All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

All the boys love Mandy Lane, and the way she is portrayed by Amber Heard, who wouldn't? She's blonde, she's demure, she's so hot that the camera in the movie's introduction to the character, lingered on her T&As. She's a fine athlete though we don't really get to know what kind of graaes she's getting. Every boy in school wants to talk to her, and every one of them wants to get into her pants, earning bragging rights to be the first amongst everyone else to have conquered probably the last bastion of virginity in school. People would do silly things like dying for her too.

In typical slasher flick formula, a group of students, Mandy included, organized themselves for a getaway in a secluded ranch, where a ranch hand Garth (Anson Mount) provides that element of question as to who amongst the group will be the hunter, and who will fall as prey. Like how the formula warns against decadent teenage lifestyles, such as the unwritten rules of having the non-virgin being dispatched first and the likes, you're constantly kept guessing as everyone in the group, save for our goody-two-shoes Mandy, get sloshed in a flood of sin, with the smoking of weed, snorting of coke, being highly sexually charged and active, and downing alcohol as if it was water.

It does take quite a while for the first person to fall, and you probably won't feel much for the characters that had to kick the bucket in the most violent of deaths, which get shown quite graphically, only to pull back at the last minute through visual tricks and edits the filmmakers use. But for slasher flick fans, it's a long ride to get to this stage, and frankly speaking given that the characters all don't appeal to you (i.e. you couldn't care less if they live or die), the movie does seem to coast along the tried and tested, until its last act.

Surprisingly, the narrative decided to reveal its boogeyman quite early on in the film, which provided some perplexing questions. Again for those familiar with the genre, there'll always be a thought niggling in your mind in disbelief that the plot would be so straight forward. Granted as mentioned, the payload comes at the finale, which I thought had two meanings, depending on which concept you subscribe to. First, following reality that the most perverse amongst us tend to be the one most disconnected, and second, punishment coming from someone who doesn't see eye to eye on immoral lifestyles, and want to put a deadly stop to it.

I did see the revelation coming, but for the longest time had decided not to believe my gut feeling in the hopes that it would develop into something that will genuinely blow my mind. It's not perfect, but it did have its moments with the following of recent trends in the slasher genre that bad guys don't have to necessarily finish last. Nothing fanciful here, but it still worked to a certain degree. And kudos to both the casting director in putting Amber Heard in the titular role, and for the actress to pull off one of the more memorable lead characters in such a genre flick.

Famous for its circuitous route to a wide theater release (it made its film festival premiere in 2006 but didn't debut in theaters until 2013), 'Mandy Lane' became stale before it ever had a chance to be fresh.

It plays to the tropes of many classic horror films, such as, a mysterious killer stalking teens at a party, characters wandering off on their own only to be killed, characters dying after having sex, characters falling down while being chased, etc. The setting and gleaming shots lit by sunlight in the background are reminiscent of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' While it's clear that these tropes of intentionally included, it's unclear what statement they are trying to make.

Are these moments of satirical self-awareness? Are they admiring homages? The film is either playing dumb, or perhaps it's just dumb.

I lean toward believing the latter because of how the filmmakers use Mandy Lane, who is, herself, a horror movie cliche-the American virgin, who is pursued but never caught by horny high school dudes or the killer.

She never becomes more than an idea. We hardly learn anything about her, about why all the boys love her, other than because she's attractive. I suppose that's enough for these teen boy doofuses.

Mandy's character remains partially formed, which might have worked fine if not for the reveal in the third act that doesn't wind up making any sense because there's zero exposition on the motivation. Nevertheless, Amber Heard is the quintessential surrogate for Mandy Lane. She looks the part and (mostly) acts it too.

The rest of the acting is atrocious. They actors certainly play exaggerated versions of dumb drunk high school kids, who are obsessed with sex and are startlingly mean to each other. This should be easy to pull off, but somehow none of it feels believable. The worst offenses occur when the characters transition between drunk/high to stone cold sober in seconds. One guy literally smokes weed for two hours straight and still manages to become instantly sober when needed.

