Triple Frontier (2019)

I'm not even going to pretend that I was interested in seeing Triple Frontier for its plot. I didn't even know what it was about because I just didn't care. Four hot and talented men —and unfortunately Ben Affleck— were a strong enough motivation to sit through Netflix's latest film.

Just in case you are not as shallow as I am, the story follows five Special Forces friends, Santiago "Pope" Garcia (Oscar Isaac), Tom "Redfly" Davis (Ben Affleck), William "Ironhead" Miller (Charlie Hunnam), his brother Ben (Garrett Hedlund), and Francisco "Catfish" Morales as they reunite in South America to rob a drug lord (Reynaldo Gallegos).

Papillon (2017)

Something I've come across often when reading about Michael Noer's Papillon is that it is a bad remake of the 1973 film of the same name. Having read the book upon which both are based, I refuse to call this a remake. Instead, I consider it to be a different approach to the material whose outcome is barely decent, but still a notch above the "original". 

The film follows Henri Charrière (Charlie Hunnam), nicknamed Papillon because of the butterfly tattoo he had on his chest, a French safecracker who is convicted of murder and is sentenced to life in the notorious penal colony in French Guyana. On his way there, he meets Louis Dega (Rami Malek), a rich, convicted forger who asks Papillon for protection. In exchange, he will finance Papillon's escape attempts.

The Ledge (2011)

I must be retarded or something because I wanted to watch The Switch, yep, the romantic comedy starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, but I ended up watching The Ledge, a thriller starring three very bangable actors instead. Or perhaps it's because Patrick Wilson is in both and the short titles confused me. 

Either way, the film is about two men who intersect each other on the ledge of a skyscraper: one man, Gavin (Charlie Hunnam), is about to jump, the other man, Hollis (Terrence Howard), is the detective trying to talk him out of it. At first, it looks like a regular suicide attempt but it quickly relieves to be way more complex than that as Gavin starts telling his story and explains to Hollis why he has no other choice than to jump. 

Crimson Peak (2015)

Genre

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

Director

Guillermo del Toro

Country

USA | Canada

Cast

Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver, Burn Gorman, Leslie Hope, Sofia Wells, Doug Jones, Javier Botet

Storyline

When her heart is stolen by mysterious Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is swept away to a house atop a mountain of blood-red clay: a place filled with secrets that will haunt her forever.

Opinion

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I wouldn't call myself a fan of Guillermo del Toro, but there's something very captivating in his films, and I expected this one to be spectacular. Unfortunately, although I wasn't completely disappointed, the film didn't meet my expectations.

A visually breathtaking psychological horror, Crimson Peak is the disappointing result of choosing style over substance.

The script - I kind of feel ashamed to call it that - is the worst part of the film. I can't believe Guillermo del Toro has been able to write such a thing. 

The story starts off pleasantly, and makes you wonder what the ghosts are up to, but then it becomes extremely predictable, and doesn't bring anything new to the table. As they make their first appearance, the cruel intentions of the mysterious brothers are more than obvious, so is the incest, and Lucille being the one killing Edith's father. Whether or not you have seen Rosemary's Baby, the poisoned tea is easy to guess since the narrative keeps on insisting on the beverage so many times it's impossible to keep track.

So, if the purpose of cinema is to amaze and surprise the audience, this is a real failure from del Toro, and there is an abyss that separates Crimson Peak to Pan's Labyrinth.

As mentioned before, the visuals are stunning. The sets are spectacular, the costumes are gorgeous and detailed, the ghosts are monstrously beautiful - I was expecting a major involvement in the story, though -, and the result is a delightfully creepy atmosphere.

The acting is also superb. Both Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston give good performances, and they do have a great chemistry, but Jessica Chastain is the one that steals the show, delivering a wonderful performance that has Oscar material written all over as cold-hearted, and manipulative Lucille.