Reviews: Jonathan Jackson & Nick Stahl in Kalamity; and Max Thieriot in My Soul To Take

Last night I got complimentary tickets to a screening of Kalamity, a movie featuring lead roles by Jonathan Jackson of the music group Enation (he also was on Boy Meets World twice and played Kyle Reese on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), as well as Nick Stahl (Meskada, Terminator 3: Judgement Day). The other main lead was Christopher M. Clark, who played Jonathan's roommate and close friend. The movie begins with discussions about Jonathan's ex-girlfriend, played by Alona Tal. She's been missing, and Jonathan indicates that he hasn't gotten over her, but his discussions about her are also sketchy, it's obviously a sensitive topic that can get him angry and irrational. Nick tries to talk sense into Jonathan when this happens to calm him down and get him to be more rational about it, but his efforts don't seem to work. Nick's role is that of Jonathan's best friend. Nick's character is having issues of his own, as he has flashbacks constantly of the time he spent with his own girlfriend played by Beau Garrett. Nick is obsessing over his breakup with her, and having trouble sleeping. This makes it more difficult for Nick to realize that the things Jonathan is saying to him are increasingly psychotic and indicative that some serious issues are going on with him. Jonathan one night almost shoots a girl he knew from a bar but while she was driving home and only changed his mind because of something he overheard from her cell phone conversation distracting him. Then later he is talking to Christopher, and something angers Jonathan, so Jonathan punches Christopher so hard he knocks him unconscious and when Christopher falls to the ground his head hits the pavement and he is seriously injured and begins hemmoraging blood. Jonathan takes Christopher home and cleans the wound with dish soap and then leaves Christopher bleeding, instead of bringing him to the hospital. The next day, Jonathan claims to Nick that he will go to a trade show out of town, but in reality he is going to stalk Nick's ex girlfriend. Nick finds Christopher and takes him to the hospital to get stitches and then they realize that Jonathan would not be sent to a trade show, his employer would instead, so they know this was a lie and Nick calls Jonathan who lies again and talks a lot of cryptic psychobabble to try and confuse Nick about his whereabouts. When Jonathan finds Nick's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, Jonathan lures them into the woods for a hiking trip and kills them both. While this is happening, Nick and Christopher find the dead body of Alona near where Alona and Jonathan used to go on their dates, thier "spot", and they know Jonathan killed her. When Jonathan gets back he finds his belongings out of place and realizes incriminating things have been found and moved, so he shoots Christopher and has a nervous breakdown. Nick arrives too late to save Christopher, and confronts Jonathan who confesses everything, and then Jonathan shoots himself to death.

For showtimes and tickets in NY visit
http://bit.ly/aV3b7C

For showtimes and tickets in LA visit
http://bit.ly/aqVbDI

To stay up to date about Kalamity join their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kalamity/72198969249?v=info

http://www.kalamitymovie.com

For trailer:




I also recently went to see Max Thieriot's new movie "My Soul To Take" in 3-D. The movie is about the return of The Riverton Ripper, a dead serial killer with seven souls and only one of those souls was the killer. The serial killer was killed by police and on the day he died, the same number of kids was born as the number of souls the serial killer had, 7. Legend had it that those kids all were born with the different souls of the killer. Max Theiriot (Jumper) plays Bug, the lead character of the movie, one of the Riverton Seven, the children who were believed to have been born with the Ripper's souls. Every year the kids gather along the riverfront for a ritual where they talk about the legend that one year, on the day of the Ripper's death, the Ripper will rise from the river and kill the Riverton Seven, as he had vowed to do before he died. So each year the Riverton Seven challenge the Ripper to rise from his grave, as THEY vow to kill the Ripper if the Ripper ever returns.

On the night of thier latest gathering which is also their collective birthday party, Max is chosen to challenge the Ripper and he gets too terrified to finish the ritual. The other six of the Riverton Seven are played by Jeremy Chu, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, Nick Lashaway, Zena Gray, and Paulina Olszynski. Max's sister is played by Emily Meade. Max's sister runs around school spreading bad rumors about him, falsely accusing him of being a murderer, and telling her friends about his history in psychiatric institutions, which hurts Max's chances with the girls in school. His best friend is John Magaro's character, who helps him disrupt the class in what I would call the coolest scene in the movie. John dresses up in a Condor costume and Max begins a narrative about the life of the Condor as a class presentation. John runs around the room menacingly in the condor suit as Max loudly and terrifyingly boasts his knowledge of the Condor, warning the classmates about how deadly this bird can be. At the end of the lecture, John activates a contraption in the condor suit that causes fake vomit to spew out the beak onto Nick Lashaway who is also a class bully. Max is asked to leave the class. That day it becomes known that Jeremy was killed the night before while crossing the bridge. This is just the beginning. At one point John takes Max aside and asks Max if Max has ever killed anyone, and Max replies "Not that I can remember". This is the beginning of some serious self questioning for Max, who begins to wonder why his dreams are containing details related to the murders that are beginning to take place. As each of the riverton seven die, Max sees visions of them trying to give him clues, and Max doesn't know what to make of them. Also, Max is noticing that as they die, his mind begins to work faster and differently. Eventually it's clear that as each of the Riverton seven are brutally murdered, Max's body is absorbing thier souls and all their knowledge as well. Max tries to use this to help him figure out who the killer is... is it one of the Riverton Seven? Or did the Ripper never die in the first place and survive only to return to kill again all these years later? When I review movies, I usually like to write about the endings, but since this a whodunit mystery and not just a horror movie, I will not give away the identity of the killer. I will only say that up till the end of the movie Max was viewed by most as the most likely suspect, and what I will tell you is... Max was not the killer, even though he at times doubted his own innocence. Max was ultimately the hero of the movie. You'll have to see this movie to find out who the killer is and how the killer is stopped. This was one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a few of them. The entire cast's performances were top notch, though Max Thieriot stood out as the most talented of them, exhibiting his talent through a wide range of emotions not seen in many horror movies. A perfect Halloween movie for 2010.

For more information on this movie visit:
http://www.iamrogue.com/mysoultotake/site/index.html

Join the facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/mysoultotake