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patfalkenna
Reviews
Wuthering Heights (2009)
Updated for the shallow, urban generation
Once I found out that this had been shown in America months ago, everything made sense. I say that as an American (who moved to the UK years ago to escape the shallowness, only to find the UK caught up quickly).
I did rather enjoy this version, mainly due to the superb casting. Tom Hardy was wonderful, but I'm sure they toned down what he could have done. Even more so with Charlotte Riley, after they turned Cathy's untamed elemental nature into a teenage brat.
It was brightly lit like a soap opera (uh-- Gothic, people), and moved at an MTV pace instead of developing the relationship of the three main characters: Heathcliffe,Cathy, and the Moors. This final, crucial character was, in fact, nearly left out altogether. The whole thing could have been set in Central London, for all the difference it made to the formation and behaviour of the human characters. I suppose the filmmakers decided that psychological interaction with nature, on a deep inner level, was something today's urbans couldn't grasp. Heaven forbid we should try to convey to them another type of experience.
I was really looking forward to this, due mainly to Tom Hardy who seemed the ultimate Heathcliff, but was very disappointed by the missed opportunity.
Forest of the Damned (2005)
Good bad (but not evil)
There's a lot of bad films around, but this is the first really *good* bad film I've seen in ages. While some of the sad is no doubt caused by a low budget, I believe a lot of it was deliberate and knowing. (Tom Savini's presence backs this up.) My only quibble is that *all* of the angels were female. When our madman warned us at the beginning, I was expecting seduction by both sexes. What a shame. Oh, well, at least we had the always-lovely Tom Savini, who really did perk things up.
There were spots of really good acting, and spots of good camera work, good directing, and even good writing. Then the timing would be off, it would all go awkward, or silly, or very funny in some other way. As another reviewer noted, the checklist of clichés was complete, and yet something felt different and I had to keep watching it. Possibly a **spoiler**: the cameo at the end was very funny.