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Rating 2½
Directed by Michael Bay
Written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, based on a story by Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Starring Ewan McGregor (Lincoln Six Echo / Tom Lincoln), Scarlett Johansson (Jordan Two Delta / Sarah Jordan), Sean Bean (Dr Merrick), Djimon Hounsou (Albert Laurent), Steve Buscemi (James McCord), Ethan Phillips (Jones Three Echo), Brian Stepanek (Gandu Three Echo), Michael Clark Duncan (Starkweather Two Delta / Jamil Starkweather), Siobhan Flynn (Lima One Alpha), Kim Coates (Charles Whitman), Alex Carter (Censor) and Shawnee Smith (Suzie)
Lincoln Six Echo lives in a self-contained high-tech underground colony of uncontaminated humans, each one waiting to win the “Lottery” and be allowed to go to an idyllic location called “the Island”, the last habitable place on the planet. Lincoln begins to question his surroundings and has a recurring nightmare, which brings him to the attention of Dr Merrick, who controls the area in which he lives. He also forms a close friendship with Jordan Two Delta and when she is announced as the next lottery winner and he discovers that everything they have always known is a lie (they are simply clones to be harvested for organ transplants or used for surrogate pregnancies), they escape from the complex and go on the run, relentlessly pursued by a deadly paramilitary squad.
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‘The Island’ is a 2005 sci-fi action film directed in typically abrasive fashion by Michael Bay. It has a 40% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 180 reviews. Rich Cline called it, “An intelligent, provocative premise wrapped in a bone-chillingly stupid action movie,” and Jeffrey Overstreet wrote, “It seems to assume that its audience is made of idiots, constantly reminding us of the simple plot details and having characters define things for each other.” It grossed just $36 million at the US box office against a production budget of $126 million and an outlay somewhere in the region of $45 million for domestic marketing and distribution. A further $127 million was grossed overseas. An accusation was made following the release of the film that it infringed the copyright of a forgotten 1979 film called ‘Parts: The Clonus Horror’. Settlement was reached out of court before it went to trial, allegedly for a seven-figure sum.
A number of familiar themes often pursued in science fiction are to be found here, drawing on libertarian political philosophies and ideologies, totalitarianism and commentary about science gone mad, in this case human cloning. There is no question that the film poses some interesting questions, but Michael Bay’s particular brand of filmmaking reduces the whole thing to the simple idea that everyone should be free to brandish big guns and cause maximum destruction. The constant stream of action sequences in the second half of the film’s two hours plus running time are slickly staged, but making everything bigger and louder and being brazen about the product placement does not make it better. These action sequences are, in fact, bone-headed and objectionably stupid.
Ewan McGregor is not an actor I have ever warmed to and nothing here changes that. Scarlett Johansson’s early promise seems to have dissipated somewhat since the days of ‘Ghost World’ and ‘Lost in Translation’. She lost me in promotional interviews for ‘The Island’ when she appeared to lay claim to having on-set tantrums because she wasn’t allowed to take her clothes off in the film. However, both are reasonably effective in the lead roles. The film itself is a perfectly serviceable action film, but the premise offers something beyond that and there is undoubtedly a much more intelligent if somewhat unoriginal film buried somewhere underneath the mind-numbing onslaught of explosions and general destruction.
I cannot pretend not to have enjoyed the film up to a point, despite some cringe-making dialogue (this is the second time I have watched it), but it could have been so much better and ends up being an offensive piece of mindless claptrap. I could not help but come away thinking there is a degree of irony in putting Michael Bay in the director’s chair of a film in which one of the central characters proves to be a megalomaniac with a God-complex.
Review posted 30 November 2009
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Rating 1½
Directed by Toby Wilkins
Written by Brad Keene
Gil McKinney (Max), Johanna E Braddy (Lisa), Jadie Hobson (Rose), Emi Ikehata (Naoko), Shawnee Smith (Dr Sullivan), Marina Sirtis (Gretchen), Matthew Knight (Jake), Beau Mirchoff (Andy) and Michael McCoy (Praski)
The curse that originally emanated from a house in the suburbs of Tokyo now resides in an old apartment building in Chicago. Max is the supervisor in charge of the building, dealing with lettings and general maintenance. He lives in an apartment there with his sisters Lisa and eight-year-old Rose, who suffers from severe and life-threatening asthma. Another resident, Gretchen, a painter who suffers from arthritis, sometimes babysits for Rose, when Max is working and Lisa, who plans to leave soon, is with her boyfriend Andy. Lisa plans to leave soon, which creates conflict with her brother. Jake, the sole surviving member of a family killed by the curse in the building (as told in ‘The Grudge 2’) is under the care of Dr Sullivan in a secure psychiatric facility. Naoko, the younger sister of Kayako, the young woman whose violent death was the starting point of the curse (‘The Grudge’), comes to Chicago from Japan, intent on putting an end to the curse once and for all.
