Robot & Frank (2012) - Movie Review

If I ever get a robot, I want it to speak with Patrick Stewart's voice.

Set in the near future, Frank (Frank Langella) is an ex-burgler living in a small home on the outskirts of town.  His dementia is getting worse, and is losing the ability to take care of himself.   His son (James Marsden), growing tired of driving out to take care of him, buys him a robot caretaker.

Frank's not too wild about the robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) at first, but he learns that the robot isn't programmed to know if an activity is illegal or not.  Even better, Frank learns the robot can also pick locks.  This enables Frank to plan a few more robberies, which keeps his mind engaged and gives him something to do again.  His mind isn't completely gone though, as he spends some time flirting with the local librarian (Susan Sarandon).

For a time, Frank's daughter (Liv Tyler) comes to take care of him, and deactivates the robot.  This upsets Frank, as it's clear that he's become attached to the robot, and also time is running out on the robberies they have planned.  Eventually, he's able to convince her to let him keep the robot, and she leaves.

The robberies are successful, but the local authorities (led by Jeremy Sisto), knowing Frank's history, question him and surveil his house.  The robot points out to Frank that his memory can be used against him and advises him to format his memory.  This puts Frank in a tough spot.  This robot is his only friend and is it right to erase its memory, even if doing so will keep him out of jail.

This was an impressive debut for director Jake Schreirer.  He kept things moving and easy to follow.  The robot has a simple design, similar to modern robots by Honda, so the premise never seems hard to believe.  Based on how our technology is advancing, this genuinely feels like something that could happen just a few years from now.  The script by Christopher D. Ford hits all the right notes.  It's smart, funny and sweet.  The story is fairly straightforward, but I felt it was emotionally complex.

Frank Langella is always great and he gives another fantastic performance.  He's able to say so much with those soulful eyes of his and it's hard to not get wrapped up in what's going through his mind.  It's a very small cast, and they all play their parts well, but this is really just about Frank and his robot.  Their interaction is touching and humorous.  I wasn't expecting to be as moved by this as I was, nor was I expecting how funny it turned out.

Movies like Robot & Frank are why I love movies.  It's a smart movie about aging and the fragility of memory, but it's also a charming and funny buddy movie.  Led by Frank Langella's wonderful performance, this might be one of my favorite films of the year.  I highly recommend checking it out if it's playing at a theater near you, like The Vine (www.vinecinema.com).

4.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Words (2012) - Movie Review

We begin with the reading of a book, The Words, by successful author Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid).  The book is the story of another author, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), who lives in New York with his girlfriend, Dora (Zoe Saldana).  Rory is an author struggling to get published, and is forced to get a day job when his father (J.K. Simmons) says he can't support him anymore and hints that maybe it's time to move on.

While on their honeymoon, the couple finds an old leather bag that contains an old manuscript. Rory reads it and realizes that it's better than anything he's ever written.  He types it, word for word, into his computer just for the experience of having the book go through his hands.  Dora finds the re-typed manuscript and is moved by it.  She encourages him to get it published, and Rory can't bring himself to tell her that he didn't write it.

The book is a hit and things are looking up for Rory, but things get complicated when the book's original author, simply billed as "The Old Man" (Jeremy Irons), tracks Rory down and tells him his story.  We are transported to World War II France and get a mini period piece detailing how The Old Man wrote and then lost his book.  I felt this was the strength of the movie, simply for Jeremy Irons performance.  He just provided narration, but he's so good in that 'I could listen to him read the phone book' way.  It's worth watching The Words just for Jeremy Irons.

Most of the performances in The Words are strong.  I thought Bradley Cooper was great.  To think a few years ago I thought he was going to be a flash in the pan.  Cooper shows emotional depth that I don't think we've seen out of him up until now.  Zoe Saldana was good as well, but she wasn't given much to do and the story wasn't about her.  I also really enjoyed Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezender as the young couple from The Old Man's story.  He doesn't get enough screen time, but it's always great to see J.K. Simmons in anything.

