Review of Cold Creek Manor (2003) by Ryan H — 04 Mar 2004

I forgot to post stuff up for yesterday...

[b]Cold Creek Manor (Figgis, 2003) - *[/b].

What starts out as a decent suspense thriller slowly (and I mean, real slowly) makes its descent into absurdity. Do not watch if you are afraid of snakes. Watching this with the Megster, I learned the hard way. There is close to a 5 minute sequence where the slithering things are the object of the screen's affection. It is a bad movie, but it shouldn't hurt the career of Dennis Quaid. Stephen Dorff, on the other hand, hasn't made a good film since [i]Cecil B. Demented[/i]. Since, he has been in [i]Deuces Wild[/i] and [i]Fear Dot Com[/i]. It's been a long time since Deacon Frost ([i]Blade,[/i] for all you people out of the "know").

[b]Stagecoach (Ford, 1939) - ***[/b].

I hate westerns. But since this is the one that made John Wayne a star, I guess it has some merit. All of the westerns I have seen have had so-so stories about Indians and the issues of land ownership. They get pretty boring. This is no different, except for the fact that it was one of the first.

[b]Grand Illusion (Renoir, 1937) - ****[/b].

Considered by some to be the best film ever made by the best filmmaker, this story of WWI has even more going on within its release than just within its actual 114 minutes. Longer review to be posted soon...