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‘Ju-on: The Grudge’, the 2003 Japanese horror film written and directed by Takashi Shimizu, itself a remake of an earlier direct-to-video film by the same writer/director, is a classic of J-horror. A genuinely inventive film that is pervaded by a aura of creepiness and foreboding, it was remade in 2004 as ‘The Grudge’, a film also directed by Shimizu and filmed in Tokyo, but with a largely American cast, with top billing for Sarah Michelle Gellar. This film was a substantial box office hit, grossing in excess of $187 million against a production budget of just $10 million.
A sequel, ‘The Grudge 2’, followed in 2006, once again directed by Takashi Shimizu, but this time with the action split between Tokyo and Chicago. Gellar returned to make a cameo appearance and the lead role went to Amber Tamblyn, playing her younger sister. Although not as successful as the first film, it still grossed nearly $71 million.
Now comes a third American film, this one released direct to DVD. Takashi Shimizu turned down the offer to direct this time around, but he is credited as one of the executive producers of the film. Although set in Chicago, filming took place in Bulgaria, with Toby Wilkins, who had previously made the well-received low-budget independent horror film ‘Splinter’, as the director.
‘The Grudge’ was very nearly as good as the original Japanese film and managed to retain the unsettling aura created in that film. ‘The Grudge 2’, although certainly flawed and several notches below the film it followed, did have merit and was not altogether unsuccessful. However, the decision to transfer the curse from Japan to America, as told in that film, was always likely to be the undoing of the story.
As a quick cash-in direct-to-DVD horror film, ‘The Grudge 3’ succeeds in doing what presumably was intended. However, it is a pale shadow of the films that preceded it, telling its story in decidedly pedestrian fashion and completely missing the point of the Japanese folklore that informed the original. Shawnee Smith, who is familiar from the 1988 remake of ‘The Blob’ and the ‘Saw’ horror franchise, is wasted here in a role here that amounts to nothing. Equally, Marina Sirtis, best known as Deanna Troi in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, plays a character who could have been cut out of the film entirely with no difference made to story. These are the two most immediately recognisable actors amongst the cast.
I cannot say I actively disliked the film. It was a painless enough watching experience, but I do think it’s a shame that it blunts some of shine of the ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’ and ‘The Grudge’, which despite some negative critical reaction was a very credible remake. I am being very generous in giving it one and a half stars.
Review posted 29 April 2009
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Rating 2¾
Directed by Chuck Russell
Written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont, based on the 1958 film written by Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker (as Kate Phillips), from a story by Irvine H Millgate
Starring Shawnee Smith (Meg Penny), Kevin Dillon (Brad Flagg), Donovan Leitch (Paul Taylor), Jeffrey DeMunn (Sheriff Herb Geller), Candy Clark (Fran Hewitt), Joe Seneca (Dr Meadows), Paul McCrane (Deputy Bill Briggs), Del Close (Reverend Meeker), Art LaFleur (Mr Penny), Sharon Spelman (Mrs Penny), Michael Kenworthy (Kevin Penny), Ricky Paull Goldin (Scott Jeske), Douglas Emerson (Eddie Beckner) and Beau Billingslea (Moss Woodley)
A meteorite falls to Earth near to Arborville, a small town in Colorado. A strange alien creature emerges from the crash site and terrorises the town. It is first witnessed by an old hobo, who is infected by it. Brad Flagg, a teenage tearaway who has already had previous trouble with the local sheriff, tries to help the old man, who is taken to the local hospital by Meg Penny, a high school cheerleader, and Paul Taylor, her boyfriend and the star player on the high school football team. A military operation led by Dr Meadows arrives soon afterwards, claiming that a virus has been identified, and the town is placed under complete quarantine. As the creature grows ever larger it becomes a race against time to find some way to defeat it.
