MOVIES : mini-reviews

Mainly cos I am a bit slack and saw all these last week, so have forgotten them quite a bit

• Shawn of the Dead
  This is a shlock horror, comedy, zombie flick. Quite fun with some surprisingly poignant bits. Definitely worth catching on video if you like that sort of thing, though it doesn't even scratch Braindead by Peter 'of the Rings' Jackson. My fellows at work thought it was hilarious, so it might be quite a british humour...
• Creep
  This is a serious english horror flick set in the tube with the girl from Run Lola, Run starring. I found it frightening, sickening, disturbing and I left with a real sense of unease. The guys next to me thought it was OK, that the bady was revealed too early, and demonstrated that they have been totally desensitized. There was a bit of a lull when the lead character is stuck in a cage in water, and some people did some stupid and unlikely things, but the pace is so relentless that I couldn't fault it.
  The worst thing about these sorts of film is that they always involve obscenly violent things being done to women. Men typically just get killed in some gruesome way, but women are tortured. While there are many reasons for this, I find it a disturbing trend.
  
• Sideways
  This is a 'comedy' about a wine-tasting loser taking his actor frat buddy for a final week of enjoyment before the frat boy gets married. I think that I was in the wrong mood for this as it was about a subject that can sometimes get me depressed; nerdy losers who can't get laid (well, getting laid isn't that important, but you know what I mean). And I don't really like wine so I couldn't relate to that either... suffice to say, all my friends thought it was great, and funny, and I thought it was a bit dull and predictable.
  
• Dog Day Afternoon
  If it weren't for Al Pacino, this would have been a dog of a film :) He does a magnificent job of playing a gay bank robber when everything goes wrong. He displays an amazing range of emotions, and believable moves from one to the next, even within the one shot. The other thing to remind oneself is that it was probably the 'first of it's kind' AND it was about a gay guy - made in the 70's that's a bit extraordinary in itself.