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Sarah-neko
Reviews
Panic Room (2002)
Mother-daughter thriller!
That's what I like about Panic Room right there - it stands alongside 'Aliens' in this very rare (I'd say sadly underused) category. And since the first time I actually saw it was with my mother, and we spent a lot of the time yelping and grabbing each other's arms and blinking like crazy in sympathy, I'd call it very effective.
Things I love about this film:
- The astonishing camera work, flying into keyholes, through the handle of a kettle, cross-sectioning walls, etc. I like to think of this as the ghost of the house - probably Mr Pearlstein looking on in bemused disgust.
- The excellent, subtle performance of the girl playing Sarah, and the immediately believable relationship between her and Meg. They don't just look related, they echo one another's verbal and facial mannerisms.
- The delineation of the three intruders and their differing motives - Burnham with the 'custody lawyers up his ass,' Junior out for what he can get (and do his siblings and cousins out of), Raoul because... I think Raoul was just really hoping he'd get to kill someone. I have never seen anyone deserve to get his fingers slammed in a heavy door *more*.
To viewers outside America, the whole concept of a panic room is pretty alien and more than a little disturbing, so I cannot say I ever watched the movie with a feeling of 'it could happen to me,' yet I was emotionally *with* Meg and Sarah - and sometimes, despite myself, the intruders - all the way, particularly in the utterly dismaying moment when, after Meg's brave dash, the cellphone proves unusable. I'd give the film four stars out of five - it isn't one of my adored favourites, but it is a very good, solid watch that I also enjoyed on a repeat viewing. I get a little fed up with people commenting on this movie and pointing out the 'mistakes' Meg makes, like not giving the suggested signal to the police. I thought she managed extraordinarily well, and would not be half as interested in seeing a movie in which the heroine *never* made any important mistakes. It makes her a more realistic and human character, and fits in with the stubbornness, occasionally making her one-eyed, that is one of her key traits. As for people who consider it implausible that Officer Keeney should be so persistent in trying to find out if something was wrong, a) it's training, and b) when Meg brushed her hair away from her face, the fresh red burn on her hand from the propane scene was clearly visible. Now, he can't know how she got burned, but it is sufficiently at odds with her claim to be fine to make him wonder. Don't you think?
Star Hunter (1996)
I love it *because* it's trash.
I love this movie very much. It should be enjoyed with plenty of alcohol (spirits for preference) and a few witty friends who enjoy making up porno dialogue. It was my sister who pointed out that the lighting and the odd grainy/cloudy look of the film (video?) were exactly like what one sees in late-night soft-porn TV shows like 'The Click' and 'Red Shoe Diaries' (don't look at me, *she's* the one who likes them) and we just went off from there. It should be noted that 'Star Hunter' is complete and utter tripe. No- one in it can act except Roddy McDowell and the stoner guy. There is no sense of pace or suspense whatsoever; we are told at the very beginning (with Star Wars-style scrolling text - or, for Sailor Moon fans, 'From a far away place and time Earth's greatest adventure is about to begin') who the aliens are and what they're up to. The characters are perhaps zero point five dimensional. There is so much that is so cool in an incredibly BAAAAAD way. Like the alien dude with Vulcan ears and a Klingon forehead. And> the device for foiling the hunter using string and tinfoil. And Cooper's origami bird. Actually the origami bird was sort of nifty. A stupid movie which smart people can enjoy very much, if they're in the right mood.
Inferno (1980)
I love it *because* it's trash.
This is one of the most delightful pieces of complete rubbish that I've ever seen. How anyone could find it genuinely frightening is beyond me. Are *you* frightened when you see a 'savage cat attack' scene which is obviously achieved by crew members standing out of shot and throwing stuffed dead cats at an actress? Do *you* get chills from the sight of a malevolent cripple half-drowning and being nipped by rats in what appears to be a deep mud-puddle in what we're meant to believe is Central Park - especially when he deserves it, the cat-drowning bastard? Apart from laughing joyfully at the cheesiness of the horror effects (there's a pair of absolutely gorgeous gouged-out eyes, and a chap with a knife stuck sideways through his neck), marvelling at the blank inanity of most of the characters' actions and speeches ('He says it's his heart.' 'We must give him some heart medicine, then.'), and admiring the absolutely perfect lip-gloss on the actresses (and the diaphonous blouses on the younger ones, which get well dampened in the course of their adventures, and lo and behold, the dear girls do not wear anything much under them!), the best way to enjoy this movie is to experience it as a bizarre dream, the kind I've been having since I started taking antidepressants. One drifts along seeing the oddest things without any sense of engagement whatever. I taped it when it was on TV, one of TV4's endearing Midweek Movies, and it's definitely a keeper. Probably the most effective scene is the much-praised underwater sequence, in a genuinely mysterious flooded room. Everything else is just wonderfully stupid. I would just like to add that now *I* want a bathwater stirrer with a thermometer in it, too. The Countess doesn't need hers any more; cats ate her. I can't decide whether this movie is more misogynistic or ailurophobic. Women and cats should watch it together and share a jolly good laugh knowing that Dario Argento can't scare *us* - but we can scare the pants off *him.*