Say it loud - I'm black and I'm proud! (Pitch Black (DVD))

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	Pitch Black (DVD)
Date:	21/11/00 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast and furious

Disadvantages: Slightly familiar

Yes, we've seen this movie before, and it's 'Aliens', but when your ripoffs are this good, this sharp, coming on with this much edge, who cares, at least they're not plundering 'The Sound of Music'.

The setup requires you to swallow two very big contrivances -

1) that the characters crash-land on a deserted rock of a planet just before a total eclipse which will bring the resident alien killer bats to the surface

2) that one of the characters' eyes have been altered so that he can see in the dark.

If you can manage those - and let's face it, most movies make some dumb demands - then what follows is just irresistible. Moving at a real clip, the characters scrabble around, tearing verbal strips off each other before the beasties move in and do it for real. There is some real attempt at characterisation her - the heroine is very ambivalent, having tried to kill everyone else to save herself in the first five minutes, while Cole Hauser and Vin Diesel as cop and serial killer respectively play a long game to hide who's going to be the real hero.

It's a cheap movie, saving much of the meagre budget for the alien assaults of the second half (the aliens are brilliant), but free from the constraints of a big budget, it can be very interesting. Taking its central gimmick (the aliens only come out in the dark), the film uses different stocks and techniques to play some clever games with light and colour - scenes are tinted blue or green, or washed out by the bright sun. The most interesting effects come in Diesel's visions in the dark, with the glowing aliens committing their worst atrocities only for his eyes.

In the end, 'Pitch Black' has little to say, but it is quite brilliantly made, genuinely thrilling, and a lot more vicious and intelligent than bigger-scale studio pictures - wait for the ending and you'll know what I mean. Don't wait for video - catch
this one in a cinema now, and you won't be disappointed.

Summary: