Movie Roundup: Clones, Killings, Elephants, Adrenaline and Big Scary Rabbits
Vacation means movies, on both the small screen and large. I've been lax in writing and posting these. So here comes a big bunch.
The Island was much better than I expected it to be. But that's not saying much being it was a Michael Bay action sci-fi film.
The film starts out in a very Logan's Run sort of way. A closed society in a big arcology because the outside world has been poisoned and is dangerous. Every now and then one of the residents wins the lottery and gets to go off to The Island, the last habitable place on the outside. Every now and then a new survivor is also brought in from the outside world.
Everything seems pretty smooth and easy, right? Of course not. One of the residents, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) starts to wonder about what's really going on. Before long, he's figured out things aren't quite what they seem. That's when the Bay-sian explosions begin.
The pacing on the film is excellent. Bay has managed to outdo every other chase of his I've seen. I literally couldn't look away from the screen the tension was built so well during it. And just when you thought it couldn't get any crazier, it did. And that's really all I was expecting from this film: good action and pretty people (with McGregor and Scarlett Johansen in the leads, that's a given, too).
But I got more than that. Between the chases and explosions there's an actual good sci-fi story going on. Actual moral dilemmas are dealt with (which I've only seen Bay really explore in The Rock and a few bits of Armageddon) and social commentary was actually made. Sure it got a little rough at times, and I'm certain it's mostly due to the writers fighting to make sure some meaningful story got left in, but the meat is there with the flash.
It's not quite as hard hitting or thought provoking as Gattaca, but it packs more action into 136 minutes than you normally see. I'd recommend it. Especially if you're going to do a double feature with Minority Report.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is one of those film that only the mid-80s slasher craze could produce. To say it's formulaic and without heart is being kind. To say it's pacing is poor and acting worse (and we won't even talk about the soundtrack) is an understatement. To say the plot twists are asinine is an insult to everything asinine.
That said, it's one hell of a fun movie. This is the fifth movie in the series. Five movies in five years. It's no surprise that it is oh-so-bad in the good kind of way. The kills are somewhat creative and the sheer cheese factor in the whole film makes it a classic for (bad) movie nights.
The Protector is a Thai marital arts film about a young man and his elephant.
That's right, where other movies have wives, brothers, girlfriends and political figures captured by the bad guys, this one has an elephant. And as silly as it sounds, it actually works quite well in the context of the film and culture.
Apparently, the US version of this film (which is the one I just saw on the big screen) has been edited down a bit from the Thai original. That editing, sad to say, has been done poorly. The film has also been re-scored, but that didn't bother me anywhere near as much as the bad jump cuts and he plot holes left by some of the edits. I mean, there's not much plot to begin with, why cut more out?
Plot problems aside, this is a fantastic martial arts film. The fight scenes are some of the best I've seen lately. The choreography is obviously heavily influenced by classic Jackie Chan. There's humor and a whole lot of bone-crunching as the hero fights his way to the crime boss. (And, I ask you, what kind of health plan does being an evil henchman have? It better be a good one, because very few of these guys are actually killed. Usually they're just left with six or eight breaks in their bones and many torn ligaments and dislocations.)
This film also has one of the longest and most interesting tracking shots I've ever seen. It follows the hero up a very long set of stairs and through at least a dozen fights--all in one unbroken shot. Flawless and very impressive.
If nothing else, this is a wonderful study of different martial arts fighting techniques. And it's got cute elephants. Would be a great double feature with The Fearless Hyhena.
Crank was the second half of the manly-man action night at the movies that dallendoug arranged. It was a complete contrast to The Protector which we saw first. This film wasn't so much a slug fest as it was an adrenaline trip like none I've seen before.
Like the classic D.O.A., this movie starts with the main character, Chev Chellios (Jason Statham), finding out he's already dead, injected while unconscious with a drug mix that's shutting down his body. The only way to keep his heart from stopping? Keep the adrenaline pumping!
And, oh, does the adrenaline flow!
This movie is a study in what an action junkie can do to keep his heart rate up. Drugs, high speed chases, fights, more drugs, public sex--it's all there and it's all spectacular. The style of this film is like a music video on speed, complete with hallucinations as Chellios pumps more and more drugs into his body. Amy Smart, who plays Chellios' kind of vacant girlfriend Eve, is fantastic and adds just that much more sass and fun to the film.
I'm glad I saw this one on the big screen. It makes the action that much better. And seeing it with an audience made it just that much more clear that action films can be fun and entertaining without being completely mindless. I don't even think there were a lot of explosions in this film. And the audience had their attention held just fine.
Somehow, I managed to go five years without seeing Donnie Darko. I'd heard of it and heard the kind of impact it had on certain demographics and sub-cultures, but I'd never seen it.
Now that I have, I understand the hype and have to say most of it was distinctly called for. This is one fine film.
Dark, brooding and exceptionally intelligent Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is already in therapy when he meets his new invisible friend Frank, a six foot all evil looking rabbit man. Frank talks Donnie into doing some things that would seem--and probably are--quite awful, if not for the positive outcomes most of them have. And all through it oddball Donnie actually makes connections with his peers and learns to face his fear.
This film is creepy on so many levels. It questions the very nature of reality and makes us wonder who the real monsters are and how we deal with them. The performances are eerie, believable and top-notch. It may be a bit too surreal at times, but I understand that gets fixed a bit in the director's cut (which I have yet to see).
As it is in the theatrical release, this movie should be seen. It has made it right to the top of my list of favorite strange time travel/reality bending films. Paired with The Butterfly Effect it may be one of the most perfect movie nights ever.
