Sunday, 09 January 2011

• Channel Surfing: "Crush" [Brief Movie Review]

  
  "Crush" (2009, 2010 in the U.S.)

  Every once in a while I stumble across a random movie on TV and watch it just because. I was channel-surfing today when I found this Australian thriller on TMC (The Movie Channel). It's a decent low-budget thriller about an American student studying in Australia who gets seduced by a mysterious mentally unhinged girl while house-sitting for a rich family.

  Needless to say, the script by John V. Soto [who co-directed this film along with Jeffrey Gerritsen] wasn't very original [check the tagline: "Attraction can be Fatal"]. Some of the main plot points reminded me of "Swimfan" [which was basically an updated teen version of "Fatal Attraction"] and "Swimming Pool", for different reasons, it's kind of ironic that the names of those two movies are similar. The film as a whole had a very American feel to it except for the ending which was obviously inspired by Japanese/Korean thrillers. I find it kind of odd that two people directed this, two people definitely weren't necessary. Perhaps one of them dropped out in the middle of filming, which would explain why the film seemed a bit conflicted.
  
  Good cinematography by Richard Malins. Decent score by Jamie Blanks [who directed the horror-flicks "Urban Legend" and "Valentine"]. Good music choices by music supervisor Kim Green ("The Bank Job"), the songs used definitely made this feel like an American film. Great performances by Christopher Egan ("Home and Away", "Eragon", "Letters to Juliet")...he definitely sold me as someone whose life is crashing down around him, Emma Lung ("The Jammed")...she played a good psycho, and Brooke Harman ("Ned Kelly"). Good supporting performances by Christian Clark ("Home and Away"), Kane Manera ("Guiding Light"), Kerry-Ella McAullay, and Jenna Lind...she was the sexiest woman in this movie [it's a shame she didn't have much screen-time]. Overall it was an entertaining and somewhat compelling suspense-flick with a good twist [even though the build-up wasn't as effective as it could have been, in hindsight the twist was foreshadowed quite often], it's nothing special but it's worth a viewing if you're easily frightened.

  Rating: 3 out of 5
  
  What do you think of Australian films?

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