nick-467 Reviews

Silent Hill (2006)

It was good. Not as good as the games but I don't think any film could be.

[8/10 · 21 April 2006]

It was an intelligent interpretation of the games and it fleshed out a lot of the ideas without losing too much mystery.

Cast: Very good. People have complained about Tanya Allen's performance but I thought she was great. Her character seemed very child-like as if she stopped developing after the fire, cocooned in the cult's embrace. Laurie and Radha were good together, bringing an interesting emotionality to the world. Sean Bean's accent wobbled occasionally but he was otherwise okay. I really liked that the lighting and make-up were not used to hide all of the wrinkles and flaws in the actor's faces. The characters in the games don't have perfect faces and this makes them more real (and more interesting to look at). I'm glad they carried this across to the movie.

Setting/atmos: The foggy world didn't feel quite like the games. I'm not sure why but for me it just didn't conjure quite the same feelings. The darkness, however, was spot on! It felt 100% Silent Hill and perhaps even had a bit of an edge that is lacking in the games.

Monsters: Great! Nice combination of live-action, CG and speed changes. The sequence with the grey children at the start is superb! PH is terrifying.

Story: More stuff is brought to the front and the mystery suffers. It is quite clear what is going on a bit too early. There are many things left unanswered and ambiguous which is good. On the positive side they have taken and made excellent use of the religious ideas of the games. The blind (and deaf) faith of the cult is terrifying and believable. There is a moral ambiguity that is very unsettling.

Climax/ending: The climax of the film is gruesome and wonderful. It feels very Silent Hill. The ending is very interesting and will spawn many discussions and interpretations. I really liked it. I felt it captured the feel of some of the scenes in SH2.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this film a lot. It didn't completely capture the world of SH but it was still bloody good. I'm really glad Christophe and pals were in charge of this film and I would be thrilled if they made a sequel.

Not all fans will like it. Some people will be so excited about seeing it that they could only be disappointed. Some people will miss Harry and grumble about every difference. Some will have exposed themselves to so many spoilers that there are no surprises left. Some will worry too much about what other people think of the films (I think that many non-fans will be left a bit confused). But I think most will be really glad that the film comes as close as it does to being silent hill.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Hitchhiker's Guide is born again!

[9/10 · 22 April 2005]

Well, I'm not a film reviewer. I'm not really a fan of film reviewers as their job involves pretending that there is an objective standard that governs how much everyone will enjoy a film (well, some of them are smart enough not to dress their opinion as anything else). Everyone enjoys films in different ways and I like to use my own judgment to decide if a film is worth my time or not (well, that and the opinions of a few trusted individuals who's taste in films is very similar to my own).

So this isn't a review, it's just my honest reaction to the film and you may judge for yourselves if my opinion is likely to be similar to your own.

I loved it. There were a couple of small points that I wasn't happy with but there was so much that I really enjoyed that I left the cinema very happy indeed. It has a very frantic pace, especially when compared to the glacial pace of the TV series. But, in my opinion, it works.

I'll now talk about different aspects of the film.

The Cast. Each member of the cast has brought a new interpretation of their character to the film but they are still definitely the same characters. Martin Freeman is very funny but also very human. He's less of a caricature of Britishness than Simon Jones's interpretation.

Mos Def is an excellent laid back Ford who occasionally has slightly manic (David Dixon style) moments. I don't think everyone will like his delivery of some of the lines as he can be very dead-pan at times but I found him very watchable and likable.

Sam Rockwell's Zaphod is either lovable or irritating depending on your loony-tolerance. I found his over-the-top performance was just perfect for Zaphod, and frequently had me in stitches.

Zooey Deschanel. Mmmm....Zooey. She's the best Trillian ever! She's adorable, funny, charming, intelligent and finally has an emotional depth that was missing from all other incarnations. She works well with both Zaphod and Arthur and their interactions were believable.

Bill Nighy gave a performance that managed to be nothing like Richard Vernon's yet at the same time definitely Slartibartfast. Very funny. Very human.

Stephen Fry is someone who I new would be good. He has the intelligence needed to get the delivery right and a mysterious gentle voice (like God has popped round for a cup of tea).

The Effects, sets and puppets. Wonderful. I loved the Vogon puppets, it made them seem much more real than any CG character (yes, even Gollum). The sets looked great and there is one nice tracking shot down a Vogon corridor that shows just how huge the set was. Every set is packed with detail, I cannot wait for the DVD. The Magrathea 'factory floor' is breathtaking - especially on the big-screen. Zaphod's second head isn't brilliantly executed but it didn't bother me much.

The Guide entries. I'm a big Shynola fan. I was extremely excited when I learned that they would be doing the guide entries. I wasn't disappointed - the guide entries look great and are packed with the inventive wit that characterises Shynola's work. The way they visually interpret the words of the guide entries is very clever and matches the wit of the original animations in the TV series but with a more modern approach.

The Music. The Dolphin song at the start was wonderful. Call me a softy but a couple of the lines nearly brought a tear to my eye. The music for the guide entries fit really well. The new orchestrated version of Journey of the Sorcerer is great. I was too wrapped up in the experience to really notice the music, I'll have to see it again (or buy the soundtrack)! Editing. The film flies along at an incredible pace but for me it never suffered from the 'why are we here now?' problem that some film (The Phantom Menace) suffer from. I really couldn't tell you how someone new to Hitchhiker's Guide might react. The destruction of the Earth is particularly well handled, managing to be both funny and moving.

Stuff I didn't like. Not much really. Part of me craves for the inclusion of things that other parts of me recognise will make the film less effective. One thing that I felt was a shame is that certain added plot elements make the story less bleak. These plot elements actually come from later books in the series so they weren't un-Hitchhiker-y but they contributed to a more optimistic story than I am familiar with from other versions. But this is a minor quibble and it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the film. Though I really liked Zaphod, I didn't really like the second head. It didn't work as well as it might have. Still, it was preferable to a shoulder-mounted permanent extra head - which would have been wrong for many reasons.

Conclusion. It is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reborn with a new energy. It is lighter than previous incarnations but still retains most of what I love about the story. It also adds a brilliant level of visual inventiveness that matches the aural inventiveness of the original radio series. People expecting the TV series but with better effects will be disappointed. This is a new beginning. The Hitchhiker's Guide is alive again, it is an enormous shame on a galactic scale that Douglas isn't here to enjoy it. The huge applause after the film showed I wasn't alone in having a good time.

Also, the film contains my favourite line. It previously only occurs in the second radio series (as far as I know) and is moved to a different occasion but I was dead chuffed when I heard it!