SPEAK NO EVIL (2024)

Written & Directed By James Watkins 

Based on a screenplay by: Christian Tafdrup & Mads Tafdrup

Cinematography: Tim Maurice Jones and Mark Moriarty 

Editor: Jon Harris 

Cast: James McAvoy, Scoot Mcnairy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi 

A family is invited to spend a whole weekend in a lonely home in the countryside, but as the weekend progresses, they realize that a dark side lies within the family who invited them.


I will admit I didn’t go into this too happily as the trailer pretty much gives away everything 

Luckily, I had seen the original already and was a fan of it so not sure when I learned of the remake though was wondering how they would approach the material.

it’s been Americanized not so much remade maybe rebooted a remix that doesn’t so much as improve, but simplifies. 

Yes, luckily it gives the family at the center, who are the victims. A better chance as well as more to do. At least they strike back unlike the original where you Wonder, why they kept taking what they were dealing with?

Then again film has different reasonings. The original is more of a dark comedy with thriller elements. That is all about societal rules, civility, politeness, and social rules. where this is a more by-the-books thriller, that is intimate and claustrophobic in plain sight

It loses what made the original story, so interesting in the first place. Almost like it’s been defanged to make a more audience, friendly film that tries to add active brutality as its final stamp of shock

There is nothing wrong with that it just feels like water down and feels like it belongs. I don’t feel like they belong to one another, but not originally enough to still form. It’s its own identity.

Though to be truthful, if I had never seen the original, this film wouldn’t be that interesting. It would’ve seemed more like an original thriller that wasn’t anything, in particular, to write home about and feels typical. 

As the original is dark and uncompromising. The true standout stand out of this film is James McAvoy‘s performance where you can only wish the film matched his intensity and performance as it deserves a better showcase and makes me wonder if that is why most audiences give this film high praise so much it

It might also be that it’s rare these days that film of this genre is of superior quality so that sometimes they are over-praised then if the market was flooded with films that matched the quality

GRADE: C+

SLEEPLESS (2017)

Directed By: Baran Bo Odar
Written By: Andrea Berloff 
Based in the film “NUIT BLANCHE” Written by: Frederic Jardin, Nicolas Saada & Olivier Douyere 
Cinematography: Mirai Malaimaire Jr.
Editor: Robert Rzesacz

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney Jr., Scoot Mcnairy, Tip T.I. Harris, David Harbour, Gabrielle Union 

Undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs finds himself trapped in a web of corrupt cops, internal affairs and violent gangsters. When a failed heist leads to the kidnapping of his son, Downs must race against time during an intense and restless night to save him and bring the criminals to justice.


I can admit this film already seemed D.O.A. When the trailers for the film hit. As nothing in the trailer came across as new or even exciting and watching the film it pretty much felt the same. While plenty of things happen on screen and in the story. It still all feels basic and familiar and the film, not performances add any excitement to it.

I will admit I liked the French original version of this film SLEEPLESS NIGHTS very much, but in the American translation, a lot of fresh and maybe foreign cultural elements are dropped. Making the film come across as more of a big-budgeted longer episode of a police procedural. 

As the original film Offered complications that felt essential and consequential. Here the film just seems to throw complications that seem more here to be filler than anything. Else 

Scoot McNairy’s villain is the only memorable thing in the whole film. Who would have been great in a better movie? 

The film feels like for a recognizable cast who do try there is really Little effort put into the film at all to feel special or set itself apart. So that by the end it feels basic yet disappointing. Which is a shame as Jamie Foxx has proven to be a versatile and charismatic actor who can be funny, dramatic and tough when he needs to be and this film offers only the later but like most of the roles. Never feels specific enough to their talents so that virtually anyone could have played these roles.

The only Element that felt somewhat exciting was the ending that leaves room for a sequel or alludes to an even bigger conspiracy. 

This just feels like a lost opportunity. Where all this film seems to offer is more a stylish music video technique to the story without really adding anything worthy dramatically or even character-wise. 

It just simply he’s out all the originality out of the original. Truly making this a Hollywood byproduct. If anything it feels like an audition for the director to show what he can do with so little. 

Grade: F

MONSTERS (2010)

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Written, Directed, Cinematography & Production Design By: Gareth Edwards
Editor: Colin Goudie 

Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Annalee Jefferies

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over North America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain “the creatures”…… Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border

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DESTROYER (2018)

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Directed By: Karyn Kusama
Written By: Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi
Cinematography: Julie Kirkwood
Editor: Plummy Tucker 

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford, Tatiana Maslany, Toby Kebbell, Toby Huss, Scoot McNairy, James Jordan, Beau Knapp, Jade Pettyjohn 


The film follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past

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