Dollhouse: Stage Fright (season one, episode three)

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Rating 1

Created by Joss Whedon

Written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon

Directed by David Solomon

Starring Eliza Dushku (Echo), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Harry J Lennix (Boyd Langton), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Amy Acker (Claire Saunders), Enver Gjokaj (Lubov / Victor), Kevin Kilner (Joe Hearn), Jaime Lee Kirchner (Rayna Russell), Jim Piddock (Biz) and Graham Norris (The Fan)


When the life of singer Rayna Russell is put in danger by an obsessive fan, her manager, an old acquaintance of Adelle DeWitt, looks to the Dollhouse for help. Echo is programmed to be Rayna’s new backing singer and is also programmed with a sub-conscious need to protect her at all costs. A second “Active”, Sierra, is programmed to be the winner of a “Rayna’s Number One Fan” competition, allowing her to meet the singer and spend time with her.

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I was not particularly impressed by the first two episodes of ‘Dollhouse’, although I found the second one marginally more engaging than the opener, but I thought this third episode was, in the main, absolutely dreadful. I really did not like it at all.

Presumably, there is a little external message here about the nature of celebrity and also a twist on the old clichéd celebrity / obsessive fan relationship. I didn’t find it remotely interesting. We are also invited to view Echo’s life through that of Rayna, a trick that was used with much more élan in the season two ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ episode ‘Inca Mummy Girl’.

I am not quite sure what the purpose of the second “Active” Sierra was in all this, except that it was a rather heavy-handed way of continuing the storyline that is establishing an increasingly close link between her and Echo (thus the little secret sign between the two of them at the end of the episode, indicating an evolving consciousness outside of their programming). There is a scene in which Boyd Langton is talking to Sierra’s “minder” Joe Hearn, who tells him, “My girl only comes into play in an extreme scenario.” How extreme, exactly? Presumably, more extreme than being kidnapped by a deranged and seemingly homicidal stalker; more extreme than seeing Rayna’s life apparently being threatened, not only by this stalker, but also by Echo, in her guise as Jordan, the backing singer. It all seemed a bit naff and cack-handed to me.

At present, Topher Brink, the scientist who programmes the Actives, would appear to be a kind of watered-down mixture of Warren Meers and Andrew Wells from ‘Buffy’, personality wise. I am not able to get past that as yet, although he has the potential to be one of the more interesting characters. Claire Saunders is also quite an interesting character, and nicely played by Amy Acker, although I suspect I have already guessed where that storyline is going.

I think I am right in saying that ‘Stage Fright’ is generally deemed to be one of the season’s weaker episodes by a lot of fans. I am hoping it does not get any worse than this, because apart from a few vaguely interesting asides in the Dollhouse, I thought it was woeful, a real stinker. In the fullness of time, of course, it will probably be possible to re-appraise the episode in the light of a more complete picture of the overall narrative of the season, but at the moment this is all very poor and a long way below Joss Whedon’s best work.

Review posted 29 May 2009



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Dollhouse: The Target (season one, episode two)

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Rating 1¾

Created by Joss Whedon

Written and directed by Steven DeKnight

Starring Eliza Dushku (Echo), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Harry J Lennix (Boyd Langton), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard), Amy Acker (Claire Saunders) and Matt Keesler (Richard Connell)


Echo is imprinted to become the companion of a new Dollhouse client Richard Connell, joining him in a number of adrenalin-pumping activities out in the wilderness, but Connell plans to take things in an altogether more dangerous and terrifying direction. Paul Ballard continues to investigate the mysterious Dollhouse, despite the open antagonism of his FBI colleagues, and he receives an anonymous package containing a photograph of Echo, with her real first name “Caroline” written on the back. In a series of flashbacks we observe the aftermath of multiple violent deaths in the Dollhouse and the subsequent arrival of Boyd Langton as the personal “handler” for Echo, who survived the carnage without injury.

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The first episode of ‘Dollhouse’, the latest television series by Joss Whedon, the creator of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, did not engage me and when I tried watching it for a second time I gave up half way through. My partner, who also watched it on this occasion, described it as “turgid”, which is a not entirely unreasonable one-word summing up of the episode. Having said all this, I don’t want to dislike the show and I was sufficiently intrigued to take an early look at ‘The Target’, the second episode of this first season.

The writer and director here, Steven DeKnight, has worked with Joss Whedon previously, on both ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’. As such, I had some familiarity with his work, particularly via ‘Buffy’, including one of the most discussed and debated episodes of that show, ‘Dead Things’, from its sixth season.

‘The Target’ is constructed in a series of interconnecting scenes cutting back and forth between the past and the present; so that we constantly learn a little bit more as the episode progresses about how certain characters have arrived at this point in time. It’s a very familiar tried and tested formula and one that is executed adequately enough here.

I found that large chunks of it didn’t hold my attention and I became quite bored a lot of the time. This was particularly true of the action scenes out in the wilderness, which I have no doubt were intended to keep us on the edge of our seats, but almost had me reaching for the off button on the remote control. The various twists and turns were so easy to guess in advance that I began to wonder if I should be shouting at the television, “He’s behind you! ... No, don’t drink the water!”, etc, in traditional Christmas pantomime fashion. I should mention at this point that, when watching ‘Buffy’, a series I adore, I generally found the fight scenes least interesting, so it is not necessarily the episode that is at fault here, although it did all seem a little hackneyed.

Of greater interest was the unfolding of some more titbits about the ethical and moral issues surrounding the existence and activities of the Dollhouse. If more time is given over to this in future episodes and less time is spent on flashy, shallow, stereotypically genre-specific two-dimensional running around it would certainly make the series more interesting and enticing for me – more time spent inside the Dollhouse and less time spent out of it. At least Eliza Dushku’s last series ‘Tru Calling’ was quite fun to watch, something that I would not be able to say of ‘Dollhouse’ at this early stage.

I do wonder about the character Boyd Langton, who seems to openly express his qualms about the ethics of what the Dollhouse is doing. Given the nature of the organisation, why would they employ someone who is clearly not entirely on board with what they do? The possible argument that he is ‘the best at what he does’ does not wash, although that is all I can bring to mind at the moment. Also, for an organisation that appears to have enormous power and is able to remain invisible to anyone other than those it wishes to be known to, it seems to be all too easily fooled into accepting clients who are not what they say they are, suggesting abject incompetence or possibly just complacency. Undoubtedly more will be revealed in time.

I am not very convinced at the moment about Paul Ballard, the ‘Dollhouse’ equivalent of Fox Mulder, “the FBI’s most unwanted”, only with fewer quirks. It isn’t the character per se, just the ‘X-Files’-lite cliché of it all. Put simply, the “genius” of Joss Whedon is built up so much that it is constantly tempting to judge him, perhaps, more harshly, something I am sure I am guilty of, simply by comparing all of his subsequent work against the remarkably high standards of ‘Buffy’.

All in all, even though I was bored more often than not, I thought ‘The Target’ was a marked improvement on ‘Ghost’.

Review posted 25 May 2009



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Dollhouse: Ghost (season one, episode one)

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Rating 1½


Created by Joss Whedon

Written and directed by Joss Whedon

Starring Eliza Dushku (Echo), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Harry J Lennix (Boyd Langton), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard), Dichen Lachman (Sierra) and Amy Acker (Claire Saunders)


General: The Dollhouse is a secret organisation that offers its services to the rich and powerful. “Actives” in the Dollhouse have their memories wiped and are then imprinted with memories and personality traits taken from various real life sources to create a perfect match for the requirements of individual clients. Once each assignment or engagement is complete, the Actives are wiped of these new memories and once again become a blank canvas ready to be programmed for their next assignment.

Episode specific: Echo is programmed to be a tough and highly experienced negotiator when the young daughter of a client is kidnapped and held to ransom. However, Topher Brink, the scientist responsible for programming her, incorporates flaws as well as strengths into the memories of the Actives to make them more real, more complete, and on this occasion it seriously compromises her assignment. Echo’s “handler”, Boyd Langton, seems to have some qualms about the ethics of what the Dollhouse does, but these are not shared by Adelle DeWitt, who runs the operation, or Laurence Dominic, the head of security. In the meanwhile, Paul Ballard, an FBI special agent, is investigating this highly secretive organisation, which some believe to be a myth and others, like himself, are convinced is real.

