SilentLuminary Reviews

  Genre: Horror/ Thriller Time: 1h 45mins Director:  Walter Salles Quick Summary:  A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building, where they are targeted by the ghost of a former resident. I will say that I felt that Jennifer Connelly was a much more interesting character than the mother in the original movie. Overall, the characters were fleshed out better. The original just sort of glanced over many of the details about the divorce and how it was affecting the little girl. Some of the shots were actually more effective than the ones in the original even though I did like how the original lingers with a lot of them, and the ending in the remake is more satisfying and better executed than in the original. I was left confused for a start. Like the original, it is very slow placed. I got incredibly bored throughout most of this. As well it pretty much is a carbon copy of the original, even the script is the sa...

  Genre: Horror/ Drama Time: 1h 41mins Director:  Hideo Nakata Quick Summary:  A mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water. This is pretty suspenseful, knowing where to place the camera and how long to hold a shot just enough to make the hair stand on end.  One of the film's themes is the terrible treatment of women in Japan, and how they have been painted as unreliable and hysterical. Yoshimi is being divorced from her husband, who hopes to gain full custody of their daughter, a kindergartner named Ikuko. The film dramatizes the strain that the strange events in the apartment take on Yoshimi’s mental health. When combined with the pressures of trying to care for Ikuko, as a single mother struggling to hold down her copy editing job, it results in honest, but nail-biting mistakes, such as when she shows up late to pick up her daughter at kindergarten only to find her gone. I really l...

  Genre: Horror/ Drama Time: 1h 53mins Director:  George A. Romero Quick Summary:  A quadriplegic man has a trained monkey help him with his paralysis until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master. Okay, this monkey is actually adorable.  Ella is a Capuchin monkey, naturally intelligent, and her intelligence has been boosted by injections of human brain tissue, administered by our main character’s friend the druggie chemist after he is involved in a horrible accident that leaves him paralysed.  Right from the first, there’s a special rapport between the man and the monkey. Ella seems to understand Allan (the main guy), to love him, and even sometimes be able to anticipate his needs. She is so sweet, running around doing little tasks for him for treats, cuddles and dancing around to music.  I wouldn't really call this a horror movie as it's gore free maybe has the occasional monkey jumpscare, or an event that is implie...

  Genre: Crime/ Action Time: 1h 53mins Director:  Joel Schumacher Quick Summary:  An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them. Man, this is so underrated and so ahead of its time.  Michael Douglas is the star and absolutely steals it. He is a powerhouse. What is so interesting about Douglas's character, as written and played, is the core of sadness that surrounds him. He seems weary and confused, and in his actions, he unconsciously breaks apart society's flaws in fits of anger. Though he still seems to think he is doing a good thing, pointing out these to people and standing up for himself.  This film screams with tension. From the very get-go, the viewer is chucked into an incredibly tense scene. In every scene, the camera is swung around rapidly at things, but it always focuses on our main character so we can not only watch every single thing he does wrong but in ...

  Genre: Fantasy/ Family  Time: 1h 35mins Directors:  Jim Henson, Frank Oz Quick Summary:  On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and to restore order to his world. Wonderfully dreamlike, I adore this film. It takes place in a fantasy world, created by the wonderful, Frank Oz and Jim Henson. Everything in this film is so meticulously done, that it still lives on to this day and you can really appraise how much work and love has gone into this.  Overall the design of this is amazing and how much detail is put into everything is just stunning. It's so immersive and you can very easily get lost in this. I even forgot this is entirely puppets! I find that so amazing that it was possible to be flawlessly that immersive with purely practical effects. I don't think I've ever seen puppetry this amazing, not even in other Jim Henson productions. There's so much detail put into every...

Genre: Sci-fi/Action Time: 2h 30mins Director:  Jeannot Szwarc Quick Summary:  After losing a powerful orb, Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch. To me, straight off the bat, this felt like some sort of fan fiction someone has written after watching the Superman films. Don't get me wrong though, this isn't completely unwatchable. I like that this stands on its own and doesn't rely on Superman. I mean there are a lot of mentions of him but it's not a carbon copy of him. I mean for a start, Our heroine faces a witch in battle.   Helen Slater I liked in this a lot, she portrayed a much more innocent, sweet hero who is excited to explore Earth's socialities and experiences. I liked how they showed Supergirl learning her abilities when she first landed on Earth. It showed a nice arc of maturing out of innocence. Unfortunately, the acting and script are dreadful. Every sentence that is said...

  Genre: Action/Fantasy  Time: 1h 43mins Director:  Mark Steven Johnson Quick Summary:  A man blinded by toxic waste which also enhanced his remaining senses fights crime as an acrobatic martial arts superhero. Nothing has felt more 2000s than this film. It's so cheesy and "edgy" It's honestly so funny. Absolutely nowhere near perfect but it manages to charm itself a way into your heart and is 100% dated no matter how you look at it. The editing relies on snappy cuts that swoop into the character, a pop-punk cool kid soundtrack to show how rad our main superhero is, training montages with evanescence blasting, and just that gritty look to the visuals.  I am honestly not sure if I loved Ben Affleck's performance of Daredevil. I really did not believe he was a blind person, he delivers his lines as if he's not sure what he's saying OR he is incredibly cocky. But that just made me laugh at this more. A film that is supposed to be serious has a full-on marti...

