Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Review: Livid (Livide) / Cert: 18 / Director: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury / Screenplay: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury / Starring: Chloe Coulloud, Catherine Jacob, Beatrice Dalle, Felix Moati, Jeremy Kapone, Chloe Marcq, Marie-Claude Pietragalla / Release Date: August 13th 2012

Directors Bustillo and Maury create a completely different beast to their debut film Inside with a stunning horror fairy-tale laced with bloody imagery.  On Halloween evening a group of friends decide to search for unknown treasure in a mansion where Deborah Jessel, a famous ballet teacher, resides comatose in a wrought iron bed being drip fed blood to keep her alive.

Lucie Klavel (Coullou) has taken a new job as a carer for the elderly residents in her village. The experienced Catherine Wilson (Jacob) shows her the ropes, at first introducing her to the poor folk who get the level of care they can afford; a quick jab and a bed change. The final stop on their visit brings them to Jessel and her Victorian era style bedroom stuffed full of books, taxidermy and antiquated breathing apparatus. Jessel’s ghastly appearance brings to mind a Miss Havishim like figure starved of sunshine and love though living in wealth and as Catherine explains to Lucie “If you’re loaded with money you can get your last wishes respected” highlighting issues with wealth and class.

This is a film made up of two halves with a menacing atmosphere apparent throughout. The first part of the film introduces a bleak French seaside town, where the fisherman struggle a slow death, missing person posters are everywhere and Lucie can’t escape being haunted by the death of her mother (Dalle). The second half moves to a haunted house full of startling and inventive imagery of contorted cadavers and ferocious porcelain children. The intricate detailing in the sets and in some of the more brutal scenes in the house make for unsettling viewing playing out like a nightmare. Mechanical ballet dancers, taxidermy tea parties and a mother who uses her daughter like a doll and keeps her trapped only add to the intrigue of where this film is going. Bustillo and Maury make sure the viewer is immersed in the both the fantasy and the horror.

Nods to Suspiria, Hellraiser, Halloween 3, An American Werewolf in London are all there (and some more!) along with a hint of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland and as well as being chilling there is much humour injected for horror aficionados. There is so much going on here, the themes of youth, wealth, mother/daughter relationships, the supernatural, the body shocks and soul swapping, it is no surprise that atmosphere and imagery replace a clear narrative. Bustillo and Maury have created a vivid horror fairy-tale full of interesting visual twists that are entrancing to watch. Their creativity, knowledge and obvious love for the horror genre make them an exciting duo.

Extras: Trailer / Making Of / Interviews: Julien Maury & Alexandre, Marie-Claude Pietragalia, Catherine Jacob, Félix Moati & Jérémy Kapone

 

Review: Battleship / Cert: 12/ Director: Peter Berg / Screenplay: John Hoeber, Erich Hoeber / Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson / Release Date: August 20th

Any lingering hopes that Peter Berg’s career-torpedoing alien invasion stinker (based on Hasbro’s ‘Battleship’!) might be a bit more tolerable in the privacy of your home and behind closed doors are cruelly dashed as we have to accept that this is a really, really, severely bad film. Starburst has a soft spot for they-come-to-us movies (this reviewer still has to wear a hat labelled ‘unclean’ in public for quite liking The Darkest Hour and Skyline) but Battleship – basically Transformers At Sea but with none of the wit and sophistication of Michael Bay’s rampaging robot franchise – is an invasion too far. This is a film clearly written by idiots for idiots and we’re still not convinced that writers Hoeber and Hoeber aren’t actually a pseudonym for an infinite number of monkeys interrupted in the middle of a fairly major writing project.

But what else could we have been expecting? Battleship is inspired by the simplest of playground games in which participants call out numbers and imaginary warships blow up bit by bit. Not much for even the cleverest of scriptwriters to work with there. So our creative heroes have had to concoct a storyline – big noisy metal aliens invade Earth, that’ll do! – and somewhere along the line some other bright spark decide to crowbar in a couple of visual reference to the game the thing’s supposed to be based on. So we have the alien missiles which look a bit like the pegs used in the physical Battleship game and when they explode they destroy their target section-by-section. Brilliant! Later on someone says something like “they won’t sink my battleship” and that’s about it if you want to see any connection with your favourite old childhood game.

