Genres

Visitors Review

beetlejuice532 2012-05-24 18:47:50

Faces in the Crows

I just couldn't follow this film at all. Milla is a FANTASTIC actress,but she didn't do this film any justice at all. No story, no real plot,too predictable way before its even happened. Twenty of us were at apre-viewing all of us except about 2 were saying what the hell was thatall about? Why on Earth did they choose such a great actress to play insuch trash of a movie. We were just glad we didn't pay to see it.Another movie I'd advise not to waste money on, wait till you can rentit from DVD store much cheaper. I give this 3 stars cause: 1 Milla was in it, great actress in ResidentEvil and Stone. 2 I didn't pay to see it. 3 I made a few new friendsafter it was over.And to answer someone who asked if Face Blindness is an actual disease,yes it is, look up Prosopagnosia.

j-pc-birchall 2012-05-24 14:28:16

Progressively Irritating...

The only thing this film has going for it is the aesthetic beauty ofits lead actress and the initial shock that the NIP/TUCK guy is nolonger as pimping as one initially thought.Progressively intolerable, irritating and violates one's common senseto a point that one wishes the DVD exploded after 30 minutes.Specifically, the director bypassed the fact that the woman actuallyhas EARS. Furthermore, she is devoid of any oxytocin molecules grantingher the ability to fall in and out of love quicker than a back streethooker.However - The continuous switching of actors to convey the progenitorscondition was interesting. It gave a sense of what it may be like tohave such a disorder. This became the bones of the film and was indeeda suitable platform for the intended story line.

Adam Bushill 2012-05-22 21:11:14

kotatsu

I have labeled this review Kotatsu for a good reason, Kotatsu are thoseJapanese tables and just like them this movie is shallow and wooden. Ilove Mila's work and cannot fault her performance in this movie buteverybody else is pretty much terrible. The writing is over simplifiedand under thought out, pop psychology meets Jerry springer. Thetherapist tries to be powerful and dramatic but just comes across likea comic parody. It was really an effort to get through this movie withits awful dialog and annoying music not to mention the makeupdepartment appears to have obtained its facial hair appliances from theplug hole in a hotel shower. The movie used obvious devices to attemptto fool the audience into mistaking one of the main character was thekiller (and occasionally one of the secondary characters), sorry filmmakers, I'm not five years old, I like most of your potential audienceI have seen a great many of these films and I've seen this sleight ofhand/smoke and mirrors stuff before, many times. Not to say that I'mgreat at always spotting the bad guy, far from it, but in this film hemight as well have been wearing a hat with the word "murderer" on it.I'll leave you with one last, unaccountable observation (MILD SPOILER).I'm not geneticist but how likely is it that two people with very darkhair would have a blonde child?!

botev1921 2012-05-22 07:32:03

Quite predictable and shallow!

About 10 years ago we used to watch movies like that mainly on TV asthey were never really exciting enough for the big screen. From thevery beginning Faces in the Crowd leaves exactly that impression of aTV movie you might accidentally come by on a lazy Sunday afternoon onsome local channel. Basically the story is shallow and unexciting,dealing with a little-known medical condition, which is mixed up withserial-killer storyline. The lack of interesting characters allows usto easily predict every bit of the story from the smallest of hints,including who the killer is. Some of the hints I even consideredinsulting to my intelligence as basically nothing was left to theimagination. Hectic events, extremely dumb love story and some verypeculiar police work that allows a serial killer to murder somebody ina night club in front of hundreds of people and then just get away. Thepolice officers, the killer and even the main character are like takenout of a stereotype book as they are so unrealistic that it almostmakes you laugh. I can recommend you watching this right before bedtimeafter a good night out as it is the only time you might see some sensein it!

arief_spekta 2012-05-19 23:22:05

Enjoyable to watch this movie!

Milla Jovovich is my favorite artist. I love it when Milla Jovovichappear in a new movie with a horror-thriller gender (although in myopinion this is not gender horror). This movie reminds me of a similarfilm that has a dementia disease. But it is rather strange, because ofblindness in the face of foreign sounding in my ears. however, thismovie still I can enjoy until the end. I feel this movie could thumbsup for Milla's acting and acting-acting any other actor.Grooves that are easily digested making me give rating 8. This moviecan bring me to feel the 'disease' is in misery. It is unfortunate,because the main killers easily guess (though this movie is not gendermystery). But again, I liked this movie.

holtintl 2012-05-19 18:49:39

Bad Character! and Bad Examples!................

