Double Feature: Chasing Mavericks and Silent Hill: Revelation

This is it. I'm finally at the end of reviewing my vacation movies. In seven days I watched nine movies, most of which were the leftover films I had not yet seen in Fall 2012. But the two movies I saw on October 26'th were both (then) new titles, albeit for a weekend disappointing overall for Hollywood. I've already recounted my showing of Cloud Atlas, but how did that weekend's Chasing Mavericks and Silent Hill: Revelation compare?

Chasing Mavericks turned out to be a surprisingly-solid surfing movie directed by noted directors Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted. Telling a fictionalized rendition of the life of legendary surfer Jay Moriarty, played by fresh-faced Jonny Weston, the film chronicles Jay's life as the product of a broken home, bullying schoolmates and romantic rejection. His escape from the troubles of life is surfing, and he idolizes local legend Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler), whom he considers one of the best. Frosty is always up for a challenge in the waves, and he is part of a crew that regularly surfs Mavericks, huge waves meant for experts only. Jay is insistent on riding one, and while Frosty doesn't approve of the 16 year-old to take such a risk, he agrees to do so because he know that Jay would try even without his consent. As Jay trains to take on the massive wave, he learns a lot about himself, and the effect his life has on others.

Insert your favorite Beach Boys lyric here.

The reason Chasing Mavericks resonates so well is the depth of its acting talent. If the real-life Jay was anything like Weston's performance, it's easy to see why he would be so popular. Weston plants an inscrutably positive attitude on our leading character; in a world where many heroes' motivations trend into grey areas to achieve their goals, it's nice to see a person succeed without giving up their moral backbone and least partially because of that inherent goodness. Butler seems to be on a self-help kick, picking up roles to try and inspire the younger generation. He's fine here, but to be frank any number of similarly-talented actors could have done the job. It's a strange direction, especially as his current career path seems to take him farther and farther from the popular successes of 300 and Law Abiding Citizen. I know he doesn't want to be typecast as a genre actor (who does?), but there's also the idea of playing to your strengths. Butler needs a hit to re-cement his status as a leading man, and I somehow don't think the upcoming Playing for Keeps is going to do it. A solid supporting cast makes their infrequent appearances work, as Elizabeth Shue and Abigail Spencer do good in their limited capacities. Surprisingly good is Levin Rambin, a TV actress given her first big movie role. I'm not surprised she's good - I really liked her performance on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - but in that it took her this long to make it to the big screen (I'm not counting her tiny role in The Hunger Games). Hopefully, this will just be the first in a slew of opportunities for the still-young actress.

Does California ever gets cold enough for wool caps?

After that, Chasing Mavericks has its share of problems. Supposedly the majority of the story takes place over the course of twelve weeks, but other than that we get little idea of the world outside of this tiny Californian area. Is it Summer, because the water is apparently fine to surf and swim in every day? Is it Fall or Spring, as Jay is (occasionally) shown in school?  Is it winter, because at the end everyone is wearing cold weather clothes? There's no sense of continuity to the story, surprising from the directors with titles such as LA Confidential, 8 Mile, The World is Not Enough and Gorillas in the Mist between them. With a steadier hand, this film might have avoided many of the issues that dogged its creative process and been much better for it.

Butler's next role: Hobo Joe.

It's not all bad; the lessons Jay learns can be taken to heart and applied to anyone's life, the characters are just complex enough without being unfathomable, and the whole thing thankfully doesn't come off as an after-school Saved by the Bell special. It could have used some polish, but Chasing Mavericks deserved more love than the empty theaters it was shown to last weekend. It's a solid piece of work, and one you ought to check out after it swiftly hits the DVD racks.

My second Friday film was the new Silent Hill flick with Todd; she always wants to see the latest horror films, and while I see more movies without her than I do with, I'll always make provisions for the scary movies she wants to see, especially as we both prefer subtle scares and ghost tales to the gory idiocy of torture porn. Despite being based on a second-rate video game series, the first Silent Hill definitely matched that criteria; scaring while also juggling a satanic monster-laden universe wrapped in fog and ash. It stands as one of the better-received video game adaptations, and was anchored by a solid acting team of Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden and Deborah Kara Unger. They're all but wiped away in this sequel, which both rewrites and ruins the ending of the first film.