So maybe the film’s populated by really interesting people we can care about and fear and root for. Nope. The first half-hour is beyond tortuous as we meet US Naval officer Alex Hopper (True Blood’s Skarsgard) who tries to salvage his useless laybout brother Stone (Kitsch, John Carter – uh oh) who spends his time drinking beer, chasing girls and breaking into convenience stores. Despite being a complete tool Stone somehow manages to rise to the ranks of Lieutenant but his idiocy is about to get him kicked out of the Navy by Admiral Shane (Neeson) who, unfortunately, is the Dad of the girl Stone would quite like to marry. Fortunately for Stone giant bits of metal crash into the sea before he can be unceremoniously removed from the Navy and soon afterwards metal things are rising out of the water, firing missiles and sending big spinning firewheels into the air to devastate a nearby airbase. So that’s a definite ‘no’ then, it’s not about the characters. Stone deserves a good and constant slapping, his brother’s well out of it quite quickly, Liam Neeson is just in it for the money and Rihanna, as plucky Gunner’s Mate Cora, just gets knocked about a bit (no comment).

It must be the special effects then. Yes, of course they’re astonishing – this film cost about $230 million, they really ought to look astonishing. But they’re also really rather boring; just bits of metal flying about the place, rising up out of the water, trashing things. We’ve seen all this in the Transformers films, amongst others, and even the alien foot soldiers – basically superannuated Cybermen – just resemble humanoid aliens we’ve seen in SF films we’ve already forgotten about. As things blow up – and by God does some stuff blow up in Battleship – it gets harder and harder to remain even remotely interested and ultimately, such is the cacophony and the chaos on the screen it’s hard to work out what’s going on and why, much less care about any of it. The end, when it comes (and fortunately Battleship clocks in at around two hours – about a hundred and ten minutes too long but still mercifully shorter than some other recent self-important blockbusters), is ludicrous and powered by the sort of ferocious jingoism which does American cinema (and America itself) no favours whatsoever. 

A horrible, mechanical, soul-sucking experience, Battleship is dull, wretched, worthless twaddle. If you missed it at the cinema – and fortunately, most right-thinking people did – we pretty much order you to keep well away from this Blu-ray/DVD release of quite possibly the worst special effects blockbuster of all time.

Extras: Behind-the-scenes/making of stuff – Preparing for Battle, All hands on Deck (the cast), Engage in Battle, FX, tour round the USS Missouri. Everyone seems very pleased with what they’ve done, a bit like a small child who’s done a really big poo all on their own for the first time.

Review: Total Recall – Ultimate Rekall Edition / Cert: 18 / Director: Paul Verhoeven / Screenplay: Ronald Shusett / Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside / Release Date: Out Now

The remake of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell is one of the most eagerly awaited films of the summer (if you discount Batman’s, just released, much hyped outing). However after re-watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger original you could be forgiven for questioning the necessity for the filmmakers to subject themselves or the public to such an undertaking. The 1990 blockbuster was, if not classic, at least a full-blooded escapade, unlikely to be bettered – if it’s not broken, why fix it? 

2084 and a third world war has created a hostile new world, ruled by opposing factions in a constant state of civil unrest. Planets as far afield as Mars have been colonised, though even this is now inhabited by waring humans. On Earth Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), a construction worker happily married to the beautiful Lori (Stone), is haunted by dreams where he finds himself exploring Mars alongside a mysterious woman (Ticotin).

Against his wife’s advice Quaid approaches Rekall, a company that offers you the experience and memories of a holiday without your having to leave the safety and comfort of their high-tech headquarters. It’s only after things go drastically wrong during Quaid’s ‘trip of a lifetime’ to Mars, that he realises everything may not be as innocent as it first appeared, and his recurring dream has more to do with his past than he initially thought. Unfortunately someone else knows the truth behind Quaid’s fantasies – someone determined to stop him at any cost.

