£3.99 DVD from virgin, its a disgrace...

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 2006)

I brought this film from virgin mega-stores not to long ago, for £3.99... I had heard that it was a classic horror/thriller of the 90's so i brought it. I went home and watched it that night to find one of the best movies I have ever seen. you should go out and buy it for a lot more than that,(but don't because you know that the second you do you'll turn around and see it for cheaper and then hate yourself for being impatient.)
I had also heard that it was gratuitously gory and violent, upon watching the film i was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion violence can be used to great effect, and also ,in my experience, films that have been certified '18' because of their violence are often over the top and unnecessary. For example 'Kill Bill' although I found it entertaining (to a point) you start to think that no character in the films life is important because they are being disembowelled left, right and centre, and as soon as you take that away, you take away the reality of it, because in real life every life matters and you cannot just chop through 88 people with a samurai sword. So i thought that this may perhaps be the case for Seven. I was, however, wrong. at points David Fincher used extreme violence but it works well and makes the audience root even more for Mills(Pitt) and Somerset(Freeman) because you want them to solve the crime and be done with this disgusting world (Morgan Freeman is retiring after the case, and Brad Pitt's wife wants to go back to the city they recently moved from).
Another great thing about Seven is that not only does it thrill and disturb but it also makes you question the world that we live in. The film is set in the modern day, but in no particular place. It is a dark and grim city filled with crime and corruption, and it makes the audience really think about crime, helped along by Morgan Freemen who often talks about whether or not crime will stop, or will it go on for ever and why.
The acting is brilliant, the contrast between Mills and Somerset, Somerset being the old, experienced cop on the verge of retirement and Mills, the hot-headed rookie. One of my favourite parts is when Morgan Freeman tells Pitt he should read up on the crimes, and gives him a list of books to get. Later we see a policeman handing the revision notes versions of the books (including 'Dante's Inferno') to Pitt. Kevin Spacy plays 'the bad guy' fantastically, a calm slimy, religious fanatic, who's voice makes you want to turn the TV off and stop watching. The end sequence is very emotional and the tension is increased by a ten minute long car journey with the two heroes in front and Kevin Spacy in the back cleverly named John Doe, the police slang for an unidentified body.
This is an amazing film, scary, tense thought provoking and even funny at times, definitely a classic, and if you have £3.99 i know what i'd spend it on...