Shrooms
(Magnet DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Feature: D
When
anything brags about itself by quoting someone else (especially on line that
you never heard of before) describing said project as “Blair Witch on Acid!”
then you know you are in big trouble, which is exactly the waste of time Paddy
Breathnach’s Shrooms (2006)
predictably turns out to be. In this
latest installment of “dumb teens on vacation” we get a generic group going to
Ireland for the time of their life, even if they will not return alive.
I will at
least say that this does not have the awful shaky camera work that other film
offers, the kind of thing bad filmmakers (and all hacks) hide behind. In place of that gimmick here is a total lack
of originality, boredom and though this is not quite torture porn, it is just
plain bad. Yawn, yawn, yawn!
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image has weak Video Black and color can be a
bit off, while compositions by Director of Photography Nanu Segal are not very
memorable. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has
a poor soundfield and does not sound like it was intended for such a mix, while
the Dario Marianelli score is not memorable and could not save this in any
event. Extras include a superfluous
audio commentary, bloopers, alternate ending and alternate/deleted scenes. You’ll want to see Leprechaun to remember the bad old days.
- Nicholas Sheffo