Sharon da Silva (Adelaide Clemens), now going by the name Heather. and her father Christopher/Harry (Sean Bean) have been on the run since the finale of the first Silent Hill. Hunted by the same cult that had kidnapped Heather as a child, Harry has hoped to keep his adopted daughter safe and out of their hands. But somehow their pursuers have caught up with them. They kidnap Harry, dragging him back to the creepy town of Silent Hill, knowing that Heather will follow. With fellow outcast Vincent (Kit Harrington), Heather journeys solely to find her father, but also might discover something terrifying about herself in the process...

Nope, it's not a snow day.

Revelation manages to maintain the SFX production levels of the original despite about half the budget, though with about six years of technology improvement that's hardly surprising. Some scenes feel a bit stretched in terms of resources, but for the most part these are the outliers and not indicative of the effects as a whole. Monsters feel just as gloriously present, and 3D manages to enhance the effects without relying on the "in your face" gimmicks many films still cling to. Unfortunately, you can still tell that there are budget issues (such as only two transformations from the "calm" grey Silent Hill to the "black" violent variety") masked as serious plot lines. It's the sign of a troubled production when the budget precisely dictates the story you can tell, and director Michael Bassett does nobody any favors in directing each scene like a "monster of the moment" ordeal, negating the potential the monsters possess in the world of the movie.

Zombie Nurses: sexy AND scary

A smaller issue with the film, though by no means less noticeable, is that despite the film taking place in America, most of the cast are distinctively not American. Now, I never, EVER mind foreign actors portraying Americans (or other Caucasian races), if they can play it correctly. Guy Pearce, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Laurie, Gary Oldman and Kate Winslet have all done amazing jobs portraying American characters, made more impressive by the complete transformation of their accents in the process. But some actors can't get everything right, not even Sean Bean. I'm sure Clemens and Harrington are more talented than they let on here (I've yet to see Harrington in Game of Thrones, so we'll see) but you can tell they're not used to American accents; every once in a while they simply pronounce words in such a way that just feels plain wrong, causing almost more of a distraction than the silly story and blink-and-they're-gone creatures.

I think someone needs a time out.

Silent Hill: Revelation suffers from a multitude of ailments, but the worst might be that, after six years, the Silent Hill brand is just not as strong as it once was. Where once it commanded respect in the same vein as similar franchises Resident Evil and Dead Space, there just isn't room for another creepy town/monster mash story of the like we see here. If you REALLY want to give Silent Hill a try, just rent the original. Twice much love, attention, and money was put into it, and unlike the direct-to-DVD sequel that will eventually rise from the ashes of Revelation, it will be well worth your money.

Horror Show

Normally with so many options out there for things to see, I wouldn't bother with the likes of House at the End of the Street. While there are a few good horror films that come out every year, you can usually tell to a reasonable degree which those will be. More often than not, you'll see the bad ones coming, and in the coming months we'll be subjected to some really horrid-looking titles, including The Collection and the delayed 7500. I know not every horror flick can be as good as Insidious, and every so often I have even been surprised by a strong production. But the genre has a habit of films feeling as cheap as their budgets, and very rarely do they succeed in standing apart from the huddled masses.

One sub-genre of horror that never seems to change much is the teen slasher movie. They have a normal formula, whether they're Slumber Party Massacre or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream: psycho kills pretty young people until he/she is finally brought down (or in some recent fare, utterly succeeds). It's a tale older than my life, with nobody willing or wanting to mess with that magic. And why not? Movies like this are often inexpensively made (no-name actors and almost no special effects), so even a moderate success can reap major profits for a studio.

I like your fashion sense.

The only reason House at the End of the Street even remotely stands out is its star, Jennifer Lawrence. Unless you've been hiding completely under a rock the past couple of years, you might have heard of her. She broke out and easily earned an Academy Award nomination for her leading role in 2010's Winter's Bone. She succeeded in supporting parts in 2011 with X-Men First Class and Like Crazy. And 2012 has turned her into a megastar, as she held the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in March's The Hunger Games. In fact, Lawrence did her work on House before Hunger Games, and it's obvious this movie is now hitting theaters in order to capitalize on her new found  status. She is the only reason you might be tempted to see this movie over anything similar, and that's certainly why I elected to see this one over other fare.

...and your choice in friends.

Seventeen year-old Elissa (Lawrence) and her newly-divorced mother Sarah (Elizabeth Shue) have left Chicago to rent a dream home in a rural suburb. While they love the new house, it does come with a caveat. The house next door was the scene of a brutal double homicide; a mother and father butchered in their home by their daughter, who was never seen again. The only surviving family member, Ryan Jacobsen (Max Theriot), still lives there, repairing the house and is generally considered the pariah of the town. Elissa and Max become attracted to one another, despite the wishes of her mother, and begin a relationship, but something is wrong. Max is keeping a dark secret, one that might not just damage their relationship, but could harm Elissa and her mother as well.

Don't worry, be happy!

What's surprising about this movie is just how original the story manages to be. Okay, original might not be the right word; psychotic, homicidal family members are probably standard fare for tons of films that never reach the big screen. That's the point, though; this kind of story rarely gets proper big screen treatment. Typically this type of movie warrants a huge body count to cover all the plot holes, but a a story House stands on its own nicely. There's no murder spree but an interesting tale of what drives a little girl to murder her parents, and the results are honestly more than a little creepy, especially because you can believe such things would (and perhaps do) happen. It's a shame though that director Mark Tonderai can't quite pull it off, failing to scare the audience for more than a few tense moments. He also falls into the cliches of horror moviemaking, including stunts that for all intents and purposes Scream had shamed out of most modern horror directors.

Freeze, Jump Street!

As expected, Lawrence's talent as the film's protagonist proves to be invaluable. Mixing a classic scream queen with a bit of her role in Winter's Bone, she deftly maneuvers from scene to scene, consistently and believably carrying the whole movie. There are only a few scenes in which she does not appear, but thankfully we never become weary of Elissa, a multi-dimensional character with very solid reasons behind her decisions. It also doesn't hurt that Lawrence is a stone-cold fox, ensuring that any men in the audience will be unable to take their eyes off of her. She's the complete package, and will have absolutely no problem making her mark in the industry. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag, residing firmly in the "good enough" category for horror acting. Elizabeth Shue and Gil Bellows play the requisite authority figures, while Nolan Gerard Funk and Allie MacDonald fill the roles of teenagers who develop friendships with the new girl. They're all fine, playing their nevertheless rote characters with enough conviction to get by. Max Theriot is probably the weakest of the bunch, his face frozen in a "they kicked my puppy dog" look while delivering lines in the same dull tone throughout. Theriot certainly has the look for the part he plays, but never strikes the audience as all that sympathetic, at least not to the degree necessary to attract Elissa to him.

Hoping that biting her lip is the worst thing that happens to her.

The result is a horror film not all that scary and clearly looking to clean house thanks to its main star. House at the End of the Street was made for about half of what Lawrence will be earning in the Hunger Games sequels, and while it manages to do more than a few things right, it's not enough to completely save what could have been an original, haunting story of rural America. Lawrence is enough reason to tough out a cinema visit, but if you can wait you're probably better off waiting for the DVD. Still, it's not nearly as bad as perhaps it should be, with a lead that hauls it a slight step above the rest of the horror pack.

3-D For a New Generation

If you've been reading The Latest Issue in the past few months (and thanks to those who have; since Blogspot started tracking pageviews in July we're almost at 2000 hits from all over the planet!), you've probably seen comments from my good friend Brian over at Moving Picture Trash, insisting that Piranha 3D
is in fact the number one film this year. Since I had intended to see this anyway, why not take Brian up on his challenge, and see if this film qualifies?

Piranha 3D is something of a throwback, an old-school monster movie with new-school special effects. It's the second remake the original Piranha, which was released back in 1978, and the first in the franchise to use 3D technology, though the 3D had to be done in post-production due to the inability to film 3D underwater. It manages to hearken back to the heyday of classic B-style films, replete with humor, gore, and humorous gore. It all begins when a rare earthquake hits the town of Lake Victoria, and the resulting shock opens up a hidden underwater cavern which had been hidden for centuries beneath the earth's crust. When this underwater lake blends with the existing above-ground lake of Lake Victoria (for whom the town was named), it brings with it thousands of meat-eating, flesh-ripping denizens that immediately cause problems for the local town, especially since they're unlikely to get the lake, which has been overrun by college students on spring break, evacuated.