The idea of the movie is not bad but the story line is very poor. Thecharacter of Anna Marchant(Milla Jovovich) in the movie is very bad.ifshe is happy with her boyfriend then why she have to hang out with her2 friend to the club looking at other guys??,and especially when sheslept so easily with the detective Sam Kerrest(Julian McMahon) aftershe got fight with her boyfriend Bryce(it was her fault because shelied to him and by mistake she kiss another guy in thediscotheque)/cheap character and showing a bad example to the publicespecially woman. So overall the movie just want to expose AnnaMarchant's ability to see a changing faces of the crowd thats all!,It'sa wasting of time.

Robert Collins 2012-05-19 08:39:32

Milla once again proves that she is one of the best actresses working today.

After viewing the trailer for this virtually unknown thriller I gotexcited for two reasons, firstly it stars Milla Jovovich who isexceptional in everything and also because the story looked extremelyoriginal, and after viewing, it doesn't disappoint. The story is verydifferent to the usual thriller, a serial killer is stalking women andMilla witnesses one of the murders, the murderer chases her and throwsher over a bridge where she hits her head which causes her to get faceblindness, which in turn prevents her from identifying the killer andalso puts a severe strain on her personal and work life. The subsequentman hunt for the killer is a cracking thrill ride which will keep youon your toes for the entire duration.This movie boasts a knockout performance by Milla Jovovich, she is somuch more than an action star zombie killer, she has a terrific rangeand is able to make any character believable, she is just amazing ineverything I see her in, I do hope she continues to land complex roleslike this one because she is so great and infinitely watchable.The story at times goes off track, towards the end it starts to bringin a romance element which is unnecessary but it's only a minorannoyance, the rest of the movie being great makes up for it. Thesupporting cast are also good, Australia's own Julian McMahon does thetough cop act perfectly, and Marianne Fairhfull does her cool voicething very well. The use of different actors playing the samecharacters was definitely a smart move for this movie, it adds a lot tothe whole face blindness element, the director could have been cheapand used cgi to augment people's faces but he doesn't and it's betterthat way.Face Blindness is a disease I have never heard of before, I don't knowIf it's even a real disease but my god it sounds scary, it would trulybe a life ruining debilitation. So if you love Milla Jovovich, lovethrillers or just after something highly original, check this out.Enjoy.

BOOGIEMAN-pN 2012-05-18 18:30:53

Feces onto crowd

Story: After accidental encounter with serial killer, while trying torun away from him, girl (Milla Jovovich) smacks her head badly and endsup with a brain condition known as prosopagnosia = face blindness (it'sreal, google it up if you want to know more). In this movie, it ispresented like - she can distinguish human faces while they are in hersight - but when they walk away and reappear, same people lookdifferent every time. Now, to make the story interesting, killer findsout about this poor girl's brain defect, and starts harassing her.What seemed to be thrilling slasher at the beginning, somewhere at themiddle loses it's orientation and becomes just another movie you can'twait to get over with. Instead of action, you'll have to watch Millagoing to various therapists, subjects to hypnosis and other boringstuff. No scares, no suspense, no blood, no Wes Craven's Scream-likechase scenes. Pity, because I think story had a great potential. Idon't say this movie is bad as you might think from my (trying to bewitty) review title ... but, it's nothing more than an averagethriller.

ussfa344 2012-05-16 15:30:03

Blinded by the face

Wow, there are a whole lot of reviews discussing prosopagnosia by folksthat have never experienced this condition but want to speak asauthorities. Shame-shame… There are two types of prosopagnosia;acquired and developmental. Folks like my wife, with developmentalprosopagnosia, had the condition their entire life from some unknownetiology and developed coping skills since birth. Those like me, withacquired prosopagnosia, lived a portion of our lives without thecondition and obviously developed no coping skills in advance.Those that cite voice recognition as a flaw in the movie have zeroknowledge of acquired prosopagnosia. Sure the voices are indeed quitefamiliar, but they are coming out of unfamiliar faces. That presentsconfusion far beyond just not recognizing faces. In fact, in my case itinterfered with my ability to develop coping skills. It took me over 10years to overcome this confusion brought on by voice recognition anddevelop real usable coping skills. I have now had this condition forover 40 years and my coping skills are still sorely lacking compared tomy wife's as she developed them throughout her life and neverexperienced what I call being blinded by the face -- letting facerecognition when I was "normal" make living with prosopagnosia thatmuch more difficult.I suggest that everyone who "sees" flaws in the movie see it again.This time with the knowledge that things such as familiar voice, gait,mannerisms, clothing and situations only heighten the confusion whenone first acquires this extremely rare condition. Perhaps it will makefar more sense to those that gave negative reviews about something ofwhich they are totally ignorant.

