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g_skerry
Reviews
28 Weeks Later (2007)
What exactly was 28 weeks later?
As a big fan of 28 days later, I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. I think as a film it was torn between the thought provoking ideas and phenomenal camera work of 28 days later and a more straightforward horror film. The scenes of a deserted London, especially with the gas pouring through the streets, were brilliant but this is nothing new. Most of the ideas were recycled from the original, without adding anything new. Particularly irritating was the repetition of the 'thumbs in the eyes' scene. However, the parallels to the ongoing situation in Iraq, particularly the U.S. occupation of London were really well done and effecting. Undoubtedly Danny Boyle's role as executive producer gave the film some of the qualities of his original but other than that I was not that impressed.
OK, so i admit that I jumped when expected, and was unsurprisingly horrified by the film's brutality and gore but it was all too predictable. I began to get annoyed by the choices people made that in real life would not have been made.
The children deciding to leave the safety of the compound was the stupidest decision made, but was ultimately necessary as the only means of creating the plot. The film was riddled with these unrealistic choices and, combined with the excessive scenes of various people running away from various zombies, it descended into a run of the mill series of horror scenarios.
Robert Carlyle was, admittedly. Ultimately this, and some other redeeming features, was not enough to counter the film's inadequacies. Leaving the cinema I didn't feel thrilled, or happy, I was pretty disconsolate. I guess that was the point though.
Night Train to Venice (1993)
Excellent film, well done that man.
I first saw 'train to hell' in France in 2004. It was in one of those 3-in-1 compilations - a sure sign of its poor quality. Its excellence, however, is belied by surely the most unrepresentatively titled film ever. Train to hell. No. train to Venice. Yes.
I expected it to be a dark nightmarish train journey, culminating in some sort of death. However, the train appeared quite pleasant, apart from the odd camp German skinhead neo-Nazi stereotypes and Malcolm Macdowell, whose silence is enough to turn any milk sour with fear. Truly a spectacular start. It gets better.
Martin Gemmel gets Amnesia, but his constant questions 'who am I? Who is Martin Gemmel?' should surely be replaced with 'What is this film? Is there a plot?' If he had asked these, I'm sure he would have never recovered. Just as you think, 55 minutes in, that the film is about to go somewhere, it ends. Malcom Macdowell, looking ominous, stares for five minutes, then Hugh Grant runs over to save a child from a high fall. Cut to some Venice Tourist Board shots of Venice by Helicopter, and Bam! the film ends. Just over an hour, containing at least 20 minutes of needless footage of Venice and trains, this film has everything a film should: gratuitous sex, violence, explosions, a high profile actor (Macdowell), a rising star (Grant), Nazis, Slow motion, psychoanalytical 'barn' shots.
Everyone should watch this film. It is amazing.
King Kong (2005)
Disappointing.
I didn't really get this film/. Apart from its extreme (and unnecessary) length there were several problems I had. Fundamentally it was incredibly boring, with each scene containing unnecessary filler. The Island section was like a harry-potter-style computer game, and the relationship between Kong and his lady was absurd. Kong did not need to be humanised to such a degree.
You could tell that Peter Jackson was involved, many of the scenes with the tribal peoples appeared to be directly taken from the Orcs in LOTR. Jack Black tries his hardest but I just don't think he's a good enough actor to play a story-hunting hack. Adrien Brody delivered an OK performance, but I felt his attempts to appear understated came across as though he was bored of yet more acting on a green screen. The CGI was impressive, but that should be a complement to computer games rather than films. I fell asleep towards the end, which is an exceptionally rare event. Ridiculous stuff; one of those films that isn't quite bad enough to be hilarious and wasn't good enough to capture the imagination.
I gave it three, as opposed to 1, because I liked the scenes in New York before the journey to Skull Island. The rich/poor divide, though rammed home constantly through hungry people's yearning for hot suppers, was quite well done. Given that this was the main success for a film which has 2 hours of ape-based antics says much more about it than I can.