Reviews

Buried seems to be a very divisive film. I'm seeing lots of 1 star reviews, and lots of 8-10 star reviews.

**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**

I won't rehash the plot, as every other review seems to. I will say that the movie is extremely taut, claustrophobic, well-paced and tense, and that at every step you will believe that this man - who has woken up buried alive - is desperate to survive and is trying to come up with a possibility of escape.

The reason that this movie is getting so many 1 star reviews is because it is REALISTIC. Yes, REALISTIC.

I imagine most of the reviewers giving it low scores are viewers who don't yet have the maturity to face up to a hopeless situation. Most movies these days give the hero impossible odds to overcome, and he DOES overcome them... because it's a movie. In real life impossible odds means that you fail, you lose. Say goodbye.

Well, the odds are impossible in this movie. The main character wakes up in a box with almost zero mobility. The air supply is limited. He has only a lighter and a mobile phone (initially). He is in a foreign country, with no knowledge of his precise location. It is a nightmare situation. The odds are practically impossible. Yet we do believe that survival is possible. No, we almost DEMAND it. We hope and we pray that he will get out of that box. We empathise completely with his situation, but we believe there must be a way out.

And that is why the movie is garnering such a mixed response. He doesn't get out. It was doomed from the start. He's been put in there by men who don't give a damn whether he survives or not. By men who've killed other innocent people and will continue to do so because their country is war torn and they are angry and desperate. His only hope is the US government and a hostage working group, whom he communicates with by phone. Every conversation is an exchange of information, with Reynolds's character offering whatever information he can in exchange for vague promises of help, and the various people on the other end of the phone having their own agendas and needs. But ultimately what can they do? His location is unknown and his phone is untraceable. They're looking for a needle in a dusty haystack. He can't get himself out and they can't find him to get him out.

Read all of the 1 star reviews for comments like "why didn't the guy just use the knife to dig himself out?" and "he wastes oxygen using the zippo for light, what an idiot". He doesn't use the knife because every crack in the box lets sand in, and without the manoeuvrability to stand up, he would increase the speed at which he is buried. Remember, he cannot sit up, reach past his thighs, or even lift his head all the way up. And he uses the zippo for light because the alternative is to save oxygen while sitting there in the dark waiting for death. Action requires the use of resources, but only action gives the hope for success. Everyone seems to criticise his actions but I haven't yet seen a plausible escape plan offered up.

If you're the type of person who thinks that if you were buried alive you would simply one-inch-punch your way out Kill Bill style then you're not going to like Buried. It's as simple as that, because your solution is fantasy and you will have no interest in seeing how such a situation would actually play out.

This movie is about THE CHARACTER's choices. It's about what HE chooses to do for survival. If the viewer has the wisdom to accept the reality of the situation presented, and the understanding that this isn't some safe video game puzzle but rather a man's struggle to not die alone in a box somewhere in Iraq then they will find this movie hauntingly powerful.

If you only want happy endings and the overcoming of impossible odds then you will probably hate this film. It will upset your delicate notion that life is sparkly and everything works out for the best. You will probably give it 1 star and explain how you would have killed the snake, cut off it's tail and used it as a hose to breathe through.

But one thing's for sure: it will get under your skin and it will evoke a REACTION from you. And isn't that what good cinema is about anyway? See this film. You might hate it. But at least it will make you THINK.

I just got home from having watched Revenge Of The Fallen, and my initial impressions are that this is the worst film I've ever seen in the cinema. The first film was pretty boring, but at least it had some soul to it and the action was fun.

This film has absolutely no soul. All of the new transformers are generic look-a-likes with no personality. Prime is literally the ONLY likable robot in this movie. I could go on and on about how stupid it is to give transformer hip-hop lingo and English accents but it's not worth the energy.

