Baghead

Film School Technique: Handheld camera.

Jim: A handheld camera held by nobodies; a fat guy likes a girl who is way out of his league (but then there is a guy with a bag on his head).

Shot on location in the margins of the actors’ diary (but with a guy with a bag on his head).

F

Alex: Seems pleasantly tense, and I appreciate that I didn’t see everyone die in the trailer, and that I don’t know exactly what’s up. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have seen it coming if they hadn’t just given away the first 50 minutes of the movie.

C+

The Take

Film School Technique: A handheld camera jitters along a desaturated palette.

Jim: Populated by the almost stars of yesteryear. Another Training Day/Collateral/Lakeview Terrace entry in the burgeoning genre of Verisimilar Male (On Male) Dom/Sub Fantasy.

Q: Is Vangelis scoring films again?

A: Rosie Perez Side Titty.

F

Alex: Not poorly done inherently, but god damn if I am not sick to death of cop movies. At least they mixed it up by having the cop be from Los Angeles and having to bend the law to enforce the law. Oh Wait.

Also starring a mustache that probably belongs in a Will Ferrell movie.

F-

Quarantine

Film-School Technique: Nightvision & the Conceit of Found Footage

Jim: At least Cloverfield had the sense to play its figurative cards close to its gigantic bug monster chest.

Seriously, who are you kidding? Your movie is just the color part of your trailer happening for 87 minutes.

F-

Alex: Seconded. Lacking the larger-than-life epicness of Cloverfield and the subtle, minimalistic terror of The Blair Witch Project, the makers of Quarantine opted, apparently, for a second-rate zombie movie set entirely in an apartment building. So it’s a handicam found footage movie where the cameraman knows exactly what’s going on, taking away the necessity of a big reveal or any kind of suspense. Also, a zombie attack that we know is confined to a single building. Awesome.

Right?

F-