Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although I’m technically an adult, I do still enjoy watching films aimed at younger audiences; and this movie was no exception.

I thought it was interesting to see how the events of the movie fit together. It was good to see how the characters all connected to each other and I liked the relationships between the Walker children and with their mother. I did find the storyline with Jim to be an intriguing one, but I really didn’t like him very much for most of the movie.

I had a lot of sympathy for Roger in particular, though Tatty was a precocious child who reminded me of my niece at times.

I did feel there was a real lack of foreshadowing, such as the implications that Tatty always made up stories and her siblings didn’t believe her. The other thing was the past history involving their father. The times foreshadowing was utilised were fewer than I felt they could have been.

There were a lot more darker scenes than I was expecting, but at the same time, I felt there was a lot of tension in this, which was good. The two Russians were creepy, but rather than coming across as cardboard cutout villains, I felt they had more depth than it first seemed.

I also liked the fact that there were conflicts in the relationships between the children… well, not so much the ‘Amazons’, but definitely the ‘Swallows’. I did, however, question the wisdom in their mother allowing them to go to the island, especially given that the two older children didn’t really come across as all that responsible.

I would have liked a bit of history involving Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, as it wasn’t very clear how Mrs. Walker and her children knew them. I also liked the opportunity to see something of the town… such as the carnival and the stereotypical nosy shopkeeper.

I felt the film was entertaining and although it did seem to lack the spark that would have made me want to watch it again, it was an enjoyable movie to watch. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger or more sensitive children, but it would be good for older children.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw this film advertised originally, I was immediately interested. I don’t mind being in the dark… but I have a slight fear of going into dark rooms. And the idea of there being a ghost who was powerless in the dark was a good idea.

I did, however, feel that the effects were somewhat lost when Diana became more visible. It was hard to take her seriously when she just looked like a shadow with glowing eyes.

It was good to see the differences in the relationships between Rebecca and Sophie and Martin and Sophie. It was sweet and kind of sad to see how much Martin worried over his mother… but at the same time, it was sad to see Rebecca felt the need to run away from her mother, even though it was understandable.

I did feel the woman from social services didn’t really add much to the plot… and she did seem to completely contradict what she was trying to do. I wasn’t really sure what she expected Rebecca to do.

I did like Rebecca’s and Paul’s relationship. There were some really sweet moments between them and the first scene between them was a good way of diffusing the tension.

I did kind of feel sorry for Diana, although the slight attempts made to humanise her didn’t really go far. And I was completely confused about why she appeared the way she did.

It was good to get a brief glimpse of Rebecca’s history living with her mother, but I did feel that some of the rules weren’t really made clear.

There were some scary moments in this film, but most of those were jump scares and those lost a lot of effectiveness.

I think the movie could have been better with some more mystery and less obvious visuals. It wasn’t a film I would choose to watch again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t really seen that many movies involving sharks, even though I do like horror movies. But I liked the look of this movie… and even though it seemed to be a more focused movie, I did find it entertaining to watch.

I enjoyed seeing and learning about Nancy’s history. It was really good to see her interactions with her sister and to see the conflicts in her relationship with her father. And I also liked seeing her and Carlos trying to communicate with each other. There were some really amusing things about how they talked.

I liked the fact that there were some good elements of foreshadowing and it was nice to see Nancy form a kind of attachment to the seagull.

The shark was really scary… more so, I think, because sharks are predatory animals that don’t really need to be exaggerated.

It was good to see that, although she was injured and suffering from gangrene and exhaustion, Nancy was still quite a strong character… though I did feel that the decision she made to begin with was quite a bad one; and maybe something a seasoned surfer shouldn’t have made, considering she was fairly careful until that point.

I really liked being able to see the dolphins and the island itself (apart from the shark) was really beautiful. It was disturbing to see the whale’s dead body… though more because whales are majestic creatures than anything else.

There was a lot of good tension in this movie and although there wasn’t a lot of cast, I liked the fact it was more focused… though it was a bit unbelievable that the surfers didn’t even consider what Nancy was trying to say to them.

