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Silent Hill (2006)
A very surprising, dark and gruesome movie!
You have to approach any movie adaptation of a video game with extreme trepidation. Think of the other corkers we've all caught on TV in the past: Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil. Stinkers, one and all. Doom was vapid, but at least got close to the source material.
So what about Silent Hill? The movie opens with music lifted straight from the game itself - in fact, the entire movie contains original tracks from the game as well as some remixed score. Just as it was a fantastic and brooding background when playing the game, it works very effectively on screen.
As for the film itself, the story is a composite of story elements from the first and second games, but the final act is a monstrous and highly original thirty minutes that kept me guessing (as well as being completely grossed out). Indeed, the violence is pretty gruesome.. clever mixtures of CGI and fully made-up monsters which really add to the foreboding atmosphere.
At first, I felt nervous watching this.. not because of the visuals (which are absolutely SPOT ON.. I've never seen ANY movie adaptation that is this close to the source material.. all the comic book movies from the past few years still stray furiously).. but because of the weak opening. After I'd resigned myself to the fact that the movie was going to be disappointing, I was pleasantly surprised as soon as the main character Rose gets to Silent Hill itself. If you're a fan of the game, you won't be disappointed. If you're a horror hound, you'll love the creatures and the visuals. If you're expecting a deep movie about the relationship between estranged mother and daughter.. you're in the wrong theatre.
Highly recommended. Best horror movie I've seen in a long time.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
A triumph
There seems to be a culture of venom towards the "prequels" (which indeed we should stop referring to these movies as prequels as the six-movie sequence is complete - how about simply "star wars"?) - I hated Jar Jar Binks in the first movie, along with most other cinema-goers. Revenge of the Sith is a culmination of ALL the Star Wars films, rather than a mere bridge between AOTC and ANH. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease in which the movies are joined; the rebel ship from the beginning of ANH is used in several scenes at the end of ROTS; the birth of Luke and Leia; even the necessary, and rather graphic construction of Darth Vader in his familiar black costume.
What is considerably different in this film from all the others is that there is simply no let up in the PACE of the movie. As much as I love the originals, I find the scenes with Yoda on Dagobah drag on too long, Ewoks obnoxious and ANH is not a perfect movie. I think people are too enamoured with the charm of the movies, and the memories they have of them as children to see the faults. Thereby, in comparison, this new chapter keeps dialogue to a minimum (there are no "yippees!" here) and the action constant for over two hours. I cannot name another movie that had me so enthralled for this amount of time in recent years.
I don't foresee this film having many detractors. One argument I am willing to concede is that this film won't hold much for those who have not been following the Star Wars films, but no-one can deny that this is an amazingly cinematic spectacle.