The Other Woman

I had no intention of seeing this film. The premise sounded like everything I dislike in a film. But I won tickets to it. Sure I'll go if it's free.

To my surprise I ended up enjoying it. Yes, I still detest bathroom humor of any kind and I can do without people vomiting in purses (something I recently encountered on film twice), but if I block that from memory, the film was still pretty entertaining.

Most of the credit for this goes to Leslie Mann. She plays the betrayed wife that gave up everything for her husband and does so in a whiny, clingy way that borders on the annoying but never quite falls onto the wrong side of an imaginary thin line on that account. Cameron Diaz does what she always does and what (sadly) appears to be the only thing she is any good at. Why Kate Upton is in this is beyond me. The wife/lover duo would have been sufficiently funny and menacing without the blond bimbo hanging around. I can confirm, that her boobs jiggle when she runs (I know that boobs do that from experience, thankyouverymuch) and that she is good at playing dumb. (Too good?)

Despite the little hick-ups this was fun. Also, New York.

6/10

Firewall

Jack Stanfield works for the Landrock Pacific Bank in Seattle and his day is about to take a weird turn when a debt collector shows up at his job trying to collect $ 95,000,-- in gambling debts. Jack realizes he has been victim of identity theft. What seems like a small incident at first is supposed to be used to set him up. The fictitious gambling debt is to be used as an also fictitious reason for him to steal from his own bank.

His colleague Harry has set up a business meeting with one Brian Cox, offering both of them work. After a few drinks, as Jack gets in his car to return to his family, Cox gets into the backseat and puts a gun to his head. While Jack was at work, his family has been taken hostage at their house. As Cox and Jack return their, they are kept at gunpoint over night.

The next morning, Jack is to go to his job as usual, equipped with a video and voice feed connected to the culprits. During the day, Cox shows up again for a 'meeting' with Jack, that his assistant is suspicious of, as she didn't set it up. Cox has Jack take him on a tour through the server room where he explains his plan. With Jack's technical expertise, he is supposed to transfer millions to an account on the Cayman Islands.

After a difficult day, with Jack trying to contact somebody, anybody for help and being found out, Cox drives home his point by killing one of his own associates for not paying attention for a moment that Jack used to sneak his video camera (disguised as a pen) onto his secretary.

The family devise a plan for Jack's wife and their two children to escape by clever use of one of the son Andy's toy - an remote controlled car, that has in the past interfered with TV reception is used to interfere with the video feed that is being used to keep taps on the family. They do not make it out and - in a quiet moment - Cox again emphasizes that he has no scruples, he feeds Andy, who has a severe peanut allergy, with a cookie containing peanuts and making Jack beg for the EpiPen.

Finally, the plan is set into action, with Jack moving to different terminals in the bank as to not be interrupted by one of his colleagues, who is hot on his heals the entire time. When the transfer is made, Jack and Cox split up. When Jack gets back to the house it is empty. One of the culprits returns to finish him off, but Jack beats him to death with a stand up mixer (handy thing, that).

He flees to Harry's empty apartment and hears a message on the answering machine from his wife, reading from a script that makes it look like a message to her lover, Harry, and a confirmation that she has left Jack. When he hears someone coming in - it is Harry with Cox, still in future business partner mode - he hides in a closet (classic!) to see Cox execute Harry. Jack realizes, that this will only reflect back on him with the tale of an affair and Cox using Jack's own gun. His flight continues...

To pressure Cox into giving his family back, he takes the baddie's cell with him and calls Cox as he is re-transferring the money and telling him that he will give him the money in exchange for his family's safe return the next morning. Jack changes his plan, however, when he realizes he heard the family dog bark as he was on the phone with Cox. The little pet has a tendency to run away and has been equipped with a GPS collar.

With the help of his secretary, he manages to locate the dog, who has been thrown out of the transport vehicle for unruly behavior. Fortunately, they are close enough to the hide out for Jack to sneak up to the house and a combination of one of the culprit's reluctance to hurt his family, Cox' hurt pride and Jack's and his wife's anger, the bad guys are taken down once an for all. Cox meets his end in a fist fight, cut short by use of an ax.

An ok, fast-paced watch. Nothing to write home about but entertaining enough.

5/10

Mama

I like a good ghost story. Especially when it is as pretty as this. Sure, it looks goth and is macabre, but I find it pretty nonetheless.

Jessica Chastain (sporting an unfortunate hairdo) stars alongside Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones fame) as couple Annabel and Lucas taking care of two little girls named Victoria and Lily. When Luke's twin brother went of the rails five years back, he shot two work associates and his wife and took off into the woods with his two girls. They ended up in a cabin, also inhabited by a ghost, who mainly lived in the wall.

After the ghost did away with the father, the girls spent the next five years there, growing savage and calling the creature Mama. Luke never gave up looking for his brother and nieces and they were eventually found and after spending some time in psychiatric care, were handed over to him and Annabel, while under the watch of one Dr. Dreyfuss, who slowly pieced together the story of this Mama the girls keep referring to.

Unfortunately, Mama came with the girls into the new house and becomes very jealous of Annabel. Luke ends up in a hospital after a fall down the stairs and Annabel is left to fend for herself. She finds out the story Dr. Dreyfuss has pieced together after he disappears while trying to solve the enigma of Mama by going back to the cabin the girls were found in (he doesn't make it out again).

Mama was separated from her own child when held in an insane asylum. She escaped, kidnapped the baby and ended up falling down a cliff with the child. While Mama fell into the water, the baby's blanket got caught on a branch and the two were again separated in death. She haunted the area looking for her baby ever since. Annabel and Luke try to get rid of the ghost by offering the remains of the child, that had been stored away in some government facility because nobody ever came to claim them, as a trade for Victoria and Lily. In the end, they have to make a huge sacrifice.

Some of this is truly scary. One can recognize Guillermo del Toro's producing hand in this.

8/10