Bart Bart 2012-05-16 05:36:03

Watch it at 2Pm on a rainy Sunday

***This doesn't have spoilers just vague spoilers***where to start with this review, I knew what I was getting into whenyou start a Milla Jovovich movie, though popular (only by looks and adecent actor) she performs in terrible movies her last good ones wereprobably "Fifth element", "the messenger" and "Zoolander" other thenthat the rest of her movies are quite bad. This is another one. Its supposed to be a crime drama but honestly if you're payingattention you're going to find out who the killer is half way throughthe movie. The whole movie I'm screaming "Its that person! Its thatperson!" This movie doesn't try to be funny or comical or witty itsincredibly bland though some what dramatic at times. Milla Jovovichcharacter was a terrible love interest their was no chemistry at allbetween the two, they were together for maybe 3 days "movie time" andwere expected to care about what happens to them as a couple, its cornyhow over dramatized it is. This movie is boring, honestly I doubt ifeven me writing this review is even worth my time. I'm just trying tosave you time and say skip this one and watch it at 2pm on a rainySunday if you have nothing better to do.

hipcheck 2012-05-16 00:43:11

Nice premise, horrible execution

The opening montage is artful and interesting, and as you're watchingthe movie, you probably are interested in the premise, that life wouldbe very complicated if you couldn't recognize faces any longer. So yousit back and prepare for something that might be along the lines of"Insomnia", an thriller with a real foundation in psychologicalmanipulation, with twists and surprises to keep you guessing.And after that opening montage, it's pretty much all just clichés andtired plot devices and stale acting. We've seen the leads do muchbetter than this. The 'filler' scenes are so trite they feel like theywere written and shot in one take. And the 'action' scenes are shot ina way that does engage us at all. And as for the plot itself... have weever seen a woman fleeing a villain and trip before? Have we seen theprotagonist stuck in a situation where the hero has to rush to save herbut he can't get to her quickly? And finally, the main crux of thefilm, the face blindness, is interesting for about three minutes, andthen it gets incredibly stale, and yet we have to sit through anotherhour+ of it. Give this story to Chris Nolan and you'd have somethingfantastic - but this incarnation of it is really not worth wasting thetime on.

Robert W. 2012-05-15 04:38:18

An interesting idea is completely lost in muddled confusion

The concept of this movie, the premise of 'face-blindness' is reallyinteresting. When major characters in the film suddenly change actorsbecause she can't remember what they looked like...that is a reallycool idea and premise. It is the only thing saving this dreadful messfrom being a complete zero. With this unique idea the story is lost andslapped together. The performances are uninspiring and the charactersare boring. It doesn't know whether its a mystery, a thriller, or anaction movie, or even a drama.Milla Jovovich is a Hollywood calibre star in my opinion. She is agreat actress, and has terrific chemistry...usually. In this film,which I can only imagine she did as a favour, she is a complete mess.She looks silly and acts like a B-Movie horror scream queen. Hercharacter is vapid and empty. Julian McMahon plays the tough and angrypolice detective who becomes involved with Jovovich. He has a solidcharacter and does a decent job but the story eventually bogs down hispotential and leaves his character empty. Its sort of hard to pin pointany other performances in the film because the characters change actorsso much. Her boyfriend Bryce seems to change actors a dozen times inthe film so its hard to say who played who the best. It doesn't mattermuch because the film is just so hard to follow and never finds anyspecific path.Director and writer Julien Magnat probably thinks he made some sort ofbrilliant artistic feat. In fact its a mess and I don't know how or whyit got made. It doesn't seem to suffer from being low budget and yetthe ideas in the movie get so skewed and I think the film tries to telltoo much and too many ideas all at once. I think it should have been athriller about a woman tracking a serial killer she can't identify butthat whole premise is completely lost. Skip this so called thrillerbecause its a definite miss. 5/10

cmoyton 2012-05-12 05:30:17

Tie Rack

And here we have a competitor against Dream House for this years worst.Some folks seem blinded in their adulation for Milla Jovovich to reallyreview this movie objectively. Here, let me help you, its a turkey witha capital T. Jovovich does actually make an effort but in this she isalone as the supporting cast are as bland as rice paper. The directormust take some responsibility as something more substantial could havebeen made from the face blindness premise but the direction ispedestrian and as a result the movie lacks any tension or excitement.As in many serial killer/detective/witness combos the witness anddetective end up in each others arms but in reference to theaforementioned "witness", Harrison Ford and Kelly Mcgillis they ain't.Special mention goes out to Julian McMahon who plays the detective inquestion as he brings balsa wood acting to a new low level. Forgetabout Body of Evidence or The Specialist as Faces in the Crowd winshands down for the unsexiest movie romance ever. There's more chemistryin a test tube. Marianne Faithful is wheeled out from cold storage inthe role of some expert on something or other to offer her (stating theobvious) pearls of wisdom to help Milla overcome her affliction.Jovovich's character also has a couple of would you ever date cougargirlfriends, one of whom gets slain by the killer(unfortunately not the"Chica" one). Thankfully we are spared the rain drenched graveyardscene with the cops standing by the trees and the killer watching inthe background. Next time out can someone please provide Milla with a pepper spray thatactually works, but at least she had a cell phone that worked underground.