  Genre : Adventure/Comedy Time: 1h 32mins Directors:  Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic Quick Summary:  The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. The sense of humour within this I really didn't expect. It was actually funny, and not the irritating humour I find that illumination usually does. This manages to give you a fun and super enjoyable viewing, even if I personally think it was more focused on cramming as many references as it could.  Animation-wise, stunning! Super quick-paced and full of action to keep that attention at all times. As well as a lot of super iconic songs in the soundtrack, though I didn't fully think they all fit. To me, it felt like they crammed any random song that might fit to get more references in. I need to talk about one thing, and that is Jack Black. Perfect casting. He thrives in his role as Bowser and really has fun with him. Stole the show. Absolutely hilarious, and his song "Peaches" was ...

  Genre:  Crime/Drama Time: 1h 49mins Director:  Martin Scorsese Quick Summary:  Rupert Pupkin is a passionate yet unsuccessful comic who craves nothing more than to be in the spotlight and to achieve this, he stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself. Whilst watching this, I was unsure how to feel about it. Once I finished it, I understood everything. Mainly, this is about celebrity cult culture and how insane it can be and just how plain disillusioned people are. What I found funny was actually that this film is way more relevant now than it was back when it came out. Robert De Niro is fantastic in this. A lot of this I cringed, not because of the film, but because of the character he played, Rubert Pupkin, which is exactly how this movie wanted him to be. His character has so many layers, even from looking at the surface. He just wants to get his dream of performing his stand-up comedy in front of a live audience and revolves his whole life ar...

  Genre: Adventure/Fantasy Time : 2h 14mins Director:  John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein Quick Summary : A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. I went into this expecting a very average movie that barely knew anything to do with Dungeons and Dragons aside from the stereotypical knowledge, I came out very pleasantly surprised.  I am so happy it decided to not take itself seriously, because most Dungeons and Dragons games are never 100% serious and have their fun little silly moments. This was full of them. From ideas that were clearly thought of on the spot (in the sense of DnD), moments that were bounced back and forward between characters clearly having fun, giving a random backstory they thought of then and there, and wild ideas that clearly got a natural 20 on accident. Though you don't see any dice roles or "real life" cut s...

  Genre: Action/Adventure  Time: 2hrs Director:  Desmond Davis Quick Summary:  Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda. Ray Harryhausen is a god with stop motion. This wonderfully shows his work and how much detail he loved to put into it. Sadly, it looks dated now, but the stop motion is still so impressive. He knows how to make a scene feel the right amount of eerie with the atmosphere he creates with the director, along with some really like landscapes and unique camera shots.   This is not a masterpiece. It does, though, tell a pretty good story. The characters (mostly) are exciting and the thread of mythology is interesting enough to carry it to its conclusion. It never overcomplicates things and it knows how to pace itself. Though I did feel as if it ran on a bit too long, some scenes could have been cut out.  In this, there is a little metal owl, that really is that comedic sidekick that doesn't actually speak,...

  Genre : Comedy Time: 1h 36mins Director:  James Signorelli Quick Summary:  Upon arriving in a small town where she has inherited a rundown mansion, a famous horror hostess battles an evil uncle and townspeople who want her burned at the stake. Honestly, this is just pure cheese humour with a LOT of boob jokes. I'm not complaining though.  Overall this is very stupid, but it's stupid on purpose. The plot is very farfetched and dumb, but it works well with the type of film this is going for. There are tons of plot holes in this, but I choose not to think about them as this film isn't really for thinking. It's there to make you laugh. Elvira's character is the focus here. She is lovable and adorable. Cassandra Petersen has a world of acting talent that just glows in this movie. On top of that acting talent, she had physical attributes which were honestly, stunning. I really liked how naive she acted in this, it just made it all that much funnier when things would be...

  Genre:  Sci-fi/Thriller Time: 1h 42mins Director:  Julius Onah Quick Summary:  Orbiting a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis, and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality. Admittedly, this doesn't hold up to the same standard as the other two films in this series in my opinion.  To me, a lot of the story felt very messy. It does manage to somehow connect itself to the others and slightly explain how the original event came to be, although that as well wasn't explained very well even though it was one of the biggest most forced moments of exposition I have ever witnessed.  This film really wants you to feel the dread the characters are feeling, but it never quite does it. Events are all over the place like limbs that have been separated are still fully moving or other body horror elements, but they all just give the film more of a survival tone to it. People are picked off very quickly in this in variou...

Genre:  Thriller/Sci-fi Time: 1h 45mins Director:  Dan Trachtenberg Quick Summary:  A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. This was absolutely amazing and tense right until the last ten minutes, which semi-ruined everything that came before it.  Only uses a cast of three people it relishes in its script, and it's incredibly well-acted as well. It keeps a solid focus on the cast and still manages to give a good few twists in its story. They work together brilliantly, others managing to be incredibly intimidating over time and really bring the tension up. I did like how dialogue driven this was because it really needed it.  All are mainly kept in one area to nothing gets boring. The atmosphere manages to slowly build up at a perfect pace, dropping little bits to lead up to the big twist. It's brilliant at being a phycological thriller, with you constantly guessing wh...