Movie review

Review of “Doctor Strange”

Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant but arrogant neurosurgeon. He takes on cases that are difficult but he feels he can help the patient recover and live while turning down cases he is concerned might besmirch his perfect record. His former girlfriend Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) is a trauma surgeon in the same hospital. While they are no longer in a relationship they are still friends. While driving to an awards banquet in his honor, Strange has a car crash that severely damages his hands. The nerve damage is so severe he can no longer operate. Strange is lost and searching for some kind of remedy while at the same time driving Christine away with his self-pity and lashing out. His physical therapist tells Strange about a former patient of his named Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) who had a spinal cord injury that confined him to a wheelchair but had found a treatment that let him walk again. Finding Pangborn playing basketball with his friends, Strange begs to find out how he was cured. Pangborn tells him to go to Kamar-Taj in Tibet. As Strange is walking through the streets of Kathmandu asking people if they know where Kamar-Taj is, he is seen by Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Saving Strange from some street thugs looking to rob him, Mordo takes Strange to Kamar-Taj to meet The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), a teacher of the mystic arts. Showing Strange there are other realities besides the one he knows, Strange begins to study and soon is able to cast spells that conjure shields and weapons as well as open portals that allow instant transportation to just about anywhere on the planet. The Ancient One also teaches Strange about the dangerous realms where creatures of great evil dwell and to avoid being seduced by their power. She tells him of one of her former students, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), who was tempted by a dark power and is trying to use a forbidden spell stolen from The Ancient One’s library to open our world up to being taken over by this evil creature. Kaecilius and his followers have attacked and destroyed one of the three sanctums that protect the Earth from threats of the metaphysical kind. It’s now up to Strange to use his newfound powers to protect the Earth from Kaecilius and a dark evil from another dimension.

“Doctor Strange” is a middling entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It doesn’t have the emotional punch of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” of even the first “Iron Man” film. It has some interesting ideas about realms beyond this universe and terrific performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong. It also has some of the same problems as many other comic book movies.

My biggest issue with the movie is the miscast villain. Mads Mikkelsen is a great actor as he has shown in the TV show “Hannibal” and numerous movies. Kaecilius is a role that doesn’t allow Mikkelsen to use his great ability of quiet menace. Kaecilius is a flashy villain that casts spells and makes a big show of his power. While Mikkelsen does an admirable job of portraying Kaecilius as both thoughtful and ruthless, the part doesn’t match up to the actor’s strengths. Either the role needed to be written with less action, allowing Kaecilius’ acolytes to do all the fighting and running and he gets to be quiet and menacing, or another actor should have been cast. The part of the action villain doesn’t really fit Mikkelsen.

The story also lacks emotional heft. It never made me feel like the characters were the kinds of people that I was concerned for. At times, I wanted worse things to happen to Strange as after the accident he becomes even more self-obsessed and cruel, especially to Rachel McAdams’ Christine Palmer who shows him nothing but concern and compassion. I realize the character has to be portrayed as selfish in order for him to come around and be a hero but the script by director Scott Derrickson along with Jon Spaihts and C. Robert Cargill does almost too good a job at making Strange a monster before putting him on the path or redemption.

Speaking of McAdams, she is criminally underused in the film. While her character, which shares the name of a comic book character known as the Night Nurse, might have a recurring role in future films, it will likely be either as a damsel in distress or as a love interest for the hero: In other words, more of the same for women in comic book movies. McAdams does a great job in the limited time she has on screen but both the actress and the character could have done a great deal more other than being a stereotypical doormat for Strange.

Aside from those problems, “Doctor Strange” is at times a visual acid trip. While I’ve never personally used a hallucinogen I can’t imagine the sights being much different than those when The Ancient One sends Strange on a quick journey into the multiverse. Between that and when Strange and Mordo battle Kaecilius and his followers in what looks to be a M. C. Escher-inspired New York landscape, “Doctor Strange” has some of the most inspired visuals of any MCU film. The non-acid trip parts of the movie look great too, including the car crash that ironically starts Doctor Strange on his journey and the introduction of the Cloak of Levitation which seems to have a personality that both matches and clashes with the wearer. There are some genuinely amazing sights to see in “Doctor Strange.”

I saw the IMAX 3D version and while the added dimension really never pops off the screen in an entertaining way, the larger format certainly made the movie feel more immersive. Still I don’t know if the added cost was worth it.

“Doctor Strange” is rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence. The violence is both fantastical and intense. Kaecilius and his followers conjure spears that look like glass. There is also a whip that is made of orange energy that looks like it burns. While it isn’t directly shown, one character is beheaded. Another character appears to lose an arm. There are numerous fights of both the magical and non-magical kind. Blood is minimal. The car crash, while clearly computer generated, might scare smaller children. Strange is shown being thrown around inside the car and his hands being crushed. Foul language is scattered and consists of words often heard on basic cable shows.

For all its mind-bending visuals and talk of the multiverse, “Doctor Strange” is a pretty conventional superhero origin story. Stephen Strange is a flawed character that needs something extraordinary to open his eyes to the world (and worlds) beyond his knowledge. Most who become super beings from relatively normal beginnings bring along some kind of flaw or issue that needs to receive an other worldly kick in the pants to straighten them out. Much like Tony Stark and Thor Odinson, Stephen Strange was presented with a problem he couldn’t fix and had to set aside his ego to become a better person. As superhero origin stories go “Doctor Strange” isn’t breaking any new ground. It also doesn’t give us an emotional connection to the characters that would set this film above the middle of the Marvel pack. It isn’t great but it is pretty good.

“Doctor Strange” gets four magical stars out of five.

This week, the holidays arrive early, the help arrives to find strangeness afoot and the aliens just arrive. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Almost Christmas—

Arrival—

Shut In—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Ouija: Origin of Evil”

It’s 1965 and the Zander family is having a rough time. Mother Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) is raising her two daughters alone following the death of her husband. Teenager Paulina (Annalise Basso), Lina for short, is a bit rebellious and likes to sneak out at night to hang with her friends. Doris (Lulu Wilson) is nine and is frequently picked on at school. Alice is a palm reader and works out of her home and, when they aren’t in school, the girls help with the con. At a friends’ house one night, Lina and the others play with a Ouija board and Lina suggests to her mom the next day to add it to her palm reading bit. Alice sees one in a store and buys it. She rigs the pointer so she can move it from under the table with magnets; but when she uses it to try and contact her husband in the parlor downstairs, Doris seems to go into a trance upstairs and answers the questions her mother is asking. Feeling a pull from the Ouija board, Doris comes down in the middle of the night and plays with it herself. She makes contact with the spirit world and looking through the lens in the pointer sees someone in the room with her. When the bank posts a foreclosure notice on their front door, Doris once again uses the Ouija board and gets a message about money buried in the wall of their basement. She finds it, gives it to her mother and shows her how she is able to use the board and make the pointer move without even touching it. Referring to the voices she hears as her friends, Doris once again uses the board in the middle of the night but this time, a dark, malevolent spirit invades her and takes over. What plans does this spirit have for little Doris and why does this spirit haunt this house?

“Ouija: Origin of Evil” is a prequel to 2014’s “Ouija.” A sequel/prequel was inevitable after the first made $100-million on a $5-million budget. That kind of return on investment in Hollywood is like blood in the water for sharks. The original film was poorly reviewed and even audiences seeing it only gave it a middling “C” on an A+ to F scale; however, the filmmakers have managed to fight off the urge to slap together something repetitive and actually given us a cheap horror movie that is superior to its predecessor.

While “Ouija: Origin of Evil” may be a bit hamstrung by the first film, limiting it in what could happen and being locked in to the ending, the writers have managed to give us some interesting characters and a story that makes far more sense than it should. Despite going a little off the rails during the ending and leaving an unanswered question or two, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” manages to be entertaining even if it isn’t terribly scary.

There are only a couple of jump-scares and the tension isn’t terribly thick through most of the film. Despite that, the movie works mostly because of the performances of Annalise Basso and Lulu Wilson. Each actress transforms their character over time due to the circumstances each faces.

Basso’s Lina begins as a headstrong teenage girl exploring her boundaries and struggling against her mother’s rules while also trying to process the loss of her father. As the strangeness in the house increases, Lina becomes a caring daughter and sister reaching out to the closest thing she has to a father-figure, the principal at her Catholic high school, Father Tom (played by Henry Thomas). It feels like an honest and realistic portrayal of a bizarre situation. She isn’t a scream queen and she isn’t paralyzed by fear but there is both terror and bravery in Basso’s performance.

Lulu Wilson is amazing as the cursed Doris. Starting out as a sweet, innocent and sometimes goofy little girl, once Doris is possessed she becomes the epitome of the creepy kid. A speech she gives reciting what it’s like being strangled to death is done with seriousness punctuated by a cherubic smile. It’s the kind of performance that will make her friends look at her with a bit more concern in the future. Doris also is shown opening her mouth far more wide than his humanly possible. It’s a simple effect but it looks creepier each time you see it. Her descent into darkness is quick and more than a little bit painful to watch as this cute young girl is manipulated by forces beyond anyone’s control to take the lives of anyone close to her. It’s an incredible performance coming from someone so young.

It’s good that the movie has an interesting story and great performances because you won’t see “Ouija: Origin of Evil” because it is scary. It has only a few moments when it catches you off guard and none are the kind of scares that make you jump from your seat. You can see the scarier bits coming from a mile away. The way the shot is framed and the positioning of the characters telegraphs all the frightening points in the film. Actually one of the best scares comes early in the film and it has nothing to do with spirits. I’ll not spoil it for you but I think you’ll know it when you see it. It seems to be a difficult bit of alchemy to put together a good story AND some truly scary scenes in modern horror.

The ending of the film feels like an effort at grounding the movie with a sense of history. Again, I’m not going to give anything away but the writers have chosen to use an easy villain to blame for all the evil in the house. There were probably only a couple of ways they could go: What they chose, house built on a cemetery or Native American burial ground, cursed Ouija board or something else along those lines. Picking what they did certainly explains all the unsettled spirits in the house but it also feels a little lazy.

“Ouija: Origin of Evil” is rated PG-13 for disturbing images, terror and thematic elements. There is very little blood in the film in what is an effort to keep its PG-13 rating. We see a few people get thrown around by unseen forces. Teenagers are shown drinking alcohol. Skulls and bones are shown near the end of the film. One character dreams her mouth seals up by itself as she watches in the mirror. There are a couple of deaths shown on screen but none is grizzly. There is very little if any foul language.

A brief post credits scene ties this film to “Ouija.” Anyone who is coming into this movie that hasn’t seen the original won’t really understand what’s going on and doesn’t need to set through all the credits to see it. It is a nice nod however to fans of the first film and to the actress Lin Shaye who has made a thriving career from supporting roles in several recent horror films. I wouldn’t have been nearly as willing to stick around if the movie wasn’t much good; but despite a lack of scares and some questionable choices for the ending, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” is a surprisingly engaging and entertaining horror film.

“Ouija: Origin of Evil” gets four stars out of five.

This week there is only one new film opening in theatres so I suppose this is what I will review next:

Inferno—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “The Accountant”

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a CPA working out of a small strip mall office near Chicago, Illinois. Born autistic with an aversion to bright lights, loud sounds and scratchy fabrics, his father, an Army intelligence officer, decides his son must be trained to deal with what the real world is like. He exposes his autistic son to the things that make him uncomfortable in an effort to build up a kind of psychological callous. He has the boy and his younger brother, who is not autistic, take brutal martial arts training as well as becoming excellent marksmen. After getting in a scrape with the law, Christian does time in federal prison where he meets Francis Silverberg (Jeffrey Tambor) who was the bookkeeper for a major crime family. Francis takes a liking to Christian and, realizing his unique mental challenges and gifts, teaches him about how to launder dirty money. Christian becomes the forensic bookkeeper for drug cartels, crime syndicates and terrorist groups, able to track down where any missing money has gone. Frequently seen in surveillance photographs but in ways that makes him difficult to identify, Christian comes to the attention of the head of the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division Ray King (J.K. Simmons). He is quickly approaching retirement and wants to identify the underworld’s accountant. He puts analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) on the job threatening to expose she lied on her federal application about juvenile felony convictions to give her incentive to work quickly. Meanwhile, Christian is asked to check out the books at Living Robotics, a high-tech company that specializes in prosthetics for amputees, consumer electronics and military items. It is owned by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) and his sister Rita (Jean Smart). Staff accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) has found an irregularity in the books but can’t quite figure out what is wrong. Christian is brought in and, after spending all night going through 15 years of accounts, deposits and invoices, discovers $61-million is missing. That night, the Chief Financial Officer of Living Robotics, Ed Chilton (Andy Umberger), is visited at his home by a mysterious man (Jon Bernthal) who tells Ed to overdose on the insulin he takes for his diabetes or his wife will be violated and murdered in front of him. The next day, Christian arrives at Living Robotics, is told that Chilton is dead and finds all the files he was working on have been taken away. Despite his pleas to finish his job Lamar Blackburn pays him and tells him it is over. To relax, Christian goes target shooting at the farm of one of his regular clients. Several men break in and order the couple to call Christian into the house with the intent of killing him. Christian turns to the tables and takes out all the attackers and questions the last one living about who sent him. The man shows Christian a photo of Dana and says he was ordered to kill them both. Christian heads to pick up Dana and the pair go on the run from whoever is trying to clean up hornet’s nest they discovered at Living Robotics.

