Underworld: Awakening

 
  I don't have the best relationship with the Underworld franchise. I liked the first one, cannot remember if I saw the second and have no desire to see the third. But something about Awakening intrigued me enough to rent it.

   Awakening changes the movies to more of a Resident Evil format minus the zombies of course. It's the future and humans have turned on vampires and Lycans wiping them out and sending the rest into hiding. Selene having been frozen for the last twelve years escapes and goes on a search for Michael who has gone missing.

  Kate Beckinsale returns to the franchise and she is simply awesome. She is also surrounded by a strong confident supporting cast consisting of Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, and India Eisley. Eisley best known for her work on Secret Life is a gem. This is her first big budget movie role and she knocks it right out of the park. Scott Speedman doesn't reprise his role as Michael so archive footage was used for his brief scenes.

   Without Michael the movie is allowed to focus more on action and story lines instead of tragic romance. The special effects are well done and there are some great kills. Introducing humans as the new threat gave the movie a fresh new feel and better story line options. How long could they have really milked the whole Lycan/vampire feud before it got old?

    I recommend this movie to horror fans, even the ones who are lukewarm about sequels.

The I Inside

Every once in awhile there is a film where everything just comes together. The actors are top-notch, the script is perfect, and the ending actually surprises you. The I Inside is just one of those films.

Ryan Phillipe plays Simon Cable, a young man who awakens in a hospital with no memory of how he got there. He has a dead brother who might have killed, his wife, Anna who hates his guts, and a mysterious young woman named Claire who claims to be in love with him. He finds himself mysteriously leaping back and forth from 2002 to 2000 the year that he was in a serious car accident. Simon now must figure out the truth before he loses his mind.

The movie is a terrific thriller that keeps you guessing up until the very end. It has an unpredictable ending that doesn't insult your intelligence. The cast is great as well, Piper Perabo owns the role as the hateful and scheming Anna, Sarah Polley is as usual ethereal as Claire, and Stephen Rea plays a doctor who tries to help Simon.

If you want a smart and intriguing suspense movie, look no further this one is worth a watch.

Sisters (2006)

The most disappointing aspect of this film was that I was really looking forward to watching it. It had Chloë Sevigny who is one of my favorite actresses and Stephen Rea who is awesome. The story also seemed original. So where did this movie go wrong?.

Let's start with a confusing plot, after the film was over I was so puzzled that I went straight to The Internet Movie Database to see if someone on the message boards could explain it to me. It was hindered by tons of boring unnecessary scenes before cramming all the major plot lines into 20 minutes.

There was no character development and the main characters were so boring and unpleasant that you really can't even begin to care about their motives or what will become of them. They wasted 45 minutes on a plot in the beginning that could have been done in 20. They then just had to add a "love scene" that was so gratuitous that it bordered on offensive. To add insult to injury the time they wasted with that scene alone could have been used to make the film a little less random and confusing.

Just avoid this film at all costs.