You'd think that things would get really interesting once the two authors meet, but the problem is that The Old Man doesn't want anything from Rory.  As a result, the movie fizzles out and you never really get to see how this affects Rory.  There are some consequences, but Rory is never publicly outed and they don't spend very much time at all showing Rory deal with the guilt of what's he's done.

What should have been the emotional climax of the film ended up switching back to catch up with Clay, who's flirting with an apparent literary groupie played by Olivia Wilde.  She's very interested in the story, so you think there might be something deeper to her character, but there isn't.  I like Olivia Wilde, but once again she plays a role that felt thrown in just to have another pretty face in the movie.  I'm sure the script appealed to her, as her surname was taken from author Oscar Wilde.  There was some very odd and awkward interaction between Quaid and Wilde as he uncomfortably tried to flirt with her.  Have you ever had a friend that didn't quite know how to talk to women and tries way too hard, so it comes off as a little creepy?  It was like that.

With all this story within a story within a story, I felt like I was watching a literary version of Inception.  It's never truly clear if Clay is actually Rory or just telling a story.  They leave that up to you to decide, but it kind of felt like the movie was trying really hard to be clever.  The movie ends very abruptly and you're left wondering what the point was.  I'd like to ask co-writers and directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal what they were really trying to say here.

I'd love to write more about this movie, but I can't find...The Words.  Ha ha ha!  Do you see what I did with that totally hilarious joke that I in no way had any assistance with?

The Words is a very well acted and good looking film, but the story is overly complex and ultimately something that won't stick with you.  I do think it's worth watching for the performances, especially Jeremy Irons, but this is better suited for a rental.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Cold Light of Day (2012) - Movie Review

Don't worry, the title didn't make any sense to me either. You could have just called this "Superman Tries to Get His Bourne On".

When we meet Will (Henry Cavill), he's already having a bad day.  He arrives in Spain for a family reunion that he doesn't want any part of, and learns that his luggage is back in San Francisco.  Most people leave their hearts there, but Will Shaw left his luggage there.  You meet his father, Martin (Bruce Willis), and the rest of his family. Will and his brothers have daddy issues for some reason that we're never really clear on.  Something about Martin's work.  Waa waa waa!  Daddy wasn't there for me, or something like that.

The family goes sailing the following day, but Will is preoccupied with calls, as he learns his business is bankrupt.  Will's lack of focus causes an injury to a family member, so he swims to shore to get medicine.   Upon his return, the sailboat is gone.  He eventually catches up with the boat to find it abandoned and ransacked.  Going to the police doesn't help, and they just lead him back to the beach, where he meets a man that says he knows where is family is and will take him to them.  Instead of going along, Will takes off, chased by the cops.  They catch up to him, but Martin magically appears to fight them off.  He reveals to Will that he's actually been a CIA agent all along, and they need to retrieve some briefcase or their family will be killed.

They meet up with Martin's partner, Carrack (Sigourney Weaver), and the movie doesn't even try to make you believe for a second that she's not the real villain.  Carrack betrays Martin, and Bruce Willis checks out at this point, or maybe he just wanted to collect his check and go home early. It's now up to Will to figure out what's going on and get this briefcase back before it's too late.  What's in the briefcase, you ask?  It doesn't matter, and the movie never even tries to explain it. It could have been a flash drive or microfilm for all it mattered to the 'plot'.

Along the way he meets a cute local named Lucia (Veronica Echegui), who turns out to be Will's half sister.   Yes, in addition to misleading his sons about his career, Martin also had a second family in Spain.  One unusual point is that Martin reveals that while his sons never knew about him being a CIA agent, his wife did.   I'm not sure why it's okay to tell your wife, but not your kids, but whatever.  His reveal that he's a CIA agent was so obvious from the opening moments of the film that it felt pointless to even begin with him pretending otherwise.

