2 Guns - Movie Review

"A DEA agent and a naval intelligence officer find themselves on the run after a botched attempt to infiltrate a drug cartel. While fleeing, they learn the secret of their shaky alliance: Neither knew that the other was an undercover agent."

I was going into this film more or less oblivious to everything related to it. I had seen about 30 seconds of the trailer from what I can remember, I had not looked up the synopsis or any information for the film. I simply knew that it was Baltasar Kormakur's next feature film and that we were going to be getting a Wahlberg/Washington team up.

As you would expect, this is the main aspect that the film really has going for it. But I have to say, that isn't a problem at all because it works damn well. Now the plot for 2 Guns is more or less your average action film narrative. Mixed together with a couple of minor twists and turns along the way, I can safely say that everything in relation to this department was expected by everybody prior to seeing the film. I thought the writers did a fine job of making sure that there was enough for the actors to work with in order to get the best out of them and really excel in what was otherwise a merely average film. What I can appreciate though is that they really knew their strengths. They knew that they weren't reinventing anything by creating this film but that it could be a complete fun time at the cinemas. That it certainly was as there is enough action and mayhem to shake a stick at. These sequences were well shot I have to say, which tends to be something that directors don't get the grasp of these days, at least for action sequences. How hard is it to understand that putting a camera on a tripod or at least filming these scenes by handheld well will go a long way with audiences. Less is definitely not more in this type of situation as the case sometimes becomes that you can't even tell what is going on. It's become such a popular trend nowadays because it means that it cuts some costs along the way for effects and what not, by making it seem that more is happening than actually is. I'm glad that Kormakur didn't cop out and go for the much easier option, something that I certainly appreciated with his approach to this film. The writers did a good job overall of including enough comedy and moments where the two leading men could play off one another. It made for an overly entertaining time at the cinemas as it meant that they were the centre of attention at all times which had to be the case for the film to be able to work.

Cramming in as many of these high octane sequences as possible was certainly a great choice as it really gave that sense of receiving exactly what you came for. It relates back to my praise of how the filmmakers knew exactly what the film had going for it and played to these strengths. They were on all sorts of scales, they were completely ludicrous at times and over the top and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a solid throwback to the classic action films of the 70's, 80's and 90's. Such films as Lethal Weapon had clearly had a major influence for 2 Guns and it was nice to see a similar format for today's generation done right. It knew that it didn't take itself seriously at times, and was able to do its number one purpose: entertain. It had many moments that did take me back to watching Lethal Weapon for the first time and many of this was implemented into the wacky action sequences that took place. Random explosions, over the top fighting and action and comic relief, I was a huge fan of it all.

What I will have to comment on which I can quite wrap my head around whether I liked it or not was the tonal shifts the film had. One minute we would be laughing and joking in a scene and the next we were supposed to be taking everything serious and feeling sympathy for characters that hadn't received much of a background or depth. I'm fine with a film going for the more serious moments even when it is supposed to be taken as a summer popcorn flick and nothing more, but for me this just didn't work. It was setting itself up to be an absolute blast and then it would completely shift to wanting to evoke an emotional response which felt like the wrong approach.

I didn't let this hinder my enjoyment too much as the real stars of the show here (literally) are the on screen duo of Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington. As previously mentioned and as you'll already know, these were the main attraction to what otherwise was a very generic action movie and they knock it out of the park. Solid performances from these two yet again as you would fully expect, they were what made this film as enjoyable as it was. As I said to someone when I left the screening, I simply felt that the film for me at least, wouldn't have worked had it not been for these two. I would not have been as interested or had as good of a time had it not been for these two just chewing up the scenery at every possible chance. Everything from the delivery of their lines to facial expressions was perfect for what the film wanted to be and it worked on every level in my opinion. As for other members of the cast, Bill Paxton was yet another great addition. His role as one of the villains yet again felt like another homage to previous action films as an outrageously unfeasible villain was thrust into what was set up to be this somewhat realistic setting. Whenever he was on screen, he made it feel like there was something on the line for these two characters and that he posed a real threat. It gave the film some lee way to be able to try and throw more elements of the story in there which can never hurt for a film like this. James Marsden was good too as usual and offers quite an unusual role to anything that I've certainly seen him in before which was a nice surprise.

Overall, 2 Guns was somewhat of a surprise for me in general, despite going in more or less blind about the film, I had my suspicions as I had a vague idea of the plot and it could have easily failed. This wasn't the case as it stuck to what it knew it had to in order to be able to hit the right notes. The leading men in Wahlberg and Washington really helped this film excel as expected and were the main reason that I had such a blast while watching this film. Had it not been for them, I know for a fact that I wouldn't have liked it anywhere near as much. Heck, I may not have even liked it at all. Luckily, the filmmakers utilized what they had to work with and for me, it certainly paid off.

Kick-Ass 2 - Movie Review

"The costumed high-school hero Kick-ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows."

Jeff Wadlow this time takes the helm of the surprisingly well titled 2010 comic book adaptation "Kick-Ass" that arrived on the scene by storm. The film was generally well received by critics but hailed by general movie goers to a high regard, including myself, which meant when discussions of a sequel were being thrown around, I was immediately intrigued. While I had my doubts to whether it would really happen or not considering that Matthew Vaughan had moved on to do other projects, finally here it is.

Kick-Ass 2 picks up a short while after the events of the first film ended, super heroes almost now seem part of day to day life in this universe. Its popularity has increased and more and more people are deciding to join this elite group of people standing up for justice and fighting crime. I have to hail the film first off by saying despite my doubts about Jeff Wadlow directing this much anticipated sequel, I thought he did a great job. His resume beforehand was filled with films that many weren't aware of, or had boycotted due to having no interest in them whatsoever. I was certainly in this group of people until I left the screening of Kick-Ass 2. He does a fantastic job of re-immersing us into this world that was so well set up in the first film. It truly feels like a continuation which can be hard for a sequel to capture the same spirit and tone of the first film, certainly to the extent that this film did. I thought his overall direction for the film was good, he certainly knew the strengths of the first film and played off them to make this one work so well.

As for the story, nothing particularly spectacular in this department but I thought there was enough content and material to help push the film along and give some backbone to everything that was going on. The theme it explored was basically comparing how difficult high school life and growing up can be to how much of a struggle being a superhero is, within this non-fictional world of course. I felt that they could have included more towards dealing with this superhero life that Dave was and focused less on Mindy's coming of age storyline. They've obviously made Chloe Grace Moretz's character more integral to the film's narrative this time around due to the overwhelming success of her character in the first film. They are playing to their strengths and what works well which I can fully understand but I didn't really care for this particular segment to be perfectly honest.

Wadlow also earns another credit as the writer for the film which I can certainly see where the problems could lie for many people in whether they like this film or not. The script was nowhere near as solid as the first film, not to say that Kick-Ass' script wasn't flawed because it was, but in that film I thought everything was much more neatly tied together and flowed more naturally. There is a few poorly written scenes and just general 'filler' content included that I would have much preferred someone else to have come on board for this particular aspect of the film. It seems that Wadlow was a little in over his head being that the whole film's success in terms of response from critics and audiences was resting on Wadlow's shoulders. While the cheesy dialogue and overshadowing of certain elements was present, it didn't take me out of the film that much that it hindered my enjoyment, just enough to know that it was definitely there. I must say that although I have some criticism about the writing not being as strong for this film, I almost contradict myself by saying that I loved his implementation of more comedy in this installment. That's what I felt was truly lacking from making the first film from being just good, to brilliant. At times it took itself a little to seriously but then compared to the tone it was setting up, didn't make sense in some areas. This is an aspect that I have a huge amount of credit for this film and was one of the more key reasons why I had such a good time with this film, and why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

