White Noise: The Light

If you have not yet seen the film, there may be some spoilers in here for you!
Not that it seemed like a very spoilery movie… I suppose there were a couple of instances.

Another trip to the cinema, in the lovely calm Welsh winter weather…. Anyway, once we had settled down in our lovely seats, progressively peeled off our wet jackets and watched the enjoyable trailer for Hot Fuzz –which looks awesome by the way- I was ready to see the first mainstream film of the year! Perhaps if I were a fan of horrorish films I would have liked White Noise: The Light more… I am trying to be more open-minded, I swear!

Abe Dale’s (Nathan Fillion) wife and son are murdered by Henry Caine (Craig Fairbrass) for an unexplained reason. Suffering from depression he tries to kill himself, but is brought back to life after having a near death experience (NDE) from this he is able to –in simple terms- see when a person is going to die soon, and being a nice guy, Abe goes and saves three people; but not without consequences.

Best part of the film –hands down, and no offence- was the statistic at the beginning, I do not remember the exact figures, but it was something along the lines of; every American will pass by 1.7 people that will later die that day! How crazy is that!!!

Ok, so for all intensive purposes, I went to see White Noise the Light, because Nathan Fillion is a good actor –plus really cool guy- the director Patrick Lussier, of whom I can’t say I was originally familiar with, was a good choice for the director- after editing so many prolific slasher/horror films, but it isn’t the director who I have a problem with in this film, it’s the screenwriter, Mr. Matt Venne; whose script was absolutely atrocious, I’m sorry but some lines just had me rolling my eyes, because some of the dialogue just felt particularly unnatural… not to mention the absurdness of what was going on.
One thing that did hold the film together however was the editing; which was very good, so much that I thought I should mention it.

On the side of this awful script the acting was almost as bad –the only saving graces of the whole film were Nathan Fillion and Katee Sackhoff (well until her eyes rolled into the back of her head, because I just cannot stand things like that, I couldn’t even stand it in Fahrenheit) out of the whole cast, these were the only two characters that I found slightly convincing; and saying that, Katee’s character was written as a right 40s-esque female character –sorry I must be watching too much Whedon-feministy programmes. Though regardless of the character she was written; she played the character rather well, and the same is said for Nathan; who, similar to Katee, also had some bad lines, but shone through in the role. Personally I cannot say the same for his wife and child who seemed to share no chemistry with him whatsoever –wasn’t believable to me anyhow- except the tiny exception with the home video, but even in that it didn’t seem wholly believable with the wife and child.
Now, Craig Fairbrass did have a nice role, and acted it out pretty well also, but I could not stand his accent; sticking a Londoner in with a bunch of Americans will always sound forced -but Craig’s accent just sounded terrible for some reason- especially when a certain guy did some work in Eastenders.
Otherwise the only thing I have to say about the acting was I was actually hoping for more action from Nathan, because he makes any stunts look like they are happening (watch the ‘Filmmakers Journey’ featurette on the Serenity DVD).

I wasn’t so hot for the special effects; and I felt them to all be a bit bleh, I suppose it was the cheesy way they looked that got me, it could have easily been done with a tunnel; and would have the possibility to look much cooler!

One other thing that I found amazing about the film was its concept; personally I hated the whole NDE angle, not to mention the awful Bible bits too. But what I loved was the idea of seeing that someone was going to die that day; what an amazing concept for a game!!! Sorry, if it’s just me, but I would love that in a game, it’d be sort of like Tru Calling and you’d be able to chose to save a person or not, but you’d need to find out how they are going to die etc… It’d be amazing!! The whole three days later thing has to go though! Definitely so…

Now, I’ll get started on the whole NDE angle; which I hated, everyone that talked about it didn’t sound convinced in the slightest way whatsoever; cept for the one line that Abe said about bringing all of the absolute crap of the film into one sentence, and it was a great line, because his friend’s reaction, which if you ask me was akin to mine.
I think the main problem with White Noise: The Light was it was trying to be a thriller, but also a horror film at the same time, for instance the mass legions of dead people were just inappropriate and unnecessary.

