Everything is exactly as it seems (Ghost Stories 2018)

 

 

 

188.

Ghost Stories

 

 

 

 

 

7.5/10

 

Finally through to another horror movie and this bad boy is from the UK. A film coming for us British usually gives us a much different kind of horror. It doesn't always focus on the 'jump scaring' and more on the clever storytelling and linking things together. The cast contains a couple for known faces such as Paul Whitehouse and more importantly Martin Freeman features, which is going to be very interesting now that he is moving onto bigger things within Marvel. The trailer has a certain uniqueness about it, showing the movie as a kind of documentary, so the main question would be if it is staying that way? I saw this as an Odeon Scream Unseen the first time and then went back for more and picked up a lot that I had missed the first time around. Will this be a good camp fire ghost story?

 

 

The movie begins with a little voice over from a Professor Philip Goodman, played by Andy Nyman. His own TV show is about him being a skeptic of the supernatural and debunking people during their own shows on stage. After the footage of him doing so, he talks to the camera about the influence Charles Cameron, a psychologist who also disapproved of paranormal things, had on his own life decisions. This guy had disappeared under weird circumstances. He talks about his early life as a Jewish child and struggling with his family. He gets bullied by a couple of lads constantly but we'll come back to this. Once the filming stops, we finally see Philip in his normal world and that answers my question whether this will be fully filmed in a documentary style. Sitting in his office, he gets a package containing an audiotape from Charles Cameron. He is asked to go to a trailer and meet with the aged guy, who hadn't vanished after all. He states that he is an arrogant man for dismissing paranormal activities and calls Philip a coward for doing the same. He presents Philip with three cases for him to look into and prove that they are not paranormal. As Philip leaves, he looks back at Charles in the window and sees a strange shadowed figure standing behind him. Away from the trailer is a little beach and on the beach are three lads chucking a bag around, with another carrier bag blowing around. Having seen this movie twice, the second time became important to pick up on the little things.

The first case is on a man called Tony Matthews. Philip meets him in a pub to discuss what happened. He is a grumpy sod, who doesn't really want to talk about anything but gives in with the offer of money. He reveals that his daughter is in a hospital with locked-in syndrome and his job was to be a night watchman. He spent his night at an old asylum when the power went out. We notice the time and this is an important moment to remember. It was 9:45pm. It forces Tony to explore and find the resulting power sockets. Finding out someone has unplugged and scratched the generator. He thinks he sees a hooded figure, which turns out to be a bunch of mops, of course. Then there are bangs on the office door, leading Tony to explore further. He heads to the old corridors, looking at the old cells as we see there are all number and in no particular order. He heads into one, which was originally locked. The door slams behind him and as in any horror, his flashlight begins to fail. In the corner, we see a ghoulish girl who grabs Tony's hand and calls him 'Dada', before he screams and runs. this is the end of the flashback and interview with Tony. Philip heads to the local parish to talk to Tony's priest. He reveals that after the encounter, Tony was moved enough to go and visit his daughter and on arrival, doctors noticed that her heart skipped a beat, giving Philip enough evidence to go and visit his own invalid father. At the end of this scene, we see a cutscene of a window, but the view seems upside down.

Next, we are on to case 2. Simon Rifkind is a weird teenager, full of sweat and a bag of nerves. Philip gets let in with proof of who he is and on his way in, he notices the teenager's parents entranced, standing in the kitchen and the clock on the wall shows the same time that the electric went off in case 1. On his way up to the lad's bedroom, there are pictures up the stairs and Philip notices on contains a hooded figure, like the one we've already seen and Philip acts like he has seen a ghost. He also sees another person upstairs, dressed in hospital uniform, but Simon reassures him that they are alone. One of the first things we notice on entering the room is that his walls are covered in pictures and sketches of some creature straight out of a nightmare. Books covering the floor, Philip is asked not to touch anything. Before we set down to the story, there's a massive bang on the bedroom door. Simon shouts at his parents to leave him alone and opens the door to nothing but darkness, which makes Philip the most uneasy since he seen his own father. Simon begins to recount the time he was out driving and having stolen his parent's car, he heads back from a party and is constantly distracted by his parent's phone calls. He hits someone or something in the middle of the road, which turns out to be a strange character, white, with hooves and kind of looking like the posters and sketches from the bedroom wall. He drives away in a frightened state but becomes stuck when the car has a strange electrical fault. Again with the electric. He tries to get some signal to phone the breakdown service and he tilts his phone a little to show a massive clock. That wouldn't be on there if he was calling out but the main thing is to notice that the time is '9:45pm' yet again. Whilst he's waiting, the creature is shown through a point of view, stalking Simon through the trees. He enters the car, just before Simon and on telling the boy to 'stay' Simon screams and legs it into the woods before being grabbed by a tree monster, that reminds me of the Pagan god from The Ritual movie, another British one. Philip visits the site of this apparent encounter and on returning to his car, he sees a ghostly vision of himself reflected in the car window, struggling to get out. He opens the car in shock to find nothing. This movie is getting a strange one now. Again we see that upside down window for a few seconds. 

