Ogre

I didn't expect a lot from a lowish budget B movie but I admit I quite enjoyed this film for being eerily atmospheric and for the impressive acting by the main characters. The ogre's menacing growl from deep in the forest felt quite unnerving.

John Schneider slotted very neatly into his powerful convincing character. Clearly a versatile actor!

I would have given this film a 7 if it wasn't for ( and I think most people would agree with me here ) a very ify ogre that seemed to be dropped in from a below average video game. When you think of the possible great GGI available in 2008 the ogre certainly could have been vastly improved ( budget allowing ). Yep, a well presented, very well acted, partly 19th Century set sci-fi fantasy film let down by the 19th century CGI.

Ogre was not a good, let alone great, movie, but considering the uninspiring title that I was expecting schlock, I was pleasantly surprised. It does have a lot of flaws, starting with the terrible effects, sadly the Ogre is no exception. There is still the lame gore and cheesy dialogue, while the story is thin, predictable and at times tedious. On the other hand, it is one of the more tolerable movies I've seen on the SyFy channel, because while not mind-blowing the acting does look as though they are putting effort into their roles, John Schneider in particular is interesting to watch. Katherine Isaballe does at times overdo it with the shrillness though. The characters are not characters you remember for years, but they are not as irritating as other characters from the likes of the SyFy disaster movies for instance, and they are not as blatantly stereotypical either. Although the effects do cheapen the film, Ogre didn't look too bad to me, the editing was at least not slip-shod and there was attempts at an atmosphere. Again, the music is nothing extraordinary, but it has some haunting themes and it doesn't feel as though it is slowing the film down. All in all, not bad, not good, just scraping the average line. 5/10 Bethany Cox

When I first saw the previews for this new sci-fi flick, I had the impression I was going to see a film that was as technically and artistically lazy and un-creative as its very title. The film is simply called "ogre" and it's about, well, an ogre. And not a talking one like Shrek. Just a big, lumbering, clumsy green hunchback wearing an apron who roars and likes to tear people into pieces. It's more like a troll.

"Ogre" actually turned out to surprise me, for it was much better than I was expecting. The graphics were just as poor as I anticipated, but everything else, notably the acting, was a major improvement over some of its other brother flicks that keep popping up on and off on the Sci-Fi Channel. Performances by the entire cast were worth writing home about. Not to say they were uniformally magnificent, but they were done by actors and actresses who had a clue of what they were doing and actually stirred to make an effort. The plot of the film was also more interesting...for a low-budget flick.

I am not, however, praising "Ogre" enough to say that it's a good movie. I still have to give it a marginally negative review because of the fact that it did prove to be a little tedious and slow over its running time with not enough action. And there was also some inconsistency I have to point out. Such as some of the secondary characters have old-fashioned muskets and the leading actor carries a contemporary police shotgun. And yet in the scenes where they're shooting it out with the ogre, he's firing shot-after-shot from his shotgun without the slightest recoil and the ones with the muskets are flinching back or falling over from the recoil of older, less reactive weapons.

Bottom line, "Ogre" was not a major surprise, but it was definitely more than I was expecting given the style and results that its brother and sister films on the Sci-Fi Channel have given to me over the years. What it really has to show for itself is its acting and the good performances of the cast. Still, it was a little too slow for me, and thus, I don't highly recommend it.

A group of teens find themselves in ogre their heads. No? :( In order to save themselves from a plague, a small town in the 1800s decide to create a magical pact with a hungry ogre. Each year the town sacrifices one resident to save themselves from the plague, but they also never age, and can never leave the town. Now present day, a group of teens stumble across the town and accidentally unleash the ogre. This isn't exactly original entertainment, but it does include some above par acting, courtesy of the likes of Katherine Isabelle, famous for her stints in Ginger Snaps movies. The dialogue isn't cringe worthy either, which makes a change. The ogre itself actually looked pretty cool as far as I'm concerned. certainly not realistic, but it had a sense of vulnerability which meant it wasn't the usual complete human destroyer. This certainly makes me feel more comfortable approaching the rest of Stephen R. Monroe's work.

I was surprised they showed us the Ogre in the first 15 minutes, pleasantly. That was ballsy considering shrek looks about as real as this CGI discount special. That all said, I decided to suspend belief and judgment and just enjoy the movie. There is a bit of titillating gore to keep us gore people happy and some of the acting is decent. The ogre is in thew movie often and its not dark out...a refreshing change. None of this movie is bad but then again none of it is all that good. Besides the below par CGI (which was forgivable) I have to say the editing was the worst I have seen in some time. The characters were likable and the story fun.

Worth while for B movie fans and those who like your Shrek "R" rated.