Crimson Peak (2015)

“Ghosts are real, that much I know. I've seen them all my life...”

            When I was younger someone in my family got married at this old house somewhere in what seemed like the middle of nowhere in northern New Jersey. I remember the outside of the house was a light gray-blue and then there was this old library with white shelves. In that library there was this photo album that pictures of ghosts. These photos were taken around the house that we were in. I vividly remember a picture of a ghost of a little girl standing in the library I was currently standing in! Needless to say those damn pictures scared the ever living shit out of me for the next few years. Just remembering that experience to write that story up is sending shivers down my twenty-seven-year-old spine.

            Ghosts stories scare me. I sat through Insidious once and if you have seen it the lady in black terrified me and so did that demon looking thing (Side note: I am writing this review down in the office in my basement at 11:30pm. Am I scaring the shit out of myself? You bet. Am I ashamed to be admitting all of this? Absolutely). There is a dark corner in my room near the door that I could not look at with the lights off after watching Insidious. Even though I am complete chicken shit when it comes to watching horror movies or scary movies I do make occasional exceptions such as Insidious because of Rose Byrne and The Babadook because my brothers told me the story was really good. All of my exceptions come about because of either the story or the cast. For the new Crimson Peak I really had no idea what the story was about. All I knew is that Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston are in a movie directed by Guillermo del Toro and I HAD to make an exception to see it.

            The story begins with a young girl named Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska). When Edith was little her mother passed away from Cholera. A few days after the funeral her mother came to her as a ghost warning her to “beware of Crimson Peak.”

            Fourteen years later Edith is a young woman. She is trying to get her book published but no one is taking her seriously. One publisher wants her to add a romantic element to it. Edith decides to type up her draft so no publisher can judge the book on her handwriting. A good looking and mysterious British man named Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) comes into the office. He has an appointment with her father who is a wealthy architect.

            Thomas lives on a clay mine. He is looking for backers to invest in his steam engine that can dig the clay out of the ground and then they can use it for their buildings. Mr. Cushing likes Thomas but he comments that Thomas has soft hands which means he has never physically worked a day in his life. He declines Thomas’s proposal. But Thomas and his eerily dark sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) have one more angle they can play. Thomas has Edith fall in love with him. Mr. Cushing is wary of the siblings and has them investigated. When he finds some unsavory facts out about them he pays them to leave.

            Big shock, Mr. Cushing is killed leaving Thomas and Edith free to marry. After their honeymoon Thomas takes Edith back to his family home Allerdale Hall. The house is literally falling apart. There is a giant hole in the roof letting in the cold of the winter, clay seeps through the walls like water, and the house is slowly sinking in the red clay.

            Things soon begin to take a turn for the creepy. Edith wakes up in pain in the middle of the night and she hears crying and noises in the hallway. When she sees the source of the noise she sees a red skeletal figure coming towards her. These figures in various forms and in various rooms appear to Edith night after night warning her to leave. Her final push to leave the house is when Thomas tells her that when it snows the red clay comes up and the locals call the house Crimson Peak.

            Edith learns Lucille and Thomas’s motives. They are not good for her and do not always end very well for others.

            The cast was fantastic but this movie was owned by Jessica Chastain. Now I am sure I am totally biased because Chastain is one of my favorite actresses ever and I have yet to see her in a role where I think she is terrible. When it comes to Chastain I always says that no movie ever suffers when she is in it she is that amazing. And let me tell you the woman does not disappoint in the slightest in Crimson Peak. In the last maybe forty-five minutes of the movie Lucille goes off the deep end and Chastain just blew my mind. Whenever I see her in a film I am not seeing her as just as actress in the part, Chastain is truly the character she is playing. The character of Lucille I feel would not have worked as well had a lesser actress played the role. Lucille was a character who was a bit up and down in personality and then her personality and her eeriness just exploded at the end. She was very much under control for the first half of the movie and then had to majorly unravel. Chastain nailed it to perfection. Chastain needs to be handed some kind of award for her acting right now. Tom Hiddleston was wonderful. He is the same as Chastain in the way that he does such a good job with his characters that you are not watching an actor you are watching a character. Mia Wasikowska I may have seen in a few films before this but I am not sure. I liked her acting and she did a great job playing Edith. I liked how Edith was not completely over taken by fear she went for it exploring the house and facing down Lucille in the end.

