jhanse29

This is 40 is a funny realistic portrayal of getting older. It has a lot of authentic and funny moments. But it also has a lot of side story's that take up a lot of time and stretches this movie out by 40 minutes longer than it should be. There are many scenes in this that probably should have never been filmed and definitely not made the final cut. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann play their roles great and are believable as a married couple turning 40. I have to admit, I am not a fan of their two daughters. It's not a slam on the child actors (played by Apotow's real daughters) but the way they are written. The rest of the supporting cast is also pretty stellar, including John Lithgow, Albert Brooks, Megan Fox and Jason Segel. But for the most part, it is there story lines that stretch this film out with filler. The funniest moments to me, are when Melissa McCarthy and Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are going at it. Overall, it has a lot of promise and funny real moments but it takes to much time to tell it's simple story and ultimate can cause you to start losing interest.

I enjoyed this movie. There I said it. There isn't much new to this movie and it's not going to win any awards or anything like that. It was a fairly fast paced action/zombie hybrid. It didn't bring much new to the zombie genre. A lot of it seemed to be straight rip offs of other Better zombie flicks, like Resident evil and Return of the Living Dead franchises. Some scenes where reminiscent of Planet Terror as well, but this film could have been made before it. It also borrowed a very little from a Romero film called Day of the Dead.

This was movie I would rank about the same as Flight of the Living Dead. It's fun to watch but brings nothing new.

It's special effects are about in line with FotLD as well. A lot of Computerized blood sprays.

My biggest issues were the characters. Most of them were so clichéd that it took out the care and want for them to survive.

Also, I'm very glad they din't go with the alternate ending. It made no sense and I'm glad they went with the ending the did.

I recently finished reading the book in which this movie is based on. For starters, I am not much of a reader. I always have movies I'd rather watch and TV shows I have recorded that need to get caught up on to sit down and read. I went through The Ruins 506 pages within a week and a half. I couldn't put it down. It was suspenseful and claustrophobic and down right terrifying. I'd recommend anyone who likes a good horror read to get this book, even if you didn't care for the movie.

Now onto the movie. The movie takes a lot from the book in it's short 90 minutes showing. A lot of what happened in the book is there in the movie. One thing the movie does to differ itself from the book, is it shuffles up the characters. Things that happened to the character in the book happens to a different character in the movie. Some people may not like this idea but for me it made the movie enough of a difference for it still to surprise me. The acting is great and the cinematography brings out the terror in the daylight which is somewhat unusual for a horror film.

The one thing I felt this movie was lacking was the suspense and terror of being trapped onto of the ruins. The book really made you live the terror with these tourists. You felt there worry about water and food. The feeling of being stranded and desperate. The movie was so fast paced that it didn't evoke that same paranoia from the book. My opinion is the film could have been at least twenty minutes longer and really give the audience the feel of terror before the terrifying actually strikes.