Reviews

As we all well know by now, horror is an all but dead genre. To achieve anything with "Horror" being associated hand and hand with your film, you have to be crafty, you have to be original. Understanding that Silent Hill is first a drama, then a thriller/horror, it is a film that pulls of a very successful balance.

Christophe Gan's Silent Hill is the film adaptation of the widely popular four parted video game series of the same name. A young girl, Sharon, has spells of sleepwalking, which always end in cries of a place called Silent Hill. Sharon's mother Rose, played by Radha Mitchell decides that taking Sharon to this place called Silent Hill might make her problems go away. However, what she finds in the cut off ghost town of Silent Hill is a life or death fight to find her daughter who has gone missing in the thick fog of ashes that constantly rain down there. By overcoming her fears, Rose slowly begins to uncover the dark secrets that lay buried deep beneath the city, the secrets that are ultimately linked to her daughter. The plot is straightforward enough, a story of a mother fighting to save her daughter, yet is heightened by many factors.

To start, there are very few films, especially in the horror genre that can match the consistency of the cinematography in Silent Hill. This is where, along with other details that amateur viewers reviews fail to deliver a complete view on Silent Hill. Whether you liked it, hated it, or did not care one way or another for it, it is impossible to ignore what Silent Hill achieves visually and artistically, because it is in fact a visual marvel. As ironic as it may sound, the grotesqueness and Gothic-esquire of the settings illuminate an incredible beauty that is consistent throughout Silent Hill. Gan's did a phenomenal job with the falling ash to create an unsettling and eerie yet captivating aura around Silent Hill With it being known the use of CGI was scarcely used in the film, I am amazed more people are not talking about the seriousness of Silent Hill taking an Oscar for best Costumes/Set Design. The creatures of the film are phenomenal. I can honestly say that in no film have I ever seen such imaginative and horrifying creatures done so convincingly. For fans of this genre, the gore and slayings, oddly as it sounds, are highly rewarding, sophisticated and yes, appalling.

Also on par with the aesthetics of Silent Hill is the expert cinematography and editing of the film. Return Gan's cinematographer Dan Laustsen and editor Sébastien Prangère, whose work can be seen in Brotherhood of the Wolf, display a very disciplined and controlled level of suspense and horror in Silent Hill. A great example of how well these two play of each other is a scene where a crucified corpse, serrated in barbed wire, becomes reanimated, chasing Rose. While Laustsen horrifically catches fragments of the creatures face, lashing tongue and tearing skin, Prangère keeps the horror alive by taking these fragments and throwing them in a frantic order against Rose's desperate escape.

Another aspect of Silent Hill that deserves applause is the sound. The soundtrack and sound editing are both highly attractive and effective in point. On several instances Silent Hill takes the audio and plays on the interaction of characters with the environment; Rose's hearing temporarily distorted with her body slamming to floor. The film's soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka, who did the original soundtracks for the Silent Hill series as well, returns to create the most modernly fitting horror style soundtrack to date; it is a gorgeous arrangement.

While I was impressed with so much in Silent Hill, there were certainly aspects that I found to be less than impressive. The most obvious is what seems to plague all video game based films, and that is the excessive trite dialogue. While it did not prevail so much in Silent Hill, as lets say, Resident Evil, there were still enough lines to make you feel embarrassed. I have noticed that the source of the bad dialogue in this genre of films almost always stems from one source: the overly aggressive female sidekick. And you can bet that Silent Hill has one of those in the form of a pesky butch cop who ends up helping Rose find Sharon.

What I find most people complaining about is that Silent Hill either has no plot or that the plot is too hard to follow, both of which I try to see, but simply cant. The plot is classic and ever present. I saw this film with people who have never played the series before (I have) and none confessed to being lost in the plot or feeling that they were left out by not have played the games, and I would agree. What furthers my confusion on peoples Silent Hill confusion is the films take on the riskiest form of exposition at the films conclusion. It is an absolute form of clarity that if done wrong can completely ruin and discredit a film. However, Silent Hill takes a very unique approach on a technique that few films would touch.