Let’s be honest. Despite the original Total Recall continually topping the lists of all-time sci-fi greats, the actual film is by no-means a classic example of filmmaking in this or any other genre.  It’s a film very much of its time – and looks it, with cheesy costumes and equally cheesy dialogue. But that’s hardly the reason behind this loud, brash, boys-own adventure, which amounts to not much more than a two hour excuse for grown men to run round blowing each-other up. Couple this with it being the film which made people sit up and take notice of Sharon Stone, that it’s directed by ‘Mr actioneer’ himself Paul Verhoeven and that the award winning special effects are admittedly (literally at one point) eye popping, and you do have to ask what director Len Wiseman is really hoping he can bring to the table with another take.

It remains to be seen whether the new version is worth it or whether, like Schwarzenegger’s film career, Total Recall is best left as a fond and faintly amusing memory.

Extras: Often re-released classics are bogged-down with an overdose of extras which can detract from the enjoyment of the main feature. This is not the case with Total Recall, as there are just the right amount to compliment the film without overshadowing it. Released on Triple Play (including a limited edition steelbook), both the DVD and Blu-ray include a look at the film’s special effects, the original trailer and an audio commentary with Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger. In addition the Blu-ray has a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film, a photo gallery of stills and a restoration comparison (an interesting bonus now popular with many re-released classics).

Review: The Arrival of Wang / Cert: 15 / Director: Antonio & Marco Manetti / Screenplay: Antonio & Marco Manetti / Starring: Ennio Fantastichini, Francesca Cuttica, Juliet Essay Joseph / Release Date: November 12th

Every wondered what would happen to E.T. if he landed in this post 9/11 era? Brothers Antonio and Marco Manetti attempt to answer that very question with this refreshing, left field, Italian sci-fi gem. A movie that helps repair any Strause-induced phobia of sibling co-directors.

The Arrival Of Wang does not mess about, it gets stuck right into the narrative with interpreter Gaia (a performance of conviction by Cuttica) getting the offer of a simple job for the Government, and being lured in by the offer of a couple of thousand Euros. Almost immediately she is apprehensively blindfolded and arrives at a Government location to interpret the questioning of the mysterious (and exclusively Mandarin speaking) ‘Mr Wang’. Thus begins a heated guessing game between the characters and the audience as to who (if anyone) has malevolent intentions.

In this era of modern filmmaking, where everyone armed with a cheap camcorder is trying to artificially manufacture a  ‘B movie’ or ‘cult classic’, with film buffs being cynically bombarded with the latest ‘Mega-boredom Vs Crock-a-bollocks’ flicks, it’s easy for movies like this to be tarred with the same brush. Happily it can be reported that The Arrival Of Wang is the real deal. A low budget Italian sci-fi that fans of genre classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still (the Keanu-free variety), will find highly rewarding.

The Arrival Of Wang is one of the simplest movies you will ever see. Telling a story of literally cosmic importance – via a simple interrogation in a white room. The two central performances provide the fuel for an amazing atmosphere of tension and claustrophobia, which is maintained pretty much throughout the entire movie. It uses this atmosphere to explore paranoia, and it’s inherent strengths which are often overlooked within the usual focus upon its negative effect on personality. It also engages your perceptual beliefs on torture, achieving this without once resorting to condescend its audience. It even manages to deliver an iconic closing line that is sure to make you laugh out loud.

Of course the CGI Nazis will be less than impressed with the ‘star’ of this little treat, and will probably see this as a negative that undermines its credibility. We didn’t find that to be a problem. The effects are mere backdrops to the central dilemma, and as such they perform more than adequately. It is the direct antithesis to the usual effects laden blockbuster, that usually deliver in converse measures.

There is a lot of deliberate confusion at the core of this movie, but one thing is for certain – The Arrival Of Wang is a gripping and well-crafted masterpiece that should not be missed.

