The Cold Light of Day Movie Review

The Cold Light of Day
                                              

The Cold Light of Day is an action thriller released in 2012. It is written by Scott Wiper, John Petro and directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. The major roles of The Cold Light of Day are played by Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Verónica Echegui and Sigourney Weaver.

The Cold Light of Day tells the story of a busy executive, who goes to spend vacation with his family where suddenly he gets separated from his family member, discovers the hidden identity of his father and finally learns about the conspiracy which is threatening their lives.

Henry Cavill and Bruce Willis in The Cold Light of Day

Plot:
A guy named Will goes to Spain to spend the holidays with his family (against his will). His father apparently works for USA embassy and right now, posted in Spain.  He, along with his parents, brother and brother’s girlfriend goes for fishing in the sea. Will is continuously busy with his works and that causes an accident which injures Will’s brother’s girlfriend. Will’s dad throws Will’s phone to the sea. To make some important calls and to get some supplies, Will swims to the shore.

When he returns to the beach, he sees that their boat has disappeared. Finally he finds the boat abandoned with no one in it. He runs to the local police station. After knowing his name, the police take him near the boat and another man comes there, who wants to take Will to the place where his family is. Sensing danger, Will tries to break free and suddenly his dad appears. Together they fight the police and escape. Will then learns from his dad that his dad’s job is not what it seems and his actions are the reason behind the kidnap of his family.

Will’s dad takes him to a CIA agent and he tries to find a briefcase, which, the agent said, is passed to other hands.  While returning to the car, his dad is shot to death by a sniper. Will takes his dad’s phone and gun and runs for his life while that sniper keeps chasing him. He manages to enter U.S. embassy. The people of the embassy can’t help him, moreover, they frame him for killing a police officer. Then the CIA agent (lady) comes to the embassy and offers him her help. But sensing danger again, Will runs away from the embassy.

Will gets a call on his father’s phone from the kidnappers who address his father as Tom. They give Will a timeline to return the briefcase. Then he sees a name on the dial list for several times. He calls that number and finds an address.

He goes to that person’s office and finds a girl there who is the niece of the person whom Will wants to find. The man from the embassy appears there and tries to kill them both, but Will manages to kills him. Then they go to the girl’s uncle’s home but find him dead there. The CIA agent comes there and while escaping from there, Will gets shot. But he, along with the girl, finally manages to escape. The girl takes him to a nightclub and the people at the  nightclub (the girl’s friends) help them.  The girl gets surprised to find Will’s father’s photo in his phone. Then they find out, she is Will’s sister.

Will then goes to meet the kidnappers at their scheduled time and place. He finds his family there with the kidnappers. The kidnappers are Mossad agents and after they become sure that Will is innocent, they tell Will the facts about the briefcase. Will learns that the CIA agent is the culprit behind all these. The Mossad agents hold Will’s family for the briefcase and also warn him, they have no reason to keep Will’s family alive once the briefcase has been sold to wrong hands.

To get the briefcase, Will then lures the hitman to him in the nightclub by using the girl’s credit card. The hitman is then caught by the nightclub’s bouncers. But they fail to get any information from him. According to Will’s plan, they let the hitman escape and then follow him, which takes them to the CIA agent. 

The last part of the movie is all about securing the briefcase, Will’s attempts to save his family and to get revenge of his father’s murder.

My reviews about The Cold Light of Day:
First of all, I’ll mark The Cold Light of Day as an average action movie.

The plot of The Cold Light of Day is good enough, there is no question about that. But this movie is a little weak on acting and special effects. There are not much flaws on acting, but still it could be better. A better reputed actor at Will’s character could take The Cold Light of Day higher. The make ups and the dialogues were just okay, nothing special. 

I have another complain about the casting. When you start an action movie with Bruce Willis’s name on it, obviously you will have some high expectations. But the death of the character who is being played by him in just about half an hour from the beginning of The Cold Light of Day, was a big turnoff for me. 

The screenplay of The Cold Light of Day seemed good, but the direction felt a little weak to me.

The Cold Light of Day has almost all the things you’ll want in an action thriller, such as powerful villain, good plot and car chases, but almost all of these lacked good special effects. You will specially feel it at the car chasing scenes at the end.

The Cold Light of Day also lacks a romantic touch. The main female character is the sister of the hero. It would be better to watch if that was not the case and the girl was somehow got attached with Will. 

It also looked ridiculous to me that a highly trained evil CIA agent who could shoot to kill a handful  of Mossad agents at the end, missed Will who were just a few feet away from her at the middle of the movie.  

