Movie Round-up #4

Crash (2004/ USA)

A well acted and slickly directed drama let down by a script which deals with the racism theme rather heavy-handedly. Some scenes are devoid of subtlety, spoon-feeding the viewer a rather polar and unsophisticated look at racial divisions in LA. The corny ending is also particularly worthy of scorn.

The Descent (2005 / UK)

A top-notch horror that has all its bases covered: climactic scares, jumps, gore – the lot. There is a great sense of tension throughout which comes to the boil in an adrenaline pumping final half hour that marks this apart from many of its contemporaries in the genre.

Flight of the Living Dead (AKA Plane Dead) (2007 / USA)

The uber-cheesy opening scenes that give more than a nod to the disaster films of the 70’s may seem like a pre-cursor for some tongue-in-cheek silliness but I’m afraid this film fails to deliver on both that front and the horror/zombie elements. The zombies are poorly realised “28 Days Later” clones and the scenes involving them are lacking in any imagination or innovation. A dire film with zero merit, to be avoided.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004 / USA)

An average action film which, despite having a lot of the necessary parts in place, is failed by lacklustre execution. A lot better than the dismal first film but still fails to make proper us of the rich source material.

Hard Candy (2005 / USA)

A gripping, tense affair that despite being mostly dialogue driven maintains its pace well largely thanks to the excellent performances from the two leads. The ever swinging morality-pendulum holds the film’s focus until the end but it would be understandable if the unsettling subject matter and claustrophobia is off putting for some.