Of late animated films have been, well...
Monsters vs Aliens was a terrible attempt at a comedy action with no character development, limited plot, lots of emphasis on poop gags, a 4 minute Axel F. dance and nothing else sans great 3D.
It's nice that Pixar still cares about their output, but, well, the more I see of the Toy Story 3 trailers the more I worry, the poop gags, dumb intermissions, such as the Barbie/Ken love moment in the latest trailer, mentioning eBay brings the fears that more pop culture references will seep in, something that has been kept at bay at Pixar because, akin to Dreamworks' finest film, Kung Fu Panda, they date the movie, are too easy and don't add to the characters, plot or anything, except making a child chuckle in a hollow manner.
This year sees Dreamworks bring out another, thankfully final, Shrek film, which have stunk since they began. I was 11 when I saw Shrek, and I knew it sucked, same way I knew Finding Nemo, not a good film. And alongside that Mastermind, the dumbed down title of 'Oobermind' with Will Ferrel in place of Robert Downey Junior. So, we have a sequel to a pop culture heavy franchise full of big named stars, at the time, and a new comedy animation full of big named stars.
And before we have them, we have How To Train Your Dragon. Based on a book. Biggest names being Jonah Hill (side character), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (side character), Gerard Butler (strong father figure) and America Ferrerra (romantic lead).
And in the lead, none other than the man who owns my funny bone and tickles it consistently with great force, the hysterical, the nerdy awesome Jay Baruchel (From the likes of Tropic Thunder, Knocked Up and Almost Famous).
So, set in a Viking village on the shores, where dragon attacks are frequent, our hero Hiccup, a weedy teenager, is struggling to live up to his strong, mighty father Stoic's reputation, stuck as an apprentice for weapon maker Gobber (Craig Ferguson, who I think is a talk show host in America, from what others say), and Hiccup's feeble attempts at slaying dragons make him mechanically minded.
So, plonk the same premise as Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and about 17,000 films, shows, books into a Viking setting and then focus on the characters, that's what happened here. We know each step of the story well, but that's not a bad thing, we, like the writers, focus more on the details, the lavish sets, amazing shots of flying dragons, breathtaking in fact. The great character building and wonderful jokes that stem from that.
This film is truly fantastic.
And when it gets going, with the titular dragon 'Toothless', whom Hiccup hits with his mechanised net thrower, then forms a bond with, leading to the understanding that all dragons are just defending themselves against the humans, fearful of the big dragon queen.
This film could have descended into random action and easy get outs for all the tough situations the characters find themselves, but thankfully it's an imaginative, well conceived film, and the heart of the story, the friendship that forms between Toothless and Hiccup, is riveting, the best animation you can think of, the silent dragon making animal noises, using his eyes and body language to express his feeling, sumptuous, perfect.
It's about as good a film as you're gonna get this year, and I'm pulling for this one to win the Oscar, I honestly don't think any animated film this year can or will top it.
10/10
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Call the Police, I was sold something that wasn't true.
So, here we are, over 6 months after Movie-Con introduced us to a series of perfect clips of upcoming so good it can't be bad superhero caper Kick Ass, with a Q&A by the editor, Jason Flemying and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Now, the finished film is ready to be released, posters everywhere, infinite amount of trailers, and review of positive adoration from the most stern of critics.
So why didn't I enjoy it?
Well, it doesn't help that the ridiculously oversaturated market it's launching itself into has seen all the key moments in numerous trailers posted everywhere, there seems to be a new one every day, add to that the key shocks and jokes, including all of the Hit Girl character, are so well encompassed into a trailer that by the time their first 2 minutes in the film are up, it's all over, that's it, nothing new, nothing more, no character development, just one joke characters, an 11 year old girl who swears and kills, a psychotic father that makes her do that stuff, a comic book geek who turns vigilante, and a mob boss' son who wants in on the violence.
That's all the characters that are close to, ahem, memorable, and as many reviews claimed the characters iconic, the film perfect, I think, someone's been given too much money by universal here.
So, we begin the film as we already know, man on roof, narration about trying to be a superhero, guy jumps, people watch, smashes into a car.
So far, so already overused.
