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Reviews
Silent Hill (2006)
excellent adaptation
This is by far, the best video game-to-film adaptation out there. By far. It's not even close. Forget "Doom" or anything directed by Uwe Boll. This film is the real deal. And while it's not a classic, it's certainly an effective piece of horror.
I think that a lot will be made about how the Pyramid-Head plays such a small role in the film. Well...something tells me that we'll see more of him in future installments, if this film does well. What you do see of him in the film, is pretty hard to forget. The only other minor quibble I have is that Sean Bean's side of the story could probably have been done a little better, but that's easy for us to say. A lot of fans may have liked to have seen his side of the story chopped altogether, but I totally disagree. We need a break from Silent Hill from time to time. It's an intense place, and if the whole film had taken place there, it would have been hard to keep the suspense up, without having the film drag. It'll be interesting to see how future installments are handled.
The story starts simply enough, but gets just complicated enough to where you have to think about what is going on a bit. Alessa (the little girl) does explain things towards the end of the movie, but you still have to piece together what happened in your mind.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Sean Bean is fine in his role, he does what he can with it. Radha Mitchell is an excellent, underrated actress. And she turns what is kind of a one-note character into something more. And Alice Krige. Wow. Let's just say that she gets the death scene of a lifetime towards the end of the film. She is simply marvelous. I would like to see her in films more often. She brings so much class to projects like this.
This film has a lot of parallels with the original Silent Hill game for the PS1. The story I would like to see Gans take on next is Silent Hill 2 for the PS2, which is by far the best Silent Hill game that was made. And a truly haunting story that would translate very well to film.
Bottom line, if you call yourself a fan of the horror genre, you owe it to yourself to check this film out. There have been better ones made, but this is definitely one of the better ones.
Morituri (1965)
Great WWII Film
Don't worry, I won't give away many spoilers at all. This is a great piece of work. I have read that it didn't get great reviews, and I wonder why! This is as close to an action film as Marlon Brando ever did. He mostly performed in dramas, and when he did appear in action/adventure films, it was usually in a supporting role (Superman, The Score). And he totally delivers.
He plays a man named Schroeder, masquerading in India as "Robert Crain." Trevor Howard plays a British military man, who finds Schroeder in hiding, and gives him two choices: Go on a suicide mission, on a German freighter and defuse all of her scuttling charges so the Allies can take her cargo....or be turned over to the Gestapo in a prisoner exchange. So, essentially, he has to choose which way he is going to die. Except, that with the mission, he has a small prayer of coming out alive.
Yul Brynner plays the level-headed captain of the German freighter (which is loaded with political prisoners, bound for France), and is he ever at the top of his form in this one. In fact, he commands the best scene in the film...which is him reacting to an incident at sea involving his son. Janet Margolin is also haunting as a Jewish prisoner transferred to the German freighter in the middle of the voyage, and becomes part of the plans of Schroeder (called Kyle on the mission) and the political prisoners, to take over the ship from the Nazi crew.
The cinematography in this film is outstanding. We get lots of long shots of the crew on the ship, and the special effects do not look too dated...which is saying a lot, considering this is a black and white film made in the 1960's. This movie has a little bit for everyone...Fans of action films will enjoy the tenseness of the climax of the film, and fans of spy films will find a lot to like here. Brando's character is in the midst of impossible circumstances, which only get worse as the film goes on, but he always manages to keep his cool, as only Marlon Brando can. This is a must-see for Brando fans, if only to see their favorite actor take on such a role. As I have written before...this is as close to a pure action film that Brando ever made, with himself in the starring role. The plot runs very smoothly, and there aren't any lulls in the narrative. Extremely underrated picture.