This film has been the subject of much heated debates and controversy in recent weeks due to Jim Carrey deciding not to promote the film because of recent tragic events that have surrounded the news; which Kick-Ass 2 contains excessive amounts of violence. While that is a whole other discussion on its own, I really don't have a problem with violence in films - if it serves a purpose, which in both Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2 it does. In fact, the violence and action sequences are incredible yet again. Hats off to Jeff Wadlow yet again for writing some extremely memorable and well thought out action scenes for this sequel. It honestly felt like they upped the ante for this film which was the best possible mentality and direction they could have taken in my opinion. Things felt on a bigger scale while still not feeling too large and underwhelming. Despite the first couple of action scenes, which there was plenty of, I thought for the most part they were well shot. This trend of the 'shaky-cam' is growing ever increasingly annoying and is failing to do the very job it sets out to do. It doesn't make it look like there is more intensity, or that more is happening than actually is, it just seems to completely take me out of a scene and have me confused to what is really going on. This could be why I was never a huge fan of the Bourne trilogy, their over usage of this method of shooting was borderline ridiculous. I thought it managed to clean this up to a point as things picked up in the further acts and despite still using this method, they certainly seemed more prepared for shooting these action scenes. Extremely well choreographed and some of the most inventive fighting I've seen since last year's 'The Raid: Redemption'.

A quick mention to some of the acting in the film, which on the whole was pretty damn solid. All of the major players return and put in good performances but there is a few that really steal the show here. It's a given that Hit-Girl is front and centre after her popularity escalated beyond belief after the first film's release and she really does put a solid performance in yet again. While I felt at times that her character was being played on a little too much as previously mentioned, and the fact that there was too many moments of dialogue that were well and truly shoehorned in to make her seem as rebellious as the first film did, that is more so in the writing than in her performance. She certainly has a bright career ahead of her as just at sixteen she has already put in an array of good performances in some decent films which gives her somewhat of a stepping stone to really further her career and keep this strong momentum going. Christopher Mintz-Plasse has never made me laugh as much as he did in this film which is a credit to both the writing and his performance for sure. His delivery is pitch perfect and his character plays off as a comic relief for the more tenser moments, which he nails perfectly. The last mention that I deem worthy is Jim Carrey who despite all of the controversy surrounding decisions he's made about promoting the film, yet again puts in another great performance to add to his collection. While not featuring in the film as much as I had hoped so, I thoroughly enjoyed the character he played and was unbelievably entertained every time he was on screen.

Overall, Kick-Ass 2 in my eyes was a worthy sequel to the original film that was so well hailed back in 2010. Despite all of my concerns that I had going in, I had a blast watching this and to be perfectly honest, I have left the cinemas wanting to watch it again. This is rarely my feeling for a lot of films that I watch at the cinemas so to say that this was value for money would be an understatement personally. Undeniably this film had flaws but I was willing to almost switch off and forgive these because of just how god damn entertaining and fun Kick-Ass 2 really is. There was some well thought out action sequences that far surpassed that of the original as the stakes felt much higher this time round. While the writing was lacking a little flair at times, I thought it was a very well paced movie that kept you hooked right from the get go. If you enjoyed Kick-Ass, then I have a strong feeling you won't be disappointed by this.

The Wolverine - Movie Review

"Wolverine, in the midst of a mid-life crisis, pays a visit to an old comrade in Japan and finds himself in the midst of a power struggle."

The second solo venture for Hugh Jackman was an idea that many were skeptical about given the previous attempt back in 2009 which was the travesty known as 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'. I myself was included in this array of people that didn't quite know what to make of this film before going into it. I can certainly say that I was in no way reassured when the trailer came round, nonetheless I was willing to give the film a fair shot, and I'm glad that I did.