Review: Manimal – The Complete Collection / Cert: PG / Director: Various / Teleplay: Various / Starring: Simon MacCorkindale, Melody Anderson, Michael D Roberts / Release Date: August 27th

The 1980s was a funny old time for American genre telly. Pure sci-fi was out but high concept shows like Street Hawk and Automan sprang up left, right and centre – but few of them had the legs to run for much more than one season. Fewer yet were as unfortunate as Glen A Larson’s Manimal, though; scheduled against ratings beast Dallas, Manimal growled his last after just eight episodes and, if not for its peculiar international appeal (the show was a substantial European hit), it would have probably quickly been forgotten or else dismissed as a 20th century TV fever dream.

Even by 1980s standards – and all the clichés are here from the mullet hairstyles to the squeaky synth theme music –  Manimal is absolutely preposterous. Brit thesp Simon MacCorkindale plays Dr Jonathan Chase, a shape-shifter who has mastered dark African arts which allow him to transform himself into any number of convenient animals – normally, for the purposes of Manimal, a black panther or a hawk. After his secret is uncovered by Detective Brook Mackenzie (Anderson), Chase, with his sidekick Ty Earl (Roberts), works alongside the Police, using his special abilities to keep him one step ahead of the bad guys. Despite the idiocy of its core concept, Manimal is actually surprisingly good fun. The stories are desperately mundane murder, extortion and gambling racket yarns; Manimal already asks its audience to take seriously the idea of a man routinely transforming himself into a big cat – fantasy storylines are strictly off-limits. But the show works because of the chemistry between its stars and some decent  writing. The scripts are spry and witty, MacCorkindale gives the show a gravitas it really doesn’t deserve and there’s a sparky relationship between Chase and Mackenzie (the show didn’t stick around long enough for any will they/won’t they stuff to develop) and Roberts is on hand to provide light physical comedy.

Oscar Winner Stan Winston’s visual effects – Chase transforming in a blur of  fur and claws, dodgy blue screen  – are primitive by today’s standards but they still exude a quaint, oddly-effective charm. Add a few ambitious stunts, action sequences, plentiful animal action and even now, thirty years later, it’s easy to see why this silly, short-lived show, never exactly a roaring success and far from purrfect, made its mark on those who saw it and embraced it at the time.

Extras: Interview with creator/producer Larson who reveals – gasp – that a feature film version is in the works, ancient biographies, photo gallery.

DVD Review: Paranormal Incident / Cert: 15 / Director: Matthew Bolton / Screenplay: Chris W. Freeman / Starring: Amanda Barton, Keith Compton, Thomas Downey, Brett Edwards / Release Date: Out Now

“Paranormal Activity exists” one character says, as an intrepid gang of filmmakers head to the possibly haunted Odenbrook Hospital to film their documentary. It’s a ballsy move on Paranormal Incident’s part, name-checking the very movie it’s attempting to cash in on. “We were having fun until the Paranormal Activity statement,” says someone else. Quite.

To be fair, Paranormal Incident owes much more to The Blair Witch Project and House on Haunted Hill than it does Paranormal Activity – the story being about a group of spook sceptics who spend the night locked in a haunted sanatorium, now closed for business. Like Cannibal Holocaust, its purported found footage scenes are bookended by a more traditional drama in which a detective questions one of the survivors as he lies on his hospital bed. Unfortunately, the scripted studio horror is just as bad as the found footage stuff.

Paranormal Incident is a film suffering from a serious identity crisis. It seems to have no idea what it wants to be – found footage, scripted drama, serious devil horror, sinister conspiracy movie or jaunty comedy – so tries to be all these things at once. It does none of them well and there’s no sense of cohesion. This is evident immediately, when the opening credits play a bizarrely cheerful tune over an amateurish set of visuals. In the middle, there’s a comically bad piece of footage (found footage within a found footage movie) supposedly made when the hospital was still open. The idea worked better when it was done in Severance – a Danny Dyer movie, of all things. Towards the end, the story gives up on the found footage motif entirely and enters flashback mode, complete with fancy camerawork and a loud soundtrack. It’s good to have ambition, but sometimes you’ve got to know your limits. It’s as though the filmmakers made one movie, realised that it wasn’t very good, and made a shorter one to tie it together.

