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| Directed by Antonia Bird; Starring Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, David Arquette, Bill Brochtrup, Joseph Running Fox, and Sheila Tousey |
Sometimes there are those films that stand out as worst film of the year fodder. The last time I had this feeling, I was coming out of Fallen with Denzel Washington. While Ravenous is not near as bad as Fallen, it does stand as the sixth worst film of the year so far (still ages better than The Other Sister). One thing I liked that someone else pointed out was that it is a cannibal film with shades of vampire-ism set in mid-nineteenth century California directed by a woman. I’m not necessarily trying to degrade the ability of female directors, but…cannibals! Antonia Bird did a terrific film back in 1994 called Priest and starring Linus Roach (Wings of the Dove), Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, Shakespeare in Love), and Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, Trainspotting, Ravenous) so I know that it is not the director’s complete fault on why this film is so awful. The cast is also quite well represented: Carlyle, Guy Pierce (L.A. Confidential), Jeffrey Jones (Beetlejuice, Ed Wood), Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan), and David Arquette (Scream, Scream 2). I guess that somewhat counts them out. That brings me to Ted Griffin who chose to write this as his first film. Eurekah! Griffin’s script comes off as worse than even that of Fallen. Now I’m quite fearful of his next film, Best Laid Plans.
I would feel a need in going into the plot if it wasn’t for the fact that my cannibal…California rant had pretty much done the job.
If you are questioning the rating not being a F/NO STARS despite the fact that I so dislike it, the reason is in my ruling about two years ago. Rating Rule #5: No film can be rated with the lowest rating if it has one small thing that is good about it. For She’s All That, it was the Jeorpardy scene; for The Other Sister it was a slight laugh about half way through the film; for this it is Guy Pierce. This is Pierce’s first film since breaking into American films with L.A. Confidential. In Ravenous, Pierce succeeds in performing the character he was given. While his dialogue may be lacking most of the time, his performance never falters, unlike those of Jones, Davis, Carlyle, and Arquette. In the end, I still have to say beware of this film at all costs.