There is also an abundance of continuity issues and logical flaws. The teens steal a keg from a dumpy gas station but drink bottles of beer throughout the night of partying. Plenty of other instances will become obvious when watching.

In addition to these other many flaws, the film's biggest issue is that it fails to ever be scary. Sure, its kills are gory and gruesome, but those moments are nothing but plainly gross. They're too straightforward to be scary. The killer plays a role in this boring, non-scary problem too-no one will remember this killer as the next Michael Myers.

Overall, this is a bland and generic teen horror film. It's suited for an audience that isn't playing close attention and won't question any of the many issues.

Yeah, I'll admit it. My headline is lamer than this movie could ever be. Truth be told, "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" isn't a complete catastrophe. In fact it starts off quite promising. The cinematography is nice, the music and sound effects are effective and the characters are introduced and played well by the actors and actresses. Unfortunately, as soon as they arrive at the country house where the all the "horror" ensues the movie loses direction and gets boring.

Most of the time "Mandy Lane" seems like a nostalgic hymn to the wild and careless life of young people. That's all nice and dandy for a while but as the movie drags on and you're neither scared nor thrilled you start wondering what the point is. It's almost as if director Jonathan Levine had wanted to remake "The Virgin Suicides" with a few lame killings thrown in instead of suicides.

After a fairly acceptable twist the movie drags on even longer. It just won't end until it finally does, leaving you baffled as to whoever thought this would make a good ending. If it's true what a friend told me, that this script had been rewritten 18 (!) times, then, Jesus Christ, I don't wanna know what the first draft looked like. The result is unfortunate, since direction and cinematography are quite good, as mentioned above. With a better script this movie might actually have become something special. However, as it is "Mandy Lane" is an anti-climatic rehash of 80s slasher flicks that have been done before and better.

A frustrating experience, because so many elements are just right. Amber Heard is absolutely perfect in the title role, with a well-balanced mix of class, innocence, beauty and a great sense of mystery, which is absolutely essential to this film. You always feel that there's more to her than meets the eye, and so the film does indeed succeed in holding your interest. Darren Genet's cinematography applies many subtle effects to create an atmosphere of wonder and suspense. A feeling which is strengthened by a soundtrack, consisting mostly of melancholic adaptations of sometimes almost unrecognizable classics.

As a psychological thriller this might have made a very effective movie, but unfortunately there is a pointless prologue which explains too much of what we are about to witness. 'Mandy Lane' gives the impression of an intelligent psychological drama, which the production company felt wouldn't be a commercial success, and was therefore turned into a rather mediocre - and minor - gorefest for the yahoo-crowd. This could have been - and probably should have been - one of this year's best films, but it's ruined by extreme violence and a rather silly finale.

I'll start off by saying the bar was set pretty low for this flick. While I love horror, slasher horror is one of my least favorite types. What made this film for me (along with several other reviewers) is the cinematography. It's a real visual treat - pretty in parts, gritty and terrifying in parts, with a "we're stuck in the middle of dry, dead earth" type of despair to it.

I didn't want to think Amber Heard did a good job. I don't think the role of Mandy Lane required much but a really beautiful girl (which she is), but her delivery and execution is spot on. Michael Welch held his own and all the supporting kids were believable.

When the killings start, it's pretty obvious who is doing it. The first murder is particularly brutal. The "twist" is not much of a twist, but it's well executed.

I had a lot of problems with the dialog, but then, I have a lot of problems listening to teenagers talk in real life. So I'm betting the dialog was pretty standard and not as cringe-worthy as I thought. I'm not familiar with the writer (Jacob Forman) and originally decided to watch this movie because I mistakenly thought Jonathan Levine wrote it. He directed it, but I like his writing (The Wackness, Warm Bodies).

Certain parts drag - I get that we need to build that droning, neverending party feeling but I wish there was a way to do that without a droning, neverending party. There is a lot of violence but it's....muffled. I don't know how else to describe it. It's effective because taking the edge out of it makes it seem more real.

If you like horror movies, you might like this. If you like slasher movies, you will probably like it.