ddaa Rick’s Flicks Picks » 2008 » October » 27

THE ORPHANAGE (2007) (***1/2)

27 10 2008
Check Out the Trailer
Check Out the Trailer

With the ilk that is passed off as horror nowadays being a horror fan must also make you masochist. Then a special film comes along and gives you faith in the genre again. THE ORPHANAGE is the best horror film since 2002’s FRAILTY. Gore is absent, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t horrifying sights to be seen. The red stuff is replaced by suspense. This ghost story will have you gripping the closest thing that doesn’t scream. But this isn’t a screamer; director Juan Antonio Bayona is much more of a sadist then simply thrust boo moments at you. And you’ll love him for it.

Laura (Belen Rueda, THE SEA INSIDE) was an orphan. Now she is grown and has moved back to the orphanage she once lived in, planning to reopen it with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo). The couple has a young son named Simon (Roger Princep). He came to the orphanage with two imaginary friends and now has more… and his new friends like to play disturbing games. During a party to celebrate the orphanage’s opening, Simon disappears. Has his new friends kidnapped him? Distraught, Laura calls on paranormal investigator Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS), who encourages her to continue to believe in the supernatural despite the fears of Carlos, whom believes she might be losing her mind.

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Categories : Reviews, Horror, Foreign Language

SEX AND THE CITY (2008) (***)

27 10 2008
Check Out the Trailer
Check Out the Trailer

Going into this film, I was not a fan of the TV show. In about the third season, I rented the first disc of the first season and got through about three episodes before I gave up on it. I found it shallow as it bowed down to crass consumerism. But due to the cultural phenomenon that surrounded the film, I was curious as a student of pop culture. So going in, I expected the worst and hoped for the best. So what a wonderful surprise when I enjoyed it much more than expected.

For those not familiar with the show, the feature takes a few moments to fill us newbies in on the key players in the opening credits. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker, L.A. STORY), the famous culture and relationship writer, is firmly in love with her longtime, off-and-on-again boyfriend John James “Mr. Big” Preston (Chris Noth, TV’s LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT). Now after 10 years, Mr. Big proposes. Carrie’s friends Charlotte (Kristin Davis, TV’s MELROSE PLACE) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon, IGBY GOES DOWN) are ecstatic. Her other friend Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall, MANNEQUIN) is not so enthused, thinking they would be the “unmarried” ones together forever. But as most romantic comedies go weddings don’t always go as planned.

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Categories : Reviews, Comedy, Romance


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