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The original film, an independent production made on a miniscule budget in 1958, is celebrated because it features Steve McQueen in the lead role. Two years later, McQueen appeared in ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and went on to become one of America’s most iconic film stars. This 1988 remake follows the basic premise of the original, but embellishes the story and in the process prefigures ‘The X-Files’, with its theme of military conspiracies and cover-ups.
The film has an old-fashioned feel and harks back to the golden age of 1950s horror and sci-fi, not surprisingly, given its source material. It actually does this rather well and although it lacks a little bit of spark and ends up being a touch pedestrian, there is no denying that it is a largely enjoyable if predictable 90-minutes.
Shawnee Smith, who has the lead role as Meg Penny here and was 18-year-old at the time, is now best known for playing Linda across all six seasons of the popular sitcom ‘Becker’, which ran from 1998 to 2004 on the CBS network, and for playing Amanda Young in the successful ‘Saw’ horror franchise. Kevin Dillon, who plays Brad Flagg, is the younger brother of Matt Dillon. Donovan Leitch is the son of the famous Scottish folk singer Donovan and the brother of the actress Ione Skye. Candy Clark, who plays Fran Hewitt, the owner of the local diner, has starred in several celebrated cult films, including ‘American Graffiti’, ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.
Frank Darabont, who co-wrote the screenplay, went on to direct ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, ‘The Green Mile’ and the acclaimed 2007 horror film ‘The Mist’. The next film made by director Chuck Russell was the hugely successful Jim Carrey vehicle, ‘The Mask’, which grossed over $350 million at the box office.
‘The Blob’ had a domestic box office gross a little over $8.2 million. There was mixed reaction to it and it has a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews.
To all intents and purposes, James Gunn remade the film in 2006 as ‘Slither’, although not directly so.
Review posted 27 April 2009
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Saw : Directed by James Wan : Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell : Starring Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith and Dina Meyer
Saw II : Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman : Written by Leigh Whannell and Darren Lynn Bousman : Starring Tobin Bell, Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith and Dina Meyer
Saw III : Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman : Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell : Starring Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg and Dina Meyer
The ‘Saw’ films have been an extremely successful franchise to date, grossing over $400 million at the worldwide box office against a combined production budget less than the fee per film for the average “A-list” (male) star. Combined American DVD and television revenue has been estimated at something close to $300 million. There is no reason to assume that the fourth film will not be equally as successful. Apparently, Tobin Bell is already signed on to appear in ‘Saw V’ and ‘Saw VI’.
Although it is rarely mentioned, the saga began in 2003 with a short film made in Australia, written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan, in which a hospital orderly tells the terrifying tale of being kidnapped and forced to play a horrifying game of survival.
In the first proper film two strangers find themselves in a derelict bathroom of some description. Both are chained to the wall by shackles around one ankle, on opposite sides of the room. In the middle of the room lies a body, seemingly dead, with a severe head injury. They don’t know where they are and they don’t know why they are there.
The strangers are played by Cary Elwes, who is probably best known from a six-episode story arc in season nine of ‘The X Files’, and Leigh Whannell, the co-writer of the film with director James Wan.
As the film unfolds they each discover small clues to explain the situation they find themselves in. Elsewhere, the police have a serial killer on their hands, one whose operandi modus is to have his victims kill themselves in a variety of horrendously inventive and brutal ways. The killer is given the nickname “Jigsaw” because he carves the shape of a small jigsaw piece into the flesh of his victims. His catchphrase is, “I want to play a game.”
The detective leading the case, played by Danny Glover, eventually drives himself insane in pursuit of “Jigsaw” and is dismissed from the police force, becoming increasingly deranged as he continues to pursue the killer on his own.
The most “famous” scene in the film, one that was parodied in ‘Scary Movie 3’, has Cary Elwes’ character saw off his own foot with a hacksaw to free himself from the shackle around his ankle.
The film is gory, although perhaps not as gory as might be imagined. However, it is unpleasant. The premise is quite inventive and Wan makes the most of his zero-budget. The main problem is the acting, which in places is decidedly poor. The pacing of the film is also plodding, quickly becoming borderline tedious.
‘Saw’ was released in the UK first, on 1 October 2004, and then in America, on 29 October 2004, one week after ‘The Grudge’. Although it took less money than that film, both at the cinema and, I believe, subsequently on DVD, it was the point at which the change in trends within the horror genre occurred. Films like ‘Saw’, ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and ‘Hostel’ were a direct reaction to the remakes of “J-Horror” films that had dominated for a couple of years.
