dorshez Reviews

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)

Very Disappointed

[4/10 · 20 January 2013]

I'll first of all point out that I am quite the Silent Hill fan before explaining that this director did not get the point of Silent Hill.

The games and indeed some aspects of the last film provoked fear through the unknown, the fact that the characters were totally lost and on their own in a place where anything could happen. The creatures were scary and the less we knew about them, the scarier they were. In the last film the acting was great and there was plenty of suspense, and a decent director and art team running the project.

This one had some great visuals, the environments were great to look at. The CGI effects however, were not. Neither was the poor use of the actors talent, and the over use of extra human characters and monsters. These combined with a terrible attempt to almost follow the 3rd game TOO closely whilst remaining loyal to the first film, makes for a bad experience. It's nice to see that the director here tried to make a nice little tie in with both the games and the film, but the last film wandered into it's own little story, which luckily turned out well. he should have stuck to following the games, or the last film instead of both. Then he needed to write up some less cliché' lines for the actors.

Dredd (2012)

Great film for the non-hardcore (SPOILER ALERT)

[8/10 · 2 October 2012]

If you're one of these fans who insists that a film stick entirely to a comic, then you may not enjoy this, quite like a Batman fan refuses to watch Dark Knight because Joker doesn't fall into a vat of acid.

But if you want a nice simple action fest with a cool comic book character then this film is great. And filmed beautifully on a tight budget of just $45m.

Firstly, Karl Urban plays a mean, moody, unforgiving Dredd, just as he was in the comics. The helmet looks so much better than Stallones, and as promised, not once do we see his face. His uniform, though not true to the comics, looks better in a real life situation; instead of Lycra with a couple of shoulder pads, this guy wears full body armour, but still sticks to the green boots and gloves. His lawgiver looks quite small for a gun that packs such a punch, this may be the only real flaw to him. His voice, loses itself from time to time, ranging from clean when speaking loudly, to reverting back to it's raspy lost-my-voice mode when speaking in lower tones and delivering a beautifully portrayed "I am the law" line.

Olivia is great as Judge Anderson on her first day, who begins a little like Hermione Granger, a know it all, but due to her experience on her first day, becomes hardened, and learns to judge more on a situation and emotional level than by the book, which strangely, Dredd approves of. This may be one of the few flaws of the film.

The city itself, a little untrue to the comics in the sense of claustrophobia. Instead of Massive towers all piled next to each other, there are only a few, and far between. This was supposedly for an audience to get a feel for the size of the Mega Blocks, where the vast majority of the film takes place. Inside the block, the scenery becomes repetitive and boring, but suits the dark mood of the film.

As does the black humour and violence. This is certainly not a film to watch if you're squeamish. The gore is not concentrated on unless it involves the main characters. The SLO-MO effect was not over used but the badly done 3D took away from it, and I much look forward to seeing it again without the 3D.

All in all, without nit picking, this was a good film for those who don't want to be mind boggled and don't want a film that sticks so close to the comics, it's laid back, it's gruesome, it's fun, and it works. 7 out of 10 from me.

Dark City (1998)

An excellent sci-fi thriller

[7/10 · 14 September 2010]

At first it looked a bit dreary and just another detective film but things soon get interesting when the strangers begin looking for the main character, who is confused by a doctor who keeps saying he can help, and the fact that he has supposedly committed 6 murders, and he remembers none of it.

Richard O'Brien is fantastic and I can't imagine any other actor playing his role, just the right amount of morbid Eerieness to him. Keifer Sunderland is brilliant as the scientist who is bullied into helping the strangers, even though his speech get's a little annoying it adds to the character.

This was recommended to my by my dad who is also quite the fan of sci-fi thrillers, and at first I was a little worried it might not be to my taste, but later i found myself enjoying it. Maybe not my favourite sci-fi, for the photography and visual effects, but certainly one worth buying,for the interesting characters and brilliantly creative story.

Tekken (2010)

not for the fans

[4/10 · 3 September 2010]

Quite a fan of the Tekken series, but can't say I am of the film. A pretty big disappointment in a lot of places. Almost all of the characters we're nothing like they were in the games, and there's hardly any back story to them, only the main 3, Heihachi Kazuya and Jin. Nothing about Marshal Law, and tiny bits about Sergei Dragunov, Raven, Yoshimitsu, etc. all of which don't tie in with the games. And why did they have to replace classic characters like King and Paul Phoenix with Muigel? The upside to this was the fights, which i thought were brilliant, I always love a good martial arts fight, but if you're a fan of the series, thats all this film will be good for.

Event Horizon (1997)

A damn good attempt

[8/10 · 5 February 2010]

This is my first review so please excuse any mistakes or contradictions.

I'm a big fan of Sci-fi horrors but I also like it when technical bits and bobs in a film are all right (like terminator keeps screwing up John Conners age according to certain dates etc). This film doesn't exactly use common sense in places and there are plot holes here and there.

But if you can ignore that, and just sit back and keep on track of the plot which is easy to do, it's a good film. Sh** scary in places, a good soundtrack, it's squeamish, some interesting angles, and plenty of suspense. It's certainly not a film for those who are really picky with details, but if you're not, and you just want a night of sci-fi horror with popcorn and a pillow, go rent this out.