Although The Cold Light of Day doesn't contain any nude scenes, still it doesn't give any reason to watch it with kids. 

So, I won’t recommend this movie to action movie lovers. But still, its not so bad, so if you are looking to kill your time, Watching The Cold Light of Day can be an option.   

If you want to know more about it:

IMDB Link: The Cold Light of Day IMDB

Wikipedia Link: The Cold Light of Day wiki

What are your opinions about The Cold Light of Day? Share with us in the comments.

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, click here:  The Cold Light of Day Movie

Trishna Movie Review

Trishna 

                                                 

Trishna is a British drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom. It is released on 2011. The plot of this movie is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". The major roles of the movie Trishna are played by Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Roshan Seth and Anurag Kashyap.

The movie Trishna is about a village girl from India, who comes to big cities to chase her dreams. This movie is based on Indian cultures and values, like the fantasy movie Life of Pi.

Freida Pinto in the movie Trishna

Plot:

This movie Trishna tells the story of an Indian village girl named Trishna. Her regular life involves helping with her father’s business, spending time with her younger siblings and working part-time in a luxurious hotel on special occasions. A young man named Jay (who used to live in London and cant speak Hindi) visits the hotel where Trishna works with his friends and likes her. They gives a lift to Trishna and her friends and thus knows her house. Next day, Trishna and her father faces an accident which paralyze her father.  On their way back to home, Jay offers Trishna a job at his father’s hotel, which he is taking care of right now.

Few days later, he sends a letter to Trishna’s father stating the formal job proposal for Trishna. This changes her life. She accepts that job and moves to that hotel which was on another state. While working there, Trishna receives special attention and care from Jay. One night, Jay saves Trishna from some eve teasers and takes her to a garden and kisses her (at least, this was shown on the screen).

On the next morning, Trishna leaves the hotel and comes back to her home. She starts feeling morning sickness after a few days. Her family takes her to a hospital and the doctor finds that she was pregnant. Then she has an abortion. After getting well, she starts working on her uncle’s factory.

In the meantime, Jay goes to her home and from there, he gets the address of Trishna’s uncle’s factory where she was working then. He goes there and asks Trishna to move in with her in the city and Trishna agrees. Trishna leaves her current job just then and moves into Jay’s apartment. They starts living as lovers. At that time Jay was busy in making a movie with his friends. Trishna enjoys living there and starts to go to a dance class.

On day, Jay’s father falls sick in London and Jay goes to London to visit him, leaving Trishna alone in the apartment. While he was there, the lease of that apartment gets expired and Trishna moves into her friend’s apartment. When Jay comes back to Trishna, he had to take care of his father’s hotel again and Trishna goes back to her life as a hotel waitress.

Day by day, Jay becomes more aggressive and forces Trishna to have sex with him. He reads the books of ‘Kama Sutra’ and does the experiments on Trishna. He starts to use her to fulfill his abusive fantasies against her will. His abusive behavior grows more than what Trishna can tolerate, so one day she tries to take her fate in her own hand.

My Reviews about the movie Trishna:

First of all, I’d say, I loved this movie.

The plot of Trishna is very good and realistic. It tells the story of an ambitious girl and what may happen to her if she runs after her ambitions blindly. It also shows us how a man can behave if he thinks he completely owns a girl. Although the ending is a little dramatic, but it is very much attached to the real world. The direction and screenplay of the movie seemed top-class. 

I’ve written the plot of Trishna is realistic, but still I’ve found some small scenarios in this movie which doesn’t fit, specially for a rural Indian society. For example, when Trishna came back to her village for the first time from the hotel job, she was pregnant and she had an abortion. But none of her family members questioned her about it (as shown on this movie) and all of them seemed okay about it. This will never happen in an Indian society. Another time, when she left her job at her uncle’s factory to move in with Jay, she left just then without any further thinking (not thinking about her family or paralyzed father or anything else ), which also looked unrealistic to me.

Acting of all the characters is good enough. Remember, this movie is completely focused on Trishna which makes all other characters side characters. And Freida Pinto has done an awesome job of acting here. Her beautiful face and acting has blended perfectly with her character in this movie. I think only a very few Indian actresses could be matched in this movie this much. The acting of the other characters is satisfactory. Same goes for make-up, no excess use of glamour was seen in Trishna, which keep the quality of this movie intact.

The director has also done a praiseworthy job of choosing the locations in this movie. The parts involving Trishna’s village is shot in a very rural area where the hotels used in this movie are gorgeous. They match perfectly to the plot of this movie.  

Although there was no direct nudity seen in this movie, but for the subject, this movie is not appropriate for kids.

So, overall, I’d say, Trishna is a nice piece of work, specially for the fans of drama movies. Although from time to time this movie plays a romantic note, but it is nowhere near a typical drama movie. I believe, anyone will enjoy watching Trishna.

What are your opinions about this one? Feel free to share in comments.

If you are interested:

IMDB link :  Trishna IMDB

Wikipedia link : Trishna Wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, click here:  Trishna Movie

Grave Encounters 2 Movie Review

Grave Encounters 2

                                                 

Grave Encounters 2 is a Canadian-American horror movie released in 2012. As the name suggests, it is sequel of the 2011 found footage style horror movie Grave Encounters. Like its predecessor, this movie is also shot as “unintentionally caught on tape” style. Grave Encounters 2 is directed by John Poliquin and written by The Vicious Brothers. The major roles of this movie are played by Richard Harmon, Dylan Playfair, Stephanie Bennett, Howie Lai, Leanne Lapp and Sean Rogerson. 

Grave Encounters 2 continues the story of its prequel Grave Encounters, where a group of teens become curious about the fate of the actors and crews of that movie and tries to investigate by going to that location.

A scene from the movie Grave Encounters 2

Plot:

The plot starts after 10 years from the release of Grave Encounters. A vlogger named Alex, who is also directing a horror film himself, releases video blog about the review of the movie ‘Grave Encounters’. He leads a regular teen life with his friends with partying and all other stuffs. He suspects the footage of  ‘Grave Encounters’ is real. In his youtube video, he receives a comment by a suspicious user named ‘death awaits’ who send him a number, which later on turns out to be the coordinate of a mental asylum in Canada. The name of this hospital is not given in the movie, but he learns that this is place where the ‘Grave Encounters’ shooting was done. He does some research and finds information which supports the authenticity of the movie ‘Grave Encounters’. For example, none of the crews of that movie have not worked on any movie after that one.

He becomes obsessed with it and starts to investigate more about that movie. He meets the mother of a crew to talk to that crew, but finds that the mother has gone insane and that crew is missing for last few years. Then a mysterious page gets printed on his printer which gives the schedule of the producer of Grave Encounters (whom we see at the beginning of that movie). Alex goes to meet him. At first he doesn’t want to talk to Alex about it, but later on, gives him an appointment on the next day. On that appointment, he tells Alex some secrets about the movie Grave Encounters. Alex tapes his words by a hidden camera.

Then his friends agrees to join his investigation and they goes to Canada to visit that hospital. They find the hospital as a restricted area, guarded by security guards. Being thrown out by the security guards, they brakes in that hospital at night. They set their equipment and try to communicate with the spirits. Soon they start experiencing paranormal events and like Grave Encounters, the ghosts start to kill them one by one. On their attempt to survival and getting out of that place, they find a crew of Grave Encounters alive, who seems to know some secret about that place.

My review about Grave Encounters 2:

Although I’ll not mark Grave Encounters 2 as a perfect horror movie, but anyone will agree that this movie is much better than its predecessor.  Here, the director has done praiseworthy improvement over Grave Encounters considering all the weaknesses of that one.

For start, the plot of Grave Encounters 2 is much better. Its not just a ghost-attacks-and-kill- all type of plot which is the most common plot of horror movies. The director has spent time to show the teens’ regular life and that time is well spent. The plot does not jump into neither the horror scenes nor to the main story soon after the movie starts (which we saw on Grave Encounters). The plot consists of enough non-horror parts, horror parts, finding answers, fighting for life, betrayal and success. So I’d say, the plot of Grave Encounters 2 has enough suspense to keep you attached to the movie for the whole time. And also, the plot feels more solid than the prequel. The screenplay and direction also seems better here.  

The acting and the dialogues are okay. Same goes for the make-up.

The director has successfully reduced the number of scenes where the ghost was directly seen, which has also improved the quality of Grave Encounters 2.  So here, there is less overdoing of special effects or ghost scenes like its prequel.

In my review about Grave Encounters, I wrote that the idea of a building changing itself and the idea of time stopping seemed ridiculous. But here in Grave Encounters 2, they have used the concept of the building’s changing so frequently that it seemed more normal (or less peculiar) than ago.

I liked the ending of Grave Encounters 2. Its not that it has a big twist, but the ending was not what everyone could predict. And the producer’s statements at the end seemed interesting.

Grave Encounters 2 has used it’s predecessor all over it. In every few minutes, it refers to Grave Encounters (you should have noticed how many times I’ve also used it in this review), specially on the first half. To get the complete essence of this movie, you must watch Grave Encounters first. Otherwise, you may not enjoy this movie at all.

But like it’s prequel, Grave Encounters 2 also has its weaknesses. Like, the ghost commenting on Alex’s video or using his printer to give him producer’s schedule is too much, even for fantasy.

So, overall, I’ve liked Grave Encounters 2, specially the improvement over Grave Encounters. If you have watched Grave Encounters, you must watch Grave Encounters 2, whether or not you liked the prequel.  But I’d recommend, don’t watch it without watching the prequel.    

What do you think of this movie? Let me know.

You can find my review about Grave Encounters here : Grave Encounters Movie Review.

IMDB link :IMDB Grave Encounters 2

Wikipedia link : Grave Encounters 2 wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, get the best deal here:  Grave Encounters 2 Movie

The Amityville Haunting Movie Review

The Amityville Haunting
                                                                 

The Amityville Haunting is a horror movie directed by Geoff Meed and starred by Tyler Shamy, Devin Clark and Jon Kondelik. This movie is another of the ‘found footage’ style horror film which is getting too common to be interesting (or innovative) in recent times. This movie is released in 2011.

The Amityville Haunting is the story of a family, who moves in to a new house and starts experiencing paranormal events, but the father refuses to leave the house by ignoring all the evidences.

A scene from the movie The Amityville Haunting

Plot:
The Amityville Haunting tells the story of the house of the famous horror movie  ‘The Amityville Horror’, after 30 years of the massacre. For those who doesn’t know that story, a man killed his family of 6 by being possessed by some kind of demon. Watch that movie if you are interested, that one is a good horror movie, at least, much better than this one.

The  Amityville Haunting starts with the video footage of a few teens, who brakes in that house. Then they were attacked by something (it was not shown what attacked them). Some of them got killed and the others’ fate was not shown.

Next a family comes to that house. The husband (an ex-soldier) likes the house and decides to buy it, but knowing the house’s haunted past, the wife doesn’t agree with him at first. Finally the husband convinces her by telling about the cost and other things. They have 3 children where the mid one is a boy who tapes the whole story in his handycam.

One day, the husband finds a door open in the morning which was closed on the last night. Becoming suspicious, the husband installs security cam in the house. Security cam starts to pick unusual scenes. One night, the husband finds her daughter entering through that door with a boy. The husband throws the boy out of the house and he gets killed just outside the house by some strange thing. Oh, I forgot to mention, the agent who sold the house and a one of the persons who helped them to move in this house has already died in somewhat similar way.  These deaths upset the wife and she doesn’t like the house, but the husband doesn’t seem much disturbed by these.

Anyway, the son (the middle one) gets the phone of one of the teens who entered the house and got killed, but his father doesn’t seem to understand the risk either. Then more strange things starts to happen, like the little girl starts to talk with her imaginary friend, another man gets killed, camera picks up the ghost’s image and so on. All of them want to leave the house, except the husband. Finally he gets crazy and that when the ghost hits its final blow.

My reviews about The  Amityville Haunting:
First of all, I didn’t like The Amityville Haunting at all.

We have seen a good number of these ‘found footage’ or ‘caught on tape unintentionally’ horror movies like The Amityville Haunting lately and now they are not only getting boring, but also getting irritating. Most irritating thing of all is, most of these movies are not well made, just like this one. “Paranormal Activity” is still a legend, where none of these can come near to that, even if they are made following it.

I’ve recently written a review of another movie of this kind, ‘Grave Encounters’ (you can read that here: Grave Encounters Review.). Just like that one, here in “The Amityville Haunting”, the director has totally failed to take the advantage of making a movie of this style. The ghost was seen on the screen several times, which has reduced the appeal of this movie.

A horror movie is supposed to be scary, but The  Amityville Haunting has totally failed to scare me at all.

The plot is too simple to impress. The husband’s wish to stay in this house after all these seemed unrealistic.  The acting, dialogue and the make-up were not good enough. Make-up is specially bad for the ghost. The special effects are one of the very few good sides of The Amityville Haunting, although the effect of the ghost seemed pretty cheap. But I must say, when the ghost attacked (pulled) someone, that scene looked good.

There is nudity at the beginning of the movie The Amityville Haunting, and overall, this one is not for children.

The cause of death of the husband seemed ridiculous. Watch the movie and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I have some confusion about some documents shown at the end of The Amityville Haunting. Are they original? If anyone can say anything about it, please share.

Finally, I’d say, it felt like I’ve wasted my time by watching The  Amityville Haunting  If you are looking for a good horror movie, don’t go for it. 

