The Sisterhood of Night

Under normal circumstances I would not be remotely interested in watching a film about a group of high school girls that form a secret club or cult or whatever. The title even has the word sisterhood in it. I mean, come on. (I have yet to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.) However, these are not normal circumstances because Kal Penn is in this.

I actually enjoyed this film. Believe me, I am as surprised as you.

The premise is as stated above. A group of high school girls meet in secret to do secret things that nobody not in that group knows nothing about. The girls even quit Facebook. How suspicious is that? But when you are a curious high school girl yourself and excluded from the group but still want to know more about it or at least appear to know something about it you have to simply make things up.

From there, things just spin out of control. Rumors start flying and since the sisterhood is vowed to secrecy, they do not counter any of the accusations about what they are doing out at night in the woods. Then the parents catch half a whiff of something fishy happening and things go from bad to worse.

So, you have this pot full of secrecy, rumors, peer pressure, overly protective parents and the almighty internet in the hands of mindless teenagers. This can only lead to tragedy. And it does. This, however, is not a secret because a voice over tells us so at the very beginning.

Then, when everything comes out and the sisterhood turned out to be nothing at all what everyone thought it was but - rather unexpectedly in today's teenage culture - a net of safety, basically, the film becomes positive and beautiful and forgiving. Kitschy, yes, but it made me happy nonetheless.

7/10

Hitman

There is a lot of shooting in this film. Probably to be expected from a film about Hitman, but still, a lot of shooting.

The hitman in question is one of many, apparently. All of them bald, all of them with a bar code tattooed onto the back of their bald heads. The one whose story we follow was given the number 47 by the people that raised him or, rather, trained him to become what he is. He is very good at what he does. So much so that one of the top Interpol agents is trailing him. And Agent 47 himself becomes a target, four agents come after him at the same time. All four presumably had the same training he did.

Why did he become a target in the first place? That is what he is trying to find out.

When he is sent to assassinate a high profile Russian politician - and seemingly fails - he is set up by whatever agency is behind all this. Then, to save himself and the politician's whore/lover/property, he goes rouge.

Now his fellow agents, Interpol and a Russian agency are all after him. Agent 47, being as good as he is, takes out pretty much everyone that has wronged him (the casualty count is rather high) and, in the end, walks away. Also, he turns out to have a heart.

Very, very entertaining. Also, something to tide me over my current Timothy Olyphant withdrawal that set in as soon as Justified officially ended. (My poor bleeding heart!)

7/10

The Lady from Shanghai

Oh, Michael O'Hara, you should've never taken that job. Your first instincts are usually right. But, damn, that woman blinded you, didn't she?

When seaman Michael agrees to join a rather bizarre boat trip, his fate is pretty much sealed. He starts working for a Mr. Bannister, a lawyer walking in a weird way with the help of two canes. This the day after he meets and saves (or did he?) Mrs. Bannister. The married couple couldn't be more different in the looks department, she gorgeous, he scrawny. Later Mr. Bannister's business partner, one George Grisby, joins the trip.

Everyone of the three have their own agenda, every one of those agenda's includes killing someone and also involves poor Michael O'Hara. George hires him to kill Bannister. Mrs. Bannister apparently wanted George to kill her husband, but in the end it is George that turns up dead with O'Hara framed for the murder. Or, rather, he sort of framed himself by writing out a confession to the murder he agreed to pretend to have committed. Yes, it is all a bit convoluted.

Lucky (or maybe not) for O'Hara, Bannister agrees to defend him in court. The procedures take a turn for the ridiculous when Bannister himself is called to the witness stand and - after being cross-examined by the prosecutor - cross-examines himself, much to the amusement of judge and jury.

In the end, O'Hara runs before a verdict can be announced. Mrs. Bannister runs after him and they end up in a fun house. Before long, Mr. Bannister joins them there and the final showdown, when the truth of what actually happened comes out, takes place in a hall of mirrors.

Twists! Turns! Orson Welles! Rita Hayworth!

7/10

1984

Only recently did I become aware that there was a film version of George Orwell's brilliant novel 1984 before the widely known one from, well, 1984.

This came out in 1956. Other than it being in black and white, it is the same film. Now, my memory of the John Hurt/Richard Burton version is a bit sketchy by now (must watch that again soon) but I don't think that it contained anything that the older version does not provide.

That it also to say that this is rather brilliant, as well. The only significant difference I could notice has not so much to do with the merit of the tale but with the look. The setting may be as bleak as one would expect. What is much, much prettier than should be in my opinion is Julia (here credited as Julia of the Outer Party). This is the classic Hollywood beauty of old, with always perfect blond hair in 1950's style and perfectly made up. Of course, this was made before it became fashionable for any actress worth her salt to play 'ugly'.

