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Reviews
Long Time Dead (2002)
Gripping thriller, dark, don't mess with ouija boards
Dark from the very beginning, and set in a dirty, dingy, depressing part of London, the film is quite unnerving and doesn't let up. Music, sound track and special effects are low key and very effective. The low budget suits the style and milieu.
We saw this film in the United Arab Emirates - the Jinn are spirits mentioned in the Qur'an - for people here, they really do exist, and are not to be messed with. Clear moral - don't mess with ouija boards!
Well done - by the way, to the people who complain about less than perfect camera work and the occasional boom mike visible - I don't care if the basic idea is good. This film is good and deserves to be watched and appreciated.
My horror connoisseur wife loved it - that's saying something.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
One of the worst films I have ever seen
Dazzling special effects, a sledgehammer soundtrack and
sumptuous costumes don't prevent this film from being among the
worst I have ever seen. The material would have been better used
in a series of pop videos.
A plot that would fit onto a postage stamp and mannekin
characters mean that there is nothing to draw you into the film
while the overblown over-the-top screen antics are in progress.
The film has about as much to do with fin de siecle Paris as a hot
dog - the time and milieu have been most unfaithfully recreated, in
fact it is a travesty of history. Why set the film in turn of the century
Paris if it's really set in the delusionary imagination of a Hollywood
film moghul in 2001?
Underneath all the hype, there are serious structural flaws in the
plot line and characterisation of this film which make it virtually
unwatchable.
I find it puzzling that so many reviews are so positive. What's going
on?
I was relieved when this film finally ended after over two hours, and
I was very glad I hadn't paid to see it. I saw this at a free preview in
the Filmworks Manchester UK on Wednesday 22 Aug 2001.
Drug Abuse (2000)
A drug dealer meets himself as a child and finally gets his comeuppance
He's nasty, he's selfish, he's a womaniser, a drug addict, a drug peddler and a murderer to boot. He takes pleasure in violence. He treats his girlfriend like dirt. Played by ex-Emmerdale actor Stuart Wade, he's a study in out and out nastiness, a bleach-haired, pill popping, fag smoking, gun toting, evil so and so. We see him at a party giving out pills and receiving sexual favours in return, as he leers at his girlfriend, played by Kirsty Doyle.
Cut to the bathroom, and a mutual friend tries to reason with her, and most unwisely, makes advances to her. Our drug dealer soon hears about it, and takes the unfortunate boy out onto Saddleworth Moor and brutally murders him.
Returning to the party with his gang, he tries to get back into the swing of things, but his girlfriend has sent all the revellers home. She wants revenge, and she has spiked his orange juice with drugs. He swills back the poisoned liquid without thinking.
Soon his head starts to spin and he embarks on a scary and disorientating journey into his own psyche. Sweating, he escapes the claustrophobia of the house and flees into the night.
Strange voices whisper to him and ghosts seem to appear out of nowhere. He is trying to escape an unknown unseen presence that seems bent on destroying him.
He is pursued in the tunnel under the railway line, and along an dark pathway through the woods. He climbs over a railing and falls seemingly endlessly through trees, ending up in a river.
All seems well as he enters a the comforting surroundings of a pub, but another ghost appears, and he realises the nightmare definitely isn't over.
Finally he gets his comeuppance, but maybe the ending should have been different.
Drug Abuse is shocking, poignant, and very violent. It's only about half the length of a feature film, but this low budget psychological thriller packs in more than many longer and more lavishly funded productions.
Stuart Wade is excellent as an archetypal violent bad guy, and Kirsty Doyle is perfect as his wasted and downtrodden girlfriend.
There are situations, and people, like this in real life. It's a tragedy, and director Stephen Gibbons has captured it all succinctly and powerfully.
Wild Side (1995)
Weird Christopher Walken and a great score make for an edgy and atmospheric film
It's addictive, once you get into it - Christopher Walken's Bruno uckingham - a multimillionaire money-launderer - is dangerous and unpredictable.
A casual sexual encounter between him and call girl Alex, played by Ann Heche, develops into a love triangle, or rectangle if you include Walken's obnoxious and predatory driver, played by Steven Bauer. The driver turns out to be working undercover. Walken's wife/girlfriend arrives on the scene and you have a passionate all female sexual encounter between her and the Ann Heche, who is also leading a double life.
But there's a scam going on - Bruno Buckingham plans to disrupt the banking system with a computer virus and use the opportunity to transfer millions of dollars of ill-gained funds. A sting is planned by the police, but will it be successful?
A simple plot, but complex encounters between various characters, captured on a hand-held camera, and with the beautiful and haunting background music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, make for a highly intriguing and watchable film, if you like this sort of thing (I do). I loved the momentary flashbacks of sex scenes in the character's head as she's in the office. A little bit quirky, like the films of director Nicholas Roeg.
Christopher Walken is remarkable, with his menacing and almost other-worldly on-screen presence. Ann Heche is captivating, and the love scenes between her and Buckingham's wife/lover, played by Virginia Chow, are quite passionate, and have the quality of a real encounter.
If you're expecting a simple dénouement, don't. As in real life things aren't cut and dry, though the ending is satisfying.
The Shining (1997)
A good version but I still prefer the 1980 film
The Shining (directed by Kubrick) is my favourite horror film of all time. The gradual and subtle descent into madness, Jack Nicholson's amazing performance, the expansive camerawork, the hotel as a malevolent character in itself... I saw it in 1980 in Berlin and have seen it several times since.
This version was shown on the UK's Channel 5 in June 2001. It's a respectable and commendable treatment. The 6 hour length allows scope for more depth and I'm told this version sticks fairly close to the novel.
Surprisingly the music is quite similar to the Kubrick version with its growling brass. The child's performance is amazing - how do American kids seem to act so well? I rarely see performances like this in films made here in the UK.
What spoils this movie for me is the over-use of stage make-up in the ghostly characters. Overall, the film has the feel of a 'made for tv' movie, while Stanley Kubrick's version looks like a spooky, scary, quirky, big screen shocker, with a more chilling and nailbiting ending than the later version.
I have to add that my 'significant other' Ann has read the novel and thinks this later version is superior to the Kubrick film.
I think both versions have their merits, but for me, 'The Shining' (1980) remains for me the all-time scariest movie.