“I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson — to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
A very short review of “Don’t Hang Up” (2017)
“Don’t Hang Up” (2017) is an absolutely derivative horror movie that nevertheless manages to be halfway decent. I’d rate it a 7 out of 10.
We follow a handful of older teenage boys whose favorite avocation is perpetrating cruel prank phone calls and then posting them on the Internet. The horror genre’s penchant for vengeance should make their comeuppance predictable. “Don’t Hang Up” seems to borrow in equal (large) measure from the “Saw” and “Scream” film franchises, with touches of “Unfriended” (2014) and even “Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
Still, this was a halfway serviceable scary movie. There were nice moments of tension, and it held my interest.
This doesn’t belong on anyone’s must-see list, but it’s a fun enough time-waster if you can’t find a better movie.
Crystal Springs, Virginia, February 2017
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed …”
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
― George Orwell
Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, February 2017
A very short review of “Arrival” (2016)
“Arrival” (2016) is an unusually smart and thought-provoking science fiction film. It isn’t really intended by its creators as a “twist movie,” but it does include an unexpected component that should surprise and challenge the viewer. (I don’t want to say more about it, for fear of spoilers.)
Amy Adams actually is a terrific actress, and she seems to do well in understated roles that require her to be thoughtful and deliberate. (Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are both quite good too, even if they seem confined to roles here that don’t require much range.)
One caveat — this isn’t a standard science fiction thriller. (Although “Arrival” has some decent suspense, I’m inclined to think that this shouldn’t be considered a thriller at all.) I do think that viewers expecting a more mainstream film will be disappointed with this story conclusion’s more subdued and unconventional payoff. (Again, I just can’t say more here.)
I’d rate this an 8 out of 10; and I would recommend it to science fiction fans.
Hermann Kern Gute’s “Freunde,” 1904
Oil on canvas.
Grandin Village, Virginia, February 2017
“In every human being, there are four hungers …”
“In every human being, there are four hungers: the hunger of the belly, the hunger of the loins, the hunger of the mind, the hunger of the soul.”
— Samuel Beckett
Teodor Axentowicz’ “Woman with a Pitcher,” circa 1904
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 