depicted, and even though CameronDiaz was a little unconvincing as apickpocket, she was tolerable, as wasLeonardo di Caprio. Bestperformance was Daniel Day Lewis. Abit like one of Scorcese’s gangstermovies such as GOODFELLAS, but inan earlier time period, with somebrutal killings. My partner thoughtthere was too little characterredemption but it didn’t bother metoo much. Highly recommended.
The Beach
: While watching this,realised I’d seen it before. It hadmade so little impact on me that I’dforgotten it completely. It does havea sort of Lord-of-the-Flies crossedwith Heart-of-Darkness via BrettEaston Ellis theme, but overall – nup!Not hardcore enough. Onlyrecommended if shark attacks aregoing to freak you out, and you enjoyLeonardo di Caprio – I find him OK myself.
Rosemary’s Baby:
Watched thisagain recently. It still holds up as agood thriller of evil witches. Some of the dream sequences are great andhave that real oneiric quality of thebest early Polanski movies.Recommended if you’ve never seenit.
The Prestige
: Another movie Iloved. Based on Christopher Priest’snovel. Priest has written some of themost amazing fantasy novels, whichoften hinge on identity switches,such as THE GLAMOUR and THEAFFIRMATION. I am also a huge fan of his ‘Dream Archipelago’ stories. Themovie was somewhat different fromthe book but still fairly entrancing, Ithought. My brother Kent, who is areal-life stage magician, enjoyed iteven though it’s not one hundredpercent accurate in regard to somehistorical facts (e.g. Chung Ling Soo).David Bowie was curious as Nikola Tesla – not a bad performance.Highly recommended – you have tosee it rather than hear about thestory.
The Haunted Palace
: Strangely,had never seen this Lovecraftadaptation from the 1960’s, directedby Roger Corman, until I recentlyobtained it on DVD. Not bad – bettermade than the Corman Poe versions,and despite being allegedly titledafter a Poe poem, basically areworking of Lovecraft’s CASE OFCHARLES DEXTER WARD. Some goodstuff about the Elder gods in a couplascenes, and there is a copy of theNecronomicon about. Vincent Pricegives an excellent performance. Though the script by fantasy/horrorgreat Charles Beaumont strugglesvaliantly with the material, itultimately becomes a tale of Price’srevenge upon the villagers of Arkhamfor burning him at the stake – notenough about the thing in the pit andthe “Essential Saltes” of Lovecraft’sbook are left out entirely. For a betterversion of CDW, Dan O’Bannon’s THERESURRECTED is still the go. But theultimate version remains to be made.
Silent Hill.
Quite enjoyed this, eventhough it’s based on a game and Iusually don’t like game-basedmovies. Very Clive Barkerish darkimagery. Got confusing at the end,but still maniacal horrorentertainment.
The Scarlet Letter.
Well-acted,straight version of the NathanielHawthorne story. Never cared muchfor Demi Moore but she was OK inthis, as was Gary Oldman.Considerably like The Crucible, whichI had seen not long before – hardlysurprising as they are both set in thesame New England era.
Lie With Me.
An erotic drama whichpromised quite a bit but wasultimately somewhat uninvolving.
Hostel:
Haven’t seen many of therecent crop of horror movies such asSAW etc. I thought I’d check this outto see what I’ve been missing in thegraphic horror department. Apartfrom the fact that the poster onesees for it, with an image of anelectric drill in a man’s mouth, is notactually anywhere in the movie, thefilm is more or less what it promisesto be. Unfortunately 9as in so manymovies where odious Americanteenagers are slaughtered), we don’tcare enough about the characters. The violence is graphic enough, butthe ending more or less cops out – asimple revenge ending. I wasencouraged to see this by a lengthreview which called it postmodernisthorror, but I think the reviewer washaving himself on.
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