Which is a shame, since there is some very creepy imagery buried amongst the over-familiar Most Haunted and Paranormal Activity stuff. Found footage isn’t an inherently bad subgenre of horror, but it has become terribly overdone of late. Where the forefathers of found footage would take us into the exotic mighty jungle to see terrible, terrible things, modern filmmakers (Apollo 18’s Moon landing aside) spend far too much time in dark woods or gloomy corridors. And the only difference between this and an episode of Most Haunted is that the acting in Most Haunted is (marginally) more convincing and better scripted. There have been worse films in the subgenre lately (the abysmal Tape 407, for example) but none so bizarre.

The story, in which noisy students film a documentary in a supposedly haunted sanatorium, does not promise great things. There are interesting touches (the footage being laced with leftovers from a character’s sex tape) and chilling moments, but not nearly enough. As the group realise that they’re in trouble, the film descends into a predictable climax in which everyone runs around screaming before being dragged away into the darkness, one by one. It goes by an alternate title of The Paranormal Incident, but it’s probably wise that the article be removed. The central ‘incident’ has been done so many times by now that it should be called ‘A’ Paranormal Incident instead. Then there’s the ending, which is remarkably similar to a scene from Captain America: The First Avenger. But by that point, you’ll be used to it. Maybe even slightly charmed. Bad as it is, it’s never unwatchable, and the pace prevents it from ever getting boring.

Had it the conviction to be one thing or the other, Paranormal Incident could have been merely forgettable. Instead, it’s memorable for all of the wrong reasons.

Special Features: None

Combat Shock / Cert: 18 / Director: Buddy Giovinazzo / Screenplay: Buddy Giovinazzo / Starring: Ricky Giovinazzo, Veronica Stork, Mitch Maglio, Asaph Livni / Release Date: August 6th

Combat Shock (1984) tells the story of Frankie, a soldier struggling to readjust to everyday life after first serving for his country in Vietnam and then spending several years in hospital. He suffers from intense flashbacks, has a one year old mutant son, his wife is pregnant again, and they live in a run-down apartment with a toilet that doesn’t flush and no food in the cupboards.

“Gritty” tends to be a bit of an over-used word these days, but there’s no other way to describe Combat Shock. The city is covered with grime and graffiti, drug deals go down in abandoned factories, and passers-by steal whatever they can find from the pockets of smacked-up junkies. There are huge lines at the job centre, where inside even the staff resort to taking pills just to get through the day. The entire film is a series of depressing and terrifying situations, pushing the already frail Frankie to his absolute limits.

After a conversation with his estranged father finally pushes Frankie over the edge, an encounter with the local crime boss triggers one final flashback during which Frankie decides he needs to rescue his family from the life they’re currently living. Without giving anything away, his idea of saving his family is a fair bit different to anything you or I might come up with…

The occasional bit of dodgy acting and questionable continuity aside (although at least noticing these things does lift the mood slightly in amongst all the desperation), Combat Shock really does deserve its reputation as a cult classic. It’s still as relentlessly dark and hopeless as we remember it, and even today, the final scenes stand up as some of the most shocking and powerful you’ll ever see. Those last ten minutes will stay with you for a long, long time…

Extras:

DISC 1:

Feature Presentation of “American Nightmares”, director Buddy Giovinazzo’s Original Cut

Feature Presentation of “Combat Shock”, the Troma theatrical cut of the film

Audio Commentary with writer-director Buddy Giovinazzo and Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik)

DISC 2:

Post-Traumatic: An American Nightmare – A documentary on the film’s impact and influence featuring William Lustig (Maniac Cop), John McNaughton (Henry: Portrait ofa Serial Killer), Scott Spiegel (Evil Dead 2), Richard Stanley (Hardware), Roy Frumkes (Street Trash) and more!

