Tag / vera farmiga

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Review: Kaiju Ridiculousness Cranked Up a Notch

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If you’ve left Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla feeling like there wasn’t enough monster action to eat up, Michael Dougherty provides so much more of that in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (fittingly enough, whose name is taken from Terry Morse’s American bastardization of Ishirô Honda’s film). But decidedly, you’re also left wondering how much of this feels exciting especially when you’re in the face of nonstop monster action from beginning to end and in that same sense, Godzilla: King of the Monster can be equal parts exhilarating or just overall exhausting. But for longtime fans of the series who were eagerly awaiting to see Mothra or King Ghidorah coming to the screen in an Americanized format, there’s a whole lot that one can eat up at in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Putting it lightly, it’s a film that took notes from the fan reaction to Gareth Edwards’s take but everything that Michael Dougherty does worse in King of the Monsters might also give you a lot more to appreciate about how Edwards approached the start of the MonsterVerse.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Commuter – Review

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Liam Neeson said fairly recently that he was set to retire from the action genre, so it was only fitting that another action film starring him was set to be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. But when you see a name like Jaume Collet-Serra is behind the camera, you can only expect he can make a simple premise seem entertaining enough even if it isn’t set to last fairly long. Nevertheless he’s also shown himself to be at his best working with Liam Neeson as proven by Unknown and Non-Stop, so it was among many reasons I was still curious enough to see The Commuter. If this is going to be Liam Neeson’s sendoff from the action genre, it’s disappointing – but nonetheless it’s entertaining to see him getting into action as if he were young, then again it was what I expected.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Conjuring 2 – Review

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Continuing on with the dread that filled up the first film, could James Wan have done himself much better? I would not have thought so but The Conjuring 2 has proven me wrong for he indeed provided a rare instance where the sequel may have improved upon its own predecessor. Like the predecessor, there are many things to be expected of the haunted house subgenre of horror films but where James Wan allows for forgiveness from what appears already as familiarity arises come from his understanding of the effectiveness that shaped the genre. What I can say about James Wan is that within the future, I can only expect greater things for the horror genre under his own hands. You can’t expect another Exorcist for few horror films (or few films in general) ever can match its own legacy, but The Conjuring 2 provides what the first gave off, and a little bit more at that too. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

The Conjuring – Review

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James Wan’s The Conjuring may not be the most original horror film especially when the superior The Exorcist already exists, but surprisingly what comes out is rather effective. The horror genre is a rather difficult one to perfect but it seems as if James Wan understands what makes the most effective horror films work, at least from an observation of his previous films he has slowly been improving himself. While there’s no doubt that other films have done what The Conjuring is doing much better, what we’re still left with is a rise above most mainstream horror nowadays since it almost seems rather rare to find one that actually works for its position in a lamentable state. Continue reading →