Step up, Martin Freeman. He is playing a guy called Mike Priddle. Both him and Philip walk through the countryside, to a gun shed, where Mike picks up a shotgun. The two continue to walk and the story begins. Mike talks about a paranormal moment when he was home alone whilst his wife was in the hospital due to pregnancy. Midway through the story, we go back to the countryside and see a hooded figure following Philip around on the horizon. Even as the story is trying to be told, Mike's phone is constantly going off. Mike goes back to the second day and in the child's future bedroom, things get thrown around by a spirit, Mike puts down to the wind. In the cot, the main thing I notice is a doll, which is in the same dress as the little girl from the first case. That second night of being home and we notice on the big clock, yep, you guessed it, it's 9:45 again. Mike hears some banging and heads off to investigate. He walks back into the bedroom to find a poltergeist taking shape underneath his child's blanket before he is confronted by a monstrous figure of his wife, who claims that his real wife has died. Moments later, the hospital phones to let him know that she died during childbirth. The baby, demon baby, had split her in two. His words, or at least the doctor's. After he finishes, we see the pair sitting on some logs, where Mike turns the gun and blows his head clean off. Again with the window. 

Philip's next step is to head back to Charles and tell him that everything is a fake. From there, Charles stands up and suddenly doesn't seem as ill as once thought. He tears away his face to reveal that he was always Mike Priddle. Telling Philip that the brain sees what it wants to see, he rips a hole in reality and reveals a door, asking Philip to kindly follow him through a portal. He takes him to a tunnel by a stream, where that same hooded figure stands. mike vanishes and Philip starts to relive a flashback of a younger self, being bullied by these two boys. It's the same boys at the beach shot from much earlier in the movie. As they are doing the bullying, the hooded figure walks onto the shot. It's a mentally handicapped boy called Desmond, who is teased with the name Kojak. While Philip stands there, the two boys ask if Kojak wants to join their gang. All he needs to do it go into the nearby dark tunnel and read the numbers off the wall. The numbers are the same as the ones on the asylum cells and even when Kojak wants to leave the narrowing tunnel, the bullies force him to stay in there until all the numbers are found. The lad has an asthma attack and dies, lying in the shallow water. With everyone running away in fright. Mike reappears to confront Philip for his passive actions. With nothing to offer but excuses, a crib suddenly appears and Mike picks up his own child, before feeding it cat food. We never see the baby but usually, that's the creepier moment. Just then, a ghoulish version of Kojak appears from the crib, in the one jump scare that actually got me, and attacks Philip. He rips off Philip's clothes to reveal a hospital gown. It's then Kojak's turn to rip a hole in reality and drag Philip to a hospital bed, where Kojak lies on top of him, pushing his decomposing fingers into Philip's mouth until Philip drops into a coma from terror.

 

 

 

This is where the movie draws to a close and ties everything together, even if it was a case of looking at the movie with a fine tooth comb. We see the obvious stuff open up, as Mike is the Doctor looking after Philip and is constantly on the phone. Simon is his trainee, all nervous about his job. It turns out that Tony is the custodian, cleaning Philip's room and even giving him a little music to listen to. He moves a mirror over Philip's head so that he can have a change of view, which is the upside down window that we have caught a glimpse of many times already. For the bat-eared listeners and eagle-eyed viewers, regarding the time we have come to see constantly, Mike mentions that Philip tried to kill himself at that exact time, in a car, which is why we saw that ghostly figure at case two. The hooded ghost following him around was obviously revealed as Kojak and all his memories have come back as a story whilst he is in a coma.

