Needle (2010)

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Concept is interesting but the ending felt like whole movie was supposed to be a comedy. The male 'lead' can't act, can't even react to people being killed or shot.His big brother is the only one who can act but I swear that guy was on weed throughout the movie. Overall, good premise, bad acting, stupid ending.I'll give it 5/10 since I never really got bored enough to turn off the movie. Sat through it all, mildly amused and ending made me laugh. :P Also, hot girls making out plus hot love interest. In their scenes, nobody gave a *beep* about what they were saying, that's why they were in the movie, eye-candy, and it worked.Is the movie really worth watching? Yeah, if you have nothing else to watch (I didn't).

After inheriting a strange box following his parents' death, a teen and his friends are the victims of a series of grisly and brutal deaths by unseen figures and realize the box is being used for revenge against the friends.This turned out to be rather flawed and an overall disappointing effort. Despite this being based around an incredibly enjoyable concept, the main storyline here is so off that it really does the film far more harm by being the way it is, which is all due to the way this plays out. The main killer's motive for targeting the friends is so inherently lame that it's laughed off if heard in real life, and the characters in the film react as such by being unable to take it seriously since it's never once treated as something other than a comical joke when the reasons are revealed so this makes for quite a difficult time adjusting to things if the characters themselves don't take what happens seriously. As well, this ends up making the film's final half come off even more lame and disappointing by subjecting the motivations for the rampage at this section of the film as the reasons for why they're being targeted is never explored at all and it really tends to focus so heavily on this section that the rest of the film is a long, drawn-out series of bland sequences that have nothing to do with the killer's rampage against them as it instead focuses on the strained-brothers angle for the majority of the running time. None of these segments end up doing the film any favors in finding out crucial information about anything here, as the killer is forced to explain their hilariously illogical motivations at the end and the central box itself is such a mystery that the majority of the fear it's supposed to garner is squashed by only one semi-literate sequence where they explain the history and legacy but in such brief, passing tones that it's impossible to really get a handle on what this is and why it's to be feared. Each of these flaws ends up hurting the film quite heavily because there's some rather engaging potential on display, most notably in how the deaths are meted out which are incredibly bloody and gory and offer up quite a lot of carnage that's quite effectively rendered. The bloodshed is made more potent by the fact that the mystery box is capable of striking anywhere so these early sequences leading up to the death are truly chilling and suspenseful and really go a long way towards making this something to be feared. However, the majority of this is so flawed that these segments don't do this much good.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Some college kid inherits a mysterious box. He checks with specialists and discovers that it's quite valuable and some people are interested in it. It also was used in the past for magic acts.When the kid's creepy brother appears, with whom he hasn't spoken for years, the box mysteriously disappears. And now, one by one his friends start dying in brutal, gory, and bizarre ways. One of them for example, has his limbs torn and broken without any apparent cause. But we do know what is happening. The killer is using the box, photographs of the victims, blood and wax to create a tiny voodoo doll to dismember and poke with needles.The brother is also coincidentally a crime scene photographer who for some reason can't wipe a cocky smile off his face no matter what gory scene he's called to.The kid's friends include a bunch of very attractive girls, one which is interested in him but he's rather shy. Eventually the kid and his brother by chance run into the killer and they find out why the killer is doing it.Needle has an interesting premise, a good cast, is very gory, and it's frankly quite endearing to see Australians dealing with each other, which is a much more human and kind way than obnoxious bickering American movie characters. In particular the relationship between the kid and his love interest is well done. This movie is quite the opposite of American horror that often is nasty and mean spirited but lacks gore or violence. This movie is good-natured and filled with good people but it sure is gory. Nudity is sorely lacking and so is perhaps a villain, after all you really don't see or know much about him till the very end. The idea of a voodoo doll-creating machine is also pretty interesting. The death scenes are excellent. Overall a recommended horror movie that has an interesting way of blending violence and gore with a fairly gentle tone.

I found this movie shallow. The plot is thin, and generally "dumbed down", with the acting mediocre. Actor Travis Fimmel (the estranged brother and photographer) came across as quite unconvincing, as if he was hardly affected by the scenes of gore, and his expressions were often incongruous. Michael Dorman (his brother) started well, but his acting in the scene of desperation near the end was lame (reflecting poor directing) and poorly executed.I suppose the little bit of sexual titillation (played by the two attractive female students) was deemed likely to increase the ratings and to create some side interest. All in all, the movie doesn't really "work".