On top of that, the wonderfully iconic Superman theme used as a temp track for Comic and Movie Con clip showings is now gone, something less is in place, no invoking great memories, a real loss, and we go into our lead's school life, nerd who wanks a lot, reads comics, does school work, no luck in love, yawn. Unfortunately, it's not changing into a new direction, like, at all.
Add to that we then have Mark Strong's mob boss, annoyed by 'Batman' figure killing men, he gets angry, tries to work out what's going on. Oh, and his son is a comic book geek and wants in on the family business.
And then there's Big Daddy and Hit Girl, father daughter killing tea, literally nothing to be said here, that's all there is.
So the rise to fame through youtube, and an obsession with the amount of myspace friends, yes, myspace, that Kick Ass has. (All internet chat seems to be done through myspace in this world.)
So, Kick Ass is now looked upon as a hero, more guys die, Boss' son pretends to be a hero to get closer to Kick Ass, it works, then they capture Big Daddy and Kick Ass, Hit Girl kills them all, then big fights ensue.
Aaaaaand that's about it, oh yeah, guy gets girl bs too.
So, the film, whilst it certainly looks good, and stylistically it's wonderful, the 2 hour run time is sapping, and between a series of poorly conceived, uninteresting characters we bounce around between a realistic kid with hopes story to a mayhem filled Hit Girl, Big Daddy schtick. And the writing is piss poor. Like, real bad. If they looked at the script now, the writers should have kicked themselves, cheap easy gags, already severely dated pop culture references and quick dialogue that if I didn't already know things such as the nerve endings of Kick Ass get severed in a car crash, the writing would have confused me with it barely being explained, short of, punch me, see, no pain.
The music is dull, the action scenes are unmistakably bland (I was watching some scenes thinking, I loved this moment in Wanted, when it looked good) and the acting is ok at best. Nic Cage doesn't get back to Adaptation quirky good, he bores through it, Aaron Johnson is dull, Chloe Moretz is nothing special, she's been better and clearly tries too hard here, Mark Strong is a good bad guy, but he has nothing to do, Chris Plasse for the first time really annoyed me, he just wasn't good or entertaining, or watchable.
Nope, nothing here.
Oh yeah, now the spoilers to come.
Like, real spoilers over some key ending moments.
No, seriously, look away now, a picture involved too.
You've been warned.
Fine.
So, the Kick Ass unmasked fight scene, with the 5 minutes of strobe lighting, oh god, painful on the eyes, it's enough the film wasn't good, but to fuck our eyes like that? Bad move. And then they burn Nic Cage alive, I was so tempted to scream "MURDER! This Is murder, you'll all be arrested. Killing me won't bring back your goddamn honey!" But, I refrained.
So, when was a film about a kid with no powers who becomes a poor vigilante get so up it's own arse as to forgo how shitty a vigilante he is that he's embraced for being beaten up by a duo of murderers, who then let him take control of a MOTHER FUCKING JETPACK, with fucking gattling guns?
No, sorry. At this point if I wasn't with my friend (Who loved it) I would have genuinely walked out. There's one thing to be kooky and over the top for humour, but to put such emphasis in trying, oh and failing, to make the characters 3D, real and likable, why then do something so outrageous that it destroys all you've attempted to work to?
And the Prodigy music, so overused.
Here's a picture to sum it all up (From a trailer of it no less):
AAAAAND, welcome back.
So, overall, Matthew Vaughn follows up the remarkable Stardust with the appalling, Hancock-esque Kick Ass, that fails to do everything Hancock kinda succeeded at, including making a hero be a youtube phenomenon.
2/10
So why didn't I enjoy it?
Well, it doesn't help that the ridiculously oversaturated market it's launching itself into has seen all the key moments in numerous trailers posted everywhere, there seems to be a new one every day, add to that the key shocks and jokes, including all of the Hit Girl character, are so well encompassed into a trailer that by the time their first 2 minutes in the film are up, it's all over, that's it, nothing new, nothing more, no character development, just one joke characters, an 11 year old girl who swears and kills, a psychotic father that makes her do that stuff, a comic book geek who turns vigilante, and a mob boss' son who wants in on the violence.
