Review: Mirrors (2008): Reviewed By BRYAN SCHUESSLER aka SHU
Mirrors (2008) is a remake of Sung-ho Kim’s Korean production of Into The Mirror (2003) which was also written by Kim. I am not a big fan of remakes of any kinds, especially Asian remakes. I tend to think most of the remakes of Asian films are terrible and really piss me off. A few have surprised me, but not many.
Alexandre Aja really blew me away with Haute Tension a.k.a. High Tension (2003) and I had really high hopes for this very talented French director. He then followed up with a remake of The Hills Have Eyes three years later, again, blowing me away. Say what you will about remakes, but The Hills Have Eyes remake was very well done. I am one that loathes remakes but his was really fun to watch and had me hooked! He wrote the screenplay for P2 (2007), but did not direct it. I liked it but thought it was nothing special So I was kind of apprehensive about checking out Mirrors (2008). One, it has a major Hollywood actor who most know him as Bauer in the hit television series 24 (I caught a few episodes and see why its so damn popular!) and it just felt like it was going to be very watered down and Hollywood-ish.
I tend to not notify my readers, if any exist, what the synopsis of the films are that I review because I just want people to see it based on my comments that I hope intrigue them, whether they agree with me or not, to want to go see it. Sometimes I read about a film and the synopsis turns me off. But here it is: Ben Carson had some trouble as a cop and with drinking and is working a shitty security job that watches a big old building that used to be a department store until it burned down killing a fair amount of people trapped inside and injuring many more. The story shifts between his past, his family, and strange things happening at this old building with all of its mirrors. In just a few shots and lines of dialogue, we get the background on Ben Carson and the dynamics of his relationship with his wife and kids that he no longer sees that much of without slowing down the pace of the film and boring hardcore gorehounds and nudity pervs such as myself.
I say again, there is some wicked gore in this film. It is worth checking out. Even if Keanu Reeves played the lead (he acts in films as if he downed a bottle of qualudes before every scene) I would still watch it for the effects and gore sequences. There is a theatrical version and unrated version- do I need to tell you which version is more satisfying? With that being said, I hope you check this film out and if you don’t like it, I am glad I peeked your curiousity enough to get you to rent it.
I enjoyed it. More than I would have liked to and I think that I would have liked it even more if the goremeter was cranked to 11, not 10, but 11 because its just one more extra little umph to satisfy me! Greg Nicotero and Howard Burger’s company, KNB EFX did the effects in the film and I still wish Robert Kurtzman was a part of that trio of geniuses. Specifically, there was a very long list of individuals credited for the special, visual, and digital effects. If you are that geeked out to learn who did what, pay for an imdb pro account like I did.
So anyways, the film had some pretty awesome visual effects and really didn’t mess up shots using blue/green screens. I tend to not like highly CGI’d film effects, but these were top-notch! And the use of fire in this film was pretty cool as well.
The film had very nice pace and did not really drag at any points in the film. When I started to get antsy for some gore or violence, it was delivered and in great quantity and quality. There is one bathtub scene with Amy Smart, who plays Kiefer Sutherland’s sister(Angela Carson) that blew me away! I skipped back to the beginning of it six times and it was not because there was some naked butt in the scene, which may have been Amy Smart or a body double.
Paula Patton plays Sutherland’s wife, Amy Carson, and boy is she a looker. She looks like a naturally hot mom. Perfectly casted for the role, in my opinion.
The films gore and special effects were done so well and were totally realistic looking that I wish the movie was 3 hours long so there could be more delicately placed gore in the film. I really can’t wait to see how Aja envisions Pirahna 3-D! It still is in post-production and is slated for a 2010 release. I loved the original film.
