Shutter Island Reviews

a nicely done story that keeps you guessing.

i won't give it all away...
a marshal comes to an island were the worst of the worst of mental patients are being "treated" and you begin to learn the real story of why the marshal came here...and then the drugs kick in and things get really surreal crazy. you'll begin to wonder what the hell is going on and then wonder what the real story is, who's who, and then it comes down to the final story...the real.

so you may guess what the basic story will be but its a good twisting turning trip that keeps making you watch and wonder and guess again. really for this type of movie its written pretty damn well.

my only real complaint about the film (well i thought dicaprio was unsuited to the marshal role...but that turns out to be interesting) was that the film is generally over processed. sometimes heavy handed processing can help a film and in this it could have added a dimension of surreal 'crazy' to it all but it fails to do so. the overprocessing is simply over done. its not suited to the film in the end and is a little garish honestly. but thats my only complaint...otherwise it was good entertainment.

(8/10)

Scorsese and DiCaprio are back together doing what they do best-- making great films. This time around they benefit from the support of Ben Kingsley (this year's Christoph Waltz, who stole the show in Inglorious Basterds) and Mark Ruffalo (who, if you haven't figured it out by now, is among the most capable of all unsung actors working today). Perhaps mis-marketed as simply a gritty super-natural horror story, Shutter Island is so much more-- a convincing period piece, a visually stunning fever-dream, and, excuse the cliche, a top-shelf, knock em all over and win the biggest f***ing stuffed panda out of the sweat shop, psychological thriller. Granted, there's nothing in this movie, plot-wise, that hasn't been done before, it's just that it's seldom been done this well. Here Scorsese strays far away from his normal, taxi-cab-laiden streets or compelling, fearless bio-pics. It's as though Scorsese shuddered, pun regretfully intended, at the decline of the average movie-goers tastes, but figured, "hell, if it's creepy, atmospheric thrills with twist-endings they want, then that's what they'll get. But I'll be damned if I don't find a way to remain a relevant film-maker in the process."