Ravenous

Rating:
Summary: LOST BOYS FOR REAL or Stouthearted Men .......? maybe.....
Review: Whilst tramping through the underbrush of the mundane DVD's and videos out today - DO discover this hidden little gem starring one of the most refreshing talents from the land of OZ - Mr. Guy Pearce! It's a delicious little dank, dark comedy set circa somewhere in the mid 19th century about soldier boys and their grim little pre-Freudian handups, including a taste for exotic cuisine - along the lines of 'serving man' - Oh, one bite and they gotcha!

Rumbling belly laughs abound - although the trail does drag a bit here and there - possibly the editing and a somewhat hasty conclusion - something about Native American lore - very real and very dangerous - the Wendigo, you know - hence the Lost Boys and all of that!

Beautifully photographed and surrounded by a sterling cast - Jeffrey Jones - [very funny indeed], Jeremy Davies [must see more of this talent], Robert Carlyle - showing more than the full monty here, and of course Guy Pearce - one of the best faces and talents on today's screen!

For a complete course? Double-bills nicely with "Frightmare".

Rating:
Summary: Pointless Tripe
Review: I saw this film recently with my friends, and I didn't really expect much. That was exactly what I got. My friends were laughing, but I didn't really see what was so funny. I thought that the funniest thing about this movie was that David Arquette was cast in it. He is essentially playing himself; a moron. It tried to hard to be funny, which was my biggest problem with it. Plus, what the hell is going on. I was lost the majority of the time, not knowing what Guy Pearce's character was doing.

They quote Ben Franklin several times throughout the movie, which is nothing but random. What is the point of this movie?

The most annoying part of this movie without a doubt is the music. Its headache inducing garbage, which my roommate loves and just downloaded. For f$&@sake. Thank God, we only have a few weeks left of school.

We watched it 3 times in 2 days, much to my chagrin. I am going to stop writing now because I can't stand it anymore. This movie, instead of being thought provoking, just serves the audience a huge ... burger.

Rating:
Summary: You are what you eat, and the soup's on!
Review: More a Weird Wild West vampire tale than anything else, Ravenous entertains in fits and starts---but what atmospheric and blackly funny fits and starts! Ravenous is a decidedly off-beat and undeservedly underrated little horror tale with nice big chunks of frontier adventure, cabin-fever craziness, cannibalism and ghoulishness, Indian devil lore, and shades of the Donner Party, all served in hearty helpings with fine cinematography, glorious sets, sumptuous costumes, and actors who look like they just step out of a 19th century daguerrotype.

Director Antonia Bird distinguished herself with the deft and entertaining but uneven and preachy Priest, which was an effective cinematic diatribe against Catholic archaism. In Ravenous, Bird is not out to preach to anyone, which is what makes the film so much good fun: it is a finely drawn exercise in black humor, unnerving and harrowing (and often eerie) yet also impish and nastily funny. "Isn't this civilized?," asks Jeffrey Jones's revivified Colonel while chowing down on a stew made from the fort's drunken Major, and the answer is, hysterically, yes---civilizingly good cinema about men on the edge getting pushed all the way over it.

Hero Guy Pearce (Memento), whose sturdy cheekbones and Pimpernel-esque diction stole the show in the mediocre Count of Montecristo, plays a strangely understated (and all the more effective) role as Captain John Boyd, an American officer decorated for his bravery in the Mexican-American war. But Boyd is not a hero, but a coward who can barely stand the sight of blood (he gets over it), and whose heroism was largely accidental. His commanding officers realize this, and as punishment dispatch him to the lonely outpost Fort Spencer, which sits on the verge of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The fun begins when a stranger (played smashingly and harrowingly by Robert Carlyle) stumbles into camp, raving about a tale of Donner-esque cannibalism. An expedition party is assembled to find any survivors, and from there the film lurches nastily into the land of horror.

The first half of the film is a blend of paranoid frontier adventure and outright horror, with Carlyle's stranger one of the more terrifying and mysterious fiends in cinematic history. The second half of the movie is considerably less frightening (and thus slightly disappointing, given the first 60 minutes of lead-in and the snippet of Wendigo legend), and Ravenous becomes more of a variation on the standard vampire tale. To say more about the mechanics of this shift would be to spoil the fun.

Ravenous works on so many levels: the rough and forbidding scenery (with Czech mountains doubling for the Sierras) and the capricious score work as characters in their own right. The cinematography is outstanding, and Bird makes good use of the unyielding landscape without and the shadowy and claustrophic fort interiors (thrown into darkness by the natural light) within.

Finally, the acting is superb, from Jones's bookish Colonel to David Arquette's short but tasty role as a cook (what else?) who inhales a little too much from a peace pipe. Rich in atmosphere from the chaotic period of Manifest Destiny, this film is a fine, hearty stew of a horror movie. Bon appetit!

Rating:
Summary: Anyone hungry?
Review: Who would have thought that a period piece about cannibalism with no love story would be so enjoyable? The cross between a cannibalism and vampirism is delicious(pun totally intended). Guy Pearce is great in this movie. He has very few lines, you always know what he is feeling when you look in his eyes. Very few actors can portray that depth of emotion so naturally. I also love Robert Carlyle as the antagonist. He creates a sexual tension between Guy Pearce and himself that adds a certain mystique to the film. However this film is not for those with a weak stomach. The gore is at an all-time high(this film was close to receiving an X-rating). However, if horror films are your passion then rush out and rent this movie. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Mmmm-good! What a tasty thriller!
Review: Ravenous is not at all what the theatrical and video trailers make it out to be. It is simply one of the strangest and most bizarre movies released by a major studio this year. Part horror, part sci-fi, part allegory, and part thriller, it is best described as a visual interpretation of an eerie story you would hear sitting by a campfire in the middle of the woods. It is those visuals which make it unsuitable to viewers with weak stomachs, because the violence is very graphic indeed.

