An unconventional film that viewers will love, hate, or both. A serial-killer suspense movie that is low on action, high on brooding atmosphere and scenery (Western Nevada in winter!), and with its undercurrents of deep cover and religious extremism owes a lot more to "Witness" than to, say, "Se7en". Jack Nicholson does wonderfully in the hackneyed role of the borderline-alcoholic maverick retired detective who has become obsessed with finding the real solution to a "closed" case. Without being too specific, some viewers will feel let down by the extremely non-Hollywood bathic ending. From the outside, we are left feeling frustrated for various characters who in different ways are left thinking they are right when in fact they are wrong, wrong when they are right, and who have failed to receive their just deserts or vindication as the case may be. 7/10.
Reviews
7 Reviews
The Crimson Rivers
(2000)
Stunning thriller, good story and characters, marred by badly thought-out finale
12 August 2001
Echoes of "The Boys From Brazil" and "Name of the Rose" in this fast-moving, gorgeously-set (small alpine towns near Grenoble) French thriller, which has a really nasty conspiracy in a closed community as an underlying subplot. Two interleaved storylines involve two detectives in towns 100 km apart. Young, feisty Kerkerian (Cassel) is investigating the desecration of the tomb of a young girl. Meanwhile, supersleuth Niemans (Reno) is drafted in from Paris to assist local gendarmes in solving a nasty torture-murder of an academic at a small private University. More bodies turn up, suspects become victims, and eventually the paths of the two cops cross. Visually utterly beautiful, particularly the College, the Library, and the glacier/ice tunnel scenes. Characters strongly drawn and sympathetic. One pretty straight fight scene, little dwelling on active perpetration of violence, but much lingering on the unpleasantly gory aftermath. This is particularly the case with the rather gratuitous opening sequence, which is overdone relative to the rest of the film. My main cavil involves the poor ending, where a last-minute surprise twist creates more loose ends than it ties up. Nevertheless, so watchable that this one gets 9/10.
Shrek
(2001)
Left-field fairy tale left us rolling in the aisles
17 June 2001
9 OUT OF 10!!!! We went to catch the matinee preview of "Shrek". We were still giggling by the time we got home afterwards. Two hours later, we dragged a friend out and went back for the evening show. Some of the shock value was lost, but we caught a few of the background sight gags we missed the first time, and anticipation of some of the other scenes had us in tears before they even happened. Interesting to see the different audience reactions of different age groups, too. This is a *very* funny movie, but it should be noted that most of the kiddy humour is on the burp/fart and yucky dining habits level - Shrek is rather closely related to Raymond Briggs' Fungus the Bogeyman without the orange mohawk. The dialogue and main action quips are mainly aimed at adults and sophisticated kids. One little voice in the afternoon audience piping up "WHAT's he compensating for?" cracked me up...
Be warned that this movie is a non-stop send-up of all things Disney. If predictability and saccharine is your cup of tea, you may not like it. On the other hand, if you are cynical about theme parks and like the idea of fairytale classics getting the Monty Python treatment, you'll love it. Every time a scene looks familiar, it means it is about to go pear-shaped. And it's not just old classics that get the treatment. I spotted (mis)quotes from films that are just being released, both Disney and non-Disney. You name it, it gets an affectionate pie in the face at some point in "Shrek".
As a fairytale, however offbeat, "Shrek" is tighter plotted and better characterised than most Hollywood dross.The parodic twists, a love story subplot that owes more to Shakespeare's comedies than fairytale formula, and the "ugly is the new beautiful" Message more than make up for the derivativeness due to extensive quotation.
As for the acting, confinement to voice-overs keeps the egos of Myers and Murphy in check, and they do a fantastic job as the big fat green smelly recluse and the obnoxiously manic donkey respectively. Diaz is great as a feisty princess who reminds me of Lloyd Alexander's Eilonwy crossed with Lara Croft. Lithgow's Farquaad is a wonderful Bad Guy, modelled on Olivier's Richard III apart from his Little Problem being different. And the Fairytale Creatures...excellent, all of them. The graphics, of course, are state of the art for at least another 2 weeks. We're talking freckles, skin pores and stubble, pupil dilation, and amazing light-and-shade. They had to tone down the realism of the humanoids to stop them looking creepily android-like.
Highly recommended, except for overly precious schmalz addicts.
Be warned that this movie is a non-stop send-up of all things Disney. If predictability and saccharine is your cup of tea, you may not like it. On the other hand, if you are cynical about theme parks and like the idea of fairytale classics getting the Monty Python treatment, you'll love it. Every time a scene looks familiar, it means it is about to go pear-shaped. And it's not just old classics that get the treatment. I spotted (mis)quotes from films that are just being released, both Disney and non-Disney. You name it, it gets an affectionate pie in the face at some point in "Shrek".
