Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I know who you are!", 19 Feb 2007
This is one movie that you definitely shouldn't watch alone at night! Dark and creepy, it manages to tingle the hair at the back of your neck and delivers several genuine untelegraphed shocks!
Simply put, it's a movie about a museum. On the eve of the launch of a new exhibition, a gruesome murder takes place and the forthcoming gala is thrown into uncertainty. As the body count rises, it quickly becomes clear that an ancient evil is stalking the corridors of the museum ....
The movie takes a while to get going, but once it does it doesn't let up for a second. There's a lot of creeping about in dark corridors and waving of flashlights - doesn't this museum have any lights?! - and the inevitable panic as the creature finally reveals itself to the gala guests. This leads to a typical movie cliche - "We must get out" vs "No, we have to stay here!" Guess which group comes off the worst!
Incidentally, the group who decide to escape are told to 'move quietly'. This must be the worst case of 'moving quietly' that I have ever seen!
The creature itself is only shown in shadowy glimpses until about a third of the way in and it's well worth the wait. Created by Stan Winston, the creature is unique as movie monsters go and stands up remarkably well when shown in full. But then, Stan Winston is a master in his field and none of his creations have ever disappointed.
Penelope Ann Miller looks suitably terrified when confronted by the creature in the archives room. This scene produces a pure squirm-in-your-seat moment as the creature sticks out a long, forked tongue to 'taste' her face. Urgh!
'The Relic' isn't a creature classic like, for example, 'The Thing', which boasts excellent special effects with outstanding character development. But if you don't mind switching your brain off for an hour or so, and letting yourself be taken along for the ride, then it's definitely worth a veiwing. But don't forget to fasten your seatbelt - things could get a little bumpy!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Monster of a movie., 25 Jan 2006
This is a very good monster movie.It has good acting in it from the main characters and good special fx for the beast.
The story is of a monster on the loose in a museum killing people all over the place,but where does the monster originate from and why is it here?.
A good horror but nothing new.I'd put this film alongside the likes of mimic and mimic 2 the first of which is the better.
This is a review of the region 2 dvd version.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
3.5--An unwelcome brain sucker that might not be worth your time, 12 Jun 2008
The Relic seems to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies about which I always seem to be sitting on the fence. It's a frustrating treat for the eyes of horror, but one hopes for a little bit more.
Penelope Anne Miller stars as Dr. Margo Green, an evolutionary biologist at the Chicago Natural History Museum (no such thing, I imagine; this was filmed at the Field Museum), and Tom Sizemore is here too as a cop investigating some deaths there and outside the museum, nasty deaths, too. I think Hyams does a great job setting up a doom-choked mood; acting as his own cinematographer, he gives the film a dark and dusty look which is appropriate to being set in a museum. I'd have preferred a little more light so that we could see a little more of the museum and what makes it such a wonderfully creepy setting for a horror film, but still, it works, and besides, seeing this on VHS, maybe I should be giving this movie the benefit of the doubt when things are, I trust, a little clearer on DVD. Unfortunately he's got this incredibly annoying habit of framing close-ups way too close. I don't know if the version on video is pan-n-scanned or simply unmated, so I don't know if it would have looked better, or worse, on the big screen. But these close-ups happen a lot and are a bit annoying.
Stan Winston's creature, the Kothoga, is just great. At the time of this film's release, he said frequently that this was the best creature he'd yet created. It's kind of hard to describe, like a cross between a lion and a beetle, but it's big, it's nasty, and it's exceptionally well realized with animatronics and CGI (unusually good CGI for a creature that's hairy; hairy animals are much more difficult to create with computers than scaly ones). This movie's almost worth a rental just for one incredible shot of the Kothoga chasing down one unlucky guy, grabbing him, and ripping off his head, all in one flawless shot.
Sad to say, the story surrounding this monster is ordinary, courtesy of four screenwriters. The central problem with the story is the character of Dr. Green, who has to be one of the most irritating big-screen heroines I've seen in my lifetime. The story itself, problem has no great shakes other, with the obligatory False Scare By Cat happening no more than ten minutes in, followed up later on by a False Scare By Cleaning Lady. There's a lot going for this movie, but it needed a lot more work in the creative department before being shot, not to mention Hyams needing a good, stern lecture about his use of close-ups. Beside that if you haven't seen this then I would recommend this to monster-movie enthusiasts, but most others won't get a lot out of this one.
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