They don’t look particularly realistic, but neither does the rest of the film. In fact, Priest is one of those flicks where everything looks fake, which means that the dodgy CGI is less distracting than it should be. It looked like most of the film was shot in front of a greenscreen.
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Continue reading Priest
I was aware that I couldn’t possibly go into this film with an open mind, even if I hadn’t been averse to the idea in the first place. As it turns out, Matt Reeves’ remake is definitely not a disaster. It does, however, lack many of the things that made the original a true classic.
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Continue reading Let Me In
Rest assured that Eclipse continues the franchise’s horrendous record of setting feminism back several decades. Bella Swan has no ambition whatsoever, and is only interested in being with the man/men she loves. She’s fragile and passive, and frequently needs protection from Big Strong Men.
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A single speech made by the pitiful ‘heroine’ of this piece near the end of the film can’t make up for almost three full feature-length films worth of moping and passivity. If only the most phenomenally successful text of its time could have featured a female lead worth bothering to cross the street to avoid.
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Continue reading The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Hawke is unremarkable in the lead role, perhaps uncertain as to why he is surrounded by unknown-to-American-audiences Australian (and occasionally New Zealand-born) actors sporting moderately successful American accents in a film funded by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (now Screen Australia) and shot in Australia by Australian writer/directors.
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There are half a dozen fantastic moments – ones that show just how inventive the Spierigs are and how strange it is that Hollywood haven’t plonked them at the helm of a bit, fat juicy budget – the boys certainly get their money’s worth here.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Daybreakers
New Moon manages at least to get by with some nifty action sequences. Actually, the film has a couple of top moments, assisted by great cinematography, perfect editing and a great soundtrack – it’s a slicker flick for sure. No one could deny that the first instalment had a great soundtrack, and this one is even better.
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What kind of message is being sent to young women here? The film barely stands up to scrutiny, and perhaps isn’t meant to be considered in depth, but as it takes itself so damn seriously it demands the audience does as well. Perhaps the only positive message its audience will receive is the SunSmart concept that it’s okay to be pale.
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Continue reading The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Eli is one of the most incredible vampiric creations ever captured on film. Leandersson manages to make her simultaneously innocent, bloodthirsty, cutesy and horrendous. More importantly, she never shifts from one archetype to the next. Forget Jekyll and Hyde dichotomies, she’s a monster and child all in one.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Let the Right One In
The best that can be said of this franchise is that it is consistent. Consistently dull. It’s truly incredible just how uninteresting the creators of Underworld have made vampires and werewolves.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Bella and Edward fight ever-so-hard against their lesser urges, in a less-than-subtle message about youth sex, while girls dress to maximise their cleavage and then are morally outraged when any male dares notice. This world feels more like fantasy than those of many more obviously fantastical films.
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Seeing Twilight with a cinema full of lovestruck teenage girls is probably the only way you’ll really ‘get’ a film like this. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a film that induced such vocal appreciation.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Twilight
The good news is that it’s much, much better than its predecessor… which of course means that this film is merely ‘bad’ rather than ‘atrocious’. Like the original Underworld, Evolution is supremely stupid, with a decidedly lacklustre script, but this Continue reading Underworld: Evolution
After loving Blade, and hating Blade II, I wasn’t certain about Blade: Trinity – would it capture the darkness and light of the original, or it would it be schlock? I can thankfully say, that although Trinity isn’t great, it Continue reading Blade: Trinity