More in depth up to the mintue movies reviews from Dickie!
Dog Soldiers
Low budget, low tech hammer horror stuff, and all the better for it. Any film where the big set piece is a landy getting torched in a farmyard has got to be good. Top quality Brit werewolf malarky. Totally recommended.
28 Days Later
Another low budget British ‘horror’ film. This also stands out because of it was shot entirely on ‘cheap’ digital stock. Genuinely terrifiying. The desolate, silent, central London scenes are enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, very eerie. This is pretty bleak stuff and not entirely unbelievable. There are plenty of DVD extras including an alternative ending that the director wanted to use. I never thought I’d say this but I’m just glad they chose the happier ending. Excellent script, acting and direction, Hollywood should take notes.
23 – series 3
As good as one and better than two. More slick, edge of the seat, terrorism capers from Keifer Sutherland. Gone are the bloated, daft adventures of Kim from series two. Three is much leaner and taut. Even better on DVD ‘cos you can watch the lot in a week! TV drama at it’s best.
Reign of Fire
It promised so much. Apocalyptic future world riddled with bad ass dragons. Dragon/military copter dogfights. A bald, tattooed, insane Matthew McConaughey. Much like Underworld (below) it’s got some decent fx, and a promising storyline, but the script and direction leave much to be desired. Just looks like 5 minutes from the end of shooting they realise they have to wrap the story up but no-one had written the script so they have to make it up on the fly.
Vanilla Sky
This is a seriously long film. I guess at one point they figured they had something to say that really couldn’t be cut short. If you watch the DVD extras they surely believe they said it. Sadly this is not the case. I want a refund. Not for the money to rent it, but for the three hours or so of my life I wasted watching it. Even the early morning, deserted Times Square sequence is pretty uninspired – they should have checked out the London scenes in 28 Days Later. Dull, and even worse, a completely anti-climatic ending. Promises much (for much of the film) but cops out.
Underworld
I never thought I would see the day. I am struggling to grasp the concept of not wanting to watch again (or own) a movie starring Kate Beckensale clad in tight rubber/leather! Underworld is not truly abysmal, this is reserved for the (current) Ben Stiller films of this world, but it is just so average, so tediously under achieving. I mean, KB in gothic skin tight outfits makes it required viewing, but as a story, as a film, it’s, well, non descript. Quite nice lycanthrope fx is the best I can say.
Van Helsing
Oh dear, another film that Kate Beckensale couldn’t rescue, has the world gone mad? So bad I took it out half way through and mailed it back. Buy the comics, far superior.
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