Maggie

Arnold Schwarzenegger acts. Well, sort of.

Set in a time when a large portion of the population are affected with the Necroambulist virus, which turns people into zombies, Wade Vogel (Arnold Schwarzenegger) finds that his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected. Wade brings Maggie home to stay with him and his current wife, Caroline, (Joely Richardson) who fears for when Maggie will turn into a full-fledged zombie.

                                            "Let me AXE you a question!"


With society still able to function on a semi-regular basis, Wade and Maggie try to live their lives as if nothing has changed; while also preparing for the inevitable. As the infection is still fresh, local police and hospital personnel who know of Maggie's situation allow Maggie to be home with Wade until the time comes that Maggie must be quarantined.

What could have been Arnold Schwarzenegger battling zombies is instead treated as a slow, thought-provoking film that is earnest in its efforts, but doesn't always hit what it is striving for. Surprisingly, the cast isn't the weakest part of the film as Abigail Breslin does a solid job of providing the audience a character who knows what her fate is, yet still wants to live.

                                            "It's just a scratch."


Arnold, on the other hand, underplays his role to the point that I'm not sure why he was cast. Arnold is a big personality on film, which is nothing like the character of Wade. Spending scenes where he's thinking about the situation at hand or just conversing with Maggie and trying to hide the hurt he feels for the situation; Arnold tries his best. Not always achieving what is needed for the character, it was nice to see Arnold step out of his comfort zone and try something new, even if it's more of a sacrifice fly that brings in the runner versus a home run.

The slow pace and monochrome-type look of the film, provided by director Henry Hobson is what really will make or break your opinion on the film. Maggie is not a fun film nor will you find yourself wanting to check it out again. We are set into a bleak world where color is at a premium and happy characters are a rarity.

                                         *Cue the Incredible Hulk theme song*


Maggie is a small film in the zombie genre and doesn't offer up much that hasn't been seen before. With Arnold top-lining the film, though, some people may be interested in seeing Arnold taking on hordes of zombies. With that not really being the case, though, I would rather people seek out Maggie for Abigail Breslin and Arnold Schwarzenegger's performances, for good or bad.

Plus, any Arnold is good Arnold.

                                          "With this and Terminator: Genisys, 2015 will be a great year..."


6.0/10

31 In 31: Event Horizon

Did Paul W.S. Anderson actually make a good film? No.

Riding the success of Mortal Kombat, W.S. took on an R-rated horror film in space about a crew led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) to board the Event Horizon, a ship that disappeared for seven years. Along with the rag tag crew of cliches is the ship's designer Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill).

Where the ship has been and what happened to the ship's crew are the main points of order for Miller and his crew aboard the Lewis and Clark. Once on board the ship, however, they see no signs of the crew but find evidence that they are not alone.

Event Horizon is basically Hellraiser in space. Obviously, being W.S., this film is nowhere near on par with the original Hellraiser and its creator, Clive Barker. What we do have, though, is a decent horror film with a lot of style and energy. Paul W.S. Anderson makes good use of his sets and lighting to create a somewhat effective horror film.

The two lead actors, Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill provide some weight to a corny script, though as the film progresses, the acting gets more over the top. Sam Neill especially becomes more over the top as the film goes along. Having to recite some of the over the top dialogue that Laurence Oilvier couldn't say without getting a chuckle out of the audience.

The awful dialogue comes courtesy of Philip Eisner, with an uncredited rewrite by Andrew Kevin Walker. It is unknown how much AKW brought to the script, but as Eisner is the only writer credited, one can wonder. Either way, this is not a script that I would want at the top of my resume.

Not a lot more can be said about this film. It is nowhere near a classic in the horror genre, but it serves its purpose and doesn't hang around too long. Plus, in Paul W.S. Anderson's career, this is much better than the Resident Evil films and Death Race. A win for W.S. I guess.

Along with Sam Neill, Event Horizon is kind enough to provide us with Richard T. Jones and Jack Noseworthy. A win for the audience.

Red Lights

The man who provided the better-than-it-should-be film Buried returns.

Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) work at a college and specialize in debunking paranormal activity. When renowned psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) returns from a 30 year hiatus, both Margaret and Tom feel he is the ultimate challenge to debunk.

This film has been on my must-see list since it was announced. The idea of persons who feel it the ultimate challenge to debunk someone who may be more than he seems is a very intriguing idea. Most reviewers feel that this film falls apart in the third act, but I disagree. I feel this film falls apart at about the halfway point.

What starts out as a very intriguing idea falls apart when one of the main protagonists leaves the film. Once that occurs, what we have is a film that abandons the ideas they have put in place and becomes more about one person's obsession with debunking Silver and provides some cheap scares.

The first half of the film is thoroughly entertaining. We meet Margaret and Tom meeting up with people claiming to suffer from unexplained phenomena. They go about it logically and the conversations between them are fairly entertaining. We find out that Margaret had attempted to investigate Silver 30 years before and she has no intention of doing so again. Tom, not knowing what Silver is about, feels they should try and investigate him again.

Silver draws large-scale audiences for his performances in town and strange things begin to happen, including the bending of spoons, which Silver does so often. Margaret's reluctance and Tom's pushing of investigating Silver provide a great dynamic as Silver is used sparingly for the first half of the film.

Once the second half of the film kicks in, however, the film flies off the rails. As stated, once one protagonist leaves the film, we are left with Silver and one of the investigators. That protagonist and their reluctance to leave Silver alone results in leaving the more grounded portions of the story behind and goes full bore into a supernatural thriller.

As stated, this film starts well, with lots of potential, but by the end turned into a completely different movie that was nowhere near as good as the one that started the film. I think I liked the film more than the rating will show, but the rating is so low because of how disappointing the film became. A big disappointment in my opinion.

3.0/10