M. Night Shyamalan's "The Visit" is Disturbingly Awesome, "The Transporter Refueled" is Not

   Okay, I want you to sit back, relax, close your eyes, and tell me the first thought that comes to mind when you hear the name...M. Night Shyamalan...did your brain explode? Did you cringe with anguish? Did you let out a disgruntled sigh? If so, how dare you! He's amazing!! (*deep breath*) Okay, I suppose you're entitled to your opinion and that's perfectly fine, but let me just preface this review with the fact that I am 100% behind this director, for better or for worse. M. Night Shyamalan is one of my all-time favorite directors--definitely top 5--and though he's hit a rough patch these last few years, I can't help but like his movies. I'm going to try and remain as unbiased as possible in this review and deliver complete honesty as we look at his latest thriller "The Visit."

   Man, where to begin. This movie is going to be hailed, I think, as either a mediocre flop for some critics, or a true return to form by others. Seeing as though as a filmmaker M. Night has hit a pretty low point in his career with duds like "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth" (both of which I enjoyed for various reasons)--he could make practically any movie and it would probably turn out better than his last two. Luckily for us this movie far exceeds that notion. "The Visit" isn't a complete return to form, but it's a huge up-swing for the guy, and for so many reasons. The story is fairly straight-forward on the surface. A single mother, played by Kathryn Hahn, decides to send her two children to visit her parents whom she hasn't spoken to in over 15 years. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are pretty ecstatic about meeting their grandparents for the first time. Becca, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, decides to document their entire trip which spans the course of a week. As their week progresses, they begin to notice strange and disturbing things about their grandparents, particularly at night. Let the spookiness commence! But, as we've come to know with M. Night, his films are always much more than what's presented on the surface.

   Shyamalan utilizes the drawn-out aspect of found-footage filming, which has been beaten to death lately (thank you, Paranormal Activity franchise). But the use of this style works well with this story. M. Night's movies are always much more than the surface shows you, as mentioned earlier, and it's through Becca's documentary that we gain a sense of the overall theme of the film. Albeit, this style leaves it open for some scary good times. Most horror movies follow the same cookie-cutter recipe of delving out jump scares and toning down the suspense. M. Night's scariest movies haven't been horror films, but thrillers. He's so good at messing with your mind and making you as the audience member create the horror. Only, with The Visit he allows you to not only create the horror, but then laugh at it. This movie is hilarious. In fact this movie could almost be considered a horror/comedy, but first and foremost it's a thriller; but there's such a unique balance of disturbing content coupled with guttural laughter...and it's intended to be that way.

   The casting in this film is superb. The two young leads do such a fantastic job. Ed Oxenbould, who previously played in the family comedy "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day" is the spot-on comic relief. His character Tyler is a sensitive kid who portrays a tough-guy mentality in order to cope with some emotional issues. He's an aspiring rap artist with some pretty sweet lyrical skills. Olivia DeJonge really drives home her performance with some really emotional acting. A lot of her dialogue is exposition that doubles for the movie as well as her documentary (which I suppose one might argue is one and the same?). Both Becca and Tyler deal with some emotional baggage throughout the movie and both actors nail their performances respectively. As for the grandparents...both Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie give some insanely disturbing, comical, warm and emotional performances that it just seems as though the casting stars in the universe aligned for this movie.

   The thing that makes M. Night so great in my book is his originality; his complex-layered stories. Save for The Last Airbender, he's made all original stories. Some have been masterpieces like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Some have been misses, i.e. The Lady in the Water and After Earth. But I've enjoyed them all because they're all, in some way, risks. The Visit is a movie with a great premise, fun execution, excellent acting, balanced levels of disturbing and scary moments coupled with humor and warmth, and it's an M. Night original. You'll find yourself sitting at the edge of your seat, only to bust a gut with laughter, then halt said laughter because something disturbingly delicious occurred. Fan or no fan, I highly recommend this movie.

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    Let well enough alone. A simple phrase that is considerably under-used in the movie world. As much as we like seeing characters we love live forever on the big screen movie after movie, sometimes we should just be thankful for what we have and pray that Hollywood let's well-enough alone. That doesn't happen all that often, and with the action-packed thrill ride that is the Transporter franchise, Hollywood should have left well-enough alone.

   I gotta say, I struggled with this one. I love Jason Statham, and his Transporter trilogy is a load of fun, and some of my favorite movies of his. My goal is always to bring the positive to light with my reviews and this one, well...I can't guarantee that. Yes, there are redeemable moments of "The Transporter Refueled", but in all actuality, it's completely forgettable, which is unfortunate. In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin (played by Not Jason Statham) enters into a game of chess with a femme-fatale and her three prostitute sidekicks who are looking for revenge against a sinister, and albeit ridiculous, Russian kingpin. The story is fairly straight-forward, but really, REALLY written poorly. The dialogue is hokey, the accents from the bad guys are cartoony, and the female lead(s?) are unrealistically bad at acting.

   Ed Skrein dons the suit and tie of the Transporter and does an okay job. Some of the action scenes are pretty cool, but most of them seem like stock action bits that we've seen before. There are even moments where it just looks too rehearsed. A couple of times you can even see Skrein block punches that hadn't even been thrown yet. Statham brings a level of realism to his action, and especially in the Transporter trilogy, those action scenes are, kinetic, smart, and somewhat realistic given their over-the-top nature. Refueled seemed to slow things down a bit, utilizing quick camera cuts and poor tracking to compensate for the lack of cool action moments.

  The bright spot to this poor installment was Ray Stevenson who plays Frank's father, Frank Sr. I'm assuming that the Frank Martin of Refueled is younger than the Frank Martin in the first film. That's only a guess. I'm pretty sure this film was meant to be a reboot, but I feel if I keep telling myself that it's a prequel then I can forgive some of the short-comings. Anyway, the father/son dynamic was a nice spin on things, bringing a more personal tone to the film. His father ends up in the middle of prostitute posse's revenge plot and Stevenson does a great job fitting in to this now-tainted mythos.

   If you're a fan of the Transporter franchise, this film may or may not entertain you. Like I said before, I really love this franchise and it's hard to see another step into the shoes that one has filled so well. I mean, it works for James Bond, but those movies are fun, well-written (mostly) and each actor brings their own flavor. That idea doesn't work for Frank Martin. At any rate, if you like mediocre action movies, then be sure to catch a matinee. Or, you can just go see Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation or Ant-Man again.