In no particular order:

True Grit (2010)
King Kong (2005)
3:10 To Yuma (2007)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Cape Fear (1991)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
The Departed (2006)
A Fistfull of Dollars (1964)
The Fly (1986)
Insomnia (2002)
Scarface (1983)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Thing (1982)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005) – I saw this performed as a play at a local college a few years ago. Wonderful!
The Champ (1979)
Dark Water (2005) – This version gets a bum rap but I enjoyed it.
Halloween (2007) – Its sequel was disgusting, appalling and an insult to the franchise, but this was actually quite good.
Heat (1995)
The Lake House (2006) – I don’t care that it’s Keanu Reeves and the film has a sub-7 rating at the IMDB, I liked it!
Let Me In (2010)
Pure Luck (1991) – This movie only has a 5.0 rating at the IMDB, but I tell you, I don’t think I ever laughed so hard at a movie! Martin Short was a comedic genius! That it only has a 5.0 is a travesty.
Quarantine (2008)
The Toy (1982)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
The Vanishing (1993)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

This movie was shabby pretty much start to finish, with no character development, not to mention shoddy cinematography, so taking issue with the ending is of less consequence. But I will.

Let’s just say, for the sake of arguement that the 3 to 4 minute shower with the girls did fit right in perfectly, and the one guy suddenly gaining sight only for the movie to abruptly end also made perfect sense too.

Let’s just cut out the whole “one big happy family now living together in the doc’s house” bit and keep the setting within the jail for the blind. Or, at the very least, when they “escaped,” have them slowly regaining their sight while scavenging for food. The end, as it was, accomplished nothing, so there’s no sense in dragging the movie out just that much more.

Two hours of jailed blind people walking through their own bile, tripping over shiat and gang rapes will float some people’s boats, but I found it to be a rather lazy piece.

I never read the book, but if you have to read the book to “get” the movie or appreciate the movie, then the purpose is defeated. I’ve read good reviews about the novel, but perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be translated to film. Or, the wrong people tried to do it.

Then we have the relationship between “Doctor” and “Doctor’s Wife.”

The beginning of the movie makes it clear there is a problem with their relationship. She is upset and downing one glass of wine after another, and he uncaringly loses himself in his office. Other than that the only thing revealed about them in the intro. is that they nit-pick over Greek and Latin words and meanings.

Fast forward to blind jail. He’s pissed because he feels like she’s now more of a mother figure than a wife because she needs, or feels the need to take care of him. Another scene he comes on to her (know whatta mean?) and she rejects him, leaving him sexually frustrated.

Later, he’s screwing another woman. His wife comes in, says it’s okay, approaches the woman in such a way you are expecting them to lock lips, then “Doctor’s Wife” whispers something in her ear for the full 30 seconds it takes the drab scene to pull out and fade white.

Nothing else, and I mean nothing else, was made of this. Fast forward yet more. They’ve escaped and the two behave as if their relationship never changed. Hell, maybe it didn’t! After all, no character learned or changed at all anyway. The whole relationship between “Doctor” and “Doctor’s Wife” was just strange anyway.

In the end, they all could have been crushed under a falling bridge and I wouldn’t have cared.

Terrible character development, if you could call it that, several irrelevant scenes (this movie did not need to be 2hrs) and the goofy ending all combine to make one of the worse films I’ve seen this year.

It had the feel of a flick pieced together by film students.
Grade: 5/10

 
7/10 (for its genre)