EXTINCTION Twists and Turns to the End

Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Netflix from director Ben Young are dreams that predict nothing short of an EXTINCTION.

Peter (Michael Pena) is a hard-working engineer who takes care of wife Alice (Lizzy Caplan) and two daughters Hannah (Amelia Crouch) and Lucy (Erica Tremblay). Lately he has been having trouble sleeping and its all because of disjointed dreams. Trying to convince Alice that there has to be something to these dreams doesn't seem to be working.

Having a party to celebrate Alice's job, Peter gets into a conversation with a neighbor and that's when familiar lights shine from the sky. Coming from everywhere and in mass everyone must now run for their lives. Something has landed and it is not taking prisoners!

Peter and Alice do what they need to make their home safe, but the intruder has come. The family makes a run for it but must get down from their high-rise apartment to get away. What they do not realize is that the intruder is tracking them to finish what he has started. Peter manages to get his family to the building and captures the intruder where they are told this was to be expected.

What he learns from the intruder, himself and his family will shock them all to the core!

Pena as Peter stretches out in a sci-fi role that has so many twists and turns. His performance is stoic and frightening in believing there are something to his characters dreams. There has always been a believability about Pena's performances from comedy to drama and in this film his emotions are in check. That adds to his portrayal of a husband/father trying to save his family.

Caplan as Alice does not understand why her husband is having these disturbing dreams. Instead she wants him to see a therapist to stop them all together. Imagine her surprise when it turns out that he knows something she does not. Caplan is a strong actress and she plays to Pena's character so well. Even when it all breaks down, her goal is the fierce love for her children.

Couch as Hannah and Tremblay as Lucy are daughters who look to their parents to keep the family together. When the time comes when they must separate, they believe that being reunited is everything.

Other cast include Lex Shrapnel as Ray, Emma Booth as Samantha, Lilly Aspell as Megan, Mike Colter as David, Michael Absalom as Phil, Dan Cade as Hoyt, Mina Obradovic as Shelby, Nikola Kent as Luke and Israel Broussard as Miles.

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The high point of the film is definitely the storyline because it never lets you become comfortable with what is happening. Instead it leaves huge question marks in each scene until the story feels it is time for you to know everything. That is what I enjoyed best about the film. The low point for me is another film with kids that are annoying in so many ways. Yes, I am a tad done with films where kids are just plain disrespectful, annoying or don't understand the meaning of consequences.

That being said, I think the storyline is amazing because I was pretty convinced about a few things only to have it turn out I couldn't be more wrong. That is what made EXTINCTION fun on a Friday evening with the family. There is something to be said for rolling the dice on a film and being pleasantly surprised. Pena and Caplan together make it work!

In the end - we were not here first!

THE DARK TOWER

Jeri Jacquin

In theatres this Friday from director Nikolaj Arcel and Columbia Pictures is a novel to screen with the highly anticipated THE DARK TOWER.

Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) is a young man dealing with the loss of his father. Continuing to have bad dreams, he tries to explain them to his mother Laurie (Katheryn Winnick). She and Jake’s step-father have been sending the young man for professional help but only he knows that it’s not needed.

He dreams about the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) and a world that includes a gunslinger named Roland Deschain (Idris Elba). The Man in Black named Walter is looking for a way to take down the Dark Tower and cause an apocalypse that reverberates into several worlds in the service of the Crimson King.

Jake holds the key with his ability known as ‘the shine’ and Walter wants it badly because it’s the only way to bring down the tower. Constantly fighting to stop it, Roland loses his father causing him to only focus on revenge in Mid-World.

When Jake puts together the pieces from his dreams, he finds his way to into Roland’s world. Roland takes the boy to a seer to discover what his dreams and drawings mean and if they can lead them to Walter. Instead, the two need to run into Jake’s world or as Roland calls it Keystone Earth to think of a plan that will get them swiftly to the Man in Black and stop his plan.

But the shine is calling out to Walter making it easier to find the two leading to a showdown where the two worlds work together to survive!

Taylor as Jakes gives the performance of a young man who is torn about the death of his father and the nightmares that plague him. There isn’t anyone who truly believes what he is drawing and even his therapist isn’t on board. Taylor’s character is withdrawn and sullen looking for answers but I think I saw him smile once.

Elba as Roland plays the troubled gunslinger that is angry about what is happening in his world. When revenge takes over, others begin to wonder if he is the gunslinger after all being the only one left. Elba says little except when reciting a creed taught to him by his father and keeps a brooding feel throughout the film which kind of bums me out because there isn’t ‘acting’ in his act.

McConaughey as the Man in Black is pretty much evil down to his core yet keeps his cool every moment. There is something between he and Roland that keeps his ‘magiks’ from penetrating the gunslingers mind. McConaughey has the perfect ensembles and hair while performing his evil deeds and Walter doesn’t mince words but that’s about it.

Winnick as Laurie wants to believe her son but with the pressure from hubby she believes that sending him away for the weekend could help things. Jackie Earle Haley as Sayre is the yes-man for Walter having one of the portals between worlds.

Other cast includes Jackie Earle Haley as Sayre, Abbey Lee as Tirana, Nicholas Hamilton as Lucas Hanson, Dennis Haysbert as Steven Deschain, Michael Barbieri as Timmy, Claudia Kim as Arra, Fran Kranz as Pimli and Joe Suniga as Dr. Hotchkiss.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give THE DARK TOWER three tubs of popcorn five. It is definitely an adventure and I can see how there could be more to it all which means I might have to read the books. Elba and Taylor work so well together even though that means the basically brood together. They are the yin and yang of each other which plays out.

I suppose my only problem with the film is that I expected so, so, so much more. The running time is about 90 minutes yet there was nothing that really wow’d me, made me giggle a few times but no wow at all. They called Jake’s gift ‘shine’ which is a nice homage to the young boy Danny from 1980 film THE SHINING and the tower looks much like the tall residence of both Saruman and the Eye of Sauron from LORD OF THE RINGS.

There is also reference to Excalibur which made my head do a questioning shake of “whaaaaa?” Maybe it’s that I had the film figured out from start to finish the moment Jake ran away which is irritating since I haven’t read the books.

Okay, perhaps I’m just getting cranky wanting more from Hollywood in general and THE DARK TOWER is a prime example of why. Lets be honest, there is no character development really which would have been nice for those of us who haven’t had the time to delve into the printed page.

There are so many references to other Stephen King films that if I wanted to see them I’d just stay home and watch – well – Stephen King films! I really hate it too because I’m a King fan (not to be confused with the Crimson King like I know who that is) from years and years of reading so it sucks to write a so-so review. Then again, it’s not like he’s going to lose a dime over this person’s opinion of the film.

A far more interesting tidbit is that THE DARK TOWER began with a book written by Stephen King based on a poem by Robert Browning called Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

In the end – in a world of superheroes there is only one gunslinger!