The Woman in Black 2012 Movie Review

The Woman in Black is a pretty traditional haunted house story that focuses on atmosphere and the lingering feeling of dread instead of CGI gore and horror. If you've read the book, you'll be familiar with the unsettling nature of the story - a general sense that translated well to the stage play and here to the film. The filming locations capture the remoteness of a house cut off by tide and tragedy and the general production design makes great use of a set to spring some fairly major jumps.

Daniel Radcliffe is well cast in bringing an innocence to a pretty dire situation where children keep dying every time the woman in black shows up, and he's clearly going to keep going beyond Harry Potter. The rest of the cast do well to portray the town that doesn't want Radcliffe there too. All of the tension and surprises rise from the situation and some clever camera shots and even the most hardened horror fan should get quite a few scares.

It's all a fairly solid production until the ending. Susan Hill's book transcended the genre with the end of her story (which has since been copied many times) but this movie doesn't stay faithful to the original material in an attempt to spare the audience the downer.

The Woman in Black 2012 Movie Review

• Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds
• Directed by: James Watkins
• Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
• Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
• Studio: CBS Films

Red Tails 2012 Movie Review

First, as of 22 Jan 2012, "Red Tails" is the number two in the country, with a $19 million dollar purse for the first week! Secondly, there was an apparent miscalculation by the movie industry writ-large, that the American public has somehow lost interest and draw power in a TRUE story of Americans overcoming overwhelming odds and adversity to fight for their country and for racial equality.

Red Tails delivers outstanding performances by both A-listers Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard as well as the up-and-coming supporting actors. The action, tempo and effects were great. The storylines for the characters were good as well. The movie allows Americans the opportunity to review first-hand the bigotry and sheer ignorance of that time period, in hopes we will rise above it today. And that perhaps by remembering racism and prejudice in the context of such magnificent sacrfice and human struggle will minimize the impact of the small pockets of poison that still lingers within our society, even today.

Red Tails is AWESOME true-story of America at its best, while simultaneously being at its worse. Its a great movie to take young teens to, just as a reminder, although we havent quite attained "the dream", perhaps they can step closer to attainment in their generation.

Red Tails 2012 Movie Review

• Starring: Nate Parker, David Oyelowo
• Directed by: Anthony Hemingway
• Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
• Release year: 2012
• US Theatrical Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Studio: Fox