“The Accountant” is a version of the superhero myth where the antagonist is born with the power of easily comprehending incredibly difficult math. It doesn’t sound like much of a super power but in the hands of Affleck’s Christian Wolff it becomes the force that leads to a great number of deaths. Adding to his abilities, the character has been studying self-defense since he was young so he is proficient at both martial arts and marksmanship. Both are skills that the autism others see as a defect actually turns out to be a benefit as it gives him a singular focus and a drive to complete a task successfully. There is no “quit” in Christian Wolff as his brain will not allow it. The movie has no quit in it either but sadly the story has been shortchanged by a desire to make it cute and creating some shortcuts that turns the very end of the movie into something rather frustrating.

Ben Affleck is fantastic as Christian Wolff. He plays the hero as a man that does what he does not for fame or for attention but simply because they must be done. He also has a strong sense of morals and loyalty to those that are his friends. Playing a man with autism, Affleck is almost painfully awkward with interpersonal communication. Usually avoiding eye contact, largely devoid of humor and unable to read subtext, Wolff is constantly deemed rude by those that do not know him. His blunt honesty is the only way he knows how to behave. Subtlety is lost on him and you just have to live with it.

It is a refreshing change from most superheroes (including Affleck’s own take on Batman). Even characters like Tony Stark, portrayed as a man that doesn’t care what anyone thinks, is often forced to change course and do what is socially acceptable. Wolff is a singular creation that lives by a unique set of rules that make sense only to him. His training, started by his father as a child and continued by Wolff into adulthood, is a rigid routine that appears nonsensical to the average person but serves a purpose in desensitizing him to the cacophony of sights, sounds and feelings of the everyday world. I’m not sure how the autistic community feels about the way they are portrayed in the film; but the fact we have a hero with autism in a movie that grossed nearly $25-million in its opening weekend can’t be seen as anything but positive.

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure why Anna Kendrick is in the movie. I suppose her character is meant to be a humanizing compared to Affleck’s but she just seemed to be there to act as comic relief then to be what needed saving. Her character mostly disappears after the first half of the film aside from a brief scene at the end. Perhaps her character had a bigger role in the story but she was cut out in the final edit. She does manage to hold her own when some bad guys bust into her apartment in what must be the dreariest building in Chicago; but her talent largely is wasted in an underwritten and underused part.

As for the ending, I won’t give anything away but there are two bits of information that come out in the last 10 minutes of the film that really bring the movie down a notch. Perhaps one is meant to again humanize the somewhat robotic Christian while the other is supposed to be uplifting and force us to question our assumptions about people with disabilities. Both feel like cheap shortcuts taken to keep from having to figure out more rational explanations and avoid paying for more actors. Both also made me put my head in my hands and ask “why?” Maybe this is too strong a reaction to something that happens in a Hollywood action/thriller but it made what I’d watched and enjoyed before these two reveals seem somehow cheapened.

“The Accountant” is rated R for strong violence and language throughout. There are a number of bloody shootings as well as showing numerous dead bodies. Many of the shooting are head shots that cause a great deal of splatter on the walls. There are a couple of brutal hand-to-hand fights as well. Foul language is scattered.

In a nutshell, I liked “The Accountant” but thought it could have been much better with a little bit more work on the story. This film is clearly an effort to launch a franchise following Christian Wolff, or whatever he decides to call himself next, around the country (or world) as he gets caught up in the middle of various plots and schemes and uses his particular set of skills to right the wrongs of others. He’s not a bad character on which to base a franchise and I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more stories about the autistic bookkeeper. I just hope whoever writes the next one manages to be a bit more creative and realistic at the same time in finishing up the story.

“The Accountant” gets four (almost five) guitars.

Four new films hit screens this week. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Boo! A Madea Halloween—

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back—

Keeping Up with the Joneses—

Ouija: Origin of Evil—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

 

Review of “The Girl on the Train”

Rachel (Emily Blunt) is a broken woman. Her marriage to Tom (Justin Theroux) ended badly after they were unable to conceive a baby and Rachel began treating the depression with alcohol. She would black out and Tom would tell her all the violent things she did. He began an affair with Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) who he eventually married after divorcing Rachel. He and Anna have a six-month old named Evie. Rachel rides the commuter train into the city every day and is able to see her old house through the window. She also sees the house next door and makes up stories about the young couple living there. That is Megan and Scott (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans). Rachel has seen them having sex through the big window of their house that faces the tracks and believes they are a perfect couple; but that isn’t the case as Megan is restless and doesn’t want to have a baby despite Scott’s wishes. Megan sees psychiatrist Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez) and tells him all her secrets and desires and how Scott is an emotional bully. On her daily commute, Rachel sees Megan on the porch in the arms of another man. Distraught, Rachel gets very drunk and plans on confronting Megan about the apparent infidelity. The next day, Rachel wakes up after blacking out, covered in blood and discovers Megan has gone missing. Is she responsible? What happened in the hours she can’t remember?

Based on a book by the same name, “The Girl on the Train” is a twisty, slow-burn thriller that had the potential of being a very good movie. It has lots of sex, infidelity, lies, misdirection and substance abuse and could have really kept the audience guessing about whodunit. Sadly, all the mystery of the mystery is exposed far too early and the story is strangely uninvolving despite being made very complicated and with a fairly large cast of characters.

