Shadow of The Vampire
To use a word commonly
used by my friend Jeremy, I would call this one "Crap-tacular!" While
this film showed promise with a plot based on the mysterious filming of
the classic "Nosferatu" and a cast including Eddie Izzard, Willem Dafoe
and Udo Kier, it started off bad and got worse. The accents were
terrible and disgustingly mismatched, both American and English actors
clumsily fumbled through the German tongue, John Malkovich being the
biggest offender, slipping in and out of his accent faster than you can
say "Robin Hood." The continuity problems were an eyesore, with
different typings of "Orlock," a seeminly endless ladder walk and
mismatched cigarette positions. Most important of all, the story was
shit, leaving holes everywhere in the plot. The warning signs were all
here however. First off: Executive Producer Nicolas Cage—they must have
shopped this one around quite a bit before landing on somebody as rich
and inexperienced as Cage. Next up was the single preview syndrome—if
you only see one preview over and over again then even the promotions
team couldn't find any better clips to show. (I did want to spank
everybody who laughed at the "I'll eat her later" line, since
everybody's heard it a million times by now.) And finally: director
Edmund Elias Merhige. While he may have been praised for 1991's
"Begotten" for his stylish imitation of classic black-and-white film,
he hasn't directed anything else, automatically qualifying him for the
"discount director" award. Stay far away or go rent Ed Wood.