Review Roundup: American Dreamz, The Sentinel, Not Silent Hill
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Thrillers, New Releases, Review Roundup
Yes, it happened again -- a big horror film wasn't screened for critics. Is anyone surprised? I think I'm going to start mentioning this phenomenon only when studios have the balls to screen something they think critics might not dig, because at this point, that's much more notable than another film being hidden. American Dreamz and The Sentinel were offered to critics, and their conclusions, in sum, are that Tony Yalda is a genius (Paul Weitz not so much), and that The Sentinel is either thrilling and riveting or it's not. Details and copious links follow.
- American Dreamz: Like Kim, everyone and her brother sets some space aside in their reviews to praise Tony Yalda, who plays Omer-the-terrorist's queeny cousin. Apart from him, though, few have much good to say about the film, though a handful of critics find the chaos enjoyable, despite its lack of satirical teeth.
- The Sentinel: Reviews of this one are pretty mixed, and both sides are equally passionate. Some feel it's a well-constructed, tense thriller, while others (some of whom are unable to resist a 24 comparison), find it boring and absurd. Special credit this week goes to Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe, who wonders if Kiefer Sutherland can do anything other than save the world, asking "Can he dance? Does he juggle?" (Personally, I'm troubled by the fact that no major reviewers bother to mention that the guy playing the president was Sledge Hammer. Where the hell were these people in the 1980s?!)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-22-2006 @ 1:52PM
Peter said...
To Silent Hill's defense, the movie was screened for critics in the UK, Germany and other parts of Europe, just not America.
But...I think Scott was a lot more lenient on the movie than he should have been.
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4-24-2006 @ 1:15PM
Zelminar said...
I seriously thought this was a great movie... I mean you usually expect a bad movie about a PS2 game... but I was seriously shocked that this movie really hit the spot for me, I'm really excited I went and saw it... I usually hate going to the movie theatre, but really, don't let this one stop you... you'd be missing out on a GREAT, "what is gonna happen next" ending!
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4-24-2006 @ 2:53PM
R. G. Nestle said...
This is the only movie I've ever bothered to see on its opening day. As an adaptation of Konomi's hit video game series tried to be TOO much like the games. The editing was slow and ill paced quite often, but that's the way the expository portions of the game were, too. The visuals were VERY Silent Hill.
Sadly, the story was where the problems came from for the most part. Instead of creating a movie version of the original Silent Hill or writing a new episode as the subsequent Silent Hill games were, the writers, Roger Avary (screenplay)and Nicolas Boukhrief (story), took too many liberties with the original story: Going for gore instead of scare, killing characters that players fought so hard to keep alive in the game and who were needed for the "good" ending, and changing the sexes of the characters (i.e. Harry Mason becoming Rose De Silva.) If the story had been new or the characters the same, the movie would have been much more acceptable.
I really enjoyed the explanation of some of the game elements such as the white stuff falling out of the sky and why Alessa was burned. These, although they may not have been the original reasons, were very believable when linking the movie and game together. The ending, however was lost to me. The game players fought hard and strong to keep such a "bad" ending from happening. I know that it leaves the movie open for a sequel, but it was not what followers of the game were expecting because it was very "un-Silent Hillish."
For what it was trying to be I give it a 75% success rate. I would definitely use the special visual effects team on my films.
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