The cast isn’t to blame for the shortcomings of “The Girl on the Train.” Emily Blunt’s Rachel is about as sad and pathetic as any character in any film I’ve ever seen. Her investment in the lives of Megan and Scott, two people she’s never met, is about the only thing holding her anywhere close to together. When she sees what she perceives as Megan’s betrayal of Scott it turns her into a member of the drunken morality police and marks her rock bottom. It is a performance that must have been taxing for Blunt as it required so much raw emotion, so much crying and at times so much naked honesty from the character. Blunt manages to make Rachel both annoyingly pathetic and someone you want to wrap up in a tight hug.

Rebecca Ferguson plays Anna, the “other woman,” like a creepy Stepford wife. She is all about raising her child and maintaining her home and anything that interferes with that is met with a look that implies she is plotting your death. Ferguson is kind of the heavy of the story for a while and is fairly easy to dislike. Her jealousy of Rachel doesn’t make her any more pleasant. For this character it is an effective performance.

Haley Bennett plays Megan like a bit of a spoiled child. Megan admits to being restless and she’s always comparing her life now to what it was like when she was 17 and living in a hunting cabin with her boyfriend. It is a pivotal part of the story that eventually leads to the tragic events that play out. Bennett, who bears a striking resemblance to Jennifer Lawrence, has a smoldering sexuality that is a good match for the character. She looks both innocent and seductive at the same time. It’s a delicate balance that Bennett uses to her full advantage.

The rest of the cast is impressive as well. What doesn’t work in “The Girl on the Train” is the arm’s length way the story is told. I never felt invested in these characters. The story meanders, jumping back and forth in time, filling in backstory leading the audience up to the events of Megan’s disappearance and juxtaposing that with what’s going on in Rachel’s life as she’s trying to pull herself back together while also befriending Scott. The story becomes a tornado of information that is mixed together in a haphazard way. Perhaps the disjointed narrative made emotionally investing in these characters impossible or maybe the script didn’t stick closely enough to the book to give us the depth of feeling for the people we learn so much about. Whatever the reason, “The Girl on the Train” feels like a static display in a museum: All the information about the subject is in front of you but it lacks any life.

“The Girl on the Train” is rated R for violence, sexual content, language and nudity. There are several brief sex scenes. The most graphic nudity is mostly backsides. All other body parts are imaginatively hidden. Violence is scattered but bloody. Foul language is also scattered.

“The Girl on the Train” is somewhat intriguing until a revelation from Rachel’s past mostly exposes who is responsible for Megan’s disappearance with about a half hour left in the film. After that, you’re just waiting on that character’s inevitable comeuppance. Watching the film from that point on makes it a bit annoying. Thrillers shouldn’t give you the real villain until much later. After all the information we are given about these five main characters, knowing who is responsible so early makes all that comes before it seems wasted. “The Girl on the Train” has the potential to be a mind-bendingly complicated and involving thriller but it seems to take the road most travelled from the train to the conclusion.

“The Girl on the Train” gets three disappointed stars out of five.

Number crunchers, joke slingers and reluctant power wielders are invading your local multiplex. I’ll see at least one of the following:

The Accountant—

Kevin Hart: What Now?—

Max Steel—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”

Jake (Asa Butterfield) is a typical teenager living in Florida with his dad Frank (Chris O’Dowd) and mom Maryann (Kim Dickens). Jake feels unnoticed by his schoolmates and largely ignored by his family. The only person he feels really close to is his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp). Jake gets a frantic phone call from Abe ranting about him being in danger and unable to protect himself without his gun. When Jake arrives, his grandfather’s house has been ransacked and Abe is lying in the woods behind his house with his eyes missing. Abe begs Jake to follow a map and go on a quest of some sort. Jake doesn’t understand and is so shocked he thinks he sees a giant monster wondering in the woods. Thinking he’s crazy, Jake sees Dr. Golan (Allison Janney), a psychiatrist, who suggests Jake and his father travel to the Welsh island where Abe lived for several years during WWII at a home for orphaned children. Abe had told stories about the incredible woman that ran the home and the unusual children that lived there. Arriving on the island, Jake explores the dilapidated home that was hit during a German bombing raid. There he finds old pictures of the former residents…then one is standing in front of him looking the same as in the picture. Freaking out, Jake runs away but knocks himself out. He awakens being carried across the shoulder of a six-year old girl. Set on the ground, Jake finds himself face to face with the children his grandfather had told him about. They lead him through a cave and he walks out into a completely different world. The bombed out house is good as new and he’s greeted at the door by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and is introduced to her group of peculiar children.

There is a great deal more to the story of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” including time loops, 20-foot tall creatures with sharp, jagged teeth and tentacles emanating from their mouths and a group of people looking for eternal life that eat the eyeballs of “peculiars.” This group is led by Mr. Barron played by Samuel L. Jackson wearing a “Don King” fright wig and chewing enough scenery to require a dentist visit to remove the splinters from his gums. In the hands of Tim Burton, a director known for his films about outsiders looking for acceptance and his visual flare, the movie should have leapt off the screen and wowed us while also moving us to tears. It does neither.

The look of the film is not the problem. Burton and his talented effects crew have created a stunning visual world filled with oddities and surprises. From ornate lead shoes to topiary, there’s very little about “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” that isn’t eye catching. Eva Green’s hairstyle, with whirls, odd points and a blue tint, manages to even provide some entertainment as I wondered how and why they made it look that way.

What comes up short is the emotion, the heart, the desire to feel anything about these children in their odd situation. The story is very predictable and feels like all the passion and energy was left on the pages of the graphic novel on which it is based. Other films based on books, like the “Harry Potter” and “Hunger Games” series, manage to convey the intensity of feeling the characters are experiencing and allowed the audience to feel it too. Perhaps the subject matter “Miss Peregrine’s…” was a bit too whimsical and light to translate from the page to the screen. In any case, the movie merely fills the eyes and not the soul.

It doesn’t help that Asa Butterfield either isn’t a very good actor or was horribly miscast. He looks confused through most of the movie and rarely expresses what appears to be the proper emotion. It’s almost like his response to events occurs half a second later than it should. Seen over and over again, this slight delay becomes increasingly obvious and annoying.

