How quickly franchises can rise and fall. The original Hills Have Eyes was fun enough, though arguably unworthy of a remake. In 2006 they remade it anyway and it’s surprisingly fresh brutality made it one of the breakout hits of last year’s competition. Here we are a year later face to face with a sequel. So what are we looking at?
A group of soldiers, all of whom I despise equally, are out in the desert investigating the murders from the first movie. I suppose their likeability is a moot point as they’ll be fighting for their lives in short time. For all intents and purposes, the mutants are now a highly trained terrorist organization. After picking off a few soldiers, the rest of the unlikeables go into the mutant lair deep inside the hills, turning the entire franchise into a video game shoot’em’up in the process.
The makeup on the mutants isn’t as striking as the original (remake) but there are some great moments. As one victim plummets to his death, a mutant waves goodbye with the soldiers own freshly lopped off arm. Generally speaking though, the only thing this movie really has going for it is the gorgeous, jagged scenery. This offers relief from the inane army dialogue such as “This isn’t spring break! One way or another, lives are at stake!” That one rhymes and sucks.
I was very disappointed to see this movie fall into action film territory. The final mutant battle is reminiscent of the Black Knight duel in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. This mutie survives getting shot, harpooned to the wall, his brain getting picked out of his head and a sledge hammer to the testicles before going down.
1 comment:
That's really disappointing. I really enjoyed the remake last year. I guess there really isn't anywhere else to go with the franchise. I mean, how many times can people get stranded in the exact place where these mutants reside?
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