That's all the characters that are close to, ahem, memorable, and as many reviews claimed the characters iconic, the film perfect, I think, someone's been given too much money by universal here.
So, we begin the film as we already know, man on roof, narration about trying to be a superhero, guy jumps, people watch, smashes into a car.
So far, so already overused.
On top of that, the wonderfully iconic Superman theme used as a temp track for Comic and Movie Con clip showings is now gone, something less is in place, no invoking great memories, a real loss, and we go into our lead's school life, nerd who wanks a lot, reads comics, does school work, no luck in love, yawn. Unfortunately, it's not changing into a new direction, like, at all.
Add to that we then have Mark Strong's mob boss, annoyed by 'Batman' figure killing men, he gets angry, tries to work out what's going on. Oh, and his son is a comic book geek and wants in on the family business.
And then there's Big Daddy and Hit Girl, father daughter killing tea, literally nothing to be said here, that's all there is.
So the rise to fame through youtube, and an obsession with the amount of myspace friends, yes, myspace, that Kick Ass has. (All internet chat seems to be done through myspace in this world.)
So, Kick Ass is now looked upon as a hero, more guys die, Boss' son pretends to be a hero to get closer to Kick Ass, it works, then they capture Big Daddy and Kick Ass, Hit Girl kills them all, then big fights ensue.
Aaaaaand that's about it, oh yeah, guy gets girl bs too.
So, the film, whilst it certainly looks good, and stylistically it's wonderful, the 2 hour run time is sapping, and between a series of poorly conceived, uninteresting characters we bounce around between a realistic kid with hopes story to a mayhem filled Hit Girl, Big Daddy schtick. And the writing is piss poor. Like, real bad. If they looked at the script now, the writers should have kicked themselves, cheap easy gags, already severely dated pop culture references and quick dialogue that if I didn't already know things such as the nerve endings of Kick Ass get severed in a car crash, the writing would have confused me with it barely being explained, short of, punch me, see, no pain.
The music is dull, the action scenes are unmistakably bland (I was watching some scenes thinking, I loved this moment in Wanted, when it looked good) and the acting is ok at best. Nic Cage doesn't get back to Adaptation quirky good, he bores through it, Aaron Johnson is dull, Chloe Moretz is nothing special, she's been better and clearly tries too hard here, Mark Strong is a good bad guy, but he has nothing to do, Chris Plasse for the first time really annoyed me, he just wasn't good or entertaining, or watchable.
Nope, nothing here.
Oh yeah, now the spoilers to come.
Like, real spoilers over some key ending moments.
No, seriously, look away now, a picture involved too.
You've been warned.
Fine.
So, the Kick Ass unmasked fight scene, with the 5 minutes of strobe lighting, oh god, painful on the eyes, it's enough the film wasn't good, but to fuck our eyes like that? Bad move. And then they burn Nic Cage alive, I was so tempted to scream "MURDER! This Is murder, you'll all be arrested. Killing me won't bring back your goddamn honey!" But, I refrained.
So, when was a film about a kid with no powers who becomes a poor vigilante get so up it's own arse as to forgo how shitty a vigilante he is that he's embraced for being beaten up by a duo of murderers, who then let him take control of a MOTHER FUCKING JETPACK, with fucking gattling guns?
No, sorry. At this point if I wasn't with my friend (Who loved it) I would have genuinely walked out. There's one thing to be kooky and over the top for humour, but to put such emphasis in trying, oh and failing, to make the characters 3D, real and likable, why then do something so outrageous that it destroys all you've attempted to work to?
And the Prodigy music, so overused.
Here's a picture to sum it all up (From a trailer of it no less):
AAAAAND, welcome back.
So, overall, Matthew Vaughn follows up the remarkable Stardust with the appalling, Hancock-esque Kick Ass, that fails to do everything Hancock kinda succeeded at, including making a hero be a youtube phenomenon.
2/10
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Fun With Dick & Jim
Jim Carrey. God. Jim Carrey. Morgan Freeman, Jim Carrey man.
Christ, Jim Carrey. Jim Caviezel, Jim Carrey.
Oh, yeah, Ewan McGregor, he's in this one too.
But don't let that put you off.
