Where were we?
Well, I had all sorts of plans for last week, scuppered by a cold that left me without the energy for blogging (all that typing, it’s hard). I caught an episode of Commander in Chief on one of my days off - oh dear, oh dear. It’s not exactly The West Wing, is it? Or, more precisely, it absolutely isn’t. Everything that’s great about the latter - rounded, interesting characters, top notch dialogue, excellent direction, thoughtful stories - was notable by it’s absence. Commander in Chief - now axed, I believe - seemed more like a soap in which the lead happened to be a female president than a serious drama.
On Saturday, as my cold was finally waving goodbye, I went to the cinema to see Severance. Its writer, James Moran, has a blog, which I mention only to add that I don’t usually like to criticise other bloggers.
Severance pitches itself as a comedy horror film, but is neither funnier enough to class as a comedy, scary enough to be horror, nor surprising enough to be a decent thriller. There’s plenty of violence, most of which seems to be about grossing out the audience - not gratuitious exactly, but it lends little to the story, such that it is. This involves a group of (fairly unlikeable) characters becoming stranded in a forest in Eastern Europe and getting butchered - not exactly the most original concept in the canon of modern horror. The cast - which include Tim McInnerny off of Blackadder and Toby Stephens - are little more than OK, with the overpromoted Danny Dyer being a particularly noticeable detraction.
There are one or two good moments (an escort girl with a machine gun; a small twist just when you think the leads have won the day), but nothing that was worth the admission price and the expensive popcorn (and having to put up with a handful of idiots in the audience). The use of the pre-titles sequence was a little innovative, but really this was the most disappointing film I’ve seen at the cinema for some time (although there’s always The Wicker Man to look forward to).
I like to offer you a different view, so here’s an alternative take from David Bishop.
Update: Here’s another review, from Alan.
You managed ‘an episode of Commander in Chief’. I managed no more than five minutes!
Comment by Neil — September 5, 2006 @ 5:45 pm
[...] I was planning to watch the second episode of the annoyingly-titled The Amazing Mrs Pritchard this evening to see what all the fuss was about, but now I see that More 4 is starting to show flaccid American drama Commander in Chief tonight at exactly the same time. Having caught an episode before (in the way one catches a cold, which coincidentally I had at the time) I’m not expecting great things, but I’m tempted to take a look at the first episode to see if it started any better. (Oh - they appear to be making a TV movie.) [...]
Pingback by No geek is an island » A suitable job for a woman — October 10, 2006 @ 6:52 pm