Splice

Clive (Adrien Brody) & Elsa (Sarah Polley) are scientist superstars, famous for splicing DNA fro different animals to create bizarre hybrids. They are i love with each other as they are with their work.And they want to go to the next step: splice Human DNA. But when their corporate financiers refuse, they decide to experiment in secrete. The result is DREN: an amazing creature whose rapid life cycle takes her from baby to adult in a matter of months. as Clive & Elsa struggle to keep Dren a secrete, their connection to their creation evolves from scientific to personal. Ultimately, Dren exceeds the couples wildest dreams- & their most terrifying nightmares.

I will get this out there first, I've enjoyed the hell out of Vincenzo Natali's other films. Cube being one of the best Sci-Fi/Horror hybrids I've seen in many a moon, Cypher was a well thought out but not quite well executed film but still was a good time waster & Nothing was in my top 10 films of 2003, I enjoyed it that much. So when I heard he was taking on a film that had a very Cronenberg of the 80's vibe, I was stoked to say the least.
I can now say it was Cronenberg light & more akin to Scanner's 2 & 3 than to Cronenberg's The Fly, not that that's a bad thing(I love those Scanner's sequels). There was allot of hyperbole surrounding this film which in it's own right did not deserve. People comparing it to Cronenberg in the first place had set the bar at atmospheric heights it could never achieve, & I'll admit it got me pumped to see it. Second, Guillermo del Toro jumped on board as an executive producer which coming off his amazing film Pan's Labyrinth & adding his name to a very creepy Spanish film called El orfanato(The Orphanage) got all the horror fandom frothing at their mouths. Throw in some fairly big (by Canadian standards) named stars & this film looked to be a huge success..............NOPE.
My biggest problem is Natali IMO can't handle a movie with a budget over 5 million. Cube cost 500,000, great film. Nothing cost 2 million(I've heard) great film. Cypher cost nearly 8 million with so-so results & now Splice cost in the area of 26 million with so-so results, I know it's not entirely Natali's fault, with bigger budgets comes allot of unwanted baggage in the ways of people telling you what to do & how to spend your dough but it seems other directors handle the stress better than Natali. These bigger budgeted films seem rushed & are Hodge-podged together to appease the money people. That being said for a movie that cost 26 million it is quite cheep in today's market when even TV shows are approaching the high single digit millions per episode & are less satisfying than this film (Dexter season 5 anyone!!!!!) I just wish Natali had the weight of say Cronenberg in order to say "Relax I know what I'm doing & leave me alone", if that were the case then Splice would have been the second coming because all the elements were there. Instead we end up with The Fly 2, which is just fine if your a trash film fan like myself but to most folks it was utter garbage.

Shutter Island

 When US Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) arrives at the asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, whats starts out as a routine investigation quickly takes a sinister turn. As the investigation unfolds & Teddy uncovers more shocking & terrifying truths about the island, he learns there are some places that never let you go.













Alright I'll start with the good before I rip into this stanley steamer. The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear, Scorsese is my favorite contemporary director. The man has made some truly remarkable films from Boxcar Bertha to Mean Streets to Taxi Driver to The Departed & everything in between, his list of hits out ways the duds ten fold. He always seems to assemble a cast of actors that will bring out the very best  that the script has to offer & if you go by the fact he has more returning actors than I would guess anybody else currently working in Hollywood, they all love to work with him. So with Shutter Island we have DiCaprio returning for the 4th time, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow & the extremely hot Emily Mortimer, so how could this film do anything but succeed, easily.....horror is one genre Scorsese is not suited for. Maybe a bit harsh, maybe this story was just a dud & he needs to go & talk to veteran horror directors, I don't know but this movie reeked of a reject from M.Night Shyamalan-ding-dong. I don't think I'm typing any spoiler here, but from the moment DeCaprio says"Where's my smokes" about 5 minutes into this film I knew the direction this film heading. Did I guess it 100%....nope but I was at 90% for sure & that last 10% means fuck all.  Was it fun riding the film to it's conclusion.....yes & no. While watching this film I was thrown back to Scorsese's other "horror" film Cape Fear & how much I was ultimately disappointed with that film. You assemble a top notch cast, have a clear vision in how the film should look & feel, roll out the film & all tension, that should be there in spades, falls flat....I MEAN FLAT.
I'm going to end this here & give this film a second chance sometime in the near future & see if it changes my view of it. Hopefully it will, but if Cape Fear is any indication it won't.