Devil Review

The Rough Cut

Written by Kevin Terpstra

Review of Devil

Devil is the film that M. Night Shyamalan has been in need of for a few years now. The Happening was a complete disaster and The Last Airbender is just right out. Before those, well, he had Signs and The Village, which weren’t up to par compared to his first two features, the chillingly good The Sixth Sense and the astounding Unbreakable.

The film is the first in a series of films called the Night Chronicles. They are each going to be stand-alone films, but the subsequent films will be considered sequels. One can only guess from the series title, and their darkly twisted creator, that the films will cover themes dealing in the absence of good.

Starring a group of unknown gents and ladies, the film centers on five people trapped in an elevator. The catch is one of them is the devil. The premise is simple yet engaging and refreshingly original given the available fare this summer has given us.

At certain times in history, the devil comes to Earth to walk amongst us, disguised as a human. He brings together a group of people who are unrepentant for past sins. They are damned in life and Old Scratch has come to take their souls back to Hell with him.

The devil kills them off one by one, before killing the final survivor in front of the person they love most. If anyone tries to help these poor souls, Beelzebub kills them for their kindness, all in sport.

In classic Shyamalan form, the movie comes with a twist ending, and while the conclusion is easy to guess at if you pay attention, Shyamalan leaves many false trails to keep you interested.

Director John Erick Dowdle employs some tactful shots, letting even shots sans people tell a deep story. The film opens on an upside down shot of the Philadelphia city skyline. This could be interpreted as saying that the following film takes your perceptions of reality (or even religion) and flips them on their heads. The closing shot is of the Philadelphia skyline, this time right side up.

While it’s not perfect, Devil is Shyamalan’s key to a comeback. Too bad for him he chose not to direct this film, but maybe he’ll come to his senses for the sequels.

Based on a five star scale, I am awarding Devil three and a half out of five stars.

Night Chronicles: Devil – 3.5/5 stars

Oh, and fun fact – M. Night Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little.

Machete Review

The Rough Cut

Written by Kevin Terpstra

Review of Machete

Machete is a confused movie. No, not confusing, confused. Half of the movie wants to be a legitimate film, while the other half embraces its over-the-top, B-movie fare. I’m not knocking the film’s attempt at this integration, but it just doesn’t work for it.

We open on Machete (Danny Trejo) on a mission in Mexico. The federale and his partner are attempting to stop the biggest drug lord in all of Mexico, played by the well-past-his-prime Steven Seagal. As with most plots it doesn’t work out, the partner is killed (in classic grindhouse fashion), and we are then treated to a title card informing us 3 years have passed and we are now in a border town in Texas.

Now, when the film wants to be legitimate, it’s fairly obvious. The dialogue isn’t over-the-top, characters exchange pseudo-witty banter, and everything stays pretty much normal. When the film enters B-movie mode, it’s like a barrier has been breached. There’s gore galore, naked women, and two shots of adrenaline for every one of whiskey.

And that’s what you have to remember when viewing this film, that it is a B-movie and when it goes into B-movie mode, it performs so well that Roger Corman himself would be proud.

What really saves this movie from perdition is the truly memorable cast. As I said before, Danny Trejo plays Machete and he does it perfectly. He maintains a calm demeanor throughout, but when he starts killing that calm is easily forgotten. Steven Seagal, despite being totally miscast as a Mexican drug lord, plays his role as well as he can. The “introduces” Don Johnson as Von Jackson, leader of a vigilante border patrol and he delivers a superb performance reminiscent of Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn, Death Proof).

Other notable performers include Michelle Rodriguez (Lost, Resident Evil), Jeff Fahey (Lost, Planet Terror), and Robert DeNiro as a corrupt senator.

Machete is truly a hit-or-miss film. The plot is intricate and well developed, but in the end it doesn’t juxtapose well with the film’s B-movie structure. If the characters of Planet Terror got together to watch a movie, they would watch Machete.

Based on a five star scale, I am awarding Machete three out of five stars.

Machete – 3/5 stars

Official Rough Cut Review