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Seque Zagnut takes a look at PITCH BLACK
Hey folks, Harry here... And I'm not about going to hide my love for this little treasure. I just got back from my fourth viewing of the film, and man... It still gets me giddy and quoting afterwards. Now I'm not saying it's the greatest film ever or the best anything... It's just badas! The audience I saw it with in Austin tonight really seemed to have a lot of fun with the film. After several lines there was very much a vocal approval of the line delivery. There was that uncomfortable whine sound from the audience as Vin Diesel does several things. Remember, while not wholly original... this is just a very fun movie for people that want to have fun at a theater. Enjoy the film and Segue Zagnut's review...
Head Geek-
Pitch Black opens Friday nationwide. I knew after the
first set of reviews were so favorable that a small
contingent of internet neysayers would loudly try to
crap on it. It seems to happen with every movie. So I
felt that my review might best be suited now. A few
days before it opens to remind people not to miss it.
Pitch Black is pure entertainment. Nothing more... but
absolutely nothing less. It moves. From the opening
crash landing on the two sun planet to the inevitable
escape, the action doesn't let up.
The story is simple. After their ship crash lands on
an unusual planet and is destroyed, the survivors find
a deserted and badly damaged living compound.
Searching around, it doesn't take them long to figure
out that an eclipse will soon bring the night... and
that they will not survive the night if they stay.
Quickly the objective is to get off the planet at all
costs. So the surviving characters are down to several
crew members lead by Radha Mitchell and an escaped
murderer played by Vin Diesel. Together they have to
survive the planet to escape on an abandon ship miles
away from the compound.
The opening crash landing is intense and non-stop. The
SFX make this quite a scene. Much like the airplane
crash that opened Alive years back, it draws you in
immediately.
Vin Diesel is irresistibly bad ass. He plays a
prisoner being transfered from one prison to another,
who gets free during the crash landing. His charisma
drives the understated performance and it holds you
even through we've seen this cliche before. At least
cliche is how it sounds, but the writers took the time
to write an interesting subplot of self worth and
personal redemption that holds the film together
without being preachy or bogging the action down.
Radha Mitchell is excellent. She slams the typically
man role and there is no question why she is in
charge. She's smart, a fighter and a strong leader.
Did I mention that she is very hot. She is also the
moral compass that drives the emotional arch of the
film. The chemistry between Vin and Radha is vital
because we have to believe it for the arch to work.
The film looks beautiful. The two sun sky line and the
choice of landscape colors makes the planet real. This
is what another plant should look like. It is filmed
over exposed and a little grainy. The planet is dirty
and barren yet it all has a crisp reality feel to it.
Then the dark comes. Half way through it hits pitch
black and the fun really begins. The monsters are
great, the characters are fun, and the roller coaster
tension builds well with each death.
This is not rocket science. We have seen many of this
before. Aliens, Alien, and Jurassic Park are all
obvious influences. Nothing in it is too deep or
clever. But they don't need to reinvent the wheel to
build a great car. They don't have to reinvent the
set-up to make a great movie. This is a solid
entertaining action Sci-fi ride that is well worth my
$9 bucks.
Consider This.. Segue Zagnut
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"Alien" is coming to the Englewood the same week that "Pitch Black" opens so I'm anxious to see how the two stand up against each other. "Pitch Black" has its work cut out for it. I admit I haven't seen a single trailer or commercial for "Pitch Black" and if not for this site I'd be totally unaware of this films existance. After all the glowing reports I've read I'm hoping this will be the height of coolness but I've learned not to put too much stock in the drooling of the fanboys on this site. Any movie that has special effects or is Sci-fi (with the exception of "Wing Commander") gets touted on this site as the Second Coming. I still don't understand why so much gushing over Vin Deisel. I've only seen him in one movie (I can't for the life of me remember him in SPR) and he's the least impressive aspect of "Iron Giant." I mean he only speaks about twelve words in the whole thing and any voice actor could've done just as well. Anyway, I'm definately gonna catch "Pitch Black" but be forewarned, if it turns out to be a shitball, I'm gonna scream about it all over this site.
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Sorry, I don
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I am the only one mad that they showed the creatures in the trailer? They should have left that for exposition in the film. If I was the director I'd have been royally pissed. I'm working on a horror script right now involving creatures, and a big part of it is not knowing what they look like or act like. Isn't suspense a big part of horror? Oh wait this is the same generation that embraced "I Know What you did last Summer" as a horror film. Now it kinda makes sense. Maybe this is good movie, but that advertisment really pissed me off.
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It is getting effusive praise from all over the place, not just from AICN. I'm definitely going to see it, if only to see Claudia Black (from "Farscape").
