Movie Review: The Forgotten (2004)

Genre: Science Fiction Psychological Thriller Mystery 

Director: Joseph Ruben  

Starring: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Anthony Edwards, Alfre Woodard  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Telly (Julianne Moore) is still grieving the loss of her 9-year-old son Sam, who died in a plane crash 14 months prior. Her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards) provides limited emotional support, and so Telly leans on her therapist Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise). When photographs and videos of Sam suddenly disappear, Telly believes that Jim is tormenting her, and Dr. Munce provides a diagnosis of delusion - Sam never existed. But then Telly connects with former professional hockey player Ash (Dominic West), who lost his daughter in the same plane crash, and together they race to find answers, chased by federal agents and monitored by supernatural forces.

What Works Well: The opening 30 minutes establish a promising premise exploring the intersection of excruciating grief and mental well-being. The cast is rich with talent, and Julianne Moore is well above this material.

What Does Not Work As Well: The middle act features a numbing sequence of repetitive chases, discarding the psychological set-up for cheap and routine action. But the wheels completely fall off in the final third. The introduction of an omnipotent alien abduction theme is awful at a dumbfounding level, both as an idea and in execution, catapulting the plot into ludicrous territory and hopelessly stranding the characters in an unsalvageable mess.

Key Quote:

Telly: Do you get drunk every night?

Ash: No. Sometimes I'm drunk by noon.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Tomb Raider (2018)

An adventure thriller based on the video game series, Tomb Raider reboots the franchise with an athletic and grounded heroine, but cannot escape the drudgery of silly CGI overload.

In London, Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) works as a bike courier and dabbles in mixed martial arts. She refuses to accept that her father Richard (Dominic West) is dead, although the wealthy businessman and adventurer disappeared seven years ago. Richard was on a quest to find the grave of Queen Himiko, an ancient ruler with enormous evil powers, supposedly buried on a remote island in dangerous waters off the coast of eastern Asia.

Lara finds her father's hidden research chamber and travels to Hong Kong, where she teams up with boat owner Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) and they set sail to the island of Yamatai in the Devil's Sea. They wreck on the rocky shores of the island, and stumble upon a well-financed expedition led by the evil Vogel (Walton Goggins). He is intent on finding Himiko's grave to benefit the shadowy Trinity organization.

With the video game series rebooted in 2013, the movie franchise follows with this effort, directed by Road Uthaug. Tomb Raider is an origins story with a focus on the relationship between Lara and her father, and the first 30 minutes work well. Alicia Vikander brings a vulnerable sincerity to the role, and Lara is introduced as a compelling central character struggling to define her place in the world and resisting the idea that her father is gone forever.

Once Lara arrives in Hong Kong both Uthaug and the film start to lose their way. An endless and needless chase scene with some nondescript goons along the ramshackle waterfront is quickly followed by the arrival of messy CGI as Lara and Lu Re wreck their boat in the middle of a nighttime storm. By the time Vogel is introduced as a traditional heartless and psychotic villain, Tomb Raider is relegated to the ranks of countless mindless action films, the characters confined to the back row well behind the special effects, ridiculous stunts and mind-numbing escapes from death, which arrive at the rate of one per 3.5 minutes.

Vikander's good work is wasted, her athleticism often diverted towards surviving punching bag duties. The two hours feel like three as Himiko's grave site is finally penetrated, triggering a tired rehash of sequential trap dodging ideas dating back to early Indiana Jones and Mummy days.

Tomb Raider opens the creaky crypt door with some optimism, but is quickly sucked into the same old rot.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.