I found this quite a clever film as things came together and seeing it a second time definitely helped to understand the story and see things that I had missed on the first viewing. The opening credits featured the noise of dripping water and someone struggling to breathe, which wasn't revealed until the end of the story. The opening credits are then scrunched up like paper and the numbers from the walls of the tunnel appear, sketched onto our screen. It was a very British horror, which always makes you think about what is actually going on. It is very well written, to tie three side stories into one main story and linking each of the characters into two different roles. Each actor played their role very well in this male orientated movie. It will leave you thinking about the story for a while after the movie. This is a sign of a truly decent psychological horror, that leaves you thinking if you had missed anything else out. There are some moments which leave you wondering why, such as the girl in the yellow dress never was part of the end story, the look at religion was only quick and his family was never seen again. This can be overlooked at times though when the rest of the movie gets you intrigued. If you're up for being challenged, take a look but if you're looking at a horror which leaves you shaking, this wouldn't be for you.

All myths are foundations of reality (Tomb Raider 2018)

187.

Tomb Raider

  

 

 7/10

Yet another franchise that will be going through a revamp. This time it's the once popular gaming franchise, turned movie franchise and whilst there have been changes to the game, it's crossing over into the movie side. There was a lot of people who believe that the old Lara Croft was a little too big 'on top', so they were reduced and now, although the games have changed their look of the character, will this also be the only thing to have changed when it comes to the movies. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, it actually had me interested. It seemed a lot more action-packed and covering exotic places compared to what I remember from the Angelina Jolie movies. This time Croft will be played with Alicia Vikander, a smaller framed girl, ready to take on Walton Goggins, who I assume will be the main antagonist, mainly from the movies that I've already seen him in. Will this be worth filling our screens with yet another remake or should the franchise stick to the gaming instead?

The movie begins with a narration from the voice of Dominic West, who is playing Richard Croft, Lara's father. He is discussing the legendary story of a sorceress named Himiko. The graphics look like older Japanese scripture, as we see her hold the power of life and death, meaning one touch from her could kill you. The army overthrew her and buried her on an island called Yamatai, where she could no longer spread her evil. Richard's plan is to go and investigate this old tale but he also fears leaving his daughter behind when he leaves. We jump forward to a grown-up Lara, who is getting the shit beaten out of her at a boxing gym in London. The owner pulls her up on being behind on her payments and I'm already thinking that this isn't the Croft I know, usually she's rich as hell. When she leaves, so goes to her job as a food delivery girl on her bicycle, before finishing her shift and heading to a hangout with her mates. They talk about a fox hunt, where a gang of people on bikes follow a lead cyclist, who is dripping paint from a can and if they catch that person, they win the money pot. If the fox escapes, the fox keeps the lot. Lara, knowing she needs the money, offers to be the fox and we have a chase scene through the streets of London, full of narrow misses and clever thinking, she jumps onto the back of a van and heads off, before being spotted and hitting the chase again. At a quick second, she thinks she spots her dad and this distracts her, leading to her crashing onto a car bonnet, owned by the police. She gets arrested and is bailed out by her former guardian and father's old business partner, Ana Miller. We can instantly see the fractured relationship, as Ana tells Lara that her father's shares in his company are going to be sold off unless she claims them. It doesn't seem as if she is ready to accept that he isn't coming home. 7 years have already passed.

