Dark Liquid

I have been to the cinema a lot lately. Not something I usually do but I’ve felt like splashing out a bit more as of late, so what the hell.

In the last 2 weeks(?) I’ve seen

• Magicians
• Next
• Pirates of the Caribbean 3
• 28 Weeks Later

Magicians

It was funny, but I felt it wasn’t as funny as it could of been. It didn’t really live up to what I’ve come to expect of Mitchell and Webb and the writers of Peepshow. However, it was enjoyable enough, not a repeat performance though.

Next

Based on a Philipp K. Dick book, that automatically makes it at least a bit good. And good it was! I enjoyed it a lot, and wile I’m not Nicholas Cage’s greatest fan by far, he pulled of this role very well I thought. Admittedly, I haven’t read the book on which the film is based and if I had I’d probably be shouting blue murder as I am often want to do with book – film conversions, but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Meh. Once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. I was not blown away by this film. For the most part it seemed poorly scripted, the scene progression just didn’t work and for large part of the film you were just left flailing around trying to work out why anything was happening. When things finally gained some cohesion, the film was just a chain of samey pirate jokes connected by ok action scenes and Jack Sparrow’s classic neuroticism, which by the 3rd film had gotten a little old as you pretty much expected everything and it wasn’t funny any more. It was also disappointing that Keith Richards didn’t get a bigger part of that Chow Yun Fat didn’t do very much. I was hoping for some pirate-kung-fu action, but he mostly just stood around talking or looking angry. All in all a little disappointing.

28 Weeks Later

This film kicked ass! The brutality without needless effects or gore, the fear without melodrama. It got a perfect balance of fear and pain that really gets you into the spirit of the film. As zombie movies are want to go, the story is fairly formulaic, but its not the plot you go to see, its the messages behind it, the exploration of the themes of loss, anger, panic, fear and confrontation. And of course the gore – there is a really nice scene that even gives the lawnmower scene from Braindead a run for its money! I really enjoyed this film, it just had the perfect balance of elements in it, and their simple, toned-down soundtrack made it all the better and blended with the mood perfectly. The only thing I didn’t like was the obvious ‘oh no, not again!’ cliff-hanger for another possible film. I wish they had finished it like the last film, where the films story arc was complete, but you still wondered what exactly was going to happen. This way, you feel like they have started another story and then closed the book after the first page. Oh well, otherwise an excellent film.