Nor the vulgar language, the rather silly premise, the odd moments where comedy leaves for more character development, emotional connections, or just comedy leaves to bring a cringe before comedy resurges in genius.
By the time I Love You Phillip Morris was on it's second reel, I didn't care how bad the film would get, the first 20 minutes were fantastic, but they were on a roll and continued.
For a film I've read about for years, waited patiently, watched the trailer, unsure of the tone, finally seeing the whole piece, about a cop turned con-man to pay for his recent coming out of the closet relationships, and eventually landing himself in prison, meeting the love of his life and grifting his way to pay for the good life, I was amazed at how consistent the comedy came, be it slapstick, wit, good use of swearing, mixed with a fast paced plot, with lots of key moments, and some rather dark elements coming forth, including a sequence involving an AIDS related death.
The film is just laugh out loud, and if you're not doing that by the time we see Carrey leap off a building, aiming for a dumpster, and the camera looks over, his body already slammed on the concrete next to it, well, there's no hope for you.
Unlike A Prophet, this isn't the generic prison kind of film, sure it'd be hard to be a comedy drama with heavy issues dealt with, but it doesn't jump for cliche, it uses and plays with it for our amusement.
One wonderful prison sequence has the couple dancing to music played in the cell next door, when all we hear are guards beating the man next door, vulgarities and the music, slightly. The contrast is hysterical and intersting, one of those gem moments that keep a film in the mind.
A fantastic, painfully hysterical film that will probably only be watched because it's advertised like a Jim Carrey movie meets Fantastic Mr. Fox (Judging by the poster).
9/10
Christ, Jim Carrey. Jim Caviezel, Jim Carrey.
Oh, yeah, Ewan McGregor, he's in this one too.
But don't let that put you off.
Nor the vulgar language, the rather silly premise, the odd moments where comedy leaves for more character development, emotional connections, or just comedy leaves to bring a cringe before comedy resurges in genius.
By the time I Love You Phillip Morris was on it's second reel, I didn't care how bad the film would get, the first 20 minutes were fantastic, but they were on a roll and continued.
For a film I've read about for years, waited patiently, watched the trailer, unsure of the tone, finally seeing the whole piece, about a cop turned con-man to pay for his recent coming out of the closet relationships, and eventually landing himself in prison, meeting the love of his life and grifting his way to pay for the good life, I was amazed at how consistent the comedy came, be it slapstick, wit, good use of swearing, mixed with a fast paced plot, with lots of key moments, and some rather dark elements coming forth, including a sequence involving an AIDS related death.
The film is just laugh out loud, and if you're not doing that by the time we see Carrey leap off a building, aiming for a dumpster, and the camera looks over, his body already slammed on the concrete next to it, well, there's no hope for you.
Unlike A Prophet, this isn't the generic prison kind of film, sure it'd be hard to be a comedy drama with heavy issues dealt with, but it doesn't jump for cliche, it uses and plays with it for our amusement.
One wonderful prison sequence has the couple dancing to music played in the cell next door, when all we hear are guards beating the man next door, vulgarities and the music, slightly. The contrast is hysterical and intersting, one of those gem moments that keep a film in the mind.
A fantastic, painfully hysterical film that will probably only be watched because it's advertised like a Jim Carrey movie meets Fantastic Mr. Fox (Judging by the poster).
9/10
The Girl With The Møøse Tattøø
So, another year, another Swedish flick with solid 5 star reviews from absolutely everyone.
Last year there was Let The Right One In, which saw the vampire love story of Twilight get slightly more violent, and give it to pre-pubescent kids, but ultimately, it was the same old crap with subtitles, and thus everyone seemed to adore it.
It's not a theory I'd subscribe to, until I saw A Prophet, and once again, same shit, different language, amazing reviews.
So, leave it to me to realise I should flat out avoid foreign cinema until new films get released, not freshly made, fresh in ideas, as is the problem with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a two and a half hour journey of an investigation into a disappearance in an incestuous village of rich bastards by a disgraced journalist who brings along a hacker.
