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The Descent (2005)
An Excellent Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror movie by director Neil Marshall, whose only other notable outing is 2002's Dog Soldiers. It stars 6 unknown British (and 1 Australian?) actresses, who go on a caving expedition in the Appalachian mountains. It's clearly a low-budget film. Oh, and yes, it's ABSOLUTELY GREAT!! I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, except for the above description, and of course that as soon as they descent into the cave, woeful things start a-happening. I went in with that knowledge, and found that it suited quite well.
The Descent follows the classic blueprint of the horror film, but with a few ingenious deviations. It also incorporates elements from the psychological thriller, mainly concerning Sarah, who can be described as one of the two main characters, and does so with great results. As I said, this film is mainly a horror film, with all its accompanying startle-scenes and gore, but it admirably avoids all encounters with the realm of clichés and cheesiness. I got so disturbed during this movie ("scared" isn't the right word, and so isn't "freaked out", "disturbed" is the best choice) that at around minute 70-75 out of the whole 99 minutes this movie takes, I just wanted to leave. That, and this was the first film in at least 10 years (since I was 13) in which I screamed in the theater. As the movie progressed, and I could see a "scene" coming on, I just wanted it to be over with. That's because each one of the scare-scenes is so perfectly balanced and immaculately timed to create the maximum effect, without ever becoming routinely or dull, like way too many of today's horror films. The cinematography also does a great deal to elevate each scene beyond the ordinary in films of this genre.
The human element in this movie is also well constructed and never too cheesy. Which leads me to the acting. First of all, having only women as the protagonists of a film often becomes contrived or artificial, due to the filmmakers' knowledge that they're not using men like almost always. In this film, however, the characterisation is perfectly natural, the female characters never feel too "objectified", that is, there only to look tough and sexy, or too "feminist", that is, too aware that they're the protagonists of a story and therefore must use the opportunity to show how strong women can be. The characters feel real, and aren't stereotypically good or bad. Each person has her defining elements, but never becomes two-dimensional.
All in all, The Descent is the best horror film in many, many years, and a long-awaited rejuvenation of the genre. 5 out of 5.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Meet Me In St. Fun
Meet Me In St. Louis is from 1944. It's a story which happens in St. Louis in the year leading up to the World Fair held there sometime in the past. The exact year is irrelevant, and I cannot be bothered to look it up. It follows the story of a family embarking on all sorts of every-day adventures, such as the little girl's first Hallow's Eve, the slightly elder girl's problems with having a little sister, the two oldest sisters' problems with young men, and ketchup-making. Also the father's dilemma of being successful and getting a job in New York, thus disrupting the happy family's "small-city" life, or continuing to be only successful in St. Louis. Not much is to be said about the plot besides that. This movie has Judy Garland. And singing. And dancing. Of course. It's stupid. It's clever. It's silly. It's fun. Yes, there is a boy-meets-girl plot here. Yes, there is a girl-almost-misses-out-on-boy plot. And it's perfectly okay. Because it's fun. And that is the essence of a musical. To be fun. That doesn't mean it's only "fun", and nothing more to be said about it. It does involve some technical innovations, like the "crane dolly" (I think that's what it's called), a clever little thing that allowed the camera to move and rotate in any direction. It's not exactly Bullet-Time, but still quite clever, especially for filming choreographed dance sequences. Like so many films from this era, it is greatly superior to many films of today (with the exception of Tarantino and a few other masters of film conversation) in terms of conversation. It's wit is a delight at times, and some scenes are what they are simply because of the sense of ingenious dialogue. The singing and dancing is seamlessly constructed and choreographed. They're diegetic (serve the advancement of the film's plot, instead of simply being a gratuitous musical scene, like in most musical in the late 1920's and early 1930's). And now for the shortcomings. It is a bit corny at times, but I'm not sure if it's because it's truly corny or if I've just seen it in so many films made *after* this film was made. I really like Judy Garland, unlike many of my colleagues. In this film, though, I did get a slight feeling of frustration with her, but not for too long though. It might be that I felt this way about her character because *she* felt this way about her character, which she apparently did. It's completely and utterly predictable, with only a couple of exceptions, which don't exactly have anything to do with the main plot, but more like subplots or deviations from the story. But that's okay, because this is a musical. In all, Meet Me In St. Louis is a fine film, I'll rate it at around 4 out of 5.
Useless ps. A song in this film is called "Skip To My Lou". That is also the nickname of an NBA player, Rafer Alston, who now plays for the Houston Rockets.
The Broadway Melody (1929)
An enjoyable pioneering work
The Broadway Melody of 1929 is one in a series of Broadway Melody films. This film (the 1929 one) won an Academy Award for Best Film, which mainly goes to show how far movie-making has got since then. This film is, many claim, the first "all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing" film in Hollywood, although many talkies had been created before that, but apparently that didn't matter too much for the marketing agents of this film.
