Mirror Mirror Movie Review

Mirror Mirror

                                                                

We all have seen different adaptations of the famous story of Snow White by Brothers Grimm and Mirror Mirror is another of them. It is released in 2012. This movie is directed by Tarsem Singhand and  starred by  Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane, and Sean Bean.

A scene from the movie Mirror Mirror

Plot:

Snow White is a princess, who’s mother dies at childbirth. Her father loves her very much and raises her. When she was a child, her father marries another woman. He leaves the castle for a fight and never returns, which, at one point, puts Snow’s new mother as the ruler of the country as the queen.

Snow White grows up to her teenage and wants to visit the land. But she can never go beyond the strict regulations of the queen. The queen never allows her to go outside the castle. Then we can see the greedy nature of the queen. She always lives in her royal comforts, where the costs for those come from the poor people’s taxes. 

One day, Snow White manages to go outside the castle. While passing the jungle (which is rumored to be haunted by a mysterious beast) she meets a prince along the way, who is robbed by some dwarfs. Snow White goes to the nearby town and finds the people’s sad condition. In the meantime, the prince reaches the castle and meets the queen. By noticing his smartness and wealth, the queen falls in love of the prince. She throws a ball to amaze the prince, but secretly Snow White joins the ball. But Snow white gets caught by queen and the queen orders her servant to take Snow White to the jungle and to feed her to the beasts. The servant releases Snow White in the jungle and Snow White ends up at the cabin of the dwarfs.

At first she finds it a little hard to gain the dwarf’s trust, but soon they love her and she helps them to gain the love and acceptance of regular people. The prince meets Snow White and informs the queen that she is alive. 

Being angry, the queen uses her spell and turns her servant into a cockroach. She then uses another spell to make the prince fall in love for her, which creates a ‘puppy love’ in the prince for her. Bound by the spell, the prince agrees to marry her.

Then the queen uses another of the dark magic to kill Snow White and the dwarfs. But Snow white defeats them. Then she, with the dwarfs, crashes the queen’s wedding party and kidnaps the prince. At the dwarfs’ cabin, she breaks the prince’s spell.

Next part of the story is about Snow White’s confronting the queen and bring happiness to the kingdom.

Julia Roberts and Armie Hammer in Mirror Mirror

My reviews about this movie:

First of all, I’ll say, I’ve enjoyed this movie.

If you are looking for a serious movie, Mirror Mirror will disappoint you. This movie is a childish and funny movie, it is made to enjoy in a light mood. We know about “Snow White and The Huntsman” which is made on almost same plot as this one and is a rather serious one, but Mirror Mirror gives you a complete different feeling than that one and I must admit, watching Mirror Mirror feels better. 

The plot is nothing new, almost everyone who is reading this blog knows the story of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, so you may find very little twist in the plot.

The dialogues are good, specially of the dwarfs’. The dwarfs here are very funny characters and pleasant to watch (unlike the ones from the Snow White and The Huntsman). But other dialogues are also a good fit for a comedy movie. 

Acting of all the characters are also good enough. There is no question about the acting capabilities of Julia Roberts, and here, she has done no injustice to her name and reputation. Although Lily Collins has not done a big number of movies, but I loved her acting in this movie, pretty fluent and cute. Other characters has also played their parts well, no over-acting or lack of expressions.

The special effects are okay too for a fantasy film.

There is no nudity or violent scene, so feel free to watch it with children. 

So, finally, as I said, I liked Mirror Mirror  But remember, this movie is a light childish movie, don’t look for much depth or seriousness in it. If you are looking for a movie to lighten your heart, I’d definitely recommend it. Other than that, Mirror Mirror a nice one, watch it. 

What do you think of this movie? Feel free to comment.

