Day of the Sirens

Ambitious is the best word I could use to describe this film. After reading a press piece by the director Brady I was curious to see on his tiny budget if in fact he had pulled his concept off. Now yes this film is nothing like films coming out of Hollywood, with the exception of perhaps Falling Down, but it's British and designed to play to a different target audience. It is in fact a real curiosity, the director like Goddard in Alphaville, cleverly uses locations and real documentary footage and wonderful sound design (note the corridor sequence a the radio station) to create a genuine feeling of a city under attack, it is never grandiose and ridiculous, in fact it's so darn right colloquial and pedestrian it at times seems so every day normal that it is subversive in that you don't feel like your really watching a dramatisation, more like a weird documentary which therefore begins to get slowly under your skin. Whilst some of the minor characters are weak and two-dimensional all the leads are convincing to excellent in range. A telemovie in reality but an exceptionally good one and on the budget very impressive. Recommended viewing when it comes around on cable.

I've seen many comments on this movie(recently seen on IMDb)that range from "best movie ever" to brutal slating, that it's boring, pointless, etc. Well, I find that the film is between both of these extremes. It does a good job of conveying the turmoil of a city under threat of a terrorist attack, that is very realistic, spot on (like Mike Leigh does action, a bit weird but very interesting), I really liked the action sequences which for a low budget movie were quite remarkable in their scale and content. The character tie-ins work very well, and do a good job of keeping things moving. Problem is, that I ended up not caring much about all of them, with the exception of the Saeed Jaffrey, the Spanish girl was a shock but I never felt like I knew or cared about her, Mayall was interesting but his character was only beginning to open up when his performance was suddenly over. Theakston does a good job on the cinematography in his DOP debut but in the final analysis, this could've been better if Brady would've reigned in his overindulgent script, had better dialogue, focused on less characters and fleshed out the remaining ones better, eschewed the Lisa Shaw character (at least the Police Commander that seems stuck to spot) and had an ending that made sense. Themes such as dispossession and terrorism have been handled better by more accomplished directors. So, I give it 6/10 - not terrible, but not a great film that I could recommend, given a sensible budget though I guess it could of been much better, but trying to create a film of this scale on a micro budget was always doomed to failure.

Day of the Sirens is a bad film. End of story. It may have the odd good thing in it, but it is a bad film. Saeed Jaffrey hammed beyond all belief, Rik Mayall blatantly couldn't give a toss and everyone else fell between panto and wooden. The plot is pathetic and badly writte, the dialogue is appalling, the camera work shaky at best, the sets and locations are terribly, continuity non-existent, the Spanish sub-plot irritating and pointless and the special effects were surely the result of a technician having a laugh. The production values are as low as you can get and one or two glaring inconsistencies in the plot and casting really do need to be pointed out to the director/writer. 1. Jewish boys are rarely named Christian. 2. They rarely have Irish Catholic mothers. 3. Elderly Asian gentlemen with strong accents are rarely called Albert Page. 4. Radio Juan is not funny. 5. Ripping off 'Seven' is not clever. Don't watch this film unless you're drunk and have a skip facility on your DVD player.

Saw this at a student friends house who has a collection of all of the directors other titles, and he watches them when he's wrecked and laughs himself silly. I however didn't quite see the funny side as I watched something that was quite honestly the worst film I've ever seen. Some of the scenes were so badly shot, lit, acted, directed and written, half the time I felt like the director was secretly mocking the audience - laughing at us while we watch open mouthed at this horrific display of poor acting, terrible dialogue and cheap hand held dodgy video camera-work.

The ultimate shot for me was when a gang of "commandos" storm a house that is about to explode, in a scene blatantly stolen from SPEED. I couldn't believe it when my friend pointed out to me that one of these "commandos" looked about 20 stone and had a ponytail! Another corker is when the lead actress (if you can call her that) is "sealed" in a car as their is a risk of chemical/nuclear contamination. However what they use to do the sealing is obviously shaving foam!!!!! It's like an early episode of Doctor Who, but without the snappy dialogue and convincing performances. Saaed Jaffery looks completely past his prime and in most scenes he can barely speak let alone act. The one moment when I nearly cried laughing is when he has to take his dog to the vets to be put down, and the dog is leaping around the place full of health and joy.

Bad, Bad, Bad...

A City, it could be any large City is being attacked by a terrorist group, they strike erratically, killing seemingly for no reason or purpose, they have make no demands, their victims are of different nationalities, ages, religions, ages. 'Day of the Sirens' is a post 9/11 movie, a nightmare waiting to happen, a dramatisation of a City under attack, confused helpless. Stark and chilling drama that will make you loose sleep.