RotaryCannon

This film is completely unbelievable and ridiculous.

I don't want to give any spoilers by mentioning specific things that happen so that you hopefully read this BEFORE deciding to watch it and save yourself a complete waste of time.

As you will know from the brief description this is a home invasion thriller, quite early on the film starts to make you realise that luck is always on the side of the female lead who is trying to avoid being caught by the gang who break into the house. What starts as a few situations where you think "that's a bit daft and unrealistic, how did she get away with that?" quickly snowballs into a completely laughable chain of events but unfortunately it's not 'so bad it's good', it's just SO BAD.

The presence of Dougray Scott initially encouraged me to think the film might have some redeeming features but unfortunately his character makes some perplexing decisions that seem to be completely at odds with his role as leader of the gang and the loyalty shown to him by them.

When I reviewed this it had a score of 4.9/10 but I gave it the benefit of the doubt because of some other positive reviews but really it deserves a lower score because it is just so completely unbelievable.

I have to admit I didn't have high expectations for this film as it only scored a 5.0 when I watched it today but I know horror films generally don't score very high on IMDb anyway so I thought I would give it a go.

My main criticism of the film is that it has so few (hardly any at all) scary moments and there is a complete absence of any build up of dread or apprehension as the film develops. It is very rare to see a really good horror film but if you are a big fan of the genre like me then you will probably have seen many bad horror films but often even bad, low budget horror films will have some redeeming features and creep you out to a certain extent.

Despite the large budget and the presence of Sam Rockwell (who I am a massive fan of) and although Kennedi Clements (the little girl) does carry the role well, this film fails on pretty much every level. The original film was good and manages to ramp up the tension well as the story develops, although I doubt it would be quite as watchable now, it compares well to other films of that era and there was plenty of memorable scary scenes. I had hoped the remake would come at the story from a different angle and be more original, unfortunately I was wrong. Apart from a few minor deviations this film follows the same storyline and even uses the same scare tactics as the original but in this film they just fall flat, at least when the original came out the special effects looked good and it was above par in that respect to other films of the time (1982), somehow even with CGI this film doesn't manage to achieve the scares that the original did.

If you have seen the original and are tempted to watch this in the hope it compares with that you will be very disappointed, if you haven't seen the original watch that instead.

I don't understand how anyone can enjoy this.

I like some weird stuff and will laugh at things in films when no-one else is, but it doesn't matter how abstract your sense of humour is I would advise you not to bother with this film as it just isn't funny.

There is a very basic storyline and some central characters but NOTHING TO LAUGH AT; the script isn't witty or funny, the characters are mainly sleazy cops but the stuff they do is just boring or weird and there is no physical/slapstick type stuff either.

In the first 10-15 minutes as the cop characters are being introduced I thought maybe there was some potential as they all seem like scumbags but then it just goes nowhere so after about 45 minutes I gave up. I admit I didn't watch it all but in my book if you have watched over half a 'comedy' without laughing once then it is not worth persevering with the rest.

Just don't bother.

I watched this film last night and was very disappointed. It is pitched as a comedy/horror but there are almost no scary or funny parts in the whole film.

The storyline is a well-trodden path for this type of low budget B- movie and will be familiar to anyone who has watched this type of film before: small community under attack from some nameless horror has to band together to defend themselves. Unfortunately this film brings nothing new to the table and pales in comparison to other films in this genre like Shaun of the Dead.

If you think Irish people getting drunk is hilarious then you will love this movie but other than a few funny quips by the fisherman there are no big jokes or laugh-out-loud moments in the whole film. If the horror made up for the lack of comedy this would be okay but it doesn't, the monsters look okay but there are very few edge-of-the- seat moments or suspense to keep you interested.

A horror/comedy can still be good if it's not scary but it is funny or it's not funny but it is scary but if it's neither then what's the point?

If you read the reviews here you could be forgiven for thinking this is going to be a great buddy movie type of comedy with lots of great jokes and maybe some funny 'gross out' scenes like other comedies that appear to be in this genre. This movie really isn't like that at all.

It's just not funny.

It tries really hard to be, and I kinda like Paul Rudd in most things I've seen him in, but this just falls flat and feels really lame. I sort of smirked a couple of times in the whole film and that was it, I kept thinking "it got some great reviews, I'll just give it a bit longer and I'm sure It'll start getting funny"....but it never really manages it.

Honestly, ignore the 10/10 type reviews you see here, it's nowhere near that. I know people have different opinions about films but how anyone can say this is a great comedy is beyond me.

Do yourself a favour and (if you haven't already) go and see Bridesmaids, it's incredibly funny and everything this film isn't.

First of all, and I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT watch this film if you think it is going to resemble a horror film in any way. I assumed because of the DVD cover/caption and because it was listed in the Horror genre that it would resemble other zombie films or at least have some element of horror or at least a few scares.........I was SO WRONG.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate many different types of horror films and find the best ones often have very little gore and are scary on a psychological level. This film just should not be classed as a horror in any way, it is more about the relationship between the two main characters and the strength of their commitment to each other as a couple.

There is literally not one moment in the whole film that even approaches suspense let alone horror. I honestly cannot see who the target audience is for this film, if like me you watch it thinking (hoping!) it is going to turn into something watchable as the story develops you (like me) will be so disappointed. I kept thinking something was going to happen to redeem the film and make it vaguely worth watching.......but it just doesn't and by the end I was thoroughly disappointed and regretted the time I had invested.

Before I watched this it had a score of 5.5 on IMDb and after reading some of the other reviews I thought it probably wouldn't be worth watching, but I did anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised. The film is very well shot and looks very much how I would expect Mars to look, the scientific base and the vehicles also look very believable, I don't know what sort of budget they had but it doesn't have a low-budget look to it at all.

There is a lot of suspense as it is sometimes unclear who is infected by the virus and where the infected people are on the base. When people are infected by the virus they are basically turned into zombies and the zombies are done quite well, much more convincing than lots of conventional 'zombie films' I have seen.

I haven't really seen Liev Schreiber in much apart from the Scream films but I think he did a pretty good job. There are a few unexplained things such as Schreiber's character's panic attacks/flashbacks and why the senior female scientist seems so annoyed and angry the whole time but they are small glitches in an otherwise enjoyable film.

It may be a 'B movie' as others have described it, and I doubt if it would make your sci-fi top ten but it's nowhere near as bad as the one,two or three star reviews on here would have you believe.

This film is a complete failure in every respect, if you waste your time watching it you will wish you hadn't.

I am a big horror fan so I was disappointed to find out there is absolutely no scares in this film whatsoever. The script is appalling, the storyline is a joke, the soundtrack is hopeless, the 'special effects' are joke shop quality and I honestly can't think of any redeeming features this film has.

There are several parts where the music builds up and up as if something scary is coming....but nothing happens!

I made the mistake of watching this film because some of the other reviewers seem to think it is worth watching and I feel conned-I honestly do. This is not the sort of film that could divide opinion in any way, it is just really, really bad and I cannot understand how anyone would honestly say otherwise.

You have been warned.