MOVIE REVIEW: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2016)

From IMDB:

The Girl on the Train is the story of Rachel Watson's life post-divorce. Every day, she takes the train in to work in New York, and every day the train passes by her old house. The house she lived in with her husband, who still lives there, with his new wife and child. As she attempts to not focus on her pain, she starts watching a couple who live a few houses down -- Megan and Scott Hipwell. She creates a wonderful dream life for them in her head, about how they are a perfect happy family. And then one day, as the train passes, she sees something shocking, filling her with rage. The next day, she wakes up with a horrible hangover, various wounds and bruises, and no memory of the night before. She has only a feeling: something bad happened. Then come the TV reports: Megan Hipwell is missing. Rachel becomes invested in the case and trying to find out what happened to Megan, where she is, and what exactly she herself was up to that same night Megan went missing.

47 Metascore From metacritic.com

Reviews 10 user | 64 critic

From Rotten Tomatoes:

Rachel, devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds. Based on Paula Hawkins' bestselling novel.

Rating: R (for violence, sexual content, language and nudity)

Genre: Drama , Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: Tate Taylor

Written By: Erin Cressida Wilson

In Theaters: Oct 6, 2016 Wide

Runtime: 112 minutes

Studio: Universal Pictures

TOMATOMETER  52%

Average Rating: 5.7/10

Reviews Counted: 66

Fresh: 34

Rotten: 32

Critics Consensus: Emily Blunt's outstanding performance isn't enough to keep The Girl on the Train from sliding sluggishly into exploitative melodrama.

WANT TO SEE 98% want to see

User Ratings: 15,169

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN OPENS IN THE US ON THE 7th OF OCTOBER IN THE U.S. AND ON THE 6TH OF OCTOBER IN MALAYSIA. FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD FIND OUT HERE.

Meet Rachel, she's recently divorced and has a substance abuse problem... ©Universal Pictures

There are two other movies with the same title but you won't have heard of the other two...

In fact, I didn't even know they existed until I did a little search to find out about this movie. Truthfully, I didn't know about this movie until I knew I was going to watch it and I didn't know there was a book first either. So I saw this movie last night which means it's been a full 24 hours since I saw it. It opens today in Malaysia and in a little over a day in the US but if you've been curious about this movie I'm guessing you've already read some of the early reviews for it. My opinions of this movie won't diverge all that much from the general opinions found in those early reviews. 

Rachel on her daily commute sees Megan and begins to fantasize about who she is and the type of life she has. ©Universal Pictures

The book written by British writer Paula Hawkins was first published in January 2015 quickly became a bestseller and debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list and remained at the top until April. Then about a year later it again went to the top of the best sellers list but this time reviewers began to comparisons between it and Gone Girl, claiming it to be the next Gone Girl. Gone Girl too became a movie in 2014 and went on to be nominated for several awards. Gone Girl was an incredible film. You can read my review of it here. 

She also passes the home of Tom and Anna. Tom used to be her husband and their house used to be her home. ©Universal Pictures

Unlike Gone Girl which took a bit more time to be picked up by the studios, DreamWorks Pictures acquired the film rights to the novel before the book was even available to the public in March 2014. By January 2015 while the public was falling in love with the book and putting it on the best sellers list, Erin Cressida Wilson was already working on the films screenplay. In May of the same year Tate Taylor was hired to direct and in the following months various actors and actresses were rumoured to be part of the production. Among them included Emily Blunt, Kate Mara, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Jared Leto, Chris Evans, Édgar Ramírez, Justin Theroux, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow, Luke Evans and Laura Prepon. Of course not everyone was available to be part of the final film. 

Then one day she decides to get off the train after a particularly bad day. ©Universal Pictures

So if you haven't read the book and have only seen the trailers then the only other clues you have regarding what this movie is about are the two things that are mentioned above, that it's the new Gone Girl and the title that mentions a girl on the train. With regards to Gone Girl this film shares a few similarities I guess. The tone of the two films are pretty similar. The two films have a gritty and tense atmosphere. They both throw all sorts of details at you to try and throw you off the path of the true criminal. Both use a fair bit of sex in the film to add another layer of complexity to the characters and their situations. As for the girl on the train, Emily Blunt plays the central character who rides the train from her home to work and back and is the one is the link to all the main players in this mystery. 

