Review: Bird Box (2018)

“Listen to me, we’re going on a trip now, it’s going to be rough. If you hear something in the woods, you tell me. if you hear something in the water, you tell me. But under no circumstances are you allowed to take off your blindfold.”
– Malorie

SYNOPSIS: Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety. – via IMDB

So there was so much hype surrounding this that I figured it was time to give it a shot and see what it was all about. I think this was largely down to people doing silly challenges. Well, I got to it and it was… okay. I know, I know. Opinions seemed varied about it, but I didn’t love it.

I felt the movie was excessively long for what it gave us. Like, it could totally have justified the run time if there was just more going on. As it was, way too much. Also, it never felt like it got intense enough, if that makes sense? It was always on the fringes of delivering, but never did. It didn’t even get you riled and then not pay off, it just… carried on and on. So I wasn’t super invested. And for all the “it’s unique and different”, I didn’t feel that.

I thought the performances were decent, albeit not groundbreaking material that you will remember long after the movie is over. The story itself won’t even linger long after aside from the blindfolds. I suppose that is how it was with Hush. It was not necessarily unique in terms of genre (home invasion), but had a different spin (deaf victim). So it was with Bird Box. End of the world/invasion type deal, and you can’t look at anything because it will drive you crackers (serious Lovecraftian stuff going on there).

So Bird Box was okay, albeit long. It is not something that will stay with you long after all is said and done, and is not as different and unique as it would like to think it is.

Review: Warm Bodies (2013)

“So much for dreaming. You can’t be whatever you want. All I’ll ever be is a slow, pale, hunched-over, dead-eyed zombie.”
– R

SYNOPSIS: After a highly unusual zombie saves a still-living girl from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion events that might transform the entire lifeless world. – via IMDB

I thought R and his way of expressing things was so dry but entertaining.

Some of the best conversational skills of all time, no two ways about it.

His desperate attempts at being human and normal were painful and hilarious.

R and Julie were so sweet, it made me laugh how he was just so out of touch with most normal things, but he really tried.

R and Julie certainly had completely different ideas about what she was doing there.

M always had R’s back, and as a zombie, dropping the “bitches” line? Priceless.

A sentiment I can totally identify with too much sometimes.

A Polaroid camera provided some sweetness and amusement all round.

This was just… yes. I really liked it.

My reaction, decently summed up.

So I finally had to watch this after both Abbi and Natasha insisted that it was fresh, new, and most certainly not Twilight. I decided it was time, and popped it in. What followed was a total surprise to me. While not my favourite zombie movie of all time (and I am with Mr O on the zombie purist thing most of the time, sorry Abbi) – I was willing to suspend all the beliefs I had about zombies to see this. I actually really enjoyed it. It really isn’t Twilight with zombies, so give it a shot if that is what kept you from looking into it. It was shot well and the acting was relatively good. R really made me laugh at times. He was lost, lonely, sad, desperately didn’t want to be what he was, and he was most certainly different from your average zombie. The message he carried across was cool, too, and his humour and outlook was really dry and drab, but it was both amusing and touching. He was very impressive in here, and I think he is an under-appreciated actor, he’s pretty good. There was a lot to like in this one. However, this was one super cutie zombie to come from the zombie apocalypse! The score worked well, too, though it is certainly not my favourite soundtrack of all time. I had a lot of fun with what the movie was saying, and John Malkovich played a real tool, really. Also, Dave Franco went from being such a nice guy to a real idiot, though when you see the history you can understand that, too. Teresa Palmer was good as Julie, she never actually started working on my nerves. She was not a barbie and she was in touch with what was going on around her, yet still she wanted love, life, and freedom. She also had nice chemistry with Nicholas Hoult. I really liked the friendship between R and M, gave me quite a few giggles. Overall, Warm Bodies is sweet, funny, and not a horror, so don’t go in watching that if you are expecting a Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. If you watch it with no preconceived notions, and just accept it for what it is, then this will be a great little watch.