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Post by wmcclain on May 18, 2020 11:25:33 GMT
Dead Calm (1989), directed by Phillip Noyce. On a quiet cruise after a personal tragedy, a married couple pick up a stranger frantic to leave his sinking ship. He's a psycho killer. Both husband and wife, now separated, are in survival situations. He on the foundering boat with a load of corpses, she with an oversexed nutjob. How to handle both ends and get back together? Remember: they always jump one last time. An efficient thriller at only 96m, but it doesn't seem rushed. The beautiful ocean shots give an illusion of more time, probably implied by the expanses of space. I've liked Sam Neill since his early years in My Brilliant Career and Reilly: Ace of Spies. His naval officer is a good character for a survival situation: he can fix things and navigate. Young Nicole Kidman is fine as a woman in a desperate situation. To buy time she submits to the stranger and pretends sexual enthusiasm. This is queasy-making because although her quick nudity is lovely, we feel guilty about the circumstances. There is odd psycho-drama with the psycho, when she toys with him over the engine key. But she is great when sailing the boat single-handed. Billy Zane is a reliable lunatic, with those little boy eyes and disarming smile. The final scene breaks the seriously tense tone with a bit of action film absurdity. The studio insisted. Questions: - Would you leave your wife alone with the stranger?
- Wouldn't you move your boat closer instead of rowing all that way?
- If you were trapped underwater in a flooded boat, how long could you breathe through a pipe before giving up?
- Wouldn't you have gone for the shotgun sooner?
- Am I a bad person? If I had the bad guy down and tied up, I would have pulled the trigger, dumped him over the side and sailed on.
Much lovely photography and impressive sailing scenes. Graeme Revell's first feature film score is quite nice. Available on Blu-ray
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on May 18, 2020 20:44:51 GMT
I liked it. It was just entertainment for me, and I enjoyed it. Some pretty taut moments.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on May 18, 2020 21:40:53 GMT
- Am I a bad person? If I had the bad guy down and tied up, I would have pulled the trigger, dumped him over the side and sailed on.
No it was the right thing to do and I wouldn't have hesitated, but of course then we wouldn't have had the "big finale", but this is Hollywood at its most daft. Yet for a film that is just a three hander out at sea, it's pretty thrilling stuff. Stay calm and you may yet not end up dead. Dead Calm is directed by Phillip Noyce and adapted to screenplay by Terry Hayes from the novel of the same name written by Charles Williams. It stars Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. Music is by Graeme Revell and cinematography by Dean Semler. After losing their young son in a car accident, John (Neill) and Rae Ingram (Kidman) head out alone on their yacht for an ocean vacation. Whilst taking in some R&R, the couple spy a ship drifting in the distance, then a man in a dinghy hurriedly rows towards them. He boards their yacht, frantic and panicked, he tells them the ship is sinking and that all on board are dead, killed by food poisoning. His name is Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane), and the Ingram's are about to wish they had never met him... The Saracen and The Orpheus. It's so refreshing to find a thriller that works without tricks or elaborate plotting, where the narrative is stripped down to the bare bones and played out purely by three characters. Dead Calm, whilst not exactly the most credible of thrillers from the 80s, contains genuine suspense, a pot boiling heart and production value of some distinction. Director Noyce deals in psychological studies, primarily that of a lunatic and that of a woman beset with grief having to use her mental fortitude to hopefully save herself and her husband. Noyce and his team get the maximum amount of edge of the seat thrills from a small isolated yacht in the middle of a vast ocean, with tight camera work and nifty editing, it's a film of quality that belies its pared back production. Even ace Aussie photographer Semler (previously Mad Max 2/Razorback, latterly Dances With Wolves/Waterworld) creates beauty out of such a sparse set up, where the blues and greens of the ocean warm the soul and the red sunsets please the eyes. They be glimpses of Mother Earth that give the Ingram's something tangible to fight for. With the plot requiring Neill to be in his own isolated hell, he turns in a more measured performance, perfect in fact, but it's Zane and Kidman who steal the show. This would prove to be the launching point of Kidman's career, and it hints at the top actress she would become. She gives Rae Ingram a real strength through adversity, with energy in abundance, intelligence and a simmering sexuality, she's a lady character earning respect by film lovers because of Kidman's performance. Zane is suitably edgy, very much giving Hughie a man-child persona, he too exudes a dangerous sexuality, and when it inevitably kicks off, he is scary into the bargain. A couple of daft character decisions within the story, and a WTF finale, stop it from being near the top of the thriller movie pantheon. But it's not far off from sitting with the best and it remains fresh and entertaining as the decades roll by. 8/10
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Post by Captain Spencer on May 19, 2020 0:22:07 GMT
Flawed, but a tense and captivating thriller. Billy Zane did an amazing job as the charming psycho. But I could have done without that cliched slasher-style ending.
Oh, and Nicole was very sexy, with or without clothes.
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Post by moviemouth on May 19, 2020 0:35:09 GMT
I like it quite a bit, flaws and all. The movie isn't high art and it isn't pretending to be. It is a well made B-movie.
Very tense, claustrophobic, creepy, memorable performances, good cinematography, consistently entertaining, excellent score, and the atmosphere is fantastic. I even like the OTT cliche finale.
7.5/10
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