The Cold Light of Day doesn't bother with things like making sense.  One of the better examples of this is at one point Will is shot, and he's taken to a safe place (not a hospital) where a random person examines him and announces that there's no bullet in him, even though he was shot in the midsection and there's no exit wound.  Um...thanks for your expert advice there, not-doctor.  I guess he's in the clear then.  Characters behave irrationally throughout, and don't seem to have any issue putting people in danger that they just met.   The story and terrible dialog felt recycled and pieced together from other films.  Even the score felt like it was meant for another movie.  This was written by Scott Wiper and John Petro, who don't have a very impressive resume so far, and they don't do anything creative or original here.

I have a feeling this was something originally meant for direct to video, but they tried to push out during a slow weak in hopes of generating some buzz for Henry Cavil.  This movie isn't going to do it though.  In fact, I'm much less confident that Zack Snyder picked the right guy for Superman now.  I don't dislike Cavill, but he seems too serious (and skinny) and I just can't see him as Clark Kent or Superman.

It's a shame, because when I see names like Willis, Weaver and Cavill on the poster, I had hoped that this would at least have a certain level of quality.  Sigourney Weaver gives the best performance here, but it's odd to me that she seems to now be the default, bad-guy-agent or head of an organization in most of her recent roles.  If she would have played this as over-the-top as Michael Shannon did in Premium Rush, then I'd have an easier time recommending this.  As mentioned earlier, Bruce Willis is barely in this, and his early exit in the film seems to say that even he knew this wasn't going to be very good.  I'm sure he enjoyed his mini-vacation in Spain though.

I can't even say it's a good spy movie, because it's not about a spy.  It's a normal guy thrown into a situation he has no understanding of.  There's lots of chasing between Will and Carrack, but it's all shot in a way that at times you can't even tell what's going on, and it becomes tedious to watch instead of entertaining.  If you're someone that's annoyed by quick cuts and shaky cam work, you get tons of that here.  Some of this shaky cam work is done at night with very little light, so you really can't tell what's going on.  It's all done to cover for poorly choreographed fight and chase scenes.  There's also a lot of awkward mirror shots that may have worked in a better movie, but here just felt like a gimmick.

I'm surprised this didn't turn out better as the director, Mabrouk El Mechri, also directed JCVD, which is an infinitely better film.  I don't know what happened here, but if you haven't seen JCVD yet, rent that instead of bothering with this.

The Cold Light of Day is a totally forgettable thriller that felt like a bad Bourne-clone.  It's completely by-the-numbers and doesn't bring anything new, fun or interesting to the genre.  This is the kind of movie you'd probably think wasn't bad if you caught it on cable recovering from a hangover on a Sunday afternoon and couch surfing.  No need to see this one in the theater.  Save this for cheap rental, streaming or cable.

1.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

REC 3: Genesis (2012) - Movie Review

Don't let your drunk uncle come to your wedding, he may end up causing a zombie outbreak.

REC 3: Genesis is the third in the Spanish REC film series.  Some of you know may know the series by it's American remake, Quarantine.  REC 3 is not a direct sequel to either of the previous REC films, so you aren't missing anything if you haven't seen the previous two.  In fact, you really aren't missing anything if you never see this film.  Yes, as you might have guessed, REC 3: Genesis continues the trend of weak horror films this summer.  It's one of those movies that more you think about out, the stupider you realize it all is.

Spoilery rant ahead...

As it's a Spanish film, it's subtitled, but it really doesn't matter as there's very little meaningful dialog, and what there is doesn't make much sense anyway.

We begin by watching a film crew setting up to film a wedding.  This starts out like it's going to be yet another found footage flick, but they abandon that aspect after about 10 minutes.  During the reception, a seemingly drunk uncle falls off a balcony, but then attacks the first person that tries try to aid him.  Out of nowhere, several other zombies show up from different locations.  Where did these guys come from?  This was a wedding right?  Wasn't everyone there by invite?  Don't you think some of the other guests might have been noticing the condition of people they likely knew?

