In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Monday 21 January 2013

VANISHING ON 7TH STREET [2010]

Director Brad Anderson has some great films (Session 9The Machinist) and TV shows (Fringe, The Killing) on his resume, so I thought the terribly received Vanishing On 7th Street might have some redeeming qualities.
It's got a incredibly creepy atmosphere and packs in some great scares as well.  Although it might have benefited from an extra 15 minutes at the beginning to flesh out the characters a bit more and maybe an explanation of what exactly happened.  It's a interesting concept but somehow feels like it was a rushed production which hurts the finished product quite a bit.

3 new world orders out of 5

3 comments:

Borderline said...

I was somewhat disappointed with this one. The premise has been done quite a few times before so in the end it all felt somewhat unimaginative, especially coming from Anderson. And yes, something of an explanation would have been nice. Instead, like the characters in the film, we're left grasping in the dark. 2.5 out of 5 for me.

cuckoo said...

I struggled between giving it a 2.5 or a 3. Obviously in the end I awarded it a 3 but you're probably right with the 2.5. It was one of those ones that bothered me since I posted it and wanted to re-score it but figured "too late".

I think I had the benefit of expecting the worst. Especially considering Christensen was in it. I hadn't seen him in anything besides Star Wars and I loathed him in those, so I figured I'd feel the same way with this. I was pleasantly surprised to see he does a fair job at playing the every man who pays the bills and gets holes in his socks.

cuckoo said...

On another note:

I thought it works as a neat companion piece to "The Darkest Hour".

One film they're running towards the light, the other they're running from it.