Rating the Films: Danny Boyle
Submitted by ash_campbell on Tue, 12/16/2003 - 13:19
Tags:
- ***1/2
- Shallow Grave (1994)
- Trainspotting (1996)
- ***
- A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
- Sunshine (2007)
- *1/2
- 28 Days Later… (2002)
Author Comments:
Boyle worked his way up through British TV before becoming one of Britain’s best new directors. His early works were all with writer-collaborator John Hodge, but he’s struck out on his own the least few years. Here’s how his films rate.
I've rated the films from a zero (horrible!) to four (wonderful!) star scale, with the links going to my reviews. As usual, I've only included films I've seen.
Can I ask why only two stars for 28 Days Later? I thought it was the best film of the summer, and a welcome respite from the dearth of crap horror films that have been hurled towards us lately.
Oh, it tries hard to be a great movie (it should have been). It kills itself every time it builds up suspense with a stupid move. Example: In the scene where Frank, the father (Brendan Gleeson) toasts it, you get a great sequence and then ruin it with the little girl saying "Daddy?" after he's been shot about 10 times. It ruins the entire scene. And just about every sequence works like that. I don't even want to get into the last scenes, which seem like they're written by a ten-year old with ADHD.
I know I'm sounding harsh, but this was so close to being a top-notch movie and it blew it. Much like how I felt about Minority Report.
Your opinion's fair enough. For me personally, I enjoyed the fact that it deviated from the usual idiotic cliches of horror films, like the old "hey, there's a killer on the loose, let's go skinny-dipping," cliche. It was gritty and rough-edged enough for me to put it on my all-time horror film Top 20.