Long story short (If only they did that with the film) girl is psycho, only explained in poorly placed flashback of the unnecessary titular character, raped by parole officer, which leads to nothing in terms of plot, or actually character, fights back, goes to work on the case, helps discover the murderer, journalist who she stalks does most of the leg work, gets no character, everything is one dimensional and uninvolved, with the most desperate plot twists and unmistakably cliched 'accident' moments to add compelling drama and tension, which fails constantly.
Yes, I saw the annoying American dubbed version, the subtitled one was already 50 minutes in when I rushed to the cinema, but it doesn't stop the film from being awful, no new ideas, no interesting moments, completely forgettable, but some nice cinematography.
4/10
Last year there was Let The Right One In, which saw the vampire love story of Twilight get slightly more violent, and give it to pre-pubescent kids, but ultimately, it was the same old crap with subtitles, and thus everyone seemed to adore it.
It's not a theory I'd subscribe to, until I saw A Prophet, and once again, same shit, different language, amazing reviews.
So, leave it to me to realise I should flat out avoid foreign cinema until new films get released, not freshly made, fresh in ideas, as is the problem with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a two and a half hour journey of an investigation into a disappearance in an incestuous village of rich bastards by a disgraced journalist who brings along a hacker.
Long story short (If only they did that with the film) girl is psycho, only explained in poorly placed flashback of the unnecessary titular character, raped by parole officer, which leads to nothing in terms of plot, or actually character, fights back, goes to work on the case, helps discover the murderer, journalist who she stalks does most of the leg work, gets no character, everything is one dimensional and uninvolved, with the most desperate plot twists and unmistakably cliched 'accident' moments to add compelling drama and tension, which fails constantly.
Yes, I saw the annoying American dubbed version, the subtitled one was already 50 minutes in when I rushed to the cinema, but it doesn't stop the film from being awful, no new ideas, no interesting moments, completely forgettable, but some nice cinematography.
4/10
Sunday, 7 March 2010
The Weary Blind Side
Sandra Bullock, she's one of them rom com actors who does absolutely nothing except those once in a while attempts at doing a dramatic role.
Unfortunately side by side with The Proposal (meh) and All About Steve (Razzie Winning role) The Blind Side is giving Bullock her Oscar win, so it seems. So, what's it about? A young tall fat black kid who lives on the sofa of a friend gets adopted by a rich white family in the South, he learns education, becomes a great football player, in American football, and makes money. And at no point does it feel like we should care, be interested in or want this to happen.
This is, no bones about it, an appalling film. It tries to be a Lifetime movie, tears and urban moments, and it's dull, it tries to be a sports comedy, complete with comic talking kid who you want to die early on. It never ever succeeds in being anything but a shoddy piece of cinema begging for an Oscar. Sample line of dialogue that GENUINELY APPEARED:
"Wow, so you're changing this boy's life."
"No, he's changing mine."
Oh wow. This is spoof Oscar movie trailer stuff, the kind on youtube taking the piss out of these films.
And since it's set around 2003,2004 it begs the question Why are there flat screen computer monitors in EVERY classroom, and everywhere? Really? It's a few years too early.
The acting is awful, the film is long, boring, unnecessary, it's an all round appalling film only given Oscar nods because it fellates the Academy in such a white guilt way that Precious did better. Avoid avoid avoid.
1/10
Unfortunately side by side with The Proposal (meh) and All About Steve (Razzie Winning role) The Blind Side is giving Bullock her Oscar win, so it seems. So, what's it about? A young tall fat black kid who lives on the sofa of a friend gets adopted by a rich white family in the South, he learns education, becomes a great football player, in American football, and makes money. And at no point does it feel like we should care, be interested in or want this to happen.
This is, no bones about it, an appalling film. It tries to be a Lifetime movie, tears and urban moments, and it's dull, it tries to be a sports comedy, complete with comic talking kid who you want to die early on. It never ever succeeds in being anything but a shoddy piece of cinema begging for an Oscar. Sample line of dialogue that GENUINELY APPEARED:
"Wow, so you're changing this boy's life."
"No, he's changing mine."
Oh wow. This is spoof Oscar movie trailer stuff, the kind on youtube taking the piss out of these films.
And since it's set around 2003,2004 it begs the question Why are there flat screen computer monitors in EVERY classroom, and everywhere? Really? It's a few years too early.