The storyline of The Broadway Melody of 1929 follows a well-known pattern within the musical genre, namely that of the two poor girls who come to the Big Apple to try and make it to the big scene on Broadway, and team up with the struggling performer/songwriter, who gets them a small role in a musical. Unsurprisingly, the lead actress somehow manages to fall off a large pedestal in a rehearsal and injure herself, and one of the girls is chosen to take her place at the last moment. This of course leads to a rift in the relationship between the girls, which will have to be taken care of in an orderly Hollywood manner throughout the film. To top it off, the struggling songwriter falls in love with the new star, which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that is engaged to the other half of the sister act. Oops. Being a musical, it all works out in the end, via a number of arguably well-plot-connected musical acts.
Which leads us to the singing and dancing. Having seen a Busby Berkeley-choreographed film, this one does look quite amateurish at times, with dancers sometimes a bit out of sync with each other, and the routines perhaps a little chaotic at times. Having said that, they can still be quite enjoyable.
The Broadway Melody is classically defined as a revue, with a series of scenes which are not necessarily interconnected. I, however did not see it as a revue, but rather as a flawed backstage musical. Although some scenes do come out of the blue, such as a semi-surreal, almost comical dance scene called "The Wedding of the Painted Doll", and a scene at the beginning which takes place in a Tin Pan Alley studio (Tin Pan Alley is a name applied to places and studios where songwriters and performers came together to make songs and musicals which they then tried to sell to Broadway theaters), they can be found to serve a purpose within the main plot of the movie.
The actors perform well for most of the time, except perhaps for moments when they seem to have a sort of a "silent hangover", that is, do horrifyingly extended and exaggerated impressions and gestures, as done in the silent movies a few years earlier. Mind you, the concept of talking in movies was only 2 years old at this time, so it's no surprise that the filmmakers and actors hadn't fully got the hang of it yet.
All in all, this is an enjoyable, if not very deep, little film to see, with interesting scenes and characters you even start to care about a little, despite their horrendous over-acting at times. 3 out of 5 for me, thanks.
Hafið (2002)
Delightfully powerful and emotional
The Sea is Baltasar Kormákur's second movie as a director. He showed real prospect with his debut, 101 Reykjavik, and now he's ensembled a big part of Iceland's most respected actors for another shot at an Icelandic community. THis time he goes out into a small fishervillage and follows an emotional showdown in the village's richest family. I'm not going to reveal the whole plot at this point as not to spoil the experience of seeing the film. Instead i'm trying to share my experience of it.
Firstly, the acting and directing is quite something. Gunnar Eyjólfsson, a respected stage-actor, gets his first big movie-role here, and absolutely takes my breath away with his powerful performance. Hilmir Snaer Gudnason, the star of 101, establishes himself as one of Iceland's best actors. Actually, there are too many leading roles here to name them all, but there's nowhere a weak link in the cast.
The cinematography is very good, and does nothing but enhance the mood in the film. No flaws in editing, or any other technical aspect of the film.
The only minor flaws I noticed were that when the movie is reaching its climax, one tends to get a little confused, with all those characters and all, but it didn't really bother me much.
So, I saw this movie as extremely powerful, both visually and emotionally, with great musical score, real feelings, and a very black and cool humor.
Nine out of ten!!!
Event Horizon (1997)
The best horror flick of the Nineties
This is without doubt the most horrifying movie-going experience of my whole life!
(If you haven't seen it, and don't want to know anything about it, please stop reading)
Event Horizon starts off as a really spooky sci-fi thriller, but rapidly turns into the horror lane as the minutes pass by. There are some intensely powerful visuals in this movie, the Core is an unforgettable example of this. Actually, the whole ship is gracefully designed, and some gothic references in it only help to intensify the mood in the film.
The star cast does a brilliant job as well, with one of the best actors in the world, Sam Neill, at the helm. He proves it once again that he is THE BEST horror actor in the world today. (Just check out In The Mouth Of Madness and Snow White if you don't believe me:) He is maybe TOO convincing at some times... Laurence Fishburne is extremely cool as the captain of the rescue ship that encounters the Event Horizon. These two horrifyingly good actors are supported with some very good backup team. Joely Richardson, Sean Pertwee, Richard T. Jones, Kathleen Quinlan, Jason Isaacs and Jack Noseworthy all do their parts oversatisfyingly well!
The story is simple, but it doesn't mean it's not good. Event Horizon is a good demonstration of how you can do an extremely, terrifyingly good movie out of a fairly simple story.
There are many scenes in this movie I will never forget, such as all the Core scenes, the scene with Dr. Weir inside the panel-tunnel-room(?) and many others.
If you want to have a good, relaxing time in front of the telly with your mom and dad, DON'T see this movie!!! If you're looking for THE horror film to watch in your home-cinema DVD system on a dark and stormy night, this is the one.
P.S. The score in the Event Horizon is a co-work of Michael Kamen and Orbital. Now, that's what I call first-class horror flick music!!!