REVIEW: Stoker

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Uncle Critic

StokerStoker is the new movie from director Chan-wook Park, the man that brought us Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. As the three main characters we’ve got Mia Wasikowska as the main characters the young daughter India Stoker, Nicole Kidman is her mom Evelyn Stoker and Matthew Goode is the Uncle Charles. India’s father dies and Uncle Charles appears from pretty much nowhere and that is pretty much the setting for the movie. The whole time something seems off but you can’t quite figure out what it is. Between India having a very Lydia from Beetlejuice personality and Charles having a Norman Bates vibe going on you’re not quite sure where the source of this uneasiness is coming from. It’s later revealed eventually (I won’t spoil it) but that doesn’t really help to settle things, you just get a whole new set of problems. The movie goes very slowly, I wouldn’t say it’s greatly done but I didn’t mind it too much and there are a few Hitchcock elements sew-in. One thing I’ve heard people complain about is that the movie just seems to be hyper stylized, I do see what these people mean but I don’t really agree, a few shots you get that feeling from but it’s nothing close to the whole movie being that way, there are also some scenes that given a different soundtrack could seem like something Wes Anderson would film. Overall though I really enjoyed this movie, it was a type of movie that I haven’t seen for a good while and Chan-wook Park pulled the whole thing off pretty well. People that like slow burn mystery thrillers will probably dig this, but again I remind you if you don’t like slow movies watch out because that’s what you’re in for here.

Get Stoker from Amazon HERE

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REVIEW: Phantom

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Uncle Critic

Phantom_2013-movie-poster-300x442I pretty much saw Phantom by accident. I’d seen no trailers for it at all but it was playing at the right time. All I did was look up the plot and saw Ed Harris was in it and I was basically sold. It’s the story of a Soviet submarine that went missing during the Cold War. Ed Harris is the Captain of the sub; David Duchovny is also aboard though he serves more of a sinister role in this one. Unbeknownst to the sub’s crew they’re testing out a secret piece of equipment that masks the sub to other ships in the sea. Testing out this equipment only seems to be part of their mission though; the other half may be to start a nuclear war. Personally I like submarine movies, I like war movies, and I like Cold War stuff so I pretty much loved this movie on all points. There’s not a ton of action because well, most of it takes place on a submarine but it will keep your attention. Watching this made me think of other greats such as Hunt for the Red October. People who dig movies like that will most likely be into Phantom.

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REVIEW: Killer Joe

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Uncle Critic

This one has a little bit of everything, a fair amount of nudity, some pretty grizzly violence, and a pretty overall disturbing tone, I mean there are some really unsettling scenes in Killer Joe. Emile Hirsch and Thomas Haden Church are father and son, the son is down on his luck, owes some bad guys money and his life is on the line. He comes to his Dad with a plan to hire a hitman to off his Mom (his Dad’s ex-wife) to collect the insurance money, the policy being in his sister’s Dottie’s name, they can split it all equal. Matthew McConaughey is Killer Joe, a detective who’s a hitman on the side. Killer Joe is clearly a psychopath, not quite the level of Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men), but not too far away. Killer Joe’s fee is twenty five grand; they don’t have the money to pay him so Joe agrees to take Dottie as a retainer. As you can imagine somewhere down the road shit gets fucked up and everything goes pretty crazy. I’m always glad to see Thomas Haden Church in a movie, he’s really become a solid actor in his later years, Matthew McConaughey is pretty chilling but the brightest light in this movie is Juno Temple as Dottie, he’s so cute and happy it’s literally a joy to see her on screen, I’m pretty sure she’s going to have many males crushing over her after they see this. William Friedkin directs this crazy tale, you might know him from directing such films as Bug, The Exorcist and The French Connection, I won’t say he was the only man for the job but after seeing this it’s clear it wouldn’t have been the same movie with someone else in the director’s chair. If you like movies about hitmen and fucked up situations you’ll be happy with Killer Joe, but be warned, it earns that NC-17 rating in a few places.

Get Killer Joe from Amazon HERE

Filed under: Crime, Drama, Movies/Shows, Reviews, Thriller | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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