maximumhong

Revenger's Tragedy is a great little movie directed by Alex Cox and starring Christopher Eccleston as the "Revenger." Probably not for young audiences (language, violence), but is timely and full of of quirky, chaotic fun.

"Let the man who seeks revenge remember to dig two graves." This is the message the film begins with. How apt, considering the nature of the film and the state of the world's affairs today.

Christopher Eccleston is a brilliant actor and can tackle any role with a unique and charming fervor. Here, he plays a tortured man on top of his game of seeking revenge for the murder of his bride. He's a 'bone-setter' by trade, and he even carries around his bride's skull and rants and raves with it.

Derek Jacobi plays the villainous, lecherous duke who is the target of revenge. With such a determined performance, one would not believe that the actor was paid little to nothing for his involvement.

Eddie Izzard plays a son of the Duke and the next in line, and a reluctant power junkie. I love the off-casting, because usually Eddie Izzard is the funny man but in this case he is the witty but ultimately corrupt fall guy.

If you've seen Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, and Straight to Hell, take that impression and combine it with a Jacobian revenge tragedy (language unchanged), add Eccleston and Eddie Izzard and Derek Jacobi, with little or no budget, and you have a memorable way to spend 2 hours of your life. This won't be a remembered or highly-sought after film, but then again, the truly unique ones never are.

Boogeyman was fairly interesting, and it might have been better served by surround sound than by a mono FM transmission. But ultimately it failed to impress because of its sudden over-use of CGI when revealing the monster (a common crime with horror movies these days).

This has been my problem with so many horror and suspense films of the last decade. The entire movie can be amazingly non-cgi, with great washes of color and tone, but all of a sudden we are pummeled with out-of-this-world dazzling computer FX, and they don't blend at all with the rest of the movie. The first time I noticed this was in watching Sleepy Hollow, when the Headless Horseman finally gets his head back. It just doesn't match the tone of the rest of the movie. And the same can be said here. What might have been a good, creepy Saturday Night movie turns out to be a waste of time BECAUSE of CGI.

I don't despise the use of CGI, but I don't think it's always necessary when a greater effect could be achieved with real props. These filmmakers who are dishing out horror movies every weekend need to go back to the '70s and re-watch some of those low-budgeteers like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead. Then they will realize how much more effective realism, even cheap realism, can be. Some CGI, like in the case of Fellowship of the Ring (Balrog), is so brilliantly rendered that it works perfectly. But a number of lower-budget films simply can't compete with what Peter Jackson and Lucas are doing, and they would be better off not using it or at least using it in the background rather than in key effects.

All in all, great Drive-In fare, but I wouldn't bother watching it again.