Protraph Lack of good storyline.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

James What is the effect on a small US town when an ordinary-looking guy goes into a diner and shoots several people at random before doing himself in? Maybe this is not an issue that's much occupied your mind?Or maybe you don't want to know at all?In Rowan Woods's "Winged Creatures" a rather close look at such events - also set in a wider context - is taken, and it's giving the impression of being thoughtful and clever to the point where we watchers out here feel we're on tenterhooks waiting for some really big truth about these situations to come out. In a way, there is a truth at the end of the effort we put in, but it's not really a big one...On the way to that conclusion we get performances as good as we might expect from Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning and others.Ultimately, this film is well-done, and most especially so when it touches upon the random nature of this kind of thing. For some not-entirely-clear reason, it also features a relatively tangential (and somewhat unpleasant) Guy Pearce-Embeth Davidtz storyline (the latter playing a Brit for no very obvious reason), and - also for some reason - the film seems to slightly downplay the seriousness of what is going on there. This is a little bit of an enigma, but does certainly add yet another psychological dimension.While Whitaker's character annoys to the point where sympathy for his (genuine) plight is a bit muted, youthful actors Fanning and Josh Hutcherson do a particularly good job.Why would you watch this? Because very sadly such things do happen, and it leads to more of a disintegration in the community than one may even imagine (and one certainly can imagine a bit of it). But the effects are diverse and outward spreading like ripples in a pond, and probably we owe it those affected by such events in real life, and to ourselves, to think on what that means at least a little.For 100 minutes anyway,

James Festini I figured with an all star cast I would have enjoyed this more. I thought this was a dark movie worthy of nursing a hangover with bloody Mary's on a Tuesday morning. I don't get why Forest Whitaker gets acting roles. He cannot act his way out of a high school play. No offense, I am sure I offended those who think he is diverse. I really felt like I was going to be depressed the rest of the day and then the booze kicked in. This movie was full of sporadic clues into the story line but it was one of those that you wait until the end only because you are not sure of whether you wasted time or it was a good choice. Well, I want my 90 minutes back. The ending was just as good as the beginning. it's worth watching if you like being sad. But hey, I am no critic I just have an opinion.

sol ***SPOILERS*** After surviving a shooting at their local diner the survivors of that massacre have their lives shattered beyond repair. We get to see the movie in a number of flashbacks or fragments in exactly what happened during the shooting and how the shooting effected the lives of those who survived it as well as their loved one's and family members. We soon see that the sweet and pretty waitress at the diner single mom Carla Davenport, Kate Beckinsale, turned into a man chasing bimbo who by neglecting her six month old son whom she took along with her, in her car, to sleazy bars and pick-up joints almost ended up dying from dehydration!Dr. Bruce Lamby, Guy Pearce, who dropped into the diner to get a cup of coffee before work at the hospital and left before the shooting started held himself responsible for the massacre in him opening the door for the killer, Marty McGuire, who moments later shot up the place! Dr. Lamby also turned out to be Clara's doctor who was attending her baby's eating problems for free, since she didn't have any medical insurance, and almost blotched it up with problems he had back at home. In with his wife Joan, Embath Davidtz, who's suffering from migraine headaches that Dr. Lamby started to slip strong medication into her food in order to cure her. This with him upping the doges almost ended up killing her instead!There's also teenagers Anne Hagen & Jimmy Jasperson, Dakota Fanning & Josh Hutcherson, who by a stroke of luck or heroism survived the killings where Jimmy's dad Bob Jasperson, Jackie Earl Haley, ended up together with the gunman, who shot himself, getting his brains blown out! It was Jimmy who completely freaked out and became mute in what he saw in not only his dad getting shot but in the cowardly way he reacted to it! Anne for her part became very religious after the incident and forgave the dead gunman for what he did but at the same time covered up the cowardly way how Jimmy's dad reacted before he was blown away! This more then anything else made Jimmy's depression worse then it already was. And it was Anne in her finally admitting the truth of what happened that brought Jimmy out of his deep depression as well as him getting his voice back.Finally there's the real hero in the movie the sad sack compulsive gambler and cancer ridden driving school instructor Charlie Archenault, Forrest Whitiker. It's Charlie who felt by surviving the shooting, where he was wounded, that luck was on his side! Driving down to a Las Vages casino Charlie's luck proved to be genuine with him winning on the crap tables a cool 100 G's before the evening was over. ***SPOILERS*** But in the end Charlie blew it all and had to get a marker, 25 G's, from the mob to continue in trying to get his money back only, so it seemed, to lose it all and having his right hand and arm broken for his failed efforts. We later find out that Charlie in fact did make a big score big enough to pay off his debt to the mob and have plenty left for himself! But,in him feeling guilty in surviving the massacre, he decide to willingly have his arm hand broken instead! Great performances by all involved but it's Forrest Whitaker's kind and sensitive portrayal of born loser Charlie Archenault that really stands out. It was Charlie who was the true hero in the movie by trying to tackle the gunman and getting shot for doing it. But he prevented him from gunning down more people including Anne & Jimmy as well as Kate in his selfless and almost suicidal effort! And in the end despite doing everything he could to destroy himself, in him feeling that he's dying from cancer anyway, it was an act of faith or God that somehow miraculously prevented that from happening to him!

momsroo "Winged Creatures" wants very much to make A Statement about modern life: the interconnectedness of human beings, the devastation wrought by random shootings that have become an unfortunate cliché in American communities, and the shock waves that erupt from the epicenter of these violent acts. Fragmentation can be an effective storytelling device for this kind of drama, and "Winged Creatures" has some impressive predecessors. Despite the movie's imitative efforts, however, "Crash" it ain't."Creatures" follows the aftermath of an act of anonymous violence in an anonymous diner full of anonymous people in an anonymous working class neighborhood. Writer Roy Freirich and director Rowan Woods want to draw us in with Everyness of their characters: Clara, a young, single-mom waitress (Kate Beckinsdale); Charlie, a middle-aged man (Forest Whitaker) with more serious matters on his mind than trying to get Clara to do her job; Anne and Jimmy, two young friends (Dakota Fanning, Josh Hutcherson) who cower under a table when the shooting starts; Dr. Laraby, an emergency room physician (Guy Pearce) who decides to find out what it really means to play God. All of this is familiar territory. Handled well, films of this nature engage us with recurring "A- ha!" moments and sparks of true insight into the human condition. Unfortunately, "Winged Creatures" never quite reaches those heights. The back stories are unimaginative and sometimes contradictory. Motivation for Pearce's doctor is hinted at, but never concretized, making his personal about-face downright baffling. Instead of graceful complexity, "Winged Creatures" settles for clunky symbolism that has all the depth of a coat of paint and the subtlety of a jackhammer.I wanted—and tried—to like this movie. I enjoy films that ask me to follow a cat's-cradle maze of intertwining stories. I think that pop culture is uniquely qualified to help us forget about the banality of evil and reignite our tendency to care when bad things happen to good people. And the "Winged Creatures" cast, including Jeanne Tripplehorn, Embeth Davidtz, Jennifer Hudson, and Jackie Earle Haley in supporting roles, is talented and deserves material that showcases its diverse strengths. Despite my best efforts, however, I simply couldn't overlook the weaknesses in the script and direction. Ultimately, "Winged Creatures" never gets off the ground.