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Joss Whedon was the creator of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, which began life as a 1992 feature film, released to generally unenthusiastic reviews and a comparatively uninspired box office gross. It was somewhat unexpectedly turned into a television series, initially on the now defunct WB network in America, for a total of seven seasons between 1997 and 2003. It is fair to say that ‘Buffy’, while it was not a huge ratings success, had a profound effect on many levels and it is widely regarded to be one of the best American television series of its time, if not of all-time.

In the aftermath of ‘Buffy’, Whedon was now established as one of the most talented and creative forces working in television. His previous credits included the acclaimed television series ‘Roseanne’ (he wrote four episodes during season two of the show) and the Academy Award nominated 1995 Disney film ‘Toy Story’ (he co-wrote the screenplay). He had also worked as a “script doctor”, contributing to films like ‘Speed’, ‘Waterworld’ and ‘Twister’. His subsequent work has included the ‘Buffy’ spin-off show ‘Angel’, which ran for a total of five seasons, and the acclaimed but short-lived ‘Firefly’, the premature cancellation of which caused considerable criticism of the Fox network.

In the days when ‘Buffy’ was still in production I considered myself to be a fan of Joss Whedon, but in recent times I think it would be more accurate to call myself a lapsed fan. While I consider ‘Buffy’ to be probably the best television series ever made and certainly one of my all-time favourites, I am not as fond of his other work. I quite enjoyed ‘Angel’, but not unduly so. There are very few episodes of that show I have watched more than once and a few I am still yet to see. I didn’t particularly like ‘Firefly’ and I actively disliked its feature film spin-off ‘Serenity’, which I actually watched three times, hoping to understand why it received such effusive praise. I failed. I also found myself feeling at odds with what I thought was over-zealous and sometimes counter-productive efforts by some fans to promote that film and sing its praises.

Whedon has a very loyal and active core fan-base. On the plus side, it is a tight-knit community in which countless lasting friendships have been formed and a quite considerable amount of effort has been put into not only finding novel ways to promote his work but also support causes that are close to his heart, meaning for example that the international human rights organisation Equality Now has benefited from the concerted efforts of those fans. Less commendable, perhaps, is the rather superior attitude displayed by some of them towards anyone who chooses not to watch Whedon’s television shows or dares to be in any way critical of his work – or is simply unaware of it. As an example, when discussing the relatively disappointing viewing figures achieved by the first season of ‘Dollhouse’ during its run on the Fox network, there was some criticism of “the ignorant masses” (to quote an expression used), including those who chose to watch the television series ‘Ghost Whisperer’. It was suggested that Joss Whedon’s fans belong to a select few who would have the necessary intellectual superiority needed to fully understand and appreciate his work. It is not so much the sentiment, as arrogant and impolite as it is, as the manner in which it is expressed that makes me find this attitude, which has also been present in relation to discussion of ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’, rather offensive and ill-informed and not just because I count myself amongst the ignorant masses. I sometimes watch ‘Ghost Whisperer’ and while I make no great claims for it, I enjoy it – and I am perfectly capable of identifying both its merits and flaws.

As a result of feeling, perhaps, slightly disenfranchised by these opinions, I was undoubtedly biased before even watching ‘Dollhouse’. While I had tried not to read too much about it, I was aware of the basic premise and it did not especially tempt me. I was also aware of the mixed reaction the series received in America. The early episodes were, generally speaking, not that well received, although it was widely agreed that the series improved dramatically later on during the season, especially from episode six onwards, with a few people going as far as to claim this might be Joss Whedon’s best show yet, although the concluding episode of this first season was greeted with mixed reviews.

Just over three months after the first episode aired in America the show has now arrived in the UK via the Sci-Fi Channel. The weekly average percentage share of total television viewers for this channel is around 0.2%, meaning that ‘Dollhouse’ is not destined to reach a wide audience over here at present. Out of mild curiosity and a residue of fondness for Joss Whedon, I watched the episode, expecting very little from it, particularly in response to some fairly mediocre reviews. One British critic, writing in the free London newspaper Metro, called it, “A bizarre marriage of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Grand Designs,” which made me laugh. In the event, although I almost switched off right at the very beginning in response to the unutterably naff motorcycle race scene, it was not as bad as I feared it might be. I wasn’t wowed by it by any stretch of the imagination, finding some of the dialogue decidely clunky (“Ever try to clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before.”), and it certainly did not stretch my avowedly unexceptional intellect to make sense of what was happening! I cannot pretend that I liked it much, finding it bordering on the tedious simply because it did not engage me, but within the constraints of its given genre, which it seemed to conform to rigidly, there are the seeds of what might be a potentially interesting concept.

Some observers have questioned whether Eliza Dushku, who has worked with Joss Whedon before in ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’, possesses a sufficiently honed acting range to successfully take on the lead role of a character who must constantly change and can never really develop instantly recognisable personality traits week in and week out. I thought her performance in this opening episode was okay. None of characters made a huge impression on me and the same would have to be said of the acting, which was clearly competent across the board. I do feel that Whedon occasionally has a tendency to write “English” characters in rather stereotypical two-dimensional terms and that feeling presented itself again whenever Olivia Williams was on the screen. This is strange in many respects, not least because Whedon lived in Britain and attended school here in his youth. However, I guess the character will develop as the episodes progress.

Had this not been a Joss Whedon show I think it very unlikely I would have watched this opening episode. Nothing I’ve seen so far makes me excited about watching future episodes, although I might try to at least check out the next one or two. I am not sure, however, that I will make it as far as the second half of the season, when, so it seems, things start to get interesting. In truth, there are other things I could be doing that, in all likelihood, will entice me more. We shall see.

It just remains to say that the Fox network has announced that it is renewing the show for a second season of thirteen episodes; good news for fans of Joss Whedon and of ‘Dollhouse’.

Review posted 20 May 2009 - minor changes made on 24 May 2009 after watching (part of) the episode for a second time



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Journey to the Centre of the Earth (2008)

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Rating 1


Directed by Eric Brevig

Written by Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, based on the novel by Jules Verne

Starring Brendon Fraser (Trevor Anderson), Josh Hutcherson (Sean Anderson), Anita Briem (Hannah Ásgeirsson), Jane Wheeler (Elizabeth Anderson), Seth Meyers (Alan Kitzens), Giancarlo Caltabiano (Leonard) and Jean Michel Paré (Max Anderson)


Professor Trevor Anderson, a volcanologist, teaches uninterested students at a Boston university. He learns that funding for his research has been stopped and then remembers at the last minute that his sister Elizabeth is bringing his 13-year-old nephew Sean to stay. Trevor last saw Sean, the son of his brother Max, who disappeared ten years previously, when he was seven. At first, Sean shows no interest in staying with his uncle, but when a box of old possessions belonging to his father reveals a dog-eared copy of ‘A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, with hand-scribbled notes in the margin that leads Trevor to rush back to his laboratory, they soon find themselves on a flight to Iceland. Hannah Ásgeirsson, a mountain guide, whose late father was a volcanologist who had worked with Max, acts as their guide, but a storm traps them in a cave and from there they find themselves heading to the centre of the earth, where they discover that the wild theories of Trevor’s brother and Hannah’s father were true and that the novel by Jules Verne was a scientific journal disguised as a work of fiction.

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The celebrated novel by the French author Jules Verne, ‘A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, was first published in 1864. It was the third of 54 novels published during his lifetime, spanning a period of 42 years between 1863 and 1905. Verne died in 1905 at the age of 77. The first film version of the book was released in 1959 and starred James Mason.

This 2008 version, filmed in 3D, had a production budget of $60 million and grossed a little under $242 million worldwide. It was originally intended to make a sequel, this time based on the legend of Atlantis, but the box office performance of the film was not considered to be sufficient and those plans were subsequently suspended. The film received mixed but generally positive reviews and has a 61% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 147 reviews counted.

Brendon Fraser is a likeable and competent actor who has proved himself able to carry an action-adventure story previously in the ‘Mummy’ movies. The Jules Verne story is an early science-fantasy classic. However, I thought this new version was rotten. It was just one long, boring funfair ride from start to finish. The special effects were uninspiring and left me decidedly unimpressed. There was no particular sense of suspense or excitement. The acting was, at best, adequate. It seems to have been targeted at an audience of pre- and early-teens and on that basis it is probably reasonably successful, but it really could and should have been a whole lot better than this.

Perhaps the only notable thing about the film is that the Icelandic character Hannah Ásgeirsson is played by an Icelandic actress.

