The Girl Next Door (2007)

Genre: Thriller/Drama/Crime

Starring: Daniel Manche, Blythe Auffarth, Blanche Baker, Madeline Taylor, Benjamin Ross Kaplan, Graham Patrick Martin

At times there are some movies that you wonder why anyone would want to make them. The question mark over this movies existence is not based on it being too outrageous but the mere fact that it gets far too disturbing to watch. Set in the '50's, the movie narrates the experiences of a pre-teen boy, David (Manche) and a life-changing incident that he witnessed which changed him forever. Two young girls, Meg (Auffarth) and Susan (Taylor) are sent to live with their Aunt Ruth (Baker) after the loss of their parents in a tragic car accident. Ruth and David are neighbours and David regularly spends time with Ruths' sons and the other boys in the neighborhood. David is immediately attracted towards Meg and so are all the other boys. However, there was a difference between David's attraction, which was friendship and love, and the other boys, which was purely sexual. Ruth saw Susan and Meg as a burden on her and her displeasure towards them led her to severely punish them for every small deed until the intensity of the punishments kept growing to the point of no return. The movie portrays David as being a witness to the incident and although he never agreed with what was happening, he was unable to do anything to prevent it. Although the movie builds on a good foundation, it simply gets extremely disturbing and far too graphic to be a peaceful watch. You would probably wince and turn your head on multiple occasions, so be warned before you watch.

Thumbs up: Good depiction of a single event

Thumbs down: Slow, can get extremely disturbing towards a point

Rating: 5.8/10

Push (2009)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action/Adventure/Crime

Starring: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou, Ming-Na, Cliff Curtis

There have always been movies about another race of human beings on the planet that are unknown to us and posses special powers. What differs within these movies is how outlandish the 'other' human species can be conceived to be. There exists a breed of humans that posses super-human powers and are classified within themselves according to the power they posses. A governmental body to control their kind, called the 'division', is after a suitcase. Everything else in the movie is one big question mark leaving you with a thousand unanswered questions with the biggest one being, why is Nick Grant (Evans) and Cassie (Fanning) even involved in all of this. Although the movie tries to build upon a decent concept and has an above average ending attached to it, most of the story is a complete washout and seems to be glued together in a highly tacky manner. It does a decent job of being a fantasy movie with decent action, but that's all there is to it. Don't try bothering to figure out whats happening cause its not worth it.

Thumbs up: Decent action, a good entertainer

Thumbs down: Horrible story that doesn't make any amount of sense

Rating: 5.6/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Drama

Starring: Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, Will Poulter, Ben Barnes, Simon Pegg (voice)

The Pevensie children are back in England and are leading their normal human lives. Susan and Peter are away to university, leaving Lucy (Henley) and Edmund (Keynes) to live at their cousins residence. Their cousin, Eustace (Poulter) is an extremely annoying, pampered and timid individual who does not make Lucy and Edmund's life easy. When Narnia summons them, Eustace becomes an uninvited guest to the mystery land. The three find themselves aboard the Dawn Treader, a huge ship which is led by none other than Prince Caspian (Barnes) himself. The four find themselves on an adventure to the far corners of unexplored Narnia land where they encounter evil, mysteries and demons they have never ever seen or heard of before. The movie is a huge disconnect from the previous movies with the story like just another adventure with the same cast. It might be appealing to the younger generation, but is no match for the more reputed fantasy and adventure movies known. A big let down for a Narnia fan and an average watch for everyone else.

Thumbs up: Decent adventure

Thumbs down: No link to previous stories

Rating: 5.8/10