MOVIE REVIEW: THE WARD

ON VIDEO

THE WARD



A young girl named Kristen (Amber Heard) awakens in a psychiatric hospital after setting a farmhouse ablaze, and finds herself stalked by a malevolent ghost in this psychological shocker from celebrated horror director John Carpenter (Halloween). Badly battered and seemingly stricken with amnesia, Kristen forges a fragile friendship with fellow patients Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), Emily (Mamie Gummer), and Zoey (Laura-Leigh) as her compassionate therapist, Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris), works to uncover the source of her mysterious condition. Later, at night, when the lights in her remote ward go dim, Kristen is confronted by an imposing phantom that seems intent on dragging her screaming into the darkness. Eventually, the other girls in the ward begin to vanish, one by one. Now, the harder Kristen fights to avoid falling prey to her shadowy pursuer, the more convinced she becomes that no patient who's checked in to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital ever comes out alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Mamie Gummer, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jared Harris

Release Date: Jul 08, 2011

Rated R for violence and disturbing images

Runtime: 1 hr. 28 min.

Genres: Horror, Suspense/Thriller

Review:

John Carpenter took a 9 year hiatus from feature filmmaking after making the dreadful Ghost of Mars. Carpenter’s return was mildly anticipated because he’s created a handful of favorites including one of my favorite horror films ever, his remake of The Thing. That being said, even the most diehard fan can’t ignore his obvious decline during the 90’s even though I am one of the few that liked Vampires. The Ward unfortunately just continues the decline, it’s biggest sin is that’s it not really a mess on the scale of Ghost of Mars but it’s just so bland and uninspired that you are left wondering why he chose this project to break his hiatus. The film is directed decently and it flows nicely but it’s just about as vanilla as it gets. Nothing about it has any identity or soul, it’s a mindless run through a plot that’s rudimentary and never really all that engaging. Amber Heard is incredibly easy on the eyes but her performance along with the rest of the cast, outside of Jared Harriss who looks like he’s really trying, is bland and nondescript. At best I can see it as a throwback to the “woman in cages” exploitation films from the 70’s but even that is kind of a stretch. It’s still better than Synder’s horrid Sucker Punch but that’s not really much of a compliment. Carpenter’s general sense of disinterest is so palpable that you can almost here him yawning in the background or maybe that’s you.

C-

TV SHOW REVIEW: NIKITA SEASON 1 (2010)

TV SHOW REVIEW: NIKITA (2010)



Nikita is a trained Assassin gone Rouge trying to stop a secret U.S. agency known only as Division for trying to requite deeply troubled teenagers and train them to be Assassins.

Starring Maggie Q, Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca, Aaron Stanford, Melinda Clarke, Xander Berkeley

REVIEW;

I’ll be the first to freely admit that the only reason I started watching this show was because of the endless promo of Maggie Q in a killer red bikini kicking some serious butt. I’ve had a crazy crush on Maggie Q since I first saw her in Mission Impossible 3 so I was an easy sell. All that being said, I’m no fool, this property had been done 3 times now (La Femme Nikita 1990 French original, La Femme Nikita TV series 1990s series, Point of No Return American Remake) and the chances of it doing any exciting or interesting were decidedly low. I didn’t expect much outside of some mindless entertainment. For the first handful of episodes that pretty much what it delivered, nothing terrible complex outside of a seemingly indestructible Nikita foiling Division’s plans on a weekly basis, it was enjoyable but just generic fast food. Around the mid point of the season something funny happen, the mythology of the show expanded. The supporting cast (Fonseca, West, Stanford & the wonderful Melinda Clarke) really found their footing and the characters were fleshed out. Maggie Q was totally in her element right from the start but once the story and supporting characters followed suit it become so much better. The latter half of the first season is just full of wonderful pulp melodrama and secret spy intrigue. Twist and turns abound as it all comes to a raucous finale that sets up the next season, hopefully it’s renewed, extremely well. There are a handful of drawback of course, as mentioned the start of the series is pretty formulaic even with Maggie Q strong presence and it’s the type of show that doesn’t want you to think about anything for too long otherwise you’d find plenty of logical gaps and happy coincidences to rack your brain. Then again you are watching a show that about a super secret government agency, so how hard you want to think about any of this is up to you. That being said it’s really one of those shows that surprise you as it goes on and is worth picking up whenever it hits video.

B

[Trailer] John Carpenter’s THE WARD

Carpenter's first film since the awful Ghost of Mars (2001), trailer doesn't fill me with a lot of hope as it looks fairly pedestrian and the January release date (known to be a dumping ground for studio’s crap) makes me more than a tad apprehensive.

Time will tell if Carpenter is able to capture any of that magic from the 70’s or 80’s…