Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

9/10 In the modern world mobile phones are the keepers of our most private thoughts. What would happ en if the contents of our mind were exposed for the world to see? During a dinner party seven friends decide to play a game: for the duration of one evening they would give up their mobile phones. Every message and every phone call is no longer private.  They could read each other’s texts and listen to each other’s conversation. Do they have anything to hide? And if they do, how bad would the damage be? We are all used to light hearted Italian farce, but PERFECT STRANGERS delves into dangerous territory  when the humorous brushes with the sad and even the tragic. Set during an eclipse of the moon, this is a night of revelations, that points out exactly what each character is capable of. The snappy, quick-witted dialogue carries the movie forward. It is a w ell-acted, addictive film, that delivers plenty of surprises along the way. PERFECT STRANGER...

7/10 Nancy (Blake Lively) travels to a secret beach, her mother’s favourite. Now with her mother gone Nancy seems to be looking for inspiration in life, unable to move on. As she drifts away from the shore, a malevolent giant shark begins stalking her. Stranded on a piece of rock, with the tide coming in, Nancy has to outsmart the predator, which is closing in on her. There is no other way but to face it off in a battle. Jaume Collet-Serra is good at turning the minimalistic setting into a spectacle. Here he's got a spectacular Mexican (shot in Australia) shore, but it feels as claustrophobic as the flight cabin does in his mystery thriller Non-Stop. Here we get the body of the dead whale, the piece of a rock and the buoy. Getting the best out of each of these elements and turning them into a clever battlefield, Serra structures it all around a centrepiece - a vulnerable young woman with a will of steel. Blake Lively is believable as Nancy, who is introduced ...

8/10 In 1930's Korea a young woman becomes a handmaiden for a wealthy Japanese lady. She is a con artist and a thief. Her main objective is to assist her accomplice, a fake count who wants to marry her lady and eventually obtain the inheritance. But unexpected complications occur. Will the young handmaiden betray her lady or will she……. fall in love? Cult South Korean director Park Chan-wook, the man behind famous  Oldboy , directs a period drama-mystery that may be his best film yet. Known around the world for grotesque violence in his films, he now gives us a sexually charged erotic thriller with many twists and turns and where the final truth is hidden until the very end.  However, THE HANDMAIDEN is not completely free of violence and gore, but it has a more suggestive value, that is ever the focus of this complicated story. It may not be a flattering comparison, but the film has a structure not unlike  Wild Things,  a 90's thriller with ...

9/10 Three young criminals break into the house of a blind man to steal his insurance settlement. The job seems piece of cake, but the disabled owner of the house is not as helpless (or as innocent) as it might appear. When the tables are turned, our criminals realise they have bitten off more than they could chew. Would they be able to leave the house of the blind man alive? Fede Alvarez, the man behind critically acclaimed remake of Evil Dead writes and directs DON’T BREATHE, a Hitchcockian thriller where suspense prevails over gore. Casting Jane Levy as his leading lady, he puts a twist on a typical “Beauty versus Monster” tale, where no one is purely good or bad. Prepare your loyalty to be tested, as the reasons behind the actions of the villain here are easy to relate to. The cinematography is stylish, seems to be inspired by David Fincher’s PANIC ROM. And just like in PANIC ROOM every part of the house plays it’s role in the action. Jane Levi is a an unlikabl...

7/10 Jesse is only sixteen years old and she is a runaway success. Just a few days in LA, and she has already signed up with the major modelling agency. The top designers want her for their shows. Her beauty is so extreme, it makes other models cringe. It is only a matter of time before something horrific is going to occur… From the opening shot where Jesse is lying with her throat cut, posing for a photo shoot, until the gruesome finale, the movie is soaked in the sense of danger. The film’s incoherent plot has many inconsistences that’s hard to overlook (why top designers would be eating in a cheap American style diners, and why Jesse stays in her seedy motel while she has definitely earned some descent money with her latest gigs remain a mystery), but these logic loopholes add a dream like quality to the story. If you had been to LA you will recognize the feel of the place is spot on, we get a perfect picture of glamorous and seedy, with hopes and fears mixe...