Brother or bitch, what’s it gonna be?

Synopsis: When a gang initiation goes horribly wrong, a group of young men must try and survive the night from hell in this tensely gripping thriller. Told that they must commit an armed robbery before being allowed to join an elite ‘Brotherhood’, one young student ends up involved in a fire fight. Slowly bleeding to death and with the police closing in, his friends take desperate steps to cover their tracks. With every step, they are drawn further into a darker and more violent world where right and wrong cease to have any meaning. As the hours pass, their methods of suppressing the truth become more and more brutal. Disaster beckons at every turn but with the promise of parties where anything goes and nothing is forbidden, the only question is…how bad do you want in?

“Hazing” – a series of tests, some dangerous, some fun and some downright dumb for  a group of prospective “pledges” poised to be accepted into the Sigma Zeta Chi frat-house. Rituals designed to test, break and challenge every kind of college student, whose sole goal is to be accepted into the American idea of an elite college fraternity-house. A foreign concept to us Brits who are so far removed from this kind of “jock” culture, but Director Will Canon gives us a chilling glimpse into the pitfalls and perils of the lengths some will go to to be accepted into this asinine idea of “brotherhood”.

This is the anti-American Pie movie. From the get-go, Brotherhood shocks you into submission as you watch the new pledges faced with the ultimate do or die challenge. Trapped in the back of a van, Kevin (Lou Taylor Pucci), Adam (Trevor Morgan) and the other frat boys are faced with the harrowing dilemma of each having to rob a gas station at gunpoint. In honour of the 1910 Sigma Zeta Chi society’s foundation date, the pledges must steal $19.10 in order to fulfill ringleader Frank’s (Jon Foster) wishes and be accepted into the fold. Of course things don’t go as planned, as the group accidentally stop at the wrong gas station where everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. I’m not going to reveal the outcome of this botched robbery, because the rest of the story is filled with so many unexpected twists and turns, that it would be a disservice to the viewer to continue.

This highly suspenseful, edge of seat story unravels in ways you just don’t see coming. It reminded me a little of Paul Walker’s ‘Running Scared’ – hard-hitting, spiralling out of control, ricocheting camerawork etc. The pace here is breath-takingly fast and brilliant, always moving from one crisis to another and always creating a sense of urgency.

It’s chillingly dark, designed to shock and it does so superbly. Things never slow down long enough to take a moment to absorb the series of bad choices being made.  It’s exhausting to watch and you find yourself wondering how on earth things can get any worse, and how things can possibly be put right. The conflicts faced, the intention behind decisions made, the outcome of taking things into your own hands… every desperate action has a nightmarish consequence in this hazing coming-of-age thriller.

The writing is choice and deservedly won the Audience Award at the 2010 SxSW Festival. This is a fantastic effort by Will Canon and in terms of the dialogue, it’s punchy, ultra-violent and brisk narrative only heightens the suspense during this consistently intense thriller. With strong acting performances all-round, Brotherhood is a ferociously energetic directorial feature debut. Unlikely to appeal to high-brow critics, the best way to enjoy this 77 minute strong, adrenaline-pumping, spiralling out of control, implausible event-filled moral thriller-coaster ride, is to just take a deep breath, hold on tight and let go of all doubt and disbelief.

There’s only one story. Are you with us or against us?

Brotherhood has a run time of 77 minutes and is rated 18.

DVD Bonus Material Includes:

• Director’s Commentary

• “Roslyn” Short Film

• Behind the Scenes

• Brotherhood Photo Gallery

***½~ (3.5/5)

Brotherhood is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray today or available to rent here.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/01/31/brotherhood-dvd-review/feed/ 0 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/11/25/new-poster-for-carriers/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/11/25/new-poster-for-carriers/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:27:05 +0000 David Sztypuljak http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=5194

Here’s the brand new UK poster for Carriers. We’ve previously posted the trailer which you can see here. Carriers stars Chris Pine, Lou Taylor Pucci, Piper Perabo, Emily VanCamp and Christopher Melon and is directed by Alex Pastor and David Pastor.

It’s set for release 11th December and you can check out our review here. Click the poster to enlarge.

With all the hype surrounding the big release of Star Trek this week I was very interested in seeing Chris ‘Captain Kirk’ Pine’s next role in ‘Carriers’ and it was a strange film, fascinatingly apocalyptical but drowning in it’s own idea.

Looking into the history of the film it was interesting to see that it was written and directed by Alex and David Pastor and completed and screened way back in 2007 but Paramount put it on the shelf and it’s likely that the rise in fame of Chris Pine is the reason why it’s been finally given it’s release, and worryingly I entered the screening apprehensive that it was shelved due to being rubbish. But fortunately it wasn’t it was an ok film.

The story is of a world devastated by an unknown disease and the survivors struggle to stay alive by trying to avoid it, our heroes of the film brothers Brian (Pine) and Danny (Lou Taylor Pucci) and two girls Bobby (Piper Perabo) the girlfriend of Brian and Kate (Emily Vancamp) travel together avoiding contact with anyone they come across where possible.

The brothers aim is to reach a beach that they use to visit as kids which is shown in old film footage of the brothers to give a sense of a goal as they try to survive, nothing is going to stop them and they will do anything to get there.

On route they pass an SUV where a father begs for petrol for him and his sick daughter but they flee seeing the disease is evident on the girl, they eventually come to a stop as their car breaks down and knowing they have petrol and the SUV doesn’t they venture back to the SUV and take it, sealing the father and daughter in the rear with plastic sheeting and duct tape as morals dictate you can’t leave a child behind to die. can you.

The film then follows the story of survival and huge moral dilemma’s as situations escalate more and more leaving our characters to have to choose survival or risk putting everyone in jeopardy and it’s the movies strong point asking the characters to make these decisions is harsh and asks you the viewer what would you do in there situation, it’s a brutal lesson of human behaviour.

What I liked about the film apart from the horrific ethical choices that are made are the people our characters meet, all trying to survive or find/believe in a cure and the ones that come to terms with what’s going on are the ones that make the decisions that are completely wrong in a normal world but are justified when in a world like this and where immense pain and suffering are the only alternative to a quick death, but not everyone can except these choices.

The film does seem to forget it’s own rules of how the disease transmits from person to person, at the start of the movie there are rules they follow, no contact with infected, clean everything that was touched by infected and avoid the breath of infected and they do this religiously but later on they seem to forget these rules with no consequence so you lose any fear of the disease which annoyed me.

But there is a great scene of a golf course hotel where they come across a band of guys who are suited in hazmat outfits and have stockpiled supplies and the paranoia and circumstances of this face off is splendid and shows self preservation of the human mind which is what these apocalypse films should be about.

The tense finale at the golf course is gripping and brutally character building that leads to later choices that affect the traveling companions.

I’m currently reading Stephen King’s “The Stand” and it follows the same basic idea of a disease that wipes out most of humanity so this story really struck me, I love these end of world movies where there are few survivors hanging onto the hope of salvation and there has been a few recently with Zombieland and The Road and it’s the Road this has more in common with. No explanation of why or how, it just is and that’s more terrifying than knowing some times.

Overall a reasonably good watch, the moral choices are fascinating but the plot seems to stumble along, it’s best to go in with no expectations and just enjoy the moral choices everyone has to make throughout. It’s a film obviously groping for the “Captain Kirks in it” crowd but it will definitely appeal to a larger audience. It has some nice scares and mentally challenging scenarios and well worth a trip to the cinema.

Overall 6.5 out of 10.

Carriers is out on 11th December.

Here’s the trailer for new movie, Carriers. It looks a bit like a mix between 28 Days Later and The Happening. Carriers stars Chris Pine, Lou Taylor Pucci, Piper Perabo, Emily VanCamp and Christopher Melon and is directed by Alex Pastor and David Pastor. The trailer does look good even though it does seem to be a rehash of other movies. I guess we’ll wait to find out if the movie is different enough to be deemed an original idea.

The premice seems to follow the similar line to The Happening where the population of America (it’s always you guys over the pond!) has been infected by a deadly virus and those who haven’t yet been infected must fight for their lives and, in this case, for the lives of their children.

It’s out 11th December.