All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
Reviewer: Lee Griffiths
Issue 106 August 2008
(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 10)
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I don’t.
The Lowdown: Mandy Lane (Heard), the unattainable object of adolescent lust for all the boys in her high school, is invited to a weekend away to a remote ranch. Unfortunately, the weekend of teenage debauchery turns into a nightmare as Mandy and her pals find themselves fighting for their lives when a killer turns up on the scene.
Review: Intended as a subversive slasher flick but ending up as generic as they come, Jonathan Levine’s feature debut merges adolescent lust with bloody killings to create a hybrid of The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Friday The 13th (1980), with far less thrilling results than you’d expect.
The set-up is instantly familiar, with a group of teens escaping to a remote location for a couple days of drinking beer, smoking pot and (hopefully) getting laid, but of course, an unseen psychopath turns up and dispatches the group one by one. But here’s the clever part… Oh, wait, there isn’t one. No, aside from the handsome cinematography and the breathtaking beauty of its final girl (Amber Heard), there’s little that sets this film apart from the hoards of stalk and slash thrillers that continue to flood the DVD market. A lumbering pace attempts to work on characterisation but instead infuriates and bores (where’s Jason Vorhees when you need him?), and by the time the killing spree gets underway, Mandy and her classmates have long outstayed their welcome.
The unsatisfying finale leaves you feeling short-changed, and the DVD package adds salt to the wound with a stingy amount of extras, including a trailer and 30 minutes with Amber Heard.
While slick and admirably performed, Mandy Lane brings nothing new to the slasher genre, and though it’s one hell of a looker, the film has neither the brains nor the personality to warrant a second glance.
FILM: 5
EXTRAS: 4
DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Starring: Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Whitney Able
Directed By: Jonathan Levine, 2006
Distributor: Optimum
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 86 mins
Price: £17.99
Film supplied by: Optimum
Special Features:
Interview With Actor Amber Heard
Trailer
Scene Selection
August 19th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Why the heck have so many critics been saying how fresh and original this movie is?! With the exception of the ending, which is reasonably original, this movie is dull. The makers of this movie must have thought it would be different to get more insight into the lives of slasher victims, but when those victims are hyper annoying versions of the usual victims (with the exception of one stereotypical frigid hero, all the victims in this film are at least one of the following: coke-head, pot-head, complete a-hole jerk, slut), it really doesn’t enhance a person’s enjoyment of the film, and you definately don’t feel any kind of sadness when they die. The killers are also very irritating and whiney. Watching this film is a real waste of any horror fan’s time.