Unfriended (2015)

[SecondClassCinema]

So we went and watched Unfriended last Thursday evening.

There were only 5 people in the theater (including the 3 of us) so it was a great experience as far as that is regarded.

We were able to do a review of the movie afterwards.  It doesn't fall in to our normal shtick but the content of this movie drove us to want to discuss it.  Has anyone else seen it? What did you guys think?

For our opinion of the movie, we just posted our podcast today so check it out and let us know what you guys think of the movie.

http://secondclasscinema.podbean.com/e/episode-25-unfriended-2015/

LET'S GET EXCITED!

[messedup]

Thought it was a nice idea after seeing the trailer, but I kinda expected something not that great.
Might still give it a watch if I can.

[Trevor]

LET'S GET EXCITED!

My eyes!!!!

[SecondClassCinema]

Yeah it was the trailer that actually got me in the theatre, had no idea what to expect beyond that really.

!!!!!!!

[claws]

Surprisingly it got a "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Critics seem to dig it, audience not so. I might check it out when available on home video.

[SecondClassCinema]

Yeah this is a classic "wait for Netflix" thing. It was, all things considered, entertaining.

[bob]

Watch this some how make a lot of money like Ouija did

[TheDiggleGod]

I've heard it was goodish. Has anyone here seen it?

[SecondClassCinema]

I've heard it was goodish. Has anyone here seen it?

Yeah you should our review. It was certainly interesting and I'm still thinking about it so it was a success in that right.

[Doc Daneeka]

Well, it certainly belongs in the Bad Movies section, and if you approach it as a cheesy film, I'd guess it's certainly gonna be more palatable. But damn, it took itself dead seriously, treating the teenage cast's relationship betrayals as world-ending, even as they're being murdered (and obviously manipulated) by a vengeful spirit.

The by-the-numbers script didn't help matters. Laura Barns seems like one of the pettiest ghosts in horror history. She does something embarrassing. One vindictive video goes up. The web tells her to kill herself and she does it. One year later - "I'm back, and now it's your turn to suffer." Hardly any personal barbs or expression of emotional angst from her, just s**t like "you all have your dirty secrets," "you said these mean things to me," "you'll be sorry if you try to avoid my wrath," "let's play a game..." Even the main girl, Laura's former BFF, only has a couple of vague condemnations of her disloyalty.

Shelley Hennig's performance as Blaire wasn't terrible, especially given the mediocrity of the script, and how demanding a lot of the long takes must have been. She actually sounded scared by the end, rather than urgent/panicked like so many teenage-actresses. She wasn't given anything great to work with, but she was probably a good choice for the role. Will Peltz also did well as the moody Adam, for the most part, and Moses Storm as Mitch had one good sequence. Nobody else really stood out to me as decent, let alone good.

I have to chuckle at various critics calling it "revolutionary," which I suppose is a reaction to the sheer volume of websites and web apps that get employed in the course of the film. As an internet user, I found a lot of the supernatural s**t that went on had a hilariously mundane feel to it. The antivirus scene, the Chatroulette sequence, and the usage of quickmemes (and the characters' very intense reactions to them) all felt especially forced. I cannot imagine many people being as quickly panicked as Blaire was at the "phantom" Facebook/Skype activity. The lack of actual curiosity or experimentation that went on in regards to Laura's software-manipulation was groan-worthy in itself, as you'd think that an internet-savvy teenager would try different tricks to confound the web-bound-ghost rather than falling into sheer terror at revelations such as "NOOOO!!!! I CAN'T CLOSE YOUTUBE!!!!"

Overall, I give it about a 3-3.5/10

[SecondClassCinema]

Well, it certainly belongs in the Bad Movies section, and if you approach it as a cheesy film, I'd guess it's certainly gonna be more palatable. But damn, it took itself dead seriously, treating the teenage cast's relationship betrayals as world-ending, even as they're being murdered (and obviously manipulated) by a vengeful spirit.

The by-the-numbers script didn't help matters. Laura Barns seems like one of the pettiest ghosts in horror history. She does something embarrassing. One vindictive video goes up. The web tells her to kill herself and she does it. One year later - "I'm back, and now it's your turn to suffer." Hardly any personal barbs or expression of emotional angst from her, just s**t like "you all have your dirty secrets," "you said these mean things to me," "you'll be sorry if you try to avoid my wrath," "let's play a game..." Even the main girl, Laura's former BFF, only has a couple of vague condemnations of her disloyalty.

Shelley Hennig's performance as Blaire wasn't terrible, especially given the mediocrity of the script, and how demanding a lot of the long takes must have been. She actually sounded scared by the end, rather than urgent/panicked like so many teenage-actresses. She wasn't given anything great to work with, but she was probably a good choice for the role. Will Peltz also did well as the moody Adam, for the most part, and Moses Storm as Mitch had one good sequence. Nobody else really stood out to me as decent, let alone good.

I have to chuckle at various critics calling it "revolutionary," which I suppose is a reaction to the sheer volume of websites and web apps that get employed in the course of the film. As an internet user, I found a lot of the supernatural s**t that went on had a hilariously mundane feel to it. The antivirus scene, the Chatroulette sequence, and the usage of quickmemes (and the characters' very intense reactions to them) all felt especially forced. I cannot imagine many people being as quickly panicked as Blaire was at the "phantom" Facebook/Skype activity. The lack of actual curiosity or experimentation that went on in regards to Laura's software-manipulation was groan-worthy in itself, as you'd think that an internet-savvy teenager would try different tricks to confound the web-bound-ghost rather than falling into sheer terror at revelations such as "NOOOO!!!! I CAN'T CLOSE YOUTUBE!!!!"

Overall, I give it about a 3-3.5/10

Spot on!  Although, I did find this movie entertaining oddly enough.  One of the best parts was a very intense scene where Blaire had to empty her recycle bin.  That's just riveting cinema.

[Archivist]

Tadashi Yamas**ta was not shaking his student with joy at having handstand-walked up the stairs.  He was trying to turn his student around the other way.