Tag: Orphan

REVIEW: Orphan: First Kill [2022]

Jared Mobarak

Nothing is ever just one thing. Screenwriters Alex Mace and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick gave their character Leena Klammer, aka Esther Albright, a complete back story at the end of Jaume Collet-Serra‘s Orphan. A victim of a rare hormone disorder known as hypopituitarism, causing proportional dwarfism, had made it so her thirty-three-year-old woman looked as though she was only nine. The condition obviously prevented her from being seen as a mature adult and so she used it to her manipulative advantage. What began as thieving, however, eventually escalated to murder once…

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REVIEW: Non-Stop [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Status?” This film could have just as easily been called Deflection as Non-Stop because screenwriters John W. Richardson, Christopher Roach, and Ryan Engle (none of whom instill a stellar track record for Hollywood blockbuster success) have a lot of fun making sure to inject as many red herrings into the mix as possible. Even at start we wonder if our prospective hero Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) could be the perpetrator despite trailers leading us towards a frame job. His U.S. Marshal is an alcoholic, hot-tempered, and forlorn. A semi-threat to…

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REVIEW: Orphan [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“Look at the snow orphan—snorphan?” Surprise, surprise, Orphan actually isn’t that bad. Who would have thought something that appeared to be a bad rehash of The Omen could truly entertain? I guess the ability to acquire the services of a couple on the cusp of A-list status actors in Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga should have raised an eyebrow, but honestly I still had many reservations. In fact, I knew the “twist” before sitting down in the theatre—something that I believe enhanced my enjoyment rather than lessened it. Perhaps this…

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