Reviews

The story may not be overwhelmingly unpredictable, but nor is that the point. This is about Ana and Damon and the people around them--who they are and what they go through. The acting and direction is mostly strong, as is the attention to detail. The dialogue is smart and reasonably natural. While the production is generally solid, it sags notably in the make-up department--where the work ranges from good to perfunctory and outright incongruous. (A strange area for a reasonably high-profile production to flounder, these days.) The FX work is all right albeit very derivative--as is the soundtrack, which thankfully never slips into being overly bombastic or loud.

When it comes to writing, the series definitely could have used a more coherent approach. The fact that there were twelve (12) different writers for this ten-episode run bleeds through and muddles the narrative. In some episodes (the sixth one in particular) trite, traileresque exposition overwhelms the otherwise stark and intimate narrative style, making for an awkward and ironically comic-like detour.

As for the story's adherence to the original--well, which original? Daimon's inception was in the early seventies. Both he and his sister (who has a considerably smaller role in most of the comics) have been portrayed in various ways through the years. The '75-'77 run is vastly different to the later two, which in turn don't entirely align either (and that's not even getting into the disparate appearances the characters have made in other comics.) Marvel loves alternate universes, and this is an accomplished, more restrained and human version which I think works really well. (I admit, though--while I really like Austen's and Lemmon's portrayals, I would've preferred for the siblings to at least have been redheads. Also, that title sequence is just off.)

If you like sombre, portentuous horror drama series with a focus on character interplay, this is probably for you. If you come in expecting Hollywood spectacular or a straightforward comic adaptation, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

I have no doubt that most of what is described and depicted in this documentary is true. The superficial facts of the drug trade have been well-known for a long time. Furthermore, the purpose of the miniseries is ostensibly admirable--to address the disconnect between the glamour and cool of cocaine use and the harsh, cruel reality of how the drug is produced and distributed. Paradoxically, though, because of the clumsy way in which Gordon Ramsay on Cocaine was created, it becomes hard to take the subject matter seriously.

The edit very clearly shows only the "juicy" bits. I guess you could call it "fast-paced" if you were generously inclined, but the whole thing comes across as grossly hamfisted. For example: in the first episode, a police representative sketches on a map how cocaine moves across the world to get to Britain. Chunks of the clip are plainly edited out to focus on only a few parts of the trade. In the second episode, the same clip is used again--this time even more heavily edited to give the impression that Colombia (the country Ramsay visits to ooh and aah at the brutality of the drug's production) is the sole source of Britain's cocaine.

Ramsay seems to do his best to sound gruffly severe, but his stilted staccato delivery just adds to the cheesy docu-soap atmosphere, and much of the time he is clearly too wrapped up in his own excitement to even maintain a critical tone. It doesn't help that the camera often seems more interested in Ramsay's reactions than the subject matter. It's hard not to find this reality-TV style presentation a bit of a mockery of the desperation and ruthlessness many scenes depict.

The topic of illegal drugs such as cocaine is a deeply complex sociopolitical issue every step of the way--rife with misery, corruption and political callousness. It could easily fill up several seasons of a documentary series. The fact that the production team thought it was a good idea to blitz through it all in one and a half hour of action clips and shallow five-minute interviews should tell you everything you need to know about this documentary.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is the way to get people who usually never think about the consequences of cocaine use to realise the devastation the trade causes, but I doubt it. Telly isn't real life. You turn it off and go about your business--regardless of whether that involves taking cocaine.

If you want the long and short of it: don't do cocaine--it's bad for you and it's horrible for nearly all the people involved in its production and distribution. If you want to know more, go read a book about it or watch something that actually delves into the specifics and sociopolitical intricacies of the drug trade. Don't watch this--it will tell you very little you don't already know.

What to say about "Hellraiser: Judgment"?

Well, the picture quality isn't great, the sound is pretty poor, and the direction is slipshod. Beyond the acting of the protagonists as well as the Auditor and the Assessor, only the occasional bit and piece of the script and the make-up effects merit any notice. The production can be summed up as "amateurish with intermittent splashes of talent." (To boot, there is the squalid, one-eyed sexism of portraying sexual allure exclusively in voluptuous female bodies and leaving the male body to express only repugnance.)

If "Judgment", then, were the usual fare of hackneyed, rote "horror", it would deserve only derision. However, contrary to well-nigh all of the previous Hellraiser installments since "Inferno" (whether or not you include it is up to you-I actually think it had merit) this one at least tries to take you into the unknown. It's heavy-handed and often graceless, but it does attempt to build on Barker's vision rather than bury it deeper in the mealy, sanitised drivel usually proffered under the "horror movie" banner.

This is a film that plays brazenly (and occasionally successfully) on revulsion and debasement. It does its best to properly get under your skin and make you squirm-and even when it doesn't quite get there, the prickling sensation of it desperately scrabbling to get in is enough to make you (or me, anyway) realise how rare it is that a horror film tries to evoke anything besides brief, tawdry shocks to the reptile brain.

