Review: The Ward

Originally posted on www.moviemuser.co.uk

Master of horror John Carpenter returns to his directorial roots as he heads behind the camera for the first time in a decade to take on this new film, The Ward.

The film takes place in a mysterious 1960s mental institution where we find the troubled Kristen (Heard), who finds herself on the ward with no recollection of her life previous to this. She begins to fear for her life as mysterious things begin to happen around the institution. The other equally as disturbed girls on the ward start to disappear with no answers and secrets fly around with no answers. Kristen realises she needs to break herself out any way she can.

At first it does sound very intriguing and with the likes of Carpenter behind it you get a little excited about the potential psychological horror thrills that will follow. Considering his track record includes films such as Halloween and The Thing, you’ve got to hope The Ward will be worth a watch. Indeed, much of the film is pretty good and kept me guessing what was going to happen, but I found the ending very anti-climactic and was a little disappointed with what happened. It felt as though they had combined Sucker Punch, Shutter Island and Girl Interrupted into one and in the process lost the majority of the originality they could have kept with this film. Even the setting looked as though they had just gone and filmed on the Girl Interrupted set.

The actors were good and all pulled off their characters very well. The character of Emily (Mamie Gummer) cracked me up and was a nice bit of comic relief in some of the heavier sequences.

The Ward does contain a number of scenes that will make you squirm in your seat and a particular one that I personally couldn’t watch, so if that’s your kind of thing then you will enjoy this film. However, for people like me who were expecting something a little more jumpy and intense, much like Carpenter’s earlier hits, then sadly you’re going to be left disappointed as there are only a few squirmy scenes like this, and even they seem to have been thrown in for a little bit of a cheap thrill.

Overall Verdict: With a combination of decent acting and parts of the storyline being well executed and quite compelling, the film is watchable and certainly isn’t the worse movie I’ve ever seen. But due to the loss of its potential originality and the cheap thrills, this film is definitely not one of Carpenter’s better efforts. It’s a bit disappointing considering we’ve waited so long for a new film from the ‘master of horror.’

Review: Sucker Punch

Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

After managing to go the last few months without even seeing a trailer for the movie Sucker Punch I recently got the privilege of reviewing the recently released Blu-Ray edition of the Zack Snyder directed action/adventure/thriller movie.

Now as I hadn’t seen any trailers for the film and had only heard of the film through word of mouth I had no idea what to expect from my first viewing. The only thing I had to go on for the movie was the front cover of the Blu-Ray case, and my first reactions to this were no good to say the least, but don’t let that put you off as the film is actually quite good. Like they say never judge a book (or film in this case) by its cover.

The film itself is incredibly dark and intense from the get go. Within the first five minutes I was hooked, the opening scene of the movie is both gripping and intense, which is quite a feat considering there is hardly a word spoken during the dramatic opening, which only adds to the intensity of it as you wonder what’s about to happen.

The film’s plot sees a young girl put into a mental institution after the dramatic climax of the film’s opening scene, where she discovers that in five days she will receive a lobotomy even though she doesn’t require one (I’m not going to give too much away I promise). It’s after this that the whole fantasy action packed plan for survival begins as the lead character Babydoll enters into a fantasy world in order to help her escape the mental institution along with four other girls she acquires along her journey.

In the fantasy world the mental institution becomes a type of brothel where the girls must dance and do other favours for the male customers, and it is here that Babydoll begins her plan for escape. The film is very well done when acting out their plan as we are introduced to the war themed fight scenes that represent their plan and Babydoll’s dance in the fantasy world. As the film and the plan come to an end there is a slight twist in what happens that I didn’t really see coming but others may have.

A negative aspect of the film does however come from the fight scenes, as after awhile they become slightly repetitive and a little bit predictable. But overall the film is excellently shot and puts you in mind of a video game, especially during the fight scenes. This coupled up with an excellent soundtrack that features songs from the likes of Bjork, Queen, Skunk Anansie and the lead actress Emily Browning singing The Eurythmics classic “Sweet Dreams” really brings the film together, and to be honest I think the soundtrack is what made the film.

Credit where credit’s due has to go to Vanessa Hudgens who after playing the whiny Gabrielle in the High School Musical franchise finally breaks away from the wholesome image of Disney for this gritty role, and she’s actually quite good.

I was a little bit disappointed however by the extras on the Blu-Ray as I didn’t find them that interesting and there was an incredible lack of deleted scenes, as I’m sure there must have been plenty of scenes cut from this movie just like every other movie ever made, and who really needs four different versions of the same film in one case?

Overall the film was entertaining and keeps you gripped from the very beginning, you may stray slightly during some of the fight scenes but overall the film does what it set out to do, and that’s entertain.