DVD reviews: 13 | Dark Shadows

By ALISTAIR HARKNESS
Published on 15/10/2012 00:00

IT’S not always a good idea for foreign-language directors to remake their own films in English. Exhibit 345? Géla Babluani, whose 2006 Russian roulette drama 13 Tsameti forms the basis for this Americanised take on the same story.

13

Anchor Bay Entertainment, £15.99

The original won the top prize at Sundance in 2006; this version has been on the shelf for nearly four years. Yes, despite securing a solid cast of cult stars – Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Michael Shannon and Ray Winstone – Babluani, it seems, pushed his own luck in trying to get some more mileage out of the same concept. It’s not all that hard to see why it has taken this long for a film that had a reasonable amount of heat to appear. For a movie about such an unpredictable and high-stakes game, it’s unforgivably dull. Sam Riley is woefully miscast in the lead as a strapped-for-cash electrician who seeks out an underground game of life-and-death before comprehending quite what it will entail. As the odds are shortened for everyone, the film doesn’t stint on violence, but nor does it satisfy on a base level. Indeed, the film takes itself so seriously it seems to think giving Jason Statham no throats to punch is a good thing.

Dark Shadows

Warner Bros, £19.99

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows was roundly pilloried upon its release earlier this year and while the criticism wasn’t entirely unfair, nor was it completely justified. It’s worth checking out on DVD – but only after tracking down some YouTube clips from the terrible, campy, long-forgotten vampire-flavoured US soap opera upon which it’s based. Do that and the absurd tone, scattershot performances and general messiness suddenly start to make more sense, with the film becoming a purer tribute to the spirit of Ed Wood than Ed Wood. Having seen just how shoddy the show was, I’m more willing to accept that the film is genuinely attempting to replicate its amateurism. Even if it isn’t, it’s more enjoyable to think of it this way than as another slightly annoying Johnny Depp movie. Burton’s regular leading man again unleashes his familiar arch Hammer-horror-style acting, this time to play a reluctant, heartbroken vampire who is exhumed in 1972 after 200 years of being buried underground. Predictable culture-clash gags duly follow, but there are some flashes of fun to be had as well.

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