Review posted 18 May 2009



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The Bunker

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Rating 3


Directed by Rob Green

Written by Clive Dawson

Starring Jason Flemyng (Baumann), Andrew Tiernan (Schenke), Christopher Fairbank (Heydrich), Simon Kunz (Krupp), Andrew Lee Potts (Neumann), John Carlisle (Mirus), Eddie Marsan (Kreuzmann), Jack Davenport (Ebert), Charley Boorman (Franke) and Nicholas Hamnett (Engels)


During the final stages of World War II seven war-hardened German soldiers are pushed back by advancing American troops and take refuge in an anti-tank bunker in the Black Forest that is manned by a veteran of World War I and a teenage recruit. Convinced that they are surrounded by unseen American forces, they are told of a series of tunnels underneath the bunker, built as an armoury, but never finished and rumoured to be haunted. The old soldier tells a story of a legend of hundreds of plague victims buried on the site hundreds of years earlier.

At first, the soldiers are told to remain in the bunker and defend it, but one by one they venture into the tunnels, convinced that the Americans have infiltrated them, only to turn on one another as the claustrophobia distorts their grip on reality.

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‘The Bunker’ is a 2001 British horror film that uses atmosphere and suggestion to create a sense of foreboding and paranoia, allowing the audience to decide if there is real evil present in the subterranean tunnels or if it is simply in the minds of the soldiers, the result of guilt for actions that are hinted at via a series of fragmented flashbacks.

The film is not entirely successful in what it sets out to do and is prone to becoming a little messy and unfocused at times. The tunnels are, we are informed, a labyrinth stretching over a wide area, but they seem to be anything but that, which does rather take away from the sense that as the soldiers move further into them so the unsettling sense that something evil lurks in the shadows becomes stronger. The impression, unfortunately, is that they never actually venture more than a few yards in any direction. Having said this, it is genuinely quite effective, not least because it uses the imagination of its audience to create the sense of unease and makes good use of a decent cast of actors. It has been compared to the 1983 Michael Mann film ‘The Keep’, which I have not seen. I thought it bore some resemblance to another British horror film, ‘Deathwatch’, released in 2002 and this time set in the trenches during World War I.

There are five reviews collected at Rotten Tomatoes, four of them identified as being positive. The film critic Kim Newman, writing for Empire magazine, called it, “An unusually persuasive, creepy movie,” although he went on to say it was, “Perhaps a little too ambiguous for the video gore crowd,” which sums it up quite nicely.

Review posted 17 May 2009



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The Family Stone

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Rating 2¾


Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha

Starring Sarah Jessica Parker (Meredith Morton), Claire Danes (Julie Morton), Dermot Mulroney (Everett Stone), Diane Keaton (Sybil Stone), Craig T Nelson (Kelly Stone), Rachel McAdams (Amy Stone), Luke Wilson (Ben Stone), Tyrone Giordano (Thad Stone), Brian J White (Patrick Thomas), Elizabeth Reaser (Susannah Stone Trousdale), Savannah Stehlin (Elizabeth Trousdale) and Paul Scheinder (Brad Stevenson)


Everett Stone takes his girlfriend Meredith Morton to stay with his family for Christmas. Her somewhat up-tight conservative demeanour clashes with their demonstrative behaviour and bohemian outlook. The family has already been turned against her by Everett’s sister Amy, the only member to have previously met her. Amy makes no attempt to hide her dislike of Meredith and she is joined in this by the mother, Sybil. Meredith feels that she is unwelcome and takes refuge at the local hotel and persuades her sister Julie to join her to give her moral support. As Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day, the various accusations and recriminations reach boiling point.

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‘The Family Stone’ was released into cinemas in the US in December 2005 and would appear to have been intended as a kind of throwback to and updating of the screwball comedies of the 1930s. It is not a comedy as such, more a drama with comedic overtones, perhaps vaguely similar to the films of Woody Allen, to a degree. Imagine ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ with all the quirkiness sucked out of it, replaced by some slightly awkward physical comedy. The film benefits from a very good cast. Sarah Jessica Parker, in particular, is excellent. So are Claire Danes and Rachel McAdams. Parker was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.

