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james-wilde
Reviews
Trauma (2004)
A great Gothic thriller that will not age.
A terrific film I think this will take you back to times when movies were about plots and acting rather than special effects and car chases. If you like psychological off-beat thrillers then this is for you. I was completely absorbed, the screen play - masterful, photography superb Gothic and sinister really building mood. Tie that together with a great screen play and masterful direction and you cannot fail to entertain.
Taking influence from Polanski (repulsion ) a dash of Hitch (Vertigo) and touch Clouzot ( Diaboliques ), this movie explores the troubled psyche of Ben (Colin Firth ). Mr Firth plays the part cleverly, never inserting his ego or over acting, he maintains plausibility and holds your interest. Is he, as the Plots synopsis suggests, 'losing his grip'? Firth skillfully manages to always keep you guessing, is he really ill ?, just sad ?, guilt ridden ? Or is he the victim of some vast mind game ?. Richard Smith's screen play is fast paced enough to allow Ben to interact with people, be in his own private torment and drift between conflicting impressions of who he is. The locations eerie and sinister, yet at the same time utterly normal. Couple that, with skillful interesting camera work and truly Gothic London scenes you never feel cheated.
The film flows without losing pace and you begin to feel the doubt creeping in regarding your own sanity. In a similar way, but much lower key, to Christopher Nolan's Momento the plot twists and turns as we search with Ben for answers to his past. His pre-crash life. Small snippets are fed to us via his dreams and flashbacks. We eventually arrive in a reality that only Ben can describe.
The supporting parts are well casted, Charlotte ( Mena Suvari), DC Jackson ( Kenneth Cranham ) are excellent in bringing the plot forward in a low-key believable way. I cannot describe the rest of the cast without adding spoilers. Surfice to say they are crafted and add plausibility and reality to Ben's Issues ...
The bottom line Marc Evans has shown that UK film making is not dead, that genre movies can still be made to entertain. He has made a movie that sits in your head and lets you consider your own reactions to those emotions we would rather lock away. The loss of a loved one, the fear of loneliness and our own fragile grip on reality as we age. A great Gothic thriller that will not age.
Rancid (2004)
Hollow plot - Hollow Actings and terrible screenplay it just doesn't flow
I wanted to watch this movie, because I'm European and was anticipating a real avant-guard thriller. No frills, no special effects just some good film making. I was shocked, it was wooden and the camera zoom became just annoying in the end. The acting was light, the character development ? let me say I didn't find it. The plot was so empty, the 'bad' guy never got a chance to rise above his stereotype, the 'good' guy was so weak and the 'twist' so clumsily enacted. Well what can I say, there are no spoilers because the movie spoils itself. A ill managed collage of bad dialogue, weakly acted, strung together with an amateur plot and directed by someone who should better stick to 'home movies'. It cannot get any worse.
Identity (2003)
Weird gets Weirder - Hitchcock erzatz almost gets a number
This may have some poor lines, weak acting (at times) and some shallow characters (at times), however, on the whole, flaws aside its really great. One could also consider the flaws part of the plot in hindsight.
The `Hitchcockian' (is that a word?) motel is a great set to build this Agatha Christie "10 Little Indians" style whodunit. The damp, the rain, the low light start to become claustrophobic and sets the scene for later events. The build up starts off like a merry-go-round, picking up speed as the characters, all stereotyped warped personalities, interact. Interaction on many levels; sexual attraction, sexual repression, bigotry and fear. Onion like layers are revealed as we peer deeper into this alternative reality peeling back the stains of the past. At times we are pulled back into a mundane self determinant court case with a hostile judge and we know who will get nailed. Or we think we do.
Sometimes its a little ham or poor lines that pull us back but we are drawn back, into this spiral world, spinning out of control.
This is great movie to see on DVD - it's really a cult whodunnit-dunnit-dunnit "damm !! I knew it was him/her" type movie with some nice twists. The only thing that had me groaning was he end - but we can all do better ends can't we ?.
The beginning is great and the cast hold the suspense even when their own reality is suspended. The clues pop up with the right kind of intensity. The parallel court scene where Lawyers and Judges "act" out their roles is an interesting aside to our reality as voyeurs ...
Not 10/10 because of the ending but a well earned 7/10. Good plot, nice twists and turns on an old theme, good acting and a great set. Nice to see a movie adult psycho-thriller that relies on acting and set - rather than gratuitous special effects.
The Job (2003)
Not a good JOB
I have to agree with Nadine. The storyline is jumpy and none of the characters really get a chance to define themselves. Its very far fetched due to that. Additionally the whole script is weak - we never find the motives (apart from the obvious ones surrounding pregnancy). So we are left with a series of B-movie cameo's, jumpy editing - poor storyline with characters who are so hollow ...... CJ just doesn't act the part, she finds her hits without any build up - a few edited shots of money changing hands (just like in the 50's). She drinks, she has some kind of teenage angst over her job, and she does doesn't build credibility. She is a sterile character - some butch girl in a cycle of self hate and looking for Mr Goodbar encounters. And of course all because her mother was a hooker. The flashbacks are not really merged with the story. The main "hit target" characters are also shallow - they never have a chance build their parts above comic strip lowlife's looking for a way out. The major bad guy, the "hood" employer is so stereotyped - why does he pick her? and why does he wait so long for her to screw up?. Why is he talking like that ? I think it was a budget -` budget movie' - as far as I can see there is only dialogue from 5-6 people, only 3 to 4 sets, a poor soundtrack and a lot of bad shooting .. Shame I was looking forward to this but its a thumbs down from me ..
Zardoz (1974)
After 20yrs - still a thought provoking Sci-fantasy
I 1st saw this movie in 1975, at the Students Union all night "sci-fi" event and as it was so off the horizon I loved it. The word plays, picture plays and complex storyline at 3.00 am in the morning were extremely entertaining. The basic themes it pretends of elites vs worker slaves, the boredom of eternal life, the decadence of forced idleness, the pureness of the macho noble savage are all interwoven in a Midsummer Nights fantasy futuristic world. I have to explain it is "British" so the special effects were limited . However, this left the actors with parts to act. Quite simply Zardoz was great, especially the name and how it unfolds. This was despite the fact even then we knew who would eventually win.. and the Union cinema was not Dolby.
I saw it again in the 90's and I was rather depressed, somehow my memory of great film was overwritten. It seemed so pretentious. John Alderton seemed fresh out of `please sir', Sean Connery at bit too macho etc etc. The whole thing so terribly amateur. The cast of typecast British TV / Movie stars waffling through some clever student sci-fi 1984-cum-Brave New World thing, brought to screen with a bad script.. Mind you I thought similar things about `Oh Lucky man the 2nd time around. It was rather like seeing an old flame many years later somehow the chemistry was gone and perhaps love is blind.
I saw it again recently and well I think I have it back. (Perhaps with all these `cloning' and `genetic-engineering' stories being now topical). I seemed to have re-captured the initial feelings. I have thought about these two extremes: To enjoy this movie one needs to regain the feeling of being entertained by actors in a Play. Zardoz more like a fantasy play than a Sci-Fi movie. The imagery is excellent, the themes of immortals and mortals still a relevant possibility for the future. There are gaps that we need to bridge over with our own imaginations and yes we do have to get over the feeling that `Q' will pop up as John Cleese.. But bridging that gap was nearly always the case in a play. Connery really does act, despite his costume.
The part with the crystal continues to excite my imagination. I still love the part in the old public library and his macho strutting don't seem so out of place in a fantasy. The sexual chemistry with the immortal maidens doesn't seem so sexist anymore. His character seems well fitted to the time and place and to me at least it is easy to believe his curiosity led him into the idol.
I think with these type of films , where you extend the script in your head, they are so different from the sci-fi / fantasy genre of today - you either love them or leave them. There is very little middle ground. So for a period piece that has not lost its charm. - Zardoz has place on my shelf of fantasy greats.