After which she gets a little visit from a detective. ©Universal Pictures

So here's what I enjoyed about the film.

1. The story wasn't too bad. Played out pretty nicely but if you were paying attention you could about two thirds of the way in figure out what really happened and who the culprit really is.
2. Emily Blunt is pretty amazing. 
3. Visually. Scenes nicely played out and paced. Tate Taylor and Charlotte Bruus Christensen did a pretty good job of keeping the scenes tense and gritty. 

After the detectives' visit Rachel decides to help this man out. ©Universal Pictures

A few things I didn't fancy much.

1. The balance between the characters or something like that. Emily Blunt was amazing but the others sort of were not. 
2. Things ended up being too melodramatic at times. Didn't suit the scenes so well or the film overall.

But in the end she's back on the train. ©Universal Pictures

Overall this was a pretty good story to watch, it was tense and as things played out you were kept guessing. But to compare it to Gone Girl is to flatter this movie a little too much. If I were to say how similar or close to Gone Girl this film is I'd probably say about 60% maybe. The thing or person that really drives this film is Emily Blunt without her I don't think this film would be as entertaining or watchable. But since I did enjoy it I'm going to give it a decent 3.2 out of 5.

Check out the trailer. 

MUCH THANKS GO TO BFM RADIO AND UIP MALAYSIA FOR THE PREVIEW PASSES!!

MOVIE REVIEW: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016)

From IMDB:

Seven gun men in the old west gradually come together to help a poor village against savage thieves.



51 Metascore From metacritic.com
Reviews 3 user | 52 critic


From Rotten Tomatoes:

Director Antoine Fuqua brings his modern vision to a classic story in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures' and Columbia Pictures' The Magnificent Seven. With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople, led by Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns - Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

Rating: PG-13 (for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material)

Genre: Action & Adventure , Drama , Western

Directed By: Antoine Fuqua

Written By: Richard Wenk , Nic Pizzolatto

In Theaters: Sep 23, 2016 Wide

Runtime: 132 minutes

Studio: Sony Pictures

TOMATOMETER 62%

Average Rating: 6.1/10

Reviews Counted: 45

Fresh: 28

Rotten: 17

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

WANT TO SEE 

98% want to see

User Ratings: 19,277

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN BEGINS PLAYING IN U.S. CINEMAS ON THE 23rd OF SEPTEMBER AND IN MALAYSIA ON THE 22nd OF SEPTEMBER. TO FIND OUT WHEN IT OPENS NEAR YOU CLICK HERE. 

In the first 10 minutes you're introduced to this handsome man and the bad guy who shoots him dead. ©Columbia Pictures

And this time a spaghetti western based on a japanese movie gets a reboot for a new generation of movie-goers...

So last night I went to watch The Magnificent Seven which is as of this writing is still a full three days before it officially opens in the U.S. There's been a fairly good buzz around this movie and that's probably due to the fact that this movie has to live up to two movies from the past. One shares the same title, the second is the original movie that spawned the previous film with the same title. 

After the handsome man is shot the bad guy tells his men to be the best examples of douchebags. ©Columbia Pictures

Let's begin with the original source, Seven Samurai (1954) by Akira Kurosawa. Co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa the film has been lauded ever since it's release and has influenced movies and directors ever since. Seven Samurai was the first time that anyone saw a story where a someone a person or village in need goes in search of someone to help them and who himself goes in search of others to help him. We now see this narrative in almost every other action movie. But that's not the only narrative influence that Seven Samurai has left, there's the introducing the main hero with an undertaking unrelated to the main plot, the reluctant hero, romance between a local woman and the youngest hero, and the nervousness of the common citizenry had appeared in other films before this but were combined in this film.

