L'ascenseur (niveau 2)

Before Naomi Watts became a big star from her excellent performances in excellent films like "Huckabees", "Mulholland Drive", and "21 Grams"; she was delivering excellent performances in a lot of garbage movies like "The Shaft" aka "Down". And while her performance here does not save the movie, it does elevate (bad pun intended) it to a viewable level.

The only other reason to watch this thing is to see yet another example of the film-making phenomenon that big is not only not better, but much worse. Which is probably related to the human interest angle in journalism, where a large disaster cannot sustain interest as long as the same story on a smaller more human scale.

For those who don't already know it, "The Shaft" or "Down" is Dutch Director/Writer Dick Mass's remake of his 1983 classic "De Lift". One posted comment about the original says: "…. looks technically proficient, with fine color texture, smooth cinematography ( by Marc Felperlaan ) and tight editing ( by Hans van Dongen ), elements that help to maintain a high level of suspense. The story clearly echoes Jaws, with its obsessed hero and corrupted authority figures, who would rather disguise the truth than face it. Despite this movie being his debut, many of Maas's personal trademarks are also already in place: quick pacing, sadistic gore effects modified by edgy humor, mild satire on bourgeois preoccupations, and broadly etched supporting characters".

Apparently the title "Elevator" was already taken and "Lift" was too European for the remake he was left with two very stupid titles with which the distributors have been experimenting since 2001.

In the 1983 version, the elevator of an Amsterdam flat (another European term) misbehaves badly. The elevator begins trying to crush, suffocate and decapitate passengers. Fearless mechanic Felix does battle with the seemingly haunted machine. But the anti-technology twist is that the elevator has developed a mind of its own due to an experimental 'biochip'. Felix is assisted by a magazine reporter named Mieke de Beer ( wasn't that the name of Scotty's German pen pal in "Eurotrip"?).

The original was shot in just 30 days with a very limited budget, this constrained the production resulting in an intimate story, viewers identified with the characters and this greatly enhanced the suspense level. This time someone gave Maas a lot of money and he pumped up the production; moving it to New York, adding tons of unnecessary effects, making the elevator absurdly powerful, and geometrically increasing the size of the cast. The Amsterdam elevator was deadly but in ways that a malfunctioning elevator could be deadly. The new elevator is like a cross between a James Bond story and a poor 1950's science fiction film.

Not surprisingly the human interest wheels fall off immediately. If you ignore your strong impulse to bail and just keep watching you will see decent performances from Watts and the from various character actors who populate the cast.

Unfortunately for Mass, he choose New York City for this 2001 movie and deviated from the original by throwing in some misdirection about terrorists being behind the elevator accidents. There is even a line about the first bombing of the World Trade Center. Apparently this was embarrassing enough to insure that there was no theatrical release.

Dutch director Dick Maas has essentially remade his own 1983 film De Lift with 2001's The Shaft (originally entitled Down), about an evil elevator system that suddenly begins killing people in a fancy-schmancy skyscraper. Artisan has shamelessly redesigned the cover art to resemble The Ring, and to highlight the presence of star Naomi Watts, though who that kid on the cover is supposed to be is really anyone's guess, because he is certainly not in the movie I watched.

In between the dull investigative drivel, Maas delivers a few fun horror moments, including a spectacular elevator door decapitation and a fun bird's-eye P.O.V. of a character's leap off the observation deck. Maas even subjects an elevator full of very pregnant women to a terrifying ride.

With the exception of a few establishing shots, it appears that much of The Shaft was shot in Europe, and the unconvincing "New Yawk" accents of most of the extras is definitely giggle-worthy. To Maas's credit, he has somehow managed to fill the film with a decent blend of familiar faces in supporting roles, including Edward Herrmann (the building manager), Dan Hedaya (a police lieutenant), Ron Perlman (the elevator repair company boss) and venerable bad guy Michael Ironside.

There are brief moments of great fun in the murderous elevator flick, The Shaft, but too much time is spent talking and the dramatic payoff is a real eye-roller, even in B-movie horror terms. Artisan has supplied a solid 5.1 surround track, but the horribly cropped 1.33:1 fullframe transfer almost negates that.

Yep, The Shaft has its ups and downs.

6*(10* Rating System)

....after a blind man's and his dog's death.As the person was a vicious man ,we will not shed a tear for him,but poor dog! What saves this movie (at least in its first hour) is its sense of (black) humor.Although it's sometimes a bit over the top (the nursery school scene is sheer bad taste:it would have taken John Waters to treat it successfully),there are plenty of funny scenes if you do not take them seriously:I particularly dig the "Bergman" lines.

Unfortunately,the last thirty minutes take us back to "the invincible super hero who single-handedly fights evil ".But he was a marine,we are told.

Some kind of remake of the director's "de lift" (early eighties)with a more comfortable budget.

It's pretty good entertainment but you'd better choose Dick Maas's "Amsterdamned" instead.

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.

Down (2001) AKA "The Shaft", based on a previous Shaft movie.

"What goes up must come down."

I saw this critter as "Down" like a Stephen King ditty. It starts very plausible, then turns strange, then downright spooky.

You can pretty much tell what the movie will be about and how it will end. So, the fun comes from watching the different characters go through their experiences as they try to figure out what's going on with the elevators. Is it just poor maintenance and imagination? Is it a cabal of Luddites? The movie was made too close to 9-11.

At least it is not the disaster formula with a scientist being kicked out for rocking the boat. Then again? I did not mind when the elevator consumed this one and that one, but did he have to take the little dog too?