            Guilermo del Toro is an awesome director. He has such a unique style to his direction and writing. He takes the idea of a ghost story and a gothic romance that could be typical but he makes them his own. Del Toro did the same thing with the book and TV show The Strain, it is a completely different telling of humans vs. vampires and it is genius.  With this ghost story/gothic romance the ghosts were not the main focus. It was the human and psychological story that was at the forefront. If you like Crimson Peak absolutely check out del Toro’s Spanish language movie The Devil’s Backbone.

            The sets and the cinematography were outstanding. The dark greys and blues and blacks with the crimson red of the ghosts and the clay seeping through walls was a wonderful contrast. The set of the house was beyond perfect it set the tone as soon as Edith walks into the house. I loved the set of Edith’s house where she lived with her father. There is a stunningly gorgeous Victorian house attached to the Newark Museum in New Jersey called the Ballantine House. It is one of my favorite places to visit and I wrote quite a few papers on it in college. The set of Edith house instantly reminded me of the Ballantine House. The set looked almost very similar to the real Victorian house.

            I cannot suggest any more highly how you should go see Crimson Peak as soon as you can. It was the perfect balance of creepy and good storytelling that lacks in some horror movies. As I mentioned at the beginning I am usually chicken shit when it comes to horror movies and I am proud to say that there was only ONE scene that scared the every living shit out of me that I jumped and freak out thinking about when I am alone in the basement… just liked I am now… gotta go now! 

This is the one scene that freaked me the eff out!

Thought Round-Up on Marvel Avenger Movies

My brothers have been obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since Iron Man came out in 2008. For all those years they have been trying desperately to get me to sit done to watch at least one of them. I have always wanted to see the Marvel movies but in those years as all the movies were being released I was attending like sucking, soul crushing college. And I was also being a huge movie snob and only really watching classic films, eesh did I miss a lot. I did actually get to see The Avengers in theaters because when it was released I was working at a movie theater and got to see it for free. Now that my head is out of my ass and I am expanding my range of movie watching, it was now a great time to finally see all the Avenger movies. Well, besides the time Age of Ultron just came out last week and I hated not knowing what was going on with the characters so fire under my butt right there.

My first solo Marvel superhero movie was Captain America: The First Avenger and that was only because I started watching the TV show Agent Carter. Peggy Carter is now one of my all time favorite movie/TV show characters. I fan girl raged over her in my review for Captain America: The First Avenger so I will not go overboard here. The movie was amazing. I LOVE beyond reason the story of Steve Rogers. I love how he was this sweet kid who wanted to defend his country and help fighting the bad guys from the goodness of his heart. The doctor who created the technology to turn Steve into a fighting superhero of sorts and Peggy Carter were the only ones who believed him. I can never get enough of Captain America as a character and as a story. It is one of those movies I can watch at least once a week. Every time I see Steve Rogers in an Avengers movie I love him all the more because he is still fighting for the good of others and is never ever selfish about anything. I adore it to no end. And how in anyone’s right mind they do not love, admire, and adore Agent Carter as a character and Hayley Atwell for playing her is beyond me. GO WATCH THE SHOW RIGHT NOW!!!

            Iron Man and Thor I could not for the life of me get into. Thor I felt was quite dull except for Loki and Darcy. Maybe it has something to do with it being about gods in other realms I do not know. I could not get behind the characters or believe the actors playing the characters at all. Iron Man kind of pissed me off. Robert Downey, Jr. is incredible as Tony Stark he IS Tony Stark no one could have played the character better but the character kind of drives me nuts. I mentioned in my reviews that I cannot stand when something happens to someone and then from that something happening the person changes. That is what happened to Tony and Thor they got too cocky and annoying and then they changed after some traumatic experience. Also they started out as spoiled dicks. Unlike Captain America who is good from the bottom of his heart Thor and Tony had to go through something to change.