The following morning and Lara heads to her father's offices. At the desk, she is refused entry as no-one recognises her until she mentions her name, which startles them, but surely anyone can say they are Lara if no-one knows what she actually looks like these days? She's there to sign papers and claim the inheritance but first, she is given a puzzle box, like one she had as a child and upon opening it, she finds a message and a key, which leads her to the family tomb. Inside, there are no dead bodies, but instead, a secret office full of her dad's research. On the desk is a video camera containing a video he made outlining his plans to travel and research the legend of Himiko. He has suggested that Lara destroy all evidence inside his office because a group called Trinity is after it and could destroy the world if they find the island. That got deep. Fast. She knows she needs money and fast, she plans on following her father's maps and working out what happened to him. She heads to a local pawn shop run by Nick Frost and he plays a back-chatting bastard, who lowers his offers if people ask for more money. She instantly travels to Hong Kong to track down a boat and it's owner that she noticed in a picture on her father's desk. As she arrives at the docks, her bag gets stolen by three local thieves and we have another chase scene, this time by foot and leaping from boat to boat. She finds the boat she's looking for, mid-chase, where one of the thieves pulls a knife and she screams for help, when a drunken Lu Ren, the owner of the boat, pulls a gun out on the top deck and scares the lads off. He passes out and falls onto the main deck, leading to Lara waking him up, back inside and soon questions him about her own father, finding out that Lu Ren's father also went on the same trip. She offers to pay him to travel with her, just to find out what the hell happened.

We follow the two on the boat, as they sit a storm and the boat doesn't survive. Lara gets washed ashore, alone and is knocked out by a merc. She wakes in a tent, meeting Mathias Vogel, played by Goggins, who is leading Trinity's expedition to find Himiko's tomb. He isn't allowed to return to his family until he has found the tomb and brought back what the company wants. When Croft rebuffs his offer for her to help him, he turns nasty and claims to have killed Richard for not helping him either. Croft is put to hard labor and soon catches up with Lu, who both witness an exhausted worker get executed by Vogel. Lu knows that their best chance is if they let Lara run for it. He gives her a window, as he knocks out one of the mercs. The rest chase her down as she jumps into a river and is almost swept down a waterfall, that's until she grabs onto the wing of an old plane, which is also hanging over the drop. This is one of the bits that gripped me in the trailer. She manages to get inside the plan, just as it begins to fall, finding a parachute inside, she just about deploys before hitting the trees and then the ground, ending up with a branch sticking out of her gut.

 This isn't looking good.

But, as in any other film, we know she'll be fine. It'll be pretty stupid to kill her off now. She even manages to fight a kill a merc that had tracked her down and it is pretty obvious that this is the first person that she has killed. She is mortified by her actions but there is no time to stand still. She sees a mysterious figure running off into the distance and she chases them down. Seeing them at the bottom  of a cliff, climbing to a cave, she follows on. Walking into the cave, it's revealed to be Richard, her father, who is somehow still alive. I think she is just hallucinating from the blood loss or something but he's the one that thinks he's seeing things after all these years. After a small embrace, she is patched up by her father and he suddenly turns anger when he finds out that she didn't actually destroy his work. Despite his reluctance to fight back against Trinity, she grabs his bow and arrows and heads back out, knowing they are closer than ever.

She suddenly turns into a complete badass, taking on Vogel's men and releasing Lu Ren and the prisoners. Just before she can get to Vogel, Richard has emerged and his being held at gunpoint, just outside the main cave's locked door. Richard begs her to kill Vogel but fearing what would happen to her father, obviously, she offers to open the door in exchange for him. They all finally go down into the tomb and come across a number of trials and booby-traps that remind me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When finally making it to the tomb, they open the casket and as the men try to move the body, they quickly get infected and end up going into a frenzy before dying. The Crofts realise something big. There actually aren't any chains holding this woman down here. She seems to have locked herself away for the safety of everyone else because she was actually a plague. Vogel takes a finger for safekeeping and suddenly, shit hits the fan as Richard is grabbed by an infected soldier and although he kills him, he has too, been infected. He knows what must be done and takes some grenades, says his final goodbye and blows up the tomb, causing it to collapse, bit by bit. Lara is on the chase for Vogel and his finger, catching up at a cavern and the ladder they used to cross. The crack on with a fight scene and she ends up grabbing the finger, sticking it down his throat and sending him to his death. The cave collapse has now caught up with her and with a few leaps, a pickaxe and some luck, she reaches the end and is pulled out by Lu Ren. They see a Trinity chopper which has arrived on news of the tomb discovery and force the men to take them both and the workers home. On getting back to London, Lara is once again in the office, looking to sign over for the shares of the company. Whilst looking at the companies that are owned by her dad's company, she can see that Trinity is listed and Ana was linked to it the whole time and to Vogel. She decides to act like nothing is wrong and continues her dad's work in bringing down the bad guys. As the movie finishes, this is the first time we see the words Tomb Raider on the screen, with a follow-up scene of Lara back at Nick Frost's pawn shop, this time buying her two highly recognisable dual guns, maybe leading us into a sequel.