Buddy’s Early Works: Five short films directed by Giovinazzo and three music videos from the Giovinazzo brothers’ band

Interview with director Buddy Giovinazzo

Unscarred: Interview with star Rick Giovinazzo

Buddy Giovinazzo and Jorg Buttgereit at the Berlin Film Festival

Der Combat: Buddy Giovinazzo and Troma President Lloyd Kaufman at the Tromanale in Berlin

Hellscapes: The Locations of the film revisited

Original Theatrical Trailer

Review: Extinction – The G.M.O. Chronicles / Cert: 15 / Director: Niki Drozdowski / Screenplay: Ralf Betz, Niki Drozdowski / Starring: Daniel Buder, Luise Bahr, Jerry Coyle, Tobias Kay, Lee Richter, Bina Milas / Release Date: August 27th

The zombie apocalypse is now officially out of control. Or rather, the endless tide of straight-to-DVD zombie apocalypse movies is out of control. Zombie this, zombie that, undead the other. We live in hope of a zombie film which is a bit different, with even the tiniest sliver of originality about it or at least  some sign that its writers have got a trick or two up their sleeves that we‘ve not seen before. Extinction isn’t exactly that rarity – it’s basically the same old same old – but there are a few deviations from the ‘zombie virus’ norm which make it worth a look even if it’s not Romero firing on all cylinders.

We’re in Germany – for a change – and writer Tom Keller (Buder) has survived the end of the world. Everyone’s gone nuts and those who haven’t are being torn apart and devoured by rabid flesh-eaters. Tom takes refuge in an abandoned military installation out in the countryside, fights off encroaching undead ‘walkers’ and, inevitably, comes across other survivors, one of whom is an American who knows the truth about the virus which has raged across the world and brought Mankind to the brink of… well, extinction.

Extinction looks good – there’s a pleasing sense of desolation and bleakness in the cinematography – and there are actually a handful of decent ideas floating around. Extinction’s zombies come in several shapes and sizes; one has no eyes and shrieks like a banshee, another has green-blue skin, others seem to have fuzzy, werewolf-like faces. The idea of the zombies mutating is vaguely interesting until we realise that the final manifestation of that mutation seems to involve them all becoming hoodie-wearing, track-suited parkour experts more concerned with their nifty show-off acrobatics than feasting on human flesh. There’s also a decent subplot about leaking nuclear power plants spreading radiation poisoning. But on the downside – bearing in mind there’s not really that much of an upside – most of the acting is suspect, the action sequences are a bit lame and there’s no real explosive denouement which means the film just fizzles out.

There’s been worse zombie films than Extinction – probably at least another ten since you started reading this review – and whilst Extinction is ultimately just as forgettable as most of its genre, its distinctly European sensibility gives it some curiosity value  if you really feel the need for a bit of unsophisticated zombie carnage.

Extras: None

Review: The Lost Coast Tapes / Cert: 18 / Director: Corey Grant / Screenplay: Bryan O’Cain, Brian Kelsey / Starring: Rich McDonald, Drew Rausch, Ashley Wood, Noah Weisberg, Frank Ashmore / Release Date: September 3rd

“It doesn’t like being called a hoax” warns the tagline for this new search-for-Bigfoot horror schlocker. On that basis it probably wouldn’t much appreciate being called ‘crap’ either but hey, we like to live dangerously so bring it on Sasquatch!

