DaViD´82

A parody from the old days when the genre was not only based on copied scenes of more famous colleagues and a lot of banging heads and farting...

This sequel to an already pretty mediocre picture turned out just as you would expect. In other words, so B-grade that it’s painful. The screenplay has its brighter moments, but that doesn’t apply to the director and the editing. A good indication of Lussier’s qualities is the fact that he is convinced that when he films a scene that costs a lot of money, it should be repeated over and over. The falling piano is just “great". The cast is awful and the desperate efforts of Fillion do nothing to change that. This movie could have been a good average if it weren’t for the closing quarter hour which is seriously flipped.

One flat, no script, hectolitres of blood, a couple of hamsters, a lot of uninteresting shenanigans and above all one long bland and completely condensed borefest. One star for the closing “joke”. Er, did I mention the hamsters?

The best part of this comes before the opening credits, but even that is pure “Boo!" standard. What then follows is unwatchable and absolutely awful. And I hope the creators weren’t taking the movie seriously, because if they were being earnest, that would make this even worse. Unfortunately it isn’t bad in a way that would make it funny...

An unlikeable main protagonist and slow pace are the main shortcomings of this otherwise really endearing movie. A special treat for Vincent Price...erm Peter Vincent fans. It is a little slow in the first half, but it gets going nicely in the second half. Relaxing entertainment by fans from fans.

Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. Isn’t that enough? An above-par script. You want more? Sure-handed direction. Still not enough? So here's Glass's traditionally perfect souondtrack. If the aforementioned pros are not enough to give you a highly above average viewing experience, then I really don't know what more you want…

The short that kicked off the whole Saw madness. It seems like a demo version of the “regular" Saw. A bit scruffy, but that is expected in a short and so the idea and the atmosphere are more important than technical aspects and acting performances. And this very same scene appeared almost unchanged in the feature-length version and there all aspects of it had been tidied up. Simply Jigsaw and his first survival game.

Rightly a cult picture with a powerful atmosphere, several perfect scenes that will remain in your mind for long after and three flawless acting performances. The filming is very low-key, but at the same time so raw to the point of being unbearable. Depression in its purest, “unembellished" movie form. Henry is definitely not a “feelgood" movie and you will carry its mood away with you after the movie ends... and that’s good.

Compared to the American remake, this British version is slightly more restrained and has great assets in the form of Martin Freeman and a toned-down Ricky Gervais. However, I found the rest of the cast better in the US version. The humor is surprisingly in a similar vein in both versions, but the American relies more on gags, especially later on in the series. Which is probably due to the greater number of episodes. But both versions work pretty well.

It’s no great surprise that the Master didn’t really like this movie. Although it seems that there isn’t much to fault here. It is marvelously filmed, as always, in terms of acting, this is certainly high above average and, not just the story, but also the original dream sequence by Dali is captivating. What brings Spellbound down a few pegs is the rather surprising screenplay. Unfortunately, the final denouement is pretty obvious right from the very beginning. This predictability might not have mattered at all, if the movie weren’t a few dozen minutes longer than it should have been. Of course, this is no great disappointment, but nor is this an above average Hitchcock. This is rather mediocre in terms of his filmography, but it is still a quality work in comparison with other contemporary productions; for instance the one-year younger case of plagiarism in the shape of Shock with Vincent Price.