The Fourth Kind is a high-end alien abduction film, presented in a documentary frame; that endeavors to disturb rather then horrify. Characters Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) and Sheriff August (Will Patton) are brought to life in top-notch fashion. Though expected from Patton, this may be the best acting the viewer has seen from Jovovich. Sheriff August walks the fine line between anger, fear, and terror during prevalent scenes during the film. He is frightened by the unexplained, clinging to the law and rationality to make sense out of situations that are outside of the scope of normal explanation. He seems barely able to contain his escalating torrent of emotions and keep himself under control, tittering on breaking under the unexplainable. Sheriff August’s emotional and mental situation is also a mirror of what is happening to some of Dr. Tyler’s patients.

The Fourth Kind has all of the atmospheric gloom and orchestrated, ominous feel of a X-Files television episode balanced with a true story abduction element unseen in such original fashion since Fire in the Sky. The single most unique and defining element of The Fourth Kind is the mixing of “actual” footage coterminous with its reenactment during the film. Director/Writer Olatunde Osunsanmi takes one of the best elements of the first few seasons of television’s 24 and Kill Bill, the split screens, and uses them to show what happens in “real” life to Dr. Abigail’s patients throughout various tumultuous scenes during The Fourth Kind, most involving dramatic moments or hypnosis sessions. The brilliance of this cinematic technique is that the “real” footage and the reenactments actually amplify each other. In most cases, the archival,  “real” footage is more exciting to watch than seeing its reenactment.

Not since The Exorcism of Emily Rose has the viewer probably seen a PG-13 horror film this intense. There is no blood in either film yet both manage to frighten on levels a good splatter fest or Torture Horror could never accomplish, too pre-occupied with inventive ways to extinguish life.

There are three scenes of note that occur within The Fourth Kind: the first beginning the first hypnosis sequence in the film involving one of Dr. Tyler’s patients, Tommy (Corey Johnson), when the sheriff comes over to Dr. Tyler after the second hypnosis session, and when Dr. Tyler’s daughter, Ashley Tyles (Mia McKenna Bruce), goes missing. There is strong acting during these scenes in The Fourth Kind, strong enough to draw the audience in. Most horror films, unlike Orphan, seem incapable of accomplishing this and it’s surprising that a PG-13 horror film can. Hopelessness and fear is brought out in such a way during The Fourth Kind that the viewer might actually feel sorry for the onscreen characters. When is the last time you felt sorry for the plight of character in a horror movie? Mine was when I saw Wolf Creek (there might have been others but that horror movie sticks out in my mind).

Olatunde Osunsanmi’s The Fourth Kind is a horror movie not quite on the level of Signs but it may be the closest film to it (in regards to script quality and acting) since that film left theater. The Fourth Kind is a high-level horror movie that oh-so-briefly and momentarily bounces off the mind and heart and not the viewer’s gag reflex.

Rating: 8.5/10

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A Perfect Getaway is a film that coyly thrills while winking both at itself, its genre, and, the viewer simultaneously. From inception, the viewer is being misled by well-orchestrated deceptions and purposely omitted narrative segments. The viewer is introduced to the traditional goodie-goods, Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich), off on their honeymoon, loving life. They are giddy and jubilant, what we expect for thriller protagonists.

The viewer is then presented with the zinger: There have been recent murders in the island paradise of Hawaii where the two love birds are vacationing, murders committed by a man and a woman. The viewer is then introduced to two other couples, one, Kale (Chris Hemsworth) and Cleo (Marley Shelton), societal waifs, the other, Nick (Timothy Olyphant) and Gina (Kiele Sanchez), vacationers from the mid-west of America. One couple has a criminal record amongst them; another houses a retired soldier and a meat carver.

