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Reviews
Zombie Beach (2010)
DVD's on Amazon......This film succeeds in a major way in believability.
A film must be believable on certain levels, in order to get me to suspend my disbelief on other levels. There must be enough believable elements for me to see through the obviously unbelievable ones. This film succeeds in a major way in believability.
The visual effects are an essential part of the movie, and they really needed to be done well here to properly sell the idea - safe to say that they were still good enough to surpass my already unrealistically high expectations! Safe to say, even in today's computer saturated film industry the special effects in Zombie Beach will still succeed in blowing you away.The cast is pitch perfect, right down to the most minuscule parts.
I am a fan of zombie movies and fiction movies and got collection of most zombie movies ever made.This one was ordered at amazon and happy to add to my collection.
Watch the Shadows Dance (1988)
Hmmm Nicole Kidman .....
I just bought a DVD player, and this was one of the free movies thoughtfully supplied with it.
Very interesting movie with a young 20 year old Nicole Kidman playing Robby's girlfriend Amy Gabriel who caught on to Steve early in the movie when she saw him and Guy exchanging money for drugs and it almost cost her life for finding that out. The real star in the movie is Tom Jennings who was both strong and sensitive, what ever happened to him?, in his part of Robby Madson. In the end Robby had to face the truth, as well as the fists and kicks, of the person he looked up to for so long.
Robby battles Steve in the abandoned warehouse that he and Steve's students practice on their Ninja/Karate skills that Steve thought them at the end of the film. The movie is hard to follow due to the very dark photography in it making it very difficult to tell who's who in the very thrilling fight sequence between Robby and Steve at the conclusion of the film but if you give it a chance and overlook that you may very well like it.
Dead Calm (1989)
The Neill character makes a good counterpoint
In many ways this has a foundation to a perfect thriller. The two main characters are sensible and intelligent people who just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Like with every thriller their are a few minor loopholes, but overall the situations are done in a believable fashion with no extreme jumps in logic. The script is tight and the suspense consistent. The action comes naturally through the scenarios and is not forced or played out too long. Having it take place at sea gives it a very distinct flavor. The limitations of the setting actually makes it even more creative. It also hits on one of the main ingredients of fear which is isolation.
The only minor liability is the Zane character. At times he seems like a very believable and even fascinating psychotic. He is definitely no machine like slasher. There are times when he seems very calm and complacent. His disturbed traits only surface sporadically thus giving him a much more multi-faceted presence. Unfortunately he is also very careless and sometimes even amazingly dumb. This hurts the tension because it seems to be telegraphing his own demise.
The Neill character makes a good counterpoint. He is savvy and no- nonsense. He takes action into his own hands and doesn't just fall into the helpless victim mode of other thrillers. The Kidman character is another refreshing change of pace. She is not the standard 'screaming lady in a bikini', but instead shows equal resourcefulness.
The film does resort to the modern day slasher trend of having a 'double' ending. Yet everything is so slickly handled that you can almost just go with it. For thriller fans this should be a real treat.
King Kong (2005)
King Kong succeeds on a level completely
The cast is pitch perfect, right down to the most minuscule parts. (the natives on Skull Island are even more terrifying than any orcs or evil creatures in LOTR) Naomi Watts gives a heartwarming and wonderful performance as the innocent Ann Darrow, the "beauty who killed the beast". And indeed, performance aside, Watts hasn't looked this beautiful for quite a while! While everyone had their doubts about Jack Black's casting a while back, he proves to be just what his character needed to be truly believable. Black harnesses his trademark manic energy, and instead of playing it for laughs, expels it through Carl Denham's passion for the film industry, and his lust for providing a show for his audiences - sometimes at the cost of his morals. I must admit, I have never been a fan of Adrien Brody, but even he managed to win my sympathies, and proves surprisingly convincing as heroic screenwriter Jack Driscoll. And then there's Andy Serkis... the man is so underrated, since his best performances have been overshadowed by masks of admittably impressive CGI, but result in him losing credit he so desperately deserves. Serkis, while utterly convincing as an enormous silverback gorilla in terms of movement and vocalizations, still manages to bring a surprising humanity to Kong. I'm hard pressed to remember the last time an animal protagonist has managed to capture our hearts and emotional involvement as much as Kong does, and Serkis definitely deserves accolades for re-creating such an iconic character in a beautiful fashion only through movement and body language. He also takes a hilarious supporting role as the grizzled and trigger-happy Lumpy the cook.
Overall, I think it is safe to say that King Kong succeeds on a level completely lost to most productions these days. Rarely are our emotions manipulated with such ease, rarely do we find ourselves getting so engrossed in a story that a 3 hour running time seems to have gone by far too quickly and we yearn for more. King Kong is an odyssey of a movie, and the most genuine and compelling output seen since... well, the Lord of the Rings. This is classic storytelling at its peak - don't miss out on it!