The Voices (2014) #426

"The Voices" is a Horror-Comedy starring Ryan Reynolds (who better?) and Anna Kendrick. It's a straight forward film about a schizophrenic who hears his cat and dog talking to him, encouraging him to act in positive or murderous ways. The concept is fun and although not unique or different, it is used in an almost innocent way. Ryan's portrayal of Jerry is sweet and caring and makes him one of the most lovable antagonists I've ever seen. It's a fun movie worth watching once or twice. The horror and comedy elements do feel a bit uneven and the transitions between the two could have been more smooth at times but when it wants to be a horror movie, it does a great job; same with the comedic moments. For me, the most entertaining parts of the film were when Ryan's character wasn't taking his medication and the world around him was happy and magical like a Disney cartoon movie. 

Jerry (Renolds) has recently been paroled and his only friends are his dog Bosco and his cat Mr. Whiskers, who live with him in converted apartment above a bowling alley, but that may soon change after he begins to fit in and be accepted by his coworkers at a bathtub fixture manufacturing company. He is chosen to represent the shipping department for the company's annual work party, he falls a pretty girl, and a different pretty girl falls for him. Jerry's good fortune quickly unravels after an unfortunate accident and taking the advice of his pets and other "personalities", with whom he can hear and talks with, begins making some very bad decisions. Even though Jerry tries to be a good person and doesn't want to hurt those around him that he is beginning to care for, one thing does leads to another and soon it's too late.

The Green Inferno (2013) #425

"The Green Inferno" is Eli Roth's ode to the cannibal movie sub-genre of 1970's and 80's, a film that offers plenty of gore as well as Roth's signature sense of dark humor. The movie is perhaps best known for it's mainstream theatrical release after it was dropped by its original distributor, even though it was well received during its time shown in the film festival circuit. When it was finally released on the big screen, I did see it with about a dozen other people at a local cineplex. And was it worth the wait? Meh....

The violence, the gore, and the very nature of the movie isn't meant the average movie attendee, but to have its distributor drop the film is a bit suspect. It's not the first or the last to have this happen and you can almost gunarentee that when it does occur, the film in question will earn more discussion than if it quietly appeared as planned. Much like Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses", I was expecting something more after hearing about all of the hype.

Essentially the movie is about a group of student protesters from Columbia University who fly down to Peru's portion of the Amazon in order to stop a logging operation that will destroy innocent tribal villages left untouched by the outside world. After successfully halting the operation and getting arrested in the process, the protestors begin to fly back to the city, but the plane that they are on crashes, killing some of the people on board. The lucky survivors are then found by members of the "innocent" tribe and are brought back to the village, only to find out that the tribe are cannibals.