Cold Fish

I had the unfortune to see one of the incarnations of this film (I hear there are many). From start to finish it is bad. The story has been done a million times and a million times better. The main characters are awful. I didn't really care too much for the lead. I wanted him to be caught, plus he was too old for the part. The villians where so hammy. I don't know where Naida's accent came from. The land of "I'll make it up as I go along". Was there a director on set? I think not! And to add to all this the film is overlit (well in the version I saw it was). They was an UFO (eg. Massive Bright Light) just landed in a dark country lane, a building which had it's own shadow in the sky, and a man working a computer monitor, who should of been wearing a wielder's mask. I imgaine that this film will be expelled to straight to video hell. But learn from my mistake and avoid when possible.

Well, I just rented 'Cold Fish' from Blockbuster, being in the mood for something edgy and slightly disturbing. Did it live up to this promise? Well, not really. The first problem is the acting. From the outset, the standard is generally poor overall, however I found the characters of Jo (Alex, the lead's ex-junkie girlfriend) and Jon Henley (one of the baddies) the most distracting. Both actors are very wooden and their line delivery is very stilted; I started hoping Jo might go back on the drugs if it might deliver a bit of emotion in her performance! Other reviewers have criticised the lead actor Jon-Paul Gates (Alex), and, whilst it was hardly Oscar-winning, I didn't find him too off-putting.

The second problem was the supposedly shocking and edgy subject matter. Well, maybe I'm acclimatised to this sort of thing, but it seemed no more risky than watching the BBC evening news. Yes, they used archive clips of genuine executions and disasters; but these have been played a hundred times over already on TV and in documentaries, and their use in a film seemed nothing more than repetitive. By the end I was wondering what content was supposed to justify the 18 rating of the film.

Overall, the plot is interesting enough to sustain you for an hour and a half, and whilst the denouement is rather predictable, it's not that bad a film; just a bit lacking in places and severely restricted by the clearly very low budget.

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.

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.

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