The Wolverine is a continuation of the events from X-Men: The Last Stand and picks up sometime after all of that happened. We see Logan in a deteriorated state, downbeat about his life and not living with any purpose whatsoever. As time goes on, he meets a young Japanese woman named Yukio who has been sent to track him and down and help a friend thank Logan one final time for saving his life before he seemingly dies. Now for me, I thought this was quite a solid direction to take in terms of the narrative for this lone venture. If a solo Wolverine film is going to be made, I think the best possible action that can be taken in regards to the story is to go down a route that is so drastically different to anything we've seen before. One of my main concerns about the film was that it was going to be too 'been there, done that' but I'm glad to say that this is about as different as it gets. I'm not trying to say that it doesn't follow a similar format to comic book films or films in general, but The Wolverine has a much stronger direction than plenty. We've not quite seen anything like this within this type of film which is quite refreshing to see. What I mean is that it brought new challenges and a completely fresh arc for Hugh Jackman's character to face which I can certainly appreciate both the writers and James Mangold for bringing to this movie.

As for the story on a whole, I thought that it was good enough for what the film was. While it did feel from the trailers that the element of Wolverine wanting to step away from the life he lives and losing his 'powers' was cliched, it didn't come across that way in the film for sure. I thought the way that James Mangold presented it was in such a crisp, neatly wrapped way that it definitely had my attention for the most part. I enjoyed seeing a vulnerable side to an otherwise indestructible character which falls into my previous comments about the direction that the film took in relation to the narrative. It felt that we were being thrust into this completely unfamiliar environment of Tokyo alongside Logan and were just as in awe of the whole situation as he was. I would say this was down to the tone that the film set up which again, James Mangold did a great job of implementing into the film. Everything felt very authentic and natural, despite being out of the ordinary to what we expect from a comic book film, it still managed to not feel too strikingly diverse that it would be distracting or uninteresting.

Which leads me into more depth about the direction the story took, and I can safely praise yet again how much more layered this story was. Full credit to the screenwriters the clearly apparent job they did at giving us a much deeper side to this well known character that we've never seen before. It was almost as if a different shade of the character we have known for so long came out and offered us another perspective to who he truly is and how he feels. I didn't expect this at all, even from the trailers we got when footage was shown of some of these scenes. Maybe it was due to the expectations that I had which gave me the sense that it was going to be a simple, paper thin plotted film with no heart to it. I'm not saying that I was completely wrong because it doesn't offer tons and tons of depth and development but definitely a whole lot more than I was expecting that's for sure. Like I said, we see this new side to Logan/Wolverine that hasn't been uncovered or explored up until now and I liked what they were going for. You see Wolverine at the lowest point in his life, with no will to live and no purpose in the life he leads before then he is suddenly given the one thing that he wants; mortality. It made for some pretty strong scenes involving him and Jean Grey who appears within his dreams. I honestly believe that without this going for it, I for one would certainly have not been remotely interested in this film because without giving us this unseen side to Logan, there isn't much else that would have had me invested enough to have cared what was going on.

Something that no matter how good or bad a film with Wolverine is, you can never come away disappointed with the performance that Hugh Jackman gives. This time around I thought he stepped everything up and gave his best performance as Wolverine to date. Not only was he in the best physical shape that I think I've ever seen him in, he brought real emotion and sympathy to his character in scenes that I previously mentioned where it required a more 'human' touch to them. As for the newer additions to the cast, I thought there wasn't any particular standouts but they were fine for the job they were given to do. One thing I will mention though is more towards a certain character rather than the way they were portrayed. The villain in this film "Viper" was just about all of the stereotypical traits a villain could have, rolled into one. I almost expected with how the film was panning out as it progressed that a half decent villain wouldn't be something too much to ask for but it seems that it was. She was a completely 1 dimensional character that was given the cliched background story of what she wanted to do and why. As well as the lack of development for her character, I just thought she ruined the tone and atmosphere that the film was going for/had. She didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story and was simply there to serve as both a throwaway villain for the singular film and another character from the comic books shoehorned in.

