This Review Roundup features 3 releases out this week and two from earlier in the month I got after their release date. Up first is The Childe, a solid drama out of South Korea. An amateur boxer from the Philippines desperately wants to raise money for an operation for his mother. He searches for his estranged, wealthy father and soon finds himself heading to Korea. On the plane he is approached by a suspicious man who he sees again after landing. It absolutely snowballs from here with shootouts and a big twist and plenty of action. I dug it. I knew nothing about it and the less you know the better. The acting is strong especially the suspicious man character. There’s plenty of gun work, but also up-close fighting. It’s stylistic and sharp. I could definitely see this being remade in the States. Easily the best release of the bunch.
Second we have Millie Lies Low. A New Zealand woman lands an internship in New York, but has a panic attack on the plane before it takes off. She gets off the plane and is embarrassed at what happens so she lies to her friends and family and tells them she went to New York. She photoshops pictures all while hiding out. The biggest issue with the film is you sit there waiting for the shoe to drop. You know she’ll be found out and have to confess so you just sit there waiting for it to happen. Overall the film is solid and shows how social media can be manipulated and isn’t real life, but I wish she got caught sooner and they went with a different angle afterwards.
Sisters is about a teen girl in an orphanage type system. Her younger sister is there with her and her over 18 sister is living on her own with her own child. Their mother is trying to get her life straightened out, but really isn’t. When an American family wants to adopt both sisters the teen girl rebels. All of them steal and smoke and hang out too late. The American family flies out to meet them and the teen girl wants nothing to do with them because she wants her mother. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s something I’d have no need to watch again.
Far Haven is a Western that sees a father let out of prison and wants to be part of his kids’ life. His parents took care of them so he ends up in Far Haven, a town full of corruption. Soon he finds himself in the heart of things when his father is injured and an Indian man is falsely imprisoned. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but I like Westerns so it’s good for a watch. It has some decent cinematography and typical Western shots so I’m fine with that.
Last we have The Marsh King’s Daughter. Daisy Ridley plays the adult version of Ben Mendelsohn’s daughter that he raised in the marshes where he had kidnapped her mother and kept them hostage. She loved her father and didn’t know anything was wrong until he got caught. As an adult Ridley has a life of her own with a husband and child, but during a prison transfer Mendelsohn escapes and her past catches up with her. It’s not a bad movie, but I can see why it flew under the radar. Both leads are fine, but it will be a movie you forget about months later. The location in the beginning works well and I can see Ridley fans eating this up, but if you haven’t heard of it that makes sense.
The Nerds Templar 