Unfortunately, despite the fact that P.W.S.A. seems to be well-versed in the history of disturbing imagery, there’s little that is artful in his movie.
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Paul W.S. Anderson used to be known simply as Paul Anderson. However, Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of "Boogie Nights", "Magnolia", and "Punch-Drunk Love", became (in)famous around the same time as Paul Anderson did. Therefore, Paul Anderson added the W.S. to his name to distinguish himself from the other guy. Both Paul Andersons make bad movies. P.T.A. creates a pretentious dreck. P.W.S.A. makes dreck, period.
Before there was Uwe Boll, there was P.W.S.A. "Mortal Kombat", "Resident Evil", and "AVP" were all based on videogames. P.W.S.A. wrote and produced "Resident Evil: Apocalypse", which was also based on videogames. "Soldier" is basically a videogame in and of itself. I actually have nothing against basing movies on videogames. The problem is that movies that are videogame adaptations tend to be bad, which gives the genre a bad reputation. Before 2000´s "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", P.W.S.A. made the best movie based on a videogame--"Mortal Kombat", which had a decent story and well-shot fights.
The other significant entry in P.W.S.A.´s oeuvre is "Event Horizon", which is basically his "art-house" movie. Using a simple story, the movie is basically a series of vignettes with characters experiencing terror, melancholy, anxiety, and frustration before dying. Unfortunately, despite the fact that P.W.S.A. seems to be well-versed in the history of disturbing imagery, there´s little that is artful in his movie.
In "Event Horizon", a space crew is sent to retrieve the Event Horizon, a huge deep-space vessel that was missing for seven years. The Event Horizon literally opened a portal to Hell and was there for seven years. Now that the Event Horizon is back in our reality, Hell has come to our universe. Apparently, Hell is filled with burning people, people wrapped in wires, and people covered in blood and maggots.
Usually, in horror movies, dumb people split up and get killed off one by one. "Event Horizon" offers a twist. The characters are rational military and scientific types. Therefore, they split up because they´re smart. This doesn´t change things much, though--everyone still sees bloody, gruesome sights, and everyone still dies bloody, gruesome deaths.
"Event Horizon" is little more than an exercise in style and gore. The dialogue is comprised of characters stating the obvious and yelling profanity at each other. There´s also an inappropriate crowd-pleasing moment. One of the characters is blown into space by an explosion. In order to get back to the Event Horizon, he blows his air tanks and screams, "Here I come, motherfuckers!" I´m sure that this elicits cheers, laughs, and applause from viewers. Unfortunately, when you purge your oxygen in space, you basically commit suicide. Therefore, people are cheering, laughing at, and applauding suicide when they enjoy this crowd-pleasing gesture.
Video:
Although this new DVD release of "Event Horizon" does not have an extended version of the movie, it does have an anamorphic version of the 2.35:1 widescreen picture. This is a very sharp transfer that nicely exhibits the strong, dark tones of the visual scheme. However, there are some white specks, there are some Vaseline blobs, and some of the CGI looks terrible.
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[release]17572[/release]