I bought this as a fan of modern day Jan Sebastian (then Jan Mackenzie), now a beloved writer on Medium. She plays the lead, Angelique, as seen on the cover, scantily clad, looking at the camera, holding a shotgun and a snake.
Disclaimer: I haven't seen the first one (yet), so there'll be no comparison here. Neither have I seen 'I Spit on Your Grave', or a whole ton of other movies (I was born in the 90s, my Christian extremist family was anti most entertainment, and I don't go out of my way to catch up; get over it, I'm only reviewing this one).
Firstly, what surprised me the most, was how the story time was split. I was ready for similar pacing as to the first John Wick, with the inciting incident at the very beginning of the movie and the rest dedicated to revenge, but it was entirely the other way around. This in itself could have worked, as it really builds up the viewer's need to see the aggressors brought to justice, but the final revenge, while off to a good start, ended being quite underwhelming, especially as the last kill was given over to the husband (played by Tray Loren), who just so happened not to die gruesomely all along.
I don't know, maybe I'm biased, but I really wanted to see Jan do all the important killings.
The second factor to shock me were the underfed dogs (and fox) in one scene, which I'll admit added realism of the movie, but for me it was too much. Maybe there's more to that story I don't know about, like they were rescues or something, but my assumption is Ferd and Beverly starved some animals for the part, and that makes me uneasy.
That said, Jan is a fantastic actor, and I'm honestly pretty disappointed not to see it said more often. Especially for depicting either end of the emotional spectrum, she's a natural. I'll have to reach out to learn if she was really able to make herself cry like that... she also has a strong, very clear and attractive voice, which is a shame she lost after her stroke in later years.
All the parts were well played, except for maybe one, I'll let you decide who, but it fits in with the B-movie vibe anyway.
I also want to compliment the filming (camera shots, angles and all that). The boating scenes particularly are superb, and I really enjoyed the various nature closeups. One spider near the end really stuck with me. Suffice it to say I'll never choose to visit such areas of my own free will... but I've always found the American bayous terrifying.
This movie isn't probably going to please most people, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it in general, but it's artful, in its own way, and Jan is awesome.
7/10 stars from me!!!
Disclaimer: I haven't seen the first one (yet), so there'll be no comparison here. Neither have I seen 'I Spit on Your Grave', or a whole ton of other movies (I was born in the 90s, my Christian extremist family was anti most entertainment, and I don't go out of my way to catch up; get over it, I'm only reviewing this one).
Firstly, what surprised me the most, was how the story time was split. I was ready for similar pacing as to the first John Wick, with the inciting incident at the very beginning of the movie and the rest dedicated to revenge, but it was entirely the other way around. This in itself could have worked, as it really builds up the viewer's need to see the aggressors brought to justice, but the final revenge, while off to a good start, ended being quite underwhelming, especially as the last kill was given over to the husband (played by Tray Loren), who just so happened not to die gruesomely all along.
I don't know, maybe I'm biased, but I really wanted to see Jan do all the important killings.
The second factor to shock me were the underfed dogs (and fox) in one scene, which I'll admit added realism of the movie, but for me it was too much. Maybe there's more to that story I don't know about, like they were rescues or something, but my assumption is Ferd and Beverly starved some animals for the part, and that makes me uneasy.
That said, Jan is a fantastic actor, and I'm honestly pretty disappointed not to see it said more often. Especially for depicting either end of the emotional spectrum, she's a natural. I'll have to reach out to learn if she was really able to make herself cry like that... she also has a strong, very clear and attractive voice, which is a shame she lost after her stroke in later years.
All the parts were well played, except for maybe one, I'll let you decide who, but it fits in with the B-movie vibe anyway.
I also want to compliment the filming (camera shots, angles and all that). The boating scenes particularly are superb, and I really enjoyed the various nature closeups. One spider near the end really stuck with me. Suffice it to say I'll never choose to visit such areas of my own free will... but I've always found the American bayous terrifying.
This movie isn't probably going to please most people, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it in general, but it's artful, in its own way, and Jan is awesome.
7/10 stars from me!!!