Well I went to see the Crazies on Wednesday and I have to say that it was one of the better horror movies I have seen in a long time. The plot is basically the same as the many movies you have seen before like Return of the Living Dead or 28 Days. The government accidentally releases a chemical into a small town water supply that makes people go nuts.
There is a great calm before the storm aspect at the beginning of the movie and things slowly spin out of control. I love a well crafted slow build where the characters know that something is not right but continue to investigate. Then they come to the realization that there will be a catastrophe and try to steer clear of it.
The acting by the lead Timothy Olyphant is pretty decent for a horror movie. You can kind of see his anguish at the events unfolding and he tries everything he can to get his pregnant wife out of the town. The rest of the actors really aren't memorable and fall into horror movie stereotypes. You have the loyal deputy, the high school girl that tries to survive, etc.
The crazy people really aren't too zombie-like and I found that refreshing. In fact the crazy people just looked like spaced-out, staring people with bloody noses. I think it was a much better effect and more unsettling effect then having them all feral like in 28 Days. You can't really tell who is infected and who isn't. This factor kind of gave it an it could happen in real life feel to it.
Finally, I think the heavy handed military presence was strait out of an 80s zombie movie and fit fairly well. I mean the military had to do everything they could to contain it so it doesn't spread and kill off the entire country. The secrecy was to not panic everyone and have a mass exodus from the Midwest.
There was one scene that I didn't liked that implied that the military killed off the not-sick people but it was fairly ambiguous. There were dead infected people in the freezer of the rest stop area so the infected might have gotten through the perimeter and exposed everyone so the military had to contain them with extreme force. How it was left ambiguous is actually a good thing because it makes the movie-gower fill in the blanks.
All-in-all it was a great horror film that was well paced and gave you that unsettled feeling in your stomach that a good horror film should. The feeling that is not from the gore but the situation that the characters are in and how the move from civilization to chaos is so possible in the era of Swine Flu and biological warfare weapons.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Shutter Island Review
Oh man this movie sucks. I am a big fan of Scorsese movies and regard him as one of the great masters of cinema so you can forgive these kind of missteps. This movie was simply a very boring thriller that could have been directed by almost anyone. Leo had a few full-emote scenes where he could cry and carry on but it didn't save the movie at all.
The worst part is that you can see the twist at the end about 10 minutes into the movie and when it was revealed I was hoping through the last 1/3rd to be wrong. Maybe Scorsese could pull out some interesting twist at the end that made slogging through so much drek beforehand worthwhile. Instead I was like "yup that is exactly how I thought it would end and I hope his HBO series Boardwalk Empire doesn't suck like this."
The plot is pretty much about two Marshalls who come to an Arkham Asylum like island in the middle of Boston Harbor to find a missing girl. They are introduced to Ben Kingsley who plays the head of the prison and they investigate what happened to the woman. In the meantime there is a storm and assorted strange goings on the island. The goings on are not very interesting or suspenseful only tedious and boring.
The basis of Leo coming to the island is that he is looking for the guy who killed his wife who might be on the island. Mark Ruffalo is strait-up wasted as Leo's partner. I mean that role could have been played by a name picked randomly out of the IMDB database since they didn't let him do very much at all. Ruffalo is a great actor so they should have done more with his character. Also like I mentioned before there was a twist ending but it was so obvious that you could spot it hours before it was revealed.
All in all I don't think Scorsese should do another thriller without seriously thinking about pacing such a movie. What makes a good thriller are the starts and stops between the action and the pauses for the audience to catch their breath. You can't have too long a pause or people start looking at their watches (like I did several times during the movie.) In any case I am hoping that Boardwalk Empire is a much better series and look forward to the next Scorsese picture.
The worst part is that you can see the twist at the end about 10 minutes into the movie and when it was revealed I was hoping through the last 1/3rd to be wrong. Maybe Scorsese could pull out some interesting twist at the end that made slogging through so much drek beforehand worthwhile. Instead I was like "yup that is exactly how I thought it would end and I hope his HBO series Boardwalk Empire doesn't suck like this."
The plot is pretty much about two Marshalls who come to an Arkham Asylum like island in the middle of Boston Harbor to find a missing girl. They are introduced to Ben Kingsley who plays the head of the prison and they investigate what happened to the woman. In the meantime there is a storm and assorted strange goings on the island. The goings on are not very interesting or suspenseful only tedious and boring.
The basis of Leo coming to the island is that he is looking for the guy who killed his wife who might be on the island. Mark Ruffalo is strait-up wasted as Leo's partner. I mean that role could have been played by a name picked randomly out of the IMDB database since they didn't let him do very much at all. Ruffalo is a great actor so they should have done more with his character. Also like I mentioned before there was a twist ending but it was so obvious that you could spot it hours before it was revealed.
All in all I don't think Scorsese should do another thriller without seriously thinking about pacing such a movie. What makes a good thriller are the starts and stops between the action and the pauses for the audience to catch their breath. You can't have too long a pause or people start looking at their watches (like I did several times during the movie.) In any case I am hoping that Boardwalk Empire is a much better series and look forward to the next Scorsese picture.
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