The Trigger Effect [1996] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Trigger Effect.......2005-09-20

There's some good bits, some very good bits in fact, in "The Trigger Effect" but unfortunately there are also some pretty ropey bits to off set these. The plot idea is by no means new, but it still works and the very fact that it makes you wonder "what if" makes it very believable and it does question our modern day reliance on electric power.

Matthew and Annie Kay (Kyle MacLachlan & Elisabeth Shue)are a well heeled young couple living in a nice suburb of an anonymous US City. We meet them in the cinema complex of a down town shopping mall where they are enjoying a rare night out from their new born baby. No soon have they got home and paid off the babysitter than the power goes and they wake up in the morning with no lights, no phone and no radio and TV. Matthew is sent to the local chemist for medicine for their daughter's fever but the tension begins to rise when the pharmacist won't serve him without a prescription, something Matthew cannot get without contacting the doctor or access to the pharmacists computer system.

Things get worse when stories of looting and shooting begin to filter down to the Kays and when their neighbours begin to get trigger happy the Kays decide to make a run for relations out of town. Accompanied by Matthew's friend Joe, they plan how much petrol they are going to need and how they should obtain this on-route, but this doesn't prepare them for the lawlessness that has now taken over the US Highways.

As I say the situation and the plot idea work very well, the degeneration of society is both intriguing and exciting and you do feel for these normal law abiding citizens pushed to their limits.

What doesn't work so well is the rather hammy acting all round and the interplay between the main characters is a little suspect. When Joe comes on the scene we presume his is Matthew's best friend and yet the two are almost immediately at loggerheads and although it's plain to see both Joe and Annie hold something of a candle for each other, we don't learn any of the history of the characters which would have rounded the film off really nicely. It's this rather one dimensional factor to the characters that does let it down.

That said there is one scene which is worthy of a special mention. The opening sequence in which we pan through the shopping mall following various people going around their normal business is interesting insomuch as we already see the anger and frustration bubbling under even when "normal" life is in full swing. We realise that something so simple and yet as depriving as a power cut could easily tip these people over the edge.

good movie.......2005-07-28

this isint a big bugdet movie but i have come to find that movies like these are sometimes better than the big budget ones(not saying i like those really low bugdet movies though).
this movie is entertaining with great twists.

Average customer rating:

Eyes Wide Open

Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography [1993]
Starring: Néstor Almendros , John A. Alonzo , John Bailey , Michael Ballhaus , and Stephen H. Burum
Director: Stuart Samuels , Arnold Glassman , and Todd McCarthy
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Visions Of Light [1992]

ASIN: 630583685X
Release Date: 2000-05-09

Amazon.co.uk Review

Visions of Light is not just for film buffs. In fact, if the presentation of the Oscar for Best Cinematography is your cue to take a bathroom break from the Academy Awards, then this exhilarating documentary will help you see movies in a whole new light. Named Best Documentary by the US National Society of Film Critics as well as several film-critic associations, Visions of Light traces the history and illuminates the art of cinematography. It profiles the cameramen who pioneered the visual language of cinema (such as DW Griffith's cameraman Billy Bitzer and Gregg Toland, who shot Orson Welles's Citizen Kane), as well as the masters they influenced, among them Néstor Alemendros (Days of Heaven), Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe and Mrs. Miller) and Gordon Willis, the affectionately nicknamed "Prince of Darkness" who shot the Godfather films.

From Birth of a Nation to Blade Runner, from Gone with the Wind to GoodFellas, this feast for the eyes spans nearly a century with sequences from more than 125 movies made immortal by the artful use of light and shadow to realise the director's vision. William Fraker, who shot Rosemary's Baby, recalls filming the scene in which Ruth Gordon's sinister character is seen in a bedroom talking on the phone at the far end of a corridor. Director Roman Polanski suggested that Fraker move his camera so her body would be concealed by a door and audiences could only see her back. Fraker remembers later watching this scene in cinemas and seeing the audiences shift in their seats trying to peek around the door. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews:

Eyes Wide Open.......2004-04-26

This is a great documentary.
Across the course of the film, you mayhave your eyes opened as if for the first time: it comprises clips andinterviews about the history of cinematography, or indeed the whole lookand language of film.
While many of the clips show well-known moments in film, their compilationin this way offers one fresh and striking visual after another. Therevelation is the strength of early and rarely-seen films, and theassertion that had sound films been invented a decade later, the visuallanguage of film would have developed and intensified still further. As itis, the images are just ravishing, and it's really rather moving towatch.
This is a warm and thought-provoking look at cinematography, andis highly recommended. The only reservation is the mono sound on the DVD,but it's a small sacrifice when the visuals hold pride of place.
Be prepared -- you'll want to revisit many classics after this!

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