Written by / 8/25/2014 / No comments / , , ,

IF I STAY... REVIEWED BY A GROUCHY GROWNUP

year: 2014 rating: **
What a romantic teenage vehicle like IF I STAY has in common with a horror movie is cause and effect… Scary flicks will cause kids to scream, and they go for that reason… So it's not much different when a movie promises to jerk tears from an audience of young girls, all ready for that particular effect...

Unfortunately, for impatient adult viewers, STAY has two teen characters with  zero chemistry... She, being Chloë Grace Moretz as Mia, and he is yet another misunderstood rebel who channels his powers through Rock N Roll…

At first, Jamie Blackley plays Adam with little emotion, leaving the Afterschool Special type melodrama to Moretz’s character, in spirit form after a terrible car accident with her family – begging the purgatory question and the reason for the title… If she does stay, what’s to live for?

With Stacy Keach
Scenes where Mia’s limbo ghost follows friends and family around the hospital are traded off with memories of her mom and dad, who are the kind of hip/progressive parents all kids would... die for. But the real backdrop consists of Mia, a concert cellist with a possible scholarship at Julliard, falling deeply in love with the perpetually whining Adam, whose band sounds like grungy elevator music. 

Moretz can be a decent actress, but in the purgatory state she doesn’t convey enough emotion to befit the horrendous tragedy, which is almost unfathomable given the eventual body count. And since her romance with Adam has zero obstacles… other than her own neurotic reluctance while pontificating like a 35-year-old intellectual… it’s hard to feel for the living Mia or the dying one: neither seem to care much about anything. Thankfully Grandpa, played by veteran actor Stacy Keach, shares a heartfelt scene or two to make Mia more human: thus giving her a reason, other than a quirky best buddy and a moody boyfriend, to possibly stick around.
Share This Post :
Tags : , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

RALPH BAKSHI BLAXPLOITATION-ANIMATION OF 'COONSKIN'

Title: COONSKIN aka STREET FIGHT Director: Ralph Bakshi Year: 1975 Rating: **1/2 After HEAVY TRAFFIC where cult director Ralph Bakshi inser...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "When I'm paid, I always see the job through." Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)WHITE LIGHTNING 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)HIDDEN FEAR 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)IMPASSE 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6) CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

Most Popular Last Year