47 METERS DOWN – UNCAGED: TERRORS OF THE DEEP

If you missed the first movie 47 METERS DOWN don’t worry. The similarities between that film and this are superficial and the two don’t connect with the exception of danger underwater and sharks. For me I was able to see this one without the other but now I want to go back and find it.

Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and Sasha (Corinne Foxx) are stepsisters relocated with their family to the beaches of Cancun. Mia’s father Grant (John Corbett) is an archeologists who may have come across the find of a lifetime, this forcing the family to move. The move is more intrusive for the reluctant Mia who is the focus of school bullies with Sasha hangs with the more popular crowd.

After the latest incident Grant has booked his daughters on a glass bottom boat ride that will take them near where his discovery is. The girls reluctantly go but once there run into Sasha’s friends who convince the pair to come with them swimming in a nearby lagoon. One of the friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) tells them there is a secret entrance in the lagoon to a hidden Mayan city underwater, the same place Grant and his team are examining. Of course the group decides that they need to see this place, don scuba hear and head down.

They find the underwater city and begin swimming around. Their hi-tech gear allows them to talk to one another while underwater. When a cave fish scares one of the girls, she backs up and knocks down a column, closing off the tunnel they used to enter the city. Once the silt clears they find one another as well as one of Grant’s helpers, Ben (Davi Santos). As he’s telling them to follow his guideline to get out he’s whisked away by a shark. It’s a great white in the ultimate sense, white from being trapped in the tunnels all its life and blind as well.

Now the real thriller begins. It’s no longer a story of trying to simply escape from an underwater city but trying to escape from the shark as well. With only precious minutes of air in their tanks the odds are against them. When they realize there is more than one shark, even more so.

The movie works on many levels, the basest of which is the fear of sharks that was instilled in movie goers when JAWS was released in the 70s. Technology has moved forward since that time and now we have CGI sharks to contend with. This film does CGI proud making them seem more real than one would expect.

Other fears are at work here as well, combined to make the film even more hair raising. There is the sense of time as those trapped didn’t come expecting a long visit and have a limited amount of air. Then there is the sense of claustrophobia as the walls of the underwater city provide little room to move as well as escape paths for the sharks as they barrel down the tunnels the girls are trapped in.

This is not a movie where you’re talking about the acting but the fact is all involved here do a good job in the roles they’ve been given. That’s not an easy task when for over half the film you’re seen in scuba gear and your facial expressions are pretty much lost to the camera. That’s when body language kicks in and these actors seem truly frightened.

The movie provide plenty of moments when you’ll jump, plenty when you’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next and plenty of entertainment all around. As I said, I’ve not seen the first film but if it compares to this one I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. And the two together might make for a fun double feature. Especially outside. And shown next to a swimming pool. 

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ANGEL HAS FALLEN: SAVE THE PRESIDENT AGAIN

Franchises are what the movie industry seems to be built on these days. In the past there were only a few, most notable the James Bond series of films. But with the rise of several successful franchises like the ELM STREET films, HARRY POTTER films and more, it seems a new one pops up each year.

In the 2013 film OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN we were introduced to the character of Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), the top notch Secret Service agent in working the Presidential detail who fell from grace when he saved the President but not the First Lady. He redeemed himself and then in 2016 returned again in LONDON HAS FALLEN, guarding the President this time in London as a terrorist attack on the commander in chief goes down. Of course he was successful.

Here we are 3 years past and now we have ANGEL HAS FALLEN arriving on disc, the angel being referenced being Banning, the President’s guardian angel. The film opens with Mike going through a training session at the camp his old Army buddy Wade Jennings (Danny Huston) has. Jennings has retired from active duty and now runs a mercenary for hire group.

Mike has been groomed to take over as the new director of the Secret Service by both his outgoing boss David Gentry (Lance Reddick) and President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), the VP in the first two films. The only thing keeping him back is pain issues having sustained so many injuries in the past. Rather than confront this he takes pain meds and hides his condition.

On a private fishing expedition for the President Mike is showing fatigue and the Trumbull sends him ashore. As he pilots his boat back the entire Secret Service details is attacked by a swarm of drones armed with explosives that takes them all out. Before the drones can kill the President, the agent with him throws him in the water and Mike swims to his rescue. For some reason the drones do not shoot him.

When he wakes he finds out why. Trumbull is in a coma and a trail of clues lead to the conclusion that Mike was behind the assassination attempt. FBI agent Thompson (Jada Pinkett Smith) places him in custody and he is transported to a safe facility. Along the way his convoy is attacked by the same people really responsible for assassination attempt, Wade Jenning’s group. Mike escapes these captors, realizes who they are and heads out to find assistance.

The only person he can trust and the one that he feels no one will ever connect him with lives in a cabin in the woods by himself. They’ve not had contact in years. It’s his father Clay Banning (Nick Nolte). There are issues between the two but it provides Mike a place to rest. Until Wade’s men track him down and attempt to take out both men. What they didn’t count on was loner and conspiracist Clay being prepared for just such an occasion.

Determined to save the President and reclaim his good name Mike sets out to do just that. Each step of the way he has to worry about Wade and his men stopping him as well as the countless number of police, military, FBI and Secret Service people searching for him. It’s no spoiler to assume the outcome. The fun is the journey getting there.

