83. Dark Water (2005)
84. Norbit
Dark Water is a remake of the 2002 Japanese movie of the same name. It is based on the short story Floating Water by author Koji Suzuki who also penned The Ring.
Dark Water tells the story of Dahlia Williams. Newly divorced, she is trying to find an apartment in the city for herself and her daughter Ceci. Ultimately, they settle on an apartment in a huge complex on Roosevelt Island. Dahlia has found a great school for Ceci just a couple of blocks away so it'll be perfect. Shortly after moving in, they discover that there's a leak in the bedroom ceiling. Is it a plumbing issue or is there something more sinister? I'll give you a hint. If it were really a plumbing issue, this movie would last about 20 minutes.
This flick is pretty good. The story is one that seems to have become far too common in Asian cinema but since this movie is now 5 years old, it wasn't quite burned out at that point in time. It's a slow mover, really helping to build tension and a definite sense of doom and gloom. The cast is really solid with Jennifer Connelly, John C Reilly, Pete Postlethwaite and Tim Roth turning in good performances. I enjoyed this one so it gets a "recommended" tag from me.
Norbit. Dear lord, what the hell happened to Eddie Murphy? When I was growing up, he was the man. Movies like Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, the Golden Child and Coming to America were ones you could watch repeatedly and laugh yourself silly each time. As the years went by, his movies started to suffer in quality. Vampire in Brooklyn and Holy Man became the norm. He struck box office gold again in the late 90s with The Nutty Professor movies. He played multiple roles in both movies. I guess the success of these movies led him to believe that doing so was a good idea because he tried it again in 2007's Norbit.
Here, Murphy plays 3 characters...the titular Norbit, his morbidly obese wife Rasputia and an Asian man named Mr Wong. He's alright in the roles. Not anywhere near his 80s heyday but not quite his family friendly stuff either. The supporting cast includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Terry Crews, Thandie Newton, Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams and Marlon Wayans. The story is nothing special. It just kind of rolls along from one attempted punchline to the next. I chuckled a few times here but not enough to really get any serious enjoyment out of it. Norbit is immensely skippable.
2 comments:
I loved "Dark Water." It's one of those movies where I liked the main characters so much (the mom and her daughter) that I almost wished it wasn't a horror movie because I knew things were going to go badly for them and it made me sad. I made this comment to my ex, John, once, and he said "I LIKED that this was a horror movie because I LIKE horror movies," and I tried to explain that I LIKE horror movies too, but I was sad in THIS movie that I knew bad things were going to happen to the main characters, and he went into this self-righteous spiel about how "bad things happen in horror movies and if you can't take that don't see the movie" and blah blah blah. This is when I decided he was just an idiot and shut up.
I have no interest in seeing Norbit (though I do love Katt Williams). I can just watch "First Sunday" again if I want to see Katt Williams that badly. :-p I do miss the good old days when Eddie Murphy was funny, though. I didn't like the Nutty Professor movies much either.
Dark Water is a good flick. The character development on Dahlia and Ceci is top notch.
Katt Williams is only in a small role so definitely don't see it for him. :p
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