Movie Review: Send Help


The new movie “Send Help” at the start is all about the way too many unfortunate millions of us have to suffer as we have to make a living to buy food and shelter. The massive injustice, abuse, and disrespect some of us have to endure from a bad boss or deranged co-workers are some of the worst parts of making a living.

This movie reminded me of “The Devil Wears Prada”, released in 2006, which shows the abuse so many of us have to live through because we have no leverage. When someone else has the power to take away our income, we have to hold back our anger to avoid being fired. Dealing with a bad boss and abusive co-worker(s) is one of the greatest sources of extreme stress in our lives.

Send Help is the first movie I have ever seen that attempts to “turn the tables” on the abusive boss, and the back stabbling, credit taking co-workers, with an inspired and brilliant story idea that involves a private jet crashing on a deserted island where the abused employee Linda Liddle, played by Rachel McAdams tries to survive on an island with her scumbag boss, Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien. The scenes of the Jet decompressing and falling apart in mid-air and the crash on the deserted island are as good as the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, released in 2000.

Linda Liddle is an employee of a financial company where the CEO recently died and his son, Bradly Preston takes over the company. Even though Linda is far and away the most brilliant and hard-working employee in the company, she does not dress or have the personality of the other employees, and because of this, she is disrespected and denied a Vice President position in the company after seven years in favor of a new employee who has been with the company for only 6 months. How many times in our lives have we been the victim of or witness to injustice like this? When something like this happens to any good person, regardless of how hard they worked and how much they deserve fair treatment, far too often, there is nothing that can be done to correct the injustice.

The scenes on the deserted island are at times extremely bloody and violent (one scene where Linda kills a wild boar), some are completely insane, one scene is both unexpected and stupid, and the ending, due to its craziness, is impossible to predict. The relationship between Laura and Bradly is at first very combative and rude, and later turns into an unexpected impromptu friendship, within the ongoing attempts to create twists and turns in this insane story. I was reminded of the famous quote, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou. This is a truth that holds regardless of any extreme circumstance.

This is the first horror/drama/action movie that Rachel McAdams has starred in; her performance is both very well done and impressive expecially with many of the action scenes. Dylan O’Brien is also very good in this role, along with his evil laugh, playing a narcissistic, disgusting person who has no business being in charge of other people’s lives and careers.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are an extremely high 92%, I agree with this and highly recommend this film.

Movie Review: Weapons


In another effort to stand out, the new movie “Weapons” had a starting time of 2:17 PM, to coincide with a pivotal moment in the movie. This is definitely an idea I have never seen before. For a horror movie, this one has more than its share of over-the-top, way too violent scenes, including one where an insane man crashes his head into the head of another man, way too many times. Is it necessary to kill another person several times over? We get it, this person is dead.

This story is about 17 children who ran from their homes late one night and are missing for weeks, with a narrative that is told out of order, reminiscent of the storytelling method in “Pulp Fiction” (1994). There is a very old witch-like woman, played by Amy Madigan, who casts spells using blood and old tree branches, and can put people in a coma-like state, ordering them to kill other people, or sit at a dinner table, while stabbing their faces with a fork (another scene that went on way too long). This film is insane, disturbing, crazy, and overly violent, and is not a movie for kids who are not older than 17.

Weapons stars Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, the schoolteacher whose students have gone missing, Josh Brolin plays Archer Graff, one of the parents of a missing child, who harasses the police to investigate and eventually investigates what happened to the 17 missing children himself. The ending of this horror movie involves one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen in any movie, once again, way too much and way over the top, unnecessary.

For some reason, the Rotten Tomatoes rating is a ridiculously high 96% for a movie that should be at best 75% only for some original ideas. My rating is 75% and a small recommendation only for the most die-hard horror movie fans who like to see an extreme gore-fest.

Movie Review: Together


The standout issue with the new horror movie “Together” is that its premise and special effects represent a brand-new idea that has never been done before in a film.

A married couple, Tim and Millie, played by real-life couple Dave Franco and Allison Brie, move to the country and on a hiking trip find themselves infected by supernatural water, which tries to physically connect them together.

The remainder of this movie is about conflicts in Tim and Millie’s relationship and horrific scenes where the two of them are like magnets trying to pull themselves apart from each other. There is a side story where another teacher in the school where Millie teaches is familiar with this water and videos are seen of ceremonies where this teacher is trying to bond with his partner, who it seems, passed away some time ago. For this part of the story, not enough is explained, suggesting that perhaps these people are aliens who might have infected the area with this body-bonding water. In the end, we never find out the origin of this supernatural water.

There are the typical gross-out scenes that are common with physical horror movies like this one; most are well done, especially when they show the combining of body parts. The ending was no surprise, and overall, I give this movie a very mild recommendation only because of some of the originality.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94% is way too high, with my rating around 75% and small thumbs up.