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Lacklustre
Once upon a time John Carpenter was the coolest thriller director on the planet. 'Assault on Precinct 13', 'Halloween', 'Escape from New York'. Then came 1982 and he got his biggest budget and made his masterpiece, 'The Thing'. Unfortunately 1982 was the year of 'E.T.' and dark SF was no mans land, so like 'Blade Runner' Carpenter's piece de resistance was roundly damned (although later hailed by the same critics and audiences who shunned it at the time). More unfortunately Carpenter seems to have taken the drubbing to heart as he hasn't made anything half as good since.
I keep on hoping that the next Carpenter release will be a return to form. After all, he's always rehashing the same siege plotline of Howard Hawks' 'Rio Grande', but this is his worst yet. It looks more like an episode of 'Battlestar Galactica' than a cinema release, stinking of TV movie cheapness and lack of imagination, featuring flat lighting, slack editing, state of yesterdays art effects, and stilted acting from a talented cast, who have all been better elsewhere, but here just seem to have given up even trying to make a good movie. Ice Cube's final shot cheesy stare into camera lens is the turd on the icing. At times this is so bad it actually makes your eyes hurt. |
