Shiamaylan Movie Review: ***Old (2021)

Old is a really creepy movie.  This is a very cruel experiment.  A pharmaceutical company has discovered a beach that causes rapid aging.  This way they can test their drugs over a lifetime which only lasts a couple of days because of the rapid aging.  Most people die within a day.

So they spike their drinks with the drugs they want to study, and recruit them to go to a secluded beach.  In this case there is a small group that goes to the beach--The family of Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca Cappa (Vicky Krieps) and their two children, Maddox and Trent ( Thomasin Mackensie age 15 and Alex Wolff age 15 with several others as they age). Prisca has a tumor.  There is a rapper Brenden/Mid-sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) and his girl, another family, Charles (Rufus Sewell) is a surgeon with grandmother and a daughter, and then a couple.   

First Brenden's girl is dead (maybe a murder), and then the grandmother.  Complicating the plot is Charles has paranoia.  Then the three children in just a couple hours are teenagers.  The realize the beach is causing aging.  However there is no way off.  Climbing the cliffs results in black outs.  Kara becomes pregnant and has a baby in just an hour or so.  The baby does not live.  She climbs the cliff knowing she will pass out an fall.  Due mostly to aging they all die, except for the two who were children.  They attempt swimming into the lagoon, and survive to turn the people doing the experiments into authorities.

This movie is a bit hard to follow, just because the plot is so incredible.

Movie Review: ****^A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)

 This movie also goes back in time, as did Quiet Place II for the first ten minutes.  This movie however changes location, to New York and characters as well, and doesn't get past the first few days.  Samira (Lupita Nyong'o) is a patient in a hospice.  She has cancer.  She agrees to a trip to the city as they will stop and get pizza before coming back.  They go to see a puppet show; but the hospice calls and asks them to come back as something is happenning in New York.  That something catches up to them before they can leave, as the bus is hit with something; the aliens who attack at any sound and enjoying eating people.  Samira's cat is a real character in this movie.  She is a emotional support cat, and always seems to find her way back to Samira.  The nurse staff who comes with them to the show is Reuben (Alex Wolff).  However he doesn't make it.  After Samira finds a student, Erix (Joseph Quinn) who just wants to live.  They become a team, at first trying to stay alive, then to get pizza and finally to escape.  Actually they are three with the cat.

I really like cats, consequently I really like this movie.

Available on Paramount +

Quiet Place II

A Quiet Place

Movie Review: ***^ Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Jumanji is just a fun movie.  It is not a movie with any moral lessons, but just to have a good time.  Four high school kids, transport themselves from high school detention to inside the Jumanji Game, where they have to go through a series of levels, and save Jumanji.  At the same time, they have only three lives.  In real life a nerd, Spencer (Alex Wolff) becomes the hero in Jumanji (Dwayne Johnson.)  The football player, Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain) becomes the back pack holder (Kevin Hart.)  the socialite Bethany (Madison Iseman) changes gender, loses her phone and becomes a zoologist (Jack Black.)  Martha, a nerdy woman (Morgan Turner) becomes the woman in short shorts (Karen Gillam.)  Each has their own skills and weaknesses.  Spencer is a good runner and climber.  Fridge blows up when he eats cake, Martha is good at fight dancing and Bethany knows animals.  However the team is not complete until they find someone who has been in the game for 20 years, Alex (Nick Jonas.)  This movie is pretty OK throughout.  There are some cracks at humor based on the changing gender, and part of Bethany.