thatheo

Sinister is one of those movies that received a lot of negative reviews for predictable reasons. It is too reliant on horror tropes and jump- scares, tries to give the movie gravitas by using a snuff-movie aesthetic, and the characters are not particularly well-rounded or likable. And while these criticisms hold up, as a fan of horror movies I can still say I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Warts and all, Sinister does something that less and less movies do these days: it scared the crap out of me. And beyond that, it did it without resorting to the usual fare of extreme violence and cynicism, while still maintaining an extremely brutal and grisly atmosphere.

Our movie starts out with crime writer Ellisson Oswalt, moving into a new home to investigate the gruesome murder of a family for his upcoming novel. He is down on his luck, his latest successful work being written ten years ago, and is aching for new success. It is in this house where he finds a collection of Super-8 tapes that shows families being together at various family outings, cut to a bleak, poorly lit scene were these families are murdered in the most horrific ways possible. Against his better judgement, he decides not to go to the police with these tapes, but uses them as material to write a new non-fiction novel that he hopes will bring him new success. As the story progresses, he discovers that he might have gotten more than that he bargained for, and that something inexplicable is going on, and horror fans can pretty much fill in the blanks from there.

Ellisson, played by Ethan Hawke, is very similar to the self-centered alcoholic writer for whom his work absorbs him to the point he neglects his family. Mildly arrogant, obsessive and easily possessed by both internal and external demons, he is not the most original character. But Ethan Hawke plays him well, and he is well-rounded enough to carry the story. His character traits, tropes or not, hooked me in and made the character empathetic enough to be interested into what happens during the rest of the story. The rest of the characters are very much set- dressing. Not particularly deep or involving and very much used as devices for the movie. Ethan Hawke pretty much has to carry the movie, and despite the fact his character is old as dirt, he is pretty compelling.

But even though the characters are clichéd, and the story is slightly predictable, this movie is still pretty great. The main reason is simply because its scary. The videos that Ellisson discovers are genuinely disturbing, the build-up of the story is methodical and grisly, slowly working towards great jump-scares (and I love jump-scares. Screw you if you dislike cheap shocks, if it makes me jump out of my seat I like it), all with a phenomenal atmosphere to boot. Props also for the music and sound effects in this movie. The entire house creaks and fumbles, the atonal, dreary music gives the movie a strong sense of dread and despair, and the ominous music that plays as Ellisson watches the Super- 8 video tapes made me feel genuinely queasy.

Sinister to me falls into a list of movies that had mixed reviews because of the obvious flaws of the story and characters, but I can still heartily recommend because they genuinely scared me and were rich with atmosphere. Films like The Strangers, The Woman in Black and Rec, for me, also fall under that category. Scary, atmospheric movies that deserve way more praise than they received, and deserve some recognition. I can heartily recommend this movie if you like a good scare.

This review can also be found at my blog: http://dutchentertainmentjunkie.blogspot.nl/2012/11/sinister_25.html

Armageddon is your typical Michael Bay movie: Loud, Stupid, shallow, but ultimately very watchable, humorous and spectacular too.

When I started watching this movie, I was not disappointed. The introduction on the oil platform was very funny, and Bruce Willis hitting golf balls into a Greenpeace boat was something that made men laugh loudly. The roles were played well, and it was all amusing. The fun lasted, and lasted, right until the moment that the president gave a speech about how America is going to save the world etc, etc, and the all the drilling idiots got onto the rocket.

It all went downhill from there. The silly but fun humor was replaced with gung-ho patriotism, the action scenes were stupid and the events became so far-fetched that not even the most beautifully filmed explosions couldsave the movie from drowning in epic retardation. A sad case because the movie started off quite alright, but ended up being a complete train-wreck.

I still give it a six because I found it entertaining, but very shallow and silly and with a poor second half. The special effects, the soundtrack and the way it was filmed (Bay's frenetic, constantly moving camera has been appealing since it worked so great in the Rock, and it has never lost its charm since if you ask me) made up a great deal to me (plus, the first 60% of the movie WAS entertaining, so a 6 is to me quite an adequate grade).

This is probably the most inane and lifeless piece of cinema I have ever observed. It contains some of the most tepid and stupid dialogues in the history of movies, is filmed in a disgusting yellow-ish CGI piece of crap that is supposed to be visually stunning, and has retarded written all over it. I still can't bear the fact that I have actually finished watching the movie, something I regret intensely.

So how come they succeeded in making such a decent idea so awfully tedious? Well, there are a few suggestions: - Instead of creating deep and intelligent characters, just let the actors look slightly angry ALL THE TIME, and give them the chance to scream in a stupid way every single time they have the opportunity. This is Sparta,could be proclaimed in a slightly less loud and abrasive way, thank you.

• Try to make your kickass slow-mo effects so random that it'll give you a head-ache immediately. - Never, ever, mix up epic with self-indulgence. It is stupid. It feels stupid. - Underuse great actors as much as you can, and make sure it's clear that they all have a very serious form of down syndrome too by letting them scream (I know I've mentioned this one before, but such a retardation deserves extra room)

• Portray women as whores who'll sell out for anything

• Try and make the battle look extremely chaotic, this certainly adds to the feel of a well-organized, well-trained group of extremely skilled soldiers. What tactics? Randomly killing probably is more effective if you're outnumbered one to thousand!

So there you have it. A film that is horrible, if not tediously retarded. And do not come with the whole 'visually stunning' argument, If yellow-ish CGI colouring and random slow-motion would make a movie good, then there wouldn't be people like, o, I don't know: writers and stuff! Don't see 300. And if you have, my sweet and honest condolences. Don't see 300. It is plain mediocrity, at best.