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Kurosawa Fan
12-26-2007, 01:32 AM
I just found this trailer (http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer.php?id=1069&item=0). I think a slick, 90 minute movie could be pretty damn cool with the story. It would be better than the book. Unfortunately, I don't find the trailer all that promising.

DSNT
12-26-2007, 02:05 AM
Saw this in front of Sweeney Todd today. Good premise, but if the trailer is any indication of the execution, then this looks dreadful.

Sven
12-26-2007, 02:16 AM
Yeah, saw the trailer, looked like balls.

Wryan
12-26-2007, 08:31 PM
Ahahahaha!

MadMan
01-04-2008, 07:35 PM
If all of the characters die (I'm getting tired of films that put characters in serious high danger that the fact they get out of it is just plain ridiculous) I may considering renting the flick. Otherwise, forget it.

Lasse
01-04-2008, 09:22 PM
I just wanted to say that I read the thread title as "The Runs." Then I watched the trailer and realised that it would probably be a very fitting title.

D_Davis
01-04-2008, 11:01 PM
If all of the characters die (I'm getting tired of films that put characters in serious high danger that the fact they get out of it is just plain ridiculous) I may considering renting the flick. Otherwise, forget it.

They all die in the book. Most of them quite painfully.

number8
01-05-2008, 12:29 AM
Sam Raimi should've done it.

Spinal
01-05-2008, 02:03 AM
If all of the characters die (I'm getting tired of films that put characters in serious high danger that the fact they get out of it is just plain ridiculous) I may considering renting the flick. Otherwise, forget it.

So you just want a film in which characters are placed in high danger and all of them die? :confused: Should I even bother asking about the reasoning behind this? Probably not.

D_Davis
01-06-2008, 01:23 AM
Sam Raimi should've done it.

Perhaps if new Sam Raimi could channel old Sam Raimi.

number8
01-06-2008, 03:09 AM
Perhaps if new Sam Raimi could channel old Sam Raimi.

I was thinking of A Simple Plan Sam Raimi, because the original novel's author... uh, nevermind.

D_Davis
01-06-2008, 03:23 AM
I was thinking of A Simple Plan Sam Raimi, because the original novel's author... uh, nevermind.

Yeah. I always forget Raimi directed A Simple Plan. Perhaps Smith and Raimi could be the new King and Darabont...only, not quite as good. :)

number8
01-06-2008, 04:39 AM
Yeah. I always forget Raimi directed A Simple Plan.

I'll declare it his best film, as my Necronomicon frowns at me.

D_Davis
01-06-2008, 06:30 AM
I'll declare it his best film, as my Necronomicon frowns at me.

I will say it is his best film not called Evil Dead 2.

MadMan
01-07-2008, 05:33 PM
So you just want a film in which characters are placed in high danger and all of them die? :confused: Should I even bother asking about the reasoning behind this? Probably not.I'm not the only one who has ever complained about people surviving situations in movies that they shouldn't survived. Its not me wishing that the characters all die, but simply don't raise the ridiculous level just to have a happy ending where a few folks walk away. I thought my previous post was clear about that *shrug*


They all die in the book. Most of them quite painfully.Really. Huh. *Adds film to rental list* ;)

DSNT
01-07-2008, 11:14 PM
Everytime this thread comes up in my CP, I read the title as The Runs. FYI.

Dukefrukem
01-27-2009, 07:07 PM
Holy fuck. Watching this now....


The leg amputation scene was fucking intense.

Dead & Messed Up
01-27-2009, 08:32 PM
My review from earlier this year:


The Ruins makes plants frightening, which is a cinematic first, and then it makes them gross, which is a less impressive cinematic first. But I guess that's still something. That Carter Smith achieves a sense of fright is nigh-unbelievable, since it takes a lot to make veggies a formidable foe. That he eventually retreats to gore gags just when things were getting interesting…well, that's a little depressing.

This is not to say The Ruins isn't worth your time. It may very well be, since it's as effective as a movie about evil Mayan vines could ever hope to be, and, really, how many of those are you going to see in your lifetime? Hell, after all the recent remakes of films that weren't original to begin with (Prom Night), we finally get something that's actually original. On that basis alone, The Ruins deserves your consideration.

The film tracks four twenty-somethings vacationing in Mexico, played ably by Shawn Ashmore, Jon Tucker, Jena Malone, and Laura Ramsey. The day before they're due back, the foursome meet up with a Greek visitor, Mathias (Joe Anderson), whose brother is heading an excavation at a Mayan temple. This is one of those treks into danger you may actually sympathize with, since visiting a pristine Mayan temple is much more enticing than, say, visiting that old abandoned amusement park where that psycho clown slaughtered and ate a bunch of sexy teenagers.

Still, problems arise. As soon as they reach the temple, they're surrounded by a crowd of angry Mayan villagers, who force the group up the steps of the temple. What makes the natives restless? Maybe the evil plants at the center of their forest, although that begs the question of why this particular village never packed up and moved to Cancun, which, by the way, is lovely this time of year.

I haven't read Smith's novel, but I suspect he devoted more time to the characters, seeing as how his A Simple Plan derived nearly all of its effect from us understanding the fears and desires of its four mains. There are hints of tension here as well, especially toward the beginning, but much of the film's runtime depends on the characters making discoveries and venturing into dark places.

Thankfully, Carter Smith makes those scenes work very well. There's a lot of talent in his sense of composition and pacing and ability to wring some real suspense from obligatory sequences where the heroines venture into the ruins. If nothing else, this is a lovely film, not least of which because the setting is so fresh and welcome to horror. Would that more horror flicks moved past dark hallways and butcher shop kitchens.

The evil vines and flowers that populate the film could easily have fallen into unintentional hilarity (try watching Day of the Triffids). What makes them work in The Ruins is Smith's attention to understatement, so that we slowly learn how the vines work, and what makes them so threatening. One awesome sequence has Jon Tucker angrily chucking flowers at the villagers, and one smacks a kid in the forehead. Uh-oh.

What lessens the impact is a discovery later in the film regarding the plants' ability to get inside its victims. It's a development sure to make you squirm, but squirming is about all it does. Ramsey's solution to the problem is certainly believable, but it also lowers the ambitions of the picture, which then settle down into a groove of mutilation and despair. Which would be effective, if it weren't preceded by superior moments of genuine suspense and sympathy.

The Ruins is a slight horror film, meant to do little more than creep us out for eighty minutes or so, and, on that level, it's a success. The mains don't make too many stupid choices, the threat feels genuine, and film looks great. Out of all the horror films of the year, this is one of the few that tries to stake out new territory. Like Cloverfield, it's a marginal success, but, hell, it's something. I expect a remake in 2010.

Dukefrukem
01-27-2009, 08:52 PM
Great write up and so true. It's short, gorey, not too badly made or acted.

Skitch
01-28-2009, 12:41 PM
I was surprised. The trailer completely turned me off, but the film wasn't terrible. Except for the line, "This doesn't happen! We're Americans! Americans don't just go missing!" ...or something of the sort. :lol: