wismerhill Reviews

REC (2007)

Great movie!

[9/10 · 15 June 2008]

I just get back from seeing this movie, and in one simple phrase: one of the best horror flicks I have ever seen. Fortunately, I didn't know anything about REC before seeing it and I'm glad for that. The less you know, the better. You'll spot lots of references to others movies, like The Descent, 28 Days Later and The Blair Witch Project.

Just know that the entire movie is shot in first person, through one of the characters' video cam. The film is well done! Special effects are effective and stay away from CGI. Actors are good to me. Even though I saw the film in Spanish, and they just play differently (lots of hand waiving, they shout and get excited easily), they really felt right and scarred to death. The script won't give you a second to breath and calm down once the film is rolling. Some scenes are just creepy as hell because you don't see much, you don't know what's going on and there's something down the corridor that is screaming like an animal. aarrgh The tension build-up is top-notch and the end climax is an horrific masterpiece.

JCVD (2008)

A pleasant surprise

[8/10 · 4 June 2008]

JCVD is an excellent surprise. It's a kind of dramatic comedy where Jean-Claude Van Damme plays with great conviction his own role in life. This starting postulate, to tell a passage of the life of a movie-star on the decline by the person himself, makes the movie sail between fiction and autobiography. This original and ambiguous concept propels the script in a tasty, funny and tragic reality/fiction realm. One can think sometimes of Pulp Fiction.

The famous movie-star, Jean-Claude, is surprisingly right and touching. Van Damme plays here the role of his life, in all the senses of the words. There will be a before and an after JCVD. The central monologue of the film, a rare feat of ingenuity, a long one-shot sequence of the star made up of his doubts and his anguishes, is bound to become a classic.

The film is however not perfect. The flashbacks are well carried out but some scenes seen twice can be somewhat long and would have been improved by being shortened a bit the second time around. This saved time would have made it possible to develop the supporting characters, like the police chief, a bit more. Speaking of supporting characters, those are somewhat caricatures and with one dimension.

JCVD reveals itself as an excellent surprise. Far from being a hollow marketing ploy, this film, probably the best of Van Damme, is a true success that deserves to be seen.

The question now is what will Van Damme do next?

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

Disapointing

[2/10 · 17 December 2002]

As a lot of people has already said, this is a poor sequel. Plot is weak, there is your average teenagers without any personality. Sex and murder are shown in a so conventional way, nothing like the twisted views in Hellraiser.