LionelM Reviews

Carrie (1976)

Lacking in... everything.

[23 February 2002]

For those who have not read the book by Stephen King, this movie may come off as fairly interesting. For those who HAVE read the book, it may disapoint. Don't get me wrong, it followed the novel... as well as a movie could.

The book is fascinating, because of the way it's written. Believe it or not, the plot is rather thin... but the writing is brilliant. It switches off from 3rd person, to Carrie's point-of-view, to "articles" supposedly taken from local newspapers after the fact. This redeeming quality of the novel cannot be transferred to film... so all the movie could possibly have to go on is a flimsy plot and a reasonably-sized budget.

The adaption lacks character developement, and often contains overly dramatic "dun dunn duunnnn" style musical-stings, which makes it seem more like an episode of a 70's sitcom than a horror movie.

I must give credit to Carrie (Sissy Spacek), for doing such a wonderful acting job with what she was given (nothing).

OVER-ALL: As good as a movie adaption of Carrie could've been, which isn't very good at all. 4/10

Domestic Disturbance (2001)

Quite decent.

[18 November 2001]

To start off, I enjoyed "Domestic Disturbance". I found it kept me shaking and on the edge of my seat through-out the entire film (which was rather short, by the way).

ACTING: As you probably already know, this film has some of the best-in-the-biz. Including such stars as John Travolta and Vince Vaughn, alongside newcomer Daniel O'Leary. Travolta decently played the good-guy divorced father, trying to protect his teenage son from an apparent murderer.

The murderer/stepfather was played typically by Vaugh who's portrayed serial killer roles in other movies such as "Clay Pigeons" and the remake of Hitchcock's classic thriller, "Psycho". And on to the young victim of mayhem...

Daniel O'Leary. A relatively good child actor who convincingly plays a stressed, frightened teen boy seems the perfect choice, with his convicingly frightened facial expressions.

All in all good acting. Mainly on Vaughn and Travolta's part.

STORY/WRITING: The movie flails mainly in this category. Thrilling, edge-of-your seat thriller until un-eventful ending. I'll try not to give it away, but it's a tad rushed.

The story isn't all-to origional, nor is anything else in this film. The dialogue is mediocre. Basically the entire script is pretty mediocre...

DIRECTING: Very nice direction. The director's dark, creepy style carries the movie along swiftly. If this director had been given a better script, with the same actors, "Domestic Disturbance" could've achieved brilliance.

Once again, direction is a high-point in this film.

BOTTOM LINE: A good thriller. 7 out of 10 stars.