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trojan4400
Reviews
Monkey Warfare (2006)
pretty good
Disregard comments from the disgruntled tiff attendee above (it's a shame a venue like IMDb sometimes acts as nothing more than a host for people with a tiny axe to grind).
This is a sharply written, well-acted little film. I say little, as it's obvious the budget was quite low. The director has a good sense of colour and of music. The performances are good all around. The humour is nicely laced into the situations presented in the script.
Some of his experimental cuts didn't work for me personally and the film as a whole may not be commercial enough for some, but the wryness of the writing and performances more than made up for that for me personally.
The Grudge (2004)
Took everything good from the original and wrecked it.
If there's ever a university course entitled 'How to mess up a fairly good movie by having Hollywood remake it', the grudge should be the course's main focus.
I was lucky enough to see the original just a few weeks ago and was drawn to see the remake, mostly because the original director was attached. This, as it turned out, was a mistake.
The Grudge takes everything unique, creepy and scary from the Japanese original and manages to make it mediocre. If you think I'm one of the naysayers who frequently trashes Hollywood films just for the fun of it, guess again.
Sam Raimi makes an all-too conspicuous cameo in the remake, miscasting himself and lowering what little tension exists by appearing goofy and out of place, not to mention that the guy is NOT an actor. Is ego why he casts himself? It can't be because he's the best candidate, can it?
The absolute scariest moment for me in the original (a character's encounter with the black-haired woman in the washroom) is a wasted, barely noticeable moment in this version and I'm not even getting to the horrible cgi... Hollywood thinks that by employing computer geeks to make something vaguely mysterious (the black form overwhelming the elderly woman in the original) all high tech actually makes it better?
Sorry guys, it didn't.
This movie is making money hand over fists, but as far as leaving anyone with anything but a bad taste in their mouths, it's done little else.
Sequel? CAN'T WAIT!