One huge problem I had with the film, is that before this outbreak happens, you see some kind of hazmat team outside doing some work, so they must have known there was a danger, but yet they didn't do anything to contain it before it spread to the whole party.  This team's lack of action led to the deaths of close to a hundred people.  Why didn't they act before things escalated?  Were they the cause of the outbreak?  It appeared the infection could only be passed by being bitten, so I don't see why they couldn't evacuate or warn people.

The bride and groom, Koldo (yes, his name was Koldo) and Clara, get separated.  Clara is able to contact her Lord of the Rings-named husband over the P.A. system to let him know that she's fine and also pregnant.  Do you think five minutes into a zombie outbreak is the best time to tell your husband of less than an hour that you're already pregnant?  In keeping with his fantasy origins, Koldo (Diego Martin) dons a suit of armor and mace and heads out to find Clara (Leticia Dolera).  I actually thought this was one of the cooler aspects of the film.  I think that's an badass way to charge into the zombie horde.  Unfortunately, REC 3 does not take advantage of this opportunity to do something awesome, and has Koldo instead do a number of head-scratching moves instead. At least two separate times, he puts his only weapon down, and continues on unarmed, even though there are clear threats close by.  Who does that?

Later, Koldo and Clara reunite just as she's about to get bitten.  They share a long, passionate embrace rather than run away, but they didn't bother to secure the hatch she just escaped through with zombies on her heels. Conveniently, the zombies decide to take their time to allow them to share their embrace.  These zombies are more polite, I guess.

Clara gets to have her badass moment, too. She finds a chainsaw, and then immediately uses it to cut a small part of her dress away.  Then, she turns it off knowing that zombies are just around the corner. Of course she has difficulties turning it on again when they are right on top of her.

Why is it in movies like this are the main couple the only two people that show any aptitude at either avoiding the undead or killing them?  You see many able bodied people throughout, yet they are all helpless and their deaths are telegraphed.  Haven't any of these characters, or the makers of this movie for that matter, ever seen a zombie flick before?  I understand that panic makes people not think clearly, but you'd think survival instincts would take over.  Don't let them bite you, and give them head trauma.

Oh, but wait, in REC 3 the undead die inconsistently throughout the film.  Sometimes it's enough to stab them in the chest or abs, yet at other times you need to cut their head in half.  Also, in a new wrinkle, the undead can by immobilized by prayer.  Yep, that's right, a priest figures this out early on in the film, but doesn't bother with it again until almost the end.  Since this was all caused by an infection, it makes sense that prayer will neutralize it, right?  Another unexplained wrinkle is that when you see the reflection of a zombie in a mirror, they appear as ghoulish creatures, rather than the zombie they are.

It's mercifully over at just 75 minutes, but it just shows you how very little this movie had going on.

This is normally the kind of film I have fun with, but maybe I just wasn't in the right mood.  It's bloody and there are some moments where I thought they were leading up to something better, but it just falls into all the same cliches you see in any other horror film.  Side characters die off as if on cue, bad decisions are made by everyone, people for some reason fall behind the larger group, etc.  There's nothing here you haven't seen before, and the things that would have been cool aren't taken advantage of.  I understand what they were trying to do here, but I think that's the problem.  They were trying too hard, instead of letting the humor happen naturally.

REC 3: Genesis was written and directed by Paco Plaza, and co-written by Luiso Berdejo, which surprises me as they also were behind the previous REC and Quarantine movies.  They seemed to be really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas here.  Apparently there's already a fourth REC film planned, so hopefully they can go out with a bang, because there's been a steady decline since the first REC/Quarantine, which I really enjoyed.

REC 3: Genesis tries to add a new setting and few new wrinkles to the zombie movie genre, but it ends up being just another really dumb horror film.  It's not scary in the least and they tried to make it funny, but everything fell flat.  If zombie movies are your thing, you might get something out of this, but otherwise I can't recommend wasting your time with it.  Pass.

