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Fury Directed by: Paul Gorman & Steve Merrill Starring: Marie Madison, James Xavier & Renee Rohan Reviewed by: Scott West |
| Final Score: Movie:  DVD Extras:  Overall Score: |
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Alone in the Dark, Blair Witch 2, Signs, Star War: Episodes I-III... This list could go on. Some films start with a good idea but fail to follow through. Fury from Erie, PA filmmaker Paul Gorman and GMD films is one of those movies. The story follows the tale of Lany McCoy (Marie Madison), a high-powered attorney, and her "fling" with younger man Michael. Things start out well, but Michael has a girlfriend and Laney, in a true Fatal Attraction turn, begins butchering Michael's friends. The film opens with Laney's final crime and works backwards from there through the view of her own attorney who is trying to unravel the events that led to a blood covered Laney calling for help from her boy-toy's apartment. Sounds like a fun, if derivative, psychological thriller but, like the films mentioned earlier, it doesn't quite live up to the hype. The main failing here is in the acting and directing. I've seen a lot of films using amateur actors in general and, with the right cuts and directing, their lack of experience and/or talent can be covered up with smart editing and good direction. The acting here is bad enough that you can't concentrate on the story being laid out before you. The film is full of characters spewing stilted dialog and giving totally unrealistic reactions to the mayhem that's ensuing around them. With Fury being more of a thriller than a full-on horror film, the FX are few and far between and, in this case, this is a good thing. One decent gun shot aside, the FX come across as cheesy and fake. In fact, they're almost as bad as some of the lame stuff in Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. To Gorman's credit, the cinematography and editing is technically well done. The only complaint here is that there are some camera effects that seem to be done simply for the kudos of showing off that the editor could do it. Fury is not a good film, but the GMD folks do have good eyes for shots and editing. I'd love to see what they could do with a better story and a more experienced director at the helm. The DVD I watched was the 2-disc edition coming soon from SRS Cinema. It included a "making of", trailers and a behind-the-scenes of the premiere night in Erie. Back to Reviews |
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