If you’d like to see how far Patrick Rea has come as both a visual storyteller, a creative storyteller and a filmmaker, than you really should look no further than “Time’s Up, Eve” a masterfully well told noir yarn that meshes genres to spin a rather creepy and compelling story. Rea has always been a very sharp and skilled director with a keen eye for the gritty and morbid, but “Time’s Up, Eve” is so far his best film with a sheer sense of atmosphere and dread mixed with a noir tone that is stunning.
Tag Archives: Drama
It's Not All Fucked: A "28 Days Later" Tribute
Frank lives by hope even if his daughter Hannah has no hope thanks to the death of her mother, and his is infectious as he spreads this radio frequency offering salvation to survivors to his new friends begging them to believe in this new world, and they have no choice but to seek it out or remain in this city where hope has all but deteriorated in a sea of dead bodies, and massive skyscrapers that now look like tombstones for the dead. Frank’s entrance in to the fold is true heroism and one that is based around his hope for life in a world void of it and hoping to gain their trust allowing for caretakers in the event of his demise. For a man whose seen nothing but chaos, he is shockingly high spirited and provides his new guests with smiles, pats on the backs and giggles because it’s about all he can do to keep up the morale of his daughter who has seen the world die before her eyes. He even keeps their gold fish alive in the wake of their clear lack of any water, in spite of his best efforts to grab some on the knowledge of a television show he’d seen one night. Jim and Selena can’t help but be charmed by his determination and unflinching grasp for some new world out there beyond their reaches, and they go for it with an old taxi Frank claimed in the midst of the carnage.
It's Not All Fucked: A "28 Days Later" Tribute
Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” came along at a very tough time in my life. Like most movies that are around during difficult periods in your life, they tend to have a very important impact and influence on your mood and overall outlook on your fate. Around the time “28 Days Later” was released, I was about to go in to open heart surgery. And while my survival rate was very high we were all considerably on edge. I remember that year my dad took us to see “Terminator 3” in theaters to cheer us up, and on the way home we bought the bootleg VHS for “28 Days Later” which didn’t work. Days later I was able to obtain another copy with crisp quality and indulged in one final incredible horror movie before I went under the knife and endured an excruciating week in recovery that involved sleepless nights, aches, and a hospital ward waiting to see if I’d slip in to an infection or heart failure at any minute.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Much like Tim Burton’s most recent films, “Sweeney Todd” looks brilliant, but beyond that you’d be hard pressed to find any material here worth taking home with you. Like Burton’s previous films, there’s not much beyond the gorgeous coating of colors and tones, it’s all hollow inside filled with one-dimensional characterization and actors so out of their element it’s astounding. While Depp is gritty as Sweeney Todd he can’t carry a single tune to save his life, so Burton and co. rely on him talking as he sings to mask the fact that he can’t truly vocalize. The same can be said for Helena Bonham Carter who is just average as a singer and nonetheless very forgettable as a character.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Much like almost every horror fan out there, I’ve seen “Night of the Living Dead,” and had my cherry busted by it when I was five. Since being in the public domain, Romero’s movie has been open to many, many re-workings, one of which occurred in 1990 when his protégé Tom Savini got the wild idea to remake “Night of the Living Dead,” and you know what? It wasn’t bad. In fact his remake stands as one of the better remakes of a Romero film to date, and Savini enlists much of the same dread and horror and instills it with a bleak tone of greens and dark blues to invoke a film that’s quite gritty, bleak, and hopeless even in spite of changing a lot of character actions and increasing the tension. It also helps that he enlists the talents of special effects guru Gregory Nicotero to turn the walking dead in to shambling harbingers of death that I still have difficulty looking at to this day. The song is almost like what you’ve heard in the original.
Splice (2010) (Combo Pack)
Vincenzo Natali’s “Splice” was one of my favorites of 2010. It’s a surefire Frankenstein tale about two scientists on the precipice of creating not only a brand new species but a brand new gender. When they venture in to the depths of their scientific realm and work outside the confines of their regulated laboratory, they soon discover that they’ve created the ultimate being. Named Dren, she is a pure unadulterated force of nature, both of the emotional and the sexual. What begins as a science experiment gone awry soon turns in to a clear cut case of God Complex coming in to fruition as characters Clive and Elsa (ignore that clunky reference, and you’ll be fine) attempt to create a life, still stifled by their ability to do so in a relationship filled with ambition and mutual respect, but little to no intimacy.
Red, White & Blue (2010)
I honestly had no idea what to expect going in to “Red, White & Blue” mainly because Simon Rumley’s horror thriller is an animal that’s impossible to peg down. It’s a character study, a thriller, a romance, a drama, and a slasher movie all rolled in to one little package of pure excellence that takes a long time to really roll. I admittedly found myself impatient and restless while watching, but for horror fans expecting an all out balls to the wall gore fest, patience is your best friend. You’ll thank yourself later.