If you are interested,

IMDB link: The Amityville Haunting IMDB

Wikipedia link: The Amityville Haunting Wiki 

If you want to watch this movie, you can find the best deal from Amazon by clicking here: The Amityville Haunting Movie

Lockout Movie Review

Lockout

                                                   

Lockout is a science fiction action movie released in 2012. It is directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, and written by Mather, St. Leger, and Luc Besson. The major characters of this movie is played by Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, and Peter Stormare.  Don’t confuse this movie with the crime thriller ‘The Lookout’ of 2007.

The movie Lockout is about a man who is falsely alleged for a murder and then sent to a high security prison in the space, where the prisoners have become free and has taken control of the whole facility. The man's mission is to save the President's daughter.  

Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace in a scene of the movie Lookout

Plot:

Lockout tells a story of 2079. A man (maybe a spy) named Snow gets wrongly accused by secret service for killing another secret service agent and for trading confidential data. He is shown evidence that he has killed the agent, but he denies it. He is then sent to jail. But before he gets arrested, he manages to slip a briefcase (which was supposed to have the important data) to his friend, who hides it in a locker.

In the meantime, the daughter of U.S.A. president Emilie goes to visit a prison in space, referred as MS1 (for Maximum Security). She interviews a prisoner (Hydell) but during the interview, Hydell brakes free from the chains and then he frees all the prisoners in that jail. The prisoners start a riot and kill most of the security guards and officers of the prison, led by Hydell’s elder bother. They just keep some (including Emillie) alive as a bait and takes control of the whole prison.

Secret service gets informed about this situation and knows about the condition of the President’s daughter. They convinces Snow to go to a rescue mission to MS1 to bring Emilie alive out of there. Snow agrees to go there knowing his friend was in that prison.

At MS1, Emilie manages to run from the hold-up and hides in a room with her bodyguard. But as oxygen gets almost finished in that room, her bodyguard commits suicide to give her a few more minutes. After she becomes unconscious, Snow brakes in that room and takes Emilie out before the prisoners enter the room by cutting the doors.

Snow then takes Emily to a hidden place and helps her to disguise. Then they starts to look for his friend, but only to find him gone insane. Snow cannot learn anything from him about the briefcase’s location.

The next part of the movie is about Snow’s rescue mission, about his fight to get out of that prison alive, about his getting out of the things he’s accused for.

My review about the movie Lockout:

First of all, I’d say, I liked the movie Lockout.

Lockout is a pretty regular science fiction action movie which is not very rare, but this one is well made and well directed.

One interesting thing about Lockout is Guy Pearce’s dialogues. They are hilarious! Its something like the famous ‘Men in Black’ movie series, which is a serious movie itself, but the hero’s dialogues will make you laugh every now and then. Just like that, there is no comedy scene in the whole movie Lockout and Snow is a pretty badass action hero, but his dialogues are massively humorous. Although by reading this review, you may think the funny dialogues may not properly fit with a serious crime movie, but in this one, the dialogues are enjoyable and have not harmed the Lockout’s seriousness, not even a bit.

The acting of the major characters are okay in Lockout , but I won't say perfect. In a movie like this, there were opportunities and they could be better. Same goes for the make up.

The special effects are also good. There is no lack or no over-do of special effects in Lockout. 

I think the plot is the only thing which has kept Lockout away from being perfect. I mean, the plot is good, but there are a few plot-holes or weakness in this movie which has harmed the solidness of the plot. For example, the security system at the prison (MS1) seemed unrealistic. How come such a high priority prison did not have any proper isolation for the prisoners planned for a case like this? The prisoners could break free and could take control of the whole situation very easily in Lockout (for example, we saw a very good illustration of kind of similar scenario in the movie “Conair”). Someone wanted to use sleeping gas on the whole premise, but failed as the rebel leader killed him. How come there was no option to that from the control room? Snow’s identity was not shown in this movie. He could be a criminal, a spy or a secret service agent, but none of them was explained. The way Snow was plotted seemed very weak. Why the right person was on the right place on the right time is also not shown in Lockout. We also didn’t get to see how the president was put back to his post after being pulled from it.

But don’t let this confuse you, as I said, even with this weakness, the plot of Lockout is good. For the plotholes, screenplay can be blamed, but the direction was good.

Although there is no nudity in Lookout, but for violence and language this one is not a good choice for children.

So, overall, the movie Lockout  is good, if not excellent. I’d recommend it to the action movie lover. According to my guess, you may not love it, but should like it.

What do you think of the movie Lockout? Let us know in the comments.

To know more:

IMDB link: Lockout (2012)

Wikipedia link: Lockout (2012) wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon or to watch online, click here: Lockout Movie