Tag Archives: Mystery

I, Robot (2004)

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“I, Robot” is very, very loosely based on Asimov’s concept and stories, and, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t hate it. As a matter of fact, I had a real blast. The first point this had up for it was the fact it was directed Alex Proyas, Proyas is the director of two of my favorite films of the past fifteen years, the first one being the imaginative and beautifully morbid film “Dark City”, and one of my favorite films of all time “The Crow” a marvelous ode to the legacy of Brandon Lee, one of my film icons. Proyas is one great underrated director and he puts his skills to work in this wild and fun but still thought-provoking film. Will Smith plays Dell Spooner, an officer for the now futuristic Chicago who despises robots. The problem with his hatred for them is that they’re everywhere now under servitude as tools for humans like a utensil.

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Saw (2004)

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“Saw” is quite possibly the horror film I’ve been waiting for for years. It’s sick, twisted, disgusting, tense, gory, shocking, and claustrophobic. This does not start off with comforting the audience and easing them into the story, it opens in which one of the men named Adam (Leigh Wahnell) emerges from a bathtub of water screaming and meets Dr. Lawrence Gordon who is basically in the same boat. Playing like a “Sunset Boulevard” meets “Se7en” we see the story of both men and what led up to their capture and why they’re there.

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The Grudge (2004)

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2004_the_grudge_009The remake of “Ju-On” now called (sigh) “The Grudge” is the perfect example of faulty westernization in which the translated work suffers in the translation and completely misses the point of the original. The original had the surprise ending which makes you re-assert your thoughts on the characters, while the remake has the “You thought the monster was dead, but its not!” ending that I yawned at.

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Gothika (2003)

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gothika-2“Gothika” is never sure if it wants to be a supernatural thriller, a psychological thriller or a murder mystery, and that’s pretty difficult to discern through the clichés and obvious plot devices given to the audience non-stop. Every bit of scenery is murky, dim, dull, bland, and dreary to create the effect of suspense, and while scenery matters with setting a mood in horror films, it’s also up to the director to set it, and here it seems the director relies only on scenery, scenery that is so predictable and hard to swallow. There’s the dark and stormy night (check), the cheap shocks that will presumably keep the audience more annoyed than actually scared (check), the very loud score intent on keep the audience in suspense when nothing follows (check!), especially in one really stupid moment where Berry’s character etches her way down a dark basement, and as she opens the door, the score goes slowly up higher! And higher! And higher! Until–! Nothing.

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Shattered Glass (2003)

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172146__shattered_glass_l“Shattered Glass” is the fact based drama about the newspaper “The New Republic”, a small time barely known news magazine for Washington that offered news articles about world events and finance. The magazine, while struggling, did have a flourishing and passionate staff of reporters and journalists, one of them being Stephen Glass, a young likable reporter who always has a new story, during meetings, he pitches to the editors which always goes to print. “Shattered Glass” is based on the real events that occurred in 1995 – 98 in which reporter Stephen Glass was discovered to have been fabricating articles over a long period of his career.

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Ju-on (2002)

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tumblr_lllufztwtJ1qh2jlmo1_500“Ju-On” is a sheer test of terror, tension, and heightening suspense, and director Takashi Shimizu who also writes the script gives some inspiring direction that echoes Hitchcock’s directing style of silence and horror within everyday aspects. Though the haunted house movie has been done as far back as movies have been around, Shimizu does one hell of a job with the formula creating not a movie with ghosts, but demons. Starting off with a gritty and frightening sequence in which a man murders a woman, her cat, and proceeds to make his way up to a young boy, and we skip to present day where we watch victim after victim fall under the unrelenting spell of the demonic entities that live in the house.

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Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)

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spy_kids_3_d_game_overWell, it’s clear by this series that Robert Rodriguez has had his influences. The first film was a throwback to the old spy movies, the second was a throwback to Ray Harryhausen and Indiana Jones, while this is more of a throwback to that amusing science fiction yarn “Tron”, that other yarn “Running Man”, and the unknown gem “Star Wars” (har har). This has been just an adorable exciting fun series with adorable stories and adorable kid actors, and this is no exception.

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