shakerahathaway Reviews

Labor Pains (2009)

Lacking

[4/10 · 6 May 2019]

Who knew pretending to be pregnant could be so easy? Lindsey Lohan pulled it off effortlessly in her 2009 movie "Labor Pains" directed by Lara Shapiro. Thea (Lindsay Lohan) is left struggling to care for her little sister Emma (Bridget Mendler) after both their parents die in a car crash. Thea Clayhill is the reckless secretary of arrogant publisher Jerry Steinwald. When Jerry fires her for allowing his dog to eat soap it results in Thea lying and telling him she is four months pregnant. Regardless, Jerry believes her and allows her to stay. When Thea receives special attention for being pregnant she realizes she likes her life better that way, so with the help of her friend Lisa and a foam baby bump Thea keeps up the ruse for as long as she can. This movie's plot is all over the place and very unbelievable, for her stomach is extremely flat yet without any form of proof of her claim the entire office believes her without a second thought. It'd be easy to comment on how Lindsay Lohan's and her career have gone from the A-list to struggling star. With the release of Labor Pains, she's officially on the direct-to-DVD list. That in itself isn't a bad thing as an increasing number of films are going this route but the movie really is that bad and no distribution method could have saved it. And that's too bad because there was some solid potential for the film's premise. It just truly felt like all those involved in the production of Labor Pains were there to pass time rather than make something great or just plain entertaining. Labor Pains plays it so straight that it's truly hard to gauge what it's trying to say, even if it's not trying to say anything at all. There's too much going on in the story to make me think the original concept was to make a mindless comedy but the final film shows a frustrating follow through in almost every respect. As a result, Labor Pains is a painful bore. By bringing up things and not going through with them, it leaves much in the air. For example, Thea starts the film with a boyfriend and all of a sudden she breaks it off even though he's supportive of her and doesn't make any colossal screw-ups. An on-the-fly script change perhaps to allow for more of a romantic comedy spin, perhaps? And there's Jerry, another important part of the early script who disappears for much of the second and third acts before dropping by at the end. So much time is spent early on establishing these two as important parts of Thea yet they're ultimately wasted in the final product. One, at least, serves as a plot point. But this could have been done in a much faster and streamlined fashion, which would have opened up a little room to look at at least one of the many unexplored parts that are raised. Labor Pains feels like it suffers from a lack of passion. There's nothing that stands out in any way from the script to the directing to the acting. I can't speak for those involved with it but I got a very real sense of apathy from the final product just by watching it. And for me, it's really hard to get behind something when you don't think those on the front lines are behind it either.

Venom (2018)

Amazing Movie

[9/10 · 6 May 2019]

The world may have enough superheroes, but it doesn't have enough good movies about them. "Venom" goes a small way toward changing that, even though it's technically about a supervillain - or, if we're being generous, an antihero. News that the fan-favorite Spider-Man antagonist was receiving a standalone film of his own starring Tom Hardy was greeted warmly by those who harbor a childhood fondness for the character. All is well with Eddie Brock when first we meet the mild-mannered reporter, who takes his investigative duties seriously and relishes speaking truth to power. Eddies latest assignment is on a high-tech entrepreneur Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). The genius inventor is of the opinion that human beings are a weak, imperfect species, and so he looks to the stars for an answer to his problems. What he finds is something different, of course. The film begins months before Eddie meets Venom, when a rocket carrying an alien lifeform harvested from a comet and soon to be known as the symbiote, a parasitic being that shares its superhuman abilities with its human host. Drake- who funded the cosmic expedition describes the pairing between parasite and human like an organ transplant: If the symbiote and its host aren't a perfect match, the body will reject it and eventually die. As much a body-horror thriller as it is a comic-book movie, "Venom" is also similar to a buddy comedy in which one of the buddies has to prevent the other from biting people's heads off. If that sounds ridiculous, it is - but "Venom" both knows it and uses it to its advantage, playing up the dark humor. Not all of Eddie and Venom's exchanges land as intended, but those that do are genuinely funny; over time, their relationship even becomes endearing in its own way, which comes as such a pleasant surprise it's almost enough to recommend the movie on its own. Marvel has established such a consistent formula in its cinematic universe that this radically different approach will surely be jarring to some, but the fact that this movie could never exist in the same world as "Captain America: Civil War" despite hailing from the same brand of comics is part of its charm. As for the actors, Tom Hardy is notorious for giving it his all-for digging in deep, physically and emotionally, for every role he plays, so of course Hardy applies the same intensity to his role in "Venom". This leaves the viewer with two choices: reject the parasite or let it take you over. Fight it off and you'll have a bad time; become one with it and you may achieve a kind of symbiosis.