Ultimately, we were taken from ‘The Ring’, an intelligent and well-made remake of a fascinating Japanese horror film that used the imaginations of its audience to create the scares, to ‘Captivity’, a film that would seem, at best, to be a repugnant cesspool of misogynistic twaddle.
‘Saw II’ doesn’t have the surprise factor of the first film. We already know what is happening and who is responsible, even if we don’t initially know why Jigsaw has chosen this particular group of victims. None of this is of any great relevance because, whether or not there was ever any intention to make some kind of statement about the fragility of life, the premise is simply a set-up to wheel out a succession of elaborate medieval-type torture/death contraptions.
The various deaths are gruesome, with extravagant use of offal and fake blood. One character is cooked and then burnt alive inside an old crematorium furnace, which made my stomach churn, but even more sickening is the hand trap with blades that cut into the wrists and arms of the victim.
The deaths of the male characters are brutal and gratuitous, but I can’t shift the notion that the camera lingers rather longer on the torture of the female characters, creating an abstractedly sexual connotation. Possibly I am being overly sensitive and reading too much into the imagery, but it does trouble me.
Although the second film can no longer claim the inventive premise of the first one, it is better constructed and is probably a better film. It is actually a re-interpretation of a film called ‘The Desperate’ that had been hawked around Hollywood by its writer and director Darren Lynn Bousman without success. The script was re-written by Leigh Whannell to fit the ‘Saw’ template and Bousman was hired to direct it.
This time around Donnie Wahlberg plays the police detective in charge of the case. He does what he is there to do, but principally he simply proves that he doesn’t quite possess the acting chops and screen presence of his younger brother Mark. Dina Meyer, who made a fleeting appearance in the first film, reprises her role here and although she doesn’t have a great deal to do she is given a lot more screen time. I think it would be fair to say that, in keeping with much of her career, Meyer’s talents are wasted, but she is very popular with the loyal fanbase of the franchise.
Tobin Bell is very effective in the role of Jigsaw and he seems to be developing the same kind of reputation that Robert Englund once enjoyed because of the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ films. Back in 2000 Tobin appeared in ‘Brand X’, a season seven episode of ‘The X Files’, playing a character called Ashman who shares some similarities with Jigsaw. I have never seen any mention of this elsewhere, but I would not be surprised if it were not just coincidental.
Shawnee Smith also returns from the first film. She plays Amanda, a drug addict who was the single victim of one of Jigsaw’s games to actually survive the ordeal. Smith is an actress who seems to have been around forever, having made her film debut back in 1982 playing a bit part in ‘Annie’. By coincidence, or possibly not, she was in a season two episode of ‘The X Files’ (‘Firewalker’), playing a character whose personality is not entirely dissimilar to that of Amanda. James Wan has said the character Amanda was specifically written with Smith in mind.
By the end of ‘Saw II’ we discover that Amanda has become Jigsaw’s protégé.
This brings me to ‘Saw III’, which opens as a direct continuation of the second film. Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer) makes a third appearance, but becomes an early victim of Jigsaw and Amanda. She is suspended off the floor and locked into a contraption in which metal pins pierce her skin and hook around her ribs. The key to unlock this torture device is dropped into the bottom of a large jar full of highly corrosive acid. She is given one minute to retrieve the key and unlock the contraption, before spring mechanisms release the pins, ripping her ribcage open and allowing her internal organs to spill out.
The third film is another succession of grisly and shocking brutality. This time around there is a subplot about the strange relationship that develops between Jigsaw and Amanda, who is becoming increasingly deranged, unstable and psychotic. It has been suggested that Amanda suffers from Stockholm syndrome, although this is not referenced in the films. There are, however, allusions to an abusive childhood, a predisposition towards self-harm, as well, of course, as her addiction to heroin. Whether or not this is sufficient to explain her participation in Jigsaw’s sick games, I don’t know. Maybe there doesn’t need to be an explanation.
‘Saw III’ contains a scene of horrendous brutality near to the beginning of the film. A man has a dozen chains attached to his body by large metal rings piercing his flesh. He has to rip out the rings with his bare hands, tearing the flesh apart, to free himself from the chains and reach an explosive device to stop the countdown.