Both the visuals of The Wolverine and the fight scenes that it included were immaculate. This is a visually stunning film it has to be said. Again, James Mangold did an excellent job along with the DP of making this film look so captivating. The locations within Tokyo that we are given are incredible and it's a real joy to watch a film within this environment. As for the fight scenes, expertly choreographed it has to be said. I have to credit the camerawork for them because despite being shot by handheld for the most part, I had a clear sense of what was going on. This will have been because of the PG-13 rating that the film wanted which meant that they had to leave the true violence in terms of blood and gore, to the viewer's imagination which I can admire the way in which they did so. My favourite which I can say was different from what we were given prior was the train sequence. Ironically, this was the sequence from the trailer that I was probably dreading to see the most. The CGI effects in the trailer for this sequence looked really poor, you could clearly tell that a green screen effect was used. This isn't the case at all in the film where it is more than the most intriguing and well executed action sequence that The Wolverine had to offer. The problem that I had with them though was that after one or two, they did seem to become a little repetitive. Almost as if the people working on them became either lazy or simply ran out of ideas as they had the same look and feel as previous ones. This was up until the climax of the film where the fight scenes, in particular the final fight were for lack of a better word dull, I shall say. It had the feel of a 'final boss battle' from a video game when this 20 foot giant mechanized Samurai was the foe that Logan had to face. Albeit different from the previous sequences we had been given, I couldn't help but be completely taken out of the final 20 minutes by this. Up until then I was entertained by what I was seeing but I didn't care for this final fight one bit. Probably due to the quick shake of tone that it took; gone from being a somewhat grounded comic book film to a ludicrous, outrageously over the top mess by the end. Even before this fight scene occurred, I could slowly feel the film losing sight of where it was going and heading towards a generic climax much to my disappointment. When Viper's plans were revealed and Logan was making his way to their location was about the mark that I switched off and lost most of my interest in what was going on.

Overall, The Wolverine was definitely better than I was expecting it to be, a both decent action film and comic book film. It gave us some more insight into a character that has featured in 5 films (including the small cameo in FC) and managed to seem somewhat refreshing even after all this time. Do I think this film would have been a lot better as R-rated and with Darren Aronofsky directing? Damn right I do, I can only wish that we would have an idea of how that final product would have been. Was the film we got good enough? Yeah, I'd have to say for what it's worth, The Wolverine serves as a pretty good standalone film. Something more than can be said about X-Men Origins: Wolverine anyway.

The Conjuring - Movie Review

"Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse."

The first of what could be a momentous year for Australian born director James Wan who attempts to tackle the summer movie season with The Conjuring before bringing Insidious: Part 2 to the screens in October. I'll start things off by saying that I'm a fan of James Wan's previous work. I love the original Saw, enjoyed Death Sentence but didn't care for Dead Silence. I'm also yet to see Insidious. All of this and a somewhat seemingly scary and well put together trailer with some haunting imagery gave me fairly high expectations for The Conjuring.

Centered around a families torturous events that are deemed 'based on a true story', I thought the film excelled on this aspect. It seemed like despite creating many things to make for an entertaining popcorn flick, plenty of it was true to life and taken straight from the cases that were explored all of those years back. Both the writers and director did a great job of transitioning this on screen with Wan's know how approach making for some stomach knottingly tense sequences and an intricate, layered story and script to help back this up. James Wan does a formidable job of driving home every set piece to its maximum potential and bringing the over exaggerated saying of having audience's 'on the edge of their seat' true for once. I felt myself completely compelled in the film straight from the get go and a large chunk of this does go down to how Wan tackles the material he's been given; mixed with his expertise in this particular genre of filmmaking. His skill set comes into full force as he makes plenty of rehashed ideas and scares become fresh and innovative once again. Plenty of times did I feel myself thinking "I'm sure I've seen something like this before?" yet when the scene or moment would end, I would completely change my opinion on the matter. The film oozes with a man that is indefinitely passionate about the line of work that he is operating in.

