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Reviews
Cube (1997)
Brilliant idea. Almost brilliant execution but not quite....
A perfect example of the fact that you don't need to have a big budget or big names to make a fantastic movie. My message to people who don't understand the plot of this movie or comment on the stupidity of people trapped in a cube or the fact that nothing is explained satisfactorily on how they got there or what the cube is there for, is this......none of that is the point or the driving force behind the story at all!
This is a movie about how different people react when in a particular situation.....This time round it's a matter of survival... We get to see how different people with different personalities and driving forces react in a situation they all find themselves mysteriously stuck in. On this level this movie works brilliantly. Although for my money the performance of the idiot savant was overbearing and nearly always bordering on too much the rest of the cast were great. Sure some of the plot devices (such as them miraculously being able to decipher the meaning of the numbers in the cube) border on the "Yeah right what utter crap" side of movie cliches and suspension of reality, but if you can look past these small flaws and actually think (yes I realize that watching a movie and thinking are at odds with the mindset required for viewing the majority of big budget hollywood blockbusters) about the story and the way it is handled then this is a movie which WILL have much much more of an effect on the way you view many things than any "100 minutes of light entertainment" movie ever will.
Overall
Great plot, good acting. At no stage did I ever have the slightest feeling that I'd be better off spending my time doing something else. Unfortunately has a few flaws and minor annoyances which let it down.
8 stars out of 10.
Blade (1998)
One of the best opening sequences EVER
As it says in the one line summary above. Blade has one of the best opening sequences (first 10-15 minutes) in any movie EVER. Put it right up there with Strange Days, Gladiator and Excalibur in that particular criteria. Apart from the opening sequence the rest of the movie is fairly standard hollywood fare. It has it's good points and bad points but overall comes up on the better side of average. It's certainly a movie I didn't mind watching but not one I think I'd be tempted to pick up for my private collection (except for the first 10 minutes).
Overall
Opening Sequence I'll give a 10.
Movie overall its sitting firmly at 6 out of 10 stars.
Titanic (1997)
I'm not really a religious man
Generally I'm very much agnostic when it comes to heaven and hell, the afterlife, what you do in this lifetime decides what your afterlife will be like. This film just about changed my mind.
You see.... what scares me is that IF there is indeed a heaven and hell then at this time in my life I'm not quite sure which one I'll be going to....That doesn't sound so scary you say. Let me elaborate..I believe that if there is indeed a hell, then for me it would consist of watching an endless loop of a grown woman standing on the bow of a ship proclaiming "I can fly!" and a big thank you from myself goes out to the makers of this film for providing just the source of that punishment for me when I do eventually end up in the afterlife.
Ahhh thats off my chest now. So what can I say about Titanic?
James Cameron. I am actually what you'd call a fan of his work. Terminator, Aliens, Strange Days, The Abyss. Much of the work he has had a hand in I rate as some of my favourite movies ever. So what possessed him to do this?????
Kate Winslet and Billy Zane. These are two of my favoured actors..What possessed them to do this??? If you want to see Kate Winslet in a GOOD film try to find "Heavenly Creatures" which is indeed an excellent film. Likewise for Billy Zane get a hold of "Dead Calm".
In essence this film is 2 + hours of cliched, Low IQ, utterly awful, Mills & Boon romance that is so sugarcoated it's likely to send any diabetic person watching it into a fit. The ONLY saving grace of this film is the final hour after the Titanic has struck the iceberg and then proceeds to sink which is when we are treated to the James Cameron we know and love. It's just a damn shame that to get to this part I had to sit through 2 hours+ of a film that made my eyes bleed.
The sheer amount of money this film has made at the box office as well as the quite high rating it receives here on IMDB is truly a testament to the old adage that there's no accounting for (bad) taste.
Overall
The prospect of hammering rusty nails through my manhood is infinitely more appealing than that of watching the first 2 hours of this film ever again.
3 stars out of 10 (solely for the last hour but having to sit through the first 2 hours of this atrocity to get to this stage is simply unforgiveable).
Event Horizon (1997)
Frustration!
