Synopsis
The Millennium Building in New York has a problem: its central express elevator hasdeveloped a mind of its own, and is killing people. Even as horror movie concepts go, this ispretty preposterous, but what saves the film is its very awareness of its own preposterousness,and its willingness to go insanely over the top. So, on the debit side: the plot makes virtually nosense at all, with a great many threads left dangling; the post-synch voices are often ratherawkward, with t…e result that Naomi Watts (as a tabloid reporter investigating the deaths) soundsas if she is a terrible actor; lots of the CGI work (particularly of the building itself) is prettycheesy. On the other hand: there are some fabulously grotesque deaths (if you like the RubeGoldberg deaths of the Final Destination movies, you’ll have fun here); there are some veryfunny lines; and there are character turns by such old hands as Dan Hedaya, Ron Perlman andMichael Ironside. The film’s pre-9/11 status is obvious, with the result now that some sceneshave an even more surreal quality than they might have had otherwise (you’ll know them whenyou see them). On balance: good goofy fun for horror fans.
Audio
Pretty decent work here, with both 5.1 and 2.0 options available. The sound is clean andclear, and while the dialogue has no distortion, it does have the unnaturally boosted sound ofdubbing (even though most of the cast are clearly speaking with their own voices). This is more afacet of the film than the disc, however. The sound effects are good too, with a pretty consistentuse of background effects (the rain is particularly well done).
Video
There is no grain, the contrasts are very strong, and the colours are excellent, varying fromnaturalistic exteriors to pleasingly artificial warmth in the Millennium Building’s art decointeriors. The bad news, though, is the format: full screen, cropped from 2.35:1. The effect of thecropping is painfully obvious at times, most strikingly during a revelation scene involving thetime codes on a videotape. The sudden close-up of the numbers is missing so much of the pictureon either side that the image is utter nonsense, the impact of the moment is lost, and we have towait for the dialogue to explain what we have just witnessed.
Special Features
Nothing except the trailer, and the menu is basic.
Closing Thoughts
Big fun, heavy on the cheese, but the cropping of the film really hurts.
Special Features List
- Trailer
