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Reviews
Frozen (2005)
Haunting and beautiful vision.
I just returned from seeing this film in Lancaster. Hearing about a locally shot film, I expected not much more than a mini-DV cheapie. However this film is far removed from that.
Kath is a young woman (33) whose sister Annie disappeared two years ago without a trance. Kath rather obsessively hunts around for information to try and work out what happened. The centre of her focus is CCTV footage of her sister, that seems to suggest that something odd happened.
Shot entirely in the Lancaster/Morecambe/Fleetwood region, in the North West of the UK, the film has very powerful visuals, the scenes shot on the bay itself have an amazing dream-like quality almost Herzog-like. The direction is never pedestrian, always adding to scenes.
Shirley Henderson is superb as Kath, who is just by rights, a typical northern girl and comes across very well as such. The supporting cast is all solid.
The script is simply superb, with an ever changing story line, and some very interesting sub-plots, that add a lot of detail to the characters and remind you that nothing ever happens in isolation, there are always other things going on in their lives. Fortunately these do not pose any real pacing issues. The ending is solid.
A unique film, it is hard to determine who it would really be aimed at, certainly fans of Don't Look Now, and similar, would really enjoy this - on a larger scale, any fans of small scale, artistic cinema should get their money's worth.
In all, a very good film and certainly worth seeing if you get the chance. I am looking forward to a DVD release so I can watch it again.
Amnesia (2004)
Certainly worth watching...
If you get a chance to see this 2-part TV show, then you certainly should.
Synopsis: (NO SPOILERS)
The story concerns police detective Mackenzie Stone whose wife disappeared a few years ago - and he who still recovering from the incident - experiencing weird dreams and the like. At the same time we are introduced to another man - John Dean, who is suffering from total amnesia, meaning that he remembers nothing of his past life before he turned up in hospital 5 years ago.
Mackenzie Stone, played by John Hannah becomes convinced that he knows who John Dean really is, that he is a man who dissapeared a few months before John Dean appeared - and that he murdered his family before hand to claim the insurance money. However, it starts to become apparant that DS Stone may well have killed his own wife...
In all this is a very good 2-parter with a very nice pay-off at the end. All the cast put on good performances, and it is all very believable.
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Incredible display of film-making
This is a film that takes what is an interesting notion - that of there being no-one left on earth at all (for reasons never fully explained) and does wonderful things with it.
Zach, the main character, spends the first half of the film almost enjoying his freedom, as he drives trains and lives in large mansions. However he starts to crack up after a while, leading to a memorable scene as he delivers a resounding speech to a bunch of cardboard cut-outs. The film opens up with new characters, but I believe it did not loose anything in doing so, the characters react to each other in a believable way.
The conclusion is stunning and dramatic.
In all this is a superb film, made on a low budget, with no big names - but is probably my favourite film of all time. It is the kind of film you wish would go on forever.
R-T-C
Cube (1997)
Original and thrilling, what more could you want?
Cube is a thriller filmed on a low budget with a great idea, that of the unknown.
7 people awaken in a room on their own, each room is a cube and has doors on the roof, the walls and the floor. As we see in the first minute, some of the rooms are trapped. The people have to try an escape from the building - because there is no food or water. As the survivors proceed through the rooms they start to crack up leading to fueding and death.
The film has it all, social commentary, extreme tension and some good shocks.
Certainly a unique film and I would say a film you certainly should see.
R-T-C
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Worse than Reloaded - a poor conclusion to the series
**Spoiler Alert**
To be honest I never expected the film to be as good as it should have been, but it was worse than I thought.
The first part of the film sees the humans in the real-world in a far too long fight with thousands of sentinels. Sure, the effects were impressive for a while, but it just got boring, and the fact that the two lead characters saved the day was SO CLICHE.
The second part sees Neo fighting Agent Smith, who has cloned himself the become infinite in the Matrix. The fight should have been great, but instead of a cool, large scale Reloaded fight scene, or a one-on-one fight like the original, the fight scenes here used so many special effects that it really ruined the fight - you could hardly see what was happening most of the time, and the end to the fight made little sense.
As for the end of the film, what a load of garbage. It was never explained at all what the source was that the architect mentions in Reloaded, or about the previous Zions.
I like Reloaded, but I cannot say anything good about this film.
Ôdishon (1999)
Superb
This is the first Japanese horror film I have seen, and I thought it worked very well. The long build-up, that seemed like something out of a completely different film genre, was nicely played. You found out the main character's motives for holding the audition, and you begin to really like the character, he seems very innocent and likeable. The film is very different to the usual American 'kill-a-minute' type 'horror' films.
The final 20 minutes, assuming you have the uncut version, are a real shock to the system - and you will really be left trying to work out what was real, and what was not.
Note: The film does contain some scenes that, if you are squemish, you would be best to avoid. Do not be put off by the subtitles, they do not in any way detract from the film in the way that dubbing often does.
R-T-C "True horror films don't have a PG rating"
Octopus 2: River of Fear (2001)
Distinctly unimpressive
I purchased this film on DVD for £4, but it was a waste, the film is very bad. The plot is your average monster film, where it kills a few people, the mayor/chief doesn't believe it, and they fight it at the end.
On the plus side, the film quality is very good, and the setting of New York is impressive for a budget film - as opposed to a small coastal town. The acting is reasonable too.
However, the special effects, mainstage in a monster film, are laughable and the addition of a random bus load of kids to the plot half way through just gets weird. The ending is just bad.
In summary, whenever you have a chance to see this, don't - there WILL be something better on.
R-T-C "True horror films don't have a PG rating"