Change Your Image
human-us
Reviews
Hell House (2001)
Profoundly Ironic
To quickly summarize what I believe is the 'message' one may get from viewing this film: All you need to do is change the geographical location and name of the 'God' and you've got a typical fundamentalist Madras school in the Middle East. What's on display here is a sad and horrific waste of young human minds.
To witness, in some awe, where impressionable minds can be lead by twisted religious quacks makes this film most definitely worth seeing -- and can admirably serve as a 'wake up call' for modern civilization; do you know where your children are? Be afraid.
H.U.
The Big Empty (2003)
Umm...
If you're into the typically self-indulgent (and often too self-conscious) Australian movies, then you might like this -- especially so if you're an Australian, as they do so crowd around their own.
Once you get beyond that, you get that 'let's show 'em what we're about mate' production -- sometimes this can be a good thing, but often it seems it's a peculiar side effect of a film produced downunder.
There have been lots of great low-budget Australian films, but this one seems to carry on that nuevo mañana película tradición: 'We're from another BETTER planet because Baz Luhrmann says so...' -- even though Luhrmann has been the only Australian to have ever pulled that off.
Summed up -- over-the-top weirdness when it could have been better if it had been just plain weird. Acting is entertaining in some spots but the actors seem bemused, uninspired and inattentive (perhaps they didn't know what they were supposed to pay attention to?).
Tedious and in spots, predictably unpredictable (if you can grok that). I'd have enjoyed the evening more if I'd have chosen to see a repeat of "Strictly Ballroom" or maybe even "Kangaroo Jack".
Cheers