We Are the Night (2010)

Number Rolled: 84

Movie Name/Year: We Are the Night (2010)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 99 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: Dennis Gansel

Writer: Jan Berger, Dennis Gansel

Actors: Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich, Anna Fischer, Max Riemelt, Arved Birnbaum, Steffi Kuhnert, Ivan Shvedoff

Lena is a troubled young girl; picking pockets and stealing cars to get by. After a close call with the cops, she finds herself in an underground club where she catches the eye of an older woman. Soon enough, she learns that her admirer is not human and is very interested in stripping her of her humanity.

I’ve seen a lot of B vampire movies and the majority of them are unimpressive; mostly vehicles used to get the actresses to show their boobs. “We Are the Night” was nothing like that. The movie was actually incredibly interesting and there was no full on female nudity at all. The fact that the director let the story speak for itself instead of falling to topless girls for holding interest was something that really caught me. I’m also not sure if I can consider this a B-movie. Although it might fit the requirements for that label in America, it wasn’t made here. It’s a German movie by what seems like a well known German director.

Despite how much I enjoyed the movie; there were some large gaping plot holes that I’m having trouble wrapping my head around. I’m not talking about simple continuity errors, either. There were simply some scenes that seemed to break the rules of the universe laid out by the writers and other scenes that brought up questions that had no logical answers. There weren’t many of them, but the ones that were there were difficult to forgive.

I did enjoy the take on vampires. Almost every movie or book that deals in supernatural creatures has its own set of rules for them. Right now, I’m happy with most vampire media that doesn’t have them sparkling in the daylight as if they were some mystical stripper race that would be better at throwing glitter-fits than drinking blood. However, this movie also had some interesting takes on the natural powers that many vampire literature and movies claim the race has – which made it stand out.

I would definitely suggest this movie to anyone who’s a fan of “True Blood” or “The Hunger.”

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.1/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 62%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 51%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 3/5

The Random Rating: R – prolonged nudity, strong violence, explicit drug use

P.S. German movie, dubbed in English.

Movie Trailer: 

Rise of the Fellowship (2013)

Number Rolled: 74

Movie Name/Year: Rise of the Fellowship (2013)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 98 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: Ron Newcomb

Writer: Christopher Bunn, Scott Mathias, Ron Newcomb

Actors: Justin Moe, Jayme Bell, Cole Matson, Emma Earnest, Wolf J. Sherrill, Jason Krznarich, Aaron Bowman-Fields, Eric Garner, Doug Henderson, Drew Trementozzi, Melissa Temme, Noah Baron, Robin Dorsey, David Elvove, Alyssa Jacobsen, Ron Newcomb, Cheryl Rhoads, Stephen Rourke, Sarah Anne Sumpolec, Ric Tejera

A group of nerdy friends constantly get the short end of the stick at school, at work and at home. When the opportunity comes up to sign up for a Lord of the Rings Online competition, they decided to go for it; no matter who tries to get in their way.

I had high hopes for this movie because of the nature of its plot. This past Friday, I watched “Unicorn City” and it was one of those geek-hearted movies that blew me away. It was fun and smart and the actors really understood their characters. “Rise of the Fellowship” is the very opposite of what “Unicorn City” was. It wasn’t geek-hearted; it was closer to geek-sploitation.

The characters were completely depth-less and stereotypical. It’s like the script was written by people who’ve only ever been exposed to the gamer scene from the outside. I still might have been able to get into it, but the actors either weren’t interested in their characters or they were just bad in general.

It felt like this movie was trying to be like “Video Game High School” while paying homage to “Lord of the Rings.” I wish I could say it had been successful.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.7/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 81%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 1.5/5

The Random Rating: PG – mild suggestive humor, mild violence

P.S. There’s a scene after the credits.

Movie Trailer: Disclaimer: This is the single most misleading trailer I’ve ever seen for a movie. If you watch this trailer, keep that in mind.  

No Review

My apologies but there will be no review today. Due to a job, I wasn't able to access the time necessary to devote to an article. The Random Review will return on Wednesday, March 12.