The Ruins Movie Reviews

The Ruins

                                                   

The Ruins is a horror thriller movie released in 2008. This movie is written by (screenplay) Scott B. Smith and directed by Carter Smith. The plot of this film is adopted from the novel of the same name by Scott B. Smith. The leading characters of The Ruins are played by Jordan Patrick Smith, Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson.

In The Ruins, we see a group of friends visiting a Mayan ruin, where they fall victim to the strange nature there and start getting killed one by one.

A scene from the movie The Ruins

Plot:

The Ruins starts with two couples, enjoying their vacation in a resort in Mexico. They meet a German tourist in their resort, who offeres them to take part on a trip he was going, which will take them to an archaeological dig at a remote Mayan ruin. He said, his brother has gone there but has not returned yet, so he is going to look for him. He already has another companion for his trip, a Greek tourist from the same resort. The couples accept his offer.

They start at the fixed day and reach to place from where they take a ride in a truck to a dense jungle. None of their phones can’t find any signal except the German’s. Then they find a hidden path, which takes them to that ruin. A girl from the couples feels suspicious about why the path is hidden, but finally goes there for peer pressure. 

The archaeological site looks something like a pyramid where most of it is covered with some vines. As soon as they reach there, some local people come and threat them with guns and arrows. They start screaming at them, but none of the groups understand the other’s language. When the German gives his phone to the leader of the local group to show his brother’s photo and enquire about him, a misunderstanding gets created and the local people kill the Greek. Being scared, the couples and the German run to the top of the ruin. Surprisingly, the local people don’t follow them there, instead they keep waiting for them by keeping a distance from the ruin. They also set a camp there and bring more people.

At the top of the ruin, the tourist group decide to stay there till help comes. They assume, when neither them nor the Greek goes back to the hotel on the next day, the Greek’s friends will come to look for them following the map they left at the hotel. They are also hopeful that, from the hotel, there absence will be informed to the police and they will come to look for them. At the top, they find two tents and other camping instruments abandoned by any previous team. The German then finds the dead body of his brother. They also hear a ringtone coming from the bottom of the pyramid. Using a shaft set up by any previous team, the German starts to go inside the pyramid to get that phone and call for help. But he falls. Then one of the girls goes down and finds him paralyzed by breaking his bones. She also cuts her knees while climbing down. She then, with the help of the other girl who comes down and the boys who run the crane, brings the German out on the top.

They find that the German’s physical condition is not good, so they make a comfortable place for him. Meanwhile, a couple goes down to the ground to reason with the locals, but fail. Becoming frustrated, she throws some vine to a little boy and later on, the villagers kill that boy. The couples understand that there is something wrong with it and the villagers are scared of the vines.    

The next morning, after waking up, they find that the vines have grown on the wound of the German and one of the girls. They remove some part of those. The cell phone from the bottom of the shaft keeps ringing, so the two girls again go down the shaft. At the bottom of the mine, they find a dead body and a broken phone, and also find the fact that, the flowers of the vine are making the sound of the ringtone. The vines attack the girls and they finally manage to escape and come on top. The group then realizes that the vines are killing the people here and that’s why the local people don’t want them to come down from the ruin. The flowers also have the ability to mimic any sound they hear. They also realize that they have no other option than to wait for help to arrive.

The German’s condition gets worse and finally, one from the group decides to cut off his legs so save his life. After some arguing, all of them agree to it and then they do it together. The legs are then taken by the veins. Staying in a situation like this, they start to lose control over themselves. One girl, who was infected by the vines, hears something and starts fighting with her boyfriend. Later, when she finds out that she has several plants inside her body, starts to cut herself to get rid of it. She then stabs her boyfriend who tries to save her. Finally, there is only a couple left alive and one of them gets ready to make a sacrifice to save the other.

My reviews about The Ruins:

First of all, The Ruins is a rare horror movie which I liked.

The plot of The Ruins is good and interesting. The ending is not like something which we are used to see regularly in horror films. It was not easy to predict the ending and the ending leaves the probation for the continuation of this movie. But not only the ending, the director has succeed to keep the suspense up throughout the movie. For more than half of the time in The Ruins  it will keep you wondering about what is actually happening here. What the local people want, who is responsible for the dead bodies, the mystery about the ringtone are something which will keep you wondering until the answers are shown.

The acting of most of the characters in The Ruins are good. I only felt Jonathan Tucker’s acting lacked some facial expressions. Everyone else has done a good job. The dialogues and the make ups also seemed completely fine. Screenplay is also good without any doubt.

