Sunday 18 October 2009

Fantanamo K Film Review: Final Destination 3D / Inglourious Basterds





Final Destination 3D: Well, I knew this was probably going to be shithouse. I can't remember which one of the series I'd seen before… it was the one with the rollercoaster, If you've seen any of them, you'll know the coup. Group of people miss out on a nasty fate when one of them has a premonition and they leg it. Death then throws a strop, and comes hunting for the ones that should have bitten the dust, and murks them in ever increasingly elaborate ways. This film is no different, but does come with the added bonus of being in 3D. Gotta love a pair of cheap plastic 3D specs. Anyway, in this one, the characters escape from a deadly crash/grandstand collapse at the local nascar speedway caused by a highly improbable series of events set up by Mr G. Reaper. There are some pretty far fetched ways in which people bite the dust. For example, one guy who turns up at a security guards house ready to carry out some race-related violence ends up being dragged along behind his own pick up truck on a chain, whilst being burnt alive, all after his [un]lucky horseshoe falls off the rear view mirror, knocking the vehicle into gear and simultaneously flicking on the stereo, which happens to be playing "why can't we be friends". Yes, its that realistic. But fuck it. 99% of people don't go to see a Final Destination flick expecting it to be earth shatteringly realistic. The plot is shithouse. The script is shithouse. Both of these I expected. I only really went to see it as I'd never seen a 3D film before, and that Pixar crap holds no interest for me whatsoever. The effect is used pretty damn well though, and I have to admit to flinching a couple of times when bits of something exploding seemed to come flying through the auditorium. The glasses themselves look like the glasses worn by those people who have a thing for skintight jeans and yellow kicks usually found wandering the streets of Brighton talking about the latest Banksy book. I was gonna take a stupid picture of me wearing them to accompany this post, but think I managed to leave them in Nandos when I popped in for some extra hot chicken after the film. Oh well. In summary, if you've never seen a 3D film before and don't mind a liberal sprinkling of blood and guts, go try it out. If your local flickhouse ain't showing it with the extra dimension though, I'd probably give it a miss. Oh shit, almost forgot - one of the deaths seems to be based on Chuck Palahniuk's Guts short story from his book Haunted. If you've never read it, its probably best I don't go into details. Overall 7/10 (4/10 for the film, 3 extra marks for the 3D)

Inglourious Basterds: I'd wanted to see for a while, so decided to make it double trouble at the flicks and catch it too after a cold Coopers in the pub downstairs. I like Tarantino's stuff. I've seen every film he's done apart from the Grindhouse pair, which I've inexplicably yet to see. The film is about The Basterds, a group of American Jews led by Bradley Pitt who Tarantino sends into occupied France in 1941 as an excuse to show lots of Nazi's being shanked, shot and strangled. The film seems a little disjointed. There are some highly enjoyable scenes, but Tarantino's trademark script is a little below par. Eli Roth whose film Hostel did wonders for the backpacker market in Eastern Europe also appears alongside Pitt - the only other notable casting being Mike Myers as an stiff upper lipped British general, one of the most bizarre and frankly fucking awful cameos I've ever seen. As I said, the film does have its moments, but like Final Destination, you're gonna need a strong stomach at times. Overall, its not shit, but I doubt you'll be talking about it for months afterwards either. 7.5/10

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