Is this a good film? No-but with more focus on tension, immersion and character depth, as well as better direction and sound, it could have been. "Judgment" tries to be a real horror film-a new experience in stark contrast to the hundreds of sodden regurgitations produced every year. For that, it deserves praise-albeit with some considerable reservations.

There is little point in beating around the bush about it: the obvious comparison for Debug is Event Horizon. While the subplots and backgrounds may differ, both films deal with the same scenario: an evil that has taken over a spaceship and a crew that comes to investigate. Comparing the two, it is peculiar to find that the reason Event Horizon worked so much better has nothing to do with its production values and everything to do with its focus on atmosphere—an area where Debug has every opportunity to match it, and simply fails to do so.

To its credit, Debug manages to stand up fairly well in quite a few aspects and punches well above its budget in terms of production values.

The acting is all right, with the exception of Jason Momoa's campy creep performance as I Am. Perhaps, already having achieved fame as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, he did not feel the same need to distinguish himself as the other actors. Perhaps the role simply did not suit him. Either way, the lacklustre sleaze he brings to the role cheapens and stifles all tension and drama whenever he is on screen. Jeananne Goossen and Sidney Leeder, in contrast, bring life and character to their roles, whereas the rest of the cast is simply passable.

The visuals in Debug are not without flaws, but they are at times gorgeous. (The HUD effects, in particular, stand out.) Sadly, they sometimes fail to impart a feeling of reality—of substance. Future technology may be clean and durable, but any surface will have wear and tear. In Debug, they tend to look like freshly moulded plastic—featureless and flimsy. Strangely, this does not seem to be down to capability so much as aesthetics, as it is true for the set as much as the CGI. As a whole, though, the visuals work, and most of the time the set and the CGI fit well together.

Sound effects are generally fair to pretty damned good, although they tend to fail to produce a sense of presence. The same goes for the score, which seems to have been mixed as so to be unobtrusive rather than evocative—a strange choice for a horror film.

All in all, it would seem Debug has enough good points to provide a solid horror experience. (After all, many films have done so with less.) As sci-fi horror is a genre I love and the space-based variety is woefully underrepresented, it disheartens me to say that it does not—and for rather bizarre reasons. You see, while the production would have worked well for a sci-fi drama, its manner of presentation promotes detachment rather than immersion. The tension never grabs you and events never draw you in, making the actual horror elements fall flat. Part of it is editing, but choices made in seemingly every aspect of the film—from character exposition to camera angles—exacerbate the problem. The effect, tragically, is an audience indifference this type of narrative can ill afford, making a film that could have, should have been a rough gem turn out to be just another barren space rock.

Debug is, in the end, a mediocre film with several massive, bulky cargo holds full of wasted potential due to an almost mindless indifference to the core driver of every good horror film—atmosphere.

Like many others, I loved Hellblazer. There's a special place in my heart for its unique character and atmosphere, and for the rough, dark way it dealt with the supernatural. In many ways, though, that does not matter. I knew this was not going to be Hellblazer, but a televised version of the DC Comics reboot—a reboot which has justifiably gotten some pretty miserable reviews. My expectations were accordingly measured.

However, I'm an avid watcher of series like Supernatural (yes, still) True Blood and Hemlock Grove, besides more gritty fare such as American Horror Story and Hannibal. I adore horror, and so I figured there was no reason not to give Constantine a go.

With that in mind, watching the pilot episode, I tried to think of this simply as a new, American supernatural TV drama series. Sadly, Constantine does not even attempt to stand on its own. It pillages scrap upon scrap from the comic with an almost gleeful neglect of context, presenting the pickings in pompous, quick-fire scene succession with none of the depth, none of the tension, none of the soul that even the DC reboot could muster. The result is an unintentional self-parody of pulp horror cliché, its confused caricature accented by a soundtrack that seems to wilfully ridicule the action. In many ways, it is as if someone saw a house for the first time just before it was razed, and proceeded to pile up gables and gargoyles in the belief that a Gothic cathedral would magically appear.

Strangely, it seems the actors are making a better go of it than the script-writers and the directors. Occasionally, Matt Ryan (ghastly dye-job notwithstanding) will conjure up some proper John Constantine cheek, and most of the cast seems to have real talent. Sadly, all attempts at acting are instantly bulldozed by the ham-fisted direction.

In the end, I am left with the simple question "why bother?" The answer, sadly, probably has more to do with DC Comics' fervent wish to scramble onto the coattails of Marvel's recent success in film and television, and very little with any real interest in making a worthwhile TV version of Hellblazer/Constantine.

Perhaps the pilot—as is often the case—is poorly representative of the series as it will continue. We may hope, although it is difficult to see how the writers would turn the story into something coherent and inspiring after this butchery of an introduction.

In short: unless you are running pitifully low on television fare to feed your horror drama addiction, almost any other such series would be preferable to this. If television is not a must, and you haven't already read them too many times, go find the trade paperbacks of the original Hellblazer comic instead. Those are well worth your time. This is not.