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Cursed [2005] (DVD)
by GentleGenius
RELEASED: 2005, Cert. 15
RUNNING TIME: Approx. 97 mins
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
PRODUCERS: Marianne Maddalena & Kevin Williamson
SCREENPLAY: Kevin Williamson
MUSIC: Marco Beltrami
MAIN CAST:-
Jesse Eisenberg as Jimmy Myers
Christina Ricci as Ellie ... Myers
Joshua Jackson as Jake Taylor
Judy Greer as Joanie
Milo Ventimiglia as Bo
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FILM ONLY REVIEW
Cursed opens with two girls at a fairground. One of them, just for fun, tries to persuade a fortune teller to inform her friend that her boyfriend is rubbish. However, the fortune teller has other ideas, giving both girls a serious and stern warning that she sees blood, and that the girls both are in grave danger.
The story then moves on to brother and sister Jimmy and Ellie, who whilst driving home, hit an animal, and it causes a major crash with another vehicle. Jimmy and Ellie are OK, but the other car topples down a grassy bank. They go down to help the driver after having called the emergency services on their mobile, and try to free the woman who is trapped upside down in her car. Whilst Jimmy and Ellie are hauling the woman from the car, a strange beast attacks them, dragging the injured woman away. Jimmy and Ellie both suffer scratches from the creature, but are able to make their escape back to the road.
When the police arrive, Jimmy tries to tell them that a werewolf had attacked them and killed the woman driver of the overturned car. Of course, he isn't believed.
As Jimmy's and Ellie's lives get back to normal, it becomes evident that they have both been cursed with the line of the werewolf.
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Cursed starts off quite well, with a good atmosphere being set straight away. However, I found the first part of the music used rather irritating, as it was far too loud. As the film continued, some of the other music used isn't too bad at all, but for the most part it almost drowned out some of the dialogue.
Even though from the outset I could tell that this was going to be a pretty silly film, something kept me watching, as the storyline is well presented. However, it gets dafter and dafter as it goes on, building up to a huge crescendo of madness which is way, way over the top.
The quality of the special effects is a mixed bag, with some of them being fairly clever, yet others - bearing in mind the advanced technology which was available when this film was made - are rather crude and amateurish.
The acting too is very uneven, with a very good performance from Jesse Eisenberg as Jimmy Myers, and Christina Ricci as his sister Ellie being passable, but I couldn't get it out of my head that she resembled Mabel Lucy Atwell (you have to be really old to know who I'm talking about!!). Various other characters in the film were portrayed quite badly, with Judy Greer's role of jealous Joanie coming across as totally ludicrous. My favourite character in the whole film was Zipper, a beautiful dog, and I hope he was given lots of nose-rubs and doggie treats for his performance.
During the course of the film, a few smiles crept across my face here and there, finding some of it a little amusing - and, I'm not sure if the director/producers/screenplay writer intended any humour to be present. It wasn't the horror elements which hit my funny spot....it was some of the things people were saying to one another. If Cursed was in fact intended to have a comedy element to it, then that's one part of the film which was really on the ball.
Returning to the special effects....the first of them did make me jump out of my skin, but those which followed were of mixed quality. The results of the scenes of violence were very well put together, but I was unhappy with those involving the werewolf elements. I still think that the very best werewolf film ever made is An American Werewolf In London, and Cursed didn't come even close in the department of special effects.
I am a little concerned that this film has been issued with a 15 certificate, because although it is obviously not to be taken seriously, there is quite a lot of violence, especially towards the end....and, this violence is rather graphic. If the decision of the film's censorship rating were left to me, I'd slam an 18 onto it.
All in all, Cursed is one of these films which is truly trashy, despite some parts of it being fairly well put together, but I can honestly and unashamedly say that I did enjoy it, although it's not something I'd want to see again. It did keep me suitably entertained for 97 or so minutes, and kept me out of mischief. As for the scare-factor, such is low, unless you have a werewolf phobia...in that case, I'd suggest watching it through slitted eyes, or pressing the eject button. I quite liked it though, and would recommend it to anybody who likes trash of the variety which also manages to be entertaining. For those who do decide they'd like to watch this film, I recommend lowering the sound levels towards the end, otherwise your eardrums will be blasted across the universe and back.
In summary and overall, Cursed is a way over the top, but slightly amusing, definitely ridiculous piece of throwaway entertainment which isn't as bad as I first thought it would be.
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At the time of writing, Cursed can be purchased from Amazon as follows:-
New: from £1.74 to £13.99
Used: from 1p to £1.00
Some items on Amazon are available for free delivery within the UK, but where this doesn't apply, a £1.26 charge should be added to the above figures.
Thanks for reading!
