Film has been a passion of mine since I was young. During quarantine I tore through my parents DVD collection and I absolutely fell in love with all things film.
I currently work at the movie theater and still spend a good 20 percent of my time watching, thinking about and rating movies.
My personal rating system goes as follows: One star is awarded to films that I would rather gouge my eyes out than see again, two is for things that were bad but not terrible, three is for mediocre or unremarkable but not bad movies, four is for almost perfect and five is for movies that become instant classics.
My most recent watch was “Speak No Evil”(2024). Directed by James Watkins and starring James McAvoy, the film follows an American family that gets invited to a British couple’s farm house after meeting them at an Italian resort. As the film goes on both we as the audience, and the Americans begin to realize that something more sinister is at play.
Playing at an hour and 50 minutes “Speak No Evil” felt a little slow, and at times like the plot was being dragged out to increase the run time. That being said, the pacing didn’t hinder the film too much because of the suspenseful nature of the movie.
By far the best aspect of the film was McAvoy’s performance as the main antagonist, Paddy. In his performance he showed great range, by being able to go from being an unassuming country man to slowly devolving into a deeply sinister and deranged man. His performance was both engaging and unsettling and without it the movie would be completely different.
The film is also a remake from a lesser known Danish movie by the same name released in 2022. Both films follow the same base plot but many viewers found the Danish version more interesting, but the characters lackluster with much less development than its American counterpart.
Personally, even though I enjoyed “Speak No Evil”(2024), I find the recent trending oversaturation of remakes in the film industry redundant. I just can’t see the point in remaking a film that has been barely out for two years only to barely change it and make it just as mediocre.
Plus these remakes take away the spotlight from slightly smaller, more original films that are absolutely amazing and would do great if given the space and chance.
In the months before the movie was released between cleaning theaters at work and going to see movies on my own time, I probably saw the trailer for this thing at least 45 times. Seems cool, right? But the trailer gave away almost all of the suspenseful or interesting scenes. By the time I actually watched it I already knew what was going to happen.
Overall “Speak No Evil”(2024) earned three stars on my scale. It did everything I expected it to do and provided not awful entertainment for a Monday night, but it still has its flaws and could be better.
So if you want a thriller that doesn’t require much of its audience besides their attention to fill your evening, then I’d recommend checking it out but, it probably won’t win film of the year.