Film Review: Season of the Witch

Yes, I know this film was released in cinemas and later on DVD a while ago, but since the majority of reviews on it were negative in the extreme, I decided to play it safe and wait for it come onto Foxtel.

Because of my limited expectations, thanks to the aforementioned negative reviews, I quickly assumed that this film would be quite awful.

Imagine my surprise then, to find it was quite entertaining. True, the people portraying plague victims looked quite disgusting and there were a few moments when I watched the film behind closed eyelids, but aside from that, it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

In amongst the action scenes and bits of horror, there were moments of humour, which kept it from getting too dark.

It was directed by Dominic Sena, probably best known for Gone in Sixty Seconds, which also had Nicolas Cage playing the main character.

The rest of the main cast: Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Stephen Graham, Ulrich Thomsen all bring their bare minimum of their acting ability, which is still quite good. And of course Christopher Lee, who's acting ability comes through, even though he looks as though he has what looks like potato eyes growing on his face.
The two who bring their all are Claire Foy and Robert Sheehan and they are probably the most fun to watch in this film. Yes, there are probably more plot holes than Jumper, but its not something that bothers too much.

My favourite part of the film was the fight scene between Mr Perlman and Mr Sheehan's character. That was funny.

Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator4 March 2012 at 19:17

    These quotes comes from two films you have to suspend a lot of belief, but is still worthwhile doing that.
    "Edward Gardner: The girls will be herding the fairies back this way. I'm certain both girls are clairvoyant, and perhaps mediums as well. Together, they create an etheric field which allows the fairies to metabolize subtle amounts of ectoplasm into their bodies. That's how they're able to capture them on film. Do you see? No. Well, uhm... Well I don't expect you to understand."

    Becky Barnes: [in a touching moment] Something about you seems different.
    Dave: I'm wearing new shoes."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: Moneyball

Most of the sports films that have been made, have had very Hollywood plot lines. It was almost a recipe. Underdog team/coach/player/ whatever, trying to do something. A few montages of things going badly, then a winning formula, or new coach/player that tells them "they just have to believe in themselves" or teaches them how to work together with a few gimmicks. Which means, when you watch a well written film like Moneyball, you are completely unprepared by the realism and length of film that really tells you the true story. Or close to it, at least. With Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan (Mr Zaillan wrote screenplays for The Interpreter, American Gangster and Clear and Present Danger) writing the screenplay, Brad Pitt portraying the character listed and the direction is tight and without any excess scenes, Bennet Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with the film Capote - its a film worth watching for the all of the above and the finished product that
Read more

Film Review: Theater Camp

 In the middle of year six, I started attending Helen O'Grady's Drama Academy. Typical education sneakiness of actually teaching kids the skills to enable them to be confident out in the "real world" and with the fun bonus of how to project your voice while simultaneously messing about on the "stage" and acting out improvisation prompts and at the end of each year, a whole play. Nearly seven years, growing and learning in community buildings, after school during term time.  Good times all round. And it was definitely part of the draw card for me, for this new film, set at a summer theatre camp that beautifully illustrates the allure of performing on stage, telling stories and bringing them to life, for both the kids that attend and the teachers - and it's hard to tell who is the more committed or passionate about the craft. It's clearly a labour of love for Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman - all four wrote it, the first three a
Read more

TV series reviews: The Bear & The Newsreader

 For your consideration today, two reviews for the price of one. The Bear and The Newsreader.  Not only do both series have a strong cast and gripping scripts for each and every episode but both also open the curtains for us to have a peek behind the scenes of a world usually off limits for mere mortals. We only see the finished product but here we see the shouting matches fuelled by emotional energy, impassioned speeches, tears, hugs and luck of the moment that brings it all together to make it work, that of a high end restaurant and the newsroom respectively. Both worlds also have that sense of the "other" family bond, strengthened by joint victories and triumphs and sour moments of failures made less painful by those in the room, bonded together through thick and thin to make a perfected dish or news television broadcast.  And indeed, they are not only fighting each other but up against the world, nameless - if not faceless, critics, ever judging, never silent and always o
Read more