Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A UWE BOLL FILM , 8 Aug 2007
Arriving in America from Brazil, paranormal investigator Edward Carnby, (Christian Slater) is targeted for a special trinket from an ancient Indian civilization. After Prof. Hudgens, (Matthew Walker) recovers a secret passage way to another dimension, people who used to belong to Edward's orphanage begin to disappear, and goes to Hudgens' assistant, Aline Cedrac, (Tara Reid) for help. As clues start to pile up about a mysterious creature from the Indian civilization that have crossed over and attacking both of them, they team up with Cmdr. Richard Burke, (Stephen Dorff) and his squadron to eliminate the creatures in the mines where the portal is open and a full-scale war eventually erupts between them.
The Good News: There is actually a surprisingly large amount to like in this. The fact that there's a large number of action sequences in here is nothing short of impressive. From a chase scene that segues into a martial arts fight in the opening segment gets it in the perfect mind-frame at the very start. There's plenty of other nice set-ups in here, from the shootout in the museum to the fight in the apartment and the impressive all-out war at the end, with guns firing and explosions going off in every direction and general pandemonium on screen helps to make this a real non-stop action film. The film also has a good amount of suspenseful moments that are quite wonderfully realized. The attack on the security guard in the museum is fantastic, with the near inability to see anything and the creepy setting created by the sculptures due to the light level makes this work extremely well. A trapped group of soldiers fighting off creatures inside a caved-in pit is a real work, as the fact that they constantly pop out at the most unexpected moments are a real shock to see. The opening moments to the final attack are really nerve-wracking as the lead-up to it are really tense. The gore in here is quite nice and handled quite decently, with plenty of bullet-rippled bodies flying about, a metal tail shoved through the mouth, an arm ripped right off, a head split in two, and a knife in the chest, among other notables. The high body count makes this certainly worthy. Despite all the complaints, this really didn't have that much of a confusing plot, and was actually quite follow-able. It's many different elements are kept together with a large dose of creativity, mixing in elements found of an ancient civilization, dimension-crossing creatures, and an orphanage disaster into a large interesting and really original story. This was all certainly a surprise to see in such a film.
The Bad News: I can't find a whole lot wrong with this one. It wasn't all that bad of a film, and just about everything that's been criticized against it didn't really bother me at all. There's nothing really that stands out that I can pin-point as being wrong with the film.
The Final Verdict: Yes, it's been wrongly maligned, and it's a far better film out there than what's been said about it. It's a fast, gory action-packed tale with a surprisingly coherent plot and a high cheese level. Ignore the reviews and see it on your own, and you might be surprised at how much of it is actually decent.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lazy ,derivative, amauterish, tiresome, risible, rubbish, 21 Mar 2006
There are irreducible signifiers that a movie is going to be bad. Based on a video game is one. Directed by Uwe “House Of The Dead” Boll is another. Staring Tara Reid is another. Starring Tara Reid as an archaeologist just about puts the top hat on it…..Then, just in case all this hasn’t put you off and to my eternal shame it didn’t put me off, and you actually bother to watch the wretched thing the opening titles are followed by one of those dreadful “Stars Wars” exposition things that scroll up the screen. Only for this film somebody has to narrate for the audience just in case they couldn’t read which, for the target audience of this dross might not be far wrong.
Is anyone reading this still interested in the plot? ….No more pertinently is anyone still reading this?…Well just in case they are I must point out it’s more confusing than a “ 3, 2, 1” clue. The film that is, not the review. Basically it’s far too complicated to go into in any great detail and frankly I can’t be arsed but it involves ancient civilisation’s, portals between the worlds of light and dark, artefacts that release non corporeal beasts, heinous illegal experiments by mad scientists, a secret agent played by a plainly embarrassed Christian Slater, his nemesis played by an inexplicably un-embarrassed Stephen Dorf and some other stuff that I’ve probably forgotten in all the confusion. Then there’s Tara Reid…..as an archaeologist. Have I mentioned that before?
This is a film that tries desperately to shoe horn in as many good ideas from as many superior films as possible in the hope that a good film will come out of it. Of course copying good films will not necessarily result in you making a good film .Some one should point that out to Uwe Boll. It’s confusing, convoluted with third rate effects and a tenth rate script. People actually say things like “Where the hells our backup?” and “It, quiet …too quiet” and “Tara Reid ……an archaeologist?”, but I may have imagined that last one.
The acting is lamentable and the love scene is so bowel freezingly embarrassing my artificial potted plant ran screaming into the kitchen and threw it’s self down the waste disposal which came as a shock as I wasn’t aware I had a waste disposal.
If Ed Wood was around making films today he couldn’t make anything worse than “Alone In The Dark”. There are films I loathe with every molecule of my being -”Pretty Woman”, “Bridget Jones” , anything starring Steven Seagal”- but this is , in all probability, the worst film I have ever seen . Inexcusable, derivative lazy dross. Please forward all copies of this movie to me and I, ll put that waste disposal to good use.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Good, 9 Jul 2008
Perhaps I'm crazy, but I and my girlfriend watched this movie and we both enjoyed the hell out of it. Aside form some naff dialogue I thought it was a brilliant monster-filled adventure.
Christian Slater is superb as Edward Carnby, a paranormal investigator whose seen it all, the CG monsters look incredible, both in design and implementation, Tara Reid is, well, attractive and the artifact/key-finding storyline will give you fond memories of the Saturday morning cartoons you watched as a child.
Add creatures transforming into mist, light-bullets which light a creature up from the inside and cause a frantic strobe-lit effect when fired in the dark in a music video-esque showoff (over the top) sequence, parasite-infected zombie people with superhuman strength and agility and an H.R. Giger-looking, H.P. Lovecraft-inspired underground monster realm and you have a recipe for a damned entertaining movie.
Worth a watch if you're not the overly critical type. Did you enjoy Bulletproof Monk? UltraViolet? DOA? Didn't care what the critics and internet folk said? Then give this one a shot.
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