Film Review: THE EXPERIMENT (2010)

Co-Writer/Director: Paul Scheuring
Running time: 90 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Drama/Thriller
USA Release date: 21st September 2010 (DVD Premiere)

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 3rd July 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is an American remake of the 2001 German film, Das Experiment. I should say, for the record, that I haven’t seen the original and so I can only judge this one on its own merits. Rest assured that the original is firmly on ‘The List’ for future a viewing (and reviewing). The story is based on the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment" conducted in 1971. A group of individuals were taken to a makeshift prison where they were split into two groups, the guards and the prisoners. It sounds like it might be an interesting concept and to some extent it is… I’ll tell you more of my thoughts after this brief summary.

I should first say that for taking part in the experiment all participants were to be very well paid. This meant that all kinds of people were attracted to sign up. There’s Travis, the peace loving guy who wants money to follow a girl to India, there’s Barris, the repressed guy who has to stay at home and look after his mother, and many others. The one thing they all have in common is that they need the money. Having been split into their respective roles things start off quite jovial enough. However, the guards are warned that they cannot use violence, but must maintain discipline. Also, the rules must be strictly adhered to and failure to comply will end the experiment and nobody gets paid. This causes tension amongst the guards as the prisoners begin to rebel against the rules. One guard, Barris appoints himself the leader and singles out Travis as the chief troublemaker. As the level of the guards’ retribution escalates, it’s clear that something is going to give, and when it does it’s going to be bad.

A decent cast, including Adrien Brody as Travis and Forest Whitaker as Barris did a decent job of what I found, at times, a rather uneven script. Also worthy of a mention were; Cam Gigandet as Chase, Clifton Collins Jr. as Nix and Ethan Cohn as Benjy.

There is much you have to take at face value and that doesn’t really help the narrative all that much. I did actually find it quite engrossing for the first two thirds, but it did get a little predictable towards the end. The ending, when it finally came, was a bit of a disappointment I’m afraid. Over all, it’s quite watchable for the first two thirds, but not something I’d give a second viewing to.

My Score: 6.1/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0997152/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-experiment-2010/
Trailer:

Film Review: FRAGMENTS [A.K.A. WINGED CREATURES] (2008)

Director: Rowan Woods
Running time: 91 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Drama/Crime
UK Release date: 23rd June 2009 (Edinburgh Film Festival)

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 11th June 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is one of those stories where the lives of unrelated individuals are linked by a traumatic event. In this case it is a shooting at a diner in Los Angeles that links the survivors. The film examines how these events effected the lives of those involved. One thing that attracted me to this film was a very strong cast, but I know from bitter experience that this is no guarantee of the quality of the piece. Unfortunately I was less than satisfied with the film. No problem with the quality of the performances, that was a given, it was all very disjointed and ended up as a bit of a mess I’m afraid.

Here’s a bit about the characters: There’s a teenage girl who turns to religion and her friend, a boy who just clams up and won’t speak to anyone. There’s the waitress who neglects her baby because she feels she cannot connect with anyone any more. There’s a man who has medical problems and a gambling habit who takes off to a casino to try his luck, having survived. And then there’s the doctor who becomes obsessed with saving every patient, even if he has to make them sick in the first place. The film tells us about all of these characters and their friends and families and how they try to deal with the aftermath.

As I said there is a great cast; Kate Beckinsale is the waitress Carla Davenport, Forest Whitaker is the gambler, Charlie Archenault, Guy Pearce is the doctor, Bruce Laraby, Dakota Fanning is the teenager, Anne Hagen and Josh Hutcherson is her teenage friend, Jimmy Jaspersen. I think you can see why I might have been attracted to a movie with these actors involved.

The production was pretty good, although it did look like there was a bit of a tight budget. I get the impression that this story would probably work better on the page rather than on the screen. Either that, or something got terribly lost in translation! Unfortunately it all felt far too disjointed to me and the thread of the story got lost. It’s almost as if there were too many characters’ stories to tell and I felt that removing just one of them would have given the others more room to breathe. Sadly though, it is what it is and I have to give it my NOT recommended seal of (dis)approval.