So, there's the recent movies. There's a lot of TV starting up (or that has started up, since Fox got the jump on most of the other networks this season), so that's next in the review queue.
The Island was much better than I expected it to be. But that's not saying much being it was a Michael Bay action sci-fi film.
The film starts out in a very Logan's Run sort of way. A closed society in a big arcology because the outside world has been poisoned and is dangerous. Every now and then one of the residents wins the lottery and gets to go off to The Island, the last habitable place on the outside. Every now and then a new survivor is also brought in from the outside world.
Everything seems pretty smooth and easy, right? Of course not. One of the residents, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) starts to wonder about what's really going on. Before long, he's figured out things aren't quite what they seem. That's when the Bay-sian explosions begin.
The pacing on the film is excellent. Bay has managed to outdo every other chase of his I've seen. I literally couldn't look away from the screen the tension was built so well during it. And just when you thought it couldn't get any crazier, it did. And that's really all I was expecting from this film: good action and pretty people (with McGregor and Scarlett Johansen in the leads, that's a given, too).
But I got more than that. Between the chases and explosions there's an actual good sci-fi story going on. Actual moral dilemmas are dealt with (which I've only seen Bay really explore in The Rock and a few bits of Armageddon) and social commentary was actually made. Sure it got a little rough at times, and I'm certain it's mostly due to the writers fighting to make sure some meaningful story got left in, but the meat is there with the flash.
It's not quite as hard hitting or thought provoking as Gattaca, but it packs more action into 136 minutes than you normally see. I'd recommend it. Especially if you're going to do a double feature with Minority Report.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is one of those film that only the mid-80s slasher craze could produce. To say it's formulaic and without heart is being kind. To say it's pacing is poor and acting worse (and we won't even talk about the soundtrack) is an understatement. To say the plot twists are asinine is an insult to everything asinine.
That said, it's one hell of a fun movie. This is the fifth movie in the series. Five movies in five years. It's no surprise that it is oh-so-bad in the good kind of way. The kills are somewhat creative and the sheer cheese factor in the whole film makes it a classic for (bad) movie nights.
The Protector is a Thai marital arts film about a young man and his elephant.
That's right, where other movies have wives, brothers, girlfriends and political figures captured by the bad guys, this one has an elephant. And as silly as it sounds, it actually works quite well in the context of the film and culture.
Apparently, the US version of this film (which is the one I just saw on the big screen) has been edited down a bit from the Thai original. That editing, sad to say, has been done poorly. The film has also been re-scored, but that didn't bother me anywhere near as much as the bad jump cuts and he plot holes left by some of the edits. I mean, there's not much plot to begin with, why cut more out?
Plot problems aside, this is a fantastic martial arts film. The fight scenes are some of the best I've seen lately. The choreography is obviously heavily influenced by classic Jackie Chan. There's humor and a whole lot of bone-crunching as the hero fights his way to the crime boss. (And, I ask you, what kind of health plan does being an evil henchman have? It better be a good one, because very few of these guys are actually killed. Usually they're just left with six or eight breaks in their bones and many torn ligaments and dislocations.)
This film also has one of the longest and most interesting tracking shots I've ever seen. It follows the hero up a very long set of stairs and through at least a dozen fights--all in one unbroken shot. Flawless and very impressive.
If nothing else, this is a wonderful study of different martial arts fighting techniques. And it's got cute elephants. Would be a great double feature with The Fearless Hyhena.
Crank was the second half of the manly-man action night at the movies that dallendoug arranged. It was a complete contrast to The Protector which we saw first. This film wasn't so much a slug fest as it was an adrenaline trip like none I've seen before.
Like the classic D.O.A., this movie starts with the main character, Chev Chellios (Jason Statham), finding out he's already dead, injected while unconscious with a drug mix that's shutting down his body. The only way to keep his heart from stopping? Keep the adrenaline pumping!
And, oh, does the adrenaline flow!
This movie is a study in what an action junkie can do to keep his heart rate up. Drugs, high speed chases, fights, more drugs, public sex--it's all there and it's all spectacular. The style of this film is like a music video on speed, complete with hallucinations as Chellios pumps more and more drugs into his body. Amy Smart, who plays Chellios' kind of vacant girlfriend Eve, is fantastic and adds just that much more sass and fun to the film.
I'm glad I saw this one on the big screen. It makes the action that much better. And seeing it with an audience made it just that much more clear that action films can be fun and entertaining without being completely mindless. I don't even think there were a lot of explosions in this film. And the audience had their attention held just fine.
Somehow, I managed to go five years without seeing Donnie Darko. I'd heard of it and heard the kind of impact it had on certain demographics and sub-cultures, but I'd never seen it.
Now that I have, I understand the hype and have to say most of it was distinctly called for. This is one fine film.
Dark, brooding and exceptionally intelligent Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is already in therapy when he meets his new invisible friend Frank, a six foot all evil looking rabbit man. Frank talks Donnie into doing some things that would seem--and probably are--quite awful, if not for the positive outcomes most of them have. And all through it oddball Donnie actually makes connections with his peers and learns to face his fear.
This film is creepy on so many levels. It questions the very nature of reality and makes us wonder who the real monsters are and how we deal with them. The performances are eerie, believable and top-notch. It may be a bit too surreal at times, but I understand that gets fixed a bit in the director's cut (which I have yet to see).
As it is in the theatrical release, this movie should be seen. It has made it right to the top of my list of favorite strange time travel/reality bending films. Paired with The Butterfly Effect it may be one of the most perfect movie nights ever.
So, there's the recent movies. There's a lot of TV starting up (or that has started up, since Fox got the jump on most of the other networks this season), so that's next in the review queue.