The special effects of The Ruins are praiseworthy. The director has successfully kept the use of special effects to a minimum level which matched perfectly with the movie. None of the movements of the vines, or nothing else looked funny or overdo of special effects. This has specially increased the quality of this film.

The only thing I didn’t like in The Ruins is the scene where they cut the legs off the German. The scene was unnecessary graphic, which didn’t match with the whole movie. This level of graphic scene was not needed at all in this movie to make a sense. To me, this single thing has taken the grade of The Ruins a few steps down.

For a small nude scene at the beginning of The Ruins and for some graphic scenes, this one is not suitable for kids.

If you have read the novel, then can’t predict the ending of this movie from that. Although the main plot and name of the characters are same in The Ruins as the novel, but the characters’ actions are different. The ending is also completely different from that of the novel. And about ending, according to Wikipedia, The Ruins is released with three different endings and I’ve watched the one which ends with the car.

So overall, I didn’t expect The Ruins to be any good but it surprised me. With a plot this peculiar, it is hard to make a horror thriller movie, but the director has succeeded in that tough job. I’ll recommend The Ruins to all horror movie fans.

How did you like The Ruins? Share in comments.

To know more:

IMDB link: The Ruins IMDB

Wikipedia Link: The Ruins IMDB

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

The Thompsons Movie Review

The Thompsons

                                                           

The Thompsons is an independent horror thriller movie about vampires,  released in 2012. This film is the sequel of the horror movie The Hamiltons. This sequel is written by Mitchell Altieri and Cory Knauf and directed by the Butcher Brothers (Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores). The roles of the siblings in The Thompsons are mostly played by the stars of The Hamiltons, who are Mackenzie Firgens, Cory Knauf, Ryan Hartwig, Samuel Child and Joseph McKelheer. The other characters of The Thompsons are played by Elizabeth Henstridge, Sean Browne, Tom Holloway and Daniel O'Meara. 

The Thompsons tells the story of five vampire siblings, who are looking for a shelter after committing a massacre. But soon after they find a shelter, they also find that they have fallen in a dangerous trap. 

A scene from the movie The Thompsons

Plot:

At the beginning of The Thompsons we see a boy (named Francis) is trapped inside a box and he starts saying how he has got here. He starts from a hotel and travels countryside looking for more people “like them”. His car breaks down on the way and he reaches a nearby village. He keeps telling us that they are fugitives. He enters a bar and looks for someone by name over the counter but the owners say that they don’t know anyone by that name. Then a local police comes to the bar, who thinks he knows Francis from somewhere, so being threatened, Francis kills him and takes everyone from the bar as hostages. In the meantime, we see a couple, who are trying to make love in a jungle, get chased and then caught by some very strange men.

From the bar, Francis calls his twin brother and sister, who are seducing (and later, kill) a lady in Paris. The brother gives Francis some information. Then two boys come to the bar who seem to be the cousin of the daughter of that bar’s owner. Francis holds them at gunpoint and asks the daughter of the bar’s owner to tie them, but they get free and attack Francis, who then becomes unconscious.

Then we see the whole story of the vampire siblings and Francis introduces them to us. The eldest brother is the one who looks after the family. The next two are twins, who do everything together. Then come Francis and his younger brother. They were travelling somewhere and on the way, they stopped at fuel pump. At the same time, a group of robber attacked there and accidentally, the youngest brother of vampire siblings got shot. The others became furious and killed everyone, including other innocent people. Their faces were caught on camera and thus they have become fugitives. They are now hiding at different places and Francis has set out to look for some other vampires who can help them.

When Francis regains his consciousness, he finds that the owner of the bar and his whole family are also vampires like him, excluding the daughter of the owner. Francis grows a special friendly relation with her, although he never gets along with her brothers. The bar owner then offers Francis his help and calls his other siblings to come and stay with them. Taking his offer willingly, the other siblings come there. But when they reach there, they find out that it is not what it seemed like. They realize, they have fallen in the trap of the bar owner. The hunter siblings are the ones who are being haunted now. They need to find a way to survive.

My review about The Thompsons:

First of all, I didn’t like the movie The Thompsons at all.

The plot is not that bad and neither is the screenplay. But The Thompsons is specially weak at the sides of acting and dialogues. The acting was very poor although most of the characters were good looking. The twist of the plot near the end of The Thompsons felt good. But overall, the plot seemed impractical even for a fantasy horror or a vampire movie.

