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Reviews
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Sshhivvers down your spine!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS on the way
Here's a film that will haunt you for a long time regardless you see it alone at midnight or with friends around.
To cut the long story short: Darius and Patricia go back home driving and on the way they see a dark silhouette throwing sheet-covered things down a pipe. It sees them in its turn and follows them. From that moment on, the two siblings are marked for death.
PROs: 1. The first half of the movie is EXCELLENT! I can hardly wait for such films that keep me tense in such a way... 2. Great performances from Philips and Long (though he expresses his horror open-mouthed too often). 3. Perfect pace, rhythm and editing.
CONs: 1. I didn't understand the use of those scenes where The Creeper performs acrobatic figures over Trish's car. 2. If The Creeper could turn into a flyer, why didn't he use this skill all the time. I would have... 3. When Darry and Trish first spot The Creeper and they both watch him intensely, how come their car never hits a tree because they didn't mind the driving?
Obvious rip-offs from "The Duel", Clive Barker's writings (especially "Books of Blood") and "Return of the Living Dead" (They're coming to get you, Barbara) - similar incipites.
All in all, a good horror with 8 points out of 10, flawed here and there, but still watchable if you want to have a sleepless night.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Too bad!
MINOR SPOILERS
I watched this like ten years ago in a movie theatre because as I heard they were to speak a bit of Romanian in it. So I said "Why not?" But I was in for a major disappointment. Still, this wasn't an impediment for me as I watched it again a few days ago and couldn't get through some issues.
Coppola thought his film would contribute to cinema vampirology. In what way? Erotic-wise? Hmm... All through the film, I had the feeling it pretends to be something artistic while it's not. The whole arsenal of ancient cheap horror movies is employed here just to amaze fragile audiences: blood splattering, mountain-high waves, all types of flames, ghosts and apparitions. This feeling of "cheap" maintains even in the scenes presumably shot "outdoors" when you can easily see indoor props (the forest and the way to Dracula's castle, Lucy Westenra's yard).
But what bothers me the most is the distortion of geography and history altogether. There are unforgivable geographical errors (Varna is thought to be a Romanian harbour, the mounted fearless vampire killers reach Galati in just one night leaving from Varna, Arges flows through Borgo Pass (W H A T ???)- which is actually Pasul Bargaului). Also, LOTS of clumsy pronunciations of Romanian dialogues ("Thu eshti dragostia vetsii miele", "Vant, ada-mi an dor di daca", "Acest barbat umi apartsina").
Summing it up, I don't think accuracy was what the producers and director were after. Too bad...
I give this film 5 out of 10 and this is for Kilar's score, seduction scene for Keanu (Bercu, Bellucci and Kendrick are great!), makeup effects and costumes.
Evolution (2001)
Involution
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
I don't think I'm the only one who has the feeling of having seen a "Ghostbusters" rehash, right? Because Duchovny, Jones and Scott are wannabes for Aykroyd, Murray and Hudson, I guess, if not Ramis - at least in the last 10 minutes of this movie. They get splashed with a disgusting slime similar to the pink one in "Ghostbusters II". They do a lot of stuff warning the authorities but they are not paid credit, just like the guys back in the 1980s.
Nevertheless, great makeup effects, great aliens but too bad it's all wasted on such an impartial movie. You don't get attached to the characters, emotions go down to zero and it's kind of sad to see great talents not having what to do, really.
Final Destination (2000)
Why do you want to know what's coming?
POSSIBLE SPOILERS (UNLIKELY, Though)
Wong's film is a real challenge for all of us that want to find out a second earlier at least what's there ahead of us, waiting... One thing is for sure: you cannot cheat death, nor predict what's next (remember what Master Yoda stated: "Always in motion is the future"). Briefly, the story goes like this: having a vision of his plane to Paris crashing in flames, Chance Browning gets off, all sweaty, together with several of his fellows and a teacher. The vision gets real and everyone looks at him suspiciously. What they don't realize now is that they were meant to be on that plane and die. Which they will soon do, because Death has something else in store for them and this is definitely not survival.