To learn more about it:

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667353/

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_Mirror_(film)

Scary or Die Movie Review

Scary or Die
                                                                 



Scary or Die is an American horror movie released in 2012. It is written by  Bob Badway, Michael Emanuel and  directed by Bob Badway, Michael Emanuel and Igor Meglic. The major characters are played by  Domiziano Arcangeli, Bill Oberst Jr., Christopher Darga, Alexandra Choi, Shannon Bobo, Charles Rahi Chun, Andrew Caldwell, Shawn Caulin Young and Nicole Moore. 

A scene from the movie Scary or Die

Plot:
This movie consists of five somehow interlinked stories. These stories are shown as someone watching them over youtube one by one, who’s identity is revealed at the end of this movie. That person’s skin keep rotting more and more after the end of each stories.

The first story is the story of two outlaws and a girl. The two men bring two foreigners (although, one of them later claims to be a citizen of USA) near USA-Mexico border. They plan to kill the foreigners and leave the dead bodies there to warn all other illegal border crossers. They also kill another lain-american shop owner on the way. Their plan was going well, until zombies appear.

The second story is about an Asian man, who’s wife has passed and he seems devoted to his wife still. He saves a young women from being killed, but later on, that woman appears different from what she seemed. 

Third story is about a man who kills another man and cuts his body into pieces. He was moving the body by placing them in a bag inside his car’s boot, when suddenly he hears a noise and finds the bag empty. The killed man comes back to take his revenge.

The forth story is the longest. Here a drug dealer gets beaten by a strange clown and then he turns into a flash eating clown himself. He struggles in the clash between surviving and protecting his little brother whom he loves most.

The last story is the shortest and most simple of them all. A women is killed by her husband but comes back to be with her love.

My reviews about this movie:
First of all, Scary or Die seemed terrible to me.

Although some of the stories were not that bad, but nothing else was good to support that. I felt, the forth story could be a complete movie (and the poster is also about that story). The director could at least pick any of the stories (preferably, the first or the fourth) and made a whole movie. 

The acting also was not that poor, but poor makeup and script has made them worthless. The makeup seemed very very fake, they could not even make the bloods look a little realistic. There is nothing scary at all in the whole movie. The cut body parts also looked very cheap.

I have found nothing in this movie which may interest someone, not even a nude scene. I know there are people who are fan of gruesome violence and a lot of movies are made for them, but Scary or Die will even fail in that category also.

Although there is no nude scenes in it, but considering the gruesome nature, this movie is not for kids.

The appearance of Van Helsing seemed totally unnecessary and worthless in it. 

So, finally, I value watching this movie as a total waste of time. So I’d not recommend this to anyone. Even if you want to waste your time, watching Scary or Die will be a very bad way to do that.  

If u are interested:
IMDB Link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833879/

Silent House Movie Review

Silent House
                                                                      


Silent House is a American independent horror thriller film directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. It is released in 2011. This movie has a very limited set of characters, which is played by Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross, Adam Barnett and Haley Murphy. This film is a remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film, La casa muda (The Silent House), which was allegedly based on an actual incident that occurred in a village in Uruguay in the 1940s. The original film La casa muda is notable for its use of "real time" footage and the manufactured appearance of a single continuous shot. Like the original one, Silent House is also shot in a way where the whole movie appears to be one large continuous shot.

A Scene from the movie The Silent House

Plot:
A young girl named Sarah is seen living with her father in a Victorian house in countryside. The house has no electricity or telephone connection. They refer the house as a vacation house for the members of her father’s family. Sarah is assisting her father and her uncle to fix the house as they are planning to sell it. Most of the time the house is kept empty, so sometimes some outlaws take shelter in this house. To prevent it, they have blocked all the windows with wooden panels. So inside the house, it is dark even in daytime.

One day a friend from Sarah’s childhood visits her, but Sarah can’t remember much of her. Sarah’s father and uncle has some kind of argument and her uncle leaves for that day. Suddenly Sarah hears a noise from the upper floor, so her father goes there to check it. From the ground floor, Sarah hears the noise of her father falling down the stairs. She panics and hides under a table, from where, she finds someone else in the house. She could escape from the room and finds her father unconscious with a head wound. She runs to the cellar and finally could escape from the house, but she also finds someone’s presence in the cellar.

