BARE BONES: SIGNIFICANT OTHER (2022)

SIGNIFICANT OTHER (2022)

Couple Ruth (Maika Monroe) and Harry (Jake Lacy) are taking a camping trip deep in the Pacific Northwest woods, something the anxiety prone Ruth is very nervous about. Jake uses the trip as a staging for a marriage proposal which is something Ruth is even more nervous about. Camping and engagement issues are the least of Ruth and Harry’s problems, though, as something landed in the nearby woods just the night before and it is something unearthly and with a sinister purpose.

 

Flick is written and directed by the duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen who made the darkly comic Villains also starring Monroe. The filmmakers nail the first two thirds of this flick by giving us an ominous opening as a mysterious object lands in the middle of the woods and a deer soon becomes victim to something otherworldly. We then meet Ruth and Harry who are having their own personal issues, as the anxiety filled Ruth is dreading their little deep woods excursion. This not only adds tension between the couple, but also with the audience who already know something malicious is waiting for the two in the woods that Ruth would rather not enter. The flick is loaded with atmosphere and is legitimately spooky, as it soon begins to appear that one of the two is no longer who they seem. So far, so good. It’s in the last act when the film loses its grip somewhat. While it remains atmospheric, we find out maybe a little too much about what is going on, and the delivery of this exposition on the extraterrestrial invader and its purpose is delivered in a borderline silly manner. The film does present an original and interesting caveat to the Body Snatchers/The Thing alien duplication scenario by presenting the other side of the coin. What effect on an alien doppelganger does the residual emotions of its human template have? This is an interesting angle to be sure, but one feels it could have been presented in a more intriguing and less matter-of-fact way. A cool concept sadly mishandled, and it causes all the tension built up in the first hour to dissipate. Maybe things should have been left a bit more ambiguous and the actor’s delivery less cavalier. It brings down a film that had impact in its first two-thirds. The movie simply reveals too much and in a very glib manner. Significant Other is still worth a look and very effective in many respects, but it just doesn’t handle its most interesting idea in the most effective way. Also stars Matthew Yang King and Dana Green as Ray and Vivian, another couple Ruth and Harry encounter.

 

-MonsterZero NJ

REVIEW: RAMPAGE (2018)

RAMPAGE (2018)

Latest flick to be based on a video game arrives just weeks after the Tomb Raider reboot. This monster mash finds the Engyne Corporation conducting illegal genetic experiments on a space station. When its test subject gets free, the cataclysm sends samples of this genetic-altering material crash-landing to Earth. It’s encountered by simian wildlife sanctuary resident, George, a wolf in the Wyoming wilderness and something beneath the waters in the Everglades. The animals begin to grow at an alarming rate and acquire new strengths and abilities, causing havoc wherever they go. Engyne’s sinister siblings Claire (Malin Åkerman) and Brett (Jake Lacy) send out a signal that will lure their Frankenstein creations to Chicago, while the military and government frantically try to stop the monsters. Meanwhile George’s handler, primate specialist and ex-solider, Davis Okoye (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) tries to save his friend with the help of a pretty geneticist (Naomie Harris) and with a government agent (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hot on his tail.

Film is directed very-by-the-numbers by Brad Peyton who directed Johnson in the much livelier San Andreas. Maybe it’s the messy script by four writers, no less, or maybe Peyton is tired of assaulting his frequent leading man with monsters (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) or crashing buildings around him. There are some fun bits and the monster throw-down at the end is a bit punchier than Pacific Rim: Uprising’s Kaiju/Jaeger clash, but it’s not as much dumb fun as it should be…though it is dumb. The flick seems to follow the template of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, with a little monster action here and there, but most of it saved for the last act with a lot of exposition and pontificating from hero and villain alike, in-between. There are all the clichés present you could want, from evil corporate villains to hard-nosed military types, to the slimy government agent who eventually sees things our hero’s way. Aside from some top-notch creature FX and city smashing CGI, there just isn’t really the sense of fun Peyton gave his earlier movies with “The Rock”. One is never bored, but you’re still not having the great time you did watching Johnson navigate falling skyscrapers in San Andreas. There are more plot holes than you can shake a giant albino ape at…such as, if they could track the two fallen canisters that produced George and Ralph (The Wolf), why couldn’t they track the third canister that produced the gargantuan, mutant alligator? And while not genetically altered, why is Davis able to shrug off being shot in the gut by Claire? One minute he is in intense pain and the next he’s skipping over fallen buildings with the greatest of ease. Biggest question of all…why am I looking for sense and logic in a movie like this?

There is an impressive cast for what is basically a B-movie monster flick, name-wise anyway. Johnson has proven he has the charm and chops to be a solid action hero and he can be very funny, as his WWE days already illustrated. He is charismatic and fun here, though given some very weak dialogue that even his muscles can’t beat. Naomie Harris is a fine heroine as the geneticist whose work is used for ill by Claire and Brett, although she is mostly a second banana to Johnson…sorry about the dual penis euphemisms, sometimes they just pop up…As for our villains, they are as two-dimensional and cliché as they come with Åkerman and Lacy hamming it up as pontificating corporate banshee and her cowardly brother respectively. Jeffrey Dean Morgan also goes over-the-top as cowboy government agent Russell, who is first a pain in Davis’ side, then an ally. Another walking cliché. Rounding out is Joe Manganiello in a brief part as a mercenary sent to take down Ralph and Demetrius Grosse as a military operative too hard-nosed for his own good…and let’s not forget Jason Liles who did the motion capture performance for the big albino ape George, giving him the personality, the other critters lacked.

Simply, despite the set-up of Dwayne Johnson and oversized monsters battling it out in Chicago, this flick is too pedestrian to generate the fun needed to overcome the script’s shortcomings. The characters are tired clichés, some of the actors are simply over-compensating for the lack of character development, George aside, the monsters are strictly generic and the final throw-down is a little too by-the-numbers to get us really entertained. It’s not as dull as the recent Pacific Rim: Uprising, thanks in part to the charisma of its leading man but is not nearly as fun as last year’s Kong: Skull Island. Those familiar with the video game on which it’s based might be more emotionally invested, but otherwise this is a moderately amusing flick that is best saved for checking out on Netflix at some point.

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 2 and 1/2 (out of 4) Johnsons.

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