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Reviews
Last Night (1998)
Great way to end the world.
This movie is underexposed and underrated, a true sleeper. Don McKellar brings the end of the world down to earth in, what is to me, a masterpiece.
The time is now, the place is Canada, and the event is, quite literally, the end of the world. The movie serves more as a character study, showing us a range of human behaviour, and seemed to beg the question "How would you spend your last day on Earth?" McKellar's performance is priceless as a guy who just wants to be left alone. But even at the end of the world, he is plagued with the daily annoyances of life.
The film's story lines weave a tapestry that make the end of the world seem not so bad. The performances are fantastic, especially Sandra Oh. David Cronenberg pops up as a power company employee making calls to customers to assure them the company will keep the lights on as long as possible, one of the many examples of how people, even at the end, cannot break out of the norms of the life.
Fantastic movie. (Note that the widescreen version is only available on DVD from a Canadian distributor).
Horrors of War (2006)
Nice indie genre picture
I was visiting a friend in Columbus last week, and happened to catch a mention of this picture. We went not really knowing much about it, but have since found the web site. Bloody great stuff there.
As for the film, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As a fan of independent cinema, and of all types of genre films, this was refreshing. It was clear in watching the film that the filmmakers were working as true independents with a love of film and film-making.
Obviously done with a with a less-than "Hollywood" budget, this picture is nonetheless ambitious and delivers. The performances were solid, with a balance of internal human performances along side scenes that call for old-school Hollywood stalwart heroism. Nicely done.
The trappings of the film, the uniforms, weapons, vehicles, etc., along with the special effects and CGI work... all very nice - real production value here. Surprising to see on this level in that they really went for realism. I've seen a LOT of indie genre films, and when they use CGI, digital effects, makeup effect, and all of that, they usually go way over the top....or it just plain looks bad. Not so with Horrors of War. These guys made the effects work for their film and stayed within the realm of realism not accounting for werewolves and super soldiers, that is. :) What I also found interesting about this film was that it plays as much as a war drama as it does a scifi/horror picture. The main characters of, Schmidt and Russo I think) are very well drawn, and are given dimension and depth which feels reel (kudos to the actors). I also liked the range of supporting characters, a staple of any good war movie. The young sergeant and the sniper were strong as was the "bad" captain, and the rest of the team brings a lot of personality to the picture.
Overall, this was a well-made little indie genre gem. These guys really have it together. Hats off.