Movie Reviews: Gothika and Cashback

Gothika is the story of a psychiatrist named Miranda Grey (played by Halle Berry),who ends up as a patient in the mental hospital where she used to work after being accused of murdering her husband Doug.  She is determined that she is not insane and that she is actually being haunted/attacked by some sort of demon girl.  She slowly pieces the clues together until it all makes sense, at least as much sense as being haunted by someone can make.  Bits of the movie are really predictable but then there are a couple of twists that you probably won't be expecting.  All in all, the movie was a good makes-you-jump sort of movie and the solution to Miranda's problem was a satisfying one.  I also really liked the ending, even though it existed more to keep the possibility for a sequel open than to be a great ending.  But it worked as a good ending nonetheless, in my opinion.  I give it a 3.5 out of 5, because of the fact that parts of it were so predictable, but it was well woven together as well.

If you can't already tell from the poster, this movie contains lots of female nudity, so if you're squeamish about that, it's probably not the movie for you.  Ben is an art school student whose girlfriend just broke up with him.  He develops insomnia as a result, so he take a job at a grocery store working the night shift.  Soon we discover that Ben has the ability to stop time, a power he has known about since he was a young boy.  The thing that he enjoys most in art school is sketching the female form, and before very long, he is stopping time in the grocery store, so he can disrobe the female customers and sketch them.  Which is obviously a huge invasion of privacy, but they never found out, but still left both G and I going, well this guy is a huge creep.  Before long, Ben develops a crush on the female cashier, who really isn't that pretty, to be completely honest.  More things happen, blah blah blah.  Clearly this isn't my favorite movie ever.  Anyway, I also hated the ending, because it's a very strange reaction for the cashier to have, the exact opposite of the one I would have.  And then Ben manages to stop time and bring the cashier in on the secret with him, which is kind of cool, I guess.  I really didn't care for this movie, so it only gets 1 out of 5 stars.