Review: Disconnect (2012)

One of my favourite things about co-running a movie blog is that family and friends tend to talk to me more about movies they’ve seen or ask me for recommendations. You’ll see quite a few movies I’ve reviewed that have been suggestions from my Grampy, but this one comes, funnily enough, from my boss! He’s not a movie buff at all but watches whatever movie Channel 5 or Film4 put on each Sunday night, and tells me about them on Monday morning in the office.

The latest one he recommended to me was Disconnect (2012). I’d never heard of it before but it starred one of my favourite actors, Jason Bateman, and with a topic so close to my heart I knew I was going to have to hunt this movie down as quickly as possible.

Disconnect weaves 3 separate stories all with one connecting theme. The internet is a dangerous place. Kyle (Max Thieriot) is a chat-room stripper who winds up in a heap of trouble when Nina (Andrea Riseborough), a reporter, pays to chat with him as part of a story and the FBI get involved. Two school boys, Jason (Colin Ford) and Frye (Aviad Bernstein) play a prank on another boy in their school, Ben (Jonah Bobo) by creating a fake Facebook account under the name Jessica. Their prank goes too far and Ben’s father Rich (Jason Bateman) investigates. Then we have Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgard), a couple with marriage issues after the loss of their child, who become victims of identity theft.

It’s actually one of the scariest movies I’ve seen, but not for the generic reasons. There are no jump scares or murderers here, this is a drama, not a horror. But the fact is, this is real life. There’s no need for a warning of “these events are based on a real life story” because this happens every day in the real world.

I can’t confess to knowing anything about chat-room strippers, but we all know there’s a dark part of the internet out there. Again, I’ve thankfully never been a victim of identity theft, but my fiance had his Playstation account hacked and funds withdrawn from his bank account. That was scary enough! On a much smaller scale, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, I fell victim to the cruel school prank. Some kids wrote me a love letter from a boy I fancied and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Social Media wasn’t a thing back then so it ended fairly quickly, but in this day and age, cyberbullying is a huge issue.  Aww what horrid kids! Give me their names, I'll sort them out! It's okay, I'm over it, I swear...*sob*

My only complaint about Disconnect would be that I was so fascinated by each of the three stories, I’d like them to be movies of their own. There’s just not enough time to connect with the characters enough in this format.

I think Disconnect is a must watch for anyone who uses the internet on a daily basis, especially parents who didn’t grow up in such a connected world.

Review: The Grey (2011)

I’ve been meaning to watch The Grey for far too long. So long in fact, that when I finally got round to sitting down to see it, I completely forgot what it was even about. Liam Neeson and some wolves. That was about all I could recall. At least I could convince my other half to watch this with me!

Here's the thing, I loved Liam Neeson. However, the Taken phenomenon and everything in between has pushed me into being extremely bored of him (and his one character) so although I probably should watch this and give it a chance, for now I'm not going to. So there...

Bare with me now as I don’t fully understand the underlying plot here. That’s my bad though, not the film’s. Ottway (Liam Neeson) is an oil worker in Alaska who is desperately unhappy. I can’t work out if his wife is ill or dead, or whether they are actually still together. Regardless, Ottway and his colleagues take a flight (I’m not sure where or why) and the worst case scenario happens, the plane crashes in the middle of nowhere, leaving the few survivors to fend for themselves.

The film introduces Ottway quite nicely I thought. We certainly get an insight into what’s going on in his head. We also get introduced to his colleagues on the plane, and get a feeling of their characteristics. The plane crash scene itself was incredibly dramatic, and I think I was holding my breath throughout part of it!

I wasn’t expecting the film to be quite as jumpy as it was; I’m certainly glad I didn’t see it at the cinema or I would have embarrassed myself! You know those moment where you’re saying to yourself ‘that person is going to get jumped on, I just know it, you’ll see’ and then it happens and you still jump? I was doing that throughout! It added a big element of suspense that I wasn’t anticipating.

I really did enjoy The Grey, but I thought it was a little too long and the pacing wasn’t very consistent at times. Some of the gruesome moments didn’t look very real in terms of visual effects, and the wolves themselves looked a little off when they were close-up on the screen. That said though, I didn’t know how the film could or even would end, and I have to say that I really enjoyed the ending, as unsettling as it was.

It may be a while before I watch The Grey again, but if you’ve heard of it before and you’re sat on the fence as to whether to watch it or not, give it a go, I’d definitely recommend it.

Review: The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Last year, me and my little brother went to see The Purge together. It was a strange trip, because we never go out just the two of us, and he'd just passed his driving test so he drove us there! An experience just as scary as the film actually (sorry if you're reading this Rich!). Anyway, we're a big fan of tradition in our family, so we went to see The Purge: Anarchy together. I drove. Safety first!!

The Purge: Anarchy is a sequel that isn't a sequel. You don't have to watch the first film to see this. It follows the same principals as the first but follows a completely different set of characters.  

I saw the first Purge film and was seriously disappointed, I was hoping for a U-turn on the generic horror genre that seems to be around at the minute but nope.  It turned out to have the same cheap thrills and disappointing tension building moments that amounted to nothing (paranormal activity-esque).  Therefore, I haven't seen Purge: Anarchy and I don't think I will see it so my opinion here is useless... Over to you Allie...

In the first Purge film, the story followed just one family, but Anarchy follows 5 main characters who end up sticking together to stay alive. I like this change as it means there's a lot more going on, and the film doesn't have to resort to silent suspense as often. The first few scenes introduce our main cast: Eva and Cali, two sisters who struggle to get by each day, Shane and Liz, a recently broken-up couple whose car breaks down at the most unfortunate time, and Sergeant. We get to know very little about Sergeant other than the fact that he is out to purge, but he doesn't seem like a bad fellow.

One of the things I loved about Anarchy was that it was much less of a horror, and more a thriller. I hate it when films are filled with suspense for no reason other than to make you jump, and there's much less of this in the sequel. In fact, the silent, tense moments tended to be nothing at all, and then something would happen straight after that would make me jump!

There was definitely a more sinister feel to The Purge: Anarchy. It's awful enough to think that people would go out and 'purge' on the night anyway, but there are several indicators of foul play by the Government here. If anything, it's a little like the Hunger Games, where the Gamemasters intervene if things aren't going their way. At the start of the film, Cali has been following video updates by a Purge activist called Carmelo, who has a bigger role as the film progresses. This leads me to believe that we can expect a third film in the series in the near future, all to do with the people rising up against the Government.

I thought the cast was great in this film, even though I had never heard of any of the actors before. I really wish they had cast Manu Bennett as Sergeant though, that would have been amazing. There wasn't a weak link in this group, not even the typical dumb character thrown in just to get killed off instantly. Every member has a role to play.

Although far from perfect, I really enjoyed this sequel and I'll definitely tune in for round 3 if my prediction is correct. The Purge: Anarchy is a huge improvement on the original and well worth a watch in my opinion.