FrightFest

I enjoyed this, as Alan Jones said it is EXACTLY the film you expect it to be. It's basically a violent version of Mario Kart. Probably Paul WS Anderson's second best film after Event Horizon. Pity he couldn't have got Sean Pertwee in there somewhere.

Totally agree...after a disappointing last day (excluding the shorts), this was exactly what I needed to boost my spirits and what better way than a buffed up Statham killing fellow inmates in a futuristic race to the death!

Great fun!

Big Dumb Fun!.......but tremendously enjoyable


This was a lot like the recent Italian Job movie in that they are enjoyable films in their own right but nowhere near match the originals.

Just wondered, what the rating on this is to be at the multiplexes as there was quite a bit of bloody violence in it, surely not another 12A

lone star wrote:Big Dumb Fun!.......but tremendously enjoyable


This was a lot like the recent Italian Job movie in that they are enjoyable films in their own right but nowhere near match the originals.

Just wondered, what the rating on this is to be at the multiplexes as there was quite a bit of bloody violence in it, surely not another 12A

The BBFC have passed it 15, which is fair enough. Meat Train has got an 18 uncut BTW.

A great last film of the festival that was exactly what you though it might be.

Helped distract me from what was otherwise a very poor last day of the festival.

Much more fun than I expected.

It wasn't exactly what I expected - it was in fact surprisingly better.

Fair play to PWSA - he's a bullshitter who's been responsible for some terrible twaddle, but he's a much, much better action director than the likes of Michael Bay.

The Soapmaker wrote:but he's a much, much better action director than the likes of Michael Bay.

This is not true at all. Look at the freeway chase in The Island. The man know his way around action geography. I missed Death Race but the recently released red band clip semed to be a hodge-podge of badly edited, geographically inconherent noise. Impactful, I'm sure, but...sersiouly, watch The Island's freeway chase again.

giles edwards wrote:

The Soapmaker wrote:but he's a much, much better action director than the likes of Michael Bay.

This is not true at all. Look at the freeway chase in The Island. The man know his way around action geography. I missed Death Race but the recently released red band clip semed to be a hodge-podge of badly edited, geographically inconherent noise. Impactful, I'm sure, but...sersiouly, watch The Island's freeway chase again.

But then there was Transformers Giles, I had no idea what was going on in that movie. Bay's best film is The Rock and Paul WS Anderson can dream of making a movie that good. I think Anderson's big problem is he is a terrible scriptwriter. The final scene in Death Race was terrible, and that voiceover from Statham? What was that about?

MaxRenn wrote:It's basically a violent version of Mario Kart.

Clearly you're not playing it right.

Yup, big dumb fun indeed... though the lack of bonus points for running over pedestrians was a disappointment.



.

MaxRenn wrote:

giles edwards wrote:

The Soapmaker wrote:but he's a much, much better action director than the likes of Michael Bay.

This is not true at all. Look at the freeway chase in The Island. The man know his way around action geography. I missed Death Race but the recently released red band clip semed to be a hodge-podge of badly edited, geographically inconherent noise. Impactful, I'm sure, but...sersiouly, watch The Island's freeway chase again.

But then there was Transformers Giles, I had no idea what was going on in that movie. Bay's best film is The Rock and Paul WS Anderson can dream of making a movie that good. I think Anderson's big problem is he is a terrible scriptwriter. The final scene in Death Race was terrible, and that voiceover from Statham? What was that about?

Oh, sure. Transformers was a headache in physical form. But the man does have incredible visual panache and his action and when he's firing on creative as opposed to monetary cylinders it's extremely rewarding. His cultural rep doesn't help when discussing him though.

I've spoken to veteren cameramen (guys who've been DoP John Allcot's team on Kubrick productions) who have subsequenly worked with Bay and have nothing but praise for his cinematic smarts.

giles edwards wrote:His cultural rep doesn't help when discussing him though.

The guys that run the Criterion Collection love him though, which is weird.

Until Schizopolis or Quai Des Orfevre is selling hundreds of thousands of copies, I guess the Criterion guys have got to eat. And Bay provides a hell of a meal ticket.

giles edwards wrote:Oh, sure. Transformers was a headache in physical form. But the man does have incredible visual panache and his action and when he's firing on creative as opposed to monetary cylinders it's extremely rewarding. His cultural rep doesn't help when discussing him though.

A pocket guide to when he's "firing on creative as opposed to monetary cylinders" would be helpful. Which category does cretinous shit like Bad Boys II fall into? No offence, but for me it's absolutely nothing to do with his cultural rep, he just spends lots of money making very bad films (IMO).

I agree that The Rock and The Island are his best efforts (even if the latter is really just a ropey Logan's Run/Clonus Horror ripoff. Together with Michael Marshall Smith's excellent novel Spares). But Transformers has the most incoherent visuals I have ever seen - it's literally impossible to tell what's going on, ever. Was that not an artistic choice? Or was he just coked out of his head?

giles edwards wrote:Until Schizopolis or Quai Des Orfevre is selling hundreds of thousands of copies, I guess the Criterion guys have got to eat. And Bay provides a hell of a meal ticket.

No actually I think they genuinely rate him, Criterion putting out Bay probably does them more harm than damage with their core audience which is people who buy Jean Renoir boxsets.