Down (2003)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Absolutely amazing

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I'll be honest: I really just want to belt this one out. I have two more reviews to write and spending any amount of time on The Shaft (and not the good one) is too much time.ATTENTION: THE MOVIE IS ABOUT A KILLER ELEVATOR (or "shaft" or "lift.") Surprisingly, I've now seen three "killer elevator" movies: The Lift, Devil and now The Shaft. Believe it or not, it's better than Devil but a few floors down from The Lift – from what I can remember. It's been awhile and damned Netflix doesn't have The Lift so I can't revisit that shaky climb.So…I guess they're playing on people's claustrophobic fears of an elevator because, quite frankly, the idea behind the three films (three? Really?) is rather dumb. It seems a lot safer to avoid stepping into an elevator than the ocean, as JAWS 2 warns you.Beyond the obvious problems with this feature of a NYC high rise that has a touristy elevator with an attitude, such as terrible acting, laughable dialogue and a sad list of great (Watts) to good (Perlman) actors who should know better…is the length. I mean, really? This is a B-movie, it doesn't pretend to be anything but…and still they thought 111 minutes (when 80-85 would do just fine) was what they needed to tell their story of a, and I repeat: KILLER ELEVATOR?Okay, honestly, it's not the worst movie I've seen, or even the worst B-movie, and I have seen plenty. But, it's still far too long with just awful acting, namely the lead: Marshall as no-good-trying-better elevator repairman, Mark Newman. Also, though some (just a bit) of the "kills" the shaft produces are creative, most are just painfully obvious…for someone who can think of what goes through the mind of a KILLER ELEVATOR.There really is no point of going over the plot…but just to make it quick: It's profitable to keep the beaches (sorry, still on JAWS 2) I mean, one of MANY elevators open, even though there's been some mysterious deaths (and births…don't ask.) New-comer repairman Mark teams up with "smart, sexy and obviously in it for the money" Watts as Jennifer Evans to crack the case of the satanic shaft.It's not at the point of "so-bad-it's-good" but it's worth watching if you're on something. In which I wasn't. Honest. I thought this might be a good substitute to Netflix not having The Lift. I was wrong.

I got this neighbor who scours thrift store video tape bins to find what I can only describe as the worst misuses of VHS media known to man. The worse the movie, the bigger his chest swells with pride for saving it from oblivion. So when he gives me another one of his treasures I said OK, because I was bored out of my mind anyway and knew it would be a trek into weirdness. Incidentaly, here in the US the title of the movie is "The Shaft", my neighbor happens to enjoy the company of men so I suspect he thought he had stumbled upon a porno! Heh, heh, heh... :). Anyway, I popped it in the VCR and was immediately struck by the quality of the cinematography in the opening scene, really novel and well done. The setting kind of reminded me of some of the mid 80's films HBO used to run as filler, the look and pace of it hail to a previous decade. I kept watching and became ever more surprised by all the twists and turns, it really keeps you off balance and that makes it fun. I found myself talking at the screen and bursting out in laughter with some of the ridiculous things the movie asks you to accept. Just a great little quirky, surprising and fun pseudo sci-fi ride.

Just for kicks, let's pretend you're a disgraced military scientist. You want to create "bio-machines" that incorporate mechanical devices with human intelligence. However, your first attempts were always kind of hard to control and turned out a little, well, homicidal. So the military fired you... but of course you want to continue your research. Well why not continue your dangerous research on an elevator in a busy, New York skyscraper that's open to the public? Seems like a good plan. What could possibly go wrong?That's the plot of this one. The elevator kills people because it is partially powered by human brain cells and is apparently evil for no good reason. Yep. Sound scary? Sound at all plausible? Didn't think so.This might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The shocking thing is that Naomi Watts shows up as a newspaper reporter trying to get the scoop on the "killer elevator". What on earth is a real star doing in this thing? I realize it was earlier in her career, but one would think her standards were better than this. Did she read the script before taking the job? Ron Perlman shows up as well; maybe he failed to check out the script too.The dialogue is so bad it's hard to even laugh at it. The acting is hard to stomach. This movie just goes to show that a bad script and bad direction can make any actor look terrible. James Marshall is particularly laughable as the leading man. He looks like a high school drama student trying to remember his lines for the big play.The premise is so strange. Of all the things to experiment on, why would the scientist choose an elevator? Do we really need a super-intelligent elevator? With such a bad premise, one can certainly imagine how the half-baked plot plays out.It's hard to think of one good thing about this movie. It did make me laugh occasionally with its overall amateurish look and terrible dialogue. However, it's not a fun, campy B-movie. Down (aka The Shaft) is just plain boring, formulaic and doesn't make much sense.

My take on this film is that it is a good B movie, or a very good C movie. Come on people, it's time to suspend disbelief. The acting wasn't bad, Ron Perlman and Michael Ironside were in it, and of course there's the Naomi Watts eye candy element. And who doesn't enjoy seeing people get sliced in half by elevators, or well, who hasn't secretly feared being sliced in half by an elevator? Not going to win any Oscars, but hey, considering some of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood, this was pretty refreshingly bad. Of course it gets silly at the end, the bio-computer story line was completely inane. It's a classic B movie, and mostly because of the fact that it made so many creepy 9/11 predictions. Suspend disbelief, kick back, enjoy.