Choke – movie review

I hadn’t really heard anything about Choke before it landed on my doormat. It came with a pretty good pedigree, though – it’s based on the book of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club, and it stars Sam Rockwell, who’s always good value for money.

So what’s it like? Well, it’s almost very good. Almost, but not quite. There’s a nice mix of humour and sentimentality in it, and Anjelica Huston is flawless as Sam’s mixed-up mother, but something about the whole thing doesn’t quite gel. It’s not rubbish by any means, and it is worth a watch, but don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed.

Quarantine Movie Review

Half-decent zombie films are few and far between, but if you’re a fan of that sort of thing, Quarantine is definitely worth a look.

It tells the story of a cameraman and a female reporter who are shooting a report about the night shift of an LA fire crew. The crew are called to an old apartment building, where they find – well, I won’t give it away, but something out of the ordinary is going on. Before they know it, the entire building has been completely sealed off from the outside by the authorities, and they are stuck in enforced quarantine with some very unsavoury characters…

What’s most interesting about the film is the way it’s shot: the story is told purely through the cameraman’s footage, so there are no cutaways, reverse angles or anything like that  – everything is presented in one continuous take, which gives the film quite a claustrophobic feel and really helps to draw you in to the action.

I thoroughly enjoyed it – there’s some very clever stuff going on in there – but it didn’t fare so well with most critics. Apparently, although I didn’t know this before I saw it, it’s a near shot-for-shot remake of a Spanish film called Rec, and, as is almost always the case, the original is a much better film. I’d still recommend it, though, especially if you’re not a big fan of subtitles.