Secret Window

Secret Window is a 2004 thriller, directed by David Koepp and starring Johnny Depp. It is set, mainly, at his secluded cabin at Tashmore Lake.

Initially Mort (Depp) seems like an aggressive nut-job when you see him going after his wife and the guy she is sleeping with. As the story goes on though you can see that he is quite a chilled out character, he isn’t a big drinker and isn’t a massive smoker either, you do begin to wonder why his missus would cheat on him. Then you meet John Shooter, who is claiming that Mort has plagiarised one of his stories, and basically it goes that until Mort proves that he didn’t steal it John will keep killing people in his life. His wife’s house is set alight, his neighbour and friend and murdered as well as his dog. And killing a dog just proves that this guy is a whole other kind of crazy.

The film is well made, I guess, kind of follows suit of most other psychological thrillers, you knew what was coming and I guessed the ending, it was pretty obvious. So, if you are a bit of a wimp but you want to see a good thriller, then you should see this. I wouldn’t recommend it to people who like a big scare though. 

Chatroom

I’m not quite sure how to classify this film, so the term thriller will have to do. It stars a few big British names, with Aaron Johnson taking the lead role. It also stars Skins’ Hannah Murray. And this may sound weird but the film is set mainly on the internet, because this film actually has a visual representation of what the internet is –TRULY AWESOME!

Our main character, William, makes a chat room called Chelsea Teens. Soon afterwards four people join it, they become friends and all is going well. They then make the room secure, to avoid paedophiles. You get cuts to what is happening in reality too, and you get to know William a bit more, and you realise that he is a boy that needs help. He wishes his brother was dead, for one. The story gets a faster pace when you see in to Jim’s life and when William tells him to stop taking the pills and talks about him behind his back; you can see that something is going to go horribly wrong. William then tells Jim to go to a different room, where he can talk to someone who can help him get over his feelings about his father. But when William takes Eva to this room, to show her what it is, you see that it is a suicide chat room. Things progressively go downwards from here and although the ending isn’t ridiculously profound and heartfelt, it does have a kind of moral (for lack of a better word).

The film was made differently, I loved this. Initially, the editing is all jumpy and the music is kind of weird but I thought that it set the film off on a really good note. I also majorly appreciate the film because it is a British film that isn’t about football hooligans or gangsters, and I’m not saying that this is what all British films are about, but there is a pattern emerging, right?

Anyway, I quite enjoyed this film, although it had a kind of primary school thing behind it, about being super careful on the internet and behaving yourself when you’re near train tracks etc. A good film though, give it a watch.

The Prestige

“Are you watching closely?” This is probably the most famous quote from the film The Prestige. Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman, it is a very high-end film, and for good reason. It is a mystery thriller set at the end of the nineteenth century and based in London and Colorado Springs.  

The film, like a lot of thrillers, began with the ending, which was Angier getting killed. We then move back to the start of the story, and you see where Angier and Borden’s relationship began. Then Angier’s wife meets her end and Angier believes that Borden is responsible for his wife’s death. This is where their relationship falls apart. As the film progresses you can see that Borden is clearly the better magician, but Angier is a better showman and so their rivalry continues as they try to one up each other. As the film begins to come to a close, you’re choice of who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist changes…but why?

The acting in this film was awesome. The choice of actors for the roles was perfect but if I tell you why it might ruin the film for you, so I’m not going to talk about the roles of Angier and Borden. But the females in the film were well chosen. I feel bad saying this but I can see Scarlett Johansson being ‘the other woman’, and I love that Piper Perabo plays a damsel in distress. But my favourite person in the whole film was Cutter, mainly for the reason that he was played by Michael Caine. Now what to say about Caine…there is no acting job that he couldn’t make work, and this film is no exception, he plays Cutter well, and his acting doesn’t ruin the ending (which is what happens when an actor is in the wrong role).

The rest of the film was pretty damn good too, but one thing that stands out the most is the setting. The magic shows were a good way of showing where the character was in life. If there was a small audience, and the stage was at the same level as the audience, then you know that they probably aren’t doing very well. But if the show is in a high-end theatre, then it shows quite the opposite. I liked, also, the fact that they used real and recognised names such as Edison and Tesla. The film was very well written and in terms of the facts that they used, they were quite precise.

This film was really good, definitely one of the better films that I’ve seen. To start off with I didn’t really want to watch it, but I am quite easily convinced, so here I am, watching a film that looks pretty average. But it was obvious pretty early on that I was horribly wrong. The twists are great, the constant changes in your mind about who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist add to the effect. AND IT IS ABOUT MAGIC. This film was clearly a winner from the off. I definitely recommend watching this if you like magic, or thrillers, or any films really…it is SICK!

Gone

Gone is a thriller, not great, but not awful either. Amanda Seyfried takes the lead role of Jill Conway. The film also stars Jennifer Carpenter and Wes Bentley. The film is set in Portland, which honestly means nothing to me…I know jack shit about the geography of the U.S.A.

So, basically it goes that Jill was kidnapped a few years back and after it happened her parents died and so she has been in psych wards and on suicide watch because of all the crap that went down over a short period of time. Next thing you know – as if this girl needs anymore stress – her sister goes missing and Jill is convinced that it is the same guy that took and tried to kill her. So, like any sane person, she goes to the police and then - with the police being as shit as they are - they don’t believe her. So she does their job herself, and she goes on a hunt for her kidnapper and her sister.

The whole film was kind of basic, I wasn’t seriously impressed by anyone aspect of it. The editing was typical of a thriller, the placement of music, the jump shots…yadayadayada. But to be honest, the fact that it stuck to the norms of thriller film editing was quite good, as it kind of needs to be all jumpy and dark and shit to make it any good. It took me like forty minutes to watch the last ten minutes of the film, because I had to keep pausing it to calm myself down (but that’s because I’m a whimp)

Anyway, on the whole the film is good. Films starring Amanda Seyfried do tend to be of a mint quality. But they could have veered off from the norm a little bit, because the film as a whole was pretty standard. Honestly, don’t really care too much, because I genuinely really enjoyed the film. I’m thinking that fans of Untraceable would probably like this film.