            The Avengers movies are very good. The first one I really liked when I originally saw it. Age of Ultron I wrote up not that long ago. I felt Ultron was a little drawn out.

            The only Avenger I would pay top dollar to see in their own movie is Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson is amazing as the character. Black Widow is just a complete bad ass fright from her first fighting scene. I go nuts watching her kick some ass effortlessly in the movies she has been in. Marvel needs to make a Black Widow movie. There is so much to that character and she is so awesome that there could be a movie just for her. Unfortunately, the writers of Age of Ultron set Natasha Romanoff and Black Widow back ten years by creating a love story between her and The Hulk. That pissed me off to absolutely no end. Great job screenwriters, great job making a great character and then knocking her down to love interest when she never should have been. I get it we need to see that Natasha is not a robot or emotionless but there were plenty of other ways to do so.

            So to round up my painfully long Avengers marathon: I actually did like them despite some short comings with the characters, some of the actors/actresses, and the stories. Captain America: The First Avenger is now one of my all time favorite movies and Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter are my idols. Iron Man 3 was the best of the trilogy. Loki/Tom Hiddleston and Kat Dennings make Thor worth sitting through.

            Not the best reviewing of all the Avengers movies, but hey I am not a professional film critic which surely you can see. I really like how all these superheroes are not perfect. They all have their own demons and dilemmas they have to work out. Even though watching all the Avengers movies felt like a drag at times I had a great time watching them. I am very glad I did because now I can say I have seen them all and now I am ready for whatever the next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is. 

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“Some believe that before the universe, there was nothing. They're wrong. There was darkness... and it has survived.”

            Thor: The Dark World takes place two years after Thor (Chris Hemsworth) first came to earth. He wants to return to earth but after the events of the first Thor movie and The Avengers his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) refuses to let him go. So in the mean time Thor has been fighting off enemies and trying to bring peace to the nine realms of his world. He has had a guy named Heimdall (Idris Elba) looking out for his earthly lady love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). One day Heimdall cannot see Jane and Thor rushes down to earth.

            Jane and her trusty sidekick intern Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) track down a wormhole like the one Thor came through in the first movie. Jane gets sucked into the wormhole to another dimension/realm/world… whatever you wanna call it. Wherever she goes she is brought near this big rock type thing that is filled with this red stuff called Aether… let me explain what this Aether gunk is…

            Thousands of years ago the Asgardians fought off these people called The Dark Elves (yep I said The Dark Elves). The leader of the elves Malekith and his second in command Algrim escape to await their chance to come and fight off the Asgardians.

            Back to Jane… Jane was gone for five hours. When she comes back Thor appears. Jane is happy to see him but also not since he was away for so long. And he also destroyed a portion of NYC with the Avengers. The police arrived to try to help look for Jane. When they go to touch her the Aether that she was smothered in sends out this wave of energy that knocks everyone down. Thor takes her back to Asgard to be cured of whatever the Aether stuff is.

            *Skipping over a lot of stuff*… the Dark Elves comes back and destroy Asgard. Through the wormhole in time they plan on going down to earth and using the Aether as their weapon. Naturally Thor and Jane and even Loki (Tom Hiddleston) all have a hand in bringing down the Dark Elves.

            The cast was great except for Natalie Portman. Ok before I get shit thrown at me, Natalie Portman is a good actress and she was very good in this Thor but I feel she just is not right for the part. She is not convincing as a scientist and as someone in love with Thor. DO NOT for one second think I am saying Portman is not convincing as a scientist because she is pretty that is not at all what I am saying in the slightest. There was just something about her that did not convince me she was a character rather than just an actress playing the character of a scientist. Jane and Thor’s relationship is not convincing either. To me they have as much chemistry as two poles. It could just be me and how I am sick and tired of romantic love interests in certain movies. I a shipper hardcore of certain love interests in movies and TV shows but I am finding I would rather see a man and a woman work together as partners to get shit done without the romantic entanglements… wow that turned into a rant, I apologize. Kat Dennings once again steals the movie in what limited screen time she is given. She saves the movies for me. Tom Hiddleston is just a hot sarcastic piece of ass as Loki. Loki also saves the movies for me too because he is a hot sarcastic piece of ass. Good lord, I am such a damn girl I cannot handle myself. Once again, I apologize.

