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Reviews
Over Her Dead Body (2008)
Don't Watch It Over You're Dead Body!
There have been some funny movies about spirits to come out of Hollywood. Cary Grant was an angel in "The Bishop's Wife" (1947). Of course the best were the Topper movies in the late '30s-early '40s. And, more recently, Warren Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait" (1978), which was a remake of 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan." These were well-written, funny, entertaining comedies, all of which centered around supernatural creatures like ghosts and angels.
Now comes writer-director Jeff Lowell, making his feature film debut with a story of an unlikable, bitchy young woman, Kate (Eva Longoria Parker), who gets killed on her wedding day and then comes back to harass the fledgling spiritualist, Ashley (Lake Bell) who is falling for Kate's fiancé, Henry (Paul Rudd). One thing that is clear at the outset: Longoria Parker is no Constance Bennett (Marion Kerby in the first two "Topper" films), who is the standard against whom all female ghosts are measured.
There is a line right at the beginning when Henry's sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) tells Henry, "You don't smile." That aptly described my situation throughout this film.
The main problem with the film is that the script just isn't very funny. But it's made worse by Longoria Parker's presence that just rubbed me the wrong way every time she appeared on the screen. Just to start out with, compounding her lack of comedic talent, she is covered with so much pancake makeup, who knows what she really looks like? Kate gets killed while setting up for her wedding by a falling frozen statue. She's so unreasonable that the angel who instructs her about what her afterlife is about walks out on her (well, she actually just fades out), so Kate finds herself back on earth as a ghost without knowing what her mission is.
Chloe wants Henry to snap out of the funk into which he has naturally descended after Kate's death (from what I saw of Kate, he should have felt a wonderful relief), so she introduces him to Ashley, who really doesn't know what she's doing as a spiritualist (she is also a cateress to make ends meet), to see if she can get Henry back in touch with Kate. There's a lot of meshugaas that goes on.
The vacuity of the film is epitomized by a "B" story revolving around Ashley's assistant, Dan (Jason Biggs). This is thrown in near the end, but the way Ashley handles it indicates that she's as much of a boob as Kate. Since Dan is apparently attracted to both of these severely flawed women, he deserves whatever he gets.
Eventually Kate appears to Ashley and the fun should begin. It doesn't, and more's the pity because in other hands this could have been pretty funny. As it is, Norman Z. McLeod, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Alan Mowbray, and Co. must be turning over in their graves to see this is what their brilliance in the first two "Topper" films has wrought.
Vacancy (2007)
There Was No Vacancy In The Theater!
Yes, the theater was full of people that loved it! I had the luck to watch this at the theaters. in a really early screening, here in Israel.
Where "Disturbia" microwaved elements of "Rear Window," the terse, relentless "Vacancy" borrows more sparingly from "Psycho," which also was set in a seedy West Coast motel where guests have a tendency to never check out.
"Vacancy" sneaks into your brain from the get-go by skillfully exploiting several elements: the urban myth about the couple that watches some porn in a fleabag motel and suddenly realizes they are the porn stars, the paranoia of characters who think they're being watched (and they're right, since we are watching them) and our awareness of previous movies with similar mayhem.
Specifically, I'm talking about "Psycho," which "Vacancy" nods to in ways both small (the stuffed birds that appear everywhere, the use of mirrors, the look- and sound-alike opening credits) and large (the stalking of motel-bound characters, which relies less on gore than on mounting, claustrophobic suspense).
Casting Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale in the lead roles is the first sign that "Vacancy" is smarter than the average horror movie. They're terrific as a bickering couple who get stranded in a dump where the night manager (Frank Whaley) might as well greet them with, "Good evening. I hope your room will prove satisfactory until I get around to snuffing you out and videotaping it." We know just enough about the couple to root for them as they're stalked by masked maniacs, but what drives "Vacancy" is its ingenious premise, from which director Nimrod Antal - who made the fine Hungarian thriller "Kontroll" ("Control") - wrings every ounce of tension. "Control" is a good word for him. Antal has done a clever job of imagining the story in visual terms, right down to the way he frames the unlucky road trippers. Early on, as they snipe at each other, they're always separated by something (a wall, a mirror), even when they're together. But adversity forces them to cooperate, and, in the final scenes, the camera offers us some hope: At last, these Bickersons are depicted together in the frame, fighting for their lives.
The Descent (2005)
One of the scariest movies I have EVER seen!
After a horrific family car crash, Sarah (Macdonald) is finally ready to start her life over again with her four best friends (Mendoza, Reid, Buring and Mulder), plus one new one (No one). Their traditional extreme holiday this time involves cave exploration, but a stupid decision and a couple of accidents leave them lost underground. They spot signs that they're not the first spelunkers to pass this way. And also that they may not be alone in the dark.
The closed-in space makes a superb horror movie set--we can barely stand to watch them squirm through the tiny gaps, traverse Lord of the Rings-size chasms, and cope with things that go bump in the dark. It helps that Marshall spends just the right amount of time setting up the situation before the women head into the cave. They're all well played, but only Macdonald, Mendoza and No one are able to add any real definition; the other three feel completely interchangeable.
To make up for this, Marshall lays on the chills early on, with the terrible car crash, dream sequences, jumps and false starts, sudden birds and bats lunging at the camera. And most of all, an obvious willingness to get seriously grisly. By the time the women see strange marks on the cave walls, we're already completely unnerved. Then it gets increasingly blood-soaked and primal. There are some problems, mostly in the difficulty we have in meaningfully connecting with any of the characters, and it's not easy to keep up with the chaotic, poorly lit action sequences.
But Marshall is clearly having fun here, and he effectively assembles all of the elements to gross us out and scare us half to death. References abound, most obviously The Blair Witch Project and Carrie. While the final turn of events (well, the final few turns of events) are seriously unhinged--and surprisingly emotional for this genre.