wezzel

For some, Stephen King is just a mere auteur of horror stories. If you look closer, you'll see he is much more. Nearly all his stories are melancholic tales about the loss of childhood innocence. With a paranormal twist, but that really isn't the most important. I even think that Hearts in Atlantis would have worked even better, if the whole paranormal thing would have been left out. The most interesting aspects of the story are Bobby Garfield and his relationship with his mother, girlfriend and Ted. Whenever Ted brought up the low-men, my personal interest curve got a bit of a dip, but hey it's a Stephen King movie, I guess we'll have to live with it.

As it is, Hearts in Atlantis remains a wonderful film. It's the kind of film where the scenes in the present are filmed in gloomy blue and grey tones, and all the flashbacks get a golden sepia treatment. Sure it's been done before, but rarely have the effects been of such a shattering beauty.

Anthony Hopkins, never shy of giving a bombastic performance, is remarkably soft-spoken in this one, though I doubt that he was really interested in this movie. The star of the show, however, is Anton Yelchin as Bobby Garfield. He looks like the young Elijah Wood, with the same angelic blue eyes, and he's truly captivating. He even has genuine chemistry with the girl that plays his love interest. A big fat ‘wow' is in order here, let's hope he'll get the chance to exploit his talents further.

It's a shame this movie failed at the box-office, but then again so did The Shawshank Redemption. So let's all rent/buy this wonderful film, and boost that IMDb score.

I gave this one a 9/10.

The premise of this movie is nothing short of brilliant. A psycho slashes all the virgins in a town, so all the teens organise a f***fest to loose that virginity. You wonder why they never thought of that one in the 80s. If you expect porn, you'll be sorely disappointed, there's less skin here than in your average teen-slasher. If you expect gore, forget it. Most killings happen off-screen, and quick cutting prevents us from seeing anything remotely scary.

So we're left with a simple whodunnit, though most viewers will soon have figured out who the killer is, there's not exactly much choice. The question whydunnit is the most interesting one in this movie, and I must admit that the answer to that question is pretty original, for everyone who hasn't seen Scream 3.

The only thing this movie has going for it is the acting. Britanny Murphy, who seems to be making a career out of giving good performances in lousy movies, is once again pretty good in this one. Michael Biehn, a long way away from James Cameron country, is suitably creepy as her father. The killer's cool too.

I'll give this movie a 6 (though it really only deserves a 5). I still have some questions that will keep me out of my sleep, though.

How does the killer know who's a virgin?

Who exactly appoints the sherrif and the headmaster in this town?

And who the hell is that fat kid in Brittany's class? I KNOW he acted in some movie or Tv-series but I just can't remember it.

Feel free to mail me the answers, anytime.

I wonder if Meg Ryan never gets tired of being Meg Ryan. She's been acting in the same movie for 20 years now and, no matter how much I like her, it's getting a bit old. Usually Meg could save the worst movie with being her cute self, but the thing is: Meg isn't cute anymore. Not with that hair, and not with that character. Luckily there's Hugh Jackman who does a Colin Firth, and Breckin Meyer who gets the funniest moment of the movie. (`I can do Canadian too!').

This movie gets a 6, (= ok for once but not really one to rewatch over and over again