Tag / fede alvarez

by Jaime Rebanal

Claire Foy is a Great Lisbeth Salander, but The Girl in the Spider’s Web is Not a Great Lisbeth Salander Story: Review

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David Fincher’s original trilogy based on the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series of novels unfortunately had gone without completion, prompting Sony to reboot the entire franchise by instead adapting a book continuing off the series without Larsson’s involvement. But because Rooney Mara’s presence as Lisbeth Salander was one that would have been so difficult to replicate, you can only ask yourself what Claire Foy would be able to bring to the table – especially since this is such a drastic change for her. Although before getting into that, I must admit I was very much looking forward to Claire Foy’s take on the character of Lisbeth Salander because I really like her as an actress and it makes me glad to see that she’s getting more recognition in leading roles on film. It was for this alone I was not worried about seeing her as a replacement for Rooney Mara, but excited because she already looked as if she can play the part – and I certainly got one promise kept on the spot. Sadly, all I kept wondering to myself was whether or not this truly was a Lisbeth Salander story that I was watching, no matter how much did I love seeing a new take on the character.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Evil Dead – Review

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Fede Alvarez’s rebooting of Sam Raimi’s famed Evil Dead series is a film that proves itself far better than it has much right to be – something which evaded me back when I first saw it for I had not seen any of the original Evil Dead films (a big mistake on my part). While I’m not one to say it’s better than the original trilogy (the first two films are amongst my all-time favourite horror films), there’s a great admiration to which I have for Fede Alvarez’s new vision as it still captures the spirit that defines what we loved about the original films and at the same time, places everything under a new light (the original films having a touch of black comedy, this one being hard horror all around). One can already tell from here alone, he’s growing to become something more. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Don’t Breathe – Review

✯✯✯✯½

A title like Don’t Breathe would have had me worried over what I was going to get out of this, for it only gave the appearance of a gimmick. In all seriousness though, holding one’s breath during Don’t Breathe may be simple enough but I’m wondering how long trying to go without hyperventilating can last because that was my experience when I was watching Don’t Breathe: I was hyperventilating. Part of which arises from how 2016 has proven itself a great year for horror films in recent memory, and another coming out from how the sorry state of mainstream horror films has drastically risen back to another high through Don’t Breathe. For a film whose title tells their audience “don’t breathe,” a lot of it is set to commence, but by that, I’m foreseeing much hyperventilation while it goes. Continue reading →