A Escolhida

Similar in method to Seven (1995) this well cast little thriller doesn't live up to its potential.

A new criminal has emerged, one who presents his victims with a horrific choice such as which limb he'll cut off or which family member they have to kill.

The concept has potential, the execution however is lacking.

The movie has moments of intelligence and strong writing but sadly that's all it has, moments.

Katheryn Winnick, Kevin Pollak & briefly Bruce Dern star in this lackluster effort that should have been a great deal better.

For a far more intelligent and well conceived movie about forced difficult choices then I suggest Would You Rather (2012)

The Good:

Couple of nice touches in the script

The Bad:

Very underwhelming

Potential squandered

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Bruce Dern looks identical in every film he's ever been in

If Scarlett Johansson & Teresa Palmer had a baby it'd look like Katheryn Winnick

I got my hands on this movie earlier and as usual cruised by IBMD to check out the reviews. After seeing the few reviews here I had not many expectations. I must admit I almost just deleted it, but knowing the IBMD rating system I decided to give it a whirl.

All in all the movie started out with a wham and the first half really had me quite intrigued with the storyline. The few 'notable' cameos were also a treat. The acting was above par, direction and setting was on point too, and it even had style, For a minute there I though I had hit pay dirt then I found the one place this movie was really lacking is it showed too much of its hand too early in the movie which made it a bit predictable. And being predictable isn't a good idea for a mystery movie which is definitely what this movie tried to be. If they only could've added a few more characters or held some bit of info back this might have been a great movie. Still, its far from horrible. I just wouldn't pay for it. I'd wait for it to come out on cable,torrent, etc.

I give this a solid 6. I wish I could give it a 7, but its just not deserving of a 7 so the final tally is: **Great acting, Great Cameos, Great Production, but kinda weak Script**

Caught this at Leeds Hyde Park Picture House's Night of the Dead and wish I hadn't. Dull, by-the-numbers serial killer slasher that has one gimmick - the killer makes his victims choose between two nasty punishments - that proves to be a lot less interesting than the you'd think.

Cue a plucky young journalist who uses the power of Google searching to solve a series of local crimes that her father, a high-ranking police officer, inexplicably doesn't seem to give a toss about.

The script has unintentional laugh-out-loud moments, and that's about the best I can say about this gently steaming pile of tepid naffness.

After a series of brutal murders, a college journalism student finds the link between the killers' game of making his victims choose their fates and her mother's suicide several years ago and tries to stop his rampage from continuing.

This here was quite the disappointment and rarely had anything really worthwhile about it. One of the main issues here with this one is the fact that so much of the film rests on the investigation angle that isn't even properly played out at all here since the actual detective work to do this is so haphazard, slowly developed and not in the slightest bit interesting. By going through the motions of her being questioned more for not partying with her friends at college rather than actively being a part of the investigation, stumbling upon the nature of the killer rather haphazardly and then not even being targeted until the very end as the actual police don't seem that invested in what's going on make this quite played out and rather bland about this supposed part of the story that's one of the biggest selling points about it. As well, there's also the fact that the actual kills here are just beyond lame that it really torpedoes the film quite readily by facilitating such an utterly lamentable feature that's not even that well developed at all. By forcing them into making choices that come off with a ridiculous air that's not in the slightest bit intimidating, when a small measure of muscle against him would've rendered a successful counterattack that stops the spree rather easily, this one doesn't really exploit this all that well by even still only featuring such a small handful of kills that it really undermines what could've been a lot of fun. These are all placed up front to start this going, but instead there's so little of interest in how this goes about the murder scenes that there's not much to really gleam from them other than the sadistic actions that take place, and that's not all that special an accomplishment here with the way this goes about deploying it's stalking scenes. These are fun only in the sense of the cruelty played out throughout the dismembering of the bodies, as the deaths are pretty bloody and gruesome here which manages to be quite a nice feat with the way this brings about these quite brutal kills, especially in the opening as the way it plays out is for once quite chilling with the family held hostage and then bringing along the second piano-player's fate even though there's no death there. That one works more for its strong stalking in the auditorium for anything else, but it's the closest the film comes to getting any kind of tension or suspense here and works nicely along with the outcome of the brutal kills here. Otherwise there isn't much else to this one.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Fiona Wagner (Katheryn Winnick) is studying for the master's degree in journalism and still grieves her mother Samantha that committed suicide in the Crescent Hotel three years ago. Her father, Detective Tom Wagner (Kevin Pollak), is investigating the brutal death of the lawyer Elliot Vincent, who was murdered by his teenager daughter that was forced to choose between killing him or having her mother, little brother and herself killed by the sadistic criminal that had broken in their house.

When the pianist Simon Campbell (Tom Cleary) is forced to choose between losing his fingers or his hearing, Tom realizes that a deranged serial-killer is attacking people. Meanwhile, Fiona is contacted by the criminal through the codename ISO_17 that shows pictures of the model Jenna (Kate Nauta), who had had to choose between her face or her vision, with her face destroyed. Fiona recalls that her mother had mentioned something about choice in her suicide note and she decides to investigate the sadistic man, disclosing secrets about her own family.

"Choose" is a thriller with a scary and sick beginning, when a daughter has to choose between killing her beloved father or her family. Unfortunately the story is terrible, and even fans of sadistic death might not like this flick. The resemblance of the face of the unknown Katheryn Winnick with Scarlett Johansson is impressive. In the end, seeing this movie is an awful choice. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Escolhida" ("The Chose One")