“The Lazarus Effect” released in theaters a few weeks ago and has not been getting very good reviews. This will be no different. I was expecting psychic zombies and instead got a movie that wanted to be yet another remake of “Carrie,” but failed to live up to its attempt.

Directed by David Gelb who is mainly known for his documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,”(which was good), “The Lazarus Effect” had a lot of potential. With an all-star cast including Mark Duplass of “The League” and “Your Sister’s Sister,” Olivia Wilde of “In Time” and “TRON: Legacy,” Evan Peters of “American Horror Story” and the “Kick-Ass” franchise, Sarah Bolger of “The Tudors” and Donald Glover of “Community,” the acting was the only thing that kept this movie afloat. Writers Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater failed to hold the full attention of the audience, and I sat fidgeting in my chair, though not from anticipation of the next scare. For a movie that is classified as a horror/thriller there was nothing thrilling about it. The story droned on in the most predictable way possible as character after character died, each in the exact same way.

What horror fans look for and crave is wondering how and who is going to do it. When the monstrous creature is revealed to us within the first 20 minutes of a 90-minute film, that takes away one of the things that keeps us guessing, automatically falling into the habit of leaning more on the “how” aspect. When every character, save one, dies in the exact same fashion, it starts to get a little (more than a little) repetitive.

Other than the acting, the only thing I can give credit to this film for is in the fact that it, assumingly, tried to give a twist to the concept of the “final girl.” Anyone who enjoys horror film knows the formula for all-American horror. There is always one girl, usually a young woman, who fights off the monster and outlives everyone in order to tell the cops her tale of woe. Without giving anything away, the writers of this film did try to break away from the traditional concept, while still desperately clinging to it. That is the problem as a whole with American horror: everyone is terrified, no pun intended, to try something new, where other countries such as France and South Korea are going above and beyond terrifying their viewers.

All in all, even with a stellar cast this movie is not worth paying for. If you feel like something that has any resemblance to “Carrie,” wait for it to be in your local video store or machine. Poor Mark Duplass and Evan Peters, who are usually so great, are now brought down a peg while trying to make a major motion picture rather than the independents or television that are absolutely wonderful. Stick to what you’re good at, and don’t bring yourself down to their level!

 

Article by Krista Skweres

Watching this movie I wanted to scream, punch things and people and throw things at the screen while crying. All at the same time. I hated it. In the most loving way possible. It was great, and also infuriating.

“Like Father, Like Son” is a Japanese film that was shown as part of the foreign film series at Parkside’s cinema on March 8. It was originally released in Japan in 2013 and was nominated for 12 awards during the Japanese Academy Awards, which would be equivalent to America’s Oscars, including best picture. It tells the tale of two families who are told after six years that their sons were actually switched at birth. It mainly follows the mindset and emotional roller coaster of one of the fathers, a work-driven man who spends more time worrying about his career than his family. The film paints him as the main decision-maker among all of the parents, which does give it a slightly unrealistic feel at times – the question ran through my head: “what mother wouldn’t fight that?” It puts all the responsibility of choices on him.

This character is played by Japanese actor Masaharu Fukuyama, whose performance drags viewers through a wide array of feelings. Flip-flopping repeatedly from hating him to loving him and then back again, this actor proves his nomination for best actor to be well warranted as it ties together the whole film. As such a controversial and rare subject, it is his character that truly makes the audience feel for the family. Director Hirokazu Koreeda adds his personal touches to enhance Fukuyama’s role by using a few intense moments of silence to slowly kill the audience as our hearts break over the two-hour period. Koreeda’s choice of ending for the film puts a final nail in the coffin as our heart purely aches for everyone involved.

This is by far one of the best films that Parkside has shown this season during their foreign film series and it’s one that no one should miss. It is currently available for instant streaming on Netflix, so I would say to all who have access, take the time. It’s worth it. Just don’t throw anything at your television,  no matter how much Fukuyama makes you want to.

Article by Krista Skweres

“The Imitation Game” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kiera Knightly and Matthew Goode was released on DVD and Bluray on March 31. Having 8 Oscar nominations this year, the anticipation for this release was building, even among those that believe it should be known as “Oscar bait.” Having seen it, it was definitely deserving of quite a few of its nominations, but not all of them.

Writer Graham Moore won the award for best adapted screenplay for his adaptation of the novel by Andrew Hodges. Having not read the novel I can’t judge too harshly on the job of turning book into film, but as a film, even though it was amazing, I have a few qualms.

The story is of the life of the inventor of the first computer, a machine that was created to decode the German machine Engima, which would send cryptic messages so that they were the only ones who were able to understand them. With a film that is going to be about Turing’s life, I completely understand the need to have some back story into his personal life, but this film went too far into it.

It is essential to know, based upon how he committed suicide via cyanide in later life, that he was gay. I am proud to see that the film industry is finally acknowledging the contribution of the lesbian and gay community to the world in a positive way, which has been a rarity in the past. There are many gay people who are not recognized for what they have done for the world simply because they are gay, making this film revolutionary. I just don’t believe that a film about how Turing helped to change the world by saving an estimated 1.4 million lives with his machine needs to spend about 40 minutes on his sexual orientation. I fully believe that it is awful that he was persecuted in his later life for his homosexuality, but I would have liked to see more of the moral conflict of all of the characters in regards to the secrets and the choices that they needed to make during this time of war.

Benedict Cumberbatch did a phenomenal job in his role as a slightly socially awkward young man who is exceptionally smart. He is my personal second choice in the running for best actor of the year, second to Eddie Redmayne for his role in “The Theory of Everything.”

Kiera Knightly, however, raises some questions. First question being: why was she nominated for best “supporting” actress? She was the only actress in the entire film really. There were small roles played by a few other women, most of which were extras, but no other actresses. She may have supported Cumberbatch, but she was the only actress in the entirety of the film. So why not the best leading actress? After saying that, I do not feel she would win at all. With the actresses that were up for best actress, and best supporting actress for that matter, Knightly did very little in comparison. As per usual, she did a good enough job, but nothing spectacularly breakthrough such as Emma Stone from “Birdman” or Julianne Moore from “Still Alice” did. Not to pick on her, but Rosamund Pike doesn’t really deserve her nomination either. The pickings were slim this year in the actress realm.

All in all, the movie as a whole was great. I believe that it did deserve its nomination for best film of the year, and had it not been for “Birdman,” a film about the film industry itself, I would probably think that “The Imitation Game” might have won. It was completely worth a watch, and probably Cumberbatch’s best role yet.

Article by Krista Skweres