~~ Also published on Ciao under my CelticSoulSister user name ~~
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Clannad: Collection 1 (DVD)
by Dentolux
Clannad is a 2007 anime series based on a popular Japanese visual novel created by the folks at Key studios (a company not unfamiliar with anime adaptations having previously seen their PC releases Air and Kanon get turned into cartoons.) The show's two seasons are currently available to buy, across four DVD sets, courtesy of the UK's ... premier anime distributor Manga Entertainment. Series One Part One, which I am reviewing today, is made up of a trio of DVDs containing the show's opening twelve episodes. At the time of writing the set will set you back around £26, which is a tad pricy (for the same cost multi-region owners can grab the U.S release containing the complete first season as opposed to just half of it.)
STORY
The series follows the adventures of a delinquent named Tomoya Okazaki who is about to commence his final year of high school. Tomoya is disinterested in his studies, regularly cuts class and is merely going through the motions after having his dreams of a basketball scholarship evaporate due to a shoulder injury. His aimless life gets turned around when he befriends Nagisa Furukawa, a lonely girl who is repeating her graduate year after missing too many lessons in the previous term due to illness. Nagisa would like more than anything to restart the school's defunct drama club, but can a timid lass with no friends recruit enough members to revive the club and stage a play? Hopefully with Tomoya's encouragement she can.
Nagisa's drama club erm drama takes a backseat to other stories once the main cast is introduced in the opening episodes. The first, of two story arcs, revolves around Fuko Ibuki a scatterbrained girl who is obsessed with starfish. Fuko spends all her free time carving out wooden starfish, which she gifts to the student body as a means of inviting people to attend her sister's upcoming wedding. Tomoya and Nagisa end up giving Fuko a hand with her mission before realizing that she may in fact be the campus' fabled ghost. Fuko is allegedly the younger sister of a former teacher who tragically got hit by a car. Given that the Fuko in question is presently lying comatose in hospital could the girl before them actually be an imposter?
Following on from that spooky tale, Tomoya returns to his goal of recruiting drama club members on behalf of Nagisa. With that in mind he sets his sights on enlisting Kotomi Ichinose to their cause. Kotomi is the daughter of two scientists who have investigated the existence of parallel worlds. Given her parentage it is no surprise that she is blessed with a genius level intellect and spends most her time hidden away reading in the library. Tomoya uses the drama club as an excuse to get the reclusive Kotomi to come out of her shell and make friends. Things go well in that regard, aside from moments when Kotomi's terrible violin performances cause anyone in the vicinity to flee in terror. When episode twelve ends Kotomi suffers a mental breakdown, which seems to be tied to a tragic event from her past. To find out more details on the incident viewers will have to buy the next DVD, which continues the story. Don't you just love cliffhangers?
CHARACTERS
Despite being labeled as a delinquent, Tomoya is a nice guy whose reputation as a troublemaker mainly stems from his poor attendance record. He cares for his friends and is normally level headed, only losing his cool when forced to interact with his alcoholic father who injured his shoulder during an altercation. Tomoya cannot resist a good prank, whenever the opportunity presents itself, with the victim of his gags normally being his bleached haired pal Youhei Sunohara. Youhei's combination of a big mouth and small brain is a good source of comic relief, especially whenever he shares the screen with Tomoyo Sakagami - the reformed female street fighter who is trying to become the next student body president (let's just say an annoying kid mixed with a gal who can kick hard is not a good combo for Youhei's health.)
Nagisa is a heroine who is hard to dislike. Her sweet personality, polite manners and fragile constitution gives us an adorable character viewers can root for. She's got some cute traits including an unhealthy obsession with the big Dango family (a group of circular animated characters used to promote dumplings.) Along with Nagisa, Clannad boasts a fairly large female cast including the Fujibayashi twins. Ryou Fujibayashi is the class rep in Tomoya's class and has a passion for fortune telling. Despite having a crush on Tomoya she is unable to confess her feelings due to her chronic shyness. Kyou Fujibayashi on the other hand is more boisterous. She looks out for her vulnerable sis, often using her knack for hurling textbooks with deadly accuracy to clobber anyone who rubs her the wrong way.
Two other characters worth mentioning are Nagisa's parents Sanae and Akio. Sanae is the sweet mother blessed with youthful good looks that often cause strangers to mistaken her for Nagisa's older sister. Despite working at a bakery Sanae is terrible at creating dough based products as evidenced in a recurring gag were she overhears people lambast her pastries resulting in her running out of the shop in tears. Sanae's baseball loving other half Akio is another interesting character. Often he comes across as a wind up merchant, who spouts off silly lines to get a reaction, but when the chips are down he can man up and get serious to offer some sound fatherly advice.
