I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to peg Silent House as the latest horror film to engage in gimmickry through its apparent adoption of the found footage conceit, and they’ll be completely incorrect to do so. In the first place, it’s not a found footage film whatsoever. Marketing for the picture seems geared toward presenting it as another entry in that engorged horror sub-genre, and maybe the very presence of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau– the duo behind 2003’s effectively nerve-wracking Open Water— hints at a shared ancestry with the likes of Paranormal Activity. But Silent House is closer to movies like The Strangers, and certain contemporary French gore fests, and while…
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G-S-T Review…The Lorax
You would expect a film called The Lorax to feature a healthy amount of the eponymous creature. The lack thereof in the latest animated feature to take on the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss ended up as my biggest complaint. Having no recollection of ever reading The Lorax, I’m not sure if the fault lies mainly with the source material or the filmmakers but creative liberties are a given considering the book is a mere 45 pages and mostly filled with pictures and small blurbs of text. Yet within this 94 minute romp is a gorgeous setting with a quality voice cast but an ultimately disappointing story. The main quibble…
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G-S-T Review…Act of Valor
Before Act of Valor begins we are shown a short intro narrated by the directors (Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh) explaining why they chose to cast real active duty Navy SEALs. These elite soldiers have hard-learned skills, mannerisms, muscle memory and a language that can’t be handed over to an actor to exhibit with the same conviction. Like watching Michael Jordan dunking or Muhammad Ali in the ring the SEALs are the very best at what they do. Watching them in the movie it’s clear that McCoy/Waugh made the right choice. Act of Valor follows a team of soldiers sent who carry out a covert mission to recover a kidnapped woman. The person in question is…
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G-S-T Review…Wanderlust
Wanderlust could well be the best thing David Wain has done since 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer. Maybe that’s not the best way to start a review of a well-liked director’s latest film; I feel like I’m stacking the deck, immediately, against Wanderlust, but at the same time the movie contains and emphasizes many of the same characteristics that made Wet Hot so great and have since established it as a modern comedy classic. The humor here is big, broad, and shamelessly silly, the characters are well-drawn, endlessly funny individuals, and the satire at the film’s core is well-realized. Where the two movies differ lies in the way Wain’s latest rambles, which is only appropriate to a…
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G-S-T Review…The Secret World of Arrietty
The latest animated feature from the world-renowned Studio Ghibli not only calls on the elements of the great Ghibli films from the past 20 years but more importantly reminds us why we go see their films in the first place. Ghibli pictures are escapism and great storytelling in their most pure and exemplary forms. Moreover, in this adaptation of Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers, it shows us that we don’t have to go very far from our own bedroom to find an imaginative and rousing tale. Sure there is a small touch of special Ghibli magic and otherworldly themes to The Secret World of Arrietty but it’s easy to believe in a…
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G-S-T Review…This Means War
The romantic comedy genre usually has one thing down pat: the comedy. Even if you simply roll your eyes at the romance of it, they are usually genuinely funny. Unless they are This Means War, one of the weakest efforts from the romantic comedy genre I have seen in the past few years. That’s a shame because some of the trailers hint at something that takes a different and fresh approach. For instance, what if two buddy spies fell for the same girl, and used all of the tools available to them to take advantage of the situation? That should be an interesting premise. Turns out what is written on…
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G-S-T Review…The Vow
What would you do if the person you love couldn’t remember you? How how hard would you try to get them and their memories back? Sounds kind of like science-fiction right? Well it’s not, The Vow is based on real events and it’s actually a pretty inspiring little story. Moreover one that should not be written off at first glance. True the timing of this release can be considered Valentine’s Day fluff, but look past where the film lands on the calendar this year and you’ll find a story that is stripped of pretentious candy coating and an example of what true love is really all about.
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G-S-T Review…Chronicle
Some might say found footage films have run their course but Chronicle makes a strong defense that there’s still plenty of ground left to cover. From micro-budgets and kind of oddball storytelling to macabre or esoteric subject matter, these types of films are finally shaking off the label of “trend” and are being met with more acceptance than something like a Grindhouse film. But there’s more art to this style than just dusting off some old camera and shooting aimlessly (someone please tell young filmmakers that shaking the camera is not the only way to make something ‘realistic’). If a story is good a film can exist in any medium. Many times a film…
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G-S-T Review…The Woman In Black
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Woman In Black from our guest contributing writer Bill Graham. Have a look at what he had to say about the Daniel Radcliffe’s eerie post-Potter film and offer your thoughts below. “Is that all they’ve got?” That’s what I wondered as I sat through Daniel Radcliffe’s first foray onto the big screen since the conclusion of the Harry Potter film franchise with The Woman In Black. He went from dark adventure fantasy to Victorian-era Gothic horror that simply throws jump scare after jump scare at you in the hopes of getting a reaction. For many of the teenage girls in the audience—perhaps fans of…
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G-S-T Review…The Innkeepers
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Innkeepers from our staff writer Andrew Crump (of A Constant Visual Feast.) Have a look at what he had to say about Ti West’s sophomore effort and offer your thoughts below. Categorizing Ti West’s The Innkeepers accurately seems tricky at a glance; is it a horror film with comedy elements, or the other way around? Invariably, the film falls under the horror umbrella without much debate but its blend of scares, charm and laughter makes it a genre standout among more recent haunted house fare. Dread builds over the course of The Innkeepers, and inevitably that leads us to a suspenseful, frightening climax in which our worst fears…