The Collector
You can have all those fancy carousels of death and the electrified bathtubs. For my money there's nothing grosser or more horrifying than simple workman's nail. Or a lenth of razor wire. Or shards of broken glass. The Collector keeps it's maiming simple and to the point(literally), as it weaves a bloody tale of moral ambiguity that would've been a perfect fit for the Saw franchise. The Collector's story involves a thief, who has been casing a well-to-do family's home by posing as a handyman. When the family leaves on vacation, he returns to rob the joint, only to discover that the family is being held hostage by a masked psychopath known as The Collector. No, he doesn't collect comic books or stamps. He resembles a masked escapee from an S&M event gone terribly wrong, but he's clever with a booby trap. The entire house is wired with brutal deceptions, whether it be a chord that drags you to a wall of nails or a room full of bear traps. Even the phone handle has a thin needle jutting out of it, just in case anybody was thinking of placing a call.
The Collector's premise was it's hook for me. I loved the idea of this crook for all intents and purposes, who isn't really that bad of a guy by comparison, being compelled to try and help this poor family out. All the while he's still trying to complete his goal of making a profit out of it. It's that moral murkiness that I enjoyed, but also the matter of factness of the kills. There's no grand show made out of it, which has become one of my many beefs with Saw. It's all about grandstanding and being "clever", and it fails at both. The Collector gets right down to brass tacks, dirty and grimy bloody fun. Too bad nobody is seeing it. I think horror fans will love it.
6/10
Shrink
So who wants to spend 90 minutes watching rich people bitch about their problems? I do I do! Kevin Spacey plays therapist to the stars, Dr. Henry Carter, who's life has been turned upside down after the death of his wife. Henry stars to realize that he no longer has compassion for his clients, so he turns to "self medicating" by staying drunk and high on weed all day, which in and of itself don't sound like a bad prescription to me. As Henry slides further into his shell of isolation, he is dragged out of it by a few of his clients, including an intelligent inner-city teen named Jemma(Akeelah and the Bee's Keke Palmer, who also scored the film) and Kate Amberson(Saffron Burrows), a high profile actress trying to make a comeback. Henry's friend Jeremy(Mark Webber), a failed screenwriter, also tries to pull him out of the duldrums. The only person Henry really seems to give a damn about is his hilariously simple drug dealer, who happens to be named Jesus. The best scenes of the film are between Henry and Jesus, as Henry tries to place far more meaning on their simple drug transactions than Jesus is ready to give. "I don't think it's that serious, man" is the common retort.
Shrink owes a lot of it's story to the classic Ordinary People, and even at one point references the film directly. Jemma is a big time movie buff who saves all of the ticket stubs from every film she sees, taping them to her ceiling. But what Shrink doesn't do is provide us any real insight into..well, anything. I feel no more enlightened to the plight of that well known underclass known as the movie star. Spacey has always been good at playing the overbearing genius, and he is actually really solid here. The script does him few favors other than a couple nice scenes with Keke Palmer, who turns in yet another brilliant performance. I was sure after Akeelah and the Bee that she had talent, but it's confirmed here. She has a level of maturity not often seen in young actresses. I hope she goes far, but in better movies than this. Shrink is neither funny enough, nor deep enough to satisfy anybody completely.
5/10
