Land of Smiles (2017) Directed by Bradley Stryker
Just the other day I was saying to myself how happy I was about finally seeing the whole 'found footage' genre dying down. And here I am...Watching yet another found footage movie, though in all honesty it's a quite original one with its approach and story but unfortunately it's just not being a very good movie as well.
It's a bit odd. I can't really tell what this movie was trying to do. On the one hand it seems like it wants to be as realistic as possible with its found footage approach, but at the other it's being a far from realistic one with the way the cameras are set up, the movie is edited and the story progresses. It's actually more of of a standard streamlined genre flick with it comes down to its story and way of storytelling. It works out well enough and it's actually somewhat of a refreshing approach when it comes down to found footage flicks but at the same time; it's still a found footage flick, meaning that it's suffering from most of the familiar genre clichés and limitations.
Thing with found footage flicks is that you know it's all going to be buildup and not much is going to be revealed- or happen during its first hour or so. This movie does a pretty decent job setting up its mystery and tension but the story itself feels too much of a mess, which causes this movie to work out as a mostly ineffective and unappealing one to watch.
The story makes a few too many sudden convenient jumps and besides, it's not very hard to see where things are going and how the movie is going to end. There only are a handful of different characters in this movie, so it's not exactly hard to guess who's the 'killer' or mastermind behind all of the movie its happenings. It was hoping the movie was going to do and try something different and at times it seemed that the movie was really heading into that direction as well, but ultimately it's nothing more but just another mystery/horror science-fiction flick, without too many thrills or surprises in it.
It's even somewhat hard to call this movie even a horror. This actually is a good thing in my opinion. It was good to see how this movie was trying to combine different genres, even though in the end not everything worked out that well for it. It at least was good to see how the movie was trying to be original and different, within an already extremely tiresome genre. At the same time I do believe that this is going to scare off a whole bunch of other people, who expect a full blown horror movie. After all, the movie its cover really makes it seem like one.
A bit of a mixed bag. A movie with some good and some not so very good elements in it. Watchable but most definitely no must-see, by any means.
5/10
Watch trailer
It's a bit odd. I can't really tell what this movie was trying to do. On the one hand it seems like it wants to be as realistic as possible with its found footage approach, but at the other it's being a far from realistic one with the way the cameras are set up, the movie is edited and the story progresses. It's actually more of of a standard streamlined genre flick with it comes down to its story and way of storytelling. It works out well enough and it's actually somewhat of a refreshing approach when it comes down to found footage flicks but at the same time; it's still a found footage flick, meaning that it's suffering from most of the familiar genre clichés and limitations.
Thing with found footage flicks is that you know it's all going to be buildup and not much is going to be revealed- or happen during its first hour or so. This movie does a pretty decent job setting up its mystery and tension but the story itself feels too much of a mess, which causes this movie to work out as a mostly ineffective and unappealing one to watch.
The story makes a few too many sudden convenient jumps and besides, it's not very hard to see where things are going and how the movie is going to end. There only are a handful of different characters in this movie, so it's not exactly hard to guess who's the 'killer' or mastermind behind all of the movie its happenings. It was hoping the movie was going to do and try something different and at times it seemed that the movie was really heading into that direction as well, but ultimately it's nothing more but just another mystery/horror science-fiction flick, without too many thrills or surprises in it.
It's even somewhat hard to call this movie even a horror. This actually is a good thing in my opinion. It was good to see how this movie was trying to combine different genres, even though in the end not everything worked out that well for it. It at least was good to see how the movie was trying to be original and different, within an already extremely tiresome genre. At the same time I do believe that this is going to scare off a whole bunch of other people, who expect a full blown horror movie. After all, the movie its cover really makes it seem like one.
A bit of a mixed bag. A movie with some good and some not so very good elements in it. Watchable but most definitely no must-see, by any means.
5/10
Watch trailer
