HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
SEVEN (1995)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I have seen this movie a few times, and recently I sat down to watch it again with my wife, who has never seen the film but wanted to since it had Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in it. This was the first time I had reviewed the movie, so I tried to watch it a little bit closer to see if I could pick up any little tid bits to talk about in my review.

ACTING

    BRAD PITT was really good in this film, I really didn't take notice of Brad Pitt until Fight Club came out. I threw him away much like I threw away Leonardo DiCaprio as a useless woman's sex toy that had as much business being in mainstream movies as a big black dildo. However looking back at performances like this where he kept his shirt on, I can see that I was very wrong. His performance in this movie was nearly as strong as it was in Fight Club and his excitable nature bounced off of Morgan Freeman's unshakable calmness quite well.
    MORGAN FREEMAN is a rock, by that I mean that he was created by immense pressure's deep under the Earth's crust millions of years ago. Wait, no that's not what I mean, I mean he is reliable. You always know what you are going to get with him, and yet somehow it is always good. It is always the same, and yet, always good. I have been trying to figure this out, and I think it is because even though he may act the same in all of his movies he comes across as genuine. I feel like everything he says is the complete and honest truth, even when he is lying.
    GWYNETH PALTROW surprised me by appearing in this movie. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to see her given that this is the third time I have watched this movie, but somehow I was. I suppose it doesn't really say much about her performance if I didn't even remember she was in it, but really she didn't do that bad. If anything the character itself was the boring part, but she cried and did everything she was supposed to do. The person who was really burned into my mind was Kevin Spacey, but of course I am not supposed to talk about his performance because it is a secret.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    DAVID FINCHER is good at capturing suspense and mystery, and this is his first movie that showcases that. I like how the film's story unraveled to a breaking point and then veered off in a completely different direction, which I suppose is also a credit to the writer. He got great performances out of all of the actors and really I don't have a lot of complaints, it's nice to see a "horror" movie that doesn't just cater to cheap screams and unnecessary gore. Also on a side note I couldn't believe how dated this movie felt because of the tube TV's shown throughout the film. It is weird how quickly the idea of a flat screen TV being the norm has taken over my brain. I saw all these huge box TV's which were completely normal at the time, and all I could think of was how fucking old it made everything look. It's like when you see an old movie and everyone is smoking and using type writers, for a brief second you are reminded of how old the movie was and how much things have changed. Ahh memories.
    ANDREW KEVIN WALKER frightens me a little bit, this idea is a little too good to be fiction, like maybe he had thought about doing this himself. It doesn't help things that he is known by three names, all serial killers are known by their first middle and last names, like John Wayne Gacy. I don't want to make false accusations or anything, but I am fairly certain that he is a murderer... and also a good writer.

THE VERDICT

    I don't know if it I need to refer to this movie as a horror film or a suspense film. Part of me doesn't want to classify this as horror because it didn't suck, and well, frankly most horror films suck. But as suspenseful as this movie is, ultimately it is about a serial killer and they way that he takes his victims. You can call it hard-core rape pornography if you want to, but the bottom line is this a well put together film with good acting from it's stars, and really what more can you ask for?
 
 

RATING: B -

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