Elfie Hopkins (2012)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

In a village in England where people hunt, Elfie is not doing much with her life and she has this "whatEVER" attitude toward everything. Her father and stepmother want her to do more than just smoke pot with her friend Dylan, and she is almost resigned to the idea she will be a beautician, though that's not she wants. Elfie's mother died in a hunting-related accident when she was 12, but to this day she is convinced it was murder, and she blames herself because her mother was searching for her. After investigating what happened to her mother, Elfie became an amateur sleuth. Elfie wears too much makeup and has blonde hair that can't possibly be a real color, and how much of it is green varies between scenes and sometimes within the same scene. One person who dresses fashionably says Elfie looks like someone vomited clothes onto her. Her taste in "music" isn't much better. Her latest case with Dylan involves the Gammons, new neighbors who live in a fabulous house. Everywhere they go, people disappear. At the beginning of this movie, a hunter mysteriously disappears. The Gammons got rich from their travel agency--only it seems people they send on trips don't come back.Still, Elfie becomes friendly (in a completely innocent way) with the father Charlie, who is faithful to his wife even though Pippa wants to seduce him. Elfie taunts Pippa by suggesting Charlie prefers her. Dylan makes friends with the creepy daughter Ruby, to the dismay of Elfie, who won't admit she has anything more than platonic feelings for this geek (her word). Ruby is described as dressing like dolls. In one scene I would say more like a cast member from the musical "Chicago".As is often the case with movies like this, Elfie gets on the nerves of the local police. She accuses people of things they may be innocent of, because of evidence that isn't there when the cops arrive. The title of this movie kind of gives away a secret that Elfie finds or at least thinks she has found. Meanwhile, Elfie worries her friend will go off and leave her because his parents want him to go to university, though he doesn't. If you like the dark humor of the Seth MacFarlane animated sitcoms, perhaps you will like this. It was described as a horror movie in the TV listings I saw, but it's not really a horror movie. More of a creepy comedy/mystery. Toward the end it does become quite violent and the laughs stop. Not everyone is going to survive to the end, and as is often true with horror movies, even someone you care about is not safe.Despite her attitude, I had to like Elfie. I know nothing about Jamie Winstone but there's something adorable about her, despite her hate for the world and lack of concern for her looks, though somehow she looks sort of pretty.Aneurin Barnard I have never heard of, but Dylan was very likable. I did find one thing strange: Dylan is a computer genius but this movie was made in 2012. If it was set at that time, why is Dylan using 1992 computer technology? He uses what is essentially the Internet but gets there the way geeks did when people in general started using PCs.Rupert Evans as the mysterious neighbor shows quite a range, going from friendly to downright creepy in a humorous way. Ray Winstone is memorable as a butcher who is also a creepy storyteller. Either one actress is either really good at pretending to be still or someone really talented recreated her head. You might either love the scene for its humor or be totally repulsed by it.Is it good? Well, I did enjoy it as long as it was funny. The ending is effective if not pleasant.

I wanted to like ELFIE HOPKINS but wasn't really sure what to think. The film itself is a misguided little mystery mixed with horror and blackly comic overtones. The main problem it suffers from is that Jaime Winstone is a pretty poor and unlikeable lead actress and the supposed comedy double act of her and her pot-smoking friend doesn't come across very well, these characters feel desperately like they want to be an likable awkward hero a la SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD but they just feel irritating and self-centred.Otherwise the small-town mystery is built up nicely and I particularly liked the kooky members of Gammon family, lead by the dastardly Rupert Evans (a guy well versed in playing baddies after this and his turn in the TV miniseries WORLD WITHOUT END). But ELFIE HOPKINS is better at building atmosphere than it is incident, and the action when it hits is very poorly handled and cheap-looking. This is particularly noticeable in the climax, which should be a large-scale and exciting set-piece but instead which comes across as completely lacklustre and disappointing thanks to indifferent direction. CGI blood effects don't really help either. This film is an interesting stab at doing something different but it's only semi-successful in my opinion.

This is the most underrated work I have ever reviewed. I didn't look it up first so I didn't know what I was going to get. Seeing that this film sits at 3.8/10 makes me never to decide whether or not to see a film on account of the IMDb & the user's collective "wisdom" alone. Although 95% of the time I do completely agree with them. This though was something different that carried a sort of a 60's-70's feel/dark beauty, with the scenery & sets, the wonderful colorful outfits & even the time they took to construct Elfie's room right down to the smallest of things. So the scenery & cinematography are 5/5 which definitely helped to even out some of the weak areas in the film.Getting back to the story now, a lot of people may compare it to Twilight mainly because of the dark & mysterious neighbors moving in next door, with the girl that starts to investigate the truth behind the obvious facade that they put forth, but wait, don't drop it from my previous observation. If anything it's a Twilight spoof but not the Scary Movie kind at all. It is a well told tale that is quite interesting from beginning to end. The imagery & cool vibe make it worth a watch. For the most part, the film was well acted despite the mostly novice cast. I really liked the character of Elfie Hopkins played by the up & coming Jaime Winstone, yes she is the daughter of Ray Winstone, the talent does seem to be genetic, it's undeniable, well at least in some cases. Ray Winstone only pops up for a few seconds once in the beginning & once in the end which was cool to see them appear together on screen for a bit. So why this sits at 3.8/10 when there is a unique little story with cute characters whose acting in my opinion didn't stick out a bit with good sound & cinematography that was spot on, is a mystery to me. It has a decent amount of dark humor in it, it's not meant to be a serious, gory, scare the heck out of you film. Although there is some moments of gore & suspense it isn't really that dark a film as its main mission is of a more lighthearted story telling.In checking the history of 3 of the other reviewers that gave this a 1/10, it was their first review in each case(which sounds personal to me) but the top two users gave it fair reviews so stick to them. I give this a solid 7/10 & I've written plenty(sorta)other reviews on films in these type of genre's in the past year. So you know who to believe, the other review by Tony Bush sums it up a bit better than I, and the mention of the boy & Harry Potter was spot on, I was thinking that during the entire film. I recommend it to anyone, just don't expect a tense gory experience. Even people that hate gore may very well still enjoy the story, just close your eyes for a few seconds here or there...7/10

Do not waste your time and money on this film. I could act better than Jaime Winston, and I've never done any acting. All she does is say her lines in a flat monotone, while giving the impression that she would rather be somewhere else altogether. None of the other actors are much better, to be perfectly honest, including Ray Winstone. Everything about this film is entirely unconvincing, and you will know it in the first 2 minutes. I stuck it out for 30 minutes before I walked out, and that was only because I had paid £8 for a ticket. I figured that I would have a better time going home, doing some decorating and then watching the paint dry. It was a spur of the moment decision to go see this film - if only I had read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes beforehand.