Ever since Ellen Page became well known from her role in Juno, anything that she has made beforehand has become popular. I fell into this trap when I rented The Tracey Fragments. I’d read about the movie before hand and though it sounded interesting, and I have been impressed with Page before so I gave it a chance…I could not have been more wrong.

I really should have just taken the name of the movie literally – it really is fragmented. The whole movie is done in a specific style. It’s rare when you only see one screen, instead of several. The best way to describe it would be to say you have a picture in picture screen, but more than one picture at the same time. Sometimes they show the same thing sometimes all the screens are different. I get it, it’s supposed to be artsy, and cutting edge – it actually is just annoying to watch. I’ll give the editors credit for their hard work. I read that it took only 14 days to shoot the movie, but 9 months to edit! It’s pretty easy to see why it took them that long.

From what I got from the plot of this movie, if you’re still interested in reading what it’s about, is that Tracey is a 15-year-old runaway. She’s the outcast in school, and spends more time in her daydreams that actual reality. One cold day she is watching her little brother who thinks he is a dog and they are playing fetch. Her dream boy distracts her, and the next thing she knows her brother is gone. Most of the plot is driven by her trying to find him, but the story goes back and forth. There seem to be some subplots, but they were even more confusing to follow. To Page’s credit though, she does well with what she had to work with. I believe her panic when she is racing around to find he brother. The other standout performance (the only other one) is Slim Twig’s Billy Zero. Billy is Tracey’s dream boyfriend, but in real life a complete jerk. Twig does well showing both versions. The other performances are lacking, especially those of Tracey’s parents (Erin McMurtry and Ari Cohen). Her parents seemed kind of oblivious most of the time, and the actors weren’t much better. Did they just wake up out of their trance and think “hey, I’m in a movie today,” because that’s what it felt like to me.

I hope nobody tries to copy The Tracey Fragments and use the multiple screens aspect. I think the movie would have been interesting without adding all of that, but it just ruined the movie for me and I’ll have to give it a D. Only barely passing due to the two performances that made this movie worthwhile to keep watching and not just turn off.

Barrow, a small town perched on the edge of Alaska within the Arctic circle, is preparing for it’s annual month-long plunge into darkness. Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) begins to link together a series of strange crimes whose purpose becomes startlingly apparent as the darkness descends.  Deaths come thick and fast as a group of ferocious vampires terrorize the town. The only question is whether the survivors will ever see the sun again.

30 days of night is based upon a comic book written by Steve Niles and there are times when it feels those pages of terror are rendered strikingly onto film. It really is visually stunning in places. Most notable is the capture of the majestic snow covered land of northern Alsaka, and an overhead shot of the vampire’s attack on the town, making the whole scene graphically compelling.

Unfortunately the stylish shots aren’t there throughout the film. It’s a shame because they are the only real highlight. The premise of a small town cut-off from the rest of the world having to endue 30 days of terror couldn’t be better for a horror movie. The trouble is the film fails to be truly scary. There are too many close-up shots of vampires idly screaming into the night to garner any real suspense or frights.

The cast are fine and on the human side the plight of Barrow’s inhabitant’s makes sense and is handled well. Disappointedly the vampires don’t get off so easy and are almost an afterthought with no real focus or ambition. The leader is reduced to the odd ramble, as if to explain their presence or why they haven’t been detected for centuries. None of it comes off with any satisfying results. It’s annoying as this is one of those movies that feels it’s missed out on being a cult classic.

If you don’t take any of it seriously there is enough here for a couple of hours of gory fun. The only cringe worthy scene  is the final showdown between the Sheriff and the vampires. It couldn’t be more anti-climatic, only serving to completely undermine the preceding violence and gruesome blood sucking. The final violent act is a sadly comical ending for all concerned.

I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this movie or that is wasn’t worth watching. There’s just not enough to make you want to hide behind the sofa. It’s always disappointing when the instigators of horror fail to live up to their billing.

As David Rice (Hayden Christensen) is growing up he discovers that he has the ability to teleport. Feeling no ties to home after being brought up by his angry and bitter dad, Rice follows temptation and sets himself up for life by robbing the odd bank or two. However, it turns out that he’s not the only teleporter around, and worse yet not everyone believes the ability to flit in and out of places is such a good idea. Rice finds himself a target of Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), a man with murderous intent who doesn’t mind if Rice’s childhood sweetheart (Rachel Bilson) gets in the way.

I have no idea why I decided to watch this film. It looked to me like an all out kids movie lurking at the end of the new releases shelf and to be honest I had zero expectations as I flicked on the Dvd player. Yet against all odds, I really enjoyed this film. I’m not a huge fan of Christensen or Bilson, and I was worried that Samuel L. Jackson would be portraying one of those evil obsessed characters that he seems to be typecast as these days. And, even though Jackson is stuck with the same role again, it doesn’t seem to matter. I didn’t even mind the cheesy voice over at the start that introduces us to the action.

I think Max Thieriot did this film a lot of favors by playing the vulnerable young Rice discovering the quirks of teleportation. He gave the character a solid base which made the transition to Rice’s later life a lot easier to watch. Christensen does a relaxed job of guiding Rice through his more selfish antics without really building up any chemistry with Bilson. Jamie Bell isn’t too over the top as the other teleporter battling back against the Roland’s Paladin army.

Acting aside, this is one of those movies that relies heavily on the special effects department. They handle the teleportation sequences really well, and the director Doug Liman uses them to clever effect throughout the actions scenes. The film is well paced without any real lulls between the action shots.

I suppose the most important part of watching this movie is realizing that it is complete and utter hokum. There isn’t much attempt to explain why Rice and others have this ability, or why Roland is so outraged that they should have such a gift. It was as if no one really had the answers. We just have to accept that Roland is blinded by righteousness and no one Rice meets seems able to explain.

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie was as entertaining as it was. A lot is down to the casualness of Christensen coupled with the scrapbook of well known locations around the world. The special effects of the fights scenes employing teleportation to it’s limits does a lot to make this movie watchable. There’s not much to offend and I’ve no doubt there will be a sequel that might perhaps deliver the answers that weren’t in the this one.