Outside she meets her uncle who brings her back to the house. In the meantime, Sarah had some unusual visions and finally enters the house. Suddenly the generator goes off and she sees someone in the dark in the flash of a Polaroid camera. When the lights come back on, she sees some people in the house from hiding inside a table who were pulling the body of her unconscious. Then she starts hallucinating.


My review about this movie:
First of all, I’ll say, I’ve enjoyed this movie.

The director has successfully created a scary environment in Silent House which may make your heart beat faster at several times in this movie (at least it has worked for me). It does not have any ghost in it, but still its pretty scary.

The effect of continuous shot seemed interesting. To the viewers, the whole movie will seem like it has been shot by one big continuous shot. You can read more about it on different websites and I don’t want to discuss about it (as I don’t have proper knowledge for that), but if the director has taken more than one shot, he has done it very cleverly, it is hard to find where he has attached them. The experience of watching it is different, in a good way.

The plot is also good itself. Before the last few minutes, it was difficult to predict where the movie is going. It may seem like ghost, or killer or anything else, but I guess you wont be able to predict the ending before it has been made clear to you. And still, even at the ending, everything is not explained clearly. Its not an open ending movie, the story is given, but still you will need to work your imaginations a little bit. So at the end, you may find a twist.

The dialogues are okay, but to be honest, I didn’t like the acting of Elizabeth Olsen much. I’ll say the movie is also a little weak on the makeup of the actors and actress. To me, Elizabeth Olsen’s acting here seemed somewhere like Kristen Stewart’s, lacking facial expressions. Acting of the other actors were good enough.

So, finally, as I’ve said, I’ve enjoyed Silent House  This type of unpredictable ending movies are always pleasant for me. I’d definitely recommend Silent House to all movie lovers, specially the horror lovers. 

Ending Explanation:

Here is the explanation of the ending of the movie Silent House from my view:

Spoiler alart : do not read the below parts if u haven’t seen the movie. To keep the fun intact, i've written the below parts in white font. So if u are very much interested to know, or have already seen the movie and looking for explanations, please select the below part by pulling the mouse to view the text: 

The only real persons in that house were Sarah, her dad and her uncle. All others, including the little girl were Sarah's imagination. Sarah was abused and brutally beaten by her father (and maybe, also by her uncle) in her childhood. Her father had also kept the polaroid photos of her being tortured. In all those years, she has grown her duel personality. Her childhood friend was her own image, so was the little girl. All other people in that house were the imagination of her childhood demons. This personality disorder had led her to her violent revenge on her father and her uncle. All the happenings in the house were done by Sarah in her subconscious state. Everything else she saw were her imaginations. At the very end of this movie, both of her identities combined and she finally understood the reality which was going around her. Understanding everything, she keeps on taking her revenge.    


What is your opinion? Write in comments.

To know more about it:
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1767382/
Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_House_(film)

Grave Encounters Movie Review

Grave Encounters

                                                   

Grave Encounters is a Canadian-American horror movie released in 2011. This film is shot in the found footage style, which has become a common style for horror movies. At the very beginning of the movie, a producer is seen telling it a real footage, but before and after that, nowhere in the movie it claims to be a true story (which it isn't). This movie is directed by Written and directed by The Vicious Brothers (Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz) and starred by Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Juan Riedinger, Merwin Mondesir and Mackenzie Gray.

A scene from the movie Grave Encounters

Plot:

At the beginning of this movie, a TV producer tells the story behind this 'found footage' and explains why the TV show 'Grave Encounters' has stopped. Then he starts playing the footage.

When the footage (the actual movie) starts to play, we see a group of artists are visiting a abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital where several unusual events have been reported. This group runs a TV show named 'Grave Encounters', where they visit and report about different haunted places. At first, they visit the whole premise in daylight and interview several people (including the caretaker of that hospital) who have experienced unusual happenings there. They even bribe a gardener to say that he has seen a ghost and they brings a fake specialist to make the show more realistic.

