Simon McBurney – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl :: We were so close to missing this movie; it could have disappeared leaving us with only those positive opinions about this movie.

Vampire Bat :: But we didn’t miss, and it is the beauty here.

Vampire Owl :: Now, we have some new horror to report about here.

Vampire Bat :: Yes, and it is sweet to see so many people choosing this movie over the other inferior movies.

[Gets the tickets with some cheese popcorn].

✠ This was recently posted by me at Kiagia.com: http://www.kiagia.com/index.php/current-film-releases-movie/1454-the-conjuring-2-movie-review

In the year 2013, when The Conjuring released, there was new life for the horror genre. The first installment in The Conjuring movie series had such huge success that it made sure that there will be more to come, and after the spin-off Annabelle, the sequel to the original arrived, and has managed to be the talk of the town again. This movie continues the adventures of the American paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine, the Warrens who were associated with going through a good number of cases of haunting throughout the country. The Conjuring is based on the case of the Enfield Poltergeist which goes back to 1970s in England where there were claims of poltergeist activity and the Warrens were involved in the investigation.

Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) are checking the Amityville house in 1976, but Lorraine goes through a vision through the murders which happened at place and comes across a creature that looks like a demonic nun, along with a scene of the death of Ed. It has her worried about the future of their paranormal investigations, and she feels that there is some terrible fate awaiting them as long as they go on with their job. She does have another visit from the demon in her dream, and Ed also draws a portrait of the demon. It is in the year 1977 that the Hodgson family comes up against some weird incidents at their house. The police are helpless against these, and they decide to call the local priest instead to figure things out.

The family includes a divorced mother Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) and her two daughters, Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) and Margaret Hodgson (Lauren Esposito), and her two sons, Johnny Hodgson (Patrick McAuley) and Billy Hodgson (Benjamin Haigh). It all begins with Janet, the second of the children beginning to talk to darkness and also seems to sleep-walk during the later hours of the night. There seems to be the presence of an evil entity, that claims that the house belongs to him and everyone else is trespassing. As the rest of the family also witness the presence of something not of this world, they stay at the neighbour’s house, but even then, they are not spared. At more than one occasion, Janet is possessed, and her situation only gets worse.

This finally brings Ed and Lorraine to the haunted house. They consult with other paranormal investigators, including Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) and Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) and they come across the spirit of an old man named Bill Wilkins (Bob Adrian), but the Demon Nun (Bonnie Aarons) is not really out of the equation. Soon, they will find out that the spirit of the old man, the demon, the vision of Ed’s death and the new case of possession and haunting, they are all connected to each other. With fear of death in their minds, can they go past the spirit and the demon to save the little girl who has put her faith on them? Or will the house remain haunted forever, and the family destined to remain in trouble?

It is difficult to compare the two movies, but one can safely say that this sequel is almost as good as the original. The success of this movie can be attributed to many things, including the setting which has been used here, the one strong demonic antagonist which is very well supported well by a secondary opponent, the jump scares that excels in quality and the acting department itself. With a huge number of scares in store, the movie is certain to keep all of its audience entertained. The attempt to scare begins with the first moments at Amityville itself, and they just keep coming as if to remind you that we are not done with you yet, and that we will always have something to scare you.

The best moments of the movie include the first appearance of Bill’s spirit, the Demon Nun coming out of the portrait, the possession of Janet, the sudden appearance of the Crooked Man and the spirit rising from underneath water. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson have done their parts wonderfully, and one got to love Madison Wolfe who played the possessed child. The one problem that people can have with this movie, is with those emotional moments, but they are actually very less in number. Throughout its run, The Conjuring 2 does make the viewers feel that they are part of this dangerous journey through the haunting, and with successfully doing the same, manages to be the sequel that the original movie deserved.

The Conjuring 2 has almost everything working in its favour. If you have watched the original, you will need to watch this sequel, and if you haven’t, still you need to check this one out. It works for everyone, and so we can be assured that there will be sequels to this movie, Annabelle and also that spin-off titled The Nun featuring the antagonist of The Conjuring 2. Here, we have a movie which needs to be watched with its entire splendor on the big screen, and it is a safe bet to make. This is also a franchise that knows what it is doing, and so the fans can be sure about getting their money’s worth with more titles which are to follow.

Release date: 10th June 2016
Running time: 147 minutes
Directed by: James Wan
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Frances O’Connor, Madison Wolfe, Simon McBurney, Franka Potente, Lauren Esposito, Patrick McAuley, Benjamin Haigh, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Shannon Kook, Sterling Jerins, Bob Adrian, Abhi Sinha, Robin Atkin Downes, Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl :: We have been missing the impossible.