1 (out of 5) Death Stars

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012) - Movie Review

When we first meet Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg), they come off as an almost annoyingly cute couple.  They enjoy hanging out together, profess their love for each other and share all kind of inside jokes. However, when having dinner with friends, Beth and Tucker, Beth (Ari Graynor) snaps that she can't take this anymore. You see, Celeste and Jesse have been separated for six month and in process of divorce. For their friends, their continued relationship is unhealthy, but C & J don't see anything wrong it. They are still good friends and don't understand why they can't remain that way. To everyone else, they look like two people that can't move on.

Celeste, a successful business woman, grew tried of Jesse's unemployed artist shtick and his lack of motivation to work.  She didn't see herself having kids with him, so she ended the relationship.  Jesse, however, thinks Celeste will come back around if he waits it out.

His friend and marijuana dealer, Skillz (co-writer Will McCormack), convinces Jesse to get back out there and date more.  He does and reconnects with a girl he hooked up with a few months back, and decides to make things work with this new girl.  When Jesse tells Celeste, she has a hard time dealing with this and she tries to get back out there herself, with mixed, and sometimes hilarious, results.  She also encounters some professional difficulty, so things spiral out of control for her and nearly hits rock bottom.

One thing I really liked about Celeste and Jesse Forever was that it doesn't turn to all the typical romantic comedy cliche's where you know that everything is going to lead back to them getting back together.  C&JF isn't about that.  It's about actually breaking up, moving on and finding happiness elsewhere.  Another thing I really enjoyed about the movie was that the characters were flawed, even unlikable at times, but realistic.

It's not a perfect film though.  I felt that the humor was a little inconsistent, maybe a little too broad throughout the movie.  Also, I was having difficulty getting into Celeste and Jesse Forever initially. The audience was laughing, but I couldn't help be think they were trying too hard to be cute. After about 15 minutes though, I settled in and as I learned more about the characters, I became invested in where things were going to go.  Don't get me wrong though, the movie is funny, but it just took me a bit to warm up to it.

I've been on a theme of simplification lately.  Celeste and Jesse needed it.  There were too many characters and subplots going on.  The movie drags a little bit, so trimming a few of these characters from the film would have make this a much tighter and interesting film.  I'm not sure this is correct, but the run time is listed at 90 minutes.  It felt longer than that.  Looking at the clock after the movie was over, it certainly seemed closer to 100 minutes or so.

It pains me to say it, as I liked the cast, but some of the characters were really throwaway.  Elijah Wood's character felt like it was in there just so Celeste could have a cliched gay friend, and was used for a few easy jokes.  There's a subplot with a Ke$ha-like character, played by Emma Roberts, that also wasn't needed to tell the story.  I liked both the characters, and I liked the performances, but the movie could have been told without them and those same points delivered by other characters already established in the film.  For example, towards the end you realize that Celeste and Jesse have been friends with Beth and Tucker since before any of them were dating. You wouldn't know that from the movie though.  Tucker (Eric Christian Olsen) really isn't given much to do in the movie, and it seemed like many of the points made to the Celeste and Jesse throughout the film, should have been delivered by Tucker and Beth, instead of being delivered by side characters.

I didn't realize until the credits rolled that this was co-written by Rashida Jones.  It makes sense as the story is really more about Celeste and her growth than Jesse.  As I've said earlier, her script cold have used some  simplifying, but I stilled liked how authentic the relationships and people felt. The movie also shows you that  Rashida Jones can carry a movie and is poised to take the next step to stardom.  I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened sooner for her, as I thought she was great in I Love You Man and on Parks & Recreation.    Her chemistry with Andy Samberg was believable and it was nice to see Samberg show a more serious side.  I haven't said much about Samberg, as the story doesn't focus on him much as it moves on, but he does get a chance to show some range and that there's more to him post-SNL.

Celeste and Jesse Forever is a realistic look at a breakup and moving on.  This may hit a little too close to home for some you, especially if you've either gone through a breakup like this or know someone that has.  It's a frustrating, emotional roller coaster that nobody wants to deal with.  As far as indie dramedies go, much like Ruby Sparks, this is a different look than what you typically see and worth watching.  It's funny and smarter than your average dramedy.  I recommend it as a matinee, but it may not be the best date movie since it's about a breakup.