            Unfortunately Thor: The Dark World not hold my interest at all. I feel really bad for some reason but the stories of the movies have not held my interest. The stories I found a bit dull in both movies and the characters are just not convincing to me, well I will say except for Loki, Tom Hiddleston just nails playing a villain. Thor: The Dark World, like Iron Man and some of the other Marvel movies are worth seeing because they are awesomely made and written (except for the characters in Thor). 

Thor (2011)

“You can't kill an entire race!”

“Why not?... And what is this new found love for the Frost Giants? You, could have killed them all with your bare hands!”

“I've changed.”

Thor is yet another Marvel superhero story where a vain, greedy man is shown the error of his ways once something happens to him after he had done a not so good thing. This time instead of a rich billionaire like in Iron Man it is literally a mythological god who is sent down to earth.

            Several centuries ago there was a war between some mythological figures the Asgardians and some kind of ice people. The ice people were defeated and all the realms lived in peace. The leader of Asgard is a king named Odin (Anthony Hopkins). He has two sons Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Thor is the oldest and set to become the next king of Asgard should anything happen to Odin. He is eager to go to war with any realm who wants to start one.

            Somehow during a ceremony the ice people manage to break into the castle at Asgard. Thor gathers Loki and a few of their friends to go to the realm of the ice people and start shit. Well, they start a pile of shit that gets so huge that Odin comes and gets super pissed at his son because now peace with the ice people has just ceased. Odin banishes Thor to the realm of earth without his powers and the ability to pick up his mighty hammer unless someone becomes worthy of it like Thor once was.

            Thor comes crashing down on a site that is being monitored by scientists Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skargard) and student helper Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). Jane unavoidably hits Thor with her car and they take him to the hospital. In photographs they took of the lightening strike that came before they crashed into Thor they see the outline of his body on the lightening. They rush to the hospital only to hit Thor yet again with the car after he escaped from the doctors and nurses.

            Back in Asgard Loki learns some things about himself that do not please him at all. He becomes vengeful and evil. He wants Odin to die so he can be king and seek his revenge. He also wants to find Thor and kill him. Loki has always been jealous of Thor as the older brother who got whatever he wanted.

            On earth Jane and Thor begin to fall in love (what a damn bore). Jane is willing to risk her reputation and her life to help Thor to retrieve his hammer. The only issue is his hammer has been sealed up by S.H.I.E.L.D who want to study it. He breaks into the facility but he is still not worthy of the hammer after what he did to the ice people.

            To make a long story short: Loki comes to earth looking for Thor, Thor fights Loki and he once again becomes worthy of his hammer, the brothers fight and it looks like Loki has died, Thor is upset and brooding because he has come to like earth and he cannot see Jane again.

            .The cast was great Marvel is amazing when it comes to casting even their most secondary of characters. I loved seeing Kat Dennings she cracks me up so much no matter what she does or says. She brought great comedy to the movie right from the beginning. Darcy said what every woman who watches this movie is thinking when it comes to Thor/Chris Hemsworth. Tom Hiddleston was brilliant. I have seen The Avengers more times than I can count so it was finally nice to see what crept up Loki’s ass to make him so vengeful and evil. I have a harder crush/love for Loki than I do for Thor and that is down to Hiddleston I think he is such a brilliant actor. I felt the character of Jane was not very well written or acted. She just felt flat either due to the writing or Natalie Portman’s acting. I have to mention Josh Dallas, Prince Charming from the TV show Once Upon a Time, played one of Thor’s buddies. I was dying because he had blond hair and an awful mustache and I just kept thinking of him as Prince Charming.