Vampire Bat :: Well, we haven’t tried anything impossible for some time.

Vampire Owl :: Actually, we take no risks except when watching those terrible movies.

Vampire Bat :: Well, everyone can’t be Tom Cruise!

Vampire Owl :: Somehow, he never really gets old.

Vampire Bat :: May be he is immortal too, in another way.

Vampire Owl :: There is that special feeling when we hear that Mission Impossible music; I don’t know what it is.

[Gets the tickets].

✠ This was recently posted by me at Kiagia.com: http://www.kiagia.com/index.php/current-film-releases-movie/947-mission-impossible-5-review.html

We return to the super-hit franchise again. Tom Cruise, the Mission: Impossible franchise and the action movie fans have had a very good relationship in the last few years. Even as the third movie of the series was the least impressive of them all, they successfully made things a lot better with the fourth, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Inspired by a much older television series, Mission Impossible franchise has been making a very heavy impact on the fans since the first movie in 1996. It is no different in the case of this fifth movie which has everyone’s attention ever since the trailer began to show up in the theatres.

As his adventures continue, Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) comes face to face against a dangerous criminal organization called the Syndicate. But despite his best efforts, CIA and other organizations completely deny its existence. Meanwhile, the director of the CIA Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) gets IMF disbanded and taken into the CIA itself, with a mission to catch Ethan as early as possible. At the same time, Ethan is captured by the Syndicate, and is saved by a former MI6 agent working for the criminal organization, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). As IMF is disbanded and CIA is refusing to believe them, Ethan decides to take things into his own hands.

As Ethan remains on the run with CIA on his tail, he almost gets hold of a Syndicate member while attending an opera, but the Chancellor of Austria is killed at the same venue despite his best efforts. At the same time, Ilsa leaves him with clues which will help him to get to her at Casablanca. With the help of his friends Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Ethan has to figure this out and confront the leader of the Syndicate, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). It turns out that the Syndicate is not a regular criminal organization as they thought it was, but something more with origin in secret government organizations.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is exactly the movie of the series that the fans might have wanted for a long time. It is surely intelligent and has a very interesting story despite having no spectacular sequences to finish it – the ending could have had bigger action and the villain also could have been a more menacing one face to face. The highlight of the movie, the sequence with Tom Cruise hanging outside the airplane comes very early. It is just one of those stylish action highlights of the movie which has others like an interesting sequence at an opera, a high voltage motor-bike chase and an underwater heist. These are also done at some of the best locations possible.

We know how well Mad Max: Fury Road managed to be a wonderful full action movie, and this one follows that path using its strength. The rest of the things are just means to this strength, and you can also admire the fact that the smartness of the plot supports it. You should notice how well things come together as the locations shift between different nations – you will love Morocco shown in this movie more than the rest. The sequences are also more believable. I was still a little disappointed that Jeremy Renner doesn’t take part in much of the big action here. But there is enough here to make up for that, and our cast surely does the job very well.

In a movie which has some nice twists and change of sides, Tom Cruise manages to emerge as the awesome action star once again. There is no difficulty there is making us believe in the impossible with this man around. It was great to see Rebecca Ferguson get a role which is very much on par with him, with just lesser in screen presence only to Tom Cruise. She is the best heroine ever in a Mission: Impossible movie and she has a part in almost every action sequence with our protagonist, and at the same time having no romantic side with the hero. She is perfectly suited for this role. She does those stunts in style and also brings the suspense as the person who is the most difficult to figure out in the whole movie. She is the one complicated person on whom the whole mission depends on. She becomes the big advantage that none of the other movies of the franchise had. Along with Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames also has a little too less to do in this flick.

The franchise achieves new heights with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, as the latest flick becomes a superior entertainer in the list of movies which have served us for almost twenty years. There is a certain improvement with this movie, which was thought to be a hard task, but it has been done. It won’t be easy to forget this one soon, as the thrilling experience will stay on the mind of viewers for quite a long time. Even though there have been so many movies with big action sequences, you can still take the level of action to an even higher level – it is not impossible, and this movie proves the same with ease. Look out for this movie this weekend, and it can make you forget Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

[After the movie]

Vampire Owl :: Well, Rebecca Ferguson does save the day more times than Tom Cruise, and that should be a first.

Vampire Bat :: She is too good! Most of the time, her character surely is the smartest one around!

Release date: 6th August 2015 (India); 31st July 2015 (US)
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin, Simon McBurney, Jens Hultén, Tom Hollander