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asit-happens
Reviews
Feed (2005)
Works on some levels
I'm not really sure how to digest FEED. If it's meant as an over-the-top, in-your-face, damning criticism of American excess, in which food and feeding become metaphors for a selfish symbiotic existence between the glutton and the system, then it's a remarkable film. It manages to convey this in a pastiche of ugly, overly-edited, and disturbing scenes and it is quite unlike anything I've seen before. Mix in a lot of clever dialog and some genuinely funny scenes and I'd say it hits the mark on that level.
As a horror film, or an exploit-thriller however it's way off the mark. It's senseless. The acting is generally weak. Jack Thompson does a terrible American accent. His son Patrick, in one of the lead roles, seriously needs some acting lessons. He is a total ham. Alex O'Loughlin, who has become more prominent in the US in the vamp-TV series Moonlight is very good as the killer, and the chick in the fat suit (which is pretty good by the way) is a highlight. The first ten minutes of the film are really good. The last 20 minutes are excellent - genuinely frightening and disgusting, but there's more than an hour in between where the director Brett Leonard doesn't seem to have a clue what he is doing and compensates with jump cuts, wacky color grading, fast and thrashed editing and lots of music. In someone else's hands this might have been a better film. The script by Kieran Galvin has some great dialog and disturbing scenes but there are many plot holes. But I've watched his directorial debut Puppy, (a dark comedic thriller which is nothing like Feed so horror fans can stay away) which he also wrote and that is excellent, so I think the problem with Feed comes down to the director or the editor.
Overall. This is the kind of film you tend to either hate or love and that is clear from the reviews I've read here. For me there's not really enough to recommend it, but I wouldn't talk you out of renting it either. It probably goes well with several beers and a frat house.
Puppy (2005)
Funny, Sexy, Engaging, Clever. I want more!
Surprising. Engaging. Clever. Funny. Sexy. Challenging. Not a Sundance kind of indie crowd pleaser with lashings of cheese and sentimentality, but it's definitely charming and memorable. A little scary at times but not ugly or violent and being a girl, it's nice to see strong, sexy, manipulative chick at the heart of the film. The other comments in this thread reveal enough of the plot and story so I'm not going to say anything about that but I must keep writing because IMDb says I need to write a 10 line review. How about this - Puppy has some inventive uses for a vacuum cleaner and a Polaroid camera, and then there is a bit with a candle that you'd probably only see in an emergency ward, and there are some dogs, 3 I think, but it doesn't go all that well for them. Why is Bernard Curry not a big star here, he is so sexy, especially when he is shaved, I could drown in his eyes, not to mention his butt which gets a good airing. But hormones aside, he and Nadia Townsend are awesome. They have a lot of sexual chemistry. So that's my ten lines. Go see it for something unique, funny and sexy.