Drawn out moments of suspense and sheer terror is what you can expect The Conjuring to bring to the table for the horror genre. Undoubtedly one of the main faults with modern horror films are that they are filled with dull, cheap and more than definitely predictable 'jump scares'. While I'm not saying The Conjuring was home free from including these, I can safely say it would be difficult to pick out more than a few. For what felt like a fleshed out film while never truly stopping to give the audience any track of time or what was going on outside of the movie, this is a solid achievement. Again credit is due to the writer's for this who produced a script with some overly confident scenes and scares that were truly horrifying. These are the exact things that I was hoping I would take away from this film when I saw the first trailer for it. I wanted to be scared while watching it, but the horror films that are considered the classics are the ones that stay with you after you've left the cinema; for plenty of time to come. I believe this is well the case with The Conjuring as I attended a Saturday night screening of the film and it has been playing on my mind ever since it finished. The haunting images that this film included was masterful, done in such a beautifully crafted way while keeping the audience oblivious to what was going to happen next in a story that many of them are already aware of. Only a handful of horror filmmakers possess such a talent and it's one of the reasons why I believe Wan is aboard the success train in the industry from here on out. He has shown signs of what he can do over the years but I don't think we have been truly given everything he can do up until now.

In more detail, the scares of this film were much more moments of pure adrenaline boosted shock and tense filled scenes rather than things popping out and looking to cheaply make viewers jump, gaining an nice, easy, simple reaction from them. As I mentioned before, I'm overly glad that this was not what The Conjuring was going for and it headed in all of the right directions on this level that I was hoping it would. It reminded me of films like The Others, The Exorcist and Poltergeist - films that are memorable, remaining in people's thoughts and lives for years down the line which is exactly what I think The Conjuring could well achieve. I don't like trying to compare this to other horror films because it is different in so many ways and deserves to stand on its own two feet. I can't help but see the comparisons and similarities between the afore mentioned and Wan's latest picture as they tick all of the right boxes on what I at least look for in horror films. I think the real key here is to identify the film as creepy and tense rather than scary, that's my feelings on it. This is a far better response that a film such as The Conjuring can give off to audience's because these are the sort of things that help latch memories and images into people's heads and maintain that long lasting stance with them.

Something else that needs to be mentioned in regards to both how the film was approached in terms of how it wanted to scare audiences and the look/feel of the film was it screamed a 70's/80's horror film vibe. Set in this era from when the Warrens were actively investigating paranormal cases, The Conjuring does an impressive job of fully immersing the audience into this world and especially the home being looked into. As soon as we meet up with the family moving into the home, we get glimpses of just about every nook and cranny in the entire home by the end and it honestly makes you feel like you've been experiencing these horrific occurrences with this family the entire time. The wardrobe and make up departments can take a well earned bow as they did a fine job on bringing that realistic look in what the characters were wearing and looked like which was vital to selling this treacherous tale to audiences worldwide. Right down from the settings used, right down to the grain of the film was extremely well done and also carefully chosen to accurately depict the events that took place from which the film is based off of. Where I'd say it more than pushes the classic horror vibe for myself is the approach and direction it takes. A combination of Wan's illustrious eye for gripping and wowing audiences with a balance of solid writing with character's that felt natural and were more than likable, making the story and events even more compelling were the tell tale signs of this. So many horror films are too centered around aspects that have no purpose such as the later 'Saw' films with their over focusing on the much coveted traps and games that the victims would have to play. Here, James Wan and the Hayes brothers know exactly what is important to making this an over effective horror film and all of the right chords are struck in relation to it having a long lasting effect. That's another area in which modern horrors fail to deliver, as time and time again they remain unforgettable instantly after watching them. An example for myself of this from 2013 is Mama. It had all of the makings for a great horror film but took too many wrong turns and decisions that in the end, I didn't care what was going on and haven't really thought about the film since.

