Watch Unsane, skip Annihilation.

Hi guys. I write to you in small breaks I have been having at work. This past month has been literally insane for me but I have some movies I want to tell you about so I‘ll do my very best to keep this up. Hopefully things will shape up better this month and I’ll be able to write more often. There are lots of movies I have seen that are backlogged so be prepared for lots of reviews coming up. Even though work has been crazy I was able to see a lot of movies in the theater since my last review. A few weeks ago I saw ‘Unsane’ and earlier that month I watched ‘Annihilation’, both were pretty good thrillers but I definitely enjoyed ‘Unsane’ the best.

 

Unsane (RT 79%)

Cut to the chase: This is like if ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ met ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, and they had a baby... And then meanwhile ’Misery’ and ‘Play Misty For Me’ met and had a baby... And by some miracle, those two babies met and fucked; this would be the shit they birthed.

This was by far the best thriller I’ve seen of 2018 so far and it was all shot on an iPhone! Personally I think it deserved at least 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I didn’t have the highest expectations for this movie going in so maybe that is why I enjoyed it so much. At times it seemed obvious that it was shot on a phone but other times I felt like it was hard to tell. One thing that did kinda bother me (but not really) was the black bars on the side of the screen. I didn’t understand the need for that since iPhones shoot at the same aspect ratio as the screen but whatever, I got over it pretty quick.

The movie is about a woman who is being stalked by a guy whose dad she used to care for as he was dying. Once his dad had died he started making moves on her and when she said she wasn’t interested he started stalking her and was convinced they were made for each other. She goes to a therapist to talk to someone about this and get advice on how to enjoy her life and not be so scared all the time. The therapist tricks her into volunteeringly checking herself into a psychiatric ward as an insurance scam. I don’t want to say anymore because I don’t want to ruin it but basically her fears follow her in this place and she has to figure out how to escape.

We went on the Friday night that it opened, since it was not a super big movie the theater wasn’t full so we got good seats and even got to put our feet up on the empty seats in front of us. The only issue I had this experience was with a guy named Miguel who worked the cash register at the concessions. I know that min. wage jobs suck, I’ve worked too many of them to count but at least try to help people and do your job. Here’s what happened. We forgot our $3 refillable bucket so we ended up getting a large popcorn cause YOLO and also I get 20% off with my Cinemark movie pass account so might as well. We stand in line for our turn and when it comes time to pay he scans everything super quick before I even had a chance to scan my rewards card. When I saw the total, I asked if we got our 20% off and he says “no… you did it after I rang everything up so…” I showed him my card and he was like “did you want the discount? I’ll have to cancel this transaction and re ring everything up” (making it seem like I was making this so inconvenient for him). Which I responded with “yes that would be great because I pay monthly to get this discount”. Meanwhile a line is forming behind me cause this dumb lazy asshole won’t give me my damn discount!! Then he has the nerve to ask me “do you mind if I help this customer first and then I’ll finish up here?” I was pissed… I said, “yeah I do mind but whatever, go ahead”. Well “this customer” turned into like 6 customers and at this point I am so pissed. After all the customers have passed he comes back and keeps staring at his screen with this dumb look on his face. Then I hear him ask his coworker to get the manager because I guess he couldn’t do refunds (which he never told me originally). I know how that goes so I wait for the manager to come over to help. I thought he would wrap this thing up real quick so we could go into our movie - I thought wrong. This guy was just as clueless as the other guy…. after a long time waiting and trying hard to contain the hulk inside me he looks up and says “oh looks like he never completed the transaction so you were not charged yet”. So basically, I waited for 15 minutes for this to be resolved when there was never a problem in the first place. I got my discount though which is all that matters I guess. There were definitely more apologies in order though… good thing we were early for our movie or I would’ve gotten real pissed. Such poor customer service…. I hope Miguel never rings me up again.

I really enjoyed the movie and definitely would recommend seeing it if you like thrillers. It was the best one I’ve seen in awhile. Amazon Prime produced it so it should come out on Prime streaming soon.

Annihilation (RT 87%)

Cut to the chase: When her husband returns from a protected area not the same as before a biologist volunteers to enter the area to find out what it had done to change him.

Oh man… I really wanted to like this movie. It seemed like it had such promise but in the end it only left me with lots of unanswered questions and disappointment. Apparently this is based on a book and I didn’t read the book. Maybe I would’ve liked it more if I read the book.

The movie is about a woman (Natalie Portman) whose husband is in the military and gets sent off to a super secret mission that he isn’t able to talk about. She waits for months for him to return and after a while decided that he is not coming home and tries to move on with her life. When he shows up one day alive she finds out that he is no longer the same man who left for the mission. She asks him what happened while he was gone and he isn’t able to remember any of it. Then he started getting sick and she takes him to the hospital. On their way they get intercepted by the government and taken to the base located just outside a mysterious area called The Shimmer. She learns that her husband is in a coma and that he is the only person to have left The Shimmer alive. The Shimmer is an electromagnetic force that has taken over an area of land and altered the life forms and even altered how time is perceived while inside it.

After learning more about the Shimmer she decides to offer her skills as a biologist to enter the area and study what is going on inside. There is a lighthouse inside where they believe The Shimmer originated from so her goal is to reach the lighthouse and try to shut down the forcefield and stop it from spreading. She doesn’t go in alone though, 3 other badass women scientists go along with her to study the area as well. I won’t go further than that because I wouldn't want to ruin anything.

I enjoyed the movie while I was watching it but at the end I was very disappointed. There were a lot of unanswered questions and plot holes that were frustrating. Like how does Natalie Portman all the sudden have a tattoo when she is being interviewed after but did not have one before she entered? I was waiting the whole movie for them to explain this but they never did. Super annoying. There were a lot of other things like this. It was basically like watching a 2 hour episode of `Lost`. Maybe if I read the book I wouldn’t have been as disappointed. Some of the effects were cool but that was the only redeeming thing about it. I wouldn't waste your money (even though it’s probably out of theaters by the time I finally post this).

Hope you enjoyed these reviews! I have three more movies I have backlogged: `Isle of Dogs`, `The Quiet Place`, and `Ready Player One`. I’ll be back to review those soon. Things seem to be slowing down at work and I can finally get into a routine again. Until next time...