There are also a few occurrences that at first glance you would write off as insignificant to put in the film or just simply unexplained, but Christophe Gan displayed enough control and direction to let those who take a second look know that there is another story here, that these things fell how they fell for a reason, and that reason is no doubt with the success that Silent Hill is receiving, a sequel. With the conclusion that Gan's chose for Silent Hill, it is obvious that everything that has to be said was not said in this installment.

A History of Violence was to me, like many others in 2005, a highly anticipated movie. Now for me, it was not for any set particular reason. I do not care one way or another for David Cronenberg and none of the cast, with the exception of Ed Harris, hold a special place in my cinematic heart. I wanted to see it, because it simply looked like a solid and intelligent film. I was wrong. Quite wrong.

A History of Violence follows our lead "hero," if you can even call him that, Tom Stall A.K.A Joey, played by Viggo Mortensen. Joey is a simple man, leading a simple yet happy life with his wife and two kids in a small Indiana town. One day, when his restaurant falls victim to an attempted hold up by two thugs, Tom surprisingly and savagely takes them out, saving the day.

Well, the red flags start to pop up, and Tom is paid a visit by some even better dressed thugs, who know him by the "mysterious" name of Joey. After playing the typical "You don't know me, I don't know you, I want to just live my life, I don't want no trouble" game with the thugs for ½ the movie, the plot, or what you can make of it, starts to finally move.

As I describe the plot of AHoV, I can't help but immediately jump right in to how irrelevant and unimportant it is. The first 15-20 minutes of the film, we follow these thugs who apparently play an important role, as we build our suspicions and take our sides. And then bam, they die. Enter new thugs. OK, now we start all over again, and before we can get to understand them, bam, they die. OK, now what. The fact that there is no set "bad guy" in this film is par for the fact that there is no real "good guy either," I guess, if you want to credit the film enough to try and make sense of it.

Tom Stall, or Joey, as we later find out was his past mobster name back in his Phillie days, is such a ridiculous concept, that there is no warrant in siding for or against him, and not enough substance to even care. We take a man who used to be one bad man, a killer, whose wrong deeds finally catch up with him, and we are supposed to feel sorry for him? That doesn't work, and it doesn't work because Cronenberg gives the audience absolutely no prologue to Carl Fogarty's (Ed Harris) entrance. Was Tom justified in his actions? What actually happened? For all we know Carl is in the right, and Tom does deserve to die, I mean, after all, I personally thought Carl Fogarty was portrayed as the more calm, collected, and intelligent of the two.

Another major problem I had with AHoV was the incoherent attempt at some kind of formulaic plot by David Cronenberg. The side stories of his picked on son and sexually charged wife are not only unimportant, but also irritating. The embarrassing performance of Tom's son, Jack, and his overcoming of the school bully in no way furthers our understanding of the actions in the film, and is forgotten within the film as fast as it whipped by.

And as for the sex scenes, all I can ask is why? Why oh why did Cronenberg see it necessary enough to take away from the already limited time that he obviously spent on the main story, to waste time on these horrendously played out and emotionally void scenes. We all know where to go if we wanted to see embarrassing, pointless and emotionless sex, and a David Cronenberg film is not where id expect to find it.

However, after all of that, the worst of AHoV is still to come. The end confrontation, the climax, the battle of the "good vs. bad." How are we as an audience expected to care about the final confrontation between two characters that we know nothing about? How the hell did we even get to this point? The film simply doesn't come together at all.

I really had no doubt before going into AHoV that I was going to like it, it looked that good to me. However, this film ended up ranking right next to Crash winning Best Picture as one of the biggest disappointments of 2005 to me. I honestly cannot come up with a single good reason, other than another consistently solid performance by Ed Harris, why anyone should bother seeing this film.

