"Inferno" is arguably the best live-action 3D movie ever made, the one you pull out to show just how great 3D can be. The sense of depth is startling; you actually feel you're standing outdoors.
Though virtually every 3D cliché is trotted out -- especially throwing things at the camera -- they're done so well they enhance the picture, rather than provoking an "Oh, brother" reaction.
Other technical aspects deserve praise. The fight between Carson and Duncan in Elby's shack has spectacularly realistic fire. Modern films use discrete fire cannons (I don't know the right name) that periodically belch flame in an annoyingly obvious way. Here the walls, floor, and roof actually appear to be on fire! Indeed, this night sequence is so well photographed that it shows Lucien Ballard's great talent as a cinematographer.
The problem with "Inferno" is its flabby story. It breaks the most-basic rule of storytelling -- "Show us, don't tell us". A mere five minutes at the beginning would have revealed what sort of a self-centered jerk Carson is, and provided some sympathy for his murderers. Instead, we are forced to hear Carson described by others, which slows things down. And Carson is given too much voice-over narrative, when we can plainly see what he's doing.
Roy Baker helmed a number of memorable films ("Don't Bother to Knock", "A Night to Remember", "Quatermass and the Pit"), but "Inferno" has all the tension of a broken violin string. Though the plodding story is mostly the fault of the script, Baker doesn't do anything to help it along. Nor does Paul Sawtell's hackneyed music.
If you have a 3D video system, you might want to search for "Inferno". (My copy appears to have been the last one in the US.) As a 3D demo disk, it is non-pareil.
Though virtually every 3D cliché is trotted out -- especially throwing things at the camera -- they're done so well they enhance the picture, rather than provoking an "Oh, brother" reaction.
Other technical aspects deserve praise. The fight between Carson and Duncan in Elby's shack has spectacularly realistic fire. Modern films use discrete fire cannons (I don't know the right name) that periodically belch flame in an annoyingly obvious way. Here the walls, floor, and roof actually appear to be on fire! Indeed, this night sequence is so well photographed that it shows Lucien Ballard's great talent as a cinematographer.
The problem with "Inferno" is its flabby story. It breaks the most-basic rule of storytelling -- "Show us, don't tell us". A mere five minutes at the beginning would have revealed what sort of a self-centered jerk Carson is, and provided some sympathy for his murderers. Instead, we are forced to hear Carson described by others, which slows things down. And Carson is given too much voice-over narrative, when we can plainly see what he's doing.
Roy Baker helmed a number of memorable films ("Don't Bother to Knock", "A Night to Remember", "Quatermass and the Pit"), but "Inferno" has all the tension of a broken violin string. Though the plodding story is mostly the fault of the script, Baker doesn't do anything to help it along. Nor does Paul Sawtell's hackneyed music.
If you have a 3D video system, you might want to search for "Inferno". (My copy appears to have been the last one in the US.) As a 3D demo disk, it is non-pareil.