Us

Some nice thrills and intense moments, however, the overall product is messy. The movie struggles with its identity, going back and forth too much with symbolism and realism. The movie becomes confusing and unenjoyable for quite a bit of the duration.

Pointless and predictable. The twist was so telegraphed that you really didn't care about what was happening. So unscary it was laughable.

A good movie. Yet entirely incomparable to ‘Get Out'. Sadly, it ends up being quite overrated. A great cast putting in some stellar performances makes us think this movie is incredible, when it's only good.

pronoun the objective case of we, used as a direct or indirect object: "They took us to the circus. She asked us the way."

A truly terrifying premise that (largely with the aid of the incomparable Lupita N'yongo's performance) morphs into an intoxicating thinkpiece on American classism and capitalism.

"Us" has multiple influences: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," one particular episode of "The Twilight Zone," a bit of "The Shining." But it's not derivative. It draws upon its influences without ripping them off. It's probably the most original horror movie I've ever seen. The upscale African American Wilson family are vacationing in a lake house in Santa Cruz, California, near the beach and amusement park. Father and husband Gabe (Winston Duke) just wants to have a good time. He has bought a boat. He wants to cruise the lake, go fishing, and take the family to the beach. His daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) is self-absorbed teen, earbuds always on, listening to hip hop and putting up with her boring parents. Their young son Jason (Evan Alex), is just a goofy kid with an obsession with a monster mask and magic tricks. And the wife and mother Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) is uneasy, due to disturbing experience she had as a young girl at the same amusement park. It's hard to avoid spoilers here. Suffice it to say that the scary thing that happened to the young Adelaide involved seeing a doppelganger of herself in the amusement park funhouse. And, now, three decades later, an entire family of doppelgangers appears in the lake house, one for each member of the family. They're wearing red jump suits and wielding oversized pairs of scissors. And they're intent on slaying their counterparts. The white family next door, friends of the Wilsons, have evil doppelgangers, too. Put that in your sociological pipe and smoke it. A brief synopsis doesn't do this film justice. It's far more than just a scary movie. It's brimming with metaphor and allegory. It raises questions about class distinction, the haves and the have nots, and more. You'll find yourself analyzing all of the subtext as you watch it. In fact, there is so much nuance and detail, it would be a good idea to watch it more than once. Jordan Peele hit a home run with the amazing "Get Out," leaving us with high expectations for his second film. "Us" has more horror elements but the same degree of social commentary. This man is, without doubt, the new auteur of mainstream cinema. Had I not known that he made this film, 10 or 15 minutes into it, I would have said, "This has to be Jordan Peele." The man knows how to handle a camera. The shots are consistently creative. Same goes for the soundtrack. The ending has a twist which didn't exactly make sense to me. But I'm giving it a pass because I was so entertained.

Us is to Get Out what Unbreakable was to The Sixth Sense: a competent film, but one which doesn't capture its predecessor's lightning-in-a-bottle magic. I thought the principal twist in Us was easy to guess, and the action sequences went on far too long without advancing the plot. Still, Peele's strengths remain present: arresting visuals, assured choreography in action scenes, and well-placed humor. I'd also call the opening pre-credits scene a miniature horror classic.

Us is yet another inventive and interesting horror film from Jordan Peele, although for me it's not quite as good as Get Out was. Us is a more complex movie than Get Out was and you really have to watch to the end to fully understand why everything that happens in the movie happens. The end explains everything nicely and has a twist that caught me off guard and made the entire film a lot more interesting and gives you a lot to think about as the credits roll. There is a shot at the end that I don't like too much, but other than that everything works really well. The core concept of the movie is slightly cliched but the way Peele executes it and plays off of it is really good and makes the movie engaging for its full runtime. In other words, the directing is really good just like it was in Get Out. The actors are great in their roles and perfectly capture how a family would feel and react in the situation that they're put in in this movie. The horror is a bit more conventional than what we got in Get Out, and that works to the benefit of this movie due to its premise. Us uses camera positioning really nicely to give you goosebumps at times and an interesting kind of anxiety at others even when there's nothing terrifying on the screen. This movie makes people standing next to each other holding hands seem really freaky, especially when they have the costumes that they do in this movie. The dialogue is unnerving at times, especially in the way that the actors deliver some of their lines, and the behavior of some of the characters is weird in a creepy way, which again the actors amplify with their performances. Overall the film flows pretty smoothly, although it goes a bit off the rails for me when we get the bigger picture of the movie and it goes beyond the primary family. I might've liked this movie a little better if it had stuck to a smaller scale and focused exclusively on the main family, but I can see why Peele took Us in the direction that he did and I think he did a pretty good job with that direction. This direction makes Us a unique horror flick and establishes Peele as a creative force in the horror genre. Overall, Us is an engaging and effective film and is another solid product from Peele, although it doesn't quite reach the heights of Get Out.

Such a great movie. So many levels of deepness. Great rhythm and the acting is so phenomenal. A must see.

Pretty original horror film, with fine performances from the leads, especially Nyongo. The "big reveal" at the end is too preposterous to support the plot, but the ride was fun and definitely worth it. Difficult to not compare it to the excellent "Get Out", kinda wish that this one came out first. In any case, looking forward to the future work of Mr. Peele, hoping that it will be a step up from his previous films and not a (small, but clear) step down like this one.