O Elevador da Morte

After being completely disappointed with The Ool, my friends and I stuck in The Shaft only to be completely delighted (ouch, bad one). The Shaft (or Down,as it was apparently called at one point) follows the exploited elevator industry as the poor machines have to fight off babies and blind men and roller bladers.

The Shaft is a perfect fit for anyone who wants some fun. I mean, look at that cast! It's B-movie heaven. Watching Ron Perlman's impassioned defense of the elevator industry is golden, and Naomi Watt's 'acting' is once again fun to watch.

The pacing is the real villain in this flick, as it drags on with useless characters and stupid tangents when elevators killing people really should have been the sole focus of the movie.

The climactic battle between the evil elevator which includes, yes, a rocket launcher that shoots invisible rockets, is golden. I will admit with little uncertainty, that this is simply the best Hedaya/Herrmann/Perlman/Ironside/Watts v. possessed elevator movie out there, and, for my money, was worth the fifty cent rental.

Rating: 2/10

THE SHAFT (aka: DOWN) is Director Dick Maas' update of his 1980s classic, THE LIFT. This time, the gory action takes place in NYC instead of Amsterdam, and Mr. Maas ups the ante with some big names involved. Naomi Watts plays the reporter and James Marshall is the elevator repairman. The cop on the case is Dan Hedaya.

Other than a few alterations, the basic story is the same as the original, with most of the same death sequences. The biggest difference is its scale, now drawing the attention of the US President. The whole terrorism angle is coincidentally bizarre, especially since this came out just before 9-11. In retrospect, it is creepy that they mention Osama Bin Laden and the Twin Towers.

Both Ms. Watts and Mr. Marshall are good in their sleuthing roles. Watch for Ron Perlman as the cantankerous boss of the elevator repair company, and Michael Ironside in another terrific psychopathic badguy role.

While not quite as good as the first incarnation, this movie is fun to watch...

It all begins with a sweeping, awe-inspiring shot of The Millennium Building, one of New York City's premier hotels, housing all of 100-some odd floors. We zero in on two goombah bellboys spying on an old man and two old-looking women boinking in a highrise across the street; this scene brings to mind Brian De Palma's "Body Double," and the decent production values mixed with aforementioned homage give the viewer an (admittedly misleading) impression of what's to come. While fully aware of the (admittedly deserved) bad reputation most DTV efforts have, "The Shaft" at least starts off with promise. Writer-director Dick Maas (remaking his 1983 Dutch original, "The Lift") has a knack for framing scenes, building suspense, and keeping his camera firmly in the moment. The problem is, his script is a muddled misfire, never quite settling on a solid path; the result is an accidental bending of sci-fi, horror, and flat-out action that never gels as well as it should. After an elevator in the Millennium knocks off a bunch of victims in extravagant fashion, the plot devolves into a drawn out (and ultimately unsuccessful) search for The Truth--suddenly elevator repairman James Marshall (imagine a cut-rate Brad Pitt) and fetching reporter Naomi Watts (pre-"Mulholland Drive") are standing in for Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, turning this into "El.A. Confidential." And in the final act, Maas spins the film into the outer limits of absurdity with a Michael Bay extravaganza of stunts and explosions, throwing in some references to Osama bin Laden and terrorism (pre-9/11!) for good measure. Save for Watts' lead role, most of the big names on the video box (including Ron Perelman, Dan Hedaya, Edward Herrmann, and Michael Ironside) are relegated to smaller 'guest appearances' (though every little bit helps). Big names aside, the premise is stretched so thin that you'll be hard-pressed to care about anything by the time the noisy climax rolls around. "The Shaft" takes a concept with genuine horror potential and transforms it into a bowl of cold oatmeal.

You know, people will probably bust up this movie, but it was really pretty good. It had a bit of a far fetched plot, but it was funny in places and the gore wasn't bad. The bit when the elevator chopped off the guy's head was a decent effect -- slow motion and relatively seamless. And the fact that they had references to terrorism in a NY skyscraper -- before 9/11 -- was pretty cool. Even made reference to the 93 attempt on the WTC and to Bin Laden -- a while before the actual event. Eerie. At least someone out there connected the dots. I'd rent it again.

It amazes me how often deliberately cheesy, tongue-in-cheek horror films are misconstrued as poorly made garbage. Down (AKA The Shaft), director Dick Maas' 2001 remake of his own 1983 Dutch horror De Lift, opens with the camera gliding gracefully over the NY skyline to eventually come to rest on 'The Millennium Building' where two night watchmen use an observation telescope to spy on big-breasted hookers at work in a neighbouring skyscraper; it's a superbly executed and wonderfully trashy opening that should make it crystal clear that Maas knows exactly what he is doing—making a highly entertaining, campy schlock/horror that shouldn't be taken seriously—and yet there are still those who seem to have missed the joke.

Oh well, it's their loss, because when viewed as intended, Down proves to be a lot of fun, packed as it is with outrageously silly deaths, delightfully daft dialogue, and knowingly clichéd characters—precisely the kind of stuff I would expect to see in a horror film about a murderous 'living' elevator controlled by a malevolent state-of-the-art computer chip enhanced by living brain tissue.

An excellent cast clearly have a blast in their two-dimensional stock roles, with a gorgeous pre-A-list Naomi Watts as a feisty newspaper reporter, James Marshall as a cocky elevator engineer, Ron 'Hellboy' Perlman as the shady owner of the elevator company, Dan Hedaya as a grizzled NY detective, and Michael 'Scanners' Ironside as a loathsome scientist hellbent on perfecting his pet project, whatever the cost. Maas keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace, handling the special effects set-pieces, wry humour, and gruesome shocks with confidence, even going so far as to kill off women, children, and animals along the way.

And if all that isn't enough to pique your interest, let's not forget about the eerily prophetic scene in which characters discuss the possible use of a plane in a terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre; with 9/11 just around the corner, it stands out as a genuinely chilling moment in an otherwise intentionally ridiculous and wonderfully OTT piece of nonsense.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.