Mutants
The
French take on zombies that isn’t the Horde, Mutants is going for a more
cerebral take on the horror sub-genre.
Focusing
more on the characters, particularly how … deals with the slow deterioration of
her partner … as he turns into one of the undead after receiving a gunshot
wound.
Rather
than city survival, they are out in the country, in the mountains during
winter. After dealings with a tolled up policewoman go sour, the couple shelter
in a massive abandoned hospital in the middle of nowhere.
A
paramedic, she tries various medical tactics to delay or reverse the
zombiefication process, meaning we are treated to extended sequences of body
horror which feature the usual tropes – ‘my hair comes out in my hands!’ ‘I can
pull my teeth out!’, but to be fair the makeup work is pretty decent, and … does end up looking like a
pretty bestial, ruined version of himself for the inevitable conclusion as a
group of zombies smash their way in and he fights them due to some deep
remnants of emotion for his pregnant wife.
There
are a group of ragtag survivors who crash the place at some point, some of them
nasty and they mainly serve as an excuse to have people who you’re happy to see
meet a grisly end.
In
all the film isn’t particularly amazing but in terms of the glut of zombie
films out there these days it’s a pretty solid entry.
Save
the Green Planet!
An
oddball Korean thriller focusing on conspiracy theories, featuring kidnap and
torture.
It’s
far from torture porn as the main role of a conspiracy nut is both sympathetic
lead and antagonist, and the focus is on the characters rather than any torture
taking place, but the story is all over the place and it’s hard not to feel a
little bit lost, despite the essential elements making sense on paper.
An
industrialist is kidnapped and tortured by a young man who believes he’s an
alien. The young man’s mother was killed during a demonstration while working
at one of the industrialist’s plants, we find out later. A detective
investigates the disappearance, realises what’s going on, and rescues the
industrialist only for a bit of cat and mouse until a big showdown. The young
man is killed and it turns out the industrialist was an alien all along, the
end.
It’s
hard to like the film that much, it’s not one to bear repeat viewing but there
are enough good moments here not to regret watching it.
Bullet
Ballet
Shinya
Tsukamoto is brilliant at presenting obsession on screen, whether it’s the
protagonists from Tetsuo and Tetsuo 2 trying to become mechanized versions of
themselves, or here, advert director Goda desperate to obtain a chief special
handgun after the suicide of his long-term girlfriend.
He’s
already had a run-in with a gang of youths before the film starts, a young
woman pretending to be about to fall on Tokyo subway tracks used as a lure to
open up would-be helpers to a mugging, and in the scuffle she bites Goda’s
hand.
Goda
and this gang have a number of run-ins throughout the film.
Tsukamoto’s
filming of Tokyo’s seedy underbelly is viscerally evocative, the black and
white photography helping to illuminate the stark contrasts in harsh night
lighting and shadow, with leaking pipes, exposed wiring and grime silting up
the choked back alleys all contributing to an air of menace.
Mud
Celebrated
for his performance as a self-deluded guy in hiding on an island in the bayou
while trying to get a boat down from a tree, Matthew McConaughey is good, as
are the boys who find him when they go looking for said boat, but ultimately I
was curiously unmoved by the film.
Fairly
good as coming of age dramas go, with much made of ways of life coming to an
end, but there’s something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Before
Dawn
A
decent low budget zombie about a couple on holiday in the country when a zombie
outbreak happens. The woman is bitten, the man locks her in the cellar when she
turns, then has to deal with an oddball survivor, seeking refuge at their
holiday cottage.
Slowly
over the course of the first half, we learn that the couple is married with
children; that their marriage is nearly over due to the husband’s infidelity;
that this holiday is meant to be an attempt to save it.
The
film makes good use of its limited sets – the cottage with a garage, a small
expanse of countryside surrounding it. The size of the cottage and its rooms
contribute to the claustrophobia and isolation which help ratchet up the
tension caused by the unknown – just what is happening out there?
While
low budget zombie flicks are ten a penny these days, Before Dawn is executed
well, with genuinely affecting scenes – the husband taking a call from his kids’
gran as their house is overwhelmed, the slow build-up, drip feeding information
which leaves the audience to deduce the couple’s relationship and history, the
flailing, desperate fight in the cramped garage around a land rover.
Happily
the film remains decent through to the bleak ending, something of a wonder as
the film was written, directed, and cast with Emmerdale cast and crew.
Lucky
Number Slevin
Slick
but partly empty, Slevin’s little identity tale of two criminal empires at war,
residing in skyscrapers on opposite sides of the street, both visited by a
bumbling young man, new in town, embroiled in the intrigue due to a case of
mistaken identity…
Performances
are okay, Josh Hartnett is good at portraying the two sides of his character,
and the wrench in the tonal shift of the film doesn’t seem to be his fault.
Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley are both fine as the two mob bosses at war,
though neither would be accused of giving their best performance here, and
Bruce Willis hands in the usual quiet tough guy in his few scenes.
The
whole thing chugs along at a decent pace as Hartnett is thrown around the city
by the mess he gets caught up in, assisted by Lucy Liu’s impossibly peppy
neighbour, but there’s nothing here to fix it firmly in the memory.
