Burnham-On-Sea film enthusiast Molly Harding, who was last year nominated for the national award ‘Young Film Critic of the Year’, reviews Fright Night 3D and Rise Of The Planet Of the Apes which is now showing at Burnham’s Ritz Cinema in Victoria Street this week…
Fright Night 3D (15)
Everything in Charley’s life has most definitely taken a turn for the better, he’s got the girl, even if it is at the expense of loosing nerdy best friend Ed (Chris Mintz – Plasse). But in the midst of his social success he begins to suspect that his nocturnal neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.
Let’s face it, vampire films are ten to the dozen so an original is hard to come by. This is neither an original or original, it sticks to every vampire convention in the book. I find this refreshing; crude stakes, trademark fanged gnashers and the dangerous and mysterious air about them. Back to basics is sometimes best and Fright Night uses these to great effect.
This is a horror comedy, both equally present. I was made to jump within the first couple of minutes and, although a little repetitive, the atmosphere is always backed up by tense music. The comedy is here in the form of sweary, leather clad vampire-slayer Peter Vincent (David Tennant) giving the funniest performance in the whole film.
Less doesn’t feel like more on the gore steaks but the 3D splats of red and general amusing CG naffness make up for this.
Halloween has come early – 3.5/5
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (12A)
While researching a cure for Alzheimer’s, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) takes home an orphaned chimpanzee after its mother is ‘put down’ due to a failed drug trial. In Will’s care Ceasar the chimp begins to display near human intelligence, intelligence that could prove dangerous as it grows.
My reaction to the trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes went something like, “That looks ridiculous, I want to see it.” What I expected was a far fetched, unbelievable and big budgeted blockbuster involving some sort of monkey uprising that would be enjoyable but equally laughable. What this film delivers, though, is quite something else…
The thing about the film that makes it so brilliant is the CGI (computer generated imagery). It’s astounding. It’s hard to believe that all the apes are essentially cartoons but are so detailed that you would be forgiven for mistaking them for real monkeys. The motion capture CGI is so effective that you even empathise with the chimps and long sequences involving only the monkeys interacting with each other did not drag what so ever and made the possibility of the plot all the more realistic. What was Avatar again?
Behind Caesar is Andy Serkis, also known for being behind other motion captured characters such as King Kong and Gollum in Lord of the Rings, so really the unofficial master of motion capture cemented by this show – stealing turn. James Franco, Freida Pinto and the other human members of the cast were good, not award worthy but enough to keep the story going despite being overshadowed by their CGI counterparts.
The film is also thought-provoking, raising some controversial questions we all have some opinion on. Is animal testing justifiable? Is keeping animals in captivity wrong? And, for me, who were the real animals in the film?
An emotional, exciting and epic picture. A sequel is almost definite to this worthwhile watch – 4/5
Read more of Molly’s regular film reviews on Burnham-On-Sea.com
RELATED LINKS:
