Hey folks, Harry here with Drexel and his funky funk review of WHAT LIES BENEATH with moderate praise.... "an above average thriller/horror." Folks, somebody is going to have to wake up Harrison Ford, I was hoping when he actually hooked up with some agents that he would suddenly have people that were handing him the right scripts, like Soderbergh's TRAFFIC and GEMINI MAN. But... noooooooOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo. I'll go, I'll see the film, and I will hope against hope that Harrison surprises me... but God it has been such a long time since that last happened. It's time for a radical shift from the comfortable roles to pushing himself and divorcing the trappings of a mega-star. Let's pray...
Well all you aint-it-coolers, Drexel here with a review of the test screening of Robert Zemickis' new movie "What Lies Beneath", starring Michelle Phieffer and Harrison Ford. This will be a spoiler free review, so read without fear my comrades.
I saw this movie without having a clue as to what it was. I had not seen the trailer. Now, everbody in America has seen the trailer and is drinking coke from a "What Lies Beneath" cup. So, there is no harm now telling you what you would already know.
Michelle hears some noises in the house, after a while see finds out that its a missing girl, the girl is trying to get revenge for her death. And there's a twist that everybody will get, in fact, after seeing the trailer, you probably already have.
Robert Zemickis has made some great, great movies in his career. Loved the Back to the Futures, loved Forrest Gump, loved Contact. This, was an above average thriller/horror.
First off, I would like to say that Michelle Phieffer is great in this movie, she carries her character strongly from start to finish. And unforunately Harrison Ford does not. Harrison's performance reminded of Harry's recent rantings about how he should be more daring with his choice of roles. This movie will only strenghten that opinion. When watching the film never did I believe that Harrison Ford was Michelle Phieffier's husband (which is the most important relationship in the film). All I could see was Harrison acting alongside Michelle, which is a big problem with the film.
What this movie did was to trade in character development for shocks, and that just bites.The best way to describe it is by referencing it to one of the opening scences in Ghostbusters. Its the scene where Bill Murray is conducting an experiment on two college students. One a babe, the other a nerd. Both are hooked up to an electric shock machine. Get a question wrong, get a shock. So, the nerd gets all of the shocks and by the third shock, he gets pissed off. That is exactly the way I felt during the movie. I was hooked up to the sound system and somebody had thier finger on the volume. Whenever Zemickis wanted you to jump, he turns up the volume.
I WANT TO BE SCARED BY SOMETHING SCARY. Somebody telling me a really good ghost story is great. But somebody running up behind me and screaming "BOO" just is annoying, and that is what this film does alot. Tension built not through concern for character, but in fear of the next loud noise.
Hopefully, this will be toned down for the final cut.
But look at me, I am tearing a movie apart that I had the pleasure of contributing to for it's betterment. The movie is not bad, it's good entertainment with some great scenes, that describing would really wreck the film for everybody.
Also on the plus side, the film is nicely shot. There are some really fancy camera movements. One, which actually starts looking down a normal hallway where some action is happening and then swings under neath the floorboards looking up at the hall ceiling.
So, I would recommend my friends to go and see it simply for these great scenes(all happen in the bathroom). Its a movie that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved to make. But Hitchcock has left us and we will have to get on without him.
But there is hope for it yet, there is still time to cut. Get rid alot of the pain the ass shocks and give us some character development. Let us care about them more, spend more time Harrison and Michelles relationship.
You have 2 and a half weeks mr. Zemickis.
Drexel,
signing off...