The acting is awful, the film is long, boring, unnecessary, it's an all round appalling film only given Oscar nods because it fellates the Academy in such a white guilt way that Precious did better. Avoid avoid avoid.
1/10
Thursday, 4 March 2010
The Obligatory "Oscar Who?" Piece
Yes, I'm an Oscar Grouch, I'm green, fuzzy, live in a bin and hate awards that suck the life out of GOOD film by celebrating $500 million CGI messes. But I have to, we all do, sigh:
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique
Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up In The Air
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Animated Short: Wallace & Gromit in A Matter Of Loaf And Death
Best Documentary Feature: The Cove
Best Cinematography: Inglourious Basterds
Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino - Up
Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
Best Art Direction: Avatar
Best Costume Design: Bright Star
Best Make-Up: Star Trek
Best Original Song: The Weary Kind
Best Sound Mixing: Avatar
Best Sound Editing: Avatar
Best Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Foreign Language Film: A Prophet
Best Documentary Short: The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant
Best Short Film, Live Action: The Door
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique
Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up In The Air
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Animated Short: Wallace & Gromit in A Matter Of Loaf And Death
Best Documentary Feature: The Cove
Best Cinematography: Inglourious Basterds
Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino - Up
Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
Best Art Direction: Avatar
Best Costume Design: Bright Star
Best Make-Up: Star Trek
Best Original Song: The Weary Kind
Best Sound Mixing: Avatar
Best Sound Editing: Avatar
Best Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Foreign Language Film: A Prophet
Best Documentary Short: The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant
Best Short Film, Live Action: The Door
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
I'm crazy? You're crazy, this whole damn court is crazy!
George A. Romero has given the world the essential horror guide to decomposing corpses shifting and eating humans as survivors scramble through a day, night, dawn, land, diary and survival, but in his side projects he's now got a good sideline in getting money off remakes of these films.
Whilst we'll ignore Day Of The Dead's remake, some sort of direct-to-dvd farce, there's no doubt that Dawn Of The Dead was a surprising remake in that it as entertaining, good, well made. Ok, yes, people seem to adore the original, I get that, it's a solid film, not a personal fave, but it's good. I personally found the modern edition that bit better, it was suitably paced for my modern fast lifestyle (In which I do nothing, quickly), was full of great humour, scares, well placed character moments, music, thanks, in part, of course to James Gunn on writing duties, who redeemed his Scooby Doo work with SLiTHER.
So now they grab a more obscure Romero work, THe Crazies, and bring it to a new audience. After Dawn's success you'd think it would be a hastily put together trashy edition featuring uncaring teens being slaughtered, but Michael Bay produced this is not.
No, shocking as it may be, this film is well done. It has character development, you can actually care about the leads, they seem nice not annoying, it's not obsessed with the 'deaths', instead it's obsessed with the survival. We begin with a glimpse of two days later in Ogden Marsh, burning, trashed, empty.
Then we backtrack, a wonderful day, sun is shining and Sheriff Timothy Olyphant is going to the school baseball game, when farmer and gun appear, is he drunk? No, he can't be, he's been off the wagon for 2 years now. So why is he staying statue before raising and aiming the gun squarely at Sheriff Timothy Olyphant's head? Who knows. Well, the gummimint must do, cos by the next night it's time to be taken away in an aggressive manner by people who seem to know what they are doing, but are actually incompetent young soldiers, odd that they can do a good job one day, then look as amateur as possible the next.
The character change issues also affect deputy Sheriff Deadmeat Ridealong, who suddenly becomes a violent paranoid man after being such a cool, down to earth friend for the first hour of the film, it makes no sense, even if he's 'infected' it doesn't mean he'd turn on a dime, and it's not a slow twist. It's just stupid.
But I digress, the film shouldn't be looked at as a sad waste, because it's not. Not one bit. It's a rare film that doesn't spring for loud noises and jumping scares for the audience to get riled up, in being more thriller with horror elements, it's subtle and understated, moments can be slow and building, like a pitchfork and women tied up, or just creepy, a pan across a room, woman in focus, 'Crazy' blurry in the corner, no BANG to emphasise, just the wonderful image.