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Good Doctor (2012) - Movie Review

With a title like The Good Doctor, you know this can only turn out one of two ways.  He's either actually going to be a good doctor, or he's going to be a terrible doctor.  I'll let you have a guess at which.  Don't worry, you've got a fifty-percent chance of being right.  Spoilers ahead...

Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom) is young doctor starting his residency.  He's having difficulty fitting in, and clashes with one of the nurses (Taraji P. Henson).  He's desperately wants the respect of his co-workers and supervisor (Rob Morrow).  After initially screwing up with a patient, he gets a chance to redeem himself when a cute, young patient, Diane (Riley Keogh), comes in with a kidney infection.  Under Blake's care, Diane quickly recovers and is sent home.  Diane's parents are so happy they invite him over for dinner.

There's a darkness to Blake though, and while there are hints to this early in the movie, they go unnoticed by his co-workers.  He sabotages Diane's recovery, forcing her ailment to relapse, which leads to an even longer stay in the hospital.  Blake spends even more time with Diane, continuing to sabotague her while telling his supervisors that she's been 'resistant to treatment'.  It might have been funny if it weren't so creepy.

As you might guess, things take a turn for the worse and he loses the patient.  At one point Diane's father confronts him in the hospital and accuses him of killing his daughter.  He insists he did everything he could, but the reality is that he did kill her.  Worse yet, he didn't really seem to have any guilt about it.  His cold demeanor is looked at as professional detachment by his supervisor and hospital psychologist.  His colleagues try to reassure him by saying that everyone loses a patient at some point, and that you aren't really a doctor until you do.

Later, a irresponsible orderly (Michael Peña) finds something that could be used against Blake, and uses this leverage to bribe him for drugs.  This leads to another series of bad decisions by Blake as the movie continues into the bizarre.

Normally, I don't mind character studies or movies that have ambiguity about them, but this was one where it bugged me.  From the opening moments right up until the very end, Blake engages in a series of increasingly illogical decisions that just made me scratch my head.  The problem I had was that it was never explained why he was doing these things.  Was he really so driven to gain respect that he'd do anything to get there.  Was he was falling for Diane and didn't want to let her go?   Maybe he was simply a psychopath.  You see that Blake has a scar on his forehead, that he attempts to cover with a really bad, Donald Trump-like haircut.  Are we to guess that he had head trauma in his past? If so, do they really let doctors with a history of head trauma become doctors? Did he have a psychological evaluation at any point? Maybe I'm missing the point they were trying to make here, but I don't like making excuses for a film.

It's nice looking at least, but the pace was sluggish and I couldn't figure out what the tone was.  I think that director Lance Daly and John Enbom couldn't either.  If this was meant to be a dark comedy, then there should have been some actual humor in it, and if this was a character study, they didn't give us about the character to care.  There's not enough depth.

I also didn't get enough chemistry between Orlando Bloom and Riley Keogh to care about their relationship. I felt both of them were very flat together.  I do think Bloom brought a creepy, detached element to his performance, but it seemed he spent a lot of time just staring out into the distance.  I enjoyed the supporting performances from Taraji P. Henson and Michael Peña more. While they didn't get a lot of screen time, I felt like they both had more going on and wanted to see more of them.  I think they really missed an opportunity with Peña's character to do more there.

The Good Doctor could have been a dark and complex story, but it misses the mark because it failed to give us a compelling character to watch.  We end up getting something that was creepy, unsatisfying and a little boring.  It's not awful, but there's really nothing to recommend about it. You can skip this one, folks.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Possession (2012) - Movie Review

Did you know that a demon will show up on an MRI?  Neither did I, and as The Possession is based on a true story, you can take that as a fact.

