#28: Orphan
Now and then, you see a movie that's a lot worse than you think it's going to be. Transformers: Rise of the Fallen was a great example of that. Fortunately, the reverse is also true-you can see a movie that's a lot better than you think it's going to be.
I saw Orphan yesterday, expecting something that would be little more than a distraction on a hot Saturday afternoon, and lo and behold it's a really great movie! It's unfortunate reliance on cat tricks and fake scares keeps it from getting into the A territory; the movie held its own and would have been better without the periodic ham-handed attempts to make the audience jump out of their seats by making sudden loud noises or having things jump up unexpectedly into frame. And the movie probably didn't go far enough when it came to one person in peril. On the other side of things, there was a twist in the movie that I never saw coming. It's good to know that movies can still do that after you've spent decades and decades years watching them!
So, Orphan's about a family that adopts an older kid, and said older kid is super perfect, a gifted artist, very very very polite, and always wears thick ribbons around her neck and her wrists. And when anyone tries to touch those ribbons... the kid FREAKS OUT. Because, well... like most evil kids in movies about evil kids, Esther has a pretty freaky secret under those ribbons...
Orphan: B+
I saw Orphan yesterday, expecting something that would be little more than a distraction on a hot Saturday afternoon, and lo and behold it's a really great movie! It's unfortunate reliance on cat tricks and fake scares keeps it from getting into the A territory; the movie held its own and would have been better without the periodic ham-handed attempts to make the audience jump out of their seats by making sudden loud noises or having things jump up unexpectedly into frame. And the movie probably didn't go far enough when it came to one person in peril. On the other side of things, there was a twist in the movie that I never saw coming. It's good to know that movies can still do that after you've spent decades and decades years watching them!
So, Orphan's about a family that adopts an older kid, and said older kid is super perfect, a gifted artist, very very very polite, and always wears thick ribbons around her neck and her wrists. And when anyone tries to touch those ribbons... the kid FREAKS OUT. Because, well... like most evil kids in movies about evil kids, Esther has a pretty freaky secret under those ribbons...
Orphan: B+