Spooked

Oh dear. I went into Spooked full of hope, dashed, sadly. For those of us who grew up in New Zealand in the 80s, Geoff Murphy's movies were pure magic. Goodbye Pork Pie was and still is one of my all time favourite movies. Utu- brilliant. The Quiet Earth- still a very special movie- highly original, thought provoking and pure Murphy- funny, profound, and utterly unique. He went to Hollywood, and fed the machine. He's back in New Zealand, and Spooked is the first narrative film released under his direction since he returned. Murphy has been talking Spooked up big time here in NZ- extended radio interviews, double page interviews in daily papers- the lot. Big time, by NZ standards. Murphy promised a return to form, no more Hollywood dreck- this will be good old fashioned Kiwi Murphy. Most reviews have been fawning in the press here in New Zealand, with the exception of Russell Baillie in the Herald. I went in really wanting to like this movie. Shame, that. I became disturbed when the floppy discs with the incriminating information were declared to be encrypted with PGP, "pretty powerful stuff", yep, takes a whole 5 seconds to crack 'em. Uh oh. For non-kiwis, the plot is based on a book about real events in the early nineties, but this story is contemporary. The end of the movie is signaled clearly at the beginning, and the movie grinds inexorably towards it's preordained conclusion. There are some draw-droppingly awful performances- Kelly Johnson's particularly ill conceived. The computer expert, Raybon Kan, is Asian of course. Cliff Curtis is a fine actor, sadly wasted here. His character is the most frustrating, at the end he is very paranoid, and suspects his car may be sabotaged, and with good cause, yet he gets in and drives it away. Eh? This movie feels very claustrophobic, lots of interior shots (if there is something Murphy totally gets, it's location shooting). The bad guys are watching our hero, he knows they're watching him, yet he doesn't leave the single room where too much of the movie is set. Don't you reckon a Kiwi in that position would pack up the car and go bush (or clear out to Whangarai, Tokoroa, Coromandel) until things settled down? New Zealand is a very easy place to get lost in. That is the other frustrating thing about the film. Many of us know the what of the case, at no stage does Geoff get into why. Why the hell would anyone launder money through New Zealand? Now, there's a story. Most frustrating were the promised references to Pork Pie. These were ham-fisted and downright strange. I mean, how and why would someone be wearing a WW2 flying helmet in any bar, let alone an upmarket one? Maybe it's me. Maybe I wanted to like Spooked too much, and expected something at the standard that Murphy set- with perhaps a bit of flash and polish learned from his Hollywood years. Alas, it was not to be.

All of the comments posted here are bang on the mark. I too went to see Spooked with high hopes and came away incredibly disappointed. I can't believe this screenplay received a greenlight, it reads like a rough draft. What is even worse is that Murphy was all over the media before the film's release lamenting on how difficult it is to obtain funding in this country. The staggering thing is that you can tell a reasonable amount of money has been spent on the film but that none of it makes any different, the film is still broken. A few things in particular irked me: the repeated and annoying cut aways to the jazz musician (a friend of Murphy's) and the reflection of the boom waving up and down in the TV screen in the shots taken at Silverscreen's Auckland headquarters. It was only in the action shots, during the scuffle on the staircase and the dramatic car crash that this movie flowed. That's testament to Murphy's grasp of action movie making, but the rest of Spooked is turgid. Quite possibly the worst NZ movie made in the last ten years.

Rather than drag himself into the 21st century, film maker Geoff Murphy seems content to remain in some no-man's land of a bygone era. 'Spooked' is reminiscent of those early years in New Zealand cinema when movies were plagued by bad writing and characters that seemed to perpetuate the perception that New Zealand is full of boring half-educated blokes raised on rugby, beer and "gidday mate". Here Murphy assembles a bunch of his pals to make a tediously out-of-touch paranoia thriller and one can hardly fathom how this film expected to find an audience. Perhaps Murphy should stick to Steven Segal sequels for Hollywood, or throw in the towel. Quite easily one of the worst New Zealand movies to see the light of day.

Hey, This could have been a lot better for sure but come on. The performances were a bit sketchy here and there and there were some very bad stylistic choices. But there were some really great moments too. But the story itself is very compelling and I found myself overlooking the heavy-handed exposition and terrible shooting as I was carried along by the plot.

Give him a break. I thought he was very bold to take on this material in the first place. He shouldn't be expected to make cinematic history every time he makes a new film.

(And don't think we haven't worked out the SIS paid you to circulate these bad reviews ;-)

It's a shame, because while watching this you can really tell it's got potential. The narration and acting of Cliff Curtis draws you in, and reading a plot summary beforehand creates the element of suspense and intrigue needed.

But alas, the rest of the acting lets it down. Frankly, it was appalling. As if a who's who of New Zealand hospital drama 'Shortland Street' wasn't enough, their overacted, overzealous and bizarre performances lead to a laughable main event. The sole exception is Miriama Smith, whose genuine and warm performance lends contrast to the rest of the cast.

The cinematography is different, the construction is interesting but the screenplay is just strange and leaves you with a mass of confusion and well... a little underwhelmed.

Go see it for a slice of NZ film, just don't go see it for a slice of NZ's BEST film.