Have I mentioned before how much I hate when a horror film starts with "based on a true story?"  When you watch The Possession, (not to be confused with The Apparition, which only came out last week), there's never a point where you'll say to yourself, "Oh yeah, this totally could have happened."  Another thing that I'm getting irritated with are possession stories where the 'possessee' is a child.  Why do demon spirits always aim the bar so low for victims?  Why not possess a rich athlete or actor, or better yet, a world leader?  Anyway, they do explain that the demon needed someone pure, hence the need for a young child, but that doesn't mean this isn't a tired cliché.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Let's get to the movie, shall we? Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a recently divorced father. He's a college basketball coach, which apparently means that he hasn't always been the most present husband and father.  He shares custody of his two daughters, and desperately trying to connect with them.  In keeping with the clichés, the oldest daughter (Madison Davenport) is one of those bitchy pre-teens that you can't help but dislike a little.  Clyde's ex-wife (Kyra Sedgwick), oscillates between getting along with Clyde and then absolute hating him.  She's dating a new guy that's also a bit of a tool.  The Possession could have been called "The Comedian vs. His Unlikable Family".

Clyde has the kids for the weekend and takes them to the nice new home he just purchased, which the pre-teen hates because it's in the middle of nowhere, I guess.  While driving around, they come across a yard sale, and his youngest daughter, Em (Natasha Calis), is drawn to an old, wooden box.  The films prologue shows a bit of the backstory of the box, which involved an invisible force beating the shit out of an old lady.  As more is revealed later, this scene makes less sense as you learn that the point of the box was to contain a demon.  It doesn't seem like this box does a very good job of containment if it can kill people when the box is still sealed.  What's the point?

As Em plays with the box, her behavior becomes increasingly odd and violent, while weird things happen in the house.  Clyde investigates, and finds this box was used to contain an ancient Jewish demon called a Dybbuk.  So, the only new twist to The Possession is that the demon is Jewish, instead of the Catholic demon we normally see.  It's interesting to note that the family's religion was never brought up during the movie, so you have to wonder if this demon need a Jewish person to possess.  Clyde finds a Hasidic Jew (Matisyahu), that's willing to help him with an exorcism.

This movie had a serious volume problem.  At times the sound would be normal or even muted, which I thought was a nice touch at times, but then out of nowhere the music would get oppressively loud or an ear splitting scream or sound would be used after a quieter moment.  This was done even when there weren't scary things going on.  For example, an abrupt drilling sound was used to seal up a doggie door in the house after they though a raccoon got into the house.  It was a very cheap way to get a jump scare and I found it very irritating and the movie progressed.

It does have nice performances.  I've been a big Jeffrey Dean Morgan fan ever since his role as "The Comedian" in Watchmen.  Here he shows a little more range emotionally, and I did find myself sympathizing and rooting for his character.  I hope he can get more roles.  I also thought Natasha Calis had moments where she was creepy.  I couldn't figure out why Kyra Sedgwick's boyfriend was so familiar until I saw the credits roll and realized that it was Grant freaking Show.  I haven't seen that guy since the original Melrose Place.  On another note, has Kyra Sedgwick gotten into yoga or something?  Early in the movie she's wearing a sleeveless shirt and her arms and shoulders looked pretty cut.  Keep up the good work, Kyra!

The reality is that I love horror films.  I love the rush you get from the scare or even the anticipation of what's about to happen.  When a movie can give me genuine chills, there's almost nothing better.  Unfortunately, The Possession is not one of these films.  I'm especially disappointed because Sam Raimi produced this and it's missing all the humor and campiness you'd expect with his involvement.  It's not a bad effort from director Ole Bornedal, but there's just nothing new here.  Writers Juliet Snowden and Stiles White are the same team that's brought you other lackluster films like Knowing and Boogeyman, so you can add this to their resume of lackluster films.

The Possession is just another middle-of-the-road possession movie.  It tries to cover for not being original or scary by using a lot of loud noises and cheap jump scares.  It had a few creepy moments, but overall this is very forgettable and not the kind of thing that will give you nightmares. Save it for rental.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars