For the lost (lol, Lost) member of Oasis and/or Blur, Dominic Monaghan easily made this movie for me. His comedic timing made otherwise-mediocre comedic moments into laugh-out-loud moments. Ron Perlman made for a nice foil (at least until the very end). The other actors were decent, and I also appreciated the sets,
clothing, and accents, which seemed well done. Alas, on the whole, the film felt like a sitcom trying to be a movie, as if the story were written around a few pretty good jokes as opposed to pretty good jokes being written into a good storyline. Of course, for someone playing writer/director/producer and it being his feature film debut, Glenn Mcquaid did a commendable job, and I look forward to his future work.spoilersThe faux-Guy Ritchie/Tarantino introductions for Murphy's gang don't work for me though the ideas behind the characters aren't bad. They're rather jauntily thrown into the whole of the film, just like the formulaic glimpse into Cornelius Murphy's childhood psychology. Cornelius' initial introduction earlier in the film sufficed.I liked how the film introduced the element of the undead though. The stabbing/pulling out of the stake was a nice scene, and the later corpse being so disgusted at Valentine's face that he breaks out of his cage and attacks/kills her certainly worked for me, too. I also rather enjoyed the Perlman-Monaghan dynamic--they made for nice foils.On the other hand, I didn't feel the story was developed enough to truly earn its ending. The twists weren't bad but could've been much better if the characters had been better fleshed out and if it weren't for the stylistic comic effect at the very end.end spoilers
September 29, 2011
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