iansyard

Certainly didn't need a 2nd remake of the classic Stephen King vampire novel yet today's Hollywood insists we will receive one for the GenZ generation nevertheless. After watching it last night, the best I can say about it is I found it surprisingly inoffensive which is quite shocking in this era of filmmaking, and the minor performances of Bill Camp, William Sadler and a lesser extent Alfre Woodard to be the best on show with what they were given to work on. Now what I found to be bad was pretty bad from the director and person responsible for the awful screenplay in Gary Dauberman. The filmmaker that does horror films for GenZ viewers was always going to come up short changed and this film shows it more than anything he's made in the past. The biggest crime is this film starts rolling credits under the 1 hour 50 min mark which means he's either packed everything you've ever seen or read from the 1975 classic novel or/and the 1979 mini series masterpiece with David Soul and James Mason, or he chose to eject and reject so much or the character building, the relationships that binded the small town together and so much of the set pieces and events that you can recall that isn't present in this new film. Because of that running time, the 2nd biggest thing to hit you is just how rushed the whole finished project feels giving no natural slower semblance of the vampiric dread descending over the whole town. It's as if Dauberman was recreating some kind of greatest hits montage from things he can remember from decades earlier and sown them together. The majority of the cast picked were fairly poor and uninspired in their delivery onscreen. The two male actors depicted to portray Ben Mears and young Mark Petrie were dreadful for different reasons, both showed none of the passion, angst, tension, fright and horror than the recently departed David Soul and Lance Kerwin mustered up more than 45 years ago in those same roles. There was an alarming lack of horror imagery that the 1979 original had in spades that terrified every kid watching it in the late 1970s and early 1980s (is when I first watched it along with every high schoolkid of my generation of the early 1980s). From the Glick kid in the coffin, the Glick kid floating and scratching outside the bedroom window, the delivery guys dropping off the large box in the basement, Mark and Susan going into the Marsten House alone, Ben and Mark's final fight with Barlow in the bowels of the Marsten basement, Barlow appearing in the police cells to get Ned Tebbets, and arguably the most talked about and legendary scene of Barlow crashing through the window of the Petrie kitchen and slowly rising and shifting before that horrific reveal of the Master himself. None of this is in the 2024 remake or of very little impact because the film needs to speed to the next scene. Warner Bros should have stuck to their guns and vaulted this film for good.

Seeing HM Queen Elizabeth portrayed so many times in the past on both sides of the Atlantic for decades is nothing new, for good and bad. But this episode and the notion that young Princess Elizabeth on VE night found herself lured to the club basement by American G. Is to partake in some Jazz and Jitterbugging being flung round by a young black soldier whom she had to take a double look at as they past each other previously is open to serious suggestion. I'm sorry if any of you are in favour of revisionism in these modern times, but all it does is pass itself off as fake and disrespectful. The fact of the matter is, The Ritz in 1945 was not overly populated by black G. I soldiers out for a good time in The Ritz. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's the past and England nearly 80 years ago isn't the England of 2023. The Crown series in my opinion has less than 5 poor episodes in it's 7 years, this one is the worst despite the good main branching story about Princess Margaret.

Right off the bat I'll say it's great seeing Michael Fassbender back in a noticeable lead role and teamed up with one of the modern great directors of film noir David Fincher. Having read a lot of earlier reviews from people on here and many of them low scored with the same sort of complaints of it being dull, boring and slow, I thought I'd better schedule a time to sit down and watch this new film. Ok having just seen it and immediately penning this review, I got to say it's definitely more positive than negative. Giving the film an 7/10 is very fair I think because there are no doubt quite a few poor points to level at the film. The biggest one for me is the pacing or at least the very first 20 minutes which was nearly impossible to get through as it slowly goes about setting up the professional ins and outs of a hitman. Why the director actually wanted the viewer to sit through watching the hitman eat a McDonalds burger or taking in a spot of yoga was alarming as you've invested no time with the character at all to be interested in his hobbies. But wait. Get past the 20 minutes mark and certainly with the plot more fleshed out and you will be greeted with a very dark and dangerous character study of a impassionate, sullen, detached killer that goes about his business with calculating efficiency. If you are expecting a rip roaring action thriller to match the levels of a Jason Bourne film, then you will be sorely disappointed with The Killer, that's not to say this film is without action mind you. There a brutal near 5min hand to hand fight with our Killer and a person of interest, there's also moments of cold style violence from our Killer as he extracts the required information needed. This type of film is bread and butter stuff for David Fincher having nearly 30 years of experience playing in this sandbox. Fassbender while absolutely capable of playing this type of role is quite incredible as the near silent barely talking Killer, his dialogue lines must be on the same level as Arnie's T-1000 from The Terminator (1984) in hardly utterly a sentence, and I use that comparison deliberately as here you have two characters with one goal to achieve and nothing will stop them and a rising body count in their wake. As I wrote in my heading..."you didn't get it", I stand by that. This is true filmmaking that forgoes the decade long trudge of superhero films and mindless flashy effects from talentless actors and hired directors that litter the cinemas today like stale popcorn. You want a deep brooding character study of what is perhaps one of the greatest screen incarnations of a professional hitman brought to the screen I've ever seen, then watch this film from a great director and actor in top form. Bear in mind it's certainly not a film for everyone hence many of the low end score on it's page. It only doesn't get an 8/10 from me because of that dead slow first 20 minutes that hurts the film and possibly sours the film for many viewers before it gets the chance to soar.