Insidious: A film with a strong start but weak ending

So it's Halloween night with a few friends and one of them has a collection of horror movies we have never watched before (or even heard of). We decide to watch Insidious because one of my buds had heard that this was a frightening film. Although the film did have a few good early scares, the ending was just a cheap cop-out.

I kind of feel like this film is a combination of Poltergeist and The Paranormal Activity series. The beginning starts with a typical white family moving into a new house. They have two children and of course a baby. The dad's a teacher and the mom is into music, yada yada. Do I need to go on? The family begins to have weird occurrences such as certain items going missing, weird voices through the baby monitor. When eventually their oldest son falls into what is seemingly a coma. The mother (played by Rose Byrne of Bridesmaids) believes that it is the house that is causing this coma but when the family decides to move into a new house. They discover it is their son that is haunted. BUM BUM BUM!!!!

The few things that worked for this movie were the subtle scares at the beginning, where you can see movements through your peripherals. Where the movie begins to lose its haunting settings is when you start to see the actual ghosts and realize what happened to Darth Maul at the end of Star Wars Episode 1. The more you see of the ghosts the less frightening it becomes.

The ending or even midway through the film takes a complete turn and makes it seem like two films were tied together. It ends up being some fantasy adventure towards the end where the dad has to enter a spiritual realm to find his son. It's a little to Pumpkin Soup for the Teenage Soul for me. You never get attached to any of the characters to really care about what is happening. Overall this film is mediocre at best. I would say watch this film until they move into the new house, THEN STOP! It may make the film more haunting.

August Rush makes everyone believe again

I know it has been awhile since I have put up a review on my site but here is a movie that just makes you feel so inspired to follow your passion. The film I am reviewing today is August Rush.

It has been a long time since I have seen film that makes you feel this good. The cast does a wonderful job showing their belief in music.

Having shared one extraordinary night, cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russel) and rock sing Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were a fairytale couple that was broken up by unfortunate circumstances. Eleven years later, both are miserable and share a feeling of incompleteness. Evan (Freddie Highmore) is the son that both of them never knew they had. He too feels incomplete. Evan knows that he can find his parents through the power of music, one day he stops and listens and follows the music.

This movie has a sort of magic to it. For me, Robin Williams really stands out in this movie playing the villainous "Wizard". He was creepy and malicious with all the kids and should have been nominated for at least a Golden Globe. As for the rest of the cast, Freddie Highmore is cute and definitely shows his passion for music throughout the film. There is once scene with Freddie Highmore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers that was really nice and well executed.

As for the music, it was wondrous. The songs had so much passion and emotion in it, even the orchestra music seemed to have voice in it. Jamia Simone Nash hopefully one day will release a record of her own one day (hopefully RnB and not a pop one).

This movie was definetly one of the better ones of 2008 and is definetly worth renting or even buying. August Rush reminds you that it's not impossible to reach your dreams. Your dreams can become a reality if you work hard for it.

Cast: A-

Music: A+

Storyline: A-

Message: Exquisite

Overall: A

The Descent: Descends far more into the horror genre

Finally it's something we haven't seen in a long time. A horror movie that's actually good. The Descent (Directed by Neil Marshall) is a horror movie that could probably be included with the classics. I'm not joking it's that good. The cast, although not famous, did a good job at portraying their characters.

The Descent is about six girls that accidently go into an unknown cave and find themselves battling with fear, past grudges and demonic beings. The one thing that I really liked about this film was that the creatures weren't the most scariest part of the film. Personally I found that the most creepiest part of the film was being trapped in complete darkness. Of course, there are so many other fears that were captured here such as claustrophobia, heights and (of course) the monsters.

The coolest part of the film is that it could be interpreted in so many different ways. I won't give any spoilers but I do suggest that you watch the U.K. ending because it's so much better than the North American one.

As for the cast, they all did a great job. The characters that stood out of my mind were Holly, portrayed by Nora Jane Noone, and Juno, portrayed by Natalie Jackson Mendoza. Holly, the athletic arrogant character, added some fun to the cast and Juno was perfect at being two-faced.

The Descent is one fun thrill ride that will surely be able to creep you out whenever you're in the dark.

Cast= B+ Really good by everyone

Creepy Monsters= A Definetly creepy enough for me

Overall= A- One of the few scary modern movies out there. Definetly check it out.


Q: How do you give a lemon an orgasm?



A: You tickle it's citrus

Enchanted enchants your heart

Enchanted is a cute film that is fun for children and people of all ages. The story of Enchanted is about how an innocent and bubbly princess, Giselle (Amy Adams), falls in to a world that is far more dangerous and obscure than any other universe. NEW YORK! Giselle must somehow find her way back to her kingdom to marry her Prince Edward (James Marsden). Of course having no home to go to, she finds herself staying with a single father and his daughter.

The Movie Enchanted has a lot of parodies from past Disney princess films (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) but somehow finds it way to create an original story. Some jokes though are age appropriate and may offend some parents but overall stays very close to its PG rating. The jokes mostly consist of the weirdness of fairy tale characters blending in with New York which works well for the movie.

Once again Alan Menken was able to produce some excellent original scores plus three Oscar Nominations. The songs are catchy and probably will get your kids to beg you to buy the soundtracks.

Overall, I found Enchanted to be quite enjoyable. At first I thought it'd be Disney trying to rip-off its past success with all the other Disney films but it has it's own way to add its own flavour. Amy Adams performance as the typical Disney princess was absolutely wonderful. I think we can all agree that we will see great things from her in the future.

Cast: B+
All did a good job.

Music: A
Come on it is Disney.

Overall: B
Fun enjoyable to watch and great for a family night.