I looked the film up just now and immediately discovered the reason why the film feels so badly structured, why there is no tension in the movie, why you JUST DON'T CARE what happens at ANY point in this film: the outline for this movie was knocked out in 2 weeks because of the writer's strike. The writers bashed out a rough storyline in a hurry, then Michael Bay himself wrote a 60 page 'scriptment' outlining the action scenes, jokes (which are nearly all puerile toilet humour, or adolescent stoner jokes) and new transformer designs. Michael Bay has no business as a writer and this film is the proof. The screenwriters were then given 4 weeks to turn Bay's 'scriptment' into a full script. 4 weeks!! Most decent films take at least a year to write! Oh, and then they were paid $8 million for their troubles. Jeez.

The film is 2 and a half hours long but could have easily been 45 minutes shorter. The dialogue is horrible all of the time and there is no character development throughout the whole thing. Both Le Bouef's and Fox's characters are exactly the same at the end of the movie as they are at the start, and the Transformers by their very definition don't have personalities to develop. Character development is the essence of EVERY FILM! Doesn't Bay know that?? No wonder this film is such a noxious turd. We're supposed to care that the world is in jeopardy, but at no point does the threat seem real because everyone is 2-dimensional. Even when Optimus 'dies' we don't care.

The only time I ever got involved in the on-screen action was the fight sequence in the woods. Optimus kicks a lot of robot ass and it was a taste of how this film could have been had someone just had the sense to throw the script away and write a better one. Oh, and to get a better director. Even the explosions got old waaaay before the end because action is meaningless unless it puts something or someone in danger, and makes you feel that danger acutely. You get the feeling that stuff blows up in the film because it can. It changes nothing. It serves no purpose. It is dull.

3 things to note about this movie:

1. Don't even try to follow the plot. It's a waste of energy. As soon as people start teleporting to Egypt, give up. It's a mess from here on.

2. The twins are the most obnoxious attempt to appeal to a black audience I've ever seen. They are also cinema's most irritating on-screen creation since Jar Jar Binks.

3. If you watch it, see how many other films this one pays 'homage' to (read: blatantly rips off). I counted 12 movies, the most glaring of which are Armageddon (asteroids falling on Paris), the Terminator franchise (robot woman clinging onto a moving car) and the Matrix (every single slow motion 360 pan, and the fact that all the new Transformers just look like squiddies). See also Indiana Jones, Star Wars, LOTR and many more. Originality is truly dead here.

To summarise, you know something is wrong when you are actually rooting for the main characters to die at the end just so the freaking film will end. I watched this film with 12 people and every single person declared this among the worst films they've ever seen. Watch at your own peril.

Wow, i cannot believe that after reading 70% of the reviews for this film, not ONE PERSON criticises what is probably the dumbest ending to a potentially great film i've ever seen. I really couldn't believe that they (and everyone else who's commented on this movie - who i can only assume are all teenagers) thought this was a good idea, and a fitting way to end a really creepy film! I'm about to tell you the ending, so look away if you haven't seen it...

So basically we are supposed to believe that this ghost has been riding around on the main character's shoulders for the duration of the movie? (But not the duration of his life since he royally screwed her over...why do ghosts wait years before taking revenge?)

A GHOST RIDING ON A CHARACTER'S SHOULDERS WITHOUT HIM REALISING.

Let that sink in for a minute and then tell me again that you give this movie 10 out of 10. He has neck pain throughout the film. Because she's sat on his shoulders. Wouldn't he have major cramp in his legs also? Wouldn't she keep banging into stuff when he walked around? Wouldn't his balance be f'ed? And why does she wait to reveal this to him right at the end using a photo when he can see her repeatedly throughout the rest of the movie? It's really quite brilliantly nonsensical, which is a real disappointment because other than that the film is REALLY RATHER GREAT.

The direction, Foley work and acting are all very well executed, the action is creepy (if not in any way original), and it would have been a classic had it arrived before Ringu and Ju-on. And had the ending not been so bloody silly.

If you're a 14-year-old girl then this may well be the best horror film you've ever seen; but if, like me, you are an adult...it really lets itself down. I'm giving it 8 because in spite of it's inane plotting i like it - and because i think others, who are less demanding than me, will love it. However, if you demand logic in your films BE WARNED. You won't find it here.