What I've been watching this week
Seven (18+)
Seven (18+)
I'd been waiting to watch Seven for an awful long time until just the other day. I had heard various gleaming reviews and countless amounts of good things said about it. And of course, I naturally had high expectations already set for two of my favorite actors of recent times, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.
The film is basically, cutting it down it's most base form, a police drama. It is the story of two very different policemen (as is usual with films involving the police force), Freeman as the role of William Somerset, an aging murder investigator on his last case before retirement and Pitt as the role David Mills, a young, new-to-the-station detective. The narrative focuses on the hunt for an illusive serial killer who is using the seven deadly sins to map out a series of murders.
Everything in the plot slots together rather well and although Freeman and Pitt aren't exactly a screen match made in heaven, in my opinion, the duo works. Everything one character says is an anecdote to the other, Mills rushed style of surveillance and Somerset's reserved approach to absolutely everything, he even eats dinner while holding his gun (and that's before anything has really even happened).
I have to say that the film, on a whole, more than lived up to my expectations, it was everything I wanted really. The acting was superb throughout, even when it started getting slightly cheesy and even more slightly unbelievable it knew exactly when to cut back to serious acting at just the right points to keep me laughing as well as keeping me in a serious state of mind. The murders were inventive (a lot more than can be said for most police/murder drama these days) and most importantly, unpredictable. Which to be honest you wouldn't imagine given the fact that you know exactly what each of the seven murders are going to be themed on, in what order they'll happen and even in some cases where they're going to happen. But of course that is part of the beauty of this film, it allows enough thinking room for the viewer to speculate about the murders and let your imagination run wild while also telling you just enough facts to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Overall I'd say that as far as police dramas go, and I am a fan, this is one of the better one's that I've seen. For some obvious reasons and for some not-so-obvious reasons. Obvious would be things like, I loved the cast and thought the acting was brilliant all the way through, not so obvious would probably be something like, I thought the camera work left a lot to be desired in some places. But this still didn't really detract from the brilliance of the film. Having said that, I really didn't like the ending. I won't spoil it, but I will say that even though I can see why they did it, I still didn't think it quite slotted into place as well as it should have done. Oh well never mind, better luck next time I suppose.
The film is basically, cutting it down it's most base form, a police drama. It is the story of two very different policemen (as is usual with films involving the police force), Freeman as the role of William Somerset, an aging murder investigator on his last case before retirement and Pitt as the role David Mills, a young, new-to-the-station detective. The narrative focuses on the hunt for an illusive serial killer who is using the seven deadly sins to map out a series of murders.
Everything in the plot slots together rather well and although Freeman and Pitt aren't exactly a screen match made in heaven, in my opinion, the duo works. Everything one character says is an anecdote to the other, Mills rushed style of surveillance and Somerset's reserved approach to absolutely everything, he even eats dinner while holding his gun (and that's before anything has really even happened).
I have to say that the film, on a whole, more than lived up to my expectations, it was everything I wanted really. The acting was superb throughout, even when it started getting slightly cheesy and even more slightly unbelievable it knew exactly when to cut back to serious acting at just the right points to keep me laughing as well as keeping me in a serious state of mind. The murders were inventive (a lot more than can be said for most police/murder drama these days) and most importantly, unpredictable. Which to be honest you wouldn't imagine given the fact that you know exactly what each of the seven murders are going to be themed on, in what order they'll happen and even in some cases where they're going to happen. But of course that is part of the beauty of this film, it allows enough thinking room for the viewer to speculate about the murders and let your imagination run wild while also telling you just enough facts to keep you on the edge of your seat!
Overall I'd say that as far as police dramas go, and I am a fan, this is one of the better one's that I've seen. For some obvious reasons and for some not-so-obvious reasons. Obvious would be things like, I loved the cast and thought the acting was brilliant all the way through, not so obvious would probably be something like, I thought the camera work left a lot to be desired in some places. But this still didn't really detract from the brilliance of the film. Having said that, I really didn't like the ending. I won't spoil it, but I will say that even though I can see why they did it, I still didn't think it quite slotted into place as well as it should have done. Oh well never mind, better luck next time I suppose.
7.5/10