As the dawn appears, they set up and show their equipment and the caretaker locks them in. They are prepared to spend the night in that hospital. But soon after the night falls, they start seeing and recording paranormal events themselves. Being terrified, they plan to leave the premise. When they finally manage to open the main exit door, they find the exit has been replaced by a set of corridors. At the end of that corridor, there is another. The building is changing to keep the inside it. After a few attempts, they find there is no exit from the building and time seems to be stopped for them. From inside the building, the outside is night, which was supposed to be daytime according to the clock of their cell phone.

They find themselves totally stuck in the hospital and the evil ghosts there starts to kill them one by one.

My Reviews about this movie:

First of all, I'll mark it as a very average horror movie.

These found footage style movies are getting boring, where, most of them are horror films. Although there are still several pretty good movie made in this style, but 'Grave Encounters' is not one of them.

What is unusual in this movie is, there are lot of scenes where the ghost has appeared in the camera, which we don't see much in these movies. In these type of shooting, the director has the liberty to skip showing the direct face of the ghost but still can make a pretty scary environment. But here I believe, the directors has failed to take this advantage and thus, has reduces the appeal of the movie. These movies also can create a scary ambient by keeping the viewers in waiting, like they did in 'Paranormal Activities' but from that point of view, this movie has also failed. There are very few scenes where the viewers will wait for something scary, so I feel it like too much movement.

The acting and dialogues are average, nothing special.

The special effects are also okay. The faces of the ghost, the hands coming out of the walls, the levitating beds etc are okay and may or may not give you a chill. But as I said, I felt like some of them were completely unnecessary, the director had the chance to make the same scary environment without all those special effects.

Sound effects are also just okay, nothing extraordinary.

I didn't like the plot very much. The director had to show why they could not get out of the building, but I'd just like it if they had showed it in a more realistic way, like the one shown in '100 Ghost Street'. 

A building changing itself (with all the walls and everything) to keep them trapped inside........ its too much for my imagination, even for a horror movie. Same thing goes with the time-stopping trick.

Same goes for the ending. Pretty predictable, usually what we are used to see in all horror movies.

Okay, final words, the goal of horror movie is to make you scared. And Grave Encounters has done a not-so-bad job for it. Yes, at some point, it may make you scared. I won't call it extraordinary or a must see, but on the other hand, how many good horror movies have we got to enjoy? So comparing with other horror films, I guess you may give it a try, at least it won't disappoint you. I'm not sure, how much you will enjoy your time watching Grave Encounters.

Why not tell me about how much did you like this movie?

For those who are interested:

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1703199/

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_Encounters

Life of Pi Movie Review

Life of Pi
                                    

Life of Pi is an American drama film directed by Ang Lee. It was released on the year 2012. This movie is based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel of the same name. The leading characters of this film is played by Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Gérard Depardieu, Tabu, and Adil Hussain.

A Scene from the movie Life of Pi

Plot:
The movie starts with a conversation between the adult Pi and a tourist. Pi tells him about his childhood and how he gets the name “Pi”. Pi’s father owned a zoo and since childhood, Pi is familiar with the animals. One incident about a tiger is shown particularly from his childhood, as that experience has some special importance for the rest of the movie.

One day, when Pi is 16, Pi’s father decided to close the zoo and sell the zoo animals to some American buyers. His father also plans to settle in Canada. So few days later they start their journey in a Japanese ship, taking all the animals with them. Their ship falls in danger on a stormy night. Pi want to save this family, but the crews of the ship throw him in a lifeboat. The ship sinks and Pi, along with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a tiger ends up in that lifeboat. Gradually Pi loses companion and the last two survivors are Pi and that tiger.

Pi’s struggle for life starts from here. His challenges are to keep himself alive in the sea and to stay as far as possible from the tiger, again, to keep himself alive. Luckily, he finds some supplies in the lifeboat.
The next part of the movie is all about his journey and struggle. On the way, he finds different technique and has various experiences like a strange killer island, flying fishes, gigantic whale and so on.

