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Originally Posted by Janszoon
Had a little Cronenberg double feature this weekend...
eXistenZ (1999)
Gross, weird and thought provoking in ways that only Cronenberg can pull off. It's aged amazingly well considering that it's a 14 year old movie about video games and I thought the performances were pretty great across the board.
A History of Violence (2005)
I wasn't sure what to expect since this seemed like such a different kind of movie for Cronenberg, but I thought it was great. It somehow manages to be both subtle and in-your-face and is unsettling throughout. |
I haven't seen existenZ but it's on Netflix so I may catch it sometime but I was very disappointed with A History Of Violence, once you put the pieces together (fairly easily IMO) it just turned into a generic thriller for me.
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I should really like this. It doesn't resort to action cliches, the cinematography was really well done, as was the use of colours but it really lacked tension for me and it was too similar to The Raid in terms of working your way through an apartment block to apprehend the real villains. I will give it another watch though as it certainly wasn't what I was expecting which is always a good thing.
More tower blocks! A very decent little indie thriller with the only residents left on the top floor of a tower block pinned down by a sniper looking for revenge. There are a couple of cliched chav types who annoy the crap out of me but the action is well staged and the claustrophobic setting works too.
I really enjoyed the writer/director's debut film Shifty which only cost 100k and was excited to hear that this film had a decent budget behind it and is exec produced by Ridley Scott but it was a bit of a letdown. The director wanted to make a crime film set in London that purposefully stayed away from the usual gritty, dirty back alley look and feel that usually characterises British crime and instead give us a film that looks glossy, set amidst the more affluent parts of London. All bright lights, glass and polished steel but it didn't quite work and although Mark Strong is excellent as ever it probably needed even more money thrown at it as it did some suffer from some low budget set pieces.
A very interesting, moodily shot (B&W with a little splash of colour here and there) low budget post apocalyptic film. Assault on Precinct 13 and Night of the Living Dead are obvious influences regarding a rag tag bunch of people holed up and fighting for their lives but that doesn't detract some really great cinematography and decent acting.
Bob and Janszoon will definitely appreciate this one.