Thursday, May 24, 2018

Can't Shake Murphy's Law - No Post Today


I wish that I could take a page from Taylor Swift or Florence and the Machine and just 'Shake it Off;' but that Murphy fella is hard to ditch.

We apologize for the unusual amount of unpredictability that has plagued our posting schedule of late. We're hoping to get back to normal really soon, and we appreciate your patience sticking with us.

The good news is that we are on target for our Top 20 Movies to Look Out For Coming Out in May 2018, so look for that soon!


Monday, May 21, 2018

The Disappointments Room (2016) - Through the Eyes of Cat

By Cat


Number Rolled: N/A
Movie Name/Year: The Disappointments Room (2016)
Tagline: Some mysteries should not be unlocked
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Length: 85 minutes
Rating: R
Production Companies: Media Talent Group, Relativity Media, Demarest Films
Producers: Robbie Brenner, Ron Burkle, Nicolas Charles, Jason Colbeck, Christopher Davey, Sam Englebardt, Tony Grazia, Ken Halsband, Simon Horsman, William D. Johnson, Ryan Kavanaugh, Geyer Kosinski, Wentworth Miller, Patrick Murray, Vincent Newman, Jay Osterman, Patrick Peach, Jeffrey Soros, Tucker Tooley
Director: D.J. Caruso
Writers: Wentworth Miller, D.J. Caruso
Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Mel Raido, Duncan Joiner, Lucas Till, Michaela Conlin, Michael Landes, Marcia DeRousse, Celia Weston, Gerald McRaney
Stunts:  Kennedy Brice, Melissa Eastwood, Artie Malesci, Brooklyn Proctor, Jennie Reddick

Blurb from Netflix: After a troubled architect moves her family into a spacious fixer-upper, she discovers a curious locked room containing ghosts of a mysterious nature.


I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for a while now. It was a combination of several things -- partly, as a fan of Kate Beckinsale (Click, Whiteout, Total Recall) with a smidge of intrigue following my watch of the trailer,  and perhaps even a generous dash of generally enjoying D.J. Caruso’s (Disturbia, I Am Number Four, xXx: Return of Xander Cage) directorial work.

Now, I am leaning towards wishing that I’d left it on my ‘to-watch’ list indefinitely.

What can I say positive about the film? Let’s see. I was pleasantly surprised that Lucas Till (Wolves, The Curse of Downers Grove, Monster Trucks) and Gerald McRaney (Mike & Molly, The Best of Me, Longmire) were among the cast. Simon & Simon (1981-1989) and Major Dad (1989-1993) were both big staples in my house, when I was younger. Till hadn’t appeared in the trailer I’d seen, and I’d entirely forgotten that McRaney was in it. I might read more into that lapse in memory if mine wasn’t so spotty in general…but I digress.


Frankly, I was both surprised and dismayed that Wentworth Miller (Stoker, Prison Break, The Loft) was the co-writer and an executive producer for this project. Somehow, I just expected more I guess. The sentiment was rather in hindsight, as he was another name I wasn’t aware was associated with the movie until it flashed through the credits.

Something that flummoxes me, however, is that if this film was based on true events, as the trailer suggests, then why isn’t there more substance here? It’s like someone cherry picked only bits and pieces of the story to tell. IMDb’s trivia section explains that there’s a good bit that got left on the cutting room floor during the editing process. There were entire scenes cut that would have made some elements of the movie make more sense. That’s something that is seriously irksome. It certainly wasn’t a decision made for runtime, as this was a fairly short movie.

Mistakes were made.


Don’t get me wrong, though. Beckinsale and McRaney were hitting home runs with their delivery – I was buying what they were selling…even if the overall product was defective. The inclusion of Till’s character in the story was generally odd, but I didn’t really find fault in his performance, either.

The whole thing just felt a bit disjointed and like there were pieces missing (a sentiment not unfounded, after all). The ending completely baffled me. Why did they choose that as the best option to wrap things up? Did they run out of funding and just have to cobble things together the best they could? There was a delay between production and release due to studio financial woes and bankruptcy goings on, so I could believe that.

Sadly, aside from the minor history lesson in the darker side of architecture, I’m afraid that the movie lived up to its name in the most negatively literal way. I don’t think that I would be doing anyone any favors in recommending this one, either. 


Languages

Speech Available: English
Subtitles Available: English [CC]

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 0%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 17%
Metascore – 31/100
Metacritic User Score – 2.1/10
IMDB Score – 3.9/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2/5

Movie Trailer: