Film Review: SCREAM (1996)

Director: Wes Craven
Running time: 107 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
UK Release date: 2nd May 1997

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 28th May 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I have been recently reading a lot of reviews of the latest film in this series, Scream 4. Now, for one reason or another I have never seen any of the ‘Scream’ films before… well not all the way through anyway. Time to change that I thought and so here we are with the first one, Scream. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, it doesn’t take itself all that seriously and there’s an awful lot more humour than I expected.

We open with a mysterious voice calling up a girl called Casey, who is home alone about to watch a scary movie. She tries to blow him off but he is persistent and eventually begins to creep her out. Things don’t end too well for Casey, or her boyfriend, Steve, after a masked assailant has finished with them. We then switch to another girl, Sidney, her mother had been murdered almost a year ago and her father is about to leave on a business trip. All the talk the next day at school is about the murder and on returning home Sidney receives a call from a man with a mysterious voice. She isn’t so easily scared, but still she is attacked by the same masked assailant. Having fought him off, her boyfriend, Billy turns up just before Deputy Dewey. Having found a cell phone on him, Dewey arrests Billy and Sidney goes to stay the night with Dewey’s sister, Tatum. As time goes by the bodies begin to mount up and this attracts the media, particularly ambitious reporter, Gale Weathers. It’s only a matter of time before Sidney is to be the next on the list, and anyway, there’s a score to settle and an awful lot of suspects.

This made a refreshing change for me, a horror film that doesn’t take itself too seriously but at the same time has all the scares and shocks of a more serious one. I liked it! Decent performances all round; Neve Campbell did a good job as Sidney, as did Skeet Ulrich as Billy. Also of note were Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, David Arquette as Deputy Dewey and Matthew Lillard as Stuart. Also nice cameos from Drew Barrymore as Casey, Wes Craven very briefly appeared as Fred the Janitor and Henry Winkler as Principal Arthur Himbry.

There is a great soundtrack too, including an interesting acoustic rendition of ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ when Sidney and Billy are first seen on screen together (very nicely done). I suspect, unfortunately, that the other films in the series may not live up to this rather good beginning, but we shall see… If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth a viewing, even if you’re not really a fan of teen horrors (like me)… Final verdict: Recommended.

My Score: 7.5/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1074316-scream/
Trailer:

Film Review: ARMORED (ARMOURED in English) (2009)

Director: Nimród Antal
Running time: 85 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Thriller/Heist/Drama
UK release date 22nd January 2010

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 12th February 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I remember this one being mentioned in dispatches when it came out, but that’s about all I remember about it. Now, having seen it I find there’s not a lot to add to that. It’s a pretty forgettable run of the mill heist thriller with a surprisingly good cast considering how average it is. But more of my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first (summary haters please look after that big pile of cash while I write the next paragraph).

Ty Hackett has recently graduated to be a security guard working for Eagle Security. They transport money in armoured trucks around the city. He is a decorated soldier having served in Iraq and has to look after his teenage brother, Jimmy, after both of their parents died. A group of his colleagues, led by Mike Cochrane, are planning to fake a heist and steal $42 million from two of their trucks. At first Ty is against the idea, but after a visit from Social Services about his brother, he changes his mind, on the condition that nobody is hurt. As they are hiding the money a homeless man is spotted spying on them and he is shot. This leaves Ty in a dilemma, should he just turn a blind eye, or should he stand by his principals? Well I guess that’s enough to whet your appetite for now.

I’ll start with what I did like… well the music wasn’t too bad and the cinematography was pretty good, and that’s just about it. As I said, there is a pretty good cast which includes; Matt Dillon as Mike Cochrane, Jean Reno as Quinn, Laurence Fishburne as the trigger-happy Baines, Amaury Nolasco as Palmer, Fred Ward as the boss, Duncan Ashcroft, Milo Ventimiglia as Eckhart, Skeet Ulrich as the cop, Dodds and Columbus Short as Ty Hackett. None of which were really stretched in this pretty average caper.

So in conclusion, it’s a rather dull and slightly predictable heist movie with the twist being it’s the guards committing the crime. There’s very little here we haven’t seen many times before. And so a very average film gets a very average score from me… Not recommended.

My score: 4.9/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0913354/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10010705-armored/
Official Site: http://www.armoredmovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3894936089/