Down (2003)

Too much of everything

hyped garbage

The acting in this movie is really good.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I have to laugh at the commentary from movie reviewers who take themselves and an obviousloy fun, clever movie too seriously. This movie has tight dialogue, doesn't bog down half way through and good action. Go ahead and spend a few hours with this enjoyable flick.

Ever briefly get stuck in an elevator thats messing with you, malfunctioning and seems to almost have a mischievous mind of its own? That's the premise of Down, also known as The Shaft. It concerns an elevator in a huge residential/office building that has gone homicidally haywire. It traps, drops and tricks people no end, raising and lowering the interior temperature to dangerous effect and generally just being a great big meanie. No one seems so know what's going on with it though, especially the mechanic who installed it (Twin Peak's James Marshall). The incidents accumulate, attracting a perky tabloid reporter (Naomi Watts having a ball) who makes up all kinds of tall tales to explain the situation in sensationalistic terms. This infuriates the CEO of the elevator company (now there's a job title) played by a snarky Ron Perlman who gets a rant towards Marshall that walked in from a way better script (which leads me to believe it was the spawn of Perlman's legendary improv skills). There's also a cop played by Dan Hedeya who can't seem to figure it out wither. The truth is a lot more interesting than you might expect and has nothing to do with ghosts or spirits at all, but centers around a deranged research scientist (Michael Ironside, whacked out to kingdom come). It's not the least bit scary, but it's worth a watch simply for the fact that it's a movie about a damn elevator that kills people lol. Cujo and Christine ain't got nothing on this bitch. The scene where a gaggle of pregnant ladies enter the thing is just priceless in its blatantly gross out manner. Fun, fun stuff and great research to embarrass Watts with sometime down the road if you ever find yourself interviewing her on the red carpet hehe.

Released in the US as The Shaft, this is Dick Maas remake of his own striking debut. 1983's The Lift was a blackly comic chiller about a skyscraper's lift that begins to take the lives of its occupants. This beefed up version keeps the original premise intact, right down to the odd bio-mechanical explanation, but takes place in New York City, pre- 9/11. Beginning with an extravagant pan through the Manhattan skyline and onto the observation deck of the CG rendered Millennium Building, Maas's film looks ever bit as stylish as its $15 million budget would suggest. Given its blockbuster production values its easy to take this absurd movie at face value, but those familiar with the original may recognise that Maas is actually attempting deadpan parody. Slickly directed in widescreen frame, Marc Felperlaan's cinematography complements both the city (which was used only for exterior shots) and the gorgeous art deco production design of the building itself. James Marshall, as the rugged young hero, has something of Christian Slater, Mark Whalberg or Josh Hartnett about him, while his love interest is none other than Naomi Watts, who shortly after became a star in another US-set remake of a foreign classic. In this and that other film she plays a reporter investigating an absurd concept, here a killer lift, there killer videotapes. They are supported by respectable cast of character actors Michael Ironside, Edward Herrman, Ron Perlman and Dan Hedaya. Kicking off the scene with the sounds of Aerosmith's Love in an Elevator, an extravagant race takes place between two incredibly skilled risk takers through New York traffic and into the basement parking garage of the Millennium Building. One of the skaters is then sucked into the lift, in an unexplained supernatural moment, only to be thrown out from the top floor. Bold, inventive and darkly humorous, this brief sequence, which has no dialogue or featured performers present, displays Maas' talent with his rehashed material to the greatest effect. This film was, unfortunately, somewhat prophetic and is laced with unintended irony as a result. Released over two years after the destructive assault on the World Trade Centre, it's not difficult to see why. The very first shot shows us those twin towers, which will forever provoke gasps of remembrance in whatever film they appear, and soon we are in a similar building where horrifying acts are occurring. This seems at first a rather tenuous reason to delay a release, but then the moment arrives when the narrative enlists comments from the fictional President, in which he expresses fear of the occurrences as a terrorist act. This remake is something of a cross between its inspirational text and the likes of high-rise horror's Poltergeist 3 (Gary Sherman, 1988) and The Tower (Richard Kletter, 1993), and is certainly superior in the execution of its novel concept than either The Mangler (Tobe Hooper, 1994) or sequels. The only thing that really lets this film down is the bad language. The F-word is used gratuitously and repeatedly throughout.

....after a blind man's and his dog's death.As the person was a vicious man ,we will not shed a tear for him,but poor dog! What saves this movie (at least in its first hour) is its sense of (black) humor.Although it's sometimes a bit over the top (the nursery school scene is sheer bad taste:it would have taken John Waters to treat it successfully),there are plenty of funny scenes if you do not take them seriously:I particularly dig the "Bergman" lines.Unfortunately,the last thirty minutes take us back to "the invincible super hero who single-handedly fights evil ".But he was a marine,we are told.Some kind of remake of the director's "de lift" (early eighties)with a more comfortable budget.It's pretty good entertainment but you'd better choose Dick Maas's "Amsterdamned" instead.