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The Experiment - 4/10
How did this happen? You remake a much respected European movie, which is based on an utterly intriguing true story, you add two of the finest character actors in the business, sprinkle a big budget with big production values and yet you still end up with a utter dross.
They really did snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on this one. But that's Hollywood remakes for you. Whittaker's performance was a little OTT and far from his best work. I guess they cast him because they wanted him to bring some of that unstable menace he produced in the Last King of Scotland but the two performances are lightyears apart.
Adrien Brody's thoughtful performance was better. Competent is probably the best word to use, but for an actor of his talent you expect more than that.
What this movie needed was a steady building of tension and threat towards the helpless/vulnerable, humanised victims. That could've been achieved by revealing more of the inmates backgrounds and endearing characteristic and off set against a backdrop of increasingly disturbing/grittysadistic torture/violence.
In short, this movie should've been more like Scum and less like Lock Up.
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top 10 movies
1. event horizon
2. ju on
3. suspiria
4. the exorcist
5. ringu
6. tcm
7. exorcist III
8. the omen
9. haute tension
10. creep
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