But in the end, 2 + 2 = 5. Because Big Brother says so.

8/10

My Amityville Horror

This is the 'true' account of what happened in the house in Amityville, 112 Ocean Ave. The story has been told many times, be it by the family that allegedly experienced the haunted, by Ed and Lorraine Warren or through several horror films based on a true story.

My Amityville Horror focuses on Daniel Lutz, one of the three children in the house with their mother and stepfather, that eventually triggered the legend surrounding the place now. This is mostly a string of first word accounts by Daniel, psychics, psychologists and even Lorraine Warren makes an appearance.

Some of the aspects are really interesting and unsettling in ways that make you question whether or not this could actually have happened. Some comments call the truth of Daniel's recollection into question. How much of it does he really remember and when - if at all - did he fill in the blanks of his memories?

The film does not give a cut and dried answer but really only remains on the truthfulness of Daniel Lutz's words. It is up to anyone themselves to decide. It makes - on purpose or by accident - make Daniel look very unsympathetic. This appears to be a man that is always on the verge of jumping down someone's throat and voices his anger at interviewers (that last scene!).

I feel like that guy did not do himself any favors by agreeing to do this.

If you are interested in reading more about this, I recommend: Amityville Horror: Horror or Hoax? on the abc website.

6/10

The Crazies

I have seen The Crazies before. I have also seen the original version of the film before. The earlier one was made in 1973 and sports all the craziness one would expect from a horror flick made by George A. Romero. The kung fu was probably the most ridiculous bit.

I much prefer the new version, for several reasons. Firstly, there is no kung fu in this. The lead is played by Timothy Olyphant, who is very easy on the eyes. And the new version is set in Iowa. Why they would change the setting from Pennsylvania in the original to Iowa in the remake I do not know.

The disaster is caused by a combination of accident and government involvement. A plane transporting a bio-weapon goes down in a body of water that supplies the county with drinking water. Very unfortunate. Not only does the water now turn the locals into the crazies in the title within a 48 hour incubation period, but the government also tries to contain not only the virus (for lack of a better word) and the information that this ever happened. The latter, of course, means that everyone - healthy or sick - has to be terminated.

The ones walking away are the local sheriff and his pregnant wife, who walk, run and fight they way out of the military controlled (or the lack of it) area. The last thing they see of their former home is a mushroom cloud. But this being the naughties, the will only end up in the next contamination area.

No revelation, to be sure, but good fun for an hour and a half.

6/10

Mission: Impossible III

Okay, I admit, I totally lost the plot. Again.

Who double crosses who? Is everyone involved in shady activities? How do all these characters climb so high within the agency? What the fuck is even going on? And where is the rabbit foot? Or what, even? Wait, are they actually all just wearing one of those nifty masks?

So the nemesis this time around is played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman (reminding us again, that he was one of the greatest actors ever and is still sorely missed). Here he is not only just a bad guy, he is a sadistic, vengeful bad guy that swears to not only hurt Ethan, but also his fiance (later wife) for kidnapping him and stealing from him.

The team surrounding Ethan appears to be going rogue now and again. Or maybe it is their boss(es) who are the rogue ones (see above). Anyway, after kicking it of with yet another failed mission, here trying to rescue a fellow agent from somewhere in Berlin, the group's target is Owen Davian (the Hoffman character). By use of their fantastic gadgets, general geniality and one of those nifty masks, they pull off their mission in the Vatican (?), only to be attacked while transporting their prisoner (possibly by their own boss(es), again see above).

Then the wife (formerly fiance) is kidnapped and Ethan is told he has 48 hrs to retrieve and provide Davian with the rabbit foot (whatever that may be). For this, they need to go to Shanghai (because, of course). Again, gadgetry and stuff.

Then we come to the point where I totally lost the plot. Ethan awakes, chained to a chair, sitting opposite his wife (also chained/bound/duct taped to a chair) who has a gun to her head. Davian asks about the rabbit foot (specifically where it is) while counting to ten. Then he shoots her in the head, because Ethan did not speak. But where is the fucking rabbit foot? Did he not just get it in Shanghai? He had something in his hand after some adventurous dangling from buildings. I was sure that was it. What happened to it?

But then Davian didn't shoot the wife at all. Or it was not really the wife. Or Davian wasn't even there to begin with, but one of the bosses was. And then Ethan does find his wife, bound and stuff and in the presence of Davian. Then fighting, shootout, and she has to kill Ethan (to later revive him again because of the implant). Where did she learn to shoot like that? Look, here is boss man again and she shoots him and the rabbit foot falls out of the case he carried. Resuscitation of Ethan only for him to find that she already saved the day without him.

Color me confused, but nonetheless entertained.

5/10