"Rogue" is based on the true story of a tour group in the Australian Outback that found themselves trapped and attacked by a large and extremely pissed-off crocodile. I'm not usually big on these kind of man-vs-animal films, but this one is the best of its kind since "Jaws." Much of the credit goes to writer-director Greg McLean, who wisely follows the "Jaws" model and keeps the killer croc offscreen for most of the first half of the film. He uses this time to develop each of the characters on the boat, allowing them to both gain our sympathy and act like real people rather than stock characters when the action finally kicks in. There are no good and bad guys in this film, just a bunch of scared yet smart people who try to help each other survive. The acting is top-notch, especially from leads Michael Vartan ("Alias") and Radha Mitchell ("Silent Hill"). The special effects are surprisingly good as well. Despite a final showdown between man and beast near the end that is beyond plausibility, most of the events in the film are portrayed realistically enough for us to go along with them. "Rogue" provides the same suspense and beautiful Australian scenery as McLean's last picture, the slasher film "Wolf Creek," but without that movie's overly sadistic violence. The result is a surprisingly excellent film from a genre usually known for producing crap-tastic movies. Ignore the terrible DVD artwork, which makes it look like one of those terrible Z-grade Sci-Fi Channel movies; "Rogue" is seriously worth checking out. I give it a 4 out of 5.
"The Wizard of Gore" is a remake of the 1970 blood-and-guts-filled cult classic. If the title sounds familiar to you, it was mentioned in last year's hit "Juno" (Jason Bateman and Ellen Page even watch a scene from it). This new version revolves around Montag the Magnificent, a magician who intrigues audiences by seemingly performing bloody disgusting acts of dismemberment on willing participants (played in this film by members of the punk-rock burlesque troupe the Suicide Girls, which of course means that they strip naked before being sliced/burned/etc). Afterwards, however, the participant reappears, alive and in one piece. But there's a problem: the following day, that same person is found dead, with wounds identical to what Montag inflicted on them. So what's going on? That's what Edmund, the protagonist, wants to know. As he drags his girlfriend Maggie along to each of Montag's performances, he becomes increasingly obsessed with finding out how Montag performs his tricks. It doesn't help that Edmund starts having nightmares in which he sees himself killing the victims. Interesting set-up, right? Well, unfortunately the film is far from perfect. For one thing, despite its name and lineage, "The Wizard of Gore" isn't really all that gory. Oh, there's blood and guts all right, but most audiences will probably be expecting a lot more than what the movie provides. Another problem is that the story starts getting really confusing as it goes on. With the many plot twist and turns, by the end of the film I wasn't really sure what exactly what happened (or, more importantly, why things turned out the way it did). However, the biggest problem is that the new plot twists don't really make much sense. In the original film, the trick was that the magician made the audience think they were seeing a blood-free illusion when in reality he was gruesomely killing the victims. In this version it's the other way around: Montage makes the audience think they're seeing the victims murdered when he's actually not doing anything to them. So then why are the victims murdered afterwards? It would seem like it's unnecessary and only attracts a lot of unwanted attention. The movie doesn't have a real clear reason for that (and I haven't spoiled the end the film, by the way). Yet despite the problems, the film gradually won me over. I liked the dreamlike, David Lynch-vibe of it. Crispin Glover ("Back to the Future" trilogy) gives a crazy-good performance as Montag. And, depending on your personal tastes, the abundant nudity of the Suicide Girls will be either a good reason to see this movie or another reason to avoid it. "The Wizard of Gore" definitely isn't for everyone, but fans of this kind of film should enjoy it. It gets a 3 out of 5.
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