The film actually boasts an impressive ensemble cast, with Elizabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfus (in a nod to Jaws, the movie Piranha originally parodied) as an unexpected cast of big-name stars who have large roles in the film. Other roles go to Steve McQueen's grandson Steven R. McQueen, Gossip Girl's Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook, Desperate Housewives' Ricardo Chiavara, Eli Roth, Adam Scott, Dina Meyer and Jerry O'Connell. For the most part, these actors get the job done and the film is actually well-acted (odd for a b-caliber film like this to have decent acting), even if the roles are mostly cliched or one-noted. For instance, Christopher Lloyd plays a marine biologist who acts pretty much like Doc Brown from over  twenty years ago. Shue is a classic determined sheriff, albeit one who cares for her kids. McQueen is the normal teenager, aching to be out from under the responsibilities of his family and crushing on Szohr. Scott is a seismologist who investigates the earthquake and discovers the deadly piranhas. Rhames is a bad-ass deputy (I'm almost certain there's a clause in every contract Ving Rhames signs that he must be a bad-ass). And O'Connell is an eccentric pornographic director with Brook as one of his actresses. This ensemble is well-cast and good to play these one-note characters. Okay, the husky Chiavara might be a stretch to play a scuba diver, as he doesn't seem to have the body type, but I'll give him credit for getting off the set of Housewives long enough to play his role.

The special effects are actually quite good, with the post-production 3D doing a really good job of pulling you into the scenes. Surprisingly, the best effects are the underwater scenes, where the cloudiness of the water actually makes the 3D pop better than I think even the filmmakers anticipated.The 3D above water was still impressive, but the more I watched the film I can't help but wonder whether 3D was simply a tool used to draw audiences into the theaters, as there seems to be little point to actually having 3D in this film.Except for a few scare moments, there's few points where the 3D is used very effectively, as most of them are just lame attempts to make the audience feel like something is coming right at them. It's old-school 3D tech use, and while it's a nod to the original 3D scare films, it can't help but feel lame here.

If there's one thing most people came to see, it's the blatantly over-the-top gore that happens when these fish go ape-$#!^ crazy, and when that happens in the final act of the film,.it's a crescendo of shredded wounds, flailing body parts, and exposed bone. Sometimes the violence is almost cartoonish and hilarious in it's implementation, other times it's difficult to watch, especially certain appendages chewed up and spit out (in 3D no less). While much of the death is meted out as standard fare, we're occasionally treated to truly imaginative scenarios, one involving parasailing, another involving a boat propeller. The producers didn't skimp on the fake blood for this one, and it definitely pays off in the end.

Okay, if there was one MORE thing that people came to see, it's the copious amounts of T&A that the film brings in to populate this Spring Break destination town. If there's one thing that might outnumber the piranha population of Lake Victoria, it's the nubile female bodies and litter the beach and swim in the lake. It's almost too bad they can't weaponize sexuality as a weapon against these particular fish (note to potential screenwriters, if you use this idea I want a writing credit) but it was never meant to be more than a one-sided battle. There are various shots of cleavage (in 3D no less) and that doesn't stop even when the blood starts flowing. Heck, O'Connell as the horndog director he is seems like merely an angle to have British actress Kelly Brook and real-life porn star Riley Steele engage in a nude underwater dance scene.It's blatant, but just like the classic use of 3D it's also a throwback, though one that's weathered the test of time better than hackneyed 3D use.

The one thing I disliked about this film was a problem I've had with horror films in the past, children in danger. Am I the only one who didn't care for Elizabeth Shue's two children who end up stranded on a small island after being bribed by their brother (played by McQueen) to stay in the house since he's supposed to be babysitting. I'll give it to this movie for actually making me believe for an instant that these kids were actually in danger of being piranha food, but I should have known better. More cheap gimmickry seems to be the case here, no surprise.

Piranha 3D is a classic monster flick which thankfully doesn't need 3D as it's defining characteristic, as the film would have been just as enjoyable without it. This is true for most of the 3D films being released this year, as the importance of this technology seems to have become grossly overstated, more so than the hype of Avatar, the film that re-spawned the gimmick. Though some parts were only watchable through a shade of my fingers, I couldn't help but enjoy myself at this screening. It will mostly appeal to guys (if anyone out there got their girlfriends to see it with them, I guarantee that 1. They owed you a favor, 2. They didn't speak to you a week or more afterward, or 3. You have the best girlfriend ever) due to all the blood and sex, and while I feel bad about knocking The Crazies off the list, I have to give it up to Piranha 3D for being the best monster movie this summer, and the #9 spot on my Top 10 List. Brian will almost certainly disagree, but while it's not the best movie of the year, I enjoyed it, and I think most like-minded people would too.