Scan and Pan
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Ruins
Two young American couples (Jonathan Tucker and Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey) on vacation in Mexico meet a German tourist (Joe Anderson) who tells them that he knows of an archaeological dig at newly discovered ruins in the jungle. Looking for some more excitement before they return home, the couples and their new friend travel to the ruins but discover a little more excitement than they bargained for.
Fashion photographer turned director of television commercials Carter Smith makes his feature film debut, and fails in just about every way possible. If he understands the concept of generating suspense, his flat direction of every scene doesn't show it. No suspense, no horror and no entertainment value sums up my experience of this film. Take away the ample gore and there's nothing at all horrific here except how awful the production as a whole is. It's like one of those horrible films the Sci Fi Channel is notorious for broadcasting, only with more gore and bad words. Same level of badness, though.
Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) adapts his own novel into an over-simplified and predictable screenplay with paper-thin characters and dialog that is frequently laughable. The ending itself is a cop-out compared to the bleak ending of the novel. It's not often that the original writer deserves some of the blame for how a film adaptation turns out. This is one of those times.
The talents of noted cinematographer Darius Khondji (City of Lost Children, Se7en) are absolutely wasted here, as director Smith wants everything lit as bright and flat as possible. Khondji complies, but it's nothing that any average cinematographer couldn't have done just as well.
The cast is adequate to realizing the paper-thin characterizations, which is a kind way of saying not very adequate in terms of quality. The biggest disappointment is Malone, who quickly gets on your nerves and stays there. The only other actor I'm familiar with is Ashmore, whose work as Iceman in the X-Men films showed more ability than is on display here. I'm going to take a stab and say the inexperienced director was a factor here as well.
As the tourists in the film discovered too late, The Ruins are best avoided. Enter at your own peril.
[1 out of 5 stars]
It's hard being a horror film fan some days. You have to see a lot of chaff to get to the occasional good stuff, and sometimes it seems like filmmakers aren't even trying to make something good. This film is a good example of that.
Two young American couples (Jonathan Tucker and Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey) on vacation in Mexico meet a German tourist (Joe Anderson) who tells them that he knows of an archaeological dig at newly discovered ruins in the jungle. Looking for some more excitement before they return home, the couples and their new friend travel to the ruins but discover a little more excitement than they bargained for.
Fashion photographer turned director of television commercials Carter Smith makes his feature film debut, and fails in just about every way possible. If he understands the concept of generating suspense, his flat direction of every scene doesn't show it. No suspense, no horror and no entertainment value sums up my experience of this film. Take away the ample gore and there's nothing at all horrific here except how awful the production as a whole is. It's like one of those horrible films the Sci Fi Channel is notorious for broadcasting, only with more gore and bad words. Same level of badness, though.
Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) adapts his own novel into an over-simplified and predictable screenplay with paper-thin characters and dialog that is frequently laughable. The ending itself is a cop-out compared to the bleak ending of the novel. It's not often that the original writer deserves some of the blame for how a film adaptation turns out. This is one of those times.
The talents of noted cinematographer Darius Khondji (City of Lost Children, Se7en) are absolutely wasted here, as director Smith wants everything lit as bright and flat as possible. Khondji complies, but it's nothing that any average cinematographer couldn't have done just as well.
The cast is adequate to realizing the paper-thin characterizations, which is a kind way of saying not very adequate in terms of quality. The biggest disappointment is Malone, who quickly gets on your nerves and stays there. The only other actor I'm familiar with is Ashmore, whose work as Iceman in the X-Men films showed more ability than is on display here. I'm going to take a stab and say the inexperienced director was a factor here as well.
As the tourists in the film discovered too late, The Ruins are best avoided. Enter at your own peril.
[1 out of 5 stars]
Comments:
Post a Comment
