The Conjuring

You know that any movie opening with a life-sized doll acting as a conduit for a demon is going to be a scary-ass movie. I didn't know that this film was also based on a supposedly true story until I watched the opening credit sequence. Any one of these films such as the Amityville Horror or A Haunting in Connecticut always tend to stick with me just because they supposedly happened. This film in particular was probably the scariest film I've seen since Paranormal Activity 3 about 1 1/2 years ago. 

The opening  sequence introduces the two paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) showing a video of some of their work to a college class. After the title sequence the movie starts off like 95% of all other horror films, the family moves into the creepy old house that they got a great deal on from the bank because no one else wanted to buy it..... Besides the beginning of the film being filled with endless cliche's, I really enjoyed it for the most part. The acting and cinematography was actually quite good. I wouldn't expect anything less from a film being directed by James Wan. The film also did something that most other horror films don't, it included actors that I actually recognized such as Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor. 

I definitely thought the film lived up to all of the hype over how scary it was. With as many horror films as I've seen it's hard to make me actually freak out when watching a film and it did a pretty good job of that. It didn't include too many unnecessary jump scares and actually used suspense and make up to do the scaring. The film contained a lot of elements seen in other contemporary horror films like the Paranormal Activity franchise such as invisible entities pulling and dragging characters. However, it also did a good job revealing the terrifying face of the entity when necessary.

If you're someone that loves horror or going to see scary movies, this will be right up your ally. If you want to see it but are new to the genre, I would start with some older films on Netflix or from a friends collection until you've worked yourself up a tolerance that these films require. I honestly think that this film is today what The Exorcist was for audiences in 1973.

Film Rating: 9/10

The Wolverine

It's about time Wolverine got his own stand-alone movie (yeah were just going to ignore that other turd of a film). So anyone that likes Wolverine, the X-men, super heroes, or just awesome summer blockbusters will appreciate this film. The film had pretty good dialogue and interactions between the characters, the fight scenes were spectacular, and the special effects were great. 

Here's a brief synopsis if you're not already familiar: 
Taking place a few years after X-men: The Last Stand, Logan (a.k.a. Wolverine) is now living as a hermit, tormented every night by nightmares of him having to kill his love, Jean Grey. He feels that his life has no purpose and that he must suffer for an eternity. Until he is confronted by a katana-toting girl from Japan who tells Logan that her employer wants him to come see him. Her employer, a dying old man named Yoshida was once a Japanese soldier during World War II. Logan, being immortal happened to be in Japan when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and saved this soldier. Now Wolverine gets caught up in a war between the Japanese mob and ninja's protecting Yoshida's family.

I really enjoyed this movie. We finally got to see some well deserved justice brought to the Wolverine character on the big screen. Hugh Jackman always gets better, and better each time he reprises this role.
Although I really enjoyed this movie, there were a couple downfalls. I thought that this was probably one of the most violent superhero film's I've seen in a while. There is a decent amount of cursing as well. I would keep the younger viewers away from this film. Normally I would say a superhero rated PG-13 is okay for all viewers, but this one of the rare ones that I wouldn't recommend to anyone under the age of 13. However, this heavy rating did not weigh it down in the least bit:

Film Rating: 8.5/10