Archive for January, 2008
The Godzilla Project: A Few Thoughts on the Matter of Cloverfield
by Reverend Matt on Jan.31, 2008, under Godzilla Project
Tired of the jokes, the French take the Statue of Liberty back, slowwwwly
Cloverfield is an excellent horror movie.
It really works on a number of levels. The acting and dialogue are intelligent and believable; the pacing is gripping and speedy, without overdoing it; the camerawork, with its Blair Witch-like conceit, is very nicely done. Moreover, it is scary, and uses a wide variety of methods to achieve this scariness; indeed, virtually every method in the book, apart, thank Christ, from the something-jumps-out-suddenly method. There’s a scene in the darkness that is viscerally frightening, that hits you in the reptile brain. Then there’s the much-vaunted Statue of Liberty head, which really is marvelously effective, absolutely horrifying in a broad, conceptual sort of way. It is a very enjoyable movie, which succeeds in virtually everything it hopes to accomplish, and it is highly recommended.
What it is not is an especially good giant-monster movie.
Resident Evil: Extinction (Russel Mulcahy, 2007)
by Daniel Swensen on Jan.14, 2008, under Movies, Reviews
Perhaps the funniest moment in Resident Evil: Extinction appears in the extras, where Paul W.S. Anderson, a true god among hacks, claims that he single-handedly reinvented the zombie film . “No one made a zombie film for fifteen years before Resident Evil,” he boasts, a claim which even a cursory glance at any list of zombie films will quickly debunk. Bold pioneer that he is Anderson claims goes on to brag about his daring choice to shoot a zombie in the daylight… ground well-tread not only in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead twenty-nine years previous, but also in the 2004 Zack Snyder remake. Yeah, Paul. You’re a real ground-breaker.
Where, Frankly, Thousands Have Gone Before…
by Bill on Jan.05, 2008, under Television
The first thing I should probably note is that I am not a “trekkie”, although I have enjoyed watching Star Trek in almost every iteration. My fondest memories are of the original series, which I used to watch in reruns as a kid. Along with Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Robotech it was a show I would go out of the way to make sure I caught. That being said, I never went out of the way to obtain an encyclopedic knowledge of the Star Trek universe. In fact, for a long while I was much more of a partisan (as far as these things become divisive) of George Lucas’ Star Wars universe. But as I’ve grown older and watched more and more Star Trek, I’ve come to appreciate Roddenberry’s vision and those of his creative followers.
