My Soul to Take

In general, I like Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street I, II, III, IV, V, VI…….) Sad to say that the best thing about THIS film, was that it was less than 2 hours long. 1 hr 47 min, take away the intro and ending credits and its nearly 1 hr 40 min, but not a  GOOD 1hr 40 min.  I felt as though this was a movie I had JUST watched, Chain Letters, but it had its own twist. Instead of “anti-technology” this film had the returning soul of serial killer bent on killing the children born on the day of his death….  The film was made for 3-D viewing so some of the gory murders were made a little bit gorier and when you were at the theaters, blood spatter seemed a tidbit “splatterier” (New word).

    Nothing new. Classic stupid kids thinking “it won’t happen to me” and the following murder soon after. Don’t waste your money. Not much to say about this. Sorry Wes.

Elementary Grading Scale: Needs Improvement

1-10: 4

The Mechanic

Simon West directed a film which tried to capture the vibe of some of Guy Ritchies best films, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. This was a re-make of a Charles Bronson film from the 70’s  which did not need redone… it was good how it was. Unfortunately, I felt some of the intense and supposedly “cool” moments seemed to be a little “forced”. Jason Statham, Ben Foster, and Donald Sutherland star in a film dealing with assassins with feelings.

Though emotions are supposed to be withheld in the world of taking people out anonymously; when it comes to the life of a dear friend, killers cant help but have some feeling. Arthur Bishop (Statham) gets the secret order from his boss to kill Harry McKenna (Sutherland) who was his mentor and also the Father of Steve McKenna (Foster) who Bishop must now take in himself and mentor. Steve, Harry’s Son, does not know that Arthur killed his father and it tears at Arthur until the end as how and when to tell him that he killed his dad…… Teaching Steve the way of the assassin leads to many unique ways to kill people in the world “deserving” death.

An okay film filled with cliché assassination plots, much like The Specialist, The Assassin, and The Shooter.

Elementary Grading Scale: Needs Improvement

1-10: 5