The Beacon – Movie Review

The Beacon – Written & Directed by Michael Stokes.

Stars: Teri Polo, David Rees Snell, Elaine Hendrix, Michael Ironside, Marnette Patterson.

Tagline: If you think you’re alone … Think again

This is a movie that will make my list of favorites. Although some of the actors should never have been in this to begin with, the rest of the cast carried the movie well. Especially the talents of Teri Polo and Michael Ironside.

The movie starts out with the opening scene showing Paul and Bryn Shaw moving into the charming old Beacon Apartments, and trying to get their lives back on track after the loss of their four year old son. Soon after the movie begins we see Christina Wade make her appearance as the cliché sister. (She’s a hot babe with some of the worse lines in any movie. One moment she is flashing her breasts to the movers, and the next she is reciting platitudes disguised as pearls of wisdom).

As the movie unfolds, Bryn begins seeing a ghostly little boy skulking around the building. With the help of an eccentric young professor and a tough old beat cop, Bryn tries to uncover the details of the boy’s death. She hopes that freeing the child will allow him to carry a message to her son. Too late she realizes a second malevolent entity stalks the halls of the Beacon: one that doesn’t want the boy to escape.

This movie offered what I like in a ghost movie. There were moments in it that took me by surprise, and the ending is definitely something you wont want to miss.

I would give this movie 5 Stars.

Synopsis: The photographer Bryn (Teri Polo) and the astronomer Paul Shaw (David Rees Snell) move to a small, but cozy one bedroom apartment in the Beacon Apartments in Texas to rebuild their lives. Three years ago, in Halloween, Bryn neglected attention to their son Danny that disappeared, apparently drown in a lake nearby a carnival. Bryn tried to commit suicide and Paul sacrificed his career to support her.

In the relocation, the couple is helped by Bryn’s sister Christina Wade (Marnette Patterson) that befriends the next door neighbor Will “Ty” Tyler (Nick Sowell). Paul finds a job in the local university and shares his office with the eccentric anthropologist Simon Valencia (Jonny Cruz). Along the days, Bryn has visions and nightmares with a ghostly boy and she decides to investigate how he died and seeks out his father James Nash (Kevin Scott Keating).

Meanwhile Paul helps the decadent actress Vanessa Carver (Elaine Hendrix) but does not tell details to his wife. When Bryn discovers that James is also dead, she realizes that she had contacted ghosts in the building and tells Professor Simon, trying to find how to communicate with her diseased son. However, after his research, Simon finds the truth about the Beacon Apartments.

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Necrosis – Movie Review

Necrosis – Directed by Jason Robert Stephens. Written by Jason Robert Stephens and Robert Michael Ryan.

Stars: James Kyson-Lee, George Stults, Tiffany, Penny Drake, Danielle DeLuca, Robert Michael Ryan.

Tagline: Never watch any movies that involve “six friends go off somewhere“.

I have no idea where to begin with this one. After watching The Donner Party right before this one, I assumed that this movie would follow in similar style.

I discovered that I was wrong about this movie for two reasons.

One. The movie has nothing to do with the Donner Party film. That was the first thing I got wrong.

For those who are familiar with the Heroes, you will recognize the familiar face of James Kyson-Lee who plays Ando Masahashi in said series. So I guess I can be forgiven if I thought that his presence in this movie would offer some form of saving grace.

That was the second time I was wrong about this movie. Not even his acting could salvage this movie from the slush pile of mediocrity that this movie crawled out of.

The acting was pitiful, with more clichés and pot-holes than you can poke a stick at; the scenes where we see Kyson-Lee “possessed” made him look like he was stoned; and with even less than notable actors and one-hit wonders (for those who may recall Tiffany, the one-hit wonder of the 90’s); This movie, to be frank, was nothing what I expected.

Necrosis may have been nominated in 10 of 16 categories in the 2009 Los Angeles Reel Film Festival. It was nominated for: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design, Best Original Score, Best Special Effect (Digital), Best Special Effect (Make-up), Best Cinematography, Best Costume, Best Production Design

Synopsis: In 2009, six friends arrive at an isolated cabin to enjoy a long weekend in the snow. An epic snowstorm interrupts their vacation, trapping them on the mountain and resurrecting the haunting ghosts of the Donner Party. But, are they true ‘entities’ or is it simply ‘cabin fever’ that brings out their fears and darkness, causing friends to turn against each other as reality deteriorates around them.

The only redeeming feature about this movie was the scenery. Everything else was a waste of 90 minutes of my life.

The Lovely Bones – Movie Review

The Lovely Bones – Directed by Peter Jackson.

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Jake Abel, Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver, Stanley Tucci.

Tagline: The story of a life and everything that came after…

It admit it has been about a month since I watched this film, and without a doubt, this is one movie that is worth watching again.

The movie is based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones is the story of a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body. Simple enough plot. But it is more involved than that as we glimpse into the lives of other children who were sadly taken from this world by a pedophile.

Great performance by Saoirse Ronan (as Susie Salmon), as she narrates the events of her life, and the lives of others around her; And Stanley Tucci comes across brilliantly as the movie villain.

For those who like movies with a good ending, this is one to watch.