My Reviews about this movie:

First of all, it’s a beautiful piece of work. I guess everyone will enjoy watching Life of Pi.

The plot is exceptional and enjoyable. Although, at the beginning of the movie, you can see that Pi has survived, but this movie was never about the ending. Its all about the journey.

The acting of all characters is good enough.

The special effects are beautiful. Several time I wondered how they managed to shoot the scenes, specially the scenes with the man and the tiger on the same boat. The other effects like the sinking ship, the strange island, the whale, the lighting sea creatures, the flying fishes and everything else are a pure pleasure to watch.

The best thing about this movie is its cinematography. All scenes are played really well. The mixture of good dialogues, good make-up, beautiful acting and splendid special effects has made it beautiful. The director has put special efforts to make u enjoy the scenic beauty of the nature throughout the movie. And these efforts are a complete success. Even if the plot or the acting was not good like this, I’d still enjoy watching this movie just for the beautiful scenes.

There is no nudity in the whole movie, so everyone can watch it. This movie has a very little romantic story, which ends before the journey of the ship starts.

And “Life of Pi” also gives its own philosophy about religion and life. May be, some of them can make you think.

The only thing I didn’t like about this movie is the accent. No offence to anyone, but personally, I’m not a big fan of Indian English accent.

Overall, any movie lover should love Life of Pi. So I’d recommend it as a ‘must see’ for all the movie fans.

For those who are interested:
IMDB Link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/
wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi_(film)

Feel free to put your comments :-)
  

Celebrity Sex Tape Movie Review

Celebrity Sex Tape
                                     

Celebrity Sex Tape is a comedy movie released in 2012. It is written by Jonathan Haug, Patrick Sheehan and Matt Short, directed by Scott Wheeler and starred by Jack Cullison, Howard Cai, Jonathan Brett, Colbert Alembert, Julie Barzman and Amanda Ward.

A scene from the movie Celebrity Sex Tape

Plot:
A group of regular school-going teens joins a party. They were not very popular, but by their sudden luck, one of them has sex with a drunk celebrity, where another record the scene with the camera in his phone. Although they get beaten by that celebrity's boyfriend, they enjoy the whole incident and shows the tape to another of their friend who is addicted to internet and porn.

That friend releases the tape over internet and get popularity. He gets huge hits on his website and people starts to download that clip like crazy. The group becomes astonished but amused by this.

Few days later, suddenly, a lawyer of that celebrity comes to their house who has armed guards with him. They get accused by the lawyer for harming his client's image and demands half a million dollar and threats them that, all of them will go to jail if they don't pay this amount by a month.

The group of friends become scared and start to look a way to get that money so fast. They find a way, that is, to earn that money, they start making sex tapes with different celebrities and publish them on the internet. 

Most of the movie is about their attempts to make the local celebrities to have sex with some of them and to record that. Their plan was going smooth until something happened. Let's watch the movie to know what happened to them, if they could pay the lawyer or not.

My Reviews about this movie:
First of all, let me put it straightforward: there is nothing enjoyable on this film.

Although the plot of Celebrity Sex Tape is not that bad itself, but bad screenplay has make is worthless. A good and enjoyable movie can be made with the same plot.  

The dialogues are no good, just like the poor acting. Same goes for the makeups.

The whole movie is full of nude scenes, but most of them seem vulgar, not a candy for the eyes. The director has used them excessively and it felt irritating. So I believe, no movie lover will enjoy the nude scenes here.

Clearly, this is not a movie for kids. 

So overall, I don’t want to recommend Celebrity Sex Tape to anyone.  Watch it if you want to, but in the end, it should feel like a waste of your time. A poor rating in IMDB is also there to give you evidence for my comments. 

If u are still interested,
IMDB link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2136808/
wikipedia link : so wiki found on this movie.