SuperNoah Reviews

Darkness Falls (2003)

Not Best Picture, but not that bad...

[7/10 · 25 January 2003]

Everything I've read or heard about this movie is basically "This sucks". Come on, it's a horror movie--plot holes, underwhelming acting, and total lack of human logic by the characters are all to be expected. (In fairness to the actors, the acting really wasn't as bad as in a lot of horror movies, and they handled the material they got pretty well.) Anyway, none of those comments are really slams on Darkness Falls so much as the whole genre. What I'm saying is, if you want to watch a scary movie, watch this one. Granted, most scary movies are just about startling you... and this is no exception. But it seemed to frighten a lot of people well (it's PG-13 and whatever that means to you, don't take very young kids--even if YOU think the "scary" parts are funny, it'll give them nightmares).

Overall, however, Darkness Falls was a good (but probably not great) movie. One problem: Sometimes, it seemed like the director was really "on" and had some great ideas; other times, it was like nobody was paying attention and just put something on film. (For example, spending a little extra money on the Tooth Fairy would have gone a long way towards giving the movie credibility.) The story seemed intriguing but didn't take things very far, which seems to be a common flaw in horror films.

The premise of this movie (the whole demon/tooth fairy concept) was very original but still pretty lame; even so, it went off fairly well, well enough to leave me feeling like more really could have been accomplished with it. But it wasn't. I'll give it a 7, because I did have a good time... and that's what it's all about. I'm not gonna achieve inner peace at the movies, I go to have fun. And I did.

The Country Bears (2002)

Even these actors can't save this film.

[4/10 · 3 January 2003]

As I watched this movie, I couldn't help but think it must have been taken from the Disney Channel. Look at all the Disney standards: taken straight from, and in order to promote, their theme park division; hero feels out of place and quests for self-fulfillment; and random musical numbers totally out-of-place with the film (unlike animated musicals, the music in this movie is, in many cases, supposed to be spontaneously created from whatever's around, but is really overdone; it's hard to willfully suspend that much disbelief.).

One GOOD thing about the movie is that most of the cast is well-known (household names like Walken and Osment join veteran voice talents Huss and Root, alongside the familiar faces of Mitchell and Bader); yet even such a strong cast (which also features Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond) can't rescue a script (and premise) that was doomed from the start. The cops and mom are stereotypes, the dad is an exaggeration, and Dex, who SHOULD be the sanest family member, can't help but fall into Disney's "everyone loves everyone" mode despite his efforts not to. While most of this is allowable to some extent in a movie aimed to kids... this is excessive. I watched it with a group of kids, and most were bored. Seems to me that to really enjoy this movie, one must combine a child's tolerance for saccharine moments with an adult's attention span. Otherwise, it's a below-average movie propped up by strong acting talent and slick animatronics.