Extremely well-defined atmosphere (watch out for the anticipations in the opening credits), increasing tension, good acting and brilliant style in editing. Wong pays homage in a very interesting way to great horror movies history figures, naming his characters Browning, Waggner, Lewton a.s.o.
Some viewers may not handle several horrific deaths (Tod's strangulation, for instance - by the way, "Tod" means "death" in German, how ironical!) for which goosebumps are guaranteed.
Anyway, "Final Destination" is a film NOT to be missed because it deals in fact with the raw stuff of our innermost expectances and fears. I give it 81/2 out of 10.
Don't startle at the very end!
Alien³ (1992)
Great!
"Alien 3" is in my opinion, the only film in the series with a personal touch (those having seen Fincher's subsequent work know what I'm talking about). The emphasis is not on the creature, but on the penitentiary environment and on a skinhead Ripley, sibling and skeleton-like reflection of the alien. She's more a victim than a heroine - this might have been the reason for the film not to be such a hit as the second installment of the series.
The hopeless aspect of the refinery standing for the underground condition and inner emptiness of the lifers - rallied into a battle for survival, as well as the omnipresence of isolation and contamination are well defined motifs reaching high levels by insisting on gros plans and on dark colours, broken here and there by incandescent outbreaks. They should have insisted more on the religious aspect, implying damnation, expiation, sacrifice and transcendence. Sombre, dark, eerie and cerebral, "Alien 3" is an original sci-fi, providing an amazing score (bravo, Elliot Goldenthal!), a fit cinematography and a careful editing, brought somehow close to perfection. The only minus is the special effects department which could have gotten more than that out of Giger's new designs.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Geena at her best
Geena Davis is absolutely great in this action packed thriller full of humour, explosions and incredible stunts! Her former husband, Renny Harlin, knew how to make her give her best performance. Femininity and aggressiveness blend so fine in her character and there doesn't seem to be any moment of 'non-excitement'. Although not entirely original (the Nikita model is quite obvious), the pace is intense, the stunts are eye-catching, there is a skillfully planned balance of chasing, stunts, gunblasts and tenderness moments. The special effects are good (see the explosion of the bridge towards the end) and the whole aspect is of a good quality entertainment. Don't miss it!
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Postmodernistic approach to horror
I consider this movie as the best, the most intelligent and the most shocking horror film of the decade! Carpenter pursuits his career with a coherency seldom met at the American directors; his obsessions and preferences become an ars poetica, shaping more elaborate forms. Carpenter's horror touches us deep inside not by what we are shown, but by what we are suggested to believe. Just like many pop and movie stars do nowadays, Sutter Cane has a whole world down on its knees. This evil wants reduction to sameness, wants to make the audiences all around the world think the same, be the same, act the same. Only then is Cane, as he proclaims, God. The entire horror phenomenon is pointed at and -in a way- mocked at, because the bad influence of horror products is revealed fully.
A continual and dark nightmare, the movie proves to be a skilled postmodernistic approach to H.P. Lovecraft's writings, not only in the atmosphere, but also in the visualisation and plot. Sam Neill is flawless as detective John Trent and Julie Carmen-comfortable in her part. The writer is the German actor Jurgen Prochnow who brings a necessary European flavour to the character. Extremely well-made visual effects (the scene where Cane tears himself like a page is impressive) and haunting score. Well done, John Carpenter!
Species II (1998)
If this can be called a sequel...
I admit that I saw the first "Species" urged by the names of H.R. Giger and Ben Kingsley. I was in the end kind of disappointed - I was expecting more. "Species 2" proved to be even a bigger flop. My God, what were they thinking of when making up the so-called story for this yucky movie ? Why horrible alien baby births, why slimier tentacles, why, why, why? Only one point out of five and this goes for Natasha - superb, but not good enough, for Helgenberger - a better job than in the first film and for Edward Shearmur's score. I like gore in a film but only if it is justified. Here it isn't. At all. It seems, you guys, have learned nothing from the first "Species" 's flop. Too bad, Mr. Medak !