I'm not the biggest Evil Dead fan myself, but I still like the movies enough. And the filmmakers here also clearly have a great deal of respect for the franchise. There are several homages to the second movie as well as the first one, and they're pulled off well enough that they're recognisable but still different enough that they fit perfectly within the context of the new story. I'm usually flat-out against horror remakes, but that's how you do one properly. :)
But sadly, the reimagining itself is where the movie falls flat. The characters are boring (Natalie in particular is completely superfluous), and the new plot is so much more involved than the original. It revolves around a demon who needs to claim five souls before dawn, so that… actually, I have no idea what his goal is! It's so drastically different from the original idea that, in a way, it doesn't deserve to be called a remake.
To sum it up, as its own horror movie, this does very little to stand out from the crowd (aside from being gleefully gory!), but as an Evil Dead remake… it's a mixed bag, but you may find it's a pleasant surprise.
My rating: 55%.
This remake of the French-language film Love Crime revolves around manipulative advertising boss Christine Stanford and her talented protégée Isabelle James. The rivalry between them starts out as Christine simply taking credit for one of Isabelle's ideas, and soon escalates to the point of insanity.
You know, I did imagine myself saying, "I haven't seen the original, but it can't be this bad," to describe this movie, but I didn't think it actually would be that bad! I mean, wow! This is one of the shallowest movies I've ever seen.
Christine is a completely one-note character: a smug manipulative bitch that I despised not for her actions but because there was nothing more to her. That just makes the escalation from stealing credit to public humiliation all the more ludicrous.
With the entire basis for the story being so one-dimensional, it's like this movie was purposely made just to annoy me! In a good story, you're angry at the villain. But in this case, I was angry at the creative team because I felt like I was being manipulated, expected to take such despicably bare-bones rivalry seriously.
The only redeeming factor is Dani, the only sensible character in this entire travesty.
So yeah, indeed I haven't seen the original, but it must surely be more fleshed out than this! This is right up there with Movie 43 and Die Hard 5 as one of the worst movies of the year so far.
My rating: 20%.
Former criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives Detective Max Lewinsky a second chance to take him down.
Wow, I've finally rented a 2013 release that I actually kind of liked! :) And I think a lot of that comes from the character of Jacob Sternwood. Not only does Mark Strong give an expectedly top-notch performance, but the character is cunning and ruthless, but sympathetic; he is trying to help his son, after all. I just love the scene at the hospital, where he finds a way to test the police's defences.
The film itself does a terrific job at playing detective and criminal against each other: how the criminal always manages to slip through the detective's fingers. But I think the second half is where it starts to lose its footing. The conspiracy ends up becoming a little too complicated, perhaps one too many people involved.
One major disappointment was Andrea Riseborough. She's a great actress – one of my favourites – so I couldn't help feeling that her character being in so little of the movie was kind of a waste of her talents.
Still, of all the movies I've rented so far this year (not counting Silver Linings Playbook), this is the first one that I actually feel inclined to buy. It does have its problems, but it at least has the makings of a solid action thriller.
My rating: 65%.
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