My Score: 4.5/10

LINKS:
(RT=Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0948547/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1190811-fragments/
Trailer:

Film Review: REPO MEN (2010) - 2nd Viewing

Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Running time: 111 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama/Thriller
UK Release date: 16th April 2010

Watched on Sky+ Tuesday 1st March 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I first saw this one when it was released in the cinema. I quite liked it and thought it worthy of a second viewing when it came up on TV this week. Quite futuristic with certain visuals that are very remenicant of Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, Blade Runner, although it’s nothing like Blade Runner (unfortunately). Here is a brief summary before I give you my thoughts on the film (summary haters and those that don’t wish to know anything about the plot please reclain that man’s pancreas while I write the next paragraph).

It is the near future where medicine has advanced enough that human organs can be replaced with artificial ones. One company ‘The Union’ controls the world market and as such can dictate the price. It is so high that most people opt to pay in installments. But if you miss three payments then the Repo Men will call and surgically remove The Union’s property. Remy and Jake grew up together, they joined the army together and when the war was over they became Repo Men together. Their boss is Frank, who is only concerned with the retrieval of The Union’s property, no matter how it’s done. Remy is married to Carol and has a son, Peter but Jake stayed single. Carol doesn’t like Remy’s line of work and wants him to move into sales. The two guys carry on with their work, which eventually becomes too much for Carol and she leaves Remy. Soon after Remy suffers an accident that leads to him having an artificial heart installed. He now gets a conscience and finds it hard to get back into the Repo business. He tries sales, but that’s not for him. Eventually he falls behind on his payments and becomes overdue. He goes off the grid and goes to live rough with others whose repayments have lapsed. There he meets Beth, a singer who has had many illegal artificial organs fitted. The pair decide to try and get their records erased when Jake is assigned to recover Remy’s organs. I won’t say any more, don’t want to give too much away.

It’s a pretty well made film although there is a lot of violence and it is very gory, not recommended for those of a nervous disposition. Decent performances from all of the leading cast, honourable mentions go to Jude Law as Remy, Forest Whitaker as Jake, Alice Braga as Beth, Liev Schreiber excellent as the very slimy Frank, Carice van Houten as Carol and Chandler Canterbury as Peter.

I pretty much enjoyed this film but I found it didn’t quite hit the mark. There is a very nice twist at the end which I did enjoy, but over all it kind of left me a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite entertaining and there are some good performances, I just felt the plot could have done with a little more refining. So, over all, violent, gory, futuristic, entertaining but the plot needed a little work. Having said that, it’s still recommended.

My score: 6.3/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012068-repo_men/
Official Site: http://www.repomenarecoming.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3661497369/

Film Review: REPO MEN (2010)

Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Running time: 111 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

UK Release date: 16th April 2010

Watched at the cinema Saturday 17th April 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film is set in the near future when medicine has advanced enough that human organs can be replaced with artificial ones. One company ‘The Union’ controls the world market and as such can dictate the price. It is so high that most people opt to pay in instalments. But if you miss three payments then the Repo Men will call and surgically remove The Union’s property.

Remy and Jake grew up together, they joined the army together and when the war was over they became Repo Men together. Their boss is Frank, who is only concerned with the retrieval of The Union’s property, no matter how it’s done. Remy is married to Carol and has a son, Peter but Jake stayed single. Carol doesn’t like Remy’s line of work and wants him to move into sales. The two guys carry on with their work, which eventually becomes too much for Carol and she leaves Remy. Soon after Remy suffers an accident that leads to him having an artificial heart installed. Remy now gets a conscience and finds it hard to get back into the Repo business. He tries sales, but that’s not for him. Eventually he falls behind on his payments and becomes overdue. He goes off the grid and goes to live rough with others whose repayments have lapsed. Here he meets Beth, a singer who has had many illegal artificial organs fitted. The pair decide to try and get their records erased when Jake is assigned to recover Remy’s organs. I won’t say any more, don’t want to give too much away.

It’s a pretty well made film although it’s pretty violent and very gory, not recommended for those of a nervous disposition. Decent performances from all of the leading cast, honourable mentions go to Jude Law as Remy, Forest Whitaker as Jake, Alice Braga as Beth, Liev Schreiber excellent as the very slimy Frank, Carice van Houten as Carol and Chandler Canterbury as Peter.

I pretty much enjoyed this film but I found it didn’t quite hit the mark. There is a very surprising ending which I did enjoy, but over all it kind of left me a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite entertaining and there are some good performances, I just felt the plot could have done with a little more refining. So, over all, violent, gory, futuristic, entertaining but the plot needed a little work. Having said that, it’s still recommended.

My score: 6.9/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
Official Site: http://www.repomenarecoming.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3661497369/