  My family has raved about Thor since it came out. They constantly rave about how much they love Thor. It has taken me four years to finally sit down and watch it. The story of a spoiled man-child reminded me of Tony Stark. With Tony Stark something happened to him that made him turn his life around. Same with Thor, he got kicked out of his home realm and he realized what a dick he was and he changed. That kind of story drives me a little nuts. But as a whole Thor was a goodAs with most of the Marvel movies I have watched so far Thor is worth seeing as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And of course I would not be a woman if I did not mention that Thor is worth seeing for a shirtless Chris Hemsworth… shallow I know but deal with it.

 

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

“How can you've live for so long and still not get it? This self obsession is a waste of living.”

          Imagine being able to live forever. Think about all the things in the world you can accomplish like perfecting playing all the instruments you can want, learning all the languages of the world, getting to read thousands of books, and so on. Yet, think about how lonely you might get after a while and how depressing the world gets to be. You have seen decades, hundreds of years go by and humanity only changing for the worse. Your faith in the world and humans is just completely crippled. Only Lovers Left Alive somewhat explores this idea with their two vampire characters Adam and Eve.

          Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) are vampires living in different countries. They have been married for hundreds of years. Adam has been depressed. He has had it with humans. Adding to his depression is living in Detroit in an old house with no one else around. He has a guy named Ian (Anton Yelchin) who comes over to his place and sells him vintage guitars. Adam records music and has Ian release it. His house is an analogue world with old recording equipment and records.

          Eve is in Tangiers. She calls Adam one night. They video message each other and Eve notices he looks depressed. She decides to come out and visit him. Their time together is peaceful and quiet. He takes her for drives around the desolate city. They listen to music and talk about some things they have been through during their centuries together.

          Out of the blue Eve’s young sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) comes into town. Adam has no patience for her. She is the definition of a wild child with no thought for others. She makes Eve and Adam take her out along with Ian. The night does not end well. Adam literally throws Ava out of his house. The couple has to leave for Tangiers after that night.

         Only Lovers Left Alive is the kind of movie that does not really have a plot and it moves very slowly. When movies are like this I generally do not like them but with Only Lovers Left Alive I liked it. I think I liked it because Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton were very good together. I have not really seen Swinton in very much I did not realize how good of an actress she is. I really liked Eve and her whole demeanor she was carefree because she has seen it all. Tom Hiddleston brooding was beautiful. Even though Only Lovers Left Alive was slow and really did not have too much of a plot as far as I could tell, I enjoyed it. It was different and it was definitely not your typical vampire movie. They did not constantly talk about the centuries they have been alive for and all the things they have done. Their past was mentioned briefly because they both lived through it together it mentioned in normal conversation. Also the whole vampire thing was not thrown in your face either. you knew they were vampires because they went to sleep during the day and got a supply of blood but that was never made to be a big deal until Ava came around. Only Lovers Left Alive is worth seeing because it is different and for the pairing of Tilda Swinton and Tom Hilddleston. 

The Avengers (2012)

“There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could”

            My two youngest brothers are obsessed with superhero movies. My brother Anthony can go on and on about The Dark Night for days and how he cannot wait for The Dark Knight Rises. My youngest brother Christian owns all the superhero movies you can name. For days before the release of The Avengers, he and my parents watched Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and Iron Man. As for me I have only ever sat through bits and pieces of these films when Christian watches them upstairs in the family room I have never sat through the entire films. It is not that I do not want to see them I do but it takes time to sit through those movies and they are not high on my list of movies to see. But I had to see The Avengers it looked really good and besides, I now work in a movie theater I felt it my duty to see it so I can tell customers how it is if they ask (also it does not hurt that I get to see the movies for basically nothing).

            I really liked The Avengers. The action was nonstop and it was just very good. All the characters are so well written and incredibly acted by the cast. It was interesting to see how Loki who was from Thor was the main bad guy who the Avengers were trying to stop.

