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It was incredible. But he blew me away with this. I mean, why not. Against the odds, I rented the film and watched it. The postcards are cool.
If you're looking for behind the scenes footage, you'll find, oh, I'm guessing. It's a good ten minutes, but it could have been much, much more. Not that that was hard to do, mind you, because I rarely, if ever, went to see films in the theaters. It's kind of disappointing. However, with all due respect to my mom, every film in her eyes except The Dark Knight is 'ok', and it's even harder for a horror film to please her. The direction was strong, Samuel L was in it (which is always props to me), and it wasn't relying on blood and guts, like the Hostel or Saw franchises. She said that she thought it was 'ok'. However, the On Demand version was the directors cut, but I still loved it.
I love it, I love the postcards it came with, and the very, VERY short making of's, and the fact that it has both versions of the film, but. Since I tend to read reviews on Amazon for information on the DVD extras and not the film itself, that is what is most crucial for me to reiterate in my review. However, for some reason that I can not explain, when the film was released on DVD, I had this strange compulsion to watch it. This DVD is NOT a Collectors Edition, it is a 'spend more money for two versions of the film and ten minutes of behind the scenes.' But it's a cool ten minutes, and I guess even though I'm disappointed with the content, I say buy it if you love the movie. The things that really stuck out about this, though, was John Cusack's performance.
As for this DVD. I had never really been a fan of him before this- he had never really done horror films, and I tend to watch pretty much only horror. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I watched the theatrical version and the original ending came along. I think in recent years the only film I was going to see in theaters was 30 Days of Night, but was unable to due to a stint in the hospital. I noticed it was On Demand one day, and I called my mom up and asked her what she thought of the movie (her and my father had seen it at the drive in).
Why couldn't they put both versions of the film on disc one and LOAD the second disc with extras and making of's, kind of like the Batman Begins DVD did. ten minutes worth. Going back to the mixed reviews, a friend of mine, who was also a big fan of horror movies, told me it was awful, not worth the money, and like an idiot I listened to her. When 1408 was first released into theaters, I had heard mixed reviews, not from critics, but from friends of mine who had managed to catch screenings of it before I did. I must admit it scared me that the film was rated PG-13, but for a PG-13 film, it got away with quite a few uses of the F word (when Cusack hurts his hand).
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Imagine taking about, oh, 20 movies. Cutting out pieces of them from each reel, splicing those pieces together and calling it a new movie.
At no time did this film frighten me. I'm angry that I got suckered into thinking, once again, that Hollywood still had the ability to make a good movie.
At all times it confused me. This is a real bad one.
Save your money, folk. I just finished watching 1408.
I kept trying to find a plot and right up to the end, couldn't find one.
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the radio keeps playing while unplugged. the paintings on the wall seem to move. But that's all. ghosts can be seen jumping out the window. So he is a non believer. the key breaks.
This is a badly conceived project. he sees his dead daughter. the TV shows things. Nothing scary here. the wall has cracks and drips blood (how unoriginal).
What I hate the most here is that the horror of this film is just a stupid sequence of idiotic tricks. What fabulous ideas are there that turns this constriction into an advantage. a window closes on Cusack's hand. Not all horror books can turn into great horror films. in a few minutes, the room becomes a roller coaster ride. We've seen it all before and it is all harmless like the haunted house in Disneyland.
it gets too cold. None. It all starts beautifully, as Cusack spends the first few minutes in the room and discovers there is something there that puts chocolate on his bed and replaces toilet paper. but here it fails completely because the film does not offer anything interesting, scary or simply offbeat to surprise the audience. strange noises. the room gets flooded.
he sees his dead father. and soon he discovers he is in one of those places in movies that we hate: a kind of parallel universe where anything goes: it rains. and when faced with a hotel room everybody fears, it is obvious that he knows there's nothing in there except the imagination of those who enter the room. and turns on the radio that plays The Carpenters. etcetera.
Look: it's a guy locked in a hotel room for one hour. That is a great premise. John Cusack - a great actor - is very good as the protagonist of this story: an once honest author who now makes up stories about haunted hotels. it snows.
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