58 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
58 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
" book " should have remained in shadows
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book of shadows : blair witch 2
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a film review by michael redman copyright 2000 by michael redman
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certain things in our lives are inevitable .
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death , sorrow , love , heartbreak , pain , joy .
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we expect these events .
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we know they're going to happen and some , we even look forward to .
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it's part of the human condition .
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we have also become accustomed to inevitable occurrences in our society .
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as we near the fall election , several of them are hitting us in the face .
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politicians exaggerate their own importance .
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our side is always right ; theirs is always wrong .
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in the end , voters are usually forced to choose the lesser of two whocares .
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in hollywood the one indisputable inevitable is that if a film makes big money , there will be a sequel .
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even if the original story doesn't merit one .
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even if the first film is complete in itself .
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even if success is a fluke .
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" the blair witch project " was made with a budget of $1 . 75 and exploded on the screen , raking in huge profits .
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the concept was brilliant .
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the filmmakers created a remarkable buzz that the story might be real .
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the film itself was even more convincing .
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the movie _must_ be authentic .
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why else would such amateurish footage be on the big screen ?
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the first film caught lightning in a bottle .
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the sequel proves you can't pour that old lightning into a new bottle .
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you have to give this effort some credit .
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it would have been easy to have made the same movie again with a new group of kids .
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it would have been easy , but of course , it wouldn't have worked .
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instead " book of shadows " acknowledges the first film as a movie and concentrates on the hysteria following its release .
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it's a great scheme and possibly the only entertaining way to do a sequel .
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unfortunately it doesn't work either .
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five kids spend the night in the woods at the scene of the first film .
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weird stuff happens and they retreat to an old factory where one of them lives .
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even weirder stuff happens .
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some people die , there's blood and knives and none of the characters have a lick of common sense .
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while supposedly doing serious research , the group sets up a circle of surveillance cameras in the ruins of the old house in the woods and vows to stay alert all night awaiting a visitation .
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then they proceed to get totally trashed on drugs and alcohol and party down with very loud , very obnoxious heavy metal music .
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it's a bad plan .
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the cast shows some early promise .
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a couple is doing research on a " blair witch " book .
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the tour guide is a former mental patient turned ebay aficionado .
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a goth amazon princess adds a bit of comedic relief .
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the obligatory hot babe is the 2000 spiritual cinematic descendent of the cute hippie chick , the cute rock and roll chick and the cute disco chick : the cute wiccan chick .
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the first film's unaccomplished actors came across as real people in a real situation because hours and hours of video were shot during days in the woods .
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this time , these unaccomplished actors just come across as unaccomplished actors .
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there's not one character you care about when they start shouting for no reason .
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although what passes for a plot starts out with a solid idea , it's ruined by poor execution .
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the follow-up to one of the most successful horror films ever is nothing more than a bad slasher movie .
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they're trapped in an old big weird house .
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they stupidly separate into various rooms .
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there are strange noises , they see scary apparitions and people disappear .
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ever see this movie ?
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seasoned documentary director joe berlinger should know better .
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the film features mostly cheap tricks and unnecessary gore .
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for a storyline filled with surprises , it's oddly predicable .
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" the blair witch project " was a rare triumph of style over substance .
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" the book of shadows " is a triumph of tedium over promise .
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