I could go on about the cast, giving each member either their props or comeuppance; however, the only person in this rather large assemblage of actors that really stands out is Samuel L. Jackson and it’s for all the wrong reasons. Jackson seems to be playing a slightly amped up version of himself we see in the Capital One credit card commercials. He’s showboating in a fairly small role to I suppose try and make the part bigger simply by making the character bigger. All he manages to do is stick out like a sore thumb and seem like the wrong actor for the part.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is rated PG-13 for violence and peril and intense fantasy action. There are a couple of scenes showing a character with the eyes removed from the sockets. There is some scary long-legged monsters shown chasing after the children. One character takes hearts and implants them in both dead and inanimate objects, bringing them to life briefly. Some monsters are shot in the head with a crossbow. There is no foul language.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” isn’t a terrible movie. It just isn’t terribly memorable. It looks amazing and features some interesting ideas in regards to people with unique abilities. What it doesn’t do is really strike deep in the heart of the audience and make us care about what happens to the denizens of this peculiar world.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” gets three apathetic stars out of five.

Three new movies hope you feel anything but apathetic about seeing them in the theatre. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Birth of a Nation—

The Girl on the Train—

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan. Send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “The Magnificent Seven”

Matthew and Emma Cullen (Matt Bomer and Haley Bennett) live in the small frontier community of Rose Creek. The nearby gold mine is owned by Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and he wants to force out all the residents of Rose Creek and take over the entire valley. During a meeting at the church of many of the town’s residents, Bogue walks in and offers only $20.00 per property to the remaining families. His cadre of armed men forces everyone into the street and set the church on fire. When Matthew stands up to Bogue, Bogue pulls out a gun and kills him. Since the town’s sheriff is on Bogue’s payroll, nothing is done to stop his reign of terror. Emma rides to the next town and witnesses a bounty hunter named Chisolm (Denzel Washington) wipe out a bar full of outlaws and ask him to help her. Initially reluctant Chisolm agrees when he hears Bogue is involved. His first recruit is a hard-drinking poker player named Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt). Then they find an outlaw named Rulfo Vasquez (Manuel Garcia), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Billy Rocks (Lee Byung-hun), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Native American Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). The group heads to town and quickly wipes out all of Bogue’s men. The sheriff is left alive and Chisolm sends him to tell Bogue what happened and challenge him to return to town and face Chisolm. The seven convinces the townspeople to join them and prepare for the coming bloodthirsty hired gunmen that Bogue will lead to town.

“The Magnificent Seven” is a remake of a 1960 film of the same name that starred Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen and Eli Wallach. It was recently named for preservation by the Library of Congress and the soundtrack contains one of the most recognized, used and copied theme songs in the history of film. While this modern version may not be quite the classic of its predecessor, director Antoine Fuqua and writers Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk have delivered an entertaining and, to some extent, thought provoking film.

The cast is full of people (with a few exceptions) you’ve seen in many, many other films and TV shows. From lead actors Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt to character players like Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio and Peter Sarsgaard, the entire group of main actors is spot on and firing on all cylinders. Both Washington and Pratt play characters with silent strength and menace but in different ways. While Washington’s Chisolm is a man viewed as dangerous on first meeting, Pratt’s Faraday is more like comic relief until there’s a threat and then he is a force to be reckoned with.

Vincent D’Onofrio steals the film in every scene he’s in. A bear of a man with a disarming high, squeaky voice, D’Onofrio’s Horne quotes scripture as he’s driving a knife repeatedly into the body of one of Bogue’s henchmen. The contrast is disarming and makes anything Horne does a bit of a surprise. I would have liked to see more of Horne in the movie and Fuqua (or someone else) could maybe make a solo film of Horne’s life prior to him joining the seven.

Peter Sarsgaard’s Bogue is a character that does nothing but evil throughout the film and it almost feels like he’s too much of a villain to have lived as long as the character has. Someone that evil must have made more than a few enemies over the years and someone should have taken him out before now. Still, Bogue is a great villain for this movie. He’s easy to despise and impossible to root for. He appears unstoppable with all the wealth and resources necessary to wipe the town and its people off the map. Bogue, like Chisolm and Faraday, is quietly dangerous. He listens to someone’s complaint then quickly makes the decision to take the life of whoever is complaining. He doesn’t tolerate failure or cowardice in others despite letting surrogates do his dirty work for him. He walks into town surrounded by half a dozen or more ruthless killers and shoots an unarmed man. He has succeeded by intimidation, theft and murder. For him, it is simply the way he does business.

Speaking of business, Bogue gives a speech early in the film that implies the writers and director had a political agenda they were trying to get across. Bogue talks about how capitalism is kind of a religion and the townspeople are violating God’s law by standing in the way of Bogue’s empire. If one applies this bit of thinking to the rest of the film, it might seem like Antoine Fuqua and the screenwriters are looking at the story as an allegory for the struggle of the working class against the power and control of big business. The seven fighters brought in to try and dismantle the greedy corporate interest could be seen as labor unions using whatever means necessary to make the company treat the workers with respect and to share the wealth. This might be me putting too much thought into a minor plot point but the sledgehammer-like subtlety of this monologue seemed to have been purposeful.

“The Magnificent Seven” is rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material. The shootout that ends the film is probably close to 30 minutes long. There are numerous scenes of people being shot, some bloodier than others. There are also scenes with people being killed by arrows. The suggestive material is very mild and brief. Most of the characters are shown smoking at some point. The language is mild and widely scattered.

Despite what felt like a ham-handed attempt at social commentary, “The Magnificent Seven” powers through to deliver a fun and exciting Western adventure. With massive explosions, huge gunfights, bad guys with bad aim, galloping horses and majestic scenery, the film is a kind of throwback to an earlier time when the good guys and bad guys were easy to identify, the ladies in the saloon were always hookers with a heart of gold and the townspeople needed a good kick in the butt to make them see they needed to fight for their futures. It may not be perfect but it was fun.

“The Magnificent Seven” gets five guitars out of five.

