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I’ve thankfully never been a victim of identity theft, but my fiance had his Playstation account hacked and funds withdrawn from his bank account.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: House at the End of the Street (2012)

I'm not a huge fan of horror films, but I do like to watch one every now and again. I'm not brave enough to see them at the cinema and so I have just one friend who will watch them with me at home. She was over last night and so we watched House at the End of the Street.  I really want to watch this a) so I can add to the review and b) because Jennifer Lawrence is in it BUT I wont watch horror films on my own, my Dad hates them and now my Flick Chicks buddy has seen it, therefore this is the grand total of my comments on this one ;-)

A few years ago, a tragic event took place in the house. The family's daughter murdered both her parents. Four years later, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) move in to the house next door. They learn that the son of the family next door still lives in his parents house, and nearly the whole neighbourhood have a extreme dislike of him due to the fact that he brings down everyone's property value.

I'm sure some of you will scoff at my fear of films like this but it's the suspense that gets me. The only way I can cope is to just talk quietly through the film and make fun of everyone. It's a great tactic of finding plot holes and goofs actually.

'Wasn't that room pitch black earlier? There aren't any windows.'

'Why won't anyone just grab that policeman's radio?'

'Who carries a supply of USB sticks with their own songs on?'

And so on!

Elissa ends up befriending the son next door Ryan (Max Thieriot), although her mother has already mentioned that Elissa likes to find the most damaged boy she can find, and 'turn them into a project'. That said, their relationship seems genuine and actually quite sweet. There was a moment which shouldn't have been funny but was actually hilarious, where the two of them were sat outside looking at a tree. Ryan told Elissa to look closely and she saw a face in the tree, but no amount of squinting could make us see it! Did anyone else?

As the story continues, we start to wonder if Ryan is actually as weird as everyone else seems to think he is. Without spoiling anything, his friendship with Elissa certainly turns sour.

I wasn't expecting a plot twist in House at the End of the Street at all, nor did I see this one coming, although you know me, I tend to be a little oblivious to everything film-wise. The final scene dragged out a little, and relied on cheap scare tactics (which worked on me) but other than that, I thought the ending was okay.



All in all, I thought this film wasn't that bad. The characters did stupid things and some parts made little sense, but an awful lot of horror films do that too. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be either. Grab a blanket, check the batteries in your torch and give it a try sometime.