Avarice

Avarice has a solid story with something quite new, bows and arrows. So the heroine is like a cornered animal and she uses her skills to take out lots of bad guys with her arrows in order to save her family. The film has heart and thrilling moments, which I think outweigh the action. Similar to other movies where kidnappers break in to a home and tie everyone up, but instead of the father rescuing the family this has the mother doing that which again is new and I really liked it. It does start off a bit slow but when it gets going it doesnt stop, the chase in the forest is the best bit and I'm thinking they could do a sequel. This was good.

I didn't have high hopes for this one, but... How many reviews have you read that start that way? Anyway, the pacing of this movie was glacial. Even fastforwarding through some of the real slow parts made this movie feel about twice as long as it needed to be. They also through in almost every trope and cliche for this sub-genre (unexpected female warrior). I think if the bad guys weren't so inept, it would have been more palatable. Also so many of the "twists" were forced into the script that it was like watching a Rube Goldberg device were someone needs to nudge each new prop to get it to work.

The premise was simple enough. A dysfunctional family needs some help to work it all out. A home invasion might be just the trick. Expert archer Mom coming to the rescue could be very cool if not for her forgetting things all along the way. Especially the one thing her Dad tried to instill in her. What was that for if not to set-up her actions in the ensuing situations?? These lack of foresights are awkward ways of stalling the evitable. Shadow of a Doubt could have been Hitch's best if not for a graceless ending that insulted ones intelligence. Some cool kills, slick production values, a bad screenplay, lackluster direction, a boring score, bland villains and a Jessica Chastain wannabe in the lead adds up to only 5 stars. A moderate timewaster. In full agreement with IMDb consensus and completely befuddled by Rotten Tomatoes' 80 rating.

John V. Soto is an Australian indie auteur who likes to genre hop. That is, his productions to date tend to change category from release to release. What they all tend to have in common however are the tell-tales of a low-budget indie namely: the excessive use of strange background music to fill gaps; excessive use of garish lighting (greens, blues) to add excitement to unexciting scenes; wooden scripts; and wooden acting. What makes AVARICE stand out is the very smart idea of a professional archer caught in a DIE HARD situation, and then using her mad skills to overcome the predicament. It's a clever idea, but the cleverness lasts for about 10 minutes, tops, and then we are right back where we started.((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Predicable, terrible acting, ridiculously cliched ending. As for the archery, there is almost no way that target arrows would inflict fatal injuries with only one strike. Then we have the annoying teenager who hates her parents. A troubled marriage, with the obligatory passive agressive comments. To top it all off the closing song was the last straw. I am trying to think of who would actually enjoy this film. The film does want to cash in on the political correctness of a strong female lead on the side of good and part of the home invasion gang. I watched it as I am a keen archer. Watch 2 flies on a wall instead!