SUMMARY
Clannad is a show that is hard to categorize. From the early episodes you are given the impression that the series is one of those slice of life high school comedies that are heavy on laughs and thin on plot. At the drop of a dime the tone can however drastically change with the narrative going into a dramatic story arc that tugs at your heartstrings. The conclusion to the Fuko storyline, for example, serves as an early warning that Clannad's reputation for being a tale that can reduce the manliest of men to tears is well earned.
The series has a predominately female cast, who all are attracted to Tomoya, but it still manages to avoid becoming a mindless harem show. It's pretty clear that Tomoya and Nagisa are destined to be together from the offset. Once that becomes apparent to Nagisa's rivals in love they maturely accept defeat rather than hurl themselves at Tomoya to make him reconsider, as a lesser show would. The romance angle is handled well. Typical to many animes the leads act embarrassed whenever the subject is brought up, but gradually the relationship grows in a realistic manner. If you prefer one of the other girls over Nagisa don't worry, the creators have you covered with a few out of continuity stories showing us what would have happened had Tomoya ended up with one of the other ladies.
Due to the girly synopsis and box art I wasn't sure that Clannad would appeal to me, but good word of mouth convinced me to give the series a chance and I'm glad that I did. The show is packed with memorable characters that are a joy to spend time with. The presentation is slick with Kyoto Animation hitting the ball out of the park in terms of animation and artwork. Visually the series ends up trumping the Clannad animated movie produced by Toei Animation (which is no mean feat given that films tend to have higher production values when compared to a TV show.) The soundtrack, which is mostly lifted from the original Clannad visual novel, is also beautiful adding extra punch to the show's emotional moments.
I highly recommend Clannad to anime fans that aren't totally averse to mushy stuff. If you decide to pick up a copy of the series I would however recommend that you also add a box of tissues to your shopping cart. Whether it's tears of joy or tears of sorrow, you can be sure that you won't be watching the screen with dry eyes.
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Chronicle (DVD)
by sara66
***
(Film Only Review)
Plot:
Three boys obtain superpowers. One of the boys documents, via video camera, their journey from obtaining these powers, to the rapid development of their powers, and ultimately their attempts at trying to control their powers and help each other during this process. ...
My Thoughts (summed up in one sentence):
What a load of garbage.
My Thoughts (In detail):
I remember seeing the trailer for this movie, and thinking 'huh, this seems kinda funny.' When it premiered on Sky movies, I sat down with my family, ice cream in hand, to watch the movie.
The trailer gave the impression that this would be a superhero comedy. It was not. It had its comedic moments at the beginning when the boys obtained their powers and used them to play practical jokes on the people around them. But that was pretty much where the comedy ended.
One of the main things to note about this film is the way that it is filmed. It basically views like a home-made documentary, and all the filming is through video cameras, or security cameras, or news crew cameras. While I understand the idea behind the filming...to make it look realistic, so that we as an audience actually believe this is something that has happened...it made the film difficult to watch, at times the shots were shaky and unstable, whichever character held the camera at the time, his facial expressions, body language etc, went unseen. It was like watching a home-movie of someone else's life, and as rapidly as the boys powers developed, as rapidly I got bored.
With a view to making this a realistic documentary...there is also no accompanying music. While I can understand why they chose to do this, I believe music would have added something to scenes of chaos....which without the music I found it hard to watch, because it was just a lot of noise that seemed to go on forever.
The acting is something that I cannot fault, however there is nothing remarkable about it either. Perhaps the only actor that had a bit more depth to his character was Dane DeHaan playing the lead role of Andrew, the boy who is recording most of their journey. DeHaan was able to display a range of different emotions, you can really see his emotions develop, growing stronger as his powers do. You can see how his powers and his emotions begin to connect with one another, and you can really see that in his facial expressions, when you do get to see them, and in his voice and body language.
The movie is not particularly memorable either. I got so bored within the first fifteen minutes, that the only thing keeping me awake was playing Temple Run on the ipad every now and again. The only scene that will stick in my head forever is where one of the boys uses his powers on...something...and you don't expect him to do what he then proceeds to do. It was a moment of shock.
The storyline became a little predictable and while you could see where it was headed, at the same time it felt like it was a storyline that was headed nowhere. There were moments where I wanted to scream 'Hurry up and get on with the story,' and there were moments where it was incredibly fast-paced, however, important questions that you would ask in this movie as with other superhero movies, remain unanswered...and it leaves you thinking, 'hang on a second, what actually happened in this movie?' I believe this movie falls under the genre of science fiction, but it doesn't answer any of the scientific questions that you would ask. They leave room at the end for a possible sequel.
I am astounded at the number of reviews giving Chronicle a four or five star rating. The movie certainly takes a different approach to the superhero genre...and does it in a creative way. So I guess all I can say is this simply was not my cup of tea.
If you are looking for a typical superhero movie, this is not it.
***
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