Chernobyl Diaries

*DISCLAIMER: This review is by an average-Joe guy who has a certain set of tastes pertaining to entertainment and movies, and in no way should directly influence your viewing decision without prior extensive personal research regarding the topic.

SHORT AND SWEET: Good "cheap-thrill" movie, enjoy with a couple buddies (or girls), beer, chips, and salsa.

LONG AND BITTER: Don't expect much, this movie is good for a cheap fun thrill-ride that will keep you almost on the edge of your seat until the fun suspense is over and you are revealed the quite obvious and (dull) antagonist(s) is/are in the movie. Ample concept and ample execution however terribly and I mean TERRIBLY reminiscent of the popular "horror-gore" movie "The Hills Have Eyes" RATING: I feel 6/10 is just right, this movie isn't quite the caliber to be in the upper tier of movies but is too good to toss into the pedestrian or worse category.

PERFECT FOR: Normal movie-goers who don't mind a little predictability and in-authenticity

This COULD have been a great film. The idea behind it and the setting builds tension and the first half of the film isn't bad. The second half lets it down. Poor cinematography means half the time you have no clue whats going on. Many of the shots are just to dark to be able to see around the characters leading to confusion as to what exactly is going on. The ending is also half done. It was like the writers just shoved it in there as an extra with no thought.

Its sad because its well acted and has some good startle scares unfortunately most of these are in the trailer.

Wait for the DVD,

This movie honestly isn't as bad as everyone's rating it. Sure, it had some predictable scenes and bad acting, but this isn't supposed to be a serious movie. If you going to see it with the mindset of it being deep and intellectual, you are more than likely not going to enjoy it. It uses tension to scare you more than anything else. Not very much gore and violence. It's worth seeing, despite everyone's reviews. I didn't know what was going to happen next for the majority of the movie. If you have to choose between this and "Cabin In The Woods" you should definitely see cabin. This, however, is worth seeing as well. I hope people who go to see this won't be expecting a intriguing movie with a deep story, and just go for the sheer excitement of the film.

The set up of going to an abandoned city was cool and up until the CGI bear appearing the film was at least engaging. But in the end this film is a collection of cliches, tropes and jump scares all trying to hide the script's emptiness. A bad horror film would have been more entertaining than this flavorless offering.

Saying a movie is predictable is like saying a movie has a beginning, middle and end. Most movies, no matter the genre are predictable these days. Very few are super unique. I DO NOT think Chernobyl Diaries is predictable. With that being said; I enjoyed the movie a lot, I jumped, I wasn't bored at all! At one point I actually had to sit at the edge of the couch. Sometimes it felt like I was there with them. I feel that the director definitely executed the idea that the writers seen in their mind. I'm disappointed that the average rating is 5.0 because MANY people come to IMDb to check a rating before they watch a movie and the 5.0 will most likely deter them and they will miss out. I strongly recommend it to people that want to sit back and have a good scare.