A North Californian “Bigfoot hunter” claims to be in possession of the dead body of one of the legendary mountain-dwelling monsters and a discredited news reporter assembles a ramshackle team and sets off to prove that it’s all a big fat hoax on a new ‘reality‘ TV show (’Bigfoot Brother‘, anyone?). Feel our despair as the caption “the following footage was an attempt to document that discovery” slips onto the screen. We’re in ‘found footage’ territory again and I’ve just about stopped banging my head against the wall…

This gimmick, so far past its sell-by date now it’s started to biodegrade into something else, does this tiresome effort no favours whatsoever. Welcome to ninety-odd minutes of contrived shaky-cam filming, self-conscious performances and, despite the baffling 18 certificate, absolutely nothing scary whatsoever. Sean Reynolds (Rausch, recently seen in Battleship so it‘s not been a good year for him) takes his motley crew of filmmakers out into the wilds of California where they meet up with Bigfoot-killer Carl Drybeck (Ashmore) who regales them with fanciful stories about his encounters with mountain-beasts. Sure enough before long there’s much a-growling coming from the forest and during the night they’re attacked by something vicious and savage and generally unseen, presumably for budgetary reasons.

The Lost Coast Tapes reminded us of recent found-footage nightmare Tape 407 which consisted of dropped cameras showing images of running feet with lots of screaming and gasping and occasionally a quick glimpse of a monster scuttling by. This isn’t quite as bad because as, inevitably, Sean’s team are dragged away screaming into the night (and one cast member gets spectacularly impaled), it manages to get a little more intense as a dazzling light show and thundering soundtrack suggests that whatever Bigfoot is, it sure ain’t something which has come down from the mountain looking for a snack. Otherwise there’s much shrieking and ‘Oh my God!” dialogue and the inevitable dead-stop ending which leaves far too much unexplained and left us wondering why the Hell we’d bothered.

Even by the law of diminishing returns which has long since set in with ‘found footage’ movies, The Lost Coast Tapes really isn’t worth the effort. These are tapes which really should have stayed lost.

Extras: None

Review: The Hunger Games / Cert: 12 / Director: Gary Ross / Screenplay: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray / Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Laim Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks / Release Date: September 3rd

Maybe because we’ve been spoilt by films like Battle Royale and The Running Man, where similar themes have been have been explored before (surprisingly, Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins claims that she had never heard of BR when writing the novel), or maybe because the violence in the book series has been reigned in, something comes across as lacking here. When Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister’s place in the 74th Hunger Games – a tournament that takes one boy and girl from the 12 districts and pitches them into an arena to fight to the death, until only one remains to be crowned victor – we follow her training, and witness the ratings winning tricks of the trade that are pulled behind the camera. It’s a reality TV show, created to give the Districts the faintest hint of hope, even though there appears to be little of that for most.

Regardless if you’ve read the book, you know that Katniss will triumph and perhaps this is the film’s biggest weakness. By concentrating on the heroine, played well by Jennifer Lawrence, most of the other youngsters chosen to fight or die are given almost zero character development so, where you should feel dismayed at the idea of children killing other children, you end up not really caring, because you know nothing about these remaining cannon fodder. Only Katniss, fellow District 12 colleague Peeta and main antagonist Cato are really used. Hell even Katniss’ love interest Gale, who was left at home, is given more screen time than most of the fighters put together.

As the violence has been toned down there is no tangible sense of shock when the children die, and if you are going to make a film based on this kind of source material, you really shouldn’t cut corners. All it ends up being is a senseless narrative about a totalitarian society where random kids are picked to kill each other for ratings. Even that would have been interesting, had the creators not decided to use this as just a background tool and rely on Katniss and her supposed development arc. She’s already a hunter before she enters the fray, and the pseudo sister role she plays to another contestant seems forced as she has already managed to save her sister by taking her place in the tournament in the first place.

There are good moments, but the action is spread thinly and the pace seems to lag slightly so that the running time almost drags. This review may go against the grain, but if the creators had gone for at least a 15 certificate, then we could have got a more exciting and brutal story than we are provided with here.

Extras:

“The World Is Watching: Making of The Hunger Games”

“Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Phenomenon” featurette

“Letters from the Rose Garden” featurette

“Controlling the Games” featurette

A Conversation with Gary Ross and Elvis Mitchell

Propaganda Film (in its entirety)

Marketing archive

“Preparing for the Games: A Director’s Process” (Blu-ray Exclusive)