The Vault

Let me just start by saying I had no idea what this movie was other than what I was able to gather from the poster art.I have been playing catch up with Oscar nominees and wanted something other than those or Netflix movies, pulling up VUDU this was under the theater at home category, I check none of the theaters around me had this, figured it was not horribly expensive to rent ($6.99) took a chance on it. The most obvious grab from the poster is the title of the movie, a vault door, obviously we are looking at a heist film. It starts out in the ocean with a group diving to a shipwreck, was this the right movie? I exited and went back into the movie, yup it was the right movie. Turns out it was setting up what would be desirable enough to break into a vault for and that would be gold coins in a box that belong to Sir Francis Drake. The vault however is located beneath the Bank of Spain and has an elaborate security mechanism that will trap and kill anyone that tries to take anything out of the vault, that is where out main man Thom comes in aka Freddie Highmore, his character name is the only one I could remember the rest do not get much time given to developing their characters. Thom attends Cambridge and is an engineering wiz kid that is desirable to many different companies, but, decides to play bad boy for a change and take up the offer to go on this heist to figure out the vault security. The Vault is a beat for beat heist movie, it does try to shake things up a bit by letting more go wrong than typically does in a heist movie which created a bit of suspense tension. I just never felt that the stakes were that high to ever worry if they would be able to get their prize, I mean when one thing goes wrong the main man behind the heist is ready to just walk away until he sees one last opportunity, if it’s that important would you not give up that easy especially the effort already made. What is refreshing is seeing Freddie Highmore in a role that actually gives him the ability to flex his acting skills a little, this is his first R rated movie by the way, fun fact. For an evening in, there are certainly worse movies that I have taken a chance on renting from VUDU than this one. It’s a middle of the road movie, is it bad...no, is it good...not necessarily, is it entertaining under two hour...yes. 

Antebellum

 Finally getting around to watching this one, when I saw the trailers for this one I was expecting a horror movie akin to Get Out. While there are some similar aspects this one is much more in the psychological thriller after seeing it from beginning to end. The movie starts of with some sweeping views of a southern plantation akin to the likes of Gone with the Wind and things start going from pretty landscape to slave torture as we find Janelle Monáe trying to escape from a cotton plantation run by Jena Malone and confederate soldiers complete with a confederate flag in the center of things.  For the first part of this movie it seems as a heavy fisted look at treatment of slaves and then something happens we see Janelle Monáe in a present day out with some girl friends and we have a twist where a cell phone appears in the plantation. The movie shifts to a totally different terror finding this slavery is happening in this present time line no how plausible how it is occurring. Once the twist is done that’s when this movie got my attention and I started questioning how did I not see this coming, I even after the movie was over went back to the beginning for a little bit then realized everything we see from present to Antebellum version of her is there for a reason she is using every piece of knowledge in her head to figure out and survive her situation. There were several negative reviews that I read or heard about this and I would have to say there are a few points I agree with, for the most part though I would recommend this, yes the directors are trying to push a lot of concepts through do they all stick...no. It makes you think and question things which I think makes a good movie, how much wrong is going on in the world and we are oblivious to it. 

Horizon Line

 One of my favorite guilty pleasure type movies is those involving survival, swiping through options to watch something I had not seen before, I came across this title. Pilot suffers a heart attack, the pilot is Keith David and one of the passengers is Allison Williams if nothing else I figured it be a fun ride. I know in movies you have an expected level of reality suspension and disbelief, this one though asks you to accept a lot. The beginning feels rushed just to get Allison Williams and Alexander Dreymon onto the airplane in one of the more predictable scenarios. Once Keith David is gone things go straight to these two surviving through the most implausible scenarios. I can not hate on the movie too much as it did what I clicked on it to do which was entertain me, when I got to the end did I wish I picked something else, a little. 

Mulan (2020)

 I maybe a little late to the game with the live action remake of Mulan, I do not even know if you can call it a remake as it keeps very little in common with its animated counterpart, much less than the other live action adaptations that Disney has made. I was never a huge fan of the animated version it still stands as one of my lesser favorites of that period in Disney feature animation, the parts I do enjoy are the scenes with Mushu, "I'll Make a Man Out of You" segment and the few times we get to see Cri-kee. All those of course are not in this version that aims to take a more serious pass at the girl named Hua Mulan. Not being a supporter of movies of this scale skipping cinemas and going straight to VOD even in the time of COVID-19 I waited after hearing the remarks others have made about the movie and knowing that one day it will just come out on disc, which it did and I purchased it through the Disney Movie Club. Being a completionist I had to add it to my Disney collection regardless of it was good or bad, I got the 4K combo set which includes the 4K Disc, Blu-Ray and Digital Copy which I'll go into the disc contents at the end of this review. 

To me if Disney wanted to just make a more serious Mulan they easily could have, just changed the name a bit to take away the comparison and remake conversations surrounding this version. If another studio would have made this and gave it a new name it probably could have stood on its own as a Chinese action film, being Disney though even trying to look at it objectively as it's own entity no matter what their will always be that underlying comparison for viewers to the 1998 animation.