This is probably why we see, for the first time in 2 years, the Paramount Vantage logo at the start, no studio would want to have it solely affiliated with their studio logo for fear people would watch it and realise, wait a second, good horror isn't about as much gore and tits and jump scares you can fit into 75 minutes of annoying teens, no, it's about interesting characters in horrible situations and how they try to fend for themselves. And The Crazies does this to a T.
Enthralling, tense, well made, well acted, dark, good elements of humour that don't interfere with the horror moments.
It's everything a good dark horror thriler should be, and a shame that no other film this year in this vein could do such a job.
Also of note, Olyphant can't get away from those lowered floor corridor fight scenes, between Hitman and this it's becoming his trademark, where was it in Die Hard 4.0 and, most importantly, Catch & Release? I know Kevin Smith wouldn't have fit into the corridor, but it coulda been funny.
Still, The Crazies might sadly be ignored for shitter films, you should take it upon yourself to catch this cracking flick in the cinema, well worth it.
9/10
Whilst we'll ignore Day Of The Dead's remake, some sort of direct-to-dvd farce, there's no doubt that Dawn Of The Dead was a surprising remake in that it as entertaining, good, well made. Ok, yes, people seem to adore the original, I get that, it's a solid film, not a personal fave, but it's good. I personally found the modern edition that bit better, it was suitably paced for my modern fast lifestyle (In which I do nothing, quickly), was full of great humour, scares, well placed character moments, music, thanks, in part, of course to James Gunn on writing duties, who redeemed his Scooby Doo work with SLiTHER.
So now they grab a more obscure Romero work, THe Crazies, and bring it to a new audience. After Dawn's success you'd think it would be a hastily put together trashy edition featuring uncaring teens being slaughtered, but Michael Bay produced this is not.
No, shocking as it may be, this film is well done. It has character development, you can actually care about the leads, they seem nice not annoying, it's not obsessed with the 'deaths', instead it's obsessed with the survival. We begin with a glimpse of two days later in Ogden Marsh, burning, trashed, empty.
Then we backtrack, a wonderful day, sun is shining and Sheriff Timothy Olyphant is going to the school baseball game, when farmer and gun appear, is he drunk? No, he can't be, he's been off the wagon for 2 years now. So why is he staying statue before raising and aiming the gun squarely at Sheriff Timothy Olyphant's head? Who knows. Well, the gummimint must do, cos by the next night it's time to be taken away in an aggressive manner by people who seem to know what they are doing, but are actually incompetent young soldiers, odd that they can do a good job one day, then look as amateur as possible the next.
The character change issues also affect deputy Sheriff Deadmeat Ridealong, who suddenly becomes a violent paranoid man after being such a cool, down to earth friend for the first hour of the film, it makes no sense, even if he's 'infected' it doesn't mean he'd turn on a dime, and it's not a slow twist. It's just stupid.
But I digress, the film shouldn't be looked at as a sad waste, because it's not. Not one bit. It's a rare film that doesn't spring for loud noises and jumping scares for the audience to get riled up, in being more thriller with horror elements, it's subtle and understated, moments can be slow and building, like a pitchfork and women tied up, or just creepy, a pan across a room, woman in focus, 'Crazy' blurry in the corner, no BANG to emphasise, just the wonderful image.
This is probably why we see, for the first time in 2 years, the Paramount Vantage logo at the start, no studio would want to have it solely affiliated with their studio logo for fear people would watch it and realise, wait a second, good horror isn't about as much gore and tits and jump scares you can fit into 75 minutes of annoying teens, no, it's about interesting characters in horrible situations and how they try to fend for themselves. And The Crazies does this to a T.
Enthralling, tense, well made, well acted, dark, good elements of humour that don't interfere with the horror moments.
It's everything a good dark horror thriler should be, and a shame that no other film this year in this vein could do such a job.
Also of note, Olyphant can't get away from those lowered floor corridor fight scenes, between Hitman and this it's becoming his trademark, where was it in Die Hard 4.0 and, most importantly, Catch & Release? I know Kevin Smith wouldn't have fit into the corridor, but it coulda been funny.
Still, The Crazies might sadly be ignored for shitter films, you should take it upon yourself to catch this cracking flick in the cinema, well worth it.
9/10
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