The Call

Halle Berry is Jordan Turner, a 911 operator who decided to step away from the 911 call centre and become a trainer when a decision she made contributed to the abduction and subsequent death of a teenaged girl. However while on a routine floor tour with incoming recruits, she gets dragged into a call, which is very much like the call she took 6 months ago. Can she right the wrongs of that last call and save this teenaged girl (Abigail Breslin)?

The first thing that pops up on the screen, when the lights go down in the cinema, is the WWE Studios (World Wrestling Entertainment Studios) logo. You can’t help but think, this can’t bode well. How can a wrestling entertainment company produce a high quality thriller?

Well they started in the right manner by casting great female talent who can hold their own on screen - Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin,

It was good to see strong female characters on the screen who didn’t need a man to save the day. However, the way they handled things in the end was farcical and took from their characters. Knowing this why did the actresses sign up and why didn’t they demand some script changes?!

The first 80 minutes of The Call was actually not bad. Yes it was formulaic, with a lot of convenient set ups along the way to make sure one scene moved very smoothly to the next (as is often done in WWE wrestling matches). The cheesy and convenient set ups could be overlooked though because there were some genuine tense moments and some jumps to be had through out the film.

However, it all unraveled in the last 15 minutes. It was like everyone panicked when it was time for the big finale.  You could almost hear the off screen screams of “What do we do? Should some WWE dramatics be thrown in? Let’s just make it a free for all?”

My call – don’t pick up the phone! Let it ring out. Oh and stay out of the cinema this weekend, it’s bad! Turn on your TV instead for high quality drama and thrillers.

Cold Comes The Night

Chloe (Alice Eve) is a single mum who lives in and runs a hotel. Struggling to make ends meet, she has set up a deal with Billy (Logan Marshall-Green), a local, crooked cop, to allow prostitutes to use her rooms. All seems to be going well, until one night things get out of hand and there is a murder. The murdered is a ganster who was working with an almost blind Russian gangster, Topo (Bryan Cranston), to get a big stash of money to the ‘boss’.

With his accomplice dead, and the cash stolen, Topo needs someone to be his eyes and help him get the cash back. Chloe seems like the perfect target – but will it be as straight forward as he thinks?

Thanks to Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston is hot property right now. Surely if he is in a movie, the quality would have to be just as good as this popular TV show - right? In the case of Cold Comes the Night, the answer is wrong.

While watching this film, the constant question going through my mind is “why did Bryan Cranston sign up for this role so soon after playing the meek chemistry teacher turned bad drug maker Walter White?”

Cold Comes the Night does not have a great script, nor is it a meaty role for Cranston.

Anyone who watches Breaking Bad  knows that Bryan Cranston is an amazing actor. He can go from good to bad in 0 to 30 seconds and not once do you question his ability. His portrayal of Topo is nothing like that – it feels like a bad Russian criminal charicature.

The only person I can understand sigining on the dotted line for this film is Alice Eve. This was a good vehicle for her to show off her acting prowess. For so long she has been thought of as just a pretty face but this role shows she is much more than that.

Cold Comes the Night has no real tension, no surprises and it doesn’t know when to end. It looked like the torture was going to end three other times before eventually deciding to put the audience out of their misery on the fourth opportunity.

I don’t know who would enjoy this film, there is not enough action to be an action movie, not enough thrills to be a thriller and not enough heart to make us actually care! Stay away from this and go back to TV where the best drama can be seen!

Cold goes the mind for having to sit through this!

- Sarina Bellissimo (@SBellissimo)