I seem to be saying the same wish of Silent Hill in regards to White Noise, but I felt that if the last 5-10 minutes could be cut off, it would have been a better film. I loved the fact that Abe was killed; because that doesn’t usually happen, but that doesn’t mean he should be helping beyond the grave, see in my version he was shot, he also shot Shelley, the vicious cycle ends. The End! Instead it came off as cheesy, I do not like cheese!

As irrelevant as it is, I liked that rather than call it White Noise 2, they called it White Noise: The Light… sort of like Thief Deadly Shadows, or something a bit more similar. Putting a 2 on the end of the film immediately warns me of it. If they called it Batman 2 it’d be shit… doesn’t count with Superman though…

But as far as horror films go, it’s a standard, with some good acting from a couple of the characters, and many jumps galore for those of a sensitive disposition, so I suppose some people would really get off on the film, I just couldn’t be swayed by its ideas and theories.

Cptalbertwesker Rating – 5½ /10
Although it was attempting to be different, it could not escape the cheesy horror film that it was. I can easily recommend the film to fans of Nathan, because he is simply one of the few good things about it, that and the Captain Tightpants reference, which was cute.

2006 Review

2006 Review

With the hubbub of university and such this year has been very busy, though strive I will to write up a review of the year, similar to last years’ recalling the highs and lows in the film scene (which includes television and video game, so maybe it is in fact a review of ‘Charlotte’s World’

High points of the year

After the fun I had last year in frequenting the cinema I must say I successfully took the tradition into the next year and I watched far more films in the cinema than I probably ever have in my life.. not to mention the over-gorging on television that I (investigated)  in my opinion of Afterlife. Though the videogame front has become a little quiet of recent, no REAL amazing games have been released, so perhaps next year will be the year for some engaging intelligent games.

Now I can easily say that this year was not a very good year for films; full of sequels, prequels spin-offs and just utter crap, little was to be found –in my definition- that was any good.
Sure there were the massive releases of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 –big sarcastic whoop- but otherwise little else was pre-emptive. ‘Cept of course Superman Returns!!!! Which although came off a tad disappointing did indeed deliver superman-y goodness.
Granted that there were some real gems of ‘less mainstream’ films, Severance was a particular surprise success with some good-old british black comedy. Then of course there were a few (what I will guess 2005 films) good new films shown at the Cramphorn, one of the best being The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada with an great performance by Barry Pepper. Not to forget the delight that was Breakfast on Pluto –Neil Jordan’s films never cease to be interesting. Then of course there was the Proposition, Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, Howls Moving Castle (finally!!) and a few interesting films that I managed to see elsewhere; Hard Candy, Walk the Line, Lady in the Water, Munich, Right at your door and Stranger than Fiction. The MUCH anticipated Silent Hill film which was slightly disappointing, but had some good bits; hopefully the next one will be better. Then there was the nice adaptation of V for Vendetta and undoubtedly the best film of the year –in my opinion- The Prestige!
Other than the big films of next year – Sin City 2, Spiderman 3 and the Dark Knight (if it comes out next year)

Oops I gave away my film of the year… well, here the rest is then. Any comments, please post em!

1. The Prestige


2. Severance


3. Superman Returns


4. Three Burials of Melquiades


5. Breakfast on Pluto


6. V for Vendetta


7. Howls Moving Castle


8. The Proposition


9. Good Night, Good Luck


10. Hard Candy

This of course was based solely on films that I watched at the cinema, as always there were many films that I could not make it to see, the likes of Perfume, Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and countless others.
So I apologise if you have seen these films, and thought them better than those in my top ten, please, do tell me about them.