This week a couple of movies based on true stories and the return of Tim Burton arrive in a multiplex near you. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Deepwater Horizon—

Masterminds—

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Blair Witch”

James (James Allen McCune) believes some recently uploaded video to YouTube may show his sister Heather who disappeared while during an investigation in the legend of Blair Witch. The video shows a brief glimpse of a woman’s reflection in a mirror as she runs through an old, dilapidated house. James plans on visiting the person that uploaded the video and searching for his sister. Coming along is a film student named Lisa (Callie Hernandez) who will make a documentary of the search for a school project. She is bring various small video recorders including ones that are worn like a Bluetooth earpiece so it records whatever the wearer looks at. James’ friends Peter and Ashley (Brandon Scott and Corbin Reid) are coming along as well. The group heads to Burkittsville, Maryland to meet with Lane (Wes Robinson), who uploaded the video, and his girlfriend Talia (Valorie Curry). Lane, something of an expert on the history of the area including the Blair Witch, agrees to show them where he found the tape if James and the others let him and Talia tag along. Reluctantly the group agrees. While walking through the woods, Lane talks about the various legends and tragic events that are supposed to have occurred in the area. Peter thinks it’s all silly and doesn’t mind saying so. Walking across a river, Ashley cuts the bottom of her foot. James, an EMT, treats her wound and they continue. Setting up camp for the night, the group is terrorized by loud noises including what sounds like a giant tree falling. The next day, they find strange stick figures made from twigs and twine hanging from the trees. The four friends are overwhelmed and decide to head back to their car and go home but Lane and Talia are reluctant. As they walk through the woods, Lisa notices a ball of twine like that used to make the stick figures in Lane’s backpack. She also notices the camera Lane is using to shoot his own footage is similar to the one used by the original Blair Witch investigators. The four accuse Lane and Talia of faking the video and putting up the stick figures to try and swindle them in some way. Lane admits to putting up the stick figures but swears he only wanted to get the group to come and see the strange goings-on in the woods. Lane and Talia are forced to separate from the rest as punishment. After walking for hours, the four friends wind up back at the original campsite despite using GPS devices to guide them to the cars. Ashley’s cut foot has become infected and causing her pain so the group decides to camp for the night and head out the next day; but will they survive another night in the woods.

When “The Blair Witch Project” first came out in 1999, efforts by the film company to market the movie as documenting actual events led some viewers to think what they were watching was real. Knowing the culture of conspiracy theorists that seems to thrive at this time, there are probably some who still believe it. I doubt anyone seeing “Blair Witch” will fall for the lame shaky camera and tepid scares as something that would actually frighten someone even if they really experienced it. As an audience member, I felt safe as a kitten.

There’s very little that’s good about “Blair Witch.” I went into the film hoping it might have the same kind of exhilarating experience as those that saw the original film in 1999. Sadly, the movie left me feeling like it was a rehash of the worst parts of “found footage” films that are quickly becoming painful to watch.

“Blair Witch” gives us largely unlikable characters, tells us very little about them (other than James and his connection to the first film) then sets them off on an adventure we know is doomed to failure and tragedy. While the audience knows no one in the movie will have a happy ending, it would have been nice if the filmmakers had at least tried to surprise us with amped up levels of tension and gore. Instead, we are treated to lots of loud thumps in the woods, screeching walkie-talkies, several minutes of leaves and branches flashing through the beam of a flashlight as various characters run away (or toward) something scary, and occasionally catching a glimpse of something that may or may not be trying to kill them. Anyone that’s seen “Paranormal Activity” or “Insidious” or any other significantly better horror movie will find “Blair Witch” to be a disappointing and rather boring effort.

“Blair Witch” is rated R for terror, some disturbing images and language. As stated earlier, there is precious little in the way of terror. The disturbing images are infrequent and consist of a character looking like they have been broken in half and a wound that oozes lots of what appears to be pus. Foul language is scattered but they do drop the “F-Bomb” a couple of times.

“Blair Witch” is not terribly scary. There are only a couple of minor jump scares and those come after plodding through a great deal of shaky camera footage that may induce motion sickness in anyone susceptible to that ailment. The audience must also deal with a group of mostly annoying people that aren’t given more than thumbnail-sketch personalities. “The Blair Witch Project” might be the granddaddy of found-footage horror movies but “Blair Witch” is the red-headed bastard stepchild at the family reunion.

“Blair Witch” gets one star out of five.

This week, a Western remake and an animated film about where babies come from are hoping you throw your hard-earned money at them. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

The Magnificent Seven—

Storks—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send email to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “The Disappointments Room”

Dana and David (Kate Beckinsale and Mel Raido) along with their young child Lucas (Duncan Joiner) are moving to their new home out in the country. Dana and David are looking at this as a new start after suffering a major tragedy. Dana has been under the care of a doctor to deal with the fallout of this heartbreak but seems to be doing better. The home is nearly a century old and needs repair but Dana is an architect and plans on doing most of the renovations herself. In the attic, Dana discovers a door to a room that isn’t on the blueprints. Unable to find a key, Dana continues to set up in her new home when she begins to suffer from vivid, violent dreams of vicious black dogs and a stately but stern looking man in formal dress from what appears to be the turn of the century. Obsessed over the mysterious room in the attic, Dana finds the key to open the door but gets locked in after the door closes by itself and there’s no handle on the inside. Thinking she’s been locked inside the room for hours, when she is finally able to escape Dana discovers she was only in the room for about 20 minutes. Dana’s behavior becomes more bizarre and troubling to David who is concerned both for his wife and their son. Dana does some research and discovers the room in the attic is probably where the family that first lived in the home kept a child born with a deformity of some sort. Called a disappointments room, wealthy families would keep a child there and away from the outside world for all their lives. Are spirits of this child and family haunting Dana’s home and dreams or is she slipping back into the mental illness that led to her need for treatment?

“The Disappointments Room” wants to be moody, atmospheric and subtle. It wants to be a thinking-person’s horror film. Sadly, as it tries to be smart it leaves out all the things that make scary movies scary. There’s a very long slow burn in the film that is supposed to eventually lead to a frenetic and satisfying ending. What ends up happening is a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy as the movie lives up (or down) to its name.

