Big Man-6 Reviews

The Dead Outside (2008)

Bleak House—The Dead Outside provides a better than average post-apocalyptic siege scenario

[8/10 · 16 June 2009]

The first feature from music video director Kerry Anne Mullaney exists in world even bleaker and farther north than 28 Days Later, and a little deeper inside the art house. The director makes a benefit of the lack of finance, with gritty visuals and an excellent performance from Sandra Louise Douglas (in her first role), as April, a girl soaked in horror, whose anger may have more meaning than mere teenage angst. The two lead characters exist on opposite sides of a moral divide—Daniel, a good man who still sees the infected as human beings, is haunted (it seems literally in a couple of scenes), by what he couldn't bring himself to do, whereas April shoots on sight, and is almost catatonic from the things she has seen, the people she has lost, and those she has killed. Shot in two weeks, and self-financed on a micro budget, which is hardly an issue, the production team of Mullaney and producer/co-scripter/cameraman Kris R Bird (who together created promos for Drive-By Argument and Cosmic Rough Riders), demand a lot from their audience, which is refreshing in an age where the horror film seems designed to evoke nothing beyond revulsion, and their debut shows immense promise. Add another strong, intelligent team to the new league of British horror auteurs. Stick through the final titles to hear the excellent "Evacuate" by indie upstarts The Boxer Rebellion.

Savage Messiah (2002)

Powerful Wolf in TV Movie Clothes

[7/10 · 28 December 2004]

Gripping, if flawed, version of the events surrounding Rock Theriault's commune/sect in 1980s Quebec.

Mario Azzopardi's TV training (Stargate, Outer Limits) is weirdly effective in that the look of the film – all 'movie of the week' clichés (flat lighting, static camera) – makes the coarse language and violence all the more jarring and effective.

And if Polly Walker (Patriot Games) does little to dispel this atmosphere, the performances of Isabelle Blais (The Barbarian Invasions) and (in particular) Luc Picard as Theriault go along way to dignifying an otherwise standard and manipulative affair.

Live from Baghdad (2002 TV Movie)

Stunning reminder of the days when CNN was a news network

[7 December 2002]

Outstanding HBO movie charting the coming of age of CNN during the opening days of the Gulf War, as producers Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton) and Ingrid Formaneck (Helena Bonham Carter) doggedly walk a tightrope between reporting the facts as they see them and keeping the Iraqi authorities from expelling them. Excellent supporting cast, in particular David Suchet as Naji Al-Hadithi, the Iraqi information minister and Bruce McGill (dodgy accent notwithstanding) as Peter Arnett. Mick Jackson's best work since A Very British Coup (1988) and hopefully the catalyst to re-energise Michael Keaton's career. In short, the finest film of it's kind since Under Fire (1983) and a wake-up call to CNN to get back to real reporting and cease its current pathetic spiral into celebrity-obsessed 24 hour chat-show oblivion.

The Stranger (1946)

The worst of Welles is still better than most

[22 February 2000]

Generally regarded as Welles' worst film and thus ignored for years (Orson was on his best behavior, playing the studio game), this is in fact a hugely entertaining edge-of-seat thriller.

Three cracking scenes (a murder interrupted by a college paper chase; a dinner table scene where Kindler gives himself away by stating that Marx was not a German, but a Jew; and the excellent bell tower ending) make up for Welles' sometimes over-ripe acting and a run-of-the-mill screenplay. Edward G Robinson is in fine form as the Nazi hunter. All in all an enjoyable study of Evil hiding in a small town and failing by reverting to form.