Films 116-118 (Beware of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl)

"Girls Gone Dead"
Starring: some good looking girls (Katie Peterson, Shea Stewart, Brandy Whitford, Caley Hayes, Ryan Keely, Krystyna Ahlers)

First off, with a title like "Girls Gone Dead" you have to go into it with low expectations, and the movie won't disappoint you. It doesn't disappoint. It follows typical, cheesy, campy B-movie horror formula.

Katie Peterson plays a straight-laced Christian girl who is joining her group of sorority-type girlfriends for a Spring Break week of wildness. Her mother is a Christian advocate, and a bit of a Bible-thumper that does not approve of her friends or her daughter going on Spring Break with them. They are a bad influence on her. She has 5 girlfriends, 3 of which the writers were not so subtle in their homage to a classic 90s television show-- "Saved by the Bell"-- get ready...their names are: Kelly Morris, Jessie Scott, Lisa Kapowski (see the references?). The clear leader of the group and head-bitch, though, is Mandy Pratt.

The acting is typical B-movie cheesiness. The writing is pretty awful and full of expected twists and turns. The killer here is a cherub-mask, monk-robe-wearing killer.

The girls want to have a crazy spring break with each other, while avoiding the craziness of Daytona Beach, which is only a few miles away. Instead, Mandy's dad has given the girls access to his beach house in Manatee Creek. They hit up a tiki bar on their first night, which is dead, business-wise, except for a group of college boys that end up splitting up the herd of girls as each guy has a thing for each one of the girls. Perfect. Katie Peterson's character Rebecca is the Christian virgin who drinks and makes out, while the other girls have no shame in getting naked in the pool and fooling around. The group of boys are on their way to Daytona because the film crew for "Crazy Girls Unlimited" (clearly a reference to "Girls Gone Wild") is filming there and they have dreams of making their own films.

Only trouble is, the serial killer strikes soon after their arrival, knocking off the college kids one by one.

This is the type of film that cannot take itself seriously, and it doesn't, which makes it work. You will definitely laugh through some of it. The death scenes are mediocre, filled with lots of fake blood and gash marks and body parts flying. There is a story that gets told and it works, for exactly what it is.

It's a decent waste of an hour and twenty minutes.
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"Silent House"
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen

"Silent House" is an English remake of a Uruguayan horror film.

Here's the plot in a nutshell: Sarah (Olsen) is a college girl on school break who is set to help her father and uncle renovate a remote lake house that they all vacationed at as a family, back in the day. The brothers have an argument and Uncle Peter storms off, meanwhile Sarah's dad disappears upstairs in order to investigate some mysterious noises that the house seems to be making (could it be a vagabond or a ghost?). Either way, Sarah is left to fend and defend herself, basically running/walking through the maze of the house, playing hide-and-seek (perfectly well) with some kind of uninvited guest(s). We only catch a few glimpses of the horror that Sarah is running from...which was a dead giveaway for me (perhaps because I've watched more than enough horror films) to know that something more was going on here, with Sarah. It became a psychological thriller in that sense.

All the action quickly unfolds for about 88 minutes as we follow Sarah, thanks to the good film work of the directors (who also directed the great "Open Water" film). The camera follows her from space to space, upstairs, downstairs, in the basement, and out of the house (finally!), only to return inside the house again when he Uncle Peter shows up again, just in time. It presents a sort of claustrophobic feeling (much like "Open Water" even though, it was a couple stranding in the middle of the ocean, there was still that sense of hopeless claustrophobia). Since the camera follows Sarah the entire length of the film, it seems to be one continuous take and Elizabeth Olsen does a fantastic job acting in a menial film. She remains intensely focused and in character, even though she might believe the film could have been better. Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister to those uber-famous twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen ("Full House") and she is definitely the best actress of the trio. Yes, she has a pretty face (expressive when she needs to be and delicately fragile other times). She does not over-act, even though this film could almost call for that by a different actress. Many of her best moments in the film are those "silent terror" moments when she is trying to escape the horror that seems to be following her throughout the house. Elizabeth Olsen's good looks sort of remind me of Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is a great indie actress. I hope Olsen can follow her lead, because I'd love to see her in more films.

The twist and revealed truth moment of the film was something that I honestly expected, with how everything was leading down a certain path. I saw the ending coming a mile away, just because there was something fishy going on the whole time. I won't reveal it here, instead, I'll say, watch it for Elizabeth Olsen's performance.
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"Nice Guy Johnny"
Starring: Matt Bush, Kerry Bishe, and Edward Burns
Written and Directed by: Edward Burns

I've always loved Edward Burns' films. He is a great writer/director (and it's a given that he will act in his own films, too, usually as the main character, but here he takes a sideline to the title character, Johnny).
I remember renting his first films "The Brothers McMullen" and "She's the One" when I was in high school (because I loved Jennifer Aniston, thanks to "Friends" and Cameron Diaz, thanks to "The Mask").

Here's a list of Burns' films:
The Brothers McMullen (worth it)
She's the One (worth it)
No Looking Back (worth it)
Sidwalks of New York
Ash Wednesday
Looking for Kitty
The Groomsmen
Purple Violets
Nice Guy Johnny (worth it)
The Newlyweds (worth it)
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (worth it)

There's a lot that doesn't work in this new-ish Edward Burns film, but I want to tell you one thing that makes it worth watching. Two words. Kerry Bishe. She's a new actress. She has fresh magnetism. Great timing. A delivery of her lines that is natural. She's a tall-ish drink of water. Completely sexy. But...viewer be warned...

Manic Pixie Dream Girl ALERT**** Her character, Brooke, is the typical free-spirited hottie, put in the film in order to help the main character dude, Johnny, realize something. Her purpose is for him to realize his dream. Kerry Bishe, as Brooke, as an ease in this role that makes her adorable and lovable.

Matt Bush plays Johnny, a sports-talk radio host with a dead-of-night time slot, hoping to move up in the ranks, but he claims he's still living out his dream. He's engaged to a one-dimensional, rich-family girl, Claire, who has no redeeming qualities at all. She wants Johnny to interview and accept the white collar job that her father has set up for him in New York. He goes, just to please her. There he meets up with his uncle, played by Edward Burns, who is somewhat of a womanizer (not too believable because usually Burns plays charming guys in his films). Johnny's uncle thinks he's too young to get married and he wants to help him get some strange tail while he's in New York for the weekend. That's how he meets Brooke (Bishe), a college-ranked tennis player, but more free-spirited than anything else. Johnny's a nice guy, though, and nothing happens between them except longing and some sexual tension. Johnny seems more like a doofus than anything else, especially since the woman waiting for him at home doesn't really accept him for who he truly is and Brooke clearly sees the potential in him living his dream. Brooke and Johnny hang out for the weekend and when he goes back to his fiancee and California, he realizes that the life she has planned out is not what he wants and not what he signed up for. So, they split, which leaves the ending opening for Johnny and Brooke to get together, which is assumed because it ends rather abruptly with Brooke calling his radio show and accepting an interview with him, since she's made her own way to California (free-spirited, remember).

The entire plot just doesn't really work, because Johnny is not a lovable character, even though the title suggests he's the typical "nice guy." I AM THE TYPICAL NICE GUY!

Watch it for the rising-star performance of Kerry Bishe, but also know this, I have an affinity for those Manic Pixie Dream Girls. When I see one, I fall in love, instantly. There, you've been warned.