Prisoners (2013) Movie Review

Prisoners (2013) IMDB

Prisoners movie poster

Prisoners is about a man (Hugh Jackman) who tries to hunt down his 6 year old daughter and her friend who have been abducted after Thanksgiving dinner. He does this after the police arrest a suspect but release him for lack of evidence. As he gets closer to the suspected abductor he finds a man obsessed with making mazes (I do not support this premise as someone who has a website committed to making mazes). Can he find the children in time to keep them safe ? He takes matters into his own hands to find the children but will he take things too far ?A really tense thriller I highly recommend. Great intensity with a wonderful script and cinematography. It is dark and there are twists and turns.

The film is full of stars beyond Hugh Jackman, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Maria Bello, and Paul Dano also part of the cast. The director, Denis Villeneuve is so talented that I need to keep updating his list of great films on this blog post (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Incendies, Sicario, Dune Parts 1 & 2) and this might be his best film !

I give it a 9.5/10.

Check out the trailer:

I found 3 more movie posters for this film, each which features mazes prominently and since this is a website dedicated to mazes I had to show them ! Which do you prefer ? Did any make my list of The 10 best maze movie posters ?

Prisoners movie poster - maze background
Prisoners movie poster - maze background with writing
Prisoners horizontal movie poster

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) Movie Review

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) IMDB

Perfume- The Story of a Murderer (2006) movie poster

My favorite type of movie is a movie with a story that I haven’t seen before with a plot device that is unexpected and makes the story feel new. This is one of those movies. It is based off of the best selling book of the same name by German writer Patrick Süskind from 1985.

A young boy is born with a sense of smell more powerful than anyone in human history. With it he obsessively works to create the perfect perfume, because if you have a gift you should use it ! Unfortunately, in this story that includes some secret ingredients that are against the law (no spoilers). Of course, he finds some of these ingredients when they are lost in a hedge maze. It gets very weird multiple times at the end, but you can’t say it’s something you’ve seen before ! The fact that it is unusual are what will draw you in and keep you from looking down at your phone.

The settings of the movie show a city that is dark and dirty which does a great job of evoking smells into your mind. For a story about smells, that is a very good thing.

Ben Whishaw does a nice job in the leading role with nice performances by Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. It did not surprise me that this films IMDB page shows multiple award wins. This is rated R for the violence and disturbing scenes but they all move the story forward. Basically this is a ****** ****** movie set in the mid-1700’s. If I told you what the * mean it would spoil the movie, but if you want to know, scroll to the bottom of this post.

I give it a 7.5/10.

Check out the trailer (where you will see a few scenes from the hedge maze):

Other Movie posts you may like:

A Collection of Maze and Labyrinth Movies

The 18 Best Maze Movies

SPOILER:

Basically this is a SERIAL KILLER movie set in the mid-1700’s.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Movie Review

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) IMDB

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) movie poster

Winner of 3 Oscars, including Best cinematography and over 100 movie awards. Let’s just get this out of the way. I give it a 9.5/10. This is an excellent movie that is beautiful to watch, with an interesting fantasy world created by director Guillermo del Toro.

The story is takes us to the year 1944 in Spain (Yes, it is in Spanish) where a young girl, named Ofelia, escapes a world at war by escaping into a fantasy world at the center of a secret underground labyrinth. The girl meets a faun (totally normal) who takes her to the center of the labyrinth. She learns she can become an immortal princess in this fantasy world but must prove herself first by completing 3 tasks.

This is a dark fantasy fairy tale. The story complicates with Ofelia trying to navigate her 3 tasks while learning many valuable lessons along the way. Chances are you have already seen this movie and did not need this review. If you somehow missed it, this film is a must watch.

Check out this trailer:

Muppets from Space (1999) Movie Review

Muppets from Space (1999) IMDB

Muppets From Space movie poster

Who is your favorite Muppets character (other than Kermit) ? For some it is Animal, Beaker or Grover, but for me it is Gonzo. And if you are like me, then this is the film for you because this Muppets movie stars Gonzo in the lead role closely supported by Rizzo the Rat. You still get doses of Kermit, Fozzy, Miss Piggy, Animal and all of the other characters you know and love. Plus this wouldn’t be a Muppet movie if there weren’t cameos by people like Hulk Hogan, Ray Liotta, Rob Schneider and David Arquette to name a few. And of course as you will hear in the trailer below, it is full of musical numbers set to feel good classic songs !

This story is all about Gonzo looking for his long lost family. What is Gonzo exactly ? Could he be an alien ? This movie explores that along with a few side stories that make it fun for the whole family. As far as mazes go, during a key scene Rizzo the Rat gets captured by the bad guys and gets put into a cage with lab rats. I should have said “spoiler” before that. My bad. Anyway the lab rats are put into a rat maze during the next scene, and that’s why this movie is a maze movie, or at least a movie with a maze scene.

Will this movie change how you feel about anything important in your life ? Will it make you you think differently about the world and your place in it ? Could this be a film that 30 years from now critics look back on fondly as a masterpiece that slipped thru the cracks ? No, no and no. But feel free to let the kids watch it and be entertained for awhile. You might even hear a few laughs every now and then.

In my opinion of the 9 Muppets movies that have been made this is middle of the pack. I rate it a solid 6/10.

Check out the trailer: