Mr. Jones (2013)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Powerful

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This movie breathes fresh life in the found-footage genre with some spazzy photography and creative cuts. It builds suspense beautifully - and keeps it there, so that you find yourself holding your breath for more than half the film! It takes a departure from clichéd jumpscares and other horror movie tropes and uses a formula that's not generic so that the final result leaves you unnerved and conscious of the silence of the night. The TRUE objective of a seasoned horror-addict, not those loud BOOs that give you a temporary adrenaline rush.The backstory is a bit weak, and character development lacking. A couple, Scott and Penny, take off from their city life to make a nature documentary. 'Don't you ever feel like leaving it all behind and running to nature?' Scott asks in the beginning, or something of the sort. No, we don't. Scott realizes pretty soon (in the first 5 minutes) that he doesn't either. And not a minute too soon. His exposure to the wilderness leads him and Penny straight to the door of Mr. Jones.Called Mr. Jones by (fans?), this is a guy in a mask and a cape living in isolation and leaving bits of what this movie's characters seem to consider 'art'. Yeah, nobody would consider that art, unless it came with references from an art college, an agent and a 20 dollar entrance fee.Penny is enchanted with what can only be described as creepy tribal tribute effigies, and so they instead make a documentary about Mr. Jones. This is when it gets scary (again, not a moment too soon).While the backstory doesn't hold up too well, my main issue with this movie is in two things: the switching front-to-back camera, and the ending. Other camera-work is simply riveting, but I don't know whose idea it was to turn found-footage into found-footage + cameraman's face. The face shots of a scared Scott lend little or nothing at all of value to the movie.Lastly, yes, the ending. It makes everything (all the nightmares) go away. That sort of dulls the horror. I was disappointed to know that Penny had been right all along and Mr Jones really WAS trying to protect them. It would have been so much fun instead if he was evil and they slowly lose their minds between dream and reality. But that's just my opinion.Definitely worth your time, if only for the scares that really work.

Mr. Jones is now streaming on Netflix, and when I came upon it I think I was taken in by the striking cover art (it's not the one listed here on IMDb). It's of one of the "statues" in the movie, silhouetted against a plain background, with some relatively cheery looking writing underneath it. It's a hell of a poster, and a great advertisement for the film.It's a pity I can't say as many good things about the film, because I really wanted to. Something about the film doesn't quite click, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. The action is good, the villain is creepy, and there's a good story. All ingredients that a horror movie needs to nail. Even the acting is good, much better than it needs to be.As I said though, it just doesn't... click. The format chosen for this film was a really, really bad choice. It's completely overdone, and it doesn't suit many films at all(I can think of 2 films where this choice worked). All it really does here is serve to rip us straight out of the action on screen, made even worse by those obligatory moments where the camera dramatically cuts out and random, documentary-style interviews littered throughout the middle sections.The closing sections of the film are also strewn with bad choices. It slips into a slinky, Lynchian nightmare for the last half hour, which is good on a purely visceral level (it's well made) but it feels practically unrelated to the rest of the film and offers us no progression on what we've already seen. It's all style and no substance, which is a shame when the film actually sets itself up so well.This is a film that may be enjoyed by some, but not by most. Some films don't need an ending, and do well by leaving out a definitive one. This is not one of them.

I'm a hard adventure and thriller fan. It might sound a bit iffy but it never happened before that I watched an adventure movie and didn't like it. I thought all the adventure movies were cool. But this one has definitely changed my viewpoint.I'm sorry but I must say that this movie is a total waste of 90 or so minutes. The biggest problem I found is the camera setup. The other active footage movies are not so creepy as this one. I watched a lot of movies of this type, but this is the first time I'm writing a serious review against a movie on the internet.Just wondering what interesting things I could do in this 90 minutes of time. How did they consider this thing as a movie and release it in theaters? Don't watch this if you don't want to regret wasting your time.

Alright, this is a weird one. It definitely won't appeal to everyone, and it does the one thing I don't like about found-footage movies, it breaks format. Arguably, you couldn't have told this story without breaking the format, but it could have just not had any found footage elements. ANYWAYS, here's the plot: A young couple moves to the woods and soon finds their nightmares and reality colliding.Alright, well that's just as vague as the Willow Creek plot. IMDb needs to step up their game here… so, this young couple moves to the woods, and soon manage to stumble upon their only neighbour, who turns out to be a reclusive artist named Mr. Jones who makes terrifying, but really cool scarecrows. That's really all the plot I'm going to go into, the movie actually becomes rather complicated and at times becomes downright impossible to follow. You just need to buckle in and accept the ride you're going on. The movie is very bizarre, and does manage to show convey the feeling of a nightmare, which does seem to be what they were going for. That being said, it's not going to work for everyone. It feels very disjointed, and at times seems to almost speed along too fast, leaving the audience in the dust.That being said, the actors are pretty good, and the movie is shot very well. Plus, the film nerd in me loved the production design of this movie. The scarecrows are very cool, and I almost would have loved a bit more back story about Mr. Jones and the scarecrows. If for no other reason than I just wanted more scarecrows. In spite of its flaws in story telling, and it had some, the movie is trippy, creepy and genuinely a fun ride. It tried to do something new, and it almost hit the mark. It's still worth checking out. Not for everyone though, and the reviews elsewhere are proof of that. Final Grade : C+