I'd been keen to see this one for AGES cause I really enjoy Barker's stories and the weird world he makes.
I was hoping this would be a classic, but it failed to reach that for me.
Our basic plot is that a photographer obsessed with death starts noticing people disappearing, connects it to a hulking man in a suit, and starts discovering grisly murders and weird stuff happening beneath streets.
And the film is fine when it focuses on that. Unfortunately, someone felt the need to include Maya (Leslie Bibb in a thankless role), and add some silly melodrama to the film. So we have a love story that's supposed to connect us to the characters, but it's so vapid and empty that it just gets in the way.
This film could have been a lean, mean 90 minutes of horror as Bradley Cooper's character was established, then went hunting for the perfect shot, then had an all-out knock-down fight with the Butcher.
Cause both Cooper and Jones play their characters well, with Jones a particular highlight here. The casting is perfect and his presence undeniable.
But my word the melodrama that just stops the film dead every five minutes. I don't care about the girlfriend or his badly characterised friends. I just want the horror stuff and the sometimes decent gore.
(This is a film from 2006, when producers stuffed films with poorly done CGI cause they figured everyone loved it, and it has aged as well as a steak that's been left in a gym bag for years.)
It doesn't help that Maya is such a pathetic, empty character, with no agency beyond "doing things for her weird, creepy boyfriend".
The result is a move that is tortuously overlong, resulting in me losing interest pretty quickly. There's also some plot holes that just don't make much sense.
Some of it is good. Most of it isn't. A mixed bag, I think you'd say.
I was hoping this would be a classic, but it failed to reach that for me.
Our basic plot is that a photographer obsessed with death starts noticing people disappearing, connects it to a hulking man in a suit, and starts discovering grisly murders and weird stuff happening beneath streets.
And the film is fine when it focuses on that. Unfortunately, someone felt the need to include Maya (Leslie Bibb in a thankless role), and add some silly melodrama to the film. So we have a love story that's supposed to connect us to the characters, but it's so vapid and empty that it just gets in the way.
This film could have been a lean, mean 90 minutes of horror as Bradley Cooper's character was established, then went hunting for the perfect shot, then had an all-out knock-down fight with the Butcher.
Cause both Cooper and Jones play their characters well, with Jones a particular highlight here. The casting is perfect and his presence undeniable.
But my word the melodrama that just stops the film dead every five minutes. I don't care about the girlfriend or his badly characterised friends. I just want the horror stuff and the sometimes decent gore.
(This is a film from 2006, when producers stuffed films with poorly done CGI cause they figured everyone loved it, and it has aged as well as a steak that's been left in a gym bag for years.)
It doesn't help that Maya is such a pathetic, empty character, with no agency beyond "doing things for her weird, creepy boyfriend".
The result is a move that is tortuously overlong, resulting in me losing interest pretty quickly. There's also some plot holes that just don't make much sense.
Some of it is good. Most of it isn't. A mixed bag, I think you'd say.