Safe to say this wasn't half bad. It had plenty of action, exotic locations and even some actual tomb raiding. That ticks some boxes surely. Vikander as Lara worked really well. I had only ever seen her in Ex Machina and that she did a very interesting job with a role I had never really seen being acted out before. As for Goggins, that guy can play evil really well and yet again, this came across as a smarmy guy, who wanted to get home to his kids, no matter who he had to step on. The story was a pretty interesting one, especially as it took a turn with the dad still alive but seeing Lara as someone without fear was fine, but I think one little flaw was how fast she turned into a killing machine halfway through the movie considering she was so distraught the first time that she took a life. The scene at that moment was really well done, a very dark moment, bad weather and gruesome surroundings. There was plenty of action sequences and for once it was good to enjoy a movie based on a video game. I haven't played the newer version of the games, only the older ones with the pointy boobs, so comparing both isn't really something I can do. All I know is that it was nice to have an origin story for a character we know that isn't Spiderman!

Why do I always get screwed for doing my job? (Gringo 2018)

186.

Gringo

 

 

 

 

 

6.5/10

 

 

 

This movie looks like it was going to be a dark comedy, along with plenty of action and drama to carry the storyline across. This is the first movie that I would be seeing David Oyelowo in action and along with the busy Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron and Thandie Newton, there's plenty of well-known faces on the screen. Being a guy who enjoys dark comedy, the trailer seemed that the movie was going to be a decent watch but also a movie that I figured wouldn't appeal to everyone and therefore may not be successful at all. I didn't see this movie advertised anywhere else really than the times I was actually watching other movies. Could this be a great dark comedy, or one that should be locked away in a dark room?

The movie revolves around Oyelowo's character, named Harold Soyinka and the movie begins with him calling the Co- Presidents of the Pharmaceutical company that he works for, who are played by Theron and Edgerton. He claims that he has been kidnapped and the kidnappers are demanding a five million dollar ransom for his release. We are then sent to a day earlier and we see Harold and the Co-Presidents, Richard and Elaine arrive at their Mexico plant and meet with the head of the plant, Sanchez. Harold isn't aware that Sanchez has been selling their latest product, some medical marijuana in the shape of a pill, to the Mexican Cartel. In order to not harm their upcoming murder, the company decided to cut off the Cartel and we all know that that will never go down well. Along with this, we find out that Harold and Richard were once good friends and Richard had gotten the job for Harold within the company. After Harold finds a recording of a meeting about the merger, Harold finds out that he would be losing his job and even returning home that night, he finds out that his wife, played by Thandie Newton, has been having an affair and wants a divorce. It turns out that the affair is actually with Richard. Meanwhile, at the Mexican plant, Sanchez has passed the news onto the Cartel and gets done over for it as they chop a few digits off. They then believe that Harold is the boss and plan on capturing him.

The next morning, everyone is due their flight home and Elaine and Richard leave Mexico without Harold, who has disappeared. They don't seem too bothered and leave pretty sharpish. In a couple of scenes, we even see these two having sex without each other, not that anything is actually getting further into any sort of relationship, purely physical. We find Harold hiding at a motel and convincing the owners, who are brothers, to act as kidnappers and phone Richard, ordering a ransom. After getting off the phone, Richard calls her ex-mercenary brother Mitch and asks him to rescue Harold. Mitch is played by Sharlto Copley and instantly this movie has taken a better turn for me. This guy can be hysterical. Harold spends the evening at a bar, believing that his plan has failed but the bartender recognises him and instantly contacts the Cartel, leading to men arriving and actually kidnapping Harold. Somehow, this nobody whose life is falling apart, overpowers the two men and causes the car to crash off road. The next morning, whilst Harold is walking the roads, he is picked up by Sunny and Miles, who take him back to the motel where all three of them have been staying. Sunny likes Harold, knowing that he is harmless and Miles is actually a drug mule, which she doesn't approve of. Before we see their return, we have seen a little scene where the owners have been bribed by the Cartel, for information on Harold. The refuse but think it would be a better idea to kidnap him themselves and on their attempt, get foiled, as Mitch finally shows up, beats the hell out of them and takes Harold with him. Harold can't catch a break! Constantly with a sack over his head, poor bastard. Mitch takes him straight to the airport, to send him home but Harold tries to escape again before Mitch subdues him and places a tracker on him in case he does run away again. They actually get on good terms with each other and come up with a plan to extort money out of Richard, as it turns out that Mitch doesn't exactly like his brother anyway. They give Richard a call and it turns out that Richard is due a huge pay out from life insurance if Harold were to die. Mitch has been offered some of this if he kills Harold, to which he agrees and once again, the story has changed its path.