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How bout I just give you 2 bucks and you give me a poster?
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..But "Event Horizon" had all the charisma and entertainment value of "Sphere". I'm looking forward to "Pitch Black".
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I'll be seeing "Pitch Black" and although I'm sure it's not the second coming of "Aliens," I'm looking forward to being entertained, something that hasn't been happening in the movies of late. Hmm...except for the fact that I did laugh all the way through "The Whole Nine Yards" which is complete fluff, but is actually rather funny. I know that people are already ragging it on this site and others, but it's not a total piece of shit in the least and, if you give it a chance, you'll probably laugh, too (the horror!)
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utter piece of trash. Looks like one of those love it or hate it flicks. I'm still going to probably bite...
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Want to know what Moriarty thinks about Pitch Black? Read his Rumblings next Tuesday...or Wednesday...or maybe the Tuesday after that...or a little later then...or maybe not. Bwa-hahahaha.
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It's been my experience that, no matter what, NO film is going to satisfy everybody 100% I have to agree that the movie does look good, and I can't wait to see it in my local stadium-seated DSS theater. This movie looks like lots of fun. Also, I can't understand why the hell everyone hated Event Horizon so much. I kinda liked it, it was a better 'Hellraiser In Space' than Bloodlines was. At least, it felt more like Hellraiser than any other movie. Oh well, personally, I'm more looking forward to Final Destination anyway.
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Look, I'm all for seeing this movie do well. We've all seen this premise before, done well and done poorly. But, again, this review reads like a studio plug, with just enough "AICN-isms" to throw casual readers off track. Sorry Zagnut, I don't buy it. I'd rather have a review by a 13 year old typing in ALL CAPS, with every other word either mispelled or the word LIKE or DUDE or AWESOME, because that would give me a better sense of what the target audience (me) will think of this flik. Comparing it to MATRIX, or SPHERE, or EVENT HORIZON, only pisses me off more.
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ManCow Muller wouldn't know his head from the ass of a dung beetle! If he disliked the movie that is all the endorsement I need for this movie! I will give it the chance it deserves. The previews look pretty good, but that doesn't mean anything anymore. Most movies look great by the previews. Hell, I thought "Stuart Little" looked on par with "Dawn Of The Dead"! That is a joke, before anybody throws shit at me in this talk back. But really, I would rather watch fifty hours of a movie of this sort than one second of either "Girl Interrupted" or "Isn't She Great"!
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It's Time To Drop The Event Horizon Crap. Yeah Event Horizon Was A Descent Movie. But Ya Know What? I'm Dang Tired Of Descent Movies. For Every 8 Movies That Come Out, 3 Suck, 4 Are "Descent" And One Is Cool. Now, Pitch Black Might Not Be The Greatest Movie, But If It Rises To Become Better Than Average, Then Good. Not All Movies Are Designed For Mass Consumption, And I'm Glad Of It. Event Horizon Was Not Groundbreaking, And Didn't Strike Me As Being Anything But Average. Now, Realise I'm Not Trying To Slam People, Just Hoping I Can Put Into Words What Other People Are Thinking. NR
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Why is everyone on this guy's jock? Am I the only one who wants to reach into the screen and beat his face in with a hammer every time I see the Boiler Room preview? Maybe he'll be entertaining as some asshole badguy, but what studio invented this loser? I think he's all CGI and was created to pop up in various popcorn films when they don't want to pay somebody. Some guy typed "Combine Bruce Willis and Jean Claude Van Damme" into a computer and this is what it spit out. What a lame ass name (I guess "Tom Cruise" sounded bad at first too)...I really couldn't take someone named "Vin" or "Diesel" very seriously. Was he originally from American Gladiators? That name would make sense there, or in porn, two of the places where he'll have to pursue the rest of his acting career. I hope he disappears as fast as Boiler Room is going to.
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It was an Isaac Asimov short story(which became a cheesy 1988 movie with David Birney), that takes place on a planet where the sun sets once every 1000 years. And when it does, bad things start to happen.
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Now that i think of it, I'd rather have suffered thru Event Horizon again than see The Phantom Menace. George, you fuckin $sellout$ to a gajillion toy companies. Anyway, if Pitch Black is anywhere near being better than EH, im there.
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The guy hated Blair Witch Project ("there was no payoff") and thought the Sixth Sense was the best movie ever done. In addition he hated sleepy hollow (sleepy swallow as he called it)and thought Being John Malchovich was "ok."
anybody who takes his word is an idoit. This is the same guy who pumped up Star Wars for a year, and then complained that "there was too much hype".
oh, and Event Horizon didn't suck, it was a let down.