Then you meet this handsome rogue who isn't doing so well at poker hence the six shooter. ©Columbia Pictures

Seven Samurai was also one of the earliest films to successfully use the telephoto lens which was rare in 1954. It was also the first time that any director used multiple cameras to film a scene which allowed the audience to be fully immersed in the action without having to have the actors repeat what they were doing. 

Seven Samurai was a creative and technical accomplishment unlike any other for that period and became Japan's highest-grossing movie and set a new standard for the industry. Six years later came The Magnificent Seven.

Then the handsome rogue is recruited by a man who has more designations then most men at the time has property. ©Columbia Pictures

Directed by John Sturges and starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and Brad Dexter. The Magnificent Seven adapted the Seven Samurai story and characters and placed them in the old west, replacing the samurai sword with guns and rifles. The film even took whole scenes and replicated it in the old west. Unfortunately, instead of being a successful adaptation of Seven Samurai meant to entertain a western audience when it was released, the critics hated it. But there is one person who liked it so much that he gave director John Sturges a samurai sword, Akira Kurosawa. 

They then recruit a few other men including these two. ©Columbia Pictures

So now 62 years after Seven Samurai and 56 years after the original The Magnificent Seven and countless other movies that have been influenced by it or made variations of the narrative comes Antoine Fuqua's version. You'll remember Antoine Fuqua for exciting, tense and gripping action dramas such as Southpaw (2015), The Equalizer (2014), Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and Training Day (2001) which gave Denzel Washington his first Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Ethan Hawke a nomination for Best Actor in A Supporting Role.

They go on to share their expertise with the folks of Rose Creek. ©Columbia Pictures

The film stars  Denzel Washington as Chisolm, Chris Pratt as Josh Faraday, Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, Vincent D'Onofrio as Jack Horne, Byung-hun Lee as Billy Rocks, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez, Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, Haley Bennett as Emma Cullen one of the folks from Rose Creek who goes in search for heroes to help her and Peter Sarsgaard as Bartholomew Bogue the evil robber baron who has taken over Rose Creek in order to mine gold in the nearby hills. 

And prepare them for the return of King of the Douchebags. ©Columbia Pictures

So here's a list of things I like. 

1. The story is of course familiar but in the hands of Fuqua it's executed pretty good and in a goodly pace. A nice blend of everything. 
2. A well balanced treatment of all the cast. Yes, Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt are the headliners but everyone gets enough time for you to get to know them without feeling like it was done without thought. 
3. The visuals are pretty good. Fuqua style is present but he pays tribute to the old ways too which you'll notice with the extreme close-ups of the actors to capture their expression.
4. The acting. If you enjoyed Denzel's work in his past films with Fuqua you'll enjoy it here too. Chris Pratt is entertaining and funny. Hawke is good. D'Onofrio is quirky. All in all the cast works pretty well together and is entertaining. 
5. Peter Sarsgaard is delightfully evil and hateful without going over the top in my opinion.

The things I wasn't so impressed with. 

1. The big fight scene at the end. It seemed to run a little too long and loses some of its momentum after a while. And that sort of ruins the whole climactic pace/feeling at the end.

When he returns this lovely lady, the seven men and the folks of Rose Creek deliver an important lesson to the bad guys. Never underestimate a little town willing to hire mercenaries. ©Columbia Pictures

So there you go. I enjoyed The Magnificent Seven. It's not a masterpiece and I can't say if it does any of it's predecessors justice because I don't remember much of them but it's a familiar story told by a director who is more than capable of delivering a good story filled with equal amounts of tension, drama and action. Basically if you've enjoyed Fuqua's previous films you'll probably enjoy this one. And if you've enjoyed Denzel's work when he collaborates with Fuqua then you'll probably enjoy him in this too. If you love Chris Pratt then you'll probably like what he does here too. 

It's a decent maybe even good action movie with a nice amount of drama. So I'm giving The Magnificent Seven a decent 3 out of 5. 

Check out the most recent trailer below. 

BIG THANKS TO KLIPS.MY AND SONY PICTURES MALAYSIA FOR THE PREVIEW PASSES!