Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Alright, hell, I’ll admit it. I’m curious. I want to see this film. This despite the fact that I thought last year’s TEXAS CHAINSAW remake was one of the most witless pieces of unflushable shit I’ve seen in recent memory, enough to scare me off ever seeing a remake of a classic horror film again. The trailer for this one got me interested, and the reviews we’ve been getting have been fairly consistent and complimentary. Check this out, for example...
I want to remain anonymous, a friend and I were approached on Saturday to see the movie on Wednesday. I went thinking it might be Dawn of the Dead and went in expecting it to be okay or sub par. I wasn't originally going to write this, because I felt when I left the theatre that it was close to a solid film and not only that but the audience reaction seemed ecstatic. Upon reading some of the negative reviews however I am finding some falsehoods such as the "Bruce Campbell" comment. That did not happen and if it did the guy whispered it, because this was the type of crowd that yelled, hooted, and hollered-never to a point where names where shouted out though.
One of the annoying things that I have seen in the reviews, though, are that half of these aspiring filmmakers seem to think they know what works best. I don't think that is the case, they want to criticize just to criticize. My friend and I are aspiring filmmakers and we that the film was great. Filmmaking is a juggernaut type of art you never know what works until you finish or abandon the product. I however thought the end credits sequence did not work and hope for its deletion when the film is released. That was my only complaint.
I think the nagging criticism of too many characters is unfounded. This film reminded me of Aliens in that aspect. It is like saying too many characters went on LB426 and they are just waiting to be eaten by aliens. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Ty Burrell contributed admirable performances, as did the rest of the cast. I think the point of the lack of characterization was to show that the world and its inhabitants were stripped of their lives and have to deal with their new reality. The same happened in the original Dawn of the Dead which I have seen and felt it was a great altough it too had its flaws.
Again, I have to say that the remake is solid with the exception of the ending and that this was a "work in progress" I look forward to seeing it when it is completed and hope they did not stray too far from the work print.
All I want is a decent horror film. I promise… I won’t carry the original into the theater with me. Just give me something good, and I’ll judge it on its own merits. Consider my fingers crossed.
"Moriarty" out.