It is never entirely clear why the Stone family take such an immediate dislike to Meredith, unless we simply assume they are a bunch of hypocritical inverted snobs, which I guess might be the intention. Either that or we are supposed to also react against Meredith because she is not the free spirit they clearly expect any person brought into the family to be. This is apart from Susannah Stone, the older of the two sisters, who is basically a non-character.

Meredith is uptight and a little bit prissy, but she does nothing to deserve the unfriendly way they treat her from the moment she arrives – in spite of a scene later on when the family sit down together for dinner and she makes some embarrassing and questionable comments about homosexuality. They seem to take delight in mocking her and they are so utterly objectionable towards her that even as the story unfolds and individual characters are forced to look at themselves and their actions it is nearly impossible to feel any kind of warmth towards them. Amy is just spiteful and immature, but I found the mother, in particular, quite despicable in her behaviour – and her back-story did nothing to mitigate this, even though I assume we were expected to feel sympathy for her. The film continues in this manner until we reach a kind of wishy-washy final confrontation when truths come out, after which everything is all happy and wrapped up neatly in a ribbon bow.

There is actually a half-decent film hidden in here somewhere. It is done with some degree of expertise and individual scenes are quite effective. The acting is excellent, which is what really holds the film together and makes it watchable. Also, I am a sucker for Christmas films. Perhaps I would have responded more positively to this one had I watched it at Christmas time, rather than on a grey May afternoon.

‘The Family Stone’ received mixed reviews. It has a 52% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 147 reviews. 77 of these reviews were judged to have been positive and 70 were negative. It had a production budget of $18 million and grossed a very respectable $92 million at the box office.

Review posted 14 May 2009



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Eurotrip

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Rating 2¾

Directed by Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg (uncredited) and David Mandel (uncredited)

Written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer

Starring Scott Mechlowicz (Scott), Jacob Pitts (Cooper), Michelle Trachtenberg (Jenny), Travis Wester (Jamie), Jessica Böhrs (Mieke), Nial Iskhakov (Bert), Kristin Kruek (Fiona), Vinnie Jones (Mad Maynard), Fred Armisen (Creepy Italian Guy), Lucy Lawless (Madame Vandersexxx), Jeffrey Tambor (Mr Thomas) and Matt Damon (Donny)


When Scott is dumped by his girlfriend Fiona on high school graduation day he heads for Germany in search of his email ‘pen-pal’ Mieke; with his best buddy Cooper tagging along. They take the cheapest flight they can get, landing them in London. From there, they have various outlandish adventures as they try to get to Berlin, joining up with their other friends from high school, twins Jenny and Jamie, along the way.

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‘Eurotrip is a crude and puerile teen gross-out comedy that is obsessed with sex and portrays various European cultures in offensively stereotypical fashion. However, although it is not especially funny, it somehow manages to be a lot more likeable than it should be. I cannot think of anything else to say about it.

The film has a 46% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 113 reviews. It had a production budget of $25 million and grossed a little under $20.8 million at the box office, although it undoubtedly would have been a more sure-fire commercial proposition on its subsequent DVD release.

Review posted 13 May 2009



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One Missed Call

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Rating 2

Directed by Eric Valette

Written by Andrew Klaven, from the screenplay by Miwako Daira, based on the novel by Yasushi Akimoto

Starring Shannyn Sossamon (Beth Raymond), Edward Burns (Jack Andrews), Ana Claudia Talancón (Taylor Antony), Azura Skye (Leann Cole), Johnny Lewis (Brian Sousa), Meagan Good (Shelley Baum), Margaret Cho (Mickey Lee), Rhoda Griffis (Marie Layton), Ariel Winter (Ellie Layton), Regan Lamb (Laurel Layton) and Ray Wise (Ted Summers)


Various people receive a message on their cell phones saying they have one missed call. When playing back the message, each time it is from a few days in the future and they hear their own voices in the moments immediately before death. After each death, a small red candy ball is found in the mouth of the victim. Beth Raymond reports these strange events to the police, who do not believe her, except for Detective Jack Andrews, whose own sister died in similar circumstances.

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‘One Missed Call’ was first released in January 2008 and is based on a 2004 Japanese horror film called ‘Chakushin Ari’, directed by Takashi Miike, the celebrated director of the controversial and ultra-violent ‘Ichi the Killer’. I have not as yet seen the original.

