Tower BlockJames Moran's dark Tower Block once again puts us with the British people in a terrible situation that just shouldn't be happening. Trapped in high rise slum, better known as a tower block the local residents on a top floor are having trouble with someone shooting at them any time they look out a window. They've been trapped inside their building with no way out and no way to call for help. Why are they trapped? Who wants them dead and why?
James Moran grabs your attention in this new thriller where a few local residents of a slum have to deal with a dire situation. Once again it's the characters that drive this film. A young, but strong female lead by the name of Becky becomes the sort of leader of the survivors trying to figure out what happend. You've got a recovering alcoholic, devoted old strong husband, gangster punks and even a gamer kid playing Call of Duty all the time, talk about irony.
Just a note, really enjoyed putting the gamer kid in the film. He brings in some gun knowledge from all his learned from gaming, pointing out what type of gun is being used and how much it goes for.
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| I like this poster a bit more than the American release |
The art style for this film is very sepia, colors are low and gray, you never see the sky being that bright. Plenty of close-up to see how racked with horror the residents are after seeing someone gunned down. It never goes for total gore until the end of the film which has some very painful looking moments.
It's a thriller, but Moran should have stayed with his comedy style, the film is a little to dark without a silver lining. It flows away from being that memorable and something you might just like seeing on the weekend one night at your house.
A rental, but I'd like to see more from Moran, his other latest film Cockneys Vs. Zombies was just a bit off to from being great, both might be director's fault, so maybe find better directors.
A little bonus quick review
The TowerHow could I pass it up when it comes out one week later in the US and has "Tower" in the title too? This goes straight into so bad it's good and on top of that it's a Christmas movie. From CJ Entertainment the company that can't seem to understand that not all cgi looks good and keeps trying to break into the US market.
Oh.. set on Christmas eve a futuristic new tower has a fire and you follow all the many residents as they die and try to survive the building collapsing and eventually being blown up. There are so many levels of oddities that you could pick apart. It starts easy enough as a drama film about family that didn't need special effects, but then that gets kicked in the face and then thrown off the tower with science-fiction and the most selfish characters I've seen outside of cartoons that it's ridiculous.
I don't know what writing skill they teach in Korea, but there is no subtle way of saying this movie hates rich people and Korean politicians. The people in this are comically cruel or evil or selfish and pay with their lives as they toss pregnant women to the side or do something else way out of human nature that cost them their lives.
For how dumb people are technology is incredibly advanced in this film. Sci-fi elements aren't like aliens or robots, but way too expensive or impossible to have technology such as helicopters connected to snow making machines, full cgi structures brought up on computer screens with detailed views of what will happen if a fire goes somewhere in the tower. My favorite part might be the Titanium steel fire proof doors located in the building which would cost so much and are so thick that it's riculous they would ever be put in the building unless only the riches men on Earth lived in it.
It's the perfect Christmas movie to watch at an independent theater.
The Blu-ray/DVD's were provided by the publisher for review