Ouija: Origin of Evil Review

Ouija: Origin of Evil Review

When I came into to see Ouija: The Origin of Evil my expectations were pretty low. It is the sequel to a film that was not well received and it did not help that the trailers looked incredibly generic. Also, sequels in the horror genre usually suck, look at Exorcist II or Blair Witch 2. So I was expecting to be bored or angry at this movie. I actually turns out that Ouija: The Origin of Evil is an ok horror film that actually knows how to play with it’s premise. While it definitely has it’s flaws, overall the film is a decent flick for Halloween season. 

The story starts in 1967 Los Angeles, where we see a single mother named Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) who is a fake séance who scams people by making them think that they are talking to their dead loved ones. She is also helped by her two daughters, the oldest is Paulina Zander (Annalise Basso) and the youngest is Doris Zander (Lulu Wilson). One day Alice buys a Ouija board for her act but in the process invited an evil spirit into the house. Then when Doris is taken over by the spirit after she tries to contact her dad, it seems she can speak to people on the “other side”. However, once Alice uses Doris for her business and to speak to her dead husband, all hell breaks loose. 

What I liked about this movie is the setup. Normally in these movies, there would a contrived reason for why the character would unlock the evil spirits. However, in this scenario, it makes sense that our main characters would accidentally unlock evil spirits since Alice works in a business that involves spirits, even if it is all fake. Also, it is a business that has run through Alice’s family so it makes sense.

However the element that shocked me the most were the characters and the performances. At first, it seems that Alice Zander is unlikable since she is scamming people. Then it seems she is stupid for messing with evil spirits when she realizes they are real. However, she actually becomes more sympathetic because we learn that she has good intentions, as she feels it brings people inner peace to believe that they are talking to their dead loved ones. Even though we see that Alice should not mess with spirits it is understandable that she would mess with them as it allows her to talk to her husband. 

Also the character is more likable thanks to Elizabeth Reaser’s performance. I also really liked Lulu Wilson as Doris who plays a character who starts off as an innocent little girl and then turns into someone who is emotionless. I even liked Henry Thomas (who was the little boy from ET by the way) as the Pastor Father Tom who tries to help the Zanders. Annalise Basso is just ok as Paulina as see just plays your typical adventurous teenager who for some reason seems to have the same facial expression throughout the movie.

I also really enjoyed the 60’s ascetic of the film. The film’s cinematography has a very grainy feel to it like it was filmed with film strips. We also see some burn marks on the screen which also makes us feel like we are watching a film from the 60’s. The setting and costumes also look very 60’s and the music has a 60’s vibe.

However the biggest issue with the film is the lack of suspense and scares. There are a few jump scares that make you jump up a little bit but that is about it. While I did want to know what happened at the end I was not really scared of the evil spirit. I think the main reason is he never really does anything that would make you feel his dangerous presence. Until the end, all he does is help Alice and do strange things like write up random messages. 

Also it does not help that the CGI is laughably bad. When CGI was used, the people in the theater and I were laughing. There is also a romance between Paulina and some older guy which I did not care about since there is zero development for it and the romance is incredibly clique. 

Another problem is that there any many details in the ending that do not make any sense. I am not going to spoil what they are but there are strange twists that are never explained at any point through the film.  

Overall the film is a nice surprise with good characters, good performances, and a good set up. While it lacks scares, I would still say the film is entertaining enough to complete your Halloween.

The Accountant Review

The Accountant Review

Have you ever wanted to see a movie that is a combination Rain Man and Jason Bourne? Well here is the movie. The Accountant is an amusing movie that is both awesome but at the time a little confused. It has a really intriguing story and some great performances but suffers from a bit of identity crisis. When you add everything up together you get a movie that is entertaining but flawed. 

The movie is about an accountant named Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) who is an accountant. He suffers from a mild case of autism which allows him to be very fluent with numbers but also makes him very anti-social and unemotional. While he is living in a small-town CPA office, he makes a living by being an accountant for criminal organizations. 

One day Christian takes a robotics company as a client run by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow). However, when he discovers that there is an inconsistency with the numbers, which involves millions of dollars, he gets suspicious. As he learns more about what is going on, more people mysterious are killed around Christian are killed. Now Christian needs to find out what is going on while we also learn more about Christian’s past. At the same time the director of financial crimes at the Treasury Department, named Raymond "Ray" King (J. K. Simmons), assigns a young analyst named Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to track down Christian.

The strongest element of this movie to me is the performances. Ben Affleck does an amazing job playing Christian Wolff who is a math genius but is anti-social and unemotional. Throughout the movie Affleck able to play an unemotional genius and then in a second he can transform into someone who is emotionally unstable. 

J. K. Simmons is also great as the head of the Treasury Department, playing a character who has gone through a lot and ready to retire. Anna Kendrick also plays a fellow accountant, named Dana Cummings, who gets interested in Christian Wolff and also gets thrown into the mystery. Jon Bernthal (who you might recognize as The Punisher from the Daredevil Netflix show) also wonderfully plays an assassin and has an interesting connection with Christian Wolff. There are also some great performances from John Lithgow as the head of the robotics company, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as the analyst trying to hunt down Christian Wolff, and Jeffrey Tambor as a friend of Christian Wolff who taught him a lot about working with criminals. 

I also really like the story which is a dark mystery that has many twists in turn. Through Christian Wolff, we see clues of what is going on piling up until we get to the very end in which we learn what is really going on. I even enjoyed the use of flashbacks to show Christian’s past which shows how he became who he his. We see flashbacks of how his dad made him fight through his disability, both literally and figuratively. 

What also stood out was the cinematography. The film has a dark tint to it like a neo-noir which sets the tone of the film. We have the sense that we are in a city full of corruption and violence even with people trying to stop it. 

The action sequences are also some of the highlights of the film. They are shot in style of Jason Bourne, with quick jump cuts showing each hit that the two fighters lay upon each other. Except the fights are much more brutal and more bloody.

However there were some issues with the film. The biggest problem I had was the weird shifts in tone. At some point, it seems like the movie wants to be a fast paced action mystery with the gritty fight scenes involving Christian Wolff beating up bad guys. 

But at the same time, the film also seems like the director wants the film to be a disability empowerment fantasy with a message about fight through disability. At the beginning of the film, we see a young Christian Wolff trying put together a puzzle and then we find out it is a puzzle of Muhammad Ali. I think the director is trying to symbolize how Christian is fighting through his disability. I honestly feel that the grounded and fanciful tones really do not match.

There are also moments in the first half of the movie in which the pace of the film slows down and drags. Many scenes have characters going through exposition in very monotone voices way longer then they should. At someone point, I got really bored during these scenes. Also I didn't care about the Marybeth Medina subplot since so little time is spent on it.

With that being said, I still was entertained by the Accountant. I think it is a film that is both intense and engaging, but I just thought it could have been better. I know that there will some people who will really not enjoy this film because of the tone shifts and the occasional slow pacing. But if you can deal with that, I think the Accountant is a film that is worth checking out.

Grade: B