Rn o t the li ht
Be afraid, be very afraid of what’s lurking in the dark in Lights Out.
ARE you afraid of the dark? Do you leave a light on when you go to bed at night? If you answered no to these questions, then Lights Out will introduce you to the joy of sleeping with the lights on.
Directed by David F. Sandberg, Lights Out is the cinematic expansion of a three- minute short film with the same title that was posted on YouTube. Sandberg himself made the short with wife Lotta Losten. In the short, Lotta plays a woman being terrorised by a creature lurking in her home. The only way she can stop this thing from getting closer to her is to keep the lights on.
With James Wan backing as producer, Sandberg expands his three- minute short to feature length, introducing more locations, new characters and a backstory on the creature. The movie focuses on the creature going after Rebecca ( Teresa Palmer) and her stepbrother Martin ( Gabriel Bateman).
The creature is revealed to be a lady who goes by the name Diana. While I’d like to think of Diana as the subject of a Michael Jackson song, it turns out that she is an old friend of Rebecca and Martin’s mom Sophie ( Maria Bello). Diana is supposed to be dead, yet Sophie talks to her like she’s still alive. She stays in Sophie’s room and comes out when it gets dark at night.
It would be great if Diana would help with the rent, but she doesn’t; instead, she just makes creepy scraping noises, much to the chagrin of Martin, who ends up staying awake the whole night. She also utilises her great sense of direction to travel from one home to another, harming anyone related to Sophie.
To my horror, she uses her excellent penmanship and sharp nails to leave ominous words on hardwood floors. Do you know how expensive it is to cover up those scratches? Damn you, Diana.
Well, Diana deserves some credit for helping to keep the electricity bill down. She makes Sophie
BRYAN Cranston is not your typical movie star. Underneath the cool- dad exterior, there’s an actor of great depth and unexpected power. You’ll know it when you watch a scene involving his character, that man’s wife, and a restaurant on their anniversary dinner. Cranston seems to have benefitted during his years as Walter “Heisenberg” White on TV’s Breaking Bad. And it has contributed greatly in this biographical crime thriller, about as straightforward and predictable as a knife in the gut.
Yes, Brad Furman’s ( The Lincoln Lawyer, Runner Runner) directorial efforts here will not be known for their signature riffs, as there
AARON Kwok and Tony Leung Ka- Fai are back for more shouting matches and intense staredowns in this sequel to the 2012 hit HK cop drama. It picks up right where the last one left off, with Commissioner Sean Lau ( Kwok) being forced to release Joe Lee ( Eddie Peng), the crooked son of former commish M. B. “Waise” Lee ( Leung), in exchange for his wife, who has been kidnapped by Joe’s cohorts.
The political conspiracy hinted at in the first film is revealed here, and one unsuspecting soul who gets dragged into it is legisla- unscrew light bulbs at home and limit TV time to help ease her sinister movements around the house.
Diana’s unwanted presence is felt throughout the movie. Each time the lights flicker on and off, you will find yourself dreading what is to come out of every dark are none to speak of. It’s standard thriller fare, the kind that would have done well back in the late 1980s and early 1990s: pure genre fare that caters to mostly adult filmgoers who aren’t interested in CGI superpowers or explosions. In other words, unoriginal yet mature stuff.
The Infiltrator, however, is a textbook example of how great tor Oswald Kan ( Chow Yun Fat), who chairs a public inquiry into Lau’s Cold War operation from the first movie. And there’s still the matter of that pesky missing corner or shadowy walkway.
And every time Diana succesfully reaches a victim, the scene predictably ends with an unnecessarily loud jump scare. But Sandberg manages to maintain a feeling of unease because Diana’s true face is not revealed, leaving it up to the audience to hope that she looks like a K- pop star complete with dewy complexion. Spoiler alert: not even close.
Plus, she strikes when the viewer least expects it. The tension intensifies when our hapless characters have to rely on everyday objects like cell phones, flashlights and sticky tape to keep Diana away. Where are the Warrens when you need them in 2016? However, Lights Out tends to lose its way when it dwells on Diana’s past.
I’m sure Diana, sophisticated lady that she is, would have appreciated a little bit more mystery.
Plus with the movie’s relatively short running time of 81 minutes, the audience may feel a bit shortchanged. Then again, some would appreciate the running time as an excuse to get out of the dark cinema earlier. If you do get out, stay in the light. Maybe try to leave work at 4pm. Check under the bed. Ignore the strange sound in the bathroom.
You know what, just sleep at the 24- hour convenience store. Be there until they fix the Slurpee machine so you have an excuse to stay longer. casting can elevate shop- worn material into solid entertainment, as the ever- reliable Cranston proves here. Sure, he is strongly supported by intriguing cast members including Benjamin Bratt, John Leguizamo and the lovely Diane Kruger; but in portraying real- life undercover agent Robert Mazur, shimmying his way up the ranks of Pablo Escobar’s criminal empire, Cranston’s understated but strong everyman presence confidently carries the movie on its own.
That quality alone replaces the tediousness often found in similar true- crime movies with an intense amount of uneasy suspense and grounded credibility, providing lots of fun for Cranston fans as long as they do not expect anything groundbreaking. Breaking Good, indeed. police van...
Props to writer- directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk for reducing ( a little) the excesses of the original and also for avoiding the brain- numbing nonsense of last year’s Helios.
Cold War 2 is a riveting if needlessly complicated thriller, with Kwok and Leung sharing the dramatic heavy lifting with an in- form Chow. I did find Oswald’s methods just as questionable as Lau’s, leaving him with little justification to sit astride that high horse he rides in on to chide the two rival top cops in one tense face- off. Still, these HK heavyweights sharing a screen is always a treat, and Cold War 2 doesn’t skimp on the goodies.