Writer/director David Twohy cleverly shifts the viewer’s suspicions back and forth between these two couples, each with indicators of malice and the behavioral and mechanical knowledge for having committed the murders. As the protagonists’ suspicions grow and narrow on one particular couple as the killers, so does the viewer’s. The viewer begins seeing the situation as the protagonists see it. There in lies the brilliance of A Perfect Getaway’s script. The film, in every way, was advertised so that the viewer made a default assumption, which makes the reveal an actual surprise.

Along the way, A Perfect Getaway consistently comments on its genre, and by implication, itself. Red Herrings are discussed and viewer is deluged with them from the two couples under suspicion. They tell stories about their pasts, events in their lives that brought them to Hawaii or that formed part of their personalities.  One story in particular the viewer will probably never give a second thought to during the first viewing but they should. It’s a Red Herring and an indicator of the real relationship between two characters and how that relationship began.

When the action scenes kick into gear in A Perfect Getaway, there backbone are the ingredients from the character’s past and what the Red Herrings alluded to. We are also given classic black and white sequences that illuminate the past and which clarify that all was never what it seemed.

David Twohy’s A Perfect Getaway is a far better action thriller than the viewer may expect by its first two acts. It’s like a magic trick from Nolan’s The Prestige: the first two acts of A Perfect Getaway are the Pledge and the Turn, and the third act is the Prestige. It’s the realizations housed in the Prestige and the quality of the action surrounding it that make A Perfect Getaway a good getaway for an hour and a half.

Rating: 8/10

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Intel has been coming out with some pretty funny television commercials recently. The latest, entitled Our Jokes Aren’t like Your Jokes, stars Dr. Mario Paniccia, Intel’s Photonics Research Director and him altering what looks like your average, simple mathematic equation (algorithm) by way of turning a minus into a plus. Highfalutin humor at its finest. Watch the Intel Television Commercial below and leave your thoughts on it.

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V (2009): Season 1, Ep.1: Pilot is the reboot or rebirth of the V television franchise. The first episode had The Vistiors showing up to earth and introducing themselves to its inhabitants. It turns out that The Visitors have been on Earth for decades and have infiltrated many facets of our society. Isn’t it strange that no Visitor, in the decades they have been on earth, has ever been in a accident or died suddenly and upon doctor’s examination or autopsy, was revealed to be non-human?

The characters for V (2009), so far, are generic, with the exception of Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch). Unfortunately, the people behind the show were in too big of a hurry and spoiled many things in the first episode that could have been hinted at and alluded to throughout the first season. Hopefully, V (2009) has more surprises underneath its sleeve, for its own sake.

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The Phantom (2010) Television Trailer has premiered. The Phantom (2010) Television mini-series is directed by Paolo Barzman and stars Ryan Carnes, Cas Anvar, Isabelli Rossellini, Sandrine Holt, and Cameron Goodmen. The Phantom (2010) Television mini-series synopsis:  a two-part TV mini-series about the recruitment, training, and unleashing of the 21st Phantom, Chris Moore (Ryan Carnes). “Chris Moore is a law student and parkour runner who learns that he was adopted. After his parents are murdered, he must don the famous Skull Ring and train in the jungles of Bengalla so that he can take on the evil Singh Brotherhood.” I saw animated cartoon Phantom 2040 on television (good) then saw The Phantom (1996) in theater (sucked because it was not what I was expecting or as good as Phantom 2040),  so I am well versed in The Phantoms and the Skull Rings. The Phantom (2010) Television mini-series could have fit right in between those two projects except The Phantom in 1996 film was supposedly the 21st Phantom. Too bad The Phantom (2010) writers Daniel Knauf and Charles Knauf did not do their homework (making Moore the 22nd or 23rd Phantom) so all three Phantom projects could have had some continuity with each other. The new design for The Phantom costume is actually worse than the original. Why is there the need to show a person’s mouth in a uniform that are supposed to keep their identity secret? Anyway, check out The Phantom (2010) Television Trailer below and leave your thoughts on it and The Phantom below.

Source: FilmJunk

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