The film has little to recommend it, but it passes the time painlessly enough. It didn’t particularly engage me in any way, but at the same time I didn’t actively dislike it. This is a tired formula now, coming on the back of ‘The Ring’, ‘The Grudge’, ‘Pulse’, etc. It has also been mentioned, quite correctly, that it borrows elements from the ‘Final Destination’ films.

‘One Missed Call’ has a 0% rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 71 reviews and they named it the worst film of 2008. It had a production budget of $20 million and grossed $45.8 million at the box office.

Review posted 13 May 2009

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Dead Like Me: Life After Death

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Rating 1½


Directed by Stephen Herek

Written by Stephen Godchaux and John Masius

Starring Ellen Muth (George Lass), Callum Blue (Mason) Jasmin Guy (Roxy Harvey), Sarah Wynter (Daisy Adair), Cynthia Stevenon (Joy Lass), Britt McKillip (Reggie Lass), Christine Willes (Delores Herbig), Crystal Dahl (Crystal) and Henry Ian Cusick (Cameron Kane)


It is five years since George Lass was killed by a toilet seat and became a grim reaper, part of a team of five dealing with deaths caused by murder, accidents and other external forces. Her world is turned upside down once again when the Der Waffle Haus, their regular meeting place, is burned to the ground and Rube Sofer, their leader, disappears. A new reaper, Cameron Kane, a high-flying financier who died in the attack on the World Trade Centre, takes Rube’s place, but his methods lead to chaos. George also commits a cardinal sin when she reveals herself to her still living younger sister Reggie.

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‘Dead Like Me’ was a highly regarded television series that ran for two seasons and 29 episodes on the Showtime subscription cable channel between June 2003 and October 2004. Now comes a direct-to-DVD film version, released in February 2009. It was written by Stephen Godchaux and John Masius, the two executive producers and writers who assumed creative control of the show following the early departure of creator Bryan Fuller.

Most of the cast reprise their roles, but there are some notable absentees. Mandy Patinkin, who played Rube Sofer, is not here. Laura Harris, who played Daisy Adair, is also absent. That role is played in the film by Sarah Wynter. Greg Kean, who played George’s father Clancey Lass, is missing, as is Patricia Idlette, who played Kiffany, a waitress at Der Waffle Haus.

The absence of Mandy Patinkin leaves a huge hole that actually becomes part of the plot, as the other reapers try to make sense of the mysterious disappearance of Rube. Laura Harris is also badly missed. Her portrayal of Daisy in the television series is a hard act to follow and Sarah Wynter does not manage it at all, although she is hampered by a very poor script that makes Daisy much more brittle and lacking the pathos of the character played by Harris.

Everything about the film is inferior to the original series, which is perhaps to be expected. What is most noticeable is the poor dialogue, completely lacking the sparkle and wit to be found in the various television episodes. The excellent Cynthia Stevenson is wasted here. There is some novelty value in seeing an older Reggie and the story focuses on her a great deal, but to no particular effect.

All in all, this was very disappointing, although not surprisingly so.

Review posted 13 May 2009



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Eight Legged Freaks

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Rating 2¼


Directed by Ellory Elkayem

Written by Ellory Elkayem and Jesse Alexander, based on a story by Ellory Elkayem and Randy Kornfield

Starring David Arquette (Chris McCormack), Kari Wührer (Sheriff Samantha Parker), Scarlett Johansson (Ashley Parker), Scott Tera (Mike Parker), Doug E Doug (Harlan Griffith), Rick Overton (Deputy Pete Willis), Leon Rippy (Wade), Matt Czuchry (Bret), Jay Arlen Jones (Leon), Eileen Ryan (Gladys) and Tom Noonan (Joshua)


The small mining town of Prosperity, Arizona has fallen on hard times and the local Mayor, Wade, is trying to persuade the townsfolk to sell the mines and relocate. Chris McCormack returns to town after an absence of ten years. His father had owned the mines and he refuses to sell. A local water hole has been infected by toxic waste and the town is soon laid siege by a variety of exotic giant spiders who have escaped from eccentric arachnid collector Joshua.