Kate Beckinsale and Mel Raido do the best they can with a lethargically paced script that is long on conversation and wide-eyed expressions but woefully short on action or scares. Beckinsale does most of the emotional heavy lifting as Raido’s character is written as loving but otherwise oblivious. The writing for these married characters feels all wrong. We assume they have been together for at least six or seven years as their son looks to be about that old. Yet, David seems to be utterly surprised by some of Dana’s behavior and reactions that aren’t about her possible relapse into mental illness. An interaction between Dana, David and Ben, a local contractor played by Lucas Till, feels more like something from the first days of a relationship rather than coming several years in. The smattering of local yokel characters sprinkled in for flavor and a tiny bit of backstory also seems badly thought out and poorly written. Even the town historian that has information helpful to Dana is written to dismiss her own beliefs then turn around and try to help via a phone call that isn’t answered. From the story to the characters, “The Disappointments Room” is poorly structured and badly written.

The only interesting part of the film is the tug-of-war between whether Dana is losing her mind or actually being haunted by ghosts. Everything we see her experience is quickly shown to have been a hallucination; but is it the ghosts invading her dreams and creating wild visions or is it mental illness? One of the few things the movie does well is make the audience question what the real cause of Dana’s issue is. At times I was certain it was ghosts and at others I thought she needed to up her medication. This small bit of adequacy isn’t enough to redeem the film that has enormous problems in just about every area.

“The Disappointments Room” is rated R for violent content, bloody images, some sexuality and language. The violence is scattered and only ramps up late in the movie when the more bloody events occur. There are a couple of attacks by a large black dog that are shot in a very choppy way to imply more injury than you see. There’s also an animal that is shown after being attacked and partially consumed. The sexuality is very mild and consists only of comments. Foul language is scattered.

There isn’t much to recommend “The Disappointments Room.” It takes a long time to get to the haunting (or non-haunting) parts of the story. The special effects used to create a malformed child look cheap. A scene where a person gets his head bashed in looks like a crash test dummy is being bludgeoned. The interactions between the married characters didn’t feel real and the ending doesn’t make a great deal of sense. All in all, “The Disappointments Room” is just that.

“The Disappointments Room” gets two stars out of five.

Three new movies are looking to scare up some business this week. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Blair Witch—

Bridget Jones Baby—

Snowden—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Morgan”

Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is a corporate troubleshooter sent to evaluate a unique program. Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is the project. While being only five years old, Morgan is the size of a teenage girl. Her DNA is a mixture of human and synthetic and her brain contains nano-sized robots that have altered its development. She has precognitive abilities and is extremely strong and fast. A team of scientists has been working in secret on the project that led to Morgan for seven years in a house located deep inside a forest. Morgan used to be allowed outside but a behavioral scientist named Dr. Amy Menser (Rose Leslie) took Morgan beyond the boundary of the compound and lead researcher Dr. Lui Cheng (Michelle Yeoh) put an end to her field trips. Morgan is kept in an isolation cell and monitored by a rotating group of researchers. One of those researchers, Dr. Kathy Grieff (Jennifer Jason Leigh), brought Morgan her lunch and decided to eat with her inside the isolation cell but Morgan attacked her, stabbing her several times in the eye. This has led the corporation that is funding the research to send Weathers to oversee an evaluation of the project, including a psychological examination of Morgan by Dr. Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti), and determine if it should be terminated.

There’s a good movie to be made out of the ideas in “Morgan.” Sadly, the movie I saw wasn’t it. It’s not terrible and there are good performances from Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy but there are some odd choices made by some of the characters as the story progresses and there were a great deal of unanswered questions that nagged at me while I was watching the film.

“Morgan” takes a familiar concept and explores it fairly well. All the scientists see Morgan as a child trying to figure out her place in the world while Weathers sees Morgan as an “it” and something that can be discarded like a defective piece of plastic. That conflict is central to the plot and kicks off the carnage that makes up the last 30 minutes of the movie. My main problem with this part of the film is the willingness of the scientists to ignore all of Morgan’s past deeds and refuse to do what is necessary. One of the team even has a high-powered rifle pointed at her chest and still delays shooting long enough for Morgan to disarm him.

This is the same problem I have with most horror/thriller movies where characters make decisions that clearly go against their own best interests and what they know to be true. This logical misstep wasn’t in evidence during “Don’t Breathe” as even when the characters made a decision that kept them in peril it made sense and they didn’t hesitate to take action against their enemy although it wasn’t always as effective as they would have wanted.

“Morgan” is a victim of lazy storytelling. We’ve seen many of the ideas in the film in other better movies but here the script seems to be taking a “cafeteria” approach by picking certain elements and ignoring others. The script is trying to make a point about man’s arrogant belief that he can control nature but that gets lost in all the stupidity and carnage.

The movie also isn’t shy about telegraphing a twist that is revealed late in the film. Again, this is lazy storytelling since, in order for it to be a true twist it shouldn’t be painfully obvious early on. One particular shot in the film gives the surprise away with all the subtlety of a high rise building being imploded. It screams, “Hey! Look at this! You think this implies anything important about what’s coming later?!” While the specifics of the twist aren’t given away, the basic idea of what’s going to happen is clear.

There are things to like in “Morgan.” Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy give intense and uncompromising performances. Taylor-Joy is given a particular icy look with her makeup and hair that give her character an otherworldly appearance. She is different on the inside and that is reflected on the outside. Mara is a no-nonsense business woman with a penchant for cutting through the niceties of everyday conversation and not worrying about hurting people’s feelings.

There are, perhaps surprisingly, some very good fight scenes exclusively between female characters. While it is never directly stated, Morgan appears to have been created as a living weapon as she is well versed in hand-to-hand combat and very good at turning everyday items into weapons. She has increased strength and endurance and is usually coldblooded in dealing with an enemy. Weathers is also good with her fists and with a weapon as well. These two duke it out on at least three occasions in the film and each one is intense. The research team’s physician is also good at fisticuffs. This comes from out of nowhere and feels again like lazy storytelling and a way to keep the plot moving forward.

“Morgan” is rated R for some language and brutal violence. When there is violence in the film it is usually bloody, sometimes very bloody. The movie starts with Morgan’s attack on Dr. Grieff and, while not bloody on film, the sound effects used are rather suggestive of gore. Foul language is scattered.

“Morgan” has some very interesting ideas that get bogged down in thriller clichés. It wants to be a creepy look at Man playing God but eventually turns into a predictable and nothing more than average monster movie. It isn’t the worst way to spend 90 minutes in a darkened, air-conditioned theatre with some good performances and fight scenes but it could have been a great deal better.

“Morgan” gets three stars out of five.

