The Celestine Prophecy

The Celestine Prophecy (2006)

I only recently found out about this film, after reading and quite enjoying the book of the same name.The book is poorly written in my opinion but the concepts it contains, it's enthusiasm and the well-meaning feel of it are fantastic, though much is borrowed from other sources (eg, psychologist Carl Jung) - the film just does not do it justice. It tries, but it falls far short. Characters are not well developed so the viewer feels nothing for them. It is slow paced, and the bits that are fast paced feel forced; tagged on to make it more of an action film. Skipping over the all important Insights and key concepts in the fashion of '1, 2 miss a few, 8 and 9' was a real mistake and I'm sure leaves anyone coming to this film without reading the book fairly lost. And for those who have read and enjoyed it, it leaves much to be desired. Perhaps some day this can be re-made and done a bit better...

Cert: PG
Drama / Action

And Soon the Darkness (2010)

Something no-one else seems to have touched on among others reviews I read on Lovefilm is the fact that this film is actually a re-make of a 1970 British film with the same name. Having watched that film a few weeks ago, it was on the Horror Channel in the UK, I have to say that this film is a lot better than the original one, which was a real chore to get through.At least this one has a bit of genuine excitement and thrill to it, at least the girls in it seems to have just a little bit of sense about them (not much) - in the original they are so naive it is painful and watching it I was almost glad they ran into difficulties just to teach them a lesson... But times were very different back then, just coming out of the 60s, so it is obviously a film of it's time. The 2010 remake is miles better, but comparing it with similar films of it's kind today, it is only average - 3/5.