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Reviews
American Hero (2015)
Hidden Gem (sort of)
I watched this movie, hoping for something "funny-bad". That wasn't the case, both fortunately and unfortunately. It might be low budget, but you can tell the cast and crew clearly CARED about this film and it shows in the final product. The plot and writing itself has some issues, but it could have just been a personal preference, but ultimately it was an interesting watch. The best way to describe the movie would be a character study of an anti-hero, the struggles of responsibility both as a "superhero" and as an adult human. I wouldn't call it "fun" but it's more complex than I thought it would be, in a good way. One thing I'd change though -- I usually LOVE Eddie Griffin, but his sexual humor just feels SO out of place in this film.
Ouija Shark (2020)
Not worth your time
Giving it a two, because the camera was mostly in focus the entire movie, and I had a few laughs at the awful Ghost-shark attacks. That's the only points this movie gets.
I honestly didn't think it would be as exploitive as it was, women in bathing suits, pointless scenes of them prancing around in the water, taking their clothes off etc. I knew there wouldn't be much of a plot, but I didn't think that the movie would get THAT desperate. Even with those pointless scenes, they still couldn't get to 75 minutes.
Speaking of, I think most of this movie was an afterthought. One friend, for some reason, fins the bearded man next door to be attractive and offers to help him wash his car. Once again, we get pointless scenes of one of the girls in her swimsuit, attempting to be sultry -- and failing. We meet up with her THE NEXT day, in the same clothing -- seemingly having washed the same car for the last 24 hours. I am convinced most of the events that occurred between the "car wash" scene and when we meet back up with her, were filler to help bring it to nearly feature film length.
Not worth your time, it's hardly "funny-bad", just "bad-bad".
Left Behind (2021)
Plot has potential, but supremely disappointing
So first of, I love the idea of a found footage film, set in Chernobyl. However, they really didn't do much with it. The acting is decent for a group of amateurs, It comes off as somewhat natural. For those reasons I give it a 3/10.
The movie is slow to start off with an explanation for the found footage, which we don't really need. I think it was added to just pad the run time. We come back to this after the conclusion of the found footage.
We then find our group of tourists in Russia, for some reason one brother is Russian and the other is American, without even the smallest hint of an accent. Despite it being "found footage" there are hard cuts to things that happen later in the film, as well as unrelated footage from Chernobyl (which is either stock footage or taken from the HBO series). That's not how cameras work, not to mention it was unnecessary.
The group, along with their Russian tour guide who is also the boyfriend of one of the Americans in the group, eventually get lost driving along the Russian countryside. It leads to them camping out in the forest, trying to find a village to lodge in for the night. I was hoping for like some creepy noises in the forest, unexplained lights, voices being heard. But no, we don't get that. Instead the Russian tour guide drowns while going for a swim in the lake, for no apparent reason. Oh, also, the girl is pregnant, don't worry though it plays no role in the movie at all, I don't even know what the point of it was.
The remaining three stumble into Pripyat, the village that surrounds the Chernobyl site. They apparently don't understand where they are despite being in the most famous Ghost town in Russia, signs that indicate radiation, and actually seeing the Chernobyl plant, the group doesn't understand where they are. Some spooky things happen, mostly just some dumb, cheap jump scares with ONE single "ghost" who keeps reappearing. The timeline doesn't make a lot of sense as it was a girl who was abandoned there 8 years ago, but the disaster happened like, what, 30 years go? That's the least of the issues with this film though. We also get footage of her being experimented on, with no context and spliced into the "found footage". I don't get it and it was really unnecessary.
The high radiation doesn't seem to play at all. I was hoping at some point the characters would maybe get sick, or start to give them visions, but no nothing. This story really could have taken place just about anywhere in the world and it would have made the same amount of sense.
The movie ends with more from the man who found the footage, who despite witnessing 4 people being murdered in the footage he found, goes to Chernobyl to try and find the murderous ghost, equipped with a doll from the grandmother of the "ghost". Then, predictably, the man is murdered by the "ghost."Which would mean, someone found the originally footage, as well as the man who came in after them? It's a mess, which is sad because I think the concept itself in someone creative's hands would be fun.