Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Killerzzzz
The trailer to "Killers" looked so funny. But not only did they show all of the best material, it was actually better in the context of the trailer than in the movie. My review to this comic disappointment is here: http://www.theboomermagazine.com/component/content/article/74-movie-reviews/508-killers.html
Spliced
The titles for “Splice” list two people as creating the story -- and then a third name appears below them.
You can almost see what happened: Two people wrote one kind of story and then a third person came along and attached a different kind of story to it. Spliced it, if you will.
The result is a better-than-average science fiction horror film that turns into a worse-than-average family drama. An effort to bring the two genres together at the end is, predictably, unsuccessful.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star, and that is considerably more talent than you would typically find in a science fiction horror film cum family drama. They play scientists, partners outside of their lab coats as well as in, who are splicing together genes from various animals to create new species for pharmaceutical purposes. Inevitably, they decide to splice in some human DNA as well, despite being explicitly warned by their bosses not to do so.
You can imagine what happens next. These unbelievably smart people start to make an unending series of unbelievably stupid decisions. Despite promising that they just wanted to study their creation in an embryonic stage, they allow their little monster to be born. It changes rapidly from a stomach-monster from “Alien” to a female humanoid with chicken legs and a tail with a stinger on the end.
Anyone who has ever seen a science fiction movie (including “Frankenstein,” which this picture explicitly references in its characters’ names) knows that this hybrid should not be allowed to live. But our heroes keep it out of sight, name it Dren (that’s “nerd” spelled backwards) and more or less adopt it as their own mute child.
And that’s where the family drama comes in. Polley’s character, Elsa, treats Dren not only as a human but as a daughter, though her own family history was not ideal. Meanwhile, Dren matures ultra-rapidly and develops a host of skills that are never even remotely explained, such as drawing and spelling.
As the physically mature Dren, Delphine Chaneac holds her own against the strong acting of Brody and especially Polley. Chaneac has the additional disadvantage of not being able to speak for the role, although given some of the places this movie goes, being wordless might be a good thing. The drama sections, which basically comprise the third act, become awfully silly.
But see if the horror portions don’t give you the occasional chill.
You can almost see what happened: Two people wrote one kind of story and then a third person came along and attached a different kind of story to it. Spliced it, if you will.
The result is a better-than-average science fiction horror film that turns into a worse-than-average family drama. An effort to bring the two genres together at the end is, predictably, unsuccessful.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star, and that is considerably more talent than you would typically find in a science fiction horror film cum family drama. They play scientists, partners outside of their lab coats as well as in, who are splicing together genes from various animals to create new species for pharmaceutical purposes. Inevitably, they decide to splice in some human DNA as well, despite being explicitly warned by their bosses not to do so.
You can imagine what happens next. These unbelievably smart people start to make an unending series of unbelievably stupid decisions. Despite promising that they just wanted to study their creation in an embryonic stage, they allow their little monster to be born. It changes rapidly from a stomach-monster from “Alien” to a female humanoid with chicken legs and a tail with a stinger on the end.
Anyone who has ever seen a science fiction movie (including “Frankenstein,” which this picture explicitly references in its characters’ names) knows that this hybrid should not be allowed to live. But our heroes keep it out of sight, name it Dren (that’s “nerd” spelled backwards) and more or less adopt it as their own mute child.
And that’s where the family drama comes in. Polley’s character, Elsa, treats Dren not only as a human but as a daughter, though her own family history was not ideal. Meanwhile, Dren matures ultra-rapidly and develops a host of skills that are never even remotely explained, such as drawing and spelling.
As the physically mature Dren, Delphine Chaneac holds her own against the strong acting of Brody and especially Polley. Chaneac has the additional disadvantage of not being able to speak for the role, although given some of the places this movie goes, being wordless might be a good thing. The drama sections, which basically comprise the third act, become awfully silly.
But see if the horror portions don’t give you the occasional chill.
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