Review
Film: Grabbers
Film: Grabbers
Director: Jon Wright
Country: Ireland
Got to get the lazy cultural reference point out the way, but if
you ever wished there had been an episode of Father Ted where they had
to fight an alien invasion, then this fantastically fun movie will fill
that requirement for you. In fact it probably does for the Garda's
alien fighting abilities what Father Ted did for the priesthood - okay,
I'll stop it now.
The central conceit (which
I'm not going to reveal here as I kind of wish I hadn't read about it in
advance) is a brilliantly simple, and clever twist. How the story
plays out goes largely within what you'd expect from the genres the
filmmakers are playing with, but the film is aware of this and having
an enormous amount of fun with it.
The
script is as funny as you can hope. I'm presuming this film was made
on a reasonably tight budget, but this doesn't matter as the film makers
clearly understand it's not about throwing millions at the screen but
about what you show and more importantly when you show it. A well
chosen movement of the camera or suspense timed to the mili-second can
achieve as much a thrill factor as a CGI extravaganza (not to say that
the CGI that is used isn't good, it's just to make the point about how
well selected its use is).
I don't really have
much negative to say about Grabbers. It may not change the world of
film making but I don't think that's a negative - the film knows what it
wants to do and does it really well. In fact it makes it look so
simple, you wonder how many films get it so wrong. It's got the
potential to be either a cult favourite or have mass appeal (if that's
not a total contradiction!) and I can really see it as one of those
films that you find yourself asking everyone you know if they've seen
and then shoving the DVD in their hands if they say no.
One
final thought, with first The Guard and now Grabbers, what exactly
have the Garda done to Irish film makers to get these kind of on-screen
representations?
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