When this film was released in theaters I can remember the bad press that it got. Critics felt it was too over the top. They said it was too unbelievable. But the fact of the matter is that this is the exact reason that people went to see these movies to begin with. They’re popcorn films, movies that you sit crunching away on salted, buttered goodness while having a blast at the movies. Filled with tons of gun battles and explosions it was the perfect summer movie. And yet it disappointed at the box office.

That shouldn’t stop you from enjoying it at home. Butler continues to play the role with ease. Freeman does a great job as well, the wizened bureaucrat who knows there are few he can trust and who is proven true as the film unfolds. Piper Perabo takes over for Radha Mitchell as Mike’s wife Leah. And Nolte does a great job as an old curmudgeon who has the chance to make up for lost time.

It’s a fun film that provides all of the action you’ve come to expect in the series. With films like JOHN WICK, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS series and more seeking to grab the reigns on action films this one gives them a go for the title. It might not rule them all but it is a movie that packs a punch. 

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THE DEAD CENTER: EDGE OF SANITY

There are horror movies that are chock full of jump scares intended to make you leap from your seat, popcorn flying through the air as others around you scream in unison. Those movies used to have that effect all the time until the unending number of them were released, each featuring the latest group of glamor models all placed in danger by some never ending stream of maniac or revenge seeking individual.

What horror movies were missing are the more thoughtful type of horror films, the ones that get under your skin and stick with you long after watching them. These movies delve deeper into the cause of horror as opposed to those jump scares. Don’t get me wrong, many combine the two and to great effect. But these movies tend to be ones you’ll discuss later as opposed to those teens in trouble CW styled horrors. THE DEAD CENTER is one of those kinds of movies.

The film opens with a coroner called in to handle the victim in an apparent suicide. He notes the condition of the body which is nearly zero blood and several long, deep cuts to the forearms. He toe tags it and has it transported to the freezer to be examined in depth later. And that’s when things get weird as the body wakes and leaves the freezer to wander the halls of the hospital.

Working in the mental ward of that hospital is Dr. Daniel Forrester (Shane Carruth), a far too compassionate psychiatrists whose method of compassion for his patients has led him to bend the rules once too often. It is his halls that the suicide victim shows up, wounds healed and very much alive, yet unresponsive to questions of identity. Knowing that the system will not allow him to have a room, Forrester circumvents the system and admits him knowing it will take some time to figure it all out.

From there we have a back and forth tale that unfolds. Alongside that of Forrester and his patient John Doe (Jeremy Childs) is that of the corner Dr. Graham. When the body disappears he begins looking into whatever evidence he has on hand to determine who the body was and why it would be gone. Searching the hotel room the body was found in he finds the knife that was used to commit the suicide when he drains the tub filled with blood. He also finds a circular pattern in the bottom of the tub as well.

Forrester begins using some unusual methods in an attempt to reach John Doe, one of which is hypnosis. Doe has no clue who he is but continues to rant on about bringing death to the world. Eventually Doe pleads with Forrester to kill him before it’s too late.

After his first examination of Doe, Forrester leaves for the night. During that evening one of the orderlies steps into the room and is grabbed by the still ranting Doe. He walks out dazed and makes his way to his car in the lot where he dies, his face distorted in a wide open mouth. Another patient, an elderly woman with a penchant for leaving her room, is later killed the same way.

Forrester knows that Doe has had something to do with these deaths and yet he doesn’t turn him in. At the same time the search for the missing body of Doe carries on with no one realizing he’s in the same building his body disappeared from, a definite swipe at the inefficiency of bureaucracies and the day to day machinations of a hospital system. 

We know that these two threads will eventually come together and we’ll discover just who and what John Doe is. And by the time that happens the terror that runs through the story, that underlying feeling of dread that it molds with each passing moment and incident, will find fruit in the seeds that were planted. This will be a horror story that sticks with you rather than makes you just jump.

Everything involved here from the story to the direction to the acting combine to make a thoroughly entertaining and interesting film. It grabs you from the start and doesn’t let go as it moves forward, providing bits and pieces of information as it goes, never revealing everything and yet concealing nothing at the same time. It’s an effective film and one worth watching.

The film may not have been a huge blockbuster at theaters but that hasn’t stopped Arrow from releasing it on disc with plenty of extras. Those include a commentary track with writer/director Billy Senese, producer Shane Carruth and co-star Jeremy Childs, a commentary track with Senese, producers Denis Deck and Jonathan Rogers and cinematographer Andy Duensing, A WALK THROUGH THE DEAD CENTER a making of documentary on the film, nine deleted scenes from the film including an alternate ending, on-set interviews with Carruth and Poorna Jagannathan, Head-casting with Childs looking at the creation of a special effects make-up sequence, INTRUDER a short film from 2011 directed by Senese starring Childs, THE SUICIDE TAPES the original short film from 2010 directed by Senese and starring Childs that was the basis for the film, MIDNIGHT RADIO THEATER six chilling radio plays written, produced and directed by Sense, the theatrical trailer and teasers, an image gallery, a reversible sleeve with new and original artwork and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jamie Graham. 

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