What in heaven's name was a talented director like John Frakenheimer doing involved is a mess of a movie like this? Clearly he was desperate for work but just as clearly his talent had ebbed at this point in his late career. 'Holcroft' is awful on so many levels it's difficult to know where to begin. The script is muddled and confusing. The dialogue is clunky. The music is incredibly annoying. The performances--including Caine's--are wooden. I never read the book but it can't have been as bad or boring as this film makes it out to be. Don't waste your time with this trash. It doesn't make a bit of sense and it's not even a little bit entertaining.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Feast
(2005)
Routine horror movie
23 February 2010
Nothing special here, just a lot of gore and some half-seen derivative monsters. Dark lighting and jump cuts galore, so many that it's often hard to tell what the hell is happening. Chest-bursting baby monsters--now that's original. Lame dialogue and amateur night acting (Henry Rollins is particularly embarrassing). You can see each "scare" coming a kilometer away. Amazing that this spawned two sequels...just shows how far the bar has been lowered in this genre. Pile on the decapitations and slippery viscera, give your monsters some Alien-style buck teeth and then kill off most of the characters and you get to do it two more times.
On the Beach
(1959)
Too many 'endings'
22 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This is a mostly-well-made and very watchable film. Peck, as always, is fine and Gardner gives what may be the best performance of her career. But "On The Beach" is not without its flaws. Kramer lays the anti-war messages on a bit too thickly and some of the actors--particularly Perkins and Astaire--are wooden. Perkins in particular seems miscast as the tender and loving husband and father. It seems to me Kramer could have ended the film with Peck and Gardner kissing at the fishing camp, or when the sub goes under for the last time. We didn'need the shots of empty San Francisco or the revival meeting with nobody there. As much as I dislike remakes this film could probably be effectively remade today.
Slaughter
(1972)
Bad acting, worse plot
9 November 2009
I'm all for 1970s low-budget exploitation films but Slaughter failed to satisfy. The plot, if there is one, is confused, as if the first reel was missing. After Billy Preston's lame theme song you are dropped into the middle of a confusing story about the mafia, or maybe Mexican mobsters, who kill star Brown's parents in the first 10 seconds. Why? I still don't know. Something about a computer. From there the tale meanders with little action and some really bad acting. That can be forgiven if the film is at least a little fun but there's not much of that either.Brown's 'Hell Up in Harlem" is a lot more fun and makes a lot more sense.
Hannibal Rising
(2007)
Hannibal Lowpoint
18 October 2008
Well-photographed but stupendously boring. There's not a scare in the whole movie.
The Hannibal Lecter books/movies have become increasingly tired since "Silence." I thought the last one was a new low until I watched this. It's a complete waste of time and completely unnecessary. Who cares if Lecter had a traumatic youth? The less we know about the character the more frightening he is. Seeing just a little of him in "Silence" is what made him so memorable. I don't want to feel sympathy for him, I want to be horrified by him. Hopefully Harris will let the series die here and perhaps move on to more fertile territory.
The Hannibal Lecter books/movies have become increasingly tired since "Silence." I thought the last one was a new low until I watched this. It's a complete waste of time and completely unnecessary. Who cares if Lecter had a traumatic youth? The less we know about the character the more frightening he is. Seeing just a little of him in "Silence" is what made him so memorable. I don't want to feel sympathy for him, I want to be horrified by him. Hopefully Harris will let the series die here and perhaps move on to more fertile territory.
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