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‘Eight Legged Freaks’ is a 2002 comedy horror homage to 1950’s monster movies like ‘Them!’ and ‘Tarantula’. It follows a similar path to the slightly earlier ‘Evolution’ and the later ‘Slither’ – and, to a lesser degree, Tim Burton’s highly stylised ‘Mars Attacks!’ It’s reasonably successful in what it sets out to do, but I was hoping for more and came away disappointed. The characters are not interesting enough, especially the supporting cast of “townsfolk”, who are featureless in the extreme, and a subplot about the Mayor’s dirty dealings goes nowhere.

David Arquette does what he always does; playing a role that is more or less a variation of his character in ‘Scream’. He is a likeable enough actor. Of the rest of the cast, the only two I instantly recognised are Doug E Doug, who is best known for ‘Cool Running’ and his role in the long-running television series ‘Cosby’, and Scarlett Johansson, a year after ‘Ghost World’ and a year before ‘Girl with a Perl Earring’ and ‘Lost in Translation’. Hers is a nothing role here.

In the end, I just don’t think the film is as likeable as it should have been. Maybe it was reaction to not finding the idea of giant spiders much fun.

The film has a 48% rotten rating from 141 reviews collected at Rotten Tomatoes. 67 of these reviews are adjudged to have been positive and 74 are negative. It had a production budget of $30 million and pulled in a worldwide gross a little under $46 million at the box office. Its domestic gross was just over $17 million, making the film a commercial flop.

Review posted 11 May 2009



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Insomnia (1997)

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WARNING: Review contains spoilers for this 1997 Norwegian film and the 2002 American remake.

Rating 3½

Directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg

Written by Nikolaj Fobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg

Starring Stellan Skarsgård (Jonas Engström), Sverre Anker Ousdal (Erik Vik), Gisken Armand (Hilde Hagen), Bjørn Floberg (Jon Holt), Kristian Figenschow (Arne Zakariassen), Thor Michael Aamodt (Tom Engen), Bjørn Moan (Eilert), Maria Bonnevie (Ane), Marianne O Ulrichsen (Frøya) and Maria Mathiesen (Tanja Lorentzen)


When a teenage girl, Tanja Lorentzen, is found murdered in a small town located above the Arctic Circle in North Norway, Swedish police detective Jonas Engström and his colleague Erik Vik are sent to investigate. The world-weary Engström is unable to sleep during the midnight sun and during a bungled stakeout he shoots his partner, killing him, but attempts to cover up what happened, blaming the murder suspect, Jon Holt, a local writer of cheap crime thrillers. Holt witnesses what really happened and a game of cat and mouse develops, with the two of them setting up Tanja’s boyfriend Eilert, planting evidence to suggest that he was the killer of both victims.

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‘Insomnia’ is a 1997 Norwegian film, the debut full-length feature of its director and co-writer Erik Skjoldbjærg, who went on to make the English-language indie film ‘Prozac Nation’, which went through months of test screenings and re-edits and was finally released in 2001 to generally negative reviews.

An American remake of ‘Insomnia’, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank, was released in 2002. That film, its location transferred to Alaska, adheres reasonably closely to the plot laid down in the original, but it does deviate in some key areas. A number of extenuating circumstances are presented to explain why Pacino’s cop, who is basically an honest man, is driven to do what he does and ultimately he is allowed redemption of sorts. Jonas Engström is a very different kind of character, colder and not intended to invoke feelings of sympathy in us.

Some of the nuances of the Norwegian film are lost in translation. It is easy to see the incongruity of Clint Eastwood’s Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan when he finds himself in New York City in ‘Coogan’s Bluff’; Michael Caine’s London gangster Jack Carter stands out from the crowd when he travels up to Newcastle in ‘Get Carter’; Crocodile Dundee is instantly out of place in New York. From my stance of general ignorance about the Scandinavian countries and the complexities of Scandinavian society it is harder to pinpoint the juxtaposition between Stellan Skarsgård’s Swedish cop and the small isolated Norwegian community he is sent to, although this is clearly one of the underlying themes of the narrative.

I like the remake, which I think is a very good film, although most positive reviews of this original I have read will tell you otherwise. However, it is interesting to compare the two films. The original is much colder and brittle, a rather bleak and perplexing film which I have seen described as a kind of twisted mirror image of film noir, replacing the dark shadows of that genre with relentless pale sunshine and white fog.

Review posted 4 May 2009



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