To make a memorable mark in the comedy genre nowadays is quite a difficult thing to do. With movies that recycle the same tasteless toilet humour and clichéd teenage sex antics, comedy is a genre that has slowly been dying in the mainstream for the last decade. Korean comedy veteran Sang-Jin Kim's Attack the Gas Station is a hysterically different take on comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously, but comes through with some seriously entertaining comedy. Before seeing this film for the first time I didn't expect much, from the title and all, but I was very surprised on the humour and direction of Attack the Gas Station.

Attack the Gas Station is the wacky story of a "gang" of 4 Korean youths who have a bad case of boredom, so what better to do then rob the local gas station?! After the high of the robbery wears off, the 4 teenagers find themselves right where they were before the robbery, bored. The only solution they can come up with is to rob the gas station again! As the gang attends to the customers to keep all quiet, they realize that instead of just robbing the place, they can make even more money by keeping the money that the patrons give them for pumping their gas! Soon after, a group of high school wannabe thugs come to collect money from one of the gas station employees. After rubbing the robbers the wrong way, our main gang decide to teach the wannabes a lesson, and take them hostage too! Somewhere along the line, their antics lead them to taking a snotty pre-madonna hostage, who's boyfriend just happens to be in the yakuza, and pissing off a highly irritable delivery boy who decides that he isn't going to take it anymore! Aside from the hilarious action that takes place, the film has a nice underlying tone of the gang comically bonding with the now supportive gas station employees as they teach each other to stand up for what they believe in and cooperate to take down what soon will be slew of opposing gangs waging war on the gas station! Attack the Gas Station does not have any big name actors, no recognizable faces, but the acting is enjoyable. Sang-Jin Kim is known for his knack of directing new talent. The feel of the movie is real enough, given the crazy premise, and the ride you go on with the cast is highly enjoyable, and incredibly funny.

You wouldn't see Attack the Gas Station winning any Oscars or sweeping any film festivals, because that's not the aim of this film. Attack the Gas Station is a semi-serious comical ride of what some slightly confused youth do when they're bored, and nothing more. There is no camera art and no first grade performances, but I doubt that is what anyone going into this film expects. From the opening you understand what level to suspend your disbelief.

Attack the Gas Station is a refreshing take on comedy that finds a very original and comical way to entertain its audience, while not wasting their time. Its pace is swift and fluid. From a very comical opening to a final parking lot battle between our new found "heroes," some very scared high schoolers, the yakuza, and a group of angst filled delivery boys, Attack the Gas Station is a spin on comedy that shouldn't be passed up.

Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is an extremely powerful and moving film. While Ang Lee's level of direction is now commonly known to go hand in hand with excellence, the level that Lee is on with Brokeback Mountain is something that few films in history have ever achieved. Despite a limited release and a hesitant reception in the box office, Brokeback Mountain is a film that will not let its raw power be denied by unwilling critics.

Based on the short story by E. Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is the heart-wrenching tale of two cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who meet one summer while working together as cattle hands on Brokeback Mountain in 1963. While their co-worker relationship starts off awkward and standoffish, Jack's outgoing charm finally finds its way through Ennis's quiet and rough defenses, exposing two men unsure with the directions of their lives. The only thing that Ennis Del Mar knows, is that once he gets off Brokeback, he and his fiancé Alma (Michelle Williams) are getting married and starting a family. Through the loneliness and cold nights spent on Brokeback, Jack and Ennis, to their own surprise, stumble across a love interest between them that will change their lives forever.

Now, for a film that's subject matter alone for one reason or another causes some of America to cringe, you can imagine the delivery of such intense roles would be an incredible task, and that is exactly what we get in Brokeback Mountain, absolutely incredible performances. Every scene between Ledger and Gyllenhaal is electrifying. There are multiple instances while watching the exchanges between the two that I realized I had literally stopped breathing from their performances. After their first night making love, Jack and Ennis share a quiet scene on a hillside where Ennis says, "You know I ain't queer," then near the films end, while the two are talking about how hard it is to see each other so little, Ennis chokes out through his tears "Well, why don't you? Why don't you just let me be? It's because of you that I'm like this! I ain't got nothing... I ain't nowhere... Get the f**k off me! I can't stand being like this no more, Jack!" Now you think about the contrast in those two crucial lines, and imagine the development that Ledger and Gyllenhaal go through during the film, and it is undeniable that the two of them are at their absolute best.