Low points of the year

When there is some good in cinema, there is always the bad, and as usual its big studios trying to cash in on complete shit (sorry) Regardless to say I did enjoy quite a few films this year, but there will always be the plain awful! Now don’t get me wrong, I have never seen these films, nor do I wish to. I am basing it solely on how they look. Usually when I see a film I already know that there’s a chance that I should like it. If there is one thing I never do, it’s waste money, and I know how my mind works.. I can tell if I think a film will be crap, or if I will like it.
So here it is, for you to bicker and moan at me, my top ten… Oh-my-god-that-looks-like-shit of 2006

1. Stay Alive


2. Jackass no 2


3. Date Movie


4. Little Man


5. Scary Movie 4


6. Shes the Man


7. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift


8. When a Stranger Calls


9. Big Mommas House 3? Whatever!


10. Beerfest

Now unlike last year, I do actually have some say in the films I have put in this top-ten, it was with much enthusiasm that I placed Stay Alive in the No. 1 spot! I cannot stand films that deliberately try to be cool and cash in on video games –at least Christopher Gans was trying!

Television

I have been watching quite a lot of television series, with many getting me hooked.
So for all of those interested I recommend you these… though they aren’t anything too special, I did really like Afterlife though.

Torchwood
Afterlife
Vincent
Robin Hood
I’m with stupid

I also managed to watch quite a few good one-off two part-er sort of dramas, so if you are somehow able to get a hold of them, these ones were particularly good. Losing Gemma was pretty funny too, whereas Born Equal sort of left you feeling a little dead inside.

Born Equal
Losing Gemma
Bon Voyage
Longwood

I also took my spare time to going back and watching some good television shows that I own, well… I managed to get a hold of the complete Black Books finally! I couldn’t help watching Spaced, Buffy and Angel

Buffy
Angel
Black Books
Spaced
This life

I do not believe that there is much in the New Year in regards to television that I am really looking forward to; after all it is difficult to know exactly what is to be shown in the next year.
I suppose, I am looking forwards to the New series of Doctor Who, and of course getting to see series 3 of Lost when they decide to show it for terrestrial viewers.

Games

So perhaps there has not been as much movement in video games as there was last year in terms of releases… unless you live in America or Japan
But the release of the long awaited Nintendo Wii came with amazing fun, as well as a few good waves of 360 games. Not to mention, the cute and stylish DS Lite, as well as the inevitable pink range of consoles including the PSP, PS2 and DS Lite.
I will take the time to mention a few of the gaming highlights of the year.

The new Sam and Max episodic games seem to be pure nostalgia in the best of forms, playing Sam and Max brought back all those nice warm memories of an amazing period in video games.
This year also saw the amazing Shadow of the Colossus, a beautiful addition to the Broken Sword series, the spectacular Twilight Princess, (game of the year hands down) PSYCHONAUTS, (because I can still mention it) and Dead Rising –which was great fun, and had some great music-. The year was pretty good for the 360 actually, with the aforementioned title, not to mention Oblivion, Hitman Blood Money –cannot wait for the next instalment- Rainbow Six Vegas, Viva Piñata, Gears of War, Saints Row and countless other titles.

Similar to how I have with films, there are also a great number of games that I am anticipating. First of course the new game from Double Fine Productions is at the top of my list; and if it’s anything like Psychonauts… well, then I’m in love! (Especially if just as many promotional items get released on their store)
Not to mention games on the way such as Bioshock, Mass Effect and Burning Crusade to only name a few!

When you look back on a year, you always forget just how many people died, here are just a few of the people that we had to say goodbye to in 2006.

Peter Boyle  
Joseph Barbara
Richard Fleischer
Steve Irwin
Jack Palance     
Robert Altman
James Brown     
Charlie Drake
Chris Penn

So, the old year is over, I hope that this new one brings much fun and excitement, especially from the few more conventions I will get to go to! (showmasters rule ^_^)
I’ll leave wishing you all a happy new year, and many great ones to come.