Movie review of Ink, 2009
DAMIEN’S RATING of Ink: 1 – What were they thinking when they made this movie? If you decide to watch this movie, put yourself on suicide watch before doing so. I would rather slap my mom around the house all day than to even ever hear the title of this movie again.
See the complete movie rating system here.
Ink reviewed in 25 words or less: Ink made 107 minutes feel like 107 days.
FULL REVIEW of Ink
Like most movie buffs, I was in a mood for something new and different. I went to a popular movie website and started perusing. That’s when I came across Ink. It had a ranking of 6.8 stars out of 10. The review, among other outrageous claims, said it was better than Pan’s Labyrinth. So I rented it. It was new and different alright. But not at all in a good way. When Ink FINALLY ended, I felt like I’d been released from a long prison sentence – I wanted to call people and tell them I was finally free, and celebrate my freedom.
Ink stars Christopher Soren Kelly, Quinn Hunchar, Jessica Duffy, Jennifer Batter, Jeremy Make, Eme Ikwuakor and Shelby Malone. Ink was directed (and written) by Jamin Winans. If none of these names sounds familiar, don’t worry – you’re not alone.
I think the premise of this movie is about a battle between evil dream creatures and good dream creatures. These would be the creatures that determine whether you have a good dram or a nightmare. Okay, that’s clever enough. And so ends all of my positive comments about Ink.
Ink really has nothing at all working for it, and I genuinely can’t understand its rating or the review I read. Of course, there’s always the possibility that the review was written by one of the actors, but I hate to be so cynical.
The camera work and lighting in Ink is horrible. Handheld camera work does have its place in movie making, but let’s draw a line somewhere. Some audience members may suffer from seas sickness. And quite honestly, while I am a fan of the proper use of a montage, this movie often seemed to be nothing but a l-o-n-g montage – accent on ‘long.’
I can’t really say if the unknown actors did a good job, because I’m not sure what they were supposed to be conveying. I absolutely could not relate to any character, nor could I grasp most of what was going on most of the time – some of which clearly made no sense at all. The background story of the lead’s primary, current business venture, for example, made no sense to me. I don’t think the writer of Ink actually understands business.
Some of the elements used in Ink just detracted further from any possible redeeming quality the movie may actually have. Why, for example, does the Pathfinder (good dream creature) have electrical tape on his eyes? Can’t dream creatures do better for their blind people? And at the end of the film, an apparently important element prop was an old bathtub. How am I supposed to pay attention to anything when my mind reels with “what is an old bathtub doing as an altar of sorts?”
Of course I could be wrong about Ink. There’s always that possibility. It might be such a deep movie that I’m unable to grasp its subtle undertones, profound philosophical implications and groundbreaking film and lighting techniques. But I don’t think so.
And on a personal, closing note: the review I read of Ink on that popular movie website (which I frequent) is precisely why I started writing movie reviews.
April 29th, 2011 at 8:55 am
Unfortunately for INK it does require some level of intelligence to appreciate the move. Yes you don’t understand the depth of the characters, or the philosophical meaning to the move. Maybe you should stick with “The Fast And The Furious” Or “Transformers” (maybe Barany’s big move?) and leave the more intellectual films to some the smarter reviewers.