Paranormal Activity 2

1 out of 5 Stars



Their back with the next most pointless sequel in a history of sequels. Once again the film follows a group of people, this time a family with a baby and a dog, in which things go bump in the night and something intense happens by the end. In this family the mother is actually the sister of the character from the last film and this film is a prequel/sequel. So the events of this one begin before the events of the first one take place. But the reality is that if you've seen the first one, you've basically seen this one, except now there is a dog and a baby. And of course they still pretend like it was a real event.

I personally hate these films. So why did I see it? For the heck of it because I got to for free. But I'm always so bored in these movies. It takes over half the movie for anything to happen and by the time something does I'm too bored to even think about being scared. Probably 85-90% of the movie is watching the mundane events of life (much like watching a home movie) until something (actually quite predictable) happens. That is not my idea of a good movie. If I want to watch a home movie, I'll do that. When I go to the theater I want to see something that takes me out of my life. I want to escape the mundane, not revel in it. Many people are scared by these movies but really they are not that frightening. Not really. Unless you're scared easily but then just about anything could scare you. In reality these movies are terrible. They aren't quality. It's just the new Blair Witch. And documentary style film just doesn't work. Not with the way story needs to be. And if good film = good story. Then documentary style film = bad film because the story always seems to fall flat.

But I think that Roger Ebert puts it quite well in his review:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101022/REVIEWS/101029991

The Last Exorcism

2 out of 5 Stars



When Reverend Cotton decides to do one final exorcism to expose them as a fraud he invites a documentary crew along to tape it. Along the way he begins to find things he doesn't expect and isn't prepared for. What seems like it could be an interesting story ends up being slow and uninteresting. I've never liked the documentary style film making much but I feel it could be interesting though it would be difficult to make happen. This is just another addition to this style and it doesn't pull out well. Although the acting is quite good, the rest of the film is not. It's interesting and entertaining when it shows how the reverend is making things happen in the exorcism but beyond that nothing really happens. We sit through over an hour of the film with practically nothing happening. When something finally does it might be interesting but also very short. Then by the time things really start to heat up and get interesting the film ends. Overall the film is more of a bore than anything. It's certainly not scary and only interesting for the fact of seeing what happens behind a fake exorcism. If liked Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch, or similar movies you'll like this most likely. Either way, the ending is terrible.