30 Days of Fail

Potential. Some films are full of it. Take “30 Days of Night” (Rated R, Running time: 113 min.) for instance. This film had the potential to be a genre defining horror film. It had the potential to not only be cinematically striking but also truly chilling and scary. It had the potential to redefine the vampire in cinema. It easily had the potential to be one of the most original and enduring horror films since Freddie Kruger strapped on his claws. It’s a shame that the potential of a film doesn’t necessarily represent the outcome, isn’t it?


This guy was hired simply because he looks odd

All this potential for “30 Days of Night” stems from the acclaimed graphic novel it was based on. The two share the same general story of the residents of a small Alaskan town which is plunged into 30 days of darkness each year. This year as the sun sets the residents find themselves with a few unwanted guests in the form of blood thirsty vampires who have finally figured out that a place without sun for a month might be a good place to, you know, hang out. Upon arriving the vampires start to slaughter the towns folk as a small group of individuals try to hide and wait for sun light. Ignoring the fact that the sun doesn’t suddenly disappear but gradually spends less and less time in the sky during the winter months in Alaska the graphic novel is taught, intense original and gives a true feeling of fear and desperation over an extended period of time.
The film does none of this, instead resorting to standard horror movie tropes of running, killing and people acting stupid. It is important to point out that it does do these standards well. Director David Slade keeps the red blood on white snow looking stark and harsh in every shot and Josh Hartnett as the town’s sheriff does a fine job as the male lead. But it is all just run of the mill stuff in a film that had the chance to really do something different.


Josh Hartnett sporting the exact opposite of a manly beard

Probably the most disappointing aspect of the film is in the way that it is scary. Instead of making a suspenseful horror movie, full of tense scenes where you are sitting on the edge of your seat unsure if the survivors will be found the filmmakers decide to rely on people jumping out of the dark and the far over used “surprising loud noise.” This all stems from the fact that while the film takes place over 30 days of night it feels like maybe only one or two. The tension is completely missing and thus the true suspense that the movie could have possessed is lacking in almost every way.
Instead of a month of suspenseful darkness “30 Days of Night” can only deliver split second jumps and buckets of blood. Normally those features would be enough to please a horror fan but when a film could have been so much more than it turns out to be, it is hard to be happy with just those basics. Seems potential is a tricky thing, fail at fulfilling it and your decent horror film becomes a bad one.
1 out of 5 for compeltely and totally dissapointing me. 3 out of 5 as a general horror film.

Trailer







Another Rendtion of the Same Thing

It is possible that “Rendition” is the most middle of the road film released this year. It is hard to criticize it as a bad film but there is truly almost nothing to be excited about in it either. The actors act, the director directs and the moral and political messages are more bluntly delivered than a protesters sign reading “Leave Iraq.” Seems that everyone was onboard but no one checked to see if the film was actually interesting or original.
Even as a premise the movie screams “I’m being political, look at me Mr. Oscar” as an Egyptian business man, Anwar El-Ibrahimi is kidnapped by the CIA for a possible connection with a bombing that killed one of their agents. He is taken to a secret prison outside of the U.S. to be tortured for information while being overseen by the newly in charge, and baby faced, Douglass Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal). Meanwhile back in America Anwar’s pregnant wife, Isabella, is desperately looking for him going as far as to ask her friend in the government for help, who eventually leads her, rather unbelievably to the head of the CIA Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep).


Are his eyes weird?

From the pregnant wife to the questioning government agent to the icy cold evil CIA head the movie plays into an idyllic stereotype of how the world works and what is right and wrong with such a clear cut ideals that you wonder if the screenwriters have ever actually had to deal with reality. In the increasingly crowded arena of political thrillers that criticize the government you have to be able to make more of a point then torture is wrong or you come of looking, as “Rendition” does, more like you’re jumping on the band wagon in your own interest instead of actually caring. This is especially true with movies like “In the Valley of Elah” out at the same time that is actually sincere looks at the effects of the war on the U.S. citizens.
Aside from the fact that the film feels about as truthful as government cover-up it just isn’t really that interesting as a story. The idea of the CIA taking an innocent man has been done before and while Gyllenhall side of the story offers a few thrills, Isabella’s search for information is down right dull and the third story of the torturers daughter and her terrorist boyfriend just seems to over crowd the already twisting plot and all for the sake of an interesting but unneeded twist at the end. There is nothing that pulls you and plenty to push you out.


Ugly dress

What is truly sad about the film is that its message is an important one it is just executed poorly. The feeling that “Rendition” gives off is not one of political protest and messages but instead of wining and preaching, something that does not strengthen any argument.
2 out of Five. Seriously nothing special.

Trailer