Matt Kracht 2012-05-11 19:15:42

Jennifer 8 rehash

Major spoilers for both Jennifer 8 and Faces in the Crowd.Jennifer 8 (1992): Cop on the edge falls in love with a blind girl,whose roommate was murdered by a serial killer. The killer turns out tobe a cop on the force who hates blind people, because his abusivemother was blind. In the climax, the killer is fooled by a trap, as thewidow of a slain cop gets her vengeance by shooting him, whileimpersonating the blind witness.Faces in the Crowd (2011): Cop falls in love with a girl who has faceblindness. She's the only witness to a serial killer, but she doesn'tknow what his face looks like. The killer turns out to be a cop on theforce. In the climax, the witness is fooled by a trap, as the killerimpersonates both her ex-boyfriend and her new, cop boyfriend. Her copboyfriend shoots the killer, but is mortally wounded and dies.Is it a complete match-up? No. In Faces, the cop isn't "on the edge" --just a bit overworked. In Jennifer 8, the love interest is not amaterial witness, whereas the love interest in Faces is. In Jennifer 8,the serial killer is specifically targeting blind people, while theserial killer in Faces is an opportunistic rapist/murderer. The climaxis also reversed. In Jennifer 8, it's a victim who sets a trap, not thekiller.Could this be complete coincidence? Yes, of course. Many of the tropesused in Faces are significantly older than Jennifer 8, and they couldbe easily considered to be well-established clichés in the serialkiller genre. However, it's difficult not to keep thinking to yourself,"Hey, this really reminds me a lot of Jennifer 8..." while you'rewatching Faces.In the end, I found the similarities between the two movies to be verydistracting. Even if Faces didn't remind me of Jennifer 8, I'd still bea bit harsh on the story, given how many serial killer clichés it hitson the way through the plot. Speaking of distracting, there are somereally annoying product placements, though it's nowhere near as jarringas Will Smith slobbering over a pair of sneakers in I, Robot. On theplus side, the acting and directing are both competent, though neitherreally shines. There isn't really much gore or nudity, despite thesubject matter, so if you're looking for a psychological thriller thatavoids descending into outright horror, this is a good bet. With afemale lead, a romance side-plot, and some Sex & The City-stylecarousing during the girls' night out, I'd say this is the kind ofmovie that might appeal to women, though I think these elements wereintended more to appeal to women dragged to this movie, rather than toattract a female demographic to it.

Irishize 2012-05-10 00:01:48

A real turkey of a film!

Crikey, but this is bad.Where to start? An already slim plot, stretched so thin it'sridiculous. Quite a few unintentional laugh-out-loud scenes. Lazywriting, *very* predictable bad-guy. It's actually a pity this film wasn't a little bit worse - it's just afew scenes away from being the next "The Room", but the boredom is justtoo much.If you're a *huge* Jovovich fan, maybe, just maybe you can get throughit, but you will be checking your phone/watch/shoe-laces for any morselof entertainment for long periods of this mis-fire!You have been warned!PS What is the deal with films getting tagged as "Horror" these days?Might as well have classified it as "Cookery". Seriously, whocategorised this? Is it a ploy by the studio to recoup their$15,000,000 budget on this turkey?

Kell Smurthwaite 2012-05-09 22:29:27

Great premise, but very predictable film...

*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***I love the idea behind this film - that a survivor of a serial killeris left with a condition that renders her completely unable to identifyhim - or anyone else. Unfortunately the execution is more than a littleclunky and the plot is entirely predictable.The moment the killer turned up in the "non-killer" role, I said,"That's the killer", even though we had never seen his face.I was also successfully able to predict the demise of her relationshipwith her current boyfriend, and who she would end up with (and why!).Once her new beau had taken her elsewhere, I knew she would end upthere and also figured out there would be one other person whose facewould be one in a thousand that she would always recognise (can youguess who?). I even predicted the showdown and how it would unfold.That said, there are positives - Milla Jovovitch is always fun to watch(although the deaf therapist would have trouble lip-reading her as shenever actually moves her mouth much when she speaks!) and the changingfaces were done smoothly and to great effect.All in all, we're left with an average movie which kills a little timequite entertainingly and leaves you feeling more than a little cleverfor having been able to work it all out pretty quickly. It had thepotential to be so much better, but then, so do many other films...