Getting back to the movies

 It has been quite sometime since my last post, I have been riding the up and down emotional rollercoaster as half this country I am sure has. Originally when the shutdown occurred back in March it hit me hard as I was used to going to movies two or three times a week and being stuck at home I was depressed, the thing that makes me happiest outside of my family was gone, going to the movies is my escape from work life and my therapy. Then when things started to get open, I found solace in a local art house theater that was open and eventually my AMC Theatre reopened. Of course it was all down to independent films and the stuff studios did not want to spend the time and energy on rescheduling, which is fine just every now and then its nice to have that big crowded theater blockbuster. I am one that actually enjoys the audience experience and listening to reactions then hearing the conversations as people walk down the stairs to exit. The next blow to my psyche was I wanted to convert our sunroom into a home theater, I had grand visions and plans to make this work, until it came down to execution. That is when I discovered how small the room actually was, how hard it would be and expensive to totally black out the room, that concept morphed into what it is now a place to put our computer desk and a craft space or my wife. Losing the theater room was a hit to me and then the talks of theater bankruptcies and the continual delaying of movies to next year and more being pushed straight to digital. Being home as much as I have been lately and just working non-stop I have had several ideas popping into my head where I want to talk my film loving career to, unfortunately given the state of the world none are feasible at this time, I have tried to start other avenues and just do not have the motivation to get them going right now, hopefully next year that will change. For now I decided to just jump back on here and do what I know, the best I can. So here we go...LAISSE LES FILMS ROULER...Let the films roll!

Train to Busan

Train to Busan is one of those films that I do not know how I got by without seeing it, as it is one of the more talked about zombie survival movies. Released in 2016 it is a South Korean film that is presented with English subtitles for those that cannot check off speaks Korean on their job application. A father and daughter board a train to visit their wife/mother who lives in Busan, while they are getting on the train another person has boarded at the last minute unknowing to the porters and that person is infected. Eventually all hells breaks loose on the train as the zombies start increasing in numbers rapidly. Together the father and daughter team also connect with a husband and his pregnant wife as they fight their way to a safe car and try to come to terms with what is occuring around them. Of course along their journey to Busan there are obstacles to overcome such as a false sense of security stop along the way, which just picks off more of the survivors and brings on a bigger hoard of zombies. What I enjoyed most about this film is outside of a few times when the train goes through tunnels, it all takes place during the day where many of these zombie films its at night time, this allows us to see the action, have a larger sense of realism and it allows for the unique strategy that tunnel hopping provides. I am going to be front out honest and say I have no clue who any of the actors are, I am sure those better versed in South Korean films may recognize some, I think a couple were in Parasite don't hold me to that. Overall I did enjoy it quite a bit, maybe not to the extent some have raved about, for me there are a couple times that it felt a little dragged, I mean how many different ways can you fight through a zombie filled train car. The effects and creature designs worked well, for me they stand out enough from other zombie films, my favorite though [Spoiler Alert] was the deer that gets hit at the beginning of the film ad how it pulls its self back up and walks off, I want that story I want a family hiking in the woods that come across this zombie infested deer. But now that comes to a plot problem I found, the guy hits the deer, kills it and it comes back to life. Does this imply like the beginning of the movie that there was a chemical leak of some kind is it in the water or airborne, if so why does it spread through human bites, did the first human eat the deer or drink the water the deer did. Always had that problem with zombies, you can get covered in the blood and let them grunt and drool over you while you keep from being bit, but none of that outside from actually being bit will infect you. From a survivability stand point, the actors on the train are getting about as much information as the audience, except the audience we know there is something out there and we know a stranger is on the train. These are regular people thrust into the situation and having to adapt as they go and learn about their enemy, making mistakes along the way and some being life ending bad decisions. Its also shown how in a situation it will go from everyone helping each other to starting to form survival groups and the every person for themselves mentality. There is a sequel that is coming out soon and I don't know I watched the trailer, not that excited to me it seems they are putting themselves at risk to go out into the infested world where this one it was they found themselves unknowingly trapped and its looks like to goes into more of the zombie tropes that this first one avoided, I'll still see it if I have the opportunity in theaters being the completionist that I am if not I'll catch on VOD.

Shark Season

We are in the middle of 2020's shark week, you know what that means, time for the shark attack movies to come out. This year you have the lovely selection of Shark Season or Deep Blue Sea 3 (which I have pre-ordered the DVD version to go with my physical collection of the other two and will discuss that one when I received it). Let's look at Shark Season produced by the wonderful people over at The Asylum and no their visual effects department have not progressed any since the last Sharknado. A photographer (Jack Pearson) is planning on doing a photo shoot on location at a remote newly formed island with his model (Paige McGarvin) and Juliana Destefano , who will be doing the makeup for the shoot. The three set out on kayak to their island on the outskirts of Florida Bay, except there is a massive great white shark, I mean its The Asylum you could not expect them to be more generic with the type of shark. Thanks to a totally phoned in, almost literally, performance by Michael Madsen, seriously he's in a room on the phone pretty much every time he is on screen. Side track on the subject of the phone, that is how I knew what movie this was going to be because early on their is a phone call between Madsen and McGarvin, where she obviously thinks she is face timing him and he obviously thinks he's just voice calling her. You see there are two kinds of these when nature attacks movie their is the large studio production such as The Shallows versus this which is made by a small company like The Asylum which I feel like they purposely try to be the worst version possible of the type of movie they want to make. Because let's see I am sorry I will not be kind on this one, the main actors are horrible, the camera cut from on location stunt kayaks to the performers up close obviously on a stage is laughable as is the cuts from b-roll shark footage to the badly bland looking CG shark. I struggled to maintain my focus to get through this movie, the script is horrible and with inexperienced actresses trying to pull off the distress and emotional weight of their situation is just comes off dull and I found myself drifting to my cell phone until the shark makes its appearance. I honestly can not think of any reason you should spend good money on renting this, it is available currently through at least VUDU and Amazon Prime with option to rent or purchase, there are plenty of other shark thrillers out there that if you want to spend money on will give you at least some edge of your seat intensity and life or death stakes for the characters where these girls I felt myself wanting the shark to finally get its meal.