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arnulfg
Reviews
Parting Shots (1998)
terrible
I thought that actors like John Cleese, Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg would be a recommendation for this piece. Unfortunately it's not. Only Rigg (perhaps better known as Emma Peel) is shown longer than some others. And her performance is stifled at best. It's a pity. Chris Rea is not an actor and judging from this he should refrain from an actor career. But maybe it is the sole fault of the director why this thing fails so miserably. While the story shows promise, the implementation is so shoddy that it actually hurts seeing this. Best summarized at the end of the scene where John Cleese's character closes the door after he had a painful talk with Rea. He bends over, holds his head with his hands and cries out loud: "Oh my God!" Apparently with great pain. That was really convincing and the best performance throughout the whole movie. Apart from that John Cleese is just John Cleese -- nothing more, which is good enough. The man can just withdraw himself and don't act at all and still makes himself at least bearable. The same goes for Oliver Reed. His character is a stoic killer. Reed did not even have to draw a face to deliver his part, which is good, because you can study him in one of his last roles. This movie only has these good points: you can watch the actors while they don't act at all or only give excuses for acting and see the people behind the masks. My conclusion: never watch a movie by Winner again.
The Frighteners (1996)
Funny and fast paced
I heard about Frighteners first on the Web. It got good reviews. I also noticed that Michael J. Fox played the lead role. I know him only from his appearances in the Back to the Future series, Family Ties and Spin City. So I have to admit that I was sceptical of him to pull this off. Additionally this movie was not shown in local theatres for some reason. When I stumbled upon this DVD in a shop I decided that I give it a try. And, man, am I pleased that I did that!
I'm not a fan of the horror genre. But this movie has definitely its funny moments, suspense, and good visual effects. And all of this put together in a new and fresh way I've never seen before. Sure it has some clichee'd moments and why does it pretend to be located in some US American town? New Zealand would've been perfectly suited as well. But all in all it's just great. I am delighted.