There’s a wide variety of movies opening this week. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

The Disappointments Room—

Sully—

When the Bough Breaks—

The Wild Life—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Don’t Breathe”

A gang of three young home burglars, Rocky (Jane Levy), her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and their friend Alex (Dylan Minnette) break into houses around Detroit protected by the security company for which Alex’s father works. Alex has access to the door keys and codes for the security systems so he can deactivate the alarms and the burglars can work at their leisure. Money takes all the stolen items to his fence Raul (Franciska Torocsik) but never gets much money for them. Money and Rocky have plans to move to California once they make enough cash. Alex intends to stay in Detroit with his dad. Raul tells Money about a house occupied by a single man whose daughter was killed when struck by a car. The family of the young woman driving the car paid a settlement of $300,000.00 to the man and it is somewhere inside his house. The trio surveils the house and sees the man (Stephen Lang), an Iraq War veteran blinded in battle, walking his big guard dog. Alex doesn’t like the idea of stealing from a blind man but eventually decides to help with the robbery. They drug the dog, putting it to sleep and break into the blind man’s home through a bathroom window as every other way in is either barred or has multiple locks. Once inside they begin searching for the blind man’s stash. Money sneaks into the blind man’s bedroom and sets off a gas that is supposed to knock him out. They can’t find the money but see a door that is bolted and padlocked. Thinking the cash is there, Money shots the lock and is about to open the door when the blind man shows up. Money threatens to shoot him, even firing a round into the ceiling, but the blind man is able to grab his gun and turn it towards Money. He asks if Money is alone and he says yes as Alex and Rocky stand motionless. The blind man then shoots Money, killing him. Rocky and Alex both wait for the blind man to leave and then scatter in different directions. The blind man is far more dangerous than anyone knew and he has secrets bigger than the cash he is willing to kill to protect.

“Don’t Breathe” is a variation on the haunted house horror movie. The home the trio of burglars invades is filled with dark secrets and a dangerous entity. The difference is this entity is alive, not supernatural in any way and has a seemingly clear purpose for its violence. It’s the kind of film “Stand Your Ground” law supporters will love…until about half way through when the real reason for the blind man’s killer instincts is revealed. Yes, there is a twist, it’s a big one and it really comes out of left field. What’s more, there’s a twist to the twist. “Don’t Breathe” is a disturbing film and it is also very good.

Stephen Lang is truly frightening as the blind man. He knows his house so well it doesn’t matter he can’t see. He knows every turn and stair step in his home, especially the basement and that comes into play during a particularly unnerving scene when the blind man turns off the power and the robbers are now locked in complete darkness. Lang’s character rarely speaks but when he does his voice is weary and broken. The blind man has lived through war, the loss of his sight and the death of his daughter (we never hear about the girl’s mother) and it has clearly taken a toll on his emotional health. He can kill without remorse and has ways to cover up his deed. Much like Jason from the “Friday the 13th” series, the blind man seems to be unstoppable.

While the rest of the main cast is good, their characters are drawn rather thinly. Daniel Zovatto’s Money is a gangsta wannabe with cornrowed hair and a bullying personality that covers up his cowardly nature. Dylan Minnette’s Alex is far too smart to be breaking into homes and could have a good future but his not-so-secret love for Rocky makes him ignore his better judgement.

Jane Levy’s Rocky is about the only character that is given much backstory and a personality that exceeds a desire for material wealth. Living with her abusive and neglectful mother, her mother’s latest live-in boyfriend and her little sister Diddy (Emma Bercovici), Rocky wants a better life away from a troubled past. Her father left when she was very young and her mother abused her for expressing any sadness over his absence, claiming it was Rocky’s fault he left. Now a young woman, Rocky has plans for her and Diddy, along with Money and Alex, to go to California for a new start. The chance for one last robbery and a massive payday to get away from Detroit and her past leads Rocky to take chances far beyond what she would normally leading inevitably to her encounter with the blind man. Their clash is like the unstoppable force encountering an immovable object.

“Don’t Breathe” is set primarily inside the blind man’s house and one particular sequence stuck with me. At one point, Alex, Rocky and the blind man are in the basement when the blind man throws the breaker and kills all the lights. Filmed with what looks like low-light cameras (but is probably some kind of digital filter), the audience sees only a smoky grey image of the sighted characters groping in the dark, their eyes wide trying to allow in any stray light while the blind man walks confidently around using various memorized landmarks, touching ceiling beams and feeling for the corners of shelves. As the camera moves away from a character, they blend into the grey background and quickly disappear. Rocky and Alex walk unaware towards the blind man and their possible death even as the audience sees the approaching danger. It’s a brief scene but one that caused the most tension within me.

The movie ignores some basic truths of walking around in an old house; namely, the floor creaks and door hinges squeak. Characters walk around the home in utter silence even through the floor creaks in other scenes when it is needed for the building of tension or starting an action scene. Nothing is louder at night than a loose floorboard in an old house. I live in an old house and I feel like I hear every pop, squeak and creak as the house cools from a hot day or my dog is walking around. I realize “Don’t Breathe” would only be about 30 minutes long if the footsteps of the intruders made as much noise as they should have but this still stuck out to me.

“Don’t Breathe” is rated R for language, disturbing content, sexual references, terror and violence. There are several bloody shootings, beatings and attempts to strangle in the course of the film. The sexual references are crude but brief. A scene late in the film that I can’t describe without ruining a major plot point is particularly disturbing and ends in a very gross way. Foul language is frequent in the first 30 minutes of the movie but there isn’t much dialog after that.

“Don’t Breathe” is appropriately named as there are times when the audience will be holding its collective breath waiting on what will happen next. Without the need for ghosts or demons, filmmaker Fede Alvarez has turned a typical home on a typical street into a house of horrors. The movie is minimalist scary fun with no obvious digital effects (although there are 3D artists in the credits) and an average man as just about the scariest monster in recent memory. Take some friends and enjoy their collective gasps as the story plays out. Just don’t talk to the screen through the whole movie like a woman in the showing I went to because that can get annoying very quickly.

“Don’t Breathe” gets five stars.

There’s only one new wide release movie out this week so I’ll be broadening out my options to include some recently released art house films. I’ll see at least one of the following:

Don’t Think Twice—

Hell or High Water—

The Light Between Oceans—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.