Paranormal Activity[2009] So often a horror movies relies on cheap jump scenes for it's scares, but 'Paranormal Activities' attacks from a different angle. Presenting a realistic story, playing off events many people believe can occur and even happen to them, the film tries to thin the line between reality and fiction trying to induce true horror in the audience. While trying to pass it off as actual events is a stretch, the way that it is presented is effective in driving home what is scary about this film. These events could happen to you. That is if you buy into paranormal activity. Everyone hears noises at night and gets spooked from time to time. Feeding off of this, the film continually builds upon the little scares, mounting suspense and climaxing with terror. The reactions by the actors are similar to how anyone might react in the situations which makes the experience that much more disturbing. The events do get a little repetitive and are somewhat on the nose, but as a whole it managed to scare me. Something which I thought any horror film could no longer accomplish anymore.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Thomas Crown Affair[1968] Steve McQueen is cool. There was no reason to have an entire movie based solely around this characteristic. In 'The Thomas Crown Affair' McQueen plays a millionaire who organizes a bank heist for the thrills, and the police trying to pin it on him. There is very little plot wise here. We're just left to bask in the coolness of McQueen and I guess envy him. It's shot in a very stylized manner which also heavily dates it. The shot sequences feel extremely overdone and are seemingly meritless. There is one shot between Dunaway and McQueen playing chess. The scene wants to badly to be a powerful, meaningful moment, but is ruined by the heavy-handedness of the direction and cinematography. It starts off fine with beautiful close ups of Dunaway and McQueen, but then gets absurd when the scene would not end and is shot from every conceivable angle as it derails into a corny parody of itself. There's something to be said about subtlety which this film completely ignores. There are a handful of scenes where its fun to just enjoy McQueen being McQueen, but it all was just over the top with no substance to be enjoyable.
Rating: 2/5
Battle of Britain[1969] Some say this is one of the most historically accurate portrayals of a battle on film, and that very well might be the case, only it still wouldn't mean much to me since I couldn't stay interested for more than a few minutes at the time. This is very much a war epic complete with an overly bombastic score which frequently didn't fit with what was being shown. At no point did I connect with a single character. At no point did I feel any emotion towards any of the events that were being shown. There was very little glue holding the action scenes together. Perhaps I'm tainted by modern effects, but the action scenes just did not do anything for me. The repetitive air battles blend together into one uninteresting failed air show. If a majority of the film is going to depend on the effectiveness of the action, it had better be good. It wasn't, and I can't see this as anything but a colossal bore.
Rating: 1.5/5