![A scene from [REC], which you should see with a sick bag. Photo by FILMAX.](https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default/files/styles/odt_portrait_medium_3_4/public/story/2016/04/a_scene_from_rec__which_you_should_see_with_a_sick_1918752410.jpg?itok=8AVWNY8p)
> [•REC]
Director: Jaume Balaguero/Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Javier Botet, Manuel Bronchud, Martha Carbonell, Vicente Gil.
Rating: (R16)
2 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by Mark Orton
Touted as one of the scariest films ever made, [REC] visualises Spanish television reporter Angela (Manuela Velasco) following a trio of firemen on a routine callout.
Somehow, this turns into a reality exposé about their frenetic battle with a rapidly mutating zombie virus.
Relayed entirely through the lens of one camera, [REC] has inevitably been compared with Cloverfield, except it was in the can well before the American monster flick hit cinemas.
That said, the technique of capturing the moment with a "constantly" shooting camera, is hardly innovative.
What sets [REC] apart is attention to detail, some clever set design and no character exposition.
Thankfully, the Spaniards spare us the pain of sentimentality.
[REC] would work well as a short film. While it clocks in at a meagre 70 minutes, that still feels like 55 too many.
Technically, it's the quintessential generation-Y film: ambiguous plot, mixed media, and not a tripod in sight. Perfect, if you feel like rattling around a Spanish apartment building with the cast of Michael Jackson's Thriller, but relatively tedious otherwise.
Best thing: Keeping the lens clean while zombies chomp faces.
Worst thing: It's nowhere near as scary as the hype suggests.
See it with: A sick bag.
> Taken
Director: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Katie Cassidy, Olivier Rabourdin, Holly Valance, Arben Bajraktaraj, Gerard Watkins, Nicolas Giraud.
Rating: R16
4 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by CHRISTINE POWLEY
What makes a movie fly is an inexact science. Take Taken (Hoyts), a film about white slave trading.
On so many levels it is muddled and wrong, but because someone had the nous to cast Liam Neeson as the vigilante dad tracking his kidnapped daughter, all the implausibilities melt under the white-hot heat of his conviction in the role.
Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former CIA guy who has taken early retirement to try to reconnect with his daughter.
Bryan was away for most of her life, but now that Kim (Maggie Grace) is 17, he figures that this is his last chance for a relationship.
Against his instincts he allows Kim to travel to Paris with a girlfriend. It is a trip of lifetime but Bryan knows how evil the world can be. Unfortunately he is proved right when the girls are abducted by Albanian sex-slave-traders.
Bryan has 96 hours to save her and he goes to it with gusto.
He has no time for niceties and for the audience it becomes good grim fun watching Bryan hit all levels of the sex trade, leaving behind a trail of creepy dead guys.
Taken is brisk, moving quickly between scenes of Bryan's vengeance. There are plenty of bad guys and we want to see him kill every last one.
Best thing: This is so non-PC, but there is a torture scene that had me thrilled to see the baddie get his.
Worst thing: Any script that contains the line "you'll never get away with this" needs another rewrite.
See it with: Any fan of high-body-count movies where the hero never has to reload his gun.
