Shallow Grave

Pros: Good, solid performances, directing and script-writing
Cons: Not for the squeamish or those easily bored without lots of explosions

Few directors are on a first-name basis with the general public - in fact, you can usually count them on one hand. Then there is a second category, this time comprised of filmmakers whose movies you've seen multiple times without knowing it. Scotland's ...

Pros: Great story, strong acting by all the performers
Cons: Has irritating contrivances to drive plot forward

Shallow Grave opens with a scene filmed by a camera mounted on the grill of a car, sped up so that the city streets and other cars seem to flash by at warp speed, this then changes to a slow-mo pan of a rich, green forest. I'd say that this is an...

Pros: black comedy / twisted people
Cons: the burial

The film starts with 3 flatmates interviewing potential new flatmates. Of course, anyone they don't instantly like they harass until the person leaves. Eventually, after going through the belittling of about 10 hopeful, unsuspecting people, a fourth...

Pros: Great story, well acted, surprising plot twists
Cons: No characters are that appealing, and thus we don't really care how the ending turns out

"Shallow Grave" is English director Danny Boyle's ("Trainspotting," "A Life Less Ordinary," "The Beach") first and one of his best films. While he improved with his following film, "Trainspotting," he...

Pros: gripping story, good cinematography
Cons: may take a little while to decipher Scottish accent

Despite its title (and some of its more explicit scenes), "Shallow Grave" isn't about gore. This twisty thriller is about the worst impulses harbored by a trio of friends - ordinary folks, just like you and me - and how close those impulses lie ...

Pros: Macabre, Hip, Disturbing funny and suspenseful
Cons: It gets gross with the disposal of the bodies and you don't really like the characters in the end

Its nice to see that there are some filmmakers out there that are taking the teachings of the masters and putting them to good use. Danny Boyle notably takes inspiration off of Alfred Hitchcock but refreshes the genre to a nineties fashion in his dark...

Pros: Nice direction and artwork
Cons: A little slow at times

Three roomates are looking for another roomate to fill a vacant room in their large flat in Scotland. The opening few minutes of the movie show these roomates harassing the potential new roomies. One day, a dark handsome man shows up and seems to be...

Pros: Ewan McGregor's and Kerry Fox's onscreen chemistry and character development
Cons: Action/chain of events take excessively large/small leaps at times

Director Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later) first shot at fame doesn't disappoi ...

Pros: Great story, enjoyable irony, and risks only possible through independent production.
Cons: Not for kids.

Why is it that I watch and enjoy so many films in which Ewan McGregor appears? After finishing the substantive part of my day one evening last week, I flipped over to IFC and found ‘Shallow Grave’ (1994) just starting. I stuck with it, and was not ...

Pros: Style ...
Cons: .... over substance ...

The film perhaps responsible for bringing the use of cinematography as rollercoaster ride out of the pre-Simple Plan Sam Raimi film (the Evil Dead trilogy, The Quick and the Dead) and into the cinema at large (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Fight...

Pros: creatively pulsating, brilliantly plotted and fantastic acting
Cons: Nothing

It starts out as all fun and games. Three very different roommates are looking for someone to take a recently emptied room. The audience laughs along with them as they play practical jokes and ask the most horrendous questions of some of the...

Pros: Thought provoking
Cons: puts friend against friend

OK, I will be honest with you....the only reason I rented this movie was to hear Ewan Mcgregor's sexy accent, but it turned out to be sadisticlly good.

Here is the situation; 3 friends set out to find a roommate. After taunting and teasing...