Cold Fish

Having recently rented this movie I have to recommend it to all the readers on IMDb. It really is a really great thriller. A Great story with some strong acting and some really wonderful and engaging imagery. Using selected news footage the film makers have manipulated them to produce images of real artistic quality.

This film takes you quite literally in to the dark and ominous world of The Henleys, a pair of scandal hungry video artists. Their reality of how they produce some of these images is investigated and uncovered by the freelance video journalist Alex as he ventures in their distasteful world. This film may shock some people but I could thoroughly recommend it to those brave enough.

There are bad movies, then there are truly bad movies. Then there is a lower level of cinematic excrement to which Cold Fish belongs. This pitiful excuse of a film is primarily let down by the actors. The lead played by Jon-Paul Gates (no - I have never heard of him either!) has the charisma and screen presence of a house brick. His dismal wooden acting is not the only thing to make you squirm in this film - wait till you have to endure the 'baddies'! Two more names we've never heard of (I can't imagine why) Conrad Asquith and Nadia Straham play a couple of performance artists who like to shock their audience by showing footage of executions. This in turn gave the director of Cold Fish the excuse to show us the self-same footage. This was cheap and exploitative. I don't think it's the place of popular cinema to use real newsreel footage of executions to titillate the audience. But back to Nadia Straham, who obviously based her performance on the "Rocky Horror Show" as she clearly was from Transylvania, if her accent was anything to go by. This is for British audiences only - but if I tell you that this film also stars Christopher Biggins - and he gives an almost academy award winning performance compared to the leads in this film - then I think you will start to comprehend that this is a complete waste of 91 minutes of your life. There is a reviewer on this page who has given 3 glowing reviews of this film. I can only imagine that he has invested in the film or is related to one of the actors. British cinema is capable of outstanding work - sadly this sorry fare makes the UK a laughing stock.

"Cold Fish" is a low-budget made for video/TV thriller that delivers with an interesting story about some underground video artists who exhibit people being killed at stuffy cocktail parties. A young "wannabe" reporter has to penetrate and expose the ring. The concept is kind of out there but it was an enjoyable film if you like B genre thrillers where villains are unmistakably villains. Potential cult favorite!

A movie with excellent production value and strong performances, especially from the lead actor. I must say that while this is no Hollywood Blockbuster, it is one of those rare British films that looks like it could have been made in the States.

I can only regret that I invested some money in this film! I've seen many bad ones, but this one is one of the worst films ever… it is just so meaningless, brain dead and badly done! First of all the acting is embarrassing, especially the arty couple is horrendously bad, even worse than average actors in a student film – especially the woman! The main character comes across as a rather big and stupid bloke, but not someone you bother engaging with. His girlfriend is probably the one that gives the best performance (if you can talk about that) but you hardly notice her… About the technical side of the film there is nothing special to remark, except the direction of the camera is very student film look a like and simple, but what frustrates me most as the viewer is the story. Because the story is absolutely meaningless, which becomes more and more obvious as it develops… also the "real life" killing footage is absolutely tasteless, especially because it is advertised so strongly on the front of the DVD cover… No wonder the critics walked out during the screening in Cannes – (I don't think it was because of this films "controversial" qualities) – rather the embarrassment that a film like this could reach Cannes!!! A last remark I would like to make with regards to Cold Fish is the question of who would make a film like this and do it so badly? And why, since the film is originally from 2001, would he or she want to send it out on DVD again in 2005! Are these people completely without any sense of direction and just wanting to make as much money as possibly – if so please change profession… because it doesn't look like you have anything to give with regards to films