It cannot be denied that it has a visceral impact, but basically it’s just revolting.
In a later scene, a young woman is locked inside a walk-in freezer (like a meat store), suspended off the floor by her wrists. She is sprayed with freezing water from a number of hoses, building up a covering of ice across the length of her body until she becomes entirely frozen and dies. In the original script the victim was male and clothed. However, it was decided that for it to be visually effective the victim should be female and naked. Bizarrely, the makers of the film have claimed that showing the female victim naked avoids the trap of making the scene too sexual.
I have been quite critical of the three films. The first one is quite clever and the next two are very well made, playing to the strengths of the franchise. They are repulsive in places, but this isn’t something that should take viewers by surprise. I would be a fool were I to pretend not have expected an overabundance of gore. They are not blatantly misogynistic, at least not as I interpret them, but the second and third films do fall into the trap that snares a lot of horror films (especially from the “slasher” genre) and I think there is at least the suggestion of a misogynist undertow that becomes much more noticeable with each film.
Tobin Bell, Dina Meyer and Shawnee Smith are very good. The films are not to be avoided at all costs, but they did open the door that seems to have allowed a whole lot of shit to come flooding through. Having said that, it’s quite conceivable that even if Leigh Whannell and James Wan had not made their original film the likes of Eli Roth would still have found an audience for the stuff that followed.
Is there any need for films like ‘Saw’? Are they actually harmful?
These are hard questions to answer. There is obviously an audience for them. Ultimately, however, I think they are, or can be, harmful because they lend a certain validation to a particular mindset. Having said that, I am not trying to suggest that everyone who watches these films turns into a psychotic serial killer.
The problem is that even the suggestion of a misogynist undertow, be it intentional or not, sends out a dangerous message. ...
Lincoln Six Echo lives in a self-contained high-tech underground colony of uncontaminated humans, each one waiting to win the “Lottery” and be allowed to go to an idyllic location called “the Island”, the last habitable place on the planet. Lincoln begins to question his surroundings and has a recurring nightmare, which brings him to the attention of Dr Merrick, who controls the area in which he lives. He also forms a close friendship with Jordan Two Delta and when she is announced as the next lottery winner and he discovers that everything they have always known is a lie (they are simply clones to be harvested for organ transplants or used for surrogate pregnancies), they escape from the complex and go on the run, relentlessly pursued by a deadly paramilitary squad.
‘The Island’ is a 2005 sci-fi action film directed in typically abrasive fashion by Michael Bay. It has a 40% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 180 reviews. Rich Cline called it, “An intelligent, provocative premise wrapped in a bone-chillingly stupid action movie,” and Jeffrey Overstreet wrote, “It seems to assume that its audience is made of idiots, constantly reminding us of the simple plot details and having characters define things for each other.” It grossed just $36 million at the US box office against a production budget of $126 million and an outlay somewhere in the region of $45 million for domestic marketing and distribution. A further $127 million was grossed overseas. An accusation was made following the release of the film that it infringed the copyright of a forgotten 1979 film called ‘Parts: The Clonus Horror’. Settlement was reached out of court before it went to trial, allegedly for a seven-figure sum.
A number of familiar themes often pursued in science fiction are to be found here, drawing on libertarian political philosophies and ideologies, totalitarianism and commentary about science gone mad, in this case human cloning. There is no question that the film poses some interesting questions, but Michael Bay’s particular brand of filmmaking reduces the whole thing to the simple idea that everyone should be free to brandish big guns and cause maximum destruction. The constant stream of action sequences in the second half of the film’s two hours plus running time are slickly staged, but making everything bigger and louder and being brazen about the product placement does not make it better. These action sequences are, in fact, bone-headed and objectionably stupid.
Ewan McGregor is not an actor I have ever warmed to and nothing here changes that. Scarlett Johansson’s early promise seems to have dissipated somewhat since the days of ‘Ghost World’ and ‘Lost in Translation’. She lost me in promotional interviews for ‘The Island’ when she appeared to lay claim to having on-set tantrums because she wasn’t allowed to take her clothes off in the film. However, both are reasonably effective in the lead roles. The film itself is a perfectly serviceable action film, but the premise offers something beyond that and there is undoubtedly a much more intelligent if somewhat unoriginal film buried somewhere underneath the mind-numbing onslaught of explosions and general destruction.
