Jun 10 2016

The Conjuring 2

Rattled a little too hard during their investigation in Amityville, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are reluctant to get involved in any new investigations, that is until called upon by the Church; on a new mission, their job is to observe and report on the recent disturbances at a residency in Northern London. What Ed and Lorraine find at the Hodgson residence is certainly otherworldly, or is it, and what does “it” want?conjuring2 Building on the success of the Conjuring (2013) and his work on the Insidious series as well as the Saw franchise Director James Wan is back to work with this bedtime story based on one of the most documented paranormal investigations. Again, no stranger to things that go bump in the night Wan isn’t exactly breaking new ground, but does manage to stick with some solid scares and slow burns over the course of the film, the bummer this go around, kitchen sink syndrome seems to develop about midway through and somehow we end up with a runtime of two hours and fourteen minutes, oof. From an acting standpoint, Wilson and Farmiga are right at home in their persona and the rest of the ensemble performs perfectly. There’s enough spook and crucifix power to drive this demonic tale right to edge of your reptilian brain, jumps and jitters fully anticipated. Fans of the genre you’ve got a lot to like here, and perhaps new inspiration to pick up a canvas and paintbrush on your way home. Get your haunt on this weekend, The Conjuring 2 is rated R.


Jun 10 2016

Now You See Me 2

A team of the world’s finest magicians known as The Horsemen are back up to their tricks of exposing the corrupt and seedy financial doings of evildoers around the world. But, this time Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Dylan (Mark Ruffalo), Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Jack (Dave Franco), and newcomer Lula (Lizzy Caplan) find themselves kidnapped and shipped to China on a quest for a “broom chip” a microchip capable of sweeping any computer system to steal or control information. At the same time antagonist Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) and separately the F.B.I. are on the hunt for the group as well. It will take trickery of the highest caliber for The Horsemen to evade and elude their captors, perhaps the jig will be up after all?nowyouseeme2 Directed by Jon Chu and written mainly by Ed Solomon this delve back into the world of finger flickers, mentalism masters, and tricksters cuts little into new territory but instead continues a waltz into mediocrity by failing to follow the basic rules of magic as outlined by Maskelyne and Devant in their book Our Magic; the art of the illusion and the role of the magician is unfortunately lost for the sake of cinematic glitz and glamour. Worse yet, as any good magician really knows, the audience really doesn’t want to know how things are done– even if they beg and plead to know how something is done, magic’s true power is its ability to inspire wonder and the possibility of what if. In the case of the Now You See Me series, the big secrets are given up easily which subsequently deflates the films of their power. On the flip side from an actual working and practical standpoint, props to the actors for actually learning some of the card manipulations required to perform magic, that actually took a bit of practice. Bottom line, check your brain and enjoy the visuals but don’t hope for depth. Maybe a matinee, Now You See Me 2 is rated PG-13.