While I liked the ending, I did find that a bit unbelievable as well. Still, it was entertaining to watch and I did care about Nancy’s safety… though I don’t think I would gain anything from watching it again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the book this film is based on, but I thought it was a cool plot idea and the trailer definitely piqued my interest.

I liked being able to see Vee’s relationship with her mother and I felt her character had a lot of depth. It was interesting to note that there was a lot of myself I saw in her… at least at the beginning.

I could see how the idea of Nerve was appealing, as it seemed to appeal to both the exhibitionist side of people and the more anonymous side, particularly towards the end of the movie.

I found it easy to engage with the plot of this movie. I cringed along with Vee when she had to kiss a stranger for five  seconds. At the same time, it was also good to see Ian had more depth to him than it first seemed. Considering the first thing I saw the actor in was Scrubs, it was good to see how versatile he was as an actor.

I did like the friendship between Sydney and Vee, though it didn’t really feel real until towards the end. It was also good to see quite a few of the secondary characters had a lot of depth to them.

I thought it was really good to see some of the comments made by the watchers on the videos and to see the different reactions people had to what the players were doing.

There was a lot of tension in his movie and it did keep me on the edge of my seat a lot. And I thought it was good to see how fast things moved, along with the uses of foreshadowing. It was, however, quite difficult to believe the whole movie took place in such a short space of time.

I do intend to buy this on DVD when it comes out and this is definitely a movie I’d like to see again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have a vague recollection of the story of Pete’s Dragon, but since my memory wasn’t very clear, I didn’t go into the movie with any preconceptions.

The opening scene was a really sad one, even though it did do a good job of showing Pete’s relationship with his parents and something of his education level before he ended up in the woods. I smiled when he was trying to read his book… and it was bittersweet to see how much of an impact that book had on him.

While I was somewhat confused by how the characters were all connected to each other to begin with, it was good to see their relationships, including how close Pete and Grace became; but I also liked seeing Pete as a child, rather than just acting like a wild creature.

I would have liked a little bit more detail of the relationship between Jack and Gavin, especially since I recognised both of the actors. I didn’t much like Gavin, even though it was good to see he wasn’t made out to just be a villain… at least by the end of the movie.

I especially liked seeing Pete get spooked by some of the things he wasn’t familiar with, but considering he was old enough to be reading (or trying to) by himself before the crash, I didn’t feel it made sense for him to be quite as ignorant about balloons or even record players… though the way he was startled by the phone ringing made sense, as it would have been a sound he hadn’t heard in a long time.

I really liked Elliot. I thought the design of the dragon was really well done and it was cool to see that he acted more like a dog. There was a lot that was really sweet about Pete and Elliot interacting with each other.

All in all, this was a really sweet movie and although there were some dark scenes, I felt those were at an acceptable level for children. I might not plan to buy this movie on DVD, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have watched two of the Bourne movies in the past… though one of them starred Jeremy Renner, so perhaps it couldn’t be classed as an official Bourne movie.

It was interesting to see this movie start with flashbacks to Jason’s life as David, though I wasn’t quite sure exactly how he’d been conditioned and why it had broken. I liked the fact that this movie focused as much on the other characters as Jason himself.

Nikki’s presence in the movie was somewhat confusing, but while it made sense later, I couldn’t quite understand why she made contact with Jason in such an obvious way.

I liked seeing the politics at the CIA involving Heather and Dewey, though I would have liked some background as to Heather’s agenda and what brought her to the CIA.

It was good to see some of the effects of the leaking of the information previously, particularly when it came to the other ‘asset’ having been imprisoned and tortured due to that information being released. It was also good to see flashes of Jason’s (David’s) final conversation with his father.

I did feel, while watching this movie, that a passing knowledge of the Bourne franchise, at least, was required. I could follow it reasonably well, but only because I was a bit familiar with the previous movies.

There was a lot of action, but on some level, I felt the action detracted from the storyline. It was good to see there were some elements of foreshadowing utilised well and I did like seeing Jason and Heather interacting with each other.

To be honest, I didn’t feel there was much in this movie to make it stand out from other movies in the same genre. While it was entertaining to watch, I probably wouldn’t see it again in the near future.