Black Death reviews

[patch]

There aren’t many British horror films you could call Bergmanesque with even slim justification, but Christopher Smith’s Black Death is out of the ordinary.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/7818948/Black-Death-film-review.html

[shalgerson]

It is goooooooooooooooood to hear all the positive reviews!!!!   

[lasue]

Sean's towering performance!!!!! Please show this film in America!!!! It would be a hit here!!!

[patch]

Here's a link to a whole page of BD reviews,some good,some bad.


 http://news.google.nl/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=nl_nl&hl=en&as_qdr=a&as_drrb=q&cf=all&ncl=dmGaPx_P-aqKOfMYXVqCBqBMnYjCM

[patch]

Despite occasionally succumbing to the portentous (“It is claimed these villages are beyond death’s icy grasp,” intones Sean Bean with a commendably straight face), Dario Poloni’s script is a tough-minded examination of the politics of faith that maintains an admirable ambiguity towards a climax in which ‘God is restored’ through fury and vengeance.

While Sean Bean provides most of the fireworks, it’s Eddie Redmayne who steals the show, impressing yet again after his work in Savage Grace and Glorious 39. As Osmund, he switches convincingly between interior agony and exterior impetus before ending the film on a grace note of unsettling pathos.

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/black-death/

[patch]

An atmospheric tribute to classics such as Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man, the script’s somewhat rambling wrangling about faith and fundamentalism plus a thought-provoking ending gives audiences something to sink their teeth into aside from the relatively restrained (for the director of Severance, anyway) gore.


A testament to what can be accomplished with a cheap location, a few costumes and a splash of fake blood.

http://www.metro.co.uk/film/reviews/830367-black-death-gives-you-something-to-sink-your-teeth-into

[patch]

I think I´m getting Black Death Review fatigue!!


Kimberley Nixon talks about her BD experience.  

I’m thrilled that this is a proper boys’ film, because it means my brothers will be able to go and see one of my films and really enjoy it,” explains Nixon, who still lives in her home town of Pontypridd.

“I have six brothers, and in the past I’ve done quite a few girlie films, like Wild Child and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – so when they’ve been to those, they’ve been incredibly embarrassed.

“They won’t be embarrassed going to see Black Death – I reckon they’re going to love it.”

In fact, the boys had better have strong stomachs; in one scene their sister’s dripping in blood, with a horrendous gash in her head.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/arts-in-wales/2010/06/11/paint-it-black-91466-26629375/

[patch]

Filmmaker Smith is terrific at finding humour and humanity in violent situations, and here he relies on his three lead actors to create vivid characters that add a bit of weight to the gore-fest. Redmayne gives Osmund a remarkably introspective personality that actually makes us think he's making some deep moral decisions; Bean is grim and brutish but also reflects some nuance in the situations; and van Houten makes Langiva seductive and suggestive, which is much more interesting than the standard wild-eyed earth mother

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/film.nsf/reviews/blackdeath

[patch]

When were you last horrified by a horror movie? Really horrified, that is, as opposed to merely creeped out, or disgusted, or amused. Black Death is a proper horror movie, for grown-ups rather than ADD-afflicted teens, and I'll wager grown-ups will duly be horrified by it. Not because of the gore - although it does have a fair amount of that - but because it takes you on a real journey into the heart of darkness, and you might not like what you find there

http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1652:black-death&Itemid=27

[Sylvene]

LoL, patch.  I know I am!

[patch]

Good points: It’s atmospherically shot by British director Christopher Smith, who made Creep and Severance and knows how to crank up the tension. Redmayne has wonderfully expressive eyes and Bean does a good job playing himself, as usual.

http://www.sundaymercury.net/entertainment-news/film-news/film-reviews/2010/06/13/black-death-15-66331-26636570/

[shalgerson]

    SB playing himself   

[patch]

If you want something to read,here's a whole page of reviews.Some I've posted before but I couldn't keep up.

http://news.google.nl/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=nl_nl&hl=en&as_qdr=a&as_drrb=q&cf=all&ncl=dyGWK60pTnMmUlMmGaPx_P-aqKOfM

[tinytim]

 

    SB playing himself   

Do not fret, shal!  It's not worth the paper (website) it's written on!

[moonflower]

Good points: It’s atmospherically shot by British director Christopher Smith, who made Creep and Severance and knows how to crank up the tension. Redmayne has wonderfully expressive eyes and Bean does a good job playing himself, as usual.

http://www.sundaymercury.net/entertainment-news/film-news/film-reviews/2010/06/13/black-death-15-66331-26636570/

So, the reviewer thinks that Sean is a one note actor, who always gives the same performance?  He needs to go back through Sean's catalog of films then he'll see what a varied and talented actor he is.

[shalgerson]

  , MF!!      One note reviewer, more like!!       

[patch]

The same can't be said of Christopher Smith, a British horror director (Creep, Severance, Triangle) who doesn't stint on the grisly dismemberings in his latest film, Black Death. Set in 1348, it stars Eddie Redmayne as a novice monk who volunteers to guide Sean Bean's knight and his gang of yellow-toothed thugs through the forests where he grew up. They're on a mission from God (or one of His bishops, anyway) to investigate a village that has been left mysteriously untouched by the plague.

Black Death may be reminiscent of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it should find favour with fans of The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General, and any number of Hammer horror films. You've got to respect the blood and thunder of Dario Poloni's screenplay, as well as Smith's commitment to squelching, crunching nastiness. No instrument of torture is left unused

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/greenberg-noah-baumbach-107-mins-15brblack-death-christopher-smith-92-mins-15brbrooklyns-finest-antoine-fuqua-132-mins-18-1998839.html

[shalgerson]

Sean Bean has revealed he finds it interesting playing dark characters.
The 51-year-old's roguish good looks make him the perfect choice for playing brooding and often villainous roles such as the Irish republican terrorist in 1992's Patriot Games, James Bond's nemesis in 1995's GoldenEye and the treasure hunter in 2004's National Treasure.

"Yeah obviously that's what directors and casting directors think," the actor says on having the 'look' of an authentically menacing villain.

"I'm usually quite optimistic and positive but tend to play these dark characters, which I find very interesting actually as an actor."

Sean can currently be seen in Black Death. The film is set in 1348, when the plague is decimating all in its path, and fear and superstition are rife.

The star plays Ulric, a knight and envoy of the bishop who's charged by the church to investigate rumours of an isolated village hidden in marshland that the plague cannot reach.

"I was fascinated by the script because it deals with the moral issues of religion and faith and the moral dilemma of what to believe in when there is such tragedy, chaos and mayhem, almost like hell on earth," says Sean.

:: Black Death opens in cinemas on June 11.



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/entertainment/sean-on-playing-dark-characters-14839809.html?r=RSS#ixzz0qhePOsfb

[patch]

The work of a highly competent British horror director, Christopher Smith, this is a familiar tale of life in a plague-ridden, mid-14th-century England, where everyone, in the immortal phrase of Quentin Tarantino, is getting medieval on everyone else's ass by way of torture, evisceration, decapitation, crucifixion and burning at the stake.


Sean Bean, a fanatical believer, recruits novice monk Eddie Redmayne from David Warner's monastery to guide a revenge mission against a distant village that has managed to avoid the pestilence through the agency of a demonic necromancer (Dutch actress Carice van Houten). At the climax, belief and disbelief are painfully tested. It's a solemn affair, atmospherically staged on German locations, that aims for but does not achieve the Seventh Seal of approval

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/13/black-death-review

[patch]

This slowly encroaching tide of violence rises and rises again until it engulfs the entire group in a set-piece action sequence of such unparalleled cinematic savagery that it makes the Normandy landings in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) look like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan gently flirting over a cup of coffee.

http://ruthlessculture.com/2010/06/13/black-death-2010-the-appeal-of-a-well-ordered-universe/