Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
The Monster's Most Recent Retelling Tells Quite A Bit..., June 21, 2008
Though I'm not huge on the classic monsters that started it all, I have been somewhat interested in the various takes modern-day filmakers have done with the material. So after seeing some interesting screenshots, I decided to give Asylum Entertainment's 2005 production of Frankenstein Reborn a try. While I'm not terribly disapointed with the take, there's just too many faults here and there that wear down what could have been a decent little B-Movie experience.
Pretty much following the story laid down by Mary Shelly (don't except reworks of the classic Universal or Hammer versions here), Dr Victor Franks (yup, didn't use the full name) is a modern-day doctor trying to cure an injured man with nano-technology (think like the Borg on ST:Voyager). When the treatment gives his patient not only his thoughts, but his evil visions, he takes it further by killing his patient and turn him into his very own monster. Pretty much like DeNiro's or Randy Quaid's version but set today, you probably can figure out how it turns out.
Concerning the gore factor, it probably has more than any version to date, but it doesn't really help. Strangely, they thought it would be artsy to use a freeze-frame flash at least once during these scenes which distract & irritate alot. And even though there's a great gutting of the former patient at one point, I wondered why they were doing that in the first place? There's also a subplot of two female co-workers that swerves into a medicore lesiban scene, but if they wanted to impress us with that, they should have pulled the camera back a bit. And yes, the monster does look a bit like a cross between DeNiro's and Christopher Lee's portrayals, but it doesn't really make sense when what little hair he has left now has now grown a foot longer. These aside though, the movie's look is better than most B-Movies of today, with honestly a great performance by Rhett Giles, who deserves better than this, it's just too bad it's audio couldn't be the same.
The audio? It goes from booming to impossible to hear constantly. While background FX is mixed well, the vocal tracks go from yelling to whisper all in the same sentence. And without subtitles on the disc, it's impossible to understand at least 30% of the dialogue. In other words, the film's audio engineer should have been shot. As for the video, appearently the master used to put this to disc is flawed with digital hits every so often (confirmed by other owners). It's not the disc itself, but I guess a small company like Asylum has no quality control. Which is sad because to me that drops a 7.5 film down a whole notch because this film wouldn't be bad in say Lionsgate's or Blue Underground's library. Nice menus, great extras, and good overall presentation marred by what really counts.
To sum up, worthy of watching, decent adaptation, bad pressing. I've seen worse Frankenstein films, but this one isn't the best either.
(RedSabbath Rating:6.5/10)
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Darn it,Its Modern twisted retelling !, October 27, 2005
You think you've seen it, Then they re-invent Mary Shelley's Monster Wheel. I should start with the cast: RHETT GILES as Victor Franks/The Doctor, He has this Alan Rickman-Snape from Harry Potter twist. JOEL HEBNER (Need to interview) plays the reborn creature,I can't exactly say as Bernie Wrightson would draw him---But, Close. The editing was challenging to watch at first, Kind of like "Memento". Alot of scenes will make you feel all squishy for tributes- There is the Babysitter scene from first "Halloween", The interrogation moment from "Silence Of The Lambs", I loved the "Kolchak" moment the shrink had with a microphone at end. This would have been a Great Ending, Not the teaser throwaway that smacks sequel.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creepy and Cool, October 5, 2005
This movie is creepy and cool. One of the best Frankenstein adaptations yet! Actors are solid and the effects are really good. The story is told with flashbacks (like the book) and there are some interesting twists that I wasn't expecting. Definitely an above average horror flick.
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