spikemaze 2012-05-06 14:15:06

Very interesting

This movie has a very interesting premise: A woman runs into a serialkiller roaming the streets of the city she lives in. She sees his face,but hits her head and suddenly she can't tell people apart anymore. Herboyfriend, her best friends or even an absolute stranger lookcompletely different every time she sees them. Because their faces areunrecognizable to her. Every man she sees could be the killer for allshe knows. And the killer knows what advantage he has.It could have been done a lot better, I must admit. The movie movesalong slowly and it might be difficult to keep your focus when watchingthis movie. But the interesting premise is worth it.The leading actors are also very good in their roles. Milla, JulianMcMahon and Michael Shanks are all strong actors. Sadly the lead menkeep changing in order to fit the premise and this does cause someproblems. Though it's very well done, the changing actors aren't asstrong in their acting as McMahon or Shanks. This ruins a lot.The positive aspect is that the viewer also get the faces mixed up. Ina normal film it would be a catastrophe, but it works so well in thismovie because we become as confused as the leading woman.All in all I liked the film. It wasn't perfect, but I doubt that anyonewill expect this movie to be just that. And the best part is that ifyou then watch another movie afterwards, you might just like me startquestioning every character's face.The movie sticks to you.

mdnobles19 2012-05-06 06:47:26

No fresh visions here but watchable

An decent, suspenseful whodunit with exceptional performancesespecially from the solid lead actress Milla Jovanovich who takes abreak from fighting zombies for once and takes a stab at thispsychological thriller. The film takes the route of films like Blink,Dressed To Kill, Copycat, Eyes Of Laura Mars and Hideaway but a littleless brutal and more pedestrian but still kept me intrigued and on theedge of my seat figuring out who is the killer. It has minor jumpscares here and there but the premise probably looked more terrifyingon paper than it really ends up being on screen but it has it's momentsbut just didn't take risks the kind that lifetime movies of the weekdon't take but it's definitely better looking and polished. The film asa whole was just too easy of a watch and never was it downrightgripping enough to be memorable but just good enough to feel good aboutpicking to watch it and I appreciate the classic approach but thesedays you need to up the game to make a lasting impression and this didnot. Overall it's a likable thriller with a pretty happy ending thatgot the job done but didn't really breakaway to cause much of a stirwith it's audience but Milla made a great effort and is alwaysmesmerizing to watch and this is one of her better performances. Wortha watch. 6.4 out of 10

Flow 2012-05-05 22:46:54

Original subject? Well it was for me!

OK, the idea of the movie was quite lovely, didn't expect it, neverseen it before therefore I'll have to start with some praises but endit with less enthusiasm sadly. The movie flows nicely, we learn moreabout Anna's condition, some tension building up, we start to suspectone or the other and then, well it becomes quite clear who the killeris. And from that point on, of course, things aren't that interestinganymore considering the fact that the thrill kinda lost its touch.Nevertheless, overall, it is a nice breath of fresh air really, trustme you can do a whole lot worse than this one, just keep in mind it'snot really a horror, more of a thriller with some horror elementsincorporated but few at number. Also, if you liked it, and you probably will, you MUST try "Julia'sEyes"! You can call these 2 movies, step sisters to be honest, in myopinion, the Spanish one wins tho!So, don't waste more time, try it out, try both of them out, nice adderto the gender!

Tony Heck 2012-05-05 14:55:51

A pretty original and tense thriller that shows off more of Jovovich's improving acting. Worth watching. I say B+

"He's not stupid enough to go after the one person who can recognizehim, right?" After a night of drinking with her friends Anna(Jovovich)decides to walk home alone. While walking she sees a murdertake place and is attacked by the "Tear-Jerked Jack" serial killer.After falling off a bridge she wakes up as the lone survivor. She alsowakes up with a disease called face-blindness, a condition whichaffects you from recognizing any faces...even your own. Lately it seemslike the lower budget movies are much better then the big blockbusters.This one is no exception. While this movie started to repeat itself tothe point of being annoying it was still tense and keeps you interestedand watching through out. Jovovich is becoming a very good actress andshe continues to build upon what she did in "Stone". A pretty originalidea that if it weren't for the repetition of the problem would havebeen an excellent movie. That said even with the repeating this isstill a very good movie that is very much worth seeing. Overall, asurprisingly good and tense thriller that deserves more of an audiencethat it will get. I give it a B+.Would I watch again? - I might, just to see if I can catch the clues.