dibot Blog

30 Days of Night spends plenty of time setting the scene. We get to feel how remote the town is, how cut-off from the rest of the world. There's an attempt at character development. The friend I saw it with thought it was slow paced. I thought it was awesome. The blood against the snow was very striking. There were jump scares and tension. The vampires freaked me out. I liked the camera work, it seemed sort of hand held, but not so I'm-going-to-be-sick-shaky. Josh Hartnett ("Resurrecting the Champ") is well suited for his role as the sheriff of this small town who suddenly has to deal with all manner of horrors. He's not a bad-ass. But he gets things done. Ben Foster ("3:10 to Yuma") turns in another excellent character this year as a wanna be vamp who does their dirty work. This movie also gave me nightmares. And that hasn't happened since 28 Days Later. Highly recommended.

Gone Baby Gone is just further proof that the real actor in the family is Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"). Little Affleck gives an excellent performance as a private investigator hired to help search for a missing girl. Then the plot twists and turns. All sorts of weird characters show up, including Morgan Freeman ("Feast of Love")'s police chief and Ed Harris ("Touching Home")'s angry detective. And it's sad and wonderful. Big brother Ben Affleck ("Smokin' Aces") directs his first feature film and pulls it off pretty well. A few scenes were a little heavy handed (the part where little Affleck is putting it all together), but mostly well done. Please stay behind the camera Ben. Please.

It Runs in the Family was pretty lame to have so much talent attached to it. All the Douglas' and a Culkin, I mean, come on. A dysfunctional family has to learn to get along. You've seen it all before and done better.

Rabid is just further proof that David Cronenberg ("Eastern Promises") is a genius. This is of his early still mostly horror days, but it's moody and creepy. There are zombie-like vampires and a piercing nipple. Some parts are very disgusting. Some parts are funny. But it does contain one of his running themes, how technology can turn man into a monster. Very interesting.

This will probably be a rant.

The DVD of Tideland starts with an introduction by director Terry Gilliam ("The Brothers Grimm") where he tells us that many of us will not like the film and many of us will not understand it. And then he says that some will love it. Also, it seems that Gilliam has a small girl inside him. I don't know that that's really a surprise. But, by starting out with the negative, I got the feeling that he was saying that this was a mess of a film and his intro was just a ploy to stem criticism by implying that the audience who did not enjoy the film just wasn't smart enough to understand his vision. Well, f you, Mr. Gilliam. I don't want my films to come with an explanation or an apology. And I don't like my intelligence to be insulted before I even get a chance to delve into the movie.

So the whole 122 minutes, I had the taint of this intro in my mind and I got angrier and angrier as this mess of a movie played out. The story, and I use the term loosely, follows a young girl with horrible parents who die and then she has to fend for herself. So she creates an imaginary world. This fantasy Gilliam develops for her is in no way original. It's a blatant rip-off of Alice in Wonderland with hints of every other famous kid's story, The Secret Garden,  Beatrix Potter,  The Wizard of Oz, to name a few. All the adults are horrible, over-acting and extremely messed up. The young girl, Jodelle Ferland ("Good Luck Chuck"), is forced to do a Southern accent as well as several other voices which she is just not capable of pulling off.

On a side not, I'm sick of Southern characters being trashy and unbalanced.

Then the little girl, and I'm not sure how old she's supposed to be, 10 at the oldest, starts seducing a retarded man. It's f-ed up and for no reason. There's no point. Nothing happens for what seems like hours at a time. And when an action does occur, it is ridiculously implausible.

I hated this movie so much that Gilliam, who I usually have some affection for, is now on the bus. And it will take a whole lot of convincing from people I trust to even get me to approach one of his films in the future.

I do give this film one point for some excellent visuals. But they are not worth putting yourself through the torture of the story line.

Superfly is my second blaxploitation film. I liked it better than Sweet Sweetback, but it's still not my cup of tea. The main character is a cocaine dealer planning one big sale before he gets out of the business. The story is okay. The acting average. But the soundtrack is magnificent. Curtis Mayfield is amazing.