The Space Between Us (I) (2017)

Full of Clichés, but actually not that bad of a movie.

[8/10 · 6 May 2019]

The Space between Us is a boy meets girl story with a twist that's out of this world. Quite literally. A group of astronauts, set to colonize Mars take off on their mission only to learn that their lead astronaut is pregnant. With it being too late in the mission to turn back, the crew carry on and not long after arriving on Mars, the astronaut gives birth to a baby boy. Due to the differences between growing up on Mars vs on Earth, they're unable to send the boy home to live and he ends up remaining on Mars, a secret covered up by the company funding the mission. Due to the differences between growing up on mars versus on earth, they're unable to send the boy home to live and he ends up remaining on mars, a secret covered up by the company funding the mission. Sixteen years later, Gardner is a teenaged boy who has spent his entire life living at the base. He's bored and lonely. He has made contact (somehow-it's never explained) with Tulsa, a young girl on earth. The two video chat daily, but Tula knows nothing about Gardner's situation. When Gardner discovers evidence that might lead him to meet his father, he asks for the chance to come to Earth. Despite the potential physical consequences, he is allowed to make the trip. SO of course, he almost immediately escapes from NASA and makes his way out into the world. He quickly tracks down Tulsa and enlists her in his quest. Shepherd and Wyndham - along with assorted government agencies - are desperately trying to track Gardner down, both to keep him safe and to keep people from finding out the truth about his origins. Gardner and Tulsa must stay one step ahead if they're to have any chance to find Gardner's father before their time runs out. Gardner and Tulsa must stay one step ahead in order to find Gardner's father while falling in love along the way. It's kind of an intriguing premise, with an appealing lead performance from wide-eyed Brit Asa Butterfield. But the sci-fi/mystery element of the film works far better than the romance between Butterfield and Britt Robertson. Butterflied and Robertson don't exactly get sparkling dialogue with which to convince us of their burgeoning love. Neither does the score, which works overtime to make us feel all the feels. Although the chemistry between Gardner and Tulsa was there, it wasn't necessary romantic more as that they cared for each other and were invested in each other. Although the space between us has a few groan worthy moments when the dialogue was painfully predictable and corny, it's charming and sweet, a type of film that we all need every now and then. The cast is great, with the standout performances of Asa Butterflied and Brit Roberson. The target audience for the film is much more geared towards teenage girls and young adults but don't let that dissuade you from seeing The Space Between Us; it may go over the best with that audience but it's a film that anyone can jump into and enjoy.

The Open House (2018)

Terrible, Sad use of such good actors

[2/10 · 6 May 2019]

In The Open House, Logan (Dylan Minnette) is an aspiring runner hoping to attain glory on his high school's track team. But his life takes a tragic turn when he witnesses his father getting hit and killed by a driver having a heart attack in a parking lot. Unable to afford the rent of their home, Logan and his mother, Naomi, are able to relocate to Naomi's sister's mountain retreat until they figure out their next move, provided they leave when the realtors who are trying to sell it have their open house days. Almost immediately, eerie events start happening inside the house. Objects are moved seemingly by themselves from one room to the next. The pilot light keeps getting turned off. And the realtors who are trying to sell this mountain house are strange, and so is their new neighbor, Martha, and the repairman sent to fix the furnace. It gets really bad when Logan and Naomi return home to find the dining room table candlelit; the police dismiss this as the behavior of bored teenagers. With only their new friend, a local named Chris, offering to stay with them and help try to make sense of the increasingly creepy happenings, Logan and Naomi must find a way to catch the mystery person lurking in the house, or die trying. Perhaps the only good thing about this horror movie is the music. While the acting isn't bad and there's some initial hope that The Open House could be a satisfying scary movie, viewers are ultimately left with nothing but the feeling that 94 minutes of their life was wasted. There are some nods to The Shining and Psycho that suggest perhaps the filmmakers are savvy enough to make horror movie magic with a small budget, but it doesn't take long to see that the overuse of genre clichés -- such as the sudden burst of music and the jolting camera shot that merely reveals another character appearing seemingly out of nowhere -- reveals an amateurish ineptitude that might lead the viewer to wonder if they're being ironic. Is the movie a spoof of horror movies? It's unclear. Viewers may be frustrated with the ending, or lack of an ending. Basically, it's like a whodunit without telling you whodunit. Teen horror fans are better off sticking with the classics.