Lou

I was relatively on board until obvious plot twist time. Would have been much more fun and satisfying if it had stuck to being just about an insane old woman who liked to kill baddies. Janney is pretty good.

Loved Lou as a character, but the movie overall didn't impress me a whole lot.

Absolutely drenched in Toto songs in the front half, which is shown to be a period piece (probably to explain the movie's lust for Hold the Line) Forgettable fluff, but it's fun to see Alison Janey fight people with a soup can.

It has a decent plotline with some good acting. The plot twist is kinda meh overall and it hurts the momentum the film attempts to build. It does not truly reach the potential it has and just settles in as a decent thriller with no memorable moments. Bell and Janney are great but even they can't help the film over come the cliché dialogue and subpar final act. It just misses in the crucial scenes and it just sucks that it truly didn't do anything besides act as a generic action set piece.

Works well as a rain-soaked, chilly/ing to the bone thriller; Lou is badass (see her shoulder pop-in and "Fuck!"), the violence is brutal (see the cabin fight), the villain is frightening, and the cinematography and music are both excellent (see the haunting opening sequence). It falls apart, unfortunately, when it overcomplicates things with a lackluster twist, puncturing the cool air of mystery around the central character and muddying up the climactic third act with tons of exposition.

It's mostly good until they do that and then its like a lot of films of this kind.

Very well acted. I mean, Allison Janney, of course it is. It's almost like a modern day female Rambo. Fairly predictable tho, but still enjoyable.

worth a watch

Not too much done here that stands apart from similar films, especially not with the resolution to the conflict. Lou as a character though does truly demonstrate almost equal parts hero and someone you can't quite call a monster but dammit she comes close, making her an interesting protagonist to follow. Some dry, drawn out cliched moments keep the story from feeling more effective, but it definitely packs some serious dramatic punches.

In the popular "Old people kicking ass" genre, Allison Janney kicking ass sure sounds intriguing. The actual movie, however, is mostly just grey and slow, with flat characters and plot, and action scenes that somehow veer from realistically painful and sloppy to 80s VHS invulnerability.

There are some puzzling oddities, most notably the overly slick cabin action sequence at the beginning of the second act. I like the characters well enough, I just want something more out of the plot.