The cast was perfect. Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man was my favorite. Downey is such a great actor he makes acting seem so effortless. He truly makes you believe he is the character he completely made Iron Man/Tony Stark his own. Mark Ruffalo was wonderful as The Hulk/Bruce Banner. The Hulk actually got some of the funniest scenes of the movie. Tom Hiddleston as Loki was truly the best performance of the film. Hiddleston was unbelievable he had such a psychotic sinister look to him that was perfect for this maniacal bad guy. Scarlett Johanson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye were ok I was not too thrilled with their characters but they also did an excellent job. Samuel L. Jackson was badass as Nick Fury. I liked seeing Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. I do not watch her in How I Met Your Mother but I know it is a funny show and I know her character is a little nutty from what some friends have told me so to see her in a bit of a serious roll was interesting.

            I did not give a plot because this movie is too good to give anything away and whatever I would have to say about the plot would just give too much away. The Avengers is an all around greatly made movie. It is more CGI than anything else which I really do not like but I can forgive that here because it is a superhero movie and completely unrealistic. I liked everything about it from the story, the cast, the direction just everything. The Avengers is a movie for the whole family to enjoy. Whenever I work I see entire families coming in with old and young members. Just today I saw a little girl with an Avengers shirt on, it was her birthday and she chose to see the movie. There is a reason The Avengers has already made a billion dollars world wide- it is one of the best action/superhero films to come out in the past few years. Now I have to sit through Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, and Captain America and I cannot wait. 

Deep Blue Sea (2011)

The Deep Blue Sea is a movie that I am not sure how I feel about it. The story was alright but the acting was amazing which I have to say I was expecting since Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston are in it and their performances are never disappointing.

            The story is about a woman who is destroyed by love. It takes place after World War II. Hester Collyer (Weisz) is married to a judge named William. William is older than Hester and she feels trapped in their relationship. His mother is not very nice to her which puts more strain on her. She has an affair with a man her own age named Freddie Page (Hiddleston). Hester really loves Freddie and is willing to sacrifice everything for him. When William finds out about her affair he refuses to give her a divorce and promises to make things difficult for her.

            When Freddie is out of town Hester tries to kill herself but the landlady finds her before it is too late. The landlady calls William to come. He is not mad at her and asks Hester if she is still in love with Freddie. When she says yes he tells her he will give her a divorce. Freddie comes home that day, Hester does not tell him what happened but he finds her note to him and he goes into a rage. He cannot believe that because he forgot her birthday she tried to kill herself. Freddie storms out.

            We see that Freddie and Hester’s relationship blew hot and cold from the beginning. As Hester to explains to William Freddie’s life ended when the War started, he has not been the same since. But no matter how upset and angry Freddie gets Hester still loves him.

            Freddie decides to take a test pilot job down in South America. Hester asks if she can go with him but he says no because they are lethal to each other and that their relationship ended the day he read that note.

            The ending is sad but it is one that you could see coming.

            I know my summary probably sucks and you have no idea what is going but I was not impressed with the story and it flipped back and forth from the present to the past. I do not mind when movie plots use those devices I love flashback but with this film they are a bit complicated to explain. My favorite flashback of the movie is when Hester is running to Tube. She stops short of the platform and she remembers a night when she and William had to take shelter in the Underground during the War. The entire scene from Hester running downing the steps to the platform to her flashback to her leaving the platform was beautifully filmed.

            Rachel Weisz is an incredible actress. The more movies I see her in the more I like her. She was fabulous as Hester. Weisz had the look for a woman living in Post-War England. Her best scene was the Tube scene I just really liked that scene. Tom Hiddleston was also great. He had a great scene where Freddie freaks out on Hester that was fantastic, he blew that scene out of the water. I hope Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston will make another movie in the future they looked great together.

            I have to give a mention to the score. It was very haunting and at times very eerie. It reminded me of the Psycho by Bernard Hermmann at times.  

            The Deep Blue Sea is a sad love story. I am not really a fan of stories like this or Wuthering Heights where the main characters love each other so much but just destroy each other. That to me is not a love story. It was just really sad to see this woman who all she wanted was love but she was just on a self destructive path the whole time. She was in love with a man who had just as many problems as she did. As of right now The Deep Blue Sea is not available on DVD in the US, right now it is only available overseas. If you can get a hold of a copy give the movie a try not so much for the story but for the acting and the direction.