That Asimov story mentioned was done as a radio play, and is pretty good. He's the type of author where when I hear someone is thinking about doing a movie on one of his books, I shrudder.
Oh, and anybody who thinks Aliens is better than Alien needs a kick in the ass. -
...well, alien was the original so instantly it has to get credit for the originality of the series...even though aliens was the coolest damn movie this side of Marc Singer in Beastmaster...
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a steaming load of shit...I mean, it wasn't just some old turd that your dog left outside that you missed a couple weeks ago that's dried and crumbling..."Event Horizon" was an elephant turd, left right there defiantly in plain sight for all to be disgusted at...okay...now that that's taken care of. No one seems to think that every sci fi movie is going to be the second coming. "Supernova" had the shit beaten out of it on this site. Naughty Sauce, Vin Diesel was Caparzo in SPR, the guy who was killed by the sniper in the first town they reached while looking for Ryan. He didn't have enough of a part to make any impression whatsoever on me. Power Slave: Nightfall was an incredible story: There were 7 suns, so the planet was almost never in darkness...except about once every 3-4000 years...the civilization creates itself, and then destroys itself in that cycle basically, because when the last sun gets eclipsed, the people go wild trying to burn everything they possibly can so they can have light. Cool story...in fact, maybe it was the jumping off point for 'Pitch Black'...which looks pretty damn cool to me. See you in the theaters on Friday. -Loki
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PITCH BLACK looks like a pretty good low-budget monster flick and is about the only thing worth seeing before the Spring flood of movies hits. Vin Diesel... I had to stop and laugh after I typed that...must have really struck a nerve with the closeted adolescents (You go, Miss Thing!. And to Waterdeep: "descent" is used when talking about mountain climbing. You used it three times but you meant to use the word "decent" meaning okay but not great. Who cares in a Talkback, sure, but knowing the difference later in life could help get you the job or lifemate of your dreams. No offense intended.
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This is one of those movies, like "Scream 3" where, if you just let yourself go and are in the right audience, it'll be a blast to experience. If you're stuck in an empty theatre and start analyzing it for its resemblances to various horror and sci-fi movies while picking out its downfalls, then it's going to suck...just like "Scream 3" did after I calmed down from the audience rush and realized it was just a crappy, cheesy horror flick. That's my prediction.
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it cost around 29 million bucks of which 4 mill went on the FX
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unsu, Phojus, you guys need to get your freakin' heads bolted down a little tighter. I make a minor comment about something I heard on the radio going to work & and you two go ape shit & do a flamer. Screw you. You could learn a leason form SCOTT1458.
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Pitch Black was a fun movie, nothing more. It's the kind of movie you go see when your brain has been fried from a week of hard work and you just want to let it slowly melt. There is nothing wrong with these types of flicks. If your feeling down these movies are the best treatment. Some of these flicks are classics and some were failures at the box office, with critics, and the general public.I just want the when I'm feelin down. Here they are, in no particular order: Toxic Avenger, Dirty Work, Big Trouble in Little China, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (yes, I know it was just a ploy to get kids to buy toys, belive me, I fell for it), Ghostbusters, anything with a dog as the star, any Godzilla flick, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Short Circuit (part two, y'know the one where he becomes a bad robot), and last but not least, STar Wars trilogy. Peace out and LONG LIVE TROMA!
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Sorry. Just thinking about some future Mad Magazine parody. Pitch Black is solid entertainment. It ain't The Road Warrior. But what is? I don't see how anyone could be totally bored by the film. It moves enough. The actors look pretty good, especially that one actron from High Art. It's a pretty simple little horror story with just enough character and visual panache to keep it interesting. And I'm sorry to use that word. Don't hate me.
Anyway, there are some serious flaws in the film, naturally. I mean - and this is a minor spoiler, though it's completely obvious to anyone who's ever seen a movie - those Arab kids are just ridiculously undifferentiated and thus completely disposeable to the extent that it's almost offensive.
And if you go to science fiction/horror films for the verisimilitude, if you're not ready to get pulled in and suspend a little disbelief, forget about it. Just don't tell me The Whole Nine Yards is any more true to life.
Vin Diesel is fine. The voice is great, obviously. But I don't care how bad Reindeer Games is. He screwed that one up. -
Naysay all you want. If you hated it, call yourself Barbara.
Barbara Shulgasser of the Chicago Tribune must have been -
..you have correctly deduced that the clue was to multiply (TIMES) 57 by 92 (the chart positions).Dude - this is friggin sweet!Who the fuck is gcrego?
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