As a fairytale, however offbeat, "Shrek" is tighter plotted and better characterised than most Hollywood dross.The parodic twists, a love story subplot that owes more to Shakespeare's comedies than fairytale formula, and the "ugly is the new beautiful" Message more than make up for the derivativeness due to extensive quotation.
As for the acting, confinement to voice-overs keeps the egos of Myers and Murphy in check, and they do a fantastic job as the big fat green smelly recluse and the obnoxiously manic donkey respectively. Diaz is great as a feisty princess who reminds me of Lloyd Alexander's Eilonwy crossed with Lara Croft. Lithgow's Farquaad is a wonderful Bad Guy, modelled on Olivier's Richard III apart from his Little Problem being different. And the Fairytale Creatures...excellent, all of them. The graphics, of course, are state of the art for at least another 2 weeks. We're talking freckles, skin pores and stubble, pupil dilation, and amazing light-and-shade. They had to tone down the realism of the humanoids to stop them looking creepily android-like.
Highly recommended, except for overly precious schmalz addicts.
The Gift
(2000)
Over-rated thriller-chiller, but Rebisi is fantastic
16 April 2001
It's steamy small-town Alabama, with mangrove swamps, Spanish moss on every tree and mist hanging over the 'gator-infested creeks...Cate Blanchett plays Annie Wilson, single mother of three, psychic card-reader and, above all, counsellor to the troubled souls of the town. When a promiscuous local rich bitch (Holmes, looking very Lavinsky) disappears, Annie "sees" the body and gets sucked into the murder investigation... Overall, a slow-moving whodunnit with an explicit supernatural element. Some wonderfully creepy atmospheric scenes, but also some sloppy plotting and direction that irritate. Blanchett appears to be concentrating too hard on her accent to put much energy into her character, and is still not 100% successful - the intonation of one line is so far wrong that its meaning is not that intended! She has done much better. Some vital lines from other characters are mumbled or screeched into incomprehensibility. The red herring suspects are clumsily and obviously slapped down in front of us, and it does not help that two of them are nearly indistinguishable clones of Cliff Barnes out of "Dallas" (hint: neither is married to the battered Pam lookalike). Amazingly, Keanu Reeves shows signs of acting ability. Some clever shooting has gone into making him look 6' 6" tall and 220 pounds, which lends credence to his unpleasant thuggish character. However, the show is stolen completely by Giovanni Rebisi as a disturbed, retarded garage mechanic, who can oscillate wildly between fawning loyalty to his "friends" and psychotic violence to his "enemies". Rebisi throws himself into the role and is spellbinding. 6/10. Not bad, but overly hyped, particularly Blanchett's acting.
Unbreakable
(2000)
Good idea broken. Scattered shards pretty.
10 December 2000
5/10. Shyamalan's second movie is still promising, but not up to the standard of the 'Sixth Sense'. He will certainly become a great producer/director but is perhaps overrating himself a little at the moment (cf. the Hitchcockian cameo).
The camerawork and lighting are still as imaginative (maybe over-selfconsciously) and the mood of brooding unease builds up as strongly as in the predecessor film. However, the overall pace is glacially slow with important lines of dialogue mumbled. Then, when the viewer least expects it, some plot developments gratuitously appear with all the subtlety of a brontosaurus in a china shop. This includes the "shock ending". An editor might have been useful.
A potentially interesting premise has been badly treated, and not given the film it deserves, particularly from this director. Beautiful looks-and-mood piece despite all that. Better appreciated if you DON'T compare it with 'Sixth Sense' but dwell more on the comics/ superheroes element.
The camerawork and lighting are still as imaginative (maybe over-selfconsciously) and the mood of brooding unease builds up as strongly as in the predecessor film. However, the overall pace is glacially slow with important lines of dialogue mumbled. Then, when the viewer least expects it, some plot developments gratuitously appear with all the subtlety of a brontosaurus in a china shop. This includes the "shock ending". An editor might have been useful.
A potentially interesting premise has been badly treated, and not given the film it deserves, particularly from this director. Beautiful looks-and-mood piece despite all that. Better appreciated if you DON'T compare it with 'Sixth Sense' but dwell more on the comics/ superheroes element.
The Dish
(2000)
Can't Pan The Dish. Warmer and Fuzzier than a Molten Brillo Pad.
10 December 2000
8/10. At first, we were put off by the trailer for The Dish, which makes it look like a culture-cringey mickey-take of Australian Scientists. I am glad to report that it is MUCH better than that.
This is a sex-and-violence free, wryly funny, warm-hearted snapshot of life and politics in an Australian country town in 1969, and what happened when they got tangled with Very Big World Class Science and NASA. Sweet, nostalgic (soundtrack to die for), and non-cringey: the chief Australian scientist is played with poise and presence by honorary Aussie Sam Neill, and though each of the team has his quirks, they are most certainly not a pack of galahs.
