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Reviews
Unknown (2011)
An entertaining thriller
Not quite as memorable as Taken but Liam Neeson's presence lifts this film out of the ordinary. Liam convinces the viewer for most of the film that he's a devoted husband until he learns, and we learn, the shocking truth that he's, in fact, an assassin. Somehow, partial memory loss, from a car accident reverses his true nature. Once happy to eliminate a top bio-technologist he later attempts to save him so that the world can benefit from a drought and pest resistant corn. However, the fighting skills he had as an assassin are also partially lost with the partial memory loss. Several times he manages to escape attempts on his life by his former colleagues who want to eliminate him in case he jeopardizes the plot to kill the bio-technologist. He befriends a young, female illegal immigrant taxi-driver who saves him from drowning in the taxi-crash and twice saves him again as the story unfolds. Despite the usual deviations from reality that thrillers seem to contain it's primary purpose to entertain is not diminished.
The Entity (1982)
Watch it for Barbara Hershey's performance
Watching this 1981 film for the first time after becoming desensitized to paranormal films after years of watching innumerable episodes of X-Files I feel that the portrayal of the paranormal activity experienced by Barbara Hershey's character Carla Moran (Real person: Doris Bither) lacks sufficient impact for today's audience. As horrific as those rape experiences must have been for Carla I felt somewhat detached. I think the psychological aspects of the repeated rapes should be portrayed a lot better in any remake. Despite this weakness Barbara Hershey's performance still holds up well today.
There is an interview floating around on the internet with one of Doris Bither's sons - Brian Harris. He gives an interesting account of the tension within the family. Doris drank heavily as she tried to cope with raising a family of four as a single parent and many failed relationships. There was also friction amongst the children. All this added up to a very dysfunctional and stressful environment. The paranormal activity made it truly frightening. Although Doris suffered the rapes the children also experienced physical incidents. Brian summed it up by saying, "Living in that home was hell." A remake should capture the reality of family life more with some mental disintegration on the parts of the family members as the events fracture their relationships. In reality, the family were forced to leave the house by the owner they were renting from when the house began getting a reputation as being haunted. After the family left the house the paranormal activity followed them but receded over the years. Eventually, Doris Bither passed away in 1995, from Pulmonary Arrest.
At the end of the film we are told by text that "It is considered by psychic researchers to be one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of parapsychology."
Surveillance (2008)
I enjoyed the crazy characters
About 15 minutes into the film the two 'FBI' agents have the following exchange: Ormond: "Sam - go easy." Pulman: "Easy?" Ormond: "Yeah - remember why we're here." Pullman: "I remember why we're here - Agent. (Ormond smiles) I'm good." Too me, this exchange signaled that there was a mystery associated with these 'agents'. The obvious question was, "Were they who they claimed to be?" Ormond's character was convincing as a professional but Pullman's character was stilted and weird. Not surprising that Ormond's character should be a little worried that their charade might be exposed by Pullman's character dropping his mask. I can imagine that those moviegoers who guessed early that Ormond and Pullman were the killers would fail to enjoy the film. In my case, I didn't guess that. Consequently, I enjoyed the re-telling of events by the witnesses. The characterizations of the twisted, road patrol cops, the junkie couple and vacationing family were very good. Eventually, the real identities of Ormond and Pullman are revealed by the very perceptive young girl played by Ryan Simpkins and confirmed by Pullman admitting to being at the murder scene quickly followed by the discovery of photos showing Ormond and Pullman as lovers. If you can forgive the implausibility of two FBI agents being murdered and impersonated then there's a lot to like about this film. However, I can understand that many people don't like implausible twists and will rate this film lower than it deserves for that one plot weakness. Since the film held my attention with plenty of crazy characters I still rate it as an above average movie.
Skyline (2010)
Needed a few more plot twists to be a great thriller.
This movie is a straight-out action thriller. The suspense, soundtrack, surprises, snappy editing and chillingly realistic visual effects were worth the price of admission alone. For me the characters responded to the frightening situation as I'd imagine most ordinary people would. To some people survival means running or hiding from almost certain annihilation. To others, retaliating offers some chance of survival, albeit a slim one. For me, this movie had the most in common with Pearl Harbour because the US Navy was caught completely by surprise by an overwhelming force. The feeling of helplessness against superior technology pervades the movie. This was not an easy acting assignment for the cast but they didn't fail to project the emotions ordinary people would feel in this terrible situation. The movie ends without us knowing whether the aliens have a weakness which can be exploited by humans to defeat them. I think potential film-goers should expect a potential sequel and not be too disappointed by the lack of resolution. The movie does end with some hope that the fortunes of the human race will improve in the sequel. If the film producers decide to make a sequel I hope they engineer a few more plot twists. A good thriller shouldn't contain too many predictable plot elements. This is probably the biggest weakness of this first installment.