Arguably my greatest praise for the film lies with its pacing. I was shocked at the momentum it carried right from the opening shot till the very end. I'm not sure what others felt about this but at least for me, not a moment of the film let up. I was literally invested and hooked from beginning to end. There wasn't a dull moment whether it was scenes that just had the Warrens discussing something between one another or the events themselves taking place; there always felt like there was something huge happening. That even in the smaller scenes, where a conversation would be taking place, it was building up to something much more and that they were one small piece of the larger scale jigsaw that was this family's terrifying experience. Maybe it was due to my interest in both this particular case that the Warrens investigated and their experiences in general; the huge debate on whether they are legitimate or not that spurred my investment into the film and made the 1 hour 54 minute running time fly by but I more than feel I'm not the only one flying this particular flag.

A couple of finer details that are worth pointing out includes how well they tied in a few of the cases that this couple of paranormal investigators have taken on over their years of work. The Hayes brothers incorporated vast amounts of information over the entirety of the movie to the central storyline while branching off from this every once in a while to give us couple more insights into other cases that had been dipped into. It helped keep what was going on seem refreshing and made returning to the Perron family exciting once again. A little side note that I feel necessary to mention was just how creepy the film adapted "Annabelle" doll was. When it comes to dolls, let's say I'm not the biggest fan of them but this was just on another level. Despite barring no resemblance whatsoever to the real life raggedy Ann doll, James Wan sure knows how to create one creepy looking doll.

Where to start with the array of talent on show in yes, a horror film! Never did I think I'd see the day that a horror film in 2013 would bring some heavy hitters to the table and blow me away with the performances they delivered. Not to say that there hasn't been good performances in horror films to date, I'm merely talking about in recent years. It's become some what of a tradition for cheesy horror flicks to just about nail terrible acting from the whole cast but in this there is something special to behold. Vera Farmiga tops the list for me, not only was she frighteningly convincing, but she brought just about every credential that was needed for her part. The amount of emotions and feelings her character was going through and had to produce left her with an enormous task on her hands and boy did she deliver. Then you have another admirable mention in other leading lady Lilli Taylor. An sympathetic, deeply explored character that Taylor fit the casting for perfectly. Then you have other names such as Patrick Wilson and Ron Livingston bringing solid performances to the screen. Honestly, I would say for the most part the whole cast delivered all round fine performances which was refreshing to say the least. My only gripe would be was one particular scene with one of the child actors, maybe for people who have seen the film you know which scene I mean but it was cringe worthy in my opinion.

(STAY AWAY FROM THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU'VE YET TO SEE THE FILM)

I will finish off by expressing the only problem that I can think that is worth discussing about The Conjuring. The over obvious happy ending was a given by the anti climatic finale was a completely letdown. I expected much more from a film that was hitting home on every level up until then which made the disappointment feel even more weighted. Let's just say that this was an area that left me quite annoyed that a more satisfying ending wasn't given to us. I'm all fine with everything being wrapped up nice and neatly but it all just seemed to happen in a flash. One minute the mother of these five children was threatening to murder her youngest children meaning an exorcism was performed on her then the next minute it's all smiles and even jokes were being thrown around?! I couldn't quite wrap my head around that sudden change of tone and heart but I didn't dwell on it too much, certainly not letting it hinder my enjoyment of the film too drastically.

Overall, The Conjuring was an extremely satisfying and refreshing horror film that was everything I was expecting/hoping it would be and more. It was a perfect homage to the classic horror films that I didn't have the satisfaction of growing up on but have seen in my more recent years. It had some stunning visuals and scenes/images that will remain with me for a very long time. A brutally tense and stomach churningly roller coaster ride of a film that has steered it's way in as my second favourite of the year so far. Deservedly so.