Being around half way through the movie now, I'm left wondering what's left to come in this story and how many times it can change it's path again. Harold and Mitch are spotted by the brothers walking the streets as it becomes time for Mitch to gun down Harold. Instead, he can't bring himself to do so, after bonding with the guy and instead, he is attacked by the brothers, who kidnap Harold and take him to the Cartel's leader, who guns the brothers down and demand that Harold accesses the vault back at the plant in order to get the pill formula. This movie is so back and fore that I have no idea how it could end. At the plant, everything is in place until the police show up and a shoot-out begins, letting Harold escape with one of the Cartels, who Harold had come to get to know. He reveals himself as DEA and on their escape, they are followed by some Cartel who noticed them leaving. After being run off the road, Harold is about to be executed at gun-point, until Mitch once again arrives and kills the men at the last moment, with Harold even finishing one of the guys off. Harold turns to his DEA friend and asks him for help, believing that he has nothing to return to in Chicago and the guy, named 'Angel' agrees to pronounce Harold dead, to which he is handed evidence in order to incriminate Richard for all that he has done.

The movie then ends with the Cartel being arrested, along with Miles and we see Angel at the scene. Back in Chicago, Richard is too arrested and Elaine testifies against him, leading to her taking over the company. Sanchez, despite his new disability, is happier than ever, settling down with his family and as for Harold, we see him opening a beachside bar, being called Harry Barnes and even keeping in touch with Sunny. This could be the first time that I've seen a smile on this guys face for the whole movie and I don't really blame him.  

 The white-knuckled ride of a movie meant that you were kept guessing as to which way this story was going to go. The main character is trying to come across as a good guy who always gets dumped on, but others could see him as a guy, so naïve, that he could win awards. Most of the cast were pretty good, but at times, I think some, such as Newton as the wife, were simply employed just to show how low this guys life had gotten because she didn't really add anything else. 95% of the movie is pretty gritty and dark, with the final scene being the brightest and only true moment that doesn't feel dirty. This can truly be seen as the happy ending to this otherwise disastrous guy's life. When it comes to the humour, it is dark but with the story constantly switching to who is after who, there was no real continuity for me. Even when Copley entered the story, he did his best to breathe some life into it and then he was gone again for someone else to be involved. It needed more than just Harold to be on the screen constantly, instead of switching him between the hands of different side characters. By the end, it was a little chaotic but the best parts and most humorous were shown in the trailer. Doesn't that always see to be the case?

The Cold War did not end, it merely shattered into a thousand pieces (Red Sparrow 2018)

185.

Red Sparrow

  

 

 

 6/10

 

 

Jennifer Lawrence is about to take to our screens on a screen adaptation, on a book that goes by the same name. Jason Matthews, a former member of the CIA, helped on the production, after writing the book, mainly based around the Soviet use of Sexpionage. We can see the focus on this in the trailer alone, as if focuses on scenes of men looking lustfully at Lawrence's character, in a number of scenes. A number of rumors circulated before this movie came out, which mainly involved Jennifer Lawrence telling the press that she would be taking a break from movies for a while after this finished filming. This was going to be her first ever first nude scene, which would obviously make the press interested, whether in a positive way or body shaming, considering some of the controversies that have surrounded her in the past few years. It was clear to see that she was willing to put the work and passion in, learning ballet and the Russian accent, to get ready for the role, so let's see if this was going to be a full-bodied story or simply a cold front.

