Reviews

I am very fond of ghost stories and other kinds of Gothic stories, and I must confess that I did like enormously this excellent B Movie. It is not perfect. Natali's direction is sometimes rather dull and too "classical", but he does the job and can be proud of his film. First because the scenario is really well thought out and injects something new in a well trodden genre. Second, because Abigail Breslin has been perfectly cast. This teenage girl carries the whole movie on her shoulders and she is great all along. I was impressed by the talent of this very young actress, which never overdoes her scenes and is able to express very complex emotions and feelings like a regular sixteen girl would. She truly deserves to become a star. But, to come back to the movie itself, if you like ghosts and plots that do not treat you like you were some brainless teen, you must see Haunter. One of the best classic horror film of these last few years, quite evocative of The Others but with something "more".

What is "THAT"? Just saw this last episode and it is a plain crying shame. Plot holes galore, bad acting, heavy melodrama, silly dialogs, unbelievable situations, dumb characters. All in all, you have the strange impression that the scenario has been written by the 9 year old son of the producer, rather than by true professionals. And these flashback scenes in the hospital nursery! Come ooon!!! The Marshall finds Saxon tied to a chair and decides to free him without even trying to think??? Quinn looking at a simple piece of paper and saying like he was a DNA specialist: "Oh well, look at that, Saxon is the son of the dead doctor"??? Saxon cuts the tongue of his reluctant hostage in a car, in front of a quite active hospital, and doesn't have a SINGLE little drop of blood on his shirt??? The "ready-to-use" syringe in the bus (every lady should have one in her bag)??? And these are just a few examples of what the incredible geniuses writers have managed to cram in less than one little hour of terribly bad television. Are we supposed to believe this or is it just an insult to the audience? I know that we are supposed to suspend our disbelief when we watch television. But is it really necessary to block any coherent thought and transform ourselves in babbling idiots? In its eight years of existence, the Dexter series has been some kind of likable society study told by an attractive psychopath. A pure entertainment full of colorful characters, suspense, humor and - above all - intelligence. How sad that all the good moments that we have spent with Dexter Morgan end in such a silly, so silly way. From now on, we will be able to refer to Dexter's last episode when we'll want to point at the utter silliness of a scenario. Prometheus, in all its dumb glory, has been dethroned! The new king of is called Dexter Morgan and he has a beard. A BEARD??? Come ooon!!!

Apparently, some viewers can't accept the fact that this film ends on a terrifying shot, with very few hope for the main characters to survive. And that's all they need to declare that this excellent B movie is just plain "dumb". I can't agree with them. Horror is not about things well explained and understandable. Horror is about questions, interrogations, fears. It's about Mystery! And I think The New Daughter is really underrated from this point of view. It is a very enjoyable story, well played and directed, with excellent cinematography, even if it doesn't have the obligatory "happy ending" so many can't live without. That is certainly not the most original story and the most perfect of its category. But it is worth watching. Really. One last thing: some viewers (the same I spoke about at the beginning) complain because Costner leaves his son alone in a very dangerous situation to try and save his daughter. Yes, he makes a mistake doing that. A very bad one. I don't know what I would have done in such a situation. But I am definitely not sure that I wouldn't have made the very same mistake. Unbelievable? Maybe. But just if you are an absolutely perfect human being. A rare breed indeed.

PS: one last thing, living in Europe, I have seen myself some Celtic burial mounds. And I have seen what was buried under them. So I tend to think the one depicted in The New Daughter is certainly not an "indian one". It may well be much much older than that. Not a too bad starting point for an horror story. Definitely.

This series could have been - should have been - the best police drama ever produced by French TV. Conceived (and directed at the start) by the deeply talented Olivier Marchal, ex cop and great filmmaker, Braquo was supposed to get to a new level, as far as French series are concerned. It was intended to be a hit. It's just a terrible miss. Photography is quiet good, editing is competent and music is interesting. The rest is horrible. Characters are inconsistent, they only manage to look sad all the time and to say dirty words every other sentence. They are so cartoonish, pretentious and ugly, that - after one or two episodes - you can't care a damn about what's happening to them. You eventually wish they could die so others - better ones! - could maybe replace them. Hope is all you have. Actors are ridiculous. They overplay everything, rolling eyes and trying their best to look concerned by the story. They all play the same way! Even the once excellent Jean-Hugues Anglade. Unshaved, gross, depressing. Bad. Bad. Bad. Too bad. The scenarios are plain silliness. Imagine: cops trying to take out a very dangerous cop-killer from the office of an attorney because he knows that they have tried to rob a bank to pay gangsters from central Europa who had kidnapped one of the characters... Sounds confusing? It is. Sounds unbelievable? It definitely is. Above all, this badly written, badly played, series is just boring. For the first 6 episodes, I have tried very hard to "like" Braquo, because I am a fan of Olivier Marchal's work. But, at the end of this first season, I had to get real: I had lost my time. Frenchies have a long way to go to emulate the best US series. A very very long way.

Al Pacino has been a great actor. Maybe the best of his generation, but when was it? Watching 88 Minutes I kept wondering why he was unable to close his mouth. Well, he seems to have problems to use his jaw muscles to just "close his mouth". And when he tries to run or jump stairs, what we see is just an old man limping badly. Worst of all, he is no more able to act with any credibility. He tries to look young and full of life, but really looks like an rippled alcoholic. But the worst is, of course, the movie itself. Inane plot ("You'll die in 88 minutes but I will try to kill you before..."), bad cinematography (have you noticed how many phone calls there is in this movie? 30? 40?), filming clichés (everytime there is a car trip, the car is filmed from above. How original!). And Pacino is surrounded by very pretty (and young) girls who are in love with him. How pathetic. If you really like the "real" Al Pacino, don't even think to watch this film. You might be pushed to think that extraterrestrials have replaced him with a bad copy.

I love Scorcese, but, eh, this is the guy who also shot Gangs of New York of ridiculous fame. And this... piece of work is worst. Don't get me wrong, I liked a lot the first half hour of the movie. Even Nicholson is "good" and doesn't overplay his part in the beginning. Quite a miracle in itself for this decade! But then... where goes the plot? By the ending you get some unlikely situations that should have been "preserved" for the Da Vinci Code Crap: "So, he is the traitor? Well, I'm not going to tell anyone, I will send him a CD with a recording I don't have yet and I will bring him on the top of a building to... huh... to use the lift with to get to floor level and I... huh... will call my old academy friend... huh... to... huh... ask him to come so the 3 of us can use the lift! Yeah! Good idea! And we will shoot everybody, and I won't tell the police, and I won't tell the only officer who knows who I really am. Genius!" NONSENSE! The last 45 minutes are full of pretentious unbelievable "so called smart ideas". Try the original "Infernal Affairs". Even if it's not much glamorous, it definitely has "something". PS: and, BTW, don't you Damon is bland in this film?