DISQUS

How this guy keeps getting work is totally beyond me. You may as well cast Vinnie Jones as the Hitcher, they've got equal amounts of acting talent. (Actually I think Vinnie would do a better job).

If you could only see him in sihouette how do you know the hockey shirt was black?

I also pretty sure Eldritch hasn't been horribly disfigured. The smoke is actually to make him harder to hit when disgruntled audiences start throwing things.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I paid real money to be there too, and believe you me the review is far, far more entertaining than the actual gig. When watching the audience is infinitely more diverting than what's happening on stage, you know something isn't right. (Not that you could see what was happening on stage anyway, and I'd much rather not have heard what was happening either).

Brilliant review. I didn't think the emotional impact of the evening could be summed up so well. It was a privilege to watch the man perform and I hope we have the opportunity to do so many times in the future.

Judging by the anount of postive buzz Bassett's as yet unreleased Wilderness is picking up from festivals, this may not be quite so bad. Especially if you completely ignore the title and just view it as a mutant cannibal miners attack National Guard movie. Thinking about it, it could be the first mutant cannibal miners attack National Guard movie ever. The start of a whole new horror sub-genre. Or it may spawn a Sky pseudo-documentary series "When Mutant Cannibal Miners Attack". Who knows....maybe great things will come.

And if you want to see how the book should be approached properly on film, check out The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price (and co-scripted by Matheson himself). Made on a minute budget back in 1964, it manages to pick up a lot of the source novels tone and atmosphere. Despite some dodgy dubbing,generally poor supporting acting and fairly lacklustre direction this strangely compelling film still succeeds largely because of Vincent Price. Although he could often produce entertainingly hammy turns, Price nails the despair of a man who has lost his family and friends and now faces a hopeless future as the only surviving human in a world full of plague-induced vampires in a finely judged low-key performance.
I really can't see Will Smith pulling that one off, nor can I see Warners releasing that kind of film in the current box office doldrums. Yet another wasted opportunity

Do not under any circumstances delete either Joe Henry or Terry Reid (both of whom seem to have come up with the same name for their album).

I'm a big Mr Bean fan. If Rowan Atkinson had played the husband's role we may have got something more bearable than Sean Bean's attempt. Note to producers everywhere : when you ask an english actor "can you do an american accent?" don't just take yes for an answer - listen to it first. Cider House Rules anyone? Still even The Worst Attempt At An American Accent Ever can't derail an excellent effort (thank god he's got minimal screen time).
Still I should thank Sean Bean for enlightening me as to the origins of Tolkien's residents of Gondor - that's where all the Yorkshire miners moved to after the collapse of the coal indistry.

On the other hand....

I seriously disliked, no, make that detested, Roth's first effort, and I couldn't understand all the hype. I almost didn't bother with Hostel because of this but I'm glad I did. With the exception of one cast member, I actually liked all of the main characters and I felt that there was a build up of tension throughout that results in an extremely satisfying pay-off. Roth's direction shows a maturity and skill that wasn't apparent in his debut and he manages to build an atmosphere of escalating dread and hopelessness very effectively.

Yes, it's not a classic, and yes, the ending is extremely contrived but the film succeeds far more than it fails.

Superb review. I'm amazed at the amount of critical acclaim this has received so far.
My favourite, from Roger Ebert : "Meanwhile, the mutants entertain themselves by passing in front of the camera so quickly you can't really see them, while we hear a loud sound, halfway between a swatch and a swootch, on the soundtrack. Just as a knife in a slasher movie can make a sharpening sound just because it exists, so do mutants make swatches and swootches when they run in front of cameras."

Let's hope Aja's next film is a return to the form he showed with Haute Tension and that he isn't just a one-hit wonder. After watching this, I felt just as tortured as the family but for all the wrong reasons.

This is potentially awful news, especially if Roth gets his way and is allowed to write it. Cabin Fever was the most overhyped film of it's year and turned out to be pretty dire. The upcoming Hostel may not be a fair yardstick to measure Roth's improvement by, as there seems to be a fairly large question over how much input Tarantino had.

Still, it won't be as big a disappointment as The Hills Have Eyes remake.....

I tend to agree (although I'm not quite as disgusted by the TCM redux). And yet, the upcoming Hills Have Eyes remake has me quivering with excitement.....

I disagree. Yes, it's overlong, parts of the dialogue are unbelievably clunky (which I suppose is true to the spirit of the original) and some of the CGI is poor, but I think the film succeeds in the one area it needs to to create emotional involvement in the main story - which is the relationship between Ann and Kong. It's a huge tribute to the acting skills of Naomi Watts that what could so easily have tipped over into the ridiculous becomes almost unbearably moving by the close of the film. Watts is totally convincing and Kong is such a lifelike creation that I had no difficulty in accepting that they could come to feel such affection for one another. The poor CGI sticks out all the more because Kong is such a flawless creation, but the emotional content of the film is such that I'm prepared to forgive it.
As to the rest of the cast - they really don't matter. Jack Black acquits himself fairly well (although I agree he doesn't do too well with the final line), Brody gets better as the film goes on, and no-one else apart from Andy Serkis makes much of an impact.
Overall though, I have to chalk this one up as one more success for Peter Jackson because it brings back the childlike sense of wonder I haven't felt at the cinema for many years. The images of Ann and Kong watching the sunrise together from the top of the Empire State Building and skating in Central Park will stay with me for a long time.