can relate to the feeling that we were going to witness a wannabe 2016 version of "Disturbia". But, to our surprise, this brings a different approach on that "scary, murder-looking neighbor" theme. It's fresh, suspenseful and definitely keeps you always wondering on what that old man really is up to and how these two knuckleheads are keeping things under control, but were they really? The acting by Miller and Gilchrist is good, although nothing out of the ordinary. Kudos to Caan for living up to his name, he really did a good job of pursuing this character. The music throughout the whole film was definitely on point and was to me a very nice touch. Overall, the movie is pretty solid. Give it a watch, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

I think the IMDB rating is dead on with this movie. Nothing special but definitely entertaining enough to the point you want to see what happens next.

Plus how you can you not like the main dude after Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse?