watching movies one cup at a time

This film follows in the footsteps of “Cloverfield” and “The Blair Witch Project” as a movie seen entirely from the perspective of one handheld camera. This time it’s about a deadly virus that is an extreme form of rabies, kind of like 28 Days Later but not quite as gruesome. Another movie this year, “Diary of The Dead”, also made a similar attempt at telling a zombie-type flick through a handheld camera. But this one was a little different because the filmmakers decided to go with known actors for all the main roles. Not well-known, but known. The other movies made a point of having unknown actors play all the roles to increase the sense of reality in the footage. That does hurt the film a little bit because it feels as though we’re watching actors acting. Not real people dealing with a crisis. And that brings the movie to a “made-for-TV” level, like so many low-grade disaster movies on the Sci-Fi Channel. Plus this movie really isn’t covering any new ground at all. “28 Days Later” and it’s sequel did a much more terrifying job with the outbreak scenario. And the 2006 indie flick “Right At Your Door” did a much better job with the whole quarantine/disease crisis thing. You’d be better off renting those. This film is passable as something fun to watch on a Friday night, but don’t go out of your way for it. You’re not missing anything.

• The Mist
• Cloverfield