One of the few films I have seen that has me almost punching a wall in frustration. Why Why Why Why Why did the producers of this film make a brilliant film right up till the last 25 minutes or so???????? It has sci-fi, it has horror, it has tension and it has scenes that are generally SCARY (and there's very few scenes in movies that genuinely make me feel scared nowadays). The scene where Sam Neil is in the maintenance duct and the lights go out and the red flashing strobe comes on is perhaps one of the most frightening scenes in any movie I can recall and so, so simple. This film has all the right elements in all the right amounts for the first 60-70 minutes and then it just totally derails. Even thinking about it now has me shaking my head in disgust.
If ever a budding film director needs to see the best way to butcher what should be an excellent film then this is the one to see.
Overall
This movie for me is perhaps the worst case of an "If only" film that I can think of right now.
6 out of 10 solely for the first 3/4 of the film.
Dead Calm (1989)
Whatever happened to Billy Zane?
Claustrophobic thriller that's definitely a cut above the average. Basically it's a 3 person cast but it definitely works. Husband and wife pick up a mysterious stranger in the middle of the ocean and from there things start to get messy. Sam Neil and Nicole Kidman both did an adequate job with what they had to work with (although I really don't think Nicole Kidman was anything particularly special here) but the star of the show was Billy Zane. He was just fantastic in his role. In Dead Calm he was just so believable and brilliant as the unbalanced stranger with less than good intentions. Hard to believe he's never really been given the opportunity to shine like he did in this film. As far as thrillers go this is one definitely worth watching....Now if only they had managed to deny indulging in the awful cliches that seem to infest even the best thrillers.
If you watch it (especially the end) you'll see what I mean.
Overall
A thriller better than most and once again a much better than average movie without a big budget. Not to mention a good actor (Billy Zane) in his best role ever.
7 Stars out of ten.
Dèmoni (1985)
What do you really expect once you see the cover?
It's horror. It's gross-out special fx. There's not much of a real plot.
I first saw this movie when i was fairly young and even today it's definitely a lot more watchable than the majority of b (or less) grade horror flicks around. Watching it's a little like the old joke about riding around on a moped or having sex with a fat chick. It's pretty fun but your're not really going to admit it to anybody.
Overall
Well....I'll give it 5 out of 10 on it's own merit but if pressed to compare it to ratings I've given more serious films I'd be likely to realistically give it 2 or 3 stars.
Silent Running (1972)
Good film with some small flaws.
Being the sci-fi fan that I am, after somewhere reading about this movie I thought I'd get a hold of it to see what I was missing. As it turns out, overall it's not a bad film at all.
Positives
* Great story. Certainly a change from the current popularity of "Music Video" style movies that are all flash and no depth.
* Special Fx. For the MOST part the special effects are pretty good. Especially when you consider when this film was made. Notice the emphasis on "most".
* Good acting. I don't understand some of the negative reviews of Bruce Dern's acting in this film. I thought he played his role as well as anybody could. Some of the scenes I could genuinely empathize with him.
*Score/Music. The score was very good and definitely helped create an atmosphere when required. The 2 songs in the film by Joan Baez? See the negatives on that one.
* Non-Hollywood Ending. What can I say. Without crossing over into spoiler territory here I thought the conclusion was extremely well done and didn't ever look like heading down the "tacked-on happy ending to please the american public" route but rather was handled logically and in the theme of the rest of the movie.
Negatives
* Special FX. Most of the special fx was well done. Some of them were positively awful.
* Ecological Conscience Theme. I love the planet and the forests as much as everyone but I feel this theme would have been a lot more effective if they had exercised a little subtlety at some points. The heavy-handedness with regards to this was more than a tad overbearing at a couple of points.
* Music. The score itself was good. The 2 songs in the movie made my ears bleed. On top of that the images in the film they accompanied created perhaps the worst cliched moments i could ever imagine. It wasn't as if you could just pretend you were deaf for a little and watch the scenes without the audio.. Together they were almost unbearable. Definitley a shame as this was almost enough to ruin the movie altogether for me.
* Cute robots. This wasn't too bad but at times it was almost getting to that point.
Overall
I'd definitely recommend this movie to anyone who's prepared to sit down and watch an intelligent movie that requires somewhat more thought than the average teen-audience target movie so popular today. The average person who classifies "Fast & the Furious" or "Mannequin" as a GREAT MOVIE will likely walk out in disgust after 5 mins of this movie so be warned. The mute button is also advised for the 2 Joan Baez songs.
Stars
I'd give this movie 6.5 out of 10. In regards for imdb voting I'm leaning towards a 7 rather than a 6.