Two very very stupid characters dive head first into a barrage of ridiculous moves that ultimately get them in deep. That’s the difference between this and “Duel”. In “Duel”, the main character is an innocent man being torment, throughout this movie, the main characters ask for it. The reason why Paul Walker’s character doesn’t deck Steve Zahn’s character is beyond me. This is somewhat reminiscent of Spielberg’s “Duel”, though the two don’t compare. You never get to see the driver “Rusty Nail” much. I thought it increased the tension of the movie and made him very mysterious.
Tag Archives: Thriller
Wendigo (2001)
The film and entire story manages to orchestrate under the impression of a very long episode of “The Twilight Zone”, and carefully takes its time setting up the characters which, writer Larry Fessenden (who also directs, and edits) probably knew would ultimately affect the audience in a deep way. Hardcore horror fans probably will eventually become uneasy and impatient, but I was willing to sit through the entire film, because as the story progresses, I was very engrossed. Fessenden manages to skillfully craft a story of such sophistication, that no commercial Hollywood writer would have been able to think of it. Fessenden also manages to create some truly endearing, charming, and very realistic characters that the story revolves around, and I was very captured by the essence of the family.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
This is a long sweet breath of fresh air in the action genre, a genre I’m admittedly very tired of, and I welcomed this change of pace with an action film that has an actual plot. Adapted from the hit book by acclaimed author Robert Ludlum, this is an exciting and excellent spy-thriller starring the versatile Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, the amnesiac spy who must fight his way through CIA operatives, assassins, and French police. Until now, he’d usually done acclaimed dramas, but I must say that Damon handles this role very well.
Thirteen Ghosts (2001)
I have to say director Steve Beck’s treatment “Thirteen Ghosts” is not as bad as everyone says it is. Every movie buff knows that this is a remake of the cult-classic directed by famous director William Castle. I found this to be a very good horror flick and a fun ghost thriller. The premise and concept of the movie are basically the same. The family is trapped in a big house with ghosts you can only see with special glasses. There are different entities and personalities for each ghost, my favorite would have to be the Juggernaut.
John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)
So, yes, “Vampires” didn’t exactly turn out to be everything I’d hoped, and perhaps I was expecting too much from John Carpenter, and I admit to being a bit disappointed, but all the while “Vampires” while not one of Carpenter’s best, ends up becoming a fun exploration and view into Carpenter’s experimenting with the vampire genre. Very loosely based on the book “Vampire$” (sans John Carpenter moniker), the movie you see here was looked down upon by many fans of the book which happened to have a lot of satire, and happened to be more in the vein of “Scream” as in not taking itself too seriously, while its commentary on many social dilemmas and basic morals on good and evil, greed and its connections to morals, and this is the perfect example of what the Hollywood machine does to a good book, but it’s not to say this isn’t a good movie.
The Others (2001)
Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Others” is a surprise in a year filled with tepid, tripe we get over-hyped force-fed at the box-office. “The Others” is a very sophisticated anecdote of complex and well paced horror in a time where horror has plodded. The atmosphere and Gothic aesthetic feels like classic supernatural horror in the vein of Robert Wise’s “The Haunting,” with reliance on old school horror devices and unique elements of mystery and ambiguity rather than full CGI.
Spider-Man (2002)
“With Great power, comes great responsibility.” – Uncle Ben
Superhero and American icon, Spider-man is born finally in the new box-office smash movie directed by acclaimed and cult director Sam Raimi (Evil Dead). In case you don’t know the famous story, Peter Parker, a geeky photographer at his school who is constantly bullied and has eyes for the neighborhood good girl Mary Jane, is bitten by a hybrid radioactive spider on a field trip to a science lab. The next day, the effects make him a superhuman giving him all sorts of spider powers. Meanwhile, a new evil is born. Multi-millionaire, Norman Osborne, while trying to explore a new experiment, gets hit with a split personality and becomes insane with power. Now Spider-man must stop this new menace before the Green Goblin hurts the people Peter holds so dear.