The movie begins with a ballet dressed, Dominika Egorova, who is a lead ballerina for a company of Russia. This company takes care of her and her ill mother, whilst she wows the audience. When the lead male accidentally falls and breaks Dominika's leg, her career and money flow are done. Her uncle quickly steps in and suggests that she works for him as an assassin, which is a bit of a major step for a dancer, surely. She is willing to do everything that she can for her mother. Her first target is a man called Dimitri, who proceeds to rape her but during the act, a masked assailant comes in and strangles him to death. She is then taken to the Sparrow school, as an alternative to death, because she witnessed the murder and they want to tie up all loose ends. She is then put through different tests and situations, in order to learn what to do to become a Sparrow. This is where we see men, forcing themselves on the girl recruits in the shower, to show their dominance to their own teachers. Dominika pulls off a shower handle and smashes it into her attackers face, before leaving him battered on the floor. The next day in class, the Matron isn't too happy that the boy didn't succeed in his attack and wants him to try again, but with Dominika also showing her dominance. She decides to take command and instantly drops her clothes, sitting on the desk, asking this guy to do his worst, to which he seems set back and unable to 'perform', due to her attitude and anger. This was the scene that everyone was talking about and it seems that it could have gone a little over the top, just to shock and awe.

The way that she has improved, has probably helped her worth now and she is removed from the training, earlier than expected. She is set onto a mission by her uncle and a General played by Jeremey Irons. Her new target is an American CIA member named Nate Nash and if that's not an America name, I don't know what is. This guy is played by Joel Edgerton and we can already figure that they get close, thanks to the trailer. She is put into an apartment with Marta, who is also a recruit from the Sparrow school. She uses her looks and body, to make Nate interested, swimming in the same swimming pool as him and then being at a convention with him. They get close and Nate ends up trying to convince Dominika to become a double agent and work with him and the CIA. Back at her flat, Dominika tells Marta that she was there the night that Ustinov was killed, the kill at the beginning, which Marta runs back to her superior with. I'm not sure she liked the outcome though, as she gets skinned and gutted, being left in her own bathtub for Dominika to find. There is a lot of back and fore in this movie, as now Dominika is with Nate's bosses, under going a lie detector test, telling them that Marta was meeting with an American who was supplying the Russians with information. Her name is Stephanie, code-name Swan and with Marta out of the way, Dominika and Maxim, her superior, proceed to meet her for the exchange. It doesn't go to plan though, as the bird is drunk and gets spooked, running in front of a bus and she's dead as disco. Dominika is then instead taken back to Russia for questioning and a cheeky bit of torture. Maxim is shot in the head, whilst Dominika is allowed to get back out there and find out who the main mole is in all of this. Even I'm clueless now!
The scene changes as Dominika and Nate reunite, sleeping with each other and she wakes to him tied up, being tortured. She joins in, before turning on the torturer, stabbing him and continuing the fight until her and Nate survive with some bad injuries. She wakes in the hospital to the General, played by Jeremy Irons, revealing to her that he is the mole. His reason being that he is angry with the Russians because they wouldn't let an American operate on his dying wife. He allows our main spy, do with the information as she will, resigning himself to his fate. We see her call it in, with the name of the mole and the scene changes to her making an exchange with a masked man, who is believed to be the Russian contact. When the mask is unveiled, it turns out to be the uncle who has undergone the torture. We are instantly thrust into some throw backs showing that Dominika set him up in various ways. He is then shot in the head before he reaches the Americans and tells them who he actually is.
The movie goes on to end with Dominika receiving a decoration from the General as the Matron is in the audience. She is then shown at home with her mother, before she gets a call and ballet music plays, just like Nate plays for her as a calling card.
Out of all of the spy movies that I've had the privilege to watch, this is a long way from the best, even the comedy ones. I don't plan on ever reading the book that this movie was based on, but it would always help to see how much the screenwriter carved up when it came to making this movie. Lawrence does ok with this movie but the lame Russian accent doesn't help with enjoying the movie too much. It's a very gritty and dark movie, which really does help with its topic and story but when it comes to the dialogue, it does seem quite boring. The whole thing seems to want to show the Russians as a sick, twisted nation, whilst the Americans are angelic within it all. If I was asked to recommend this, the answer would have been to save your money and wait for it to come on TV, like I wish I had.