the 941

It’s week three of VHS Netflix month here at Little Movie Review, wherein my buddy Jessie Archambault of Olympia, Wash., and I mail weird old movies in the old videocassette format to each other. Up this week, Jessie reviews Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle’s first feature film, Shallow Grave, which also introduced the world to a young Ewan McGregor and featured the man who would be Who Christopher Eccleston.

Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor
UK, 1994
R, 92 min
live action, color

Shallow Grave is like a twin to Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting in many ways. The quick-paced style, lead Ewan McGregor, the attitude of the film and even the color palette is signature Boyle. His characters are witty in that over-written (in a positive manner) movie way and are both likable and loath-able at once. At any given moment you find yourself nervously laughing at the stressful comic situations the three main characters live through. You cheer each of them on in their own wily endeavors to survive the horror they’ve managed to make worse through the course of the film. All in all, the movie is a fun yet intense work of suspense with an air of lightheartedness. If you could render it in the second dimension and hang it in a contemporary art gallery, it would fit in quite nicely. 4 stars

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