Two points: 1. this is a "true story" in spirit rather than fact, in that a lot of the crucial receiving was done not at Parkes but at smaller dishes in the mountains south of Canberra, which have since been demolished. The Parkes dish is still there, still does science, and is visitable by tourists. 2. The PM at the time was actually John Gorton, and is not named because JG is still alive. The character in the film looks, sounds and acts more like a composite of his three predecessors Menzies, Holt and McEwen.
Despite a huge hype in Oz, the Dish does not seem to have been pushed much overseas. This is a shame, since I know it would do VERY well in the UK.
This is a sex-and-violence free, wryly funny, warm-hearted snapshot of life and politics in an Australian country town in 1969, and what happened when they got tangled with Very Big World Class Science and NASA. Sweet, nostalgic (soundtrack to die for), and non-cringey: the chief Australian scientist is played with poise and presence by honorary Aussie Sam Neill, and though each of the team has his quirks, they are most certainly not a pack of galahs.
Two points: 1. this is a "true story" in spirit rather than fact, in that a lot of the crucial receiving was done not at Parkes but at smaller dishes in the mountains south of Canberra, which have since been demolished. The Parkes dish is still there, still does science, and is visitable by tourists. 2. The PM at the time was actually John Gorton, and is not named because JG is still alive. The character in the film looks, sounds and acts more like a composite of his three predecessors Menzies, Holt and McEwen.
Despite a huge hype in Oz, the Dish does not seem to have been pushed much overseas. This is a shame, since I know it would do VERY well in the UK.
The Cell
(2000)
Successful meld of serial-killer manhunt with dream-therapy SF
16 November 2000
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A movie that will (and evidently does) divide viewers into those who love it for the right reasons, love it for the wrong reasons and those who hate it. The trailer makes it obvious that it is about getting into the twisted mind of a serial killer, depicted using surreal and disturbing imagery. The graphics of the film live up to expectations and are awe-inspiring in places. They are not let down by the taut, coherent framework provided by the twin plots of "FBI manhunt" and "Scientists explore intrusion into dreams as therapeutic technique". The relatively little known cast perform well - I am just about convinced by Jennifer Lopez as an actress rather than a Latin singer, and D'Onofrio plays a bad guy much more sinister than his "Bug" in "Men in Black". Reference points include other mind-of-a-killer movies like "Silence of the Lambs", "Seven" and 'Copycat", graphic internal-reality depictions like "Altered States" and 'The Matrix", also "Twin Peaks" and particularly Theodore Roszak's out-of-print novel (never filmed) "Dreamwatcher". If you liked a reasonable proportion of these, you'll love "The Cell". A major sticking point is that it is very effective at portraying the imagery of a sick mind (like the other thrillers listed above). This provides an enjoyable psychological roller-coaster for some but may be deeply disturbing to other viewers. Many will come away from this movie feeling at least a little bit..mentally violated. I suspect that psychologist consultants have advised the production or writing teams on archetypal images that are guaranteed to hit funnybones of the subconscious. You have been warned. Having said which, "The Cell" is not a sex-and-gore extravaganza. Most of the disturbing material is hinted at or glossed over rather than explicitly depicted. Perhaps one of the strengths and problems of this movie is that it forces us to confront our own imaginative extrapolations. Some other reviews certainly complain about things which did *not* overtly appear on screen! Another point in its favour is the avoidance of any Hollywood cliche endings, although the subplot that provides the opening also provides a neat bracketting epilogue. About 8/10 overall. At the risk of a slight SPOILER, I must take issue with the people who think that CatherineWorld is "laughable", "unrealistic", etc. The whole point is that CarlWorld is the landscape of his unconscious, has evolved naturally, and is beyond conscious control, and hence is internally realistic (apart from typical dream-style continuity jumps and random changes like the pulsating stairway). CatherineWorld is deliberately lucid-dreamed into being, in short order, under stress, by Catherine in order to provide a safe/holy/angelic meeting place into which to invite the boy-Carl. Of course it looks like a shonky set. That's part of the point. Second SPOILER for the confused about "dying in dreams". It *is* a well-known old wives' tale and is known to be fallacious in general (I have died in a dream and survived). However, psychosomatically induced bodily damage and mental trauma, both potentially fatal, *could* occur. Carl dies in real life not because he dies in a dream, but because his boy-self wants to die. Period. This can only be arranged in the dream sequence, since that is Carl's only way of communicating with the outside world. Third SPOILER for those who can't follow the subplots. There is an implication that each individual remains dominant inside their own heads on either the subconscious level (like Carl) or consciously (like Catherine). Solving Edward's problem cannot be done inside his own head because his boogeyman alter-ego is too strong there, but Catherine only feels able to invite him into her mind after surviving the experience of doing so with Carl.
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