The Strangers: Prey at Night [Unrated] (2018) - 6.5/10
In my humble opinion, the movie is a solid sequel, but did not fully satisfy the expectations I had established based on the original movie, The Strangers (2008). Overall, the production effort is strong, but the story line is fairly predictable. With that said, the movie is a worthy one-time rental, especially for fans of Horror/Thriller movies, but future replay value is low.
Pretty decent directorial debut for Gosling. The canvas he used of location, style, etc. was pretty good.
Story was ok. Not terrible but not completely enthralling. Very much an "auteur" type film which makes sense since he wrote and directed it. Acting was good and he had professional actors in the lead roles. The cameos by non professional locals really added a natural flavor to it.
carriers - not rating it that high really, it was watchable but the story wasnt great
it felt like a lot of nothing happened and your left wondering about all the loose ends (like what happened to bobby or the dad and girl, who where the masked people and how did their friend die, what happened at the makeshift hospital, why did truckers hunt down and kill that random man etc...) it feels like they either get there after everything already happened or leave without finding out what will happen
non of the charcaters are particularly likeble, the more interesting 3 are the 3 whose stories never get an ending
plus there seems to be a preface missing because at the end its talking about how the survivers are strangers but they did this whole journey together so its hardly like they are still strangers - it also never really goes into detail about how they found this 'stranger' and had them join the group anyway and started with her already intergrated in the group so to the audience she just a member of the group
it felt more like it should have been a meandering 'walking dead' style tv series where they could expand on the different characters/stories rather than a film
Why is this film so underrated? 51% Tomatometer? Dumb. Makes me question the validity of Rotten Tomatoes as well as my fellow man.
This is what movie magic is.
Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four. 9/10
Interesting. Along the lines of Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau or Lost in La Mancha
the camera work killed me, at first I though it looked cinematic and nicely coloured but the DOP was trying way too hard to be arty, half the shots arent in focus which is not only annoying but confusing (no one needs to see a leaf we want to see the characters) and the use of a steady cam even for shots that should be stationary was annoying... over all I feel motion sick and my eyes/head hurt by the end
as for the story, the characters where stupid and unlikeble, I actually WANTED the bear to kill her and by the end was disappointed that some how she bumbled her way to survival... it doesnt represent the REAL LIFE story at all
the bear was ok and looked cool, im glad they didnt use wolves (I know dogs are easy to train but im sick of the killer wolf trope now) but the bear suddenly attacking for no logical reason after not harming them for days makes makes no sense, it felt like 'crap its the last 10 minutes lets throw in a bear attack'
without the bad camera work it would be a ok but mediocre film mainly just due to character stupidity and unlikebleness but the camera work made it almost unwatchable
Paint by numbers jurassic park movie.. idk if its bc there have been so many of the series or what but this one was extremely predictable for me. I was able to call the outcome of pretty much every tense scene in the film. Oh the t-rex will appear in a few secs. yup there it is. Oh raptor is about to come. yup there he is right on schedule.
and uhh.. unfortnately there was no dinosaurs in the real world stuff.. like at all. very misleading.
In one of hte older movies there was a t-rex by someones pool, i was expecting something like that but no. the dinos were contained all film
I really enjoyed this film the second time around. I enjoyed it the first time too but damn this film is good. Really great character driven writing that's well paced.
I really enjoyed this film the second time around. I enjoyed it the first time too but damn this film is good. Really great character driven writing that's well paced.
I also liked this film. A realistic portrayal of how the news reporter works.
An interesting trivia: Rick's job interview scene was shot at Dinah's restaurant in Culver City. I worked in this restaurant 2 years ago during my summer break. I watched this film one time and instantly recognized the location. One of my co-worker told me that they completed the whole scene in less than 2 days and looks like even the employees didn't know they will be shooting there until the last minute.
Last edited by peacemaker; 06-30-2018 at 02:18 AM.
I also liked this film. A realistic portrayal of how the news reporter works.
An interesting trivia: Rick's job interview scene was shot at Dinah's restaurant in Culver City. I worked in this restaurant 2 years ago during my summer break. I watched this film one time and instantly recognized the location. One of my co-worker told me that they completed the whole scene in less than 2 days and looks like even the employees didn't know they will be shooting there until the last minute.
I wouldn't say realistic. More like exaggerated but yeah it was creepy to watch.