Rhinoceros Eyes review

category: review, film, dvd

I've been looking forward to seeing Aaron Woodley's "Rhinoceros Eyes" since its release in 2003. Five years later and I finally got my chance as it was just recently released on dvd.... finally. I had read a review on the film that had heightened my expectations. Were they met? Absolutely.

Rhinoceros Eyes is a fantastical coming-of-age story revolving around Chep (Michael Pitt), a young, reclusive prop-house employee who falls in love with a detail-obsessed movie production designer named Fran (Paige Turco). Fran's need for authentic props sends Chep to great and questionable lengths as he tries to satisfy her requests, and ultimately...win her heart.

Pitt's performance is absolutely stellar as the idiot savant playing a recluse in the prop shop unwilling to leave it's safety and the fantasy world it is. After meeting his love interest, Chep's line between what is real and what is not rapidly deteriorates. He is unable to distinguish what is actually happening and what is in his head. Living in a warehouse of props doesn't help the situation as the props begin to form into some sort of living creature (done through some fantastic prop animation) that trys to convince Chep of what he must do. It's interesting to watch the transformation of the "prop creature" grow larger and more human-like as Chep dives further and further into the fantasy world. This "prop creature" also bears a lot of resemblance to the bunny in Donnie Darko and the voice actually sounds quite similar.

A very odd and rewarding experience. Much of this movie also reminded me of another one of my favorite's; "Buddy Boy". For my taste, everything in this movie was done right. It has elements of horror, drama, fantasy, thriller, and mystery. It's all there and put together quite well with great performances all around. The setting, lighting and direction are all top notch. Highly recommended to those of you that like your films a bit on the odd side.

Oh, and by the way, there is the best Halloween mask i have ever seen in this movie and the director uses it so so well. The look on the masks face is absolutely perfect for the parts in which it is worn and absolutely hilarious at the same time.

Alone review

category: review, dvd, foreign

I'll say right off the bat that I had high expectations for the new Thai thriller "Alone" from the directing duo that brought us the phenomenal and truely frightening "Shutter" film.

The story consists of two girls who were born siamese twins; joined at the hip.... errr.. actually with a flab of skin that connects to the middle of their stomachs but stretches far enough that they can sit side by side? Anyways, the story begins with one of the twins grown up after having been seperated years earlier and we find out that one of the twins had died. So, living in another city now, we find out her mother is ill and she needs to travel back home with her husband to tend to her. Well it appears the dead sister is not so happy and is doing some good ol' fashion asian horror jump scares to freak her and her mother out. I say jump scares because there may be one or two creepy moments but this film plays mainly to the quick jump scares. It trys to build the characters and obviously is building to a twist as they all must do. Problem here is the twist is quite obvious and I was able to figure it out within the first quarter of the movie. So I spent the rest of the movie waiting for the inevitable to happen between a mildly entertaining story and the occasional jump scare. The film itself looks good, well filmed... in my opinion it seemed like the directing team was going for the Tale Of Two Sister's feel with the direction, setting, cinematography and even the story to an extent. It's not a terribly bad movie, in fact, it's better than most j-horror type movies. It's just that it's all been done before and done better. No new ground covered here.

Worth a rent whenever it becomes available in the U.S. but not worth the price to order the R3 Hong Kong version like I did as I don't think i'll be watching this again.

Quick Review: The Bank Job

category: quick review, theatrical, U.S.

With all the garbage playing in the theaters right now I opted to attend a screening of a little heist film called The Bank Job starring Jason Statham. Nothing ground breaking here. Just an amusing little caper with the usual twists and turns. The clever part is how everyone this bank robbery is affecting seems to be much more of a criminal than the actual people pulling off the robbery. The director opts for the light hearted feel in the beginning, then getting into some pretty dark territory and back to light again. Not very consistent causing the film to lose a little of it's identity. Based on the choices you have at the theaters right now, i'd say this is one of your best bets.

Dead Daughters review

category: dvd, review, foreign

Russian film, Dead Daughters, from newcomer Pavel Ruminov is a ghost story horror. The story goes like this: There were three dead daughters, their mom drowned them, they were pissed, came back from the dead to kill their mom, they're still pissed so they stick around to kill more. They follow around a person for three days and if that person does something bad they kill that person and then follow the person that saw the that person alive last. Kinda remind you of watching a video and days later you die? Ring? Very similar premise. Although this doesn't deliver as well as The Ring did.

On the positive side, it is very well filmed with good use of lighting and natural lighting. The sound design is very nice taking full use of surround sound to build tension. However, the tension never goes anywhere. It appears the director wants to build quite a few times but as soon as it's getting good it cuts to another seen. He wants to imply whats going on rather than showing it. This works for some films such as The Sword Bearer which i recently reviewed but not this one. There is no story. The history of the ghosts are laid out at the beginning and the whole film follows these characters around until their impending death arrives. Only one of the characters decides to dig more into the story of the daughters to find something out that could save her. This is the directors first feature length film. Before this he had only done short films. This could of been a good short as only about fifteen minutes of the movie kept my interest.