I have a mixed feeling about the make ups in The Thompsons. Most of the characters looked good with their fangs, bloods and vampire faces, but the wounded peoples' makeups were nowhere near realistic.

This film clearly lacked some special effects. A very small amount of special effects were used in this movie. The Thompsons could be more enjoyable with some more and good quality special effects. Lighting and camera works looked pretty good at some places and also pretty poor at some others.

Mackenzie Firgens looked stunning in The Thompsons, even in very small screen time. I just wish she was given more screen time throughout the movie.

Due to some nude scenes every now and then and for the violent nature of it, The Thompsons is not suitable for kids.

So, finally, I didn’t like The Thompsons at all. At different reviews, I’ve read that this one is better than its prequel, The Hamiltons, but I can’t comment about that because I haven’t watched the prequel yet. This movie seemed to me like just a below average vampire movie. I will not recommend watching The Thompsons to anyone.

What do you think about this one? Share with others.

If you want to learn more about it:

IMDB link: The Thompsons IMDB

Wikipedia link: The Thompsons wiki

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

Generation Um... Movie Review

Generation Um…

                                                   

Generation Um… is a drama movie released in 2012. This movie is written and directed by Mark Mann and starred by Keanu Reeves, Adelaide Clemens, Bojana Novakovic and Sarita Choudhury.

Generation Um… shows a full day of a frustrated driver, who works mainly at nights and spends his days by doing nothing important.

A scene from the movie Generation Um...

Plot:

Generation Um… shows the events of a full day of a man named John and his two female friends.

At the beginning of Generation Um…, we see John is dropping his two friends off at their house in the morning with his car. John's these two friends are not gentle, where one of them is crazier than the other. After dropping them, John reaches his apartment where we see another boy living in that same apartment, who seems to be a big fan of John. John does some work with some electronics and then goes to bed. At the same time, his female friends who live in the same house, also go to sleep.

John wakes up at the afternoon and again talks with that boy in his apartment. Then he goes to a nearby restaurant and gets something to eat, while another person comes to meet him there. John delivers something to that man and gets paid. They also talk about some issues of life in the meantime. Meanwhile, one of John's friends wakes up and starts to take drugs in the house.

After the meal, John walks nearby and comes to a place where a group is performing a small show. John enjoys their performance and after the show ends, he steals the video camera of one of them. Although he gets chased by the camera’s owner and some other people but he still manages to run away with it. He spends the rest of the afternoon recording random things with that camera. Today is John's birthday, so he receives a gift of a $75 cheque from his mother. His patents call him all the day but he avoids receiving those calls.

At the evening, he goes to his friends’ house with the camera. One of his friends is already up and busy with drugs while the other is sleeping. The one with the drugs gets excited to see the camera and poses for it and John records them. She also dances for the camera. The other one then wakes up and at first, doesn’t agree to record herself. But later, after John’s and the other friend’s persuasion, she agrees. She talks about her early life, how her mother was abused by her father and other personal stuffs which get recorded by John. John also records the two girls talking about their first love and other things.

Then the night comes and John confirms someone over phone about an appointment. Then he takes the girl to a hotel, where we get to know about their professions, John’s profession and his relation with the girls.

My reviews about Generation Um…:

First of all, I didn’t like the movie Generation Um… at all, and I don’t think, anyone else will.

The plot of Generation Um… is too slow, boring and plain. A good amount of screen time was used only to show Keanu Reeves doing almost nothing. Then, most of the other times were used to show people talking.  Actually there is nothing interesting in this movie. The whole time, Generation Um… didn’t seem to go anywhere. It didn’t give any message and will not give make a good feeling to the viewers.

The acting of all the characters were good. There is no question about the capabilities of Keanu Reeves, but Adelaide Clemens, Bojana Novakovic both has also done a great job and played their characters perfectly. Actually these three are like the full set of characters of Generation Um…, all others had very small parts. 

The dialogues also seemed good, considering the plot. The make ups and costume designs were okay.

There is a little nude scene in Generation Um… and considering the nature of this movie, you should not watch it with kids.

So, overall, I didn’t like Generation Um…  I don’t understand why Keanu Reeves had to do this movie when he had such a good reputation and fame. Anyway, after watching this movie, I felt I’ve wasted my time in a very bad way. No way I’ll recommend watching Generation Um… to anyone. 

How did you feel about it? Share in comments.

For those who are interested:

IMDB link: Generation Um... IMDB

Wikipedia Link: Generation Um... Wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, you will find the best deal on it here: Generation Um…Movie