Post by RottwielerPro on Mar 20, 2005 18:24:08 GMT -5
For my theatre and film class I'm supposed to review 7 films and write about them. Well Cursed was so bad and I just had to write about it. I was so fired up, so here's my review- <b>**THIS MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS!!**</b>
Cursed
Directed by Wes Craven Written By Kevin Williamson
Cursed was destined to bomb when it hit theaters this past February. This werewolf flick started its pre-production in 2002 and was released three years later. Director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson had worked on the Scream films together which in my eyes is still a fantastic slasher trilogy. By Scream 3 it went downhill with the changing of the writer. Already haven established a great dynamic together Cursed was sure to be a hit. All so was true until bits and pieces started reaching the studio. The Dimension Studio began to get nit-picky about actors that had been cast, the writing, and the way scenes were shot. They made Williamson re-write most of the screenplay and made Craven re-cast some actors and re-shoot most of what had already been shot. These two were no more than thrilled about this. What had made this all worse was when the studio decided for the final picture to be released as a PG-13 rating instead of the hardcore R it had originally been. There hasn’t been a well done werewolf movie since Ginger Snaps. This was it’s time to come out into America and spread fear into theaters. They spent $80 million dollars on this picture and with the way Cursed turned out they will never see a profit.
When I finally did end up watching this movie after all the interviews I read, and you can bet that I didn’t go see it at a theater. I did what every one with a little bit of technology would do, I downloaded it. I must say, I am glad I did. Had this of been a really good movie, I would have went to the theaters the next day to see it on the big screen.
This movie had blatant rip offs of other movies such as: The Howling, Ginger Snaps, An American Werewolf in London, and Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf, no wonder why this film was rated PG-13. They did not come up with any new and original ideas so then they stole from some of the most classic werewolf pictures of all time, excluding Teen Wolf.
Some of the scenes were placed so randomly and half of which made no sense. There was no character development in the case that I could care less who was killed and who wasn’t. Since the movie had to be re-written there was very little story concepts developed upon.
The miniscule plot is this, siblings Christina Ricci’s character and Jesse Eisenberg’s character are driving through the Hollywood hills and they crash into a large hairy animal. The car crash scene is a reminiscence of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and is ripped off so poorly. They then get bitten by this creature and are then infected with “curse.” In movies you always have the character who knows what is actually going on and why all this is happening; in this case this is the brother, Eisenberg. No one ever believes him, and pushes him off to being just another delusional teen. Eisenberg’s character has a bully in school that will not leave him alone; can we say another type cast? Eisenberg has a chance to challenge his bully in a wrestling match which takes on Teen Wolf attributes. Eisenberg’s new found werewolf strength gives him the power to win the match. The bully is a male who has a girlfriend which Eisenberg is of course in love with. So why not throw in another random scene that makes no sense. Well they did it. The bully becomes attracted to Eisenberg’s character. The scene had no reason to be there and was thrown in for what? Shock value. It was a ridiculous concept that should have been tossed out along with the other 90% of the movie. The cast has some big names in it such as Shannon Elizabeth, Mya, Craig Kilborn, and Scott Baio; they are only in bits and pieces of the movie. They are credited at the beginning of the movie. Scott Baio was actually only in it for two minutes. Why do that? It is misleading and a big let down. The rest of the cast is then set up as a movie about who done it. The film almost forgets that it is a movie about werewolves. These werewolves act more human than some of the humans I see in the halls of Wayne College.
The werewolf itself looked timid by comparison. It looked like a stuffed animal I had gotten as a child. The coloring was all wrong, it stood up-right for most of the time I seen it, and it was pathetic looking. But then again, they have to keep this a PG-13 movie.
Unfortunately one of the greatest men in the special effects department, Rick Baker was asked to re-do the werewolf time and time again. They kept Baker’s werewolf head which was very intense looking, and then resorted to others and CGI to make up what was one of the worst werewolves I’ve seen to date. The transformations between human and werewolf were done with CGI. I personally hate CGI. I much rather see some animatronics rather than some half-assed CGI work that never creates a believable illusion. There was no gore, you barely see any real killing taking place it all just fades to black or takes you somewhere else in the movie. When real killing actually takes place it’s so anticlimactic because they work up the scene to be this intense scenario that when something actually does happen you’re looking at your watch hoping it’s nearing the end.
This movie sucked. It was cursed from the moment the Dimension had its hands on it. Who’s to know how it might have turned out if the studio had just let Wes Craven directed it the way he had envisioned it, let Williamson write it the way he wanted to, and let Baker make an unforgettable werewolf. This movie might have actually made a ground breaking werewolf flick that would’ve gathered a cult following. We’ll never actually know unless maybe when the director’s cut DVD comes out; only if Dimension doesn’t step in on that one too.
Cursed
Directed by Wes Craven Written By Kevin Williamson
Cursed was destined to bomb when it hit theaters this past February. This werewolf flick started its pre-production in 2002 and was released three years later. Director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson had worked on the Scream films together which in my eyes is still a fantastic slasher trilogy. By Scream 3 it went downhill with the changing of the writer. Already haven established a great dynamic together Cursed was sure to be a hit. All so was true until bits and pieces started reaching the studio. The Dimension Studio began to get nit-picky about actors that had been cast, the writing, and the way scenes were shot. They made Williamson re-write most of the screenplay and made Craven re-cast some actors and re-shoot most of what had already been shot. These two were no more than thrilled about this. What had made this all worse was when the studio decided for the final picture to be released as a PG-13 rating instead of the hardcore R it had originally been. There hasn’t been a well done werewolf movie since Ginger Snaps. This was it’s time to come out into America and spread fear into theaters. They spent $80 million dollars on this picture and with the way Cursed turned out they will never see a profit.
When I finally did end up watching this movie after all the interviews I read, and you can bet that I didn’t go see it at a theater. I did what every one with a little bit of technology would do, I downloaded it. I must say, I am glad I did. Had this of been a really good movie, I would have went to the theaters the next day to see it on the big screen.
This movie had blatant rip offs of other movies such as: The Howling, Ginger Snaps, An American Werewolf in London, and Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf, no wonder why this film was rated PG-13. They did not come up with any new and original ideas so then they stole from some of the most classic werewolf pictures of all time, excluding Teen Wolf.
Some of the scenes were placed so randomly and half of which made no sense. There was no character development in the case that I could care less who was killed and who wasn’t. Since the movie had to be re-written there was very little story concepts developed upon.
The miniscule plot is this, siblings Christina Ricci’s character and Jesse Eisenberg’s character are driving through the Hollywood hills and they crash into a large hairy animal. The car crash scene is a reminiscence of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and is ripped off so poorly. They then get bitten by this creature and are then infected with “curse.” In movies you always have the character who knows what is actually going on and why all this is happening; in this case this is the brother, Eisenberg. No one ever believes him, and pushes him off to being just another delusional teen. Eisenberg’s character has a bully in school that will not leave him alone; can we say another type cast? Eisenberg has a chance to challenge his bully in a wrestling match which takes on Teen Wolf attributes. Eisenberg’s new found werewolf strength gives him the power to win the match. The bully is a male who has a girlfriend which Eisenberg is of course in love with. So why not throw in another random scene that makes no sense. Well they did it. The bully becomes attracted to Eisenberg’s character. The scene had no reason to be there and was thrown in for what? Shock value. It was a ridiculous concept that should have been tossed out along with the other 90% of the movie. The cast has some big names in it such as Shannon Elizabeth, Mya, Craig Kilborn, and Scott Baio; they are only in bits and pieces of the movie. They are credited at the beginning of the movie. Scott Baio was actually only in it for two minutes. Why do that? It is misleading and a big let down. The rest of the cast is then set up as a movie about who done it. The film almost forgets that it is a movie about werewolves. These werewolves act more human than some of the humans I see in the halls of Wayne College.
The werewolf itself looked timid by comparison. It looked like a stuffed animal I had gotten as a child. The coloring was all wrong, it stood up-right for most of the time I seen it, and it was pathetic looking. But then again, they have to keep this a PG-13 movie.
Unfortunately one of the greatest men in the special effects department, Rick Baker was asked to re-do the werewolf time and time again. They kept Baker’s werewolf head which was very intense looking, and then resorted to others and CGI to make up what was one of the worst werewolves I’ve seen to date. The transformations between human and werewolf were done with CGI. I personally hate CGI. I much rather see some animatronics rather than some half-assed CGI work that never creates a believable illusion. There was no gore, you barely see any real killing taking place it all just fades to black or takes you somewhere else in the movie. When real killing actually takes place it’s so anticlimactic because they work up the scene to be this intense scenario that when something actually does happen you’re looking at your watch hoping it’s nearing the end.
This movie sucked. It was cursed from the moment the Dimension had its hands on it. Who’s to know how it might have turned out if the studio had just let Wes Craven directed it the way he had envisioned it, let Williamson write it the way he wanted to, and let Baker make an unforgettable werewolf. This movie might have actually made a ground breaking werewolf flick that would’ve gathered a cult following. We’ll never actually know unless maybe when the director’s cut DVD comes out; only if Dimension doesn’t step in on that one too.