To only talk about the men of Brokeback would be unfair, Michelle Williams who plays Alma, Ennis's wife, and Anne Hathaway who plays Lureen, Jack's wife, also deliver dynamic performances. The composure and character that these two wives have to maintain through the years, knowing that Alma is aware of the affair and clued in that Lureen has a quiet suspicion, is numbing. There is a very intense scene where Jack pays a visit to Ennis's apartment, and while the two are ravishing each other behind the stairwell we watch as Alma sees them through the front door. From that scene on, the relationship between Ledger and Williams in the film is like a ticking bomb, a bomb that the audience has no idea when it is going to explode.

To separate a great movie from a good movie, you need everything, but most of all you need direction, and this is the strongest point of Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee uses the vast scenery of Wyoming to accompany his actors in such an indescribable way, combined with the phenomenal camera work of Rodrigo Prieto, that it just keeps carving away at you with its beauty. Without many words spoken for the majority of the opening, Ang Lee's direction already has you hooked, it already has you interested, and it already has you committed. Every scene in Brokeback Mountain has a point, and every scene is used to further the plot. With so much beauty surrounding the already beautiful story, Brokeback can get extremely heavy on your heart.

While the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain can at first be a shock to some, you have to remember at its heart, Brokeback Mountain is a love story, as sincere as they come. This is a film that exposes everything and holds nothing back. Everything in Brokeback Mountain is on it's A-game, the performances, especially the bare all performances given by Ledger and Gyllenhaal, the Oscar worthy direction of Ang Lee, and the jaw dropping cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto. While I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times before about thousands of other movies, but if you see just one movie this year, see Brokeback Mountain.

Red Eye is a film that you really do want to love, and while it is indeed enjoyable, there are many variables holding it back.

The script to Red Eye is a very fresh and interesting take on the "hostage thriller" genre and it is what seemingly allures most to Red Eye. Rachel McAdams plays Lisa, a hotel employee who is trying to make her flight back home after her Grandmother's funeral. Due to bad weather her flight is delayed, and being stuck in the airport she meets the handsome stranger on the same flight named Jackson, played by Cillian Murphy. This is where the film really draws you in. Murphy and McAdams share a scene at the airport bar that is very casual and flirtatious and you catch yourself almost rooting for their union... then Murphy unfolds that unless Lisa cooperates in seeing to that a high ranking politician who is staying in her hotel that night is put up in a certain preasigned room set for assassination, then Murphy will have her father killed. As you can imagine, the tone of the film shifts significantly from here on.

The scenes with Murphy and McAdams are incredibly enjoyable and rewarding, as two of todays hottest new talents both deliver intense and very believable performances. The down side to the acting of Red Eye, is that whenever the camera IS NOT on our two stars, the acting is notably weak and the film loses all momentum it had previously.

Another big problem with this film is the length. Clocking in at 1:16, Red Eye is over with before you know it and you are left more unfulfilled than not. Wes Craven has a semi-reputation for taking a good idea and somehow making it bad. Red Eye is ALMOST an exception to that, except that every scene off the plane is not interesting or worthwhile to the viewer. Of course in a thriller like this you can't expect for it to all take place on the plane, but the "climatic" battle between Murphy and McAdams at the end is embarrassingly Craven's bad side coming through.

All in all, Red Eye is entertaining and worth the watch. The performances given by Murphy and McAdams are excellent. The only thing i really see wrong with Red Eye, is that Craven takes a top notch thriller inside the plane and then continuously takes away from it with all the run of the mill scenes he shows outside of it. If Craven were to have added another 1/2 hour to Red Eye and really worked out a much more tense ending, Red Eye would have easily received an 'A'.