The date is about 1850. Captain John Boyd [Guy Pearce] has been deeply traumatized by a particularly bloody battle during the Mexican-American War. His commanding officer, appalled by Boyd's apparent lack of courage, assigns him to a small and unimportant fort in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He finds that the small group of soldiers there are outcasts. One bitterly cold night, a nearly dead stranger is found in the snow. They revive him and ask him how he came to be lost in the wilderness. His name is Colquhoun, and, as played by the brilliant Scottish actor Robert Carlisle, he is one of the weirdest creatures the movie's have invented lately. He says that he was traveling west with a small group of pioneers. The journey took longer than expected, and they became trapped by the mountains' harsh winter weather. Although they found refuge in a cave, their supplies were inadequate for such a long delay. Finally, they killed the horses and ate them. Then one member of the group died. Afterwards, Colquhoun claims he went out foraging. When he returned, he found the group cooking the deceased. After hearing this grisly story, the fort's commander decides that a search party must go out to look for survivors.

Tales of people resorting to cannibalism in such desperate situations are not new, but Colquhoun's story is only the start of this chilling movie. Things get much worse as the story takes its surprising twists and turns. No one is safe. I am rarely frightened by a movie, but this one gave me a definite case of the creeps.

Much of the success of Ravenous is due to Robert Carlisle. Without him, it might have been nothing more than mere sensationalism. Carlisle often plays appealing, lovable characters. Here he gives us a portrait of a psychotic and creates a character that you will not soon forget. His Colquhoun is somewhat like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs, although each actor's interpretation was uniquely his own.

The photography captures the vastness and majesty of the American West. The set built for the fort seems very authentic. The music adds to the mystic tone of the movie. First rate character actors fill out the cast.

While Ravenous is one of the best thrillers of the year, it is not, shall we say, to everyone's taste.

Rating:
Summary: BAd all the way...
Review: Well, if you need an actor for ultra-violent movies, Guy Pearce is the guy... L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, MEMENTO and this one here, the worst of them all.. THis movie is so bad, I almost did not reach its ending... But I managed to do so, just to testify how low Hollywood can sometimes go...

Rating:
Summary: Cannibalism at it's Finest
Review: ...
There are two general mindframes on this movie. One is that it is a dark and stylish mix of horror and the blackest of humor (my personal opinion), and the second is that it is only a disguised vampire movie, with a bad plot, a preachy director, and poor performances. There are a couple ways to tell if you are going to like it. One, if you like Robert Carlyle of Guy Pearce (and I'm a huge Guy Pearce fan) then this movie is for you. Both of them deliver powerful performances, and anyone that says they aren't right for the movie is just plain wrong. Pearce has started to make a career out of being a man who won't allow himself to be a victim (LA Confidential, Memento) and in this movie he makes you understand that even when everything [is bad], you still have to stick to what you believe in. Robert Carlyle is absolutely delightful as the bad guy in the movie, playing the role of the smart maniac that most actors can't seem to nail down without overacting. But this movie has talent through and through, with Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, even David Arquette offering all their best performances to this one movie. There must be something very freeing working with director Antonia Bird.
The acting does indeed make the movie. There is quite a bit of gore in this (not by my standards, but that's alright) and the idea of cannabalism is played around with quite a bit. There's also an underlying vein of humor that many of the professional critics either miss completely or catch only the obvious parts. The movie is very black and very stylish. Another great thing about it is the music. John Williams on his best day could not have written a score that would fit as well with this movie as Michael Nyman did. The music plays to the very heart of the movie... serious, yet off kilter...
The DVD is even better than the movie, because you get to hear commentary by the director, the screenwriter, and Robert Carlyle and Jeffrey Jones. There is nothing quite as good as hearing commentary on a movie you love by the people that made it. You learn to appreciate it all that more.
So try this movie out. Rent it first, see if you like it. And if you do, odds are you will end up buying it... I figure why not. Give it a whirl, at the very least, you'll come away with an impression. And in today's business of bland movies that you don't really care what happens, just receiving ANY sort of an impression is enough to warrant it attention.

Rating:
Summary: He Licked Me?
Review: What do you expect from a movie whose best line is "He licked me!"? Going in you have to know it's bad. But this bad? Every time it started getting good the script had really bad lines. A death scene where the bad guy's last words are "That was really....clever" to the hero.

If you're expecting good horror. Go elsewhere. If you're expecting good action. Go elsewhere. Pretty much no matter what go elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: EAT SOMETHING ELSE
Review: I can't say anything good about this "movie".
The idea is bad, the movie is bad, the actors are regular, and the story is bad.
Ravenous is one of that films you could use to start a nice fire.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo to a little gem!
Review: Despite hating gory/violent movies (and boy did this movie push the limits), I was willing to see it - anything with Guy Pearce, a wonderful and understated actor who excels quirky and introspective roles. Dismiss the hype about the gore and what's still remaining is a great storyline with wonderful characters. This is a movie full of twists and turns. Was it comedy? I know I didn't laughed but I still had to say "Bravo", and errr, sleep with the nightlights on that night.